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I understand that there have been injuries and losses throughout the ship during the last few days. I'll make this brief. Security reports Tyke's injury, but I'd like to hear reports from the other departments: their injured, dead, and with time a list of items stolen or destroyed in the firefight, if it's come to that. Communications was below most of the fighting, so we got off light. Medbay - Jenna - you make it through alright?

Damage has been done to the kitchens on the upper decks. Since there's no specific department that deals with that, and it's likely to remain that way, I'm looking for a group of civilian volunteers to clear them up. It's not a glamorous job, but I'm pretty sure Security is too busy to deal with it. Despite all this, we'll be jumping in a little under two weeks. It's important everyone is accounted for before then.

I want to reassure everyone that Security has all the pirates contained. [ He's not sure about it himself, but he says it with conviction. There's a pause, and finally he opens his mouth to say more. Before he can his expression darkens, and then he settles on something else, something simple, eloquent, and brimming with uncertainty: ] God help them.

[ This is dated yesterday, plot wise. And no, there's not a mention of communication's bungle in here. ]

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With all my worldly possessions, yes. I've got her collar and lead if you were wondering.

I'll be there in a few minutes.

[ aaaaand disconnect. No need to walk and talk. ]

[ Nathan is busy talking to Izzie and rubbing her behind the ears when Peter arrives. His paintings are stacked up in a corner, and the room is still a little bit of a mess. He's trying, though. A little red faced, a little tired, but he still has time to pet the dog.

Just not walk her. He walks her to the door to let Peter in, stepping back, in no rush to get rid of him. ]

[ Peter's still not entirely sure this isn't some kind of ruse to get him to remember how to be a human all over again. He's fallen distinctly into place with his mindset, somewhere between impassive and hollow, attempting to be bored simply because he'd rather not think about what he still believes to be true.

Standing at the door, Peter wasn't overly interested in making this a social visit, but Nathan turns it into one and he takes a few steps inside, only acknowledging Izzie after the fact. ]

So you're still alive, huh. [ Remember that text you sent once, Nathan? How's it feel directed right back at you. ]

[ Nathan's happy to see Peter, but he knows it's a little like wrestling with a lion. He's bound to get scratched the moment he lets his guard down. He smiles despite himself, because Izzie goes crazy at the sight of Peter, tail wagging fiercely. Save me she seems to say. There may or may not be a ball in her mouth already. ]

For now, as it happens. I just made coffee?

[ Peter's half inclined to ignore her, and half invested in just doing it to make some kind of point. I'm more human than you think I am, but he's not here to prove much of anything, except that the dog is a dog. Whether or not she's Izzie. He drops a hand onto her head, scratching for a few seconds before he glances up towards where he might expect a coffee pot to be. ]

I'd take some.

[ No surprise. And while Peter takes the ball, he doesn't toss it, despite Izzie's whining. Like he really needs to break things just to entertain her. That'll have to wait a little longer. ]

[ Izzie doesn't want to be ignored. When Peter takes her ball she bounces around and barks loudly and excitedly. Bark bark bark! Nathan is pleased enough, though, and he guides the way down to the coffee room, which has been a dog pen for a while and has a bed in the corner.

The pot is hot, and he pours two cups out, putting sugar and powdered creamer in Peter's and pushing it toward him. ]

You can roll the ball out the door. You won't break anything, so long as it doesn't bounce.

[ Peter exhales a hefty sigh as Izzie practically slams herself around, frantic to get the ball. Once upon a time he'd loved this-- once upon a time he'd had a dog that was not this dog, and Peter swallows hard as he pulls the cup of coffee towards himself. He'd usually take it black but he's not inclined to argue for the time being. Coffee is coffee.

