TLV: Inbox

[tinstar]

Comments

[abrightboy]

She's not a child.

[He picks up the glass, even if it's a little absently.]

She's emotionally stunted and she has a lot of problems around authority and power and most of it is based in trauma, though some of it is cultural. I just... couldn't believe, after everything that happened, that you wouldn't assume I'd done something substantial about an incident of violence by my inmate. Was it because it was against Laura that you thought maybe I wouldn't?

[tinstar]

But she's like three foot nothin'. That can't be full grown.

[But that point was lost under another furrow of his brow.]

You're not listenin' to me, Malcolm. I don't assume on 'substance' because it's one of the things that literally no one agrees on, on this damned ship and for everythin' you said at Reid's meetin', I wanted to know if you follow through with that opinion when its your own inmate in the shit. I assumed you did something but the scale of 'something' seems to be different for everyone.

You're pissed about how I started it - fine. I apologize for my openin' tone. But I'm not gonna apologize for askin' the damn question.

[abrightboy]

I don't want you to. I don't even want you to apologize for your tone; mine quickly became as out of line as yours was. Let's call it even. I just want to be treated like a professional that is here for a reason, okay? And it's less on you than on a lot of other people. It's almost never on you; you just surprised me. Especially since I wanted to come to you about... a personal problem. It's... a bigger problem than that, is the thing. You don't understand. And then I didn't want it to make you think I'm even less capable. Remember.... [He stills, watching Raylan's face for a moment, watching for an indication as to whether that is what will happen.]

[tinstar]

[It all seemed to appease Raylan, some of the intensity in his eyes and the set of his jaw easing and relaxing.]

Only thing that's gonna make me think you're less than capable is if you prove by inaction that you're less than capable.

Do I remember what?

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm is still watching but when Raylan's body language eases, his mirrors it.]

Do you remember when we talked about the werewolves?

[tinstar]

[His brow furrows a little in confusion.]

Yeah... [What did that have to do with capability?]

[abrightboy]

Lark told me there would be some increased emotionality after the change. I told him one of my misgivings was that I already have... easily piqued emotions.

[tinstar]

[His weight shifts, one hand propping on the counter.]

Is this you tellin' me that it's already done or that you're worried about snappin' on people on board once it is?

[abrightboy]

He did it a few days ago and he was supposed to help me with... things. But. He's gone.

[tinstar]

[Raylan's eyes widen a bit, head extending forwards at the neck, like he was angling to hear better because surely, he'd heard wrong. Malcolm had done it. Malcolm had decided to join a pack that was - what? Was it even a pack? He felt like a chasm opened up. He felt betrayed, though he knew he had no right to that, and he felt oh so sharply alone again.

Biting back the worst of what was clattering around behind his teeth, Raylan drops his eyes to the safer view of the countertop before closing them and taking a deep breath, free hand pinching at the top of his nose for a long second before it drops.]

Of course he is. Of course you are. [He swears to god, the next time he sees Lark Tennet here.]

So what do you wanna do. Do you wanna go to the Admiral to see if it can be reversed or-

[abrightboy]

No. I want you to help me.

[tinstar]

How, Malcolm? How do I help?

I mean I'm the one person on board who seems to know literally the least about this; I know Iris is a wolf, she- [Would be Better at Helping him then Raylan ever could. He sighs and empties his glass down his throat, bearing his teeth slightly as he swallows it down.]

I'm only good at a few things and fosterin' the growth and control of whatever the hell this is gonna bring you isn't one of them. [He wanted to help, of course he did. He just didn't know how or where to even begin. Doubly so when he thought this was a bad idea in the first place.]

[abrightboy]

Iris is... fine. She's nice. But I don't really know her. You're my family.

[tinstar]

[Raylan stares at Malcolm for a long moment, heart twisting in time with his stomach doing the same. God he wanted family. He wanted the brotherhood that they had forged, he wanted it but Malcolm had thrown 'I thought we were friends' at him like they weren't in the middle of a fight and he can't help but worry that's how Malcolm actually feels.

But they had called it even. He takes and lets another deep breath and glances over towards his bottle, feeling self conscious about pouring another one. It could hold until Malcolm left.]

Okay. [The rest of the fight slips out of him.] I don't know even know where to begin, but- [He'll help. Whatever that ends up looking like.] Can you tell me why? Why you wanted this.. transformation? What you're gettin' out of it?

[abrightboy]

Lark said being in the pack meant having a connection to the others. A... a bond. Plus it would help with my work because I'd have sharper senses and be faster and stronger.

[tinstar]

[A bond, a connection. And then Lark's gone, leaving Malcolm without what he promised. Goddamnit. He hated people who did this kind of shit.

Raylan can only shake his head a little and stare at the counter for a minute.]

I don't understand why you feel you need those things from them, but if you're stickin' with it..

That mean you want me steppin' in and drawin' your attention to your.. heightened emotions? And what if somethin' happens and you.. I dunno, flip out, go wolf and decide to try and tear someone's throat out?

[abrightboy]

You never wanted to belong? He chose me. Out of everyone. On a ship where people hit me in the face for something they vaguely think I said to someone else two weeks ago, he chose me to be one of his group.

[tinstar]

[Not really, no. Not until he was here and utterly void of belonging to anything. Here, he understands the feeling.]

That's the overwhelming group of.. three? [One of which who just up and leaves after possibly irreparably changing Malcolm's genus. He was incensed by the irresponsibility.]

Is this somethin' you're lookin' to keep secret or are you tellin' other people?

[The questions were soft - he'd entered data collection phase, gotta build a game plan as to what this will look like. He wasn't trying to barb or be an asshole.]

[abrightboy]

I hadn’t really considered… the others don’t hide it.

[tinstar]

Better not to, in my opinion. Okay. [He goes ahead and pours another drink.]

How long has it been? You slept yet?

[abrightboy]

A few days. I slept. Before… all the everything that today is. Will stays with me most nights now. Lark let him attend the change. I wanted him there. So he understands.

[tinstar]

[He nods and holds Malcolm's eyes.]

Last question I got. What happens if shit goes sideways? If you... wolf out and lose control?

[abrightboy]

It… doesn’t really work that way. You still… have consciousness. I could barely kill a moose when they took me hunting. And I didn’t really… I mean, it was kind of thrilling but I can still… taste it. [He makes a face.]

[tinstar]

.... they took you hunting.

Who else, besides Iris?

[abrightboy]

Just Iris and Lark. Shortly after I was changed.