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abrightboy

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From:

abrightboy

Not if she’s the girl that was braining people with some sort of club.

From:

forensicks

That's the one.

From:

abrightboy

She brained me with her club. I didn’t catch her name.

From:

forensicks

Ah. Shit.

... I feel a little bad going to you about this now.

From:

abrightboy

Why? …What is her name?

From:

forensicks

... It's Annie.

Look, what I'm saying is, how am I supposed to believe this is a safe space for traumatized criminals to recover? Whether that little hellraiser or anyone else who was in the way. Your reaction makes it pretty obvious there wasn't some warden filter post about her, but there is one for a call-out about a fight that already had more than enough witnesses and backup. The way you were investigating the accidents at the start of the month made me trust you, but what I've seen from the wardens as a whole at this point doesn't impress me...

From:

abrightboy

…You know the Wardens aren’t some kind of cohesive, organized group, right? The Admiral brought us here from disparate worlds and realities and experiences and didn’t exactly give any of us a manual. So part of what you’re seeing is culture clash. Part of what you’re seeing is personality clash. Part of what you’re seeing is the effect of living in close quarters and developing intense trauma-bonded relationships. And part of what you’re seeing is that some people are just dicks.

From:

forensicks

I'm very aware that a disparate group is what it is right now, yeah.

[There's a lot he could say about that but it seems important to say:]

Well, I think of you as very much not that last thing. For the record.

From:

abrightboy

Thank you. I’m not sure that’s the popular opinion, but I try hard not to be one.

From:

forensicks

Hey, hey, I know where they're coming from but it's not that bad. Here, I'll flip it back at you. When you say trauma bond, do you mean in the colloquial sense or the classic sense of "towards the perpetrator"?

From:

abrightboy

Stockholm Syndrome is always towards the perpetrator. It's a type of trauma bond. Trauma bonding occurs between anyone who goes through a traumatic experience with someone else. They feel... a strong emotional connection to that person because they understand what they went through and maybe even helped them get through it. ...The fact that it happens even when the other person creates the trauma to start with is what makes Stockholm Syndrome so fascinating, though. The bond can become stronger than the blame. And we know how much people like to have someone to blame for stuff.

From:

forensicks

Sure, it's the same concept.

[He is pretty sure that he was right about the technical terminology but whatever!!! Could even be a Mandela effect.]

...what do you think of the floods and breaches?

From:

abrightboy

[The same concept, Walter says, and Malcolm smiles in faint amusement. Sure. Of course. He’s going to go trade his Harvard degree in psychology for an online diploma in Googling Shit. He just tilts his head slightly and gives it to him.]

Sure.

…The floods and breaches? I mostly enjoy the breaches, though they’re harder for Will, with his condition. Only a couple of floods have been all that bad. What do you think of them so far?

From:

forensicks

[He's glad he asked it as an open ended question, because there's just as much to be learned from the aspect to prioritize - comfortable or uncomfortable is one thing, while a different way to answer would be, do you think they're unavoidable or induced.]

Jury's still out. I arrived right after the last breach, you know, and it was pretty weird hearing how everything had just changed all of a sudden. In the end nothing bad happened, at least. The flood didn't hurt me, per se, but I can't say I wasn't frightened. Looking back I guess I've been focusing a lot on making safety plans since then.

Edited (The perils of phone tag) Date: 11 May 2024 04:48 (UTC)

From:

abrightboy

'Safety plans'? What does that look like? [He honestly can't fathom.]

From:

forensicks

Is... Is there something dumb about that?

[He's genuinely caught off guard.]

From:

abrightboy

No. There's nothing dumb about wanting to be safe or wanting to know what to do to be safe. I just can't imagine how someone builds one here. So... what does it look like?

From:

forensicks

Geez, maybe I should move you a couple notches down my mental emergency contact list.

From:

abrightboy

Because you think I couldn’t look after you in a crisis? Or because you don’t trust me enough to share your emergency contingencies with me? I’ve been here for almost two years and I’ve never died, you know. Ask how many people here can say the same and then decide who you want to call in an emergency.

From:

forensicks

[Walter flinches back from the phone for a second. Oh my god! Defensive much! He simultaneously feels bad because he had intended it as ribbing and also oh my god, maybe there is merit to the idea that Malcolm is singled out as a warden and useful. He thinks for another second, trying to focus on the details of the sentence carefully before:]

Because... I just thought you had it in your head now that it wasn't something people do.

From:

abrightboy

How could I think that when you’ve clearly done it? I just wanted to know how because they’re probably ideas I’ve never heard from anyone here before.

From:

forensicks

You really think that? [Walter Tries So Hard To Have Humility. About How Surely Escaping Can't Be That Easy. But Wow.] ...I know it's scummy to say "promise you won't get mad", but, you did admit there's reason to wonder how much you should tell a warden, so just for the record...