It's a testament to that transformation he underwent that he takes the disdain with a quiet, humbled little nod. What else does he have to lose? What respect does a fallen captain deserve?
He's going to make him say it. God damn the man.
"They ate each other."
Frank and matter-of-fact, they ate each other. The ultimate taboo, horrifying to the so-called civilized peoples of the world, but out in the wastes of King William Island he'd had his second beg for him to use his body to feed the men.
"Some devoured the fallen, others like Hickey chose to kill and eat. My second, James Fitzjames, had his --" He trips on this point; it's painful, the wound clearly still raw and open. "Grave disturbed. They robbed his body and then I assume ate what was left. Tom Hartnell took a bullet and the mutineers fought me for his body. Harry Goodsir..."
Is there anything left in him? Any bit of selflessness or charity that remains after what he had to do and what he witnessed?
"Harry Goodsir saved me, but in turn I had to eat from his body. There's no nobility in that, and there's no nobility in surviving when I couldn't spare a single goddamned person from pain or suffering or death. I was the selfish, drunken captain who ignored my men, and by the time I got my head out of my own arse we were already headed for disaster. I ate Harry Goodsir, Raju."
cw just more cannibalism from here on out
He's going to make him say it. God damn the man.
"They ate each other."
Frank and matter-of-fact, they ate each other. The ultimate taboo, horrifying to the so-called civilized peoples of the world, but out in the wastes of King William Island he'd had his second beg for him to use his body to feed the men.
"Some devoured the fallen, others like Hickey chose to kill and eat. My second, James Fitzjames, had his --" He trips on this point; it's painful, the wound clearly still raw and open. "Grave disturbed. They robbed his body and then I assume ate what was left. Tom Hartnell took a bullet and the mutineers fought me for his body. Harry Goodsir..."
Is there anything left in him? Any bit of selflessness or charity that remains after what he had to do and what he witnessed?
"Harry Goodsir saved me, but in turn I had to eat from his body. There's no nobility in that, and there's no nobility in surviving when I couldn't spare a single goddamned person from pain or suffering or death. I was the selfish, drunken captain who ignored my men, and by the time I got my head out of my own arse we were already headed for disaster. I ate Harry Goodsir, Raju."