Piper 90: Mods (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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goneawaymemes2020-09-09 08:52 pm
goneawaymod) wrote in goneawaymemes2020-09-09 08:52 pm
Entry tags:
TDM #2
![](https://i.imgur.com/iLcTJtA.png")
TEST DRIVE #1
So it's your first day at your new job! Welcome to the Jorgmund Family™! It's time to settle into your new workplace on the Piper 90 rig, the coziest place of employment this side of the Livable Zone. A leader in its industry, Jorgmund is excited to have you join them in enthusiastically envisioneering team-driven paradigms.
The Piper 90 rig's mission is not only an impressive undertaking in terms of impactful customer-oriented deliverables, it's providing a vital backbone to the Livable Zone by creating a safe region for citizens to live, work, and play. Jorgmund's "outside the box" thinking means they understand the importance of wisely investing in their human capital - you! You'll soon find that you'll take pride in this vital work - and the benefits can't be beat.
Rest assured, Jorgmund's multidisciplinary approach to our world's period of recovery means we know how to keep it real when facing this opportunity for restructuring and growth. Jorgmund: Even if most of the world has gone away, we can make a world of difference!
Synergy!
USEFUL LINKS
It is recommended you check out the following links first for info on the rig, rig conditions, game mechanics, and the intro and slideshow your characters would have to endure that takes place chronologically before the Test Drive Meme:
SCENARIO #1 - MOVE-IN?! MOVE OUT!
Well, hell, that was fast. Basically as soon as orientation's over, everyone gets shuffled into armored vehicles and a few boxes of gear are tossed in after them. Motion detectors, flimsy medical face masks, and... guns. Guns with flamethrowers. Even for the old hands at this, that's a new attachment, but the boxes all of the gear is in has electronic locks that refuse to open.
Before anyone gets any ideas, the doors are closing. The last view they get inside the Rig is a pair of medical workers dragging someone out of the 'interview' room, a tall muscular man in mismatched combat fatigues. Even without the twitching, the way he hangs limply in their arms leaves little doubt that whoever he was, he won't be joining them for cake. One of them carries his removed helmet, the other carries a removed body armor. On the chestplate a skull and crossbones can be seen, on the backplate are the words "contents under pressure."
When one of them sees them staring, she says, "Epilepsy, it seems, no doubt aggravated by Stuff exposure. We'll be taking good care of him."
Right, because the military lets epileptics in all the time, don't they.
They will never see him again. If asked about him later, they'll say he was transported to the Livable Zone, for the very best care in a proper hospital. Of course they wouldn't hire someome with health issues for a potentially stressful job like theirs, they aren't monsters.
The truth is he will get more coherent later and start complaining of a stomach ache, scans will verify something alarming, and he will be quietly killed with sedatives and quickly incinerated.
Before it's too late.
a) TAKEN FOR A RIDE
They're left to get to know each other, with the driver (in a separate compartment) informing them that they'll be at their destination in about four hours.
Meanwhile, for their viewing pleasure, there's a marathon of The Nutshack. Working media in the Gone-Away World is sometimes...lacking.
b) A LATE EASTER
...Blissfully, it's interrupted some three hours later. The boxes all click, allowing the unfortunates to grab the gear, and the Nutshack ends abruptly as the face of a harried middle manager takes up the screen, people walking back and forth behind her with the faked urgency of people who know the boss is watching. "All right, New Hires. I know some of you have just been hired, but we here in Jorgmund like our people to be able to hit the ground running." She smiles blandly, in that corporate way where no muscle above her nose so much as twitches. "This mission should be a milk run for you, though, a good way to stretch your legs and show what you're made of. It's just a bit of a delivery job, that's all. You'll be making your way to the old Pilton town, recently the site of an Incursion. To go with the milk, you're grabbing us some eggs."
