person man, person man, hit on the head with a frying pan

[jacksonian]

WHO: Mark and whoever
WHERE: Everywhere!! But mostly De Chima and Maurtia Falls
WHEN: Throughout November
WHAT: Catch-all for November with stuff. Hit me up!! Please!!! Open prompts below; PM me if you want something that isn't these things.
WARNINGS: Mark's life sucks; I'll edit this header if any particular suckiness comes up.


1. dog dog dog dog dog dog dog; De Chima/Maurtia Falls
[ In De Chima or in Maurtia Falls, you might find a rather strange sight: a small stocky man walking an enormous stocky dog. This is Mark walking his dog Captain, a scarred and warlike pit bull that pulls at the leash and constantly wags his tail. Mark's expression is still a forbidding glower, but Captain's doggy face is open and bright-eyed and happy; there's no one he doesn't want to make friends with.

And Mark, unfortunately, doesn't know good leash technique, and also (in spite of his own roundness) doesn't outweigh his dog by that much. And so when Captain wants to make friends, Mark is dragged along behind him. And that is why, if you're walking around, you might be approached by a dog trailing a very sour-looking little man who's hissing - ]

No, don't - stop - heel -

2. come make $$$$; Maurtia Falls
[ PKE, LLC, up in Maurtia Falls, is beyond luxurious. The office is appointed with a sort of brushed-steel-and-pine classiness, like it's furnished from the expensive part of Ikea; the receptionist out front is attractive and aloof, and people who are waiting get offered mineral water from glass bottles.

There are any number of reasons that you might have ended up here: you might have received an advertisement in the mail, or a random notification on your phone, or you might have seen the advertising that targets imPorts. All of this advertising will have offered help in investing, getting rich, or opening a new business - generous funding to get everyone a little bit wealthier.

Mark, sitting at his desk, smiles a smile that can generously be described as oily when you're shown in. And he purrs - ]

Please, sit down. Tell me about how you'd like to make money.

3. kicking some grass; De Chima
[ Mark doesn't like to practice where he can be seen. Definitely not. So when he's worked up and anxious, he goes out far away from his family, far away from the people who know him, out into the forests of De Chima. On the unlikely off-chance that your character happens to wander by, they'll be treated to a very strange sight: a small fat man vigorously practicing a judo kata, face miserable, before punching a tree. He turns as soon as he hears them, though, eyes flashing with anger as he snarls - ]

What the hell are you doing here? Go away.

4. fuck it; anywhere
[ Mark's eating ice cream. Come have ice cream. ]

Comments

[jacksonian]

Oh, yeah, also, what I want to be is none of your business.

[helpline]

That's not going to happen. Everybody's my business.

[jacksonian]

I'm not.

[ His chin jerks up aggressively. ]

I'm my own person. I'm not answerable to anyone here. And even if I were, there are a hell of a lot of things I could be that are worse than a murderer.

[helpline]

I never said you weren't your own person or answerable to me in the first place, [ the Doctor responds, with a roll of his eyes. ]

You're just part of my business because everyone here's part of my business. It's really simple, what aren't you getting?

[jacksonian]

I know how this works.

[ He sneers that at the Doctor, even as he feels dizzy with despair and fury. I know so well. What it's like, being controlled - ]

So what would you do? If I went out there and killed someone. Right now. I could. I know how.

[helpline]

Well to start with, I'd be horrible disappointed. [ said as if it's the most obvious answer in the world. ] Then I'd make sure you were arrested and we'd do things properly, get you in the system we've got.

[ He can't help but smile a little, tiny smirk playing at the corner of his mouth. ]

I'd probably lobby to be your parole officer as well, since this conversation's going so well already. But again, you're not going to do that. What high-profile business executive publicly kills someone? It'd be rubbish for your stocks.

[jacksonian]

[ He snaps back, ill-tempered: ]

Who gives a shit about stocks?

[ Which is not the best answer. Not exactly congruent with the persona he's trying to portray. His jaw snaps shut, and he looks mulish. ]

[helpline]

I'd think that the clients of PKE, LLC give a shit about stocks. And you give a shit about your clients.

[ you are trying, buddy. And hey, A for effort. ]

[jacksonian]

[ Prudence wars with defiance. Defiance (as it does far too often with Mark Vorkosigan, frustrated teenager) wins. ]

I also give a shit about not letting you think you're the boss of me. Because you do, don't you? I'm just a clone, so you think you have the right to boss me around.

[helpline]

You do know that I was bossing you around before the clone reveal, right?

[ wow does this conversation remind him of dealing with his granddaughter when she was a teenager, why on Earth is that happening ]

[jacksonian]

[ ...Point. Well - ]

You got worse since then.

[helpline]

That's probably because you've gotten to know me better. You learn more of a person's flaws the more you talk with them.

[jacksonian]

Fine. Then because I'm a mutie.

[helpline]

First you think it's because you're a clone, now you think it's because you're a mutie, whatever that is, has anybody ever told you that you've got a bit of a persecution complex? We've just met and it's already fairly obvious.

[jacksonian]

Yeah, or maybe I've actually lived my life. And I know what people think of people like me.

