[Voice]

[thelestrangest]

((Bast sniffles mightily before speaking, sounding like he's about ready to burst into tears))

Bastie heard what you said! I'm a good little cat. I didn't hurt that Saint Just person! I don't even know him. I didn't kill him. I've been here longer than he has, and I never hurt anyone.

((There's a very quiet sob before he starts up again.))

Comments

[faroresson]

Look, Bast. You don't exactly have a stellar record for telling the truth in the first place. Yes, it'd be mean if Mr. St. Just was lying about you, but I don't think Mr. St. Just is lying.

See, Mr. St. Just came from another place before he came here - another place where all the worlds met, okay? So maybe there was another you there that did do that to him.

Case as it is, you can probably do that AK stuff anyway. You have to understand why you're highly suspect.

[thelestrangest]

He is lying. There's no such thing as other words. It's all a trick of the squirrels.

AK stuff? What are you talking about?

What do you know about me anyways? Were you here last winter when I helped people make it? Have you ever spoken to me beyond a few words? What do you know about wizards or witches from my world? When have you ever asked me about anything?

I've been here for ten months, and you're taking the word of someone who just arrived here over me. How do you know he's telling the truth?

[faroresson]

I didn't say words. I said worlds, and don't try and say that they're not real, because the very fact I'm talking to you makes that a lie.

I don't know much about you except that you're prone to casual lies. I asked you several things when I first came here. I'm not saying you've not done good things before. I'm not even blaming you. You're just suspect.

I don't. Just like I don't know you are.

[thelestrangest]

They are lies. The butterflies and squirrels make them up.

I don't want to be a suspect. You don't know anything about me. You don't even have any authority here.

[faroresson]

That would be cute in another situation.

I'm sure Mr. Hewley doesn't either. I don't want to be. Face it. We are. Get used to it and move on.

And so? Niether do you.

[thelestrangest]

What's to say you didn't do it? Didn't you have a problem or something awhile back? Maybe it came back and you killed that Just person.

[faroresson]

Nothing. At all.

I've never raised a finger against Mr. St. Just, in this form or in a dark form. I ripped a chunk out of Sheik and ate it, true, but guess what? That leaves a mark, and didn't kill him.

All this complaining is stupid, Bast. Something you don't like and can't change happens? You square your shoulders and trudge on anyway. Sadness - complaining - is a choice, and you're choosing it.

[thelestrangest]

So you have a history of hurting Sheik.

I don't like it when everyone is ganging up on me when I've been here a long time and never done anything. Go away.

[faroresson]

Hey, Bast? You were locked up too, weren't you? You did bad things. You knew there was a risk of that.

Imagine being locked up when you're an innocent child. Imagine being locked up for seven years in one tiny room, with nothing but water, mist and a tree. Imagine trying to survive there. Imagine still remaining sentient there. Now imagine not trying to eat what's available when you're hungry.

So yes. I do have a history of hurting Sheik. I can vouch that as long as I never get put through that door again, I'll never do it again.

I don't like it when people who have a relativly cushy sounding life complain and complain and moan about how unfair everything is. Grow up and deal with it.

[thelestrangest]

You think that's horrible? Let me show you horrible. Go to the graveyard and meet a Dementor. Now imagine being locked in a tiny cell with nothing but a pile of straw that the occasional rat and lice. You don't see another person for fourteen years. What you do see are Dementors every single day for those years and every single good or happy thought you've had is taken. Go meet one of those creatures and try to fathom being with them from the time you were eighteen until you were thirty-two.

I won't go back to there because of you.

[faroresson]

You know what? Dark Link's was worse. Because he didn't deserve it, like you've admitted you did in the past. Horror is relative.

You won't go back. How many times do I have to tell you I'm not blaming you, I'm just explaining why you're a suspect?

[thelestrangest]

I was only doing what my parents and brother told me.

Suspect means guilty! They call you that and then they lock you away in Azkaban forever. I won't let that happen again. I won't.

[faroresson]

There's always free will and choice.

Suspect means possibly guilty. We don't have an Azkaban here. We wouldn't lock you there.

[thelestrangest]

You don't understand my world. When you're told from birth the enemy is the enemy, then you do what you have to in order to win. I was on the losing side. If we had won, I would have been royalty.

You'll make one. I know how you people are. You're probably waiting for me to step paw out of my home!

[faroresson]

Killing people rends your soul. I should know. I can feel it.

Bast, I really can't be bothered arguing with you on this. I'm telling you I'm not accusing you, you're telling me that I am. I'm telling you we won't send you to the dementors, you're saying we are. I'm getting nowhere. You're being deliberately stupid.

And you know something? It's not cute. No one here is taken in by the cat act.