Private to the Admiral THEN PUBLIC HEY JERKS HE NEEDS YOUR ATTENTION.

[lacksconviction]

[This is a tentative post, and Loki's voice has the faltering quality of a man who suspects he may be talking to himself:]

Admiral? There are questions I have which I do not believe anyone else here is qualified to answer.

First among which may be the most futile of them:

Are you listening?

[EDITED IN LATER: Public]

[Hey Barge, Loki is just going to make this conversation with the Admiral, fully public.]

I must indeed be becoming tiresome with my questioning today, because I have one more. This one for the wardens, for those of you serving this man willingly:

Why?

Yes, I have asked before, and yes I've heard answers. For your deal, for your inmate, for the sake of doing some good in the universe, but I wonder how you justify it to yourselves. To serve an entity who not only is little known, but actively refuses to surrender his intentions, the masters which he serves, or even the reward which he will reap for his work in controlling all of us.

I have been told by many among you that he is not a God, but what other beings deal in secrecy and souls?

Why are you content with this?

Prey tell me, that I might lay to rest my fears about what more this place is, than just a prison.

Comments

Private

[bargemods]

Not really.

Do go on, though.

Private

[lacksconviction]

A quick reply from so inattentive an overseer.

Do you own this ship?

[persuadeyou]

[Oh fuck you Admiral. :|]

How would you justify it?

[lacksconviction]

[Snapped:]

I wouldn't.

We are expected to fixate on the floods and the ports and the petty deaths, while not questioning the fact that we are blind to the workings and purpose of this place. The only conclusion I can draw is that we are marked for a sinister design, and if I were a warden I would leave!

After threadstalking

[umgekehrt]

So what design are we marked for? We're not an effective group by any set of standards; put us to one purpose and it'll never get done. What do you think it's about?

[lacksconviction]

I understand as a goat understands the slaughterhouse! That good men of great power need not cast shadows across their intentions or their rewards!

But is your only answer to paw at your skull and mutter about how your collective incompetence would doubtless be a hindrance to a cause which you will never know?

If you are too thick to care then say so and be gone with you!

Audio:

[i_like_your]

My alternative is destruction.

Audio:

[lacksconviction]

I see the first straightforward answer is one honest in it's selfishness.

I can not fault the desire to survive, at least.

[ourlastbesthope]

Because I'd rather not die.

[lacksconviction]

Another honestly self interested. Still my preference over a righteous liar.

[timesbureaucrat]

'What other beings deal in secrecy and souls?'

Well, there are Eternals, Chronovores, the Great Old Ones, the Guardians, Timewyrm, Fenric, and the occasional Time Lord president. And those are just the ones I know off-hand. Dealing in secrecy as they do, I imagine there are more in the universe who have managed to keep a low profile. But being a powerful entity doesn't make one a god.

[lacksconviction]

And which among those beasts and brethren would you trust with your own?

I fear my words have lacked clarity, I know that there are things other than gods that would consume the light and consciousness from the heart and mind of a being. I merely would not walk towards any one of those things blindly, with arms outstretched.

[paradoxlol]

My deal's worth it.

[lacksconviction]

The chorus continues. I was told that certain wardens were idealists, and find myself wondering if I shall ever hope to hear from one.

[video/private]

[aggravating]

[The first thing you're getting, Loki, is a round of slow applause. Not sarcastic applause, but pretty damn impressed applause]

Honestly, if I could go back and do it again, I think I'd rather take my chances with being dead that ending up here as some sort of cheap-ass, self-help psychology experiment.

That said, the Wardens are idiotic assholes. Nothing in the whole Goddamn world is worth having your identity played with.

[video/private]

[lacksconviction]

They are laughable! To come preaching at us for our crimes and calling upon us for reformation, and then... this. No excuses, no defense, just endless greed!

[Loki looks and sounds stressed. Angry and wrung out and worked up over something that he went into specifically to create this response. Three cheers for him, he correctly predicted that everyone on the barge was a huge dick.

Everyone apart from Tony. Who agreed and applauded him and who he is privately venting at now.

There is a brief pause where Loki weighs up the pro's and con's of continuing down this path. Then he quickly shifts, and turns to point the communicator around. There's a flash of the glass walls of his cell, before the image settles upon an unruly stack of around thirty magazines of various kinds (including a couple of mod confirmed rubbish porn mags).]

