On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being "exasperated" and 1 being "actively designing additional bone accessories," how likely is it that I'll be able to talk to Natsuno and Clarke about the Captain without risking my own wellbeing?
I'm worried that if we continue with these idle mutineer games, we're not going to be able to unite when we really need to. And considering the sudden appearances of literal cracks in the fabric of reality, I think that time is fast approaching.
My, opening with the easy questions first today, aren't we? [Just, dripping with sarcasm here, can you feel it off that line of text.....anyway--] A bit difficult to answer that off the cuff. I think their reactions may hinge heavily upon what it is regarding the captain you wish to speak to them about, though I'm sure neither of them are going to be terribly happy hearing from you on the matter by default...
Still, I do agree that these cracks in reality don't bode well in the least. I have heard that Ava fed a corpse to one of the ship's ghosts, at some point last month; do you suppose it correlates to these rifts now?
Oh, she isn't walking around with my rib on display? Odd. She seems the sort to enjoy holding on to trophies.
[that answers that question, right?]
I don't even know how I'll get the point across to them. But I need them to understand that the Captain that we're dealing with presently isn't the same person as the one who originally designed the ship. The man that we're dealing with is literally trapped in his own game. He needs us to rewrite the rules so that he can fill a role other than the one he designed for himself before we got here.
God. I don't even know how to explain it to you, how am I going to explain it to teenagers who scoff the moment I reveal my sentimentality??
[A rib....wait. There had been a white headband of late, hadn't there?? Not that Jade had given it a second thought the times he'd seen it, because the first assumption to come to mind hadn't exactly been that it would be made out of somebody's....bone........Clarke--
Okay, no, not getting into that right now. Let's take this news and stash it away for later review. Skulduggery's plowing on right past that bit in favor of what he clearly considers a far more pressing topic right now, anyway, so let's just...focus on that, first. Which is also pretty preoccupying in the end anyway, as it turns out.]
Much as I imagine you hate to hear it, the sentimentality does muddy your case in the eyes of the less sympathetic...
But as you know, I'm also rather less driven by sentiment than the apparent human average myself, so this is just as well. Would it help you to consider me a test case, in constructing that explanation? If you can't explain it to me, then you certainly won't be able to explain it to them indeed.
[...]
There seems to be an urgency to this, beyond the grim confines of our general situation. Because of those memory cracks in the space around us, I take it? Have you learned of the cause?
The general panic of reality fracturing is certainly driving some of this, yes. But also, I've been speaking with Ava about it and she's come to some worrying but highly probable conclusions about the source of our trouble. I don't know how much I can safely share at the moment, but Fio accessed a memory in her dreams that seems to have spiraled out of control. Either she woke a ghost up that is doing this, or she accidentally punched a hole in the fuel tank.
I'll ask her to tell you about it. The cat is quickly crawling out of the bag, and I'd like to at least control where it gets out.
As for the offer to be my soundboard: I appreciate it. The problem is: my relationship with the Captain has completely changed everything, and now he would like to rewrite the rules. "It was designed without you in mind." But he can't do that with things the way they are. He's hamstrung by the rules he created before we showed up. I don't know what's going to happen, but the moment we have a chance to change things, I need to make sure we're all on the same page. I want things to be better. I need to know that they'll stay out of the way, if not help outright.
If you think Ava might be willing to tell me anything further about it at some point...I'd certainly like to know more about this, yes. Very troubling news. Is Fio herself yet aware of the potential gravity of this?
[Her dreams...he'd certainly wondered. For quite some time now. Ever since he'd caught her drawing a plant monster not at all native to her own world--but certainly native to his--several months ago...alongside some other troubling things she'd mentioned about her nightmares as well. Seeing it in these particular words now, though--]
She's always been very prone to nightmares, and--had strange access, to certain sorts of knowledge. Have those been "memories", after all? Is this an ability she's always possessed?
