with fingers crossed they'll talk to me

[buildstherobots]

[phone]

[This... this is a drunk dial. It's obvious from Dist's tone, the way he's slurring... hell, even the subject matter. He's been brooding a lot lately, mostly due to being brainwashed. Twice. To have your mind forcibly taken... it's not an easy thing to recover from.]

We're all... here, we're all surrounded by people. Prisoners, like ourselves. But who among us... who doesn't feel lonely? Disconnected from all those around you... I fear that's their goal. Isolation, even in the face of a crowd.

[Dist takes a deep breath, possibly taking another swig from his drink.]

We're overdue for a town attack. Divide and conquer. Without unity... I don't know what we'll do in the face of whatever they throw at us.

Comments

[buildstherobots]

He... can also summon this crystal that writes over your brain. It sits there like a parasite and keeps you from doing or thinking anything except what he tells you to. I was killed once before, and he found me again so he could keep me under control. That's why I was able to fight back; he programmed in a self-preservation instinct or something.

[Well, this conversation is unnervingly sobering. Time to pour another drink, though with much shakier hands this time. He's trying to keep it out of his voice.]

[strike_you_out]

[It all becomes very clear to him now. And with that clarity comes a bit of horror. After his time spent in Mayfield, he's developed a fear of falling prey to mind control.]

You felt trapped. [And now it makes perfect sense why. It seemed as if only death could break its hold.] Are you afraid it'll happen again?

[buildstherobots]

He's gone.

[So, logically, it can't happen again. That nauseous feeling in his stomach won't go away, though.]

And I was trapped. It wasn't like droning. When I'm a drone, I don't remember when I wake back up. I'm not aware for it, it isn't...

[DRINK]

[strike_you_out]

...painful? [Slugger attempts to fill in the blank. He isn't sure what's set Dist into this mood but he's more relieved now than ever to learn that the Doctor is gone.]

[buildstherobots]

It makes you crazy. Your mind is still there, but if you try to think and fight it, it suppresses you with a terrible headache. Mental paralysis, I guess, while your body does what it's programmed to do. You want to scream but you can't.

[strike_you_out]

[Just silence on the other line for a moment as Slugger physically shudders.]


Why did he choose you?

[buildstherobots]

I was spying on KINGDOM for Edward and the Major found out. It was the Doctor's punishment for me.

[This is getting easier. He hadn't really talked to anyone about what the experience was like before.]

[strike_you_out]

You were spying for Edward??

[Really, it shouldn't be all that shocking that Edward had something to do with this, and yet... ]

[buildstherobots]

He didn't ask me to. I wanted revenge for the Major betraying me.

[It was months ago, but Dist can hold a grudge like a champion.]

[strike_you_out]

[It occurs to him that, in spying for Edward, Dist had been spying for the whole family. And in a sense, he'd been punished for being an ally. Suddenly, that feeling he's come to identify as guilt settles uncomfortably in his stomach like sluggish, icy knots. It didn't matter that Edward hadn't asked him to do it or that the Major had been the root cause. He just has to say something.]

But still. ...Thanks.

[buildstherobots]

For what? Nothing got accomplished; the whole venture was a failure.

[strike_you_out]

Because you did something. [And trying something is still doing something, even if it fails.]

[buildstherobots]

I've only found out what you already know, that the Major doesn't intend to leave you alone until Edward is a shell. He offered me asylum in exchange for staying out of his fight with all of you. That's when he figured out I was spying, and I assume he told the Doctor soon after.

That's all I was able to dig up.