Instead he lifts an eyebrow at Nathan before telekinetically setting the ball down at the toe of his shoe. Its just a swipe of his foot and he's rolled it under his shoe, effectively shoving it back out past the door, sending Izzie skittering after it. ]

Whatever they're doing's already done, Nathan. You can't stop it. [ He takes a sip of his coffee, staring at Nathan over the rim. It's a dramatic subject change, but the point remains. ]

[ The smile Nathan sends after Izzie vanished a moment later, and he looks his brother in the eye, then drops his gaze away. ]

Whatever they're doing it isn't right. There was no right answer when we started this. [ Nathan shook his head. ] But I can't hold my tongue. If I do that, I'm not better than them.

[ He expected Peter to understand; Peter knows that inaction isn't the answer, and that's what he refuses to do. He won't sit still. ]

Not gonna make many friends either way. Might need to knock a few heads together.

[ Of course Peter understands, but that's not the point. It's not as if he rose to action on either side of this battle, and watching from the sidelines always gives one an entirely different perspective in the matter. Peter doesn't feel as if he had anything to lose -- it makes it difficult to give a shit one way or another.

But he still understands. It's like looking down a board game: you can rationalize the moves, but do you truly care if the pieces get broken? ]

I didn't say you should shut up about it. [ Glancing back over his shoulder, Peter's no more distant than he was a millisecond ago. ] Sometimes you have to make sacrifices to make a point. Morality's one of the first things you give up. I think friends come next.

But who needs to be a good person when you can get what you want? [ Molding ideals and histories together, Peter's trying to make this about both of them and neither of them at the exact same time. He's not telling Nathan he killed all those people; he doesn't need that fight. But Nathan can still take it all any way he wants. ]

[ Is his brother really berating him on being moral? On having friends? Nathan stares at him for a moment longer, not sure what the right words are, then grumbles and picks up his coffee, taking a sip. ]

I've given up my morality before, given up my friends too, then my family--done it over enough damn times. Sooner or later I have to draw the line. Of course that makes it difficult to stop other people going over the same lines.

[ At the root of it is the fact that now he's not sure he wants to go home. He has to get others back, but his world is better off without him. Maybe that's why he's not prepared to do what it takes, when everyone else, even the softest of them, seem to be crossing their lines left, right and center.

He puts his coffee back down and wrings his hands together. ]

I sold myself up that river and so have you. We don't usually get to come back from it to start again.

[ Peter snorts as soon as Nathan starts talking about himself -- of course he'd take it all to mean him, and only him. It's more complicated than that, and Nathan's still stuck taking it all as if Peter's thoughts circle around only one thing. And while that might be true to a certain extent, it's not always true, and Peter shakes his head slowly, uninterested in Nathan's grumblings. ]

Thing is, people don't get to learn that particular lesson until the fuck it up themselves.

[ Glancing back to his brother and pulling his coffee closer, he gives Nathan a particularly bemused stare, waiting for Izzie to come trotting back. ] And your morality's not what I was putting under a microscope.

[ Nathan shakes his head ever so slightly, but of course Peter is right. Then again, he knew that Peter wasn't talking about him this time; not really. They were getting on, this was no time for real snarking at each other over that. ]

At the very least it lets me say 'I told you so.' I like saying 'I told you so.'

[ He rolled his eyes. The only way you got to say those words was by telling them so in the first place. And then Nathan would use it as a fulcrum by which to lever more pressure on them the next time things went wrong. Or that was the idea.

Izzie came bounding back with her ball, giving it to Nathan this time. He rolled it away. ]

At least someone's happy.

[ As long as Nathan wasn't saying it to him, Peter didn't care nearly as much. Because it wasn't as if anybody had managed to knock him off his podium yet -- nobody could prove him wrong, and nobody could prove him right. But when it came to 'I told you so's, it had everything to do with the subject, and yet nothing to do with Peter this time.

Not to mention, it wasn't as if they'd said much to each other to begin with. ]

You'd have to work a lot harder to piss off a dog, Nathan.

[ He knows that; everyone knows that, and Peter watches as Nathan rolls the ball back and away once more, Izzie gleefully bounding after it as if it was bouncing madly off the walls instead of simply rolling away. ] She probably wouldn't have even cared if you'd offered her up as a bargaining chip.

