[Closed]

[stalwartcane]

Characters: Rhode, Watson, open to Mukuro
Location: Rhode and Mukuro's apartment
Rating: Giiiiirl
Time: Jan 21st, morning
Description: Watson comes by to see how his patient is doing.


It was going to be a day spent outdoors today, he felt. Many of the patients from the European missions had left the clinic's premises, as well as other patients from before that, and Watson was following up on their whereabouts one by one. Some of them would fail to come in for a check if it was convenient for them to forget the appointment, after all.

The first on his list was one Rhode Kamelot (and perhaps her partner if he was present -- Rokudo Mukuro had been his patient for some few days). He stood outside the girl's door at the moment, making sure that he had the correct address before knocking with his cane.

Comments

[suchselfishness]

Rhode hummed quietly at his answer, ready to comment- but she stopped when he continued talking, eyes narrowing ever so slightly at his choice of words. It wasn't offensive, personally, but she didn't really like the tone of the inquiry.

"Isn't everyone's personality deliberate? You show people what you want them to see. And you change what you show them depending on how you want them to react. Like you, right now. You're being polite, even though you don't seem to like me very much." She shrugged one shoulder, picking absently at a loose loop of yarn on her blanket with one hand. "Unless you're paying attention to more important things. Then personality doesn't matter very much at all."

[stalwartcane]

"I like you well enough," he said with a chuckle. "I admit that I don't care much for your manners, but you're more honest than most, and caring towards those you consider your friends. I value that quality highly, loyalty and care, even if shown only to a select few. Besides," Watson added, sitting back in his armchair. "I've lived with Sherlock Holmes for a very long time, my dear, and had station in an army to boot -- personality doesn't matter very much at all.

"But as for intention -- I've not quite made up my mind if I should agree with you or not. To deny it would be ignorant, yet to agree would surely lead to the question: Why do you make yourself out to be so unlikeable, then? In your perception, you believe that I do not like you, after all."

[suchselfishness]

"I don't set out to make myself unlikeable. I just don't like most people, and I haven't any reason to pretend I do. It's no fault of mine if people don't care for it." She obviously didn't see anything wrong with her reasoning, sitting back a bit farther into her pillow stack with a tired little sigh. "Most people in this city are idiots, anyways, and I think idiots are annoying and dull."

[stalwartcane]

Watson laughed.

He didn't mean to, truly, but what she said was so reminiscent of what he could imagine Holmes would say as a child that he couldn't help himself.

"Oh, I do apologize," Watson mumbled, trying to keep his amusement under control. "It's just that you sound like someone I know."

[suchselfishness]

Rhode blinked at him, not entirely sure how to take the fact that he was laughing at her.

Not many people did that. She didn't even think she'd said anything very amusing.

"... Someone you know?" Parroting wasn't a very clever reaction, but she didn't know what else she could respond with.

[stalwartcane]

"Yes, indeed," he replied, easing himself further to sink a bit into the seat. It was nice to be comfortable; it almost felt like proper rest. "My friend, Sherlock Holmes, acts in much the same way. He's much caressed for his skills, however, despite his personality, and he knows when to be charming."

[suchselfishness]

"Charming."

She made a derisive little noise at the word, apparently taking his use of the term as an implication that she was anything but charming.

"What reason is there to be charming- or diplomatic, or whatever else you'd call it- in this place? It's a war. Nobody's paying attention to that sort of thing."

[stalwartcane]

"I would think that a war is an important time to make allies. After all, you're going to constantly be placed in a situation where you or your friends might need assistance." Like medical assistance, for example. Watson only shrugged, however, because he had only been interested in asking, not really persuading her to be anymore pleasant than she already decidedly was not.

[suchselfishness]

"We have allies."

Not a lot, though. Most of them were Mukuro's, really. She didn't let the fact that she was actually considering his words show in her expression, though- Digging around for that bag of candies in her pile of blankets.

"Why do people suddenly decide to be someone's ally just because they're nice, anyways? Feeling like you're obligated to save useless people just because they're nice, even if they're stupid and nice."

[stalwartcane]

"Because nice people are less likely to turn their back on you when you need them, I suppose. It's a false assumption, of course, but what is common is what people assume to be truth. Besides," he added, tilting his head to the side in some thought. "You can't entirely say that any person is completely useless in war. Even the youngest and frailest of children have their uses and cannot be discounted."

[suchselfishness]

"They have all kinds of uses. If they can't fight, they can sew bandages. And I suppose if the laws hadn't changed, between the times in our worlds and this one, they could be making weapons or whatever else they need to fight the war." Ah, there was her candy. She started digging through for a particular wrapper color, picking out a blue piece. "But making children useful in a war isn't very nice, by most standards."

[stalwartcane]

"War leaves us with few choices, and very rarely nice ones," he shrugged. "Shibusen itself employs children to fight in the war, does it not? In the front lines, to protect armies. And then it's turned to outsiders like us."

Watson shifted to stretch his aching leg in front of him, absentmindedly rubbing at the knot on his thigh where a bullet had once gone.

[suchselfishness]

"I don't particularly like Shibusen, children or no. I do find it a bit odd that nobody thinks that kind of logic is flawed, though. Sacrificing their children before people they don't even know."

She paused for a moment, staring down at her bag of candy for a moment. The fact that he was rubbing his leg didn't escape her attention, though- After a moment, she pulled out a yellow piece (the type she didn't like, and ended up setting aside anyways), and tossed it onto the coffee table between them.

"But if they didn't have the Witches, there would be other wars going on. Humans love fighting each other for all kinds of reasons."

[stalwartcane]

"When the children are strong than ten of them, it becomes their duty to protect. It's a common enough concept in many parts of the world, surprisingly. I've worked with soldiers barely out of puberty, myself."

He raised his eyebrows at the candy and reached for it, the wrapper crinkling between his fingers.

"Thank you," Watson said, fiddling with it for a moment. "And while my better nature would like to deny that statement, experience tells me that it's sadly very true."

[suchselfishness]

"So even if people are nice, they can't make enough nice things happen to get rid of all the bad in the world."

Rhode grimaced slightly at his thanks, twisting her own wrapper into a long piece before tying it into a tiny knot.

"You're much easier to deal with when you're a dog, you know. Much less talking."