versusnurture: (➵ just let)
Abigail Hobbs ([personal profile] versusnurture) wrote2014-08-02 09:24 pm

nineteen ♢ video

[When the feed comes on, the first thing there is is a wall and half of a desk. Those people on board who've been inside will know it as Abigail's room. There's a small blood smear on the edge of the desk, another dark spot on the corner of the lens.]

[She doesn't turn it towards herself, but the camera does move towards the desk, is set down at the edge of it. Two hands appear in the frame, blood-caked, palm-up. There's blood under her nails, too, drier blood that's oxidized to a deep, almost black color.]

[She doesn't say anything. But after a moment, there's a strangled noise, and she knocks the camera off the desk. The briefest flash of dark hair and a pale face; then it hits the floor and shuts off.]
ichoosefight: (lost count)

spam

[personal profile] ichoosefight 2014-08-09 04:00 am (UTC)(link)
I'll leave you to it, then. Just, uh... don't poke around in anything if you aren't sure what it is. It might explode.

[ She's serious about that, too. A girl's gotta have her explosives, you know? ]
warisart: (Determined)

[personal profile] warisart 2014-08-09 05:32 am (UTC)(link)
[Ben watches carefully, of course, because while that was not the point of his being here, of giving her the file, of anything, he needs information. Not all of it is contained in the folder in Abigail's hands, not the parts Ben needs to know most, not the spaces in between and behind lines. The events, the frame, the bullet points, the play by play, but not who Abigail is.

Whatever Hannibal left behind of her. Something in Ben's chest burns cold and for a moment it's visible through his expression, backlit behind his eyes, something cool and sharp and predatory. He knows who Abigail means.
]

Yes.

[There are a dozen things he wants to add onto the end of that, threats and promises and questions, but Hannibal is sunk into the core of her now as Manticore is forever branded on Ben. He can't just be ripped free. He must be finessed into manageable compartments that Abigail can drop over the side as she goes, manageable pieces to leave behind her as she outgrows them. It will take time. Ben can give her that.

And see what she wants him to do about his answer, here and now, of course.
]
adelphoktonos: (and now denied)

private

[personal profile] adelphoktonos 2014-08-10 01:55 am (UTC)(link)
[She's not happy to hear that at all, friend.]

How?
adelphoktonos: (a pretty baby never born)

private

[personal profile] adelphoktonos 2014-08-11 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
Who cut it?
walkingmeltdown: (i don't have the patience☠)

[voice ; private]

[personal profile] walkingmeltdown 2014-08-12 01:29 am (UTC)(link)
I've heard it from too many people already, my dear. You don't have to say it.

[In a way he's glad she's back. Perhaps out of all those he knows, that he's become close to, she might be the only one to allow it when he tries to retreat back behind his walls. Make things easy and mathematical again.]
warisart: (Resolve)

[personal profile] warisart 2014-08-12 02:14 am (UTC)(link)
[Please don't hurt him.

There's a moment, safely hidden at the far end of the distance Ben is currently bringing to bear for both of their sakes, where the plea makes him irrationally angry. He isn't sure why, when he realizes it, although he can recognize that it was there the entire time: he hadn't exactly noticed that indeed, he wants to hurt Hannibal. He wants badly to hurt Hannibal. Furthermore he knows that he can, and knows that there aren't many aboard that could stop him if he chose to do so.

The anger isn't for Abigail, not for asking; it's the fact that she asked. It's the fact that Manticore may have brainwashed Ben, may have conditioned him to dependence and loyalty, but he never
cared about the corporation. This is something altogether more insidious.

His voice is taut, the hair thin split between curiosity and defensiveness, when he replies:
]

Why?
warisart: (Stealth)

[personal profile] warisart 2014-08-12 02:34 am (UTC)(link)
[There is a moment in which Ben can clearly hear the snap of bone in his mind. He can feel the grinding crunch of vertebrae, peculiar from other bones and how they fracture, beneath his palm and he can compensate for the sudden heaviness of a body no longer holding itself up.

Ben has never been vengeful, never been a creature of hate, but in that moment he knows that if Hannibal were here in front of them, nothing and no one would be able to save him from the X5.

Outwardly, he is silent and still, only his narrowed eyes giving him away. He is not angry with Abigail. He is not disappointed, he is not disgusted - he has failed her. Abysmally. That is how he knows that despite the difficulty of the promise she's asking from him, despite the acrid taste it leaves behind in his mouth to consider it, he knows he must make it. He must try.

Finally Ben takes a step forward and drops, smoothly, into a compact crouch; he keeps his knees together, folds his arms on his tabletopped thighs, and folds down and down until he can rest his chin on his crossed forearms. From here, he tries to find Abigail's eyes.
]

I can't promise not to harm him at all. If it becomes necessary in your defense, or in the defense of another Barge passenger, I will not hesitate; if we are set at odds by the situations that arise aboard the Barge and I do not know myself, I cannot stop.

But I will not harm him idly, nor will I exert more force than strictly necessary, to the best of my ability.
warisart: (Victor)

[personal profile] warisart 2014-08-12 04:25 am (UTC)(link)
[Ben knows about being hidden away from the world, about being fed only the information his captors wanted him to have, about believing himself to be what they told him he was as a matter of survival; the difference is that there had been a sort of kindness to being shaped into a tool. He did not love Manticore or the people there. He knew he wasn't supposed to.

It's easy, looking back from where he is today, to know it's wrong. Some days it's harder, but it's not his own heart turning on him even then. It's merely the very real necessity of feeling safe, feeling secure, feeling as though he belongs that trips him up occasionally. Never love.

Ben waits while she decides what to do with his words, because if he doesn't hold perfectly still, if he doesn't focus on the slow draw and slower release of air into his chest he doesn't know what he'll do. He was a tool, a soldier, first: he was trained to kill, taught to respond with immediate and damning force. He is better than that now, but only when he wants to be, and right now he's not sure he does.

Later it will scare him a little that besides Abigail, the most powerful thing stopping him is the knowledge that on the Barge, it won't be a permanent end.
]

Abigail. [He is there when she opens her eyes, bent over the blood on his shirt, still as the deepest parts of shade; his voice is cool and steady, not demanding, not soothing, but firm. He doesn't want her to apologize. He's not sure he can explain why she doesn't have to, not in a way she'll believe, not in a way she can understand. He doesn't know how to reassure her.]

It's okay. We will start again.

What makes you feel safest? No matter what it is, no matter how vague or how illogical, can you tell me?
ichoosefight: (no need to thank me)

spam

[personal profile] ichoosefight 2014-08-12 05:25 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Steph grins and shrugs. What can you do? ]

Atta girl. Lock the door behind you when you leave, okay?

[ And she gets up to leave. She was serious about that, too. She's serious about a lot of things, believe it or not. ]
walkingmeltdown: (☠exactly how the breaking point sounds☠)

[voice ; private]

[personal profile] walkingmeltdown 2014-08-12 06:31 pm (UTC)(link)
[Whatever happened to her, either where she was or here, she's been beaten down. He can tell it clearly. It'll have to be someone else's job to build her back up though.

He won't push either. He'll simply leave this where it lies.
]

Well. As I said, if there's anything you need from me. If not...I'll simply leave you alone.

You sound as if you could use it.
youwill: (I eat boys up breakfast and lunch)

private }

[personal profile] youwill 2014-08-13 08:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I'm here.

[He says it calmly, watches to see if she will take it as comfort or threat. He cut her throat, mimicked her father's last act, and Hannibal wants to know everything about why. But he doubts those are answers she can give him.]

Have you told Ben?

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