logsinthenight | INTRO LOG: OCTOBER

INTRO LOG: OCTOBER

characters: everyone.
location: the harbor, as well as the rest of town.
date/time: october 1-3.
content: beacon's newest batch of residents arrives on the ferry. scavenger hunt prizes are awarded. the ferry capsizes in a blaze of glory.
warnings: n/a.

welcome to beacon.

It's dim, and the room won't stop swaying, gently rocking you back and forth. A loud sound startles you fully awake, a deep, moaning call: a foghorn. As your eyes adjust, you note faint red light streaking through the room from a tiny, round window.

You've found yourself in a private room, lying on a bed. The last things you remember are the events that led up to your death. Beside you is a folded tablet and a lantern that glows steadily with a healthy flame.

You're on a ship. And that ship is docking.

Making your way to the deck, and eventually the pier, you find only moonlight to greet you, and a dark forest beyond. There are other people here, each with their own unique lantern, and many of them look just as lost as you are. On the ferry you've just disembarked from, the speaker system begins to play a song.

In the distance, across the waters of the lake, you can see the tall silhouette of a lighthouse, its red light slowly turning.

•••

Luckily for all the newcomers, the tablet and the town have some resources available for playing catch up! In fact, as soon as they're prompted to enter a network username, an app containing all sorts of useful welcome information will launch. Newcomers can always check out the weekly bulletins and the records in town hall as well, and everyone's welcome to get in touch with the NPCs through their inboxes.

When the ferry docks, it seems as though you've been spared from any weirdness this month! It's good to have a break now and then, isn't it? And if you participated in the scavenger hunt, you're probably eagerly awaiting your promised prize—

But, ohp, what's that sound? Is that the ferry's engine firing up again? The ship roars to life again as some brave mutineers overthrow its autopilot system. Crowley and the Winter Soldier man the ferry's control room while Aziraphale flits between the cargo hold and the deck, attempting to assuage any accidental kidnapees with reassuring words and cake.

Unfortunately, the joyride is shortlived. Between the ferry's complex control panel and the haphazard attempts to override it, all the group manages to do is send the boat charging full speed ahead—which would be great if it wasn't facing the beach. The ferry jolts forward and careens smack into the dock, tearing down the entire structure and punching a sizeable hole in the ferry's hull.

Well, that could've gone better. But there's no time to dwell on the mistakes of the very recent past! The ferry is sinking, and quickly! Looks like you'll have to scramble if you want to save what's left in the cargo hold before the whole thing goes under... And that's gonna be awfully tricky without a dock.

Oh, and maybe save the new arrivals? Make sure they don't drown? But, then again, if they go down with the ship, they'll just show up again in the church... The same can't be said for the restock for the general store!

As smoke billows from the damaged ferry and the last the harbor disappears into the lake, the Lighthouse Keeper appears on the network with a pretty straightforward question. Also, the ferry's song changes, so. That happens.

ooc.

Hey there, wonderful players, and welcome to In the Night! For this intro log, you are officially without a chaperone. Rastus is back at the bonfire, Will is characteristically elusive, and Robin is, well, you know where she's at. It's up to the veteran residents to fill in the new folks.

And regarding the ferry disaster... Well, you have some options. Here's what you need to know:
This is a player plot organized by MJ, Xy, and Gail! A big thank-you to them for providing us with this intro log event!

Whether or not your character and any packages addressed to them are affected by this plot is up to you! If you would like to assume your character avoids dealing with this chaos and somehow grabs their delivery without issue, go right ahead!

Similarly, if you're looking for an opportunity to make your character's life harder, injury and death are always on the table! Or maybe it's your package that takes the abuse, lost forever to the lake's depths or washing up all waterlogged a week or two down the road. In short: How you engage with this plot is entirely up to you.

What happens to the ferry and the dock? Within a couple of hours, the ferry will sink completely, and anything on board when it goes down is lost forever. Which bodes super well for the ferry, huh? Sure hope the next batch of newcomers has some strong swimmers. Oh, and the dock is gone, too. If you want it back, you'll have to rebuild it.

As for Crowley, Aziraphale, Bucky, and anyone else on the ferry or dock during the collision... Hope you boys like concussions, bruised ribs, and a broken bone or two, because you've got 'em! The exact injuries are up to you, but they're the equivalent of a semi-serious car accident.

