Bolton's Office Hours

[theoverseers]

[Want to chat with Bolton privately? Here is where you do it! Bolton's office hours will be held in conference room B in the library for approximately four hours in the morning several days a week. During that time the blinds will be drawn and that room will be off-limits unless you're there to talk to Bolton, though the other three study rooms will still be available for use.


Comments are screened for privacy.]

Comments

[theoverseers]

[Well what the shit kind of loophole is that this is why you're not the Champion of Life, Jane.

He gets up from his seat (setting his book on the table) and offers her a mustard-yellow handkerchief.]

I'm sorry.

[bylight]

[That is an admission Lightning hadn't expected. She nods and sips her coffee.]

I won't ask. Neither will I tell the others about this conversation. You'll be bombarded with questions and complaints otherwise. I'll just tell them you make damn good coffee.

[theoverseers]

[He does brighten a little at that, although he still looks pretty damn tired.]

Thanks, Lightning.

Don't give up on each other. You guys are the ones with the power to change this experiment.

[cyan_maid]

[No fucking shit.

After a moment, she hesitantly takes the handkerchief, using it to dab at the corners of her eyes.]

God - I'm sorry, I - I wasn't coming in here to cry. I-I'm more angry than anything right now...

[Mostly at herself.]

[theoverseers]

You're okay, it's no problem.

[Now that she's calming down some, he leans against the table.]

Sometimes those two things go hand in hand.

[cyan_maid]

[She takes a deep, slow breath. Considers blowing her nose with the hankie...then reconsiders it. She's happy to troll Bolton, but not to give him a snotty hankie.]

T-That's all I've been feeling, I'll have you know...either angry or sad...a-and you know, don't you? About our memories...[Another sniff.]

[theoverseers]

[Honestly, he'll take the snotty hanky if that's what she wants to do.]

Yeah, I do. Jesus, when I was your age I was buying a fake ID and running off to Vegas to make bad life choices once a month, not... everything you've been through.

Though I was friends with my share of obtuse jackasses, boys at least never change.

[cyan_maid]

[Hey, she's not heartless.

She snorts once, wiping her eyes again for good measure before folding the hanky up into a square.]

No...no, they don't. Not ever. [A beat.] But, Vegas...so...you're from Earth, too. Or an Earth.

[theoverseers]

[See there you go he can be funny when he's not encouraging murder.]

You got me. I'm definitely not an alien wearing human skin.

[He grins.]

Or am I?

[bylight]

[Bolton needs a nap.]

Right. I just have to think of a way to get everyone to stop-[Waving of the hand.]-being so adamant about not wanting to play nice.

[If six people can band together to take down the equivalent of gods, why can't people here get along?]

[theoverseers]

Hah, well good luck with Togami.

[That kid's sworn loyalty to one person and one person only]

But if anyone can bring this group together, it's you and Xander.

[bylight]

Togami is the Champion Survivor. He'll be fine without us.

[He's also a dick.]

You mean Xander. He's the leader of this outfit. He can use Yurika to encourage people and keep up the morale.

[theoverseers]

I mean you and Xander.

All jokes about romance aside, that kind of chemistry is rare. Two people from totally different worlds... Sometimes, the hard part about finding someone who holds you up and makes you want to do better, is knowing that at some point you have to let go.

[Maybe he's referring to her deal with a god and her Bad Decision re: her sister, maybe he's not.]

It's something to think about. Hold onto it while you have it.

[bylight]

[Gods, it's irritating and a confirmation that this is what is going to and is meant to happen. Lightning is quiet for some time before she replies.]

There is no romance, I can tell you that. Just two people trying their damnedest to save as many people as we can. I know in the end that I'll have to go back home and I won't see anyone here ever again. It's for the best. [The next memory regain is going to make this all the harder.] All I can do is help them how I can and pray that they can all return home.

[cyan_maid]

[She'd roll her eyes if she were in better spirits.]

Whether you are or not - that's not up to me to theorize. Goodness, I am tired of aliens...

