The day after Brown Fox's "bout"

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Fox is resting in his bed, eyes closed, thinking about his family. And flowers. Specifically the smell of flowers.

After a moment, he opens his eyes and sees Via regarding him.

“Hi,” he says, trying to cover his surprise.

Via's eyes narrow slightly. “Your status?”

“A little groggy. But otherwise good. Thanks for asking.”

“Two things. First, I'm not keen on my operatives dying of poison - have you figured out the cause, and is this going to be an ongoing issue? Second, Brask is breathing down my neck for an update. We need to send him something to keep him at bay. What do you think of framing Sabik? He smells like scum to me.”

Fox's eyebrows arch. “Via, were you genuinely concerned for my well being? I'm honoured.”

Via's frown deepens. “Tell me what you did. Now.” Her left hand drops to a blaster at her hip. Disclosure: she suspected Fox was trying to commit suicide, and is very concerned for his well-being.

A slightly amused expression pulls at Fox's face. He closes his eyes and lays back on his pillow. “How close have you come to death, Via? Merlyn says I was about 15 minutes away. Let me tell you, it really changes your outlook on life. The volume gets turned down, ya know? Everything that doesn't matter just gets muted into the background.”

He opens his eyes and looks at her. “I don't know what's going on with you and Swift, but I'm pretty sure you don't want to mess it up by getting his new med bay all bloody; he is so proud of it. So you drop the menacing thing, and I'll be as upfront with you as I can.

“Don't worry about further poisoning. In my current state, if someone wanted to kill me, they would just have to expose me to a draft. Put it from your mind. I'm dealing with it.

“About Sabik, you're probably right. I like to keep my debts short. If he tries to make us jump through too many hoops, I say we toss him under the van. What happened to Madar? Wasn't that enough for Brask?”

Via draws her blaster, and pulls the trigger.

Click-click.

“Bloody safeties. It's like weapons manufacturers think some idiot will pull triggers when they don't intend to.” She sits down next to Fox and grins. “Don't analyze me. It makes me dangerous.”

“I haven't had time to get proper intel on Sabik yet - I'm juggling a couple of thermal detonators right now. Madar is one of them. He is squealing about almost everything. Turns out he actually was rather crooked, skimming the cream off the top in every job he was involved in. Agent 63 is pleased so far. Madar can't handle torture, and is even admitting to stealing the data I stole about the Empire's weapons miniaturization study. I may have planted a slight suggestion that it might go easier for him if he blames Black Sun. Works every time. Some sentients have no backbone. It's disgusting.”

She glances at Fox's face, to see if he's still awake. “Another thermal detonator might just be Swift. What do you think about this whole Force thing?”

Fox furrows his brow in an embarrassed fashion. “I'm glad you're here because of that. I was already fighting the effects of the poison while you and I were chatting at the bar. Then I sat down at the table and encountered a whole new world of pain. I heard Swift talking about force things and the Imperials wanting him. I was almost blacking out by the time Damaria started talking. I think I was able to hide it pretty well, but I really don't have any idea what they were talking about. Can you fill in some of those gaps for me?”

“Hmm. I'm probably not the best one to ask. I don't really understand half of what he said. He's a Jedi, like in the bedtime stories my dad used to tell me. Except he's not a Jedi - apparently he makes some kind of distinction that comes down to a disagreement in philosophy. I think I'd like to ask him about that sooner than later. It sounds a bit like magic, but I don't think it is. Basically he can influence people with his words, which we already know, but it's more than just rhetoric. Like he can manipulate emotions and thoughts. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me - Zeltrons do that all the time with our pheromones, in case you haven't noticed. Falleens are worse, though. We grow up with it and learn to pay attention. He probably thinks he manipulated me when we first met - I detected some kind of peace emanating from him - pretty harmless; I got much worse growing up.” She taps her lips thoughtfully. “Maybe that's one thing I find interesting about him - he feels a bit like home. And if this ability is more powerful, like mind-control stuff, I'm disappointed he hasn't used it more. I certainly could find a lot of creative uses for that…”

She looks back over at Fox, and he detects a lingering wry smile “Like I said, I'm not the best person to ask. I can't explain it properly. Oh, and Damaria is also a wannabe Jedi. At least she isn't jumping at shadows anymore. She can do some kind of mind-reading - detecting the thoughts of the weak-minded. That explains why she keeps staring at me.” She laughs, “She is wise not to trust me, but foolish to think knowing thoughts actually gives a clear picture into what someone is really like.”

