what's mistaken for closeness is just a case for mitosis [closed]

[lottawork]

Waking is not, historically, what Rush would regard as a favored activity. He is where he always is after being unexpectedly beset upon by sleep's inevitable grasp. The floor is solid and bracing, forming an aching spandrel between that plane and the paralleled arch of shoulders and spine. His skull is no longer the fractured mess it was, in reality left smooth and whole.

The entirety of the Rift's irritating, interfering traversal through the less fondly remembered aspects of his own past is etched into the anterior of his mind, still frames printed behind closed lids. He grinds the heels of both palms into his eye sockets with a fierce, fervent energy, as if it would be possible to scrub away the echo of that experience through execution of pressure alone.

He wonders how much of the dream's content is plausibly dismissible, an idea whose own plausibility he dismisses. Asadi was always too smart for direct obfuscation; it was what he liked about her, what he has continued to appreciate and value about her, but intimacy with one's past as exposed by the Rift is the unfortunate lead-in to a conversation he is certain they will be required to have and would prefer not to have, with her or anyone.

He is also aware, however, that he has been left very little in the way of personal autonomy in relation to that choice. Particularly since his latest endeavor in becoming more deeply acquainted with neuroanatomy has ground to a lamentable standstill, and to best acquire a more extensive knowledge base he will have to be - considerably more hands-on.

Fuck.

The trip to Asadi's apartment passes in its own dull-edged, lateral blur, instructions snapped out briskly to an unlucky taxi driver until he arrives, disheveled and recently woken and completely uninvited. It does not occur to him until after he has rung for her repeatedly that this may be potentially construed as socially unnatural or unacceptable, but he has already set certain events in motion and must see them to their uncertain conclusion.

Comments

[etherthief]

"Yeah, yeah." She can hear him pulling things out but she can't actually feel it, and that's weird as fuck. She glances over to watch impassively. "Look, I can help you out with this part, this part shouldn't be too bad. Let's just focus on that today, all right?"

On that, and nothing else - not dreams or future restoration plans or anything. Getting the arm to work mechanically again is going to take enough time as it is. Should keep them occupied for a good while, and that'll buy her time to get used to his insistence on trying to work out the other thing. His impatience is obvious and expected but he's being slow and methodical now, and hopefully he can just maintain that for a while.

[lottawork]

Ignoring the stumble of the conversation prior to this one, Rush snorts.

"That is what we've been doing," he answers wryly, attention fixed wholly on his work. Mechanical tasks were always a talent of his, a cruelty to the theoretical mind. What is currently required is a familiar function upon which he can execute and continue to execute; he can scrape Asadi's prosthetic clean of its accumulated detritus. Reconstruct it and its various functions. It does not fall squarely within his skill set, but he is certain he can do it. He has set his mind against the problem and he will find a solution and he will succeed because nothing can withstand that unwavering, energized focus.

But for one exception.

He refuses to indulge his mind with tired mental loops. Pointed evasion of certain topics does fall within his skill set.

[etherthief]

She nods, going quiet for a while, watching dully as he continues to clean her out. She feels a small bubble of gratitude rising up slowly as the unpleasant shock of the dream fades out more and more - it's not her business and it doesn't really change anything, it doesn't change that he's here, he came over anyway even though he had to know she was going to ask. He's still here for her, he will be pretty much no matter what, sometimes infuriatingly.

"Thanks," she mumbles, taking another long pull of coffee to avoid looking at him.

[lottawork]

He does not entirely know how one should respond to that and therefore chooses not to acknowledge it. The arm is their joint priority. He continues to divest its outer casing of its knotted, scorched interior, depositing the distorted electrical circuits upon the table in an efficient scatter.

A flicker of movement in his peripheral vision breaks him free of that serial loop. His head snaps up sharply, pinioning the source of motion with abrupt, nervous precision.

[ofschrodinger]

The cat crouched comfortably atop the refrigerator remains stock still apart from the gentle curling back and forth of its tail. It does not even seem to acknowledge at first that one of the apes at the table has turned to look at it, but continues to stare past Rush at Iman -- more specifically, at the dead prosthetic attached to her shoulder. When it does glance at Rush it looks at him only momentarily, not particularly concerned by his presence at present.

