[EM] 19 - Cheating

[big_damn_hero]

Well, my thoughts on cheating is fairly clear and uncomplicated-like...you ask anybody that knows me, Malcolm Reynolds is a man of honesty and integrity. ‘Less you’re a lyin’ two-bit gan ni niang, then whether or not you get a taste of the better side of my nature’s left to my whimsy.

I don’t believe in cheatin’ anybody, man or woman...not for any reason at any time. It don’t come with the package of bein’ an outlaw, or even an evil person. I’ve seen evil in a man...tasted it, felt its touch on my skin and its blade in my body, and I know that even an evil man can deal honest one on one. Even evil can be reasonable...because real evil, true evil, thinks that it’s good and acts as such. You can count on it to behave a certain way, and to do so without a single bit of failure.

Real evil don’t cheat...’cause to cheat would mean doin’ that which is against its very nature. A good man’s got no reason to cheat. It’s them that dwell in the middle...don’t know where they stand and don’t much care that are the folks who are like to pull a swindle.

In a way, I conjure that the good Shepherd was right on that...a man who believes in something is purt near unbeatable. It’s the big things that make a difference, but the little things...well, I suppose they make just as big a difference in another sorta way.

Cheatin’s just another way of changing yer mind...and doing a wrong by someone in the process. The folks who know what they is, or even think they know...good or bad? They’ll never deal you a swindle ‘cause they got that belief...convictions, I suppose. The rest...they ain’t got nothin’, not even a law to mind themselves, much less others.

I don’t believe in much...but I do believe in not cheatin’ a man. Don’t rightly know where that puts me, with morals and such...but at least I know where I stand somewhere in this crazy ‘verse.

Muse: Malcolm Reynolds
Fandom: Firefly/Serenity
Words: 357