sixthiterationlogs | [MINGLE] PLOT: Siren's Call

Kamala shoots an impressed look Jessica's way. She wishes she had thought of that! She meets Frank's gaze as he looks her way. She ignores Aurora since like Frank she doesn't need to get distracted by fluffy creatures she adores right now. What he says starts to concern Kamala until common sense kicks in. Kamala looks a little uncomfortable because seriously did no one else notice this?

"Uh... okay. One problem with that." Kamala points at Frank. "If we're clones, why is your nose still super obviously broken a ton and healed wrong?" She takes a sip of her coffee before continuing. "Plus all those scars? Take off your shirt, Frank." She looks over to the lady sitting with her. "Jessica, if you've see them, you will know that literally no one would recreate scars like that! They're insane. What self-respecting evil scientist would have the budget to study his scars and perfectly recreate them down to how badly they healed?! Frank alone would cost a fortune!"

Jess is starting to feel for the dog, who is a stronger moor for her surface thoughts than the lifeless coffee table. Kamala's attention guides it over to her again and when it bumps its nose to Jess's knee this time, she unclasps her hands to lazily ruffle its ears. Meanwhile she's coming up with her own reasons why that could and couldn't be the case, and even more as to why she isn't bowled over by the very real possibility. Shock, obviously, but if she has to rank the threats she's faced, being a clone falls below Sound Eaters and a super stalker.

She stops ruminating with an abrupt blink when Kamala ropes her effortlessly back into the conversation. Wow, she wasted that time thinking when she could have been making her escape. She guesses she's a bit bowled over after all.

"They're, uh," she clears her throat, "yeah. Seems like a lot of wasted effort." She's actually referring to herself there.

He honestly hadn't thought about what Kamala means. She does have a point and though he'd usually hesitate at a request like that, he suddenly needs to see the marks for himself, to ensure that they're still there and all in the right places at that. Frank pops off his t-shirt as Jessica's voice filters back in, almost like he'd forgotten she was here. Except that's not really possible for him, he had merely set it aside. Her comment at first seems like a dig, which would be fine, but then he recognizes what she means and he's swallowing, looking down at his own chest rather than her face. Like so many things between them, he pretends he doesn't know about the scar behind her ear, about who he's sure put it there even if he'd never ask. Calloused fingers brush the scar over his heart, left by the arrow from his friend's bow. It feels just as knotted and gnarly as it always had, only an inch lower and he wouldn't have been brought back from the brink again.

"So then what, if not clones?" Androids or something equally outlandishly scifi? They're already in their second impossible place, no suggestion is truly too out there for him to consider at this point.

The truth is Kamala would be at peace with the possibility of being a clone until she worried about what became of original Kamala. Being a clone would be the ultimate cop out. She could literally do whatever she wanted. She wouldn't have to worry about her family anymore. She'd be free in so many ways it's a little overwhelming. Kamala looks at the familiar scarring on Frank's chest and feels certain of her conclusion. They're not clones, but what they are isn't very nice.

"I think we were kidnapped to be part of someone's experiments. Plain and simple." Only Kamala would think that is plain or simple. Forgive her. Her first villain was literally a cloned bird hybrid stealing children. She takes another sip of coffee before diving in. "Think about it. Frank, you already know my backstory so it's not like it'd be totally insane for something or someone out there to see what else could happen to me under certain conditions. We have Avengers here. Like this is basically a who is who of people you could get a ton of interesting data from. Anyone who doesn't fit is probably the control group. Even what happened seems a lot like a test in a lab. Plant a location in someone's brain and see who reaches it first under threat of drowning? It's messed up, but it makes so much sense."

She gradually reclines into the couch, sneaking a glance around Kamala for confirmation. Same scars, all right, probably. There's enough to deal with right now without poring over that loaded memory. Thankfully Kamala has more to say, as she usually does. Jess weighs her theory against Frank's -- Kira's, whoever the hell Kira is. To her, instead of contrasting each other, they fit together well.

"If you're gonna experiment on people, why not clones," she thinks aloud, watching the rolls in Aurora's fur as she scrubs the dog's head, remounted on her leg. Jess sighs, at a loss for what to do with an Avengers-sized existential quandary or the hint at Kamala's must-be-fucked-up backstory. Wordlessly, Jess pushes herself to her feet and wanders further into the house, towards the kitchen she hasn't quite been in yet. She's taking him up on that coffee but first she's going to root around the cupboards for the biggest mug they got.

