weaponwithoutpurpose

He shrugs.

"'Intense' is - putting it mildly. I don't have an illusions about what we are. I'm not the recruiter. I don't have to sell it."

"I'm not someone anything like that could be sold to." He's not about to join a different god's religion.

"What god do you follow?"

"My brother," he says with a small amount of amusement. He's not serious, but also - he's never followed any other. Not since he was a kid.

He nods, not seeing anything strange in that. "So he's ascended?"

"Not yet. He's a prophet. Hears the Voice. Might be God, might not."

"Oh, I see." That makes sense, and he's not surprised that Jacob would say he follows his brother rather than whatever god his brother might have dedicated himself to. "Why do you say Mr. Lester was... not wrong in his accusations?"

"Cockroaches survive," he says with a hint of intensity.

"I believe they're known for it. So, your group is about... survival?" He supposes it's not so different than most cults he's heard of, if more direct.

"Yes," comes the laughing reply. "The Collapse is coming. By fire. The world will end and we will be ready for it."

"I see." He doesn't know Jacob's world, so there's no reason to assume 'the Collapse' isn't real, whatever it might mean to be ready for that. "All that, and now you find yourself here. It must be an adjustment, but I believe that's true for everyone."

"No. I was always going to end up dead," he says, finishing the whiskey in his flask.

"I was to be my brother's sacrifice. I didn't want to come here."

"Mm. There are others who would have preferred to be left to their death in peace. But he doesn't take requests of that nature, so here everyone lives."

Xie Lian wouldn't chose to bring someone on the Barge who wanted to be dead, but he's working for the Admiral and so doesn't believe in acting as if he isn't complicit in that.

Jacob hadn't wanted to live in the first place. Jacob hadn't wanted to live since he came back from the War.

But he did. He survived, if one could call it that. And he'll do the same here.

"He gave my youngest brother his life back. I suppose he wants the set."

"Oh, was your brother here?" The name had sounded slightly familiar, but that doesn't mean anything. A lot of people share names. "I'm afraid I didn't know him. Not more than the way you end up knowing someone from simply living in the same place."

"Not sure what tye Admural did to him, but he's apparently doing well."

Which he has mixed feelings on and has no intention of exploring.

TLV Inbox

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