001

[treasureling]

Who: Malak
Broadcast: Fleetwide video
Action: On the Marsiva
When: 1/29

I - this is - [ Very clean. Very strange. Very frightening. But that he knows how to use this contraption must mean he is meant to be here.

He stops in front of the large windows. ]

Is this the realm of the Gods?

Where are my daughters?

Comments

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[heresyandlace]

Oh, don't get me wrong. I want you to prove me wrong.

I can hear all sorts of wonderful things in your voice, but I want you to hear the warning regardless.

They will make it hard to fight, and they will make it very easy to settle. These beings, whatever they are, are incredibly good at it.

video

[treasureling]

You shouldn't assume I'll do what you want, either. I don't take well to manipulation.

video

[heresyandlace]

Ah, I do apologize.

I'm used to people who... aren't nearly quite as sharp.

video

[treasureling]

[ He doesn't consider himself sharp. He can't, for instance, manipulate anyone older than eight years of age, beyond the point where bribery and mysterious adult phrasings stop working. But he has been lied to. He has been pulled one way and then the other for too much of his life, and finally he's learned to notice when he feels those tugs.

He's not sharp. He's just very resistant. ]

You're probably doing it for the right reasons.

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[heresyandlace]

[he is sharp, like jagged glass. maybe not the exact meaning one would assume behind the word, but Tek believes it nonetheless.]

I'm doing it for reasons that can be good.

Which is almost the same thing.

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[treasureling]

Freedom.

[ Isn't that the most important thing, when you're in captivity? ]

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[heresyandlace]

Precisely.

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[treasureling]

Freedom for you doesn't necessarily mean freedom for others.

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[heresyandlace]

And freedom often comes at a cost. It's a tricky thing,

But if we don't have that, what do we have?

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[treasureling]

A very clean and strange place to live.

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[heresyandlace]

[he laughs a little]

And an adoring audience watching every move and cheering at our misfortune. Aren't we lucky?

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[treasureling]

Lucky wasn't what I meant.

I'm not very lucky.

And you probably don't want me as an ally as much as you think.

video forever

[heresyandlace]

I was being sarcastic.

...And why wouldn't I? You seem like a perfectly desirable ally.

[treasureling]

Wouldn't you want women? To fight.

nooo I dont want to leave for PT right now...

[heresyandlace]

[HA his smug smirking evaporates instantly.]

...Excuse me?

[treasureling]

Women. For warriors.

[heresyandlace]

Yes, I heard you...

But what are you talking about?

[treasureling]

What do you mean?

[heresyandlace]

Since when are females considered to be warriors among mankind?

[treasureling]

Always, on Spinward.

[heresyandlace]

Is that where you're from?

Is that how things are there?

[treasureling]

Yes. The Spinward Islands.

[heresyandlace]

Oh, islands.

[as if that explains everything. ...which, it might.]

The women were warriors? What about the men?

[treasureling]

We raise the children, and keep the home.

[heresyandlace]

Do they.

[it's not phrased as a question. and he doesn't sound exactly thrilled to be hearing this.]

So you're rather domestic, I take it?