deadly_ned | 005 - Three Plum

[Locked to Thomas MacLaine]

We should probably...I don't know, talk at some point.

Um. My name is Ned. I'm your.

Warden.

Could I please come over.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

meanstwin

[This, Thomas understands, and is more than proud to start describing, though this time he's more cautious with the plate.]

At work, I made what everybody eats. Fried chicken, scalloped potatoes, biscuits... I even have a method for curing my own ham. You wouldn't believe what you can do in your refrigerator, if you ask the right people.

[He's starting to get ahead of himself and stops for a moment.]

After hours, I liked seeing what I could come up with. Carol always wanted something new, and she wanted me to watch the bar, too, so I had to get creative.

From:

deadly_ned

[And this, no surprise, is a much easier subject than the file they're both avoiding. The Piemaker manages a shy smile of his own, listening to Thomas explain food. He recognizes that same passion in himself and thinks, well, maybe the Admiral hadn't paired them accidentally after all.

But he knows he has to bring down the unfortunate hammer of reality sooner or later, and searches for the right segue that won't immediately cause Thomas to withdraw in on himself]

I like to, um. Invent things too. Devices for...making life easier.

Just not usually with food.

From:

meanstwin

[That's a conversational hook right there, and Thomas was raised to be a very nice, polite boy, so he grabs it.]

Then what for? What else do you do?

From:

deadly_ned

I have a dog. Digby. You can meet him if you want; I just left him in my room because you know, you don't know who's a dog person and who's a cat person and the two don't usually see eye-to-eye with each other and better to let sleeping dogs lie than to risk a potentially offensive situation..

...Anyway. I'm...deathly allergic to him, so I can't actually touch him, so when he wants to be petted I sort of use this...device I invented so he can get scritches on the ear and not have to feel like no one loves him.

From:

meanstwin

[Thomas's eyes noticeably widen, and he manages to slide in a "no, no, that's all right", but Ned's story is sadder than any of his own fears.]

...that's very clever, actually. He's all right with it?

From:

deadly_ned

He gets along. We get along. He's very well-behaved.

...I won't bring him over. He'll stay in my room, you won't have to see him.

From:

meanstwin

It's... that would be best.

[At night, when it rains, the dogs come out. No one ever talks about it, but Thomas has heard the bellowing since he was small, even seen them through his window, twenty feet tall with eyes like headlights, when he dared to look through his curtains one night. And that was before what Willie did.

He doesn't know if Ned knows this, and isn't about to say.]

I'm sure you have a very good dog.

From:

deadly_ned

He is a good dog.

[And he knows to keep away from people who don't want to touch him. Hesitantly, the Piemaker reaches forward and picks up the file from the table]

I, um.

I guess we should talk about this now.

...Before we start, I just want to know. Is there anything...off-limits, or not up for discussion..? Sometimes things are too painful to, uh. To talk about right away and I didn't want to force you into something you weren't ready for.

From:

meanstwin

[That Ned would even ask surprises him, but that type of shock he's learned to tamp down; it isn't the same visceral fear as blood or dogs. Even answering is talking about it, though, so he shakes his head limply, hands twisting in his lap.]

From:

deadly_ned

...Okay.

Okay, let's...talk.

Not to get all...judgy judge psychiatrist on you but I'm sort of curious and forgive me if this is asking too much too fast but..

Why do you think you're here?

From:

meanstwin

[Thomas has put a lot of thought into this, but the truth is too much for someone he barely knows.] I tried to kill someone. And I knew someone else was, too, and... I should have known it wouldn't stop.

From:

deadly_ned

[The Piemaker understood the need for secrets. He too had secrets he'd kept for twenty years; secrets he wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with strangers either. He won't yet force Thomas to reveal his own]

Premeditated murder would be a big, um. Reason.

I'm more curious why you wanted to kill that someone.

From:

meanstwin

Ever since I met her... she'd been in the way. [Again, he tries to keep it superficial. She'd shown up at the most inconvenient time that day, the worst officer to try to break out Agent York from where Thomas was keeping him, but that wasn't everything. Even when she'd come to town as a high school kid and he was a couple years ahead of her, she'd gotten his attention, and the more she turned him down, the more he could only talk about her, even to Thomas or Carol. The two of them had been good enough until then.]

From:

deadly_ned

Who'd been in the way?

[The Piemaker knew exactly who, from reading the file. But he hadn't heard Thomas say her name yet]

Edited Date: 2013-04-21 03:56 am (UTC)

From:

meanstwin

Her name was Emily. I worked with her. It didn't have to be her, not that day...

... but I think it would have ended like that with us somehow.

From:

deadly_ned

Did you hate her?

From:

meanstwin

Do you already know the answer?

From:

deadly_ned

I think it's rude to assume I know the emotions of other people based on an incomplete short story someone wrote about their life without their permission or input.

From:

meanstwin

I didn't know how much you knew. [Didn't want to know, really, or to ask, because asking meant talking.] I-i'm sorry.

From:

deadly_ned

To be honest, I don't know how much I know either. I know...facts. I don't know emotions, or...reasoning, or how you feel, or how to help. People don't - shouldn't - come with instruction manuals on how to put them back together.

Please don't be sorry. Not to me.