[There's a pause as Eight takes in the message, the subtle tones in the background completely lost to the current poor state of his hearing.
Once he thinks he's got the message, he responds.]
I was glad to do it, Jack. I couldn't let you get yourself killed. And yes, Ianto did contact me about it. Nice fellow. Great coffee, even if it isn't my usual beverage of choice. He seemed so proud of it, I couldn't say no.
He would've killed me himself, if I'd gotten myself killed. It was stupid, but I wasn't thinking. [He pauses, and then laughs a little, although the sound is somewhat hollow.] Best coffee in all of time and space. Be honored, not everyone gets the chance to have Ianto Jones' coffee.
[He doesn't answer the second part immediately. It comes a little later.]
They play with people's lives here, Doctor. Like we're toys, for someone's amusement. Kill someone and they just come back. Send someone home, and they might come back. Or they might just be gone.
People rarely think when they're consumed by grief.
[Doesn't he know it. Frankly, he'd like the grief to stop for once.
He responds with a startled voice, first about how wrong he is and secondly about why this suddenly came up.]
Jack, they're not playing. The "gods" don't send people home, they lose their hold on them. I've had enough conversations with the more trustworthy members of that pantheon to know that it isn't under their control.
We're in a war here, Jack, and that war is going very badly. Odin has been lost to them, and their home and people are falling apart. Do you really think "amusement" is high on their agenda recently?
I don't know what's on their agenda. War does funny things to people; you know that, Doctor, you've seen war before. You've seen some of the things people do during war that they would never do at any other time. And they're playing with the lives of people I care about Doctor. I-
[The words were heated, more so than the emotion he'd shown before, but now he cuts off. He doesn't want to be angry at the Doctor, and not this Doctor. Who'd been there for him, who's also lost people. But he doesn't know what else to be right now. There's anger, there's emptiness, and there's- no, there's just angry and emptiness. And he doesn't want to be angry at this man. The deep breath he takes is audible, and then he takes a drink before he speaks again.]
Grief does funny things to a person too. [Empty. Empty is good. Empty is better than the alternative.]
[He sighs and rubs lightly on his forehead. Eight has been here for quite some time. Longer than anyone besides Eleven, Rory and the TARDIS. He'd gotten the hang of this place and it's strangeness a long time ago.
Fat lot of good it does him, but he thinks he understands now. Still, Jack isn't going to listen. It's all way too raw.
He still has to try, because really, how could it possibly be better to wallow in the thought that your loved ones are taken away from you as a game?]
That's the problem, Jack. They're not playing.
If they could keep us until the war is over, they would. I have seen people do many things in war, but I've never seen them willingly gut their own fighting force for entertainment.
The fact is that they're losing this war, Jack. They're scrambling to keep the tree alive and keep us here, not to mention the power it takes to bring us back from the dead after a battle.
If they couldn't keep us here, they shouldn't have pulled us in the first place.
[He has no room for sympathy, or understanding, not now. He's too full, bursting at the damn seams, of grief and pain and loss. He's too busy trying to hold on, because Ianto's still here, and he can't fall apart when there's still someone to take care of, and it hurts.]
I don't give a damn about their war. It's just another war, and wars come and go.
[He doesn't mean it. At least, he normally wouldn't. When he's in his right mind, he understands the importance of what's going on, the battle they're fighting. But he can't hold onto that now. He drinks again, and he can't remember how much he's already drank. He doesn't really care about that either.]
They're keeping the wrong people.
[Tosh and Owen deserved to live again. To stay. But they're gone, back into death, while there are still people like the Master here.]
[ Eight stares at him sadly, not really having anything to say to all that. Nothing he can say will change anything. It seems after all these years, he's lost his ability to change minds. ]
As much as I'd like to agree with you, Jack, if this war ends and we lose, there won't be another war coming along. It's game over for all of us.
But then...maybe we could all use the peace of oblivion.
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no subject
Once he thinks he's got the message, he responds.]
I was glad to do it, Jack. I couldn't let you get yourself killed. And yes, Ianto did contact me about it. Nice fellow. Great coffee, even if it isn't my usual beverage of choice. He seemed so proud of it, I couldn't say no.
...is there...something else wrong, Jack?
no subject
[He doesn't answer the second part immediately. It comes a little later.]
They play with people's lives here, Doctor. Like we're toys, for someone's amusement. Kill someone and they just come back. Send someone home, and they might come back. Or they might just be gone.
no subject
[Doesn't he know it. Frankly, he'd like the grief to stop for once.
He responds with a startled voice, first about how wrong he is and secondly about why this suddenly came up.]
Jack, they're not playing. The "gods" don't send people home, they lose their hold on them. I've had enough conversations with the more trustworthy members of that pantheon to know that it isn't under their control.
We're in a war here, Jack, and that war is going very badly. Odin has been lost to them, and their home and people are falling apart. Do you really think "amusement" is high on their agenda recently?
no subject
[The words were heated, more so than the emotion he'd shown before, but now he cuts off. He doesn't want to be angry at the Doctor, and not this Doctor. Who'd been there for him, who's also lost people. But he doesn't know what else to be right now. There's anger, there's emptiness, and there's- no, there's just angry and emptiness. And he doesn't want to be angry at this man. The deep breath he takes is audible, and then he takes a drink before he speaks again.]
Grief does funny things to a person too. [Empty. Empty is good. Empty is better than the alternative.]
no subject
Fat lot of good it does him, but he thinks he understands now. Still, Jack isn't going to listen. It's all way too raw.
He still has to try, because really, how could it possibly be better to wallow in the thought that your loved ones are taken away from you as a game?]
That's the problem, Jack. They're not playing.
If they could keep us until the war is over, they would. I have seen people do many things in war, but I've never seen them willingly gut their own fighting force for entertainment.
The fact is that they're losing this war, Jack. They're scrambling to keep the tree alive and keep us here, not to mention the power it takes to bring us back from the dead after a battle.
no subject
[He has no room for sympathy, or understanding, not now. He's too full, bursting at the damn seams, of grief and pain and loss. He's too busy trying to hold on, because Ianto's still here, and he can't fall apart when there's still someone to take care of, and it hurts.]
I don't give a damn about their war. It's just another war, and wars come and go.
[He doesn't mean it. At least, he normally wouldn't. When he's in his right mind, he understands the importance of what's going on, the battle they're fighting. But he can't hold onto that now. He drinks again, and he can't remember how much he's already drank. He doesn't really care about that either.]
They're keeping the wrong people.
[Tosh and Owen deserved to live again. To stay. But they're gone, back into death, while there are still people like the Master here.]
no subject
As much as I'd like to agree with you, Jack, if this war ends and we lose, there won't be another war coming along. It's game over for all of us.
But then...maybe we could all use the peace of oblivion.