Origami Around
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One Nice Bug Per Day
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Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
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@hanasongforever
INTRO
Name: Hana Song FC: Sandra Oh Codename: Polka Dot Age & Birthdate: 48, December 5th Gender & Pronouns: cis woman, she/her City/country/place of origin: San Francisco, CA Previous Occupation: scientist at FLOWR Power/Ability: Noughties, never ages
Personality: Hana is haunted, wry, and sketchy. She is tired and full of regrets but still insatiably curious about everything that's happened, why it's happened, how it's happened. Her loyalties are grey.
Although he could have clarified, it seemed more effort to explain, so Lokni decided to roll with Hana's assumption. "Something like that, although I'm more of a sound maker myself. " Don't want to scare the locals, and all," he joked lightheartedly. "I'll take the whispers of nature over the garble of the city any day, and yourself?" he asked as he prepared the doe to be hung up in the tree. Lokni found himself grinning about Hana's inference that he didn't like people; he didn't blame her for thinking that way. It was probably odd, some stranger living out in the woods when there were perfectly good bungalows available- and beds too, for that matter. "I like people, Miss, you could spin it that maybe not many people like me," he returned her joke. Lokni was well-liked enough in his own opinion - as long as he wasn't getting into fistfights on the shore or having yelling matches, he couldn't complain about his current plight.
"I could eat the whole thing if I tried," Lokni protested," over a good long while that is. Nah, I'm just pulling your leg. I preserve the majority of the meat and use what I need immediately. Not good to have fresh meat sitting out n' all. I try to use all of the parts, and what I don't use, the artist of the camp takes care of." "A makeshift generator?" Lokni asked, raising an eyebrow, "Any idea how to make one of those Miss Hana?" Electricity would be a nice touch, running water was good n' all too, but not necessary to live. Just an added plus.
"Um..." Lokni's question was pleasant conversation, small talk stuff. But Hana had a hard time answering. Could she even remember what a city sounded like? It had been so long.... "I guess I've gotten used to nature, because I had no choice," she decided to respond, after a far too long an awkward pause. "I'd rather be in a lab."
She confirmed for Lokni, though he hadn't asked. But she just wanted to say it out loud. "I'm a scientist."
Surreptitiously (or so Hana thought), she watched Lokni stretching easily to hang the animal carcass up. Muscles rippling effortlessly. It was an annoyingly casual display of masculinity, unintentional but still stirring that unpleasant primal curiousity. What was it about people wanting to watch other people perform active feats? Basic, nonsense.
Hana quickly looked away, but perked up at Lokni's counterpoint. "Oh! People don't like you? Why not?" It didn't occur to Hana that he was joking; she was just glad to know someone else who was disliked.
A derisive snort. "An artist? Here? That's...stupid. I mean not stupid, but pointless. And a little self-aggrandizing, to live here and be an 'artist'."
She liked Lokni's politeness, and also approved of his curiousity about the generator. Shrugging casually, she turned and meandered a bit closer to Lokni's fire. "Yeah. You know those white generators by each of the bungalows, right? Built by FLOWR engineers, obviously. But the generators in the village are just transformers, like telephone poles.
"The root of the power itself...well. Look around. It's not like there are any wind turbines or hydro dams around here, right? Where do you suppose the electrical power comes from? "
Now that was a surprise Rosey would not have expected in a million years from Hana.
Rosey actually stopped dead in her tracks as she listened to Hana admitting that she wasn't supposed to use the serum on herself. Maybe if it was anyone else, Rosey would have felt actual empathy for the woman, would have thought about just how terrifying her own decision must have been when people started dying and she had the serum in her system already, how much she must have been beating herself up about the truth, how, in a way, that made her even more one of them.
But this was Hana and all Rosey could see were their disagreements that lasted two decades, the fact that the woman started out on the other side and still, still hoped to be back on the other side - there was no way she'd allow herself to feel empathy for Hana, not even on this, not even when she understood what the woman must have been going through immensely.
"Isn't that, like, a big breach of trust in any kind of scientific experiment?" She had no idea how it actually worked, but it felt wrong on so many levels, what Hana did. "You know what, that doesn't actually matter, your consciousness can handle that, I am sure of it. But that just makes you one of us even more, despite how you keep trying to seperate yourself from all of us. It only proves my point even more, Hana. You made the decision to give that shit to yourself, just like we all did when we signed all of those fucking papers they put in front of us.
"And it probably means that you are absolutely right," a sentence Rosey did not think she would say directed towards Hana specifically, but here they were, "she put you into the dog house. And I don't think there is any escaping it now."
None of this would actually help either of them with their situation, but somehow this knowledge both pissed off Rosey even more and made her feel so much better.
Until, of course, Hana put unveiled threats in between the two of them, by offering so kindly to keep quiet about how Rosey was more useless than she was. (Which was absolutely correct, Rosey was not one to have done much of the surviving in the past twenty years, but that was absolutely not the point right now.)
She slowly looked up at the woman and then pushed herself up onto her feet and stepped closer. "You know what, Hana, you might be right - I am not as useful to them as you could be. But I also wasn't deeply integrated with Dr. Pan and Mr. Hook either. I didn't spend twenty years trying to get back with them. And no matter how useful you are, you lose their trust? No information in your brain can save that situation. And with that, I can help you." She could both sell or sink Hana, Rosey was sure of it. Because even if she wasn't as smart, she was good with words and she was a hell of a good actress still, even after all these years, in her mind she could turn them against Hana if she really wanted to.
Mutually assured destruction, how fun.
"So what do you say - nobody owes anyone anything, and we both make sure we're good with these people?"
Rosey's first question actually hit the nail right on the head. Hana flushed with annoyance over how quickly Rosey reached that conclusion. But then, even in Rosey's business, she could understand the severity of things like 'breach of contract' and the respective deceptions of her own industry for people to get ahead.
She struggled with how to answer, resorting to a series of stammering and blustering without actually responding. And to her relief, Rosey dismissed Hana's thoughts in the end. But the truth was: Rosey was right. Hana broke the rules, she took advantage of a pure, almost sacred system, as a scientist. She'd put herself before the experiment, and made herself a test subject without Dr Pan's approval. It was hugely shameful, and now Hana had to listen to Rosey trying to convince her that Hana was one of them. Hana recoiled at the thought.
"It's not shit," she snapped, letting her annoyance drown her shame. "This is one of the most important scientific breakthroughs in human history! Dr Pan is on the precipice of one of the greatest discoveries known to mankind. If you can't see that yet - if you have petty regrets signing that contract, that is your problem, Rosey. This isn't just -"
she put you in the doghouse
Hana's rant cut short, embarrassment swarmed her at the thought of Rosey King saying this out loud. "Don't mock me just because Dr Pan did what she thought was best for the experiment. It's my job to convince her otherwise. Look - we're back in the Panop Village. We are so close to making contact with her and Mr Hook again! We need to get back in their good graces, Rosey. Think of the success of you - of us! With our serum results, we are living proof her first experiment is still important!"