Suddenly, her image contracts to the lower left corner of the screen. The main screen is filled with a single image, rotating slowly. "Our resident biology experts think that the life forms that hatch from these will be very useful in advancing various areas of science, plus they might be able to resist Stuff storms. We want an unhatched egg, drone footage shows that there's a good number of them are already empty."
Another image, this time of some kind of glowing box. "The engineers say that this will keep the eggs, and their cargo, in a kind of stasis. Just get one in there and it's mission accomplished. Easy, right? Makes me wonder why we even hauled you guys out of orientation for it." She shrugs, tossing a folder aside and glancing at a paper someone's just passed her. "Oh, right. Pilton's a write-off. They rejected our offers of help with this whole mess when it started up, so they're probably all infected with Stuff or some shit anyway, so safeties off and fire is free. Don't kill each other but anyone else is fair game. You're probably doing them a favor somehow anyway, we don't need mutants mucking up the place."
She sets everything down and leans in, filling the screen again. "Yeah, and just so you newbies know the drill, don't run. You remember what it felt like during orientation." They've already felt the first bite of the nanochains. "We got trackers in you and we don't appreciate it when our boys go AWOL after we go through all of the trouble of saving their lives from the Wilds." The transmission ends and all that's left is a map of Pilton displaying, with the cartoon's audio still playing in the background.
The vehicles all clank to a stop and open the doors. Pilton looks to be a mid-sized town, might've been home to a few tens of thousands of people once. Curiously, a tall, thick wall surrounds much of it, but something's knocked holes in it. It's in front of one of these gaps that the trucks have stopped. Inside, a thick mist obscures all but the tallest buildings, half-ruined by some disaster. Lots of shorter, squatter buildings just barely poke over the top. But some of them seem to have some sort of newer additions, a black, shiny, organic support for a few buildings. Hard to see details, though, because of heavy mist obscuring vision. The map suggests that there's a subway system... or possibly just an oversized sewer. It's hard to tell, but the way the drivers honk, so they can leave, they're not giving any more time to decide.
Motion detectors on? Locked and loaded? It's time to go. Just ignore the feeling that you're being watched.
c) THIS WAY FOR SENSITIVITY TRAINING
Well, it turns out that those eggs? They hatch sometimes! If you're lucky, this side will be all that you see. If not, well...
The radios crackle and the manager's voice comes back on, for everyone. "We're seeing some funky bio readings. Yeah, the Science department thought that one or two of you might get jumped. It's fine, just don't lose whoever that is. Pop your stasis box around them, it'll expand, and drag them back to the trucks. You can try pulling them off, I guess, but they want to see what happens when someone gets up close and personal."
There's a pause.
"Oh, uh. Don't try to pull them off. Got a report from another crew that it'll tear and dribble acid over everything. Well, we at Jorgmund appreciate the lengths you all are willing to go for the company and it'll reflect in your quarterly performance reviews." That's small comfort for anyone who's at risk of being down a man.
Then again, at the noise, there are moans from the walls and ceilings. There's a few people stuck in there, some with those creepy things wrapped tight around their necks and faces... some with with them lying dead at their feet. Some of them aren't making so much noise on account of the massive, gaping hole in their chests.
Something's hissing and writhing around your ankles, by the way.
About to spring.
d) YOU DONE KNOCKED OVER THE ANT HILL
Did you get lost? Not to worry, if those motion detector pings are anything to judge by, you're about to have lots of company! They're big! They're fast! They're black, shiny, and can climb on the walls!
Oh, and these guys bleed acid too.
The manager's voice on the radio blares out loudly. Too loudly. "By the way, it sounds like you guys have company! Did we mention that Jorgmund has excellent medical benefits and a highly trained staff with the latest equipment? Don't be afraid to get into a bit of a scrap! And remember, teamwork makes the dream work! So fire up those flamethrowers and show them how Jorgmund takes care of the competition!"
