THE BOX OFFICE

[tellthestory]

This is where you can meet privately with the Balladeer! The Balladeer is almost always around during the day; just knock.

(Secretly, the door's usually not locked if he's inside. But you wouldn't want to be rude, would you?)

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Comments

[allicareabout]

That was my question.

[That last part, he means. He's almost proud of you.]

A bit of a horrible thing to show the guy's sister. I'm entirely behind the notion of "dramatic license," but that was a little much, don't you think?

[tellthestory]

...yeah. It was.

[allicareabout]

And I'm going to assume there's not much you can do about that?

[tellthestory]

I can't control other peoples' acting choices. And after what happened the first time...

...they don't take notes from me.

[allicareabout]

"What happened the first time"...?

[...buddy even if you're talking about the first case there was a lot that happened there, you might want to be a little more specific.]

[tellthestory]

Executions aren't a new thing for me. But I think bringing the victim into it is...disrespectful.

[He says it like a word you're substituting in for a much stronger one.]

[allicareabout]

[Huh.]

I'm pretty sure some people would call that karma.

[tellthestory]

I might've thought that too if it were someone else, but you know Valjean wouldn't have wanted that. I saw how he died.

[allicareabout]

I'm sure he wouldn't have, but the dead don't really get much of a say when it comes to what we do with their likeness.

Killers, on the other hand...some would say that they deserve to face down what they did.

[tellthestory]

It's their death we're trying to get justice for. Why would we want to make a mockery of them?

I think killers can pay for their crimes just fine by dying in some normal way.

[allicareabout]

Here's the thing about justice, straight from me to you - justice won't do a single thing for the dead. Because the dead are gone. Nothing we do here is going to matter to them. Nothing we do is going to bring them back, nothing we do is going to make it up to them, and if you think they're watching us from on high and waiting for the end of days to be reunited with us, you need to stop dreaming.

The real purpose of justice is to benefit the living. It's catharsis at best, and some sort of court-sanctioned vengeance otherwise. Nothing we do is for the dead, when it comes down to it.

Making a mockery of them is tasteless, sure. But it's got nothing to do with the dead and everything to do with what we think of it. Trust me, Valjean wouldn't have wanted that, but right now? It's pretty safe to say Valjean doesn't care.

[tellthestory]

Okay, so do you think watching that imitation stab D-ne to death made anyone feel better?

I thought he was a good person - I'd like to respect whatever his wishes would've been for their own sake, not because I think he's gonna pop out of somewhere to judge me for it. This doesn't seem like that kind of show. But if we're talking catharsis, I have been at executions before. People just want to see the killer die. There's no reason for elaborate revenge plays.

[allicareabout]

You know, given that you're helping with this entire thing, I find it a little difficult to believe that you actually care about our wishes to begin with.

[tellthestory]

Well, why wouldn't I?

[allicareabout]

Last I checked, no one here decided they wanted to take place in a sadistic killing game.

[...]

Given the amount of people yelling about murder and drowning boats full of animals, don't quote me on that, but at the very least I'm pretty sure I didn't.

[tellthestory]

I don't know what that kid's deal is.

[seriously what the hell]

And no, that's not usually how it goes. This is the first time I've ever gotten a choice.

[allicareabout]

[Oh wait what - ]

So you chose to be doing this?

[tellthestory]

They asked me if I wanted to help with the show, yeah.

look man it could have been clones or something

[allicareabout]

Is there anything actually in it for you?

[tellthestory]

No more than anything else. I'd be doing some kind of show for them no matter what - that's why I'm here.