[Nexus] Remnant III

[Lord Magtok]

Missy's Place

"Do you ever just assign little titles to float over peoples' heads, just for kicks and giggles? I used to do that not too long ago. Finally stopped a couple days ago, actually, when an AMENite from way back in the old days came to visit. She was trying to make peace after all our bickering and killing and whatnot from those times, and also ask if her maybe-permadeadtimed husband had been around, and not permadeadtimed. Meanwhile, I was trying my hardest not to snicker every time 'ENORMOUS DUMBFACE WHOREBUCKET SPECTACULAR' flashed in bright neon lights over her head, for fear of having my head pulled right off my shoulders. It wasn't anywhere near as fun as it sounds."

Magtok sips at his hot chocolate, and then picks his head back up in an instant, figuring he should elaborate on that a little.

"She err...used to impale me every now and then on a gigantic huge-ass anime sword, I should probably mention. Yeah, I sound sorta like a jerk if I don't include that part. Took a bit of work, but the title thing is gone."

[happyturtle]

Missy's Place

"Er, no... I mean, the tactical software flags friends, enemies, and neutrals when it's running, but I never thought of putting tags on people." Missy says.

Magtok is weird.

[Lord Magtok]

Missy's Place

"Right. Figures your stuff would be utilitarian and junk, whereas mine is all..."

Magtok removes his forearm and shakes hands with it. Then, after setting it down, it floats up in the air in front of him, and he high-fives his own hand, before playing a brief game of rock-paper-scissors. After winning, he's met with a rather obscene gesture from the sore loser hovering appendage, before plugging it back into his elbow where it rightfully belongs.

"Like that."

He grins at his own silliness, beaming at the ridiculousness of it all, proud of how eccentric and wacky and Magtok it is, before that look abruptly falls to pieces. He nearly chokes on his hot chocolate as his mood suddenly swings all the way around to complete misery.

"Oh gods. Oh gods. That kind of bull**** is exactly why Pat's in agony right now, isn't it?"

Oh gods, it is, isn't it? If that other clone had just been more alert, or had fancy features like Missy's super-reflexes, or redundant organs or some sort of augmented healing powers or if he'd put more time and research into the shapeshifting stuff. This is all Magtok's fault, every bit of it. Just a little time and effort, some security and concern for his own well-being instead of the usual recklessness and fooling around like some prepubescent idiot, and nobody would've even dared to take a shot at him.

[happyturtle]

Missy's Place

Missy laughs at the Rock Paper Scissors game, but when Magtok's mood shifts, she tries to hug him.

"If you were full of soldier mods, you'd be a completely different person, and then Pat wouldn't have fallen for you." Missy says. Then frowns. "Not you. Him. Ugh, you know what I mean." Pronouns are insufficient!

[Lost_Deep]

Leaving Interrogation Room

"Allright. I'll go ask the commander." Terral then leaves the room, looking for someone in charge.

[Mindfreak]

Interrogation Room
As soon as Terral leaves, Hunter puts away the picture.
He looks over at Iamar.
"Is it possible to get something to eat in here? I'm freaking starving."

[Devixer]

[Interrogation Room]

"It depends on what you want to eat, I suppose," Iamar says, remaining standing.

[Mindfreak]

Interrogation Room
"Can I get a hamburger then? Cooked rare?" he asked hopefully.
He can't eat things that are too cooked. Because of this infection, he couldn't eat meat that was cooked all the way.

[Devixer]

[Interrogation Room]

"I see no problem with that. I'll have to put those handcuffs back on, of course," Iamar says as she approaches the Hunter.

[Mindfreak]

Interrogation Room
"Come on now, do you really think I'm going to try to escape from Remnant?"

[Devixer]

[Interrogation Room]

"I can't take any chances." Iamar takes the handcuffs from the table and tries to put them on the Hunter's wrists.

[Mindfreak]

Interrogation Room
He sighed and let her cuff him.
"Very well..."