As bad as everything is, at least you can hide from them for a bit. And, hey, that civilian stickied to the wall who got all chummy with the alien babies? The one you might not have managed to seal into the box correctly? They're waking up now! An extra hand to fight these guys off will be handy! Especially since the monsters seem to be trying to guide you away from the exits, pushing you further into the hive.
e) MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS
So, a heartless, soulless, people-eating monster who doesn't care who suffers as long as the numbers go up? Boy, that sure sounds familiar.
Whether it was a tactical withdrawal, a blind rush, went in to rescue a pal, or you were dragged into a lower chamber after being snatched up by a batch of drones, you're now in a vast chamber filled with eggs. And there's the Queen hissing her displeasure at your company. And you thought the regular guys were huge.
She's lounging on the wall, attached to a pulsating ovipositor that stretches the length of this massive room, surrounded by smaller drones caring for her and the eggs surrounding her. But, luckily, it looks like before the bugs... adapted this whole mess to suit themselves, it was a construction site, and the hive resin hasn't quite covered some of the equipment.
Or some of the barrels with explosive warnings written on them.
Whatever you're going to do, think fast. This lady's no pushover, and she's the kind of boss who likes to get her hands dirty to show the troops that she still has what it takes.
Due to Stuff shenanigans reality will glitch, making this fight one that must be accomplished possibly quite a few times before reality allows her to be dead.
Because she doesn't believe she would die that easily.
Every time she dies, she'll come just a little closer to being gone for good.
f) HOMECOMING KING
Maybe you were there for all that. Maybe you missed it. Maybe you actually did your job. Somebody must have, because you're out there in the open air. The wind is sweeping through the ruins of Pilton, a refreshing rain washing away all of the evil that's been committed there. Even the manager's voice, congratulating everyone on a successful mission complete, ordering everyone back to the armored vehicles, seems upbeat and chipper.
Gather your wounded. Pick up your trophies. Usher civilians you may have saved against orders into the transports. It's time to go home. Your team's about halfway there when thunder booms menacingly in the background. Seems to be a messy storm coming, so it'll be a relief to be inside.
...Funny, that thunder just now. Thunder's supposed to come after lightning not-ah. There it is. Maybe it was an echo of a flash you didn't notice.
But don't echoes get quieter?
That's when a big fella comes around the corner. It turns its head, looking dead at your group, and the hiss it makes is a nightmarish mingling of a bull crocodile and one of the drones from inside. And then it roars, charging towards your group, massive tail smashing part of a building to rubble as it goes.
Bullets aren't going to be enough for this tyrant.
Even worse: the ground suddenly shudders even more, rumbling and shaking in a great cacophonous outpouring of sound...
And you see that the smaller version of the creatures aren't the only ones that travel in packs.
g) ON THE ROAD AGAIN
That was awful. But it's over now. The ride home is quiet, with the dulcet tones of Bob Ross filling the air on the way back. Rest, relax, drink some water, have some rations, and check up on your friends. Because after an experience like that, what else can they be?
If any New Hires have saved a civilian against orders, hopefully you're not in one of the unlucky trucks where they're starting to groan and clutch at their chest, face contorting in agony. Hopefully that's not a fellow passenger for you, and you can just ride home.
They're left to get to know each other, with the driver (in a separate compartment) informing them that they'll be at their destination in about four hours.
Meanwhile, for their viewing pleasure, there's a marathon of The Nutshack. Working media in the Gone-Away World is sometimes...lacking.
b) A LATE EASTER
...Blissfully, it's interrupted some three hours later. The boxes all click, allowing the unfortunates to grab the gear, and the Nutshack ends abruptly as the face of a harried middle manager takes up the screen, people walking back and forth behind her with the faked urgency of people who know the boss is watching. "All right, New Hires. I know some of you have just been hired, but we here in Jorgmund like our people to be able to hit the ground running." She smiles blandly, in that corporate way where no muscle above her nose so much as twitches. "This mission should be a milk run for you, though, a good way to stretch your legs and show what you're made of. It's just a bit of a delivery job, that's all. You'll be making your way to the old Pilton town, recently the site of an Incursion. To go with the milk, you're grabbing us some eggs."