[helpline]

You know what people think of people like you back home. Brand new world, Richie Rich, you're going to have to make an impression based on your personality.

[ which, the Doctor is coming to realize, might be a problem. ]

[jacksonian]

Yeah?

[ His chin jerks up. ]

So far we're three for three on universes where they kill clones. So don't feed me bullshit about some beautiful new universe of tolerance. No such thing.

[helpline]

I thought that as a businessman you needed to know something about statistics! [ Rolling his eyes, the Doctor continues. ] Let's say that twenty people get Ported in each month. If half of them are each from a different universe, then that's ten universes per month. So over a year-long period, that'd be a hundred and twenty different universes. That's undershooting it, by the way, sometimes we get months where more than twenty people show up.

Now, with all the way the universes could go, with some set in the past and some set in the distant future, some based around magic and others based around science, d'you really think all of them would be prejudiced against clones?

[ The Doctor continues talking, shrugging slightly as he continues. ] There's bound to be some duds in there. But there are duds in every batch. And if you specifically go out to find the duds without paying attention to the rest of everything, then of course you're going to think the entire multiverse's against you.

[jacksonian]

[ His face gets angrier and angrier and angrier as the Doctor speaks. When he's done, he sits there a long moment, staring at him, his face dark with sheer fury.

Finally, he spits: ]

So if I go and search and search and search, I can maybe finally come across a place where they won't kill everyone like me. You're right. The universe is a beautiful fucking place, because maybe they won't kill us.

I hope you're a piece of shit who's secretly delighted to see clones die, because otherwise that was the most pathetic - Statistics. Statistically, maybe there's a place where my friends don't get murdered.

[helpline]

[ And the Doctor sighs, just a long suffering sigh of someone who's trying to convince someone else of something and it's just not working. ]

Isn't that what you kids do in the first place? If you don't like the situation, you move out of your parent's house. You change things because if you stand around complaining about your lot in life without doing anything, then you really don't deserve the right to complain.

There's probably a place in your universe that's a lot more tolerant towards clones, because again, there's more than twelve planets in the universe, a fact which you seem to keep missing the more we talk about this. And really, I'm truly sorry that you were born on such a horrid place and had such horrible things happen to you. But what do you want me to do about it?

[ Because the Doctor's got a feeling that the answer won't be anything physical. Empathy? He's got that. Apologizing, he can apologize until the cows come home. But he knows that he can't do anything to have changed Mark's circumstances. ]

[jacksonian]

[ His answer is clear, and harsh, and low. ]

Stop fucking lying.

[ His hands clench into fists where they rest on his desk. ]

I assume this is why you come at me like I'm some kid. You think a kid can't contradict you, that they don't know enough. But here's the difference - I might just be a kid, but I know the fucking score. I watched every friend I had growing up being led off to be harvested. To be cannibalized. Every single one of them - we were all chattel. I just was livestock branded for a different purpose, is all. And if it's not us, it's others. This fucking world, it takes a look at kids, at girls, and decides, yeah. Livestock. Sell them into slavery, sell them into work. No problem. There isn't a single world out there that's good. And you sit there, and you lie to me, and you pretend like there's anything - anyone - out there who'd do anyone a good turn. Fuck you. Fuck your lies. I know the score.

[helpline]

[ There's a long pause before the Doctor talks. Because ah. This runs deeper than he imagined. This explains every hostile remark that the Doctor had chalked up to Mark being your average short-sighted human. But no. This poor guy's been run through the ringer and back his entire life.

If you lived in hell for all of your life, it's hard to see anything that isn't hell. No wonder Mark's bitter. ]

I'm sorry. I'm sorry that all this happened to you and I'm sorry that it's happening to the people back on your world.

[ But the Doctor, ever the optimist, can't let this end there. ]

But what about your people? You mentioned your people you had behind you earlier--it sounded like you trusted them. Do you really believe they wouldn't do you a good turn?

[jacksonian]

[ In that pause, Mark's anger has subsided into sullen gloominess. His hands have unclenched, and he's drooped low in his seat. Or, well - as low as he can droop; there's not all that much smaller or slumpier he can get. His response is a morose: ]

So what if they would? No one else gets saved.

[ But he has to admit: ]

They're different from anyone else.

[helpline]

Sometimes saving ourselves is the only thing we can do. You can't save other people if you're not in top form yourself.

[ One of the reasons, whether the Doctor realizes it or not, why he usually has a traveling companion with him. Other people are wonderful for yourself. ]

I'm glad you've got them, though.

[jacksonian]

[ The Doctor certainly wasn't wrong in his assessment of Mark as difficult, personality-wise. And Mark's certainly not ready for any kumbaya moment. He prickles up again, a hedgehog remembering his biological imperative to bristle. ]

You don't get to be glad about anything for me. I told you not to act like you know me.

[ The expression on his face is a curious mix, though - defiance, obviously, because defiance is his version of courage, but also pride. And wariness, too, that comes from a sort of possessiveness. His family is his, and he doesn't want any cool time-traveling aliens coming in and seeing how good they are and taking them away from him. ]

You don't know what I can or can't do, either.