She rocked back on her heels, taking in a breath to compose herself. Hana was getting excited all over again, eager to make amends with her employer and mentor. All she had to do was convince them that her and Rosey (and the other survivors) were valuable results.
And, of course, the more pressing issue of this second experiment, and the stupid announcement. Hana pointed to the loudspeaker and grumbled. "This was probably Mr Hook's idea too, you know. He only has money, zero foresight. No vision!"
She shook her head. "Anyway. Okay, fine - fine fine fine. Let's be useful to each other, so we can figure out...how to...well I know what my goal is." Rosey knew too: Hana wanted back in Dr Pan's good graces. She tilted her head at Rosey, squinting suspiciously. "What's your goal? You better not say revenge. I'm not going to allow that."
Jin paused for a moment when she greeted him in Korean, his expression lit up with surprise and excitement. “Yes! I’m Korean. 안녕하세요, Hana.” He replied automatically with a smile, and a polite nod towards her. “Born and raised in Seoul.” He added, as he looked over at her. It felt a little odd mixing in the Korean after only speaking English for all those years spent in the US. Jin adjusted the strap of his bag, continuing towards the access point he had been using to get in and out of the cruise ship. “I'm Jin,” he offered in return when she introduced herself, leaving out his full name. Hyun-jin felt too formal, and whenever he heard it he was brought back to being lectured by his parents.
Her joke about not murdering her brought back the reality of the situation. Right. The announcement, and the threat the newcomers supposedly posed. He shook his head. “I’m not really the murdering type,” he promised. Not even bugs. He’d chase them out with a broom and an old pizza box as shield, but he didn’t have it in him to kill them - except mosquitos. Fuck those guys.
“My powers are hexmaking.” Jin explained, unsure if that even made sense. “Just, you know… symbols and patterns and…” He gestured vaguely. He had a bandage on his left hand from where one of his hexes had backfired spectacularly, but he didn’t mention that little detail. “What about you?” Jin slipped his bag off his shoulder and tossed it up into the entrance to the cruise ship - or at least where he usually entered. “Wait, you know them?” He turned to look at her, immediately a little more on edge. “And the food shortage is just a start of… what, exactly?” This announcement was really the first real threat since he’d arrived, and he realised that this island wasn’t just happy camping with silly powers, but actually something deeper and more serious. Paired with what Selin had told him, he really should be more guarded. “Should I be scared of you?... I mean, how can you help?”
The pretty kid's reply was far more natural and confident than Hana's Korean. She sighed wistfully. "I wish I could speak more than just English. My Korean sucks. Do you speak anything else?" His name was likely more than just 'Jin', but Hana was secretly, selfishly glad for the palatable name for Americanized tastes.
Hana followed after Jin, who assured no hostility. "I mean, I get it. People are stressed, and a food shortage just makes things worse, right. But I promise, I'm not to blame for this." She made it sound sincere, at least to her own ears. "I'm just worried not everyone's as anti-murder as you are."
Then Jin said his powers were 'hexmaking', and at first Hana didn't understand. She broke the word down: 'hex' and 'making'. Hex. "No, I don't know. What the hell is a 'hex'?" Some vague definitions niggled through her confusion. "What like...puzzle-making? Or - you can't mean like spells," Hana laughed. "C'mon. Magic isn't real. You probably just don't understand."
That Hana sounded condescending, didn't register for her. She blithely shook her head. "No, I don't have any powers. No bracelet with the stone, like you have - " She showed her own bare wrists, then tried to look at Jin's bracelet. "What kind of crystal do you have? Seems everyone's got some different precious stone. Must tie into these powers for your test batch."
Maybe Hana shouldn't have said 'test batch', combined with her admission of knowing Dr Pan and Mr Hook. It was Jin's turn to be wary, and Hana really didn't want that. She needed allies! She pointed suddenly to the sloping deck of the cruise ship. The railing was close enough for them to climber onto and find a ship door inside the beast. "Oh hey! Is this your entrance? Seems easy enough to get in from here."
Jin had questions, but Hana was already trying to awkwardly climb over the railing, onto the tilted deck. "Ugh, this is harder than I thought. Can you give me a little help first? Quid pro quo, right?"
Jin wasn’t a stranger to the cruise ship. He would come and go whenever he wanted some time to himself. He was a little unsure if he was allowed to go in there, but he kept going back to look for parts to set up a makeshift music station or at least a mixing desk. He had brought a larger bag this time, in case he could find a way to get some of the speakers out without dropping them in the water. Coming to the ship, though, felt like prodding at a wound that hadn’t quite healed. Personal belongings like wallets, phones, and other things had been left behind by the passengers, and it took him right back to his old life.
The voice pulled him out of his thoughts, and he turned to see someone waving at him. He almost raised his hand to wave back, but caught himself before he could. Was this one of the people he was meant to look out for? He didn’t recognise them, so… they probably were. That being said, she seemed harmless. Friendly at least. The smile seemed a little forced, but he could absolutely relate to that. “Hey,” he replied, a little cautious but not unfriendly.
“I, uh, I don’t really have the climbing type of powers.” He said and shook his head. “There’s a way in around here…” he said, a little hesitantly, but gestured for her to follow him, offering her a polite smile back since she had gone through the effort to do so herself. “You looking for anything specific, or do I need to put up a ‘no girls allowed’ sign on my club house?” He joked, hoping to ease some of his own tension, and also perhaps hers.
As the other person came closer into view, Hana spotted the big bag he was shouldering. Oooh goody - it looked like he was on a scavenger hunt as well. A good chance to tag along, so long as he didn't get all attacky on her.
"Hey," she echoed the casual greeting back. His reply about his powers somewhat accented to Hana's San Fran ears, as she gratefully followed his lead to the way inside the ship. "Thanks. Are you Korean? 안녕..." she attempted the greeting. "I mean, I'm Korean too. Well, Korean-American so you know. Never really learned the language from my grandparents, so..." She shook her head. "Never been to South Korean, either. Anyway, I'm Hana."
He certainly wasn't hostile, just a normal sort of wariness which was to be expected. He was also very pretty - everyone here was. "So what kind of powers do you have, if you don't mind me asking? You've probably figured by now that I'm one of the newcomers from those announcements. Don't murder me, okay." Her own little joke, far less light-hearted than his.
As for what she was searching for, Hana couldn't exactly say ' a way to make you new test subjects feel safe around me'. She tried: "Something that won't get me kicked out. Because I've known Dr Pan and Mr Hook longer than your bunch, and this whole threat on the food supply? It's just the start." She put on her best all-knowing, hyper-competent, confident attitude. "But I can help you guys with that."
