[OPEN] Wait, let me set the record straight: I was never really yours in the first place.

[hostage]

Date & Time: January 9 and onward
Location: in and about town
Characters: Jesse & OPEN to anyone
Summary: A chance for an everyday encounter with Jesse. Put the date in your subject line!
Warnings: Breaking Bad spoilers are likely.

[Jesse might be the only one who finds Exsilium's current state beautiful rather than desolate and depressing. For more reasons than one, if given the choice between here and home, he'd choose here without hesitation. The snow and the chill do nothing to deter him from taking long walks. For as long as he can physically stand it, he prefers the cold over being confined inside four walls.

So he walks. Every day, without any particular destination, without anything else to occupy him. The concerns of the Initiative and the Transports are no longer his own. Whatever they're up to, they mean little to him. He's still got enough stolen Russian gold to pay for whatever he needs without having to work, so that's how he's choosing to live for as long as he's able. His time is spent doing whatever he wants to do, and at the moment, what he wants to do is wander.

Freedom: that's what this is about. No one is ever going to make him do anything ever again.]

Comments

[hostage]

You'd know, wouldn't you?

[Being something he invented in his head and all.]

[individualist]

[Well, that's...no, actually, she's not entirely sure what that's supposed to mean.]

I hardly know anything about you.

[hostage]

Yeah? Is that why you're hanging around? To get to know me?

[individualist]

Not at all. Simply put, even I have down time in a place like this.

I'm surprised to see you back, as I'd been informed you had left us. That's all.

[hostage]

You know I killed myself.

[That's something the devil keeps track of - or so he's been told.]

But I'm back, bitch. Like Jesus.

[individualist]

[Oh she "knows" alright.]

You don't say? Mr.Goodman told me you'd simply gone home, actually.

[hostage]

You believe everything that guy tells you?

[individualist]

I had no reason to doubt him, or the woman who made the announcement with him. I'm not so cynical as to assume everything is a lie.

[hostage]

Right.

[Not buying it. Figment of his imagination or actual devil - either way, she'd know that Saul Goodman is one of the biggest liars in this place.]

[individualist]

I'm not omniscient, you are aware. My knowledge is limited to my experiences like any other.

[Well. Mind reading is a thing but still.]

[hostage]

I guess that's why God's so much better than you.

[individualist]

[Ok wow.]

God is better than noone. No Man, Angel or Demon.

You shouldn't vouch for the character of someone you don't know.

[hostage]

Like I give a shit what you got to say about it.

[individualist]

You should. Ever since He abandoned all of you, I'm all humanity has left, whether they like it or not.

[hostage]

Oh, what? Is that supposed to make me wanna jump on your side? All the horrible shit that's gone down on your watch...

[individualist]

Ah, but that's it, isn't it? Unlike God, I'm not offering empty promises of salvation or protection. Rather, I offer freedom. I nurture humanity's instincts and passion so that they might enjoy them without fear of guilt or sin.

Under God's watch, anyone could live a life of tragedy and suffering but carry on believing in Him. They could remain pious their entire life yet be damned for eternity for stepping out of line even once - all it takes is one mistake and there is no turning back.

But I would much rather a human live life to the fullest and die wholly satisfied. It's God's ruling that pleasure be punished, not mine.

[hostage]

[Jesse's jaw clenches while he listens. This shit... Oh yeah, he's heard it before. He was spot-on, wasn't he, when he called Mr. White the devil.]

Evil should be punished. The kinda pleasure you're talking about, the selfish kind... That usually comes from somebody else's pain. If we don't think, if we don't hold back, if all we do is listen to our instincts - that's when people get hurt. That's where suffering comes from in the first place.

[individualist]

And if those who are wronged against take action against those who wronged them, they are punished. But if the weak are incapable of defending themselves...well, it's simply nature's way. They'll be taken care of eventually, one way or another.

That is nature's way. Humanity isn't as removed from it as they'd like to think.

[hostage]

The strong oughta help the weak, not crush 'em. Even animals got that figured out. They only hunt to survive. They don't do it for pleasure.