Why Don&#x27;t People Understand

#with: taliesin #with: cricket #p: your algebra and your politics #tl: day twelve

"Am not," Aurora had the urge to stick out her tongue, but she didn't give into it. Taliesin did not need to see this side of them. "I have discerning taste and I'm not impressed by people who like everyone. It makes it hard to tell why they like you in particular if they feel that way about everyone they come across." Brit did make Aurora feel special. She was out of Britt's type range. She actually had one, unlike Heli, who seemed to be in love with lust.

She did her best to not roll her eyes as Cricket turned Taliesin's anger into something much more loaded. "Let's all be glad it didn't. I don't want to witness that."

She gave him a golf clap. "I could not have planned a more disruptive ending to the conversation. I can't gleam any real motive from what he was asking, except maybe that we aren't stupid, but..." she gestured to the two of them, "No one would believe we're idiots." As for the question... she was in a pickle. He got so touchy when she pointed out the truth of the situation. "Anything's possible." She knew the truth, but he was clearly feeling vulnerable from not getting hit on so she wasn't going to press her luck. "Taliesin's shock looked genuine. He didn't expect things to be this disrupted. Does that mean we're not too far from where things started or we're farther away than we realized?"

What did Cricket just say? It had sort of, kind of just… slipped out, as such thoughts often did when he was trying to solve a problem. But as he watched Taliesin bristle, he finally heard it. For some fucked up reason he heard the admonishment in his father’s voice. Kid, you’re gonna get hit again.

So he rushed on letting his mind whir with options as he concurred with Aurora. “Niamh had Wes pointing his camera every which way on Tuesday. If it’s about where we are, those recordings should have deteriorated. If it’s all recordings, then her little video diaries from before this will be gone too.”

Rora was making several good points though. The Woolfes were nothing if not selfish. He didn’t exactly blush at Aurora’s solution but he tried to remind himself that she hadn’t really internalized this ‘Cricket is off limits to everyone else for the first time in his life’ thing. “Firstly, I would need to get clearance from Del for that. Second, I suspect Niamh may be sex averse.” He considered, thinking back before adding to Aurora. “Possibly your team, dearest, but she turned down Heli at one point.”

Finally, he remembered Taliesin was there. “But none of this is actually our problem, correct? It’s your duty to find these things out and bring them back to the smart people like a good little search engine.”

@taliesinmauk

That was it. Taliesin was done with the two-headed monster for the day. Maybe the week. Or month. Or the entire time they had to spend in this prison. He had too much going on, too much to worry about, to play mind games. He made his way toward the door. "I’ll talk to Niamh. I might tell you what I find out.”

As he stepped by Cricket, he moved forward, backing him up against the wall, letting the usual habitual post-high huskiness fall away as he grabbed the front of Cricket’s shirt, his voice dark and deep. “Because the mystery valedictorian you were all fucking whispering about all the time? It’s me. I can do your chemistry homework. Your English homework. And given enough time and a manual, I’m pretty sure I can figure out how you fucked up the fucking electrical grid because I’ve worked in fucking construction since I was 14. You have one use. I have twelve.”

“And if you ever talk about Lou again, you won’t even have that. I promise I can be just as scary as Tony. And I’m way smarter. Do not fuck with me.” Then he released him and exited the room to find Niamh.

@rorarosen

#with: cricket #with: taliesin #p: your algebra and your politics #tl: day twelve

Aurora's eyes narrowed. Taliesin might give them information. They couldn't trust him. She had hoped they would get the raw footage and could draw their own conclusions. Gleaning information from Taliesin was akin to trusting People magazine's idea of what a research article said. "We'll have to find another point of comparison," she whispered to Cricket.

She tried to look supportive as Cricket repeated what she had just said. He was so excited to be in a relationship and she found it unnerving. She didn't know that he had this side to him and it was a strange one to experience in such a foreign environment.

Then he had to make things weirder by dragging Heli into things. "I wouldn't say that not wanting to fuck Heli means anything about anyone's sexuality. I don't want to fuck her." The very idea gave her hives. She couldn't blame Niamh on that front.

She'd almost forgotten that Taliesin was in the room until his outburst. His set of claims were dubious. Was the real Taliesin actually valedictorian? Debatable. Did it behoove this group to make them question their own notions of intelligence? Absolutely. She was still pondering it when Taliesin pushed Cricket. Violence was the tool of troglodytes. She didn't respect it. But she didn't want it aimed at her, so she waited until he was out of the room before she spoke.

