ＴＨＯＭＡＳ (apocalyptic chihuahua and social disaster) (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shuckit) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
maskormenace2014-11-30 10:03 am
shuckit) wrote in maskormenace2014-11-30 10:03 am
Entry tags:
- abigail hobbs | n/a,
- † april ludgate | janet snakehole,
- † grey | n/a,
- † jesse pinkman | diesel,
- † kanaya maryam-lalonde | psychopomp,
- † loki laufeyson | n/a,
- † m'gann m'orzz | miss martian,
- † minho | n/a,
- † newt | the glue,
- † simon newton | n/a,
- † steve rogers | captain america,
- † teresa | n/a,
- † thomas | n/a
002 | Video
[ when thomas appears on the video, he’s looking dirty and entirely worn, and that stain in his hair might be blood, jussayin. though his clothes are completely fresh, looking newly bought from the store, and there’s a lump on his left shoulder of a bandage wrapped there beneath the cotton. clean as that looks, thomas seems half-dead, otherwise, speaking with a completely blank voice. his skin looks too pale and blotchy, probably because this message wasn’t the first thing he did when he got street side. that was collapse against a wall somewhere and have a lot of Emotions. which we aren’t going to talk about. ]
If anyone was trying to get to me the last day, sorry, I wasn’t around. [ he pauses, swallowing, and looks at some empty spot in space just underneath the phone, eyes distant. ] Took a trip home, for a week and a few days.
[ it was a bad week and a few days. it was an entirely horrific week and a few days and thomas is nearly considering just staying here, not going back. but he can’t leave the others. not there. with what the world is now, and the few sparse memories he’s gotten back, he’s lost hope that any of them will find a ‘home’ in the world again. but he’ll still get them somewhere safe. he has to.
thomas clears his throat, attention snapped back to the camera, and he rolls his left shoulder experimentally - it had been agonizing who knows how many hours ago, and thomas had been sure he was dying of infection, and now he feels even better than before. it’s ridiculous. and a little infuriating. but that’s a different topic. ]
How many of you came in with some kind of illness? [ the Flare. he’s seen what it does, and he knows what will happen to him, Newt and Minho if it starts working in them. But the other two have been fine, for months here. ] Have you seen the symptoms stalled, or has it kept going? If it was contagious, has it spread, or did the government shanks in that lab put something in your system to contain it?
[ as much as he hates the idea of them messing with him, and of the nanites they put in their blood, if it keeps the Flare contained, he’ll accept it. and if there was something these people did to hold off the Flare, you bet your ass Thomas is going to be looking to take it home with him. sry not sry, his world needs this a lot more than yours does, jerks. his expression sours some, this comment half muttered. ] And how many of you have a world that’d kill for whatever they’re using here?
Thanks.
PRIVATE TO JEMMA SIMMONS;
I don’t think I can give you a sample, now. I’ll look for some others, still. Sorry.
PRIVATE TO MAZE RUNNER CAST;
We need to talk.
If anyone was trying to get to me the last day, sorry, I wasn’t around. [ he pauses, swallowing, and looks at some empty spot in space just underneath the phone, eyes distant. ] Took a trip home, for a week and a few days.
[ it was a bad week and a few days. it was an entirely horrific week and a few days and thomas is nearly considering just staying here, not going back. but he can’t leave the others. not there. with what the world is now, and the few sparse memories he’s gotten back, he’s lost hope that any of them will find a ‘home’ in the world again. but he’ll still get them somewhere safe. he has to.
thomas clears his throat, attention snapped back to the camera, and he rolls his left shoulder experimentally - it had been agonizing who knows how many hours ago, and thomas had been sure he was dying of infection, and now he feels even better than before. it’s ridiculous. and a little infuriating. but that’s a different topic. ]
How many of you came in with some kind of illness? [ the Flare. he’s seen what it does, and he knows what will happen to him, Newt and Minho if it starts working in them. But the other two have been fine, for months here. ] Have you seen the symptoms stalled, or has it kept going? If it was contagious, has it spread, or did the government shanks in that lab put something in your system to contain it?
