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piratejournal2015-01-01 09:34 pm
[voice] Response to Robin's Post re Corpse King
*People are forever telling Selphie that she should think before she speaks. At least with the journal she has the option of taking her time. But no, once the tears are swiped away, Selphie is just so full of the need to get out her anger and her upset that she flips her journal open immediately and begins to let it all out. Probably not the best and most articulate way of doing it, but it has to happen*
That creep! That worthless piece of shit! I don't care who in the hell he thinks he is - but he's for it! He's done for!
*All said in a rather shaky voice, and though she tries to hide it there's an intake of breath that is a tell-tale sign of a young woman who's been crying*
Killing innocent children? An orphanage? All those lives...
*Selphie trails off, then takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself down before she continues.
Then just a moment of slow and steady breathing. And then -
That doesn't seem to work. The outrage is back*
You! You disgusting bastard! If you can hear this - if you can hear this you should know that I am going to bring you so much pain. I am going to burn you up and make you pay! You won't get away with this -
...he won't...
...he can't...
*Now she sounds much less sure. Her breath hitches again before she continues*
Who's with me? We can't let this happen. We just can't!
I'm gonna blow his guts out and make him eat them, and watch him choke on his own rot!
*Then there's a rapid succession of heavy thud sounds - perhaps not unlike the noise nunchaku would make against wooden flooring. No friendly giggles and a 'peace out' this time, folks*
[Voice] -> [Action]
[A little manners can go a long way, especially when trying to make a point about requests over orders and the looser structure of piracy in general.]
[Then again, Marco hesitates, is he overthinking this? He said to trust Selphie more, and he means it, but is he the one not trusting her to be strong enough to hold her own? And yet... no. Better than most he knows what hurts Selphie from others. And like hell is he okay with exposing that to the outside world. Especially if Rose actually thinks CK himself might be watching.]
[Time and a place for everything.]
[When Rose gets there he'll be waiting patiently, looking as deadpan as ever and leaning casually against the railing looking out over the waves.]
[Before she can even say anything, Marco speaks up ahead of her.]
It's always going to hurt, you know.
Losing the rash ones, and seeing them hurt.
[He has too many secrets to begin to share them all. One of many problems he has with being captain. Even as a commander he could never get enough information to enough people in enough time. There are too many things he knows, too much he only suspects, and too much that he expects would be ignored no matter how he said it.]
[He'd sooner die than admit some of them, and even when almost everyone knows it anyway.]
[The truth of Ace's death, and his temper... the pain of it...]
[It's not something that can be explained anyway, only understood, and it didn't sound like Rose didn't understand.]
It's a pain that's part of living. Not existing, but truly actually living.
[Action]
I know that all too well. I wish I didn't, but I do.
[The memories of those she knew who fell because of their rash actions were still fresh in her mind. Especially that of Lavitz, the most recent one. She still can't shake the image of the of him being run through with the Dragon Buster.]
[Action] 1/3
Want a drink?
The last thing I heard Ace yelling across the battlefield before he died was that our Pops was the greatest man who ever lived. That we owed our whole era to him. That the name of the era was for him.
[Action] 2/3
When he was a rookie, even younger than his little brother is now, he wanted to take Pops' head. He tried so many times, I thought he'd have gotten bored, and given up at least. But he never did. He changed how he went about it, how he charged, and tried to assassinate Pops, aye, but he kept trying. Every day, a new attempt. And each as unsuccessful as the last.
Back then... he was the last person you'd have expected to die defending Pops' reputation.
I used to bring him soup. After awhile. He grew on me -- grew on all of us really, and you've seen how ridiculous his appetite can get. He reminded me of a wet puppy sometimes. Most of his Spades back then folded into our own crew because they refused to leave him. He tried to order them to go away, to leave him, but even they started to think he must have been sticking around for a reason, and Pops had already asked him to join the first time they met. So he wouldn't confide in them anymore. It drove me nuts to watch. Even back then I thought he would either wind up a favorite baby brother or break my heart.
He did both. More times than I can count.
[Action] 3/3
I still haven't forgiven him and Thatch for leaving me, eh?
It's not like they wanted to or made that active choice, but still...
Sometimes I tell myself it's just until it hurts less, but I don't want that pain to go away either. Because it'll mean forgetting how much it means to me. How much they still mean to me.
Selphie isn't fragile, but she's not an idiot either. I didn't make her second mate just for her sake or even just for mine. I won't ask you to trust her decisions, because if you don't, you don't, but assume there's more to them than meets the eye.
