lastvoyages IC Inbox

[neverjoinyou]

Leave a message. I will hear you.

Comments

[14thcommander]

Hello, Luke - I need a quick word. It's not an emergency or anything. On here is fine.

[neverjoinyou]

Of course. What's going on?

[14thcommander]

Alright, well... it's Betelgeuse. Bill gave him a scythe for the holidays, and a pair of rollerskates, though the former is more important than the latter because Betelgeuse went to practice his roller skating with the scythe and decapitated two people in the process.

I just wanted to let you know.

[neverjoinyou]

He what?

[Does Luke mean Bill or Betegeuse? Yes. Yes, he does.]

What happened to weapons being only obtainable by wardens? Why would--

Oh gods. I'm sorry, Hange. I'll go deal with Bill right away. This... I had no idea he'd do something that obviously stupid.

[14thcommander]

The port, you know... all those stores...

Luke, relax! It's done, the action is done. You don't have to apologize to me, I just think we should all be as best informed of our inmate's actions as we can be.

[neverjoinyou]

He's my responsibility, and this is the sort of thing he needs to, you know. NOT be doing. So thanks for telling me.

Who was it? Who got killed, I mean.

[14thcommander]

Yes, of course, but I didn't call you to put your feet on the fire... if you need time to think of an approach, take your time... I was thinking of bringing it up to him too but you know him pretty well and I didn't know if that might compound things somehow... anyway, a Fitz and a Martin. I don't know either one of them well.

[neverjoinyou]

No, I appreciate that, I just... One would hope neither of them would be this careless, but I forget what they're like when they're together.

You do think it was carelessness, right?

[14thcommander]

On Betelgeuse's part, I'm sure it was massive carelessness. On Bill's...

A scythe, Luke. A scythe.

[neverjoinyou]

Yeah. I know. I know.

When he wakes up, we will have words. I promise you.

[14thcommander]

[Man she can't tell if he's tense or what... she feels like she's got a subordinate reacting to a dressing-down, when she really hoped this would be an amicable chat between comrades. She tries to sound a little warmer.]

I like your inmate. I want him to succeed. And I realize he's several millennia old, and cunning, and is a handful.

[neverjoinyou]

[Luke hasn't any of that sense. He's not thinking about Hange--he's thinking about Bill having enabled the death of two people and distracted by thoughts of what an idiot the guy can be.]

Hmm?

Oh, yes. He is. But he's... well, I won't say a good guy, but he's honestly trying. I just can't figure out what he was trying, here. And he'd been doing so much better.

[14thcommander]

[Nothing can be done about Bill pulling bullshit at the moment. She's just telling Luke because, as far as she's concerned, Bill's warden should know.]

Betelgeuse is manipulable. I wonder if it isn't - force of habit, so to speak? Maybe.

I'm considering saying something too because I think it should look as though we're both paying attention to this.

[neverjoinyou]

To Bill?

[14thcommander]

To Bill enabling other inmates in this kind of nonsense? Betelgeuse is my inmate, and the final responsibility for what he does lies with him, but I don't know that Bill furnishing him with weapons will help him along to graduating.

[neverjoinyou]

No I'm asking, you're going to talk to Bill?

I mean I agree--he shouldn't have been able to purchase weapons at all, but I thought we were past the point where I had to monitor his every move.

[14thcommander]

Oh, yes. I'm not planning to be confrontational, but you have the closer relationship, so I thought I'd let you know in case you thought it would make things worse.

[In which case she will not do that.]

[neverjoinyou]

Well, I'm not going to tell you what to do, or how. Though I guess what I'd say is, keep in mind he doesn't have the same... emotional logic that a lot of other people do. That's not an excuse. But just trying to get him to see why it's wrong is a lot harder than getting him to realize how his actions have an effect.

[14thcommander]

Mm. I can see how that would be.

I'm not trying to horn in on your territory, or anything. And I'm not planning to come on him hot either way. [Getting seriously angry people beating on his door seems like something Bill is probably used to and maybe rewarded by. And she genuinely wants the strange being to succeed in getting out of here.]

[neverjoinyou]

Oh, no. He needs to be aware there are consequences--just don't expect him to immediately grasp that consequences for other people matter.

[14thcommander]

Believe me, I don't.

[She has. Low expectations tbh.]

Thank you, Luke.

[neverjoinyou]

Don't thank me yet.

Good luck.