"You failed that test spectacularly. I'm impressed."

Cricket hadn’t been this thrown since… well, last night, really. The incidents were coming closer and closer together. The radio tower was nothing but a memory now. Del’s half eaten house was a nightmare. Why had he expected anything to obey the laws of physics? The only hope he had for reliability right now was people. And only certain people. It tore him up to think that Aurora wasn’t one of them.

He didn’t bother to ask to look at Taliesin’s phone. There was no rhyme or reason to this. He was done trying. Maybe Aurora was right. Not about the mess she’d made. Just this.

He let Aurora reason with him, examining his own phone as he considered her question. “I haven’t really recorded anything here. I’ve been busy.”

He’d only ever had one reason to use his phone to make any kind of video, and Del wasn’t into that. He went through a rolodex of people in his mind, comparing preferences. Heli and Trip, but she’d been so loud about things changing that he didn’t know what applied anymore. Adam, yes, but he’d been such a brat lately (and not the fun kind) that Cricket doubted anything had happened. He suspected Morgan was too classy for that now. Which left… “Is Lourdes still into sexting?”

But then he breezed past Taliesin’s reaction as he realized… “Fuck. Niamh! Niamh Woolfe shoved a camera in our faces at the election meeting. All she does is film herself!”

@taliesinmauk

Taliesin suspected that there was more to Aurora’s suggestion of only wanting to talk to Cricket, but he was too wrapped up in watching the video Aurora had air dropped to him fading in front of his eyes. He was barely listening to Cricket and Aurora murmuring to each other until he heard the name.

He stared at Cricket, almost unbelieving that someone who was supposedly this smart could be this stupid. "What the fuck did you just say?”

He nearly leapt across the table, but he managed to pull himself inward at the very last moment, to contain the coiled power of his fists to his sides. He’d wanted to hit Tony for the last three days. Wanted to ask him if he could pick on someone his own size, pick him up, and throw him into Finn like a sack of unmixed concrete. But he couldn’t do that. He’d promised Viola. He’d promised his sister. He’d promised Lou. He’d promised himself. But if anything would make Lou reconsider her ban on revenge in favor of safety… Tony didn’t give a shit about Cricket. So there was no risk aside from Taliesin’s own swiftly sliding principles. Bad things were happening to good people, and Cricket was already a bad person.

But Cricket had already pushed past the threat like some kind of bizarre British Bugs Bunny. Taliesin was forced to slow down enough to realize that he was right. Niamh did film everything. She had the best evidence they could get to find a pattern. And this way he could be away from Cricket and Aurora as soon as possible.

@rorarosen

#with: taliesin #with: cricket #tl: day twelve #p: your algebra and your politics

"Sure you were." Aurora rolled her eyes. They were in the middle of some fucked up simulation where people were wearing masks of their friends and all Cricket cared about was friend!Del and their extra curricular activities. Barf. He was probably going to get some bioengineered STI that whatever scientists involved in this were planning to unleash on horny idiots throughout the world.

She looked between Cricket and Taliesin as he overreacted to something she cared very little about. She felt like both of them were losing focus. "I also said old videos. Are anyone's old videos acting up? We need to know if it's the technology or the environment." The Niamh information could be useful, but she hoped she wasn't the one that would have to catalogue it or... talk to Niamh.

"She's as good a variable as we're going to get since she has things from the present and the past. But I doubt she's very logical or altruistic." The real one wasn't. "You're going to have to incentivize it for her." Aurora turned to Cricket, "I don't think Del would let use your body to get information here."

“It was only a matter of time with Tony and me.” Cricket said, deadpan. “You can put that on the record. He won’t contradict me.” He’d tried to control himself around Tony Alessi for a long time, waiting, for some reason, for someone else to stick up for him. He’d now realized (finally) that it wasn’t going to happen. Not with Trip. Certainly not with Reg. “But Rora’s right. Hitting each other turned our heads off and on again. If that’s a reference you can understand.”

Cricket watched, preening, as Taliesin examined the phone. At least he could enjoy the look of surprise on a pretty boy’s face. But it was not to be. “What?” He nearly leapt across the table to take the phone back, scrolling through quickly.

Well fuck. Mauk was right. He leaned in to look over Aurora’s shoulder. She had to turn the damn thing on before they could look at anything. “Now I know why you’re taking even longer to reply to me than usual.” He teased, uncharacteristically needing to overcome the awkwardness. Maybe he just needed to hold onto something.