Now, as for soundboarding: This is certainly salient news, that he now wishes to rewrite the rules of this reality. I expect the sticking point, for those that still assume the worst of the captain, is wondering whether such new rules will actually make the situation any better for the passengers on this ship as a whole. I assume you believe they would be an improvement, since he claims he would now like to design them with your wishes also in mind...but that's where your sentimentality would begin to cast doubt, for those who don't care for it. They will wonder if your wishes truly do have their best interests in mind. They will also wonder if the captain is being entirely candid with you.
[A pause here, however, in which typing starts and stops. Eventually:]
On the other hand. The solution for the immediate future may actually lie in which issue needs prioritizing presently. In fact, one of these things may be tying directly into the other. After all, from what I'm taking away here:
Something is potentially about to break free of this ship's bindings, and may already be bending them out of shape in a dangerous fashion, if these cracks in reality are any indication. This thing will also likely be a product of the rules that the captain originally set. Which means...that it's something the captain will not be able to stop or mitigate in any way, even if he wants to. Am I understanding this correctly?
Do you think there's a chance that, very soon, we may be confronting a greater and far worse threat than the captain's been to us of late?
I'll ask her to reach out to you with additional information. I'm trying to keep a thin veneer of plausible deniability, in case there comes a point when I'm forced to tell the Captain something. I'd rather limit how much damage I do to our reality... at least until I know how to keep it from being permanent.
She said the dreams were something she experienced at home, but they stopped for a while. She eventually recieved a sundries gift that gave her the power again. If you're wondering why Friday would give Fio a power that could cause this kind of chaos, the answer is, she didn't think about it.
Unfortunately, the Captain isn't even candid with himself, so convincing them that he's telling me the truth has become a lost cause. They don't accept "as much of the truth as he knows" as an answer. Understandably, I have to admit. If I didn't know the man myself, I'd be suspicious too.
I think you're understanding it perfectly. I can't guarantee that this isn't some kind of automated failsafe installed in case the Captain got waylaid by other people, but it is a more direct, immediate threat.
The way I see it, if this is a part of the Captain that was anchored to the ship thousands of years ago, it's likely to be even less inclined to compromise than the man we know today. It certainly won't be as interested in what I want to see happen around here as he is.
[So, the captain has yet to be told of these suspicions, and him becoming aware of the finer details might be more hazardous than helpful. ...No, but that does track, unfortunately. Jade still remembers October quite well--and the fact that, at least in part, the loosening of the ship's trapped spirits at that time was tied to the captain's highly adverse reaction to the memory-infused item they'd retrieved for him on the salamander island.
The reminder of Friday's highly unfortunate habit of handling sundries items far too carelessly, on the other hand, earns a grimace perhaps somewhat tangible through text.]
Miss Friday truly could do to learn a few things about vetting foreign items before deciding to distribute them willy-nilly. But you're right, she probably gave that delivery to Fio about as much thought as she did to stowing away those cursed gauntlets of yours that time back...
[Anyway, though. Setting that bygone misfortune aside...and focusing upon what they can at least somewhat control, here and now...]
In any case. If we're both parsing these developments correctly, I think the answer to your original concern becomes plain. It's not ideal that it's happening, but since it seems to be something that's going to unfold regardless of our wishes, you may as well draw the full utility that you can from it.
There is nothing sentimental in the least, after all, about a warning that we're about to deal with something that has potential to be far more active and murderous than the captain has been in quite awhile. Furthermore, since this problem springs from the captain's original ruleset, and may also be a part of himself, the captain's input could very well be an essential key to dispelling it this time.
If the captain truly does wish to change the rules into something more in line with your wishes, that's all good and well on its own. But as I see it, we now have an even more compelling reason to collectively figure out how to circumvent those restrictions too, entirely beside your own feelings on the matter: Something worse is coming, and modifying the rules may be the only way to stop it.
I would frame it in this way, to whoever else you might opt to tell.
The subset of youths you're concerned about will not "stay out of the way", after all. It is quite literally physically impossible for them, I'm pretty sure.
And you already know that.
So, since they're inevitably going to be involved regardless, the question from there is which way they're going to be pointing the proverbial blade.