Jess gets up and Frank brings his shirt back over his chest, getting up too before shrugging back into it reflexively. That was weird, wasn't it? Her theory is similar to Kira's, Kamala's is closer to Ravi's. Is it fair for Frank to just say he's too damn tired to give a fuck? No matter who's right, this place is still somehow better than where they were.

"I can get that," he insists even as she starts poking through the cupboards and Frank sighs, running a hand back through his long hair. He refocuses on Kamala while letting Jessica do whatever she wants - usually safer than interrupting her. "It could be either or, I guess. I'm not sure how much difference it makes, honestly."

Kamala's gaze follows Jessica as she goes. She really has a good point there. Maybe it wouldn't be so hard to perfectly recreate the damage Frank Castle carries around. She's a tiny girl who could become everyone and anyone once upon a time. Weirder things have happened. She finishes her coffee while listening to Frank's take. That really resonates too. Maybe it's time for her to put her cards on the table.

"To be honest, I think it only matters to me and Peter. It's the difference between ruining our family's lives by being gone or never having parents at all. I mean if I take out the scary part about not being anyone's daughter? It's kind of comforting to know they're not suffering right now. Maybe they just stole original Kamala Khan's blood after one of the hundred times something happened in JC and made me. Or they grabbed a sample before I changed from my doctor. Either way, that's actually not a bad way for this to go." She still has Frank so it's not like she's completely without family. The rest can be figured out with time.

They might have a thermos tucked in the back of one of these cupboards but Jess finds a sufficiently oversized ceramic mug and abandons the search there. She fills it to the top with still-steaming coffee, gulps down three mouthfuls, and tops it up again, because who knows how this is going to affect the narrative in her nightmares. Jess listens to Kamala from half a room away, her back to the living room and Frank. She stares into her cup or out the nearest window as she tries to tune out and dredge some personal stakes from this, without success.

If she is a clone, she already knows what she has to do. Put an end to her line. And make sure the Overseers don't have the genetic material to continue someone else's, too. It's what original Jess would want her to do in this situation, regardless of if she's out there. Jess has another deep pull of coffee, choosing not to refill it.

"That's where that pod goes," she murmurs to herself begrudgingly. Well, there goes her plan to completely ignore it and move on with her life. Like she wasn't gonna lean hard on the former tactic and conflate its progress with the latter. She was. And it was a good plan!

Edited 2018-09-05 01:00 (UTC)

He hadn't actually been thinking about Kamala's parents for a change, so the reminder is sad, but welcome. There are people who will miss her, and while Jessica and Frank have a few who meet that definition too it's nowhere near the same. And they're used to them being unreliable and dropping off the grid for extended periods of time anyway.

"You're right, sweetheart. Sorry, we have to find out." If his original self is still in New York then why is Max still with the Liebermans? Does his landlady have anyone to help her? Does Curtis curse his name when he doesn't show up for group (or when he does lbr)? Jessica brings him back to the present again, his gaze snapping onto her when he overhears her murmur, no doubt not meant for his ears, but they're too sensitive now not to pick it up. "Yeah, well, if we're pod people you think that means I lost the vaccine?" A bit of fear edges into his voice despite the evenness of his tone otherwise. No one else would understand why it mattered, it's something he'd only ever ask her.

Kamala shakes her head. "We've been through worse." She appreciates his care, but honestly it's way past time she got in the game. Regardless of the answers, she'll do her best to live a decent life. Whether that makes cracking heads to get her powers back and go home, trying to free them, maybe even just settling here remains to be seen. She needs to know now for her sake as much as the Khan family. That pod sounds like a promising start.

She doesn't get to comment on her action adventure plans when Frank brings up that. She stiffens because even she knows her automatic response to reassure him would be a bad idea. She just looks at Jessica for answers.

Jess drifts back towards the living room with her cup held in both hands. Over ten minutes old, the heat that manages to seep through the ceramic is dull but welcome. She thinks about discouraging Kamala from teen sleuthing but, honestly, she and Frank are both safer with her than without. In the meantime, Jess will keep trying to push her off on Ellie in the hopes they can both be kids.

