IC Inbox III

[ukan]

This is Lark, leave a message.

Comments

[ukan]

[He doesn't explain himself yet.]

And what made them so bad?

[atowncalledtreffy]

[He exhales through his nose, absolutely thrilled about getting into such grim topics of conversation]

Well, the bishop was a sanctimonious prick in human form. Tried to incite a pogrom against the Speakers, an anti-violent tribe of healers who have no possessions or home. Led the call for dozens of innocent women to be burned as witches, up to and including Dracula's own wife. Refused to take responsibility for that enormous fuck-up and nearly caused the deaths of all the people of Gresit by trusting in faith alone to save them. Nearly killed me twice.

And the judge, who had actual problems we helped him solve and seemed otherwise decent if a little tight-fisted with his grip on his town, secretly murdered children for pleasure.

[ukan]

Decent, and a sadistic child murderer.

So how did you deal with them both?

[atowncalledtreffy]

He was a good fucking liar, all right? He almost tricked us into destroying the evidence of all the awful shit he did.

[God, his stomach clenches with bitterness and anger. Trevor hates monsters but he hates them more when they wear the faces of decent people]

I didn't. The bishop got eaten by Dracula's monsters while I was being chased by a mob, and the judge was stabbed by a monk while I was trying to close a Hell portal.

[ukan]

Then what would you have done if no one had got to them? If he'd escaped the monsters, or the monk had failed and he'd gone with you?

[atowncalledtreffy]

Is there a point to this discussion?

[ukan]

Yes. What would you have done?

[atowncalledtreffy]

I couldn't have done anything to the bishop. Already was marked for death by him; and the people of Gresit needed someone to rally around or else they'd be far worse than they already were.

The judge I would have pushed into the spike pit he dug himself.

[ukan]

[This answer satisfies him somehow because he stops grilling Trevor.]

Does it change anything for you, then, to know that Carol is very proud of being such a heinous murderer she's either on death row or incarcerated for life at home?

[atowncalledtreffy]

I told you I didn't like her, and now I like her less.

It's still fucking wrong to go up to her as someone who's a god in human form and 'snap'.

[ukan]

I agree. [Even though he's certainly taken down humans who stood little chance against him, he's never been anywhere close to how powerful Shen Wei is. Carol, if she was clever and lucky, could kill Lark. She never stood a chance of it against Shen Wei.]

But that doesn't change the fact that you're spinning your wheels with this. You can be effective, Trevor. What you're doing here, not adapting your skills to the situations, isn't going to do you or anyone else any good.

You're smart. You've presented ideas before that could work better.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Five hundred years into the future and he tells me to fucking adapt.

I adapted, Lark. I adapted a year ago when I didn't kill that fucking vampire killing a man in front of me; I adapted in the pirate domain when I was living and working alongside my family's immortal enemy, and I adapted when I got kidnapped right back here like it didn't matter and didn't give the fuck up on people.

I don't care about me. I care about doing what's right. You can't tell me that Shen Wei's demotion is all that there is to it when I'm an inmate and I wouldn't have ever done what he did.

[ukan]

That's not what I mean. I want you to keep acting, Trevor. I want you to keep responding.

I just want you to do it in a way that will actually communicate to these people.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Well, that’s where my people skills begin and end.

I try giving the murder-happy ones fair warning and Zack acts like I pissed in his beer. It shouldn’t matter that death is impermanent. Right? Maybe I’m crazy to think it’s one of the worst violations here.

But even the Admiral demotes for it.

[ukan]

I'm not going to stop Zack from intervening on you. Fair warning. I won't let him go overboard, but he feels a responsibility to protect the other shipmates, and just like I don't want to stop you from your duty, I'm not going to try to stop him.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Yeah. I never expected you to.

[ukan]

All right. So brainstorm with me. Humor me.

You want Shen Wei to...feel some of what Carol did?

[atowncalledtreffy]

Sure.

I want him to understand that if he kills someone who can’t defend themselves, I’m going to kill him.

[ukan]

Because at home, if you killed him, he'd be gone. Problem solved.

He needs something more lasting here.

[atowncalledtreffy]

I’m not going to torture or maim anyone.

…I did get a few priests in the eye and slice off some fingers, sorry. I was hungover and they were trying to murder an old man.

[ukan]

[A long pause]

You think that's where I was going with this? Goddamn, Trevor.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Christ, I don't know what your standards are, Lark. The last time someone said they were going to fix me permanently, I was fully expecting some fucker with a butcher knife to come down to Zero and cut my hands off.

[ukan]

Well torture is beneath my standards. One of the things I like about you is that we at least have that in common.

[atowncalledtreffy]

Yeah, well. Congratulations to the two of us for being against torture.


I know people look at you like you're supposed to fix me. That's not an easy position to be in because I'm a stubborn asshole who hates everyone and everything here. I don't believe in this whole inmate-and-warden shit but I know other people hold it as fucking gospel.

Is it wrong to be sort of happy that you're taking a backseat and letting Zack come at me?

I don't know why I am. It just feels more...I don't know. He's got a problem with me, he should see me about it. I'm not ten and you aren't my dad.

[ukan]

[He shrugs] You're old enough to deal with consequences.

I'm curious--what do you think we're trying to 'fix'?