breakingmyheart | 2.2 - Voice + Text

[Voice. Toshiko's tone is more cordial than friendly now - noticeably cooler than her first post.]

Well. I understand I've - lost - six months since I was last here. I'm aware I've spent the last two weeks giving the impression that I'm a new arrival on the ship, however, the amnesia has resolved itself now. I've actually spent two years here, albeit non-consecutively.

I'd like to thank everyone who welcomed me and gave me advice and information, and I apologise for asking the same questions I'm sure you've all fielded a thousand times before.

[A long pause. There's a lot of people she'd like to ask about, but the words don't come and eventually she just switches filters. Work to be done.]

[Private to the Admiral]

Please restore Erik's abilities in their entirety.

Would it be possible for me to nominate another Warden to make a request on my behalf for his abilities to be nullified, if I'm killed or incapacitated?

[Private to Erik; text]

Hello, Erik. I'm sure you heard the Admiral's announcement.

I also expect you've noticed by now that you have your abilities back. I want to explain my position on this.

You're not here because you're a mutant. We both know that. Why you are here is something we're both going to need a long time to explore. But your mutation is not in and of itself a weapon or a corrupting influence, and that's not a viewpoint I'm prepared to endorse by holding your own DNA over your head.

I also understand the Barge is a dangerous environment and if you have to use your abilities to restrain someone in proportionate self-defence, then once I'm satisfied that was actually the case I won't have much else to say about it.

But I have to consider the safety of our crewmates as well. If you use your abilities to hurt or kill someone without unambiguously needing to - again, your mutation is not the issue. If you strangled someone I wouldn't ask the Admiral to take your hands off. But if the entire ship is placed at risk because of how you choose to use your mutation, if I have no other choice, then I will ask the Admiral to take your abilities. Temporarily, until we can agree that the cause of that specific incident has been resolved and won't be repeated. And I want to make clear that I'm stating this as an outside contingency and not planning for something I expect to happen.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Maybe.

The first deal I made was to prevent the destruction of my planet and the second was to restore my own life. I haven't made any specific arrangements with the Admiral this time.

Then why bother to stay?

Because I want to be here, and I've made a commitment to being here.

A commitment that may crumble after the first difficult flood.

I've already experienced my fair share of difficult floods, and I've returned by choice. I don't think for a second that living here has gotten easier.

It's very rare that you will find someone here who has to stay. If, as a Warden, you can't cop it on the Barge then having a deal will probably not keep you on board. For myself, I would have to be an idiot to ask you to trust me. All I can hope is that I can prove my intentions to stay, by staying.

Very noble. But if you do choose to exercise the right that so many of us don't have, what happens to my mutation? Will it be ripped from me again?

I don't know. I'll ask the Admiral.

Do that.

In the meantime, do you have any other questions?

I could do with a beer. [He could also do without, he's just pressing boundaries and feeling her out.]

I have some in my cabin if you want to pay a visit.

[Maybe you were angling to get above decks? Never mind.]

[well that was his intention, but seeing where she lives isn't a bad idea either.]

Very well. Where?

Level 8, room 2.

[He leaves it at that, heading out instead to take the stairs up to her room. He takes his time, flies up the stairs every few steps, because he can. He even floats halfway down the hall, but comes to his feet again by the time he reaches her door, and knocks.]

[In that short time she attempts to do some tidying, but fails when it emerges that there's no tidying to be done and her flat is so neat it might as well be a show home. So instead she just straightens her hair and blouse a little and goes to the door when the knock comes, unlocking and opening it.]

Erik. [She steps back to let him in.]

[He doesn't bother smiling at her, there's no reason to go into this with false pretenses of camaraderie. Civility is enough, so he nods, and takes a step forward before halting, one leg still out the door as he stares at her, eyes narrowing in confusion.]

What's in your neck?

[She doesn't falter. Her implant makes him unusually vulnerable to him - to his abilities - and it was one of the things she had to consider before making her request of the Admiral.]

It's a cerebral implant. [She brushes back her hair and turns her head to show him the circular port just behind her ear.] It allows me to connect and interface directly with computers and some other forms of technology.

[It's fascinating, in a lot of ways, because the technology she and Stark have at their disposal are so far beyond him that it feels as if he'll never catch up. She's made a mutant of herself, without having an actual mutation, and though he isn't sure he approves, he is interested.

And, of course, he files it away for ammunition, should the need arise: she has a very distinct weakness, and she's trusting him not to take advantage of it. Either she's naive, or she trusts him - or she trusts that she can reach him, and redeem him.

It's a lot to chew on.]

I suppose nothing's quite fast enough, in your age. Did you design it?

[She would point out that it's not so much speed as precision - intuition, even - but that's besides the point.]

No; I once had a friend on board who also had an implant, and he helped me to replicate it. I made some slight adjustments to the design but that was all.

[He walks inside fully so she can close the door behind him, hands comfortably in his pockets as he looks around. It does look like a show, and he wonders how much time she actually spends in here.]

Are there any side effects?

To using it? No. [It's a technical truth at best. Information can pass both ways, and....well, it's a metal wire connected directed directly to her central nervous system. There's potential for 'side effects' on that front.]

To having it. [Because seriously lady there's metal in your body. It's not going so well for Stark.]

[Stark's special alright.]

No. It's biologically inert. Why do you ask?

Metal implants aren't exactly safe in my experience.

[She's....not entirely sure she wants to know what your experience of metal implants is, at least beyond the delicate relationship forged between coinage and brain that one time.]

Technology's moved on a lot. The friend who helped me with this implant was from a point quite distantly in my future.

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