Arctic Arcosians (Mint)

It was both inspiring and somewhat frustrating the utter confidence Mint had in himself. Try as Frozen might, the crime-lord refused to understand the utter MAGNITUDE of what he was suggesting! Would he never rest in his time in service? Would he never sleep? Would there never be a time when his guard had lowered JUST ENOUGH for a dagger to slip past into his heart? Frozen was only concerned because, despite what his royalty would suggest, he WAS mortal! He COULD die and had come close to it once before! Had Mint never stood before the abyss, barely dodging its shadowy arms as it attempted to pull him into its embrace? Had he never suffered a defeat so crushing that he might lose EVERYTHING? Frozen's silence when Mint brought up "hunting" encouraged the smaller Arcosian to regale the noble with a story, one whose moral seemed to be that Mint, unlike the predators (Presumably. Frozen knew not what a "lion" was) he hunted and slain, he would not let himself fall to even the tiniest of attackers. He would remain vigilant, perceptive... and arrogant, it seemed. 

Frozen sighed. 

Yes, at this point, he was just going to have to take his word on that, wasn't he? Far-be-it from him to try and teach a valuable lesson to this crime-boss, something that might preserve his very life! Frozen wasn't used to this, this... resistance. Whenever he had something to say before, all actions would cease and attention would be upon him. People LISTENED. Here, everyone's will was so strong, it mattered not if it was wounding or aid... It all bounced right off. So-be-it, he figured. Perhaps his lesson would sink over time as the untamed universe gave him more challenge than he might've wanted. 

"Then, I suppose, I have nothing more to say!" Frozen exclaimed, as if in awe of Mint's fortitude! "Indeed, if you are capable of remaining alert for your whole service to Azoth, then who am I , a mere foreign lord visiting this part of the galaxy, to recommend action? By all means, my friend, progress as you like! I will not hold you up any longer!" As if to make his point, Frozen would bow slightly and shift himself to the side, gesturing onward as if to display the way was open for Mint to continue on his journey!

If he did, Frozen would merely watch him go until he was out of sight... before allowing his friendly, "Hello-neighbor" smile drop from his face. If Azoth was anything like his subordinate, this was going to be a very difficult negotiation indeed... At least he would be able to pry valuable information out of him, though. 

WC: 450
TWC: 4990

_____________________

Exit...?

It seemed like a polite, quiet and mutually agreed-upon exit wasn't going to happen. Was there truly that much more to say? Mint was determined to display himself with pride to the universe while performing his unsavory duty. He was arrogant, nearly over-confident and, clearly, thought himself untouchable. He claimed he wanted to be clever through one side of his mouth and, out the other, he behaves like any other right hand to a king: as an open and eager representative. Frozen appeared just a little bemused as Mint stood his ground, stating that, NO, their conversation wasn't over yet. He wanted Frozen to know WHY he was the way he was and WHY he wanted him on his side. Somehow, given Mint's borderline jovial revelation of his criminal past, the Duke could guess what his childhood and younger years were like. 

Frozen wasn't a stranger to crime. Planetary induction always came with the requirement of beating down local crime-rings, capturing or killing crime-lords and rehabilitating their minions. The Arcosian himself had to venture down to the surface of a number of small worlds, personally aiding his army in the fight and so, he got to see first-hand the records these warped men and women kept. He red histories that could make his horns curl, registers of bodies that would make anyone with a bleeding heart break down and weep. He had counted more stolen goods than could fill a treasury... So what could Mint offer him beyond what he could already assume? 

...Well... little, as it would turn out. Mint was the son of a crime-lord who would turn on him, as Frozen guessed, because of his growing might. Mint would then return a conquering hero (or devil, depending on who's telling the story) and took his father's throne for himself. He even kept his head as a memento and warning to his enemies, revealing how brutal... and potentially sadistic Mint could be. This time, Frozen couldn't hide his disgust. It was already hard before, keeping his feelings all wrapped nice and neat inside but NOW... He couldn't help but scowl. Nobody under the Duke's command would survive their first day if Frozen had gotten an inkling that they were NEAR this level of psychopathy. Retaliating for a betrayal was fine. GOOD, even, as, in that respect, he and Mint shared something. What Mint was doing to his enemies, though... It was ugly. BRUTAL. Unbefitting of anyone sitting in the chair to the right of his lord. Men are not tokens to be dispensed and killed as freely as you would an animal. No matter how cruel, no matter how evil, one should not take the lives of fathers, sons, mothers or daughters with anything less than regret. Mint's callow disregard for life and even RESPECT for the man that raised him filled Frozen with rage that burned coldly in his sanguine eyes, his façade of amicable politeness falling into a much more honest distaste.