My concern is that once they realize that this thing may be part of the Captain to begin with... they won't be able to see past that. I can convince them that whatever's coming will be more of a threat than the man hiding in the bridge, but they're still going to want to deal with him. It's his fault they're here, whether or not he remembers why he started this in the first place.
I can't deny that it's a fair conclusion to draw from our situation, even though I'm heavily biased against it. But that's because I've had more chances to interact with the Captain without pretense, and I've come to know him independently from all of this. They aren't wrong to place the responsibility with him. It's the blame that worries me. Because many of them -- Clarke, Vance, and Natsuno at least -- put a heavy price on blame. And they're too young to know how to separate the two.
Hmm, you're not wrong there. The worst case scenario you're thinking of is that someone may try to use this piece of the captain as a means to destroy him outright, isn't it? Which would mean instant oblivion for all of us, almost certainly.
...I agree that the reasoning behind their anger is not at all unjustified. As I'm sure you've already been aware for some time, I still can't say I bear much fondness at all for the captain myself, on rather similar grounds. But I also cannot deny the objective fact that he does seem to be changing in some way, since the beginning of this voyage. And for my own part, a solution that kills us all is utterly unacceptable to me, so long as the possibility of alternative answers still exist.
It's certainly unfortunate, that younger or less objective minds are not yet in the habit or desire of viewing such angles.
[...He himself--does get along, better than not, with two of the three names on that list...which, naturally, is why Skulduggery is touching base to begin with. It's a sentiment that does lend some hesitation to the rest of Jade's response for a moment.
But this really is...shaping up to be quite the potential problem. Hm.
...Doubtless this will be coming back to bite him in some form later, but--]
Of that particular list, there, I don't have much familiarity at all with Vance. The young man with the large hair, isn't that one? [And that name seems to float around the arcade fairly often...? Well, anyway.] Out of them all, though, I could speak with the most certainty about Natsuno; he does not truly wish to resort to complete destruction, I don't think. ["It's not an option for me either", he'd said outright about the idea of vanishing, at a certain point last month. Quite the far cry from the person that had opted to blow himself up to avoid certain problems, back in October...] He's angry and frustrated, but no longer so nihilistic as he once was. Skepticism runs strong within him, however, and he's still geared towards assuming and expecting the worst of the captain.
He and Clarke are also very close. They value each other's opinions quite highly. Where one goes the other follows, I've observed...
That's why I appreciate your perspective. You may not like him, or respect him, or even particularly care about what happens to him once everyone else's futures are secured, but at least you're rational about it. That's something that I'm sorely lacking right now.
I used to think Natsuno was the more reasonable of the two of them, but then he blew himself up in October. Then again, compared to Clarke's fashion choices these days, that still seems more sensible than the alternative. I'll keep it in mind to negotiate with one over the other.
Well, I did tell you even before that excursion to the island all those months ago, now didn't I? If a critically objective eye is what you'd like to have, I certainly don't mind offering it, at least in regards to the captain in particular. You at least seem receptive to hearing it, as well, so I wouldn't sell yourself entirely too short just yet. It'd be quite more concerning if you weren't...and if you ever reach such a threshold, I could certainly try to let you know when you're being stupid too 🙂
October...was a very trying month all around, to say the least. The fact it started with so many explosions was truly a terrifically poor omen in retrospect. [Haha...ha....it's a bit easier to grimly joke about months later, isn't it?] If nothing else, though, I daresay the adverse reaction from all his friends did motivate him into properly examining the soundness of his line of logic there, after the fact. [Don't mind Jade over here framing this bit from an outside perspective as if he himself wasn't also one of those Very Upset friends or anything--] So, in one sense it has improved since. He's smart, within his means. But he's still quite young as well, and anger never helps with rational thinking; quite unfortunately, he's had a lot to be angry about on this overall voyage, and December is still a particularly sore bruise.
So, yes, you yourself may yet find it easier to negotiate with him than Clarke. What I also mean to outline here, however, is that anything Natsuno learns does pass to her--and vice-versa. Which can be both a good thing and a bad thing, dependent on the material. This can also apply in matters of persuasion, too...do you understand? Convince one, and the other is highly likely to follow in the end, at risk of quite the rift forming in a very close-knit friendship otherwise.