Suddenly, her image contracts to the lower left corner of the screen. The main screen is filled with a single image, rotating slowly. "Our resident biology experts think that the life forms that hatch from these will be very useful in advancing various areas of science, plus they might be able to resist Stuff storms. We want an unhatched egg, drone footage shows that there's a good number of them are already empty."
Another image, this time of some kind of glowing box. "The engineers say that this will keep the eggs, and their cargo, in a kind of stasis. Just get one in there and it's mission accomplished. Easy, right? Makes me wonder why we even hauled you guys out of orientation for it." She shrugs, tossing a folder aside and glancing at a paper someone's just passed her. "Oh, right. Pilton's a write-off. They rejected our offers of help with this whole mess when it started up, so they're probably all infected with Stuff or some shit anyway, so safeties off and fire is free. Don't kill each other but anyone else is fair game. You're probably doing them a favor somehow anyway, we don't need mutants mucking up the place."
She sets everything down and leans in, filling the screen again. "Yeah, and just so you newbies know the drill, don't run. You remember what it felt like during orientation." They've already felt the first bite of the nanochains. "We got trackers in you and we don't appreciate it when our boys go AWOL after we go through all of the trouble of saving their lives from the Wilds." The transmission ends and all that's left is a map of Pilton displaying, with the cartoon's audio still playing in the background.
The vehicles all clank to a stop and open the doors. Pilton looks to be a mid-sized town, might've been home to a few tens of thousands of people once. Curiously, a tall, thick wall surrounds much of it, but something's knocked holes in it. It's in front of one of these gaps that the trucks have stopped. Inside, a thick mist obscures all but the tallest buildings, half-ruined by some disaster. Lots of shorter, squatter buildings just barely poke over the top. But some of them seem to have some sort of newer additions, a black, shiny, organic support for a few buildings. Hard to see details, though, because of heavy mist obscuring vision. The map suggests that there's a subway system... or possibly just an oversized sewer. It's hard to tell, but the way the drivers honk, so they can leave, they're not giving any more time to decide.
Motion detectors on? Locked and loaded? It's time to go. Just ignore the feeling that you're being watched.
c) THIS WAY FOR SENSITIVITY TRAINING
Well, it turns out that those eggs? They hatch sometimes! If you're lucky, this side will be all that you see. If not, well...
The radios crackle and the manager's voice comes back on, for everyone. "We're seeing some funky bio readings. Yeah, the Science department thought that one or two of you might get jumped. It's fine, just don't lose whoever that is. Pop your stasis box around them, it'll expand, and drag them back to the trucks. You can try pulling them off, I guess, but they want to see what happens when someone gets up close and personal."
There's a pause.
"Oh, uh. Don't try to pull them off. Got a report from another crew that it'll tear and dribble acid over everything. Well, we at Jorgmund appreciate the lengths you all are willing to go for the company and it'll reflect in your quarterly performance reviews." That's small comfort for anyone who's at risk of being down a man.
Then again, at the noise, there are moans from the walls and ceilings. There's a few people stuck in there, some with those creepy things wrapped tight around their necks and faces... some with with them lying dead at their feet. Some of them aren't making so much noise on account of the massive, gaping hole in their chests.
Something's hissing and writhing around your ankles, by the way.
About to spring.
d) YOU DONE KNOCKED OVER THE ANT HILL
Did you get lost? Not to worry, if those motion detector pings are anything to judge by, you're about to have lots of company! They're big! They're fast! They're black, shiny, and can climb on the walls!
Oh, and these guys bleed acid too.
The manager's voice on the radio blares out loudly. Too loudly. "By the way, it sounds like you guys have company! Did we mention that Jorgmund has excellent medical benefits and a highly trained staff with the latest equipment? Don't be afraid to get into a bit of a scrap! And remember, teamwork makes the dream work! So fire up those flamethrowers and show them how Jorgmund takes care of the competition!"