Rosey's eyebrows jumped up hard and fast at Hana's clap back. "And you'd be the pen in this situation? When the way you use this expression doesn't even really fit in this situation? I highly doubt that one, Hana, but suuuure. If that lets you sleep at night." Her voice was thick with sarcasm, feeling absolutely superior that once again, she fully won an argument against Hana (which is what, in her head, happened anytime they went against each other, even if that wasn't actually the case.)
Oh no, she absolutely should not have put the thought of the bracelets and trying to figure things out into Hana's brain. The other woman would have probably eventually gotten there on her own, but the later the better would have been Rosey's preference. Actually, never would have been the best, but with Hana, that was probably impossible.
"Or maybe only what they allow us to see will actually be found, wherever it will end up being," she said. She hoped it wasn't the case, but if she could get Hana to chill a bit and not look... "You know how tightly they kept everything to their chest before, why would it be any different this time around? They just eliminated all additional risk factors by people being involved, so nobody can slip up, no information can get out before it needs to, right?"
"And for the record," Rosey added, hand on her hips, "you call it my experiment, but you were apart of that as well, Hana. You got the serum as well, you could have died with the rest of those people in that mass grave, you were chased away and escaped from this beach along with the rest of us. You keep putting yourself in a whole different category, but you were just as much part of that experiment as me or Tiago or the rest of us. You were no better than the rest of us. If anything, even worse, since you're still buying all the bullshit they sold you two decades ago."
Something seemed to have sunk in for Hana, and on one hand, Rosey felt a huge surge or success that finally, finally she had gotten through to her, but on the other hand, why did it have to be on something like this? Why did they have to be put on blast for it to actually happen? It only frustrated her even more. She leaned against the door of the Tower and slid down onto the floor as she watched Hana unravel a bit.
"I don't know, Hana," she muttered, trying to replay the message in her brain. The two of them against the rest of the beach, that was what they wanted to set up. Not just wanted to, they actually did it with the first announcement already, it would just take different amount of time to sink in for different people.
And then Hana asked about the food supply and Rosey's eyes widened, misunderstanding what Hana was trying to ask completely. "What are you even-- we can't take their food supply hostage, Hana! We can't make things even worse. We can't just leave, that would prove to your two assholes friends they have all the power, but we also can't just mess with their-- no, our existing food either! That will just prove to everyone here that they should get rid of us. Get that shit out of your head! That is not the solution whatsoever."
Hana wanted to scream in Rosey's face: you're dumb, I'm smart! As if they were in a schoolyard, and they were two children with unregulated emotions. And Hana wanted to end the argument once and for all. But Rosey ended it instead - this time! This time.... Next time, Hana would just keep arguing back, back and forth, back and forth. No Tiago to show up this time with his placating 'okay ladies, okay' to break the battle, call a time out. In a way, it was satisfying that Rosey had some lame sort of 'win' this time on her own. Next time, it would be Hana, for sure.
Hana focused on their speculations about the bracelets instead, and access into the Tower. She smiled a bit, hearing Rosey's words as praise. Dr Pan truly did know how to keep an experiment pure, unadulterated. Withholding pertinent information, keeping things on a need to know basis so the experiment didn't get corrupted. If only the serum hadn't made people get all...annoying. With their mutations and panic.
Then Rosey pointed out that Hana too the serum too, and...well. Maybe now that they were back here, facing a new crop of mutated freaks, it was finally time to confess. It was just her and Rosey, it had been 20 years. It was time.
"I wasn't supposed to take the serum," she started. "I just had two doses, before the hornets showed up. It was a new strain of the serum, um. Serum 1c. Serum 1a was a bust, and Serum 1b - that's what you and Tiago were administered - fared better results, but. The science team were always improving the chemistry, always honing, based on results from the test subjects - from you guys. We manufactured a new serum 1c, and...I tried it on myself, first. I wasn't supposed to - the staff was never meant to be part of the experiment, Rosey. I think..." Hana bit her bottom lip.
"I think that's why Dr Pan punished me too. Somehow, she found out. One of those stupid cameras probably saw me administer it on myself."
Rosey had slid down to sit, Hana slowly paced in front of her. Rosey's protests over holding the food storage hostage was both dramatic (typical actress) and hilarious. Hana almost considered it for a hot second, then suddenly grinned.
"We have to make ourselves invaluable to these people. They're brand new, and they barely know anything about anything. We know a lot more than them. Or, well....I do." Hana snorted, looked smug and lofty. "You're not as useful as me. But I can pretend you are, and you'd owe me."
Ha! Score one win for Hana.
Baskar blinked a few times, then slowly shook their head. "I'm... I'm actually not sure," they admitted. "I don't remember much about the time before it all happened. I think he wasn't home often, but my mom was, she was a very warm woman, and she often told me stories." But they could not recall what stories. They shrugged. It didn't really matter why their father wanted them dead, or more correctly: to join them. It mattered that he couldn't get to them right here.
He considered that theory, he'd considered it many many times, but he wasn't sure which one would be the better option: his father being dead and his ghost following him, or his father being alive and nobody ever noticing a kid being brought places.
"Could be, but I don't think anyone is that good at hiding in plain sight."
"Panop village... you used to live there? Why didn't you still... oh... did the people try to murder all of you?" Clearly they were having a very forward conversation, and Baskar, his family being part Dutch, wasn't that against it. It was easier. "Does it really need a name when it's the only village on the island?" They shrugged. "They're out and about, usually. I give them some tasks, but normally they're out there getting into trouble."
"So... you're following the orders and leaving the village?" he asked. Though... if he was in Hana's place, he'd probably leave as well, quickly. "I"m sorry you've gotten threats. It's easy to live off the land, I think people were just thinking the food security was forever."
They stared at Hana for a moment, then at their little camp and the Bob. "Yes, I have that option," they agreed. But would they actually? Probably not.
People were like puzzles. Or at least, that was Hana's schema for dealing with others. She could just treat them like puzzles - a jigsaw, specifically. Slowly assemble them to figure out the big picture. Baski seemed happy to provide some pieces, and Baski served as a good distraction for Hana, considering her current predicament.
"I think a lot of people are good at hiding in plain sight. That's why it's 'hiding'," she lightly countered. "And you were just a kid when it happened, so. If his continued existence and appearance became normalized for you, chances are your perception of reality's a little skewed as well. Sorry."
Hana shook her head. "No, unfortunately the first experiment went a little sideways. The bodies your group discovered in that pit? They're the bodies of the first test batch. I'm...honestly not sure how they all got buried there." Was it the robo-hornets? Those monstrocities were attack-machines. She didn't know they could also be programmed to dig graves, place bodies...then again, the Robutlers could be reprogrammed too, so it seemed. Maybe the Robutlers loaded the dead into the pit grave. Hana shuddered at the thought.
"The staff called it Panop," Hana replied easily. "Not everyone was stuck here, back in my day. Some people could travel back and forth in the world."
As for the robutlers, she prompted. "Well. Can you call them back?"
