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

[mercurialize]

Then, they stay dead and the world, er, worlds are a better place without them.

[bodilesswarrior]

[She raises a finger, lips quirking.] And there's my point.

They're dead anyway. If they don't change here, they don't go back.

But if they do - they have the chance to make their world better. To make up for whatever it is that got them here.

[mercurialize]

So nothing to lose?

That still won't bring back the innocent lives they've taken, the ones that actually are deserving of a chance than their murderers are.

I mean, if you were killed by someone would you honestly like the idea that when they finally died they got to come back just because of a little attitude adjustment?

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her eyebrows arch.] One of the Inmates here disembowelled me and sent my head to my girlfriend.

So yes, actually. Death means it's over. They don't have to do any work. They don't have to look me in the eye and live with what they did, knowing damn well how horrific it was.

[mercurialize]

Um. Sorry to hear that.

[Well, that's a bit. ... Awkward.]

Then... in your opinion, living with the guilt is more suitable than something like revenge would be?

[bodilesswarrior]

[She smiles, waving a hand.] It was a while ago. Great way to shock people, though. [She is not above this method of persuasion!]

And yeah, that's exactly what I mean. Guilt hurts. But more than that - vengeance doesn't do much. It can be satisfying, it can give you some closure, but whatever you lost - you won't get it back. It doesn't erase the pain. It doesn't restore any lives.

But changing someone - if they can be changed, and I doubt the Admiral would bother if they couldn't - that's making a difference.

[mercurialize]

[He'll take that into consideration, certainly. But it still doesn't fully click with him. He's avoided revenge before, and that person literally haunted him. And stabbed him in the back. It's a sore spot, to say the least.]

The inmate that murdered you, how long have they been here?

[bodilesswarrior]

[And now her smile falls.] He's not. He was making progress, and then he disappeared.

...It's funny - I'm so much angrier at the Admiral for that than putting me in that situation in the first place.

[mercurialize]

You really wanted him to change that badly?

[bodilesswarrior]

I really did. [And Iris did, so desperately. That's a big part of it, too.]

I got to meet a future version of him, before he disappeared. One who graduated. And knowing he could go on to be a hero in his own right - to save as many people as he'd hurt - that made it all feel worth it.

[mercurialize]

I don't think I could do that.

But, I guess that's why I'm an inmate, huh?

[bodilesswarrior]

[She shakes her head.] Nah. I don't think anyone's obligated to feel that way. Not on a personal level.

[mercurialize]

Maybe not. Anyways, um, thanks for sharing that, I guess.