"How, I wonder, did you come to that conclusion?" Frozen asked, a small but notable drip of venom in his voice. "What ambition of mine do you envision that I would hang my father's head up as a trophy? To what extent do you think I will go to accomplish a task? You disregard the essentials of secrecy when it comes to your station, you slay your own flesh-and-blood and prop their severed body-parts of as effigies to ward off attackers, you engage in the very same criminal element your father would and you would make the assumption that we share ANYTHING beyond our race...?"

Frozen would remove his scouter with a quick swipe of his hand, latching it to his belt in defiance of its readings. He was mad, now. How dare this pathetic little man compare himself to HIM!? LORD FROZEN!? HE who had liberated at least a half-dozen worlds from their rotting, fallow infrastructure and integrated them into a greater, more unified and developed empire where they will never go hungry nor sleep a night on the streets!? FROZEN, who goes out of his way to deliver upon the stubborn and the unfortunate second chances to become their most optimal selves!? FROZEN who was betrayed by his own brother, still didn't plan to end his miserable, conniving life!? If he had the power, Frozen would have leveled his finger at Mint and shot a Death-Beam straight through his heart, likely ridding "Emperor Azoth" of a leech suckling on his belly.

...But he did NOT have the power... Even in his final form, he couldn't even SCRAPE what his scouter had detected from Mint currently and, even at his fullest potential, he wasn't certain. All he could do was try and rebuff Mint more firmly, hopefully to drive him off before he would consider force!

WC: 804
TWC: 5796

"What FOOLISHNESS." Frozen growled, utterly dismissing Mint's attempt to justify his actions! "Are you saying because you were young, it was acceptable to execute your father and use his severed head as a warning!? DOES HONOR NOT MEAN ANYTHING TO YOU!?" Frozen's aura FLARED as his voice raised, his eyes FLASHING with outrage as his hands clenched into fists! He opened his mouth to YELL again... before forcing it closed, gritting his teeth... and trying again in a less... impulsive tone of voice. "It is one thing to secure your safety and holdings from a treacherous family-member. This is more than acceptable. Even execution, should their treachery be stubborn enough to survive any attempts at redemption. But cutting off his head... Using it as a fear-mongering tactic is UNACCEPTABLE!" 

A BURST of power would EXPLODE from Frozen, blowing back all loose snow, weakly held-together ice and rock... though Mint, with his vastly superior power, would be unaffected. 

"Regardless of what he had done to you, he was your FATHER, Mint. Executing family, especially ROYALTY and RULERS of land, people and resources is not only dishonorable, it is IRRESPONSIBLE. What are his subjects to do while you dilly-dally attempting to fill his power-vacuum? Are they to starve, galivant on their own unchecked, or just crumble to pieces along with the rest of the dependent infrastructure? And what of you? Apparently family meant so little to you, it was fine to sever your caretaker's head, no matter how treacherous he was, and scare the people into submission and pacifisity with it. What will you teach YOUR son, when it is time to pass your great, criminal resources down? Will you tell him of how you ended your father and usurped his empire? Will you teach him how to kill you, should you give in to your baser impulses? What kind of father can YOU be if you are willing to assassinate yours and abuse his remains!?"

Mint would appear to take what Frozen had to say with some degree of seriousness, commenting that he had grown since those years and that he had become wiser. 

"Do not play games with me." the Duke rumbled, his aura BLAZING to life around him as his anger boiled! "You have clearly learned NOTHING in those years. Look at you." Frozen pointed at the shorter, first-form Arcosian. "The blood of kin stains your hands, sir. It drips as freshly from your fingers today as it did the day you took your father's head from his shoulders. Even now you sit upon a throne of stolen riches and and bodies, claiming to want only the best for those below you. Forgive me if I do not believe a word of your promises, for I am guilty of mistrust and outrage this day."

Mint would attempt to appeal to Frozen, asking what HE would have done if his father had betrayed him. Frozen knew what he'd do... he was living in that moment as they spoke!

