impure_tale

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The truth can be very entertaining, but better, my sweets, when it's given willingly.

[Private to Iago]

I doubt you are enjoying yourself as much as I am, so I have a proposal. Come to my cabin. We'll sit and talk -- or rather ask questions. I am affected -- I do not know if you are, but I have little reason to suppose you are not. So better to ride it out in a safe place, oui? And with all hope the flood shall have concluded by tomorrow.

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You may ask me of anything you wish, Iago. [He refills him.] By all means, change the subject.

I don't want to. I don't care. I don't care about anything right now, Marquis, except getting out of this place as quickly as I can.

Then you have to care.

Then I suppose I'm stuck here for a while. [He was already starting to feel the two glasses of wine, so the third one was going to be a bit slower.]

You do care. You want not to, but you do. So you have a decision to make.

Which is what?

You must examine the things that you have made for yourself here. Including the relationship you built with Iago. You must think of how you felt -- and how hard both of you fought after coming back here to have what you had until Sylar involved himself. And you must decide whether you like yourself better as that man or the man you'll become if you choose to close yourself off again.

I don't want to be that man anymore, Marquis. He was weak and allowed himself to be hurt by Sylar and Judas.

There's no point to it now. I tried that, Marquis. I tried to be that way. But I'm not supposed to. I'm supposed to be just like this.

You cannot refuse happiness because you are afraid of pain, Iago. [He leaned forward] You are not weak. You are just a victim of the same manipulations you submitted persons to in your first life. You are only weak if you play into Sylar's hands. You are only weak if you give up.

A victim? A victim is weak. I knew that I could play them because they were weak. They had their attachments and I played those attachments against them. Because they were weak. I refuse to be like them.

Your manipulations led to you own death, Iago. You are your own victim. But you are a stronger man here than you ever were there. I have met a man on this ship with conviction. With integrity, and heart. And those are things the man you once were might have derided because he could never find those things in himself.

[Iago stopped listening and just shut down, drinking his wine nonchalantly, setting it down half empty.]

We're done here.

Why, Iago?

Because I don't want to talk about this. [An honest answer, but said with much venom.]

Why?

Because you're frustrating me. [He stood up, feeling slightly woozy, and just took another drink of his wine, as if that might help.]

Of course I'm frustrating you. You are having a poor time right now, and you cannot find sufficient reasoning to argue your point. [He notices a wobble in his stance, and rolls his eyes] Sit down, Iago. You may change the subject but you'll not help yourself if you wander about drunk.

I'm not going to wander. I'm going to my room. [He does sit back down, though.] I am having a poor time and you seem intent on making it worse.

I am merely offering you a different perspective. I spent thirty years in solitary confinement, Iago, and my writing reflected the philosophies of a man who speaks only to a brick wall and mistakes the echoes bouncing back as voices of agreement. Believe me, it will do you well to hear dissension.

[The soldier put a hand to his forehead.] Just shut up. I don't want to hear about any of that. I just want to sit in silence and not think about this.

That's not the game, Iago. You might distract me by asking questions.

Fine. Did you know this would happen, Marquis?

What would happen?

Between myself and Judas. You must have known that I was lying and manipulating him at first.

I could not have predicted your exact intentions, nor their ultimate outcome. I could only wait and watch and hope he had some positive impact upon you.

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