inthebiblicalsense | TLV IC Inbox

[Wen Ning is still in doctor mode, tones carefully measured and softened, painfully conscientious.]

He's with his warden. Are you alright? Do you need anything?

[Magic is one hell of a drug, he will give it that. His nose is still broke but it's been set and the swelling just isn't there. That doesn't mean there isn't any bruising though, the center of his face forming deep purple and burgundy bruising around his nose and under his eyes.]

I couldn't tell who pulled him off of me, I'm assuming it was you?

[He's trying to not sound so surprised that it's him that did it. He might be taller but he's pretty thin.]

Im about as good as someone who was going to be beaten to death, but at least im not suffering the same way I would back home. Magic is very useful.

[The fact that he just has the pain of his nose and a headache rather than all the other things that would have been tacked on without it makes him feel like he's cheating.]

I just need to think about how I'm moving forward.

[Changing positions isn't an option he's going to consider. He doesn't think it would benefit Jacob or himself if anyone thought he was scared of him after what happened.]

Edited 2024-06-08 14:44 (UTC)

His warden came very promptly after he calmed down and I could call. But it seems like he's not the type to make a public show of whatever they're deciding. There are things you can ask for if you're worried, like a restriction from the admiral.

Who is it? I don't actually know, though I probably should have checked before now. [He needs to be more proactive about things obviously and is frustrated with himself that he hadn't thought to have a talk about Jacob before with who ever.]

I don't know if that's my first move, but I'll talk to his warden about it. Punishment could be seen as retaliation for our opposing views. I'm starting to see some sense in what he told me, if only to find some common ground, though I wish it had come before I set him off. Im...honestly a little confused why he picked just then, I didn't think the last thing I said was inappropriate but I don't know him that well.

I hadn't met him before, either. Norton?

[Wen Ning sounds it out with the slightly ponderous care he usually does with unfamiliar names.]

I'm sorry, I don't have any insight. He was already swinging by the time I made it in.

[Oh. God dammit. He has no idea if it will, but he feels like the conversation he's going to have to have is going to be awkward.] I know him. I'll give him a call when I can think about it a little more.

And that's fine, I didn't really have a good first impression with Jacob anyways. I just wasn't expecting him to react that way...

Violence was punishable by incarceration in the brig no matter your reasoning back home. It changes things moving forward, and is probably a good motivator to do what I've been warned to do multiple times already. [Keeping his mouth shut when he didn't have to share his opinions. He'll try and take it to heart now more than he did before.] Talk isn't just talk and this was a necessary lesson.

Inmates especially don't have any reason to trust the hierarchy here.

[Wen Ning, on balance, likes the barge, but he is emphatically aware of what a loss of autonomy feels like, even if the things you have to do might be the things you'd have opted into anyway.]

Punishment in a real place means something that'll follow you a long time, and lose you what you want for the time that's right in front of you. None of that is so when we're here.

I think that's why I'm so opposed to some kind of magical punishment. The time here is already against their will, it would be more effective if it was personalized, and that makes it worse. What good is it going to do to keep him from harming me again if I do something in retaliation? I feel like that's just encouraging him to be more creative about it next time if he feels so inclined.

But that part is up to Norton to decide, not me.

[He pauses a moment, so used to rubbing his temples, pinching the bridge of his nose as he thinks and neither of those are a good idea right now.]

Maybe I should make some rules for the Gym, line them out clearly as expectations so that the consequence for breaking them is clear before anyone makes a rash decision. Then it's their choice whether the action is worth the consequence. Clear rules and expectations usually lead to more informed decisions... which I would hope would also mean good decisions rather than impulsive ones.

And do you have a plan to enforce those rules, or does that go to the admiral?

[He keeps his tone very mild. Even if there's a particularly good healer at hand, you don't shake off injuries that quickly, not in a healthy way. But that sounds to Wen Ning like kicking the same problem over to a sign.]

There is another advisor in the gym, I've only met her the once, but I think she'd be better at it than I am if it came to that. I...Feel weird about asking the Admiral.

[It's probably because he's still new and he shouldn't be asking anything of his superiors, but he'll have to at some point he's sure.] There are a lot of things I have to consider, people to talk to about this before I make up my mind.

you're not going to stop people from sparring in the gym, right

[He was expecting this, but at least it's from Shaw, not someone he doesn't know that's angry at him about it.]