It's easy to live off the land. Hana had no comment for that, and just stared at Baski. "Thanks. Maybe you can convince some of your people that I'm not to blame? Can you help me?"
It was Baski's turn to stare back at her with their own flat concession. Hana prodded further. "But...you won't try."
‘They do keep their word.’
Terrific the woman was keen to put a stake through her own heart. Akhila felt her jaw tighten as Cleo took her silence, and Hana’s confession, as permission. It dissolved into further nonsense as one of the young men proclaimed she’d forgotten his allergies and dietary limitations. Hell, like she was supposed to remember who was intolerant to dairy and couldn’t control their bowels around cheese. She was, it was in fact her duty to remember his inability to digest onions, or whatever it was, and it was surely noted down with his name.
The victim primed herself for another round of helpful tips, to which Akhila impassively stared. Perhaps she should relieve herself of helping her if she could not even save herself. It would make her evening smoother.
Stupidity kept her there. Akhila regarded Cleo who was proposing a raft and setting the found pair out to sea. “Respectfully, Cleo that’s the worst proposal I’ve ever had the displeasure of listening to. And you, if you can’t handle fish and foraging then perhaps you ought to learn how to cook better. Pity our resident chef is absentee.”
Cleo wasn’t drying up, though she looked particularly pathetic this far from the ocean. Dark hair plastered to her face, though Akhila noticed she’d taken liberties in styling wispy curls. Some people had far too much time on their hands. “Well what do you suggest we do with them? They can’t stay!” Delightful, she sounded positively whiny now.
Akhila shimmied her bracelet around, she’d been attempting to calculate precisely the number of minutes of elevated speed available to her. Reality didn’t work like that. Time wasn’t the only variable she had to contend with, and Akhila had only attempted to carry someone the once. Admittedly they hadn’t been human. She wasn’t convinced she could cradle the woman against her chest to form a buffer.
No-name piped up. “I say we get rid of her now and then find the other one.”
Cleo stepped closer, but Akhila side-stepped around to finally position herself between the new-old-comer and the rest of them. “I suggest I take her into my custody, and we can reconvene in the morning on the matter. Any disagreements take them to Lindiwe.”
Plainly ignoring them now, Akhila half turned to the woman. “Do you have a name?”
All the new test subjects fell into a round of debate, and Hana felt it was wise to just keep her mouth shut for now, let it play out. What other choice did she have? Akhila the surgeon could just as well come to agree with the other three's arguments, and decide that yeah - a cage was a good idea. Or Akhila could fight the other three. Now that, Hana would like to witness. Hana was eager to see how these people's powers manifested.
Preferably not against her, of course.
But was 18 months really enough to control these seemingly randomly assigned powers? Had people died from them? Would they use the powers against each other? So many had survived, it seemed. The first test batch...wasn't so lucky.
Eventually, it seemed the group had struck a detente. Akhila was kind of an asshole, but the others seemed to cow to her. Decisions in the morning, under the clear light of that Lindiwe leader person. Hana would, in the meantime, be Akhila's ward. Hana was fine with that - eager, even. This woman likely spent most of her time in the Medicentre. Hopefully researching as much as healing. Maybe even experimenting on the human remains in the mass grave pit.
Meaning, all of Hana's colleagues and most of the original test batch...how exciting.
Cleo and her gang reluctantly trundled off, the IBS-crunchy guy still complaining. Hana resisted the urge to shout out a suggestion to try out crunchy limestone granola.
Instead, she focused on her would-be saviour. "Guess I'm yours for the night," she said, giving a tightly folded shrug. Outwardly, Hana didn't really seem bothered or grateful, one way or the other. Her mind was already swimming with analyses. "Thanks, Ahkila. I'm Hana."
Without any more pleasantries, Hana continued to skirt around the building, fingers running lovingly along the concrete wall until they reached the north side of the pit. Hana stared down. "I'm guessing you removed and catalogued all the bodies, huh? Can I see them?"
Hana glanced up at the moon in the sky. "Or...is it too late? I can just stay in the Medicentre until tomorrow."
"I highly doubt it. Highly doubt you've seen a single good movie in your entire life. Your head too stuck in between pages," Rosey shook her head, annoyed that she even got this upset over all of this. This was Hana, she did not care if Hana actually watched a single one of her movies, and she certainly didn't care about it in this situation, and yet... the woman knew which buttons to push, damn it.
She crossed her arms, tried to push her mind to the bracelets instead. "That is so much more complicated than what was done with us. And requires so much more science. And has that many more chances of failiure." How many didn't even make it onto the island, damn it? Rosey did not want to think about that. "So whatever happened to them is most likely strictly tied to them and it cannot be reproduced - at least not on this place and without those assholes' resources." At least Hana couldn't make and create a bracelet of her own. "Do you have any theories on why they aren't able to take them off? The bracelets?"
Rosey shook her head. "I don't think it's impossible. I just think it would be oh so convienient if by accident the serum that was supposed to give us eternal youth also gave us immortality and we realize it just the right time when we would need it so desperately against other people."
But Hana wasn't fully listening, she was trudging on, explaining her own science theories and this is where the woman lost Rosey and Rosey hated it. She wasn't a scientist. She played a doctor once in a movie, but the function of that was that when the time came, her character was the one who had to do CPR on another character. She didn't understand the medical jargon Hana was talking about. But there was no way Rosey was willing to say that out loud, admit that in front of Hana. So simple, basic sense it was.
"You said the most important thing yourself, though, Hana - Derek couldn't stand a chance against decapitation. Even if you are right - I don't think you are, but let's pretend. Even if you are right, we are not facing natural causes. Nobody is going to be running at us with peanuts just in case one of us is allergic or scaring us into a heart attack. If they do something drastic, it's going to be stabbing us, grabbing us and throwing us out into the forest, setting the bungalow we are in on fire. Shit that even these serum defenses wouldn't do anything against.
"Even if we are immortal - which, again, did not think you'd be the one to suggest something insane like that, but here we are -, we don't have to solve the intricate details of that. We have to figure out how to convince these people that we aren't the enemy, your little friends are. And the fact that you are friends with them and would do basically anything to get back into their graces is not helping us in any way, shape or form in that."
"The pen is mightier than the sword," Hana retorted, tone smug and lofty. The cliched saying only barely tied into Rosey's jibe - the implication that movies were for dummies and books were for smart people - but Hana couldn't resist a good catchphrase, saying, idiom. It always fascinated her how people reacted to them, these catch-all phrases. Shorthands that were baked into debates in a pat, seemingly witty way.
Rosey pointed out how much more scientifically advanced this new experiment was, compared to the first group. No crew needed, no administrators. This second batch was entirely automated using bracelets and god knew what else. Hana felt envious, a bit peevish at how easily her role in these experiments was excised. She was necessary, dammit! How could Dr Pan not see that?
