goneawaycomms | Agent North

Somebody's headfucked him. Probably Jorgmund, but I don't have a lot of details.

[She leans against the railing and glances around casually to make sure no one's near enough to eavesdrop.]

I don't know if you had the Ghosts of Christmas' Whatever visions, but I saw two future's for Wash. One was a bad future where he tries to kill some people here to cover up something he's doing and gets killed in self-defense. The other was a good future, where he gets to go home and die of old age surrounded by friends. State funeral too, which is nice, but not really relevant.

The good future was locked away behind a door that I opened because someone was pounding on the other side. SOS in Morse code, I looked it up later. When I broke through, I saw a ghost version of Wash all lit up like science-fiction horror with a hole in his skull and wires and blinky bits in his brain. He said "help me" and vanished.

[She looks back up at North.]

I've asked York to check him for cranial scarring. I know someone here who might be able to get us into his head to poke around, but I figure I should get some of his friends on board instead of going traipsing in there on my own. Guy's bodily autonomy's been fucked enough.

[ North's brow draws together more and more as Stacia speaks. The SOS, the Ghost version of Wash, the desire Wash obviously has for something to change. When she finishes he tries to relax it, tries not to look as worried as she's just made him. ]

Get in his head, like, what, a psychic?

[ He doesn't discount that something like that might be possible here; it's just not something they can do at home. Not without a Project AI. ]

Ish? [Stacia tilts her hand back and forth in a so-so gesture.] The way I understand it, we'd be able to see his memories. Find out who did what and when and why, maybe get some idea how to reverse it.

[She's picking her words carefully here. She prefers not to lie unless she has to, lies can tangle and trip someone up if they get careless. She's just not going to tell North yet that she found a magic key that opens up doorways into people's memories. That'll come later. She only trusts him and York so far yet.]

[ He frowns slightly, considering. ]

That sounds like a huge invasion of his privacy...but it's also sort of sounding necessary.

[Stacia snorts.]

It's an enormous, staggering, monstrous invasion of his privacy. The fact I don't have any reservations about doing it probably says bad things about me as a person. But that's why I'm reaching out to people who care about him, to keep me honest. [She smiles wryly.] Though I'm also willing to take all the blame myself if it'll mean he's got support after.

[ She's right. She really is. He knows this. ]

Is York on board?

York's confirming that there's scarring where I saw a hole in his head before we make any moves. I'm willing to go digging around in the guy's memories without his consent, but I'm not exactly excited about it. Feel free to talk it over with York if you like, maybe the two of you can come up with an alternative. I'm willing to admit that there might be alternative avenues I've missed because this one seems most efficient to me.

[ North looks troubled, and he stares out toward the horizon for a bit before answering. ]

Yeah. I think we'd better have that talk. I'll get back to you with the conclusion.

Fair enough. Thanks for listening. Any questions you want to ask or reassurances I can offer?

Just...that you're not the type to blackmail or gossip or any of that if you find out something private. I mean, you could say that and be lying but it would still be good to hear you say.

[Stacia purses her lips.]

I'd work my way up a Jorgmund org chart with a song in my heart and laughter on my lips, because they've enslaved us and fuck them. But Wash, you, the other New Hires...those are secrets I'd keep. Because we're all in this shit together, and we're not getting out unless we can trust each other to one degree or another.

[ That's what she needed to say. He feels something drain out of him, some kind of tension regarding this aspect of the issues behind this. ]

Good. I'm going to leave and go talk to York, and I'll get right back to you. Where will you be in about an hour?

[Stacia thinks a moment, doing some mental math.]

Training area. I'll either by trying to get someone to spar with me or I'll be in the shooting range, depending on how I'm feeling after some cardio.

All right, I'll see you there.

[ An hour later, fresh from his talk with York, North tracks her down in the training area. He finds her, and gives a little jerk of his head to indicate that she should come to the side for a private conversation. ]

York and I talked. He's mainly concerned about getting Wash's consent for something like that. I am too, to be honest. So we need to go in with an explanation that he'll agree to before we do anything.

[Stacia raises her eyebrows and nods.]

I'll be interested to hear what kind of explanation you two think would actually work for him to let someone into his head. He just about fell off of the bench he was sitting on when I snuggled up under his arm and squeaked something about a "personal space hula-hoop".

[ North smiles faintly at the image. ]

Sounds like him. Anyway, I'm hoping if we tell him we have a fix for his memory glitches, that would help him agree. He's not fond of letting people in his head, as a rule, and York and I are both concerned about what the consequences would be if we did it without his permission. Both for him and for us.

[Stacia thinks it over.]

I absolutely agreed that the consequences could be very bad for everyone involved. The only reason I've been hedging around bringing it directly to him myself is that I think he knows they've messed with his head. Maybe not how much they messed with it, but he's aware of some of it, and he hasn't asked for help outside of when I was already in his head.

[She shakes her head.]

I don't know him well enough to guess at why he wouldn't ask for help, which is why I reached out to you guys: people who know him rather than people who know me. But if he's hiding something, he's not going to want us in there at all, and bringing it up will make him wary.

Am I explaining this in a way that makes sense?

Yes, you are.

[ He pauses, thinking. ]

The only way I'd agree to doing something like this without his prior consent is if there was a major crisis, an emergent event. Something where it seems like he's about to hurt himself or someone else.

[Stacia nods.]

Like I said, if you can figure out something to say to him that he'd agree to, please by all means. I just don't want to have to have a go at him when he's prepared for an ambush.

Fair enough. Those are our terms for agreement, is all.

Agent North

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york's player and I handwaved their convo!

Re: york's player and I handwaved their convo!

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