Starting off strong with this post because this is really, truly how Walter felt on the Enposib

link to Walter being volunteered for Sebastian rampage.

magicom I look forward to finding out what synergy arises later from both being affected (such as whether the plot can work with one warning the other)

cw suicide // WAIT THIS IS ALSO A MALCOLM PING LOL.

Not Varker rolling his eyes like "if it were that simple I wouldn't still be here."

Yeah like Walter is very frustrated with Malcolm's continued efforts at denying this (or arguing there's a good chance it can be changed), like please own it, man. "I work at a place that has suicide watch" isn't too unreasonable

I'm objectively going to need to do an inbox purge very soon but I'm kinda in denial about it. If you have old stuff w me that's v important let me know

If it had ever been proven wrong, he would acknowledge that, but his bone to pick is that there’s no more evidence against it than there is for it, so you can’t say either is correct. But if people will keep arguing one outcome with no proof, he’ll have to argue the other.

Until there’s evidence.

Argue it will ever change, sure anything is possible. Evidence for it being "no you have to stay" currently and that the odds are staying the same, there is tons

No proof...aside from it being done publicly and the answer being "no"?

What if you asked in a different way?

What if you accepted facts?

That's seriously in the same category as "change" then

Nobody has really tried to problem solve it, just one guy asked bluntly once

Doesn’t seem like a large enough data pool to draw conclusions

Is one guy separate from Yelena

Well if we get Varker and this guy in for like four is that a sample size

Also how come "Steve tried one (1) time" is valid for actual escape, which the majority would agree is preferable to suicide escape, but what's very obviously been several queries over just as many years into the attempt to get suicide escape is "hm not sure"

Almost like the goalposts are being moved to serve an agenda.

Malcolm honestly thinks it may be how Pyotr escaped. He’s exactly the kind of guy who would figure out how to ask the right question.

But they can’t ask him. Or anyone else who genuinely wanted out and disappeared suddenly one day. Did the Admiral just lose his grip on them or did they figure out the magic question?

Is that a sample size if they even assume only half of such people cracked that nut?

They may never know.

Walter seriously would never, ever forgive Malcolm if he dug his heels in on this

Like it's one thing to argue that some people were miserable and manifested disappearing. Kinda bad but ok

He just might refrain from talking about it.

But "maybe Pyotr asked the admiral" it would be OVER

If Malcolm said it like, seriously, after the initial time he suggested it

Oh he would never suggest THAT theory to WALTER.

Like Malcolm is out here putting Neal's name on a disappearance memorial

Like push it or repeat it.

"maybe Neal actually chose on purpose to leave" is like 1% of this

He knows people disappear.

Malcolm did already literally say it to Walter once and he's still barely holding it together from that

He’s spoken to Neal since; he’s alive.

Yeah he saw his reaction. He wouldn’t suggest it as part of his argument

Anyway, he knows people disappear. But they’re assuming everyone who seems to have disappeared actually didn’t choose to.

There’s no way to know.

Not for inmates, because they’re dead.

Then that would require the admiral to straight up lie

Would Walter argue that the Admiral has never lied?

Maybe he doesn’t want people to give up before they try, just bc they’re miserable.

Also re Neal, Malcolm is super sad about the departures of people who chose to leave too. Like, his level of sadness about them being gone isn’t reliant on whether they left on purpose.

Walter for the sake of his sanity tries to work within the admiral is like a demon who generally actively misleads in ways that can be proven to in some way technically not be lies. But also like. What is more likely

1. EVERY SINGLE person who has ever genuinely wanted to let go and die asked the admiral WITHOUT leaving ANY note, and everyone who DID leave a note was dismissed by the admiral

2. The admiral genuinely does always say no so far

How Walter takes Malcolm's attitude in terms of degrees on sadness based on typed of circumstances is "it's srsly so sad that your friend ended up drinking and driving and getting in a car accident :\"
"...it was an ACCIDENT. he definitely didn't drink. He was with me for most of the night"
(Malcolm unsubtly thinking "I guess we'll never know for sure:\")

But nobody IS with these people when it happens. And the people arguing against it really strongly are the people who think everything that happens on the Barge must be motivated by the worst motives or must result in the worst outcomes and no other answer is possible bc that’s how they feel.

OOCly i will say... if someone wanted to drop that way, the “Admiral” probably would say yes but bc it requires the player wanting to drop and usually the character wants out but the player wants to be in, the “Admiral” has to say no. So I would say to me there’s room to leave room for the possibility narratively, but I also see why OOCly there are

characters who feel strongly about it.

