[It's Tucker. It's Tucker, a part of his brain says in absolute relief. It's Tucker and the name suddenly doesn't sound alien, it sounds as familiar as the names of his sisters. Maybe more so, given how little contact he's had with them over the years.]
[It's Tucker, your friend, says a part of his mind that's working very hard right now, but when he looks back to see how they became friends, when they became friends, why they became friends, there's... Well, it's not so much an empty space as a space where there are people in multi-colored armor, moving and doing things, with their names blurred and their voices dubbed over with confusing murmurs. Substance, but no specifics.]
[And then Tucker drops a certain C-name and any earnest exploration of memory briefly stops. He sighs deeply.]
You're one of those idiot sim troopers.
[Ouch.]
[Except, he keeps going, moves past that, his voice dry and a little bitter.]
You're friends with Caboose. I'm friends with someone who's friends with Caboose.
[A pause, a look of confusion, realization, and abject horror.]
I'm...friends...with Caboose? Oh, that cannot be right.
[His neck hurts, all of a sudden. He reaches a shaking hand up to it. Voices calling out for him to get down, blood spatter, and two voices, screaming. One's...Carolina's? (That can't be right, she's been dead for years) but the other voice was male, a flash of aqua armor as his vision fades -]
[The hand at his neck starts shaking violently, moves to card through his hair and pull like it has a mind of its own, like it's trying to make him pay extra attention.]
I know that I know you, I just can't remember how. The last thing I remember clearly was Sidewinder. The Meta and I were fighting Tex...
[And then...]
Jorgmund said I'd had a brain injury, but somehow exposure to the Stuff...altered it in an unknown way. They said that I was...stable, but that it might effect my memory, that there are things I may have lost for good.
[The cover story, because he's not supposed to tell anyone about the implant when they're dangling it over his head.]
no subject
[It's Tucker, your friend, says a part of his mind that's working very hard right now, but when he looks back to see how they became friends, when they became friends, why they became friends, there's... Well, it's not so much an empty space as a space where there are people in multi-colored armor, moving and doing things, with their names blurred and their voices dubbed over with confusing murmurs. Substance, but no specifics.]
[And then Tucker drops a certain C-name and any earnest exploration of memory briefly stops. He sighs deeply.]
You're one of those idiot sim troopers.
[Ouch.]
[Except, he keeps going, moves past that, his voice dry and a little bitter.]
You're friends with Caboose. I'm friends with someone who's friends with Caboose.
[A pause, a look of confusion, realization, and abject horror.]
I'm...friends...with Caboose? Oh, that cannot be right.
[His neck hurts, all of a sudden. He reaches a shaking hand up to it. Voices calling out for him to get down, blood spatter, and two voices, screaming. One's...Carolina's? (That can't be right, she's been dead for years) but the other voice was male, a flash of aqua armor as his vision fades -]
[The hand at his neck starts shaking violently, moves to card through his hair and pull like it has a mind of its own, like it's trying to make him pay extra attention.]
I know that I know you, I just can't remember how. The last thing I remember clearly was Sidewinder. The Meta and I were fighting Tex...
[And then...]
Jorgmund said I'd had a brain injury, but somehow exposure to the Stuff...altered it in an unknown way. They said that I was...stable, but that it might effect my memory, that there are things I may have lost for good.
[The cover story, because he's not supposed to tell anyone about the implant when they're dangling it over his head.]