impure_tale | -202-

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-202-

I see it's this nonsense again. [Leer] I always did enjoy an audience.

As it is, there is little reason that business cannot continue as normal, just because we have a few additional listeners.

[Look who is being forcefully "normal" -- for him, anyway. It has nothing to do with the transmissions.]

Richard Riddick, it is high time we sat down and had a little discussion about port.

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[Renate technically answers the door first, and the Marquis can be heard shushing her and in French reminding her not to jump. He has to open the door for her first. He ushers Riddick in and shuts the door behind them.]

It is as I said. I wish to discuss what happened in port.

I don't know how much 'discuss' we can do. You think there's only one answer to 'kill or be killed', and it ain't the one I work off of.

But hit me.

You're going to. I do not expect you to adopt my philosophy completely, but we will find a middle ground.

I lived by your limits through port. Didn't ex anybody. Made a few people real fucking sorry, but they were all breathing when I left.

Arbitrary bullshit. But nobody backed me into a corner. I've been in corners before. I'm gonna be again.

[The Marquis sits at his chair]

Richard, I am not telling you to lay down your life rather than kill. What I want you to do is look me in the eye and tell me, truly, that whether I had imposed that rule or not, you care at all how many people are alive or dead because of you. And to what extent.

[No mercy and no shame. Riddick pulls off his goggles, squinting a bit, and meets his eyes.]

I don't give a shit. Not about grown-ass strangers. You know I got a thing about children. So did Johns: that's how he bagged me. But anyone who acts a threat to me, I will discourage. If they're smart enough to run they live. If they continue fucking with me? I will ghost them. And it will not matter to me past being safe for another day.

Ain't that in my file? 'sociopathic tendencies?'

So you save the life of a child and their life ceases to matter the instant they enter adulthood?

[A simple nod.]

I don't know what instinct keys, with kids. Why it matters. As much trouble as it gets me in? I ignore it when I can. [When he can't, shit gets difficult.]

It's not a thing that comes from the part of my brain that can talk.

Then perhaps you should look for other ways to listen to it.

Did your life cease to matter to you once you passed a certain age?

My life never mattered to anyone. I just return the favor.

[He purses his lips, looking around for a convenient seat, finds a surface, sits on it and lounges without being invited.]

Did you feel anything, when you were a soldier. When you had to kill people. When your government was taking heads off.. [he's been reading through that file.]

When they died. Strangers. Did you feel anything?

Of course I did. Sometimes I wish that I hadn't, but I am not at all fond of the alternative.

Why.

[He comes from a sprawl into a curl, leaning forward, bent at the waist.]

Why does it matter to you. And if it's got to, why do you want to keep it?

Life and nature are made up of the good and the bad. So, too, with people. Our emotions and our experiences may be either good or bad, painful or pleasurable. To have only one and not the other would dull it. To forsake both altogether is not living.

I've had a lot more pain than pleasure, so how about I don't get all weepy that I'm not bleeding out for every random I see die?

Person.

Person. Worthwhile fucking human being.

I can say the words. I don't feel it.

So you met her-- she wasn't random. She was something else. And when she ate it? That hurt. Brutal pain. I can live without that.

Clearly you didn't, Richard.

There's a girl. I'd die so she wouldn't have to. That's not a courtesy I'm gonna extend the rest of the universe.

And that's a sacrifice others are expected to respect when you do not respect theirs?

No. What gave you that idea?

The universe doesn't give a fuck. All you can do is fight until you die. Nobody's going to respect my anything. I just choose who I fight for, who I'll die for.

Edited 2012-06-12 03:00 (UTC)

Then why should one girl matter?

She matters to me. I don't ask anyone else to care. I won't ask the universe to spare her.

I'll force it to.

That's all we get. What we can take.

And why does she matter to you? [He's not asking this with the haughty tone that should accompany the words.] You've lived and died unable to do this. You have said it yourself. You fight to stay alive. Why should you lay down your life for anyone?

I don't know.

[It's nearly an outright bark, a growling edge to it.]

I don't know why she matters, a'ight? And I don't have to explain myself to you.

Yes, you do. [He sits back comfortably in his chair.] This is how our relationship works. I help to determine what changes must be made in order for you to graduate. If these are changes you do not wish to make, then I expect for you to provide justification.

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