As bad as everything is, at least you can hide from them for a bit. And, hey, that civilian stickied to the wall who got all chummy with the alien babies? The one you might not have managed to seal into the box correctly? They're waking up now! An extra hand to fight these guys off will be handy! Especially since the monsters seem to be trying to guide you away from the exits, pushing you further into the hive.
e) MEET THE NEW BOSS, SAME AS THE OLD BOSS
So, a heartless, soulless, people-eating monster who doesn't care who suffers as long as the numbers go up? Boy, that sure sounds familiar.
Whether it was a tactical withdrawal, a blind rush, went in to rescue a pal, or you were dragged into a lower chamber after being snatched up by a batch of drones, you're now in a vast chamber filled with eggs. And there's the Queen hissing her displeasure at your company. And you thought the regular guys were huge.
She's lounging on the wall, attached to a pulsating ovipositor that stretches the length of this massive room, surrounded by smaller drones caring for her and the eggs surrounding her. But, luckily, it looks like before the bugs... adapted this whole mess to suit themselves, it was a construction site, and the hive resin hasn't quite covered some of the equipment.
Or some of the barrels with explosive warnings written on them.
Whatever you're going to do, think fast. This lady's no pushover, and she's the kind of boss who likes to get her hands dirty to show the troops that she still has what it takes.
Due to Stuff shenanigans reality will glitch, making this fight one that must be accomplished possibly quite a few times before reality allows her to be dead.
Because she doesn't believe she would die that easily.
Every time she dies, she'll come just a little closer to being gone for good.
f) HOMECOMING KING
Maybe you were there for all that. Maybe you missed it. Maybe you actually did your job. Somebody must have, because you're out there in the open air. The wind is sweeping through the ruins of Pilton, a refreshing rain washing away all of the evil that's been committed there. Even the manager's voice, congratulating everyone on a successful mission complete, ordering everyone back to the armored vehicles, seems upbeat and chipper.
Gather your wounded. Pick up your trophies. Usher civilians you may have saved against orders into the transports. It's time to go home. Your team's about halfway there when thunder booms menacingly in the background. Seems to be a messy storm coming, so it'll be a relief to be inside.
...Funny, that thunder just now. Thunder's supposed to come after lightning not-ah. There it is. Maybe it was an echo of a flash you didn't notice.
But don't echoes get quieter?
That's when a big fella comes around the corner. It turns its head, looking dead at your group, and the hiss it makes is a nightmarish mingling of a bull crocodile and one of the drones from inside. And then it roars, charging towards your group, massive tail smashing part of a building to rubble as it goes.
Bullets aren't going to be enough for this tyrant.
Even worse: the ground suddenly shudders even more, rumbling and shaking in a great cacophonous outpouring of sound...
And you see that the smaller version of the creatures aren't the only ones that travel in packs.
g) ON THE ROAD AGAIN
That was awful. But it's over now. The ride home is quiet, with the dulcet tones of Bob Ross filling the air on the way back. Rest, relax, drink some water, have some rations, and check up on your friends. Because after an experience like that, what else can they be?
If any New Hires have saved a civilian against orders, hopefully you're not in one of the unlucky trucks where they're starting to groan and clutch at their chest, face contorting in agony. Hopefully that's not a fellow passenger for you, and you can just ride home.
➤ Feel free to play around with powers. If your character has powers from canon you want to play around with, go for it. If you'd like to test out possibilities for game powers, also go for it. Feel free to change it up from thread to thread if you need to. This can be handwaved as exposure to Stuff making characters' powers shift a few times before settling.
➤ Potential players may use test drive threads as their log samples. However, at least one post in their thread must fit the requirements for apps, both in length (200 words) and in quality. If you do plan on using a thread as a sample, please make sure the writing throughout your threads is a good example of your writing skills and has some solid examples of the character's voice.
➤ Players can eventually count TDMs towards AC. They can only count towards comment-based AC proofs.
