[At the first question, he was understanding. Maybe even a little embarrassed. But there were inmates who did worse things for stupider reasons. Inmates did stupid violence all the time. Did Raylan come at Reid with that tone? Did he assume Maggie didn’t handle her inmate’s violent quirks when an incident happened? Did he look down his hat at Steve Rogers after Laura punched him? Did he imply Pagan wouldn’t automatically do something about it if Misty did something out of line?]
She damn near took out an eye, Malcolm. So yeah. I'm inquirin' as to the consequence for that action.
[It was a question asked of everyone whose inmates were out here slicing throats or gouging eyes. With that meeting they'd had about Lestat, Raylan would have expected Malcolm to understand that.]
The one that earned her a gash across her face like that? I think we can all agree that that's punishment enough. She reaped what she sowed. But a punch on someone who - one, is skilled and utterly capable of defending himself, two, who just said to me the other day that you don't mind taking the hit, and three, healed up within a few heartbeats is not the same as Kikimora retaliating out on something that she wasn't involved in, in the slightest.
Now if this was the first time Kikimora had done somethin', I wouldn't worry about it. It's not and I think we oughta maybe be okay with a little more concern around someone who was threatening to kill anyone who didn't kneel to her and Magnet Wonderboy.
[Sorry Erik, he didn't mean anything by it, honest.]
I'm not offerin' suggestions or rallyin' for anything, but I think the question is fair.
So the day it actually happened, before all that with Kikimora, when you removed Laura from the party for a completely unprovoked physical attack on a Warden, you didn’t question her Warden about how he was going to handle it at all?
Do you think I raced down like a middle schooler looking to tattle on the new kid or somethin'?
I trust Steve to do his job. I trust you to do the same. I don't generally seek out these answers unless there's been blood or death and I didn't chase you down to ask the question, but I'm still askin' it.
You don't trust me to do the same or you wouldn't need to ask at all. You haven't asked him and I bet you won't. Because you think so much of him, for one thing. And because, apparently - and I didn't know this, but thanks for enlightening me - but because I'm willing to take a punch to build a bridge, that means it's okay to assault me. If Kikimora didn't bash her face in, would you have ever even thought of the party incident again? Would you be demanding answers about his process the next time you had a beer with the good Captain?
If it was okay to assault you, I wouldn't have stopped her. Don't do that; puttin' words in my mouth. To answer the rest of your questions despite your not having answered my one is yes, Malcolm. You seem to be thinkin' that my asking means I think less of you or somethin', without takin' into consideration a single one of my other points that I've made.
You not bein' willin' to answer that question when every other warden I ask is suggests that nothing happened. You wanna correct that assumption or should we cut it here and let that stand on its own.
I’ve taken care of it, Raylan! Of course I have! That should have been your assumption. Now correct my assumption: ‘every other Warden you ask’ is who, exactly? Whose competence do you question and whose do you assume? I’m in the first category. Rogers is in the second category. Let’s run down the list of all the ones we know and see where you put them. Shaw? Pagan? Reid? Kiryu? Maggie? Iris? Zhao Yunlan?…
Then it shouldn't be a problem tellin' me what that was - I didn't ask IF you did somethin', I asked what you did.
This is not about competency - this is about a repeatedly violent inmate and me hopin' that someone is actually doin' something about her behavior. You might not care for my tone, but don't think for a second I don't ask these questions of others. Reid got all of 'em with Lestat, Kiryu got them with Izzy Hands, Shaw'll get 'em, Maggie and Iris and Zhao Yunlan too, Zack, Jedao, whoever I need to - this isn't targeted and we're supposed to be goin' towards somethin' more unified than wardens handin' out punishments and not letting anyone else know - Didn't we cover this shit in Reid's meeting?
Kiryu? Please. You took matters into your own hands without even telling Kiryu that anything happened! And the meeting? Reid didn't answer my questions. He pretended we were there to talk about it, but he and Neal had already agreed on the one on one meetings. How was yours? I hear Lestat is teaching you to play the fiddle.
[He doesn't leave room for a response to that before explaining:]
Kikimora hasn't had a proper permanent Warden until now. She's been running wild and unsupervised. I was actually giving her some anger management therapy on my own before we were paired. She thinks having a Warden is a magical ticket to graduation, so she thinks protecting me at all costs is protecting herself. I've withheld a privilege I was prepared to return and she has to sit through a very long lecture on how violence propagates violence. If she wants the privilege - and I know that she does - she will have to demonstrate some internalization of the idea of breaking the cycle of answering violence with violence. In the meantime, I've been trying to demonstrate how helping people without expectation of reward is its own reward, because it feels good. Does that sit okay with you or do you want me to arrange a public flogging?
[He wouldn't mind seeing her taped up against the wall again, like she was on the Clipper but angry or not, he wasn't stupid enough to say that out loud.]
