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Emotions Legend
[quote][b]Asmodeus (Sep 30, 2001 08:20 p.m.):[/b] "How are you adjusting?" Nathan looked at the man across the desk with guarded irritation, but Jason Vaisou gave back only a bland, complacent smile. This was the third time he'd met with him, and he liked him less each successive visit. He didn't know what Vaisou's title was. [i]Psychiatrist[/i], on occassion. [i]Teacher[/i], when it suited him. [i]Monitor[/i] would probably have been the occupation Nathan would have assigned to him, if asked, but the ever-present holster beneath his arm made him suspect that there was another duty Vaisou was required to fulfill from time to time, when his other duties were no longer necessary. [i]Executioner[/i]. If Vaisou had been cold, or professional, or withdrawn, Nathan might have disliked him less, but he always insisted on speaking to him as if he had good reason to expect Nathan's confidence. He asked him questions and laughed and joked like Nathan was a reticent child in summer camp, and it didn't matter how little he responded. If anything, Vaisou seemed more friendly and engaging when Nathan was the least interested in cooperating. How was he adjusting? Nathan Terrence was not unfamiliar with psychiatric profiling. In the time he had spent at Charybdis, doctors had often asked how he was feeling. They asked questions about his health, they asked his opinions on his thoughts and emotions, or they ran tests, or had him take tests, or gave him hypothetical situations and asked what he might do. They did not ask him how he was [i]adjusting[/i]. That was for them to determine. Vaisou had made enough playfully snide commentary during their previous meetings to assure Nathan that he was completely familiar with his history. This was just another joke, and from the expression on his face, one Vaisou found immeasurably amusing. Nathan did his best to curb his growing irritation and decided he wasn't going to play this man's game today. "Fine," he said shortly, not quite clipped enough to be rude. The tall man nodded in what could only be described as an enthusiastic, pleased manner. "Good, good. Enjoying yourself?" Nathan could not keep his eyebrows from raising incredulously, and gritted his teeth to keep from glaring. "Sir?" His voice was less controlled than his features, and there was an edge there that made Vaisou grin like an idiot. "Are you enjoying your classes? Do you like your teachers? How can we make you more comfortable?" His classes. He had been bored at first, when they placed him into some of the same basic classes he'd been enrolled in at Command School (for the few weeks he'd attended). When they pulled him out after the first week and began to ask pointed questions about the teachers and the students, it began to become more interesting. They were using him as a silent spy. What the teachers and students might have done one way under the watchful eye of an IA official they did quite differently by themselves. It was extremely low-level work, and he never found out the results of his reports, but he found himself unwillingly intrigued by the process. The people who interrogated him for answers discovered he had an eye for detail and learned very quickly what to look for, and their questions became more specific and complicated. It was...fun. His teachers. Vaisou was probably referring to the people who debriefed him after each assignment. They all had a similar hardness about the features, and they were all good at their work. They treated him as an outsider, but not as a child. That would have reduced the amount of information they could pull out of him. Being treated like a machine was far easier to deal with than being mocked as an infant. Comfort. He wanted Katera. "Yes. No. You can get me a desk, a gym card and a pass for the station." This time the laughter was genuine instead of the syrupy chuckle he normally drew, and Vaisou's face went from blandly friendly to a cynical smirk. "You don't want much, do you?" he asked sarcastically. Nathan stayed silent, and the smirk faded, replaced by the first serious look on Vaisou's face he'd ever seen. The man leaned forward and folded his hands in front of him on the desk. "I might arrange that. Mr. Terrence, you're a problem for me. The [i]late[/i] Col. Von Starnburg recommended you for the IA program, but it has since become apparent he was not in full possession of his faculties at the time. You show some interesting potential, but your background is hardly complimentary. In short, I am tired of going to the trouble to keep you prisoner here. There is little point in advancing your education any further if it's not going to be worth my time." "I am inclined to send you Earthside and let Charybdis deal with you, but several of my colleagues do not agree. They think, properly motivated, that you could do a great deal of good for the IA." His face remained grimly serious, but his lips twitched slightly at the word [i]good[/i]. "I know everything about you, Terrence. I