One last thing: The fate of the shop restocks, including all of the food for the month, depends on you! Let us know if your character will be participating in the rescue attempt. In exchange for letting us beat up your character, you can save a portion of the month's supplies! We'll let you all know on October 3 what the rations for the rest of the month will look like.

DELIVERIES

The following packages can be found in the cargo hold:

The monthly store restock
For Daylight: A variety of gardening tools piled into a wheelbarrow, as well as packets of seeds for the following plants: Boneset, dogtooth violet, starflower, Carolina springbeauty, pipsissewa, bloodroot, red columbine, narrowleaf blue-eyed grass, harlequin blueflag, and purple pitcherplant; he will also receive a translation for the following: An invitation to join the speaker as company
For Aziraphale: A record player, the complete discographies of a variety of bands (Abba, Rob Zombie, Tool, Hanson, Eiffel 65, and Spice Girls), a two-tiered wedding cake, and packets of seeds for the following plants: Strawberry, cherry tomato, cucumber, blackberry, carrot, potato, raspberry, and pumpkin; he will also receive a familiar copy of a familiar book: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, along with a blue ribbon that reads "BEST IN SHOW"
For Bruce: A handheld metal detector and a rechargeable battery for it, a chisel, a climbing harness (that, according to the packaging, is the #1 Safety Rated!) and a 50 ft. coil of rope
For Cao Pi: A go board
For Rosinante: A sextant, and 3 cartons of cigarettes; he will also receive a translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Danger! Run and hide!"
For Kuai: A basket of 16 mooncakes, as well as incregredients for more
For Javert: 3 pairs of handcuffs, a greatcoat in Javert's size, and a trunk full of swords in varying styles and conditions; he will also receive an electric chainsaw
For Kol: A record player, the complete discographies of a variety of bands (New Kids on the Block, Weird Al Yankovic, Sound Garden, Ke$ha, INXS, and Spinal Tap), a cooler full of blood bags and ice packs, and an assortment of stamps; he will also receive a translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "I'm lost" or "Need directions"
For Elena: A journal; she will also receive a portable generator (powerful enough for a single power tool or small appliance; can be charged through a typical wall outlet)
For Xayah: A thick journal and a glass vial of black ink; she will also receive a sizeable roll of barbed wire, as well as a stuffed animal
For Ignis: A spice restock (with a few new ones mixed in!), 3 paired of leather gloves, and... 12? pairs? of glasses? They're all in slightly different prescriptions, though. A variety pack!; he will also receive a power drill (runs on a rechargeable battery or can be plugged directly into a wall socket)
For Riku: A wood stove, a set of paints, and 5 canvases; he will also receive a translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Looking for water" or "Thirsty"
For Matt: A rosary and a Braille Bible... which is more of a collection of volumes, really; he will also receive a translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Looking for food" or "Hungry"
For Noctis: Two complete sets of the Lord of the Rings series (except, wait a minute... they appear to be the novelizations of the movies); he will also receive an SD card that, when plugged into a tablet, will upload GPS directions to a new location...
For Rosalind: A crate of basic all-purpose lab equipment, a fancy microscope, an emergency eye wash station, a mortar and pestle, a lab coat, a Lite Brite, and... the things she needs to make things float, whatever those are; she will also receive a pair of dousing rods (that will actually point in the direction of water, checkmate atheists)
For Jason: A translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Sympathy" or "I'm sorry"
For Coraline: A translation for the rough equivalent to the following phrase: "Teach me"
For Eliot: A bottle of hospital grade painkillers (it contains 10 doses and functions similarly to Vicodin)
For Allie: A bottle of strong antibiotics (it contains 10 doses and can fight off most any infection)
For Vanitas: A portable camping stove (runs on a portable battery or can be plugged directly into a wall socket)
For Hope: A soldering iron (runs on a portable battery or can be plugged directly into a wall socket)
For Quentin: A cannister of foaming bandage (can be used 5 times to immediately close a wound/stop semi-severe bleeding)
For Mary: An SD card that, when plugged into a tablet, will upload GPS directions to a new location...

If you submitted an item request last month and we've missed it here, let us know!

QUICKNAV
comms	\|	network • logs • memes • ooc
pages	\|	rules • faq • taken • mod contact • player contact • calendar • setting • exploration • item requests • full nav

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Some of the tension eases from her shoulders as the safety clicks back into place, Scarlett relieved at least to know that he still has some kind of hold on his senses - at least enough to recognize her. His words do little to reassure her further, however, Scarlett's features twisting with incredulity.

