@thraggmatic // continued from; tense exchange 🥶🦸
Struck immediately with a reminder of his dreadful deed, Nolan in spite of the strain, hardened himself against it. He was not a good man by any definition, and may (rightfully) never mend certain bridges and relationship long after he'd torched them, ruthlessly, to the ground. All of this, he would acknowledge and accept, invent proposals and solutions to move past the hurt, if plausible, knowing there would be exceptions.
Such as with Thragg.
"I know, I've kept count." A number that had in itself dwindled and diminished with each subsequent clash with the Coalition. With the destruction of Viltrum itself by his own hand, it wasn't too much of a stretch for him to reckon if, for a change, the Grand Regent pivoted tactics away from conquest and destruction... to assimilation of another kind.
"I...know." Repeating himself, softer this time, Nolan let his gaze drop to the floor, conflict threading through him like string on a needle, pulled taut. It was, in hindsight, a mistake to lash out on his human family as he had, and tougher yet to turn against what remained of the dwindling Viltrumite empire. But it needed to be done. Thragg and the rest... could not be allowed to threaten the universe any further.
"It's not the choice I expected you to make." To mingle with the enemy as it were, and right under the Coalition's noses too... he wasn't sure if he should be impressed or frightened by how Thragg and the rest pulled off such a feat.
"But, seeing as you are not leaving us with much of a choice, like Mark, I accept your terms." It grates him to say it, but if it promises that Earth will not be reduced to a molten heap of rocks, he's willing to live with it. "Tell me this, though; how did you do it? How did you settle on Earth... without being noticed?"