I wasn't planning on it. Sparring isn't fighting in my opinion, but if you're concerned about it I can add a sticky note addendum as fine print.

[Sephiroth is going to show up at the Gym suspiciously when it's empty save for Abel. This is for reasons. Mostly because it's much easier to ~~threaten~~ talk to someone when they're alone.

And he's going to wait until the right time to come up behind Abel like a looming shadow.]

What is your intentions with Cloud?

[Abel had just been finishing adjusting a cable on one of the machines when Sephiroth snuck up behind him in a way that a man that big shouldn't be able to. When he speaks, he had just been starting to turn around, and it makes him jump, his heart leaping into his throat, hand over his chest.] O-oh my god...What are you-

[And then he hears what Sephiroth is saying to him and that surprise bleeds away. Well then. Abel takes in a steadying breath and straightens himself, looking right up into his eyes.]

That isn't any of your business, Sephiroth.

[He's trying to channel that same energy that Shaw had when she'd talked with Cain. It might be stupid, but not on his watch, Sephiroth. He's not going to let someone do the same thing that happened to him when he has anything to say about it.]

Oh, but it is.

[Sephiroth speaks almost too casually for this. Though his tone is without anger, it's practically a threat. He leans in a bit, almost like he did with Cloud, but not quite as close before moving to the side idly glancing at some of the gym equipment.]

Everything surrounding Cloud is also connected to me. We are bound by many things, including fate. To involve yourself with him also brings you to me.

[He stops moving, his hand resting on a piece of equipment as he finally looks back towards Abel.]

So again I ask, what are your intentions?

[Abel spares a thought for how he keeps having bad first impressions with men who can easily kill him. This isn't any different, but he isn't going to back down. It's important, not just for Cloud, but for himself as well.

His hands curl into fists at his sides, more to keep himself steady than anything, and he keeps that eye contact, tracking Sephiroth's movements. He might be entirely intimidated, but at least it doesn't show on his face.]

This is not a conversation I'm going to have with you, so if you have nothing else to say, we're done.

I see.

[Sephiroth eyes Abel a moment and then picks up one of the weight plates with one hand. Perhaps it's not the heaviest one there, but it's still something not easily picked up as smoothly as he does.

He switches between looking at Abel and looking at the weight, but don't worry he's not going to pummel Abel with it. At least not yet.]

That is unfortunate.

[His fingers curl around it until the weight actually cracks.

And then he just drops it, letting it fall to the floor with a thud before moving to walk off.]

[He watches him with the weight in his hand, that hard expression cracking a little as his eyebrows come together. Was the last thing he was going to see a beautiful man bearing a weight down on his head?]

Put that b- [And then it's in pieces on the floor. The shock of it takes him a second, staring at it before looking up and Sephiroth is already walking away.

He almost yells after him, that he wasn't allowed back after misusing equipment, but he thinks that perhaps this is better solved with his Warden. Sephiroth isn't gone yet, but he can start to feel himself shaking, his fingernails biting into his palms to try and stop the trembling.]

as long as you're not stopping me from offering unarmed self-defense classes, it's cool

Definitely not. I should sit in on one of those myself, honestly.

I just don't want to have to keep cleaning up my own blood and whoever elses off the floor if I can help it. That and with Karlach gone, I don't have much of a chance of stopping a fight in the gym anyways.

I share how I died from musical on ice, so you have to go die in a cooler way. I see how it is.

You better not be reading text messages until you feel less like shit, so the lack of sensitivity is for if you do push yourself.

[He did not in fact wait to feel less like shit, Fitz. Would you expect any different?]

I'd have preferred to die in a dogfight but someone had other plans for me apparently.

I know how time works.

🤒

🕰️

📕

Reading your texts counts as reading right?

Exactly why you shouldn't read them.

Right now.

You can know they're there.

To cherish.

Once you're not sick.

TLV IC Inbox

Maybe an hour after the Incident so as not to crowd him

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does this as an inbox thread because no one can stop me

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since Malcolm mentioned his name in public

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series of texts one after the other

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