Bucky gets no more than a step before she's hot on his heels, stalking after him into the cabin of the Ferry and forcing him to deal with her crowding him as she tries to get him to see sense.

"And strand the rest of us?!" Silently urging him to stop long enough to really think this through. "This isn't The Red Room, or wherever the hell you were you don't have to do any of this."

"I was only borrowed there," the Soldier reminds her. "And I don't actually think this will work." That's the reason it doesn't actually feel at all bad about this. It's mostly expecting nothing to happen, and if anything does happen, it won't take them anywhere. Being able to steal the ferry and go back to their lives feels way, way too easy.

Though even if it felt bad, it'd still be doing it.

The most straight-forward seeming means of starting up the engine does nothing. It has several more options, though.

"So missing the point." That being that he doesn't have to do the things he did before. That any orders he thinks he's receiving are just, memory malfunctions or whatever. It never occurs to her that this Crowley is an actual person. They may have met - but he never mentioned his name.

"If you don't think it will work then why do it at all?!" Because that much they can agree on, that this isn't the way home. If it were it would have been tried before and they'd know about it. If it were, she had no doubt Will would have hijacked the Ferry long ago, rather than be here with a bunch of people he barely tolerates.

"Did you even stop to think about what happens if it does? What if this is our only chance out of here and we can't take it because you've taken off with the Ferry?"

That's a lot of words that unfortunately don't get to mean much. They penetrate, but there's not much the Soldier can do with them at this point. "I have my orders, Scarlett. I have to at least try."

The second most likely set of switches for starting the engine don't work, either. On to plan C.

"The most likely outcome is that nothing happens at all. Giving us the means to control the ferry we arrived on would be stupid, and someone probably would have tried by now, anyway." Maybe it sounds the tiniest bit exasperated. With Scarlett? With Crowley? With itself? Who knows. "But I have orders so I have to try."

"Oh my god - no you don't!" Scarlett equally exasperated and doing nothing to mask it as she tries to maneuver herself into his line of sight. Give him attitude, that's what he'd said right? Force him to deal with her. She understands that he believes he has to do all this, but she also thinks this is just another memory malfunction.

"What does he think?" Challenging him the only other way she knows how, at least without getting violent and she doesn't want to do that, doesn't want to hurt him anymore than he had wanted to hurt her but if she had to? If he left her no other option? She couldn't say for sure that she wouldn't.

What was worse, at least for Scarlett? She couldn't say for sure that she would, either.

It looks up briefly enough to meet her eyes for a second. "Scarlett. I don't want to wind up hurting you. Just let me do this."

And that gives the Soldier enough time to try plan C, turning a knob that really doesn't look like an engine control but which it couldn't figure out what else could be for. The engine roars to life.

And immediate motion. Right in its face as she is, Scarlett can absolutely catch the flash of surprise and panic as the ferry all but launches forward. The Soldier has time to grab the console to keep from falling over, and grab Scarlett's shoulder with the flesh hand to keep her from falling over.

If there was anything that her Dad had tried to drive home in the years before his death? It was that she couldn't afford to hesitate. It's why she'd been reluctant to forge friendships here, because a time might come when she had to act without worrying who might get hurt. Don't make friends and when you need to do whatever you have to do to save your own ass, you won't think twice about it. Funny how she was standing here, not wanting to hurt somebody who she was really starting to think of as a friend, in order to save - not herself - but a bunch of people she wasn't 'supposed to' give a damn about.

Her hand drops to her hip, her fingers curling around the handle of her knife. The internal struggle buying him all the time that he needs to move to plan C. She wanted to believe he was right, that it wouldn't work at all but his surprise is answered with dread and regret in her own face.

Her hand slips from the knife as she's jolted forward, her body careening towards the wall of the small cabin. His grip on her shoulder saving her from slamming into it, before she turns wild eyes on his.

"You don't want to do this." Her words slamming together with her urgency to stop this before it's too late. "This isn't you."

"That wasn't what I meant to do!" the Soldier snaps back, grabbing for what it hopes are the directional controls before it's too late.

Unfortunately, those aren't the directional controls. They don't do a damn thing, in fact, and before it can do anything else, there's another jolt and a horrible crunching noise as the ferry slams into the dock. "Fuck fuck fuck," the Soldier breathes, yanking its hands back from the useless, stupid controls, momentarily stymied by shock and dismay.

