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 Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 6:20 pm
Melvin have various projects underway and now a fresh one that somehow managed to work in with the previous ones. After he was done with work, he collected a few clamps and straps from the materials lockers and headed down to pick up some Spectre watches that were being used for parts.
That was until he glanced at a open door, stopped, back-pedalled, and stood at the door. Now that was interesting.
"Are you.......handling everything alright?" He didn't elaborate on what exactly he meant.
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Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2017 8:58 pm
Rodney looked up from where he'd been sketching the tanks.
Oh. It was Melvin.
"I don't know," Rodney answered him, going back to outlining what was in front of him. "I'm...not an engineer. Or a magician. It's to help them," he said, tilting his pen gently towards the minipets huddled in their tanks. There wasn't any other reason to do it.
"Lawrence is leaving me," he said tightly.
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 4:01 am
Moving in, he shut the door and walked over, setting the various straps on the counter as he regarded him and his drawing.
"Being an engineer helps and magicians have nothing to do with this. It's nothing you can't learn. I wasn't learning how to runic back home and Lawr wasn't a doctor. Once you have an idea, you can work out the kinks of implication. Automatizing of pet food shouldn't be hard considering people with expensive pets go on business trips and probably don't want their prized goldfishes to die."
Not that he cared about the minipets, but someone trying to improve work in the Life Departments was always a good thing, and if Rodney wanted to try then he wasn't about to burn down that parade.
"He said that? Because you choose to think of people who had died and people he hurt instead of the money and lifestyle he wants?" That wasn't surprising. If Lawr didn't get his way, he often threw tantrums. However, he seemed far more willing to listen to Rodney, much to Melvin's confusion.
"He is just throwing a hissy fit. He needs someone there when he is deciding. If not, he is going to toss whoever he picks away and wind up probably worse off for it."
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:30 am
"Because of the money," Rodney said.
He rankled a little at he needs someone to decide for him.
"He's responsible for his own decisions," Rodney said.
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:39 am
"Yes, because as we heard, he has been doing very well at that."
His fingers went for a strap as he counted the notches. "You don't like my idea? Why?" He watched Rodney as he turned the leather strap in his hands.
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:46 am
Rodney struggled to find a way to put it, and just decided to be frank, "Shock collars don't work for dogs, and they don't work for people. Why don't you stand behind him and give him a bruise, instead? Break an arm. Choke him. It's all the same. It's...control. And I feel like, it's a sex thing. For both of you. ...He had been doing well."
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:03 pm
"Has he choked you then? Or if you feel he gets pleasure from it then why did you decline my offer to make you a bracelet? Can't be painful if it's what you think it is."
"Or do not want him getting those thoughts and feelings from me."
To which he smiled.
"Pain or pleasure its a sensory jolt and is so short as to not harm him. Its for his protection and others. You say he is fine now but he nearly killed a hunter in the last Sahara mission? And where were you to watch him or defend him when the jackals who latch onto his reputation for all blame. He can make decisions though he is basing them on what he feels makes sense without anyone else to offer insight that might be vital. At this point he can't afford to make another wrong move else someone might die or he will be killed. Do you want to see that happen?"
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:22 pm
"No, he hasn't," Rodney said, leaning instictively from the smile. "We all run a race. But each person...must work out their own salvation. No one can run that race for us. I'm not afraid of dying, or of him dying. We will die, and so will you. What happens after that...you can't effect or choose for him. And neither can I."
Rodney was a lot more bristly than usual, but still seemed to have a healthy helping of despair.
"And no, I don't want him getting those thoughts or feelings from you. I don't know why the Doctor allowed it. But in a few days, it won't matter."
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 3:28 pm
"Does it help his salvation then to watch him cut short the races of others? Then again, is it more that I'm robbing him of future chances to make the right choice that will forgive the deaths of those before in order to get his salvation? Is he even concerned about that?"
Rodney had a rather grim world view.
"We don't know what will happen in a few days. Even if Jan gets taken, it won't be the end. And as for those feelings well....he still loves me."
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:26 pm
"Yes," Rodney said more gently, "I know he loves you. He's said so. But...I don't believe that love as a feeling. It's an action. ...And a choice."
Rodney shook his head.
"Violence...and a-abuse aren't the answer."
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:42 pm
His smile dissolved as he watched him.
"Actions and choices, then. For now, these are his actions and choices until future actions and choices come along. What he chooses now might change later. What actions he takes might change. I only hope you are prepared for that. You can believe whatever you want to make up your idea of love and I have my definition. No one has a right answer. It's whatever works for you, and mine has changed so many times from when it started out with him that you better get ready to be flexible."
"When Lawr spoke, he spoke of his own luxury and freedom. A luxury and freedom that allows him to do anything he wants unchecked. Again. Again. Again. He will lie to your face under the excuse of ignorance and omission. No one will defend him because he has burned so many bridges and gained such a poisonous reputation that he has built himself through his actions and choices that he is either going to wind up killed by someone on the island or allowed to die during a mission. I'm offering protection. One you don't seem to give considering I don't see you on missions. At least someone will be there to see for themselves and not the lies of the people who hate him or the half-truths Lawr gives."
"Is it abuse if he wants it and when the harm is something he likes?" He watched him, unsure of what Lawr and Rodney's relationship even was and how it compared. "Whatever you saw during out time together when you were let into our house was something we both agreed upon. I'm not there to kill him. I cherish him a lot."
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 4:54 pm
"Everyone...is a slave," Rodney said. "A-a slave...to the law. To money. To...desire. It...doesn't make you free, to follow those things it just...changes your master. But...you're not his master either, Melvin. This...this isn't about his protection. They...always say that. Th-that they have to...hurt someone. That it's for their own good. It's...just control. It's just for you."
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:02 pm
He stared back. "They? I didn't say that."
"What would you want me to do then? What is your solution to all of this? Just ignore the problem?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:24 pm
"It's...to trust and encourage him. He...wants to make things right. He wants to try. The...minipets being destroyed, would a collar have changed that? It was an accident, you know it was. And you were there with him."
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 5:30 pm
"I was a child with no previous knowledge of the type of person Lawr was and didn't know he killed people before as an adult. I also heard him tell me his parents didn't trust him around other children and then squeeze a minipet as it screamed for it's life in front of me while I told him to stop. He was curious as to what would happen. The same curiosity he shows an an adult that lead him to kill hunters in their pod. What choice would you make if Lawr was in front of you attempting to kill someone? Would you let him continue with that choice because you want to give him that chance?"
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