buywithme | FLOOD!

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FLOOD!

[Video clicks on, and it's... Barron? Probably? He's standing in one of the corridors in the Barge and looking sort of bemused.]

Comrades, I realise this probably seems like a strange thing to need help with, but I'm just...

[He turns around, staring off down the corridor, with an expression of increasingly dismayed puzzlement on his face.]

All of these corridors look the same, and I don't... I don't remember which direction I was coming from. Or where... any of the things that I know are here are...

[Prefect and Barron had a FULL BODYSWAP, which means Prefect gets Barron's body, and his tragically swiss cheesed version of a memory. He doesn't actually remember that he's not supposed to look like this.]

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[He... totally doesn't. Barron has it. Barron has it and Prefect doesn't remember what it even is.]

Right, Comrade! I don't think I have anywhere else to be, at least... [He pauses slightly, then frowns] Ah, why should I have to stay there though? I guess this is a flood, but it doesn't seem so bad?

Aah.

Prefect. You haven't got your memory and I'm getting fairly worried. It's not so good, even as floods go. Follow me, please?

Comrade, I remember enough to know that the Barge would still be dangerous, even if I knew my way around perfectly.

[He shoots Stildyne a reassuring little attempt at a smile, but he takes a step towards him, none the less, prepared to follow as needed.]

After what that jackass did to you earlier I don't like the idea of you walking around vulnerable. [Stildyne's jaw sets.]

There's risks and there's risks. And then there's people better off put out of eveyone's misery. [under his breath.]

He's not so bad, Comrade. And I don't think he was planning on targeting me again too soon. [Sadly, this is something Prefect does remember. Ladd killed him. And then complimented him. Actually killed him while complimenting him.

Prefect is very susceptible to compliments.] I do try not to be vulnerable, Brother.

Nobody does. But I'm tired of giving every mad dog the benefit of the doubt, telling the poor bastards who're decent inmates that there's hope, of dealing with jackasses among the wardenry who think their behavior is charming and their friends are intrinsically better folk.

No: the only difference between them and myself is that I'll admit that I'm without any special virtue. Every man for himself: devil take the hindmost.

To hell with this place, Prefect. If I knew how to say goodbye I'd already be gone.

[He's not sure why this is coming up now, but better Prefect hear it when he forgets that Stildyne's insulted his friends. He knows how far down on the ladder he sits, and he likes Prefect's company.]

Your room. Do you need something to eat?

Comrade... Do you think that the wardening here has taken a downward plunge in quality, since I graduated?

[Prefect's tone is slightly distant. The further back he thinks, the more blotches there are in his memory, but there are some things that don't go. Some things that are deeply rooted enough to weather this flood.]

When I was an inmate... one of the wardens shot an unarmed man in the leg, then attacked another inmate who was trying to administer medical care to him. There was no level zero, so inmates would be confined to their rooms indefinitely. I knew of one girl whose warden decided she was too dangerous to ever be let out. At one point, my own warden took away all of my belongings, my bed, my communicator, and then the electricity to my cabin.

[He's quiet for a moment, letting this sink in before he continues:]

So, Comrade, while I agree that there are people on this boat who are arrogant, and who are flawed, and who can't accept that they aren't better than the rest of us? I... can not accept that they are as big a problem as you think they are. Those people, whose actions and personalities grate on you, would still exist if they quit the barge and went to do some other job tomorrow, and you would stand as much chance of running into them out there as you do in here.

You can't only be here for the decent inmates, Brother. You've got to be here for the mad dogs, and the hotshots, and the ones who want the world to know how terrible they are, and all the wardens who come here, trying desperately to convince themselves and anyone else who's paying attention that they have any more of an idea than anyone else about how to save the soul of mass murderer from a world on the far side of the galaxy while trying to deal with having their identity picked apart over months and years. You've got to be here for the whole damn mess, Comrade. You've got too, because if you can't, then you really do have to find some way to say goodbye.

[This speech done, he pauses very briefly, then folds his arms over his chest, looking slightly insecure.]

And Comrade, I really, really hope that you can. Because I really don't want you to leave.

Prefect, I'll admit to you without a moment's hesitation that every Kirk, Xavier-- hell, each TX and Nygma-- is more deserving to be here than I am. That things are as good as they could be. I just think the whole damn thing is pointless. I oughtn't be here.

[He grinds his teeth a moment, shakes his head.

Then he takes Prefect by Baron's collar, tugs him in, and kisses him decisively.

And a bit more.

And lets him loose.]

Did you want something to eat?

[There's a half a second before Stildyne's hand is on his collar where Prefect tries to explain again. He wants the other man to stop believing that believing in people is pointless, because that was him. Maybe he wasn't one of the mass murderers or one of the braggarts, but he had barely been human. People who'd tried to be his friends back then, he'd treated like customers or like products. He'd sold weapons, what he'd done to the Marquis alone...

He wants Stildyne not to talk like there's some kind of insurmountable wall between bad and good, or bad and worse. He wants him not to talk about the Barge like it's a lost cause. So he speaks forcefully:]

Comrade, this place--

[--saved me.

But he doesn't get to finish, and that's how his mouth ends up being open when Stildyne pulls him forward onto his lips.

Stildyne is kissing him. And Prefect can count how many people he's kissed in his life on one hand, and it's damp and still weird feeling (it's always weird feeling), and he can feel his heart hammering in his chest like a birds wings against the bars of a cage.

And a bit more.

And then he's let loose.

His face isn't just tinged with pink, it's flushed red with heat, and he brings a hand up to wipe his mouth and shakes his head quickly. He'll be able to formulate words in a moment.]

Gin from the pub, maybe?

[His face has gone all distant and impassive. If Prefect remembers this it'll be a good vector gone bad, but that's life.]

You'll need to eat, of course.

[Well, this is veering very swiftly from surprising and inconsiderate but not unfriendly, into... something else.

He tries to formulate words, and succeeds in making an uncomfortable little noise that sounds a bit like an injured duck.

Wait. Just give him a minute. Words. He'll get words back soon.]

Edited 2012-07-18 01:18 (UTC)

...Comrade, I'm sorry. Want someone else on food delivery?

[It takes him a moment, but... actually, when he speaks, he does sound kind of angry.]

If I want food I'll go get it myself, Comrade.

[He's hardly going to pretend he didn't buy and pay for that anger, so.]

Fair enough. Please look after yourself, while the flood's on. And after.

Because people might take advantage of the fact that I'm vulnerable right now.

[And... yep, that part was snapped. It's not so much the kissing that's got him as it is... the fact that he's managed to connect the kissing to everything Stildyne just said about him needing to be careful because of all the things that everyone else will do.]

Moreso than they already have, possibly.

[His gaze doesn't waver. He's ashamed, certainly, but he's not going to make a production of it.]

[Prefect doesn't un-tense. He waits for a moment, like the last apology didn't quite sink in and he's expecting another one. Then, fairly abruptly, he closes the door in Stildyne's face.]

[He half hopes that Prefect forgets all of it.

Though he's having difficulty telling himself that he'd be able to with any success.

And leaves.]

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FLOOD!

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