.040 | Voice.

[paradoxlol]

All things considered, that wasn't half-bad. I would've liked to have kept the hat.

[Brief pause. HEY ARTHUR, THIS MIGHT BE CALLOUS CONSIDERING ALL THE FOLKS WHO GOT SHOT.]

I hope everyone who wasn't quite as lucky is doing better now. Maybe we'll get a few quiet weeks before the Admiral's drunk driving throws something else at us.

[Warden

Comments

[strangehstorian]

I would not stay if my deal were not so important to me.

Private

[paradoxlol]

To be honest... I wouldn't, either. [At least, not after Mal graduates.]

Private

[strangehstorian]

It seems callous to say I do not know if there is enough altruism in the world to make someone stay here without an extremely vital cause hanging in the balance, but ...

Private

[paradoxlol]

It's not callous; it's practical. The environment seems to work against the wardens just as much as it does the inmates.

[Private]

[most_feared]

Yeah. It does. I wanna help Cooper get the hell out of here at this point, though.

[Private]

[paradoxlol]

What if you lost him? [Speaking from experience here, as Arthur was a huge prick to his second inmate.]

[Private]

[most_feared]

My deal is for Narvin. So if both of them left? I'd give it a week and go home. [Because he'd hate to leave and find out they came back two days later.]

[Private]

[paradoxlol]

I'd probably do the same in that scenario.

Warden Filter

[19centconstable]

I do have a deal, but I believe I would have accepted the Admiral's invitation without one.

Warden Filter

[paradoxlol]

To see the sights, or to help the inmates?

Warden Filter

[19centconstable]

Both. I think it's an interesting idea, and I'd like to think that if it works here, something like it might work before the noose as well.

Warden Filter

[paradoxlol]

I think you're right. Something more stable than this, like a case management program... without the random floods and everything... can be a pretty effective tool in my time.

[Warden Filter]

[timesbureaucrat]

My deal makes me hate the Admiral. But I'm dead and I'm desperate, so I'll serve whom I must. [In other words, yes, it impacts how he does his job by making him kinda suck at it because of the oodles of resentment.]

I have other things that tie me here now, though, and not just my deal.

[Warden Filter]

[paradoxlol]

That's an answer I haven't heard yet. Why?

I guess that's how the system works. It hooks us with something significant enough not to walk away in spite of all the crap.

[Warden Filter]

[timesbureaucrat]

It convinces me that the Admiral is morally capricious and probably a sadist, rather like in the superstitions of ancient gods where they place mortals on the earth like pieces on a chess board and watch them strive and suffer for their own amusement. Entities who are truly concerned with morality don't hold entire species hostage.

He might fulfil my deal if I ever succeed, but I don't trust him and I can't ever think he's doing me any sort of favour.

[Warden Filter]

[paradoxlol]

Really? I was convinced of that after my first month here. [Pause.] But you have a point.

Do you really think he'll follow through?

[helpmejeeves]

Yes, I suppose my deal does help motivate me to get the job done in a jiff if I can. Not that this is at all a bad place to hang one's hat for a while [Bertie somehow fails to notice the weekly murders], but it is trying to be without Jeeves.

[paradoxlol]

Jeeves?

[helpmejeeves]

My manservant. At least I've worked out how to make tea, though. So that's a bit of sunshine in the midst of all the gloom.

[paradoxlol]

A very useful skill to have.