three ➵ text (ANONYMOUS)

[versusnurture]

Who: ??? (but secretly abigail) (BUT WHO) & you
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: P....ossibly but I'm not sure where yet!
When: 12/8, early morning

I can't find a listing of ships counselors. I know they exist, I just need a list. And I need to know which ones are actually reliable. Personal experience rather than conjecture preferred but not requisite.

[And that . . . appears to be all.]

Comments

permanontext

[versusnurture]

[Yikes. That . . . is not promising. It's a good thing she asked this question now, before she actually got to a vulnerable place. Welp.]

You can use voice if that's easier.

permavoice

[stagstorm]

[Well, he'd just as soon not go fiddling with all the fiddly bits on the device anyway. He scowls at it, then decides he'll play the fool and go speaking to words.]

I'm told I'm the ship councilor.

[He has not yet realized there is a difference between counselor and councilor. He's not even volunteering so much as to find out what in seven hells is actually expected of him.]

[versusnurture]

[Double yikes. She takes a moment to go back and look through the archives for a moment, and . . . triple yikes. Wench. Act the part of a lady. Have you gone and wed them? Has she?]

[For a moment she panics. Then she screams fury into her pillow, and comes back to the communicator.]

My understanding was that you're a king.

[stagstorm]

[That takes a very long time and Robert gets bored and forgets the conversation entirely.

... only to come back some minutes after she does, only now with a can of something that is supposed to be meat that he is giving serious consideration into not actually eating. Then in trying to distract himself:

Ah yes.]

Aye. So I am. But a king with nothing to rule. So I'm to counsel instead.

[versusnurture]

Welcome to the club.

Are you any good at it?

[stagstorm]

[Is he any good at it? Well...]

Better than the last.

[He's no Mad King Aerys. If he measures himself by that, he's a good king and probably a good counsel as well. He's certainly had enough councilors to have an idea of what is expected of him.]

But you'll have no flattery from me. [Gods strike him down the day he becomes some sycophant. Heaven and earth couldn't keep him from just speaking his mind whenever he pleased.]

[versusnurture]

A counselor who flatters isn't doing his job. A counselor who flatters is, in fact, worthless. Are you worthless?

[She's needling him on purpose. She wants to know what he does when pushed - if he gets aggressive, angry, like he did that first time. If he's as likely to strike out as she fears he is. God, she's scared.]

[stagstorm]

[Yes. In those darkest moments at night when he had sobered enough to reflect on the sad state of his life, he knew that he was in fact worthless. He was an empty man who served no better purpose than to keep the throne occupied.

But Robert had never been honest with himself.]

No. But I've no need of words to prove my worth. I've done that a thousand times over.

[versusnurture]

Not here you haven't.

[And here is where matters. To her, to everyone else. Here is what matters, so what will he do?]

[stagstorm]

Here makes no matter. What are these floating buckets of rust to me?

[It was either hell or it was simply a dream. In either case, it was of no consequence.]

[versusnurture]

You can live here. You can die here. You can make the most of your time here, or you can make yourself miserable.

Why would a nihilist make a good counselor?

[stagstorm]

[Would that he knew that a nihilist is.]

All that, yes. Might be I'll just do them all.

You asked for a ship councilor, you've found one. Bugger if I care whether I'd make for a good one.

[He'd just as soon not have anything to do with the work. The only skill he has with the mysteries of the mind is knowing what the inside of one looks like when a hammer's crushed someone's skull.]

[versusnurture]

So you don't care if you're good at anything other than being king?

[That's almost funny. Would be sad, if she didn't already want to cut his throat.]

[stagstorm]

Mayhaps. [Or not.] I've answered enough questions. Why is it you need a councilor?

[versusnurture]

[All right, you know what, friend.]

Because I'm a murderer, and when I don't have someone to talk to, I become much more likely to kill one of the nice people on this fleet. I'd rather not, thanks all the same.

[stagstorm]

[He makes a throaty sound as he contemplates her answer. He is not fazed by it.]

Bloodlust, is it? I cannot remember how many I've killed, though I'll always recall my first. Talking about your guilt won't unstain your hands. You're alive and they're not.

[versusnurture]

It's not about guilt. I don't feel guilty, usually. It's about keeping myself from doing it again, unless it's deserved.

[stagstorm]

If it's advice you crave, here's mine. Do it again. Only find yourself someone not so easy to kill. Without wine, a good tussle us as good as you can hope for here.

[versusnurture]

Wow, you are shockingly bad at this.

[It's almost funny? But. Not, also.]

So who, in your opinion, should I kill?

[stagstorm]

Me.

[versusnurture]

Oh my god.

[stagstorm]

If it's talk you desire, I've said much and more already. But a fight? [He has a brief and somewhat bitter laugh at that.] Well, I'm still good for that. Might be it would do us both good.

[He imagines himself getting a real warrior to spar with. Not some sycophantic lordling who will only lose so as not to risk harming the king. After all, he has no idea who he's talking to.]

[versusnurture]

You think you're the best there is here? That's what you're telling me?

[stagstorm]

Might be I am. Might not. I've not been given chance to see these others fight. [And that's not really the point. Besides, even Robert knows he's a little past his prime.]

[versusnurture]

[Good lord. Well. Frankly, she's a little tempted, and that's not great news for either of them, really.]

I'm not going to rule it out. Put it that way.