lastvoyages Inbox

[forensicks]

[Walter has recorded a video message from the point of view of someone who has just come through the door into his cabin and sees Walter at his desk in the chair turned around to face the viewer. He gives a little salute-wave.]

Didn't get me. But nice try.

Comments

[forensicks]

You can kill half a dozen people on a murder spree here and go home is an extreme position.

[abrightboy]

Yeah, it is. I think it's bullshit. But ruminating on that constantly isn't going to accomplish anything.

[forensicks]

Cognitive dissonance ahoy...

You're right, I don't ignore things per se. I guess the more precise term would be compartmentalize. You know, decide how to interact with them taking into account that, if they seem to be actively enabling murderers or cheering on the destruction of a community, it's probably just a brainwashing thing and not a sign we can't have a civil conversation about putting away our laundry.

[abrightboy]

But you don't think you sometimes jump to wrong conclusions about people when you learn about them from deducing information from public chats rather than from talking to them?

[forensicks]

Okay, fine. You can start writing me a little bulletin about your approval and disapproval of the Admiral's decisions.

[abrightboy]

Or we could have conversations where you can ask me about individual aspects of things you have problems with and we can talk about them.

[forensicks]

How is that at all different?

[Muffled into his palm something about "upside down, s'm..."]

Well, maybe you can tell me what you think, at least also? Not to mention, again, on top of you actively working for the Admiral, the guiding principle of this place is that he - or some magical principle he set up, I guess - decides when I am done cooking, and no one else. That's it. That's the organization where you want to help people. So yes, as much as I will try not to assume, there's the framework where wardens think he is right about everything, okay?

[abrightboy]

I think you'd be hard pressed to find a majority that think he's right about everything. Anyway, I'm happy to tell you what I think about stuff. I'm opposed to just... dropping you notes. It's not interactive.

When are you going to give me another puzzle?

[forensicks]

You call notes non interactive, and yet you ask for another puzzle. Fascinating.

[abrightboy]

Not for communication. For fun.

[forensicks]

Then of course not!

[abrightboy]

Oh. Why?

[forensicks]

If you want to solve a puzzle for fun, you can just read a book. For professional quality.

[abrightboy]

I thought yours was professional quality. And would have been a lot more fun if it weren't an elaborate way to tell me to fuck off. So I thought we could try that. It would still be communicating, in a way. Just. No horrible notes as the prize.

[forensicks]

You don't have to flatter me...

[he mutters distantly, then:]

Okay, then what prize do you want?

[abrightboy]

To solve the puzzle.

[forensicks]

But there's no substitute for the sense of accomplishment when you actually find a prize.

[abrightboy]

Make me a piece of art or something then.

[forensicks]

A popsicle stick figure?

[abrightboy]

I’ll hang it on my fridge.

[forensicks]

So that's that. I'll come drop it off. And pick up the spoon.

Sorry I'm... like this.

[abrightboy]

“Like” what? You’re just you; there’s nothing to apologize for.

[Someone has spent his life being asked why he’s ‘like this’. Someone finds that term a little cruel. Someone lost his shit at his mentor the last time he used it.]

[forensicks]

But I – made this terrible thing that happened all about me and something I made up in my head. Apparently. And I'm sorry.

[abrightboy]

Walter, I don't... want you to be someone else. I just want you to interact with the world in a way that doesn't work against you and part of that involves reframing the way you look at things. Not everything that you find inconvenient or suspicious or painful is a conspiracy designed to reprogram you. And... if I counter those messages from that part of your brain, then... maybe you can start to look at things in a different light. But it's not... I'm not saying that there's something wrong with you.

[forensicks]

I know you want me to be happy, or wherever non brainwashing alternative word you want to insist on, such as fulfilled. I just can't make any promises about reframing... Something like this. A literal isolated compound where I've suffered multiple traumas.