But, of course, the convincing is the particularly difficult part...
Likewise, whenever you start being stupid, I'll be right there to let you know.
Of course, the fact that they share information with each other isn't lost on me; it's the same between Ava and myself. He knows things I would prefer Clarke not to, but I don't think I get a choice in his revealing those facts. At any rate, even with the information they do have, they're still thankfully under the same rules that keep us all powerless against the ship.
Hm... As much as I don't care about Clarke personally, I wouldn't want to sever a relationship that's keeping the two of them from fully committing to burning the place down around us.
Always appreciated, even if I'll likely be very cross about it at the time. Brutal honesty does go a long way...
I'm certainly not advocating that you should sever their friendship if it can be helped. In some ways they do moderate each other, even if it sometimes means being reckless in opposite directions. [He's not talking about the sunslime incident right now, but he is thinking about the sunslime incident right now. Anyway though...] But they do value each other's opinions highly, and will be most likely to listen to each other over most anyone else on this ship. If they one day mutually decide that burning the place down around us is for the best, then they will be undeterred in doing so; alternatively, if one were to decide to settle on an alternative route that won't involve burning things down after all, they could potentially convince the other to do the same.
In short: you may not need to actively sell your perspective to both of them at once. Successfully focusing upon one is just as likely to result in the idea passing to the other eventually in a more palatable form. In fact, if done through Natsuno, Rita's likely to end up having to consider it as well. Those two have also grown very close in recent months.
[And now, a moment taken to sigh at nothing in particular. ...Strategizing over reckless youths sure is a trying thing...]
You were worrying about us needing to somehow close this social rift in the ship before things begin truly falling apart. I'm aware I am failing to give you much of a silver bullet solution in regards to these particular three teenagers. This is only a proposal of one particular sort of angle, and I have no illusions that it's going to actually repair anything with much speed. In fact, I'm sure they're going to be plenty furious with me just telling you this much about their relationships in general, if this ever gets back to them somehow...
As things stand right now, I don't think I could convince them to become amenable to opinions that come from you just by claiming that I think they should. ...I could try filing off the metaphorical serial numbers before warning them about some details of our overarching impending problem, though I profess that I'm also trying not to fall into the same level of non-transparency that upset them in December, so this is something of a new balancing act for me.
They're already aware that a ghost of some form may try to consume us in the near future, at the least. Should anything more be conveyed at this time, you think?
Codependency does make things a bit easier, when one of the people involved is slightly easier to talk to... Then again, if Natsuno is "close" to Rita, maybe he has even less sense than I already imagined... 🤠But that's good. I'm glad. It means they've got something to lose if things go wrong, and it gives all three of them a reason to want to survive through this.
If it helps, I didn't need you to tell me that Clarke and Natsuno are close. They're always hanging around each other. And, concerning that transparency you're trying to maintain: you are welcome to tell them as much as you feel is right. They'll take the news better from you, and if you can throw me under the bus in the meantime, it'll help repair their trust in you. Believe me, after everything that's happened, I am hard pressed to tell anyone to lie to their "charges," for lack of a better word. Darcy's never going to properly forgive me for... well, any of it. It's better if we keep you out of a similar dog house.
Now now, let's not drag Natsuno's taste in strongly opinionated people into all this. Here I was trying to be tactful about it, and then you just go and say it outright 😤! [Sarcasm, yet again, just seeping through the text.....honestly, Jade isn't entirely sure when it truly Started becoming more of a thing between those two, or even how exactly that bonding ended up coming about like this--but he'll still joke, at least. Even if he is genuinely glad for them. Because it's true, that other bit...] Anyway, I agree it's good that they have each other. Complete isolation is difficult to achieve on this ship anyhow, but even if it were easier--it's for the better that none of them are trying to go things alone, here.
Even if the entire passenger body can't be necessarily united right now, I suppose there's at least the closer-knit smaller groups. If only we could manage not to collide into each other quite so poorly as we have been...