[ as much as he hates the idea of them messing with him, and of the nanites they put in their blood, if it keeps the Flare contained, he’ll accept it. and if there was something these people did to hold off the Flare, you bet your ass Thomas is going to be looking to take it home with him. sry not sry, his world needs this a lot more than yours does, jerks. his expression sours some, this comment half muttered. ] And how many of you have a world that’d kill for whatever they’re using here?
Thanks.
PRIVATE TO JEMMA SIMMONS;
I don’t think I can give you a sample, now. I’ll look for some others, still. Sorry.
PRIVATE TO MAZE RUNNER CAST;
We need to talk.
action.
Whoa.
[ but after he knocks himself out of that daze, thomas takes a couple quick steps forward, coming to the edge of the portal before he stalls a second to hesitantly look over the edges of it. it's a lot like the flat trans they went through. weird. eventually, he steps through, though, into the house, and turns immediately back to look at it again.
that is hella cool. ]
action.
instead, she takes a blanket off the couch and wraps it around her shoulders before taking a seat. ]
So, I imagine you've a story to tell.
action.
he takes a moment, looking down at the carpet, before he starts talking, voice a bit small, because for all that thomas has been through and somehow survived, and all that he's determined to keep living... he's scared. he's terrified. ]
It's called the Flare, and it's driving humanity to extinction. [ this is why he is standing so far away from everything, and why he's so paranoid about it despite the near certain possibility that the porter either cured or sealed it. ] They said they infected all of us with it, and Minho's been here for months like that, but even if they were lying... I definitely have it. There's no way I don't.
[ he'd gotten that crank's blood all over him, onto his own wounds. he'd had to hold the knife in his chest until he stopped twitching and seizing. there's no way he got out of that without being infected. ]
It drives you totally nuts. Makes you attack people, act crazy, talk to yourself. Laugh at nothing. And after a few weeks, you just go more and more crazy, until... [ his lips hang open for a moment, thinking of the horde of cranks far, far past the gone that had chased them. how they looked more like monsters than people. thomas's hands a shaking a little, and he clenches them into fists to try to make it stop. he can still hear the sick, wet sound of the man wheezing through the open holes and damaged tissue where his nose used to be. rose took my nose, i suppose. he wants his mind to just shut off, but he just keeps hearing it in the back of his head, over and over with the sound of lightbulbs popping and nails scratching on grime encrusted brick. ] Until you're not even human anymore. You decay, get these huge sores, start pulling your own hair. Once you're to that point... you're not just attacking people. You're doing a lot worse than that.
[ eating them. pulling off limbs, wanting to take body parts off (rose took my nose i suppose), mangle things. brenda had told him she felt the disease working in her, starting to sink in and skew her mind. thomas is second guessing every thought he has, waiting for something out of place to start to show. ] If it's not something the Porter does, if Minho didn't really come in with it either cured or isolated, I need to leave.
action.
it must be a hell of a maneuver to pull around a telepath as it all surges to the surface, all her fears and paranoias, dreads and memories, loss and pain, and none of it stops her. her body lets out a white flash without even breaking stride as she gets to her feet, looking far more grey and horned once her glow ebbs.
she regenerates like this. even if the virus might affect a non-human biology, she's certain her own constantly refreshing metabolism will keep it at bay. she's faced worse viruses, she knows exactly how much her body can take. ]
I need to get dressed, we aren't going to waste any time. I don't have to worry, I'm not even alive in a traditional sense, but if you're going to tell me you're a walking biohazard we're going to make sure you're safe.
For your sake, and that of every single person on this planet.
[ and she moves with purpose up the stairs. there isn't any chance this is going to be a pleasant experience for thomas, but if she can promise anything, it's that he's not about to go through it alone. ]
action.
it'd been a mistake to come to the house. to even walk around the city a few blocks. they never told the gladers how the epidemic spreads, but he'd be willing to bet airborne is on the list. if not, he still shouldn't be in here. thankfully, he hasn't touched anything yet, aside from the soles of his running shoes on the carpet. kanaya shoots up, her body flashing white, and thomas doesn't even really have to presence of mind to consider what that was. he assumes some sort of protection.
he doesn't know what he'd been thinking - that he'd get something reassuring there was no chance it'd spread? that everything would be cheery and perfect here in heropa like it always is, all problems fixed?
