153

[young_idealist]

 [private to the Admiral]

Admiral, could you please restrict Dracula from being able to see Dr. Rex Lewis's entries and responses on our network. I would also like to protect Dracula's communications  from Dr. Lewis. Make them blind to one another on this device.

Also, more importantly, could you please return Dracula's ability to fly with minor

Comments

[private]

[feels_no_love]

It's entirely about you, Armand; your need to look good in front of the others as quickly as possible so as to regain your reputation and impress your friends. Forcing me to "obey" on a short timeline, when you knew the damned letter was already written and I was merely in debate over it, is purely your egotism and desperation. As is the tellingly drastic threat of consequence.

Rex deserves nothing. Neither does his Warden, and neither do you. Yet you will take your vindication by threat of humiliation, and pretend that it means anything at all. It does not. Your authoritarian blundering robs the regret expressed in this letter of its genuineness; I wrote ten drafts of it and I should still burn it. It would be a more honest gesture than what you force on me.

As for you: You knew I was not human from the outset, and yet you insistently hold me to human standards. Would you do that with an alien, or a machine-man, or someone else from a radically different society and state of being? Actually what am I thinking--of course you would. You're too narrow-minded not to.

You may pick up the letter when you wish. Read it if you want, do not if you prefer. I will slide it under the door for you. I will not be receiving callers.

[private]

[young_idealist]

You can throw words at me all you like. I'm not a habitual liar.

I'll pick up the letter. You are fired from the gardens. We can talk about another job for you when you feel like being cooperative.

I am regretting now my request to the Admiral about your flight. I wanted to show you it wasn't all about punishment, but I don't like the idea of rewarding this attitude of yours either. I won't rescind it for now, since it doesn't look like you are going anywhere you can exercise it anyway, should he grant it.

You don't care about anyone here, and lie to yourself that none of us care about you. That isn't true.

I expected the Borg Queen and Mano and Loki, an alien augmented by machinery, another alien, and a god respectively, to abide by the basic courtesies of society. Society is a construct of rules that allow people of all kinds to get along amicably. I would think you'd realize that.

You like to read? Perhaps something from my time will make an impression upon you. While you are in seclusion, I recommend to you the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and the Constitution of Year One. I hold better with the former than the latter, but they are classic documents in how people govern themselves in society. If you wish me to see you as the member of some alien to me vampiric race, then I cannot help you. I reached out to you on the basis that you are human under it all. Your behavior now demonstrates it more than anything else.

[private]

[feels_no_love]

You don't even understand half of what I wrote, do you? You ruined the genuine and sincere apology I have been working on for over a week by acting like a domineering ass. Yet you wonder why I am disgusted with you. Well. Enjoy your victory and the back-patting from your compatriots. And with them, my contempt.

Go ahead, remove me from the gardens so that my occasional presence won't ruin them for precious you. You were looking for an excuse to do that anyway, I'll wager. That is what this is about, isn't it? Your enjoyment, your needs. Yet you claim to care. You truly are a liar, Armand. If you weren't you would not leap to cut me off from one of the few things that helps keep me calm.

Should I be grateful that you give me back my wings in such a manner? I would be grateful, if I could trust you not to use this "gift" to manipulate me. But I know that granting me something in the midst of all this authoritarian nonsense is likely just bait to an unseen hook. You'll get gratitude when I determine that there's no hook. If you don't like that I am wary, stop knifing me in the back.

How do I know what else you may have been doing behind my back besides deciding to turn on me? Sharing my secrets with other Wardens, perhaps? Interfering with the few friendships I have left? Letting people pour poison in your ear about me? That last one is a given; I see how you have capitulated.

And here, the assumption that I am "human" again. Bah. You're really determined to destroy every shred of trust and respect that I have for you, aren't you?

Come pick up the damn letter and then go away. I want a new Warden.

[private]

[young_idealist]

You did the work on the letter. They're your words. Other than making sure the words reach Rex, I don't have anything to do with them. I won't read it.

I can't imagine the way you're acting that you'd want to be around me in the gardens. We can re-evaluate in a week or so if we're still together. The Admiral may heed your request, especially if he thinks I've erred as badly as you claim I have.

Behind your back? Very little. I need advice. I have an inmate, you in fact, who is very dangerous that I have no idea how to help at the moment. You don't believe me, but I am doing my best.

We got to this point, because you took advantage of my trust in you. Count, look at your history, you're hardly a victim. I want to help you, but I will not do that by making excuses for you to act any way you want.

I know you've done very well not to have lost your temper badly enough to kill someone yet. However, the only praise I have is words. This thing you complain of is only the simplest, most basic restraint needed to interact with others.

Do your homework, count. You know where to find me when you're ready to complain.