slightlyoffchilt | - IC CONTACT POST FOR MASKORMENACE -

The comparison is unfair.
I have lived among humans my entire life.
And I have possessed my organic form for over a year now.
Do show some sympathy for the less experienced machine, Doctor.

Why? He's older than you are. And less adaptable, it seems -- or less willing to try.

I'm going to think about it.

[A pause.]

So you can drive cars with your thoughts?

[AND ANOTHER BECAUSE:]

Cool.

Do you really think that's cool? [Because he did GET INSIDE of Knock Out.] It's any transportation vehicle, really.

I think it's necessary. I don't want things to continue as they have.

Convince me. If you're so confident a change is necessary.

Hi, uh. My name's Stiles Stilinski, and I'm shopping around for a psychiatrist, and ... well, you were listed? So.

I don't have any drug problems — so this mightn't even be... whatever. I mean I don't even really... I just want an Aderall prescription. Because I have ADHD, not— yeah. Okay.

[ the most awkward message in the history of ever sorry. ]

I was forced to try.
Consider the violation you felt with Dr. Gideon surgically altered your body against your will.
That is a fair comparison for how a machine might feel, robbed of their mechanical form and contained in flesh without their consent.

Like it or not, I am involved in everything. It's not a choice I would have made willingly, but I entered that scene hoping to find out what happened to you and came out with something very different. I've been acting on a lot of personal inclinations and thoughts because of that, and only with half the information. I've found out time and time again that this has been incorrect. As I said, it's time I listened, and your interest in me as a person was something that was genuine only for me to throw it back in your face.

[She considers adding more, but she doesn't. Kate knows that she's being careful. There are things she's leaving out, aspects of him that scare her, but she needs the whole picture. And she knows the picture she constructed wasn't necessarily fair to him, especially given that his mistakes had already come back to him. She had been rash, but she doesn't say that, either.

Realizing her mistake doesn't mean that she is necessarily willing to like him more, but to grant him an ear, grant him the power he deserved from the beginning at his weakest moment, is only right.]

How very diplomatic. And true, of course, I stand by my assertion that your other friends would have been recipients to a fair trial when I was not. That hypocrisy of yours, Kate, it's really going to lose you people. You might even know that already, you might even have experienced it. I won't inquire deeper on that matter, I know how you dislike it.

But really, what more is there to say that can't be said over text? I can get you a copy of my official statement, I can answer any questions on this line. Given our mutually busy schedules, it strikes me as odd that you wouldn't prefer this method. And frankly, I'm not interested in opening old wounds in a public setting.

[He's spent enough time defending them from Karla's teeth, as it were.]

I prefer speaking in person.

[It's a short response, but a true one. No matter how involved she is in other imPort's affairs online, it's only out of necessity.]

Do you feel agony, physical agony, when transforming? Does he? Are you scared, when it happens? Frightened? Horrified and helpless? Are you victimized with every waking moment? Is he? Would you be stuck in that mutated form, that monstrosity, unable to resume your normal body without the help from a deus ex machina? Can he? [Chilton, having rode Knock Out as a car (unknown to him at the time), as the benefit of knowing KO's situation. He conveniently forgets that Dangers may not.] It was not merely a violation of body, an act against my will. Gideon wanted to kill me in the slowest, most degrading possible. Gideon wanted to surgically remove my identity. Do you feel that, every day, Danger? Is your identity removed?

When you are ripped limb from limb, when your circuits are humiliated and exposed and fused to foreign capillaries, when your calculating face is carved off and he inserts a smacking of bloodied, mutilated human flesh and you cannot hope to ever be your normal self again -- then you can talk to me about fair comparisons!

[He exhales, his throat tight with tension.]

But until then? You have no idea. You have no damn idea about it, and don't you dare try to weaponize something you can't possible begin to understand!

Mr. Stilinski? [He calls back, his voice neutral -- Chilton had considered saying "Stiles Stilinski" for the sheer flow of the name, but though better of it.] I would be happy to accommodate your need -- but I'm sure you know, as you've surely been through this process before, I would have to routinely see you for a prescription to uphold. Given that you likely didn't come here with any documents of prior medical history, I would have to diagnose you, too. Regardless of lack of drug problems.

[Shouldn't be a problem, though, right?]

Are you free this week for a scheduling?

[ Permeating silence from her end, for several long and calculating moments.

Finally: ]

I apologize, Doctor.

Which leads me to beg the question: why?

[He's suspicious about it; Chilton had even dissuaded Billy from interfacing Kate on his behalf. Compassionate as his patient might be, and while the sentiment was appreciated, Chilton had determined that there was nothing to be done about this friendship. Why stoke a muttering fire? It only briefly occurred to him that Billy had mentioned something to Kate anyway, before he disregarded the possibility.

Billy had Erik to be concerned over, and he notably respected boundaries. Kate's sudden revitalized interest, reasoned Chilton, was likely sparked because of someone else. And if Chilton didn't know that third party (everyone he thought of was unlikely, or improbable), then he could not trust meeting with her. It had ever nuance of a trap.]

[A beat -- he was not expecting an apology. Regardless if Danger had intended a manipulative effect or not, such was the outcome: Chilton shifted uneasily, feeling self-conscious and aware of an oddly warm feeling from within the pit of his stomach. Not necessarily an unpleasant one.]

Apology accepted.

[Succinct and spoken in that highly enunciated way he had, as if tiptoeing around his own prior emotional melting. The fact that he did not rub in detail, or dwell, or continue his tone was evidence of the remarkable impact Danger's three words had.]

I shouldn't be speaking of my other patients with you, anyway. Even if you are more advanced than they might be.

[ That reaction doesn't pass her unnoticed. It is, in fact, exceedingly intriguing to her, warranting another brief pause before she answers again, without questioning the shift in tone: ]

I understand the importance of privacy in these matters.
I am capable of making an educated guess without your explicit confirmation, regardless.
There are, after all, very few of my kind in the imPort population.

Does that discourage you? The very fact of your endangered status, as it were, makes you more... Unique.

Was I not clear enough already? I was wrong, and I want to listen to you, as you asked me to before and I should have done already.

No, why now? What prompted your realization? Why bother doing this in person -- "want" aside.

Edited 2014-06-20 20:29 (UTC)

As enjoyable as our sessions have been, Doctor, I'm afraid I'm going to have to end them. Effective immediately.

Take care, now.

Yeah, I mean I can't fly a spaceship-

....do you think you can control the thing that gets us here?

The porting device? I -- I don't know, I certainly have not attempted such.

Well, you said it-transportation, right?

[But then...]

Though I don't know, meddling with it might be weird.

Boats, planes, buses, cars -- sentient cars, even, yes. [A beat, and he looked away. There was little temptation for him to court his own home world.] That thing? I don't know. Perhaps.

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