➢ 027 [VIDEO]

[theantiaya]

A query for my fellow residents of the Barge:

[Aya is straight to the point today, even moreso than usual.  Her eyes are distant, but focused on something beyond the camera as she speaks in her usually cool, calculated tone.  Words chosen for a reason.]

How many of you have lost Wardens before your promised Graduation?  How many of these separations occurred without warning?

Or, perhaps, more relevantly...how many Wardens here have left unfulfilled promises to those you have sworn to assist?



((ooc: Translation: Aya just lost the closest thing she could ever consider to a competent Warden, and is decidedly not pleased with this turn of events.))

Comments

[composited]

Just the once so far.

He didn't come back from Silent Hill.

[theantiaya]

[Silent Hill.]

[Aya remembered that Port. She remembered every Port, of course, but that one held a particularly coincidental significance to her current situation, as it was the Port in which she first met Spock. He had learned much of her past then, even before they had been officially partnered. In fact, Aya suspected it may have been because of their temporary pairing that the Admiral had seen to it he was permanently assigned.]

[Except it had not been so permanent after all.]

Were you given an explanation?

[composited]

No.

I just came back, and he didn't.

[theantiaya]

Did he die?

[A plausible theory, given the horrors that had awaited the majority of Barge residents.]

[composited]

No. Not in any way I could--discern. [ Silent Hill really screwed with one's mind but... ] No. We just got back and his door was gone.

[theantiaya]

Then it is feasible that the Admiral could be to blame as well. Not the Port.

[deadliestviper]

I've lost two.

[theantiaya]

Circumstances?

[deadliestviper]

Disappearance.

[theantiaya]

No warnings given prior to either departure?

[with_my_teacup]

One vanished twice. The other, I was taken off the barge and he was repaired when I got back.

Don't think any of us planned it to go like that.

[theantiaya]

[She focuses on one particular word of that statement:]

"Repaired"?

[with_my_teacup]

Paired again. Hooked up with another inmate.

[theantiaya]

In other words, you have both been abandoned and involuntarily removed from the Barge as well.

[Experiencing both sides of the phenomenon, similar to Aya herself. She had also been repaired during her days as a Warden in between the disappearance and reappearance of Pyro.]

Can you think of a single justification as to why this occurs?

[with_my_teacup]

Nope. [He lifts a shoulder. ]

[secretasshole]

Interesting question, coming from you.

[theantiaya]

[Oh. You.]

[Aya stares back at her former inmate for a much longer duration than probably necessary. Unblinking. When she finally speaks, she averts her gaze.]

I am aware of the circumstances involving our pairing and subsequent separation, David.

To highlight them once again would be unnecessary...and, from you, possibly arbitrary.

[secretasshole]

[David just cocks his head to the side very slightly, and asks his own question in a perfectly polite, almost saccharine tone of voice.]

Does it feel like you've been abandoned?

[theantiaya]

No.

It does not feel like anything.

[Feeling implies emotions. Which...oh, you know the drill.]

[secretasshole]

Perhaps he simply got bored with you.

[ Video ]

[warisart]

[Ben doesn't answer right away; he has some fact-checking to do and, upon finding the door empty as he suspected, he takes no pleasure in being correct. Returning to a neutral space for him - his quarters - he settles down and opens the feed, and - as he has learned has been most effective, if anything has - starts with something others have not yet done.]

You understand that graduation is not promised. The possibility of it is. The act is solely reliant upon your actions and decisions and effort.

[ Video ]

[theantiaya]

[Her reaction is less noticeable to his response than it may normally have been. There was a definitive line of questioning here, and Ben did possess knowledge on the matter. Making the pending conversation, in fact, logical to pursue.]

But you agree that Graduation is the ultimate goal?

[ Video ]

[warisart]

It is arguably the greatest goal from the standpoint of both positions. Inmates have choice restored to them upon graduation; wardens receive their deals.

There are individuals who disagree, of course. [Ben, actually, happens to be one of them.]

[ Video ]

[theantiaya]

Then it is a promise. One bestowed upon any inmate who has done nothing to hinder his or her progress.

[...granted, Aya hasn't done anything to help her progress, but that was an argument for another time.]

Yet it appears the Barge itself has seen fit to punish my obedience, regardless of the fact that I have committed no crimes since my re-arrival.

[ Video ]

[warisart]

No. It is a possibility, no more, no less. An inmate can linger in their current state indefinitely, or worsen their position, unless or until they begin making progress.

The Barge has punished nothing. There are variables that are outside of our control. Your lack of disobedience has proven this is true of nothing else.