It's how they feel because of their bonds and relationships. Walter's here like, "how exactly am I supposed to ask people what they need and believe them when I literally have many in depth conversations with my friend about this exact topic, then my warden is like eh maybe your friend changed his mind"

Sorry I meant ICly characters feel strongly

Well, he is not going to broach Pyotr with Walter but within himself he thinks Pyotr may have cracked it.

Like, if circumstances were different and more similar to Walter's world of origin, then "I talked to my friend and he looked me in the eye and said he wasn't going to kill himself then suddenly did it anyway" is in fact a VERY PLAUSIBLE course of events

And so Walter thinks Malcolm is coming from a similar perspective (or an even WORSE perspective of Pyotr like [twirling moustache] "time to just leave") and therefore dismissing all the other factors at play on the Barge of the admiral actively causing suffering (Walter IC POV that the admiral is literally the greatest evil imaginable)

It’s the first thing

I did actually think it could be kinda interesting if the convo first reacting to Pyotr's disappearance took a slightly different direction and Walter shared more of his perspective and Malcolm could come to EMPATHIZE with the situation. I'm not saying the direction it went was inferior, (c)

Tho he would not put it past Pyotr to delight in tricking the evil imp.

just, you know, I wanted to share those thoughts in the context of how "hm... Maybe they're going to be happier if they just don't talk about this topic..."

He would have empathized with more context from Walter. A lot of their headbutting these days comes from Malcolm being at a point where he’s glad if Walter opens up at all, but he doesn’t expect it and even when it happens he has to stay vigilant in case there’s a trick in there. It makes him sad bc he really thinks he and Walter started off

well when they first met.

He wouldn’t bring it up for sure as part of his argument after Walter’s reaction to the initial idea yeah.

Ok. We can revisit the question in the future, many options. For now they do organically have many other things to discuss. I'm going to try to finish that one thing I was telling you before it gets even more late!!

I can do before midnight EST I believe in myself

Walter.

Unfortunately there have been several replies I haven't even been able to open. Working hard at work today.

O Walter ilu

You sad, strange little weirdo

I will also say OOC as the player of a character who has IC very strong feelings about how the admiral has consistently said "no, I won't let you let go and die"... I would be open to a scenario where the admiral says yes, but I could also seriously understand the reasoning

"hey, my character was told no, so I would prefer that for your character, the admiral says no and then the character is just dropped regularly"

Especially because the admiral does say yes to wardens who ask to let go and die. So it ties into the theme "inmates can't be trusted to make choices, wardens can"

And let's say the admiral did actually sometimes say "yes, I will let this inmate let go and die". If that depended on the player's choice, then it would be unrelated to whether the character tried hard enough.
So a character with strong feelings would still not be satisfied, here thinking "but this inmate has made an informed decision to let go and die"

TLV

yeah i mean i guess it's just a matter of how you reconcile the necessity of maintaining game mechanics and ooc requirements in the IC space in your head.

LOL that is VERY TLV.

Oh my god

Amazing.

I've done the inbox purge... I'm sorry friends ...

this is so fucking funny because I considered explaining Walter's POV of "started off well when they first met" but now. here it is

Walter Joke Goes Here

TLV

They're my emotional support problems!

paige (@BonerWizard) on Xthis just feels right

TLV every single beat of this is TLV

MALCOLM?

Also wow man Walter keeps telling you this

What?

He likes this kid.

"I wish there were more murders to solve" is first of all a deranged thing to say. But second of all Walter is always telling Malcolm "why are you here, playing house in hell, when you could be back home actually helping people in permanent ways that you're good at by putting killers behind bars"

well he is GOING to do something like that

when he's done here

and it IS a deranged thing to say it is generally the sort of deranged thing he's known to say 😆

tho it's more that if there have to be a bunch of murders all the time, I wish we could at least have the good time of solving them....

Still deranged!! Haha

Yes!

"I will do things besides play house in hell when I am done playing house in hell" <3

Side note
Not blaming Ciel for the actions of a completely separate older person is all well and good but Walter is going to be tearing his hair out because in that case how exactly does it make sense to keep the little boy as an inmate then???

Ciel casually kicking shins of anyone calling him a little boy

He has these problems everywhere 🤣

These murders aren’t his fault, but the ones he’s ordered probably are.