Agent Washington (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
parannoyed) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
goneawayworld2021-07-01 07:05 pm
parannoyed) wrote in goneawayworld2021-07-01 07:05 pm
Entry tags:
Que Sera, Sera
Who: Locked to Stacia, Tucker, and the Freelancers.
What: Brain Quest
Where: In a random, typically unoccupied room near one of the lesser used locker rooms on the training level/
When: Before daemonplot
Warnings/Notes: Trauma! Kidnapping! Flashbacks to torture! Fun stuff!
[He's been avoiding them. Ever since the thing with Planker. It's not Planker's death, of course. Oh no, he'd had it coming. But it was the key. And knowing what it did. And knowing that Stacia liked to pry. And knowing that some of his friends worried and the others missed a different version of him.]
[And instinct. Instinct was a factor.]
[But most of all, it was the Other telling him to go and ask for the key, so they could be fixed. Which means using the key to fix him had to have occurred to at least one of them. Carolina probably. Or Stacia herself because the kid loooved to pry.]
[So he's been avoiding them. But the problem with avoiding people means that you have to try to avoid being alone with them. He's handled that by mostly sticking with crowds where they can't just shove a key in his head and make a sense, but that's not always possible. He still needs to sometimes train. He thought he'd been smart, figuring out there was a more remote utterly unused locker room - his reasoning being that they couldn't ambush him in the normal locker room if he was alone in there.]
[But one of them must have spotted him and figured it out, he thinks, as the door opens and he pivots lightning fast on instinct, so his back isn't to them, and sees that he's not alone.]
[He's out of his training gear and back in the jumpsuit, which won't be the most comfortable to fight in, but it's not like he's usually had a say in the conditions he has to struggle in before. And he's fought in an uncomfortable jumpsuit more than once - and fortunately done well for himself.]
[People didn't like traitors, even in military prison.]
[Wash lets out a long bone-deep sigh.]
I knew this was coming.
What: Brain Quest
Where: In a random, typically unoccupied room near one of the lesser used locker rooms on the training level/
When: Before daemonplot
Warnings/Notes: Trauma! Kidnapping! Flashbacks to torture! Fun stuff!
[He's been avoiding them. Ever since the thing with Planker. It's not Planker's death, of course. Oh no, he'd had it coming. But it was the key. And knowing what it did. And knowing that Stacia liked to pry. And knowing that some of his friends worried and the others missed a different version of him.]
[And instinct. Instinct was a factor.]
[But most of all, it was the Other telling him to go and ask for the key, so they could be fixed. Which means using the key to fix him had to have occurred to at least one of them. Carolina probably. Or Stacia herself because the kid loooved to pry.]
[So he's been avoiding them. But the problem with avoiding people means that you have to try to avoid being alone with them. He's handled that by mostly sticking with crowds where they can't just shove a key in his head and make a sense, but that's not always possible. He still needs to sometimes train. He thought he'd been smart, figuring out there was a more remote utterly unused locker room - his reasoning being that they couldn't ambush him in the normal locker room if he was alone in there.]
[But one of them must have spotted him and figured it out, he thinks, as the door opens and he pivots lightning fast on instinct, so his back isn't to them, and sees that he's not alone.]
[He's out of his training gear and back in the jumpsuit, which won't be the most comfortable to fight in, but it's not like he's usually had a say in the conditions he has to struggle in before. And he's fought in an uncomfortable jumpsuit more than once - and fortunately done well for himself.]
[People didn't like traitors, even in military prison.]
[Wash lets out a long bone-deep sigh.]
I knew this was coming.
no subject
[ Carolina wishes it were otherwise. She knows he's afraid of them, and afraid of what's going to happen if they succeed. Cornering him like this feels like shit, and she hates that this is the option they've landed with. ]
no subject
[He knows how Carolina thinks, knows how she'd easily see that as the mission objective. She's stubborn like that.]
[His fists ball at his sides.]
I know you don't understand the balance I have to walk right now to make sure everything works out okay. One that I can't let anyone else throw off.
And I know you don't care that we're not the same person, he and I. Maybe I'm like him, maybe I've grown in similar ways. But the second I got rewound back and went through different things, I became someone else.
[His voice trembles.]
What gives you the right to pick and choose?!
no subject
[ York touches his own head where the scar on Wash's is, then reaches out toward him imploringly. ]
You're not a problem that needs fixing. You're a friend who's gone through something traumatic and we have the tools to help now. Are you going to let us try?
no subject
His voice is raw.
I've heard him. Talking to me. In my head. [He points to it.] But it's in a voice that's not mine. He's...different.
We're different. If you dig him out, there's no guarantee there'll be anything left of me after.
no subject
[ That's... that's a lot of certainty behind that. ]
I know him.
no subject
But I don't.
I don't know who he is. And I don't know what he'd say to replace me.
Most importantly of all, I don't know you.
Not this you. All I know is the old Carolina would've said or done anything for the sake of the mission. And she was good at getting everyone else to follow her.
[So he settles back into a fighting stance and raises his fists, knowing it'll be a futile fight when he's this outnumbered, by Freelancers, and by Tucker who's about the most talented sim trooper he's ever scene, and when Carolina is here.]
[But he still has to fight anyway. He always does.]
[He doesn't want to - especially after all the ground gained with them - but he has to.]
no subject
Well I know me, new Carolina, and the dude we're talking about pretty fucking well, Wash. If this was gonna dust you, we wouldn't be here.
[ He can trust that much on regular-brand Wash credit and the rundown Carolina gave. Easy. ]
We're just-- kicking down a door.
[ Sort of? Metaphorically?
But, well. Talking and diplomacy and stuff was never gonna smoothly pave the way, he guesses. Blue Team tradition. ]
no subject
[ She's keeping half an eye on Wash, in case he decides to make a lunge for her as the one with the Key -- though he'd have to get through his friends to reach her, so it's not that much of a threat -- but most of her attention is on Carolina. She'd told the other woman that she'd hang back until it was time for things to start, but she'd also made it clear that she'd be willing to explain to Wash what she'd seen in his head if asked. ]
[ So right now, she waits patiently to see which way this inevitability falls. ]
no subject
[And with that, instead of fighting, he darts in the direction of another path through the lockers, trying to split the group apart as they go to block him. He knocks over a rack of training equipment to block off the path direction behind him to slow them down.]
no subject
However, he happens to be on the other side of the bank of lockers when Wash darts in his direction. He hasn't been hiding, per se, but he's revealed when Wash rushes in his direction, and he puts a hand out to show that he's willing to block Wash from continuing in this direction. ]
Wash, listen to them, okay? At least listen.