ataraxion | video »

Entry tags:

video »

[ This isn't going to be sweet but it will be short, courtesy of your resident Prince Not-So Charming. ]

There are now three flets, which pass as treehouses, in the gardens. These are homes and if anyone is seen nearing them to gain access, they will be shot on sight. I assure you, an arrow is far more difficult to extract than a bullet. [ #EXPERIENCE, urgh. ] Additionally, you will find the Elven quotient aboard the ship is now officially in charge of garden-based security.

That means we need not apologise if your actions force us to maim you.

[ Can you hear someone sharpening a knife? Humming? Sounds a lot like Legolas in the background, right? Someone pissed off the Space Elves. ]

Thranduil is indisposed and has appointed myself in his stead. If you have any concerns which fail to be entirely moronic in nature, you may bring them to me.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ He hears it, and some of the edge leaves his voice because it's obvious something or someone has gotten Nuada's back up. But he's still anxious about a solely elvish force 'protecting' the gardens. It unsettles him, particularly when delivered beside talk like this. ]

That would be an improvement, yes. Or, just a suggestion, you could try shouting a warning. But before you get up in arms with me over semantics: you said nothing about trespassers inside your homes. You said near. There's a difference.

They are treehouses, they are not on the ground or easily accessible. Anyone near them would be in the trees, which would take considerable effort.

[ Were he not remaining in Thranduil's employ long enough to defend him while his friend's strength returns, there would have been no warning given at all. In that light, this entire post ranks as Entirely Generous in his opinion.

But that much is very obvious, because Nuada. ]

In that case 'near' requires a definition. Someone circling on the ground looking up might be considered near for all I know. Or you might consider the distance between the oleander and the plum trees to be inside your domain. Now in the trees, I grant you, that would be hard, but I for one can fly, and I've circled those flets as you've been building them a few times.

[ He's reassured though, and moved on, more gravely to address a graver topic. ]

When you speak for another, you're entrusted with his voice. That means everyone has to believe that they're hearing Thranduil through your words. If you represent him poorly then it makes him look aggressive, not you. And it makes him look weak, not you. It makes him look like the best successor he has is someone who is outside of his control, who can't be relied upon in his absence.

I'm guessing that's not what you wanted.

[ Shut up, human, he needs no speaking down to. Wait, did he hear that correctly? Instead of replying with the former, he dismisses the lowly mortal's concerns save one statement that stands out. ]

How do you fly?

With faith, and trust, and just a little bit of pixie dust.

[ Now who's being an asshole. ]

That, I can believe.

[ Assholes x2, the sequel. ]

I just fly, like Superman can just fly. It's in my genetics.

[ Well that's not true. It's in his brother's genetics, Nathan has an artificial ability. But that's like quibbling over what 'near' means. ]

The genetic make-up of humans is markedly different from those of the fae. Flight could never be in their capabilities.

[ Modern-day elf, casually well-read enough on current events to comment on this subject? He just might be. Not enough to care for science at large, of course, fuck science but he understands the general overview from books and news programs. ]

If we had facilities, it would be worth the effort of comparing genes under the eye of a qualified individual.

[ The terms sound foreign on his tongue, though he clearly has their significance down. ]

I've been under the eye of qualified individuals more often than I ever care to, and while I trust the only geneticist on board implicitly, implicit trust got me handcuffed to a table and jabbed with paralyzing mutant spidervenom. I'm going to have to pass.

What's your interest in it?

The line blurs between humans and fae on this ship. It is an important matter to me, to know those who fall under my protection by right of birth.

[ Even assholes. ]

[ Ah, he sees where this is going: ]

The line being the people you shoot for versus the people you shoot at.

It'd be easier to let science choose for you, but let me give you a little bit of advice that I picked up a while back: you let science decide what does and doesn't deserve your protection, and you're gonna hate what you turn into. The same goes for birthright. Here, at least, the only one who gets to choose is you.

The ship does not change who we are or the lives that have led us here.

I take the sanctuary of my people very seriously, [ like it's such a surprise at this point for anyone ] and if you are one of them then, unpleasant though you are, [ THE BEST DIPLOMAT again, right here ] no harm will come to you.

Humans cannot fly. That is the truth as I know it. Therefore, you stand apart from them.

[ And within a different faction. ]

[ Not even remotely surprising. But he takes this 'us and them' mentality very seriously too, on account of being the 'us' and the 'them' at various different points in his life.