he'd been an idiot.
kanaya rattles off a lot of words that only really half make it to his ears, though 'walking biohazard' is more like a spear through his stomach. that's exactly what he is. standing around in the room that all of the most important people to him like to hang around. suddenly, he's feeling like his whole body is coated in something like toxic waste, that his skin is crawling with disease, and it sends panic rocketing through him. kanaya's gone to get changed, and thomas's eyes are darting around the room, trying to think of a way to fix it. Just like he'd said - if he does have the Flare, he needs to leave. At least long enough to tell if the symptoms are showing up or not. He can't risk waiting a week or two in Heropa to see if it happens. Half the city would have contracted it by then.
moving, he near runs to the kitchen, at first, grabbing a dishcloth to cover his hands, before he pulls open a cabinet of cleaning supplies, dragging out rubber gloves and tugging those on. Then he's holding the dishcloth over his mouth, trying to filter his breathing, as he shrugs off the backpack he'd arrived with - the one they'd given the gladers before sending them out into the scorch. he has some supplies left, but not much. not enough. he unzips it and hurriedly starts to pull things from the fridge and the pantry that ought to be easy for him to eat wherever he isolates himself for the next couple weeks. he grabs matches, a lighter, utensils, a small steel pan to be bowl, pot and plate, a water bottle, a couple more dish towels. he should grab more clothes, but he doesn't want to risk going into Newt and Grey's room. He'll just have to find a stream or something. he's done this before, in the Glade. he can handle it again. probably.
by the time kanaya gets back downstairs, thomas's bag is full, zipped up and back on his back. there's a couple kitchen knives he's grabbed as well, not wanting to risk going into the bedroom for his own knives. he's also grabbed the blanket kanaya was using off the floor, draping it over his shoulders. that should be enough to keep him warm, or covered, at least. he's reaching his still rubber-gloved hand up to the doorknob, not meaning to run off without her, but just wanting to get out of this house. it feels like each second he stands in it, the more the disease sinks into the carpet, the walls. in the Scorch, it'd been different. Everyone else was already infected. Here, he's the one cell that's about to destroy every other one around him. ]
action.
but when she runs into a problem, she's going to make sure it's taken care of, and she's going to make sure it's done right. just because he could potentially wipe out the human race doesn't mean she's going to leave his best interests by the wayside.
she lets out a sigh and a curse when she sees he's no longer in the room, but tracking his thread at least tells her he hasn't gone far. did she need to tell him to stay where he is? can that not have been implied, just this once? she opens the door and, taking one look at him, places her hands on her hips. ]
You couldn't have stayed put for one minute? What did you touch. [ she needs an inventory, she has to know where she'll need to clean behind him. this is going to be a very busy day for her. ]
action.
Nothing. [ he says a little loud, seeing as it's muffled under the cloth he's holding over his face with a gloved hand. there was one designated hand for cloth holding, one for grabbing things. left on face, right safe to touch stuff. which is the one he holds up and wiggles his fingers to emphasize to her. it's not a biohazard suit, but it keeps him front having direct contact with anything. ]
Shoes were on the kitchen tile only. [ which is hardly much more of a problem than him walking around the living room, talking and breathing, was. or taking a sprint down the city block when the government people tried to shuffle him into the car. or collapsing in an alley to cry for a while.
Christ, he's going to single handedly destroy this planet. shit, he'd been so stupid. ]
action.
This isn't a common cold, a fucking dishcloth isn't exactly the surest safeguard! I'll need to know everything you touched. Everything, indirect or not.
[ she fans her hands beside her head, just trying to push out the stress, to think clearly. ] If you needed something, you might've tried asking!
[ this is a disaster, and she doesn't have everything she needs to get it worked out. she needs time, she needs to come to terms with never seeing that blanket again. she liked that blanket. they need to get distance, get away from people. that will give her time for research.
she looks out somewhere in the distance, reading the threads. she has to find somewhere they're sparse, somewhere fewer people are at risk. finally satisfied, she pulls the portal in, but the closest place is out in the everglades. she'd prefer something drier, but greater distance requires greater time. ]
Come along, we have to get out of here. We'll work out a plan somewhere less densely populated.
action.
