Room 512: Wednesday after classes

[badassprodigy]

After classes were out of the way, Barry was back in his room doing research on various materials for his current project while at the same time outlining a draft for his next chapter of the Apes at Dusk fanfic Saga: Blood Red Banana Moon.

The stakes were higher in this fanfic. Edison and Tesla's rivalry continued to divide the loyalties of Bella Swan Olivia Drake and her ape-vampire lover Edward Cullen Samson Baudelaire. And now there was the introduction of the frequently shirtless Platypus-werewolf hybrid Jacob Black Daniel Feldspar for the predictable love triangle which was needed in all young adult horror fiction.

The hard part? Having to add misspelled words and grammar errors to make it look legitimate.

[Open]

Comments

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

All right, Eleanor owed Barry an apology. She knew that, intellectually, but knowing something didn't make it any easier to actually stomach.

She ought to have spoken to him in class, but the gas masks made matters rather distracting. Also, it hadn't seemed conducive to a rather lengthy chat.

She hovered in the doorway, frowning at the way he was squinting at his computer at his typed.

"I don't actually want to know, do I?"

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry heard Eleanor's voice and felt a twinge of guilt and... well there was a need for a round of apologies really. Something Barry was horrible at.

"That fucking depends," Barry said turning away from his computer to face Eleanor. "Do you believe in the doomed love affair of a vampire-ape and a clumsy girl who works as an assistant to Nikola Tesla?"

He let out a sigh.

"I think we need to talk, don't we?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"It depends on how committed they both are to making it work," Eleanor mused. "That's presuming a vampire-ape is sentient enough to give consent."

Otherwise, it was just creepy.

She dropped her eyes as she leaned against the doorframe. "I ... believe we do," she said. "Unless you'd rather I go."

Maybe he was horribly offended, and then she wouldn't have to apologize. That was childish, and she knew it.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry shook his head and waved for her to come into the room. "No. But before this whole thing begins you should know I'm fucking horrible at apologies so... don't expect a good one."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"I'm not expecting any kind of an apology," Eleanor said, honestly. "I ... can't say that I'm sorry for being upset about people serving as nonconsenting test subjects, but I shouldn't have shouted at you. You were planning some sort of a prank and I overreacted."

Maybe a little, Eleanor.

"The topic is a bit ... personal."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, well..."

Barry sat back in his chair and rubbed one side of his head. "You're not the only one who let the conversation get personal. I shouldn't have been so flip."

He gave Eleanor a look.

"But I'm guessing when you say 'personal', you're talking about something that happened to you and not some general objection."

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Eleanor leaned against the doorframe, wondering how much to share. How much Barry even wanted to know.

"The colony where I grew up," she said, hesitantly. "It's called Rapture. There are no rules, in Rapture. No laws. No ethics to hold back scientific progress. Nothing but the free market to decide what was right. It wasn't ..."

How best to phrase this?

"It wasn't that they occasionally cut corners, or skipped some of the more rigorous independent verifications. They threw all decency out the nearest window and did whatever they liked. Anything they could justify, because someone would pay for the product. The result was ... a living nightmare."

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry frowned a little at that. At one point in his life cutting corners and full fledged scientific progress was all that mattered to him.

"I won't lie to you. There was a point in my life I didn't really care about what my experiments might have done to people," Barry admitted. "I was ten. I was a dick. And I'm ashamed of the things I did. If I didn't have two friends who acted like Jiminy Cricket all the time I could have turned out a lot worse. Then again I don't think even I wouldn't have gone as far as the place you're talking about. What exactly was this living nightmare?"

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Being thoughtless at age ten is hardly a mortal sin," Eleanor allowed. "Most children are abominable, from what I understand. It takes the psyche several years just to understand that other people exist, much less develop empathy for them."

She fidgeted, slightly. "There's rather a lot to it," she said, which was by way of an understatement. "It starts with human experimentation, and brainwashing. The favorite test subjects were ones no one would miss -- prisoners and small orphan girls."

Rapture really elevated douchebaggery to an art form.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

"Fuuuuuuck."

Barry let out a long sigh and rubbed his forehead again. "Please tell me you weren't... I mean... shit."

There's a question in there someplace, Eleanor, but Barry is imagining things people shouldn't imagine.

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

"Age six," she said, softly. "I'm not an orphan, but Mother was in prison."

She folded her arms over herself, protectively, and couldn't help the shudder that ripped through her.

"You don't ... want to know the details," she said. He really didn't. Rapture had a way of destroying people's faith in humanity. Even people who thought they were fresh out. "Some of it was undone, later, and the rest ... can't be."

If the slug were to be removed, nothing would keep the ADAM in equilibrium. Her cells would destroy themselves. She'd become another gelatinous blob, just like Dr. Alexander.

[notaweenie.livejournal.com]

Barry was quiet for a little bit.

"Look... I've done some horrible things to people," Barry admitted. "And I can understand why'd you'd be angry. There were some people who wanted me to do the same thing. They kidnapped my best friend. I put a stop to it and I'd hate to think what they would try if I was a different kid back then but-"

He let out a sigh.

"I at least have an idea where you're coming from here. And I'm sorry for what I said. Nobody should have to go through... whatever it was you went through. I just think you should know that I'm not going to hurt anyone here. Not if I can help it."