"He would be imprisoned." Frozen stated flatly. "He would watch as his treachery only secured my rise to power and, when his age begins to take his strength, he would be released back into the world, allowed to live the rest of his life in a place no longer his. I need to kill him nor violate him to teach him and everyone else he was wrong, sir."

Mint would sigh and admit that, perhaps, he was too selfish on that day...

"SELFISH!?" Frozen roared, his energy SPIKING again, his body PULSING as if he were about to transform! "IS THAT ALL YOU BELIEVE YOU WERE!?" The Duke raised a fist up angrily, fingers clenched so tight, his nails dug slightly into his palms. "I have never seen such BLINDNESS in a man that controls as much power as you! 'Selfishness' alone does not even BEGIN to describe your crimes! Against blood, against the people, against the empire!"

Frozen gritted his teeth so hard, he feared they might snap, the Arcosian lord trembling as he barely held himself in place! 

"You have blackened your name beyond redemption, Mint." Frozen stated, his voice low, heavy, authoritative. "Pray you do not have a son nor a protégé to adopt your legacy. For their ascension will only come when they deem your life as expendable to them as your father's was to you."

WC: 730
TWC: 6526

"Oh, yes. Forgive me, sir. I forgot that You are a leader of brigands, not of the people." Frozen rumbled, not at all slowed by Mint's correction. Indeed, he was reminding him just a touch too much of his brother, Chille being the sort to exploit any potential advantages, be them blackened by misdeed or by valiant and noble strategy. While Mint certainly defended himself better, throwing everything but the kitchen-sink at the Duke in an effort to persuade him of his silent virtuousness, Chille was at least honest about himself and what he believed to be true. Mint was just another shadow in the dark trying to pretend he was a person, that his foot-steps weren't stained red with the innocents he had to plow through to get where he was. What a joke. Frozen would actually let out a hearty GAWFAW as Mint explained what he would teach his son, refusing to take responsibility for himself and, instead choose to throw it all on his father. At least he promised to not raise a cold-blooded murderer this time. He had THAT much conscience about him!

"Indeed." Frozen scoffed, rolling his red pin-prick eyes. "...And surely he would look to you as his role-model. At the very least, he will allow you to live day-to-day from the torture-racks, using the very techniques you have used upon the citizenr-"

Mint SHARPLY cut Frozen off before he could complete his mocking statement, the taller Arcosian SNAPPING silent in surprise as the crime-lord took the reigns of the conversation. He would state how hurt he was that Frozen would judge him so harshly, that he was a man too, yada-yada-yada, all of which flowing in one ear and out the other of the Lord. What did he care about how a parasite saw himself, how a monster looked at himself in the mirror? Any beast with basic intelligence could recognize its face, its scars, its deeds. While Mint was more clever than most, enough to use that self-recognition as a moral and psychological weapon, he was still a murderous and ravenous beast. He had admitted it himself: hungering for power most voraciously, no doubt using his black-market connections to better himself and his favorite flunkies at the expense of the lowest in the societal ladder. The look on Frozen's face reflected his dismissiveness towards Mint's attempt at connection, this dubious, cold, borderline arrogant and morally-superior stare that HAMMERED into the much stronger, much more powerful and MUCH more WELL-LIVED Arcosian. Frozen believed, as any paladin of justice who had seen TRUE evil would, that beasts did not change. They did not grow, they did not become men. They-

Frozen's eyes widened as Mint finally committed to a true and material gesture of good-will, tapping into his own scouter, ordering some minion of his to adequately bury his father's remains. How sudden... and unthinkable! Given how EAGERLY Mint defended himself before, how GROUNDED he sounded him his position, Frozen had assumed he was just another monster, another stubborn parasite that needed to be squashed! ...But this bug could think... It could reason... It, perhaps, even had a moral compass...? How could this BE? Frozen's shock showed from the rising of his brow to the slight drop of his jaw. A beast with an insatiable hunger for power... one who wanted to build only to benefit himself... could change...? And through pure, raw, CRUSHING judgement...? 

Perhaps it was a shameful thing to admit, but Frozen was tempted to completely dismiss this as some kind of trick. After all, the end-goal, as Mint had made clear early in their conversation, was to turn the Duke to the side of the Arcosian empire. This could easily be a nefarious double-cross tactic, some kind of false-placation that was set up beforehand. After all, Mint was extremely free with the information he gave... He could have planned ahead for this encounter...

...But what kind of Lord would he be if he did not answer this question, this apparent cry for help... Even if it came from a beast.

