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[ 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.

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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.

Ah, and now it is almost like hearing you describe today's events.

I might have given you more slack if you hadn't brushed Netherlands off the way you did.

His insolence did him no favours. [ The heat rises a notch in his tone, only for a handful of seconds. ] I am not a dog to be barked at and called to heel as if my convenience is anyone else's to presume upon.

There are those who have shown courtesy and received it in kind. He did not.

[ Everything's just a bit arcane up in here. ]

Edited 2014-04-06 23:19 (UTC)

The gardens are his domain. If he decided that nobody could be allowed to live there, to forage, or even to enter, then that would be a rule that security could carry out with impunity. Whether you care for him or not, the power is his, and calling you to heel as you put it, is in the scope of his boundaries.

That said, I think you've misjudged him. Ned is defensive of the gardens only because he cares for their security as much as you do, and he's the most easy going, generous person I've ever met. If you did defer to him, you would be stronger for it.

What gives him the genuine right to claim them so? He is a passenger like any of us.

He was a passenger until he took responsibility and committed to becoming crew. Seniority is what makes him the head of his department, as I am mine, and Ned has been on board almost since this voyage began; this will be his twenty-ninth jump.

Since then, Ned has prevented the gardens from being burned down, gathered people to tend the plants and deliver produce, to build and maintain the infrastructure needed to keep the animals from trampling through the forest, even tended crops that others might have considered superfluous, but which I know for a fact have been responsible for the well-being of other passengers.

What I'm saying is that if this is a ship in the strictest sense, then Ned has never been a passenger content to sit in his cabin and wait for it to make port. He signed up for the crew, as anyone can, as you might, and he's stuck it out for two and a half years.

If you want more than that, then let's say that the Captain, when he was still around, was satisfied with the posting. Frankly I think character counts for a lot more than that, but it depends what your requirements are for respectability.

Necessary deeds, certainly, yet I'll not pretend he didn't offend me. His manner was crude and I far from appreciated it, glorified caretaker or not.

May I be honest with you?

I don't see any reason to stop now.

[ He doesn't need to say any more than that, Nuada asked a question, he gave the necessary prompt to continue. ]

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