tucky | ♻ 022

♻ 022 | audio

Hey, y'all. I been thinking about some stuff lately - about powers. I don't have any and I never did, except for Admiral powers and except for one time when I thought I had some of my own - but that's another story.

They're just kinda all over the place here, I noticed. Arthas had his, and he tried to kill the whole Barge. And I know wardens hurt people with their powers sometimes. I've seen it. And we got inmates who don't have any powers at all, but still hurt and kill people. It's like I was telling someone earlier - it ain't like the Barge is safe when inmates have powers, and dangerous when they don't. It's a lot more complicated than that.

I got two inmates I been talking to, Lourdes and Pietro - and they want their powers back 'cause they don't feel right and whole without 'em. And I don't blame 'em, if I'm gonna be real honest. I maybe would have, before I was a warden, but now I got a different perspective. We're letting parts of people be locked away, and how's anyone supposed to trust us if we do that and don't care?

But maybe it ain't right to just give 'em back without thinking about it, neither - 'cause some of the powers are dangerous, and all of us'd be affected if something happened. So we decided that since they don't got wardens of their own, we're gonna talk to the whole Barge about it and see if any of y'all got objections. Or-- or questions or concerns. Stuff like that.

Pietro's got super speed, and super senses so he can see things okay when he's using his super speed. Lourdes can control people's bodies, and their minds, and even the chemicals inside 'em. Now, that's a whole fucking lot - so she's mostly what I wanna talk about today, I guess. We got Iris and Jean and all those guys who can protect people from stuff like that, but it can still be dangerous. So we're asking you.

Everybody gets a say.

[filtered to Lourdes]

if you get em back i want to talk about how your gonna use em ok

[filtered to Barbara, Cain, Dillon, Eggsy, Iris, Jean, Letty, Lloyd, Lydia, Ricki, Roderick, Simon, Tig; dated to after the post has been up for a while]

I'm giving Lourdes her powers back - but only when she's in the Enclosure with me. Now, I don't think she's gonna hurt me - but if she does, I don't want any of y'all hurting her back, okay? I ain't saying no punishment, or no being mad. Just no torturing or murdering or nothing. Thanks.

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[True story: Lourdes has never been this close to a bear before. She's kind of freaked out for half a second, and then she remembers: oh. And the bear sits down on its butt and waves with one paw.]

. . . It's bigger than I expected.

[Seeing a bear do that is so ridiculous that she can't hold back a stream of giggles; it takes her a moment or two to respond.]

Yeah, they're-- they're pretty big. Me and my brothers shot one once. We used to go hunting a lot.

[It's. Nice, making Tiffany laugh. She smiles again, just a little.]

Well, you can't shoot this one. He's our ride.

Yeah.

How the fuck are we gonna get up on it? Can it, like... kneel?

[She looks at the bear, narrows her eyes. It kneels.]

Apparently.

[Fearless, Tiffany charges over and grabs onto the bear's fur at the scruff of its neck, hanging on as she vaults herself up. She has a pretty healthy respect for the danger that wild animals can pose, but this is different. She completely trusts Lourdes not to let (or make) the bear maul her.]

[To Lourdes's credit? The thought never occurred to her. In fact, the idea of harming Tiffany is anathema to everything that she is right now. Instead, she just watches Tiffany climb up onto the bear and then makes her way over.]

Let's see if I can do this.

[With a quick motion, she vaults herself up behind Tiffany and grabs onto her waist.]

Okay.

So I learned how to make horses walk from Boyd, but I don't know how to make a bear walk.

Um. I could do it, but would that be cheating?

Nah. I bet we couldn't get it to do it in any other way. It ain't gonna be used to having people on its back.

Okay.

[She touches the bear's limbs with her mind, and slowly but surely it begins to walk forward. Its gait is odd and rolling, and it takes a moment for Lourdes to get used to.]

Whoa.

[Tiffany leans forward a little, holding tighter to the bear's fur with one hand and reaching back to grab Lourdes's sleeve with the other. This is definitely different from riding a horse.]

You doing okay?

I think so. It's just weird.

[She pats Tiffany's hand, sort of awkwardly.]

Okay. Maybe a little faster now? [Obediently, the bear starts . . . bear-trotting.]

I wonder how fast it can run. I wonder if it'd bounce us off.

[Clearly they need a saddle or something.]

I love you, Lourdes.

[She says it loud enough for her to hear, but quiet enough for her to comfortably pretend that she didn't if that's what she'd prefer.]

I don't think bears run very fast. Do you want me to make it go faster? I--

[She presses her lips shut tight, tucking her chin into Tiffany's shoulder.]

I love you, too, I think.

[She thinks. She doesn't know. She's not promising anything.]

I never seen a bear run.

[But that doesn't mean they can't. She may ask Barbara about this during their next school session.]

You don't got to know. And if you ever do know, it's okay if you know that you don't.

But I do and I always will.

Okay.

[There's a quiet comfort in this: something that she doesn't have to know. She nestles deeper into Tiffany's shoulder.]

Do you want me to make him run?

Edited 2015-06-25 22:01 (UTC)

[You are the cutest, Lourdes; it's you.]

Yeah. If you want to. We can try it.

Okay, [she says again, and grabs onto the fur of the bear's haunches for safety. With another slight push with her mind, she nudges the bear forward faster, faster, until it's running as fast as it can go.]

[Which it turns out is pretty fast! Faster than she was expecting for such a big animal, anyway, and she wobbles, almost falling off.]

[Tiffany lets go of the bear's fur to twists sideways, grabbing onto Lourdes in an attempt to keep her from falling; unfortunately, all that really does is make her start to fall, too.]

Oh, shit!

Fuck!

[With Tiffany off-balance and hanging onto her, Lourdes can't help but start sliding sideways, too. It only takes a few seconds and she's falling off the bear with a thump.]

Shit.

[Tiffany hits the ground a couple seconds later, and the wind is knocked out of her. It takes her a moment to be able to talk.]

... I kinda pulled you off a little, didn't I? I'm sorry. I was trying to do the exact opposite thing.

[Lourdes is distracted, and her mental grip on the bear slips. With a confused look back at them, it vanishes into the woods.]

[She rolls over, sitting up.]

Yeah, a little. It's okay, though. I don't think I was made to ride on bears.

Probably not.

[She stays down on the ground, lying on her back in the grass.]

You ever go out in the woods back on your planet?

Sometimes. Not a lot.

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