sputnik_shanu | IC Contact post!

In regards to our conversation before, I have some interesting news. There is apparently someone here who enjoyed re-education. Goes by the name of Ral. I have not spoken to him yet but he might be our best bet to get into re-education without too many ill consequences.

Osborn.

[Well, that didn't take long. But she sighs, slightly exasperated at this particular name. She has developed a slight affection for the boy, but her voice betrays none of it.]

I know Ral. He is a child, and I cannot decide if he is just naive and sheltered or deficient in some way. Where did you get his name?

From a woman at a party, one who should know me but doesn't. [He's leaving out the name for now.For his own reasons.]

[Oh but you are hesitating, Sikozu. Others would have leapt at the opportunity. That does not bode well. Child or not, he is a lead.]

Hm. At the very least we could speak to him about his experiences in re-education.

Someone from your world?

[That idea is possibly even more interesting than anything they could learn about re-education, particularly from Ral.]

We can try, but he is not particularly eloquent. But if he claims to have enjoyed the experience, perhaps we can convince him simply to subject himself to it again. We would get better data from concealed scanners than from his descriptions, in any case.

Edited 2014-05-15 01:35 (UTC)

It seems that I am not the only one from my world. Perhaps someday you might not be as well.

[Much better. About time she showed the same spark he'd seen in her before.]

An excellent suggestion. [Let her think she thought of it, that's fine.] Since you know the child, perhaps you should be the one to broach the subject with him. I'd be happy to accompany you, if you wish.

[She breathes out quietly. She isn't lonely, she doesn't want her "friends" to show up in this backwards city. She wants to understand the technology that brought her here in the first place. She brushes off the patronizing offering and gets back to the meat of the issue. ]

But she didn't know you though she should? Was she impaired or are you from two different points in time?

[She's really hoping its the latter. ]

Hm... Let me speak with him first. He can be perverse, but he likes me so I think he might be more inclined to agree if I approach him alone at first. And if he agrees, then we run almost no risk of punitive action should he be caught forcing them to reeducate him.

Two different time points. [That and Jean Grey's died so many times he's not sure she should know him at all.]

Wonderful. I look forward to hearing from you soon then.

Fascinating. The ability to draw us out of time as well as space and reality.

[She lets that sentence hang in the air, so full of potential.]

If only we could find a way to gain access to that technology as easily as reeducation.

Hm. [He could do a lot with that kind of power.] Small steps first. If we succeed here, who knows where we might be able to get into.

[She purses her lips and nods reluctantly, even though he can't see her.]

Yes, you are right.

[No matter how much she wants it now. She can be patient. Jonna knows she can be patient.]

[Patience is a good quality to have, particularly when one has such high goals.]

I hope to hear from you soon. [And expects it.]

[And unless she has something else to add, he's finished.]

Sikozu, it's Angela. I need a really big favor. A re-education kind of favor. Like right the fuck now.

[Forgive her for being so rude. She's in mid-panic, trying to keep her worry from preventing her from getting things done.]

[Brusqueness does not bother Sikozu, and her answer is quick and businesslike.]

Explain.

[She can guess, though, and she is already moving to gather her things.]

A friend of mine got out of re-ed a few days ago. When I saw in the building, she was high as a kite, naturally. They drugged her so bad that I don't even think she was fully aware of or remembers me helping her out. Now it's a few days later and whatever they gave her is still in her system and she can't even remember something like where she was born.

[She's breathing hard, getting all those words out on almost one breath alone.]

I was wondering if you had anything to help her. Anything at all, even just a little bit. I'll pay you for it.

I see. I have something I could try. No compensation required.

[In addition to being happy to fight against the control of the government, she has been hoping to be able to test the efficacy of her latest tweaks to the formula and this case sounds more severe than she's ever seen, so the payment is already twofold without getting currency involved.]

Where can I find her?

[Thank god, on both the antidote and money part. Angela's still very low level and doesn't have much to her name, but if push came to shove, she'd go without a few meals to make sure Maya was safe and sound. It's just what she'd do for all her friends. Hospitals were free here for basic care, but Angela wouldn't trust them to fix the problems re-ed caused.]

I can bring her to you. She's being a little... difficult--[Quite the opposite: Maya's being too easy.]--and I think it might be easier to take her outside than convince her to let a stranger into her house.

