Let's Not Lose Our Heads Now! (ID)

[ColArana]

Ryan looked over at Will as he began to speak about Lydia, and smiled a little at him. I'm sure Lydia is embarrassed as hell right now. He thought, before looking back at Max. "No, it isn't but you know... Still probably a pretty raw deal, right?" He commented. Empathy and sympathy were human traits that Ryan was determined not to lose. "It's probably been really hard on both of you, hasn't it?" He paused for a moment. "Err... You don't need to answer that. Sorry that was tactless of me, I should know better than to prod a topic like that. I'm sorry Max." He said, apologizing for the second time in about as many seconds.

When she asked if Lydia spoke about her much, Ryan's brow furrowed for a moment. "You've definitely come up." He replied in answer, hoping now that Lydia would tell Will whether to drop this line of questioning and change gears as fast as possible, or not.

[DanteMGalileo]

"Yeah, she's talked about you a few times. Sometimes she's mad, sometimes she's sad." Will internally smirked while externally giving a small smile. "I'm not the guy to pry into someone else's love life, so... must've been fun while it lasted, yeah? And awkward slash tumultuous breakup, I'm guessing?"

Hey Lydia, anything else I should know not to bring up?

[ParamountKeymaster]

"It's okay," Max murmured with a sad smile, meekly looking between the two boys before casting a weary stare at the floor. "I wish it didn't have to be like this, and I wanna believe she understands why I split it off. I still care about her, I really do. I wanna help her. I mean, obviously; why else would I be here? It... It was just hard, y'know? It's hard to help someone who won't help herself."

She took a deep, contemplative breath. Then she looked back up at Ryan and William. "Well, anyway, I could... really use a shower. And I should probably compile a list of interview questions to help keep up the ruse tomorrow. So I'll let you guys unwind. Thanks for letting me crash here. I'll... see you tomorrow."

With that, Max turned around and retreated into the remaining bedroom, Lydia's clothes, a set of soaps and shampoos, and her own journal in hand. The look on her face as she disappeared for the evening was one of worry, regret, and yet bold resolve.

After all the times she had failed Lydia before, Max was bound and determined not to let it happen again.

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Hm." A stiff, lightly jabbing grunt was Lydia's only response to Will's answer. Wasn't much to complain about, really. He wasn't completely humiliating her, but he wasn't being dishonest either. She couldn't get too mad at him.

As for Max's reply, her brief description of what led her and Lydia to drift apart... well, what could she really say about that? All Lydia could bring herself to do was slump lower into her chair as a deep sense of melancholy took hold. Not because she was offended by Max's accusations. Not even because she was quite literally unable to help herself out of the confines she was trapped in. Max's words hit home because... she honestly did have a point, and even if she was loathe to admit it, Lydia had been well aware of this for a long time. Even longer than they had been apart.

A lot of things in this situation were well out of Lydia's control. But Max's estrangement, Jack's death, Will's role as an unwitting host, her own entrapment... she couldn't deny that they were all at least partially her own fault.

"..........................."

Maybe it was time she actually did something about it.

Maybe it was time that somebody... anybody finally knew the truth.

[ColArana]

Ryan nods. "I get it, Max. It'll be alright. We'll make sure of it." He told her. "Goodnight."

After Max left, Ryan looked over at Will. "....We can't fail. For her sake as well." And he was deliberately not clear whether he was speaking to Will or to Lydia in that moment. "Goodnight to you as well." Then he closed his eyes and sat back. He knew if he waited a few minutes his internal battery would enter sleep mode and begin recharging.

[DanteMGalileo]

"... I think we're alone now."

Will removed his boots and gloves, setting the aforementioned articles of clothing down on the floor. Okay, note to self, get new socks. He sighed and placed his face into his hands, leaning back on the couch. "It's strange. I should be tired after all this shit, but... I'm full of energy all of a sudden." No need for being discrete anymore. It was just him and Lydia now.

"So..." He began. "Is there something you need or want to tell me?"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Guess that's not too surprising. Night hasn't hit quite yet," Lydia murmured, reaching behind her head to undo her ponytail. Might as well get comfortable. Sleeping was going to be an awkward ordeal tonight.

For a moment, Lydia didn't respond to Will's invitation. She stared at her monitor, not that she needed any further confirmation that she had Will to herself; Ryan was asleep, Percy was in his room, and if the background noise was any indication, Max was in the shower. If she was going to get this weight off her chest, it seemed like now was the only chance she was going to get. She just... wasn't looking forward to it.

Oh well. He asked for it.

"Will...? Um... Listen... I..." Lydia awkwardly twisted a lock of hair around her finger, drawing her attention away from the screen and out the window at the sky of tissue the pod was drifting beneath. "I'm sorry if I've been... at all harsh to you. This situation you're in has gotta be stressful enough without me yelling in your ear. Yeah, I hate that there's so little I can do in here, but that's no excuse to take it out on you when you're doing all the heavy lifting for me."