[But after that there's another bout of delay--typing and erasing and typing some more. In the end Skulduggery does end up pinning down the crux of Jade's hesitations in turn, and so it's something of a. Relief? Maybe? That frankness there. Hm.]
Well, throwing a person under a carriage certainly becomes easier when they're assuring you they truly wouldn't mind it. ...I do trust that you still have the best interests of all us passengers in mind, you know. Even if they do not believe the same. So, I'd prefer not to throw you down there with glee, at the very least...
But I appreciate that you'd understand. Objectively, you're not wrong that it'd help my case of late. ...I shall think about how to turn the phrasing, I suppose. But in that case I'll tell them in your stead in some way, yes.
Interpersonal conflict is the source of most of our troubles. Unfortunately, I don't see an easy way to end it.
I'm glad you still know where I stand, even given everything we've been through. As frustrating as I find most of the other passengers at this point, they're still victims, and they still deserve my help. Even if they take it for granted when it's offered and refuse to give my relationship the benefit of the doubt...
Anyway. I don't care what they think of me at this point. We just need to make sure everyone is on as similar a page as possible. Even if that means they blame me for it happening.
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come_sailaway
[text]
On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being "exasperated" and 1 being "actively designing additional bone accessories," how likely is it that I'll be able to talk to Natsuno and Clarke about the Captain without risking my own wellbeing?
I'm worried that if we continue with these idle mutineer games, we're not going to be able to unite when we really need to. And considering the sudden appearances of literal cracks in the fabric of reality, I think that time is fast approaching.
1/2
Still, I do agree that these cracks in reality don't bode well in the least. I have heard that Ava fed a corpse to one of the ship's ghosts, at some point last month; do you suppose it correlates to these rifts now?
2/2
Hold on
"Actively designing additional bone accessories"?
no subject
Oh, she isn't walking around with my rib on display? Odd. She seems the sort to enjoy holding on to trophies.
[that answers that question, right?]I don't even know how I'll get the point across to them. But I need them to understand that the Captain that we're dealing with presently isn't the same person as the one who originally designed the ship. The man that we're dealing with is literally trapped in his own game. He needs us to rewrite the rules so that he can fill a role other than the one he designed for himself before we got here.
God. I don't even know how to explain it to you, how am I going to explain it to teenagers who scoff the moment I reveal my sentimentality??
no subject
Okay, no, not getting into that right now. Let's take this news and stash it away for later review. Skulduggery's plowing on right past that bit in favor of what he clearly considers a far more pressing topic right now, anyway, so let's just...focus on that, first. Which is also pretty preoccupying in the end anyway, as it turns out.]
Much as I imagine you hate to hear it, the sentimentality does muddy your case in the eyes of the less sympathetic...
But as you know, I'm also rather less driven by sentiment than the apparent human average myself, so this is just as well. Would it help you to consider me a test case, in constructing that explanation? If you can't explain it to me, then you certainly won't be able to explain it to them indeed.
[...]
There seems to be an urgency to this, beyond the grim confines of our general situation. Because of those memory cracks in the space around us, I take it? Have you learned of the cause?
no subject
The general panic of reality fracturing is certainly driving some of this, yes. But also, I've been speaking with Ava about it and she's come to some worrying but highly probable conclusions about the source of our trouble. I don't know how much I can safely share at the moment, but Fio accessed a memory in her dreams that seems to have spiraled out of control. Either she woke a ghost up that is doing this, or she accidentally punched a hole in the fuel tank.
I'll ask her to tell you about it. The cat is quickly crawling out of the bag, and I'd like to at least control where it gets out.
As for the offer to be my soundboard: I appreciate it. The problem is: my relationship with the Captain has completely changed everything, and now he would like to rewrite the rules. "It was designed without you in mind." But he can't do that with things the way they are. He's hamstrung by the rules he created before we showed up. I don't know what's going to happen, but the moment we have a chance to change things, I need to make sure we're all on the same page. I want things to be better. I need to know that they'll stay out of the way, if not help outright.
no subject
If you think Ava might be willing to tell me anything further about it at some point...I'd certainly like to know more about this, yes. Very troubling news. Is Fio herself yet aware of the potential gravity of this?