Yeah and how's that goin' for you when she's out here loud and proud and openly threatening people like that. [Asking for it.] That's not any different than Reid's makin' Lestat sit and have conversations with the people he's assaulted because it makes him uncomfortable and makes him face shit. I'm not seeing a lotta differences between you and him here and that's fine, y'all warden the way you want to, my opinions ain't gonna get in the way, but it's absolute bullshit to spin it like my askin' the same question we asked Reid as angling' for extremes.
[You're being dramatic. But, admittedly, so was he.]
The punishment is withholding her privilege, Raylan. Something that matters to her? I'm denying it to her until she gets with the program. The talking is extra. I thought you might be interested in the subjects I'm educating her on, as an aside. And you know what the difference is? You KNOW me. We don't know Reid. It makes sense to question him. And you know what? I would have told you happily if you broached it as curiosity or camaraderie, but you came at me swinging, demanding to know if I was living up to my responsibilities as a Warden. I thought we were friends. Don't treat me like a child that you have to lecture on responsibility. I've graduated an inmate. How many have you graduated?
[What a devastating one two punch. Raylan doesn't blink, but his lips vanish and his jaw works. It's more than cutting to rub in Malcolm's success over his own in his face but suggesting they weren't friends, after he'd been stupid enough to open this all with 'brother', made his stomach drop and twist.
Yeah. He should have known. He should have fucking known.]
[Raylan sees the message but is smart enough to not respond right away. He was even angrier and more conflicted then when he started and it was better for him to disengage for bit and calm down.
He needed a drink. Or three. A drink instead of burying his fist into a wall or flipping a table. Steve's suggestion of ransacking a random cabin was creeping close into the running for viable options. And so that's what he did, stewing in it all as he works towards even beginning to start to think about answering Malcolm's text.]
[He was already two drinks in by the time Malcolm comes knocking on his door and the voice is regarded with a flat, angry look from his side of the door. He had no plans on answering it.
.. Until Malcolm says he needs help. Raylan sighs and scrubs his face with his hand before begrudgingly ambling over. He could leave it shut, yell at Malcolm through it. He could point out from the jump that Malcolm should go talk to someone who's graduated an inmate. Someone who's his 'friend'. But that felt petulant and Raylan really was trying to not give anyone more ammunition.
He opens the door, expression still just as flat.]
[The fact that Malcolm didn't seem to understand what exactly he'd done was astounding. Raylan had started that fight, yes, but he hadn't gone around crossing lines and saying hurtful shit. He supposes that doesn't matter. It never matters.
His jaw works again with a breath out of his nose, and steps back, pulling the door open more.]
[Malcolm steps inside, almost immediately turning around and walking backwards so he could keep facing Raylan while he talked.]
Look, I don’t know what part of that did this… [He gestures at Raylan’s whole face.] …But I kind of forgot this is the first time you’ve ever had a sibling, and I’m not sure I could have controlled it anyway, once I got… wound up. I didn’t mean any of it, okay? It’s stupid. I’m just tired of being treated like a joke on this ship and I look up to you a lot and then it suddenly felt like you were looking down at me with them and… It’s just… Remember when I told you that my feelings are too big?
[Malcolm was right - Raylan didn't know what having a sibling was really like, and he didn't understand sibling fights or how or where they reached to. He also didn't understand how they came back from fights like that.
He kept heading for the kitchen and its island that held his glass and bottle, where he felt he could better handle the swirl of emotions in his gut. Malcolm looking up to him wasn't nothing.]
You're right, I came in swingin' but that shit wasn't about lookin' down on you or thinkin' you hadn't done the job. It was about havin' and takin' the chance to ask what you'd done. Kikimora pisses me off and has been since before the Clipper; it's beyond time somethin' was done with that child.
[He fetches a second glass from the cabinet and comes back to empty his own before refilling them both with a few fingers. The fact that he was pouring for two at all was a good sign. He was still angry, but not angry enough to forgo basic hospitality.
[He picks up the glass, even if it's a little absently.]
She's emotionally stunted and she has a lot of problems around authority and power and most of it is based in trauma, though some of it is cultural. I just... couldn't believe, after everything that happened, that you wouldn't assume I'd done something substantial about an incident of violence by my inmate. Was it because it was against Laura that you thought maybe I wouldn't?
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And for what she did to Laura? What'd you do about that?
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Excuse me?
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[It was a question asked of everyone whose inmates were out here slicing throats or gouging eyes. With that meeting they'd had about Lestat, Raylan would have expected Malcolm to understand that.]
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What did Captain Rogers say when you asked that about Laura’s attack on me?
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Now if this was the first time Kikimora had done somethin', I wouldn't worry about it. It's not and I think we oughta maybe be okay with a little more concern around someone who was threatening to kill anyone who didn't kneel to her and Magnet Wonderboy.
