exsilium | three. (video.)

( At least this time Ellie isn't in some random, ramshackle building, but enjoying the warmth of the kitchen and a giant cup of coffee. At least she looks marginally better rested than she has on previous occasions. )

So, with that whole swap thing, I've been thinking. ( A pause, and there's a note of self mockery in her voice: ) Because I don't think enough when weird stuff isn't happening. Or less-weird stuff, at any rate. ( Has she really digressed already and wandered off with her thoughts? She shakes her head at herself. )

I was thinking about anger. Or any emotion, I guess, when they get that intense that you feel like all your insides are writhing about like snakes, but anger's the one that stuck out for me. We're all in this war, and some of us have been in wars before and some haven't, and everyone handles it in these different ways.

( She trails off; articulating this isn't going so smoothly as she'd expected, but sometimes you just have to throw things at the wall and see what sticks. Homer used to throw pasta at the wall, a lot, and a bloody lot of that stuck. The memory makes her smile a little. )

I mean, just before I got here, Kev-- uh, this guy in our group, he wasn't doing so well with everything. ( See, Fi, she at least tried not to name and shame. Belatedly. ) Everyone tried different things to get him going, and it was this weird insight-- I guess it just said a bit about the kind of people we are, depending what tactic we used. ( Fi: sympathy. Lee: abuse. Homer: encouragement. )
I was all logic and common sense. ( A beat, before she continues, speaking a little more slowly as she grapples with her pride and tries to think it out. ) Sometimes I don't think that really shows the full picture, but.

( She could say that it definitely doesn't, not when you got anger that just bubbles up and blows being reasonable right out of the water. She could, but does not. )

Anyway, I was talking to this guy here, before, about anger. How you can use it, and that, make it work for you, and I just... I didn't know if that really worked for anyone. If anger's a weapon, or if you got an on/off switch for it, or what? 'Cause there's this quote in uh, this Shakespeare play - “wrath makes him deaf,” I think the Queen in Henry VI. ( She squints, trying to remember. ) And then there's another bit, about not coming between “the dragon and his rage,” in King Lear. I think Lear was already going crazy, though, by then, though. ( Quietly: ) It's been a while since I studied them. Trying to read that stuff and figure out all the language is hard, without those special high school study editions.

( Where was she even going with this? )

So I guess I just wondered what you lot thought about it. Anger and controlling anger and using it and whether it screws you up, or what.

( A beat, and she smiles crookedly. ) Or we could talk about dragons. We don't have any back home, but some of you have to have dragons, right?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It's a slippery slope. Or more like fire, it can spread and destroy everything around it, even the source. It's why you have to be careful, otherwise you'll just keep making decisions that have horrible consequences that hurt everyone around you, and that'll just breed more anger. It's a vicious cycle.

An example of when I say you can use anger comes up frequently in what me and my friends do. There are people who would hurt others for evil purposes. We don't stand for that, so we fight them, and we're fine, but...recently one of them doesn't know what she's doing, right now. She thinks she's in the right, but she isn't.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. ( She agrees, right down to the part where anger is like fire, it just leaves a path of destruction in its wake.

For a long while, she's quiet, just mulling it over, giving her words serious consideration. ) Do you reckon it's corrupting her? Making her do things outside-- your code, or whatever it is?

_{[Corrupting. It's a fitting word, and that's what scares Flora the most, but she'll hold fast.]}

If she's left alone, she..._{[Flora doesn't want to admit it. Not one of them will give up on Layla, not ever, but actually considering the possibility that she'll follow through if she gets her way isn't pleasant. Not at all.]}

She might. But I'm not giving up on her. None of us are.

That's good. Stick with her.

( She can respect loyalty, especially with something like this. ) It's tough, when you see that happening to someone you care about, or they get reckless or anything like that. But stick with her. She's gonna need her friends, I reckon, to make her see sense.

_{[She nods.]}

I will. She's a wonderful friend and person, she just really needs us, now. _{[There's no hesitation there. Flora was worried sick over her, but she simply would not accept a future where her best friend suffers alone.]}

What about you and your friends?

What's her name?

( And there, Ellie falters, even if it's not too obvious. ) Here, or at home?

( At home, she assumes. ) What do you want to know?

three. (video.)

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