A reconciliation

[impure_tale]

Who: The Marquis, Iago
Where: Level Zero
When: Day Seven of Iago's Incarceration
What: The Marquis settles things -- as best as he can.

It was Sergeant Howie, of all people, that had turned the Marquis mind in the right direction after breaking rather forcefully with his Inmate. It was not a conversation in which he had come to find himself

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[inhumandog]

Iago walked to the bars casually and wrapped his hands around them. His injured hand had healed nicely, especially considering that he, at one point, had been certain it was broken. But the Marquis' demeanor didn't help him feel any better about this situation.

"What do you want? Have you come to foist me off on another warden so soon?" Resting his forehead against the bars, Iago just seemed...defeated.

[inhumandog]

Iago pulled his feet up to him and stared at the floor. "So why did you hate it?" He didn't really want to stop and consider it.

[impure_tale]

"Because it is what he would do, and it is wrong."

[inhumandog]

"Why?" he asked softly. "Why is it so wrong? If it's because you say so, then I will believe it. But...there's no other reason."

[impure_tale]

"Try to think about when you died, Iago," he said. "Try to remember what it was like before you were brought here, because it is only chance that spared you whatever fate lie beyond. Try to remember how much you took for granted the fact that you were living your life, and how you felt in those fleeting moments when you knew it would be gone forever. That your heart would cease to beat, that blood would cease to flow in your veins."

[inhumandog]

"But it's not the same here," he protested. "Death is only temporary."

[impure_tale]

The Marquis hesitated to say that it was likely only temporary because none of them were really alive, here. "Not always," the Marquis said grimly. "Look at how many people don't just leave, but disappear. Some never know what day will be their last, and those that do die here will tell you it feels no different. Your body will still fight. Against all logic something in your mind will still tell you it is the last."

[inhumandog]

"But that's the point," he explained gently. "To show them death without death actually being the end result. I know what it can do."

[impure_tale]

"That's torture, Iago." The Marquis looked hard at him.

[inhumandog]

He gave the Marquis a genuinely confused look. "Why?"

[impure_tale]

"Perhaps when Swing tortured you it was the wrong sort for you to understand, but I have experienced similar, even before I came here," he said. "I hope for your sake and that of your attacker that you never experience the like, yourself."

[inhumandog]

The mention of Swing threw him off slightly and he looked away, over at the wall. It was...not giving him any answers.

"Oh." He didn't know what to add to that, so he was quiet for several beats. For once, he was actually starting to understand it. He wouldn't want that for himself or for anyone he cared about, of course. But now he was starting to extend that to people he didn't care about. The "innocents" as he thought of them. It was just difficult to apply that kind of thought process to his enemies. Which was why he needed the guidance.

"What do I do?"

[impure_tale]

"For one, you will stay away from Jonathan Crane," he said. "We're well past the point that a mandatory apology is effective." He wasn't about to insist he apologize to him. If he truly felt regretful for what he had done, he would do it on his own.

A beat.

"Tell me what you have been thinking."

[inhumandog]

"I had planned on that." He moved back onto the cot more and laid back, staring up to the ceiling.

"Thinking about what?"

[impure_tale]

"Since you've been in here," he said. "You injured yourself."

[inhumandog]

"You made me angry," he said without any hesitation at all.