[etherthief]

His silence, though it's to be expected, just makes things weirder, so she's looking down at the table when Rush's hands suddenly go still, and she looks up in confusion before following his gaze and startling abruptly.

"What the-" she blurts, stiffening. For a brief moment the question is 'how did a cat get into her apartment' until, pretty immediately, it becomes 'that is not a normal cat what is this thing'.

"Um..." she says slowly, looking at Rush, eyes wide and trying to silently communicate what do we do?

[lottawork]

"When, exactly," says Rush, even and deliberate, eyes fixed on the feline-shaped thing perched atop the refrigerator, "did you acquire a cat with monochromatic eyes?"

His fingers fall away from the prosthetic and glide over the surface of the table until they grip its edges, weighted with an implicit intent to rise. He pauses, evidently unconcerned, watching the curious organism with his head angled thoughtfully.

"Been watching for some time." He keeps his voice low, pitched as a theory rather than outright interrogative. "Haven't you?"

[ofschrodinger]

I have been...observing you, yes, replies the cat, though there's no outward, physical sign that the voice they hear in their heads comes from the furred body. Who else would it be, though? It doesn't elaborate, but fans out its whiskers as it leans forward and asks, You intend to repair her?

[etherthief]

"I definitely did not acquire it on purpose," she says, failing to sound as even as he does. She watches him nervously as he addresses the cat which obviously isn't a cat, does he know what it is? She sure as hell isn't expecting it to reply.

"Ffshit," she hisses, jerking back in her chair. In their heads, no less. She assumes Rush 'heard' it too.

Repair her.

Like she's a thing.

Okay.

Uncharacteristically she doesn't really have any vitriol rise up, nothing stored. She just sits there, feeling a little smaller, like yeah, you're right, magic cat, this is stupid, it's not going to work, it's useless and we should probably just not do it at all.

It's sickening, how easy it is to bring her to that point now.

[lottawork]

The voice in their heads - Asadi's reaction is a fair indication that it lacks an individualized effect - appears to operate on its own frequency, potentially telepathic. Certainly not a typical cat; perhaps something that simply chooses to appear as such.

Interesting.

His eyes dart to Asadi momentarily, noting her atypically subdued reaction.

Less interesting.

Also more than mildly concerning.

Fingertips splayed over the table, Rush rises, brusque and fluid, expression tightening with the barest fraction of distaste.

"I intend to assist her, yes," he says, his disdain smooth and restrained.

[ofschrodinger]

The cat thinks this over, still not moving. Still forgetting to move. Permissible, it decides. But I will not be so lenient if you make another attempt to interfere with...

What is the word? Even in their heads these creatures require words, and the cat lashes its tail in frustration as it grasps for the knowledge of how to express what it means. The concept is as familiar as anything can be, but the word --

Ah, that's right. It is a little word, difficult for its insufficiency. With the Rift, it concludes.

[etherthief]

Iman goes very, very still.

Not so lenient. Another attempt.

This cat - this thing it is speaking on the Rift's behalf.

She feels like a little girl being chided, as she often was, for 'trying too hard.'

She sits like stone, now staring at the table, frightened and cowed, because though it was clear she was being punished for overstepping the boundary, she never expected to actually hear it talk to her.

She wraps her trembling fingers tightly around the still-warm coffee mug like an anchor.

[lottawork]

Far beyond the typical telepathic feline, then, possibly something directly tapped into the Rift itself. Its choice of phraseology is sufficiently more indicative - 'permissible'. Clearly an authority, or something accustomed to being understood as an authority. Calmly self-assured, idly possessive.

Entirely more alarming is Asadi's acharacteristic silence. His stare remains locked upon the cat-shaped entity, composed and even.

"I will not be so lenient if you make any attempt to hurt her again," Rush says pleasantly. "I do hope we understand each other."

[ofschrodinger]

The cat blinks in surprise and finally pushes itself upright, tilting its head at the little apes before it. No, it says, curious as to Rush's meaning. I do not understand. What is it you believe you can do to me?

[etherthief]

Iman looks up sharply, staring at Rush, hair prickling all over her arms. What is he doing, what is he saying? He won't be so lenient? What's he going to do, does he honestly think he poses any sort of threat to this thing? Does he think saying something like that won't make him an automatic target? He's just casually poking a fucking beehive.

