myresponsibility | 027

Entry tags:

027 | VOICE

Scorpius is in Zero. He needs a doctor.

[And he's not going to say why unless he's pressed, because they've done this whole burn the warden at the stake for lashing out at someone thing before, and he doesn't think Ben deserves to be demoted or told he should be demoted for this..]

[Warden Filter]

[He sounds a little less hollow when he switches the filter, but there's still something off.]

Crazy question, but does anyone want to breathe down this guy's neck a little until he gets his own warden? I don't think this time out's really going to teach him much of a lesson and I don't think anyone else needs to get hurt.

I mean, I can do it, if no one else wants to.

[Filtered to Friends*]

[Peter is still bad about asking for help. Like, really bad at it. But he's super angry and still remembers being grabbed and threatened and being absolutely fucking terrified thanks to the flood, and he doesn't really know how to deal with all of it.

Like, at all. And he's apparently supposed to be better at reaching out to people now, but there's still a lot of hesitation and reluctance to actually be around people right now.

Except he did just sort of imply that he got in a fight even if that's not really true, so. Might as well reassure people, he guesses.]

I'm fine.

[Private to Ben]

[This part comes a bit later.]

Is he doing okay?

[ooc: One friendly conversation rule applies!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Scorpius lifts his arm up, flexing his fingers curiously. If there is pain, he doesn't show it]

Why heal me?

Before I came here, I was in prison.

A real one, with heavy nuclear shielding and feet-thick vault doors and a full-restraints chair they could use to wheel me to the room where they pimped out my powers.

There was an electrocution mechanism built into the chair. Enough to kill a normal person, but I'd just bounce back, so that made it fine, right? The general in charge liked to buzz me whenever I got mouthy.

So of course I did it all the time. He could hurt me, but he couldn't stop me, aggravating him, worrying the cracks in his head a little bit day by day. Attrition. Nobody's got time like a prisoner.

I don't think physical injury or additional pain are going to do anything to discourage you. So not healing you would be pointlessly cruel, and I'm trying to avoid that.

You are correct in your assessment. Pain only encourages us that our methods are working.

But kindness is also its own trap. I am told nothing aches more than a betrayal of trust.

[Wryly, and the pain is deep and old, not raw and not healed over, either. it's just something he carries.]

There are a few things, actually.

[He breathes, then tilts his head, contemplatively.]

So, was that a roundabout warning, or a test? Or a little nudge toward chipping away a warden's perceived idealism? Or were you just saying it because you actually think that?

Edited 2014-03-02 19:17 (UTC)

I have no ill feelings towards you, especially not when you insist on healing me. So I have no desire to 'chip away' at your idealism.

I try not to lie if I see no point in it.

You're destabilizing things. I wasn't sure how widely you wanted to cast that net.

[It's not that Dillon understands Scorpius's motives; he doesn't. But fault lines, unraveling, that's his bread and butter, and he couldn't miss it happening. That's what Scorpius set in motion, and he's too smart not to know it, not to be doing it on purpose.]

So why did you do it?

Minimizing collateral damage was never a priority with me, and with those I work with and against. My primary objective is destabilization, albeit to one specific person.

John Crichton.

[He thinks about the Hoover Dam. He can't exactly judge.]

Why him?

He possesses the key to stopping a race of creatures from taking over my galaxy, system by system.

[It's always the same dream. A man, a woman, and a child, on a floating platform. The smell of purple. Sick and sweet. Doom is coming. Dillon blinks it away.]

And driving him crazy makes him more likely to give it to you.

Yes, actually. The knowledge is buried within him, completely inaccessible even to the host. "Driving him crazy" loosens the neural attachments.

[He wants to perch his chin in his hand. He wants to kick his feet. Neither of those are terribly feasible while leaning against a door, but the instinct is there.]

Maybe I'll peek.

[Scorpius inclines his head with interest]

Are you a psychic, Dillon?

Not the way people traditionally mean it. I don't have - some extra mental sense. It's more like...very localized omniscience.

Wow, that sounds pretentious, sorry. I see patterns, basically. I look at something and I just see what it's part of, what marks have been left on it, what it was and how it was shaped and what it would take to follow any of the paths to what it could be, where the fault lines are.

It works with just the same with physics and people, really.

And you could enter Crichton's space and discover this for yourself?

[He sits up, intrigued]

I don't know, maybe. Probably. He's human, right? I don't get anything off soulless people or extra-dimensional energy beings.

No, he is most assuredly human.

This ability. Does it work only through proximity? And how close do you need to be?

Mostly I just need to be able to observe.

I haven't agreed.

[He nods, slightly mollified]

No, you did not.

But why mention it in the first place?

Mostly I don't see any point in keeping it secret.

[He hadn't really thought about it at the time. But this is, he realizes, true.]

And you realize announcing this makes you an enticing target, which means you are likely an extremely powerful young man.

Yeah, pretty much.

You think you are that unreachable.

I think it's easier to say no than it is to hide.

[Which is not quite the same thing.]

Occasionally, yes. And I appreciate your honesty.

Yet I'm having difficult associating your actions with genuine altruism.

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