01: Video : I got the shotgun, you got the briefcase

[omar]

[Omar's been laying seriously low since Risa, mostly staying off the communicators, keeping to himself. Friendly to anyone who's spoken to him in person, genial and even more or less polite, just... quiet.

But now, he's decided it's time to make his presence more known. The communicator switches on to show the pool table on level six. A dark-skinned man, marked by the glittering jewels in his ears and the large scar on his face -- like someone took a knife and slashed him from his forehead to his right cheek -- is sitting behind the table, sprawled out comfortably on a chair.]

Evenin', everyone. Thought it about time I introduced myself. My name-- [And this is something he waffled on, thought maybe to lie when he first showed up on Risa... But then he realized that anyone here who would know him, they would already know him.]

My name Omar Little. Any of y'all from down Baltimore way circa 2006 or so, you might already know of me. If not... [And this next part is said with a grin -- like it could be a joke, or maybe not.] ...I'm a new warden up in this piece.

And I got a question or two for y'all, if y'all got answers.

Comments

[omar]

Then he a weak-ass man. [This is hitting annoyingly close to home, and suddenly the ruse isn't so funny anymore.] Anyone ought to know what they getting into when they get into it. They don't learn it, that's they own fault.

[trenchcoatedly]

I don't think having people you'd do terrible things for to keep safe is weakness. Those people make you who you are, just as much as you do.

And if you've been drawn into this against your will, or by coincidence or fate?

The only point I'm trying to make is sometimes good people do bad things that they don't have control over.

[omar]

But you know you doing it. You still making a choice, man. You pick one thing over the other, pick a person over whatever else, pick your life over the gun... that a choice, too. Ain't no other thing. Always a choice.

And if there really ain't? then you learn to come back up on that man. Get your own back. Or you learn to play the game better, if you like them baby corner boys.

[trenchcoatedly]

Yes, it's a choice. But you didn't bring the circumstances of that choice upon yourself. The environment had an effect on you - an effect you weren't expecting or prepared for.

Does getting revenge on those who coerced you into actions that haunt you make you feel better about those actions?

[omar]

[Too late, he realizes what road this conversation has gone down: that no Real Warden would say yes to that question, even if he's about to. Would they?

Hell, no real warden would be talking about corner boys and the game like it was a good thing, although maybe he'll get away with that on the sheer fact that no one here is even a little bit a part of that world.

Could be. But maybe not. And either way, he's remembering the hard lesson that Avon Barksdale already learned: you never talk about this damn stuff on the phone.

He takes a deep breath, lets it out.]

Maybe I see I still got some learning ahead of me.

[He doesn't mean it for a minute, because there's a whole lot for him that hinges on choice, but he's got to say something diplomatic, here.]

[trenchcoatedly]

We all do.

[omar]

[He calms himself down quickly, nodding, and vaguely hopes no one else caught that little slip. He'll do better from now on, until he's told there's no point in it.]

My man the Marquis say there no such thing as good wardens, bad wardens, good inmates, bad inmates... just, uh, ill-conceived, I think's the word he use. [That's not exactly what the Marquis said, but close enough.]

[trenchcoatedly]

All creatures have good traits and bad traits. It's merely a matter what dominate.

[omar]

So what you think about this place, then, my man?

[trenchcoatedly]

The inmates are dominated by their bad traits; the wardens are dominated by their good traits.

[omar]

Sound real simple, when you put it like that.

[trenchcoatedly]

Explanations can often be, though not always. Of course, to generalize either inmates or wardens takes away much of the complexity that would entangle the explanation.

[omar]

True that, but I keeps my world simple as a rule.