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[lastgunslinger]

He'd found an interesting-looking book in the Library -- More Tales From The Corner, But Only If I Don't Find A Better Title, by a man with the interesting name of F.X. Toole.

So now Roland is sitting in his chair by the fountain in the Garden, reading, with the grey kitten batting at the roses floating on the surface of the water.

Morning-glories bloom around the bottom of the fountain.

Comments

[blue_ajah]

The name means nothing to her, but dark eyes narrow slightly at this.

"I am not certain I would agree with that assessment."

Calmly interjected, from her seat on the rock where she has been silently observing.

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

"You don't know a goddam thing," Joe says, his voice thick and bitter. "You still want to marry Susan? Or you just think that since you fucked her once in the long ago she's yours forever?"

"You'd rather keep her around as an old memory than have her there as a person and that's the gospel truth."

His face is flushed, and his blue eyes are darker than normal. He tips his hat to Moiraine. "Beggin' your pardon."

[lastgunslinger]

Paler still, except for two spots of color high on his cheeks.

"It's not about me and Susan. It's about me and Cuthbert. You think I don't believe she deserves whatever happiness she can find? You think I didn't have an idea this was coming? You do, and that's bullshit."

Roland doesn't apologize to Moiraine.

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

"Then it ain't a hell of a lot like anything to do with Mina, now is it?" Joe says darkly. "If you don't want her, then what exactly is he parading in front of you?"

[lastgunslinger]

"What I couldn't have had, and can't."

Roland's eyes glitter.

"Just like you."

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

Joe's face is completely deadpan, but his voice is harsh. "You chose, you bastard, every time. Chose your damned Tower, and chose to stay in the bar. So why don't you stop comparin' your self-pityin' ass to my fucked-up life, which is over now?"

"I don't have to be here. This isn't who I am anymore." He throws the stub of his cigar over the cliff.

[lastgunslinger]

"You came up the damn mountain. You're here. Make do."

Toneless.

"You're not the only one with a fucked-up life."

[blue_ajah]

"Neither of you are, as it happens."

Moiraine's tone is very slightly sharp, now.

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

"No," Joe says. "I reckon that's true."

He stands, his knees popping like dry sticks. "You're jealous of him. Because he's got something--someone--you don't want anymore and chose the Tower over in life anyway. That's how you feel? I don't give a damn; you can make yourself as miserable as you want. But putting the blame on him because he wanted his best friend to be happy for him or because he fucked up a ritual is worse than I would've expected out of you."

He looks out over the mountain. "Gonna be a long damn walk back to Africa."

[lastgunslinger]

Roland doesn't say a word.

He only holds out his arm. A hawk dives out of the sky and comes to light on his outstretched fist, eyes bright and intolerant.

"The hawk is God's gunslinger. Cort said that to me once. A few years before David near ripped his face off in trial, that was. But you'd know that, having been in my head. Finding out about trade routes...and what Vannay used to call me. And maybe even that fucking up that ritual is something that Cuthbert Allgood should have known would ruin it. We're both bound to upholding the tradition. It's who we are. What we do. What held us together then and strengthens the bonds of ka-tet now."

He touches the feathers on David's head lightly, stroking the hawk. They were friends, once. Are friends.

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

"Read it, too. Said you thought it was mebbe the only purely stupid thing Cort ever said. Changed your mind, have you?" Joe replies dryly.

It's a nice bird, if you like birds.

[blue_ajah]

She does not move, but the air around her suddenly sings with tension as Moiraine focuses on Joe Manco.

Having been in my head... Read it, too.

[lastgunslinger]

"Man changes when he grows up."

His eyes glitter, like the hawk's.

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

"You've done a heap more growing than either of them," Joe observes idly.

"This really about his fuck-up, or your feelings?"

[lastgunslinger]

Roland is silent.

"My feelings."

He wants both -- the Tower, and a life. He can only have one.

Cuthbert doesn't have to make that choice.

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

Joe's silent for a minute himself. "Was hopin' it was the other one. I had an answer for that."

He shakes his head. "Jealousy's a stupid, pisenous emotion that you can't argue with, Roland. I can't help you this time."

[lastgunslinger]

"So what was your answer for the other part?"

Arms still folded.

He's curious.

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

Joe shrugs. "You're the dinh, and an old man. He's not. If he fucks up, you tell him so and you teach him better. You ain't students together anymore."

"Now, keepin' your feelings out of it, that'd be the bastard. But then, that's what you wanted him to do, so I reckon you must be up to it." There's a glint in Joe's eye.

[lastgunslinger]

That's maybe the route to go, in talking about this. Teaching. Instructing.

Roland nods. "You say true."

David turns his head to watch Joe better.

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

Joe smirks at the hawk, then turns more soberly to Roland.

"But it ain't gonna change that you're jealous, and that he don't want you to be."

"They want you to be happy. For them, and in yourself. Mebbe you can't be. We've both got a lot of sins to bear. Makes it hard to be happy, mebbe. But at least you can be a man about it."

"Catch." He flicks the packet of cigars in Roland's direction, past the bird.

[lastgunslinger]

Roland catches it. David looks up with sudden interest.

He'd known Joe wouldn't approve. But he'd also known that Joe would understand how he thought.

Diplomatic doubletalk is bullshit, sometimes.

"Why Africa?"

[joewithnoname.livejournal.com]

Joe steps towards the cliffside. "Was a war there. Picked up bad habits in that place." He smirks, and shrugs. "'Least I was on the losin' side." And steps off the cliff.

As he falls, the poncho flares behind him, taking the shape of wings...and he melts away into a hawk, banking and levelling off.

[lastgunslinger]

The cigars go into the pocket of his shirt.

In a swift movement Roland thrusts his arm towards the sky. David flies to join his brethren, the Joe-hawk among them for a moment before Roland turns away, and to Moiraine.

"I wonder why he said it would be a long walk, if he was going to do that." Musing.

[blue_ajah]

"It would appear that he has learned a number of things," is the calm answer, as she watches him.

[lastgunslinger]

"So it would."

Calm.

"I am sorry you had to see some of that."

His eyes never leave her face.