IC Inbox (v1.0)

[jumpthegun]

You've reached Dr. John Watson. Please leave a message.

Comments

[jumpthegun]

Torture: To cause great and unnecessary pain, suffering, and/or anxiety against someone's will. Rhys was terrified. You mutilated his brain.

Tell me just one thing, Dr. Stein. If it had worked like you wanted it to, if everything had gone according to plan, would you feel any guilt about this? At all?

[circumsutus]

Would my emotional response matter to you?

[jumpthegun]

Yes. Of course it matters. How you feel about something you did is going to impact whether you do it again.

[circumsutus]

I'm not going to do it again. It was an inexcusable lapse in judgement.

[jumpthegun]

[There it is again. 'Lapse in judgement.' John's beginning to wonder if Stein even realizes why that's so aggravating.]

An inexcusable lapse in judgement presumes there's any judgement to take into account, doctor. Don't lobotomize someone in the middle of a snow hellscape without proper anesthetics, tools, support personnel, or the full and enthusiastic consent of the patient - every part of the patient. That's not a judgement call. That's basic respect for the medical profession and someone's personal autonomy.

I don't know if this is your way of dealing with it, Dr. Stein, but you're being bloody clinical about something that's not. This is someone's life, their intelligence, the very essence of what makes them them. It's the lives of their friends, too, the people they love and who care about them.

I need to know that matters to you. That you can understand you caused someone pain and that you feel bad about doing it. Not just because it was a lapse in judgement, but because you can understand what it's like to be in pain and know that that's a terrible feeling to inflict on someone else.

[circumsutus]

You're asking for empathy from someone who cannot experience it. My actions were wrong, they broke the established rules for treatment of others, they passed beyond acceptable medical treatment and would be better classified as unnecessary experimentation. What I did was unacceptable and I will not repeat it.

[jumpthegun]

How do you feel about your students, Dr. Stein? Do you care about them?

[He'd seen Kid's message, mentioning Stein being his professor.]

[circumsutus]

The responsibility I feel towards my students has nothing to do with this. I'm not going to be able to honestly give you the answers you want.

[jumpthegun]

Why do you feel that responsibility for your students and not your patients? Do you know why?

[circumsutus]

I do, and it has no bearing on the current situation.

[jumpthegun]

What is it, then, Dr. Stein? Because I can't understand why if it's not that you're concerned about them and feel empathy toward them.

[circumsutus]

It's not your job to understand why I feel responsible for my students. It isn't relevant to the current situation.

[jumpthegun]

It is when you tell me you're incapable of feeling empathy.

[circumsutus]

I've been assigned to teach them. That's all it is.

[jumpthegun]

Really? Your duty as a teacher is that strong? Why did you become a teacher in the first place? Just an assignment?

[circumsutus]

That's right.

And the only one of my students here is my boss' son.

[jumpthegun]

Can you just, I dunno, pretend your boss told you to protect and care for everyone else here? Would that help you? Think about that duty extending beyond Kid.

[circumsutus]

I'm not asking for your advice.

[jumpthegun]

No. You're asking me to accept an apology from you. That acceptance comes with the advice, mate. Because I don't want this to happen again, no matter how manic this place makes you.

[circumsutus]

It won't happen again. I can promise you that.

[jumpthegun]

[We'll see, the more cynical and distrusting part of him chimes.]

I hope not, Dr. Stein. Let me know if you start getting the urge, though. We'll see to someone stopping you properly this time.

[circumsutus]

I won't need someone to stop me. Now that I'm aware of the possibility, I can stop myself.

[jumpthegun]

[Mmhmm. He doesn't believe that, but the conversation isn't going anywhere.]

All right. Good day, Dr. Stein.