+ Guilt Runs Deep

[vitaelamorte]

Who: Everyone!
Where: The Mansion
When: Feb 23-25
Rating: Please warn in top level subject lines for potential triggers/NSFW
Summary: Various residents are trapped in their own guilt, watching their guiltiest memory play on a loop.
The Story:

Welcome to the gathering post for the event. Please see the plotting post for more information + the bulletin board link. Have fun!

Comments

[thisismadfreaky]

That's different. [Cisco doesn't move from where he's sitting, other than slowly spinning the chair to follow his movements around the room.] Metas-- Inhumans, whatever label you wanna throw on them, they're still people. And you're-- what, killing people, just to see how their insides tick differently than yours? It's not right.

[hypoxic]

Is it? [He runs a finger along the edges of the other Fitz's desk and examines it, wrinkling his nose at the level of filth. So messy.] There are marked differences in genetic code. Inhumans are as genetically disparate from humans as men are from apes. It is a fallacy to take an inhuman, who are by definition complicit in alien invasion, and conflate it with a person.

[He looks back to Cisco then, pointedly.] You may as well be a chimpanzee toying with a typewriter.

[thisismadfreaky]

You remind me so much of him. [His voice is quiet, a gravelly sound to it that wavers in the slightest way. It's uncanny, really. It's almost just plain-old suspicious. Maybe whenever he gets out of this timeloop, he'll talk to Freya. That sounds like a good idea. It doesn't quite line up with the sort of thing Dr. Fitz would have done-- mingling with the lesser beings for stretches of months? Not really his style. But so many things about the man standing in front of him are so eerily similar, it's too comparable to miss.]

[hypoxic]

[The doctor doesn't get the reference. He assumes the more obvious route, that the "him" in question is the same one people have been comparing him to since he arrived.]

I've already told you that he and I aren't the same. But I'd understand it if your facilities were too weak to retain that information.

[thisismadfreaky]

Wrong 'him'. I know you're not like Fitz. I liked that guy, he was-- he was my best friend in this place. You're nothing like him. [He gestures, vaguely, to the monitor, where he is compelled now, to change the calculations again.] The other other you, that fed me all those lies when this happened.

[hypoxic]

The mirror, you mean. [Inhumans don't even know how to speak properly. It's like unleashing their powers halves their vocabularies.] I've not had the pleasure of meeting him. Perhaps he fears me.

[thisismadfreaky]

[Cisco snorts doubtfully at the idea.] He probably just thinks you're a cheap imitation of him and not worth his time to fuck with, if we're being completely honest, here. [Dr. Fitz on the Mirror-Side did not have a great opinion on Reals, and arguably hated his own opposite more than the rest. This new version of Fitz was similar enough that, if the mirror Cisco knew from before was still hanging around, he was just watching the chaos being created for fun.]

[hypoxic]

Cheap bravado. [It takes one to know one, really.] But it certainly seems to have you convinced.

[thisismadfreaky]

[There's a snort of mirthless laughter at that.] Yeah, sure. Whatever you say. [He tips his head a little to one side.] You know, if I was so sure they might be able to find my real friend somewhere under you... I'd almost enjoy watching him rip apart. [People always forget that Cisco is not actually always so sweet or innocent. And there's just a vibe from this twisted version of his friend that he absolutely hates.]

[hypoxic]

They've certainly tried.

[If there's any visible part of the Fitz Cisco knew, it might be lodged somewhere in the petulance, or the stubborn clinging to throwaway comments nobody but he thinks is worth remembering.]

They had vampires do it. Tore me apart in all sorts of creative ways, trying to find a sliver of the simpering thing that came before me. Because that's the sort of barbarous thing that passes for lawfulness here. And if that sounds right to you? By all means, keep letting yourself become a pawn. Be the puppet tugged on the end of someone else's string. It's all you're good for.

[thisismadfreaky]

And if you don't mind me asking-- what did you do to get yourself on the radars of vampires in the first place? [Does Cisco agree with vampires ripping people apart for funsies? No. But let him tell ya, buddy, he ain't buyin' that 'innocent victim' thing you're trying to sell.]

[hypoxic]

I have enemies here. They hired the vampires to do their bidding. It was a hit job.

[ that's the way he understands it, and will continue to represent it, no matter how many ways they try to phrase it differently. ]

[thisismadfreaky]

That sounds... awfully intricate for Wonderland. [He's not saying it isn't possible. He definitely believes that new-Fitz has collected some enemies here. But vampire hitmen? He's not sure about that one.]

[hypoxic]

They were supported by a terrorist organization.

[He moves around the space to where the memory-Fitz's workstation, tracing a fingernail over an eagle symbol.]

You may have heard of it. It was already heavily installed here when I arrived.

[thisismadfreaky]

Terroists...? [In Wonderland? He squints and follows as he moves to trace the familiar symbol. Both eyebrows shoot up at the implications of what he's just said.] SHIELD is hardly what I'd consider a terrorist organization.

[hypoxic]

I know they were recruiting. From the sounds of it, you've been indoctrinated already.

[thisismadfreaky]

I-- I don't know if I'd go that far, but I mean, I guess we were allies? [He only knew the things he learned from Fitz and Jemma-- Cisco hadn't really spoken much to the other members of SHIELD the last time he was here.] What the hell about their MO seems like a terrorist threat to you? [Because he soooo isn't following that one, at all, buddy.]

[hypoxic]

They operate outside of the law and train Inhumans to be used as weapons against the state. Presently, they're invading my home world.

[How is that not a terrorist move?]

[thisismadfreaky]

That's... not exactly how I understood it. [He squints, skeptical. He knows he can't buy what this guys says, but-- he also knows all about things like doppelgangers and alternate realities and... what if that was true on his version of Earth or something?]

[hypoxic]

They've probably convinced you that they were enacting justice. They're fond of casting Hydra as the enemy.

[thisismadfreaky]

[Yeah, people don't tend to like Nazi-esque regimes, amazingly. But Cisco manages to keep that comment to himself. It seems like bad form, and might be a little more residual bitterness to everything going on back home when he got pulled back into Wonderland. So instead, he switches gears--] I really miss my friend. You don't think he could show up while you're still here, do you? [If they're really two different people, like Cisco and Reverb are, couldn't it be possible for the real Fitz to still come back? And if this was some kind of brainwashing situation, well, hopefully something could be figured out sooner rather than later on fixing it.]

[hypoxic]

You'll benefit greatly by your friend's absence. Consider it a lesson in personal development.

[ but he steps back then, ready to leave Cisco to his guilt and his hallucinations. ]

[thisismadfreaky]

[Cisco could say something to stop him, but it seems futile. The guy isn't here to help him get out by any stretch of imagination, and arguing with him would only lead to him being stuck in this room even longer than he already has been. It's probably best to just let him go.

But that doesn't mean he doesn't at least give him his very best bitch-face on his way out.]