truth_is_cold: (rhade - roughed up)
Gaheris Rhade ([personal profile] truth_is_cold) wrote2013-02-09 07:45 pm

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.
warisart: (Uncertain)

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[personal profile] warisart 2013-02-10 06:47 am (UTC)(link)
I'm sorry, Gaheris.

[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.
warisart: (Pull Away)

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[personal profile] warisart 2013-02-11 03:31 am (UTC)(link)
[Ben, at length, follows. His pulse is still loud and fast in his ears, there are all kinds of emotions he doesn't know what to call or how to process swallowed down in his gut, but he's not focusing on any of them right now. He can see that Rhade has already decided, but a part of him still thinks what he thought every time he knew Zack was about to leave him alone.

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.]
warisart: (Be Ready For the Funeral)

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[personal profile] warisart 2013-02-11 04:18 am (UTC)(link)
I see. [He doesn't, not really, it's not sinking in much; but he's at least capable of recognizing that he understands all the concepts present in what Rhade has said and, when he's calmer, he can work the rest of it out.

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.
warisart: (Victor)

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[personal profile] warisart 2013-02-12 03:26 pm (UTC)(link)
[Ben doesn't flinch, though he feels the twinge that would do it for him if he let it. Then Rhade is talking about Lua and although the X5 hadn't paid much attention to her either way, he knows enough to be able to verify that it's true enough.

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.
warisart: (Eyebrows)

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[personal profile] warisart 2013-02-14 04:24 am (UTC)(link)
[Ben licks his lips instead of nodding, turning inward as he listens. It makes a kind of sense - the most that he's aware of, having never had to think about families in that way before. In species that reproduce naturally, the female is the source of it; they would be worthy of protection, for more reasons than that.

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?
warisart: (Lost Puppy)

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[personal profile] warisart 2013-02-14 06:47 am (UTC)(link)
[Rhade is doing that thing again, speaking in terms of society and longevity and legacies; Ben can't follow him when he does that so he waits for it to make sense again, feels the familiar stir of frustration when it doesn't, not really.

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.
warisart: (Attention)

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[personal profile] warisart 2013-02-17 06:10 am (UTC)(link)
[Ben has fallen back completely on his inscrutable setting, features carefully, studiously blank, eyes dull. He'd like to say he doesn't want anyone else, he'd like to say he doesn't trust anyone else, but neither of these will gain anything at this point. Rhade needs to go. Ben needs to let him.

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.]