/takes the huntress out back and buries it (jan mingle pt. II)

[scrubscrub]

Who: Anyone on the SS Huntress! Crew and visitors.
Broadcast: N/A
Action: SS Huntress
When: More of January! We got three new crew mates and it will be messy.

IT'S ANOTHER MINGLE FOR OUR EVER-EXPANDING SHIP.

Also, we need an update on how well Koala is doing at pinball.

God, help this ship.

Comments

[eyeforaneye]

[ Undyne wasn't over-exaggerating. ]

... you're lesser than me in terms of age, experience, and ability. All of that is true. But you're not employed as my servant, so I don't want to hear fawning supplication that you're faking just to feel comfortable.

You have a chance here to be something more than a human that just operates on fears. You can show all the respect you want... but make it honest. No one owns you. [ He seeks out and maintains eye contact with her throughout when he can, used to crass insults and over-the-top honors thrown at him in equal measure but this is pushing it. ]

[scrubscrub]

Y-yes. Yes, sir, I understand.

[She swallows and tries not to let her hands shake anymore, but eventually looks away — keeping eye-contact is hard, and it's even harder to do with someone who pulled a knife on her. And for someone who... agrees with her? Doesn't? She isn't sure what he means by being lesser but not lesser. Aren't people just a bunch of experiences and abilities, wrapped up in an age? She can't grasp it.

So instead she just focuses on the task she'd set out to do.

Nobles don't care about honest respect. They care about her doing as they say, or else there will be hell to pay. She bites her lip hard, trying not to smile, though some part of her brain is screaming how wrong it is. Do you want him to get angry? The astounding confusion, when your brain tells you one thing, but the person tells you another! What to believe?]

Here are your secondary clothes, sir.

I'll — be out cleaning if you need anything. I'm sorry for my lack of honesty. I will try to be more honest. I am very sorry.

[So please don't look so frightening.]

[eyeforaneye]

[ It hasn't sunken in, that's obvious, and he suspects it won't for a while. He wonders if she's been brainwashed, then assumes if there was residue from a powerful technique he might have a chance of noticing it. There's nothing. Just conditioning through life, then. ]

I don't need an apology. What you want most here is to avoid having your fears come true, right?

I'm not going to beat you for your actions so that's null and void, now. Unless you think I'm a liar.

[scrubscrub]

[She swallows hard, turning slowly toward him with shoulders squared.

They want her to be honest... but...

After a moment, she clenches her fists at her sides.]

I would like to avoid my fears, it's true, sir.

And i-if I am... honest, if you can't trust me to not poison your tea, I cannot trust you to n-not be a liar as well. I-it is hard to understand and believe in such things from someone who is just as guarded in their own way, sir.

[By the time she says it, her fists are white-knuckled.

She looks down, breathing out quietly.]

I apologize for speaking out of line, sir.

[It's not like she can't see the broken pieces in other people, too, obscure though they are.]

[eyeforaneye]

[ There's a pause before he snorts faintly, finally a show of some amusement. ]

Better.

You're right, it's possible that I'm lying to you, but that would offer me no benefits. If I want to hurt you then I can without deceiving you first, but I don't. I haven't lied to you whereas you've been putting up a false front because that's the place that you're used to and that feels comfortable for you, making you the one that's less trustworthy.

Besides, people have tried to poison me before. It's not personal.

[scrubscrub]

[Says the fella that pulled a knife on her immediately in their meeting.]

Oh, I understand, sir. But I have met many people who deceive before they hurt, without benefits!

And I don't really know you.

[She beams, the smile some strange concoction that is harder to read.]

But I hope you're not one of them. Please let me know if you need anything else, in case you are!

[Spoken with all the genuineness in the world, because the last thing she wants is to assume he's decent and get burned in the end. Maybe literally. And with that, she does a slight bow and starts out of the room, because she'd really like to be able to breathe again without feeling like she's about to get her head lopped off; really, it's not personal, but well. You know, Sasuke. Old habits die very hard. She hopes he's not one to force her to stay with words; she can't refuse such demands.

Not yet, anyway.]

[eyeforaneye]

[ He is that type because he's that demanding, but in this particular instance he allows her to go. Largely because his nap is still unattended to after the interruption, which incidentally is why he pulled the knife.

At least he didn't spitefully blow up the entire room because that's known to happen. So Sasuke instead gets up to examine the clothes she's brought him before sinking back into bed, wondering if she's going to try to avoid him now. That's also known to happen. ]

[scrubscrub]

[Sasuke you really gotta learn to find some chill, naps are already mandatory here anyway.]