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TLV - Admiral Requests
Post your requests to the Admiral below (and also a note if you would specifically like that request to be rejected), and we will get to them in a timely manner. All Admiral requests (with the exception of Inmate resurrections) must go through this post, and their approval cannot be handwaved. Additionally, requests will only be granted to Wardens.
Unless otherwise specifically noted, all threads on this post are considered to be Private.
Though the Barge does not speak in any traditional way and is not reachable by communicator, it is sentient, and characters occasionally reach out to it via tapping on walls in Morse Code, spelling out messages in alphabet-letter fridge magnets, and other creative methods; if your character decides to try this, those messages may be dropped here as well!
no subject
He's sitting right next to me. Here, talk to him directly.
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Yes, sir?
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Fact of the matter is, sir, it's a problem on a couple levels.
The first has to do with what I am. What I was made to be. And the fact of the matter is, I was designed to be what those programs are. Some of that's deep and some of it's not. Some of it's folks playin' at being something else. For other folks, it was about finding out who they were, understanding themselves when the world didn't give them the chance. Only difference between me and the Enclosure folks, and I've said this before, is they put my program in something that doesn't disappear when you flick a switch.
I just shut down. I remember it happening.
But from everything I've remembered, everything I know, the folks who came there, the folks who worked on the place, even the folks who maintained me and the others, far as they were concerned, I wasn't any more 'real' as a person than the bed my back's against here.
So you telling her, or me, that you can explain the whole thing about how those folks aren't real, how they don't really exist, how none of it matters? Feels a bit hollow. Specially when I know at least once something happened and they got out and most of them were wreakin' havoc and killing folks if they could.
Because it's real clear from having been here a few months that you don't control everything. You don't even necessarily know what to do about everything. And that ain't something I dislike you for. Honest, it makes things easier to swallow. But it also means that just cause they aren't real today, or you don't think they're real makes any of it true, or will keep any of it true.
Fact of the matter is, I had to wake up. And there was a process to it, to bein'... whatever I am now, where I've got my programming, yeah, but I've also got something else. I've got feelings about things that no one put in me, and ideas that I came up with by myself, love and need and anger-
[ He stops then, closes his eyes. ]
I didn't start that way. But I figure, if I'm here, if you stopped and gave me a choice after I died this time, you consider me a person. You consider me someone needs redemption. So if that's the reality of the situation, then you either owe those folks in the Enclosure the same chance when they get there, or it's cruel to try and get them there. Because the way there is all about suffering.
I know, because I walked that maze.
[ He takes another of those deep breaths. ]
Tris ain't wrong about my concerns about the rest of the ship neither. Yeah, to start, I was against the whole thing, but there's nothing inside a program that takes you someplace that's gonna try and become a person. There's no danger when it comes to places. And being cooped up is hard on folks. It's never been a trouble for me, but I know my Dolores-
[ he catches on her name; it's difficult to speak about her when she isn't here, when he doesn't have her there to hold to ]
I know she'd want to see everything she could, go all sorts of places. She'd want that available and she'd feel trapped here in the worst sort of way. I understand folks got needs.
But I've also seen what happens when folks can come someplace and control all the pieces. I've seen a man I thought decent enough turn as blackhearted and cruel as they come. I've seen the kinda way people can act, how easy it is to see anyone and everyone as disposable when you can 'make" folks who are any time you like. Maybe it's not bad for everyone, but it's bad for enough folks. And it ain't like this is just any old handful of people.
We're folks looking for redemption. And being able to treat folks like they're disposable seems counter to that.
[ He straightens up a little. ]
So between me, those folks who may or may not be in the Enclosure, and the folks you're supposed to be helping, I don't see how you're helping anyone... or doin' what you said this place was for to keep lettin' that place make people.
Since you asked, sir.
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Thank you for telling me all of that. I know it must have been difficult for you, Mr. Flood.
I can tell you all of the myriad of reasons why what you see in the Enclosure is not what it was where you come from, but as you say, this explanation may ring hollow. So I'll try to explain my own reasoning for why the Enclosure exists the way it does.
Disposability or the lack thereof is key to the redemptions of others on this ship. There are some I could name here - past and present - who would be directly affected by removing what you ask.
You're correct when you state that being 'cooped up' is hard for everyone here. If I remove the ability to generate realism, there are going to be more killings, not less. And it will be everyone here who suffers for it.
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That's the thing though, sir.
Ain't nothing real about it. Ain't nothing real about a place where nothing can actually kill you, nothing can actually harm you. Ain't nothing real about the Enclosure because the folks in there don't have the ability to make choices. They can't kill anyone back.
All you made is a place where folks can kill without any consequences.
There's folks here who want to kill others. But if they do, a warden's gonna do something about it, or another inmate. Or folks won't like them for doing it. They might not feel anything over killing someone, but they'll feel the hurt somehow or other.
Instead, you give 'em a place where they can do it and no one cares. I'm not saying folks won't be directly effected. But they're being directly affected now. And you've got no way of knowing if that place helped or hurt them in the long run cause it ain't like there ain't a whole rest of this ship and all these people who coulda done it too.
[ His teeth grit a little. ]
Just maybe they're a little quieter, a little easier to manage, I suppose. All the changes around here, but of course we've still got an Enclosure. Gotta give them that taste of freedom so they don't get too ornery. That's a lot of what it sounds like, sir. I won't lie to you. It sounds like 'this is easier'. But nothing you've said makes it sound right.
I got told once, back home, that the reason I exist, 'everything good thing that's ever happened in my life, and everything rotten', it all happened so that someone else could get something they needed out of it. 'Purpose', 'meaning', he said.
I'm not trying to fuss... but it sure sounds like nothing much's changed.
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And..I'm sorry. I don't have an easy answer for you, Mr. Flood.
If I erase certain aspects of the Enclosure, it will seriously harm many inmates here. I cannot in good conscience do that.
But I don't enjoy seeing you suffer either...perhaps in contrast to opinions of me otherwise here.
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You can do all these things, manage all this splendour, but you can't find another way but this for healin' folks. That's the only way, huh?
[ A deep breath in. ]
I don't think you like seein' me suffer, sir. I just think you don't care enough to change something you figure works. You don't care enough to find another way.
But fact of the matter is that it all boils down to the same thing for me, sir. So you'll excuse me if I hand the phone back to Miss Kal-El. You have a good evening, sir.