impure_tale | 248

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farewell announcement

248 - [Video]

Hello and welcome home, lovelies. I hope our last outing treated you well. To those new arrivals with whom I've yet to meet -- well, I suppose the point in introducing myself now is so that you can say you met me. The Marquis de Sade -- for the moment, at your service.

[ A cordial bow to the camera, all the same. But then he looks a little uncomfortable, but resigned. ]

I never thought I would be saying this, but it is time. Nearly seven years, I've lived on this ship -- a portion of that as an Inmate. I've written and sent pornography to angels, done battle with the undead but also enjoyed some lovely conversations with a few. I've fallen in love -- more than once. I've died. [ An odd pause. He frowns. ] I've even killed. Read books. Sang songs. Made a friend or two. Flirted with comely fellows, and found myself lucky.

Also unlucky on occasion. [ A little smile and wink. ]

The point is that in all those years, I've lived in relative happiness despite the chaos. I wish to believe I've become a better man than I ever was for even a moment in life.

...I'm also ready to return to living outside of the Barge. Yes, by the end of the month, I expect to have departed. I have arrangements to make first. Goodbyes to say. A severance package to negotiate. [ Smirk. ] While I believe there is much good I can do here, and have done, I also believe it is for others to look after Inmates, now, fond as I am of my current charge. I have the greatest of faith that the lot of you will take care of him for me, but as for myself?

I feel it's time someone looked after me for a while, and I've kept someone waiting for too long.

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You're leaving.

[He just looks sort of... Not bewildered, he doesn't do bewildered, but he never saw this one coming.]

[ He just watches him a moment, then sighs almost apologetically. ]

Yes.

I'm not against it. Just. Surprised.

I was beginning to feel like I was haunting the place, and no one finds me frightening anymore.

Do you have any idea how boring that is?

Only second hand. [Because...Arthas.]

[ Knowing look. ] Yes, I suppose you would. There's one regret of mine, I suppose.

Oh? What specifically is?

Oh.

[ End of an era: this here. Megamind flutters his hands a bit. He's been a friend and a lover and the idea of the Marquis -- as much part of the ship as anything -- is kind of terrifying. ]

[ But.... The Marquis deserves to go home, and be happy. ]

Well. That's-- yes. I'm happy for you. Though I will miss you.

And I will miss you as well. You have me still for a while yet, so let's not waste it, oui?

Yeah. I'll-- yeah.

[ Still gonna be in shock for a little bit, though. ]

[ He just couldn't disappear in the same breath he announces his departure. He thinks that's cruel, so he'll let him be in shock. ]

Wine, later? A walk, perhaps?

Yes. Both.

If there's anything you'd like taken to Eddie, too -- once I get where I need to be, I'll... yes. Take it to him.

After dinner?

Yes. Right. After dinner.

I don't need to be taken care of.

[So grouchy. But it's totally over the topic he's addressing, not anything else. At all.]

Yes, you do. In your own way. But I would like to hope you've learned something in our short tenure together.

I did. If I'm patient enough you bunch of do gooders will leave me alone.

[He crosses his arms, leans back against the wall he's sitting in front of, and just keeps frowning. There's no smile to accompany such a statement of victory. ]

All I have to do is wait it out.

You realize you won't be released no matter how many Wardens you go through, oui? You read my file. You know how many I went through.

And don't assume I won't be along to check on you from time to time if you stubbornly decide to test that theory.

People disappear from here all the time.

[Case in point. No, he doesn't care that the Marquis is allowed to leave wherever he wants. His point stands anyway. People disappear with no rhyme or reason or whether or not anyone would prefer them to stay. He considers it all the same.]

Your situation isn't technically the rule.

They disappear from here, sometimes to go back to whatever oblivion was waiting to take them. I suggest you remember that.

You're younger in spirit than you are willing to admit, Dark Heart. Use this place to grow. That's all I ask of you.

Just as we were getting to know each other. [Bleu pouts. Still...] Seven years is a long time for a man like you.

And I would have dearly loved to come to know you better, cheri. Ask anything of me before my departure, and it is yours.

Some of your time is all I need.

