a soviet defector and a test tube baby walk into a bar

[did_unkindly]

Jack is really looking forward to getting out of here.

Maybe he'll visit his parents. The farm seems like a beautiful dream compared to the broken, bloody awfulness of Medical Pavilion. He's pretty sure he never walked around in fear of drowning any second back in Kansas. Nobody tried to put hooks in his liver at all. It was nice!

He sits behind a reception desk, shaking. He knows he's got to push forward, he's going to keep pushing forward, but... give him a moment, okay? He's just been swarmed by splicers; he's found out that he has to detour around and find some kind of mad doctor just to reach Atlas's submarine. Boy. That's going to be... great. He's going to die, isn't he.

So he's regrouping behind this reception desk -- the receptionist's still here, give or take some of her head -- with the wrench in one hand and a creme cake in the other.

Munch. Munch. Munch.

Breathe, Jack. It's aaaaall gonna be okay.

Probably. Maybe.

Index, Why Not?
Scene One: He Blinded Me With Science ~or~ Stop Giving Yourself Brain Damage, Asshole
Scene Two: Telekinosis ~or~ Been Around Rapture And I, I, I, I Can't Find My Baby
Scene Three: All I Wanna Do Is [Bang Bang Bang Bang] And [Big Daddy Noise] And Take Your ADAM

Comments

[did_unkindly]

...and a stream of electricity pins the nurse in place, crackling around her. Like I said. Being jumpy is a survival strategy.

Okay so maybe after the whole 'are you a splicer' talk Jack didn't exactly think this one through all the way, but you know. Zap first, answer questions later. He aims his gun as well, heedless for a moment of the stranger beside him.

[krasotamozga]

The man's first shot catches her right through the chest. Bang! And a second rips through her head.

Or was that the stranger's? He only fired once.

When the body hits the ground he glances behind himself, surprise and horror on the same face. He knows damn well what the young man's been up to to have been able to do that, but he can... walk, talk, shoot all right...

... must not have been using for long.

"You, too," he repeats. But there's no anger behind it. Call it the neutrality of the scientific method.

[did_unkindly]

Oh jesus, he didn't want to make the guy look horrified.

Don't look at him like that. He's spliced but he's not a Splicer.

The crackles of electricity that are lighting his veins up blue short and vanish, and he gets a defensive kind of look. Nods.

[krasotamozga]

In the ensuing pause the look fades off the man's face. Looks like he's too tired to argue.

"I should warn you, maybe..." he adds, striding across the hall - "... that you're doing a serious damage." He nudges at the dead splicer with his toe. "The frontal lobe. Amygdala. After that to the hippocampus and finally the motor cortex." He turns her over. Nothing good on her. "It's why they have the... uh."

English fails him for a moment, and he shakes his hand to demonstrate. "... Twitching."

[did_unkindly]

Well, Atlas did say that plasmids were what messed up all these people, but he also didn't sound too worried about Jack taking that one, so... Atlas'd tell him if there was a problem, he thinks. I mean Jack is helping him rescue his family, they're tight.

Also those sure were some words. Jack may possibly definitely be looking confused. Explain like he's three, please.

"I don't feel different." That one's less defensive, more just stating facts.

[krasotamozga]

"You wouldn't," Kostya advises him. "At first."

"I can explain more," he continues, "but this is not a good place." He returns his gun to his waistband and dusts off his hands. "I can take you somewhere safe, but believe me..." he comes closer, passing in and out of the light - "... I will watch you."

From the look of those eyes, that's something he'll make good on.

[did_unkindly]

...Well, if his brain is going to short-circuit on itself at any minute, that does seem like something he should know about. Good work, Kostya. You've put a seed of doubt and worry into Jack's face.

He opens his mouth to answer.

[spliced_irish]

Okay, this has gone on long enough. Fontaine has a plan in mind, and it doesn't involve the kid getting waylaid by some well-meaning chump advising him to Just Say No. What's worse, it looks like Jack might even be thinking about going with him.

Nope. If you're undermining Atlas's authority, you get shut down. If you're waylaying the kid on his way to win Fontaine a city, you get shut down. If you're a real screwy character and try to do both at the same time...

The radio crackles, interrupting Jack before he can get a word out.

"We're wasting precious time here, boyo," he says, all Irish and reasonable but understandably impatient, Jack, you get him? "Wouldya kindly disregard this trash and get a move on?"

[did_unkindly]

Jack closes his mouth and the doubt vanishes.

God, it's a relief to hear from Atlas. Of course he would've said something if there was a danger that Jack might... you know. This guy's obviously making a mistake.

"Sorry," he tells Kostya, as he adjusts the radio's strap on his shoulder. Bounces the pistol in his other hand. Moves a foot, ready to leave.

"I've gotta go."

[krasotamozga]

Kostya turns on his own heel and melts back into the shadows. There's a volume he could say about what he's just observed, but for now... well...

... Now's not the time.

"Well... if you wish to follow Atlas..." he leaves as a parting shot - "... as you wish."

[did_unkindly]

Okay, now there is something he wants to say and it's -- this guy knows Atlas? He opens his mouth to say it and everything, his face registers surprise.

But that would continue the conversation. And he has to get moving. Atlas's family is out there, the sub is out there, the sooner Jack escapes from this horrible leaking battlezone the better.

So he shuts his mouth again with just barely a shake of his head, and sets off up a grand staircase.