“If you want real answers, talk to Swift or Damaria. Though I have a feeling they know less than they let on. So how does it make you feel to have a mind-reader and a manipulator on board?” Her smile is half-mocking.

Fox pursed his lips. “Hm.” He lets the gravity of her words sink. This kind of voodoo was not covered at IBS. He would have been more sceptical, except that Via seems to buy it. And if Via believed it, then why wouldn't he?

“Hm,” he said again, hoping to jump start a sentence.

…

Nope. Didn't work. He still wasn't sure what to say.

“I suppose,” he began tentatively, “if they suspected me of keeping secrets from them, then I should be concerned.” He paused again. “But if they have no reason to suspect, then they would have no reason to come snooping around my attic.”

He lay back in his bed and looked up at the ceiling. “As for mind control. I've been controlled and manipulated by others my whole life. First the lazy dog, then Brask, and now you to an extent. I don't like it, but that's life. We're all just using and manipulating each other to meet our own ends. Everyone looks out for themselves. It's all a game.” Even as he said the words, he felt doubt well up inside of him. He was used to the rhetoric, but the actions of his team the previous night spoke louder than any fatalistic dogma.

They had moved heaven and earth to save him, which came as no surprise. He would have done no less for his own family. If one of the Brothers or Sisters were threatened, he would have done just as much to save them. Maybe this team did understand him better than he realized. Maybe he wasn't so different from them either.

He surfaced from his reverie just as Via's attention seemed to wane. “The most valuable thing a person can find down here is an ally. Someone who will have your back, no questions asked is worth more than all the credits of the Empire.” He looked down at the foot of his bed, wondering if he should say it or not. And if he did say it, which one of the thousand different permutations of the thought would come out. “And if… well, I know it won't mean much to such a talented lone wolf like yourself, but… if you're ever in a hard spot, and you need someone you can trust… just know you aren't alone. Ok?”

…

Via stares at Fox intensely. It's obvious she is analyzing his words, and calculating, but her emotions are unreadable. A full minute passes.

“No games. Are you asking me to search your attic?” When Fox mentioned keeping secrets from the others (as a hypothetical), and then talked about snooping around his “attic”, she thought, in line with her suicide suspicions, that he is possibly making a suggestion that she should tell Damaria to 'snoop' - like an indirect cry for help. But she isn't sure.

Fox squints. “What I'm saying is, if you need someone to trust, I'm there for you. And if a day comes when I'm in need, I hope you'll be there for me.”

She sighs. “You don't have an actual attic in your den, do you? Full of traps and terrible secrets…” It is difficult to know if she is serious or not. She is now glowering at Fox. “Look. If you let yourself die from poison or any other means, you can trust that I will hunt you down and skin you alive. Your precious handlers told you to report to me, and none of my agents have clearance to expire without my express permission. Got it?”

Now she really isn't sure, and is trying to cover up her previous question with feigned gullibility.Gotta keep up that crazy reputation to keep others off-balance. She is also touched by Fox's sentiment, and she is covering some tender emotions.

With that odd outburst, she stands again and walks out the door, leaving behind the scent of flowers. She calls as she leaves, “Contact me as soon as you're ready for an assignment. I want to take care of a thermal detonator.”

At the sounded of a heated voice, Merlyn swivels in his nearby chair to check on his patient. He regards Brown Fox with his large unblinking eyes, then Via as she storms past, then back at Fox. He shrugs and says “Neimoden women are worse.”

---

Dice rolling: Erm….. Fox would like to attempt a perception check to discern what the hell that was about? Perhaps to see if she was ranting in code?

Opposed perception check: vs 2 red, 1 purple, 3 black (1 for your condition, 2 for her being a foreign species). Really I should just say no since who can really understand… uh… aliens… Result: Failure, 1 Advantage

Via's outburst is puzzling. On the one hand, she is an accomplished and competent double agent. Maybe some of her words were meant to indicate something; were they a warning or a message? On the other, she is a Zeltron; they have a general reputation of being erratic and even gullible and naive - even with her competency there may be lingering genetic artifacts affecting her personality. Was she just playing you, or testing to see how you reacted to her random outbursts, or is she emotionally unstable and ready to kill people at a whim? Or is something else happening entirely that you're not catching onto? (that's the failure)

(Advantage): Fox is certain that the whole blaster thing with the safety was a show - there's no chance she forgets about a safety with her experience: when she dual-wields her pistols she means business and those guns are an extension of her body. If she wanted to shoot you, you'd have a blaster bolt in your shoulder. What precisely the intended message was is hard to tell…

I added the disclosures in the narrative above since I wanted to reveal what was going on. Cool roleplay!