[Her dreams...he'd certainly wondered. For quite some time now. Ever since he'd caught her drawing a plant monster not at all native to her own world--but certainly native to his--several months ago...alongside some other troubling things she'd mentioned about her nightmares as well. Seeing it in these particular words now, though--]
She's always been very prone to nightmares, and--had strange access, to certain sorts of knowledge. Have those been "memories", after all? Is this an ability she's always possessed?
Now, as for soundboarding: This is certainly salient news, that he now wishes to rewrite the rules of this reality. I expect the sticking point, for those that still assume the worst of the captain, is wondering whether such new rules will actually make the situation any better for the passengers on this ship as a whole. I assume you believe they would be an improvement, since he claims he would now like to design them with your wishes also in mind...but that's where your sentimentality would begin to cast doubt, for those who don't care for it. They will wonder if your wishes truly do have their best interests in mind. They will also wonder if the captain is being entirely candid with you.
[A pause here, however, in which typing starts and stops. Eventually:]
On the other hand. The solution for the immediate future may actually lie in which issue needs prioritizing presently. In fact, one of these things may be tying directly into the other. After all, from what I'm taking away here:
Something is potentially about to break free of this ship's bindings, and may already be bending them out of shape in a dangerous fashion, if these cracks in reality are any indication. This thing will also likely be a product of the rules that the captain originally set. Which means...that it's something the captain will not be able to stop or mitigate in any way, even if he wants to. Am I understanding this correctly?
Do you think there's a chance that, very soon, we may be confronting a greater and far worse threat than the captain's been to us of late?
no subject
I'll ask her to reach out to you with additional information. I'm trying to keep a thin veneer of plausible deniability, in case there comes a point when I'm forced to tell the Captain something. I'd rather limit how much damage I do to our reality... at least until I know how to keep it from being permanent.
She said the dreams were something she experienced at home, but they stopped for a while. She eventually recieved a sundries gift that gave her the power again. If you're wondering why Friday would give Fio a power that could cause this kind of chaos, the answer is, she didn't think about it.
Unfortunately, the Captain isn't even candid with himself, so convincing them that he's telling me the truth has become a lost cause. They don't accept "as much of the truth as he knows" as an answer. Understandably, I have to admit. If I didn't know the man myself, I'd be suspicious too.
I think you're understanding it perfectly. I can't guarantee that this isn't some kind of automated failsafe installed in case the Captain got waylaid by other people, but it is a more direct, immediate threat.
The way I see it, if this is a part of the Captain that was anchored to the ship thousands of years ago, it's likely to be even less inclined to compromise than the man we know today. It certainly won't be as interested in what I want to see happen around here as he is.
1/2
The reminder of Friday's highly unfortunate habit of handling sundries items far too carelessly, on the other hand, earns a grimace perhaps somewhat tangible through text.]
Miss Friday truly could do to learn a few things about vetting foreign items before deciding to distribute them willy-nilly. But you're right, she probably gave that delivery to Fio about as much thought as she did to stowing away those cursed gauntlets of yours that time back...
[Anyway, though. Setting that bygone misfortune aside...and focusing upon what they can at least somewhat control, here and now...]
In any case. If we're both parsing these developments correctly, I think the answer to your original concern becomes plain. It's not ideal that it's happening, but since it seems to be something that's going to unfold regardless of our wishes, you may as well draw the full utility that you can from it.
There is nothing sentimental in the least, after all, about a warning that we're about to deal with something that has potential to be far more active and murderous than the captain has been in quite awhile. Furthermore, since this problem springs from the captain's original ruleset, and may also be a part of himself, the captain's input could very well be an essential key to dispelling it this time.
If the captain truly does wish to change the rules into something more in line with your wishes, that's all good and well on its own. But as I see it, we now have an even more compelling reason to collectively figure out how to circumvent those restrictions too, entirely beside your own feelings on the matter: Something worse is coming, and modifying the rules may be the only way to stop it.
I would frame it in this way, to whoever else you might opt to tell.
2/2
And you already know that.
