duplicity inbox

[protocol]

placeholder content up here until rocket gets his shit together

expect nsfw.

Comments

[notleavingquietly]

I'd known Ephemera for a while. I built Ephemera's armor. I knew enough, and I didn't adopt it.

What do you mean probably. It's a yes or no question.

[protocol]

[ building armor. now that's fucking different from repairing it, too. ]

Alright, maybe you didn't get any adoption papers, but you still fed them long enough for them to stick around. Ephemera and Felix both. Might be worth looking into the pedigree, don't you think?

[ and well, uh. ]

Probably means probably. Nothing else to it.

[notleavingquietly]

You have no idea how much I know.

[ Dammit, Man, he was much happier when he got to be enraged and offended, but given what he knows about these people and their world and lives-]

You don't know. Flashback, alcohol abuse or City induced nonsense?

[protocol]

You don't know how much I know, either.

[ enough to think that anyone who's managed to get attached to felix of all people doesn't really know what they're getting into. ]

What, are you looking for some plausible deniability, now? It was the city, but if I killed him then I'm still the one to blame.

[notleavingquietly]

The ship I was interfaced to once wiped out an unarmed hospital ship and tried to murder his mother. My morals are flexible when it comes to mentally damaged beings primed to be weapons, especially you fucks and your frequently malfunctioning interfaces.

[protocol]

[ you're talking to the guy who got the most fucked by the malfunctioning interfaces out of all of them, by far. congrats crais. wash takes longer to respond to this one, mostly processing what he's saying, including the part where the ship apparently has a mother or something. AI, probably. okay. ]

You don't draw the line anywhere? People can do fucked up things and that's fine as long as they were also kind of fucked up?

Or are you specifically sympathetic to the primed to be weapons thing.

[notleavingquietly]

[ Nope, living species but at least they're not going to have to get into that shit, again. ]

I don't recall claiming to be particularly moral or consistent.

The line is where I feel like it. I hunted a man down for more than a year for an accident that killed someone I cared about. I also killed my ship and myself when we ran out of options to prevent him endangering others.

Primed and used as a weapon certainly influences my sympathy level.

[protocol]

[ LETS TALK ABOUT YOU THEN, because while wash is very bewildered by how much information you're willing to share he's happy to keep making use of it. you're still a potential threat, more information is only good. lets talk about this and not about the killing felix thing, he's good with that. ]

Were you the same, then?

[notleavingquietly]

The same then as when?

And which bit of City bullshit was behind you not knowing if you killed Felix or not?

[protocol]

If you were primed and used as a weapon, eventually resulting in killing your ship and yourself. And whatever else.

[ ugh. ]

The fake memories, the dreams. I ended up finding Felix dead at the end of it. I almost definitely killed him, and I'm willing to bet that I did. What were you hoping to do about that, exactly?

[notleavingquietly]

I was conscripted from a pacifist colony into a mercenary, fascist, organization when I was twelve. The change between the two was that I was still in that organization when I went after a man for killing my brother, and had been well clear of it for years and interfaced with Talyn when I blew myself and him up.My morality being inconsistent and emotion driven was the same in both.

[ Honestly, Wash, take all the information. If you find a way to 'use' it, good. It's likely to save him shit related to being an alien in a sea of humans at some point, and if not it's certainly not going to lead to him feeling threatened. ]

Do with that information? Weigh whether or not it's believable as a thing that would cause you to kill someone and not remember it; it's believable.

[protocol]

[ you are so much. it's information he doesn't have context for, but wash will absorb it anwyay. and note, bewilderingly, how forthcoming he is. is this how he'd been with felix, too? ]

You came to me asking if I'd killed him, and I'm telling you I most likely did. So what now?

[notleavingquietly]

Now? the same thing as having seen you in one of Ephemera's dreams - or helmet footage. Nothing particular.

Why were you interested in my ability to fix armor? Have you eaten recently?

[protocol]

[ . . . wat. ]

You know, I was a little curious about the idea that Felix had managed to get someone on his side enough to be seeking some kind of retribution.

[ and now it's whatever. okay then. ]

[notleavingquietly]

And if you hurt him intentionally and knowingly, I will hunt you down and slit your throat.

He is a lunatic, but he's one of my lunatics.

Now. Have you eaten recently?

[protocol]

[ look he's going to keep ignoring that in favor of answering the death threats because that's the part he like, knows how to deal with. ]

I'm just surprised you're willing to back down from that just because I've claimed not to remember.

[ what are you some kind of revenge amateur ]

[notleavingquietly]

[ Why are you all like this? Not new territory, never going to not make him roll his eyes and sigh heavily. ]

You're not even doing a good job of not admitting you haven't eaten recently.

You certainly aren't going to admit that you probably did but happen to not remember it because of a particular event created by the city to someone you expect to want to murder it for you, anyway.

If you're feeling guilty and just want to be punched in the face by someone because you think you deserve it I'll oblige, but if you want me to question what you tell me you need to seriously improve the level at which you lie and evade. I didn't spend thirty years surrounded by people conditioned to behave like psychopaths and not develop some skill at cutting through bullshit.

Particularly not when I already have context for you people and your lives.

[protocol]

I'd rather not get punched in the face, thanks.

[ guilt-driven, punishment-seeking, yes. but for this, not really. he just isn't sure how to handle this interaction at all. he's quite convinced he'd killed felix, is genuinely torn up about it but absolutely loathes it because he shouldn't give a shit, at all. it makes figuring out how he's supposed to respond to this guy, well. confusing. ]

You have context through two people who would intentionally and knowingly kill me without much hesitation given the opportunity, and who have tried to multiple times. I don't expect anything they gave you to be flattering.

[notleavingquietly]

Wrong kind of context. I don't talk about other people and I'm not asking them questions about you. It's what they've told me about their lives and their experiences that provides context.

And why the frell are you contracted to someone who is willing to kill you? That's idiotic.

[protocol]

You can give Felix shit for contracting someone willing to kill him, too. I'm not exactly thrilled about it, but the city holds the contracts as binding, so it is what it is.

[notleavingquietly]

Signed when you both thought you were someone else then. I'll give him shit later, but if you actually kill one another you'd be in jail, or worse.

Do you live in public housing?

[protocol]

[ felix didn't seem that concerned about that when he'd tried to murder him on what was basically wash's first day in the city.

he's also going to ignore you asking where he lives. it probably wouldn't be that difficult to find out, but right now he isn't sure if you're going to still try to kill him or like order him food delivery. they both seem equally bad to him at the moment. ]

Since death apparently means nothing here, I'm going to have to deal with it eventually.

[ he's THRILLED. ]

In the meanwhile, I have all his belongings. I noticed the repairs.

[notleavingquietly]

I wasn't keeping it a secret, though I appreciate Ephemera's discretion in case I was.

I'm finding you. You can either meet me at Wild Pony or I will figure out where you live and show up at your door. Your call.

[protocol]

[ ugh ]

You're not going to take a third option, are you?

[notleavingquietly]

There's a third option. That's you coming to me where I live.

What isn't an option I'll accept is none of the above.