025 VIDEO LIST NINE

[deadliestviper]

[Locked to friends]
[As the feed flashes on Beatrix looks at the camera head-on, head slightly tilted and her lips in a thin line. She's sequestered in her cabin and looks tired but is steely-eyed as ever, emotion shoved far out of the way. There are more important things to get to.] How bad was it for you? Any damage done? [No mention of her public and sadistic threat. She doesn't see why it would be an issue.]

[Locked to Kon and Steph]
Tell me what happened to you. Please say you're all right.

[Locked to Arya]
Check in. Were you harmed or sent to Zero during the takeover?

[Locked to Ben]
Do I assume correctly in guessing we need to talk?

[Locked to Chris]
... Jesus fuck. [Enough said.]

[Locked to Riddick and Slade]
[Beatrix had threatened the partial truth out of Narvin easily enough, although he'd said nothing to incriminate either of them. Still, she has a sneaking suspicion they were playing her. There's still respect for both of them there, but she is Not Amused. Flatly, face and eyes blank:] Go ahead. Whatever you're going to say, say it.

[Locked to Narvin]
You're a son of a bitch, you know that? [She glares at the camera, but her tone's more resigned and annoyed than malicious.] How's the eye?

Comments

[ Spam ]

[deadliestviper]

[Aww, Ben. That's enough to make her smile sadly, her eyes warming so much she has to glance away for a moment. She's so used to operating in the mindset she has back home, that no one would care or even notice if she were gone.]

I believe everyone I would have left behind has the strength to deal with my death. But I'm sorry, Ben.

[ Spam ]

[warisart]

No. Don't say that. Maybe it would be death, maybe it would be worse.

[Ben would notice, Ben would care, not that he expects it would make much of a difference. It never has before. But there are others, surely, the people she's so upset about Toshiko causing pain to, and Ben knows for himself that he's dealt with enough death in his life - he's lost enough people with no possibility of getting them back and no way to stop it - to gracefully accept something as ridiculous as satisfying a threat to forewarn anyone who can hear it of her intentions.]

This place has already shown us all that it can change us, our personalities, our memories, our lives at will and you still choose to deliberately, willfully give them cause to use that against you. They could make you into someone you're not to prevent the things you've said, if they are sick enough of it. They could turn you against those who were your allies and you would be powerless to stop it. You wouldn't even remember.

Or you would die, and force anyone who cares about you to carry that with them for the rest of their lives. Because she deserves to suffer.

[ Spam ]

[deadliestviper]

I'm not going to kill her, Ben.

[Bea takes a deep breath, arms crossed over her chest. For a few moments she just breathes; Ben relies on family. She suspects, fundamentally, that he doesn't understand how to function away from them. She does; she left her first family around the time most girls her age were dreaming of their first real date, left her second for Bill, left her third for her daughter.

Perhaps it's selfish, but it's what she's always done. And as she growled her murderous urges to Toshiko she never for a second even thought of her "family."]

I said what I said. I still believe she deserves every mote of pain that can be wrenched from her wretched body and I will applaud anyone who carries out an act of vengeance against her.

But I am not going to kill her. I can promise you that.

[ Spam ]

[warisart]

I don't care if you kill her.

[This immediate, vehement; he's been without his own family as he was trained, taught to rely on them for half of his life, and now he's starting to build one here, and she's being so nauseatingly reckless. It's the privilege of those who are accustomed to their lives being their own, he supposes, but that doesn't make it any easier.

He'd come to stand to attention and he wants to break posture but he doesn't know what he would do; his fingers curl and uncurl at his sides in frustration, shoulders rigid.]

You warned everyone. You confirmed that you are a threat, that you think those things and feel that way. If she were to seize control again somehow? She would eliminate you however she could. Even if she doesn't, any wardens protective of her will view you as a threat, and they outnumber us and have more power than we do.

I don't care what happens to her. I do not want those to whom you are important to lose you.

[ Spam ]

[deadliestviper]

[For a long while Beatrix merely stares at Ben, her face cool as she mentally runs through a few lines of reasoning: she had assumed no one would mind horribly if she met with a violent end, as nearly none would have back home. It had been so long since anyone cared about her safety that the idea someone might do so had all but slipped from her mind; for her personal value, even more so.

She still has a hard time believing it but she looks at Ben and frowns.]

I... I'm sorry. You're right. It was an unnecessary risk to threaten her, if only for that reason.

[ Spam ]

[warisart]

[There's a tremor running through Ben's entire frame - his distress held firmly in check, but too powerful for even his hard-learned self discipline. He waits while she stares, staring back for a few heartbeats and then, swallowing, shifting his eyes a half tick to the right and letting them unfocus. It's the best he can do. If he can't get through to her, he'll just have to try to accept that he may lose her.

He's never figured out the trick of it, but he's learned that he doesn't get a say in it anyway.

But then she's frowning at him and saying words he doesn't hear very often, not on things like this. Swallowing, he looks back at her. When he speaks his voice is shaking ever so gently, as well.]

What will you do now?

[ Spam ]

[deadliestviper]

[After so long on board the Barge, a setback like this – what is this worth, maybe a few months? – isn't much to be worried about, at least not for her. As for him, it's harder to say. The entire thing must be harder on him than on her.]

What I did before, I guess. Nothing. ...Did you have another suggestion?

[ Spam ]

[warisart]

[It is, though he doesn't know how to explain it. The terms he tries to use are often too simple, too direct for most to understand how serious he is about them; others throw around phrases like "worse than death" and "no choice" and are being overly dramatic.

Ben absolutely means them, and he knows exactly what to say to the question she asks him. Without hesitation, the sharp steadiness back in his voice, he answers immediately.]

Give them no further excuse. Stay away from her, do not address her, do not speak of her. Let them forget about you.

They will.

[ Spam ]

[deadliestviper]

[She concurs with a stiff nod.] As I said before I no longer intend to harm her, and I'm not the one who should kill her anyway. I've got no major argument with anyone else on board.

[ Spam ]

[warisart]

[Ben holds the tension in himself, ready, for several moments after she agrees; slowly, though, he lets it out.

In its wake, diluted and tucked into the corners of his expression, he just looks tired.]

Will you... be more careful? [He doesn't sound hopeful. He expects to be ignored, if not now, then in the future.]