[031. I can take so much. 'Til I've had enough.]

[lydiascreams]

[Open Video]

[Lydia took a break from sitting with Stiles and Kira, watching Scott as he slowly recovers from the death toll. She took Prada for a walk, showered, then got ready to go back to Kira's. But before, she wants to throw a topic out there. It's something that has been on her mind for a while now.

And after her talk with Kira about who hurt Scott and with Steve about who hurt him, after seeing what happened to Souji. After hearing about what Arthas did, she doesn't feel like they can wait any longer.]

I know everyone is still settling back in after the port. That a lot of you are still recovering from deaths and injuries, but I want to open a subject up for discussion.

I feel like there have been a lot more deaths on the barge lately. Both from inmates and wardens. And caused by inmates and wardens. I know a while back someone brought up taking the death toll for granted, and I don't remember what led to that discussion, but I agree.

We're all taking it for granted. If we die, we think we're guaranteed to come back. What if it stops working?

But even more importantly: why are we allowing ourselves to kill each other? Why are we dealing with murder as if there were no consequences?

I understand we don't always have control over our actions, I understand floods happen and we become affected. Infected. We become other people. But they are rare occasions when we're all out of control.

There is always someone around who can see things clearly. There's always someone who can take control and stop the people who are affected from hurting each other.

My suggestion -- and I would love to hear what the Admiral has to say about this -- is for us to find a system, an emergency system, where we can cap everyone's abilities -- human or otherwise, Inmates and Wardens alike -- if they become a threat to anyone. At any given time.

And I'd like to hear opinions everyone else might have on this.

Comments

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[150th]

Inmate abilities can already be capped at any time. Mine still have not been returned to me.

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[lydiascreams]

Yes. But sometimes the natural barge cap is not enough to stop them from harming people. Anyone who dealt with Jerry while he was here will remember that.

[walkthedarkpath]

You speak of chaining us down like dogs? You can only chain someone so long before they become rabid and thrist for the blood of the one who restrains them. Tread carefully Lydia, you are speaking of dangerous topics.

[lydiascreams]

If they're out of control enough to kill, Vergil, they're already thirsty for blood.

[Private]
Would you not have preferred if someone had been able to take action to stop you before you hurt Souji when you weren't yourself?

[walkthedarkpath]

Not everyone needs to be thristy to shead blood Lydia. Some thrive off of violence. A system you speak of would no doubt be abused in quick order to keep anyone who even speaks out of turn weak. You are asking us to be enslaved.

Private

I warned him before we even stepped into the gym. He knew what the risk was. I am a monster, I do not deny that, I never have.

[audio]

[tucky]

Yeah, that's just what I been saying.

[audio]

[lydiascreams]

I must have missed what you said. I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed it. [The last things she wants is to create an us vs. them feeling between wardens and inmates, so she's glad Tiffany is speaking up.]

[omar]

I ain't opposed to the basic idea--

[Although that's mostly because capping everyone's powers will make it way easier for him to kill them, and he's still sore over losing to Dark.]

--but what you mean when you say everybody? Some of us don't got no abilities to worry about.

[lydiascreams]

You don't have abilities as yourself. But you might on some floods. I have had abilities I don't normally have before. Dangerous ones I couldn't control. I was lucky someone was there to calm me down, but I could have hurt a lot of people without meaning to.

[It was a long time ago, when she was some kind of Disney princess during a flood. Except when she got angry or scared, she created a smoke thick enough to suffocate anyone around her to death.

And then there's her mirror self.]

[warisart]

While I do not disagree that there are many for whom those with us with stronger or different abilities are a danger to by virtue of that alone, I would posit two items.

First, in many cases the perpetrators are already capped in some manner or, as would be the case with me or would have been with Zane or with a number of others, the truly dangerous aspects are trained or conditioned into us. Even without my speed or strength, I have my training, I can kill very easily and very quickly.

Second, such a system would be worked into place with the intent of helping and, inevitably given the environment, be used to harm or completely incapacitate others eventually. I am not willing to assist putting such a system into place for that reason alone.

[Ben is very clearly death tolling, and he's panting by the end of what he has to say with only the effort of speaking, but he makes it anyway.]

[lydiascreams]

[Just seeing him like that, making such an effort to talk and so-- weak looking is enough to make her push some of that anger away and just feel terrible for all the people who are still hurting from this. It also gives her more energy to push the issue, though.]

I agree with both your points. It's an initial idea and we would have to make it applicable to fully human/training skills and we would have to find a way to make sure no one can abuse the system. Which I know is nearly impossible.

But what I really want out of this is to get us talking. To get us discussing ideas and doing something about this. About everyone just accepting death and allowing ourselves to continue murdering each other without trying to find a solution to the root of the problem.

[She takes a deep breath, then shakes her head a little. Her voice is quieter when she speaks again.]

You should rest and recover first though, Ben.

[punched_hitler]

I don't think you're wrong. [There is a lot about the death toll - about coming back from the dead, really coming back - that will never, ever fail to unsettle him.] But this isn't just about abilities. It doesn't take abilities to kill someone.

[Although if the person in question is super-powered, yes, capping their abilities would give the rest of the Barge more of an advantage. He knows that.]

I definitely don't think we should rely on the Admiral for a solution. It's got to come from us. And we have some at our disposal already - like Zero.

