towerofanimus | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Characters: AU Ψiioniic & AU Handmaid
Setting: starfield floor
Format: Prose
Summary: Were they cheated of a relationship when English coopted the Handmaid? The world may never know, but at least they can find out now.
Warnings: None.

Sometimes, he wondered if it was morbid that he enjoyed spending so much time on the starfield floor. It should have been a reminder of his slavery, his torture.

Instead it was bizarrely comforting. It was the best part of his time on the ship - he'd always loved the feeling of being able to see forever that came with being part of the ship. Sometimes he thought it was the only thing that had allowed him to maintain some shred of his sanity.

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"Yeah, join the club," Ψiioniic sighed. "We all are. Thome of us harder than others. So far we haven't had any luck. What time are you from? There'th a lot of trolls here, but we're from all over the timeline - and not even all the same timelines."

"I'm the farthest along." Sort of. Of course, her place on the timeline was hard to pin down, since she traveled so much, but he doesn't need to know that. "What have you found out?"

"Farthetht along? Are you Aradia grown up?" he ventured, though that didn't seem... quite right. She looked like Aradia, but she certainly didn't have the rust-blood's attitude. Or the glowing wings, come to think of it.

"We know this place is being run by people who brought uth here to experiment on us. We found a thervice elevator that only they seem to be able to access. We're trying to break into it, but we're not having much luck yet."

"No." She hesitates, because for some reason, she feels compelled to continue. "I'm her ancestor."

She's sick of talking about herself, though, and is clearly trying to steer the conversation in another direction. "What have you tried? Who's running this place?"

Ancestor? How could she be Aradia's Ancestor if she was the farthest forward? Rust-bloods don't live very long, so it couldn't be that she was just that old. Wouldn't she be Aradia's Descendant, in that case?

Well, whatever the explanation, it was pretty clear she didn't want to keep talking about it, and Ψiioniic wasn't about to push her. "We don't know who'th running it. Nobody's seen them. Jutht their stupid robots, when they come to fuck with uth." His lip curled in remembered disgust. "They can turn off our powerth at the push of a button, leave us totally helpless and do whatever they want. They can get inthide our heads, turn us against our friends, our quadrants. SS - the Signless, my moirail - is trying to organize a resistance."

"Shocking," she mutters, planting her hands on her hips. "I've already talked to him." He was all cocky and stubborn and friendly and kind of annoyed her. She studies him for a moment, then takes a few steps closer. "What's the point of this room?"

So she'd already talked to Signless? Ψiioniic wondered what kind of impression his moirail had made on her. He'd thought he was reserved and quiet, but she put him to shame. Of course, Signless seemed bound and determined to make a convert/friend out of everyone, so he'd doubtless have applied that relentlessness to her, as well.

"I think it'th supposed to make us realize the futility of struggling, or something," he said, shrugging. "Watching all the universeth die, one by one, to make us feel thmall and insignificant and helpless. But, other than the part at the end where there's not many stars left, I kind of like it."

Signless had told her quite a bit about what had been going on in the tower, and the Handmaid is still tempted to ask Psiioniic what his experiments had entailed. For the moment, however, she's content to listen to his explanation of the room. She waits for him to continue, and when he doesn't, decides to bite. "...Why?"

"Not everything about being a Helmtsman wath terrible," he said softly, looking out at the stars again. "I could see forever, it felt like. So many stars, and nothing between them and me but the hull of a ship that wath basically my own thkin, in so many wayth. I could lose myself in them, in the patterns and beauty of it. When She wathn't there, anyway. This reminds me of those timeth."

She doesn't understand it. Even if the Condesce is here, she can't exactly strap him to a ship and make him her slave again. Even if whoever is in charge is carrying out experiments, anything must be better than a thousand sweeps of servitude and suffering. If she was certain she was beyond Lord English's influence here, and certain that he wouldn't find her and increase her sentence as punishment, there's no way she would try to escape. She studies him for a moment, eyebrows knit together in bemusement.

"Why are you trying so hard to go back?" No view is worth that.

"What? NO," he exclaimed, shaking his head and staring at her. "Go back? Not in a million fucking thweeps. As horrible as it ith here, I've got SS back and I'm not bound to a ship, under Her control. It's not that I want to go back. It'th just that I'm reminding myself that, no matter how bad it was, no matter how bad thingth are... if you look hard enough, you can find something that helpth."

He gestured around them. "This was my thing that helped, when I wath in the ship. Now, it helps me here, too."

She can't help but roll her eyes at that, crossing her arms. "After everything that happened to you, you're still that naïve? A projection of stars won't help us here, and it certainly won't protect us at home."

Though, to be honest, she's a bit jealous he had the chance to distract himself like that, and that he's free here. She lets out a frustrated huff. "What do you plan to do? Overthrow whoever is in charge and take control of the tower?"

He narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm not naive, I'm jutht trying to find something bright to keep me from drowning in the darkness. It's not easy. What the hell do you know about 'everything that's happened to me'? Pretty sure I've never seen you before."

He supposed it was possible that she knew him from later on his timeline - though how that could be possible when she said she was from ahead of the wrigglers and they were a thousand sweeps beyond him, he had no idea.

That comment throws her off, and she frowns. She doesn't know how to explain without getting into things that he really doesn't need to know, so she responds in possibly the most pathetic, stilted way possible. "I was... Taught about you."

Lame.

"Taught about me?" He stares at her, thoroughly non-plussed. Why would she have been taught about him? He's nothing special. A companion of the Signless, sure, but he has no doubt that the Condesce would have done everything in her power to make certain all memory of the Signless and his message was suppressed. His lieutenants wouldn't even get a footnote in history.

This is suddenly awkward, even for her. What is she supposed to say, that some creepy abusive omnipotent being taught her about Signless and the others? That she'd been around for the rebellion, too, in the background and making their job harder? She lets out a breath and looks away, not responding.

"O...kay." He's really just not sure how to handle this troll at all. She is by far and away the strangest troll he's ever met. Possibly the strangest person, which was saying something considering the people here in the tower.

But maybe she was just... well, shy. Or something. Maybe she just wasn't good at talking to people he could understand that. "So... you don't like the stars much, then?" he tried awkwardly. He was NOT leaving, but he wasn't just going to ignore her while she was there, so until she went away, he would keep trying.

She shrugs, sneaking a glance at him again. "They remind me of home," she mutters. Even if his attempts are awkward and forced, no one has tried this hard to talk to her before. It's odd.

"Aaaand that'th a bad thing?" he hazards a guess. It certainly seems to be. He thought he'd hated his life before coming to the tower, but she seemed to be one-upping him.

That was pretty scary if it was founded, actually. If it was unfounded and she was just emo, then it was lame. He kind of really hoped it was the latter, because he wouldn't wish his life on anybody, let alone a worse one.

"Of course it's a bad thing," she snaps. Sure, she's disdainful towards pretty much everything, but Alternia and her "masters" certainly take the cake. And out of anyone, the Psiioniic shouldn't be surprised. "I'm sure it won't be difficult for you to come up with a few reasons why. I have no idea why you seem so happy being reminded of it."

Hey, look, he's actually gotten her to talk! Or irritated her enough to rant. Same thing, right?

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SURE DO MISS HAVING AN EDIT BUTTON

EDIT BUTTONS ARE FOR WEAKLINGS

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