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[empathicfault]

"Will Graham here. Leave a message."

[Open for text/audio/action/whatever.]

Comments

[abrightboy]

He was too sensitive, but I can understand why you identified with him so strongly.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a doctor like my dad. Help people. Save lives. Like my dad. My first breach, I was a doctor in a futuristic city. Son of a prominent surgeon, providing medical services to the poor for free. Part of me wondered if his life was how I would have felt if he was what I thought he was. Some people I talked to seemed to think that should have given me a sense of relief as opposed to say… grief.

What happened to him? The person you occupied.

[empathicfault]

[ Will sighs deeply. He can tell Malcolm is pushing him to separate himself into compartments. He doesn't want to. But he can't go on for too long like this, either, with conflicting actions popping up occasionally. ]

He...he got infected. It was-

[ He stops for a second, sits up straighter in his armchair. Frowns. ]

It was Hannibal. Dark hair, but- wait, that's- that's not possible. There's no way he could've been there. Right?

[abrightboy]

I'm not going to say it's impossible, but I think you know as well as I do that probably your mind is blending the memories.

[empathicfault]

Yeah. [ He shakes his head, trying to clear it. ] Yeah, has to be.

...is there someone named Sebastian Sims on this ship?

[abrightboy]

…There’s a Jon Sims. I think I met someone named Sebastien, but I don’t know his last name.

[empathicfault]

[ Will narrows his eyes as he tries to remember, but there's too many memories to sort through. He'll just have to check up on it later. Someone reminding him of Hannibal so strongly is a bad sign. ]

We'd been friends since we were kids... [ Not right. He's going to get corrected. ] The- the breach me- and him. But Sebastian had never been...normal. Just faked it. Anyway.

That Will- he got infected and. It went fast. It progressed so fast. He bit Harkin the next morning. Started believing he'd been infected for years, decades maybe. Joined up with a group that was just...doing damage. Lost his mind.

[ Okay, now it's a little easier to use the third person. ]

It felt like the encephalitis.

[abrightboy]

It was a brain infection, essentially. Maybe it basically took hold the same way.

He had your name?

[empathicfault]

Mmmhmm. Same name and everything. Just a zombie apocalypse and a different mental issue.

[ Will would shrug, but it'd just be an uncomfortable twitch. So instead he just slouches back into his chair. ]

[abrightboy]

I've never had the same name in a breach, though I remember some people did. I think that would be more unsettling. Harder to separate it from yourself.

[empathicfault]

Yeah. Definitely.

[ And now he's curious. ]

What name did you have?

[abrightboy]

This time I was called Noah Walker. Raylan was my older brother Mason. He raised me after our parents were killed by the disease. I've never been the younger brother before. It was an interesting perspective that I'm sure my sister would gloat about.

[empathicfault]

Oh. I knew Mason. Not well, but- [ He chuckles. ] Our brothers were friends.

I, uh. I never had family like that, before. Harkin took care of me.

[abrightboy]

I expect you'll gather a Barge family before too long. Maybe we can be that for you. I miss my family back home but... I've been making friends here. Slowly but surely.

[empathicfault]

[ He looks mildly hopeful and then suddenly frowns. He doesn't voice what just popped into his head. At the very least, his shaking seems to be dying down. ]

Seems like that happens around here, a lot. Maybe it's a case of all the misfits and outcasts being thrown together, finding like minds.

It's not what I expected, considering the inmate and warden dynamic. I thought it'd be a lot more...antagonistic.

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm breathes out a chuckle and nods.]

It wasn't what I was expecting either. When I agreed to come here, I thought I was taking on another sort of... law enforcement-esque position but. It hasn't really been like that. At first I was a bit horrified that there wasn't even a comprehensive code of conduct or set of rules. Like. Ask two different people and they can't even agree that murder is necessarily wrong. But I guess you learn to work inside this... non-system in time.

[empathicfault]

I can imagine it's more jarring for the wardens than the inmates. All of us are in dire situations, after all. Almost anything's better than being dead.

[ He coughs a little and wipes his face. It's honestly kind of nice that it's just sweaty and not bloodstained. ]

Maybe the idea is to get more individualized help this way. No system, just people that'll actually help each other in each other's vicinity. It's...chaotic, but I don't hate it.

[abrightboy]

I don’t hate it either, anymore. Not since I found out it’s more like therapy than law enforcement.

[empathicfault]

[ That pulls a bit of a wry smile out of him. ]

How was it before you figured that out, though?

[abrightboy]

Intimidating. I wasn't sure how to fit in or what I was supposed to do here. It didn't help that some people recognized me from some other ship they collided with just before I got here. I don't have any memory of being there, but I'm told I worked there. It was some kind of mental hospital.

[empathicfault]

[ Will frowns, deeply. ]

Glad I missed that one. I didn't know there were other ships out there.

[ He's about to ask about details when he realizes he's not shaking at all, anymore. He takes a deep breath and it doesn't hitch. ]

Were you distracting me on purpose, or was that just going off on a tangent?

[ He'd believe either, considering the two of them. ]

[abrightboy]

Started off in column A, but column B got interesting, so I got sucked in too.

[He studies Will for a moment.]

Do you want something to eat? Or drink?

[empathicfault]

...water's about all I think I can keep down, I think. Between the death toll and...well.

[ It turned out there were worse ways to consume the human animal than through Hannibal's gourmet cooking. ]

[abrightboy]

How about some herbal tea? Get some warmth and vitamins into that water.

[empathicfault]

[ Will nods. ]

Think I could do that. Thanks.

[ He doesn't really mean to, but slides further down to rest his head on one of the arms of the chair. Now that he's calmed down, he's pretty exhausted. ]

[abrightboy]

[Malcolm doesn't disturb him. He slips out of the room, makes the tea, fills a thermos and brings it back to Will's cabin. He pours a cup and puts it within Will's reach. It's hibiscus, cherry and rosehip. It smells like fruit and flowers and is full of vitamin C.]