She sunk lower into her chair, folding her arms over top her stomach as she took a deep breath. "And considering how much I've had to put you through today and tomorrow, I... think you deserve to know why I'm in here at all."

[DanteMGalileo]

"I'm gonna guess I'm the wrong guy, going by you said about Jack?" Give the guy some credit, he wasn't the world's most educated man but he knew how to make guesses. "So... I'm not gonna make you say anything you're uncomfortable with. And don't worry about lashing out at me. I'm certain that had our roles been reversed, I'd be worse. That, and my sister is louder. 'Specally when my brother's tricking her into eating strange foods."

"So..." He let himself sink into the couch slightly. "Why're you inside my body at all?"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

Lydia let out a weak chuckle. Had their roles been reversed, she had no idea how William would've manned Proteus II given that he was so uncomfortable in a simple car. She wasn't going to say that out loud, though. She needed to stay serious. "Don't worry about me being uncomfortable. That ship sailed a long time ago. Well before we met, for lack of a better term. Chances are I'll actually feel a whole lot better once this is out of my system."

She took another deep breath, her eyes trailing around as she studied the instruments of her pod and the texture of William's tissues. She had to start somewhere, so she figured the beginning was as good a place as any.

"So this... project I'm a part of... the Proteus Project... technically it's still in its prototypical stage. I'm basically Mexus's test monkey, albeit a little more button-savvy. At first, we just ran simple experiments with the pod; examining the effects of miniaturization on a human body, test runs of the equipment, a few sample excursions inside the bodies of lab animals and eventually a human subject, the works."

Lydia sighed, propping her feet up on the dashboard so she could untie her boots. "Then they spontaneously decided to start sending me on... missions. They devised a system meant to inject me into hosts with little to no detection, and the next thing I know, I had a hit list of people they intended for me to go inside and a laundry list of things for me to do to them. That... That mage who saved us today? Rio? ...He was my original target this time around."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Huh? Rio? The mage? He seemed nice. What'd happen if he knew?" Will questioned. Yeah he was a mage, then again so was his kid sister. Not a big deal. "Hang on... is it related to the furry two he was hanging out with?" He didn't see them for very long, but they put him a bit on-edge. Then again, so did a lot of things. "I mean, yeah, I get why you wouldn't wanna be detected. How would you even get out, then, had your mission landed you in the right guy? Or am I asking too much here? Sorry..."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"No no, you're fine," Lydia insisted, setting her boots aside and flexing her toes. "The usual routine, back when I had actual connections with the lab, was that we would work out a designated rendezvous point where I would knock the host out, pilot myself out onto the surface of their skin, then an agent would collect me while they were 'tending' to the unconscious person and take me back to the lab for reenlargement. Truth be told, after the first test run inside a human body, I never made audio contact with my hosts. Only reason I started talking to you was because the lab went bust and I had no one else to help me."

She drummed her fingers, briefly mulling over how to continue. "Regarding the Trio of Three –yeah, I know, it's a stupid name, but it's what they themselves picked– there are a number of reasons I didn't want them to know about me. Rio's probably the most powerful of their group, or at least the most versatile in that regard, but I'm more worried about how he would react if he found out what I was assigned to do to him. But the girl in the group, Cat... she's an inventor, and she reportedly has an explosive temper. And I think we have enough psychopaths trying to get their hands on my ship."

Another deep breath, then it was down to the real nitty-gritty. "But you see... the reason Mexus injects me into unwitting hosts anyway is... because... well... my pod is equipped with a number of nanomachines that I'm assigned to implant inside my hosts. It's... probably obvious that I've used a number of them on you already. I have machines that record audio and visual feed, upload and extract information to and from the brain, deliver electric shocks, negate superpowers and magic... Rio was gonna get that last one before the mission went pear-shaped."

Lydia rolled onto her side, curling up in her chair. "And the reason I have all of this equipment is... Mexus lists all of my hosts as high-risk targets, so they send me in to implant them with these debilitating devices so that if they ever committed actions that Mexus viewed as a threat, they could shut them down with the push of a button and none the wiser." Her voice was hollow, just barely masking the tears that were starting to well up. "Worst-case scenario, if a target proved too dangerous, the electric nanomachine could... deliver a powerful enough charge to... outright kill the host."

[DanteMGalileo]

"Well, uh, that's slightly terrifying. The ability to electrocute someone to death from the inside. Actually, scratch that. That isn't just slightly terrifying. That's completely terrifying, at least from an outsider's perspective." Will made a mental note to get a full-body scan the next time he was visiting the healer. "You sure you would've wanted to take out his magic? He seemed like the most stable of the three... What if those two went out of control and Rio couldn't stop 'em because no magic?"

