nexus_crossings | Foundlings are a Dog Tradition.

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Foundlings are a Dog Tradition.

Damien hadn't been to the Nexus in quite a long time. Between a job in one universe, and everything in his own, there was no time. There wasn't much time for anything. This place was quiet and he got a coffee and started to walk the plaza to clear his mind. He'd lost track of time quickly and where he was walking though he could still hear the plaza very clearly.

The noise of people was drowned out by a pitiful sound of squeaking, or growling, maybe it was both. The Dogs had cared for the animals in all the abandoned zoos of Hunger City long ago. To this day they all kept animals, many were the descendants of those first animals. Damien knew a lot of animal sounds but this was not familiar but more importantly the sounds reminded him of pain.

He followed the sound to a mottled bird? It looked sort of like a bird but with teeth and the size of a medium dog. He could see it was hurt and squatted down to check on it. The snapping didn't anger him at all.

"Shhh.. little one." Damien whispered and gently pressed the head away while looking over the injury. It looked bad on the downy feathers but underneath looked superficial. Watching the the teeth he dug out a cream he carried that numbed pain and disinfected wounds. The bird was watching now, sniffing at the cream on his hand before he gently dabbed it on the cuts down the side and thigh. It twitched away and Damien frowned because he didn't like seeing pain despite what his jobs had always been.

"There." Damien stepped away while wiping off his hand. He froze when he heard a snorting little sound and looked back to see the bird hobbling up on its feet toward him. Damien watched it limp over and sit heavily against his calf.

"Alright." He sighed at it like a child begging to be carried. This time there was no biting as he picked it up and cradled it in his arms. The bird was surprisingly light and felt skinny under the fluffy downy feathers. Well, he had another foundling. It wouldn't be his first human or animal in the past few years. After a few minutes he was back in the plaza and worried about just how skinny the animal in his arms felt.

The first person he could approach was going to get the question at the forefront of his mind. "Do you know what bird this is?"

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"You could try talking to them." Damien started to laugh, perhaps cynically because this was absurd to him. "Isamu, this is one thing I know more about than you ever will. I know exactly what happens when you see people as a sum of research and numbers. You think you know what you are saying but you don't know what it means in practice."

Damien had lived that life as an enforcer. He was given a list of crimes and scans and actions and people were not exactly people. Then he learned he was seen the same way when things went wrong.

"If all you see is something to study you aren't seeing a friend." Damien shook his head slowly. "I know. I lived my life as something to be studied by people who said they did it because we were friends, and I was different and they wanted to know me. They were also the people who chained me down when I stopped fitting their research parameters to see what went wrong and I didn't fit their numbers."

Edited 2024-08-03 22:34 (UTC)

Isamu looked at him with an eyebrow raised. Weren't they literally talking right now?

"The act of finding you a fascinating subject matter is hardly unethical. It is normal, really. Restraining anyone or torturing them are the obvious unethical practices in this scenario and what clearly defines those individuals as not your friends."

The former, though, Isamu did not see the connection. To him, this line of thinking was as natural as seeing color. This was simply how the world was processed.

"...I do think of you as my friend."

Damien's voice was icy. "The act of finding me a 'fascinating subject' to study is DEHUMANIZING with or without the chains." He was one step from calling the pot and the kettle if it didn't get into Isamu's head.

"I want to think of you as a friend." Damien was honest and back to his calm self. "I've spent my life being someone else's fascinating study subject. If you don't understand why I think you seeing me that way is unethical and unwanted, then all of your study has truly told you nothing about who I am."

He still thought of Isamu as a friend but he needed to get through to him, especially if he was going to let him meet Dominic any time soon.

"Might I remind you, that when I asked for specific clarification as to whether you were looking for someone who can simply relate to him on an intellectual level or whether you wished me research a more practical answer to neurological deprogramming - you said BOTH."

Which was actually true. And not entirely unexpected from Isamu's point of view.

"When you came to me to analyze your genetics, you certainly did not find being studied in that manner dehumanizing. On the contrary, it sounded as though you found it humanizing, even though you are not entirely human."

Isamu sighed. He held up his hand to attract the server's attention. This was going to require another beer.

"That being said. Perhaps the more important task at the moment is not sorting through Dominic's memories, be they real or false... Or anything to do with Dominic at all. Instead, it may be time for YOU to let out the very real memories that pulling him out of a similar traumatic situation has caused. You cannot help him at all if you are not thinking clearly."

"If you would have been listening to more than your own excitement to study someone you might have heard me tell you that part was a bad idea and I retracted it." Which was also true. How many times had he said just talk to him like a friend since then.

"I needed medical advice on papers I found about me. It isn't like I could talk to the doctors that wrote them." Damien grumbled. "I didn't sign up to be your pet science project for the rest of my existence, and I sure the damned didn't think my friend would start seeing me as a science fair project because I asked them to look at some papers I didn't understand."

