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[howtheyshine]

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[howtheyshine]

Do you actually care if I am? Or are you trying to make a point?

There's a coldness in it that's never been there before, ever.

[greatoldjohn]

Do you actually think I don't care?

[howtheyshine]

I don't know, John. You didn't say anything when Richter was bragging about killing a fellow warden like he'd just brought home a bear or a wolf in its prime.

[greatoldjohn]

Ah.

There's a long silence.

So because I didn't address something the way you feel I should have, that means I don't care about you or about Godric and I approve of what Richter said. Is that what you meant?

[howtheyshine]

Don't put words in my fucking mouth.

It means 'I don't know.'

[greatoldjohn]

I didn't put words into your mouth.

I asked, the same as you.

And I added my context to what you mentioned.

Before this, did you think I cared?

[howtheyshine]

A silence, and the coldness this time is a little more clearly what it is: the same defiance that answered John's presence at the edge of Richter's dream. The same marrow-deep rage with nowhere to go.

Of course I think you care. I just think you care too much about the fucks who don't care at all.

[greatoldjohn]

How can you care too much? What does that mean?

[howtheyshine]

When does human malice go past the point of forgiveness for you, when the malice is directed toward the things humans consider your own kind?

[greatoldjohn]

What's the alternative?

He lets that hang between them for a moment before he continues.

Forgiveness doesn't mean what they did was okay. Forgiveness doesn't mean they don't need to change.

It means that I know they can change. Be better.

What's the alternative to that?

[howtheyshine]

I'm not forgiving him. I know he can change, and I know he doesn't want to.

He called me a monster when we first met. I asked him why and he said it was because I wasn't human. I'm tired of giving grace to these arrogant fucks who don't give it to anything that doesn't walk and talk and think like they do.

How many times should we be bitten before we fucking muzzle the animal doing it?

[greatoldjohn]

So you agree with him?

[howtheyshine]

What the fuck does that mean?

[greatoldjohn]

'How many times should we be bitten before we fucking muzzle the animal doing it?'

He set Godric on fire because he was biting him.

What's the difference?

[howtheyshine]

The difference is everything that came first.

[greatoldjohn]

Can you explain?

Because I don't see how.

[howtheyshine]

I talked to him, I asked him questions, I tried to understand, I tried to tell him why what he said was shitty, and he ignored me, and ignored me, and ignored me, and clearly continued to look down on anything he viewed as 'less' than human.

How long should I try to love things that hate me, John? You said when I came here that I didn't owe Arthur kindness. So why now do I owe it to the human who won't admit how much it delights in murdering anything it can justify?

[greatoldjohn]

You don't owe anyone anything.

It isn't an obligation. It's a choice. I stand by that.

There's a difference, a big one.

You talked to him... but did you listen to him?

Listen. Not agree. Not condone.
Not coddle. Just listen.

[howtheyshine]

I tried.

And then I stopped trying.

I could only drink so much poison willingly.

[greatoldjohn]

Poison?

It hurt you to listen?

[howtheyshine]

To hear everything Arthur said at his worst repeated by someone who believes it on an average day?

Yes, brother, it fucking hurt.

[greatoldjohn]

I'm sorry it hurts you. I'm sorry he hurt you.

[howtheyshine]

I'm not sorry I killed him, and I never will be.

[greatoldjohn]

John is very quiet for a long moment.

So killing him is okay? Because he's a monster?

[howtheyshine]

Killing Godric was apparently something to be proud of.

At least I'm not bragging about breaking his fucking limbs.