But this wasn't the point Rosey was trying to make. Theories, theories. "I'd need to actually get my hands on a bracelet to inspect it, but. Given how badly the serum reacted with your test batch...maybe it's not the source of power. Maybe it's a mediator. A...a dampener, or a controller. Or a measuring device. God, it could be anything, really." Hana shook her head, staring up at the Tower again. "The answers are in here, I'm sure of it. Or in the Medicentre, maybe. Or...god, I don't know."
Regardless, theorizing and speculations meant nothing at this moment. As much as Hana wanted to jump back into this experiment like 20 years of survival had never happened. As much as Hana wanted to prove herself useful once again...Rosey had a point.
The announcement piped up again, as if highlighting Rosey's concern. And Hana reluctantly had to agree. "Yeah...yeah you're right. They might attack us." That was the immediate, imminent issue here. And Hana finally started to worry about it.
She looked at Rosey. "Well, what do you think we should do? Go back into the forest? Maybe try and find our group again? If there's more of us, then..." Then what? A handful of half-starved, unarmed survivalists versus dozens of super-powered freaks?
Hana paused, actually listening to the entire cheery announcement. "They'll cut off the food supply. That's the threat." Hana frowned, feeling like she was missing something. "...where's their food supply coming from?"
Whatever the newcomer had been trying to say died on her lips as the warbling voice of the announcement droned through the trees. Momentarily, her eyes reflected the same look that the doe had had before Lokni took his shot. The announcement had been blaring for weeks now, a solid reminder of their predicament and lack of food.
Raising an eyebrow, Lokni replied, “I thought trees blocked sound, that’s why I moved out here to begin with.” She was… eerily calm for their shared predicament. Lokni got the distinct sense that she knew something that he didn’t. He doubted he’d be charismatic enough to wittle it out this early on. They haven’t even exchanged names yet.
Following her gaze, he glanced at his own bracelet, his own eyes instinctively searching for hers as well. To his shock, he didn't see one. Fair enough, many people kept them on their person but out of sight. Lokni could respect that. “I’m preparing dinner. What about you? Exploring the region? Sightseeing?” Lokni asked, his voice adopting a light, easy-going tone. There was something about her that reminded him of Akhila, a calculated calm front that seemed to wall off other, more natural emotions. The volatile ones. Being that they were in his campsite, Lokni felt a sense of peace and confidence; this person was no danger to him, probably had stumbled across here by accident. “Anyway, my name’s Lokni. Local hunter, carpenter, and guide to the wilds out this way. What can I do for you on this fine day?” He asked, propping a boot up on the front step to retighten the laces. “Lemme guess, you’re hungry?” he asked, cocking an eyebrow in her direction. The last couple of days Lokni had gotten a trickling herd of folk coming by, asking for lessons or advice. He did what he could, but he didn’t feel like he was cut out for much teaching work. Normally, he’d steer them in the direction of the library, but he didn’t want to give Selin more work. He could handle being out of his comfort zone in exchange for her peace. "You got a name, stranger?" Lokni asked at length.
"Oh...so your superpowers are also about sound? I found another person hiding out in their own campsite, far from the village and all the human noise," Hana mentioned, figuring they all knew each other. They'd apparently been on the island for...a year? Two years? Something like that. "I guess apparently nature-noise is just more bearable than people-noise, huh."
Hana didn't think so herself. The screams of bats and groans of trees, snaps of twigs underfoot of strange beasts. Clicks and hisses and whistles and howls of things and creatures. Especially at night. The first few years out in the forest, Hana had barely got any sleep at all. Then again, this guy had a log-cabin to protect him from all that.
"Or maybe you just don't like people," she joked. Then wondered if that was a mean-spirited or overly-invasive 'joke'. She hummed, and turned away from the man to look around his homestead. "It's nice. No electricity or plumbing though, huh. That sucks."
She shook her head at each of the man's gentle guesses for her being here, but each guess made her feel less wary that he was going menace her. He was just an outdoorsy guy who knew how to hunt game with a bow and arrow. Lone wolf type, maybe. "Well you certainly can't eat a whole deer in one sitting. What do you do with the rest of it?"
She touched her chest. "I'm Hana." He didn't seem to know who she was, or that the announcement was talking about her. "No, I'm not hungry." Walking around the perimeter of the loghouse, she tentatively peeked into a window after several glances at Lokni, to gauge his reaction. Peering inside, she murmured, "I wonder if a makeshift generator could power one of these..."
Having speculated about it all for most of their life, and having told it to kids their age back when it happened, Baskar wasn’t really thrown off by the forwardness. They actually appreciated it compared to the adults in their life who had wanted to ‘protect’ them by never ever mentioning it. Their grandparents had simply decided it had never happened, unable to cope with what their son had done.
“I think he made a mistake not killing me too,” Baskar said, nodding at the sympathy but it had been now twenty-four years ago. He no longer felt sorry for his loss, just a bit angry that he never knew why. His father could’ve at least left a note. And angry that his sisters did get the full experience of having two parents, while both were taken from him young.
“I wondered the same thing when I was young, because it was the police who told my family he was dead. So I never saw his body or saw he had died.” Unlike his mom. But he didn’t want to think about that.
“But nobody ever saw him, and I don’t think a living person can sneak around that easily and never get spotted.” Right? No, he had to be either insane or capable of seeing ghosts. No other option.
She dodged his question about superpowers, which he didn’t mind. Not everyone liked to talk about them. “Baskar,” they said. “But you can call me Baski. And yes, I know your name, it’s kind of hard not to pick up on gossip with my ability.” They looked apologetic.
Why were they only serving him? Baskar liked to think because he was nice to them. Nothing more to it. “I think maybe they just don’t like the camp,” they suggested. “And I come rescue them when they get stuck places.”
Baskar was surprised when she seemed distracted and confused, but they didn’t let on. It was nice to have a person at their camp for once. “Too many noises, my ability triggers at random, and it’s overwhelming.” They paused. “Why aren’t you at camp? Have you decided to leave like the broadcast wants?”
The horrific tragedy of Baski's previous life fascinated Hana. Not the emotional outcome so much as the greater questions that arose about this batch of test subjects. Did they all suffer from some kind of incredible trauma in their respective pasts? Or was it truly a pure cross-section? Hana, to her frustration, had never been privy to Dr Pan's screening system. Not in the first trial batch, and obviously not for this new one. It had felt almost like a challenge to see if there was a link, if any. Or pure random selection.
"Why would he kill you? Was he, you know...um. Abusive? A bad man who hated his wife and kid?" Hana asked that as kindly as she could, which...wasn't very kind at all.
Hana squinted, doubtful at Baskar's response. She leaned against a tree, comfortable in this somewhat inappropriate conversation with a stranger in the middle of the woods. Better than being in the village with the announcement, and suspicious stares. "Well, somebody did see him. You did. You spotted him. You just decided he was a ghost, because the cops told you he was dead. Maybe he's not dead, he's just following you."
