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[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

spam; library

[destinymaker]

[ Hello there, Walter. After the Silent Hill event just kind of massively sucked and left Durandal more of a recluse than he'd usually be, he's now back to being out and about and looking just as he always would. (He's not feeling as he always would but that is! Neither here not there!)

Running into each other at the library is not precisely unusual, and neither is chatting, but there's one thing that has been on Durandal's mind before he got derailed from it. ]

Did Dr. Shaw ever answer your questions satisfactorily?

Re: spam; library

[forensicks]

Oh, hm?

[There's a pleasant normality to no longer taking advantage of Hanna's incapacitation to purely work circ, to instead go on a few errands further into the library, and in turn encounter Durandal out there. Though the topic has a freshness. Sure, they've talked gossip about infirmary staff on one notable occasion. It's not really surprising that Durandal would be so attentive, but this borders on openly critical in a way that a cooperative inmate could have easily abstained from.]

Well, her statements did reassure me that she has no intention of abusing her power. [Immediately the rhetoric will stand out: He didn't say just "yes".]

[destinymaker]

[ Well, well. Durandal assesses what is said and what is not said, and then his smile widens just a little bit. ]

I am taking this as confirmation that you do not wish to change your emergency contact.

[ It had been a real question on his mind, since wardens have more powers on principle - it might make some people feel more secure to have one of them on call instead of a lowly inmate. ]

[forensicks]

That depends.

[Walter shelves the last little book dramatically. Like they're in a spy movie and he's disguising the gesture of checking whether they're observed and he also has vital info to exchange. He's coolly transfixed now, and any pleasantries about the trouble he caused by not calling Durandal during the flood (?) have totally left the forefront of his mind.]

That last breach where you were a rat, did it permanently damage your relationship with the concept of reality?

[destinymaker]

[ Durandal's eyebrows go all the way up, then he breaks into a short laugh. ]

I would hope it has not. If I feel any residual craving for cheese or strange affinity to riddles, I will let you know though.

[ Being a rat was strange... He remembers it, certainly. He remembers how he felt - but it's less a memory that feels like part of himself and more like recalling a particularly vivid dream.

Walter does seem awfully serious though, or at least is play-acting the seriousness very well. It feels out of place, and after that moment of levity Durandal returns to a more serious cadence very quickly. ]

So what brings that up, after all these weeks?

[forensicks]

...man, maybe that's why I made a blanket fort the other day.

[Perhaps the mood would be better suited if he remembered whether the rat was the bandit's son or what have you. The absurdity is yet another component of the mental torture, though. Walter is... bitter. It's a smiling expression he unleashed a lot that Durandal is seeing for the first time.]

You see, my warden said that was normal. That we all grapple with it after enough breaches. For me to worry about someone struggling with reality at all, well, I'm just a big jerk who hates everything.

[destinymaker]

[ If Durandal had been aware of how close Walter and Pyotr are, this would have made him instantly understand why. ]

Well, for my part I don't think it's impolite to worry about your acquaintances losing their selves. In fact, I'd rather appreciate it if you kept that scrutiny.

Being a rat was an... interesting experience and maybe even amusing in hindsight, but I have no interest in being shown untrue worlds.

[ The breaches seem like they're custom-designed to showing them the things they can't have, a manifest nightmare of the 'what if I had chosen differently back then' kind. "Keep thinking like that and you're gonna run out of time", Rau had told him and Rau had been right. It's worthless to entertain. ]

[forensicks]

That's a good point. [A new thought that Walter can agree with.] If you can't completely perceive the world around you, no choice but for someone else to hold you accountable. You could say all we've got is each other.

[Though, wardens don't really do that. Almost more like Walter's talking about inmates. He turns a book over in his hands, a small one he's been carrying around with him in his cargo shorts.]

I've been thinking about a lot of things that have happened here over time, I guess. The flood... excuse me, other type of event that somehow can't be blamed on the Admiral either... was pretty hard for my good friend Pyotr Stepanovich. I think the breach might have been, too. I'm sure you'd hate it if anything you did happened to be making it harder for him.

[Or else I would have to make things harder for you.]