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wilson.simon@cdc.org
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<span style="font-family:courier;"><B>FROM:</B> lastname.firstname@cdc.org <B>TO:</B> wilson.simon@cdc.org [[200 max character message here]]</span>	<span style="font-family:courier;"><B>CALLING:</B> WILSON, SIMON</span> [[3 minute max message here]]	<span style="font-family:courier;"><B>(1) VOICEMAIL:</B> WILSON, SIMON [[3 minute max message here]]

Comments

[sequestrated]

That's not fair. Pigeons can be trained. They always go home again.

[needlebearer]

Good for the pigeons.

[If this wasn't text, she'd sound very bitter and sarcastic there.]

[sequestrated]

If they're not dead, of course. That would clip their wings somewhat.

[Some things carry across even text. It was a vivid image, but he's not exactly in a position to judge her for surviving.]

[needlebearer]

All men must die. I suppose that extends to pigeons too.

[sequestrated]

And women as well?

[That boy who worried about sexist language is still here, somewhere.]

[needlebearer]

Yes, women too.

[She appreciates the inclusiveness there.]

[sequestrated]

[Still, it has the air of a proverb, like something he might have picked out to say.]

They say things like that at home. "You only live once".

You know some people here say they died already? That's what they came here from.

[He's thinking of Kagari, mainly, who's so loud and vibrant and makes a point of mentioning it.]

[needlebearer]

I've seen someone brought back from the dead.

[sequestrated]

You have?

[Different worlds, after all. Simon is interested, but he doesn't patronise her with Are you sure?—yet.]

[needlebearer]

Yes. He said he died six times.

[sequestrated]

Is that sort of thing common where you come from?

[He suspects a street trick—but then again, he remembers Gliese's steel collar with sickening vividity.]

[needlebearer]

No. I wish it was.

[sequestrated]

I suppose it would work out well for the pigeons.

[Trying to lighten the mood. Outside, the wind is picking up.]

[needlebearer]

You seem very invested in the pigeons.

[sequestrated]

You did say you broke their necks. It's the sort of image that stays with you.

[Like he didn't shoot a rabbitmouse right in front of her. -10 mood breaking, though.]

[needlebearer]

It's a nicer way of killing than most. They don't feel any pain. They're just dead.

[sequestrated]

Well, it doesn't really matter if they felt pain or not, does it? It's nice to consider it, of course. But you had a need and they were there.

[It doesn't feel like something he would say. But it is the way of the world they share.]

[needlebearer]

You believe that the end justifies the means, then?

[sequestrated]

That's lazy thinking. You're alive, and the pigeon's not. Right?

Besides, everything feeds on something else. That's life.

[needlebearer]

I thought you'd be a little more caring than that. This place must be getting to you.

[She's not calling him out on it. She's actually a little pleasantly surprised. Maybe he's not as much of an idiot as she takes him for.]

[sequestrated]

[She doesn't need to call him out on it; he'll do it to himself. Not for the damned pigeon, but for the message behind it.]

I'm almost hurt. You thought I was going to wring my hands about a pigeon?

[needlebearer]

What if it wasn't a pigeon?

[sequestrated]

[He gives the little message a couple of careful readings before he replies. An animal's an animal, after all; there's no real moral difference. And she's on Red Team at eleven. So.]

People do what they have to, Arya. You do. I do. It's no different for anyone else here.

[needlebearer]

I killed before I came here. I was doing what I had to then. But it's still different to destroying a whole planet.

[sequestrated]

[...and yet, seeing it is different. But how to keep it out of his reply?]

01
It isn't really different. You killed your pigeons, because if you didn't you'd be dead. Self-defence. And somehow I don't believe you killed somebody for fun back home. You care too much.

02
Everyone has something they'd die to protect. That's easy. The question, then, becomes whether you would kill to protect it. And what you'd kill, and how many. I can't make that choice for you.