This argument is in the middle, it appears to have been escalating for a while, though until now it's just been words.
"How dare you!? You can't treat human lives as playthings!" Rean is raging, it's the angriest you've ever seen him, furious, slamming his hands on a table as he yells at a man--the same one who ordered him to annihilate a village. "People's lives aren't pieces on a board! This isn't chess, you can't just--"
His lecture is cut off, with a furious snarl, some internal command silences him and he glares.
"Will you kill me then yourself? To save the poor innocents? The longer this conflict drags on the more will die. You know that. This victory has shaved months, maybe years off this war. How many countless innocent lives saved? Your morality is limited, you think in such a personal scope. 'I'll save what's in front of me and think about the rest later'? Surely a knightly heroic ideal of the ages, but not one that will ultimately help anyone. Muddling through on chivalry might have worked in the past but this is the modern era."
Rean is furious enough that he breaks the table with a single blow, both of the halves hitting the wall to either side of the man. But he still cannot speak, the ability sealed by the other man's will. Across the bond there's only icy composure.
He grabs the man by the front of his shirt and yells across their telepathic link anyway. Demanding he never do something like this again. Everyone in that town was a civilian, innocent, blameless, children, no justification makes it any less a slaughter.
"This temper tantrum... You are just a weapon in this war. If you cannot accept that I'll help you."
The man stands, and over the bond they share, is a crushing force of will. Iron pressing down on Rean. Rean resists, for a long time, screaming across their telepathic link, trying to make the man see that people are lives worth protecting, not pieces, not necessary casualties. He doesn't argue what he himself is really, there's already part of him resigned. But it hurts when he feels that indeed, he has to obey. And there's a smugness from the man, just a little hint of sadistic satisfaction deeply buried but Rean can feel it, as he drops to his knees. There's a spark of madness in him, something desperate and cruel and hurt and Rean knows that too, even as the man struggles to contain it.
It's harder when they're connected. When Rean's still furious and mourning and guilty and experiencing a tempest of his own emotions. They're linked to each other so the other man's calm is cracking under the pressure of Rean's deep feelings of horror.
The man grabs him by the hair and yanks his head up, as Rean's eyes go a little duller.
"I will command and you will obey. Until you never, ever think of opposing me again."
He shoves Rean down and steps on his face, grinding it beneath his heel, the cold from before cracking, furious and fanatic. He needs control, and Rean is robbing it of him, so he will force it on Rean.
"Don't you dare ever question me again."
There seems to be more but the memory ends.
"There have been other incidents. Some more violent. Some more cruel. Some with lasting repercussions. Not all him of course. It is simply natural that sometimes, two people cannot come to accord, even when ultimately they both want the same outcome."
Re: Dusk
This argument is in the middle, it appears to have been escalating for a while, though until now it's just been words.
"How dare you!? You can't treat human lives as playthings!" Rean is raging, it's the angriest you've ever seen him, furious, slamming his hands on a table as he yells at a man--the same one who ordered him to annihilate a village. "People's lives aren't pieces on a board! This isn't chess, you can't just--"
His lecture is cut off, with a furious snarl, some internal command silences him and he glares.
"Will you kill me then yourself? To save the poor innocents? The longer this conflict drags on the more will die. You know that. This victory has shaved months, maybe years off this war. How many countless innocent lives saved? Your morality is limited, you think in such a personal scope. 'I'll save what's in front of me and think about the rest later'? Surely a knightly heroic ideal of the ages, but not one that will ultimately help anyone. Muddling through on chivalry might have worked in the past but this is the modern era."
Rean is furious enough that he breaks the table with a single blow, both of the halves hitting the wall to either side of the man. But he still cannot speak, the ability sealed by the other man's will. Across the bond there's only icy composure.
He grabs the man by the front of his shirt and yells across their telepathic link anyway. Demanding he never do something like this again. Everyone in that town was a civilian, innocent, blameless, children, no justification makes it any less a slaughter.
"This temper tantrum... You are just a weapon in this war. If you cannot accept that I'll help you."
The man stands, and over the bond they share, is a crushing force of will. Iron pressing down on Rean. Rean resists, for a long time, screaming across their telepathic link, trying to make the man see that people are lives worth protecting, not pieces, not necessary casualties. He doesn't argue what he himself is really, there's already part of him resigned. But it hurts when he feels that indeed, he has to obey. And there's a smugness from the man, just a little hint of sadistic satisfaction deeply buried but Rean can feel it, as he drops to his knees. There's a spark of madness in him, something desperate and cruel and hurt and Rean knows that too, even as the man struggles to contain it.
It's harder when they're connected. When Rean's still furious and mourning and guilty and experiencing a tempest of his own emotions. They're linked to each other so the other man's calm is cracking under the pressure of Rean's deep feelings of horror.
The man grabs him by the hair and yanks his head up, as Rean's eyes go a little duller.
"I will command and you will obey. Until you never, ever think of opposing me again."
He shoves Rean down and steps on his face, grinding it beneath his heel, the cold from before cracking, furious and fanatic. He needs control, and Rean is robbing it of him, so he will force it on Rean.
"Don't you dare ever question me again."
There seems to be more but the memory ends.
"There have been other incidents. Some more violent. Some more cruel. Some with lasting repercussions. Not all him of course. It is simply natural that sometimes, two people cannot come to accord, even when ultimately they both want the same outcome."