Her footage was better, somehow. Not great. Static interrupted it every now and then like one of those ancient VHS tapes. But you could make out the trees. He turned the phone toward Taliesin to show him. “See?”

@taliesinmauk

The gears of Taliesin’s mind were already spinning as Aurora explained the full extent of the hallucinations. "Makes sense.” He said before clarifying. “As much as it can, I mean.”

He was still trying to understand what was going on when Cricket turned the phone to him. He could see it now, the slight sway of the trees that extended on forever, only for the image to descend into static. “Okay. Okay.” He repeated the word about twelve more times, stuck on it, just like the horizon was stuck on the trees.

He reached forward, scrubbing the video once again. In slow motion, even more moments of snow and static seemed to appear. But the trees were there. Clear as day. And infinite.

“How… How is it doing that? Can you air drop that to me? If it deteriorates when you send it…” He didn’t finish the thought, because they all knew it. They were fucked. Well. Somehow even more fucked than before.

@rorarosen

#p: your algebra and your politics #tl: day twelve #with: cricket #with: taliesin

"I'm not straining the electrical grid when it keeps messing up." She cleared her throat, "And you're the only person I'm interested in talking to lately." He wasn't looking at her or she would have glared pointedly. Communication via cellphone was practically useless when you couldn't trust your contact list. And they were trapped, if she needed to find Cricket, she would. The town wasn't that big.

Aurora reclaimed her phone. Although it had clearly been switched at the same time the friends had taken everything. This was just some other test they were being forced to run. "I don't think it will do any good, but..." she airdropped the file to Taliesin.

While he was busy looking at, Aurora nudged Cricket with her foot. "How much recording have you done since we've been here and do you know if your older videos have also been messed with or has something happened to them?" He could deny reality as much as he wanted, but this dome or cage or whatever you wanted to call it was clearly messing with them for sport. The sooner they focused on the real problem, the sooner they could return to their actual lives where Britt was waiting for her... them. Waiting for them.

Cricket was, despite all reports to the contrary, quite capable of shutting up. There were few who could make him do it and only under certain circumstances but self preservation was a pretty effective circumstance. “What Rora said.”

But Taliesin was very much focusing on the wrong thing. Cricket pulled his phone from his pocket. He held out his hand for Taliesin to hand over his own. “Don’t get me started on the fact that I could airdrop this to my phone from Tony’s when there’s no actual cloud for things to go to.” It was a roundabout way of acknowledging the power strangeness. He wasn’t going to get into last night unless he was asked (and even then, he’d considered pleading the Fifth. Lovely little American invention that.) “There you go. Look for any curves you want.” He slid the phone back across the desk distastefully.

He really would have preferred that Aurora left the violence out of it, but she also didn’t have a full picture of things. He sighed breezily. “What’s a mild fist fight between nowhere-near friends?” Perhaps it wasn’t the best idea to acknowledge his role in it but he had landed a hit on Tony Alessi and that was something Aurora’s other new masculine adjacent friend couldn’t do. (He wasn’t bitter. He wasn’t.)

@taliesinmauk

Taliesin chose to address the violence first. "That was where that black eye came from?” He knew he was walking into a remark about him noticing, but he wanted to show that he believed them. “You’re saying you had independent, separate hallucinations and they resulted in physical violence. Because of what you thought you were seeing or because of the fallout?”

He took the phone from Cricket, trying to control his expectations. The human mind was a tricky little organ. The kind that saw plesiosaurs in lakes and believed it would win the lottery just because it could. But despite everything he tried, it had still let him down.

“Cricket. I hate to say it.” Feared to say it, really. “But there’s nothing there. Well, not nothing. But not a lot.” He squinted, bringing his eyes far too close to the screen. He could see what looked like the ghosts of shapes but the quality of the video itself didn’t match the high end camera he expected from an Alessi. There was no sound, which was strange, because he could see the slightest hint of movement in the shadows of the shapes. Even the color seemed washed out, both overexposed and fuzzy. He carefully slid the phone back across the table like it was a bomb. “Do you have it as well, Aurora? Maybe it was just damaged in the transfer and the cloud is less reliable than we thought?” Fuck. He really didn’t want to call Tony to ask for the original.

