[ backdated to . . . a few days ago ]

[powerisyours]

[ there's an extremely unhappy-looking and no-fucks-giving magicboss walking through your door, Basco. ]

Comments

[powerisyours]

[ I don't care ] Explain.

[trollininthedeep]

Oh, it's you now. I'm presuming since you're here, you managed to keep the lord from dying [Because I did see you run up as I was leaving]

[powerisyours]

I did. Now explain.

[trollininthedeep]

To put it simply, it was them or me.

[powerisyours]

Them or you, what? They try to leave you well enough alone, and you attacked them unprovoked.

[trollininthedeep]

If that's what you think, then fine, I might as well just say I attacked them because I don't like them. If that's all you wanted to hear then go ahead and leave.

[powerisyours]

And you're perfectly capable of ignoring the things you don't like if they're not directly bothering you. Did they provoke you?

[trollininthedeep]

[Something sure as hell did but, it wasn't them.

So I'm not saying another thing.]

[powerisyours]

[ not leaving until I get an answer that's not obviously a copout ]

I can wait all day if I have to.

[trollininthedeep]

You might have to.

[powerisyours]

Look. I could be wrong, but pirate or not, I don't think you'd go out of your way to attack for no reason. You've made it pretty clear that you don't do things if there's nothing in it for you, and you wouldn't waste the time or energy to do it.

[trollininthedeep]

And yet you come here accusing me of an unprovoked attack on them.

[powerisyours]

So what provoked you to attack? Why them specifically, instead of someone else? They've had enough on their plates recently to have any reason to try to go piss you o--

[ . . . Something about this seems off and strangely familiar ]

It happened to you too, didn't it? The boggarts got to you.

[trollininthedeep]

The what?

[powerisyours]

The boggarts. They show you whatever it is you fear the most. A person, a scenario, an object, anything. [ if this happened it sort of. changes things a little ]

If you saw something, I won't ask what it was. But it wasn't real. None of it was real.

[trollininthedeep]

[Well that clears things up. I knew him being there wasn't real but, a fear?]

It being there in the first place made it real enough to me.

[powerisyours]

It wasn't. What it thinks will scare or hurt you the most, it will become. If it were real, you may as well be speaking to my severed head right now. But . . . there are ways to stop them, if you can recognize them for what they really are.

[trollininthedeep]

I'm perfectly fine speaking to your head on a table. What you're saying doesn't apply to me in the same way.

[powerisyours]

It might make things a little bloody, though, so let's try to avoid that. And how so?

[trollininthedeep]

You're talking about seeing things and having those cause the basis of a persons fear. Who I saw wasn't someone I was scared of.

[powerisyours]

The person does not necessarily have to be the thing that frightens you; the things they do or say can cause just as much harm.

[ he's thinking about how to word this ]

Something like this: I'm not afraid of you, but I am afraid you'll hurt someone I care about again. That said, anger or violence is a natural reaction to fear . . . on this planet, at least. It's the fight-or-flight instinct.

[trollininthedeep]

Then we'll say that and call it a day. I don't want to tell you the whole reason but, it's impossible for me to get along with any of them.

[powerisyours]

[ just sounds tired ]

And I won't ask you to tell me. I could force it out of you easily enough if I thought it would help any, but it wouldn't. I don't expect you all to become friends or even get along, but civility has its place.

[trollininthedeep]

That's why I didn't kill any of them, despite how much I wanted to.

[powerisyours]

While I would've preferred you had done nothing to them at all, I'll thank you for that. Civility requires a lack of outward hostility.