Hana shook her head. "Unless their programming mutated, they were specifically designed to maintain the village. Panop Village, we used to call it. It's a stupid name." But anyway. "Where are the other robutlers?"
That Baskar seemed to think the robutlers had sentience was sad; but not surprising. If Hana wanted to pathologize Baskar, and connect anthropomorphizing 'cute' objects to their past childhood trauma, it'd certainly make a great paper for a science journal.
"I think it's pretty obvious why I'm not hanging around there. I've already gotten a couple threats, but. Overall people don't seem to know what to make of me and Rosey." Goddamn - she wished those announcements would stop. Baskar's ailment was a good distraction. "Well, you can either live like this forever, or face your challenge head-on. You can't adapt to your powers if you avoid the issue."
Rosey scoffed. "As if you've actually seen a single thing I've ever been in or could differentiate between a mediocre and an outstanding actor." It really wasn't important, what Hana thought of her acting. It mattered not at all, and still, she couldn't help but correct her in some way. She tried to hold herself back at least, though.
Instead, she focused on Hana's explanations and thoughts about the bracelets. "Why do people who never have the opportunity to wear diamonds or even anything actually pretty think it's a personality trait to dunk on those who enjoy the fine, nice things in the world?" she grumbled, ignoring the ego comment. She was simply confident in herself and what she did, that wasn't a crime. "But yeah, it did cross my mind, what the bracelets would do to us," she admitted. "If we'd get those powers ourselves, or if it requires more. Don't tell me it didn't cross your mind." Whether she would actually test it out was a whole different question, though.
Rosey wasn't sure what she expected - that suddenly Hana would open her eyes and realize she was on the wrong side this whole time? If somebody could spend over twenty years living in the conditions that they did and still believe that she was still on the other side, there was probably nothing could convince that person to see the truth. And still, she was somewhat surprised that Hana could explain even this away and told her to calm down and called her emotional. "Excuse you, I think my reaction is more than acceptable given the circumstances. I'm not a robot, like you clearly are."
And then she decided she would be the one to think, and spurred out an idea that made Rosey stop in her tracks, stare at Hana in silence for a good five, ten seconds, waiting for the woman to continue or say something else, but it didn't come. "Jesus, how are you the scientist out of the two of us?" she groaned, shaking her head and then, "Did you hit your head on the way over here and I just didn't notice? Are you even hearing yourself? Immortality? That is your big, situation solving solution? That we must be immortal?"
"We survived the past twenty years by the grit of our teeth and pure luck and a shitton of work. It wasn't some miracle drug that kept us alive, it was us. It was the people we left behind that beach and who are still very much surviving on their own, Hana. In what world were you living in in the past two decades?" And she called herself not delusional, Rosey couldn't believe this woman actually meant all of this.
"But even if you are correct - you are probably not, we bled plenty over the years that even though we don't age, if one of those people stabbed either of us, we would still die -, but let's just say you are correct. Would you be willing to risk the chance of being wrong when the results of failiure is dying? Because I sure do not want to. Not to mention, if we truly are immortal - why would you not know about it? You were part of that experiment, you were among the people who injected that shit into our bodies, why would you not know fully what it did?"
"I've seen enough," Hana snapped back, and internally she giggled at how overly dramatic that statement was. As if this was important, as if Rosey King-Ixora's career was of any importance, even when she was Big Star back in Hollywood.
The bracelets were in the present, and it was clear Rosey had also given some thought to their properties. Their...abilities. As the only person here that Hana trusted - and only due to twenty years of hard-won survival together - she was eager to talk it through. At least Rosey King wasn't an idiot; the actor had always displayed an annoyingly clear and resourceful mind. Pragmatic, even. Of course, she had to bemoan about how hard it was for her to be fancy amongst the plebs, but Hana had pushed her to it.
"It must require more than just bracelets with fancy coloured rocks," Hana concluded. "They don't remember how they got here. Just waking up here. Maybe during their blackout time, they spent months in clinical, receiving trial drugs and tests before getting placed here. That was all just done off-island, instead of on-island like you guys got." She ignored the part about her own curiousity. Hana wasn't sure how to answer that.
Rosey went on one of her rants (Hana called them 'Rosey-rants'. Clever) and Hana stood stony-faced, and weathered it. Arms folded as Rosey ridiculed, rejected...then theorized. That was always the interesting part of her rants - when Rosey 'played along' by making counter-points. That was what Hana wanted to theorize against, and Rosey was pretty good at providing it for her.
"So you can believe forever-youth and crazy superpowers, but you draw the line at immortality?" Hana couldn't help but say first, tone dry as a desert. Even if she wanted to engage with Rosey's analysis, Hana still wanted to get a teeny dig in.
"Think about it, Rosey. Twenty years out there, with barely enough to get by. We had no modern medicine - which was part of the cause and effect of permanent youth, of course. The serum was designed to bolster immunity against allergies, viral or bacterial disease that could degrade our bodies further. Age isn't the only factor that ages people! Natural calcium loss, plaque build-up in the heart, inflamed livers, toxins in air and food - all the markers for a body's slow march towards death. We have bodies that once born, immediately start dying. The serum was designed to stop that. Or - to repair cellular growth where needed. It's a complicated process...but anyway--"
Urgent now, Hana surged towards Rosey, hands curved in appeal. "Our group of survivors - did any of us die from pneumonia, or heart attack, or anaphylactic shock? Sure... there was, um, Derek; but even immortality can't prevent decapitation!"
Baskar had never not been completely honest about seeing his dead father, though at some point he'd stopped talking about ghosts all-together because people were already avoiding him, and then it had been easy to never mention him at all.
The last time they'd seen him was right before the time they wanted their memory wiped. He'd shown up at their new place, he'd hung around for days, and Baskar had eventually called the police crying about being haunted. The memories of those days and all the medical examinations that followed had come flooding back when they'd realised that they'd in fact wanted to come to the island. And they very much understood why. It wasn't so far from the truth that they were a little bit insane, but Baskar truly believed he could see the ghost of his father.
"It was the ghost of my father, he killed my mom when I was six, so I think he just wanted to keep an eye on me. They think he killed himself after. I think maybe he made a mistake." The mistake being that he left his child behind. Instead of taking them with him.
Baskar looked confused for a moment, then it dawned on them that 'original group' no longer made sense since there were others now, older people, people who'd made the island their home for far longer. No, they didn't refer to Rosey and Hana as the 'original group', instead, they'd always thought of them as 'the ones who didn't end up in the mass grave', the 'survivors' if you will.
"Oh yeah, no, uhm. First trail does sound better... but... not with superpowers? Right?" They were truly out of it with how much time they spend at their camp.
"Robutlers?" Baskar frowned. That was a terrible name. At the mention of having a small robotics team, he found he was a little jealous. At least if they'd had that, he could've talked with someone about the Bobs. He would continue to call them Bobs.
"That sounds amazing, and yes, they've been doing great. They get me most of the things I ask and aside from the few that got destroyed by uhm... circumstances, I haven't seen them get any lasting damage!"