@rorarosen

#p: your algebra and your politics #with: cricket #with: taliesin #tl: day twelve

Aurora chewed on what Cricket said. Airdrop used bluetooth and wi-fi in a proprietary system. That meant some sort of wireless connection was still operating, wherever they were had a satellite. It had to. It did not, however, have the same capabilities as the satellites they were familiar with. If they could send something to space, what would they be able to find? It was most likely impossible, but she was curious.

She squeezed Cricket's hand softly as he made his crack about Tony. It had been an especially difficult time, but they couldn't hide from the facts. That was all they had in this strange place. Cold hard facts.

Taliesin's questions was difficult to answer accurately. "Both would probably be more accurate. The hallucinogens made things more tense for all of us. It triggered a flight, fight, freeze, or fawn response in us. And violence was used to help break the hold of the hallucinogen." Saying it aloud made her realize that it was perhaps not the best solution to their problems at the time. She'd been at a loss, but it most likely would have worn off with a little more time. That was something to note for later, should they do any more experiments with it.

Aurora was squinting so hard she was going to get a headache. She'd never heard of degraded footage being an issue with airdrops. There could be a glitch in it, but she would expect that to show up differently. She'd had no need to look at the video, so she hadn't. The idea of handing her phone over to a friend put her on edge, but what choice did she have?

"I suppose." She pulled it out of her bag and scrolled back to the video. "This is my version of it. I haven't watched the footage." She had much bigger concerns to worry about.

Cricket’s hand slid into Aurora’s before he realized what he was doing. He pulled her close and kissed her head before continuing.

She “We realized there was no way we were going to get farther than this point if we turned back. So we said we’d continue on. So no one else would die.” He couldn’t have assured himself of it, but somehow, now, he was certain that was the thought. So Rora could go home. So Del could go home. “Tony did his macho thing, appointed himself as our armed escort. Which felt more like a hostage situation to me, but I’m sure he sees it differently. He delegated tasks to the rest of them. I made them a stretcher to carry her out. We all camped because it was getting dark. That was fun.” His tone made it clear that it certainly was not.

“In the morning, they left, and we walked. I don’t know for how long a distance. I was using twine but I don’t trust it anymore, as I’m sure you’ll understand shortly. We came to a wall of trees that didn’t burn. And I am telling you a wall. No gaps. Trunk to trunk. We convinced…” Forced. “…Tony to climb a tree and tape what he saw. There was nothing but forest. Where there was supposed to be Hartford? Forest. The sea? Forest. Nothing. But. Forest. We all started to argue, and this gas engulfed us and…” He paused. “I know it sounds ridiculous. It is ridiculous. But it happened.” He wasn’t sure what he was going to say if Lou’s boy toy argued with him. Probably tell Aurora to leave the room. She’d seen enough violence for a lifetime.

@taliesinmauk

Surprisingly, Taliesin had been smart about this. As predicted, something much closer to the full picture existed somewhere between Cricket and Aurora. He wasn’t going to say he wasn’t concerned about what happened after Britt’s death. It wasn’t okay and it meant something, but it wasn’t going to answer the most pressing questions. But he let Aurora get it out. And recorded too, which could be important later. Perhaps he didn’t want to get too far into it because ‘Grief made a monster of me’ hit a little too close to home. So he just nodded to her thanks. "Of course.”

Cricket’s tale was far less simple and far more relevant. “I believe you. I believe you.” He could tell Cricket needed that for some reason. All his blustering, his assholery, it wasn’t enough to keep him from needing Tal’s approval. Lou would have a field day.

Tal sat for what felt like a long while, processing, mulling the details over. He’d meant to take notes but the whole thing was so strange he’d only had it in him to listen. Then he realized. “Was it curved?” He leaned forward. “Cricket. Was the horizon curved. Where’s the video now?”

@rorarosen

#p: your algebra and your politics #with: taliesin #with: cricket #tl: day twelve

Taliesin was very locked into details that hadn't mattered much to them at the time. They were dealing with something so much bigger. Who were these people? Did they know this area well? Were there mysteries here that no one had uncovered?

She wasn't sure how to feel about any of it. His questions had stimulated her mind away from sadness and towards the cold comfort of reason. This was easier to talk about.

Aurora put her hand on Cricket's arm to stop him from speaking. "Whatever observations we have from this point forward won't be accurate. This wasn't the natural phenomenon of mist moving through an area. It was some sort of...hallucinogen. That's why we wanted you to go into the woods and see if this is a replicable experience or if it was designed for our biochemistry."