And if you were already doing that but playing along for the sake of our foes, then my apologies. But that's not a good tactic. Not with her, not with pirates. If they sense a weak spot they'll seize on it like sharks to blood. And maybe you meant to protect what you thought was one with telling her to calm down, but trust me, that isn't where her scars lie. Besides, I'd rather draw out every foe we can than leave them to wait in the shadows, eh?
[Action]
[She stays quiet as he talks, still watching the waves.]
I never said that she was fragile or an idiot, nor do I think that. But, my experience has taught me that such outbursts, if they are allowed to get out of control, become a great danger to everyone.
And if we are trying to hide weakness from our foes, then it was too late before I even opened my mouth. "Blood" was in the water as soon as she made that announcement. She revealed what hurts her the most by showing how upset she was and that beast can use it against her if he so wishes.
[She knows that what she would do if she were that Corpse King.]
I will admit that I do not have a pirate mindset, nor do I think I ever will, but I will try to be so harsh about such things and try to trust.
[Action]
It's not the harshness I mind. Ikki and I are plenty harsh, even to her. [Ikki had shown her his worst sides, something Marco still wouldn't do with anyone except perhaps Thatch, and even then...]
You're worried about her showing her temper leading to destruction, but Selphie has more control than that. We all do.
You weren't here then, but the reason Lea left the crew and took Roxas with him is that I made a declaration of war against all who opposed us. And I reaffirmed it when slavers kidnapped my brothers. There is a time to hide anger, aye, but there is a time to show it as well. If the ex-marine knows we hunt him, so much the better, eh? He'll either come to us to try to head us off, or he'll run right into a trap set by Robin and Grell.
How long has it been since you worked with a lot of others by your side?
[Action]
[Which is what set off alarm bells in Rose's mind. Though, she does have a very high standard of what control is.
[She sighs and leans her hands against the railing.]
Before I arrived here I traveled with a groups that all eventually became Dragoons. At first I only traveled with them as a short break from what was normal in my life. After a while it became clear that we all had the same goal of preserving our world. Though, in the end, I still ended up taking things into my own hands.
[Which resulted in her sacrificing her life with Zieg so that they could get out safely. But instead of dying, she ended up in a pirate world.]
Before them, the last time I was a part of any group was well over eleven thousand years ago. Back before time was stopped for me.
[Action]
[A small sigh.] You've lived long enough to look at the big picture, but when it comes to companions, you're still thinking individually.
A weak link in a chain can be broken, but we're not a chain, yoi. We're pirates. We fight together, if need be: back to back. Sometimes it's hard for people to see the forest through all the trees, but that's how we have to be. If a wolf appears injured, another pack might try to move in, aye, but that just makes it so the rest of the first pack's job is to make sure they'd regret it.
[Waves a hand.] I speak in metaphors, but the point is, it's okay if outsider idiots mistake her as a rash, emotionally wounded hotheaded moron. It's not okay for the rest of the crew to think that's really the case. More, even if it was the case, it'd be our job to fill the in the wounded gap. If other pirates see you questioning her judgement, they'll seize upon a weakness even where there might be none, and then they'll find one.
Sometimes you have to let hotheads rush forward, and the only thing you can do is back them up every step of the way. That's how I had to handle Ace, that's how my Pops handled Ace and Little Oars Jr., and that's how this crew's gotta be.
Selphie doubts herself more than she should, but I'll never let her burn out. If you're going to question her judgement, that's all right, you're a pirate, I'd be more worried if you didn't, but don't do it where it can bring trouble. And make sure you give her the benefit of the doubt. She might come across as a ditzy party girl to outsiders, but she's far more than that. She's as strong as a lion, but not too many see it through all her sunshine.
I don't want her to project some composed image of someone who isn't affected by things. She's got something good working for her, and I'm going to use it. Your job will be to make sure that even when she gets hurt from it that she'll be strong enough to get back up and keep charging, eh? Otherwise, the vultures will circle. [Makes a circling motion with his finger and gestures up above to the sky.]
[Action]
Understood. I will try to keep that in mind from now on.
[Action]
[He's still not sure of himself either, truth told. It's a lot easier to be a commander, to be a first mate, to be the back-up of the strongest men in the world than to pick his own paths and tell others where to go.]
[Still, he's usually pretty good at reading people, and even if he has to guess with Rose, she does remind him of himself.]
[So he winds up giving her a soft smile as he heads away.]
Thank you, eh.
You're a good woman, Rose. It's just a shame you don't show it to the others more often, eh?