R48 - And yeah some bad tattoos

[with_my_teacup]

Is it 'share my rap sheet' week again? Gracious.

Since I've been kind of a home body and a lot of you are new; name's Richard Riddick. Breakfast shift warden, you've probably seen me behind the waffles.

Also a felon. Also sort of accidentally the head of a death cult. My rap sheet... you'd get bored if I went on all day; just sprinkle the words 'murder' and 'manslaughter' and 'aggravated assault' around liberally, chuck in some 'flight from justice' and a handful of counts of 'grand theft spacefaring vehicle' and you've got the picture. I've got a bodycount of my own.

And yes, to those who asked? I'm a warden. Mister Graham. [Prissyface at you, sir.]

This seems like a good segue into a point that keeps getting forgotten when new inmates roll in and old ones go out; there's barely, barely a behavioral code for wardens. You shouldn't ever trust someone just because they have the keys to the bar. We've had, and we'll have again, wardens who were outright amoral assholes openly looking for their paycheck. Ask your favourite lifer about the Terminator sometime. The qualifications for warden have nothing to do with virtue and everything to do with the ability to help someone else in a very specific way.

So stop thinking this is really about justice, about good people fixing bad people. Bullshit; whatever the admiral's reasons, all this place is for us is a long breather where we get our lives patched back up. It doesn't mean we're forgiven, it doesn't mean the slate's wiped clean, it means when we do get out it's because we learned how to live in a way that doesn't harm so many other people. Including ourselves. Don't think of this as a prison, because I know none of us were formally charged when we got dumped here. This is an unfriendly space phenomenon, a bad dream, the hostile planet we wrecked ourselves on. You don't escape it by fighting. You can't fight gravity with a shiv. You escape it by repairing your shit.

Redraw the lines in your mind, who's good, who's bad. If you question your own judgement, question it on what you observe for yourself, not what you've been told. Forget what you think about becoming a model citizen or making things right, and concentrate on the quality of your own life.

[Private to Arthas]

I was going to ask if it was a'ight to take a month off and try to find a safe place for the dog, after he got chewed up this last takeover... but it seems like a bad time now.

Comments

[voluntaryapnea]

[The ways in which so much of this hits home for Stiles are numerous. He doesn't see this venture as wiping the slate clean. His deal might undo the harm he caused, but it'll always be there in his own mind, even if it's not in anyone else's. And that's how it should be, he thinks.

He doesn't see himself as some kind of virtuous savior there to fix other people. He's there to help and there's a difference. And he's getting something out of it in return, something he's willing to die for. But of all the things that have been said the last few days about everything that happened during the last breach, Riddick's words are the ones he most relates to. The others have left him feeling conflicted, stressed.]

Yeah, I pretty much agree with everything you said here.

[with_my_teacup]

When I was an inmate, a guy named Agent Kay gave a similar lecture. It helped a little.

If you're here as a warden it's because the Admiral thinks you can help an inmate. It's just... good and bad are incidental to that. Speaking as someone with a long history in the penal system, the job and the virtue get confused a lot. People assume the law man must be better than the con.

[voluntaryapnea]

Yeah, I get where you're coming from. It's definitely a bad assumption, though.

[with_my_teacup]

Give one side cells and one side guns, though, and they both start to internalize it. This place works best when people interact like people, not like they're working across an arbitrary line.

It's one of the reasons I put so much work into the food, try to keep it pleasant and not institutional. So people don't start internalizing that prison logic.

[voluntaryapnea]

[He likes you, Riddick. You've solidified it.]

Makes sense. I think a lot of people are trying to do the same thing with different ideas.

[with_my_teacup]

[Man so much for his reputation these days.]

I support it. As a new inmate I thought it was bullshit and I know people are always going to think it's bullshit, but they aren't my problem.

Do I know your name?

[voluntaryapnea]

Well yeah. I mean it's different for inmates. They're not asked if they want to be here. I'd probably think the same thing.

Stiles Stilinski.

[with_my_teacup]

Pleased to meet you.

[voluntaryapnea]

Likewise.