The advances in biochemicals in the past decade had been staggering. For all she knew, the whole purpose of this experience was to test a wide variety of them. "We saw very traumatic things individually. It turned violent." She had stopped it, but not nearly fast enough. "We managed to escape and came home."

“We’ll get to the edge in time, darling. Slow down.” Someday Cricket would stop hearing Trip in his head, but he doubted that it would be any time soon. Especially at a point of stress. And it was very stressful. It was a high risk, high reward defense mechanism.

He resisted the urge to take Aurora’s hand as he did his best to clarify without confronting her delusion dead on. “Aurora and Britt were together in secret. I’ll admit I wasn’t the biggest fan.” Understatement of the century but he had told Del he regretted how he’d handled her dying moments, so he could afford to be just a little politic. “But ultimately it’s her decision, isn’t it?” He bit back a remark about brilliant women tending to have questionable taste. He’d been petty enough the last few days and he wasn’t sure how short nue!Taliesin’s fuse actually was.

“Britt decided to entertain herself the way she usually tries to entertain herself.” He suspected Taliesin or anyone with a brain would take his meaning. “Tony and Reg were generally taking it in stride. Adam was… struggling. I was as well.”

He left Aurora’s feelings to herself. She knew his opinions on Britt’s treatment of her and that wasn’t going to change no matter how fragile her psyche became. She deserved better.

“When we took a break, everyone was distracted and tired. As best I can recall, I was looking away, and as far as I know, Rora was too.” He gave her a gentle nod just in case she wanted to step in. “But before we knew it Britt was on the ground.” While he could have certainly finished with an explanation of all the unpleasant colors her skin had turned, it didn’t really seem to be in the spirit of community ties. “The church girl– Betty I think?” He always had trouble retaining the names of people who were never on his potential hookup radar. “–claimed there was some kind of viper or venomous snake. It certainly looked like Britt was dealing with some sort of toxin.”

This was where he got stuck. He didn’t know what he was supposed to say, or how Aurora might have decided to remember it.

He was going to let Cricket’s remark slide. He was going to let Cricket’s remark slide. He was going to let Cricket’s remark slide– "Looking forward to it.”

Well, he tried.

Aurora was clearly in deep on the Alessi train, but for once he was seeing a gap between her and Cricket. It was weird and more than vaguely unnerving. “Okay. Then this gets even easier. Forget I said it.”

He was about to bristle at the remark about Lou when Aurora threw him a massive curveball. Like an asteroid size one, and Cricket had just added extra heat. (See Wes, he could understand sports.) It didn’t actually have a lot to do with the science or the problem at hand but… well, Lou was going to have opinions. But Aurora was so certain. So certain. It wasn’t worth fighting about. And he’d always kind of gotten a vibe that Britt was into Lou but a lot of people were into Lou and he was sensitive to that so. Well. The matter at hand.

Cricket was offering a lot of qualifiers, but he also tended to be more guarded than Aurora actually was. So Taliesin sidestepped nearly everything Cricket said (and most certainly the way he’d said it) to focus on her. Maybe it was just the last few days that he’d been having, but he didn’t even have to feign sincerity. “I’m so sorry, Aurora. I can’t imagine.”

He could imagine, though. Ever since he saw Viola he’d been imagining, but that wasn’t something anyone needed to know. “Do you need a moment to compose yourself?”

#with: cricket #with: taliesin #p: your algebra and your politics #tl: day twelve

Rora kicked Cricket under the table. She didn't like to talk about the secrecy part. The memories were nearly overwhelming. The pain, the shock, the feeling of complete and total self-doubt. She didn't want to relive any of it.

But it paled in comparison to reliving Britt's death. She'd acted badly, she knew that. She would even admit to it. Shock had taken over and her emotions overwhelmed her and she'd shut it all down by being callous and cruel. When they started to pack her away like she was a baked potato and not a person, Aurora had felt the reality of the situation here.

She had collapsed on herself and used science as a tether to try and pull herself back towards something better. She couldn't use science to steady herself this time. Clinical facts and her churning emotions didn't exactly fit well together.

"I don't remember what I was doing," She cleared her throat. "I wish I did. Del loves to talk about iconic memory, snapshots of clarity in trauma but it wasn't that way for me." This was harder than she'd thought it would be. "I remember the trees and I was drinking water or tying my shoes or something when Betty started screaming. She said there was an attack, I remember that."

