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He didn't lie.
[He snaps half to himself. He doesn't like emotional either, which is part of why he's so pissed off. Part of it is just frustration at the feelings. But the statement is his way of trying to reason out how he's supposed to answer. Someone "messing him up" implies to him that they told lies to toy with his head. So if Dagger is asking what started all this, the answer is Jack, but the things said were all true things he already believed, hence the confusion and increased angry frustration that results.
When Dagger offers to keep fighting, he posits a question in return after a tense pause of dangerous staring, looking like he's about to answer with another hit to Dagger's face, but blows to his own face historically have the effect of rebooting him.]
... What's the point of me?
[ The staring, for some reason, reminds Dagger of a description of hunger that a human from the distant past described it as - an intense feeling of drowning, but from the stomach. Though, Dagger can't drown either, so it's not as descriptive as he expected it to be. ]
Do you want me to answer you, or is that rhetorical?
[ Hey, you never know with humans. He does sheath his lone blade for a moment, because it's tiring to keep carrying that heavy thing.. ]
... An answer. [He wants and answer, he thinks. But there's still an unsure and guarded element to the response.]
[ This feels like parenting. All of Dagger's education on what parents do have always sounded like particularly involved version of the job he currently has, and he's not sure he wants more of it. Can he be a parent? Technically he already is, because his whole team is a bunch of whiny babies who need headpats and food 90% of the time. Barnes didn't seem to be like that, though. ]
To make sure this crew succeeds. You do what I tell you, and you succeed at that, we win. If you fail - if anyone in Red Team fails - then the whole team fails.And then everybody fails and we all die.
You want a purpose, share mine - we keep the captain alive, and we keep the crew intact. That's what Red is for. That means if someone screws up, we get rid of them, or we make them stop screwing up. We root out the spies, the double agents, the soon-to-be insubordinators, and we destroy them before they make a mess. We make sure we don't become Almina.
Not on my watch. Which is yours, because . . . you know. Red Team. Stuff.
There's a certain blankness that seems to start to flood over him. It's an answer that's only just good enough to keep him going forward with a direction and a reason to exist. But there's a hollowness to it, something that leaves him feeling more empty while simultaneously satisfied. Then he nods once in a detached way.]
I understand.
You're responsible for the tar I'll gain on my soul for this.
FROM: benjamin.jonathan@cdc.org
Terrible Person 1: Knock knock.
Terrible Person 2: Who's there?
Terrible Person 1: Doris.
Terrible Person 2: Doris who?
Terrible Person 1: Doris locked, that's why I knocked.
FROM: benjamin.jonathan@cdc.org
That was physically painful.
you never said looks like, you just said metal van
here I am thinking like 'free puppies and chocolate' van
FROM: wilson.wade@cdc.org
beat the tar outta the van with sick beats in the background while engaging in hilarious monologue. I'm so excited.
Why did you send Wade Wilson to kill me?
FROM: dagger@cdc.org
To be fair, I bet on you winning.
FROM: dagger@cdc.org
Romantic. And also slightly creepy, but creepy is good.
FROM: dagger@cdc.org
So what did Doris locked?
FROM: dagger@cdc.org
It's a guy who's a metal van. This isn't hard to understand. Why would a van have puppies?
FROM: dagger@cdc.org
So can you do it?
What is the point of this?
I should hope so, in matters of life or death.
FROM: optimus.prime@cdc.org
I have no desire to fight a fellow recruit.
FROM: dagger@cdc.org
Why not? You're a van, you could just run him over or something.
I do not kill so trivially.
FROM: optimus.prime@cdc.org
But even if I were to destroy him, why are you so eager to send your soldiers to their deaths?
[ Dagger's pretty sure there's something wrong with this situation, but he doesn't know if it's his problem or someone else's. People's feelings are dangerous things, and Dagger doesn't like to meddle with those. ]
Are you still gonna hit me when you get up?
FROM: dagger@cdc.org
He just wants to make friends with you. It's the Red Team way of saying hello. Don't be judgemental.
FROM: dagger@cdc.org
He's okay again? Because he came at with me with bombs and I wasn't sure what that was about.
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