A toddler in need? AKA one slight deaging

[project_kuron]

There's a young man, about twenty five by the looks of him, in the middle of the square. Plaza. Whatever.

He's looking either cofused out of his mind, or slightly upset as if he's spilled his soup or something, or was late for school, who even knows, just by looking at him one might think so, or mighty bored, it might be hard to tell.

He might look very familiar to some.

If he sees you, whoever 'you' might be, he might gesture vaguely at you. Maybe asking for some clarification. Or. Well. Whatever it is, it's definitely a question, one can judge that by his face expression and a vague spoken (sounded?),

"...a-ah?? Uhm, uhm, o-...ee??"

Comments

[iamjustvisiting]

He was looking at the other presence, curious because it didn't feel human or Anthean. An unknown alien presence was both fascinating and eerie. Tommy would have been ok had it not been the spike in emotions and pain from the person who he was mentally attached to.

The reflex of an Anthean in pain is to project, to shove away the cause. Because he was looking so intently at the boy before the pain it is hard to determine if he's being hurt or it's the human. One thing is clear to Tommy, humans can't hurt people this way so it is the alien presence that gets the reflexive shove.

Though he's not prone to attacking anyone even in self defense, he will push at people and that is what is happening here. With that push comes the flare of nausea and soul crushing pain that Anthean's feel in the presence of violence laid on others, on themselves. He can't control this part at all even as he tries to maintain the buffering between his mind and whatever the offending presence is. It has him sinking to the ground and blindly flailing for some way to brace the impact. His partial blindness is making it hard to find something to grab or see how close the ground is.

So yeah, this isn't gonna be pretty. XD

[project_kuron]

The alien presence gets pushed away successfully for now.

The young man gets to his hands and knees, shakily, and looks like... yes, he should vomit and he's choking on his own vomit. Because he was trying to swallow, but he couldn't.

Not for either of them.

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy isn't much help as he's near passing out himself. He does have enough wear withal to make sure the boy/man is either on his side of face down so that he doesn't drown in vomit. Mary Lou had gotten sick like this once from too much drinking so he had a vague idea what to do for a sick human.

His own body is pained and shaking but it's nothing new. One benefit of years of torture was the way pain faded to the background and became easy to ignore.

[project_kuron]

After a while, his body seems to calm down enough. He gets to his knees, and, while kneeling, and trembling a little, he wipes his face with a sleeve.

He looks around, disoriented. He squints, as he adjusts to seeing again, in the physical reality, though if anyone asked him, he wouldn't know or understand that. For a moment, as far as he can see, everything is black and white, when it comes to colours, but maybe that's just how it is, he won't question it.

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy is still sitting heavily on the ground, though he's squinting at the young man. He has to get up and groans at the queasy feeling brought on by moving. Whatever that was, he never wanted to deal with it again.

Eventually he does make it to his feet again and hastily straightens his suit.

[project_kuron]

And that's when the clone notices him again and looks at him with concern.

"Alive?"

He's heard that before and has a vague idea what it means, maybe, so, he'll just ask if the man is that, after... after what? No idea.

He also points at him. That's something Mantis did. It shows what one's talking about.

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy in general doesn't show many facial expressions so despite the pain and nausea he looks serene.

"Yes." The question was odd enough that he did get a curious look. He was still sorting through what he felt. "There are two of you?"

[project_kuron]

At the question, he looks around, apparently expecting to see another person. Then he looks at the other man again.

"No?"

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy scoffs at the behavior but then realizes maybe he doesn't know. He has a flash of all the brainwashing techniques the government had tried to use on him, none worked but still. He observed the man a moment longer and then decided to speak.

"I think you have something wrong. Schizophrenia, maybe?" No, Tommy didn't believe it was Schizophrenia but what was he going to talk about? Alien mind control?

[project_kuron]

"Schizophrenia?"

He repeats the word without any problem, but he's never heard it before. And is asking what it means.

[iamjustvisiting]

"Your mind is...." What word Tommy wondered. "...on pieces. Yiu have two voices."

That probably wouldn't make any sense but it was true. He heard two minds.

[project_kuron]

He touches his head.

For a moment, he's silent, then says,

"Druids call her the High Priestess."

[iamjustvisiting]

"Druids?" Tommy repeated but everything he knew about human druids was they had died out. And then they are back to alien mind control. "She's not human." He comments but it is almost a question too.

[project_kuron]

"Druids. Haggar's Druids. With Haggar. Macidus. Others."

Just confirming.

"Druids are Druids. Galran but no Galra."

