The Sea of Raging Emotions Ebbs [Closed]

[technokinetic]

WHO: Naoe Nagi (technokinetic) and Dr. House (causticguy)
WHAT: probably a lot of discussion between the Doctor and an irritated Prodigy
WHERE: Crimson Dragon -> Schwarz HQ -> House's place
WHEN: wee morning hours of Day 40 (backlogged by 27 days)

Comments

[technokinetic]

"No. He gave me permission to," Nagi answered, still sounding... disappointed? "My one chance to leave and take care of personal business..."

As Nagi thought about it, that was completely untrue. His visit to see Kuja should have counted as 'personal business', but Kuja hadn't been a target like Zach had been.

To one extent or another, Nagi's interactions with Kuja had always been about the team - the trip to the clothing store, today in the journals... Yet where Zach was concerned. Somehow, Zach had never bothered any of the other Schwarz members nearly as much as he bothered Nagi. Perhaps, perhaps someone like Crawford really was annoyed by Zach and simply would never let Nagi know it. Or perhaps if there wasn't a bounty on their heads, Schwarz would have already tracked Zach down and smeared the walls with him or whatever Farfarello felt like indulging in that evening. At the very least Nagi would have no fear of openly addressing Zach in the journals

[causticguy]

All right, so Crawford and Nagi had this mentor-student kind of thing going on. House had seen it at work on a few occasions by now. There was a touch of paternalism about it too, and the fact of the matter was that it was just a bit incomprehensible to him, not in that he couldn't figure out how they worked but just that House-who had always chafed under the command of anyone "fatherly" (his father not least of all)-simply could not really relate to why they worked.

But though Crawford might have been strict at times, House didn't think he was oppressive. And he certainly wasn't the type to be stifling: he was in control without being controlling; it was why House was able to work with him.

The crux of the matter, though, didn't sound to be Crawford and what he did or did not give Nagi permission to do. The issue was that Nagi had set out to do something of his own devising and had found that it hadn't worked out as planned. It meant that his "failure" was actually his own. And the fact of killing or not killing aside, that,

[technokinetic]

" 'Your life is not worth mine. You are not worth it.' " Nagi repeated the words slowly, out loud. "I said those words... when I didn't kill it."

'It', not 'him'. Zach Bosch was a title given to the bastard mundane that Nagi couldn't change, but he could definitely speak about his target in such an abstract manner as to make it sound like a name for an inanimate object rather than a human being.

"I was being threatened by another opponent. I should have just killed them all. I left, instead."

Of course, none of that answered House's question. Probably because Nagi himself didn't know why, or didn't want to admit there might actually be a reason behind it. He hadn't mentioned that it had been something vaguely resembling Crawford's voice that had stopped him from acting in such a way that would lead to his own demise - or had it come after the decision? The sequence of events was no longer clear to Nagi

[causticguy]

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," House shot back, his patience apparently exhausted. "People who can't make feathers float without touching them don't count as people. I get it."

There wasn't any personal affront behind House's words. It wasn't like he personally gave a damn whether or not he had Nagi's acknowledgement, endorsement, or respect, and it certainly wasn't like the kid's form of bigotry was any more novel for having a less common target than, say, black people. Bigotry was bigotry, and yeah you could sometimes make inappropriate jokes and have fun offending the neurologist with a juvie record who you kept on your staff, but as soon as it was serious it unmasked itself as all just insipid, hackneyed, and dull.

And that was what irritated House. Nagi seemed to have one note on that single-stringed guitar of his. It was boring, jejune.

Actually, it (and by extension, Nagi himself) was mundane, and if there really wasn't anything underneath it, House was going to lose interest in these proceedings pretty damn fast, because in his own

[technokinetic]

"All of those things sound like a waste of my time. That target... killing that target would have actually accomplished something." He cast a sideways glance at House. "Zach Bosch. The one who hacked the journals and stopped my efforts of doing the same, not to mention single-handedly causing the Queen to tighten security on the journals to the extent that I no longer use them except when absolutely necessary because..."

He paused, realizing where the train of thought had finally led. "Because I will not allow that to ruin Crawford's plans, or bring harm to Schu or Faru either."

There it was. With the nicknames even.