(Untitled)

[fiveroundsrapid]

The doorknob moved when the Brigadier tried it this morning. He didn't open the door just then- it was enough to know that a return was possible. First things first. Namely, breakfast (one can't face an unknown situation like what was supposedly unfolding in Devil's End on an empty stomach), and a spot of exercise outdoors. That ought to be quite

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[etananesoe]

When the trees thicken, and darken, and twist, when the Napthalot blossoms around him, the footsteps of the black man once again shake the ground beside the Brigadier. Again he begins the walk in silence.

[fiveroundsrapid]

He says nothing. Whatever the entity is, it will speak in its own time or not.

He has very little faith that it is anything so prosaic as an actual man.

[etananesoe]

"What is your purpose?" It asks after a time. No other words, no specifications. Simply that.

[fiveroundsrapid]

The Brig blinks, glancing in the strange, strange being's direction. "I beg your pardon?" he asks.

[etananesoe]

Another few steps and he brushes a (claw) black knucle across a flower that attempts, in vain, to cast a white shadow on his skin, "What is your purpose?"

[fiveroundsrapid]

"What, here? I'm resettling my thoughts before returning home." He pauses. "That's not what you were asking for, though, is it."

[etananesoe]

"No." It agrees, looking a long way down a proud, aristocratic nose at him, "That is not what I ask."

[fiveroundsrapid]

"I see."

There's no sense in answering more than was asked.

"In that case, my purpose is the defence of my people."
( "Get off my world." )

[etananesoe]

Silence, now, for long moments. Leaves do not stir when he passes, branches do not break under his feet.

"Why?"

[fiveroundsrapid]

He'd suspected that question was coming.

"There is a future; I'd quite like to see it. I expect they would, too."

[etananesoe]

"Is this an article of your faith? That there is a future?" The voice, the terrible voice, causes the ground to shake when it speaks.

[fiveroundsrapid]

Much as he might like to grab for support, the Brigadier only adjusts his stance. He can hold his ground in the face of this.

"If you would call it faith, then yes. But 'faith' implies belief, not knowledge."

[etananesoe]

"If it was knowledge you would not need to fight. " He looks a long, long way down an aristocratic nose at the man before him, "Why do you fight?"

[fiveroundsrapid]

It takes him a moment to find the words, but when he does, he knows that they are good ones.

"Because the alternative is falling, and I will not let that happen."

[etananesoe]

She left me.
Again silence, "Why?" The word is maleveolent in its pain.

[fiveroundsrapid]

It's... oddly like the discussion about the Silurians the other day, in that there is a level of fundamental assumption on one side that the other simply does not have.
Out of the night that covers me,
All things considered, he'd rather be having this conversation with Sarah Jane.
Black as the Pit from pole to pole
"I would not be who I am if it were otherwise- look, why d'you ask?"