I still remember the word that Izzie hates more than any other, Pete. You remember, don't you Dizzy?

[ Bath.

But he wasn't going to say 'bath' out loud because Izzie was so excited that people were mentioning her name over and over, and she tripped over the ball, rolled back to her feet and grabbed it, then carried it back to Peter in a hurry. Nathan sat back. ]

I don't think she'd have minded, no. [ He tilted his head. But this time he was talking about the two of them, wasn't he? ] Wouldn't have let it happen, though.

[ Peter had always thought she didn't mind them all that much but maybe that's because when Peter used to bathe Izzie, it was a whole-body experience. Nobody else could bathe her like him, nobody could scratch her ears just right. Usually both of them ended up needing to be hosed off after the fact, much to Arthur's complete and utter displeasure. The mansion reeked of wet dog and soggy socks for days; Peter never noticed.

Blinking himself back out of his memories, Peter leaned back as he held onto the coffee, this time rolling the ball as if tossing it back to a pitcher. 'Throw it to me again, Nathan!'

Sometimes his mind hated him more than he hated himself. ]

Don't think they would've been interested -- not like they were in it for the women and children.

[ But she is not his izzie. ]

[ The maids, on the other hand, had always made 'bath' sound like a punishment. Nathan was sure Izzie knew the difference. She knew love, which was why she appreciated one petting from Peter so much more than she enjoyed hours of scritches from Nathan, even now.

Nathan's mind provided the same memory when Peter rolled the ball. He looked him in the eye anew. ]

They weren't bad people, Pete. Just desperate. They should have listened to my warnings, but they don't deserve what's happening to them.

[ But they weren't here to talk about baseball and memories because Peter went down that route once and it kind of bit him in the ass. Maybe it felt worse than it really did, which was why Peter wanted to pretend he didn't care about it at all, but he stared back at Nathan for a few moments, trying to fend off the possibility of a talk.

Pirates were safe. ]

You just answered your own question. They were desperate, think they were going to listen to anyone?

[ Nathan looked his brother square in the eye. Since the balls were rolling, it was him that brought up the game this time. Izzie galloped off again. ]

You win a game of baseball by scoring more than the other team, not by showing off and risking injury. You always have to be thinking about that next game, about climbing the ladder. Nobody cares if I win by a landslide, Pete--they only care that I'm clean enough to win the next race.

They should have quit while they were ahead, but they wanted a bigger slice. That was their only mistake. They'd have been home free if they'd settled with taking only what they needed.

[ The difference between looters and thieves. ]

[ Nathan was the one that got to try it this time, and Peter wanted to be the one to shut him down just so that he knew what it felt like all over again. And yeah, he understood that maybe it wasn't the right time to fling around sentimental values like how the real world works, but that hadn't been the point.

Except it had been. Sort of. Even as Nathan spoke, Peter shook his hed, turning to look away and trying to do anything but actually digest what he was saying. But maybe that was just because he knew it all already. ]

You lost your opportunity to lecture all of them days ago. [ Peter knew this all, but obviously they didn't. They were in it for the score, they just happened to pick the wrong place. The wrong nightmare.

The wrong lie. ]

But maybe that explanation only works when you're seven. [ Finally looking back at Nathan, he lifted an eyebrow. ]

[ Nathan knows he doesn't have to explain all this to Peter. His brother knows better than him. Peter has been forced to become a tactician, and there's nothing in the world he can do to change that, not now. In fact, he wants to draw on what he knows, not the other way around. He shakes his head. ]

I can't help but think that something goddamn dreadful is going to happen, Pete. This can't end well, and if it ends well for them, it won't go well for us.

I'm concerned that this could rip the ship apart. And I mean compared to now. I mean a chasm so wide even I couldn't fly across it. We have too little time, and too much to decide.

[ Izzie trots back in, dropping her ball on Peter's foot. ]

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