"Your underworld must collapse." Frozen stated, shaking off his shock. "Whatever knowledge and connections you bring to your lord must suffice as the aide you can offer. Material resources, ill-gotten gains, it must all be returned to the people. As long as you remain a crime-lord, your hands will remain bloody. Allowing your father the dignity of a proper-burial was a good first-step, but you have much to do if true redemption is what you seek."

Frozen tilted his head, staring at the shorter (but not smaller) lord, before looking away, a conflicted frown upon his face. 

"Demons cannot be saved. Beasts cannot learn. They are stubborn monsters that will, inevitably, revert back to their baser natures and feed upon those weaker and smaller than they. I do not know what to make of you, Mint. You are stained in so much blood, possess too much that is not yours to have, you admit to a vast hunger for power and control... and yet, you claim you wish to change. This is not a realization easily encountered within a single conversation, let alone within someone with as checkered a past as yours. ...However, if this is what you want, you must sacrifice your old life on at its material roots and begin anew."

WC: 893
TWC: 7423

"You will have to fill that void and exterminate the parasites that would nest there." Frozen stated with a little more enthusiasm, encouraged a bit that Mint was actually asking good and proper questions. Perhaps he DID mean what he was saying, well and truly. Perhaps this beast would shed his feral hide and become a man. "In my Dukedom, we fill these positions with jobs, opportunity and economic support to those that require them. There are countless jobs in my empire from Caravan-guards to professional Liaisons, all of which can be filled by those with the adequate skillsets. It does slow our economic growth in the short-term, directing excess governmental income back into the lowest class, but in the long term, it supports and benefits us all. Those that refuse to attempt reconciliation and reabsorption must be exiled, imprisoned until such a time comes that their minds are sufficiently changed or eliminated, depending on how much of a threat they are. Crime, no matter how ingrained it appears to be, must not be tolerated. There is no excuse for it in my empire. Corruption is monitored, crime is starved of its usefulness and a benevolent, long-lived leader shall oversee it from the top. This is how you fill that void, in simple terms."

"I never claimed it was easy." Frozen scoffed once more. "It took my father 100 years to fully conquer and shape the home-world into the utopia it is and another 75 for me to induct the surrounding backwater planets into the fold. That is nothing to say of the time it took and is still taking for me to raise them and their people to an adequate standard of living along the outer-rim of my empire. What it takes, my friend, is will, resources and vision, all of which you appear to possess. It is tempting to take a shorter, more direct route, to leave your earnings weakened for now with the intention to come back and repair them later... but that is how corruption is born inside an Empire. This is how the people, who once loved you, begin to resent you. This is how crime is justified under one's watch."

Mint would then remark that Frozen's apparent black/white moral compass was not quite an accurate way to see the world... and perhaps, to an extent, he was correct. Frozen, on occasion, had to justify certain actions he had to take in the name of the greater good, some involving taking another person's life, others taking their resources. It was not "just" from a glance, from a snap-shot viewpoint. What it was, was necessary... something that crime was not. 

"There are times when your actions will be questioned by the ignorant, the foolish or the desperate." Frozen would concede slightly. "You will have to make decisions that, in the moment, appear cold or heartless so that this generation AND the next one will live healthier, more productive lives. Never forget your goal, however, nor the suffering of your citizens in the moment. You must be able to keep track of these two things so that you do not lose your way. You wish to be a good man? A Valid leader? A Man of the People? You will have to make difficult decisions, live with them, and build off of them so that the pain of your people is repaid a dozen-fold with a better life in the future."

Mint would end his part of the conversation with the acknowledgement that he had gone to far with his father and lamenting that he could not take it back. Frozen would nod, staring the crimelord in the eye as he did so. Yes, he DID go to far and there was no justifying it now. Frozen wouldn't coddle him now that Mint agreed with him. Killing one's family is an irredeemable act. Blood is blood. Royalty is Royalty. Power-vacuums are Power-vacuums. These things did not change with the circumstance. Mint now had nothing, nothing but stolen power and resources with a lord that valued it all. If he truly wished to be a better man, he would grow to be an honest one, tossing aside the assets of his old self.

As Mint would leave, finally content with the end of this conversation. Frozen would watch him go, crossing his arms over his chest once more.

"I know not what to make of you..." The Duke muttered. "...or if you can be saved. I suppose that is in your hands, is it not?"

EXIT!

WC: 758
TWC: 8,181