[Mostly Open] So we'll press, and press 'til you can't take it anymore!

[groupiedrifter]

CHARACTERS: Precursors and you. And Eventually Newton. Hopefully!
LOCATION: A holding room in Ximilia Station.
DATE: Est. two days post-mission, after the kaiju is defeated and the orb is retrieved.
CONTENT: The precursors are revealed — and are finally removed from Newt's mind.
WARNINGS: Possession and the bodily autonomy issues that come with that. More will be added if necessary!

Closed and opened starters will be added as I go, which will be announced on plurk! But if you don't use plurk or would rather keep an eye out by email/tracking, feel free to use the tracking option and mark to receive notifs any new top level comments posted to this log! The log will involve an open starter to visit the precursors where they're cuffed/contained in the room, so stay tuned.

Also no rush once the open starters are posted!

Feel free to focus on the player plot log first and come back to this later.

CLOSED STARTER | THE DOCTOR
DARKLING'S TOP LEVEL | WHILE NEWT WAS SLEEPING...
OPEN STARTER | THE PRECURSORS, REVEALED
CLOSED FINAL CONCLUSION | THE PRECURSORS, REMOVED
OPEN PROMPTS | NEWTON GEISZLER'S RETURN

Comments

[kikoku]

I know I didn't make the best first impression, but I actually try to avoid further traumatizing patients for no reason. Besides...

[He pauses, shifting in his seat. He thinks back, thinks of Doflamingo and the terrible puppeteering he could do with his string, the broken and battered Bellamy being forced to fight with teard streaming down his face, eliciting Luffy's pure rage.]

You're hardly in need of punishing. I don't fully understand the situation but I'd hazard what hurt those people and also what picked a fight with me was that thing and not you.
[When he'd heard what had happened, honestpy his past experience with Newt suddenly made sense, the two different personalities he felt like he encountered.]

[groupiedrifter]

[He laughs, soft and short.

Yeah, traumatizing patients isn't much good. Not that he thinks he can be any more traumatized at the moment; getting pulled apart might not feel so bad, really. Wait — that's fucked up. Back it up, Geiszler, and throw it out. ]

... I was in control the second time we spoke. I hadn't been in control of my body for a month by then, and — they said they'd allow me a few hours of freedom. Didn't let me say what they were doing to me, but... they let me enjoy the sunroom as myself, just for a little while.

[He picks at the little hospital band around his wrist, where it sits snugly over the tail end of elaborate kaiju tattoos.]

To show they could be merciful.

[He quiets again. Seems to find himself a little lost in his own head, but...]

... Precursors.

That's what we ended up calling them.

[kikoku]

[That explains it. It wasn't just a case of misplaced bravado over the network. It was these "precursors" that had taunted him, and it had been Newt he'd taken his anget out on.]

... I see. Then I'm sorry I scared you.
[The heart thing and all. He wants to ask more, about what prompted a name like that, but he figures it's going to have to wait until all of that is less fresh and raw in Newt's brain.]

In my world, the World Government is led by the "celestial dragons." They're allegedly a race of people genetically superior to the rest of us, and they act like we're scum compared to them. They keep slaves as servants, and even if their slaves manage to escape or win their freedom, they're branded so they're always marked as having been property.

But the celestial dragons aren't the gods they think they are. I know because Doflamingo, the man who killed Cora-san, was one and Straw Hat-ya and I took him down.

[He clears his throat, suddenly slightly self conscious that the reason he's bringing this up isn't clear.]

What I'm saying is that no matter how powerful those precursors think they are, if they try to take you again, the same thing is going to happen as what just did, especially since everyone knows now to look out for them.

[groupiedrifter]

... Nah, it's fine. In hindsight, I probably deserved a little of that.

I wasn't exactly... in a great mood then either.

[You know. Being on a very temporary release from being possessed. Makes you crabby when someone comes along to threaten you during your recess from the awful human tomb you were stuck in. He couldn't exactly fault the guy for not knowing he was in the middle of a serious mental breakdown back then, even if Law probably had the idea that he was screwed up by the end of that colorful exchange.

He glances over, looking a little exhausted. The last few days have been a hell of a time for him and his human brain and body, but... honestly? He looks pretty well-off for a guy who almost got his brains scrambled by aliens.]

... I appreciate that. That you guys are here to help. To, um. Look out for signs now.

