truth_is_cold

075

[Public | Audio]

I'll resume my dinner duties whenever I'm settled. I'm greatful to whoever covered for me. [And he's considerably less angry, now.]

[Private to Friends | Audio]

I brought you some things. It has been only about a week, I presume? [They're small things. Something for Lua, Wanda, Tosh, Dylan- that he's already unfortunately delivered-, Ben, Kozak, and Perry.] I'll drop them off whenever would be suitable.

[Private to the people watching Ben | Audio]

How is he doing?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Here's something new; Ben is genuinely pleased to hear Rhade is back, enough that he reaches out despite his general paranoia about the network in general.

He sounds excited and pleased, his voice thrumming with it, though he doesn't say much.]

You came back.

I did! I brought you something. [He's pleased to see that he seems happy.]

[He is - and then abruptly, all the curiosity.]

Shall I come now or are you occupied?

I'll be here. If I'm occupied, you're free to join me anyway.

Thank you. I'll be there shortly.

[And he is, fetching up at his warden's door with an unusually direct approach for him. He neither slinks, awkwards, nor hesitates, and the tension in his shoulders and at the corners of his eyes is eagerness instead of trepidation this time.]

[When Ben enters, the very first thing he does is pat his shoulders in greeting, before going back to his desk to find a box.] How have you been?

[Ben's own fingertips reach up and touch Rhade's wrist, mindful of the boneblades, but he doesn't shrink away this time or even flinch. Instead he follows right on Rhade's heels with marked interest, the boy's intelligent brown eyes bright.

It's a struggle to keep his diction even and militant, one he is not entirely winning.]

There was a flood. I was unaffected, but met several new people. [A subtle breath in, the mildest sniff to find any changes Rhade might've brought back with him on his person, unintentional and telling.]

I missed you.

[He realizes that he rarely sees Ben this happy. He probably hasn't even had someone come back before, not in a position where they still care. It does make him feel guilty for not wanting to return initially.

Instead, he picks up the box and puts it on the desk, one of those meant to hold a large article of clothing.]

I did, too.

[And with a slight smile.] I noticed that you have a theme to what you wear. It's very practical, but I wanted you to have another option.

[Inside is a leather jacket, though more form-fitting than most of what his vague lookalike might be inclined to wear. Sleek and dark.]

[Rhade's admission pleases Ben more than he's comfortable admitting, so he ducks his head to mask the smile that threatens, has schooled himself back to something like his usual neutrality when he straightens back up. The differences are still obvious.

He hasn't had anyone come back, not without yelling at him about something pretty much immediately. In addition, he's still not sure what to do with things like gifts, as evidenced by his careful, methodical and ongoing investigation of the things people gave him for Christmas. He's just never quite sure if it's meant to be a test.

As such, the X5 glances back and forth between the box and Rhade's face, searching for the cues and, when he finds that they are all towards just accepting the offering, he eases forward to open the present. Recognizing it immediately, Ben pulls it out and steps back so he can look at it, then lays it back down so he can peel off the field jacket he's wearing and try on the new one.]

Thank you, Rhade. I... like it. I'll take good care of it. [Glancing over quickly, smoothing down the front though he doesn't bother zipping it up for now.] Did you see your family?

I did, actually. They're doing well. [But it wasn't as if he didn't expect them to be. Time doesn't move as he waits for this little pocket of universe to carry him on. Most of the items that Rhade got for Christmas are now gone, though, including the reverse-bear trap left by Amanda. They're all back at the Collection.

He leans back against his desk, almost sitting on it as he crosses his arms.] Did you learn anything interesting while I was gone? [Interesting being the key word, here.]

Good. [Ben is summarily distracted by investigating the pockets, zippers, and snaps of the new coat, but he checks in visually frequently anyway.

And answers not without enthusiasm, but mostly offhandedly.]

Jesse Pinkman allowed me to draw in the art room. And I told a story about Nomlies, and learned that no one is willing to take a solid stance on capital punishment.

[Hoo, boy, Ben. You don't ask easy questions.] Every culture has different ideals on it. [He'll have to go see that story about the Nomlies.]

Some of the people you've identified as Nomlies here aren't. Now they're just afraid of you. They're people who are different. You've attacked people that aren't Nomlies.

The same is true of capital punishment. Only the most serious offenses receive that level of punishment, and you don't want to be the person that judgmentally decides to send someone to their death on what turns out to be presumption. You should read about the Salem witch trials, at some point, as well as the Inquisition. You'll see why people are hesitant to pass that judgement over others. [He turns to pick up the box and paper scattering to throw away later.]

[He's capable of working out most simple answers for himself, as long as it's tangible, accessible, measurable. It's the social that throws him for a loop, the abstract. Maybe it would be different if he'd been allowed to develop as he would have naturally, but now he can't make the two worlds meet.

He's unperturbed by Rhade's words; he's been wrong before, but recently he's been very right, he did the right thing, and that much he understands with crystal clarity. Now he does smile, glancing back up steadily.]

I don't disagree. In fact I would say that killing should only be done when the one doing it is absolutely certain of their conviction. It just seems odd to me that so many seemed to find it acceptable as long as they don't have to do it, as long as they don't have to see it.

[This has become increasingly familiar to him, too, as he becomes aware of the fact that the reason Manticore was able to do what it did was because the public never cared to look. They never knew they needed to, not even with his kind right out living among them.]

Then I should be dead. [He says bluntly.]

The standards of the Commonwealth that I agreed to serve had a death policy attached to mutiny and crimes against the Commonwealth. As a High Guard officer, I was to uphold its ideals. If I were to go to trial, I would be killed for betraying my oaths as an example. Nietzschean or not, at the time I was also a citizen who made a formalized agreement.

[He frowns and rounds the desk.] The executioner wears a mask in most societies and is a party indifferent to the situation. For executions that are not based in military dismissal, the perpetrator is often given chances to prove their innocence, appeals to higher powers for a stay of execution, and their death must be both a safety assurance and seen as true justice and peace of mind to the victim.

There are other forms of punishment. Lobotomies. Mental erasure and personality reconstruction. Isolationist colonies.

Most people don't want to see someone die, Ben. Because most people don't want to die themselves. [But Ben does, he knows. It's his escape.

What a welcome home speech this is. He changes the subject.] In any case, I know Dylan said he would be willing to fill in at the kitchen when I was detained, but I know he wasn't here for the flood.

[Ben seems content to listen through most of it, patiently waiting to explain what Dylan had told him, that he himself had made no comment on the actual rightness or wrongness of a death penalty so much as the distaste with which most who chose to opin at all dealt with it.

But then Rhade gets to the part about other forms of punishment and most of the shine of Ben is wiped off abruptly, jaw tensing and looking sharply down at where he'd been considering zipping up the jacket. His voice is flat.]

Death is preferable.

[He's glad to let Rhade change the subject, taking in a deeper breath, grasping mentally for that calm, happy place he'd found for a time, shaken loose at being reminded forcibly of PsyOps and how he likely would have ended up there, still might.]

Riddick and myself are fully capable of working cooperatively; we had only to request to be let in, and to account for all potential weapons upon leaving.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

075

[ Audio : Private ]

[ Audio : Private ]

[ Audio : Private ]

[ Audio : Private ]

[ Audio : Private ~~> Spam ]

[ Spam ]

[ Spam ]

Re: [ Spam ]

[ Spam ]

[ Spam ]

[ Spam ]

[ Spam ]

[ Spam ]

[ Spam ]

[ Spam ]