audio } un: panoptes

[sisterswitch]

[hey look, it’s jack. on a video feed, which is pretty unusual, come to think of it? she’s set up at a table in the kitchen, frowning in concentration as she gathers her thoughts.]

Where I’m from, people like to say that the definition of insanity is doing something over and over and expecting a different result. I will be pretty mad if it turns out I’m insane for doing this again, because last time I made this offer, I sorta got my head ripped off. Not literally, although I’m sure some of those jackasses would’ve done it literally, if they’d been able to find me. Too bad Jane’s not here anymore, she could tell you all about it.

[and jack rolls her eyes, because yes, she’s still holding a little bit of a grudge about all of that. the expression is short-lived, however - she shakes it off and continues:]

Anyway, remember that weird stalkergram video we saw the other day? That wasn’t some performance art piece. I know who sent it. See, before I ended up here, I spent a few years in a city called Dualis - real neon hellscape, right out of all of those cyberpunk movies you know and love. It was run by a self-aware AI called Mindseye, and Mindseye had this bad habit of killing literally everyone in the city, and not in the Skynet “drop a nuclear bomb on everyone” kind of way. This thing wiped out the entire population it was created for with a virus, and then started kidnapping people from their own worlds so it could study them and make robot copies of them. Murmur was there too, so ask him if you don’t believe me.

[sorry angel frand, you’re apparently a more trustworthy adult authority figure compared to jack.]

Back during that weird time when we were all wandering into each other’s dreams, there was this one dream about some things that happened in Dualis, and I couldn’t figure out where it came from. I thought maybe it was some kind of mental transfer from one of us who’d been there, but it wasn’t from a person’s perspective - it was Mindseye’s memory of what happened. That’s what Mindseye was talking about when it said we were all connected. Oh - right, I should’ve mentioned - Mindseye escaped from Dualis. Uploaded itself right into all of those robot bodies it built and skipped town. And it sounds like it landed somewhere in this part of the final frontier.

[and that’s worrying! for obvious reasons!!]

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’m not keen on being hunted throughout space by a homicidal AI. Now, I was able to fly under the radar in Dualis because of this tattoo I have. It’s a sigil I created for making myself invisible to surveillance - long story short, I’m a witch, I used to do a lot of meatspace activism when I was in college, and getting arrested isn’t anywhere near as fun as it looks on TV. Fool me once, et cetera. Point is, the sigil is magick, and it works, and I am willing to share, but I’m asking to trade something for it. Nothing big like a firstborn child - just a story. I want to hear about a time you did something unjust and got away with it. That’s all. That’s the offer, and you can certainly refuse it, but I’d take it as a personal kindness if you’d not be a dick about it.

[aaaaaand that’s all, folks!]

Comments

[sisterswitch]

[mmm. he's not wrong.]

Two can keep a secret if one of them is dead, huh? OK, how about this - you don't have to tell me a secret, just tell me something that scares you. Really, truly scares you. If you tell me that story instead - what scares you and why - I'll give you the tattoo. Will that work?

[smokingguns]

[Again the time to think was now, and really he was more concerned with Mello or Near.]

Anything I said even in your pocket would have you taking it to the grave. Good song, though.

Being left behind. Being alone. But this won't save them, will it?

switchin' to private

[sisterswitch]

[she's soulless, not heartless. and while she can't exactly relate to being afraid of being alone and left behind, because she's been that way for as long as she can remember, jack can certainly understand. and given that he's trying to protect his friends, it makes even more sense.]

I could be talked into sliding scale. Your story, in detail, and tattoos for all three of you. Deal?

Locked;

[smokingguns]

Alright. I'll make sure to contact them, small ship as it is they're both pretty recluse.

Fuck, alright. I don't want running commentary in this shit so just read it and do whatever that isn't commentary unless you need clarification or some shit for the voodoo to voo-do what it needs.

I am. A murderer among other lesser shit. I killed someone that deserved it when I was a younger kid but I'm still afraid of it coming out. It's not hard to get caught for that, but punishment? None. End result: I got put in an orphanage and given a new identity. It's not the only time I've had to use violence, or sexual subservience because I made a mistake or seven thousand in my mid-teens looking for a guy I knew would only let me find him and go to him when he let me find him and go to him. Not any time sooner.

There's your summary.

returned lock.

[sisterswitch]

No commentary, I promise.

[just the facts. commentary will come later in the form of a nightmare, but that's not what's important right now. jack too is technically a murderer, and it was more than a decade ago, but she still is of two minds as to whether her parents deserved to be literally scared to death. on the one hand, they were homophobes who disowned their daughter for coming out to them as gay. on the other ... they were her parents, and despite their flaws, some part of jack still loved them.]

Tell me more about the person you killed and why they deserved it? Not judging, just curious about the full story.

[smokingguns]

[Matt really had to think of something he didn't want to think about. The why. The why was easy but the why didn't always make sense.]

A man in the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong thing and according to my memory and an eye-witness I just snapped and grabbed something sharp. I was really young, so I don't remember a lot of it and don't remember a lot of my childhood as it is. Blocked it out.

[Alright so it wasn't all the details like who the eye-witness was, or what he was doing in the wrong place at the wrong time. But it could've been anyone as long as they met those criteria that day.]

[sisterswitch]

[hmm. still too vague.]

Was the man a stranger to you? What was the wrong thing he was doing?

[smokingguns]

[Matt triple checks the lock on this.]

No and I'm pretty sure you're smart enough to figure out what some men are after.

[sisterswitch]

[yep, that's what she thought he was hinting at.]

Believe me, as a woman in a patriarchal society, I am extremely aware of what a lot of men are after, and the tactics they'll use to get it.

But you're right - he deserved it. His death wasn't an injustice. In fact, I'd say you made the world a better place.

[smokingguns]

Yeah I don't care anymore. I don't want to talk about it. Either this is enough for whatever sick fantasy you need it for, or it isn't and I find out you're double crossing. Which is it?

[sisterswitch]

That's fair. And yeah, that's enough, but it's not for a sick fantasy. I need these stories because I need to eat.

[smokingguns]

I wish I could pretend that's something that surprises me. This place is too god damn weird for me. Was my childhood trauma a good snack? Tell me something good came out of it.

[sisterswitch]

The good that comes out of it is you get a custom magickal tattoo and I avoid getting hangry. Trust me, you wouldn't like me when I'm hangry.