murder --7; voice

[heltersskelter]

[Tate's walking down the hall, his communicator at his side. the video is on, so it flashes as he walks: the wall, his leg, the wall, his leg. it's dark, wherever he is. darker than the halls of the Passenger Quarters, lacking the glow of Engineering or the Shuttle Bay.]

It's like we've come to a new stage of our relationship, now we're talking. [it's as though he's been holding a conversation with someone and the comm started in the middle of it] But you know, I think that guy, you know the one, he needs something more poetic, like: There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast... Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! ... You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you?

[he stops, for a second, and from the lowered angle you can see his other hand. his fingers drum against his leg, like he's anxious. blunted, bitten nails digging into the fabric of his jeans.]

You aren't afraid are you?

[he's walking again]

By the way, sorry about Hayden. She's kind of a bitch when she doesn't get laid, and I mean, you know how people can get on this ship. But next month is New Years, right? I think Hayley missed that. It should be one hell of a party. It's been two years since the first jump showed up. Not everyone has something back home, you know? Maybe some of you have crap to go back to, bullshit families and wives and kids. Jobs, like your lives even matter. But maybe this place isn't so bad. [his voice lowers, not quiet, just deeper:] Can't say this ship never gave you anything.

[then he stops again, all at once. it's darker than it was a second ago, like maybe he's standing beneath an awning. there's no movement for about five minutes, you can't even hear Tate breathing, and right before the video winks off he says:]

What's for dinner?

Comments

[cons]

Maybe, but nobody else could see them.

[ which she knows now that she hasn't worn her mask for almost a whole day. nobody else saw her sister, the zombies, but her. ]

Which guy are you talking about? Who's the monster, Tate?

[ she's not even being tactful here, nnnnnope ]

[heltersskelter]

[he seems oblivious, like he doesn't know what she's talking about. that whatever she's insinuating, he doesn't understand.]

I dunno. Maybe there's a little monster in all of us.

[cons]

Probably is.

[ hnn not the point ]

I think we were wrong about these masks, kid.

[ kid. she keeps calling them all 'kid'. her mask is gone but she can't shake the loss of it, like wandering around zombieland without a gun. unprotected, vulnerable. which, somehow, her paranoia is finally starting to pick up as a bad sign. the masks. it's the masks. ]

Have you been wearing yours everyday too?

[heltersskelter]

I think you've been spending too much time with Brendan.

[which seems irrelevant, but she'd never really called him kid before. he doesn't answer the question about the mask.]

[cons]

Maybe. But you're dodging the point.

[heltersskelter]

Aren't you having fun?

[cons]

Sometimes. [ a beat ] The fun wasn't worth it once I realized I wasn't really in control. [ lol not that she had much choice in coming to that realization, it was only once she had the mask off for a day or so ]

[heltersskelter]

It's still you.

[cons]

Me without a fucking conscience. Which, incidentally, is nothing like me with the one I've apparently developed here.

[heltersskelter]

It could be letting you take control back, you know. Who says it's not society that's been telling you how to act? That how you are otherwise is what people want you to be?

[cons]

Yeah, thought about all that, and I hear you loud and clear. [ seriously. she kept saying this place made her soft, and now she knows it did ] But it made me paranoid, too, made me see shit that wasn't there. Again, if I'm gonna stop caring about what I say and who I hurt, I want it to be on my own terms, not because some mask is making me think it's the only choice I have.

[heltersskelter]

It's survival of the fittest up here, Wichita.

[cons]

That doesn't make it okay for me to turn against my friends. [ wichita you could probably stand to sound a little more sure of yourself there, sigh ] I get that now.

[heltersskelter]

When the chips are down, are you so sure they won't do the same to you?

[cons]

Yeah, actually. They're pretty damn persistant when it comes to that shit.

Most of them, at least.

[heltersskelter]

Guess you'll just have to see.