[Raylan watches him back and considers asking for more scotch. Asking for validation wasn't something he really did, but he found the question falling out of his mouth before he could stop it.]
He thought it was personal, asking about the becoming a vampire. Which, fine, Lestat is capable of saying he doesn’t want to talk about something. I thought the point of the exercise was to get to know each other on a personal level, though. I invited him to ask me things, too, in that spirit. And he didn’t like me asking if the meetings were working. I said we all know why we’re here and I’m asking, not trying to read him, so what’s wrong with assessing how it’s going? Lestat didn’t ask anything about me. Reid tried to roll that ball a little, asking where I was from. He did not seem to like it, though, when I pointed out how he was clearly actually there to protect Lestat rather than me. Since, you know. He sold chaperoning the meetings as a way for us - Lestat’s victims - to feel safe having them.
He did, and I agree, his is there to protect Lestat. [From them, from anyone who might want to dance and give Lestat a reason to strike out.] But he is also there to protect us in case we strike upon a nerve that gets a sharp reaction.
I think they both find some protection in the politeness of civility. They might not have much practice in managing fighting energy. Which feels wrong, but I'm not above putting it on the board anyway.
I'll be waiting to see if anything follows through. Got ten bucks that one round is all they're really doing. I'd prefer to be proven wrong.
I didn’t have fighting energy and being invited to talk to him, Real Person to Real Person, only to have every question vetted by his chaperone didn’t feel like a fair way to manage his punishment, which was supposed to be for attacking me. He bled me like a kosher lamb and I have to be Closely Monitored just in case I ask a question that might make his sphincter tense?
Oh. Oh now you get angry? [Not when he was bled out, but now? This will be interesting.]
Malcolm, I ain't sayin' it's right, I'm just sayin' that's the way it is. Yeah. It's a shit situation, but none of us are perfect and I can understand why he feels that way based on the meetin' and your points that you made there. I still don't agree but I do see it.
Can't change what is, you can only set up the next interaction with all this shit in mind.
I've wasted two pointless meetings worth of time; why would I waste a third? The exercise has no point if the person running it won't let its point be exercised.
You're right. So you got a few choices - you keep goin' and see if you can't wring some blood from those stones or you leave them to it and avoid both all together. That's not so hard here, and I'm sure Neal fills you in on how they're doin'.
Who said anything about tiptoeing around?? There's a difference between not talkin' to them and tiptoein' around. There is middle ground between going in with your hackles up and bein' super careful. Do you think it's important to talk to them about it? Why?
He did what he did in the heat of the moment, but choosing to risk discomfort so we can have a frank conversation about why he chooses violence when he gets faintly annoyed and how he might learn not to choose it is the least his fucking Warden could allow.
Then that's a conversation you need to have with Reid and with the full and total understandin' that he might disagree with you on it. I wish I could just.. absorb a copy of a memory of what happened so I get a more detailed view of the back and forth but -
Look, if you want some company when you talk to Reid, I'll come with you, but you need to sort out your position with him before Lestat is included. Him gettin' to watch you two verbally box isn't good for anyone or anyone's goals here.
What does that mean - that you think he won't talk to you about it or is it that you feel bad that ya'll aren't on the same side of all this? We're all still Wardens and if you can't find it in yourself to leave it alone, it doesn't matter how he left the last one, it's about how you're gonna argue the next one.
We're supposed to all be on the same side but doesn't it feel like some Wardens aren't? Remember when I first came here and you told me there was basically one sacred rule and that was not killing people? And then the next person I talked to scoffed at the idea that that was in any way a rule? What does it say about Wardens as a group that we can't come to a consensus on even that? I'll tell you why he couldn't look at me: because he knows he failed me and he chose that consciously rather than let his inmate perceive him as being on the side of Wardening rather than on his personal side.
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I always feel reassured when you pop up on the network.
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Why's that?
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I'm not leavin' til my job here is done. And at least someone enjoys 'em. They start a fight with someone, more often than not.
I'm sorry I came in strong at the start. It's easier to question you than sit around considerin' if I'm going to get good reason to shoot your inmate.
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I didn't think he'd say yes. And it was a left turn in conversation. I haven't had any yet. How'd you hear about it?
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I think they both find some protection in the politeness of civility. They might not have much practice in managing fighting energy. Which feels wrong, but I'm not above putting it on the board anyway.
I'll be waiting to see if anything follows through. Got ten bucks that one round is all they're really doing. I'd prefer to be proven wrong.
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Oh. Oh now you get angry? [Not when he was bled out, but now? This will be interesting.]
Malcolm, I ain't sayin' it's right, I'm just sayin' that's the way it is. Yeah. It's a shit situation, but none of us are perfect and I can understand why he feels that way based on the meetin' and your points that you made there. I still don't agree but I do see it.
Can't change what is, you can only set up the next interaction with all this shit in mind.
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Not the ideal situation but it is what it is.
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Look, if you want some company when you talk to Reid, I'll come with you, but you need to sort out your position with him before Lestat is included. Him gettin' to watch you two verbally box isn't good for anyone or anyone's goals here.
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