[video]

[velocette]

[He's been mulling this over since he met Hannibal, really.]

What was the first turning point in your life? Do you even remember who your real heroes were, when you were a kid? Or maybe some people do actually idolize their parents. For me, the only idols are the ones who can't become real, but it's been pointed out to me before that it's possible to worship someone in spite of their faults.

Comments

[ichoosefight]

[ She opens her mouth to say 'Scorpius', but decides against it. Her personal grudges won't help anything, and they certainly won't help her graduate. ]

I don't know.

[velocette]

[He notices her hesitance, though, and gives her a sad, sympathetic smile.]

Why? Why hold back?

[ichoosefight]

Because I don't. [ She shrugs. ] Most of my friends are wardens. I don't get all the juicy gossip.

[velocette]

But you also don't get the perks of being a warden. That's...a tricky place to be. Most prisons, that would get you stabbed.

[ichoosefight]

[ That makes her grin. ] My friends aren't the kind you want to piss off, but I'm not exactly helpless. A serial killer tried to stab me once, I took his knife and broke his wrist.

[velocette]

[He perks up a little, oddly enough, at the mention of violence. Or maybe at the mention of her victory.]

That serial killer, he still around?

[ichoosefight]

Zsasz? He's in Arkham last I checked.

[velocette]

[He tries to say the name but it comes out a little slurred, a little lisped, too tricky for him.]

Never heard of him.

[ichoosefight]

He's from Gotham. Apparently it doesn't exist in a lot of universes.

[velocette]

Yeah. It does in mine, just...not the same way as yours.

So he's in Arkham? Not on Death Row?

[ichoosefight]

Arkham's an asylum for the criminally insane.

[ It's where we stick all the bad guys we like too much to kill off! ]

[velocette]

Guess New Jersey's still pretty liberal, then, huh? Oklahoma--we just got the death penalty back. Hasn't turned into a madhouse yet, unless you count the street executions we do ourselves.

[ichoosefight]

Not really. It's just that the insanity plea is really effective when you're obviously completely insane.

[velocette]

Mmhmm...it's hard to feel anything but pity or disgust, maybe fear, for someone who's clearly out of their head. Someone who knows what they're doing, who sees the world the same way you do, well that person is easy to hate. Easier to kill.

Are they really trying to fix him?

[ichoosefight]

I guess so. That's what it says on the tin anyway.

[ Steph doesn't exactly have warm fuzzies for anyone in Arkham. ]

[velocette]

You can't fix a brain.

[He sounds much the same way.]

Once it's damaged, once it's splintered, it's- that's it. You're stuck with what you get.

[ichoosefight]

You're probably right about that. I guess the question is, with mental illness, how much of it is unfixable?

[velocette]

[He thinks about that seriously, but in his time, treatments are limited and risky.]

I've never heard of a method that helped. We shock people, we do surgeries, then we just lock 'em away. And that makes it worse. No person can stand being confined their whole lives without turning feral.

[ichoosefight]

[ Hold on, give her a second to wrap her head around that. ]

There are a lot more options by my time.

[velocette]

But incarceration still sounds very popular.

[Despite himself and his cynicism about mental health, though, he is curious; but he ends up biting the tip of his tongue to keep from asking.]

[ichoosefight]

Like you said, some things you can't fix.

[ Also they mistreat the inmates. But you know. Gotham. ]

[velocette]

It'd be kinder to kill them. The system where I'm from, it's like going to a doctor because you have a cold, and instead they amputate your leg.

But I've got a theory that most of the violence would be solved if people weren't so boxed in by everything. Which makes it tricky to be here--it feels like infiltrating something I disagree with sometimes.

[ichoosefight]

[ She just shrugs. ]

I think the whole legal system's pretty messed up, but it's a bit above my paygrade.

[velocette]

And for now it's also a few lightyears away.

[He takes a drag on his cigarette, enjoying the perverse calm that comes from it.]

You're not as stircrazy as my inmate is. What do you make of this place?

[ichoosefight]

I'll take that as a compliment.

As afterlives go, honestly, I was expecting worse.