Usually on missions, there's very little in the way of shock and dismay. The Soldier might be annoyed by mission failure like this, maybe afraid of the certainty of punishment, but dismayed? That's weird and unfamiliar and kind of overwhelming. (What the fuck is happening to me? I'm malfunctioning again.) The chatty guy doesn't answer.

The ferry slams into the dock and Scarlett into Bucky in kind, the dawning horror twisting her features before she can fully realize what has happened. Her fingers slip through the material of his shirt to keep from spilling over. The sound of screams filling her head as the ferry groans beneath them.

It's not a slow comprehension of just how bad all of this could be. Every possibility slams into her, one after the other. Each one more dire than the next. How many lanterns had fallen into the water. How many people were still on board. How much food would be lost to the water below. How little food would they have to survive when there was no guarantee another ferry would come soon - or ever.

She spares a glance for the lantern hanging foolishly in her hand. Her shoulder throbbing as her muscles are rendered taut with worry. She doesn't have time to worry about what's going on with him, as much as she might at any other time. The sounds carried around and inside the ferry told her it had to wait.

"We have to move fast." Scarlett with every intention of staying on the Ferry to see if anything could be done to save it.

Honestly? That's the Soldier's intention, too. Scarlett speaking helps push back the emotion, and lets it pushes back from the console, darting for the door out of the cabin and onto the deck.

And then Crowley pauses in front of it on his way to find Aziraphale, says "Get off this boat!", and after only a split second of, (No, stop! There's still people on here!), programming kicks in. That's an order, a very direct and straight-forward one, and orders are for obeying.

At least there's enough left of Bucky in there to turn and sling the metal arm around Scarlett's waist and heave her up against its hip. If it has to leave the ferry, it's saving someone. Then it's running across the buckling deck and leaping off for the remains of the dock, Scarlett in tow. The Soldier can leap a lot farther than a normal human (albeit not as far as the stupid target, due to said metal arm and, in this case, a probably struggling human under one arm), and with the ferry right on top of it, its not hard for the Soldier's feet to hit the still-crumbling wood of the dock and keep on running until they hit solid ground.

Sorry, Scarlett.

The order - and it was that. It's impossible for her to read it as anything else - is so jarring that even Scarlett halts her steps, staring at the familiar face she'd spoken to briefly on the day he'd arrived a month ago. Still, she doesn't make the connection, not right away. Not even when she feels his arm wrap around her like a steel band, dragging her feet off the ground as he drags her in the opposite direction of where she was headed. Away from the danger instead of into the fray.

"What the Hell!?" Stunned silence quickly gives way to a growing rage as he carries her like she weighs barely anything at all. Scarlett too angry to even marvel at how easily he moves with her tucked against him. Foolishly she makes it more difficult by struggling uselessly against his hold, her fingers trying to pry mechanical fingers free as her legs swinging wildly in an attempt to force him to drop her. It's pointless, however, even with her enhanced strength. She's not exactly at a hundred percent right now and his metal arm might look lethal but that's nothing compared to how strong it is.

"What the fuck are you doing?!"

The world around her blurs as he speeds along the deck, Scarlett struck by the odd angle they're at and it only partially registers what the reason is for it. That the ferry is taking on water. That it's sinking. That they're about to be royally fucked.

"If you don't put me down I'll - " But she doesn't finish that threat as he leaps from the sinking ferry. The collapsing dock rushing towards them has her bracing for impact, Scarlett clinging to her lantern with white-knuckled fingers, like she could possibly keep it from shattering when they land with a crash. They don't though, his feet incredibly light as he drags her away from the destruction and for one blissful moment? She stops struggling entirely.

Not that it lasts.

"Stop!"

The combination of being safely far enough away from the damage and the new order, handler or not, does bring the Soldier to a stop. Scarlett gets set down-- carefully, even, and then patted down automatically for additional injuries. "Are you all right."

It's got a cut on its cheek from a sliver of flying wood, and a splinter in the back of its flesh hand, but mostly it's intact. Leaping from the sinking ferry did do a little good, apparently.

All she can do is stare at him for a long moment. At the blood that now trickles down his cheek. The sounds of horror, shouts of concern all spiraling around them as she stands there - relatively unscathed (but for her pride perhaps) on the sandy shore.

"No!" The answer comes with a shove at his chest as she loses all reason for the moment. Scarlett trying to reconcile the man in front of her with the one who'd been checking in on her with a kind of regularity that couldn't be dismissed, even by her.

