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[iiGypsy_Jazz]

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[SilentShadowDreamer]

((OOC: hello somehow I missed this for months I'm an a*****e I apologize))

Passion might as well have been battering herself against a stone wall for all the effect that her temper seemed to have on Marcelius. By this point, Marc was no longer even listening. He’d heard every variation of threats or pleas, temper or pain, from slaves after the baseline test. While he may have never heard that tone of voice from Passion, he’d heard it from dozens of others. “Mm. Your baseline testing is complete. You may exit, or you may wait for R—” he paused a beat, then finished, “for Curiosity to come and fetch you.”

He pressed his fingertip against something on the board. There was a faint whirring sound, and shortly afterwards a long, thin bottle with a delicate point at one end rose up from within the desk. “This is for you. Do not take more than five drops at a time, and no more than once every cycle. It can be dangerous.” Setting the bottle on the edge of the desk, he looked her directly in the face for the first time since she had come in. “Normally I would keep this and medicate you myself. However, there are…circumstances.”

It was the closest he’d come to referencing the hints he’d given her the last time they spoke.

“So I expect that you will not be a fool.” He held her eyes for a beat that felt like a lifetime, then went back to his notes. “I have summoned Curiosity to fetch you.”

And indeed, shortly afterwards, Curiosity appeared in the now-opened doorway. His eyes went from her to his master, but he didn’t ask any questions.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Passion took a deep breath and she shook, and grabbed the bottle without looking away from Marcelius' eyes. She caught his slip.

"I know." That was all she said. She was exhausted now, and she stepped over the hair on the floor that had once been on her head. She allowed Curiosity to lead her out but in the doorway she said one last time.

"I know. And you may think you're smart, but you're not smart enough to get through to him." Her voice was just a hoarse whisper, rough from her earlier pleas and screams.

Then she turned toward the hallway to leave. Her fingers felt light on the bottle of gods-know-what that he had given her. She had no intention of saying anything else for the rest of the night.

She left the room of her own free will. She felt helpless and empty, and for once felt no desire to touch a pencil or charcoal. Maxy would give anything for the silent bit of affection that was the only thing she missed from Earth. A hug, a kiss, the warmth of another person without the hardened indifference, or struggled tenseness of fear.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Marc did not reply as Curiosity and Passion left the room. If she glanced back, though, Passion might notice a curious sadness that flickered and faded on his face. Maybe something she'd said had gotten to him--or maybe he really was just concerned about Reticence.

But he said nothing, and the door closed behind them silently.

Curiosity walked beside her, but he didn't speak, either. He just didn't seem to know what to say. Only once they had reached the girls' room did he speak.

"Naïveté went to talk to Reticence."

His voice was quiet. It hesitated briefly on Reticence.

"So that's why she's not here. Don't worry. She'll be back shortly."

Another moment of quiet. Then he asked, "Do you want me to stay?"  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Passion turned to him as she pushed the door open. Her lips were still clamped shut but she shrugged. She didn't really know what she wanted. He might notice the redness of her eyes, if he looked carefully.

Then she turned, and pretty slowly, walked into the room, and sitting on her bed. She stared ahead of her, and then down at the medicine in her hand.

She lifted it to eye level and inspected it, before holding it out to Curiosity to take a look.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Looking bemused, Curiosity took it from her and turned the bottle over, examining it with a puzzled frown slowly crossing his face. There were a few quiet minutes while he traced one finger over the shape of it, examined the sharp point at one end, touched the delicate engraving along one side that looked like no form of writing ever seen on Earth.

When he handed it back to her, he said, “I suppose he told you how to—”

They were interrupted as the door slammed open. “Curiosity, I can’t get him to see sense—”

Naïveté paused in the middle of her outburst, looking surprised and embarrassed to see Passion back; she hadn’t expected her to be done with the testing so soon. “Oh. Ah. Hello, Passion. Are you…all right?”

She didn’t look all right, exactly, but she also didn’t look as bad as some of the other slaves had. Perhaps she would have been one of the strongest of all of them in time. But if Naïveté had her way—and when she wanted to be, she could be determined, could find her spine—Passion wouldn’t have that time, because when the Master left, the rest of them would go, too.

She loved Reticence with all the depth of a younger sister, and she would see him safe even if it meant dragging him by his ankles away from the only home he’d ever known.

