R 7 Private to Megamind

[with_my_teacup]

Welp, I hope this is getting you off.

Next time leave the rest of us out of your little sex game. I can only trust one warden at a time and I'm just not getting hard now that they all get bullshit arbitrary authority over me.

They're in authority. They'll start with the luxuries. They won't stop there. Power feels too good.

Comments

[megamind]

...whoa whoa what?

[ Color Megamind totally confused. ]

Back up, pal.

First, way too much information on your sexual proclivities. Second, what about authority?

[with_my_teacup]

You and your weedy little friend deciding wardens can restrict resources based on, eh, whatever they feel like today.

Was the admiral not turning this place into a real prison for you fast enough? You just needed the wardens to have an unlimited supply of leverage? Make us that last little bit more powerless?

[megamind]

Guess you never had commissary at your prisons, I guess. [ He's rubbing his face. ] Look, I'm pretty sure that Jesse isn't going to start charging for food, drink and the blankets on our bed. Besides, if he tries, it's not like there aren't wardens who won't stop him, and inmates besides.

[ He pinched the bridge of his nose. This was a wonderful bit of unforseen backlash. But it was oneof his plans, so why is he surprised? ]

Tw: fire

[with_my_teacup]

Nah. In my prisons, they incinerate inmates alive to make room. Hunt them for sport. It's amazing what people come up with, you give them enough power and enough boredom.

The wardens have access to everything, zero effort, unlimited supply. You decided it would be better if they could bottleneck that right down so we could learn some kind of lesson.

This won't stop with art supplies. It'll go slow, ease down the wardens who don't like it until they're used to it. Because people are a machine that you put power into and get hypocrisy and bullshit out of.

[megamind]

Yeeeeah, no. I think you've got the wrong prison. [ He pinches his bridge of his nose again. ] Look. I'm trying help us get more treatment like people, not the other way around.

I promise, they start pulling anything like you describe-- even vaguely close to that? I'll be handing out shanks and raising up the riots.

[with_my_teacup]

By setting up a divide, where they control the resources for all of us? If we all had to pay, yeah, I can see it. But with just us working? You're just setting up a bigger divide.

The one-on-one warden system is the biggest break between this and any other prison-- from Slam City to the cutest little minsec. One point of authority, one person who has to deal with me as a person and has an investment of their own tied up on me. I can about cope.

But now I get to deal with that shithead who knows me from a whole in the ground telling me to pay him because it's good for me. I don't trust him. I don't trust most of these people.

[megamind]

And I disagree. No standards, no nothing. Just random people who can do random things, who does... whatever they want. And don't really get punished for it. You think a week in the stocks did anything for our rabies friends? Have we heard from their wardens at all?

Wardens need to work together. They need to be held accountable. Jesse's probably going about this the wrong way, but it's only by making mistakes and learning from them do we advance from anything.

[with_my_teacup]

I don't care about them-- can't care about them. I know I won't get satisfaction out of those shits. I can't even kill them to make sure it happens again because, shit, people don't stay dead here.

This can't be a society, Megamind. Not enough keeping us together. I'll survive, and I'll keep my people, my little pack safe as much as I can. My warden is part of that pack, Pinkman ain't. I don't expect more out of anyone else.


[It seems I made a lot of grammar and spelling errors due to eating a noodle dish. You might call them...

Thaipos.]

[megamind]

Then there needs to be. Even a prison has it's families, ti's lines, it's groups-- and it's safeties.

[ He sighs. ]

I didn't suggest the commissary to make your life hard, or anyone else. Taking this personal with me isn't going to get you any satisfaction, because there's none to take. I wanted to help us get some independence!

[with_my_teacup]

I can't go with this. I don't accept warden authority unless it's my warden, and we've negotiated. As long as it's art supplies? We don't have a problem, I'm not all that artistic. It gets any further-- and I don't have even particle of faith that it won't-- and I can make myself one hell of a roadblock.

[He shrugs a single shoulder.]

You're making us lower class than them. They will start internalizing that.

[megamind]

Guess what! We are lower class than them. We don't control our lives, we don't even get to choose to come back from the dead or not. The ones who are going to internalize that? Already have.

[with_my_teacup]

We eat the same food, we rub elbows, we share almost all of the same space. Most interactions, day to day, there's no cue for who's on what side of the line. That keeps us safe. You're giving them a big visual cue that separates us and them, labels us 'inmate' with one motion.

[megamind]

Yeah, and when one dumps you they can say it's for your own good. Look. No matter what relationship you have with a warden? No matter how you negotiate? They don't forget what side of the line they're on. I wear my prison suit to make a point.

They know who they are, just like we know who we are.

[with_my_teacup]

I am a con. But my family knows what I am besides that. Warden or inmate, they know Riddick, not the shackles, not the horse bit.

...what 'dump you', where are you going with this. It's been months since I fucked a warden and that was mostly therapeutic. She's gone anyway.

[megamind]

... not you. Never mind. That's personal.

