Video 1 ♔ Nothing in his Life Became Him Like the Leaving it

[mightthinkthat]

 [Private to self]

Well, of course it wasn't that easy. And there was the matter of placing myself on that world. So like my own. [He lets out a laugh.] Apart from that 'Below' business. 

But not my world. I wasn't present at all. [He smiles.] What a poorer world for it! [Contemplatively:] A terrible shame what became of the lady. She was well loved in this world. Still, she had two sons here, so that was something to be grateful for.

Now we have 'the Barge'. I remember what Elizabeth said. That I should always find a challenge. Keep my mind active and sharp. It seems that in killing me, she guaranteed it! [He looks thoughtful again.] Would that she know about it. 

[Public]

When I was growing up, my pastor was filled with the grim vitriol of the passioned believer, slamming his bible against the pulpit, telling us all that we were destined to end up in the fiery pits of hell to be burned and scorned for all eternity. We were all sinners and we all needed repent them. 

Of course, it was something of a double edged sword. When your religion exhorts you to be a good boy while simultaneously telling you that any attempts on your part to do so was ultimately futile because God had decided your fate long before you were born, you tended to form a kind of apathy about the whole thing, whether you believed or not.

I confess, while I lay bleeding to death in my wife's embrace, my being sent to hell... or 'purgatory' for you lightweights [He smiles a little], didn't occur to me in the slightest. I'm sure it occurred to others, of course, but politics will do that.

[There's a slight twinkle in his eye.] ...Do you think the Admiral is a Labour man?

I will admit, I don't remember any of my teachings to feature such a... 'high tech' purgatory, with dining halls and 'wardens'. 

As I discovered, [he shoots the camera a disarming smile] there doesn't seem to be much freedom to escape. So I'm a little unclear on the point of wardens? To keep us from bashing each other's heads in? Surely, not a concern to our Admiral, given his skills. 

You can come and go as you please, so perhaps you're solely here to hammer home just how trapped inmates are. Of course, no doubt there's a certain... satisfaction in being above others, particularly others that you can point to be less... moral than you are, but otherwise, I don't see the appeal.

Of course, if anyone should care to enlighten me, I'd be obliged.

Comments

[private]

[velocette]

No one is really clear what the Warden can do, or why he's here. About all I know is he's a terrible pilot, so if he is God, at least we know he's consistent. Anyway, most Wardens are here for a magic prize at the end of the road; they pick their own incentive. It's a pretty effective way to keep people coming back.

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

One wonders what makes these people accept the word of a mysterious stranger.

[private]

[velocette]

The Admiral finds the most desperate people he can. Or the most naively disillusioned. It's easy to manipulate people who identify as 'heroes'; they can't turn down a challenge.

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

How very true. Particularly if you give them The Solution as you do so.

[private]

[velocette]

Which Solution would you hand to them, if you were him?

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

Why?

[private]

[velocette]

I wonder what kind of Admiral you'd be. Don't you?

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

Not really. Can't say I'll be all that different from what I heard. Possibly less of the innocent warden kind.

[private]

[velocette]

Well, after our next crash, you might think different is all. It's hard to be someone's puppet without thinking maybe you can pull the strings better.

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

If I were the Admiral, I'd hardly be his puppet, now, would I.

[private]

[velocette]

You are for now. It's one or the other.

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

Sometimes even both! But yes, I know where I stand. A minor power in the face of things, perhaps, but mine all the same.

[private]

[velocette]

Not very minor. The only real security a man can have in this world is a reserve of knowledge.

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

That certainly seems to be more or less the case.

[private]

[velocette]

But things here, the reality here, doesn't match up with the things any of us know. I think the best predictor of adaptation is in any person who's comfortable with chaos.

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

Well, I am well used to chaos.

[private]

[velocette]

It's a skill more people should try to cultivate. Life is never as boring as the higher ups think it should be.

What's your craziest story then?

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

It all depends on your interest. Dramatic love affairs, insidious double dealing, fumbling bureaucracy...

Re: [private]

[velocette]

There's always a love affair next door, and bureaucracy by its nature hobbles itself. What's the double dealing like?

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

Full of tears and misunderstandings. Sometimes deliberate ones too.

Re: [private]

[velocette]

From you or them?

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

Mine are almost always deliberate. But hardship comes to us all.

Re: [private]

[velocette]

And it should. People without hardship are just bait for the lions.

[private]

[mightthinkthat]

Should the lions not die from the tedium of it first.

Re: [private]

[velocette]

That's an affliction everything living has, huh? The banality of unmet expectations.