Now then... he is confused about..

"What is human? Soldiers and druids not talk about human. What is that thing?"

He's curious. If the Galra apparently is not human, then what is that human thing or whatever?

But, more importantly, that man here, the Subject still remembers for now, his reaction, his behaviour...

He says,

"You have a pain response. Earlier. Do you?"

There's concern. He's trying to ask whether Tommy's suffering.

Meanwhile, he has a massive headache.

[iamjustvisiting]

"They aren't humans?" Tommy asks curiously.

"You're a human. You feel like a human." Tommy looks at the man seriously. "That other thing, definitely wasn't a human."

Tommy is trying to clear his head from the pain and focus on the very strange questions. "I felt your pain."

[project_kuron]

"No?"

"The Subject Y0XT39 are human?"

He asks, pointing at himself.

"Or... Subject Yani. Earlier, Mantis, not Galra, soldier, Druid, call the Voice of High Priestess, whispers, away, he calls me Yani. Yani are human? Hm. Is Mantis a human? And are you?"

Alright...? Whatever human is.

"You feel Y0XT39's pain?"

Oh. He leans closer, and will touch Tommy's head and rub it a little if Tommy lets him.

[iamjustvisiting]

"Not like any human I've met." Tommy confirms, though he hasn't been around very many humans.

"Yes, you're a human." Tommy raises a brow at the stream of questions. "I don't know Mantis."

Then he hesitates at the last question. "No, I'm not human."

Tommy doesn't pull away, and if Yani compares the feel of Tommy's skull to his own he might find differences in the shape. "I can feel emotions and hear thoughts."

[project_kuron]

"Mantis tells things to the Subject when Subject arrives, earlier. Gives clothes and says the Subject is person. Mantis tell the Voice of Her to leave. Good."

"And you tell the Voice, same thing, too. Yes, no?"

"You hear inside the Subject? Like Her?"

"But You are not watching the Subject."

"Yani," he says, pointing at himself. "Yani. Yani."

"Subject Y0XT39. Mantis says, no, Mantis says the Subject, Yani."

He smiles.

"Yani. Vrepit sa. You?"

Yani's curious.

The skull does feel different, and he's curious about that, too. Yani also feels very grateful, although he's not aware of that.

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy struggles to follow along with the disjointed speech patterns but thinks he's got a good grasp on them.

"You're a person." Tommy confirms but wonders why any human would think they were not a person. His mind drifts back to his own torture and how they tried to break his mind.suddenly, Tommy feels a bit of sympathy for the human the way someone might for a dog that's been beaten.

"I didn't like the intentions of that presence. It didn't belong here."

He's still trying to keep up. The down side of isolation is that language skills were fading as he became lost in his own mind.

"Thomas." He nods pointing at himself. Then he looks away thinking how much he wants to hear Tommy in a voice that doesn't exist any more.

[project_kuron]

"A person," the Subject repeats, with an utter lack of understanding of what that might mean.

Tentatively, he asks, pointing at him,

"Same as you?"

Was that one a person? Would it explain what a person was? Maybe.

"Thomas," Yani repeats, pointing at Tommy. "Thomas. Thomas. Understood."

He's learning. He takes a deep breath, looking like he's really, really enjoying it and has just realised the possibility of breathing in, deeply, like this. Looking and feeling.

[iamjustvisiting]

How does he answer this? Tommy mills it over before speaking. "We're different types of persons, but yes we're bother persons."

The eagerness to learn gets a faint smile from Tommy. "You ask a lot of questions It reminds me of Farnsworth, another human I knew."

[project_kuron]

Subject Y0XT39 frowns. Should he stop speaking?

He's silent for a moment, mulling everything over.

[iamjustvisiting]

Tommy is grateful for a moment silence. It's not that he doesn't want to talk but it gives him a chance to get his mind back in order after whatever happened. Once he feels stable again, he gives the man another mental go over and notices something else.

"Yani, have you eaten lately?" He can see it in his body or maybe he just isn't getting the right food. Tommy knew that struggle when he came to Earth. The nutrients a human needed didn't fit his people, not completely.

[project_kuron]

Food? Oh. He thinks he understands.

"Is sometimes given Quintessence as sustenance. All Subjects are given Quintessence sometimes. Life energy."

[iamjustvisiting]

That was an odd way of describing food. All Tommy can associate it with is some of the strange cults he'd studied on Earth. Eventually he nods.

"Yes, humans need it to survive." Antheans did too. Most things needed to take in energy from somewhere.