[Video]

[la_belle_rogue]

[Rogue doesn't look happen when she turns on the feed. In fact, she seems grim and pensive. She's sitting at the island in her kitchen, arms folded across the counter top, leaning over them heavily. She takes a moment to gather her thoughts before she starts speaking.]

Ah wanna talk about choices for a minute. This place is very unique, in that it offers up an option that should be the hard choice, and makes it look like the easy choice.

Killin' someone should never be considered the right thing to do. Sometimes it's the necessary thing. Sometimes it's the only thing we can do, when faced with an extreme situation. Life or death. Kill or be killed. But the Barge warps that into an easy go to and it shouldn't be. Not every option is life or death, kill or be killed.

Sometimes we find ourselves between rocks and hard places. And in those times our choices are either bad or worse. But just because a choice might not be a good one, doesn't mean that it's not the better one. Just because a choice leaves a mess behind, doesn't mean it's not better than the alternative.

Now before ya'll start in on how death isn't permanent here, let me just say this: Ah. Don't. Care. Wardens are here ta help people get their lives back, and actin' cavalier 'bout takin' someone's life is pretty counter productive ta that, from where Ah'm standin'.

We've got a lot of extraordinary people here, who can do amazin' things, but we have become frighteningly dependent on one lone miracle. We're treatin' death like a time out. Death should be the hardest choice we make, no matter what world we're from, no matter how many reset buttons the Admiral is willin' ta press for us. It never should be treated lightly. Even in a place where it doesn't stick. And we certainly shouldn't get angry at someone when they choose not ta take a life, no matter what mess comes with that choice. Don't ya see how backwards this is? And we've been doin' it for a long time here. Ah imagine a lot longer than Ah've been around, and Ah can honestly say Ah'm ashamed for not payin' attention t'it sooner and speakin' up about it before now.

[She shakes her head, sits back. What else can she say on this?]

That's all Ah've got ta say.

Comments

[to_dust]

No. Even a permanent death is better than what he did.

[surfaceshine]

You keep talking like death is the ultimate price and the shittiest option.

You know it's not, right? Or maybe you don't.

[private/spam]

[sickjoke]

[ Jack hasn't been ignoring the barge; in fact, he's been glad that there's someone else doing something stupid to draw attention away from his personal boogie man. ]

[ But he started paying attention when something got C'rizz agitated. This? Isn't going to help. ]

[ So for the first time in days, he reaches out, to put a hand on his companion's shoulder. Sure, he hasn't shaved in days and he's got a glorious green beard starting, and looks sort of like a penitent monk himself these days... but he's at least up and moving. ]

C'rizz. It's alright. She can't understand, if she's never been there. Two weeks ago... I might've said the same thing.

[ Little does he know what Rogue's powers do. ]

[routemistress]

I've been guilty of it meself. I'm not a killer by nature. I've killed two people I love 'ere and that's not counting me 'aving rabies or being me evil alter ego at the time.

Not ready to say them two times were wrong choices, mind, not this late in the day. But it doesn't 'urt to say it out loud.

[private/spam]

[to_dust]

She does know, I think.

It's just-- her values aren't mine. Hah, look at that, I can disagree with my friends.

[He went out to the CES with Zane earlier; it helped his initial panic. He's calmer now, but still ... sad? Angry? But he's certain of this. He's clinging to this. Death is better than a 'humane' alteration.]

[americasdirtiest]

I don't even know what everyone's all worked up about, if the dude's really as bad as it sounds like he is. If it were me with the gun to my head, I'd sure as shit do the same. Boo fuckin' hoo -- psycho acted like a psycho and got zapped in the brain for a minute. At least he's feeling happy.

[codename_duchess]

How about for work? Is it okay then?

[private/spam]

[sickjoke]

[ Jack keeps his contact brief, but nods quietly. ]

Good for you, then. For being better than that.

[ And with all this he's said more n the last five minutes than he's said in a single stretch in the last five days. But just as quickly, he retreats. ]

[la_belle_rogue]

[It's...hard to keep her temper when he says it that way, like he's the only one who knows and just because she hasn't lost hope that she's ignorant. It's a razors edge. But she bites down on the impulse to verbally rip his head off, because that wouldn't help either of them.]