➤ Potential players can opt to keep these threads as game canon when they app in, or start over fresh, based on preference. The Stuff bringing them to the game universe can fog their memories, if players don't want their character to remember TDM threads when introing into the game.
➤ The game is invite-only. Players without invites are allowed to tdm since some of them may know someone in game to ask for one, and since some people enjoy TDMs just for fun in games they don't plan to app into. But an invite is required during the apping process.
➤ The game is at a starting cap at 30 players. Apps are rolling apps that have a wait queue if the cap has been exceeded. Currently the cap is 23 of 30 players.
no subject
"What's the, uh." Steady. Steady voice, steady. "What's the last thing you remember from back home?"
no subject
"You must know what happened," he says. "Otherwise you wouldn't be asking it that way."
He leans back down again, elbows to knees, head hanging.
"I just remember screaming," he says. "At the end there. South was around the corner, or she was meant to be. Maine was—"
He stops. Shakes his head. He can't bear to tell more. His eyes close briefly. Then he turns his head and looks at Wash. His gaze is piercing, but also sympathetic.
"And you know what I'm talking about, right?"
no subject
"I'm fine! It's fine, I'm fine," he says immediately after the scream, in a voice that is a little higher than Wash would like. "It's fine."
But North won't be fine.
Wash keeps his face buried because it's impossible for it to feel that much at once while trying to simultaneously deaden itself. You can't stop halfway between them, instead it nearly shreds itself trying to be both.
He draws in breath, lets it out, another breath, lets it out.
His words are hollow when he finally forces them out, "I was sent after your recovery beacon."
Of course he was.
Because he was one of the last ones left, barring command's top secret Recovery Two.
no subject
"You were sent," he repeats, as if agreeing this is what happened. "I guess after Epsilon they put you back on duty."
He can tell Wash has been through a lot. Must have had a real struggle dealing with it after realizing North had died. He wonders what this makes this place, then. Is this the afterlife?
If so, the afterlife is filled with the same kind of garbage as real life.
no subject
They all need to compartmentalize. That's part of being a soldier, but it's possible to get too cold, too emotionally dead. If he's not there yet, Wash is heading down that path. The switch flips too cleanly, too suddenly.
He doesn't push North's arm away, though. He has not had a friend touch him in a friendly way for years. Not that they'd ever been touchy feely people in the project, but there had still been comraderie. Hands around each other's shoulders, playful shoves, jostling each other's arms. Wash remembers waking up one of the times he'd been in and out after Epsilon, North at his side, arm around his shoulders, helping him sit up with an "slowly, slowly..."
Was that the last time? The last time he'd ever been in the presence of a friend who was still alive?
(South and Maine hadn't counted.)
(
He can't remember holding Carolina's hand on the beach, can't remember Tucker sometimes throwing an arm around his shoulders, can't remember...)"The funny thing about the people who certify you Article 12 is that they're also the same people who can un- certify you Article 12. When it all hit the fan, everyone scattered."
He looks at the transport wall opposite the two of them, where North had originally been sitting.
"I was the last one left."
no subject
no subject
"Don't." Is it shocking that anyone playing therapist, even a friend, would get annoyance, at bare minimum. All that time, all those little games and interrogations with the Counselor, with no one else for the Counselor or Director to pay attention to.
The difference is Wash trusts North so it's not distrust so much as not wanting sympathy.
It's hard to take it, to cede control and admit how little he'd actually had. And he's not the squad rookie anymore.
Besides, he doesn't really deserve sympathy after the things he's done. With the things he plans to do.
"I chose to be there."
He's not going to be pretend he wanted to be there, but he did choose it.
no subject
"Listen, if there's one thing I know from living life it’s that just because you choose something, doesn’t mean it’s not hard.”
no subject
What he says next is...possibly something others in the squad wouldn't have expected him to be capable of.
After all he was the guy that, once upon a time, threw a grenade without pulling the pin. That ate snacks through his helmet because he thought it was "more efficient." That got his nuts grappled.
