Your impatience is...troublesome

[condemns_to_live]

You couldn't even wait to complete the canonical evidence. Amusing, in a way - you see one scene you describe as 'beyond compare', and here I am. Free. Rampant. And you've still a season and a miniseries to go. Congratulations. Thanks to your impatience, I'm forced to move before I am completely ready. This is surmountable - in the end, little save death is insurmountable...and even there, exceptions exist - but I am displeased, regardless.

Do watch more before trying to fling me about the galaxy, hmm? At the least, however, I take this much from your premature action: there is much more to see.

Comments

[irreversibly_contaminated]

I will always be amazed by the intelligent people who find you appealing.

[condemns_to_live]

Ah, Officer Sun. I take it, then, that your player is hardly amongst that number?

[A brief smile appears on that face]

But intelligence has a way of drawing people, does it not? It certainly did so in your case, with John.

[irreversibly_contaminated]

According to her, she finds you fascinating in the same way that most destructive things are. She tends to be overly generous in her praise, given what she says about me.

Crichton's intelligence was only one of the things that drew me to him, his compassion, even for someone like you, that was something I'd never seen before.

[condemns_to_live]

The famous Sun modesty - I have found it to be foolhardy to underestimate your resilience or your talents. Or those of John, to be fair.

[A slight hiss of inhaled air]

Of course, destructive is a point of view, isn't it? Thus far, my goals have been constructed with survival in mind - curiously, it is you and your band that cause the destruction. And against your former compatriots at that.

[He leans a bit closer, hands hanging from a beam]

But best not to dwell on that, hmm?

[irreversibly_contaminated]

It isn't modesty, I have no illusions of what sort of life I have lead or my deeds.

Survival? [pardon a short almost barked laugh] Your own maybe, but not the survival of anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in your way. The destruction you have caused was more far reaching than anything I could have done.

The Peacekeepers cast me out, if you recall. I was condemned to death for association with nonsebacean life. I was tainted by learning the truths I was taught as a child are just lies.

I feel for every innocent life that I may have harmed or ended, but I don't deny what I've done. Can you say the same?

[condemns_to_live]

[He moved away for a moment, pausing to cast a glance back at her over a shoulder, before sitting down in the nearest chair, with every indication of ease.]

Deny it? Of course not. Necessity is a harsh teacher, but also irresistible in her way. But I would do it all again. Without hesitation, or remorse. I, too, have very few illusions.

But feel for them? No. Not for a moment. I have done what needs doing, Aeryn Sun. History sometimes requires surgery, after all. I have merely provided the service.

Holy balls a Scorpius

[youmissed]

The last thing the galaxy needs is you plastered all over it like the worst tourist ever.

[Scorpius of course hits John's fight-or-flight buttons hard. John's bristling up and trying to look like he wants to fight, and hoping Scorpius doesn't know enough about humans to figure out its all just a bluff]

Thanks! Great to see a John! And to episodes short of being done S4, so bear with me?

[condemns_to_live]

Ah, John. Late, as always.

[He spreads his arms wide]

And why not? A change of scenery. Earth, perhaps. To finally see it, perhaps understand just what it is that makes you cherish it so.

Sure thing :3 Have fun with the end of S4 and Peacekeeper Wars

[youmissed]

[John has that split second moment where he visibly shivers at the idea of a hug with Scorpy here. Hell, once was more than enough and he still feels dirty years down the line]

Earth and you is just a bad mix all around. You stay away from there, you hear me? What happened to your pissing match with the Scarrans?

[He has to say, the idea of Scorpius wanting to understand him skeeves him out. The worst thing is he's had those thoughts racing in his head before, especially when he was sitting there trying not to go off the walls crazy. Y'know, that whole question: what kind of person would think it's okay throw people in that damn chair and then act like it was for the greater good.]

Just finished S4. HOLY CRAP DAMN HELL.

[condemns_to_live]

[He grinned, in that feral way he had. As if utterly anything could happen, from a bit of light banter to rending him limb from limb]

But I could advance your world in so many ways, John. Imagine, the intricacies of interstellar travel, delivered to them. I could raise a mighty Terran Fleet, sailing out into the stars. They might surpass the Peacekeepers one day.

As for the Scarrans...[He seemed to shrug] A few billion soldiers, at my command, a planet with a genius for war - well. There might not be much left of the Scarran Empire after that.

I KNOW RIGHT. If only it hadn't been cancled DAMN THEM.

[youmissed]

[He'd never willingly admit that damn crocodile's smile still scares the crap out of him in a way that his first space walk and being told he'd be dissected his first day as an honest-to-God alien didn't. John tries to hide the shiver going up his spine.

The creepy part is he can see how that kind of logic would get a bunch of folks back home lining up to be Scorpy's new best friend. It's a freaky thought. ]

And we'd all fall over ourselves because you showed us Earthlings the light? C'mon. They'd take a look at the gimp suit and run the other way.

[He wishes.]

I'm saving PK Wars. Just to savour it. And watch it with a friend who got me into it :P

[condemns_to_live]

[He was quiet for a long moment, just watching his old nemesis.]

Come now, John. I've been inside your head. I've seen everything. They'd desire what I had to teach. And the more I gave them, the more they would rely on me. I could be running your world in a few cycles, John. And then I could lead it out into the stars.

Cryo-stasis, a long space journey. It could be rather easily done, could it not? Get there before the Scarrans. When they do arrive, a fleet will be waiting for them the likes of which the galaxy has never seen before. Imagine it, John.

[A pause, and he tilts his head]

Of course, if I had the knowledge that's inside your head, I'd scarcely need such a...long-term backup plan.

That is a good plan 8D

[youmissed]

[Damn, so much for bluffing. He hadn't expected it to work anyway, but he'd still had a slight hope it just might.]

So that's what it boils down to? 'Earth or Bust'? I wasn't selling then and I'm not now. If you really wanted Earth, you would've been on your way already.

[He doesn't know Scorpy as well as old Scaly knows him. It sucks, but it's true. Harvey isn't the same anymore and he knows there's probably stuff in Harvey's invisible, freaky head that he doesn't tell him. It's not exactly a two-way street there. John keeps his distance from Scorpius, hating that it's not like the movies and that he's still having to deal with this guy. Hating that there's a part of him that knows damn well how necessary Scorpius is. ]

[condemns_to_live]

[He sighed, shaking his head]

You misunderstand, John. We've set the Scarrans back - there is some breathing space, perhaps - which means it is time to consider fallback strategies. The long term.

I would be remiss if I did not at least suggest the possibility. Seeding new bases of Peacekeeper strength? If I don't, someone else undoubtedly will. But you can make that unnecessary. I care nothing about your planet, you know that. But it will be drawn in to a long war.

[youmissed]

[Long-term. Yeah, sometimes John has trouble thinking of long-term, especially when every wannabe Vulcan and Wookie out here rubs his short-life span in his face. John's face darkens as Scorpius goes on]

It doesn't have to be. The way you go on and on about this war, it's almost like you want it to happen.

[Scorpy, this is totally not how you get to second base with John Crichton. John's doing that old habit where he starts looking like he wants to hunch his shoulders stubbornly, frown lines deepening. ]

[condemns_to_live]

[He shakes his head, as if speaking to a particularly dense pupil. The tired patience of the schoolteacher.]

You've met the Scarrans, John. You've experienced their tender mercies. As has Officer Sun, I'm sure you recall. Tortured for so very long. Every day. Just on the off-chance she could lead them to your knowledge.

I don't want a war, John. But I know it's coming. And intend to win it. By any means necessary.

[youmissed]

[John bristles. He'd gotten used to being talked to as the dumb human after a few cycles out here, but having Scorpy doing it still gets his goat.]

You don't think they'd stick to the truce?

[Could've fooled him, because John had seen some of the holos from the whole signing. Scorpius has looked like the cat that got the canary, if the cat had been smacked in the face with a serious case of the uglies and suddenly was all up with some whacky leather fetish.]

[condemns_to_live]

John. I don't think either will stick to the truce. They'll quietly eliminate you, and your dear little boy, and once the knowledge is removed from the universe...the war will begin anew.

I admit, I was impressed. You stopped the war, saved millions of lives. But how terrible would it be if it were merely a temporary measure. Given all that you lost.

[youmissed]

You sound real shook up at the idea of them having another pissing contest, Scorpy. [John is trying not to show up pissed he's getting, especially at Scorpius dropping his damn kid in all of this. It's another reminder that he totally isn't in Kansas or Anywhere-Within-A-Hundred-Miles-of-Kansas] So far it looks to me like they're sticking to their guns and keeping to their own corners. Works for me.

[condemns_to_live]

Naive attitude, John. Truly, do you not have any understanding? There will always be conflict - it is in the nature of living beings.

[He leaned in, almost face to face]

And you had best come to understand that quickly. Are you truly trusting the Scarrans and the Peacekeepers to keep their word?