That will be fine. I am in the process of moving, but my things are for the most part still at my apartment. Building 8, apartment number 303.

I will be there to meet you in approximately five minutes. You can handle getting her there?

Yes. I'll be there as soon as I can drag her out.

[A pause and then in a tone of utter gratefulness:]

Thank you.

You are welcome.

[She had told Angela to call her in the event of re-education related problems, had promised help, and she was not one to rescind a promise. But even if she hadn't made the offer, she would not have turned her away.]

See you shortly.

Sikozu.

[It's not a friendly greeting. In fact, it's not much of a greeting at all: too tense in all the wrong places, consonants sharp. Pressed.]

Aeryn? Are you all right?

[Sikozu can already tell she is not.]

I need you to tell me the truth. [They're close enough for it, aren't they? That Sikozu wouldn't lie to her regardless of her affiliation.

Regardless of his actions.] Has Scorpius done something to Crichton?

[The truth can be such a dangerous thing to ask for and Sikozu braces herself for it. Difficult or not, Aeryn deserves to hear whatever truth she can give her.

Her pause is heavy and silent and a few long microts pass before Sikozu breathes.]

Yes, I believe it is possible. I do not know the particulars, but I believe they fought. I think it likely Scorpius took the worse end, considering how I found him, but I have not seen Crichton to be sure. Is he all right?

[She makes no excuses, takes no pains to explain that Scorpius was not in his right mind at the time. That information can come later if Aeryn wants it, but for now her bare knowledge is what she presents.]

[Weighted pause, audible exhale where Aeryn shuts her eyes and breathes out to let realization sink in: he'd been telling the truth - in whole or in part.

But it doesn't change the fact that John's not there.]

Thank you. [She drops back, tucking her the side of her face down into the fabric of his pillow.] If you see him, tell me.

[Amd with that, she severs the line.]

They re-educated him. [And, despite the fact that she's certain clarification isn't necessary at this point between her tone and their last brief conversation:] Crichton.

[That this is Aeryn's way of reaching out for help in regards to it is obvious enough.]

What?

[It's not as if she doesn't understand the individual words, but but them together...]

Is he all right? Are you?

I'm fine. [It's John, after all: if anyone is capable of toppling the poor frellwit even at the worst of times it's her-- and at the best of times she's fairly certain the answer's still the same.] But he isn't.

Look I know you said there was nothing you could do but tell me that assessment's changed in the past few weeks.

[Her first instinct is to worry. The drugs can do strange things to people, so she is at least somewhat relieved at the answer for the moment she allows herself.

And then it is business. She mentally tallies her more recent achievements and considers their usefulness.]

How affected is he? How is he acting?

He's always been strange [Everyone on Moya knows that well enough by now, whether they stay on for one solar day or a hundred at least.] but right now he's-- different. Unhinged, almost like he's afraid to be left alone.

In fact I'm certain he's afraid to be left alone.

Agitated?

[She has been working on an approximation of Noranti's fyang powder over the last few weeks which is finally far enough into a stage of refinement that it has been tested on humans with good results.]

I have something that should calm him down. Hopefully even let him sleep until everything else in his system wears off.

[It is an offer, if Aeryn wants it.]

Amongst...other things. [Honestly it's hard to tell how much is the city's influence and how much is John's inherent, unsuppressed emotion.

But Sikozu's offer provides more than moderate relief: has Aeryn exhaling audibly as concern bleeds off.]

So it does wear off?

[She can guess at it, she's seen enough re-ed victims to know a few things.]

Yes. The compound combinations they use seem to vary from person to person, but it normally wears off within a few hours, a day at the most.

Meet me at John's apartment in an arn, then. Bring as much as you think ought to keep him under for a full solar day. [She nearly suggests bringing Scorpius to inspect any potential neural damage, but the idea's discarded when she remembers how violently he'd reacted to the thought of it.]

I doubt he'd hurt you, but I imagine he'll stay calm if I'm true to my word and stay present throughout.

He doesn't worry me.

[She's pretty sure even she could take John out if she really needed to. Though she be but little, she is fierce. She can thank John for that little bit of his people's literature, too.]

Which apartment is his?

[Since he was pretty squirrelly about it before.]

Building eight, second floor, fourth door.

[He might bite at her about it later, but desperate times, desperate measures and so on and so forth.]

All right. I will be there in an arn.

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Barely an hour after her conversation with Scorpius, voice;

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