[He rubs his eyes under his glasses, and they bob up and down before falling back across his nose.]

... That's how they were. That everyone else was lesser. They thought humans were especially disgusting... were happy to weaponize us, because to them, that's all we're good for. That's all any other living thing is good for, other than terraforming the land for them...

[He swallows, hands fidgeting with the sheet.]

What happens to the slaves? In your world. The ones who get out.

[kikoku]

I imagine some of them manage to go on to lead a somewhat normal life, but a lot of them become pirates. The founder of the legendary Sun Pirates was a former slave named Fisher Tiger. One of my crew escaped being sold into slavery as well.
[Awkward wording because Law refuses to take credit for saving Jean Bart because he's weird and cagey like that.]

I think it's a natural course of action if you have the will for it. A lot of people turn to piracy because they've been wronged by the World Government, even beyond those that were enslaved.
[That last sentence is said with a particularly stony tone, as Law scowls down at his open palm before tightening it into a fist. He won't say it, but it doesn't take a lot of intuition to suspect he's speaking from this on a personal level.]

But that sort of attitude can be their downfall, you know? To underestimate your enemy. That's why those Precursors lost to our crew.

[groupiedrifter]

... They definitely saw humanity and anything like humanity as weak. And every other shitty thing you could be... Reckless. Disgusting. Illogical. You name it.

[He presses his hand to his head, pressing his thumb into the soft indent of his temple hard. The headache has been off and on for the last few hours, but despite the panic he'd initially felt, the doctors and Sabriel had promised him the precursors really were completely gone and that he was stable and himself. Now the creatures had just left an empty space, an area of his brain that was still trying to cope with how they'd gnawed on it, scraped it through the mud.

He's really lucky he's not a vegetable right now, he knows.

Really, really lucky.]

They say drifting — sharing minds, I mean — that it's a two-way street, back home. But it was only two-way for them if they allowed it. Sometimes I could feel it, though, when they let it bleed through. I could feel their hatred for... for humanity, and by the end of it, before they took over completely... it was like I could feel that spite seeping out of me.

Sometimes I'd wake up and felt as if everyone on this station wanted me gone.

[He scrubs his face with his hands.]

They kept changing me. Things about me. Made me stop loving things I loved. Made me hate when people touched me. And I really believed all those thoughts were my own. I thought something was so fucking wrong with me.

I guess something was. Just... not what I thought.

[What a relief to know it was never him at all.]

[kikoku]

[It all really makes him think about Doflamingo. The way he'd seen Law, small and angry, a white monster from a white town, and had taken that anger and refined it, directed it, because he understood it, it was all he understood, being angry at the world for what it took from you. But he'd still managed to maintain the loyalty of so many people, on that arrogant anger alone. That child had looked up to him. Would have done anything he said. But the moment he'd done something Doffy hadn't wanted, he was disposeable. If he's already eaten the Op-Op Fruit, I'll just have to raise him so that he knows to die for my sake.

But Law had escaped. He'd beaten Doflamingo. And Newt had been able to get the Precursors out of his head. Because other people had jumped in to help.]

You don't have to be a god to mess with people's heads. But I'm sure it's a lot harder when they're literally in your head. Unfortunately, that's why we need other people. If you have people that know how you really are, they'll be able to tell when you're not acting like yourself, even when you can't.

[groupiedrifter]

[Mess with people's heads... yeah.

They definitely did that — a lot of it. Months of it, when Newton was asleep, was vulnerable and unaware and without anyone else knowing the danger he had been wrapped up in. People had no clue; he had no clue. But now he feels every memory pull so easily to the surface. Now he knows where the paranoia and anger and everything else came from.

'You'll feel better if you stop trying to push back,' they'd said.

'You'd be better for it, yanno. Just let go and let us do all the heavy lifting. The pesky human emotions, the suffering you cause yourself, the way you fuck everything up... you could just let us do it,' they'd told him.

Something with his eyes, cupping his face — 'We're making you better. We'll keep making you better.'

His body feels hot and itchy, and he swallows the lump in his throat. The heart monitor betrays a slight uptick in beats.]

Now that I know what to look for... At least I'll have that.

Everyone else, too; they'll know what to look for.

[kikoku]

[Law isn't going to bring it up though his glance does shift to it when it rises out of habit.]

