Sixteenth little lie ♰ Hush now baby, don't you cry; your reward's in the sweet by-and-by

[beingdifferent]

What happened?! [There's a sudden sound of something glass or porcelain shattering against the floor or wall, the sound of books hitting the floor, a music-box flipping open and playing a few notes of "Fur Elise" before the sound of wood cracking and metal gears crushing.]

Tell me!

[Esther loosens an agonized sound somewhere between a growl and a cry. This is followed immediately by the dull pound of her fist against the wall.] Who stopped it?!

Comments

[private]

[beingdifferent]

No, I know what I want. I know exactly what I want, and all I'm told is not to want it.

[private]

[routemistress]

And I didn't promise it, either. What I said is that I'll 'elp pick it apart and try and 'elp you get as much of it as I can.

That much, I can promise.

[private]

[beingdifferent]

You want to get me back home so I can have a second chance.

But there's nothing I can do with a second chance. I don't want one. My life isn't one I want to live over again.

[Esther is crying, now. It's soft, and she's steadying her voice as much as she can to keep Iris from realizing. She doesn't want to bare herself that much, and certainly not to Iris - who just can't understand how charmed her life is and how very not Esther's is. Especially in comparison.]

[private]

[routemistress]

Stop telling me what I want. That's not 'ow it works. Your second chance is to start over anywhere in the universe. Including 'ere, if the mood takes you; but you've got all of space and time to choose from, Esther. There's nothing you can't do with that.

[private]

[beingdifferent]

I can't do what I want with that.

[She is very aware that she can't. This Barge is completely untrustworthy and she'll never ally herself with it; and regardless of where she might go, she doesn't want to go anywhere like this.]

[private]

[routemistress]

Right. You're the expert on the entire rest of the universe, on the past and future and everything you can do and get there. I forgot.

Oh wait.

You're ashamed to tell me. Perhaps because you know it's stupid or nasty? Or you're not willing 'cause you feel entitled to milk a lot more drama out of it first.

Or you want to keep believing it's impossible 'cause that gives you an 'andy excuse to never make any effort to change. Which is it?

[private]

[beingdifferent]

And you know exactly what I want, don't you.

I'm not telling you because you'll simply say how senseless it is for me not to see it your way.

[private]

[routemistress]

'Course I do, I'm playing twenty questions for fun.

Stop. Telling me what you think I think. Because you don't know. Just as I don't know what you want.

What's senseless is you not telling me and then blaming me for 'ow you imagine I'll react.

[private]

[beingdifferent]

Of course you are.

I'm not telling you because you're a blind, insensitive, useless old bitch who won't stop harassing a mentally ill woman who has repeatedly told you to leave her alone. I'm not telling you because you assume you know my own life better than I do, and how I should relate to this prison. I'm not telling you because you think you deserve to know. I'm not telling you because you're a bully who is perfectly willing to tell me how stupid I am for being upset over losing the only chance I'll ever have to be happy.

If you speak to me again, I'll murder your lovers.

PUBLIC

[beingdifferent]

Iris. Stop harrassing me. Stop ignoring me every single time I tell you that I hate you and I want you to leave me alone. I've told you this repeatedly, and yet you still ignore me and push all the harder.

You are not helping. You are willfully bullying me.

I don't like you. Stop thinking you're above my disdain, that you can just tell me what I'm meant to do.

I'll kill myself until you leave the Barge. Five times, five hundred... no matter how long it takes.

[routemistress]

You're 'aving a screaming tantrum that you chose to transmit publicly, Esther, and you feel we should ignore that? And now you call me speaking to you - on your comm, which you're perfectly able to stop answering - bullying, while you threaten violence against yourself and other people to try and push me around?

And precisely when did I tell you what you were meant to do? There you are with the words in me mouth again.

I'm starting to think I were dead wrong about you being smart, going by this conversation.

cw: suicide

[beingdifferent]

[Esther switches the communicator onto video and leaves for a moment, coming back with a thin scarf. She locks her door, ties a loop, and secures it to the doorknob before turning to the camera.]

This is what comes of Iris Wildthyme's help.

[Then she slips her head in the noose and goes limp, letting her air supply be cut off and not fighting against it.]