2.21 - Voice + Spam

[breakingmyheart]

[Library & Kitchen Filters]

I've been unpaired from Jesse. I still plan on keeping both my jobs. If that's alright.

[Even though she kind of hates both of them, it's marginally better than having nothing to do all day.]

[Private to Megamind]

...I can help. With the project you were talking about.

[Open Spam - Deck]

[So it's been a fortnight. The breach was - well - things happened. She's been through her most grotesquely violent death toll to date. And then she got off the Barge in LA and stole from a cashpoint for the express purpose of buying drugs, which - didn't happen, in the end.

Small mercies. She might not have been feeling any worse for having succeeded but deep down she knows the better would be very, very fleeting.

And then the Admiral separated her from Jesse. Or Jesse asked to be unpaired. She doesn't know. He said he didn't, she'd like to believe him, but she wouldn't really blame him for spotting a lost cause either. Megamind called her a model Inmate not so long ago but it doesn't feel like she was modelling anything except peaceful noncompliance.

She doesn't often break the library -> kitchen -> (gym) -> shower -> sleep cycle but she needs some time and fresh air to decompress and so after the dinner shift she's out on deck, sitting on a bench and somewhat reading a book but not really paying attention to it.]

Comments

[fridgetothefire]

[Anya's been watching out for her, a little. She didn't want to hunt Tosh down when she was obviously trying to stay out of everyone else's orbits - it's a pattern Anya is familiar with - but she has been waiting for an opportunity. She scoots onto the bench next to Tosh, speaks quietly without looking at her, gazing out at the view instead.]

I'd like to talk to you. But if that's not okay, I can go.

[breakingmyheart]

[This honestly comes as a surprise. For a very fleeting moment, she resents being given the option of saying no - because it'd be far too easy to take her up on it and disappear back into her cabin, back into hiding - but it passes. Because Anya's trying to be kind. Despite -

Apparently both she and Jesse were wrong and some people do still care about what she did.

She closes the book, sets it to one side.]

No. No - it's okay. We can talk.

[fridgetothefire]

I know you weren't - available, when everything went down, right after they unplugged you, or whatever they did. I don't know if you went over any of it afterward. Most people wouldn't, I think.

[Anya would have, but she is more afraid of ignorance than pain.]

At the time, I just wanted the Admiral to send you somewhere else. Anywhere else. Mostly because I was scared.

But a little bit because I know what it's like to be surrounded by people who hate you. It's not...a good environment. For anybody.

[breakingmyheart]

[She did. Everything she could read, she read.]

No, it isn't.

[But she doesn't really feel hated. She just feels...adrift, forgotten, disregarded. She was the worst thing that happened to the Barge until the next thing.]

[fridgetothefire]

[Being dismissed can be awful too.]

I was in zero, for part of it. I pretty much deserved it. More than most people there at the time.

[breakingmyheart]

[The sudden upset on her face is obvious.]

Christ, no, you didn't. Nobody deserved what I did to them.

private

[megamind]

Yes, ah. I see. I'll be glad to get you up to date.

[ Jesse already told him the news so... yeah. How about not bringing that up. ]

private

[breakingmyheart]

Thanks.

Where are you up to with it so far?

private

[megamind]

Right now just grinding data. I've got a sliver of a biome, and -- in the end, well. There's only so much relevant data I can pull.

I'm thinking a fairly regular data-dump into a virtual environment may be the best way to go, unless I can get them bodies. Which isn't impossible via robotics but...

Yeah, this is going to be complicated and I really am looking forward to it and -- at the same time-- not.

private

[breakingmyheart]

What about holographics? There've been a couple of Wardens here I - well - reverse-engineered.

private

[megamind]

...how do you reverse engineer a warden?

private

[breakingmyheart]

Their bodies, Megamind. They were both holograms.

