sauntervaguelydownwards | 07 🍎 Well I ain't evil, I'm just good-looking

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07 🍎 Well I ain't evil, I'm just good-looking

[Spam for Arthas]
[Crowley appears a bit too calm for someone who is now on the clock. Especially for someone whose inmate is a cautionary tale of megalomania and terrifying necromancy mixed in with pride before falls and deals with the devil (although he thinks he can do something with that). Yes, he's actually kind of nervous, but he's reminding himself very hard that beneath it all Arthas is human.

That makes him no less dangerous, but it puts him on more familiar ground. Crowley likes humans. He'll just have to give himself a little time to synthesize "human" with "undead and homicidal."

When he gets to Arthas' door he knocks and opens it to the barrier Pounce put up, and leans against the frame with an unlit cigarette between his lips.]

Well you're fucked, aren't you?

[Public]
It's been six months and no one realized I was a warden? Ask someone to open one door for you and suddenly you're the bad guy. You don't have much faith in your fellow man, do you?

Probably prudent.

Anyway, just a note: [the camera catches Arthas' door, open to the hallway but blocked by what looks like a wall of purple fire.] The faceless voiceless authority has spoken and zombie Alexander the Great is mine. Get your own.

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[The comment from Crowley gets him a strange look - ] One: he doesn't have to do anything. [- which causes her to miss the fact that Arthas's focus has changed.]

Two: I didn't give you an order. I a- sonnuvabitch! [She lets go immediately but the damage is already done, of course; the ice slices into her hand in the splitsecond it takes her to instinctively shove everything away from her using the power she's already using.

She glares at Arthas, shoving the gun into the waistband of her jeans so she can hold her injured hand with her non-injured one.]

[Arthas switches tack and Crowley winces, not at the layer of ice building around his shield but Letty's now-bleeding hand. He can reshape the shield around the sword, outpacing the ice, but he can't do anything about someone else's wound.] Except keep a promise, apparently.

Which I probably shouldn't get in the way of, but he made one to me too. [He turns to Arthas with his arms crossed.] Don't try to deny it.

I'm still lost here. How'd she get under your skin?

She's right. I don't. [He snarls at Crowley.

If he had his plague, a cut would be all he needed, but no, he can't Infest, he'll have to be creative some more...

He keeps his warden busy with the ice and starts a Defile underneath Letty - or tries. The shield makes it difficult, and the carpet turns into a devouring tarlike sludge in a neat circle around her.]

It's a talent.

[She snarls this, because about the time she notices what the ground is doing, about the time her hand really starts to throb, about the time he refuses to even pretend like he has a sensible cell in his body, she loses her patience.

She's done it once already, and she knows she'll pay for it later - possibly before this conversation is done - but it's not getting anywhere otherwise. She borrows the Admiral's powers one more time to in turn siphon Arthas's from him, since they're obviously too much of a distraction.]

Arthas, just stop for a second, goddammit. Please.

[He feels the magic go, the ice sword falling dead to the ground, the glow on the surface of his eyes fizzling out. He's frustrated, he's furious at everything, at being trapped, at being alone again, at being a toy for wardens to deprive or reward at their leisure.]

Why the hell should I?

[The whites show all the way around his eyes and he throws himself against the fused armor, squeezes the frozen joints until the leather creaks.]

Because you are not this stupid!

[He's furious, and she's shouting to be heard over his efforts to beat himself senseless on nothing, pissed off and bleeding all over her goddamn shirt because she presses her hand to her side a moment later, wraps the hem of her tanktop over top and grips with her good hand, swears low and rapidfire in Spanish when her breath catches.

But.]

I talked to Sylvanas. She told me some shit that makes sense, and I want to know if it applies to you too. But no one can actually listen to you if all you're doing is making them into popsicles or trying to stab them in the face for literally no reason!

[Crowley just holds up his hands in bewilderment. That was going to be part of his point, and there Letty beat him to the punch just when Arthas is guaranteed not to listen. He sighs deeply and shakes his head.]

No, that makes perfect sense. In five minutes you'll want to stab me in the face too.

Thanks for stopping that, by the way.

Very funny.

[Arthas narrows his eyes at Crowley.]

I can't now and you know it. Doesn't mean I don't want to.

[He looks a little calmer, but the armor still has telltale creaks.]

What did Sylvanas say?

[It's the breather she was looking for, and now that she's content it will hold, Letty disappears back into her cabin for a minute. She comes back with a handtowel wrapped firmly around her hand so she stops dripping on the ground, and addresses Crowley first.]

