(no subject)

[marcato]

WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, SATURNSCHILD. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 001.00.653.90 *** SATURNSCHILD has joined 001.00.653.90 <saturnschild> Hello. <saturnschild> I'm listening.

Comments

< r.gardner >

[sweartoyou]

Things to make cake. I was going to bake some with Reira since she’s helping me with something.

[Guess who your “daughter” is still friends with...]

<saturnschild>

[marcato]

[Beat.]

You should know that I don't approve of your friendship with her, dear Rachel. She's dangerous.

< r.gardner >

[sweartoyou]

Not really. She's just not very smart, sometimes. It takes time for her to learn from her lessons.

But I believe her when she says she learned her lesson after what happened between the two of you, when the demon with the black hat manipulated her. She was disappointed when I told her there probably wasn't a way to make it up to you that would be satisfactory.

Besides, I don't have very many friends. She's someone that doesn't understand why, but she does understand that people like you and Zack are very special to me. She doesn't try to change my mind. I'm grateful to her for that.

<saturnschild>

[marcato]

Would you like to make a deal, Rachel? I'd like us to make a deal.

< r.gardner >

[sweartoyou]

I'd like to hear what it is.

<saturnschild>

[marcato]

Of course you would, Rachel. You're a smart girl. You'd never agree to a deal without hearing the terms.

You can remain friends with Reira, dear Rachel. You can bake cakes together, watch movies, and go on walks. But if she steps out of line, I'll kill her. And you won't complain.

Isn't that fair?

< r.gardner > cw domestic violence (spousal and child)

[sweartoyou]

Right.

[There's a brief flutter, not quite pride or joy, but something positive all the same at the fact that he makes note of her decision without finding fault in it. She was a smart girl. If she wasn't and blindly agreed, she wouldn't be the kind of person he found interesting or worth dealing with.

Everyone likes having someone on their side, but it was the little differences that offered perspective and the ability to grow. She'd learned that in that place, working with Zack instead of those that had feelings and urges more in line with hers, or that gave her everything she wanted simply for the fact she wanted it.]

That sounds reasonable. [And like what Reira wants in the hopes of making things even anyway.] Does discussing it after count as complaining?

I also want to be sure you won't take what we're doing as her going out of line. Will you listen?

[Having been in her memories before, he should remember that kind of request -- a girl with no expression and a slow, quiet voice trying to get the attention of a yelling father, and once he'd left, a frantic, beaten mother. When asked if she would listen, her mother instead grabbed her by the hair to throw her to the side, berating her for making her life miserable and ordering her to her room. Ray was cut off before she could finish her question of whether listening to her mother would mean being heard in return.

Not listening had been a problem, in their home. One of many, of course, but it was this that stood out to Ray more as something that would have been a simple solution, and why it was that memory that had surfaced at his probing all that time ago.]