So, since they're inevitably going to be involved regardless, the question from there is which way they're going to be pointing the proverbial blade.
no subject
My concern is that once they realize that this thing may be part of the Captain to begin with... they won't be able to see past that. I can convince them that whatever's coming will be more of a threat than the man hiding in the bridge, but they're still going to want to deal with him. It's his fault they're here, whether or not he remembers why he started this in the first place.
I can't deny that it's a fair conclusion to draw from our situation, even though I'm heavily biased against it. But that's because I've had more chances to interact with the Captain without pretense, and I've come to know him independently from all of this. They aren't wrong to place the responsibility with him. It's the blame that worries me. Because many of them -- Clarke, Vance, and Natsuno at least -- put a heavy price on blame. And they're too young to know how to separate the two.
no subject
...I agree that the reasoning behind their anger is not at all unjustified. As I'm sure you've already been aware for some time, I still can't say I bear much fondness at all for the captain myself, on rather similar grounds. But I also cannot deny the objective fact that he does seem to be changing in some way, since the beginning of this voyage. And for my own part, a solution that kills us all is utterly unacceptable to me, so long as the possibility of alternative answers still exist.
It's certainly unfortunate, that younger or less objective minds are not yet in the habit or desire of viewing such angles.
[...He himself--does get along, better than not, with two of the three names on that list...which, naturally, is why Skulduggery is touching base to begin with. It's a sentiment that does lend some hesitation to the rest of Jade's response for a moment.
But this really is...shaping up to be quite the potential problem. Hm.
...Doubtless this will be coming back to bite him in some form later, but--]
Of that particular list, there, I don't have much familiarity at all with Vance. The young man with the large hair, isn't that one? [And that name seems to float around the arcade fairly often...? Well, anyway.] Out of them all, though, I could speak with the most certainty about Natsuno; he does not truly wish to resort to complete destruction, I don't think. ["It's not an option for me either", he'd said outright about the idea of vanishing, at a certain point last month. Quite the far cry from the person that had opted to blow himself up to avoid certain problems, back in October...] He's angry and frustrated, but no longer so nihilistic as he once was. Skepticism runs strong within him, however, and he's still geared towards assuming and expecting the worst of the captain.
He and Clarke are also very close. They value each other's opinions quite highly. Where one goes the other follows, I've observed...
no subject
That's why I appreciate your perspective. You may not like him, or respect him, or even particularly care about what happens to him once everyone else's futures are secured, but at least you're rational about it. That's something that I'm sorely lacking right now.
I used to think Natsuno was the more reasonable of the two of them, but then he blew himself up in October. Then again, compared to Clarke's fashion choices these days, that still seems more sensible than the alternative. I'll keep it in mind to negotiate with one over the other.
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October...was a very trying month all around, to say the least. The fact it started with so many explosions was truly a terrifically poor omen in retrospect. [Haha...ha....it's a bit easier to grimly joke about months later, isn't it?] If nothing else, though, I daresay the adverse reaction from all his friends did motivate him into properly examining the soundness of his line of logic there, after the fact. [Don't mind Jade over here framing this bit from an outside perspective as if he himself wasn't also one of those Very Upset friends or anything--] So, in one sense it has improved since. He's smart, within his means. But he's still quite young as well, and anger never helps with rational thinking; quite unfortunately, he's had a lot to be angry about on this overall voyage, and December is still a particularly sore bruise.
So, yes, you yourself may yet find it easier to negotiate with him than Clarke. What I also mean to outline here, however, is that anything Natsuno learns does pass to her--and vice-versa. Which can be both a good thing and a bad thing, dependent on the material. This can also apply in matters of persuasion, too...do you understand? Convince one, and the other is highly likely to follow in the end, at risk of quite the rift forming in a very close-knit friendship otherwise.
But, of course, the convincing is the particularly difficult part...
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Likewise, whenever you start being stupid, I'll be right there to let you know.
Of course, the fact that they share information with each other isn't lost on me; it's the same between Ava and myself. He knows things I would prefer Clarke not to, but I don't think I get a choice in his revealing those facts. At any rate, even with the information they do have, they're still thankfully under the same rules that keep us all powerless against the ship.
