Eighteenth

[mercurialize]

[Public Voice]

I've talked to a few of you about this, but all right. Question. People come here because they have to fix themselves, right? That's rhetorical. My real question is, do they actually deserve it or is it just because they can be changed?

We don't actually have that answer, do we?

[Inmate Filter]

Then, for you guys, is that change even helpful or would you call it harmful to your way of life? Whatever it was before. People make enemies, I know how it is.


[Open Action Spam: Gym]

[Kylar's around every early morning that the Barge isn't on fire or trying to rhyme and sing with itself. With the ka'kari back at his disposal he has a ton of practicing to do. Today's stunt, he tries to coat a training dummy with the ka'kari. Giving it a thick black metalic armor. He knows better than to attack it with Retribution, actually, the ka'kari warned him of that. There will be questions of Why later.

So he tears at it with a dagger attempting every move he can think of. But the dagger is taking far more damage than the ka'kari, in fact, the metal hasn't even dented. When he's done, he wills the ka'kari back into his skin. There's just one problem.]

You ate the dummy!

~Devourer.~

Stop it! I'm supposed to be keeping an eye on this stuff from people destroying it. Not destroying it myself.

~You never learn, do you? First, you complain when I don't obey, now you complain when I do. Which will it be next time?~

You weren't supposed to eat-

[Wait. Is someone else in here?]

Comments

Voice

[voluntaryapnea]

Maybe it's a bit of both.

[mercurialize]

You really think everyone here deserves to come back from the dead?

[voluntaryapnea]

Well -- that requires that I know everybody here, and I don't. I don't know everyone's story. I know that for a world full of people who've done some terrible things, there aren't that many people on the Barge by comparison.

[mercurialize]

Fair enough.

Let me put it another way then, of the people you know on the barge, do all of them deserve it?

[voluntaryapnea]

[He struggles with this because there are a couple that spring to mind instantly that don't deserve it.]

To me? No. But that doesn't mean they don't. It just means I hold grudges.

[mercurialize]

[That seems very... indifferent. Somehow.]

Most do.

[voluntaryapnea]

Most. [He likes to consider it objective. The echo is an agreement, but he thinks of Scott. Of Lydia. Kira. They're definitely a lot more willing to forgive and grant second chances to people than he is.]

[mercurialize]

So if one of those you had a grudge with graduated, you'd be fine with it?

[voluntaryapnea]

If they changed, sure. If they earned it.

[mercurialize]

Yeah, I don't think I could do that.

[voluntaryapnea]

It's kind of a -- we don't really get a choice in the matter thing. You know?

[mercurialize]

So accepting is easier than fighting against something futile?

I get it.

[voluntaryapnea]

Basically, yeah. Picking and choosing your battles. Plus, I mean. I know my judgment's not infallible. [No one's is.] Someone can change and I can still hold a grudge and not be okay with them. The two aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

[mercurialize]

Then it just becomes a matter of whether they can or not. Right?

[voluntaryapnea]

Yeah, pretty much.

[mercurialize]

I don't know. Something about that doesn't sound right to me.

[voluntaryapnea]

How so?

[mercurialize]

Doesn't that sound like it ignores justice, to you?

[voluntaryapnea]

[He considers that for a long moment, tapping a pen on his desk and chewing his lower lip.]

I think it depends on how you define justice. And redemption, for that matter. And probably also the crimes that were committed. Back home for me, if you break the law and get caught, it all depends on what you've done. Sometimes the punishment fits the crime, sometimes...not so much. I don't think any system's perfect as far as justice goes, I guess. I think what matters is that we try.

[mercurialize]

When does it not fit the crime where you're from? In your opinion.

[voluntaryapnea]

Well for instance if someone has to spend ten years in prison because they were caught smoking marijuana. Or -- you know life in prison because you killed someone in self-defense.

[mercurialize]

This happens often?

[voluntaryapnea]

Yep. So like I said, the whole justice thing is pretty skewed in a lot of cases.

[mercurialize]

I guess so.

We don't really have a justice system where I'm from. Unless you do something against a noble's family and are caught doing it, the guards are usually easy to pay off. They don't even step foot in the worst places. If you want justice you have to do it yourself. It's been run more by the corrupt for decades now. I think the late king preferred it that way.

[voluntaryapnea]

Well that's disturbing.