And it's not that he doesn't appreciate the sentiment or anything, considering how it clearly pains Nuada to do it... ]

Are you to ask everyone you shoot at their lineage before you do it? Why isn't it better to assume that everyone is under your protection unless they present a threat, or declare themselves your enemy? That's how everyone else does it.

That is how my people were slaughtered, through trust and passivity. [ ~~Just drop a bomb, Nuada, ain't no thing.~~ It's spoken without a change in tone, a long proven fact. ] I will ask the bloodline of any I meet.

I have told you that it matters to me and I will not change for a ship, not after six-thousand years of enduring Mankind.

I'm sorry, I didn't realize. I thought you were Thranduil's kin.

[ That would explain a lot. Nathan pauses for a moment here to judge his next words, and there's probably long enough of a pause to interrupt. ]

We are Elves, but our worlds set us apart. My father was once a king, though his domain ranged across the globe rather than a mere region of it.

[ Was once implies a lot, mostly that the weighty throne, which was Nuada's birthright along with global dominion over all the fae and responsibility for it, at some point fell to him. ]

It was the 21st Century on Earth when I arrived on this ship. Though I understand how time differs for many, my comfort is in remaining with those like to my kin of the past, whether they have witnessed the holocaust Mankind has committed on them in another world or not. [ If there's one thing that can be said for Nuada (besides vicious, cruel and driven) it's that he's loyal. ] I am not oblivious to it, as are they. If I am all the harsher for my experience, I have the right to be.

[ It's alright, he got the Prince thing by sneaking in on Nuada's other conversations, don't mind him. ]

You have a right to be, if you saw your own kind murdered like that, but you mustn't make the mistake of thinking that the destination for every world is the same. In Thranduil's world, his people are conceding Middle Earth to the age of Men, rather than being harried and hunted from it.

I'd like to say I understand you a little better, but I wouldn't want you to think I'm belittling your experiences. I don't think I can begin to understand what you've been through.

Men are Men in every world. They were created with a hole in their heart that can never be filled, so they ruin what they do not understand might fit the mold.

[ There are no thanks for the lack of sympathies, which he prefers, but neither is there a curt reply; just silence, grateful in its own taciturn way. ]

[ He's quiet too, but for other reasons. The fact that Nuada's description is incredibly accurate for one thing. He gives it proper consideration for a moment, then speaks softly. ]

The quest to fill that hole isn't what's important here, on this ship. The Men here share your desires and goals, and as I understand it, the greatest threat to Thranduil and to yourself is neither elf nor man.

I want peace, and one day to be able to return those who desire to go back home.

[ His laughter is brittle and hollow, more a reaction than emphasis. ]

If you think I covet war, I can tell you I have had my fill of it.

The difference between a soldier and a warrior is that one goes to war for a cause and the other does so while intimately familiar with the cost. I can tell which you are.

We both want the same thing.

[ Flattery will get you everywhere, sonnyjim. ]

I am the last warrior of my people, in fact. [ Hit the nail a little too squarely on the head, though he merely smiles dryly and doesn't take offence. ] You are the one that tried to take the bridge and failed. Will you tell me more of what you found there?

I succeeded in taking the bridge, and I succeeded in failing to take the bridge. [ A lightness to the words, betraying satisfaction in the result and confidence in his efforts being well-spent. Succeeded in failing is the key here. ]

What I expected to find there. No access to the consoles, to the flight systems, defensive, offensive, internal or external scanners. No crew, no sign of the Captain or Commander, and no obvious efforts to reclaim the bridge from us once we were there. We experienced the full hostility of the ship, and learned without question the extent of our inherent value to Smiley. We learned that it is a sadist, with a keen understanding of the limits that people can be put to, and a hand for manipulation that is nothing if not opportunistic. We learned the importance of the murals, though not their meaning, and just what limits are in place to be used against us, both mentally and physically.

And I learned a great deal about how the ship and its passengers would respond, both to my leadership, and under enormous emotional stress. That, at least, is invaluable.

[ There's no genuine smile when he hears succeeded in failing, not at all. If there was it would disappear quickly. ]

You are not so foolish as I once thought, then.

[ Ahw yeah, backhanded compliments. Translation, It was a worthwhile venture. ]

My intentions were misunderstood by certain people from the beginning, and given my true purpose, explaining it would have defeated the point. You might win a hand of poker by announcing your cards, but you only do so at the right moment.

video »

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice;

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private

voice; private