The cat is equally bewildered, coy and questioning, and her shoulders stiffen as she pushes her chair back and stands. "Rush," she says, somewhere between warning and shocked. "Shut up."

[lottawork]

"I'm certain I can think of something," he says, evidently pleased to have engendered a reaction from the thing. He tips his head to one side in a slow, deliberate display of insouciance. "Particularly since you let a few of your specimens slip away quite recently, didn't you?"

Asadi's tensed, warning hiss provokes a subtle twitch of a muscle in his jaw, his amused veneer sliding into a hard glint in his eyes, an edge suggestive of a latent threat. "To me, that proves something rather important: that you're fallible."

[ofschrodinger]

For the first time, the cat uses its physical voice, letting out a feline growl that does not befit its dignity. This form can be so lacking at times. It would not be difficult to damage you beyond repair, it says sharply, because it wouldn't, it really wouldn't. You do not understand how gentle I have been.

[etherthief]

"No," she says sharply, and walks around to put herself between Rush and the cat, facing him - much as she wants to talk back, tell the creature if it fucking dared to do anything to him she'd - well, what could she do, really, and therein lies the problem. She resists putting her hand on Rush's shoulder, though she half-reaches for him on impulse. "Don't you fucking get yourself killed. Not on my account. Don't you dare."

[lottawork]

Asadi rises with the scrape of chair over floor, placing herself directly between cat and cryptographer. He meets her eyes, a reluctant flicker of his gaze from the feline perched above to her locked expression, and holds it only a shade shorter than the typical interval.

"I fail to see how that's relevant," he says diplomatically, partially addressing the form or consciousness or entity in mammalian shape. "It hurt you. Call it an opportunity for a fair exchange."

[ofschrodinger]

What would be the purpose? asks the cat, ears flat in irritation. It still does not understand -- that is, it understands that this laughably tiny being is insulting it, but it does not understand the purpose of the insult. There is a purpose behind every exchange, or there should be.

[lottawork]

Rush shrugs fluidly in a motion he hopes conveys nothing but a complete lack of concern, nothing but composed civility.

"Retribution. Recrimination. However you choose to define it." A painfully human motivation, but he has never been beyond that, a fact of which he is wholly aware. His unperturbed air sharpens, his tone laced with a fierce, defiant bite. "You hurt someone who happens to be rather important to me. Surely you anticipated repercussions."

[etherthief]

Iman keeps her eyes fixed on Rush (because she doesn't dare look at the stupid cat), a complicated mess of expressions flickering across her features; she's tense, furious with him for playing the agitator so soon after they both witnessed the Rift's idea of 'gentle punishment' - she's desperate to redirect things, angry with herself for not fighting back alongside him. She's grateful for his, what, his dedication to her - the casual declaration of her 'importance' - sure. But that's a low priority in the grand scheme.

"This is inadvisable," she hisses to him, her one hand drawn into a tight fist.

[ofschrodinger]

You are capable only of -- the cat has to stop and search for a word again, one sufficiently diminutive, --annoying me. The repercussions would all be yours.

This was not its purpose in coming here. It does not care for these micro-interactions the way certain of its counterparts do. No, the purpose was to investigate the aftermath of an escape attempt, and the cat abruptly refocuses its blank gaze on Iman. You are correct, it informs her. The...pathways...you would have exploited are gone. You will not attempt it again.

[lottawork]

His eyes flick to hers in an even, perfunctory glance. She is quite correct. However, he finds himself utterly beyond the general giving of fucks in regards to this creature and whatever aspects of the Rift it represents.

It has, intentionally or not, made things rather simple for him.

He smiles faintly, a brazen, one-cornered twist to his mouth that approximates a bladed edge.

"I wouldn't be entirely certain of that."

[etherthief]

She shrinks slightly, left helpless and frustrated as they continue to talk around her, Rush continuing to be a stupid shit - she presses her hand to her face, peering between her fingers at the cat-creature.

"You can't cage and torture people without expecting them to try to escape," she says quietly. "That was your first mistake. Your second one being that you're trying to tell him what to do."