ladyfrownsalot | 000 🌑 IC Inbox

Like a bloodhound, he narrows in on that second phrase.

"That. Let's start with that. Why you think I or anyone else wants you to be a loyal doormat."

"Not you. The Admiral, I guess. And basically everybody back home. Because back when I was that, I wasn't a problem."

"...I'm going to go out on a limb and say that I don't think that's what the Admiral wants. But I'm curious who you were a 'problem' to."

Cassandra scoffs into her teacup.

"Everybody you saw in my memory, for one thing. All her friends. Her whole kingdom."

"You seemed to be allied with them at the time," he points out, since that's what he saw, "whatever her choices might have been."

Her eyes narrow.

"Yeah. I was. And then I had to relearn how to do everything with my left hand, because she couldn't just trust me. She was - she thought she was my best friend. But that's not how it is anymore."

"And that is where you started being trouble. By not... blindly accepting her choice. That her choice had maimed you. If I have that right."

"That was when I knew I couldn't trust her. I started being trouble when I took the Moonstone."

Ugh, more explanation.

"...It was meant to be her job to take it, her destiny, because she had its opposite. The Sundrop. She'd been warned that letting them make contact might kill her but she didn't care."

"I'm curious who decided this was her destiny or if it was some vaguely hinted at piece of information from a cave wall or a book or something."

Because there's being trouble for people in the present and then there's being trouble for magical whatever.

"Or why they'd decide that if it would kill her."

Cassandra lifts her eyebrows in his direction.

"She believed it and she marched right up to take the thing anyway. Does all that other stuff matter?"

Jon's going to sort of... glance sideways before he looks back at Cassandra.

"...I hope you won't be upset if I'm starting to doubt your friend is very bright." A pause. "But yes, it rather does."

Edited 2021-07-02 18:28 (UTC)

Cassandra barks out a harsh laugh.

"It's not that she's dumb. She's just...out there, not listening to good advice, taking any opportunity she can to sacrifice herself for the greater good."

Ah.

Ah.

Well, things do seem to be making more and more sense now, don't they?

"She doesn't see the value in herself. Even though you keep trying to tell her or" he glances at her glove, "show her. Make her realize what she's doing."

"Yeah. But it's no surprise. She was kidnapped when she was a baby. Kept in a literal tower for eighteen years and used for the powers she was born with, and all the time her 'mom' was raising her to think that she was only worth anything if she was useful. And yeah, she escaped, but some things you just can't get away from."

"No," he agrees, "but there comes a point where you're hurting other people with it, such as that scene I saw during the flood. And at that point, it's no longer an excuse. What she did to you was wrong. What she did was stupid. Her past explains that, but it doesn't give her carte blanche to swing her own trauma around like a club and inflict it on others."

He sips his cooling tea.

"And I say that as someone who had to learn that lesson myself."

Cassandra is just silent for several moments, because people back home just don't use words like 'wrong' or 'stupid' to describe Rapunzel.

"...It doesn't matter anymore. I'd say I don't care what she does? But she did probably kill me, and that bothers me a little."

Yes, and Jon is catching on from that silence that no one's validated her feelings on this the whole time. Right now, he couldn't give an entire rainbow-colored unicorn fart about Rapunzel's feelings.

His tone, however, is a little gentler.

"...it matters to you. So yes, it matters. In fact, I'm going to go a step further and point out that you matter. That's what all of this is about, Cassandra. Not about what 'problem' you are to others."

He sighs and finishes off his cup before putting it down, reaching over to pour out a little more for himself. It won't have the milk, but he'll live.

"My particular problem makes it terribly inelegant to get information, but I'd love to hear more about why it'd 'bother' you, dying to her."

"...Because I'm dead. And I'm here. On the stupid space boat."

She gives him a look that adds it's not that complicated, guy.

He'll look back, very skeptical.

"Well, if you want one observation from a warden, here's your first: you're very quick to decide things 'don't matter' but I think it's much more that 'that's the way everyone says they are and I can't change that'. The second one? You think it's easier to pretend that nothing phases you than deal with the things that make you uncomfortable. Looking at them makes you even more uncomfortable. Add the two together to get three, and I'm going to come to the conclusion that you've always had your feelings, your ambitions, your beliefs and your thoughts placed firmly behind that of others and while you're livid about it, some part of you believes it too."

And he'll only pause for a moment before-

"Let me know if I hit anything. Preferably not by hitting me."

Cassandra just shrugs.

"Yeah. You're right. What, do you think I'm gonna get mad at you for noticing stuff? It doesn't change anything I've said."

"...you would be incredibly surprised how very very angry people can be about it."

He coughs and shakes that off, though.

"The problem being that one, no one can agree on anything in this damn place and literally everything can be changed here. Two: this place is going to take everything you're uncomfortable about and smush your face in it, and the faces of others, as you saw. So it hardly makes sense to leave all those open wounds on yourself. And three: this entire process, everything here, everything we're going to do here... has absolutely nothing, not one spec of a thing, to do with Rapunzel. Or 'destiny'. Your feelings, ambitions, and beliefs are what we're here for. It's the focus. If you don't like them, then that's what we need to work on. If you do, we need to figure out how that fits with the Admiral's desires."

Cassandra frowns at him.

"If you had to warden somebody from your world who'd spent a lot of time around your Entity things, would you say they had absolutely nothing to do with the 'entire process' either?"

She's probably a little surprised to see something of a smile on his face.

"Observation four: you're more likely to argue than to answer. Thankfully, I'm used to being wrong so I'm not all that broken up about it. I'd love to hear about your 'Entity'."

"Answer what, Jonny? You didn't ask a question: I did. Answer mine."

"The most accurate answer," he admits, "is that I never would warden for anyone from my world. There are two inmates here from it, and I'd recuse myself immediately, as one of them is my predecessor and the other one is someone I greatly respect, though... I can see why he's here as an inmate all the same."

He folds his hands again.

"But what you're getting at, well... it would certainly inform it. But only the same way that any experience does. It plays a part. But it's not the be all and end all. It's not an explanation."

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