hard times / open!

[tarakan]

Hilbert is fine. He is just fine. He has to be just fine because the alternative, getting angry about this, won't be of any use. Push it all down, deal with feelings later, just focus on the here and now for the moment. He has a specific end date for his crimes. He will get out of here eventually. He is fine.

He's not fine, but considering he honestly has no idea how to deal with that, repression is the name of the day.

It's no big secret that Dr. Nerd doesn't have much experience with manual labor. Whenever he does his shift at the oar bank, at the end of it, he leaves without hesitation, but then spends the next few minutes in a nearby corridor, out of the main flow of traffic, inspecting the blisters on his hands. He'll try and grab the attention of anyone else who looks beaten up or not used to this sort of work before rather rudely trying to manhandle them in the corridor, away from prying eyes as well.

The yard is Hilbert's place of choice, especially as there's a few chessboards set up. And Hilbert is annoyingly good at chess. Most days you can find him sitting at a chessboard, thinking to himself, while also scanning the yard for anybody who might give him a good game as well as just looking for someone in particular. If he spots an Advocate, however, he'll walk up to them and ask two questions. One, is there any way for Prisoners to request or purchase certain items? Two, have they seen a young man, smaller than he is, who goes by the name of John Mandrake?

It's not that Hilbert's worried about Mandrake or anything. Certainly not. That would imply sentimentality and he has no room for that. It's simply that he'd rather the young man not be on this ship. That's it. Nothing more.

Comments

[tarakan]

"I am not blaming you for attacking him," he points out, with an annoyed little huff. "I have worked with the man for years, I know he can be irritating and he routinely makes poor choices. But as far as I am concerned? Blame should rest with the Admiral."

There's a pause before he asks, "Did you know about this Authority before they picked up Officer Eiffel's signal?"

[shamebat]

"I blame them both." She says, aggressive. "But the Admiral isn't here to answer for this. Eiffel is."

She shakes her head, once.

"This was the first I heard of them."

[tarakan]

Hilbert nods, making a little 'hmm' of approval. He pauses for a moment, mostly to put his words in order before he continues to talk, keeping his voice as neutral as possible as he does so.

"Eiffel is an idiot. Routinely ignores duty, is never punctual, cannot go more than two sentences without making silly pop culture reference. But he is not malicious. If he knew about the danger, he would not have built the radio."

[shamebat]

Nadja nods, agreeing with this.

She bows her head and begins to cry over her oar.

"Truthfully, I knew this." She murmurs through her tears, staining her cheeks red. "And really the person I am most angry with is myself. They gave me a choice, did you know? The Authority asked me where I would most like to be and I asked to be in the place where I thought my Laszlo and Makima would be. Now I am here and it is my own fucking fault."

[tarakan]

Hilbert has enough sense to keep the retort that springs up in his mind to himself: at least you were given a chance. Instead, he's quiet for another few moments, trying to think about what best to say.

Eventually, he settles on, "I am sorry."

[shamebat]

"I am sorry too." She sniffs. "Here, bring me someone to eat and I will feel better."

Her hands are hurting; Nadja is sporting some pretty powerful blisters.

[tarakan]

"You can eat from someone and not kill them, correct?"

This is a terrible idea. This is an absolutely terrible idea. But vampires are a worry that he hadn't thought about before. And technically, Nadja is his patient due to the fact that Hilbert thinks that everyone on the Barge (or everyone formerly from the Barge) is his patient.

"Drink from me enough to replenish your fluids. You will pass out otherwise."

[shamebat]

Nadja pauses, mostly because she's not used to others offering up their necks or wrists to her. But beggars can't exactly be choosers, and she has two more days at this. She already wants to die from it all. Why not keep up her strength.

She gnaws at her lip, indecisive, before giving a brief nod.

"You are sure you don't wish to offer someone else? Someone less important?"

[tarakan]

Hilbert sighs. It is the sigh of someone who, at this moment, unironically feels that he is the smartest person in the universe and everybody else is being a big dummy.

"Obviously this is not ideal. In ideal situation, I would say 'yes, please drain Warren Kepler dry, I would greatly appreciate it,' you do so, everything goes on as normal. But you are a Prisoner here. I say 'please drain Warren Kepler dry,' you do so, they either find Kepler's body or Kepler lives long enough to tattletale himself, we both get into trouble.

"I have conditions to being meal, of course. But agreement between two willing parties seems safest option."

[shamebat]

Nadja nods, practically salivating now, her teeth growing longer by the second as she stares, hungrily, at Hilbert.

"What are your conditions?"

[tarakan]

"One, do not kill me. Two, Douglas Eiffel is now off limits."

[shamebat]

The second condition makes her scowl, and look off, deciding for herself.

"Is he going to ruin our lives again?"

[tarakan]

"He is not. But Eiffel is..."

And he knows that there is absolutely no way of saying this without coming off like a creep, so he just bluntly continues with,

"Eiffel is very useful test subject. There are aspects to his blood that I would like to run studies on. If we were to somehow make it back to the Barge, I would like him alive, preferably not anemic."

[shamebat]

Nadja has a high tolerance for creepiness. She merely nods, accepting this answer. She's rather blunt herself.

"Fine. Yes, I will no longer harm him here. His blood tasted like shit, anyway."

[tarakan]

A huffy sigh before, "Of course his blood tasted like shit, there is probably still traces of alien blood inside his bloodstream."

This is why you don't just eat random people, Nadja! You go over their entire medical records first, gosh.

"We can meet up after current shift at the oars. I am certain there is unused corridor or room somewhere for privacy."

[shamebat]

"No, wait." She calls out to him, pained. "I can't leave for another two days here. I'm being punished for Eiffel's attack. Some beefy shithead of a man struck me and brought me in."

[tarakan]

Well damn. Hilbert frowns for a moment, thinking. When he speaks, it's obvious that he has no idea if he's even using the right terminology and that he really has no idea how vampires work as he asks,

"Can you eat while you row?"

[shamebat]

She nods, fingers trembling.

"If someone were to offer themselves to me, yes. But I am chained here, as you can see."

[tarakan]

"Well then seek me out when we are not chained," he says, annoyed at the whole situation. "It is looking like I cannot do anything right now."

[shamebat]

Nadja nods, and lowers her head, her cheeks stained with blood as she gives into crying.

[tarakan]

It's a long awkward pause before Hilbert decides to end the conversation and resume rowing.

Hopefully they'll see each other again when they're both off shift. He'll be keeping an eye out for Nadja, at least.