[Devixer]

[Interrogation Room]

"I will be back with your food." Iamar walks out of the room, locking the door behind her. Assuming nothing odd happens, she'll be back in a few minutes.

[Mindfreak]

Interrogation Room
Hunter doesn't do anything crazy.
But he does try to see if he can find any of the cameras that are surely in this room.

[Lord Magtok]

Missy's Place

Magtok sighs. The hug helps, but he still feels like stupid, foolish, useless scum. At the very least he could've invested in maybe a forcefield or two for the paddleboat.

"They had a son, y'know. An adult son, fresh from the vats and only a few weeks old. They only spoke once. I don't know how he's going to manage..."

[happyturtle]

Missy's Place

Missy holds the hug another moment, then twists to point at the photo of the orc girl on the wall. "The night of the charity auction, there was a tenement fire in the slums, started by human supremacists. That little girl was one of the survivors, pulled out of there by one of the meanest, nastiest marines in Remnant." Geez, Missy, where are you going with this?

"Prophet knows why, but he decided to adopt the kid, and despite everyone's expectations, she's thriving. So if Jyarl could turn out to be a decent parent, I'm pretty sure you can too, Magtok."

[UncleWolf]

Entrance

(Continued from Inside)

Jyarl can't help but smile at the comment and sticks his hands in his pockets as he starts to head to Alice's office. "I hope so, but even if it doesn't, I don't have any regrets about it."

[happyturtle]

Entrance >> Delisle's Office

The two walk into Delisle's office together, and she looks up. "How can I help you? Everything okay with Jefferies?"

[UncleWolf]

Delisle's Office

"I need to change my last name. Possibly Jefferies' as well." Jyarl tells her right off the bat as soon as he takes a seat. "Things have...changed regarding my family."

[happyturtle]

Delisle's Office

"I see," Delisle says. She pulls out a few forms. "I have you down as Jyarl Olearus, and her as Jefferies Hellstomper."

Missy takes a seat nearby and doesn't interfere.

[UncleWolf]

Delisle's Office

"Then put mine down for Hellstomper." He clarifies with a small sigh as he leans back into the chair. "I take it there's a mountain of paperwork I need to sign?" Jyarl asks.

[happyturtle]

Delisle's Office

"Have more faith in me than that. You just have one place to sign, then I'll cascade it out to everything else. You brought a witness, so that makes it easier." Delisle says, giving Jyarl a short form to fill out.

"Can I change my beneficiary designation while I'm here?" Missy says. "I know it wasn't that long ago that I did it."

"It's not a problem," Delisle says. She opens another file while Jyarl is filling out his form. "You can change it as often as you want, and the most recent one supercedes all previous designations."

"I'd like to add Jefferies as an equal beneficiary. I can do that, right? Split it between two kids?" Missy asks.


Vas's place

Early in the morning, Elaine Stevenson knocks on Vas's door, looking for Jake.

[UncleWolf]

Delisle's Office

Jyarl is halfway through signing when Missy talks, and he can't help but blink and look at her, stunned. Sure, he knew she liked Jefferies, but enough to consider her her own kid? "I...I don't know what to say." He admits for the first time in a very long time.

Vas' Place

Vasquez answers the door, looking quite groggy and tired, but she smiles and leans against the frame to let Elaine in. "Come in. Sorry for the mess. I wasn't expecting you." She explains as she shuts the door behind the guest. At the moment, Vasquez doesn't have her cybernetic arm attached, so she has to do things a bit awkwardly with just the one arm for balance.

[happyturtle]

Delisle's Office

Missy bites her lip. "I'm sorry. Am I crossing boundaries?"


Vas's Place

"I'm sorry. I'd just gotten used to everyone around here keeping such early hours," Elaine says. "Should I come back later?"

At that moment, Gus comes out of Vas's bedroom, wearing nothing but a towel, and pads to the kitchen, too focused on getting coffee to notice Elaine.