Aurora laughed dryly. "I remember because I thought we'd found some new group, something that would make everything make sense. People." Her throat ached. Her fingers trembled against Cricket's. "When we looked at...there was a lot of discoloration. You could see the veins through her skin. It was so sudden. And the funny thing...we have this saying in Yiddish, mann tracht, un G-tt lacht. It was one of the ones I learned really early because it felt so true to me. Man plans, G-d laughs. Britt had anti-venom in her house. She didn't pack it because she didn't think she'd need it for this."

She stared at the wall for a minute, willing the tears to not fall. It wasn't worth it right now. She could cry in her lab, not here. "I moved away from the body and sat on a rock. I was a coward because I was angry. I said a lot of cruel things and I regret them all. Grief made a monster of me. And I let it."

"Thank you, though," she smiled limply. "For offering me condolences, that's kind of you. I appreciate it." She'd let Cricket explain the specifics of letting the group go. She wasn't strong enough to do it.

Cricket had nearly thrown a tantrum leaving the house today. Del had reminded him in that firm but gentle way of hers that he’d agreed to sit down with Lourdes’ favorite stoner just so he could try to run interference for his best friend, who hadn’t been in touch with reality for over a week now. But the thought of the alternative scared him even more. He hated Aurora being at Tony’s house in the first place. He certainly wasn’t going to leave her alone to potentially incriminate herself in whatever strange witch hunt Dante and Lourdes had decided was necessary.

He didn’t know what to say to her anymore. Certainly not in mixed company. But still he gave her arm a small squeeze as they entered. They might disagree, but he was always on her team, and he would be stand beside her until the end of this horrible line. Or perhaps not stand. Tug her backward with every fiber of his being more like.

“Taliesin.” Cricket returned with a clipped and slightly posher version of his usual accent.

Lourdes’ “new” boyfriend was irritatingly gorgeous as usual. Cricket half wished he’d stop noticing these things with time. He rarely noticed them when Del was around anyway. It had been a constant effort to cover. Just another reason to spend all his time with her and Rora after he made her come to her senses.

He was about to glare at her for the “friend” remark, but then Taliesin proved her bloody point. He wasn’t sure he’d heard the kid say that much ever, even in class presentations. Certainly not with that degree of engagement. This was a whole different register of his voice. Cricket was so tempted to sigh dramatically. Don’t change for us, darling. We won’t care. But he’d promised to be helpful as a personal favor to Del. Even if nothing made him feel more like it was just him and Rora than a good reading.

Ixnay on the missableadmay he was about to mutter to Rora, but she did have a fair point. “It has been over a week. And I’m sure you heard Tony’s… colorful characterization of what happened. The fog of war. Or of trees for that matter. I presume you’ll be talking to everyone who went on our little odyssey. So do keep in mind these accounts won’t line up. Especially at the edge.”

@taliesinmauk

“Understood.” The unambiguously gay duo were behaving themselves so far. Kinda. That was a very welcome surprise. “I have to be honest, guys. I’m already predisposed to trust your account of what happened over Tony’s. I don’t expect things to match up, and he’s got every reason to try to discredit you. I’m not going to let that happen.” He knew Aurora was supposedly working with Tony but he had eyes so he knew how much Cricket disliked the Alessis. Taliesin needed to erode trust in Tony, and that was his easy in.

Well, he hoped it was his easy way in. Cricket and Aurora had been arguing in public at the science meeting, which wasn’t like them at all. Not about things that mattered anyway.

Really Taliesin resented how much energy he’d unwittingly spent paying attention to them over the years out of some strange sense of protectiveness for Lou that he hadn’t had any right to in the first place. But he did now, didn’t he?

His gaze slid to Cricket, his eyebrow raised in what he hoped looked like respectful inquiry. “What does "the edge” mean in this context? Unless you’d like to start from the beginning?“ Tal hoped it didn’t sound like a challenge. He hadn’t mean it to be. But at this point it was habit.

@rorarosen

#p: your algebra and your politics #with: taliesin #with: cricket #tl: day twelve

This new Taliesin had several functional improvements over the old ones. He was much better at playing politic. Unfortunately for whoever had created this situation, she knew the old Taliesin too well. The differences between the two stuck out in stark relief to her.

"Tony doesn't have a reason to discredit me." She nodded to Cricket, "I think he might try to discredit Cricket because of what happened but, Tony and I have reached an agreement and it would be too his own detriment to discredit me." She could tip off whoever was watching this that she was making in roads. She would have this whole thing figured out eventually.