They nodded at the headphones. "Yes, I don't know, I feel like the sound gets through everything, except water. Sometimes when it triggers, I just go for a swim." They pressed their shoulders together. Was it? Maybe it had turned into that, but Baskar was still an extravert by nature. They felt fitful and tired being all by themself, even with the Bobs. "No, I'm pretty sure I do want to be back at camp... It's nice to be around other people."
"Oh damn, holy shit," Hana said, horrified at the gruesome explanation. Murder, a child involved, possible suicide to boot? "You think dad made a mistake trying to kill himself? Or killing your mom?" What, did the dude trip onto a gun, and accidentally blow mama's head off?
Hana remembered manners, and added, "Sorry for your loss." Now that the polite condolence was given, she continued eagerly. "Maybe your dad just...never died? Unless of course, he inarguably killed himself right in front of child-you, as well. Gosh. Front row seat to trauma-central, at such an early age...." There was no mystery to why Dr Pan (and Hook) would choose them, Hana supposed. They'd need a good cross-section of mental states, and this one seemed to fit the 'disturbia' side of things quite well.
"Or...maybe your dad's ghost is trying to get you to follow in his footsteps. Not that you seem, um, the type to hurt anyone. Of course." It was always the little innocent-looking cutesy oohwoo-booboo ones, who could go on ballistic blood-sprees.
And now she was being asked about superpowers. Great. Hana smiled and changed the subject. "Hey, I didn't get your name. I'm Hana, but you probably already know that."
Hana nodded. "Well, that's what they were built for - to serve the people on the island. Why're they only serving you? I guess they were also replenishing the food supplies...until." As if on queue, the loudspeaker announcement started up again in the distance. She tapped her finger to her mouth, staring at the robutler cuddling against the other. So their programming could be adjusted remotely? Which meant there was still connection to the outside, despite the Flower Tower antenna not being...
The other was blithering on about their powers, and Hana tuned back in, nodding to seem like she'd been listening and hadn't just gotten lost in her own thoughts. "Okay, so. What's stopping you from being in camp, again? Sorry, I must've missed your reasoning for being out here."
location: The Odyssey cruise ship @jinxedfrequency
So, this was a new addition.
The stupid announcement had finally ended its 20-minute siren call, and proved...something. Something that meant she was still alive, relatively no worse for the wear. Did this test prove a restored faith in the 2020s era of humanity? Would Dr Pan be pleased with the results? Only time would tell.
Hana had heard that most of the robot-hornets had been destroyed by these superpowered test subjects, but. Another hornet-attack notwithstanding, never put it past the experimenters to design new ways to flush a failed experiment.
Regardless, here was the cruise ship. Supposedly the way a lot of the new test subjects had arrived on the island (or been placed), and it now sagged sadly in the beautiful blue lagoon, a bulky monstrosity in a pristine location. Paradise, indeed. Hana wondered if anything was still left in there that might be useful, even after 18-months of these people's scavenging. She needed leverage, as soon as possible.
Another person was nearby on the beach, and Hana gave them a tentative wave. The other person wasn't carrying any makeshift weapon, didn't seem to be powering up to attack her, so Hana tried her best to look friendly. Smile, Hana! People liked smiling people...well, that wasn't true for all cultures. In some places, smiling made you look like a lunatic.
"Hi!" she called out, then pointed up the cruise ship. "You wouldn't happen to have any special super powers that could get me - us! - up into there, would you?"
Shit. Maybe should've started with banal pleasantries. How are you and nice day today.
Rosey mirrored Hana's laugh with her own, her's taking on an amused tone. "Thank you, I'll happily take being condescending, especially compared to your delusion." She still called them test subjects. If that wasn't delusion, Rosey wasn't sure what was. She genuinely could not even begin to understand how Hanaa's brain worked, though if she was being honest, she did not even try to.
Hana mentioned the bracelets and Rosey nodded. There was not a lot of things (practically nothing) she trusted that came out of Hana's mouth, but this? The science? Again, the woman still considered them test subjects, she lived and breathed the (very highly questionable and horrible, but still) science of it. Whether she'd share everything in her brain, Rosey wasn't sure, but it would still most likely be correct. Or correct adjacent. At least while she was an outcast as well.
So she tilted her head, thinking over Hana's words about the bracelets and spoke, "Alright, science lady, so how do you think it all works? Do you think it was similar to what you did to us? Injection of some kind to them and then the bracelet regulates it all? Or do the bracelets give all the power?" Could they get some, if they got bracelets of their own, was what Rosey wasn't asking.
She scoffed at calling this place a vacation paradise. "In what world was it ever that?" she grumbled. She didn't want to go in. She didn't want Hana specifically to go in, so instead she just ignored the question and focused on what Hana said after. "I think if you can-- if you can talk to them, you'll use every single information, snippet, half truth and lie you heard from us in the past 20 years to wiggle your way into their grace. And if it will somehow, magically, succeed, you will use everything you know and even stuff you don't against all of us." Her voice was cold now, just factual, her expression throwing daggers.
"Fuck off, there's no way I am older or you're--" But she didn't get to finish the sentence because the announcement - first of many of the same set of sentences -, blared through the speakers all across the island, announcinng them to be the reason that the beachers won't be getting any more free food.
Once the announcement was over, there was one, two, three long seconds of silence and then a bitter, almost hysterical laughter burst out of Rosey as it took over her body for a few seconds. "Jesus fucking Christ," she gritter her teeth while the last of the laughters shook her entire body, and then she moved, standing right in front of Hana, face to face, pointing towards where the announcement came from. "That is what you're still desperately wanting to get back to? Those people? Who just fucking announced you enemy number one? The people who were willing to leave you to rot for two decades and who knows however longer if we didn't show up? You think those people have even the slightest sense of care towards you?"
"Still won't give up that tired old song, huh? Good thing you were a mediocre actor, not a laughable singer." 'Delusion' indeed. It was Rosey and the rest of the stupid test subjects who arrived on this island, under a delusion. Believing they'd found a fountain of youth, eager to sign up. It wasn't Hana's fault if they hadn't read the fine print.
Granted, Hana herself had never actually expected the...disruptive results of the serum, even after so much careful trials and research. But, hey - if Dr Pan decided to run a second experiment here, then who was Hana to argue?
Rosey was asking the right questions, but Hana tried not to beam or smile about it. She exhaled, patting the Tower's exterior and looking up into the sky. "One dosage wouldn't - couldn't be enough. Even if it was a type of radiation, I just can't see how an external bracelet could act as an oncocidal...." So was it the bracelets that manufactured their powers? She tilted her head at Rosey, with a small-toothed smirk. "What do you say, you and me find an extra bracelet, and you can try it on and see what happens? We'll find one with a nice big fat diamond, to match your big fat ego?"
