Letting Off Steam

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:25 pm

"What, I get veto power now? I'm pretty sure you've flipped the roles here," Will teased.

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:36 pm

"Well it's nice when my friends can get along with my girlfriend, isn't it?"

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:45 pm

"It is, and I'm certainly not looking for you to make a choice! Just sayin', when the chips are down, you listen to the one you love first and foremost. Hard lesson to remember, at times..." he trailed off.

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 9:47 pm

"...sounds like you've had some personal experience."

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:05 pm

"Mmm. I've made plenty of stupid choices, and I'm just lucky people keep taking me back.

The woman in there. Back in the lab. Back in another universe...

Everyone's ages are wrong here, you know? That's probably the single most difficult thing to come to grips here. You were older, my mentor, my idol. And Lt. Van Buren...Sara...she was my age. And we hit it off, and one thing led to another, and...

...and here, she's just some scientist who sees me as a cute and interesting scientific curiosity, and now I'm in here punching the walls."

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:16 pm

"I could see why that would be frustrating."

"Did you... ever tell her?"

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:22 pm

"Well, I didn't know until I was here, right?

And I don't know -- I don't think she needs that. She's married, she's got kids. She doesn't need that hanging around her neck. And it's not like everything always went smoothly for me back there, either...I dunno. Slamming her with all that stuff is probably too much."

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:25 pm

"...she's in a frozen wasteland most of the time. When are you going to get another chance?"

"At least she'd be able to understand you're not just an experiment."

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:30 pm

"You think it would accomplish...well, anything? Really?" he blinked, surprised.

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:32 pm

"She doesn't know she's hurting you. Does she strike you as the kind of person who would want to?"

"...I could talk to her. I'm not fond of these... people, but I could do that for you."

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:39 pm

"Yeah, that's always gone super-smoothly in the past," Will muttered, not quite quiet enough for Sam not to hear.

"Maybe I'll talk to her. Maybe."

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:41 pm

"...well I'm not. Most of them don't even treat you like you're a person. I mean, maybe she's different but..."

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:43 pm

"Well, you have to remember what I was like when I first came here. I was like that, but moreso, down there. I mean, it's understandable, right? If I had spent years and years as your bed or toothbrush or something, you'd think of me differently when I revealed myself."

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:46 pm

"And if that's it, if it's just a misunderstanding, doesn't she deserve to know?"

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:52 pm

"I'm not sure total honesty is the best policy in these situations. There are things that people don't need to know about their counterparts where I'm from. It's not fair to put that burden on people."

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:56 pm

"Even if that means she keeps hurting you and never knows why?"

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 10:59 pm

"She'll leave in a few days, and I'll just be...a curiosity. She'll move on to another project, and forget about me. It's not fair to hold people who I'll be around to those standards, much less someone who I'll probably never see again."

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:00 pm

"She dropped everything to come here."

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:04 pm

"The military dropped everything to come here. Briggs, the technicians, the whole lot. They're concerned about their damn compounds, and about the school having access to them. Like it isn't their damn fault they got out into the wild to begin with.

They tested me for two hours to see if I was telepathic now. The held up cards and had me try to guess what was on the other side. Two damn hours of trying to guess shapes. Guess what -- I wasn't any good at it! They seemed disappointed."

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:11 pm

"Is that what that chemical was supposed to do? Seems to have done the opposite. Someone's getting sacked."

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:15 pm

"Two chemicals, that aren't actually designed to go together. One of them is supposed to block telepaths from reading people, which I'm sure you love to hear the government is working on. That's working on me, and apparently on Tereza as well. You want to find someone responsible for that, maybe the Morrigan should pay a visit to our friends in the labs.

The other's supposed to kickstart telepathy through mutating X-Genes, and that's the one that doesn't seem to have worked, at least on me. Yet, anyway."

by **Samantha McManus** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:27 pm

"So you think these aliens got a hold of it too?"

"I mean... the Morrigan going over there to talk to them seems... more dramatic than Sam talking to them."

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 03, 2017 11:30 pm

"You're probably right, but if someone invented a substance specifically so I couldn't shift, I would wish I had a Captain Spookypants alter ego to deal with it. That may be just me, though."

"That's what I heard ASHLIE and the Major talking about -- how they had some of this substance stolen from their base, and how they're operating under the assumption it's the same people you guys faced in Russia. Still some Cold War mentality -- Briggs, and all of his predecessors, were fairly anti-Russia, so maybe they've jumped to that conclusion. Makes sense, though, if Teresa's blocked, too."

by **Samantha McManus** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:53 am

"Part of me does want to make an enormous scene, but another part of me thinks government officials are very unamused with that..."

She twitches for a moment.

by **Will Stanton** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 5:03 am

"You, uh.

You alright, there? I noticed that you were...a little less in control of yourself when Tereza came back."

by **Samantha McManus** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 6:13 pm

"You ever... feel like you're being pulled in more than one direction?"

by **Will Stanton** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:16 pm

"Yes. But I imagine you're speaking more figuratively than literally."

by **Samantha McManus** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:24 pm

"Just... having trouble meeting in the middle. I did when Tereza was missing, too.

by **Will Stanton** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 7:43 pm

Will paused, and considered this.

"Maybe you'd like to have someone talk to them on your behalf."

by **Samantha McManus** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:07 pm

"But they're... all me, aren't they?"

by **Will Stanton** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 9:56 pm

"That's a trickier question to answer than you'd think.

Yes. They're all you. They're all aspects of you. But at the same time, they're much older than you are, and they have their own sense of importance and..." he trailed off, thinking.

"Have you ever seen The Enemy Within?"

by **Samantha McManus** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 10:04 pm

"Uhm... I don't... think so? I think that title's gotten used a lot."

by **Will Stanton** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 10:15 pm

"Classic Star Trek. Maybe that's not a thing in Ireland? I 'unno.

Kirk gets split into two people -- a "Good" Kirk and a "Bad" Kirk, but it's not that simple. They can't function without one another; Good Kirk needs the emotional intensity of Bad Kirk while Bad Kirk needs the moral integrity of Good Kirk to survive and function. It's...I mean, you're not bad, but the Morrigan is made up of parts; parts that need to work in harmony with one another. Parts that don't always want to work in harmony with one another. Parts that sometimes might care more about their own thing than the Tao of Being Sam."

by **Samantha McManus** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 11:16 pm

"Just like herding cats sometimes..."

by **Will Stanton** » Tue Apr 04, 2017 11:17 pm

"Or dealing with toddlers. Very, very powerful toddlers."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 6:26 pm

"So it... it gets better, doesn't it?"

by **Will Stanton** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 6:32 pm

Will paused.

"I wish I could tell you for sure, Sam. Things are different here, and I have a sample size of one."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 6:34 pm

"I mean... she managed to. Even if she ended up... weirder."

by **Will Stanton** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 6:40 pm

"You want to know if it's possible? Yeah, it's possible.

And look around you, Sam. Weird is normal, here. You're not the weirdest one in this room."

by **Samantha McManus** » Wed Apr 05, 2017 6:42 pm

"I know, and I've been... well, coming to terms with the idea that I don't have to be normal."

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