Ignoring Taliesin's question to Cricket, she decided she would take the opportunity to reshape the narrative. The friends weren't the only ones that could do that. "I'm not sure about you and your...whatever Lou is to you but my girlfriend and I share..d a bond - nature. She volunteered to lead an expedition and I was happy to follow. Cricket went for the science of it, naturally. I don't know how the rest of the group came together, but most of it was..." She tapped her finger against her chin, there was a word for her feelings but she didn't remember it. She glanced at Cricket, expecting his brain to fill it in for her and it did, "Banal. Most of it was walking and trying to stave off boredom. Tempers started to flare but that's to be expected given the heat, propensity for dehydration, and level of both stress and exertion we were under." She paused, "Is this helpful or must I skip straight to the television movie part?"

Phase: Day Twelve

The lights are on, but no one’s home. Noah’s house is still smoking, and the mysteries are piling up. Oh, and there’s that government thing to worry about. Might need a criminal justice system like now.

So press play, and go.

Taliesin took some consolation in the idea that all three of them were technically in trouble after the truly disastrous end to Dante’s science meeting. He’d recovered far better than Aurora from what he’d seen, but he’d also agreed to let her and Cricket do their interview together against his better judgment. Part of it was expediency but he also expected that he’d get more information by watching them argue than actually asking questions.

He looked around the study room he’d set up for this purpose with a video camera all ready to go. He knew that Cricket and Aurora could be overwhelming in person. Recording it would allow for closer study and clarity. And insurance in case something untoward was said. He had no intentions of trapping them in anything but he could tell how stressed out the community maintenance people were. Better to be able to hand over whatever information he could. If either of them asked him to stop the tape he had the small voice recorder he used for lessons in his suit jacket pocket. (It felt like a preppie sort of task.) He switched the recorder itself on before he went to the door to greet his guests.

“Aurora. Thank you for coming.” He looked Cricket up and down. “Cricket. Please sit wherever you’re comfortable and we can get started. I’m hoping to film this for Del among others,” (Was that fair? Probably not but it was true.) “so if you want to say anything off the record just tell me and we can stop the tape. I really hope you believe me when I say how much I appreciate you reaching across the aisle like this. Your knowledge has always been invaluable, but you risked your lives to go into the unknown. Few were that brave, and none of them are as as brilliant as you are. I don’t think we have a better hope than you when it comes to figuring out what this is.”

He suspected they were about to look at him like a dog that meowed, seeing as he rarely did Tutor Taliesin ™ for people that were his own age but Cricket and Aurora tended to be an overly formal pair. Maybe it would help?

@rorarosen

#p: your algebra and your politics #with: taliesin #with: cricket #tl: day twelve

Aurora hadn't wanted to come. She had more interesting things to do in her makeshift lab than be questioned by someone who had volunteered to help her and then changed his mind. But, it would supposedly help other people and she couldn't put up too much of a fight without the others gleaning that she was onto them.

She walked in awkward silence next to Cricket. Not their status quo, to be sure, but she wasn't sure what to say. He'd been very absorbed in robo!Del and she genuinely didn't want to ruin that for him if it made him happy. And it did. So, it was better for her to not say anything.

Walking into the room to see Taliesin was a different story. He looked so...helpful. She didn't trust. "Hello, friend." She said more for Cricket's benefit than Taliesin.

Frankly, if they were going to make these things a test, they should make them a little less obvious. Taliesin would never be this accommodating with them, even if Lou wasn't a factor. He wasn't the most active class participant and now he was bending over backwards to tell them how much he valued them. It was unsettling.

She swallowed her distaste but nudged Cricket's foot softly with her own, hoping he'd get the gesture to mean there was no way this was the real Taliesin. But he might be too far gone to care. Love did that to people. She knew.

"I'll tell you what I know, but forewarning it was a very traumatic trip and trauma has a marked impact on the brain that inhibits recall. Attempting to force things could lead to false memories which wouldn't be adm-useful for this."

#p: experiment on me #with: taliesin #tl: day seven

rorarosen:

Phase: Day Seven

Aurora tried to tamp down her look of disgust. It didn’t feel like it was working. Her lip kept curling down. Other people were a nuisance she didn’t need to be bothered with. She didn’t want to give these friends any extra information. But, if she gave them the illusion she was cooperating then she might have more leeway. “If you insist.” Either way, she wished Cricket could do it instead. But she couldn’t have him work on seven other projects if he had to juggle people too. He’d get distracted. She needed him focused.