Hm... As much as I don't care about Clarke personally, I wouldn't want to sever a relationship that's keeping the two of them from fully committing to burning the place down around us.
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I'm certainly not advocating that you should sever their friendship if it can be helped. In some ways they do moderate each other, even if it sometimes means being reckless in opposite directions. [He's not talking about the sunslime incident right now, but he is thinking about the sunslime incident right now. Anyway though...] But they do value each other's opinions highly, and will be most likely to listen to each other over most anyone else on this ship. If they one day mutually decide that burning the place down around us is for the best, then they will be undeterred in doing so; alternatively, if one were to decide to settle on an alternative route that won't involve burning things down after all, they could potentially convince the other to do the same.
In short: you may not need to actively sell your perspective to both of them at once. Successfully focusing upon one is just as likely to result in the idea passing to the other eventually in a more palatable form. In fact, if done through Natsuno, Rita's likely to end up having to consider it as well. Those two have also grown very close in recent months.
[And now, a moment taken to sigh at nothing in particular. ...Strategizing over reckless youths sure is a trying thing...]
You were worrying about us needing to somehow close this social rift in the ship before things begin truly falling apart. I'm aware I am failing to give you much of a silver bullet solution in regards to these particular three teenagers. This is only a proposal of one particular sort of angle, and I have no illusions that it's going to actually repair anything with much speed. In fact, I'm sure they're going to be plenty furious with me just telling you this much about their relationships in general, if this ever gets back to them somehow...
As things stand right now, I don't think I could convince them to become amenable to opinions that come from you just by claiming that I think they should. ...I could try filing off the metaphorical serial numbers before warning them about some details of our overarching impending problem, though I profess that I'm also trying not to fall into the same level of non-transparency that upset them in December, so this is something of a new balancing act for me.
They're already aware that a ghost of some form may try to consume us in the near future, at the least. Should anything more be conveyed at this time, you think?
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Codependency does make things a bit easier, when one of the people involved is slightly easier to talk to... Then again, if Natsuno is "close" to Rita, maybe he has even less sense than I already imagined... 🤠But that's good. I'm glad. It means they've got something to lose if things go wrong, and it gives all three of them a reason to want to survive through this.
If it helps, I didn't need you to tell me that Clarke and Natsuno are close. They're always hanging around each other. And, concerning that transparency you're trying to maintain: you are welcome to tell them as much as you feel is right. They'll take the news better from you, and if you can throw me under the bus in the meantime, it'll help repair their trust in you. Believe me, after everything that's happened, I am hard pressed to tell anyone to lie to their "charges," for lack of a better word. Darcy's never going to properly forgive me for... well, any of it. It's better if we keep you out of a similar dog house.
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Even if the entire passenger body can't be necessarily united right now, I suppose there's at least the closer-knit smaller groups. If only we could manage not to collide into each other quite so poorly as we have been...
[But after that there's another bout of delay--typing and erasing and typing some more. In the end Skulduggery does end up pinning down the crux of Jade's hesitations in turn, and so it's something of a. Relief? Maybe? That frankness there. Hm.]
Well, throwing a person under a carriage certainly becomes easier when they're assuring you they truly wouldn't mind it. ...I do trust that you still have the best interests of all us passengers in mind, you know. Even if they do not believe the same. So, I'd prefer not to throw you down there with glee, at the very least...
But I appreciate that you'd understand. Objectively, you're not wrong that it'd help my case of late. ...I shall think about how to turn the phrasing, I suppose. But in that case I'll tell them in your stead in some way, yes.
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Interpersonal conflict is the source of most of our troubles. Unfortunately, I don't see an easy way to end it.
I'm glad you still know where I stand, even given everything we've been through. As frustrating as I find most of the other passengers at this point, they're still victims, and they still deserve my help. Even if they take it for granted when it's offered and refuse to give my relationship the benefit of the doubt...
Anyway. I don't care what they think of me at this point. We just need to make sure everyone is on as similar a page as possible. Even if that means they blame me for it happening.