Sorry, I didn't have my HAZMAT suit on hand. It's not like I didn't already make it through the entire Porter process with thirty or so government workers!
[ as it typically is, the anger is more at himself than at her, but when thomas is frustrated, it tends to get thrown at anything and everyone in the vicinity. he shoots up from where he's crouched, passing for a moment as he looks one way down the street and then the other, answering her question in a snidely sarcastic but distracted tone. ] Just burn down the kitchen and the living room, I'm sure you'll be fine.
[ 'work out a plan somewhere less densely populated'. he turns his head sharply back at her, eyes narrowing like there's something she just doesn't get. all he sees right now are the hideous outlines of the Cranks so far past the Gone they'd been mutilating their own bodies, snickering and laughing and talking in a deranged sing-song, eyeing him like a meal. how can you plan around that? aside from just 'shoot me and burn the body immediately'? he snorts, glancing between her and the portal she opened, not really even likely the idea of having kanaya around at the moment. he doesn't move, even seems to go rigid, like his stubbornness is taking on something physical. ]
Yeah. That's what I'm doing. Getting out of here. [ the tone is still bitter, but less fire in it, as he thinks of the process Brenda told him about. you're discovered infected, they ship you out on the next Berg to the Scorch. leave you to die or turn into something worse. ] If you can open up a portal to the Andes or the Sahara, that'd be awesome. Sahara's best. Cranks just love deserts.
action.
Thomas, shut the fuck up and get in the portal.
If we were going to any desert, it would be the Mojave. I'm not about to get the government breathing down our necks because we left the country. But it's too far, so you'll just have to satisfy yourself with wetlands.
[ not that she hadn't thought of the mojave. but if they go somewhere even more remote, they'll at least want somewhere else to buy time while she opens that portal. still, being from the desert herself, she can't help feeling a little insulted by the implication.
of course, the desert she's from was also infested with zombies, but still. she's more insulted by the implication that she's just going to dump his body somewhere no one will find it. she's doing this as much for him as everyone else, and he doesn't even have the courtesy to trust her. ]
action.
he never claimed not to be petty. in a lot of ways, thomas is still, very much, a child. there was a lot of growing up that he didn't get, and a lot more of being an adult that he got too soon.
but still, this is something too serious for him to screw around with, and he's wasting time with this. begrudgingly, he steps forward, hands gripping at the straps of his backpack almost protectively. he goes to step up to the portal, though, shoots a sharp glare to her. ]
What I had in mind didn't involve a "we".
[ he just wants to be gone. go out into the middle of nowhere and wait this thing out. in a couple more weeks, symptoms will definitely be showing, and for thomas, that's the only way to really know for sure. if they don't show up, great. if they do, well... that's something he'll worry about then.
he steps through the portal, out into the soft grass and mud of the everglades, squinting around the area. he doesn't really remember specific places. the words sound familiar, but he'd had to relearn the entire map when he first got here. 'everglades'. somewhere in florida, a lot of marshland. aligators. awwwwwesome. ]
action.
now she takes him by the arm and turns him back around to face her. ]
You need to listen to me, because you haven't really been thinking when you need to. This isn't just about you, and I'm not about to abandon you here when I don't know you're safe.
But you aren't the only one in danger, either. I need to keep things safe for everyone else, too. So when I ask you to tell me what you touched, just because you didn't bother thinking that I could have fetched things for you instead doesn't mean you give me some sarcastic answer when I need to know to ensure nothing is contaminated.
I'm trying to help you, and I need you to help me to do that, alright? That means we have to trust each other enough to actually work with one another.
Do. You. Understand.
action.
[ the accussation that he's only thinking of himself and his own suffering has thomas completely appalled. he's been damned since the moment he was dropped into the box and lifted up into the maze. sure, it'd be great to live through all this bullshit, but if it's either thomas or the gladers, he'll happily take their place. has tried to. has done really, really stupid things that have nearly got him killed in the effort to keep as many of his friends alive as he could. this is no different. of course he's scared of what the flare will do to him, but that's not what has him teetering along the edge of rationality - it's the fact newt and minho are here. the idea that all of heropa might, in years, maybe months, look like the scorch. whispered snickering and crazed eyes watching you from the shadows. everything empty, like a skeleton of a civilization.