[ Said too much, got too emotional. Still trying to be the good ex-lover, and not working at it very well. Sometimes, when there isn't a warden watching, it bubbles over. ]

[with_my_teacup]

[Riddick subsides, brows knitting together.]

I don't like it. I'm not with you on this. But I don't actually expect that's gonna be an issue for you at the moment unless things go wrong faster than I expect.

You a'ight over there?

[megamind]

I already have ideas on how to make things better. Jesse means well. He's making a mistake in execution, but if we all got crucified over implementation I would never come down off the cross, I assure you.

[ sigh ]

Yeah, I'm fine.

[with_my_teacup]

[Riddick's mouth twists dubiously.]

I don't think we're on the same wavelength, you and me. But if it goes right, more power.

[megamind]

Nobody was ever set on fire in the prison I was in.

Okay, Hot Flash could set herself on fire but that's totally not what you mean.

[with_my_teacup]

If there hadn't been a tech manning the flame jets, though, I wouldn't have these goggles. Life's full of little opportunities. [IRONYVOICE.]

Just don't be astonished I don't tend to have faith in prison guards as a class.

[megamind]

Yeah, I get that. [ sigh ] I just-- I'm doing the best I can. I want to make things better.

[ He's already half-way to thinking like a warden, a lot of the time. How to make things better, instead of how to make them worse. He's so close to graduation he can almost taste it. ]

[with_my_teacup]

I... prefer to make things better for myself. Faith in other people in general is relatively new for me. I don't think I have the capacity to actually buy a system that can work for everyone.

[megamind]

Well, systems fail all the time. I've been in then since I was small. Very.... very small. They -- [ he stops, very quiet, mouth opening and closing over words he almost did. ]

[ they failed me from the start. ]

They... they're always... works in progress. [ Sorry, Riddick, you may have just accidentally triggered a particularly painful break through. ] That's why-- I want this one to be better. So it stops failing people. L-like Wanda.

[with_my_teacup]

Your penal system education was a lot more thorough than mine, at least.

[His lips purse, a slight frown coming up.]

I understand that.

I'm afraid this currency thing's gonna set it up so that the kids get the short end. Me, I need less sleep and food than a lot of people, can work more on less. That little punk with the outfit? The kid, Stark? They ain't gonna be able to keep up without losing something.

[megamind]

Maybe.

[ He reaches up and massages his temples. ]

I'll watch after the little ones. Personally. Someone-- a few someones-- did it for me. Call it paying it forward. But I won't let them get hurt or railroaded.

[with_my_teacup]

You know I would too.

It's my issue with the system. This disagreement I have with Prefect...

I don't feel like there's any guarantee, any way to keep things fair after we're gone. The admiral can drop us at any time and ... there's just no guarantees. No infrastructure behind this thing-- behind any part of the barge-- to protect anyone if a warden ever decides to fuck over any inmate.

[He grunts, falls into thoughtful silence. He can see Megamind's impulse to try to build that infrastructure, but to him, things are already so fucked that there's no fixing it, and preparing for the worst is the better option.]

[megamind]

Prefect gets money. What I don't get is why he ran from this with his tail between his legs. But I don't know the guy beyond a breach where his guys shot me in the head, so...

Anyway.

[ He swallows; between Ned earlier and now this he looks very tired; Angus whines and toddles into view, crawling into the bed to poke him with his nose, and Megamind pets him gently. ]

Look, I'll do what I can to keep-- influencing things, okay. There's not much I can do until I magically join the private john club, but... I'll do my best.

[with_my_teacup]

Yeah.

[He nods to Angus.]

Hey, boy. Good boy.

[megamind]

[ Angus tilts his head, before there's some shuffling; the picture goes all skiwampus for a moment, as Megamind shifts and takes the comm from a nosy dog, and then straightens, the angle changed now. ]

Sorry, he really loves the communicator because it makes noise. Thankfully he doesn't chew glass.

[with_my_teacup]

It's something you're paying attention to, it's gotta be interesting.

[Riddick smiles very faintly.]

He's smart. Run into that breed before, always got along with'm.

[megamind]

Kay picked him. My first inmate hurdle. Said if I looked after him for three months, I got lab access.

[ Angus is obviously been around a lot longer than three months, as he's nearly ten months old now. ]

[with_my_teacup]

Good choice, I think. I like dogs. They're straightforward, communicate clearly, very low on bullshit.

[megamind]

It's all new to me. They didn't exactly let me have a puppy with the general population.

[ Angus whines again, and nudges again for the hand with the communicator. ]

Okay, okay. Time for -- something. Someone needs attention.

Look, are we good? I know this isn't what you want, and heck, it's not even entirely what I want, but... it's not death squads, right?

[with_my_teacup]

[Right. Not everyone can communicate with animals well enough to turn them against their owners. That thing.]

We're good. I'm not thrilled, but it isn't deathsquads.

[He nods, silent for a second. He's got his own pile of thoughts to digest.]

See you later. I see you guys out and around, I'll come play with the boy.

[megamind]

Yeah, I'm gonna see if Zev wants to hit up the CES.

[ Zev is nice people with a particular outlook he thinks he can trust right now. ]

But I'll see you around.