I have a prior engagement this evening. Someone...equally blue and enchanting, in truth, but I look forward to seeing you as soon as I may. Are you available tomorrow?

[Holy crap. Needy thinks she's seen this guy on the network once or twice, in passing, but she never paid him any mind. Maybe she would have if she realized he was the Marquis de Sade.

Or maybe she wouldn't have. She'll never know, now.]

I can't even begin to imagine all the sh--things you must have seen, being here for that long. I've only been here since May, and already I...I've seen a lot. [And changed a little.]

Telling it all would be an awfully long story. I would be happy to supply answers to specific questions, however.

I wouldn't even know where to start.

[She's wistful at the thought, she supposes.]

I'm sorry that I never got the chance to know you. But I wish you all the best. It sounds like you've definitely earned it.

Merci, mademoiselle. There's a little time, if you're truly so curious. Don't feel as though I'll blink out of existence as soon as I stop broadcasting here today.

No, I guess not. I just...I grew up in a small town, you know? I remember what it was like, whenever someone said they were leaving. Moving away, joining the army, going to college, joining a commune, things like that. And I remember after they said they were going, every time you talked to them after that...every time, it felt like saying goodbye.

[ A chuckle. ]

I'm not one to be so sorely missed, I assure you.

You're like, a historical figure, in my world. A kind of infamous one, actually.

I find that is often the case, yes.

Was there anything in particular you wished to know? Any rumors I can dispel for you?

I don't really know much in the way of specifics, to be honest. Just that you lived in France in like the 1700s and you have this reputation of having been kind of, uh, raunchy. Got around, loved to party, into kink. And that you wrote some books, which were banned for being supposedly super immoral and stuff.

A tame summation, at best, but I hardly expect anyone to be a scholar of my life.

Edited 2014-08-16 01:14 (UTC)

I don't think we would be allowed to learn more, in high school.

...Seven years?

[Yeah, sorry. Powers was going to try to find some more eloquent words for it, than that, but it's just not happening. His sense of horror is pretty palpable.]

Is that really so bad?

[He manages to put some sardonic humor into his tone. Underneath it though, he's still shaken.]

I don't know; you tell me. When you had first been dragged here as an inmate, how would you have reacted? To hearing someone say they had been aboard this ship for nearly seven years.

Oui, one of the other Inmates, actually. Not quite that long, but still. When everyone else had just arrived there and the majority of the Barge's previous denizens -- save one Warden and one Inmate -- had been lost in a port, it did rattle the nerves a little, I suppose.

If he weren't so insufferable.

Sounds like you had your own version of Arthas, then.

[Because that guy is definitely the "I have been here forever and I'm pretty bold about it" of this generation, let's say.]

Let's see, I was brought aboard...oh. Has it really been five months? Or, nearly that, at the least. [He didn't realize, until now, and he's trying not to be rattled even further.] I've been through two ports and six floods. [Even quieter, still.] I was here for this most recent stop at the Mirror Barge. I was one of the people the Joker killed.

Arthas, unlike this person, has made considerable progress whether he means to admit it or not.

[ He frowns at the mention of the mirror barge. ]

My condolences for that. I'm not absolutely certain, but I think that my other self was killed before our last visit, and no one wished to revive him. It left me a mite unsettled to be so very aware that I had been displaced. As it was, he has been there as long as I have been here, and he never graduated.

Remarkable staying power, that. [He offers an offhand smirk; it applies equally to both versions of the man in question.]

I've always been quite stubborn, whatever the circumstances.

Give your reputation, I would not be surprised.

[That smirk stays put, even as his tone evens out to something not nearly so flippant.]

So, given your lengthy run of the Barge, any advice? I suppose you have quite a bit, obviously. But anything particular to a man of my current experience?

[At some point, prior to his final departure, the Marquis will find a small, likely hand made basket with a few strawberries in it, in front of his door. There's no note, or any other kind of message attached.]

Edited (fixed link) 2014-08-16 01:07 (UTC)

Passing the torch.

[Arthas is only on audio, but he sounds a little disquieted.]

Do you think you'll be back?

Only if I've been a very, very bad boy.

...

Had to get one last flirt in, didn't you.

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