1st race

[bleak_midwinter]

[Spam]

[Tommy walks the halls as if they belong ti him- it's not too strange, since they often did, back home. He walks as if's surrounded by hard men with razors stitched into their hats, with guns in their hands. It's easy to take offense to, but he'll be quick to reassure if anyone does.

He visits the Deck first, to smoke and to let it sink in where he is. After that, he makes the rounds, exploring: the dining hall for a good meal, the bar for some whiskey (Irish; always), the engine room. He spends a considerable amount of time in the common rooms, too, trying to figure out the TV's.

At night he's back on the deck, as high as he can go, as different as scene from his dreams as the Barge can provide.]

[Video]

[He's been on the ship for a full day before he announces himself. You might have seen him, or you might not have; for all he moves as if he owns the halls, his suit is drab enough that he can blend in when he wants.

He's in his kitchen now; there are patterned tiles, an old-fashioned wood stove, a china cabinet. It's cozy, if outdated for most of the Barge's inhabitants. Without his hat on, Tommy's eyes are a clear, penetrating blue. His voice is low, with a strong Birmingham accent. He's smoking, and it's obscuring his face in the already low lighting from the oil lamp on the table.]

From what I can tell, this place is all about 'forgiveness'. Not forgetting, but forgiving-- inmates and wardens alike. How long should forgiveness take? Are there things you could never forgive? People you'll always forgive?

Has your opinion changed, since you've been here?

Comments

[bleak_midwinter]

And let's hope you can enforce it, as well.

[tucky]

Enforce it?

God's will ain't something I can enforce.

[bleak_midwinter]

Aren't you supposed to be his actor on earth?

[tucky]

No, no, no. I used to think that, but not anymore.

[bleak_midwinter]

So no 'do unto others...'?

[tucky]

Oh. No, I can do that. I just ain't killing people for him no more.

[bleak_midwinter]

That doesn't sound much like God loves everyone, no. [Not that he isn't used to people killing each other over religion.]

[tucky]

Well, I didn't used to know he loved everyone. I thought he just loved me and other Christians.

[bleak_midwinter]

But you learned different, here.

[tucky]

Simon and Dillon taught me.

[bleak_midwinter]

They sound like smart men.

[tucky]

They're some of the smartest.

You surprised that there's a warden here like me?

[bleak_midwinter]

'Like you'?

[tucky]

A killer.

[bleak_midwinter]

[He lets out a laugh at that, a harsh guffaw.]

That'd be mighty hypocritical of me, Miss Doggett.

[tucky]

Are you a killer warden?

[bleak_midwinter]

[If he'd been up on contemporary slang, that would have made him laugh. As it is, he just raises his eyebrows, still smiling a cocky smile.]

I'm a warden, and I've killed people, if that's what you're asking.

[tucky]

Yeah.

Who'd you kill?

[bleak_midwinter]

Oh, I killed a lot of people, Miss Doggett. [This is familiar: sitting down and telling someone 'my suits are on the house, or the house burns down', just to see how they'll react.

He knows it's cruel, and he knows it's probably not a quality that the Admiral had been most keen on when he got asked to do this. But this is it, warts and all.]

[tucky]

Why? How many?

... You don't got to say or nothing. Not to me. I'm just wondering.

[bleak_midwinter]

I was a soldier. [It's only so much of an explanation. He doesn't consider what he'd done in France to have been murders, but he also knows, with unflinching certainty, that the men he had murdered would not have been dead if Tommy had never enlisted.]

Too many to count.

[tucky]

Ain't it kinda different if you do it in war?

[bleak_midwinter]

Have you been in a war?

[tucky]

No. But I know people that been in Iraq, and they never got arrested or nothing.

[bleak_midwinter]

That doesn't mean they didn't kill anyone.

[He's pushing at her limits, mostly-- trying to see at which point she will stop asking questions. It's a good thing to know.]