Ah'm talkin' about takin' life, not dyin' itself. Killin' someone should mean more than throwin' away a broken glass. But yeah it is the shittiest option, because in most cases, it can't be undone. And for the rare exceptions, well no one actually hands out get outta death free cards before hand any where else but here, far as Ah know.

[la_belle_rogue]

Permanent death is an end of options completely. How is that better, C'rizz?

[She's patient with him, because this is an important conversation, and very close to home for him. He's got a reason for feeling like he does, and so does she.]

Re: [private/spam]

[to_dust]

Plenty of people will say I'm worse...

[But he focuses on Jack, reaching out as if he can keep his friend from sinking back into his own head.]

Come on, we don't have to talk about that-- we could talk about something else.

[la_belle_rogue]

Like Ah said, Iris. Sometimes it's a choice between two bad things and we gotta make a call. But when there are actual other options, how can we say it's wrong ta let someone live? Yeah there's mess ta clean up, but ta say just go ahead and kill someone? Ah can't stand by that. We're not objects that can be replaced, and we shouldn't act like it.

[to_dust]

It's honest.

It's wrong to murder, but it's more wrong to remake people for your convenience and pretend it's virtuous.

[la_belle_rogue]

It's isn't just this particular circumstance Ah'm talkin' about but, this isn't a great situation, but it can be fixed. The issue Ah'm talkin' about is how on the Barge, death seems like the go-to choice for too many people.

[la_belle_rogue]

Ah think Ah made it clear it's never "okay". Necessary sometimes, but never okay.

[americasdirtiest]

That's what everyone's got their panties up their ass about, isn't it? What happened to that guy?

[la_belle_rogue]

He didn't say it was a good thing. He doesn't think it's good Hannibal isn't himself and he wants it fixed. And it can be.

[private/spam]

[sickjoke]

Not much to talk about. Barge is pretending I don't exist.

Probably for the best that I don't.

[ He doesn't mind. Makes the choice to leave that much easier. ]

[la_belle_rogue]

That's what brought the issue into the light, yeah, but not the only incident.

[to_dust]

Yes. Perhaps on the barge it can be undone like it never was, without the scarring and the feeling that you aren't safe inside your own skull.

Just like death.

Probably a lobotomy could be undone like death can be. Here.

[private/spam]

[to_dust]

Come on now. We've all had our time to be mirror monsters. Just because you had an extra go doesn't mean you should give up.

[americasdirtiest]

[The corner of his mouth twitches uncertainly. This incident seems pretty clear-cut to him, but otherwise? There are some people he definitely thinks are worth killing, even if he wouldn't -- or at least hasn't -- done it himself.]

Guess I don't get the big deal if it don't stick around here, anyway. S'the difference between giving a guy a concussion and knocking his head off if he's gonna get over either one?

[routemistress]

I've been mindcontrolled before. But not ...rewritten like that. I can't swear I wouldn't rather be dead for good, mind.

But I can't swear I would, either.

[private/spam]

[sickjoke]

He's a cheater that way, isn't he? Always has to have an extra turn.

[ It's almost funny but it's true. ]

Don't-- worry. I'm...

I should.

I should figure out things and stop... this.

[ Being a lumpy burdensome thing in C'rizz's tiny cabin. ]

If I were home, I'd go see Harleen. And have a proper therapy session or ten. That's -- only an option if I go home, though.

[ And at this rate, he knows going home is not a temporary thing. He'd find every reason not to go back, and they'd all be good, sound, logical reasons. ]

[la_belle_rogue]

[She pauses for a very short second, before she lets her instinct guide her.]

Once Ah was infected with a virus that made mah powers into an instant death touch. Ah'd take everything, every moment of a person's life, and they'd be dead. No goin' back.

Then the Hecatomb came. It was this pseudo-living thing that literally ate the lives of worlds. The X-men couldn't stop it. Ah could. Millions of lives, from worlds Ah'd never even knew of, were in my head in an instant. Ah lost mahself in it, drowned under all the voices. Ah functioned, but Ah wasn't me. What walked and talked had mah body, had mah memories, but even whatever that personality was didn't consider itself ta be Rogue.

Long story short, here Ah am. Ah can touch. Ah'm me again. And the Barge ain't the one that fixed me. And Ah'm glad Ah'm alive.