She was about to bicker back - their long-standing debate about Dr Pan (and Mr Hook, but whatever) - when one of the loudspeakers crackled to life close to the Tower. No - it was all the loudspeakers. The announcement did admittedly send a chill down Hana's spine, but she repressed all of it. And once the announcement was over, felt easily distracted by Rosey's mocking rant.
"Calm down," Hana said, sounding as irritated as if Rosey was just a mosquito. She frowned, looked at Rosey - then quickly away. Then did the same thing again. Like she wanted to share sustained eye contact, but couldn't. "Stop making things emotional. We've got to think about this. Or - actually you relax, let me do the thinking."
Hana turned away from Rosey and paced, one hand patting along the Tower's wall as she did. "Okay, okay. Okay. Okay. So. So it's another test. Obviously the two of us don't stand a chance against super-powered freaks. Unless..."
Hana turned back to Rosey. "We've been granted long life. Us, and the rest of the group that, uh, evacuated Panop Village twenty years ago. And in those twenty years, we all survived, huh? No mortalities, despite our harsh living conditions."
Pressing her lips together, Hana proposed a thought she'd been lovingly cultivating to herself. "Rosey, what if we don't just have 'forever youth'. What if we're...immortal?"
Baskar decided to believe her when she said she was not a ghost. While the only ghost he’d met had been his father, he did think they would not quickly say they weren’t ghosts. They felt like they didn’t have a good answer to the question however. His father had looked solid, alive, like he hadn’t aged, but nothing seemed to suggest he was a ghost. Aside from the fact that he’d been dead.
“Well… ghosts are usually dead people… so… I guess they’d try to look as alive as possible. That way you can’t see that they’re ghosts.” They paused. “And I’ve only ever seen just one, all the others I only hear.”
They perked up again when the announcement reached their little camp. They hoped it would cease soon, though right now it was still soft enough for them to ignore. “Oh,” they said, when she mentioned being the subject of the announcement. “So you’re not from the original group… where did you come from?” they asked. “Did you land on the island recently?” She didn’t have the haunted look of those who did.
“I have the Bobs,” Baskar admitted, pointing at the little robot. “And some survival skills, but mostly the Bobs help me survive out here.” They rubbed the skin behind their ear. “Not that I don’t want to be at camp,” they admitted. “But I have a power that enhances my hearing, and it’s bit loud there. Too loud.”
Oooooh, so Dr Pan (and Hook, but whatever about him) had selected someone who was a little insane in the membrane. That wasn't the 'politically correct' way to say it, but Hana wasn't bothered by that, not here, not after 20 years of barebones survival. This test subject seemed placidly convinced that they'd seen a ghost.
"What's this ghost look like? Why just one ghost and not others?" She would ask, until the test subject told her to shut the fuck up and stop asking.
God, it was nice to be with new people, and not the same bunch of miserable bastards out there, struggling to live.
"No, I'm from the...original group. But I'm not one of..." she petered out, then asked, "Is that what you guys are all calling me and Rosey? The 'original group'? I guess that's accurate. 'First trial' is how I've always seen it."
'The Bobs'. A moniker that Hana's logical brain couldn't accept. "They're actually called 'robutlers'. Back in my day -" Ha! She sounded like her aunt. God, she hadn't thought about her family in eons. "- we had a small crew of robotics engineers along with the science team. They pioneered the robutlers here, but. Seems the little guys really took to the self-repairing programming, huh. They seem perfectly functional. Still helpful too? Incredible."
Amplified hearing. It seemed like one of the more useful yet simultaneously sad powers. Hana motioned to a pair of headphones that lay nearby the test subject. "Those aren't useful? Maybe you just need better sound-blockers...or maybe you're just telling yourself you want to be back in the village, but you actually don't."
Voluntarily or not, Baskar had separated themself from the camp rather quickly after the first weeks. First to the generators, later to a spot just far away enough that they couldn’t hear anyone at night. Just the forest, and while that wasn’t the most wonderful either, at least the sounds were clearly not human. Once he’d learnt to control it, he still remained at his little campsite, which grew as the months passed.
He felt like an extravert forced to be introverted, but it wasn’t just his ability, paranoia had settled about unknown voices as well. Ghosts. They were in the forest, but they were also at camp. He - falsely perhaps - believed they were the ghosts of the skeletons in the mass grave, roaming around still. He didn’t question this. He’d once been able to see the ghost of his father, perhaps what had been triggered as his superpower wasn’t just enhanced hearing.
However, he did have some company: the Bobs had become, in a way, his best friends. Aside from being impeccably groomed all the time, Baskar had gotten the little robots so far to follow their orders, and when needed, they’d attempt to patch them up in return. Technically they wouldn’t even have to go out to camp to get supplies, but also they craved some human interaction sometimes. Though they fled the scene quickly when their ability pushed back in.
They’d heard someone talking to one of the Bobs from a good hundred meters away, both hands on their ears as they repeated their mantra that usually cleared away the paranoia enough to shut it off. It was rare that they used it in handy situations, but with there now being a time limit on how long they could use it, they usually allowed it to run its course so they wouldn’t have to deal with it later on. Though some days they’d convinced themself that they would in fact need it later on.
He’s not on the island, you’re safe. Nobody here wants to hurt you, you’re safe.
After a few repeats, the canopy of sound subsided and his immediate surroundings came back into focus.
“Hello?”
Baskar walked back to his camp, giving the newcomer - hopefully not a ghost, though they hadn’t seen any ghosts just yet - a small wave. “Hi!” They stood at a safe distance, looked at the Bob, decided the paranoia was stronger than common sense. “You’re not a ghost, right?”
"A ghost?" Hana repeated in confusion. The robutler had led her not just to this little camp, but to the person who seemed to live here. It was weird, how this new batch of test subjects seemed so deliberately isolated from each other. Everyone, apparently, wanted their own special 'space', and the bungalows weren't good enough privacy. Distrust and paranoia abounded.
Maybe it had to do with the whole thing about contracts, and memories...Hana heard some of the test subjects mentioning this in the week of her arrival, but she didn't quite understand what exactly was their issue.
She touched her hand to her chest and shook her head. "I'm not a ghost." A tip of her head, as she studied the other person. "What do 'ghosts' usually look like to you?"
Hana didn't believe in the supernatural, or paranormal, or whatever superstitious nonsense people adhered to. Astrology was the same to her as religion - all belief in things that had no data or proof. She put her faith in science.
But given this was a test subject, it was good research to know why Dr Pan would've carefully selected a ghost-believer for this batch of experiments. A glance at the other's wrist, where the bracelet - highly decorated and personalized - was strapped. "I like what you did with you brace-"
The announcement replayed out at Pano Village, still audible even this deep into the woods. Hana waited for it to end, pressing her lips together. "I ah, er. That's - well. That is about me, but you know. You seem pretty independent-living, huh? Don't need to rely on FLOWR-made stuff, not you."
The robutler purred and cooed contentedly between them.
