Quoted By:
>Mindspace
You look at Gil. "Do you want to kill him?"
It takes a moment for him to respond. "What?"
Is it not obvious? "He brainwashed you! And stole your siphons! And he made the cruddy manse that turned you into beetles! He should be your sworn nemesis, Gil. That's how it works."
"I don't think he personally made the cruddy beetle manse, Lottie."
"Okay, but he was responsible for it!" You cross your arms. "That'd be close enough for me, if he were <span class="mu-i">my</span> nemesis. But he was mostly nice to me, since I was possessing his guest—"
"<span class="mu-i">What?</span>"
Oh. You didn't tell him about that yet, did you? "I was possessing Jean Ramsey's vile lackey! Everard! Don't worry about that. He's dead now. Anyways, I was saying, Casey was nice to me, so he can't be my nemesis. But you..."
"I don't want to kill him," Gil says. "But thanks for thinking of me. Did you want to kill him?"
"No." You waver. "I mean... he probably deserves it... for what he did to you! Plus everybody else! But Ellery said it wasn't his fault, so, um..."
"Are your heroic convictions at an impasse?"
"Are you making fun of me?"
"No."
"Then... yes!" You flourish. "My heroic convictions are at an impasse! Thank you, my loyal retainer. I think it could go either way here, er, heroically speaking. But you said you didn't want to kill him—?"
"I think there's a decent chance the original guy's been completely eaten, or subsumed, in which case he should be put out of his misery. I think there's also a decent chance that, if you did fish out some CFK, he'd be totally dysfunctional."
"Like Ellery!" you say.
"...Yeah, but not Ellery now. Ellery, you know..." Gil gestures around for a polite phrasing. "...before Anthea got to him."
"<span class="mu-i">Nude?</span>"
"Not literally! I mean brain-damaged. Where it'd take serious work to get him in shape, and I don't know if anybody's interested in taking that on, considering what he's been responsible for. The point is, that's another possibility. Then the third possibility is that there is a guy, mostly sane, who is trapped in there. And he's been stuck watching Management fuck up everything he knows for a decade, and if we killed him now he'd never get any peace. And I don't think that's a big possibility, but I think it's critical enough that it'd be— it'd be wrong to kill him without finding out."
You try to spot any life in Casey's eyes, but they're like two marbles. "You've really thought about this."
"I do that a lot. Thanks for wanting my opinion." He smiles.
"Of course! I always want to know what my favorite retainer thinks! Wait." You stop dead. "You're not being biased by your paganness, are you? Because that'd be exactly like its corrupting influence, to make you not want to take revenge on your—"
"I'm sure it doesn't help, but I can't imagine I ever would've wanted to kill him." Gil shrugs. "I don't go for vengeance as readily as you do, Lottie. No offense."
(1/2?)
