Day 4: Desperate Times

[perfectimitator]

Who: Jade, [AU] Jade
Where: The Malkuth Military Base
When: Day 4, early morning
Warnings: Snark, self-loathing?

Comments

[red_under_glass]

"I'm well assured, at least in this matter. I know all about having to resort to unpleasant measures," Jade told himself wryly. However, he was quiet and attentive as his alternate spoke. So he'd talked to Blade... Jade couldn't say he was very happy about it, but if he were being allowed to do research, and had been told even the barest amount of information, he would know that Blade had been the first extraglobal person to cross over. Seeking him out and questioning was a perfectly logical course of action.

However, Jade said nothing, listening both to his double's words and the meaning hidden between the lines. He waited until he was done before he spoke. "Yes, I've run tests on some of the others who have arrived here from another Auldrant. In short, Blade is the only one suffering from fonon separation. His condition is, in fact, completely unlike any of the others, in that at times his fonons are completely normal, and at sometimes they're so unstable it's a wonder he doesn't simply blow away."

And sometimes the fonic connections were so strong that he's superreal, but Jade saw no reason to mention it. His double could reach that conclusion on his own. He also didn't mention the doubles who suddenly disappeared without a trace. *That* suggested to Jade that there might well come an onset of very sudden, violent fonon separation. He wasn't going to be so hasty as to assume that when there was zero proof of it, though, and he certainly wasn't going to share that particular concern with his double. Not right now.

[perfectimitator]

Jade let out a slow, steadying breath, eyes closing with more relief than he was comfortable admitting to in the other man's presence. "Ah," he murmured, "I was rather hoping you'd say something like that." With lips quirked, Jade added, "The public panic otherwise would have been so... ugly."

What his counterpart had said about the replica-amalgamation was interesting. As though his fonic signature were throbbing. Jade wondered whether there was any pattern to it -- any rhythm -- and found himself imagining a frantic beat, tempo moving smoothly from languid to as rapid as a breathless heart. It was an uncharacteristically whimsical train of thought.

"You'll pardon me," he murmured at length, "if I wouldn't still like to be tested myself."

It was not a wholly honest statement; really, Jade would have much preferred to be allowed to perform some of his alternate's tests on an unrelated third party. Vivisection wasn't the only way to be sure of results, but there was nothing quite like handling a subject with your own gloved hands to increase the feeling of certainty.

Given how unlikely this request was to be granted, however...

[red_under_glass]

"Yes, I'm sure you have a deep desire to keep the populace happy and secure." Jade adjusted his glasses, then regarded his double with a poker-neutral expression as he requested to be tested. Hmmm. The Colonel imagined his double would have preferred to have used other test subjects, but he also imagined he knew he wouldn't be allowed that kind of opportunity. And far be it for him to shy from self-experimentation.

The memory of those scars on his double's chest and back rose to Jade's mind unbidden, and it was his discipline that kept him from grimacing. He did, however, narrow his eyes slightly as he rested his elbows on his desk, hands folded, in thought. "That seems like a reasonable request," he finally replied. "Though I suppose I'd better perform those tests on you personally."

He sounded less than enthusiastic, but it's not as if Jade had to wonder why. Jade, meanwhile, glanced at the clock as he dropped his arms to the armrests of his seat. "How about later today at noon--four hours and twenty-two minutes from now? I'm afraid I have quite a bit of work left. All considered, I imagine you've a mite more free time than I do."

[OOC: We can skip ahead for that, I think. I only posed it this way since it strikes me as unnatural for Jade to simply jump up and drop everything he's doing right now, esp. for his ill-liked double.]

[perfectimitator]

((Sounds good!))

No, no wondering at all. Jade held perfectly still while his duplicate considered, watching the other man's face, feeling himself seen through; an interesting sensation, and one he'd never really had before coming to this nexus. He didn't enjoy it, but it was interesting nonetheless, and harmless in this particular instance.

At the suggestion that he come back later, Jade only dipped his head in bemused acknowledgment, and bowed out of the room. He had no real way of occupying himself in the meantime -- an unfortunate consequence of all that free time -- but the hours gave him ample time to prepare himself for this next unfamiliar (and no doubt unpleasant) sensation: being experimented on by someone else.

(It helped very slightly to know that it only wasn't self-experimentation because of his limitations as an organic, three-dimensional being, incapable of perceiving everything at once.)

When he returned, he opted for a pleasant and polite knock himself, rather than letting the guards show him in.