Log 0018 - [Video]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

[Someone is in an angry sort of mood, given post-flood shenanigans. Scorpius is keeping himself relatively calm by usual standards, but he's tense and bristling when he makes his post]

I should like the permission of a warden to work in the lab today.

[All day. Because hell if he's going to deal with emotions.]



[Private to Horatio]

I believe I owe you an apology. The responsibility of my flooded self lies with me.

[Private to Stephanie]

Thank you for keeping the situation under manageable control.

Comments

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

[This response comes later on in the day, after he's washed off awkward flood sex in a borrowed warden shower, retreated to the safety of his own cabin and his own clothing, and had enough time to mentally unpack enough things that they aren't blatantly terrifying unsettling anymore.]

All right. So.

I feel it somehow impossible not to comment on the fact that both your and my counterparts this flood were a bit...intense compared to our usual selves. [Silence. But yeah, no, he's got nothing beyond that.] Any thoughts?

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

[After being made to suffer the onslaught of beanie babies by a wholly immature warden, Scorpius sits resting in the Aurora chair, picking up his communicator when Blight's message comes through]

Plenty. None of which are particularly useful to me.

I had hoped never to become that person.

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

[All right, that's interesting.] What? The extremism? For lack of a better way of putting it. ['It' here meaning whatever the hell lady Scorpius' deal was.]

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

The pawn of the Scarran empire.

I am extreme, but in more the opposite direction. What is worse is that I can still sense her in my mind, even now.

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

Ditto. Hopefully it'll fade more over the next few days.

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

I should hope so.

Otherwise I may be forced to take more extreme measures.

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

Such as what?

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

The Aurora chair does more than reveal memories. Too much pressure in the wrong place, and it can also remove them.

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

[Whoa whoa wait a second here.]

Speaking of extremism. It's just another flood, Scorpius, don't go punching holes through your gray matter over that little a thing.

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

It is not just another flood, Derek. I will not allow that creature to contaminate my mind with her personality any longer.

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

Do you think I enjoyed having to carry about the weight of my possible future insanity, after that other Barge? Knowing that if I continued my path unaltered, I was going to wind up nothing more than a petty, stupid, sadistic monster?

No. But I waited. I did my best to stop poking at it. And the scars, they eventually fade.

It's only been a few days. You're overreacting.

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

Do not presume to lecture me on this of all topics. This is not some matter of turning into something I despise and fear; this is an attempted plan to compromise everything I have fought for and worked to attain.

Do you understand, or must I repeat myself?

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

You want me to not lecture you, don't you dare talk down to me. [Practically a snarl.] You think this is an infection, something purposeful to try and trick you? Ridiculous. The way you're reacting right now only proves that the power any of this has to rile you is entirely in your own hands. Or weren't you the one that said there was no need to apologize after our personalities had been shifted, because none of it was real enough to count?

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

I don't wish to apologize. I wish to completely cleanse my mind of the existence of this disease.

It isn't a trick. It's subjugation.

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

Either you're letting your fear addle you, or you're purposefully misunderstanding me. But either way, you're missing the point! I did not stop that moron Crichton from unleashing a teenager with a baseball bat on that chair just so you could use it on yourself in a misguided attempt to take the easy way out.

You want to focus on the so-called significance, then try to accentuate the positive. You are not her. You will never be her. You know so much better than that.

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

I am aware I'm not her. I know which thoughts are my own and which are her's. But I will not have any part of that heritage in me for as long as I can stand it.

Your counsel is unnecessary here.

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

No. You're right. Clearly it isn't. Because it looks like only one of us is willing to try and take things from the other.

[He's angry; the cold, hostile, bristling anger, not the more destructive one he tends to lash out with. This is the kind that sinks deep and settles heavy. His jaw is twitching. There's disgust and insult burning in his eyes.]

It's your decision. Your mind, and your tech. Do of it what you will.

[private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

[Scorpius is angry too: on most thing he can control his temper, but here on this one topic he won't allow himself to be compromised. The disgust seen in the other's expression only cements his own fury, as he sits in his chair, drumming his fingers against the arm rest]

I will take advice on all but this, Derek. Your counsel in this moment suffers from a drastic lack of experience.

Do not present yourself as an obstacle.

[private]

[walkingmeltdown]

I wasn't intending to be an 'obstacle'. Having discovered that I evidently am one, by all means. Let me remove myself from your path.

Good luck.

[And on that icy sentiment, he cuts the line.]