But he was determined, too, and the most stubborn mule of a boy she’d ever met. So it would take probably her, Curiosity, and Passion all to get him on that ship once the Master left.  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

"No more than 5 drops at a time...once every cycle..." She repeated softly to Curiosity and watched Naivette. She'd never seen the girl so animated. It gave her a pleasant feeling in her stomach to know that the girl had it in her. It felt a little like that had currently traded places. She twiddled the bottle in her fingers.

Her eyes had dried a bit and lost a bit of their redness, but her mouth was still pretty tight. She looked sad, though, despite the lack of evidence on her face now. "It's my fault...I couldn't get him to listen....who would listen to me anyway? I don't even listen to me...." She laid down and closed her eyes, blowing out a sigh. what should have been the familiar feeling of her manic depressive flash was strangely foreign feeling, and she didn't totally mind it.

Passion yearned for a shower like the one she had managed to find while the others slept. Slept. How much time had passed since they last slept? It felt like ages ago. She suddenly felt so very tired. It was like the weight of her worries was literally pushing down on her chest and suffocating her, but her body didn't quite care enough to make her move. She wanted to see Naivette stay so animated.....  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Curiosity nodded absentmindedly, more focused on Naïveté. "Okay."

Naïveté scowled at her. "It's not your fault, Passion, don't be silly," she ordered. There was an unsettling briskness to her tone--for a moment, she wasn't Naïveté. She was Cass, that girl who'd died so long ago and left the trembling quiet automaton of a human in her place. "We just need to get him to see sense. I'm sure that if we can get him on the ship, that'll be all it takes." She looked thoughtful. "Maybe if we can just convince him to take us to Earth, let him think we'll let him go back...?"

"Do you really think he'd buy that?" asked Curiosity dryly. "He'd never believe we'd let him go back."

Naïveté pushed back her messy dark hair--it had come out of the braids Passion had done for her, though she couldn't remember when. Her mouth turned down at the edges. "Maybe he wouldn't, but do you really think he'd refuse to take us if we wanted to go? I mean, he's the only one who can drive the thing anyway!"

She turned on Passion with her eyes wide and hopeful. "What do you think? Do you think we could make it work?"  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Passion regained a bit of her lost hope, "He couldn't possibly doom us all because of his own pride..." She was under the impression that he was far more modest than that.

She liked seeing this side of Naivette. It was nice to not have to be the spunky one for once. To have someone else reassure HER, rather than the other way around. A small smile curled at her lips. Her mouth was still dry from her little experiment, but she licked her lips and pocketed the medication. She wouldn't try it until they were on the ship. Another bargaining tool for the convincing of their friend.

"Does he know how much you guys love him?" It was such a simple question, but it seemed to her they were less open about their feelings than she was. Could he possibly not know? But how could he not?

((I'm so sorry this is so freaking delayed. This semester literally killed me. My hair was falling out and everything. I hope you forgive me. I'll email you the link to the page and a little note that I've posted, just in case this is too far back to check on, now. <3))  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Naïveté looked at Passion with some blankness for a minute or two. Then she said, “Love isn’t a very safe thing for us to have, not here. We respect him. We need him. That’s enough.” Even she must have known that she was lying, because a faint hint of colour had risen up in her face. With her hands tucked back into the pockets of her grey clothes, she got up. “Listen, I’m going to go get him and bring him in here. Maybe with all of us together, we can talk him into coming with us. We just have to act desperate enough to get out. Okay?”

She didn’t wait for an answer, instead heading out the door with the same speed she’d used coming into it. After a minute or two, Curiosity looked at Passion with a strange sort of half-smile on his face. “Sometimes it’s easier if you don’t put a name to it,” he told her. “He feels stronger and we feel safer if we can all pretend that we’re equally as disposable. Love hurts, Passion. You’d know that. It hurts more if you call it what it is and then you lose it.” Sitting back a little, he said, “He knows, though. I think. Even if we don’t call it that.”

He looked back towards the door, frowning thoughtfully. “I hope she can convince him to come in. If not we might have to go join her instead.”  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

Passion closed her eyes. Her heart hurt for them. She'd been spending so much time focusing on her own hard times and her own hurt, that she didn't think about how the others coped with things. "I know...it's hard to do...but I think I will keep doing this..." She smiled a little and opened her eyes, "Nothing is going to stop me from loving anything...especially you guys."

