velocette | (no subject)

(no subject)

[Today, the Motorcycle Boy is signing with his hands, and translating after.]

I'd forgotten who I was back then. I wonder if we were supposed to be nostalgic after? That or very guilty, for who we were, or who we became.

What purpose does guilt serve, outside of societal control?

[That last part he had to finger spell, which was exhausting, so excuse him he's taking a smoke break.]

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[More people using a language she knows! Esther signs back, speaking as she does just as she learned to do with Max.]

Guilt is just regret with self-loathing.

[ Harv followed (some of) that, and clucks his tongue. ]

You're picking it up faster than I am.

You were small? Didn't see you at all.

What are you doing?

[Oh. Oh well, now he's awake, and he signs back (slower, making sure he has the signs right):]

Seems like most things people do is out of self-loathing.

Smaller. I was about this size when I was fourteen, which I guess was the age I was last week. I was trying to break into things. [He seems fondly amused by his younger self.] It's easier to do at home.

Sign language. Are there deaf people in your world?

Hrmph.

[ Harvey shakes his head. ]

Kept my nose clean, stayed away from the little ones for the most part.

[He wonders what sort of child Harvey was. Maybe one who believed in heroes? In which case it's better that he wasn't affected.]

You did better than me, then. We should celebrate.

[ Angry and withdrawn. Grieving a mother he barely knew and waiting in fear of a rigged game. ]

Celebrate?

[The sort of person the Motorcycle Boy had tended to try to bring into his gang...which, you know. Wouldn't have been good for either of them.]

Yeah. Smokes, a game.

[He's not good at celebrations.]

Got smoked. Game's harder. Not exactly getting getting the Knights games around here. Sports were a big deal in Gotham. But nobody's surprised by that.

[ Sports meant money and gambling and that meant crime. ]

Yes.

[Ohhh.]

...interesting idea. Everyone does that?

[Esther isn't signing fast, but she's signing correctly. ASL is new for her, but spent her time with the Colemans immersed in it and practicing often.]

What do you mean?

No. Wish more people did but as with most things meant to accommodate the disenfranchised, it's mostly ignored. On board it's just me, my inmate, and a kid.

Do you want to learn?

[He doesn't know nearly enough sign language to keep going as he speaks, so he pauses, and shrugs.]

Well, what landed most people here? Inmates and Wardens I mean. Trying to change something, right?

Not really. I can write if I have to.

Could always start our own forms of competition, if that's what you're missing. Pool was more my thing than football--team sports felt kinda like gang wars, except everything stops in games when someone gets hurt.

Yeah, but it takes longer.

[But a thought occurs to him and he's off on a tangent:] Course if we're in danger you'd probably be doing something besides signing anyway. Hell, communication falls apart at the first gunshot even in the best squadrons, I guess I can't expect anyone to remember a sign when they're trying to remember where the fire exit is...

Edited 2013-08-20 06:11 (UTC)

I could play pool. We got a table, down on deck six.

I'm game.

[He says this amiably, like he doesn't make a Thing of it to go and clean out the pockets of pool players every weekend.]

If I'm in danger I'm not going to take the time to chat, no.

Let's go down, then.

[ Harv will probably lose more often than not. It was never really his game, though he knows how to play. He's got a good eye for angles and shots, though, but nothing too fancy up his miss-matched sleeves. ]

Every man for himself, or are you more of a team player since getting here?

It depends on who is on the team, doesn't it?

Who's on yours?

Whoever can trust me enough, I suppose.

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