know about Callenstrom and the burn. I know about Iddantel and Ivemey. I know what you told our investigator at the BattleSchool was true, and he knew it too. We sent you anyway." Nathan felt winded, like someone had punched him in the stomach, and he forgot all about trying to regulate his features and stared at Vaisou in blank horror. No one at Charybdis had ever given the slightest indication that they believed his story. After the labs, after the [i]treatments[/i], he'd almost ceased to believe it himself. Wick, Dante, Katera...they had believed him, two because they [i]knew[/i], and one because she loved him. "You...you [i]knew[/i]." His body was rigid, his eyes wide as he tried to grasp what the man was saying. They had known all along, they'd sent him to hell when they [i]knew[/i] what had happened, and left him there to rot. It was pure chance that he had come up for rehabilitation when he - The blankness left his features, and something darker took its place. His knuckles were white where they gripped the armrests, and he looked at Vaisou with a hatred intense enough to keep him from breathing. Vaisou looked unimpressed. "You knew, and...you sent me anyway. And then brought me back." It was a statement now, bitter and cold, and it took real effort to unlock his jaws long enough to ask the question he knew the man wanted him to ask. "[i]Why[/i]?" Vaisou settled back into his chair nonchalantly. "We were interested in a different possible recruit at the time. She displayed remarkable potential in getting you iced - all the evidence was against you. We do not advertise it, but we do have cameras monitoring the commander's quarters. There was not a single interaction between you and the other students that was not carefully reviewed afterwards. You should be grateful we took an interest. Without our prodding, Reynolds never would have rushed your treatment as she did. It could have been much worse. "As it was, until Von Starnburg made his initial report, we didn't pay much attention to you. Callenstrom was our primary candidate. Your return was constructed as a challenge for her, and she showed considerable ingenuity, but the IA has limited resources. We are allowed only a very few recruits from the Command School, and von Starnburg made the decision between yourself and Callenstrom on his own initiative. If I send you back to Charybdis now, you will have effectively cost me twice what your potential is worth. That is unattractive; however, my superiors expect a certain quality from the candidates I offer, and if you can't meet that," Vaisou shrugged, "then it doesn't matter." Nathan's head whirled as he tried to absorb too many answers at once. [i]They knew. They wanted Wick, and that's why they sent me to Charybdis. That's why they brought me back, and if it wasn't for Windhaven and von Starnburg, I'd be dead now.[/i] "Naturally, we'd prefer to get some use out of you, if possible. Your instructors have given good reports of your progress, but you could be biding your time to try to escape. For now, I'm willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and offer you a deal. Are you hearing this, Nathan? Is this getting through?" The man's voice was suddenly sharp, and Nathan was jolted back into focus. "Yes," he said softly. [i]They tried to kill me, and now they're proffering terms.[/i] He watched Vaisou with all the trembling upset he could project and began to gauge the distance between his own chair and the one behind the desk. Five feet, perhaps less. He could clear it before Vaisou got anywhere near his holster. "You work for us, no restraints, and no [i]incidents[/i], and I'll see to it that Quistin is assigned Command Post duty when she graduates." [i]Katera.[/i] Vaisou suddenly had his undivided attention, and knew it. The other man's face softened into a sardonic smile. "That's right. She's recovered nicely since you left, though it was a little uncertain at first." [i]It got through, god, it got through. Thank you, Sol.[/i] "Not much of a talker, but you probably don't want her for her conversation, eh?" Nathan bared his teeth in a snarl, and that earned him a bigger smile and an amused chuckle. "Her father seems pretty adamant about keeping her out of your reach. Can't imagine why, upstanding young man like yourself." The smile faded, and Nathan twisted his anger back down inside and swallowed. "You do your part, and you get Quistin. You don't, and you get Charybdis. Is everything clear?" He had no choice. Nathan nodded slowly. [i]You'll pay. But not until she's safe. Not until she's with me again.[/i] Vaisou looked him over and grunted in acknowledgement. "Then let's see what you can do for us, Mr. Terrence. Talk to the secretary outside. She has my instructions." Nathan had to concentrate to make himself stand, to tear his gaze away and walk towards the door. "And Nathan," called Vaisou from behind him. He paused, and half turned, too numb to do more than stare. "Smile." Nathan turned and left.[/quote]
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