Oh, what will you become?

[batricide]

WHO: Damian & YOU
WHERE: Around the city
WHEN: September ( january)
WHAT: Life threw a curveball he wasn't expecting and Damian is dealing with it poorly.
NOTES OR WARNINGS: damian is not okay

prompts below! pm me or hit me up @ minimoffs on plurk if you'd like a prompt!

Comments

[rehandle]

[ Stephen nods his agreement. it's true - those things, the things that are new, those are part that need focusing on. those are things that link what is with what was. it links in, too, with what Hafid had said just before. the fire. ]

Have you heard what all signs point to having caused the outbreak, after the fire?

[batricide]

I'm assuming some neurotoxin or biological agent.

[rehandle]

Yeah, of a kind. It was pieces of one of the monsters that sprung from the big guy a few of us took down shortly after we arrived. Somebody had some bodyparts in their apartment, and they went up in the blaze.

The DNA was found in blood samples of the affected. After the touch cure, those traces were gone, replaced with an influx of white blood cells.

[ the offspring of a creature that only appeared after they started appearing, and it just so happens that it was them with the innate ability to act as antidote. ]

[batricide]

[ Now that is interesting. ]

So we're, what, antibodies to fight a monster infection?

[rehandle]

Apparently so. But if Katelin was right, and she seemed to have an awful lot of information, the outbreak was incidental. The body parts weren't in the nurse's apartment, somebody else just happened to have them when the place went up.

Which doesn't give us any conclusive evidence as to whether they did or didn't know the effects of burning the monster's flesh, or what we'd be able to do in response. But the cure does prove a link between us and the creature. And if they can bring giant monsters crashing into the city, why would they bother playing the subtle long game with us?

Unless one or the other was a really big accident.

[batricide]

Giant monsters are generally hard to control.

[ Just, you know, in his experience. Unless you're Aquaman. ]

Do you have any images of the monster?

[rehandle]

There was a giant monster sprouting little monsters rampaging through the city. I imagine it's public record.

[ which is to say, no, he personally doesn't have any pictures, but you've got a computer in your head. ]

[batricide]

[ He rolls his eyes. Look - if this were him, and believe him, it has been him - he'd have scrubbed the whole damn thing off the internet. ]

[rehandle]

[ they might have done, Stephen hasn't checked, but he's not about to do the kid's research for him - especially not if he's going to give attitude. what he will do is collect his tea and his lunch and head through to take a seat somewhere less kitcheny. Hafid's welcome to do the same, there's a chair or half the couch available. ]

You won't find any footage of the take down, somebody made sure to get rid of that, but you should be good for the rest.

[ he doesn't see why the government would try covering up everything - it very much happened, the city still isn't fully rebuilt in the aftermath and there are bits of monster carcass on the black market, so. ]

[batricide]

[ Give him a minute while he flicks through. Seeing what he can locate. ]

Someone on our side or theirs?

[rehandle]

Not ours. Not necessarily theirs either. We don’t know.

[batricide]

Just someone covering it up.

[ He sighs, unfolding his arms to card his fingers through his hair. ]

[rehandle]

Yeah.

[ that's about the sum of it. ]

I wouldn't be surprised if it was just the government. All the king's horses weren't taking the thing down, and in swoops an anomaly? That doesn't look good. But that's conjecture.

[batricide]

[ It's probably the government. But the government could be in bed with the enemy. There's a lot to uncover. ]

So what do you suggest we do?

[rehandle]

[ do? ]

We deal with now, and we piece together what we can as it comes. It's obvious that we're wasting the resources we have amongst ourselves [ who would've guessed this shitty kid had such great insights? ] so we mine them. And then we keep our ears open and our eyes peeled.

[batricide]

[ It's what happens when a super tyrant makes a thirteen year old his right hand man. Five years of brutality ad death has made him into a pragmatic leader - something he shies from, he likes to be told where to be by someone he trusts - and well accustomed to losses and war.

And so sitting on his hands and waiting, watching, doesn't sit well with him. ]

Resources need to be refined. I'm teaching combat training.

[rehandle]

[ a raise of his brows - another surprise. ]

Good.

[ it really is a crying shame that he seems so prone to bouts of self-sabotage. the head on his shoulders is a good one... and a good deal more proactive than Stephen's been.

he's a not good very bad teacher, but he should've made sure everyone's at least got basic first aid skills by now. ]

Many people taking you up on the offer?

[batricide]

More than expected. I'd rather have a mandatory boot camp for everyone who joins this little party, but considering how much they hated quarantining them I don't think it'd fly.

[ He can't stop pushing forward, dragging everyone else with him. if he does, that's - well, that's when everything catches up with him. that's when the guilt comes creeping in. and without supervillains to thwart or alfred to care for, the guilt is overwhelming when he's still. ]

Most have some combat skill already, but even non-combatants should be capable of basic self-defense.

[rehandle]

Things being as they are, yeah.

In the event they'd rather not learn how to fight, Clarke and I, along with anyone with sufficient experience, could offer medical training.

[ medicine in this time is a far cry from what it was in his, but if you find yourself attacked by the mutant offspring of a space-creature and all you've got to do something about it is whatever's on hand, advanced technology isn't going to make the difference. ]

[batricide]

That would at least ensure they're not being wasted and won't bleed out. [ He'd rather people do both - but he's not going to push that issue. ] I can help if needed with that as well.

[rehandle]

Great. I'll set something up to get a better sense of how many of us are trained, see how much work there is to do.