He put these in my room while I was talking to him. Do you want any of them?

[19centconstable]

I've never felt it was terribly important who the Admiral is, or why he is an Admiral at all.

Only that he receive a driving tutorial.

[lacksconviction]

Or why he brings people here to be tormented into goodness? This does not trouble you at all?

[flashy_magic]

Well, he's not actively trying to kill me, so that's definitely an improvement over my last employer, and I like the people here. For the most part, anyway.

[lacksconviction]

If you'll forgive me for saying so, it doesn't sound as if the standards you seek in your masters are particularly high.

You work here for the company of the inmates, though? And does it not make you afraid?

Audio

[reactivates]

[After reading the convo with the Admiral. Her voice is amused:] Dude, if you'd been nicer you might have at least gotten a cookie. Probably not answers. But apparently a cookie is just as good. [/Sarcasm.]

He could be a God, for all I know. Who else would find so much amusement in jerking people around, anyway? And I'm too used to people not giving their intentions. Not that I like it. But I'm used to it. My job back home is pretty much the same thing, to be honest. Serving an organization about which little is really known, et cetera, et cetera.

Which, uh, probably doesn't lay to rest any of your fears, actually, so... Feel free to ignore all of this? Heh.

Audio

[lacksconviction]

I haven't had the best of experiences with organisations inclined to withhold such things, personally. I presume yours has been... rewarding, despite it's clandestine nature?

[Slight pause]

Perhaps you'll tell me then, why you trust that one from where you've come before?

[trenchcoatedly]

It's not that unusual for greater beings than humans to deal with souls. Demons do almost by their very nature, and I've known angels and other supernatural creatures to do the same.

I can't say if it's the same for you, but such is the norm in my universe.

[lacksconviction]

I was unclear, but you state my meaning for me almost exactly. If you do not think this man is a god, then you win souls for something else. Some other monster or demon yet unknown.

[Private]

[wecanavenge]

If you're looking for selflessness, you'll find none.

[Private]

[lacksconviction]

A fact that becomes increasingly apparent. I sought only reason to temper the greed of the wardens, but that too is in short supply, it seems.

[Private]

[youwillgotohell]

What else do you fear it to be?

[Private]

[lacksconviction]

There is no way to be certain. What I do believe without doubt is that a man with no dark agenda need not hide it.

[yeahscience]

Not a warden, but... I've been thinking of coming back, maybe, once I'm done, if that counts. This place super blows, but I know for a fact it works, and... there's some things worth putting up with it for, I guess. I mean, seems like that's what everyone else is trying to say, too.

I mean, hell yeah, I'm gonna want my deal.

[lacksconviction]

The reward is the stuff of your wildest dreams, so why over examine the cost?

Does it really not bother you that this place exists without explanation?

[takeyouapart]

[Sir: you requested an idealist?]

I came here because I was invited and I'm staying because this ship serves a purpose I believe in. I do wish that people who really don't want to be here could choose to have their deaths, instead - there's a lot I wish was different about the Barge. But nothing is perfect.

You don't have to like the king to trust in the good of the kingdom.

[lacksconviction]

[Ah yes, the idealist delivery service arrives at last!

...But, seriously, hearing this response does allow him to unwind slightly.]

In truth this is the answer I had hoped and expected from your peers. My belief is that people wish to think themselves heroes, and on the surface this place offers much to that desire.

Could I ask how you do feel about his silence?

Private

[chlorophylliac]

A boot.

His metaphors aren't particularly eloquent, are they?

Private

[lacksconviction]

It was personal. An allusion to a throwaway comment I once made in the heat of argument.

A threat I once made.

[darknessb4me]

I can think of a few.

[lacksconviction]

As can I. None of them things that I would want dealing with mine.

[strangehistorian]

Nobody's perfect!

[lacksconviction]

That is not a response of the kind of nuance and consideration I was hoping for.

private;

[buildindreemz]

I know it works. Frankly, I don't care too much what the Admiral's motivations are, as long as I get the deal I was promised.

video;\

[hungryanhorny]

Way I figure it? Can't exactly be much worse than the "real" world.