text; after the babadont plot

[bothbarrels]

θ: Who here is an artificial life form? How were you created?

θ: Who here has siblings? How do you get along?

θ: Who here has a close friend who you consider closer than family? How did you develop that bond?

θ: Who here knows you died back where you came from? How are you dealing with that information?

[ Yes, it's the middle of the night and Theta is bored. Plus he just wants to know more about the people here. He hopes everyone who responds sticks to text; he doesn't want to awaken North. ]

Comments

text

[zerofield]

I am closer to my friends than I am to my biological family, although that may say more about the difficulty of my situation with my family than it does about my closeness to my friends. I had to...relearn emotions from square one, may be the simplest way to explain it. I think the dissonance between how they remembered me and how I returned is to blame for the friction with my family. My friends, on the other hand, have known me no other way.

[ It takes a few minutes for the second part of the reply to appear, because that's...its own issue. But after a pause, more does come. ]

May I assume your question is in the sense of knowing that you (general you) die, and reconciling your existence here with the fact that you are dead at home? I did die, but the circumstances may not...quite be comparable.

Re: text

[inner_child]

I do mean that, yeah.

What do you mean you had to relearn emotions?

Re: text

[zerofield]

I was experimented on, when I was younger. It was a few years before I was rescued, and in that time I'd disconnected myself from feeling as much as I could. It's been taking a long time to...reconnect myself, I suppose you could say.

Re: text

[inner_child]

That's terrible! The same sort of thing happened to Alpha. I think he went on afterwards but it carved a lot of pieces out of him.

Re: text

[zerofield]

That's not surprising, sadly. I don't think there's really one right or best way to handle something like that. You just do what you have to make it out the other side.

[ Or...you don't. ]

Re: text

[inner_child]

I agree with you. It took a long time for me to learn that. I'm pretty much the piece of Alpha that contains all his distrust and fear. So being trusting, or being brave, doesn't come easy.

Re: text

[zerofield]

You're approaching strangers now, at least. That seems like progress to me.

When I was recovering, I wouldn't talk to even the nurses I saw every day for months.

Re: text

[inner_child]

Oh, wow. That makes sense to me though. I didn't trust anybody at first but North. I pretty much only talked to other people through him.

[zerofield]

It sounds like North is a good person to have around.

[inner_child]

He really is! Do you know about how he's the one who confronted the monster?

[zerofield]

I figured someone must've done something to shake it out, but I didn't realize that was him, no.

[inner_child]

He did. He's really brave and strong.

He already had his sister and his best friend yell at him for how he did it, though.

[zerofield]

I'm glad someone got it out into the open, even if that fight was...nervewracking.

[inner_child]

I'll let him know you said so.

[zerofield]

If he's been yelled at, I think he ought to get at least a couple of thank yous.

[inner_child]

I think so too! He deserves them.

[zerofield]

It was a nasty fight, but it was a fight and not a straight up ambush, so he has my thanks.

[inner_child]

Thank you for telling me, too. I really appreciate it.

[zerofield]

If it helps, I'm glad.

[ It's still kind of a "wow" moment for her when she makes a positive impact at...anything, really. ]

[inner_child]

It does! It really does.

How are you doing after the whole thing?

[zerofield]

I'm in one piece, and it's not the worst thing I've ever seen. So...it was certainly no fun, but I feel okay.

[inner_child]

I'm glad. Hopefully it's not the kind of thing where you start feeling bad later...