video;

[ukan]

I may have asked this before, but if I did, it was before this last...paradigm shift.

What is the worst thing you've ever imagined doing? Not something you did do--but something you dreamed up to soothe yourself.

Comments

[routemistress]

...Does it count if a different version of me actually did it?

[ukan]

I'd normally say 'no' but I think you have so many stories it makes up for it.

[routemistress]

I think we all dream of people doing what we want. People just falling in with 'ow you see things because you're more important to 'em than owt else. People who'd do anything you ask 'cause they love you.

[darknessb4me]

[Quiet laughter.]

[ukan]

I thought I might hear from you.

[darknessb4me]

Who here's going to be honest about the darkest thing they've dreamed up? What do they gain from it?

[worksbetterinthepast]

Why do you want to know?

[ukan]

Because as frequently as we have everything from muggings to serial killings, we do pretty well at containing our worst thoughts.

[sickjoke]

I'm sort of in the same boat as the lovely woman with the fabulous hat. Some part of me apparently already... did all of them.

[private]

[routemistress]

[Just a look; gratitude and appreciation and sympathy rolled into one. Someone who gets it.]

[private]

[sickjoke]

[ The impassive chrome staring back, Hood gives her a little salute. ]

[ He's starting to get it, he really is. ]

[ukan]

But do you take responsibility for what happened?

[sickjoke]

Can't. It's-- complicated.

Doesn't mean I'm... I feel guilty, a bit. Which is crazy, I know. But in my business, a lot of what we do is crazy.

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her smile is dry and thin.]

Torture, probably.

[ukan]

[She is one of the few he actually trusts to be as good as she seems.

Also he's grateful for the honesty; he smiles slightly, tips his head.]

So what do you think of torture fantasies?

[bodilesswarrior]

[Her own smile deepens, just a little, before her gaze turns pensive.] Not inherently evil, really. What really matters is what you act on.

[patheticvillain]

Killing my mom.

[Like it ain't no thang.]

But I'm pretty sure after the last "paradigm shift" that it wouldn't really help anything.

[ukan]

I hate those shifts. [He doesn't mean that. Maybe.]

What do you daydream up instead of murder?

[patheticvillain]

I don't know. Daydreaming's a little too close to planning for being something I'm good at. [Such self-deprecation. It's almost definitely not genuine.]

Rube Goldberg machines. Ways to be useful. How not to murder people? That kind of thing.

You?

[forgetyourusedtobe]

You could probably just make a list of the things I did while my humanity was off.

Why do you ask?

[ukan]

Because sometimes the most fascinating things about a person are the things they'll never do--no matter how much they want to.

...It's hard to think of humanity as something you can switch on and off.

[forgetyourusedtobe]

I know. It was hard for me, too. Even after I became a vampire.

But then I did and...

[She shrugs a little. Hard to argue against it or wrap her mind around it now.]

[halftheman]

Haven't killed the Bat; that was the dream for a long time. The last big burn, the final payback.

[ukan]

You don't plan to follow through on that anymore?

[halftheman]

Don't plan on much anymore. We'd give it a long hard thought, though, if he showed up here.

Well, if ours did. If the other... [ He doesn't know how to feel about other Bruce, barge Bruce, yet. ]