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GAL FRIDAY:


THE CAPTAIN:


unless he likes you then it's more like

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PIRATE JENNY GUABANCEX JENNY:

Comments

[saltwaterlungs]

[ Wait hold up it was really that easy? No needing to run off for a bribe? No gloating? No mocking her?

...huh. ]

That makes sense. I know you don't like being thanked so, [ A shrug. She just... won't. ]

I kind of figured it was an American thing.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

You are reading an American book. It's a safe bet.

[beat]

Did you pick it up solely because of the word "motorcycle."

[saltwaterlungs]

I didn't pick it out. It was a sundries present.

[ The other books in that package were self help books and obviously she doesn't need them. ]

But no, it was the Buddhism part. I was meaning to read more about it back home, I thought the kōans were cool. I don't actually care that much about motorbikes. Not as much as this dude does anyway.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

... That is, quite sincerely, the absolute last book one would recommend if you have an actual interest in that.

[beat]

Or in motorcycles, honestly.

[saltwaterlungs]

I don't exactly have any alternatives. And yeah, I'm kind of getting that this is a white guy who read a book one time and thinks he's an authority. Like Ram Dass.

[ The author doesn't even know that ghosts are real. ]

Is it legit the worst book on it?

[sictransitgloriamundi]

Considering the infinity of existence, there will always be more, and there will always be worse.

[...]

That one's up there, though.

[saltwaterlungs]

Damn.

[ ... ]

What's the worst book you've read?

[sictransitgloriamundi]

... I once picked up a novel I believed to be a famous political thriller. It turns out that there is more than one book called "All the King's Men," and that one of them is a work of erotica.

[saltwaterlungs]

[ You know what that's totally on her but she's still mad about it. ]

Gross, [ And pointedly opens her terrible book. ]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

It wasn't even very good. And that's why you should always judge a book by its cover. [nods firmly] I'd thought it odd that something that won a Pulitzer would have shirtless men on it.

[saltwaterlungs]

That does seem like a pretty dumb mistake to make.

[ She wrinkles her face up behind her book. ]

I don't want to hear any more about it.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[pauses.

stares at her for a minute.]

This isn't some Catholic thing, is it.

[saltwaterlungs]

There are so, so many reasons reasons that I don't want to hear about erotica you've read that, for once, my faith doesn't even rank.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[props head on fist]

So asking questions and then getting mad about the answers is just a general thing for you, then. I really had thought it was something I was doing.

[saltwaterlungs]

[ "Oh sorry, should I just wipe my memory when I get an answer I don't like?" not worth it not worth it- ]

I'm not mad, I just don't want to talk about it. You really don't need to make this a big deal. Because you're doing that. You could like- ask me a question or something. Generally conversations work like that.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

Do they? It sounds so boring. How do they not generally work?

[saltwaterlungs]

Do I look like a linguist to you? I don't know. There's a bunch of ways to fuck something up and only a few ways to get something right. It's like anything. They're not boring if you like, care about what the other person is saying.

[ Stares pointedly at her terrible book. ]

[sictransitgloriamundi]

Huh. That must be why, then. Interesting.

[leans head on both fists, stares out at the ocean.]

[saltwaterlungs]

Yeah yeah, sick dunk, as usual.

[ Rolls her eyes behind her book. ]

You don't have to keep coming out. Like- your bullshit about 'blah blah you come here for a purpose' or whatever, you could just not show up. It's an option.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

They get mad when I don't. As if it isn't their own faults... [idly, dropping one hand down to doodle invisible pictures onto the floor.] I only come out when there's even a slight chance of something interesting happening in the first place.

[saltwaterlungs]

I'm not 'them'.

[ And he sure does seem to come out whenever she visits. Even answered her question without fuss, which is hard to square against that circle. ]

Dunking on me can't be that entertaining.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

[a pause]

Being on... neutral terms, at the very least, would please him. So I'm. Trying that.

[and this is literally him trying. which is sad.]

[saltwaterlungs]

[ ... huh.

She's probably still going to resent Skulduggery's influence for preventing her from getting what's coming to her. But... his care for her being enough to make the Captain... try for neutrality? That's a weird not awful feeling. She finally drops the pretense of the book to actually look over at him, all their histories of terror and violence, the scar that stayed over her heart, the memory of his nails pressed into her cheek. Yeah, it's depressing that this is the best he can muster. Genuinely. From anyone else this would not be good enough, she would expect more- like some apologies maybe. But... even ageless Djinn running murder hell-boats want to be not what they are sometimes. And she doesn't want to be cruel anymore. ]

I can do neutral if you can.

[sictransitgloriamundi]

I can. [a shrug] Neutral is easy. I don't feel very strongly about most things. [...] Most people.

[saltwaterlungs]

[ Nods. She can make an educated guess as to who that 'most people' excludes. Because again, they are very unsubtle about each other.

Darcy sits herself up properly again, casting a glance over the rest of the ship. ]

For what it's worth, I do hope you prove me wrong about you.