video;

[velocette]

[There's very little light, of course; but the faint light from his cigarette and a lighter are just enough to show the two fish bowls he has on his desk, and the silky tails of the two bettas inside them.]

I wonder if this place, being a safer place for some of us than our own homes, doesn't create stagnation. I wonder if, without the Admiral's piloting skills, some of us would just lie down one day and never get back up.

I think that's what was happening with Harvey. It wasn't safe at home, and at least here he knew it would go on and on no matter what he did.

If I ever get another inmate, I'll have to figure something else out to stir up some motivation in them. There's something to be said for the carrot and the stick, I guess.

...Is it dark, or is it just me? [He has to ask that seriously okay]

Comments

[velocette]

He did. [And despite his general melancholy right now, he's proud.]

But that wasn't the biggest goal.

[And then he laughs a little, and lights up a cigarette] How much worse do you think the Admiral's flying would be if you had popped him?

[routemistress]

No. No, it weren't.

[She knows what Harvey always said he'd do when he graduated; she suspects the Boy did too. And that he's slipped away without telling anyone is, in her view, depressingly significant.]

'E couldn't very well be any worse. Did 'e say anything to you? Like what 'is plans were?

[Iris: eternal optimist.]

[velocette]

[He inhales slowly, eyes closed, trying to put the haphazard way his mind works into some kind of order.]

Towards the end, no, he just wanted to stay safely perched on the fence the rest of his life. Even though part of him was smart enough to know there is no way to rest in life, that something would have knocked him on to one side or the other eventually.

When I first met him, when he had good days, I think he wanted to be the hero in his own life again. I think he wanted to live somewhere that would have given him a chance to win; or at the very least, that wouldn't have been so stacked against him.

[Did that amount to a goal? Maybe not. You can't always choose or change the life you're in, not while it's beating you into the ground. But it had been a wish.]

A wish was enough to go on around here. Back home, for any of us, wishes are just embers. Most of them burn out without a mark.

[routemistress]

You've got one now that needn't. Decided what you'll do with it?

[She wants to beg him to send it after Harvey, to give him whatever he needs; but she's more than half sure he's already put himself beyond all need.]

[velocette]

[He shakes his head, and for a moment feels a little dazed.]

When I was a kid, everyone was always talking about what they'd do with a million dollars. Or even ten dollars. But I don't remember how to want something I don't already have.

[private/text]

[routemistress]

[Her eyes close, her mouth pinches suddenly, and Iris shuts off the video; but a moment later she continues the conversation in text.]

i have an idea if you don't think of anything you want.

use it to build and fund something in his native Gotham: I'm thinking domestic violence shelter. A really good one that won't turn away anyone that needs it.

not sure if he'd want it named for him directly, but we can worry about that later.

[private/text]

[velocette]

I'll look into what most shelters lack.

[He's sold on this idea, as well as on the challenge of making it the best it can possibly be given the wide range of issues that come with families fleeing domestic violence.]