[tolaywaste]

[Sometimes Alex wonders if he should resent her. After all, he resents Erik a lot of the time, the choices he made, the actions he took. But that's more - personal. And maybe that's the difference. Alex felt pain when Tosh took over, and those he loves felt more (which is where the only small glimmering of resentment comes in), but he can't bring himself to hate her.]

[He's been keeping an eye on her, from a distance because she doesn't know him or give a damn. It's so rare that she's up here at all that he pauses, trying to figure out if he should say anything at all or just leave.]

[In the end, he clears his throat, a little awkward.]

Anything interesting?

[breakingmyheart]

[She startles a little, closing the book she was barely reading anyway.]

Oh - no, not really. I was just -

[Going to go. Around almost everyone on the ship, she's just going to take the quickest escape route when it presents itself. But then something occurs to her.]

Did you come to talk to me about Anya?

[tolaywaste]

I - what?

[For a moment he's legitimately baffled, then concerned. Is Anya sick? What's she talking about?]

Not Anya, no. She's not - Why? What happened to Anya?

[breakingmyheart]

Nothing - ! Nothing's happened. She just came to talk to me a little while ago, that's all.

[...not about Anya, then.]

[tolaywaste]

Oh.

[He starts to go through the possibilities of what Anya might have wanted from Tosh, what she would have wanted to learn or share, and quickly realizes there's no point theorizing. Anya's too complex to theorize about. For him, specifically.]

[Instead, there's just a brief, bright, affectionate smile, and a shake of his head.]

Sorry. I don't know why I thought she might have done something stupid, that's more or less the opposite of what she does.

[breakingmyheart]

[Toshiko smiles very fleetingly.]

Did you want to talk about something?

[youwill]

[Hannibal didn't really know what to make of the Barge when he first arrived. The network was incredibly helpful, and he's spent days reading silently in his cabin, taking in the lives of the people he is now surrounded by.

For a rather relative definition of 'life,' in any case.

He's mused on that, too, certain he heard a gunshot before standing abruptly in this poor version of his kitchen. Could Will have shot him? He's asked himself that question precisely once: there is only one conclusion. He planned too well to misjudge. Which means this is the Admiral's doing, and little else - something he finds unsettling, given the unreachable status of their questionable leader.

He doesn't like being unsettled.

And he doesn't like the idea of hiding, either. He takes in the setting before introducing himself - inspiration has already struck, but it needs time to take root. Aside from an early run in with a very angry man who quickly mistook him for another (proof enough for Hannibal that his name should, for the moment, remain a mystery), he hasn't paused to interact with anyone.

It's the deck and its view he's interested in, when he pauses beside the bench, not Tosh. He keeps a respectable distance, hands held at his side, and he looks at the view not with wonder or befuddlement, but a certain reserved curiosity. Eventually, though, he looks down at her and speaks.]

I hope I am not distracting you. [Though it's obvious enough to him that she wasn't paying attention long before he arrived.]

[breakingmyheart]

[She more registered another person's presence than really noticed it, and the urge to stay invisible means she doesn't address him until he speaks. It's only then she realises that she can't place his voice, or - she looks up - his face.]

No. Not at all.

[A beat.]

You're new here, aren't you? You must think I was being rude. I'm sorry - not intentional.

[youwill]

A good book can be quite absorbing. [Not that she was absorbed in it. He inclines his head, both as a greeting and an affirmative to her question, and extends his hand.]

Quite new, yes. Garret Hobbs.

[breakingmyheart]

Toshiko Sato. [She accepts the hand and shakes.] It's nice to meet you, Garret. When did you [there's an infintesimal pause; there's really no verb that neatly covers either 'sold your soul to the Admiral' or 'had it borrowed without your consent'] arrive?

[youwill]

Perhaps an hour ago. I've been - acclimating myself. [He nods meaningfully at the view, eyebrows rising.] It's quite a lot to take in. Though it seems you do grow used to it.

library filter

[strangehistorian]

Oh.

[Now she's wondering why. Maybe there's no point to that.]

Yes, that's fine!

library filter

[breakingmyheart]

Thank you.