[lydiascreams]

I agree it's not just about abilities. That's why I mentioned human and otherwise. Turn someone who's as strong as you into someone as strong as me and we'll reduce the damage.

[Someone as powerful as Zane. She knows she can't blame him anymore than she could when he killed Vergil. But this is the second time he lost control and there was no one who could stop him. Or someone like him.]

Zero is a short term solution that really doesn't do any good, Steve. You know this. Locking someone up there isn't about growth and reflection. It'll just make people angrier. If anything it'd be good if we were coming up with other ways to solve the problem while that person is there. If it was used as a way to buy us time if we needed it.

Not as a form of punishment, and then we forget what they did. Solitary confinement doesn't work back home, and it won't work here. It'll do nothing but worsen their mental health.

[chlorophylliac]

A choke chain to pull when someone gets out of hand. As if the day to day of living here wasn't humiliating enough.

For every one person who's in support of this, there's two Inmates who would manipulate it for a free-for-all bloodbath.

[lydiascreams]

That's not at all what I suggested. [And she looks unimpressed with you, Ivy.]

And I'm aware of that, which is why it was just an initial suggestion and I asked for opinions. I'm sure we can come up with a better solution if we get more people thinking about it.

[sharpsurprise]

[Through the crackling video, he looks tired. He's obviously also affected by several death tolls, dark circles underneath his eyes, skin pale. He hasn't talked to Cambridge yet-- he won't, not until the infirmary is at peace again. He can wait to get his cure.

Again.]

Death doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. And some people are still dangerous without their powers.

[private]

[lydiascreams]

[She can barely hear what he has to say. All she can do is stare at him, her chest tight. He looks absolutely terrible. Worse than she remembers him being when he got there, but it might just be that she didn't know him as well then.

She switches the feed to private, because she's absolutely not having this discussion right now.]

You're sick, Souji. [Her eyes narrow when she tries to figure out where he is. It doesn't look like the place where he should be.]

You're not at the infirmary?

[mercurialize]

Lack of powers don't stop people from being deadly.

[lydiascreams]

I know.

I must have expressed myself badly since most people seem to be getting that out of what I said. But I don't mean powers are bad or deadly. And I'm well aware a human can take a life just as much as someone with powers.

What I meant is that people are murdering others with no consequences. And we're not doing anything to stop it. And it's not just inmates.

[voluntaryapnea]

[Stiles is pissed. And not just a little bit pissed. Furious is a better word for what he is right now. She's not wrong about the death toll. Some people don't come back. Kara hadn't.

Scott might not have.

And it's all he can do to sit there at his best friend's side and not track her down to seek vengeance. He's trying very hard to control his own emotions considering Scott is trying to deal with the betrayal, with the knowledge that his inmate had murdered him for no reason. Stiles doesn't want to add to that burden by having his best friend worry about Stiles killing Clementine.

He won't kill her. But he does hate her.

He struggles, forcing himself to take a deep breath. He knows that Lydia's doing this at least partially because of what happened to Scott, but not entirely. It's driven by all the deaths that have happened, all the preventable violence. But he agrees that powers aren't always the issue at hand. Scott has super werewolf powers and Kira has super kitsune powers, and a human had taken Scott down while they'd been distracted in battle.

Powers aren't the only problem here, and she knows it, and he knows that she's trying to facilitate a civil dialogue and do some problem solving before the next crisis hits. It probably won't be long. He feels tired. Hollowed out.]

I don't know what the answer is. [His voice is quiet, steady.] But I agree we need to look at possible solutions.

[lydiascreams]

[Yes, she knows he's pissed. She's pretty sure that a lot of the anger she's feeling is coming from him. And she knows he knows exactly why she's opening this topic up for discussion. At least partially.

And she hates seeing him like this. It reminds her of how he was back home after they got rid of the Nogitsune. Just-- hollow. But she can't blame him, either. Knowing that Clementine, his own inmate did this to Scott makes it even worse. They're supposed to be able to trust each other, at least on some level.

Lydia doesn't hate many people. But she does hate Clementine now.

The reason she started this discussion from her own room, though is because she was hoping Stiles wouldn't see it yet. She knows he's still recovering from everything that happened in the past couple of days himself.

At least she's glad he -- unlike a lot of people who replied to her so far -- get's what her actual point is.]

Obviously violence isn't the answer, but we have to find a way to force a consequence since death itself isn't one in here.

[text]

[americasdirtiest]

[Mickey still feels like shit from stacking death tolls, so he's sticking with his MO and staying on texts.

But because he feels like shit from stacking death tolls...]

idky every1's acting like 0 is the only thing we can do 2 him

theres way worse stuff

[text]

[lydiascreams]

[Way worse isn't what she's looking for, but she'll listen.]

Do you have suggestions?

[rhapsody_in]

We didn't have a cap during this last time. We were all able to make a difference, it wasn't just the undead dickhead with the shitty armor.

And you know what? It worked fine. Most of us helped. Inmates can keep each other in check as well as the wardens can. Why not just give us all our abilities back?

[Death? Destruction? Pain? Human suffering? Bleu cares not.]

[lydiascreams]

Because not everyone is willing to help others all the time, Bleu.

[Lydia isn't really in the mood for this argument, but she likes her -- mostly from her association with Steve -- so she'll take a deep breath and go on.]

This isn't about taking or giving powers. It's about stopping someone who's out of control. Someone like Arthas.