The promise he's talking about is that he's going to kill me, because me and some other wardens put his ass in Zero after he tried to kill the ship, or the Admiral, or both. He's been working on that one for at least a month, 'cause Pounce got in the way, and now here we are.

[Then she levels her gaze on Arthas, dark and considering.]

She said she would never stop trying to hurt the ship because it's the only way she doesn't feel like she's suffocating. Literally, is what I took from that conversation.

Is that what it's like? For you?

That was going to be my guess.

[He looks over at Arthas in mild embarrassment. Not because Arthas just attacked another warden, but because it was such bad strategy. Somehow, he now thinks Sylvanas was responsible for a lot of the plotting that happened when the two tried to take over.

But Letty's is a question he intended to ask Arthas himself.]

[Arthas laughs, bitter. The armor creaking finally stops.]

Not the only way. There are two ways. The ship breaks or I do.

[Letty, throwing up her hands, turns her attention fully on Crowley.]

Get your own, huh? And what's your plan of action now then?

Yep, get your own. He didn't kill you, so he's not your problem anymore. Now go fix your hand.

[He turns back to Arthas and arches an eyebrow.]

I'm going to fix your armor and we're going to talk -- about why that didn't work, to start with. Did you really think it would? Even I know better than to attack someone on their own ground when they've got backup.

I don't care. I don't care that you're here. I don't care where she is. I don't need an advantage.

[He settles back. Go head. Fix his armor. Thanks.]

You can win as many times as you want. I only need to win once.

No.

[Even if she weren't entirely disinclined to be dismissed out of hand, she doesn't bother hiding the fact that that's not going to fly with her.]

I've been involved hip deep with Arthas since all this shit went down, and I'm not about to back out now.

[She cuts a glance to Arthas, unwilling to completely talk around him despite the fact there are two different conversations happening at once. She levels a finger at him with the hand not holding the towel around her cut one.]

You don't scare me. And you're not getting rid of me that easily.

[Back to Crowley.] And if you think you don't need any help at all, then you're a fool, too.

And that's why you haven't won yet.

[Simple as that, in his opinion. You have to know the rules to win a game, be it fairly or by cheating.]

You can stand here trying to do my job or you can let me talk to the man.

You two don't need to fight. I'm going to stab you both.

I'm not trying to do your job.

[This, Letty veritably seethes, because even without the stinging ache in her hand making her more snappish than usual, she never takes well to being dismissed.]

I'm saying where the hell were you that you think you can just cut everyone else off without a second thought?

[Arthas gets a flash of a dark glare for his trouble, but her attention returns to Crowley.]

Edited (LETTY STOP SMILING) 2015-07-12 05:08 (UTC)

Fine, but stab me for the right reasons.

[Crowley raises his eyebrows, absentmindedly pleased at the frustration. He's good at dismissive, has it down to an art, and gives Letty a prompting look.]

Waiting for my cue.

Until he could get something out of it, I'm sure.

[If nothing else, Arthas can make this worse.]

I'm not just butting out. Pick a different angle.

[Letty raises an eyebrow at Arthas, acknowledging him, but not engaging him. Not for clumsy jabs like that.]

Exactly. I'm not dumb enough to get in his way when it isn't my job.

All right. You can talk to him as much as you want, about whatever you want, whenever you want, if I can do the same to your inmate. Sound fair?

I'm not going to stand here and let you fight over me like a - prize.

[Except he can't move and sort of has to.

He shuts his eyes for a moment - think. How to turn this to an advantage?]

Stop wasting your energy on each other and earn my respect, because I'm not going to be a passive element in my own life.

Edited 2015-07-17 13:07 (UTC)

You're perfectly welcome to talk to Lloyd - if he wants you to. And if he doesn't, I'm gonna back him up on that too, just like anyone else I'm responsible for.

[Because that's the stupid part: she can't do anything for Lloyd by herself. He needs people besides her and he's an adult.

That part of it addressed, however, she rolls her eyes.]

But don't even act like Lloyd and Arthas are on the same damn level of threat to the ship and people on it.

[At which point she returns her attention to Arthas.]

As for you: I've been trying, you concrete-skid jackass. I've been talking to you instead of about, around, at, or over you for months, and this is what you do with it.

Hey, you don't have any right to my inmate just because yours is boring.

[Arthas has a fair point. Crowley turns to him and asks thoughtfully:] Do you want to talk to her?

07 🍎 Well I ain't evil, I'm just good-looking

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