"No - I'm not!" Physically, sure, other than the obvious. "What were you - why would you - what was that?!" It's more than anger now, but something close to a frustrated plea. Like she really does want to understand what the hell is going on.

"Why did you do what he said?!" They don't have time for this. The ferry was sinking, people were hurt. The last thing either of them needed to do was bicker when there was still something they could do but she can't seem to let go of this moment. Of the fact that some dickhead had said jump and that he hadn't so much as hesitated to do it.

(Yeah, pal, what the fuck was that?!)

As if the chatty guy of all people doesn't know. Jesus.

"It was an order from my handler. It's in my programming."

It ignores the cut, plucks out the splinter with metal fingers so that it doesn't wedge in worse and start to interfere with functioning, and turns back to take in the ferry. Winces. There's no way it can just stand here and do nothing. Thankfully, it does have some flexibility here, since all Crowley said was to get off the boat. "Stay here. I can't go back on the boat, but I can get people out of the water. If you stay in the shallows I can pass them off to you."

Its as if he's just slapped her, Scarlett's head snapping back. Her eyes widening with surprise that fast turns into incredulity. His handler. She swore to god if this shit was happening because he seriously thought -

"That dickhead is not your handler." A few choice puns playing on the tip of her tongue but - time and place and all that.

"No." His words while utterly reasonable to anyone else, are met with a derisive snort from Scarlett as she turns away from him. Setting her lantern on the ground and just having to hope that some idiot doesn't kick it and send her towards a ridiculous death. She's too mad to look back at him as she starts to stalk away - while perhaps not entirely at him, still very much in the general sense.

"I'm getting back on that ferry. You can either come with me or you can watch from the shore." Because it's not just people to be saved here and now. There's a decent number of people around to help with that. It's also the fact that the only source of food they have is about to be lost to bottom of the lake and unless they wanted to recreate Lord of The Flies, they were going to have to do more than just get out of the way.

"Scarlett, you're injured," the Soldier reminds her shortly, thought it doesn't stop her, either. "If you reopen that and bleed out into the lake, I'm going to have to haul your ass back to shore, too."

Her actions, though, remind it to unsling the lantern from its own shoulder and set it down, too. Can't swim with that on, as it has no desire to snuff itself out before it's done something to rectify this huge, horrible mistake. (This is so much our fault. Yeah. Yeah, I know.)

"Then I guess you'll have to haul my ass back to the shore, then." Because she's not stopping. She'll deal with her shoulder afterward but unless he wants to scale the ferry to drag her back now? He was just going to have to deal.

Besides, it might be better to give her something to focus on, lest she starts yelling again, or more likely find that Crowley dickhead and remove his head from his shoulders. Just because Scarlett didn't consider herself a murderer, didn't mean she wouldn't kill somebody for going too far.

The Soldier doesn't even take the time to roll its eyes at her. Too much to do.

She can see it over the course of the next six hours or so, swimming to and from the ferry bringing out people, diving down as deep as it can hold its breath for to retrieve sunken supplies, doing some patching people up on shore, and eventually hauling those supplies and sometimes people to the Invincible. It disappears for an hour or two once things have started to calm down, but eventually shows up at her room with about a glass's worth of wine in a bottle (the remains of Crowley's drinking binge) and a small bundle in one hand.

The bottle gets offered to Scarlett once she opens the door (or once, if it knocks and she takes longer than two minutes to answer, it opens it for her). Peace offering, or perhaps bribe, because the first thing it asks is, "Can I do some maintenance in here with you."

Edited 2019-10-04 15:48 (UTC)

Maybe it's a dick move, but she doesn't answer the door. It's not even that she doesn't want to see him, but rather that she's not sure she wants to see anyone. She was exhausted, in a bone deep kind of way that somehow had little to do with physical exertion. Her shoulder was throbbing and to add insult to injury? Her wrist had joined in the pain party.

She's not even sure how long she's been sitting here staring into space. Trying to reconcile the events of the day in her mind. Trying to erase the image of Mary bleeding on the shore. Little, defenseless, broken Mary who was so terrified of the flames that had consumed her at the end of her life, that Scarlett had made her a 'pathway of stars' just so she didn't have to go too close to the bonfire.

She doesn't lift her gaze to properly look at him until he speaks, Scarlett still wearing the same clothes she had been on the ferry. The damp still clinging to the material but she was no longer dripping onto the floor. Watermarks showing where she had been when she'd first made it inside.

