Monday afternoon: Artie and Sarah
May. 23rd, 2011 04:18 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsArtie seeks Sarah out to ask her advice, now that he's reconnecting with his old foster mother Annalee.
Artie knocked on the door to Sarah's office, head pounding from the after effects of his powers training session with Marie-Ange. "Hey, you got a minute?" he asked, tapping at his speech synthesiser. The little robot voice was utterly without emotion.
Sarah looked up from her desk, and smiled brightly. The voice synthesizer was a little weird, but she didn't show any reaction to it. "I've got as many minutes as you need."
"Awesome." He shuffled his feet slightly and bit his lip momentarily, looking out the window as he typed. "Anyway, I want to ask. Do you ever want to go back? I mean, to the Morlocks? It's just that I've run into a few of them recently and they're still down there. And they'd like more people to join them." A few, Annalee, same thing, really, right?
"Do I?" Sarah laughed, but there was very little humor in it. Mostly, remembering it made her sad. "I did, all the time. When I came here, I made trips to the tunnels on a very regular basis--mostly when I got pissed off at someone. There was nobody down there then, just bodies and trash and memories. It took a very long time for that to change."
He shrugged uncomfortably. "Everyone down there now... They want to bring things back to the way they were before. It's like, they don't even remember how most of before kind of sucked." Coherence. Not his strongest point.
Sarah snorted, leaning back in her chair till her back popped. "Yeah, well, they kind of lost me when they tried to kill me." She leaned forward onto her desk, arms out in front of her. "I spent years terrified that I would be dishonoring them by going upworld. Years. And then when I learned to just be myself-- to stop worrying about what my life meant to a bunch of ghosts-- they turned up again in the tunnels and wanted me to be their sacrificial lamb."
Oh. That might have worked for Sarah but he couldn't leave Annalee. She needed him and he was the only way she was getting the money she needed to survive. Sure, he was passing off dollar bills disguised as $20's and $50's in convenience stores all over the city and passing the change on to her but that was just a detail, right?. She was getting old, too. "I don't know. Don't you think maybe they've changed? It's been a long time. I mean, Annalee wouldn't hurt anyone."
"Annalee might not, but unless she's in charge down there, she really doesn't have much say. The tunnels never were a democracy, even though we liked to think about them as some sort of paradise." Sarah looked at him, very serious for a moment. "Anyone who tells you that we belong down there, that we can't thrive anywhere but down there is wrong. We've all got options. Sometimes we just refuse to see them."
"I know I can survive out here. I can always, always get money and that's half of it, right?" Artie said, typing furiously. "But -- Annalee. I'm hers, now. She's my mother again. And she can't live out here, so I have to look after her."
Sarah shrugged. "I'm not going to tell you what to do. Fuck knows I've been determined to make my own bad decisions in the past. But you--" she got up, walking over to him and planted a finger right in the middle of his chest. Her expression was not unkind. "You don't belong to anybody. Just because we grew up in the tunnels doesn't mean that we are bound to them. You are not bound to Annalee any more than I am bound to Callisto. You can help her without going back into the dark."
"She's my mother. She gave me up once because the others made her and I'm not giving her up again." The little robot voice of the synthesizer didn't show his anger. "Look, I gotta go. Later, okay?"
Artie knocked on the door to Sarah's office, head pounding from the after effects of his powers training session with Marie-Ange. "Hey, you got a minute?" he asked, tapping at his speech synthesiser. The little robot voice was utterly without emotion.
Sarah looked up from her desk, and smiled brightly. The voice synthesizer was a little weird, but she didn't show any reaction to it. "I've got as many minutes as you need."
"Awesome." He shuffled his feet slightly and bit his lip momentarily, looking out the window as he typed. "Anyway, I want to ask. Do you ever want to go back? I mean, to the Morlocks? It's just that I've run into a few of them recently and they're still down there. And they'd like more people to join them." A few, Annalee, same thing, really, right?
"Do I?" Sarah laughed, but there was very little humor in it. Mostly, remembering it made her sad. "I did, all the time. When I came here, I made trips to the tunnels on a very regular basis--mostly when I got pissed off at someone. There was nobody down there then, just bodies and trash and memories. It took a very long time for that to change."
He shrugged uncomfortably. "Everyone down there now... They want to bring things back to the way they were before. It's like, they don't even remember how most of before kind of sucked." Coherence. Not his strongest point.
Sarah snorted, leaning back in her chair till her back popped. "Yeah, well, they kind of lost me when they tried to kill me." She leaned forward onto her desk, arms out in front of her. "I spent years terrified that I would be dishonoring them by going upworld. Years. And then when I learned to just be myself-- to stop worrying about what my life meant to a bunch of ghosts-- they turned up again in the tunnels and wanted me to be their sacrificial lamb."
Oh. That might have worked for Sarah but he couldn't leave Annalee. She needed him and he was the only way she was getting the money she needed to survive. Sure, he was passing off dollar bills disguised as $20's and $50's in convenience stores all over the city and passing the change on to her but that was just a detail, right?. She was getting old, too. "I don't know. Don't you think maybe they've changed? It's been a long time. I mean, Annalee wouldn't hurt anyone."
"Annalee might not, but unless she's in charge down there, she really doesn't have much say. The tunnels never were a democracy, even though we liked to think about them as some sort of paradise." Sarah looked at him, very serious for a moment. "Anyone who tells you that we belong down there, that we can't thrive anywhere but down there is wrong. We've all got options. Sometimes we just refuse to see them."
"I know I can survive out here. I can always, always get money and that's half of it, right?" Artie said, typing furiously. "But -- Annalee. I'm hers, now. She's my mother again. And she can't live out here, so I have to look after her."
Sarah shrugged. "I'm not going to tell you what to do. Fuck knows I've been determined to make my own bad decisions in the past. But you--" she got up, walking over to him and planted a finger right in the middle of his chest. Her expression was not unkind. "You don't belong to anybody. Just because we grew up in the tunnels doesn't mean that we are bound to them. You are not bound to Annalee any more than I am bound to Callisto. You can help her without going back into the dark."
"She's my mother. She gave me up once because the others made her and I'm not giving her up again." The little robot voice of the synthesizer didn't show his anger. "Look, I gotta go. Later, okay?"
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