eachdraidh | A1. video. [ open to both courts ]

[ it doesn't immediately occur to thomas that he could probably just communicate through a text system--as far as he knows, the locket is a lot easier to use by video, and so he does. the network is presented with a pair of big, brown doe eyes before he leans backwards a little, revealing a face that could be rather familiar to some--dark hair, a button nose, moles like spots littering his face.

this is not the man you are looking for, however: this is thomas "murphy", and he clears his throat before he introduces himself. ]

Hi. I'm Thomas Murphy, and I'm--kind of a new arrival. I guess they'd call me a greenie if this was back home. [ there's no hint of humor on his face, but he did actually just try and make a joke, and his tone is a little lighter, for it. ]

Can anyone tell me about the Seelie and Unseelie--in your own words, if that makes any sense? What you know about it...you don't have to tell me any secrets or anything, but, maybe why you're there, I guess. [ he's not going to say which court he is (though it's obvious eventually, by the background of caer scima), but he just needs to know. ] Or, if you're okay with where you are. Not that I'm not, but...I don't know. Is there any reason why someone wouldn't be? They apparently brought us here for a reason-- [ again. ] --since we have these "shards", or whatever they are, but I don't have a lot of trust for anybody who says that, because it's usually a load of klunk.

I guess that's all I've got to ask. [ a beat. ] Actually, that's not true. Is there another map around here? Besides the one they gave me, I mean, it's not very good. [ ... ] No offense.

[ thomas is just going to shut his trap now. he almost physically winces and shakes his head. ] That's it, honestly. I'm just going to... hang up now. Thanks.

[ thomas does hang up, and the feed ends--for all of five seconds, before he snaps it back on. ] Oh, wait--also, I want to know if anyone here's ever heard the phrase "WICKED is good." It has to look like this. [ after a second, there's a typed out phrase that appears instead, with WICKED fully capitalized. ] That's really all this time. Um, thanks.

[ click! for real this time. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ what was he doing is kind of an interesting question--thomas has to pause for a second, to think it over. ]

Surviving. [ everything WICKED threw at them, he lived through. everything. sometimes thomas questioned if that was really such a good thing, but the paradise that awaited him when he left this place would be the reward. seeing brenda and minho and frypan and all the gladers who survived live on another day. ] WICKED tried to cover their tracks by finding a cure for the virus, so they picked a bunch of us to try and test on, since we were immune.

[ unless you were newt, he thinks, but he has to gloss over it, pretend it doesn't matter. the glader's quiet for a second before he turns around, visibly in the feed, and pulls his shirt collar out of the way to reveal a tattoo in stark, black ink.

SUBJECT A2
TO BE KILLED BY GROUP B ]

[A hard blink and a peer closer in. It takes a moment to spot it, to recognize it, but it still parses, as well as if it had been in Latin, at the very least.

His eyes widen a tad in the uncertain working of facial muscles, and he says, little more than grimly:] God...

[He's under-advised to remark much further - there were survivors, and they were slated to be killed.]

[ thomas shrugs his shoulders as he drops the shirt collar, bringing the locket back across to show his face again. ]

It didn't work, obviously. [ and now he's just stuck with a mark of his survival. ] Their idea of testing involved brain surgery, more or less--that's what they called the "killzone". The virus was a neurotoxin that destroyed the brain functions, and they were trying to isolate the gene that made some people immune and some not. Before the brain surgery, they tried different enviornmental factors to agitate the virus, to try and see if it would form, but it never did.

For some of us, anyway. [ he doesn't think of newt, he doesn't. ] Even the people in my group who were affected didn't show signs until the very end. But once they did, it was over.

They -- took the still sane and drove them to die anyway.

[Bit thin, just to affirm. Picked "some of us", he'd said, and so surely some of the immune were actually protected - sad and perhaps sinister, aye, but he supposes he's not been in an entirely dissimilar position, on a certain scale.

He doesn't overthink or overhesitate, though his delivery's not exactly decisive - he doesn't judge there to be much of a gap to mind between them for care in formality's sake, in age or otherwise...]

I've, ah -- ...nothing else to say but my sympathies.

They were trying to find the best. [ thomas can't keep the bitterness out of his voice, then. ] The "Final Candidate". It was me.

[ and by doing so, people he loved, his friends were lost in the process. the entire thing was as twisted as it sounded, but it's almost kind of nice to get a little bit of a sympathy, even if it's weird. thomas huffs a faint laugh and shakes his head. ] It's okay. I appreciate it. I guess it feels like this place is nice in comparison.

[A crease in his brow deepens and his eyes chase off momentarily, indirect apology, with the note of bitterness; holds a thought of "I see".

Takes the apparent reception of what he'd said last, however, gratefully as an open door for a shift in tone. Rueful uncertain twitch of a smile, a speedy light "hm" back.] -- We're well-treated, at - at the least...

Ah -- I speak - as one who lives in Caer Glaem; I wouldn't know if you do the same or if -- Caer Scima is terribly different.

A1. video. [ open to both courts ]

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;

video;