She doesn't look angry as she looks at him, just weary. Her mouth twisting into a pained grimace as she bobs her head. She's not mad at him, she's just... mad, and she's still trying to figure out where to direct that anger.

"You do that a lot you know." Her tone is strangely conversational as she cradles her wrist in her lap, allowing her legs to take some pressure off her shoulder. "Talk about yourself like you're a robot or something." She studies him with her dark eyes, her hair now dried into a haphazard mess. Pieces of it falling across her forehead as she looks for answers she's not sure she'd recognize if she found them. "Why?"

"I'm not a person," it shrugs after looking her over briefly to make sure she's at least not obviously dying or furious with it or anything that would require immediate intervention, then sets the bottle down on the table next to her bed and takes a seat cross-legged on the floor, so it can use the chair to prop up its arm. "Besides, the maintenance is on the arm. That's mechanical."

It turns out the little bundle is a set of tiny tools, which it lays on the seat of the chair next to its arm. It expands the plates in its arm with a creaky-sounding whine of servos, far less smooth-sounding than usual.

It's one thing to believe that he thinks of himself as a machine, but something quite different to have him put it in as many words. It pulls him completely into focus, the images of the day blurring in her mind as she watches him move to set the wine down and seat himself on the floor.

She watches as the plates shift, the sound loud in the otherwise silent room. Scarlett's lips pressing into a line as he lays out the tools before him.

"Why the hell do you think that?" Her tone lacking the bite it so often holds.

It's interesting... the Soldier's not sure anyone's actually asked that yet. So it has to think about that a minute, pausing with its hand and a little screwdriver above a join between the plates. "People have families. Homes. Know how to do things that aren't killing other people. They don't have programming, protocols, or a need to follow orders, even if they're stupid orders. Actual people don't actively seek out people to give them orders."

Which is admitting the Soldier did in fact choose to have handlers in Beacon. The process was as much instinct as desire, but it did at least halfway know what it was doing. (Maybe not with Misty. It's worked out, by now, that Misty's immediate status was caused by another little memory malfunction that didn't give him any more details than the familiar face plus status, but since she's also its favorite handler, it's not about to change its mind now.)

She actually laughs, though it holds no humor in it. A dry huff of air spilling past her lips as he hits painfully close to home by running through a checklist that she can tick almost every box on. Likely more boxes than she's willing to admit, but Scarlett doesn't want to think of the way her Dad raised her as programming. It was necessary, even if she hadn't understood that until long after his death.

"Do you think I'm not a person?" Not trying to make it about herself, but trying to use herself to help change his perspective. It was one thing for her to keep silent - not to push him about the 'memory malfunction' and her subsequent injury. Then it felt like it was only herself who might be at risk but now? She couldn't dismiss these things as quirks if it meant others could be at risk because he was ordered by the wrong kind of asshole. More than that? She didn't want that for him.

"Because I don't have a family or a home and the only thing I've ever known is training to kill. It makes me different - heh, fucked up? Sure. But it doesn't make me a thing."

"You remember having all those things," the Soldier points out, turning the bulk of its attention to its arms. "You told me about your parents. That you used to have a home. The only home I know is a bank vault in Washington DC, with the Chair and the cryotank and a bunch of HYDRA assholes. And now Crowley's house, I guess," it adds as an afterthought.

Swapping the screwdriver for a pair of very tiny pliers, it continues, "Scarlett, you're a person. You have a full range of emotions, every memory you've ever made, and personal autonomy. You don't freak out at the idea of having an actual name, and you don't need a handler to tell you what to do with yourself between patrols and knife maintenance."

(That's a lot of honesty, there, pal.) Shrug. More tinkering.

"So if I hit my head tomorrow and forget all of those things? Is that when I stop becoming a person?" The truly messed up part of all of this? She can't say there's no logic in his words. What were people but a collection of memories an experiences that he apparently doesn't have?

He wasn't what he claimed to be either, that much she believed. He had emotions. She'd seen it when he'd snapped out of the 'memory malfunction' to see her bleeding on the ground. She'd seen it in the way he'd shown up in her room, concerned about her shoulder. She'd seen the look on his face when the Ferry had lurched when he'd realized how bad it was.

"You don't need one either." A handler. "You just believe you do." And he doesn't need to follow orders, he can make his own choices but how in the fuck can she begin to get him to see that?

"And you didn't want to do that today." She's not saying anything new, nothing that he hasn't said himself. "What's the worst thing that could have happened if you didn't?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject