1 - A boy in the brig

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

[The surviving captured Disciple of Baphomet is in the brig and has been since the fight with them a week ago. He seems rather resigned. He eats and sleeps and exercises but doesn't do much else. He hasn't tried to escape, nor has he really complained.]

((OOC: Feel free to time your posts at any point after this log: warning: the log contains a somewhat graphic suicide.))

Comments

[saikyocivrobo]

You look bored.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

Yeah well, there isn't much to do in here.

[g-saviour.livejournal.com]

[[It just happens to be Mark's day to bring him food.]]

So, how you holdin up in here, kid?

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

[Flynn was doing pushups when Mark walked in. He stops and walks over to the edge of the cell before responding to him.]

I don't know.

[saikyocivrobo]

If you want something to keep you occupied you can just ask the jail supervisor (whoever that is). We're not monsters here, if your request is reasonable they'll probably agree.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

But what? There isn't anything I can hunt. No trees to cimb. The only things here are bulkheads. Lots and lots of bulkheads.

[emorangerblack.livejournal.com]

What do you intend to do once you get out?

[saikyocivrobo]

There are trees in the arboretum. Doubt if they'll just let a prisoner run around it, though.

Don't you have any interests like sports or drawing, or reading? Do you even know how to read? I wouldn't imagine the Disciples being big on books...

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

Most aren't, fortunately my caretaker was a linguist before converting. She always said that knowledge was natural and was quick to point out that books and writing were made long before a printing press.

She taught us about language, writing, reading, proper pronunciation, vocabulary. She even taught us how to make paper and to bind it.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

I'm not convinced they will ever let me out.

[emorangerblack.livejournal.com]

Assume you will not rot inside forever, if only hypothetically for now.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

I don't know. I doubt I will be able to return home. I don't know where they are and I don't have an elemental to ride even if I did. And what else can I do? These bulkheads are stifling and anywhere else I go I will find the same thing.

[saikyocivrobo]

...Huh. That's a surprisingly reasonable stance.

Tell me, if you got your hands on a book right now, would you destroy it as an evil product of technology?

[emorangerblack.livejournal.com]

So the answer is "succumb to despair", is it.

[Stated way too in-your-face to be a question.]

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

I would probably read it first, but eventually it would have to be destroyed. There is no reason to destroy the information contained in a book though, that would be wasteful.

[saikyocivrobo]

And how are you supposed to keep the information when all the books are gone?

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

[His anger is sudden and primal, a crazed ferocity that belies the boy's previous despairing state.]

Well what do you WANT me to do? Break this cell wall? Fight my way out of here? Blow up the ship? That's what would be expected of me! But I know that would just get me pointlessly killed or thrown back in here again! So what?

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

Remembering it. Humans have has knowledge long before they had books. Besides, a book isn't a machine. I had a journal I made and wrote in all the time.

Your book was definitely made by a machine though, so it would have to be destroyed on principle.

[saikyocivrobo]

You know who else complained about written word? Socrates. He thought that books will destroy people's memory and make them lazy, and that a real wise man can just remember everything.

He was completely wrong about that, of course, as evident thousands of years later. And humans created so much knowledge that it's impossible for one person to remember even 1% of it.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

Multiple people can remember different things. And there is nothing unnatural about writing. Even if we don't make books, and we can do that without technology, we can always write on rocks or cave walls.

[saikyocivrobo]

What is the difference between a hand-written parchment, a printed book and a text written on a cave wall? All of them are books, the only difference is that it's hard to take a cave with you anywhere. If something is already created and it is not harmful, why destroy it? It's just a waste.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

The difference is that the book represents an acceptance of something that should not exist. The statement that makes is important. It's why we were willing to kill people.

You think we like pointless death? Death without purpose is wasteful, but killing or even failing to kill what others see as having value makes a statement. It guarantees that people will notice you.

[g-saviour.livejournal.com]

[[Mark passes the tray through the spacing in the bars.]]

Well, think you can direct me to someone who knows how you're doing? Sucks we gotta lock up a kid but, that's just how it is right now.

[primalfanatic.livejournal.com]

That doctor gave me an examination. You could ask her.

[g-saviour.livejournal.com]

You realize that wasn't a literal question, right? Though, I guess that is an answer anyway.

I meant... well... emotionally, how are you doing?