[26] - [Video]

[sharpememory]

[Barron: hit by the honesty bomb. He's sitting on his bed, writing in his diary journal.]

So, guys. I basically disappeared off the barge. [He pauses to scribble something out in the journal.] Which isn't that abnormal, but it was weird. I spent a while at home not remembering being here at all. My brother turned out to be a total asshole who was willing to turn us over to the Feds, so he got taken out by my other brother. Who then got all into my business and made the hot high school girl I was really into break up with me.

[Barron sighs, making a face.] It's not like I'm that much older than her, but whatever. It's a little ridiculous. I mean, even my Mom is getting together with a guy. Who's totally the head of a mob family, but what are you gonna do? [Barron shrugs.] It's not like the connections would do us any harm.

[He stops scribbling in his journal.] Then I was back here, remembering being here from before and the new stuff that I'd done at home. I guess I asked the Admiral if I could go home the right amount of times or something. [A pause.] It was better than being here, even with all the drama going down.

Comments

[buywithme]

What if you had been born into the family, but without powers? You would still know the people you know, and be related to the people you're related too, but your life would be completely different.

[sharpememory]

[Barron rolls his eyes, but smiles.] Yeah, well. It'd be a different world. One of those gloveless places. Things would be really, really different.

[buywithme]

No, Comrade, I mean what if it was just you? Your family were all the same, your world was all the same, but you weren't a worker. What would you have done then?

[sharpememory]

[Barron shrugs again, taking another bite of sandwich before continuing.] I'd be a bit of a loser, then. Being in a worker family with no working. It'd be pretty awful.

[buywithme]

Yeah, but what would you do, Comrade? Would you just accept that by not being a worker you were doomed to be a loser? Or would you go and try to have a different life?

[sharpememory]

[Barron looks unamused. Time to eat some more sandwich before replying.] If you're trying to warm me up to the idea of going home without being able to work, it isn't gonna happen.

[buywithme]

[Prefect actually laughs at that.] Comrade, you know what I'm trying to get you to do! When you go home, I expect it to be with full use of your powers, and with some idea of a path in life that isn't going to bring you back here again!

[sharpememory]

[Barron cracks a smile.] Well, that's good. I'm glad you're not one of those scientist guys who decide that people are better off not being able to work.

[He says this lightly, because obviously Prefect is not a scientist guy.] It just makes me a bit bitter, you know? Having to be without my power isn't a great way to live.

[buywithme]

I know, Comrade. And believe me, We are working towards you eventually getting it back. But there are just some things that I need to be confident of before we do that.

[There's a short beat, before he explains.]

Like, I don't think you should have your powers if you still think that you need to use them for everything, or if the only life that you can imagine is one where you make your living off them while destroying your own memories in the process. I'd be doing you a disservice.

[sharpememory]

[Barron puts his sandwich down.] So okay. Let's do this your way. I spend the rest of my life being a postman or whatever. How is that any better than how I am now? I'd rather lose the memories and have a better life for it.

[buywithme]

Why do you think that's your only other option? Doing something that you don't care about? [He readies his pancakes for another bite.] Barron, when you leave here, you can ask the Admiral for anything. Any kind of life you want. If you want to ask him to put you on a tropical island with a giant pile of money, then he'll do that. You get a second chance, and you can take it however you want, but once you get there, you'll have to make decisions about what you want to do with that life you've chosen.

It doesn't have to be something you don't want.

[sharpememory]

Yeah, right. [Barron rolled his eyes.] I don't know if I buy that, man. It seems to me like I'd be on my island with a pile of money for a few weeks, then the tax office would be at me asking where I got it from.

[buywithme]

Comrade... I know this might sound like stating the obvious, but the Barge is magical. It could make it look like you just won the lottery, and what's more, you are still avoiding answering the question!

Do you just not want to have to think about it?

[sharpememory]

[Well, Prefect had hit the nail on the head with that one.] I always think of my options.

[A dishonest and rather surly reply.]

[buywithme]

Well, then why won't you think about this, Comrade? What is it you're trying to avoid?

[sharpememory]

Man, Prefect. [Barron sounds really, really serious.] Are we having a warden conversation this early in the morning? Seriously?

[buywithme]

Comrade, please just answer the question.

[GET BACK HERE BARRON HE SEES YOU TRYING TO ESCAPE.]

[sharpememory]

[DAMMIT, NO ESCAPE TODAY.]

Prefect, there are some places that I don't wanna go. What ifs are one of them. I just handle stuff as it happens. It's what I do. [Said so begrudgingly.]

[buywithme]

[GOOD INMATE. Prefect nods, somewhat understandingly.]

All right. Why is that, do you think?

[sharpememory]

I don't know. [He isn't thinking it through, though.] But you're gonna assume it's because of what the blowback does.

[buywithme]

I don't want to assume anything, Barron. [Prefect insists, gently.] I want you to think about it, so that we can figure out what the reason is together.

Do you think it's because of what the blowback does? Or do you think it's because of something else?

[sharpememory]

[Barron sighs, leaning back in his chair.] I don't know. We use what we have and do what we need to do. That's what my family has always done, for better and for worse. We're not interested in thinking about what we might have, we're interested in thinking about how to get it. I just can't see how speculating about this stuff is even worth my time.

[buywithme]

Well, Comrade, it's worth your time because your life has changed in coming here. [Prefect explains gently.] The Admiral won't just send you back to live your old life again, you have to either graduate, or stay here forever.

[Prefect pauses, briefly, and then adds:] And if you do stay here forever, then that's okay? I mean, I wouldn't go anywhere or leave you to be resorted or anything. But... one day you might want a different life, and it can't be the same as the one you've left behind.

[sharpememory]

Well, the second one doesn't sound too good. Unless you were here, I suppose. [Barron says the latter part of that sentence lightly, like he's joking.]

I just think the whole thing is unfair. Why does the Admiral get to decide that my life isn't good enough to have?

[buywithme]

I would be here, Comrade. For as long as you needed me. I mean, maybe even for longer after that, since I don't really have anywhere else to be... [Joke or no joke, hanging around the barge for the remainder of his existence is definitely among Prefect's life plans.]

It... it is unfair, but Comrade, I do worry about what would become of you, eventually. I don't like... how you've been used, or what you've had to give up for it, and I am afraid that if you went back to that life, in a few years you wouldn't remember me at all.

[Obviously there are other, more important things that Barron would forget, but Prefect is just being his own example.]