Mm. Now I know next time you try to pick a fight with me I need to alert Dr McCoy to prepare the OR.
[This is like half a joke, to lighten the mood but also sort of not.]

[groupiedrifter]

[He doesn't laugh. But he'd considered trying to anyway.

Instead, his shoulders slump in defeat, and he breathes a soft breath.

But y'know. Law tried. And that's commendable, so.]

Yeah...

Sorry for all the trouble.

[kikoku]

You haven't really caused me any trouble. I've pulled hundreds of hearts out of people.
[LAW.]

Anyway, I came over here to check for sequelae. You don't have any physical residual symptoms, do you?

[groupiedrifter]

[... Scoff.

You know he's gonna make dumb jokes about stealing hearts in the future, right?

You brought that upon yourself, frankly.

More thoughtfully, he hums.]

... Headaches, mostly. Tired a lot, but I think that's just from the shock of what happened. But no nosebleeds like there were months back, or... seizures yet, or anything. McCoy's got me on anticonvulsants like before; he said something about repairing any brain tissue damage, but it's minimal. I mean, compared to what it could be. No golf-ball sized holes in my scans.

So... that's cool.

[kikoku]

[But that's specifically why he didn't use the word stolen!! No!!!]

That's good. You're lucky we have Dr McCoy on staff, given his specialty in Neurosurgery. You'll have to make sure to follow through on all the treatments and follow up scans he orders for you.
[Bossy.]

[groupiedrifter]

[He smiles, though it looks a little unhappy.]

Yeah... Wouldn't want my brain to leak out of my ears.

[A thought pause, and then:]

So... I'm cleared to stay out of the holding room? Threat assessment complete?

[kikoku]

Is that what you think I was doing?

[He already told you he'd turn you into cubes before you could actually be threatening, little man.]

[groupiedrifter]

... I mean.

I didn't think you were here because you had a super positive opinion of me.

[Law did take his heart out because of shit-talking; Newt figures maybe almost blowing up a train would be pretty high on the 'might be worth disassembling, please hold' train of logic.

... Frankly, he wouldn't hate it, but he's in a pretty wretched place.]

[kikoku]

[Certainly, the train wasn't a point in his favor. But Law had already gotten a vague sense something was wrong back when he'd confronted Newt prior to the last mission, and talking it over with Rosinante had furthered that. Rosinante didn't think Newt was a bad person. So when the bad behavior suddenly had an explanation, it all felt like it clicked into place. The person Rosinante had spoken well of was the strange little man who'd yelled at Law that he liked his tattoos.]

No. I came here because I can't form an opinion about a man I don't actually know without talking to him.

[groupiedrifter]

[He stares, a little thrown off.

Right. Law really doesn't know anything about him, not really. It just felt like... not knowing him wouldn't have mattered. Maybe that's just the precursors talking — or rather the ghost of them, with the way they still seem to force their way into his thoughts after they're gone.]

I guess we'll have to fix that.

[He holds up a fist, knuckles out.]

... Thanks for checking up on the mysterious stranger, then.

[kikoku]

[Law stares at the fist for what is probably an uncomfortably long moment, before he finally meets it with his own. Fistbump achieved.]

Consider it an apology for my behavior last time. Which means we're even now and I don't have to be nice to you.
[He is going to go back to being MEAN and RUDE next time!!! This is not the start of a friendship!!!]

[groupiedrifter]

[He grins at the fistbump, unapologetically taking advantage of being a weary pocket-sized dude in a hospital bed. C'maaan, he's just a little guy.]

C'mon, Law, don't kick a guy while he's down.

Can't you be nice while I'm a recovering patient at least?

[... But he appreciates the reason to smile anyway.]

[kikoku]

Technically, you're Dr. McCoy's patient, not mine. But fine. Once you're out of here, I reserve that right, though.

[For that matter why's he just "Law"?? Disrespectful.]

[groupiedrifter]

Mmmm, you got it. Once I'm out of here.

[He looks a little nervous at the thought of leaving.

Does it have to do with facing all the people who might feel hurt and betrayed?

... Maybe.]

After a nice long nap, maybe.

[kikoku]

[Newt you cannot hide in the infirmary forever. Law WILL kick you out.]

There's no hurry, you can't rush healing a brain injury.
[But he's getting up now, writing a few things down on his little doctor clipboard.]

But I'll leave you to rest, now.