Trying to be mindful of Lydia's feelings, he continued. "So... Is there anything else you'd like to talk about? Anything you need to get off your chest?"

[Pink Moon Wolf]

"Yeah." Lydia curled inward tighter, her body shuddering slightly, grateful that Will couldn't see the absolutely pitiful look of dejection on her face. "I don't know if Mexus has ever flipped that switch. I know I certainly haven't. I don't know why they do this. ...Well, okay, I know why. Because my dad thinks anyone with superpowers is a menace to society. But I don't know why anyone at Mexus would want that kind of control over these people. Like having the power to remotely disable them makes Mexus any better than the monsters my dad seems to believe they are when... really, from what I've seen, most of my targets have been halfway decent people at the very least."

She took a deep breath and wiped her face off in an effort to fight back the waterworks.

"Even the Trio of Three... Yeah, their case files paint them as a force of rampant chaos and destruction, and unpredictability seems to be the name of the game with them, but I know for a fact they're not outright villainous. Even Mickey, the vampire raccoon with an actual, extensive criminal history in his home world, isn't that bad a guy. Not bad enough to be micromanaged by some shady government third party, anyway. I can't say I quite understand why Mexus targeted the primary bastion of sanity among the group, but... if I'm to understand correctly, the anti-magic nanomachine I have set up for Rio is designed with a wide enough field that it could cancel out Cat and Mickey's powers too should they be in range."

Lydia then rolled onto her back again and shot a cold frown at her monitor. "But I guess that doesn't matter anymore. It's not like I have any use for this anti-magic nanomachine now. I'm not inside Rio, and it wouldn't do either of us any good if I used it on you."

She tightly closed her eyes and leaned her head back. "I'm sorry if any of this has made you that much more uncomfortable to have me in here. Can't say I blame you. To know that I've had a hand in what could potentially be someone's death... to see the things that I've seen, know the things I now know... the mere fact that these people likely have no idea what's happened to them or how deeply violated they've been... Snff..." Then she covered her face with her hand, letting the tears finally drip. "I hate it. I've always hated it. Ever since I took this damn job, all I've ever done is hurt people. Not just the people I wind up inside, but also Max... and Jack... and now you..."

[DanteMGalileo]

"... Heh. Had your dad known where I came from or what I could do... I'm sure his priority would have been shutting down the magic in my world..." Clenching his fist and then opening it again, an ember flickered in Will's hand for a moment, quickly vanishing. "... That's it. Due to... magical fallout about twenty thousand years ago, for a lack of better words, most people back on Purgatorio have some magical ability, though that little ember is what most can do. I'm sure your dad would've hated that..."

He picked up on Lydia's crying, and while he knew she couldn't actually see him, Will's face softened. "... I trust you not to do any of that to me. If you were going to do it, I'm sure you would have done it when I was alone, like in that restroom. I'm not going to judge you for any shady things in your past... I've got my share of things I'm not proud of, too. I've had to bring in an innocent man to a death sentence to make sure my family ate. I've had to steal from a beggar because Jordan and Leanne- my younger siblings- were also beggars. And... no, I don't like to even bring up that memory..." Aside from a sniffle, the blonde's tone wasn't changed. "If anything, that you're telling me all of this makes me feel more comfortable."

[Pink Moon Wolf]

After wiping her face off a bit, Lydia let her hand drop and looked down at her monitor again. She wished she could see William's face, if only to really cement the emotions they both seemed to be feeling. Then again, in a non-intimate sense, she was as close to Will as she could get right then and there, literally and figuratively. Of course Lydia couldn't judge him for his own past endeavors. He didn't hold any of her actions against her, and it sounded like he only did what he did for the sake of survival, whereas her only driving force was money. Honestly, hearing all of this seemed to warm her up inside a little.

To know that William sympathized was comforting enough. To know that he understood meant that much more.

Lydia sniffled and shifted in her seat a little, mustering a meek smile. "Well... go figure, I guess. We were both already a little messed up before we got here... Hahah... I can only imagine what kind of instructions Dad would be dropping on me if he knew your story. And if the lab's radio was actually working."

She let out a long sigh. "I don't know why it's taken me so long to get all of this out. Lobo can probably testify on how hard a toll this job has taken on my psyche. From the moment I was first injected into a living creature, I've wanted out of this project. I've wanted to ensure that every awful thing I've done never happens to anyone ever again."

Her eyes narrowed. Her fists clenched. "When I get out of here... once Mexus reestablishes their connections... I know there's an option to dissolve any nanomachine I've ever planted. If I can help it, I'm taking them all out. If nothing else, I'm dead set on making sure they can't hurt you."