Elaine goes stiff. "I beg your pardon. Yes, I am quite sure I should return later." she says, and turns to go.

[UncleWolf]

Delisle's Office

"I don't think you can cross a boundary that was never there to begin with." The officer admits. "And I don't mind. Just took me by surprise."

Vas' Place

"Huh? What do you..." She trails off as she looks to see what Elaine was looking at. It takes a moment before she remembers that Elaine didn't know about her and Gus being together, and by that point, Elaine is likely headed out. When Vas does remember, she curses loudly. "It's not what it looks like!" She shouts before wincing. "Okay, it's exactly what it looks like, but there's more to it that you need to hear, so I would appreciate it if you stayed a moment while Gus goes to get dressed." She says with a look at Gus that brooks no argument.

[happyturtle]

Delisle's Office

Delisle makes no comment, just quietly gets the paperwork ready for both to sign. Soon enough it's done.

"I could show you some pictures of him, if you like, back at my place," Missy says to Jyarl.

Vas's Place

When Vas calls out, Elaine stops, her back still turned. After Vas finishes, she stands in place a few moments, taking some deep breaths. Counting to ten.

Gus wisely scurries back to the bedroom to dress.

Finally Elaine turns around. "I will listen. I will even give you the chance to let Jacob hear about this from you instead of me. But understand this: if you do not tell him, I will." she says in an icy voice that carries all the haughtiness of generations of nobility.

[Lord Magtok]

Missy's Place

Magtok shakes his head. "I don't think it works that way, Missy. I've had my chance, I've had two chances, and I've blown them both by getting killed. This one's less likely to come with an apocalypse as punishment for my failure, but it's already been hideously screwed up. Maybe, if I try really hard, I'll get a World's Second Best Dad mug on Father's Day. I mean, my dead body is all over the Wall, it's not like anyone can just forget that..."

No kid should have to have their own father's death recorded on live television, replayed endlessly on the news, and mocked by cultists. That's not the sort of parent anyone should look up to, or to be inspired by. It's an absolute disgrace is what it is, really.

[UncleWolf]

Delisle's Office

"I'd like that." Jyarl whispers back as he passes over the paperwork and gives Missy a small smile of reassurance.

Vas' Place

"We won't have to because Jacob already knows." Vasquez says firmly, ignoring the icy tone of her voice. "He's known since it started, when I told him. I doubt he's completely comfortable with it even after all this time, but he accepts it and understands."

[happyturtle]

Missy's Place 1.0

Missy grabs Magtok by the front of the robes. "Don't you dare give up on him," she hisses. "Don't you dare. Your son needs you now more than ever. And you need him. You can be as scared of failure as you want, but don't you dare let it stop you from doing the right thing."


Missy's Place 2.0

Missy takes Jyarl back to her place, inwardly cringing at the gossip that would no doubt result from this. When he gets there, he'll see the same small apartment described a page or two back, with photos of Halifax on the wall, and one of Jefferies.

"His name is Halifax Flores. I was 17 when he was born, and he was adopted by a pair of wonderful people. I saw him a few months ago, after my heart surgery, and he's very happy and well-loved." Jyarl may be able to tell that there's more to the story than that.


Vas's Place

That... was absolutely not what Elaine was expecting to hear. She just sits there with the O_O look on her face for a bit. Long enough for Gus to return, fully dressed and sit down next to Vasquez, putting his arm around her.

"I tried not to, for a long time," Gus says. "But I love her, and Jakey knows that, and Vas felt like she couldn't just love half of us. She loves us both." He runs his fingers through his hair, knowing he's making a muddle of it.

"This is... I can't..." She closes her eyes and takes another deep breath. "If Henry had ever been with her that way, I never could have forgiven him. I would never have let him touch me again."

[Devixer]

[Interrogation Room]

As promised, Iamar is back inside the room before long. She carries a paper plate with a cheeseburger on top, cooked as the Hunter had asked. Iamar sets it on the table before trying to uncuff him.