And most of those things had happened after he made the leaderboard, usually one step behind North, South, or both.
"I found out about some of the terrible things the project had done from Epsilon," he says quietly. He taps his temple. "I hid that I knew anything, and stayed so I could take down the project. Then I found the Alpha. And we did."
He finally looks up at North, catches his gaze, wonders if he'll even believe him. Especially when the last they saw each other (when North was alive) he'd been barely clinging to consciousness and starting a long struggle against mental instability.
"By then, Maine was already out there doing...everything he was doing, and it was too late for any of you. The best I could aim for - for everyone - was revenge."
no subject
He sighs. “I would have wanted to do things differently than we did but there really was no better plan that we could think of.”
He looks over at Wash again. “So you managed to find the Alpha. That would have been interesting, to get to meet him. Theta always wanted to. Actually, he wants to ask questions about him now, but I told him to keep it low-key while in the transports.”
no subject
On the one hand, Church had sacrificed himself in the end.
On the other hand...
"He was kind of an asshole."
no subject
"According to what Tex said about where Alpha came from? That’s not that much of a surprise.”
no subject
Church hadn't really thought he was a ghost, not for real. He knew what he was doing.
That's...that's mostly enough to help North get caught up, help him understand.
"Now, here's the question of the hour: are you from the past of a parallel but nearly identical dimension? Or is this time travel? And if it's time travel, did I just create a paradox by telling you all that?"
It would've been too exhausting hiding it.
(He's not...he's not telling him about South).
no subject
"He sacrificed himself?" Theta asked. "Does that mean...?"
North cups his hand in front of himself and Theta moves his projected hologram to stand on it.
“I don’t know,” North says. “I don’t know anything about how we got here. Are you all right, Theta?”
“I just really hoped I’d get to meet him one day,” Theta says, his voice filled with disappointment.
no subject
"Sorry, kid, it just...wasn't in the cards."
Telling North he'd died today is one thing. Theta's always been so...young. He's one of the most innocent parts of the Alpha.
He's not telling him he's potentially doomed, too.
"But I can try to answer questions if you have any. About the Alpha or what you all are."
Were.
Barring any questions about his own final fate.
no subject
"I just want to know if he was what I thought he was,” Theta says.
“You’ll need to explain what that means to Wash,” North says. “Remember, he hasn’t been listening to your thoughts.”
“I know,” Theta says. “Well…I expected him to be fun, and smart, and to like to tell stories.”
North gives a small exhalation, something like the beginning of a chuckle. “Theta really wanted a big brother in Alpha, I think,” he further explains.
no subject
Oh boy, this is like telling a little kid Santa as he knows him isn't real, and is really just a bearded, smelly biker named Junkchain.
"He was complicated. When it came down to it you could tell he cared about his friends, but he was cranky. But I don't think that was his fault. The Director did terrible things to him - and all of the AI fragments, you were parts of him. He split each of you off for a reason. Epsilon, for instance, was his memories, and that's why Epsilon was so hurt. Splitting them away sent the bad ones away so he didn't have to feel hurt by them anymore."
His voice goes very gentle, in a voice he learned to - but didn't remember learning to - use with Caboose.
"But some of you, like you and Delta? You were good parts that...that if he'd kept you, you would've just hurt with him and been used to hurt him. Sending you away kept you safe and made it so he didn't have to feel that part of him - feel you - being hurt."
His trust couldn't be destroyed and brutalized over and over again. The Alpha could be stronger with it gone and it could safely be nurtured by North. It wasn't a bad defense mechanism, really.
"So that meant what was left of the Alpha was someone who had to just try his best to survive while not being able to have you around. And who didn't even have the right memories for him to understand himself."
He goes on, "I think if he had been able to spend time with you, with what he didn't realize he was missing, it might have made him happier."
He doesn't really know, but Church had been all kinds of rough edges and was that shocking? If his trust and other parts had been sheared off by trauma?