[theoverseers]

How have you not seen the summer blockbuster Men in Black? I mean, there's a dearth of mustaches but those suits are pret-ty sharp.

[But he gives her a more serious answer, too.]

...Can't blame you there. Just reading your file was exhausting.

[theoverseers]

[Bolton's quiet for a long moment, like he doesn't quite buy it but isn't going to fight her on it either.]

You mean more to them than you know.

I'm just saying- Nobody forgets the people who went through hell with them, even after they go home.

[cyan_maid]

[She'd say yes, but it's likely that that, amongst most of the movies she's ever seen, were part of impromptu streamed movie marathons during better times.]

...Who compiles these files, anyway? Not...not anyone perverted, or...someone I'd unfortunately know...

[Is Caliborn providing you intel with his supposed screens and keys?]

[theoverseers]

[it takes him a second, but then he gets it.]

Hah, no, these files are just objective reports - like an analysis of a movie or something, not the ravings of a 13-year-old pissant with a god complex.

[cyan_maid]

Oh, thank God...

[So it's cold, calculating, and still creepy, but Lord English a certain shithead has nothing to do with it. Bless.]

I think I'd just about blow my stack if he was involved.

[theoverseers]

Yeah, no, fuck him, honestly.

[He watches her with an unreadable expression for a moment.]

Feeling a little better?

[cyan_maid]

[How about y'all capture Caliborn for your murdergames next time? RNG will have to target him, he's not human.]

...A little. I...I'm sorry for all that. [She hands back the hanky at last.] I had wanted to - to really make a statement, or...some kind of threat to topple this experiment, even if I can only bring someone back once, but...it ended up just like everything else I do. I really do apologize for such a waste of time...

[theoverseers]

[He takes the hanky and tucks it into his left back pocket out of habit.]

Jane... You're smart, you're funny, hell, nobody else would have been determined enough to figure out how to bake cakes from scratch using only the ingredients you've been able to scrounge together. But you're never a waste of time. Mine or anyone else's. Some dumb boy being too up his own ass to remember your birthday doesn't have the right to make you doubt that, even if he's your dumb friend.

[He's trying to hug her with words because he knows better than to try to hug anyone here]

[curdle]

[ She doesn't have to fake the trepidation in her voice when she starts talking, which is good, because she's still not a very accomplished liar. ]

I still cannot know all that happened last... [ no ] ... the last night I remembered, but the witch showed herself. She let me be, knowing that I would take the blame of it. Maybe she knew of Mother's madness, and thought we should kill each other...

[ She can't linger on the struggle with her mother, or she'll lose herself in panic and self-pity again. She cuts the thoughts off with what she considers a simple statement of fact! ]

Her purpose matters not. I am a matricide. Father is dead, the twins gone, all our animals save the goat fled into the woods or slaughtered. I keep thinking what I might do, as if this had yet to happen, but 'tis already done, and all I can do is guess at my choice.

[ Her choice of actions fades in and out. One moment it's something she's disconnected from, the next it feels as real and immediate as it had in her dreams. ]

I cannot survive the winter, not with what we have. But if I travel for the colony, I do not know the way, and I go to it through the wilderness. They will never let me escape alive. And if they do... it is because they know none will believe me. They hated my family and I have none to testify for my story, and I will have to tell them what became of the farm. They'll believe just as Mother did. If the witch or the goat let me live, I will starve on the farm, or hang in the village for a witch. And however I die, my soul is damned to Hell... so it means nothing if I deed it away.

That was my choice. I thought on my future then as I do now, and chose to conjure the beast and make bargain with him. Black Phillip is Satan and I his handmaid.

That is what I think 'tis for.

[cyan_maid]

[Good call yeah you're not a high enough level to unlock Jane hugs yet.

She looks a little...surprised, to hear Bolton say all that to her, especially over her own words, which, while stinging, had only felt more like the truth the more things she remembered. But she listens. She listens, and...doesn't quite know what to make of it, to be honest, so she doesn't say anything. She can't.]