“I think you should be in charge of the people.” Why was he trying to get her to do his job already? “I’ll give you some of the data. I don’t think it’s wise to disburse it too far these days. People will have questions. People will panic because they don’t understand things.” She didn’t understand things yet, but she wasn’t panicking. “Pick which people you think can handle our long list of unknowns and I’ll give you what I can. You can always give them your data. If you want.”

“Respectfully,” Tal said, making sure he looked like he meant it. “I do.” He didn’t think anyone got anywhere with Aurora unless it involved insisting. Cricket Marston was basically a walking manifestation of insistence.

The next part he didn’t have to insist on. He could agree with her, at least on the confidentiality part. “I appreciate your trust.” He said it without a hint of irony. She was delegating, and not in a meaningless way. He doubted it would last but it should be appreciated in the moment. Tal stepped a little closer. “Let me take a look and we’ll figure it out.”

(end)

Phase: Day Ten

It was only supposed to be a picnic. It was only supposed to be an interview. It was only supposed to be a supply trip.

It was only supposed to be a dinner.

But something has shifted.

The stars have moved.

So press play, and go.

#p: where's noah #with: everyone #tl: day ten

When is comedic relief not a relief? When murder is involved.

Continued from here

Keep reading

taliesinmauk:

Phase: Day Seven

“That’s fine with me. Call me a liaison. You talk to me, I’ll talk to other people.” There was less risk of misunderstandings that way. Seeing as Aurora and Cricket seemed to specialize in misunderstandings. Or, more accurately, people understanding that Aurora and Cricket were insulting them. “Give me the data and give me a list of people to contact and it’s done.”

Tal knew he shouldn’t trust how well this was suddenly going and/or her at all. But he didn’t have to trust her to get this done. He just needed information. And if she had to think he was okay with getting hazed for him to do that, that was fine. He’d been sidestepping his mother’s schemes his whole life. Aurora might have been smarter than Marion Mauk, but only in some ways. Certainly never with people. Marion was who taught him how to speak rich, which meant he knew how to speak arrogant. It was simple, really. You bow and scrape and roll your eyes once they turn around.

#p: experiment on me #with: taliesin #tl: day seven

taliesinmauk:

Phase: Day Seven

Tal almost couldn’t believe it. That was growth, right? An olive branch. Or at least a twig. “Thank you. For telling me. I appreciate it. I know this is hard, and I don’t want to act like what happened between our respective people didn’t happen.” His instinct was to say more, and he really did mean it, but he was using rich mom rules out of respect more than anything. Facilitate the conversation, don’t participate in it. Aurora tended to give off the Gandalf vibe. She wanted to talk to the smartest person in the room. Everyone else was just listening.

“That sounds great. I’m excited to help you with that. Not to point out the obvious but did you show your data to Whitecalf?” Was that insulting? Maybe. But he needed to be fostering cooperation here. And the ambiguously gay duo was definitely not built for it.

Aurora scoffed. As if they could ever ignore Lourdes’ callous behavior. That would never be acceptable. Even if this was a new “friend” the odds were high that this Lourdes was exactly as rude, crude, and difficult to get along with as the old one. “The less we speak about it, the better.” If she spoke too much, he might find out how much of a boon it was that they could hurt this Lourdes while also getting the information they needed. He wasn’t smart enough to get there on his own, but she was talking too much these days.

“I’m not convinced I need his help.” Derek was a complication more than anything else. She didn’t trust “You can stand in his place. Run the right tests. It can be part of your trial period.” And it might give her a lead she hadn’t already considered.

#p: experiment on me #with: taliesin #tl: day seven

Phase: Day Ten

It was only supposed to be a picnic. It was only supposed to be an interview. It was only supposed to be a supply trip.

It was only supposed to be a dinner.

But something has shifted.

The stars have moved.

So press play, and go.

#p: of my generation #with: everyone #tl: day ten

Things get testy when scientific ethics enter the fray. And then the guinea pig shows up…

Continued from here

Keep reading

Phase: Day Ten

It was only supposed to be a picnic. It was only supposed to be an interview. It was only supposed to be a supply trip.

It was only supposed to be a dinner.

But something has shifted.

The stars have moved.

So press play, and go.