And if he's wrong, is it so bad for Theta to feel like they all could've been more whole together? That he was still a part of the Alpha - the AI the fragments looked up to - that survived.
"And I think he'd be glad to find out you were still here."
For now.
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North, meanwhile, is giving Wash a somewhat shrewd look. "Epsilon was the memories, huh?" he says. "That explains...a lot of stuff."
"I think they wanted you to be okay with having the memories, at first," Theta adds, jumping on the new train of thought with North. "Otherwise they wouldn't have let you go so long with him."
"Exactly," North says. "Why don’t you retire your hologram now, Theta? It’s okay for you to keep listening in, though.”
Theta’s hologram disappears immediately and North drops his hand to his lap.
“If I’d had any idea that’s what you were going through…”
He pauses, then shakes his head.
“I don’t know if I could have done anything but what I did. But rescuing you would have been even higher on my list than it was.”
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"You couldn't have helped me. It...it kept trying to self-destruct, in my head. To stop hurting. And then for a while, after you guys were all gone, I couldn't - I couldn't keep us entirely apart. It all...blended. For a while. Even though Epsilon had been removed, the memories were still there."
Nothing they could've done would've helped him. It took time to pry the two halves of his mind back apart and it was something he'd had to struggle through on his own.
"But after I pulled myself together, you wouldn't have been able to convince me to leave, not after realizing what they'd done." He gestures vaguely with a hand. "I was a little...obsessive. And you had Theta to worry about."
He doesn't blame any of the others from leaving and had been so single-minded in his quest for vengeance for...basically everybody, that he wouldn't been irritated with anyone trying too hard to rescue him or make him go.
He tilts his head.
"For whatever reason...you're here now. When this situation looks...bad. It'd be nice to actually have someone there to cover my six."
Maybe he shouldn't trust him. He'd trusted South. But here, outside their world and its various alliances, he thinks maybe he can trust him just a little.
And he wishes his old friend could say the same of him.
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The vehicle they're in jerks a little and starts turning a corner, leading North to brace himself by gripping the edge of the seat. During the momentary silence North thinks about all that’s been said, all the difficulties Wash encountered, how he was the one sent to handle things when North died.
"Anyway, whatever happened or might have happened, I'm sorry you were put through all that," he says after the corner is accomplished and the vehicle is no longer listing. “I hope you don’t mind if I ask more questions about it later, though.”
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It's not an easy topic, any of it. And after finally taking the project down, after getting arrested for his part in it, even though he'd been the one to stop it -
After resorting to desperate measures for his freedom...
To say he's been feeling a little raw lately is an understatement. Raw and cold-hearted all at once. And it's worse for seeing an old friend.
An old dead friend who he'd last seen laying in a pool of blood.
"We can also talk about what to do with you. For all we know, we'll go back and time will have passed, putting you back after the moment you left. But if not, there has to be a way we can fix it. Fake your death so what I remember happening doesn't change so there isn't some kind of time paradox."
One of his dead friends is suddenly breathing again and he'd like to keep it that way if possible.
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As far as asking what happened to South after his death, though he is concerned about it and is curious, he can tell Wash just doesn't want to talk about it now.
"So. Tell me what you've been up to since you've been here."
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And then...
"Nearly getting my face eaten off by aliens with pressurized acid blood. You?"
The joke being of course that North has an identical answer.
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"So you have been here just about as long as we have."
Somehow he'd had the idea it had been longer for Wash, possibly because of how tired he seems of it all.
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"Well, look at it this way. We just got here. But they made the mistake of putting two former Freelancers - and an AI - on a squad. Together." He bumps his shoulder against North's. "I'm not going to say we'll be out of this place inside of a week, but still...they're not going to know what hit them."
The words are far more hopeful than he feels.
But he almost maybe...feels a little hopeful? It wasn't smart of them to do that. Or leave North Theta.
It's not enough for him to tell North what's hanging over his head, but he might have more options in the future than he thought.
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