Damien got really stern and those golden eyes pinned on Isamu like death. "No. We need to talk about you. Dominic's rescue isn't triggering my memories of the Ministry right now, you are and how you are talking about us."

Which is technically what Isamu is doing. Or at least trying to do.

"I believe we have adequately covered that topic. But it is improbable to assume I am the only trigger for these memories. Rescuing Dominic, other skirmishes with the Ministry, similar themes from other musicians in your world, so I hear. I am not special. You clearly have a lot on your mind - to the point that you are not thinking rationally." he sighed again. "Even Minoru is a little worried. Which is not an emotion I typically associate with him either."

Damien frowned. "You don't understand how terrifying it is to listen to how you were talking."

Damien sighed and looked away. "I was going to trust you with one of the most vulnerable people I know." He shook his head and looked back at Isamu. "I don't know if I can trust one of the few friends I have here. I do have a lot on my mind right now but I am thinking rationally."

"As self-deprecating as this sounds, if your sole intention was truly the well-being of another, the rational option would have been my brother. And both of us know it."

Isamu crossed his arms and leaned back.

"To be honest, I am likely not going to even be here in the Nexus for much longer anyway. So I would not be here to help him or to study him, regardless." He sighed. "My grant is ending. And I am attempting to secure some form of employment in my own world. But the professional experience is not exactly translating."

"No, the rational option is thinking a mutual friend would care about the well-being of a member of my family as much as I do." Damien looked down and felt hurt. "That's how family works, that's how the Dogs work.... is that how you work or do I need to change how much I trust you?"

There was nothing he could do but shake his head but if Isamu wanted his honesty about what was on his mind, that was it.

Damien started to rub his face because this was creating another headache. "Have you told Aarne and the others you intend to not come around any more?" Of any of the rockstars it was Aarne that was one of those that talked the most highly of Isamu, and would probably be the most upset about him leaving.

"I do not have to maintain residency in the Nexus to visit." Isamu replied softly. "I know of no legal requirement forcing me to turn in my PINpoint before we move. I just thought you should be aware that if you were intending for Dominic to seek sanctuary in the Nexus and stay with us specifically - or with me given that Minoru is away doing whatever it is he is doing on his extended vacation - for any length of time, you may need to make alternate arrangements. That has nothing to do with care. It is a matter of practicality."

"I never asked for any of what you just thought I wanted." Damien sighed. "I only wanted to introduce you like friends do, like family does."

Damien rubbed his forehead and stroked the little raptor. "I wouldn't suggest he stay with you, it wouldn't be safe for you and Minoru. He may have been a scientist but he was raised to be like me. I wouldn't leave him alone, for long with anyone, for months yet."

Even though it could probably open him up for an unfavorable quip comparing the two of them, Isamu still asked, "You believe he is a danger to others? Dare I ask where this recent refugee is now?"

Damien nodded. "I used to hit everyone that touched me." It wasn't something many people knew and Jack had become a master of ducking that reflex out of necessity. "Tom used to yell at me for being jumpy and drawing guns all the time."

"Outside the Plaza. Scorn is watching over him. Dominic trusts him. They were in the same facility." Damien sighed because Scorn was a whole other topic of discussion.

"Nothing the anti-violence field cannot handle." he glanced out the window, even though from here, he knew he would be unlikely to see anything.

"I do not believe I have heard the name Scorn among the Pups either."

He was starting to wonder just how many people Damien had recently liberated. None of this was disproving his theory that the Diamond Dog was overwhelmed by those recent events and was not thinking or behaving rationally. But at least he'd calmed down slightly. Even if he was confessing how dangerous he was at first.

"We don't live here." Damien mentioned when Isamu brought up the anti-violence field. "Right now, I'm more worried about him running and then turning on people."

Which was why he was keeping him close. Now that he was sitting and thinking, maybe he needed to talk to Sigurd about what to do for people who were running risks. They looked for Mikkel after he ran at least once a month it felt like.

"Scorn isn't a human." Damien finished his beer and glanced at Isamu. "Do you want to meet him? You can't unnerve him, I don't think."

Technically, the anti-violence field didn't care if you were a citizen of the Nexus or just visiting, but that was neither here nor there. It was fairly easy to get lost in a new and unusual place, even if you weren't a recent refugee from a post-apocalyptic government facility.

"Not human?" Isamu's eyebrow rose again. "I can conclude from that statement alone that Scorn is not Anthean. Though, I know of no other sapient species present on your world."

"No, but he is from my world." Damien pointed out and then looked down at the raptor in his arms which was certainly not from his world but soon would be. "and as smart as a human, at least."

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