[As Rose speaks, Ari gets her emotions tightly under control. It's what she expects, after all. If she's weak enough to show that much emotion in front of someone, the best thing they can do is ignore it. It's how things work, along the Tradelines. Nothing but cold logic, then. Shut out the old pain and the hurt feelings, they're irrelevant. She turns back.]
Or I could disagree with what you say, but have no wish to be on bad terms with you as an individual. Do you usually run away when someone disagrees with you? Look at me. Let's talk this through.
[She thinks they can, or at least that it's worth trying. She's much calmer now, despite the blunt words. Whether or not Rose chooses to turn back to face her, she'll keep talking.]
I think you're projecting. You're thinking of bad situations in your past, seeing a superficial similarity, and putting all that on me as if it's just the same. My clothes are the only thing here that is the same as home. If I couldn't handle any change, I'd be curled up helpless on the floor. I flew a starship. This place doesn't even have steam engines. I've never lived on a planet's surface. I've never had to do half the things that are part of my daily routine now.
[She really had done well, handling the lack of technology with a surprisingly cheerful attitude. Having to carry water from the well would make up for the lack of a gym, she'd said, and wasn't it nice to try new foods, and lucky that she'd been taught how to do stellar calculations without the aid of a computer? Not to mention that back home she'd have laughed at the idea of doing any kind of community work without pay, and here she was championing the militia.]
Change isn't always bad, and it isn't always good. Some things are worth preserving, and others aren't. Individuals are always going to disagree on where to draw that line. You've lived so long that it's hardly surprising you won't have the same perspective as me, but that doesn't mean my choices aren't right for me and my life. Even if they wouldn't be for yours.
[Another quick breath.]
And if in all your millennia of life you've never had to think about what a captor might do to someone to slowly break them, twist them until there's nothing left of the person they were? I'm glad for you. I'm glad that whatever other hardships you've had to face, you've never seen that. You want to call my uniform a security blanket? Fine. I've been through hell, I'm keeping my damn blanket.
[Own it, and then it can't be used to hurt you, isn't that the way?]
no subject
Or I could disagree with what you say, but have no wish to be on bad terms with you as an individual. Do you usually run away when someone disagrees with you? Look at me. Let's talk this through.
[She thinks they can, or at least that it's worth trying. She's much calmer now, despite the blunt words. Whether or not Rose chooses to turn back to face her, she'll keep talking.]
I think you're projecting. You're thinking of bad situations in your past, seeing a superficial similarity, and putting all that on me as if it's just the same. My clothes are the only thing here that is the same as home. If I couldn't handle any change, I'd be curled up helpless on the floor. I flew a starship. This place doesn't even have steam engines. I've never lived on a planet's surface. I've never had to do half the things that are part of my daily routine now.
[She really had done well, handling the lack of technology with a surprisingly cheerful attitude. Having to carry water from the well would make up for the lack of a gym, she'd said, and wasn't it nice to try new foods, and lucky that she'd been taught how to do stellar calculations without the aid of a computer? Not to mention that back home she'd have laughed at the idea of doing any kind of community work without pay, and here she was championing the militia.]
Change isn't always bad, and it isn't always good. Some things are worth preserving, and others aren't. Individuals are always going to disagree on where to draw that line. You've lived so long that it's hardly surprising you won't have the same perspective as me, but that doesn't mean my choices aren't right for me and my life. Even if they wouldn't be for yours.
[Another quick breath.]
And if in all your millennia of life you've never had to think about what a captor might do to someone to slowly break them, twist them until there's nothing left of the person they were? I'm glad for you. I'm glad that whatever other hardships you've had to face, you've never seen that. You want to call my uniform a security blanket? Fine. I've been through hell, I'm keeping my damn blanket.
[Own it, and then it can't be used to hurt you, isn't that the way?]