[Wash leans forward, craning his neck to look down the transport at the people that came in after him. He'd been so exhausted he'd mostly sat back and breathed.]
[But there she is, down the transport a little, across from him. Unmistakable. Even the misery over the outcome of the mission is palpable and familiar. She was always in a whole Mood like this if a mission didn't go as planned. Even her disappointment is familiar.]
[He actually had not noticed her until now, which was a failure of his environmental awareness he immediately kicked himself over, but also a cluelessness she might not be entirely shocked by. It's the kind of vapid, rookie move of the Wash of yore.]
[(He's very tired right now, okay? So sue him.)]
You're not dead.
[A long pause.]
And here.
[He squints, trying to make sense of that. And then takes a sip from his sippy thermos, in deep thought, with no regard for dignity.]
[A pause.]
Does this mean I'm dead?
[The whole thing feels like a punishment - the implant, the nanochain - the being forced on missions under-equipped with under-trained people not used to working in a cohesive unit.]
[His mind has, at times, not had the best connection to reality and that means he has to question the reality around him sometimes. Reorient. What if he hadn't survived whatever caused the brain damage they claimed he had? What if thinking he's still alive is part of the punishment?]
[With the life he's lived, he really couldn't expect something nice after death, if anything existed after death at all.]
Re: g
[Wash leans forward, craning his neck to look down the transport at the people that came in after him. He'd been so exhausted he'd mostly sat back and breathed.]
[But there she is, down the transport a little, across from him. Unmistakable. Even the misery over the outcome of the mission is palpable and familiar. She was always in a whole Mood like this if a mission didn't go as planned. Even her disappointment is familiar.]
[He actually had not noticed her until now, which was a failure of his environmental awareness he immediately kicked himself over, but also a cluelessness she might not be entirely shocked by. It's the kind of vapid, rookie move of the Wash of yore.]
[(He's very tired right now, okay? So sue him.)]
You're not dead.
[A long pause.]
And here.
[He squints, trying to make sense of that. And then takes a sip from his sippy thermos, in deep thought, with no regard for dignity.]
[A pause.]
Does this mean I'm dead?
[The whole thing feels like a punishment - the implant, the nanochain - the being forced on missions under-equipped with under-trained people not used to working in a cohesive unit.]
[His mind has, at times, not had the best connection to reality and that means he has to question the reality around him sometimes. Reorient. What if he hadn't survived whatever caused the brain damage they claimed he had? What if thinking he's still alive is part of the punishment?]
[With the life he's lived, he really couldn't expect something nice after death, if anything existed after death at all.]