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[omniavincit]

WILLIAM

WARDEN OF THE S.F.S. PEREGRINE

art by hawta mahmood

Comments

Rhy$.$trongfork

[smugreport]

You're one of the guys from the other ship, right?

that username...😑

[omniavincit]

Yeah. We spoke once. [ Unless this is the other Rhys, the one who showed him the Brew and grew up with him on the train. Who knew Lawrence.

But when has William ever had that kind of luck? ] Glad you got out. Were you there for the port?

ITS A GOOD USERNAME god everyone is a critic!

[smugreport]

Nnnnno? The last thing I remember we were still floating through space on dwindling rations.

Hey quick question did everyone who came here from the other ship get made into a warden except me?

sorry rhys it $uck$

[omniavincit]

You weren't there long, huh?

Ezio was a warden before. He's a good man. [ He knows what this is about—why didn't I get a promotion?—but tries just the same: ] Was there someone you were hoping to see?

no :(

[smugreport]

Yeah. I want to see me with a nametag that says "Rhys Strongfork: Warden" on it.

[ He's bristling. It isn't fair! At least 2 of the 3 people he knows are now transfers, he's the only one who's been left holding the inmate title. That sucks, he doesn't deserve this.

After a minute he answers the question properly, still terse. ]

Not really. It's like you said, I wasn't there long. And anyone who had something to offer me there probably wouldn't be able to anymore.

[ What was Carol without the strength she offered in numbers? What was Tess without Carol, and Rhys being a reliable information source that would grant him privileges? The situation of being held hostage on a space cruiser in butt-fuck space was bad no matter how you looked at it, but Rhys had done what he did best while there: carved out a nice little nook for himself to comfortably exist and thrive in so long as he kept playing his cards right. Now he was back at square one. ]

[omniavincit]

It's a huge pain in the ass. But I think you could be good at it.

[ He's not surprised at the answer—he's surprised at how badly he'd wanted to hear something different, and not just for Rhys' sake. It's been a year. The people he cared about—most of them probably dead—sometimes seem like a bedtime story.

A grim fucking bedtime story. ] I check the loading bay every once in a while [ every day ] if you ever feel like coming.

Did you learn anything there? Not what it was trying to teach you, I mean in general.

[smugreport]

You think I'd be good??

I mean yeah, of course I'd be good. But I don't really have time to stick around and find out.

[ Still unsure on what exactly wardens get out of doing their job, but it can't take priority over what's at stake back home.

As for coming to the loading docks...most people he knows aren't ones he'd want to see. Which is a sad thought in and of itself, so let's move on. ]

It taught me that someone out there has created technology that not only can transport you from anywhere in the universe but dilate time while it's at it, which is nuts all on its own. I don't know if even Eridian tech can manage something like that.

[ It'd be an amazing boon for him if he can figure out just how the hell they're doing it. But other than that... ]

And that no one really knew how the whole system worked, which sucked.

[ He couldn't play the game, couldn't win if no one even knew the rules. ]

[omniavincit]

[ At least it's the tech he wants to emulate—not the model of maintaining control through opacity. Volk's post had been irritating, but it hadn't been wrong. ] No one knew how it worked or admitted when it didn't.

That doesn't mean I think you being here is a mistake, but tell me if there's some kind of breakdown.

What do you think of the other inmates? [ He remembers Rhys' reaction to Sephiroth's taunts—that long-haired windbag. How he'd considered stepping in, couldn't bring himself to do it. He remembers another Rhys challenging wardens on the network, setting up an inmate advocacy office. ]

[smugreport]

I am here by mistake. I am so not on the same level as everyone else here, okay? I didn't kill for sport or burn down settlements or even smuggle kids. I'm nice to kids!

So my thoughts on other inmates? We're not the same.

[omniavincit]

You and Volkhov have some things in common. You and me.

If you could take back one thing you've done, what would it be?

[smugreport]

Uhhh have you seen how that guy dresses? Or smelled him?

[ He doesn't know much about William, so he can't say the same for him but he doubts it. ]

I'll answer if you tell me what made you an inmate in the last place.

silco; during truth event, shakes timeline vigorously re our other thread

[kaijuice]

Must have been a large carrot they dangled.

yeehaw

[omniavincit]

You text like you talk. [ It's not not a compliment. ]

Yeah. It always is. You know how to stop an idea?

[kaijuice]

How many people have it?

[ bullets generally buy time ]

all vagueness is me, not him.../shakes fist at s3

[omniavincit]

I don't know, I'm not on the inside. [ This time. ] Enough for me to find out.

What's your experience?

what season 3. westworld ran for 1 season and several independent one-shot episodes

[kaijuice]

Ideas don't die. Only shift, or slumber.

[omniavincit]

You both treat people like shit.

It was a few things. [ A pause, as he considers what he knows about Rhys. The unfortunate likelihood that Rhys—this Rhys—will regard some of what he's done as inspiring. ] My brother in law, who is now my ex-brother in law, was always an asshole. Rich, handsome, charming—actually charming, when he turned it on. I was none of those things. He kept me around for the novelty, I think. And because he could tell I was desperate. Just from the way I dressed. He was easily bored, liked pushing buttons.

I don't know. You could throw adjectives at it forever.

He did something horrible. Made me watch. It's a long story, but I ruined him for it. Left him alone out in the desert. When he made it back I took everything from him. Married his sister. Took over his dad's company.

Made him watch, I guess.

He's still alive, but only technically.

[smugreport]

At least a treat people like shit with style.

[ He's only joking as far as it'll mask the cut William just inflicted. He doesn't treat everyone like shit! Not even most people...he knows he can talk down to others but that's just business baby, either you have something worth his time to suck up to you or you don't. He's personable either way, what else do you want from him? ]


Uh. Wow, okay. And I thought I was petty.

[ He is. He'd probably do something similar to Jack, if given that kind of chance. If he hadn't crushed the last vestige of Jack's sentient existence underneath the heel of his boot. ]

I wouldn't take back anything except answering the message that apparently got me killed. I had a handle on things, and wouldn't have my company without a few broken eggs.

[ He also wouldn't have ended up stranded on a DEATH PLANET if he'd just waited a week and allowed Vasquez to screw up that deal on his own, or never plugged in that drive, or never relied on Fiona and Sasha for even a fraction of a second to come through for him, or never said yes to Jack. Things he can't let himself think about because he will actually completely lose it.

He may have not gotten a vault, and anyone he gave a shit about is probably dead, but he had that ATLAS deed in his hands and was determined to make that shitty consolation prize work for him out of spite. ]

[omniavincit]

[ Fuck off.

He leaves it. Rhys is a fucking asshole; Rhys is an easy target. Rhys is scared. There's a part of William itching to puncture that ego, and if he said anything more he doesn't trust it'd be in the man's best interests. ]

I didn't marry her to get back at him. We were engaged already. [ Does Rhys care? Will he remember any of this? Regardless, it feels important to say. ]

What was the message?

+ one crazy gifset

[omniavincit]

[ Reassuring, oddly. Some of the people dearest to him started as ideas. ] I'm not that kind of killer anyway. [ True. Which leaves the question of where to shift it—a dizzying thought. ]

You're human, right? [ No offense!! ] Do you think people want to be controlled? Most people.

[smugreport]

Still pretty brutal dude.

[ He'd probably fit in at Hyperion, it sounds like he would have liked it too. ]

It was a hail from an old work associate [ ENEMY ] They screwed me over on a deal, and I thought they'd come crawling back to make it up to me. I don't know if it was them or someone they hired who ended up attacking me but either way: severely uncool.

[ And to continue the question for an answer game: ]

How did you graduate?

1/2 😭💼

[omniavincit]

Yeah. She loved me, at least for a while.

I don't know. [ Which is what every graduated inmate says. I don't know, it was personal. He wishes he had some moment to point to—some test passed, a perfect, definitive summing-up.

That's not how people work. ] I knew I was a bad person—that's why I dressed that way. The hat belonged to a dead man. I thought I could keep it contained, if I...where I'm from I'm a world-renowned philanthropist. There are all kinds of fucking foundations with my name on them.

You can say it's just money and you'd be right, but when I was a kid a little money would've changed everything.

I've accomplished very good things, but I put as little of myself into them as I could. I didn't want them tainted. I think I hoped wardens would show me how to do it honestly. You know the business world, good people get ground down or they walk away. Nobody sticks their neck out and lives to tell the tale.

There was a breach where someone derailed his whole life for me. He stopped flying planes to spend every day in a dingy apartment, taking care of his crazy brother. But it was an inmate. Larry Trainor.

I never saw a warden choose an inmate over the person they were fucking. Never saw them give up anything they wanted. Heaven forfend they commit to a principle or stand by a decision. It was mostly talk, with them. Platitudes. I hated them not just for being fakes, but for being so bad at it.

I think what happened was I stopped caring about how much they'd hurt me and just wanted to spare anyone else.

It didn't fix anything with Logan. That's still a mess. I still hate him. But I don't like seeing people broken anymore.

2/2

[omniavincit]

Tell me about your associate.

[smugreport]

He wasn't expecting such an intensive answer, just the usual "I don't know, it's different for everyone" spiel, entirely unhelpful. "Don't be shitty." Okay, great.

It takes a few minutes for Rhys to reply as he parses this, there's parts that read in a way where he feels like he's missing information, an inmate was his brother? And took care of him when they were at port? But he's getting the gist of it, the conclusion, he thinks, is obvious.

Haha, oh my god. You graduated out of spite.

And stuck around out of it too. He can do that! He's great at that!

Fiona.

I didn't have a lot of choice working with her. She tried to con me out of our initial [ stolen ] deal, and when that didn't work out we ended up stumbling on something bigger that needed both of us. Which would have been fine! We both would have won, I was letting bygones be bygones for the other stuff. But the thanks I got for holding up my end of the deal was to get stranded on a space station that was going down.

[ He gets bitter even talking about the basic strokes of it all. She wasn't the only one who screwed him over, or even the worst, but she'd been the last. ]

My turn: What do wardens get out of all of this? Besides showing up the other guys?

[kaijuice]

Everyone wants a say in their own destiny.

A choice — whether or not they take it, whether it worms itself beneath the lie of helplessness. 'Forced' cooperation renders no comfort without an alternative in reach, however grim; the palliation of being able to pronounce that there was nothing I could do,

Have you noticed? The direr the circumstance, the less they cry it. Only those with a decision to make decide to foreswear it.



[ ...ok. he's been holding that one in. ]