slaughtered moments and useless tales [CLOSED]

[shieldofrohan]

Who| Éowyn and Jack; Éowyn and Roland
What| Jack comes to visit Éowyn; Roland has injuries and Éowyn has Healer training.
Where| Detainment Center
When| After the D7 mission
Warnings/Notes| TBD

[Jack]
Since her outburst after the District 12 fighting, Éowyn has been keeping her head down. It hasn't been easy or comfortable, and if she was only living for herself, she would never have made it this far. But they have the Ring. Perhaps more than one. That thought, dark and horrific though it is, keeps her going through days which seem to blur into one dull, too-bright morass. She isn't living for herself, not now. She's living for them. For all the people who will suffer and die if the Capitol can unlock the power of Sauron's Ring.

She still can't bear the idleness, though. She's been pacing in her cell non-stop when she's trapped there, muttering under her breath, mentally composing letters to her brother and her husband and even to Théoden. She talks occasionally to the other inmates, particularly Firo, but even then, she's restless, constantly moving. She braids and unbraids her hair probably twenty times a day, just for something to do.

She's surprised to hear she has a visitor. Surprised, and relieved for the break in routine. It's the first time since she came here that she's had any real contact from anyone but her fellow prisoners.

When she sees it's Jack, though, her jaw tenses visibly. "Finally deigned to see where they put your fellows, did you?" Her hostility is audible.

[Roland]
She hates the thought of the fighting. It's taking place, she knows, in civilian areas, and part of her almost thinks to ask them whether they'll let her go as a Healer. That, she would be willing to do, even for her captors. But they'd be mad to let her, and she refuses to grovel to them. Not for this. Not for anything.

So she waits, and paces, and hopes for the rebels to win a swift victory, without too much blood shed. And when the drafted fighters come back, she's there at once, as much from a hunger to know how it went as from any finer feeling. When she sees Roland is hurt, she makes a beeline for him. "How bad is it?"

Comments

[drinkupmehearties]

Despite himself, and damn it all to hell now that he's looking her in the eye, seeing the ragged state the Capitol and its recent treachery has put her in, Jack is having a hard time keeping that usual steady, unruffled air about him. He's unable -- unwilling, more like -- to admit the notion out loud to anyone or himself, but he's more than a little concerned about her. And it pains him to see her brought down like this.

"Here, aye, and alive. I wanted to see it with me own eyes." Knowing how she is, knowing the vast contempt she has for the Capitol, he'd wondered if she would have even survived being detained. But perhaps he should've listened to his gut and stayed far away from here, saved himself the trouble, the inevitable confrontation about the choices he's made. Yet at the same time, some part of him always seemed to be a glutton for this type of punishment.

"I've only done what's best for me own survival, luv." He starts, by way of explanation, "Whether you hate me for it or not."

[shieldofrohan]

"I hate you for it," she cuts across him. "I pity you, and despise you for it, into the bargain. Have you nothing you hold dearer than survival, than waxing fat and gilding your cage's bars?"

She shouldn't be so blunt, and she knows it. She still needs to bide her time, to keep herself in a position to escape when the chance arises. She needs to lull them into a false sense of security or, at the very least, not anger them enough to make her situation worse. But right now, looking at him, her anger and upset and sense of betrayal is bubbling over, making it impossible to bridle her tongue. "I thought better of you, Jack. I thought there might be some honour in you, though it might lurk very deep. But I thank you for ridding me of that illusion."

[drinkupmehearties]

A tightened smile flickers across his mouth at the last of what she says, a wholly unapologetic expression. "Aye, well. We all make mistakes once in awhile, don't we. Best to just learn from it." He doesn't pretend to even defend against the point or act affronted; honor has always been a fluid concept to him, flowing (most times) in whichever way would benefit him the most.

Jack inclines his chin some. "There ain't anything else of import, here, than surviving and finding me way home, luv. They've promised a way back, and I'll take my chances with it. Better than sitting around and rotting, hoping a bullet doesn't find its way into me."

[shieldofrohan]

Her lips press together tightly. She hates that he's so callous, so jaded, so... right. Without what she knows about the Rings, she doesn't feel the same holds true for her. But he doesn't know that, can't know it, and from his point of view... yes. Yes, she can see where he's coming from.

If she follows that train of thought, she's going to cry, and if she cries, she will forgive him. She tightens her jaw and hardens her heart, and when she speaks, her voice is clipped and cool.

"They have promised you? And you would place your trust in their promises? In them?" She shakes her head. "If you believe for one moment they will give up so valuable a bargaining chip as your freedom, you are a greater fool than I took you for."

[drinkupmehearties]

Maybe if Jack had any sense of tact in a situation like this -- because, really, deep down, he knows she has every right to be furious with him -- he'd soften his words or tone. But his great sense of pride and ego has him balking at the idea that his decision is anything but the right one, and thus her coolness is met in equal with his own.

"I've no choice but to, that's been made clear as day these past few months. I'd rather gamble on the certainty of a way home, knowing what the Capitol is capable of in all their ways, more'n a group that'd poison us and scramble about shooting innocents in cold blood on TV just for the pleasure of it. The lot of them ain't any better than the Capitol, I'd say, and much less well equipped to win this." It was a matter of practicality, in his mind. Neither side had shown him anything worth fighting for, so he'd rather throw his lot in with the likely victor and hope, when the dust settled, that he'd make it out alive with what he wants.

[shieldofrohan]

"I do not doubt they have the ability to send you home," Éowyn says, her voice steady. "Nor that they would, if it served them best. But you are surely not fool enough to think that they will see it as their best course. Why, when they can hold it over you for evermore and bleed you dry of all that is valuable to them?" Her lip curls. "As for shooting innocents... have you so quickly forgotten the District children? Perhaps they did not shoot them, but the Capitol sentenced them to death no less surely. No, you delude yourself." She presses her lips tight enough to go white, shaking her head. She didn't mean to speak so boldly, but it's hard to bridle her tongue like this. "Go on deluding yourself, if it lets you sleep at night. But expect no help in it from me."

She draws herself to her full height, looking down imperiously at him. "We are done talking. Leave."

[drinkupmehearties]

He regards her with impassive stare, unmoved. "I've not forgotten that, or the wrongness of what they've done to us. But I've no mind to place me trust, likewise, in a bunch of blundering, desperate fools that've shown themselves to be no better in nature." The Capitol was the monster that he understood; and the rebels, in turn, had done nothing to convince him their side had much value. It's simple enough to him -- either path has him fighting a battle that he'd rather have no part in.

At her dismissal, the pirate taps his temple with two fingers. "As you'd like, luv. Good fortune attend you, keep yourself safe in all this madness." And with that Jack turns, leaving.