Heard you're heading out scouting too. Which sector of the map are you going to be exploring, and who else is in your crew? I'm going to be in Sector G.
Sector C. That means we're quite nearby. [If Arya knew how to sound excited over text about that, she would do.] I don't know any of the people on my team, but I think one of them might be from my world.
01 Be careful out there, alright? This sort of mission is standard for me, so trust me when I say it can get very dangerous very quickly. Rely on your team to see to it that you don't get killed.
02 And know your limits. Don't push yourself into dangerous situations. Try to avoid them if you can.
He's not stupid enough to challenge them directly.
[At least, Arya really hopes not. After all their talk about strategy to survive here, about who to trust, she's appalled that Simon's made a huge walking target of himself already. He wasn't big and strong; therefore he needed to use his head to survive. How could he be that stupid?
Unlike Bucky, Arya hasn't read the files, purely because she's still finding it challenging enough to send messages over the futuristic technology without navigating it to find things like recruit files, too. So she hasn't realised that he's her friend from the ice, she just sees someone whose name she doesn't recognise warning her. Maybe they're in Gliese's pocket; maybe it's a sign that she'll be next.]
I'd like to know so that I might be able to assist.
[It's a good bit before she sends a second message, as she contemplates whether or not it's a good idea to ask on a network that probably was not so private to the people who ran it.
Well, if the conversation turned sour and drew attention, she would find a way to turn it around, or shift the blame onto herself.]
[It's partly bravado, because even if she's not scared she's wary. And she's frightened of the things that the people in charge here could do, at least.]
[That's a challenge in and of itself. It might have been different if Simon had sent the message privately, but he made it a spectacle. In order for the officers to maintain the obedience and respect of the crew, he needed to be made an example of.
But he's not the best at explaining these kinds of concepts, especially to an eleven-year-old.]
[Scared of abstracts, like events and situations beyond her control, perhaps. But she thought of herself as someone to be feared, not someone who could fear others.]
I should caution you to be careful with what you say via your communicator, but I find myself inclined to agree with you. Whatever the reasons for her cruelty, it's still unjustified.
If this was the sort of contract they want us to think it is, they would have listened and negotiated.
They've just proved their own point, that we're captives here.
It's like they're looking for ways for us to hate them more.
[Yes, she includes him in that too. As far as Arya is concerned the recruits are either completely in league with the CDC or as resentful of them as she is; a middle ground is difficult for her to find.
She thinks of the people she met back there when she first arrived, and so far as she knows there's only one she hasn't been able to put a name to.]
The instructors follow orders, they aren't the ones to negotiate with. If they don't keep the crew in line and complete the mission there are consequences for them and everyone else.
[It's simple to him because his life has been nothing but complete the mission or suffer the consequences. And he was used as a weapon, but he knows how power structures and hierarchies work in this kind of field. Whether he agrees with what they do or not isn't something he dwells on because in the end he has no power here. And neither does she.]
She has power and will enforce it. But there is still someone above her.
[Gliese should certainly still be feared, that shouldn't be forgotten.
Her thanks gives him pause. His motivation had been to avoid a situation where she'd become like Wilson and Banner, but he hadn't dwelt much on why he didn't like that idea. Now he is thinking about the why and he isn't sure what to make of it... and it's still a distant thing. After a pause, he settles on a response.]
FROM: barnes.james@cdc.org
Don't die.
[That would be sufficient thanks if she feels the need to be thankful for something.]
[That's the only thing that seems reasonable to say. There's little point in his mind in stopping her, but if she understands that there's high risk of death if she is too obvious about it, that's the best he can manage. He doesn't respond to the second text, considering that to be enough said on that line of conversation.]
[Which is a sincere assessment on his part. She was clever enough to go for the shark tooth on the ice instead of wrestle with a weapon she didn't know. That speaks of a very smart person, but this world is different and has different rules from what she's used to based on what he could tell on her file. A noble house and preference for bladed weapons says she's from a medieval kind of world. Ruthlessness there takes on a somewhat different form from the ruthlessness she'll find here.]
I think I have more experience with this than most of the adults here.
[She isn't trying to sound argumentative there, just plaintive. It's difficult to convey her feelings over text, she's finding. It's such an instant medium here. At home they would have to wait for weeks for a raven to be delivered, so the style of writing would be completely different than these more instant messages.]
[He doesn't perceive it as argumentative like some would. Based on her file, it's not an inaccurate estimate of her experience, so it's logical to agree. But also logical to reason that she still has more yet to learn.]
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