027 | VOICE

[myresponsibility]

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!]

Comments

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

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?

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

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.

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

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

Why him?

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

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

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

[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.

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

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

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

[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.

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

[Scorpius inclines his head with interest]

Are you a psychic, Dillon?

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

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.

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

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

[He sits up, intrigued]

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

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

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

No, he is most assuredly human.

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

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

Mostly I just need to be able to observe.

I haven't agreed.

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

[He nods, slightly mollified]

No, you did not.

But why mention it in the first place?

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

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.]

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

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

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

Yeah, pretty much.

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

You think you are that unreachable.

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

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

[Which is not quite the same thing.]

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

Occasionally, yes. And I appreciate your honesty.

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

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

You can associate me with anything you want. Lord knows everyone else does.

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

I'm more interested in what you choose to associate yourself with.

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

I don't associate myself with anything. Except Mentarsus-H, I guess. Mostly I just want to fix all the things I screwed up when I was younger, and I don't really call that altruism. The bare minimum of responsibility, maybe.

[Spam with permission]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

And what things did you 'screw up', Dillon?

[Spam with permission]

[orderfromchaos]

I killed a lot of people, destabilized the fundamental social cohesion of my planet, and may or may not have prompted an alien invasion by energy things that eat human souls.

I had a bad couple of years.