all of a sudden you're a hostage to things you thought you wanted

[closely]

( open for messages, action, overflow. )

Comments

[alchemyware]

[ medicine pocket watches how this person trembles, how he bring a hand to their head, and for them they find some sort of thrill from it. down onto their knees again, they crawl closer over to him to invade his personal space. a headache is understandable, he would be in this position considering what all they've done to him. ]

I have all sorts of drugs for that, what's your limit? Or should I learn personally.

[ the latter is more so allowing medicine pocket to do whatever they want, it's hard for them to deny the will to learn. that's why they enjoy being a researcher, it opens valuable paths to explore, and they can't say this person isn't one of them.

a very rare specimen if they might add. a human but with an interesting detail, it's like exploring a disease and unraveling a brand new cancer — is it a threat or is it something easily ignored, either way, it's something that must be cut out. they wonder if they pester them enough can they find some way to harvest this odd part of them.

if it's no dna, surely breeding is out of the question, there's a lot of things medicine pocket has to think about. ]

Unless you want to suffer.

[closely]

( 4 considers the offers, including the offer to continue to suffer. he doesn't have the sense of humor of his soon to be successor, nor of the likely most successful version of the cloned image yet. what he has brought to the table for all of this is his uncanny strength in being able to handle certain machinery and tests that previous models could not withstand. one of them died barely out of his metaphorical test tube. not that it works quite like that.

annoyance flickers through him though it doesn't show on his face.

yet he knows pointing out he signed a contract with peil and not with medicine pocket won't mean much to them.

another minute or two passes before he finally lifts his head again, hand falling emptily to his side. red and white light glitters across his skin, like the body he inhabits might implode like a star if given the chance; maybe one day he will. to siphon the permet from him, well, if 4 could read the other's mind he would tell him he was sure it could be done if only because it was infused into him in the first place. but that was a long process. he has the grim and humorless amused thought: would it kill him faster to remove the thing killing him anyway?

food for thought.

head still throbbing like a caution, he replies with mild softness, as if everything is normal, )

I'm not sure what limit you mean. Or what 'learn personally' means.

( the green of 4's eyes seems, when he shifts the angle of his head slightly, almost lanced with gold. )

[alchemyware]

Is it that hard to understand? I'll drug you and figure out how much you can take.

[ the issue here is that medicine pocket makes drugs through their own body— blood, flesh, hair, whatever it is they have, it's being used. this is a talent and a risk that they'll take upon themselves, and since they've drugged up their body so much, it does make them curious if one drug might do the other in.

well, this isn't about them, but rather what's coursing through them. ]

It's like alcohol, you have to stop somewhere unless you don't care about living.

[ and everyone should know their drug limit, or maybe that's just medicine pocket because of what they're willing to do.

can't be helped. ]

I won't kill you, but aren't you interested? If not, then great, luckily this is about what I'm interested in.

[closely]

( there's quite a long silence, the sort of wordlessness some individuals might take as consent or at least deep indifference. 4 simply does not know how to respond, isn't sure if he's 'interested' even if there is a morbid curiosity. still...

there's the smallest furrow to his brow. )

The way you say it, it seems like you'll do it regardless of what my answer is.

( not quite flat in tone but edging on it, mild. as if 4 couldn't be bothered to care too much about his own well being. at the same time, it could be chalked up to pragmatism. in his current state, argument is suffice to say futile. if medicine pocket kills him it's just a movement across the board sooner than expected, that's all.

well. no.

there's something important he's forgotten, the most important thing in the entirety of what peil technologies removed from him long ago.

reason. reason to survive. reason to succeed where the first 3 clones had not.

but he can't remember, doesn't even know how he came to get himself into this situation or the other.

and then there's his more-or-less creator. there's the books in 4's room. there's afternoons of dance lessons. there's...something.

under his breath, less to medicine pocket than it is to himself,)

...I guess it can't be worse than the permet.

( well. probably. )