She really did. They were the only family she'd ever known, and even then the more she's fought it the more she wanted to be close with them. She wanted to tell jokes and break down the walls they'd built...she wanted to have inside joks and silly debates....it would all have to start somewhere.

She lifted the vile and took the drops.
Suddenly everything was....
...
Calm.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Curiosity watched her take the drops. There was a funny little smile on his face when she looked back at him. "I hope you won't regret that," was all that he said, before getting to his feet and looking towards the door. "They ought to be back by now."

Mere minutes after he finished speaking, Reticence and Naïveté came through the door, Naïveté circling Reticence like a particularly harried sheepdog with a stubborn donkey. "We could get out, Reticence, we could be free, can you imagine? The master practically told us to go, that's what Passion says, and you know he makes his wishes pretty clear--"

"Why would he want us to go?" Reticence sounded...tired, more than anything. "He paid for us. For you."

Curiosity shrugged. "Keshval do things differently," he said. "What matters is that he wants us to go. That's his order. And if it's not...even if it's not. I want to go. I'm tired of being in experiments that make me want to die, of watching Naïveté cringe from her own shadow, of watching you take our places over and over again so we won't suffer more than we have to. Wondering every time we let a guest in if they'll kill us for looking at them wrong. I don't want to have to bury another friend, Reticence."

His voice shook with an anger that he'd never betrayed before. If he was just saying this to convince Reticence, he was an incredible actor. "I want to go back home."

"I want to go back home," Naïveté echoed, her voice quieter. "I know my family is probably long dead. Curiosity does, too. But...but we're a family, aren't we? And...I want to go home. Go home with all of my family." She took Curiosity's hand in one of hers, Reticence's in the other. "Please, Reticence. You're the only one who can get us there."

"Curiosity...Naïveté...I, listen..." He looked...unsure. There was something still missing. Something that would maybe, maybe, push him over the edge into agreement.

Slowly, his gaze tracked to Passion. "And you?"  

[iiGypsy_Jazz]

For once in her entirety of being there she looked completely level headed. She looked at Reticence and realized as she said the words they were true, "I...We can't leave without you."

And she wasn't referring to being able to ride the rocket. She couldn't leave him behind knowing what would happen. She reached out and grabbed the hand that Naivette wasn't holding and lifted it slowly incase her touch frightened him the way it seemed to when she hugged him.

She lifted the top of his hand to her lips and kissed it softly. Her lips were chapped and cracked from her biting them during the last experiment. "It's time to leave."

"I know....I'm not part of your family yet..." She looked down and though her head was beginning to feel a bit clouded, there were no more dramatic waves of emotion, "But I...I would really like to be..." She blushed a little, "if we had the chance. But we won't if we stay."

She waited a little nervously for his reply. She'd put herself out there more than she had intended to. That was one thing that the burst of emotion had helped with- expressing herself with confidence. Now she felt unsure and shy.

She knew that if she had suspected correctly, that he had never been to Earth. This was terrifying for him. All of them knew that place as home, and he'd only ever been here on this planet..calm, and silently scared. .. "Give us the chance to love a you that isn't scared"

Was 'love' too strong a word still? She meant it, though. She looked down and scuffed her feet against the floor, waiting.  

[SilentShadowDreamer]

Reticence stood like stone while she talked, as she lifted his hand. He didn't exactly pull back when she kissed it, but there was a definite sense that something about the contact unnerved him.

There was silence for a long time (or, well, it felt like a long time) after she finished speaking. Neither Curiosity nor Naïveté seemed to feel the need to disrupt the quiet. Reticence probably did--but maybe he just didn't know how.

So when he did speak, eventually, he was quieter than he usually was. "...If that's what you want. All of you. If you're sure."

Turning away and letting go of both their hands, he went to the door. "They'll kill us if we're caught, you know." It was almost conversational, like he was trying one last thing to get them to change their minds. "The three of you would be..." He trailed off. Maybe he already knew that saying they'd be safer staying, not standing up for him, would be a waste of his breath.

Shaking his head, he gestured. "Come on, then. The ships are down this way. He's already gone, so if we're to go, it should be now."

Naïveté looked a little stunned. "...Really?"

Reticence didn't look back at them, staring out into the hallway like he's never seen it before. "...It's what you want, isn't it?"

"Yes," she said hastily. "Yes, yes. Let's go. Now. Right now!"

Grabbing Passion's hand with her free one, Naïveté dragged her and Curiosity after Reticence as he started walking.