goneawaycomms

He hasn't told me much about it, but I wasn't exactly sure how to poke and pry at it without stressing him out. Plus, like, I'm seventeen, would you confide your deepest darkest worries to a teenage girl you don't know all that well?

[She chews on her lip.]

I don't know of any precedent for it, but when I broke through the locked door, I got a...a flickering ghost-image of Wash with a piece of his skull missing and stuff poked into his brain. He said "help me".

[She glances around again and then tilts her head forward, traces the edges of where she'd seen the hole in his head.]

Humans only heal so fast, if what I saw was accurate, he's probably got scars.

Probably not, no. But you seem sharp and genuine so maybe.

[ He's talking to her about this, after all. And York always needs someone to bounce his ideas off, so he can articulate them better. Ideally that's North, but right now Stacia's going to get to try it. ]

I'm not liking what I'm thinking. At all.

If it wasn't the Stuff that fixed him, if they did some kind of surgery capable of that... they're probably capable of damaging his memory too. But why?

[ He keeps talking without answering the question, hoping it'll come to him if he keeps the stream of consciousness going. ]

Compliance? He's less trusting now. No... he said she was asking him questions like Price. Is there a female doctor here that you know of? Surgeon? Research scientist?

The Stuff doesn't do anything without a mind to guide it. Something or someone needs to tell it what to do. It's not a thing that acts, it can only react. So the Stuff fixed his brain damage, who guided it? Brains are complicated wads of goo and meat and electricity, they're easy to damage but they're hard to fix.

[Stacia rubs her forehead with her fingertips, casting back over her memories.]

In the bad future, he said something about choices and how he never got to choose. And the hand that he wasn't holding the gun in was trying to grab the gun, like it had a mind of its own. Which is weird, right?

[She thinks a moment, the frowns at York.]

If I answer that question, are you going to run off and do something stupid? Because there are steps between this conversation and trying to shake down the org chart.

[ It's sounding more and more like this is a Jorgmund directed thing -- which is so so so worrying. And York doesn't know enough about them to be stupid right now and rush in. He doesn't know if there's an element of control to it yet, if Wash is somehow breaking through that every now and then, or what. The hand thing makes it sound that way, but they just don't know enough. ]

No. I'm not going to do something stupid. That includes telling him anything about this yet. That could be dangerous too.

Agreed.

[Stacia taps the table again.]

Dr. Fust and Dr. Glotfelty are both women. The former is a psychologist, the latter is the head physician. There's also the 'relaxation officer', she seems really ditzy and annoying but you don't crawl up the corporate ladder without something going on behind your eyes.

I'd bet money the woman Wash was talking about was the psychologist, since he compared her to Price. But we still don't know for sure what they did.

[ He thinks for a moment. ]

I can probably get away with checking his head to see if there's scars where you indicated, without letting on that's what I'm looking for.

[Stacia has a way to find out exactly what they did, but she's not going to tell York about that yet.]

Okay, you do that. Which of the others do you think we can bring in on this? Who will keep it secret and won't tell Wash anything either?

North.

[ There's not a split second's hesitation there, he just answers as simply as breathing. ]

I'd trust him with absolutely anything. Do you want to talk to him together?

I don't think I've introduced myself to him yet. If you think that's the best way to get him in on this, I'm down.

I could tell him myself but you should meet him. He's a really good guy, don't mind the drunken germaphobia.

I'm happy to meet people. Especially in pursuit of fucking up whatever Jorgmund is trying to do to Wash. [She grins.] Plus, I have a bet with myself about how many adults here I can convince to give me piggyback rides.

Well add another one to your tally, you can absolutely have a piggyback rides from me.

[ But back to Wash for a moment, because she said something interesting earlier. ]

You said there were a few steps between this conversation and doing something about it. And you know this place better than me -- did you have something specific in mind? I'll check his head for starters, but what if it was the truth?

I said there were a few steps between this conversation and shaking down the org chart. [She shrugs and gives York a self-depreciating smile.] I spend a lot of time with people with a strong belief in solving problems through direct violence, which is unfortunately not viable here. Yet.

[Because she intends to commit copious amounts of violence eventually. The expression she's wearing is almost certainly disconcerting on the face of a teenage girl.]

Once we've got a team together and you've confirmed cranial scarring, I know someone who might be able to get us access to his memories. It's invasive, obviously, so I didn't want to jump directly into it, and I'd like to do it as respectfully as possible, but we're going to need the information so that we only do minimal damage in the process of helping him.

[ York nods; he'll do his best to find out about the scarring asap. ]

Does anyone else know about this, or am I the first person you came to about it? The person who can access memories, maybe?

You're the first person I've spilled everything to. I was feeling out South, though more as a way to distract him if necessary since literally the first thing the two of them did when she turned up was get in a fight. And I talked to his buddy Tucker, too. He... [Stacia makes a face.] He'd do everything he could to help Wash, but I don't get the impression he does "subtle". Like, at all.

South can't be trusted. And I've only just barely met Tucker, so I can't vouch for him but you're right. He doesn't seem like the subtle or secrets type.

I'll get a look at his head. We'll start with that.

Can't be trusted how? To have Wash's best interests at heart or in general?

[Stacia raises her eyebrows.]

I'm not looking forward to spending the rest of my life stuck here. I've got shit to get back to. So I'd like to know what kind of people I'm working with, even if we don't bring her in on this.

In general. She's a selfish backstabber. Or... back-shooter, technically.

Well, it's always nice to know which direction the backstab is coming from. I'll keep working on her anyway, but she's definitely out unless we need someone to fight Wash for whatever reason.

Do you think I should hit up North tonight, or give him a bit to recover from the whole thing with what's-his-butt?

I think give him tonight to unwind a little... tomorrow, maybe? Sooner's better than later on this.

[Stacia makes a face.]

Yeah, that looked like a whooooooole thing that calls for some recovery time. Possibly some pot or platonic snuggles, but the former's hard to come by around here and I don't know any of you well enough to offer the latter.

But I'll hit him up tomorrow. Drop your name so he doesn't think I'm trying to lure him into an ambush and eat his face or something.

I don't have any pot but I can handle the platonic snuggles end of things.

Sounds good. Thanks for looping me in, Stacia. I'll hit you up when I get a good look at his head for scarring.

I appreciate the help. This isn't the kind of thing I'd want to do on my own, and it's probably better if it's his friends keeping me honest about it.

[ York nods; Wash is being very slow to trust even with him, so it probably would have taken Stacia a lot longer to get close to him. ]

We'll figure it out. And it's good that you care about him, hopefully he'll see that.

[Stacia grimaces and slumps in her seat.]

I get what you're saying, but fuck is it depressing that something like this qualifies me as "caring" about him. He's a person who's being mind-fucked and exploited and -- and twisted by monsters that just so happen to be human instead of wearing their malice and horror on the outside. Anyone with an ounce of morality or empathy in my position ought to be willing to do the same.

York

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action

Re: action