the avatar state / implies emotional pain / or perfect control

[roc_on]

Jun did a show last night, so maybe he's holding it together well enough to do a lesson today. It'd sure help take Beila's mind off things; maybe it'd do the same for him. She can always fly away again if he's not feeling it.

Knock knock?

Comments

[thinklikethis]

"Better coping mechanisms!"

[fiery_delights]

"Seems like this might go better if you'd tell us what those were."

[thinklikethis]

...Dao hugs Spider some more.

"I - can I tell them," he says. "Please."

[in_silk]

"I'm scared," murmurs Spider in a tiny tiny voice.

[roc_on]

When one has nothing constructive to say, one should be a quiet Avatar.

[thinklikethis]

"I know," says Dao. "I'm sorry. But look, you wouldn't be here if you weren't really good at being scared and still doing stuff, right? And pretty much the only way I see out of this where everybody gets to be happy is if we convince Beila that you actually aren't going to murder any more people."

He looks up from hug to address his girlfriend.

"Beila. If you're convinced he's actually not going to murder any more people, will you like, not get him arrested or fight him or anything, and just let him go not murder people in peace?"

[roc_on]

Sigh.

"My dad knows where we are."

[thinklikethis]

"Fuuuuuck," says Dao. "Like. Knows you're here and knows you think there's a bone-stealing serial killer around?"

[roc_on]

"Yes. And I don't think he will be very impressed with your psychological assessment. But you'll probably be allowed to serve as a character testimony if you want."

[in_silk]

This news does not seem to be reassuring!

[thinklikethis]

"I don't suppose you could, like. Happen to have been mistaken about whether there was a bone-stealing serial killer around," sighs Dao.

[roc_on]

"That would require me to be really, spectacularly impressed with your psychological assessment."

[thinklikethis]

"Okay," says Dao. "Like. I am impressed enough with my psychological assessment that I am sitting here trying to argue you out of doing anything bad to him? Instead of being like 'great, rescue, please arrest the kidnapper'? And I swear it is not capture-bonding, seriously, it's - it's just not. It's just really not."

[fiery_delights]

"For whatever my psychological assessment is worth, I can give it if you tell me what your deal is," says Jun, addressing the shivering lump in Dao's arms.

[roc_on]

"We are not talking, amateurs with what are objectively personal stakes in the matter and brief exposure to the subject think he's fine, level of psychological analysis quality," says Beila.

[fiery_delights]

"I came prepared to kill him if I had to, I'm not going to give him a pass just because he's family," says Jun. "But I do have personal knowledge that the kind of problems he might plausibly have can be very much solvable, and it can be as sudden and simple as finding out one thing you can do that just works perfectly. If you won't take my word for it and you won't take Dao's, though, what will you take?"

[roc_on]

"There might not be anything. I mean, there probably shouldn't be a way to convince people not to arrest serial killers at the last minute by saying the right thing."

[fiery_delights]

"I don't think I agree," says Jun. "I have no great faith in justice, theoretically or practically. The important part seems to be preventing people from getting hurt, and if there's a way to do that without anybody getting arrested, so much the better."

[roc_on]

"The point is to prevent people from getting hurt. And sticking to policies that tend to reduce people getting hurt, even if there are emotionally charged arguments under time pressure saying to break them just this once - is in aggregate a pretty good way of doing that."

[fiery_delights]

"I can see the logic, but that's not how I operate. Rules, on the whole, have not been good to me."

[roc_on]

"We probably don't have the time to come to total philosophical agreement on that even if it's in the cards."

[fiery_delights]

"Then I think you need to make a decision about whether or not they could possibly convince you," says Jun. "—Hmm, but before you do, here's a thought. As an alternative to 'we were mistaken about the bone-stealing serial killer', how's 'we found the bone-stealing serial killer, and he kidnapped me and ran for it'? Meaning in reality that I go with him to personally verify that he's not murdering anybody. It'll leave you down one firebending teacher, but nobody gets arrested and there's less... policy trouble."

[roc_on]

"Do you think you can succeed at that job if it turns out to actually be a job and not a... non-job?"

[fiery_delights]

"Yeah. I mean, I'd pretty much be betting my life on that, so, yes."

[roc_on]

Beila looks at Dao. And Spider. "Lying to Chali about how things went down and having to find a new firebending teacher is a lower standard of evidence than letting the serial killer go totally unescorted. But it's still a standard. What else is there to say about this... situation?"