[Sorry Erik, he didn't mean anything by it, honest.]
I'm not offerin' suggestions or rallyin' for anything, but I think the question is fair.
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I trust Steve to do his job. I trust you to do the same. I don't generally seek out these answers unless there's been blood or death and I didn't chase you down to ask the question, but I'm still askin' it.
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You not bein' willin' to answer that question when every other warden I ask is suggests that nothing happened. You wanna correct that assumption or should we cut it here and let that stand on its own.
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This is not about competency - this is about a repeatedly violent inmate and me hopin' that someone is actually doin' something about her behavior. You might not care for my tone, but don't think for a second I don't ask these questions of others. Reid got all of 'em with Lestat, Kiryu got them with Izzy Hands, Shaw'll get 'em, Maggie and Iris and Zhao Yunlan too, Zack, Jedao, whoever I need to - this isn't targeted and we're supposed to be goin' towards somethin' more unified than wardens handin' out punishments and not letting anyone else know - Didn't we cover this shit in Reid's meeting?
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[He doesn't leave room for a response to that before explaining:]
Kikimora hasn't had a proper permanent Warden until now. She's been running wild and unsupervised. I was actually giving her some anger management therapy on my own before we were paired. She thinks having a Warden is a magical ticket to graduation, so she thinks protecting me at all costs is protecting herself. I've withheld a privilege I was prepared to return and she has to sit through a very long lecture on how violence propagates violence. If she wants the privilege - and I know that she does - she will have to demonstrate some internalization of the idea of breaking the cycle of answering violence with violence. In the meantime, I've been trying to demonstrate how helping people without expectation of reward is its own reward, because it feels good. Does that sit okay with you or do you want me to arrange a public flogging?
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Yeah and how's that goin' for you when she's out here loud and proud and openly threatening people like that. [Asking for it.] That's not any different than Reid's makin' Lestat sit and have conversations with the people he's assaulted because it makes him uncomfortable and makes him face shit. I'm not seeing a lotta differences between you and him here and that's fine, y'all warden the way you want to, my opinions ain't gonna get in the way, but it's absolute bullshit to spin it like my askin' the same question we asked Reid as angling' for extremes.
[You're being dramatic. But, admittedly, so was he.]
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Yeah. He should have known. He should have fucking known.]
Kiss my ass.
[He hangs up.]
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He sends a text.]
You hung up on me? We’re talking.
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He needed a drink. Or three. A drink instead of burying his fist into a wall or flipping a table. Steve's suggestion of ransacking a random cabin was creeping close into the running for viable options. And so that's what he did, stewing in it all as he works towards even beginning to start to think about answering Malcolm's text.]
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You got us sidetracked! I need to talk to you. I need your help.
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.. Until Malcolm says he needs help. Raylan sighs and scrubs his face with his hand before begrudgingly ambling over. He could leave it shut, yell at Malcolm through it. He could point out from the jump that Malcolm should go talk to someone who's graduated an inmate. Someone who's his 'friend'. But that felt petulant and Raylan really was trying to not give anyone more ammunition.
He opens the door, expression still just as flat.]
What.
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…Are you mad at me? You started that argument. Which I didn’t even really have time for; I was going to come by after dinner anyway. Can I come in?
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His jaw works again with a breath out of his nose, and steps back, pulling the door open more.]
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Look, I don’t know what part of that did this… [He gestures at Raylan’s whole face.] …But I kind of forgot this is the first time you’ve ever had a sibling, and I’m not sure I could have controlled it anyway, once I got… wound up. I didn’t mean any of it, okay? It’s stupid. I’m just tired of being treated like a joke on this ship and I look up to you a lot and then it suddenly felt like you were looking down at me with them and… It’s just… Remember when I told you that my feelings are too big?
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He kept heading for the kitchen and its island that held his glass and bottle, where he felt he could better handle the swirl of emotions in his gut. Malcolm looking up to him wasn't nothing.]
You're right, I came in swingin' but that shit wasn't about lookin' down on you or thinkin' you hadn't done the job. It was about havin' and takin' the chance to ask what you'd done. Kikimora pisses me off and has been since before the Clipper; it's beyond time somethin' was done with that child.
[He fetches a second glass from the cabinet and comes back to empty his own before refilling them both with a few fingers. The fact that he was pouring for two at all was a good sign. He was still angry, but not angry enough to forgo basic hospitality.
Malcolm better drink though.]
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[He picks up the glass, even if it's a little absently.]
She's emotionally stunted and she has a lot of problems around authority and power and most of it is based in trauma, though some of it is cultural. I just... couldn't believe, after everything that happened, that you wouldn't assume I'd done something substantial about an incident of violence by my inmate. Was it because it was against Laura that you thought maybe I wouldn't?
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