oohforeshadowing | IC Inbox

"Pssht." Trouble flicks a hand dismissively. "The Admiral chooses protagonists, darling. The brave, the bold, the unusual, the pivotal players. For wardens, anyway."

It's an argument that has a decent amount of support, but not one without exceptions. But he considers the criteria offered carefully. The first three are clearly inapplicable, but information is important.

"Playing a pivotal role isn't necessarily limited to protagonists."

"There's a sizeable overlap," they say breezily. "So what role do you play in what I'm sure is a completely intolerable group of people too young to save the world but charged with doing it anyway?"

"It's a mostly adult organization, and better defined as wanting to shift political power from the person currently in charge to their own candidate. Most likely the only difference will be slapping on some surface level 'changes' and claiming that they'd like to do more convincingly enough for people to believe in it because it feels better to pretend they made a choice instead of just going along with the option that is less obvious about wanting to kill us. The illusion of control." Just based off personal observation.

"I do computer stuff. Information gathering, creating viruses, analyzing propaganda..."

"Rallying the troops with your optimistic outlook and sunny disposition?"

"They haven't asked me for that very often." There could be a sense of humor there, but it's hard to tell. "Is there a lot of kids charged with saving the world, where you're from?"

They chuckle.

"Almost exclusively. That's what you get when a dictator from another world sets up shop on your planet and deals with the previous generation."

He nods, it fits with the discussion of... archetypes.

"What role do you play?"

"Troublemaker."

Since he asked.

He struggles with it for a moment, but he has to ask.

"Did you, uh, pick your name?" He's not judging, but letting people know what they're getting into seems like an interesting choice.

"You know, I didn't - but it's interesting how the two things have dovetailed, isn't it?"

They grin at him, all sharp teeth.

"What's your deal for? Trying to escape to somewhere less depressing?"

It is interesting, the sort of name that could make you wonder what came first.

"No. It's to stop kids from dying of IAAN." He doesn't need a deal to go somewhere else. "Do you want to go back to your world?"

"Absolutely not." They hop from a low wall to a higher walkway, with barely more effort than taking a step. "There's nothing for me to go back to."

Nico follows with far more effort. "I'm not going back home, either. After." There are things for him to go back to, but another world offers so much more. "Where do you want to go?"

"No idea," they say, unconcerned. "Why are you going to all the effort of fixing a world you don't even intend to live on?"

"Because I wouldn't be able to live fully somewhere else if I didn't."

"Fair enough, I suppose."

They stop abruptly, sitting cross-legged on top of an oil barrel.

"So. You're my temporary warden, I'm your test subject. Warden me."

Nico considers them seriously, meeting Trouble's eyes for the first time before looking down again. The assignment might be temporary, but Nico believes in full diligence. Or perhaps he just doesn't like the thought of 'test subjects'.

"I had an inmate for a while. She was the... villain of the story. It was a role she chose to play, and one that she took on as a - reaction. It had its benefits, at times." More details are personal. "What do you get out of trouble?"

"Money," they tell him. "Thence food, clothes, shelter et cetera."

All the basics of survival, reasons he can understand easily from his own life. "The barge provides food and somewhere to live and clothes. There are dangers, but rarely permanent consequences in terms of life or limb. People come and go frequently enough that you can reinvent who you are with out the majority insisting you're actually someone else." It's a strange sort of reality, all told. "What do you like?"

"I've been here for a year, warden, please don't tell me the details like I don't know them."

They sigh.

"To answer your question, I like to perform, darling. To create."

"Do you like to have a large audience, or is it more for yourself?" He's genuinely interested, they might create in different forms, but Nico has allowed himself to admit, if only internally, that he has his own small passion for creating things.

"I do enjoy the occasional round of applause, darling. Unfortunately, everyone here is so wrapped up in their own personal melodramas."

"There are a lot of them." But people seem to manage that even when they have far more to occupy their time than on the barge. "Is it what you'd like to do with your life?"

"It's why I made it my career, darling. If I just wanted to pay the bills, there are other jobs."

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