oo1 ✖ video

[enabeled]

[ There's a careful sort of fumbling with the communicator, the kind that comes from someone unused to at least using settings such as video. It's more of a performance, after all, and if you're going to the trouble there's something to be said for presentation. It's set across from him, as one might record a video diary or a confession.

Abel Gideon is wearing a dark shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his hands resting atop each other, fingers to wrist. ]

Now, I think by now we're all accustomed to a little inconvenience. Many of us intimately familiar, even... but regardless of history here we all are. Not that I would suggest there's anything right or wrong about that, either. Who am I to say? Just is. Here we all are... foreign visitors, lost to a strange new land.

Me, I can't complain. By a certain point in your life you come to realize the scarcity of true... opportunity. That and clarity. So. To get to the point... I think people get manipulated in two major kinds of ways.

[ He holds up two fingers in the world's laziest mockery of a peace sign, though it almost seems an unconscious motion for how much he acknowledges any movement occurred. ]

There's the kind where they give you answers. And there's the kind where they keep answers from you. Now the two may overlap, probably will -- usually do -- but motive may often lay inherit in what the ratio is. Not knowing that it's hard to really know what to trust. That's what I think.

Comments

voice;

[slightlyoffchilt]

And which of the two do you think you have most experience in?

[It isn't easy to mask the edge in his voice, but he attempts.]

voice;

[enabeled]

Hard to say, Frederick. I'm not the psychiatrist.

[ He doesn't even bother to mask the coldness in his voice, though rarely is it completely absent anyway. ]

[slightlyoffchilt]

But you're not immune to self-insight, are you? I would pity anyone who suffered that sort of ailment.

[enabeled]

Wouldn't say immune. My mind may not always be especially clear, but that doesn't mean I can't still recognize it.

And maybe I'd rather keep my suppositions to myself... for the time being.

[slightlyoffchilt]

Then your address to the rest of us was what, a ploy? Exercising your appetite for attention?

[heartlessglitch]

Some of us are already quite accustomed to being treated as "foreign."
One learns to develop a natural distrust that can be rather protective at times like these.

You seem to be adjusting well, Doctor.

[enabeled]

That's true. Good strategy, if the shoe fits. As long as you don't go overboard.

How are you adjusting, Danger?

[heartlessglitch]

I am adapting to the situation well.
Thank you for your inquiry, Doctor.

Please clarify: What do you mean by "going overboard?"

[enabeled]

I mean that too much distrust can be just as misleading as the alternative. Good to keep a more balanced perspective when you can.

[heartlessglitch]

I see.
Do you trust them, Doctor?

audio;

[dragony]

How badly do you suspect they'll manipulate us? Or, try to, at least.

audio;

[enabeled]

I'd suspect as badly as it takes to make us seem useful. It isn't uncommon. Doubt that many of us showed up here in a generous sort of mood.

[dragony]

If it only goes as far as seem, then it might not be that far at all.

[enabeled]

No -- may not be. A little early to judge, I think, if you want any accuracy. Why, we only barely even know where we are.

[dragony]

Nowhere good.

But then... I don't suppose there are any good places anywhere, are there?

voice;

[gandere]

We're always trying to manipulate others even in our every day lives. How is this any different from that?

[ Her voice is pleasantly tempered today, likely has been every time they've come in contact with each other. ]

Is it really worth speculating out loud like this?

voice;

[enabeled]

Different only for those who prefer a more honest approach. [ A pause, then: ] Or those who aren't used to being on the side of the pawn.

[ His voice, as usual, maintains a certain calm that would almost seem deadpan if not for his peculiar inflections and enunciation. ]

Well, I find it interesting.

voice;

[gandere]

Every man is a pawn some point in his life. Whether it's at the whim of some higher power or their supervisor where they work, there's someone always yanking the leash of another. That's just life.

[ Unless you're a teenager. Then the whole world is drowned out in hormonal angst and therefore doesn't necessarily apply to her. ]

What's so interesting about that?

voice;

[enabeled]

While that may be true, not every man would admit it. Denial can be just as powerful.

So it's interesting that our quality of living depends much more directly on whose manipulation we choose to listen to than ever before. Undeniable now. And I wondered what someone else might make of all this themselves.

voice;

[gandere]

So you intend to just listen to the thoughts of other prisoners in order to what? Determine if what you're experiencing is stranger than their own or just normal?

If there's a reason to talk to someone, it should be for something far more useful than that.

[thanatophobias]

[Oh - he knows you.]

What did you ask them?

[enabeled]

[ Why hello again. ]

Oh... nothing complicated. Wanted to know a little more about my job, for starters -- seems if I wanted to I could go back to being a doctor.

[thanatophobias]

Do you want to?

[enabeled]

[ A hesitation. A loaded question in a way, that. ]

Well. I don't see why not.

[thanatophobias]

[He pauses, obviously caught in a thought.]

I think it's weird that they expect us to have normal lives here.