Gaheris Rhade (
truth_is_cold) wrote2013-02-09 07:45 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
074
[Public | Audio]
[There is apparently one section on the fifth floor that's full of royally pissed off people. This lovely little announcement starts out with the sound of a hand slamming a communicator several times because the thing just isn't turning on fast enough, or working to his liking.]
Anyone up for a game of chess or Pai Sho or... practically anything? I have a ridiculous amount of games.
I'll need about twenty minutes to clean my room. [Because he has been breaking things left and right.]
I think I'll be leaving soon. At least for a little while. [Possibly for good. He's not sure yet. He's thinking that might be the case.] I need someone to be responsible for Ben for me, but I need to see my daughter. "Blame" whoever you like, I can't be of any use right now.
[There is apparently one section on the fifth floor that's full of royally pissed off people. This lovely little announcement starts out with the sound of a hand slamming a communicator several times because the thing just isn't turning on fast enough, or working to his liking.]
Anyone up for a game of chess or Pai Sho or... practically anything? I have a ridiculous amount of games.
I'll need about twenty minutes to clean my room. [Because he has been breaking things left and right.]
I think I'll be leaving soon. At least for a little while. [Possibly for good. He's not sure yet. He's thinking that might be the case.] I need someone to be responsible for Ben for me, but I need to see my daughter. "Blame" whoever you like, I can't be of any use right now.
[ Spam ]
[His expression is creased with hurt for a moment.] Tonight, I think. [He really is a failure, all around.]
[ Spam ]
[Ben is silent then, even his breathing quiet, his body motionless; he recognizes the hurt, feels it twist in his gut where the old protective, helpless anger used to live.
He steps away from the wall, cautious; tilting his head and then craning his neck in watchful, mild anxiety.]
I... understand if you must. But I would also like to say that I wish you wouldn't. I dislike that it has become necessary.
[ Spam ]
[He brushes off his hands and goes over to the desk, and picks up the picture of Anisette.]
Have you ever actually held an infant before? [He realizes that Ben may have not.]
[ Spam ]
If Ben can just be good enough, be calm and useful enough, he won't go.]
No. I avoided them. Their parents are very protective and I was a stranger everywhere. [Never mind Manticore.]
[ Spam ]
I'm going to kill someone if I stay here, Ben. And then I'll be an inmate again. At least this way I have a chance to come back and be a warden. But I spent my entire time as an inmate falling apart. I can't let that happen to me again.
[ Spam ]
Rhade sits down and Ben circles wide, but ultimately perches on the edge of a chair nearby, too, intent on his warden. And friend.]
I... understand. And you warned me before that you might decide to do this. I remember.
[ Spam ]
You've met Lua. You've seen her, how gentle she is. Someone killed that, and she thought she was safe with him. She loved him and she trusted him and he killed her.
[It makes him sick, and the nausea becomes evident on his face. He's never had that kind of devotion from... anyone.]
[ Spam ]
He thinks if she trusted Ladd, she was a fool, but then Max had trusted him. She'd turned her back on him and he wouldn't have hurt her, wouldn't have killed her, but he knows what he won't say. Ben looks down.]
He would be considered a Nomlie, at Manticore. Flawed. Uncontrollable. He would be decommissioned and disappear.
[ Spam ]
[He swallows as he puts the towels in the laundry, trying to remember if he has cleaning solution here or if he has to go to the closet.]
He murdered his wife. He murdered a woman that would like to be a loving mother. I don't... [He has difficulty expressing this. Normally he's never short on words. But with Ben, he needs to take care.] I don't think he deserves to have a legacy. But I can't start thinking I can force my own ideas of the future on people again. That's what got me here in the first place.
[ Spam ]
The X5 glances up without raising his head when Rhade cuts off, blinking at him.]
Then what of his own world? How would he be punished if he were there?
[ Spam ]
Or possibly neutered, but even being able to carry on one's ideals is a form of longevity.
He's not a Nietzschean, though, he's a human in the 1920's. [Which means lynch mobs and hangings.]
[ Spam ]
He says the next thing on his mind anyway, because this line of conversation is going nowhere he likes.]
You'll ask your Captain to be responsible for me while you're gone.
Re: [ Spam ]
[ Spam ]
It's familiar.]
I will continue to report for all assigned tasks in your absence. [He's already shifting his weight to straighten, to move, from where he'd fetched up near the couch he seems to like to perch in best.]