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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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.

[It may be the first or near the first time the Marquis has seen Riddick visibly perturbed.

The felon leans back, visibly composing himself, expression going cold as he replaces his goggles.]

She matters to me because I knew her as a kid. Because whatever it is about her and about that planet, a few people started pinging an animal part of me that saw them as important. As family.

I trust my instincts. Why's it your issue? You gonna fix me off knowing that?

Only you can do that, Richard. I can only point you in the right direction.

If nothing I see this as a sign that you form relationships. You can, at any rate, when you choose to, and often when you do not. This is something to be encouraged. Avoiding it for fear of loss is a weakness, not a strength.

What's in my file, Warden.

What do they really want from me?

[The Marquis shakes his head.] If you want me to tell you who brought you here, then I cannot. Some of the older denizens tell the story that if we die with unfinished business, all it takes is the wish of one person, who wanted better for us that what we received in life, for us to appear here. [He shrugs] It's a pretty thought, but there's very little proof of it.

[A short, sharp, headshake, and he lies back against his seat, playing loose, tension in his scent and in the way his fingers move, the slightest fingertip drum against the surface.]

Does it have a guide in there, a little 'when he gives up this thing, he walks' ?

If you would like to read it, you may. We are not given instructions, merely a history, some description of your deeds and personality, and we are then left to our own devices.

I've probably read most of it, one prison or another. Lived the rest. Sure, I'll look.

What do you think you need out of me?

I think you need to learn to live rather than simply survive.

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