even the thought that he might be thinking of anything but that boils his blood. ]
I've seen what this thing does to a world, to a person. It kills everything until you're left with a wasteland with things that are more animal than human. You don't think I'm not scared outta my mind that just one, tiny missed spot will have Newt or Minho or Grey getting sick? [ the rest of civilization as well, but they live in that house. they are the ones who've gone through so damn much, only to finally find a place that they can close their eyes one night and actually feel safe. he knows that because it's been the same for him. and now here he is, bringing the horror of their world into this one. ] This place is the best option for an escape they have. I'd rather you drop me here and let an alligator eat me than take me back there even a second before I'm sure this thing isn't still in me.
[ he's breathing heavily, having gotten into her face in the argument (or as much as he can, being shorter than her), his eyes wide, skin splotched, and hands shaking in fists at his side. thomas has known what terror is, and he hasn't ever felt like it's something to hold in. something you can. he calms a second, voice quieting, evening out. ]
I told you - the living room, the kitchen, the front door. [ he'd been serious about that. well, not about the burning part. but he meant all of it - decontaminate all of it. he swallows, head turning to look out into the marshes, something detached in the tone. ] Do all of it to make sure. Hell, do the whole shuck house, and the block outside too.
action.
Then start thinking logistically. If it's the tiny spots you're afraid of missing, pay attention to the spots. [ arguing about the burning comment isn't going to do them any good, it was thoughtless and stupid, and while it strikes a nerve, it's not getting them anywhere. ] I'm here because I'm just as worried about their safety as you, so stop treating me like an enemy or an obstacle, but there's more than just them. There's Rose, as well. And Hajime and Anna, our neighbours next door, everyone in Heropa beyond that. But there's also you, and your safety can't be anymore neglected than theirs.
I do have to go back. I have to make sure everything's clean and sterilized before anyone else comes home. But once that's done, I'll be back here, and we're taking you to see a doctor. I won't be satisfied until I know that everyone will be safe from this.
[ and because he's already taken her blanket, which she's sure won't be adequate with the cold she already feels seeping through her coat. even though she's far more sensitive to cold than most are. ] I'll want to bring you a better jacket, anyway.
action.
he knows she's right, though, and he knows he's freaking out right now. he tells himself to calm down, but somewhere between the screams of cranks rattling around in his head, the constant run of numbers in the back of his mind trying to go over how many people he'd come in contact with, how many people those people were likely to come in contact with, how fast it could travel, how many days they have left before he would leave heropa, how far it could be once any symptoms start showing up on thomas himself... his head's a mess. after she speaks, though, for a moment, he closes his eyes and breathes, trying to tell his mind to shut up. focus. ]
If I actually have this thing, my safety's the last of everyone's problems. [ it comes out in a forced kind of blank, and he opens his eyes, looking at some blank spot on kanaya's shirt. ] Actually, it'll be the center of them.
[ and though the sentiment about bringing him a better jacket has the urge to smile settling in him (such a mom-ish kind of notion, one he'd expect to hear from newt), it's overshadowed by the thought of doctor. ]A doctor? Seriously? You were freaked enough about me getting in the kitchen, you want to take me to, what, a hospital? Where all the people who might be able to actually do something about this are gonna be exposed to me?
[ he knows there's options - putting some kind of quarantine set up together, giving doctors protective gear, but that still feels like walking into a sports stadium carrying a bomb. ]
action.
The difference is you were panicking, acting out of impulse rater than rational thought. We're taking you to a doctor, but we're going to be prepared. We're doing it the right way, the smart way.
Bringing you out here isn't a solution. It's only to buy us time.
action.
...You better have a damn good plan for that.
[ because he's not going anywhere if there's even a slight risk of it getting out. ]
action.
[ and she turns to put some distance between them before she opens her portal back, talking over her shoulder as she does. ] Leave your communicator on. If I'm not back in an hour, I'll call.
action.
It's on. [ that's all he says. ]
action.
Take care, Thomas. [ it's genuine, not chiding. almost pleading, in fact. don't you dare do anything too hurt yourself, that's the meaning running through it.
she steps back through the portal, snapping it shut behind her. she has a lot of cleaning to do. ]