apocalypsehowcomm | Event

Dogged

The message goes out to everyone on ADI's network. It seems to be something captured live. It's Pam Ruan, head of HR who holds a prosthetic finger up to her lips before whispering, "Everyone's pushing for transparency right now, right? Figuring out where threats are coming from and sharing. I think that should come at all levels. Let's see what Nia's talking about with Mr. Zyrian Steel, hmm?"

The camera flips around as Pam clearly creeps closer to an office door. There are muffled voices, and Pam sets the phone face up before using one hand to shove the thing under the door. The video shows a sliding picture of the office's bland ceiling for a moment before coming to a stop. The voices become much clearer.

"-down in Wolf Trap," a masculine voice is saying. Presumably, Zyrian Steel. "There's just no need for that."

"Zyrian, this ain't a negotiation." Nia Lehrer's voice is familiar to most people working at ADI at this point. They've likely heard her speak in some pre-recorded training videos at the bare minimum. Nia's tone is no nonsense and clearly on the edge of snapping in frustration. "You're not hiring us. I'm sending my people down to Wolf Trap next month. We've got evidence of those signalhead things being on the march, one down that way, your kick off for New Horizons in the park, and evidence out of there about the Lullaby Girl from some of my people."

There is silence.

"You remember her? Ava? Or Amber, it seems like. She's the one you gave us those Lucidio masks to help train our people against. Frankly, I'd be surprised if you don't remember her, Mr. S." Another drawn out pause. "You ain't been straight with me for a long time. You ain't been straight with ADI since Tawnya was Warden. You tell me you need us in Buffalo, payback for helping in Wolf Pen and Cortana and the mobile med units, and not only do half the staff come back with crab claws and whiskers, but I find out you're using us for business politics." There's venom in her tone. "Or were you just going to stay quiet about Etcher's enterprises competing with your own software companies? ADI is not your personal attack dog. You are our client. And I thought my friend. But I'm about 30 seconds away from firing you from both."

Further silence, then a heavy sigh. "And I was going to offer to send you and your staff on such a nice retreat." There's the sound of a chair being pushed back. "Warden, I think you misunderstand the nature of our relationship. You are the dogs. I am the master. I hold your leash. Or have you forgotten just how much technology I've donated to ADI over the years, how many of your systems run on things I built? We've had a mutually beneficial relationship up until now- Well… you and I have. Tawnya got to be a problem before the end, too. But I made sure that was taken care of."

"You self-aggrandizing son of a-"

"You're a much more practical woman than she ever was, even with those shiny ideals you hold so dear. You'll compromise for the greater good, to protect what's yours. Such a good Warden, looking out for her charges."

"What are you talking about? And get your hands the hell off my desk."

"Haven't you ever wondered about the title? Warden. Odd name for a leader of any organization, even one like yours. But maybe not so odd when you consider your more eldritch masters." A scoff. "The Hunt always does pick out the most oblivious avatars, doesn't it? What does a Warden do?" A beat. "She controls the monsters, Nia. Sniffs them out and contains them. And she goes after the poachers coming after her prey. Tell me, have you ever noticed how you're always picking up on threats far afield with uncanny precision. It's been getting stronger, hasn't it? Tawnya was the same way. As was her predecessor, I imagine."

"That's not- I wouldn't ever…"

"Wouldn't you, though? Every time you sent your own dogs after a threat, reveled in it, you were being such a good Warden, instilling terror in the hearts of your enemies, ADI's enemies. So many cults know who and what you are and they fear it. Fear the Warden of ADI, famed avatar of the Hunt. Even now, I know you've compromised yourself. Have you considered what that's done to you? You let that Visionary kid stay alive. I rather think that might have been the start of your slide, hmm? Making exceptions, just this once.

"Now," he continues, voice growing louder and footsteps starting toward the phone, "I realize this is a lot to take in, to think about. Why don't you do that self-reflection while I attend to other matters? You are doing good work, puppy. I need a dependable pet to take care of all those nasty pests who keep trying rituals. But no need to worry about the New Horizons launch, really. I'll just-" Zyrian pauses and everyone will have a view of a middle-aged caucasian man with dark, slightly graying hair and a beard. He's wearing khakis and a Hawaiian shirt, and he's looking down at Pam's phone.

"Well… fuck." He stomps a heeled shoe on it and the transmission ends abruptly.

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Winter chews on the inside of his cheek for a moment, then says: "She told me to shoot her. If she didn't step down after stopping Steele. Or she went too far."

"That won't last," Yelena says. "She'll find an excuse. And another, and another. If she meant it, she would have had you shoot her then and there. Or she would have at least locked herself away where she couldn't do any more damage."

It's a point. It's not a point he likes, but it's a point. He looks away, unhappy. "It felt like me. When I didn't know I'd been feeding the Stranger. She was mad, too. But I don't know if she will stop." Winter only knows of two people who stopped feeding their entity once they discovered it, besides himself: Cortana, who went through a difficult transformation to separate herself, and Kate, who hadn't really used her power much. Neither of them were Avatars.

"She told me I should cut off my arm if I really meant it about not feeding the Stranger," he adds.

Yelena scoffs at that, and reaches over to gently tap the metal knuckles. "This doesn't make you more than human," she says. "Which she would know if she ever saw you in the morning after you slept even a little bit wrong. The serum does, but that isn't something you can just cut out."

She hesitates for a moment, unease flickering across her face, before allowing, "But everything I have read - and there isn't a lot of it - has suggested completely cutting ties with one of the fears requires a significant sacrifice. Maybe that's what she meant."

"She said I was making an exception for it," Winter says a little sourly. "But I suppose that's a point. I could do it and sever the connection. But then I would be much less functional." And he doesn't know how to handle that. He's gotten used to the level of functionality that he has these days, but being down a whole arm-- a bullet proof, impervious arm, even if it hurts him to use it-- seems beyond something he could handle.

She nods, and there's perhaps a hint of relief in her expression. She would support him, if he did decide to take that route, would find ways to help him compensate for the loss, but...

"We'll keep looking for other ways to break the connection completely. Something that doesn't require you to cripple yourself to break away from something you never wanted."

An answer which relives him, too, though it doesn't show even as much as hers. He doesn't want to be down an arm. He actually likes his arm, for all it hurts him. It also protects him, and others. And living with one arm sounds... hard. Living is hard enough as it is.

"Thank you," is what he says to that, and tries to make that sound relieved and grateful, at least. "I do want to keep the arm."

"Then it's settled," Yelena says, and reaches over, carefully telegraphed, to give his flesh and blood hand a little squeeze.

"Now, it sounds like we have explosives nailed down, but if we're going to plant them on that creature, we'll need a distraction. I don't think it will want to stay still."

"Steve has Mjolnir," Winter suggests, a bit reluctantly. "He could make lightning strike nearby. Though it will burn him to do it."

"I remember the shape he was in after Wolf Pen," she replies. She's quiet for a moment, teeth scraping her lower lip as she turns the possibility over in her head. "If it's actually the electricity that burned him, and not some - stupid fucking magical backlash that just looks like electricity, then protective gear will maybe mitigate the damage. But only as a last resort."

"Protective gear." He pauses, then starts to smile a little, as the mental image of Steve in rubber gloves and galoshes crosses his mind. "I'm going to make him wear it anyway. He'll hate it."

Event - Dogged

cw suicide request

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