Malcolm Bright

"Rosita and I have a history. Did you come across that in your intense scrutiny of the network?" Malcolm genuinely asks. "I'll give you a brief summary, regardless, since some of it happened in person: we got off on the wrong foot because I was in an argument with a friend of hers from her world who was a huge douche to me. He's a warden, if that makes a difference. I apologized for her ending up accidentally in the middle of that and she was a catty bitch. I reached out again and she was mean. I reached out again and she was mean. She can have a point here and there, but also she'll colour every interaction with her decision of who anyone is and whether they mean it and then they can't possibly offer her anything in good faith, so you know what? I stopped. She offered to help with the investigation and I told her no thank you, even though what my soul actually wanted to explain was that I wouldn't ask her to piss on me if I was on fire. She says all wardens are bastards, but especially me, and I say exactly one inmate is a pointless waste of time and it's her. Okay? So I'm truly, genuinely sorry if you thought that was somehow directed at all inmates or even any other inmate, but she's the only one I don't have time for." He pauses, tilts his head slightly. "I used to agonize over it, you know. Why I couldn't connect with some people. Why, no matter how honestly and sincerely I tried to help them, they were just... mean to me. Repeatedly. But Neal and Will both told me that... I don't need that. And... I don't fucking need that. And I've been telling them lately. And... I don't think it's a bad thing." A beat. "Unless there's collateral damage. I don't want anyone else to feel like I mean them, too. You know, I don't even know who's a warden or an inmate half the time? There aren't colour coded name tags. I don't really... pay attention unless it comes up somehow. I have put my foot in my mouth because of that before."

He watches Walter for a long moment.

"For a second I thought Pyotr was selling you a revolution where the wardens are the bourgeoisie."