She feels the girl's stare on her before flicking her gaze her way, though Frank was the one to ask the question. "I have a vial. We'll take it again." Nodding at Kamala. "You too. If you want."

They have been through way worse. And he had completely forgotten about the vial. The vial that Jessica had gotten presumably from the Observers. Is it even the real thing? He has to keep reminding himself Kam and Jess would need it too and it scares him, but just that reassurance from her is enough to appease him for the moment. Frank picks his coffee cup back up and drinks it down even though it's already cool.

"Do you think we should?" It's less him seeking orders than it is him asking for her take on what happens next. Everything he's seen and heard would lead him to believe Kilgrave would be no threat to them here, and yet the urge to preempt being wrong is a real one.

"Do want if the two of you are doing it. I think we can now safely say whatever super power I had that kept people from getting into my brain is gone." Kamala empties the rest of her coffee. She wants to say it's pointless for them to do it. If she didn't get to keep her powers, why would someone else? There's no such thing as too careful. If they are being experimented on, there is a lot someone could decide to do simply because they can. It sucks, but starting to unravel this kind of means they have to be crazy paranoid, huh? Her vote is dependent on theirs. For better or worse, she doesn't want to do anything alone if she can help it.

They can't take it at the same time, if they do all opt in. The final strain still had side effects, though pared down from the fever that put Frank in the clinic. Both he and Jess will want to be healthy when Kamala has a shot, but they're not wrong that it may not be worth it, even if they aren't voicing every one of their concerns. It's a 50/50 chance that she's got a well-labeled placebo, nothing else, and if it's real, there's no guarantee it would prevent the kind of mind control that took hold of people today. Unless, considering how in the dark they are, the unlikely possibility also exists that it's derived from Kilgrave's genes, similar to what Hogarth hoped to accomplish. She can cross that out after a follow up with Frank but she's not going to ask him to go into it in front of Kamala. (For Kamala's sake, to be clear.)

Jess folds her arms across her chest, cup in one hand.

"I think it depends on what's down there," she puts forth and turns her head to Frank. "Or who. And what DNA records they've stored, if any."

That makes sense, what both of them say, and he finds himself nodding along like a numb bobblehead. Down there. He swallows, feeling the need to share something else now.

"There was... a specimen room, before. Out in the woods, I guess. There's probably something like that under the lake, too." If not the same one, just moved. He supposes they should go down there and investigate, in that case. He had been trying to put it off after Elena died finding the door, honestly. "Buddy system?" he suggests brightly after a moment. He super doesn't like the idea of any one of them going alone.

Kamala nods at Jessica's statement. That sounds appropriately smart and adultlike. She can follow that lead. She looks at Frank in surprise when he's got even more information. She has to assume from Kira. She never would have thought the guy who called her tiny dancer would know so much. She supposes most people don't look at her and think she was secretly super powerful once. Appearances mean nothing. "So I'm getting that Kira secretly knows a lot of stuff." She's going to start pestering him for deets sooner or later.

Okay in all seriousness.... "Buddy system." Kamala agrees with a nod. "Any self-respecting evil scientist has traps for when people get too close. Even when they need you alive, it can be super dangerous. My power is useful even if it is not as easy to use."

Buddy system? Is that a joke or is she the only one in the room not vulnerable to onset short-term amnesia too? Buddy system. Her power isn't even conducive to that, for one. For two-through-ninety-nine, it's her inability to look out for Kamala that led her here in the first place. If she sticks close, it won't change the outcome, it just means Jess will have to watch.

But she's not looking to make this about her so she declines by omission and instead asks, "Who the hell is Kira?" over the rim of her mug as she lifts it to her mouth.

He notices Jessica skipping over his proposal even as he's thinking about how symbiotic all of their powers could be. Frank could sense the danger while Jessica repels it back and Kamala lends them her tough skin. It's kind of wistful honestly, more so than he'd usually allow himself to be with her in the same room. It's easy enough to snap out of when she asks about Kira.

"You might know him as the guy who rolled the joints in everyone's favor bags at the party." She had to notice that, right? The Observers are not that hip. "That's his dog." You know, the one you keep pretending not to pay attention to, Jess!! He points to the black one and shakes his head. There are no good ways to describe Kira and yet he's the closest thing Frank has to a friend here.

"He's been here a long time, he saw the village before it changed."

Kamala is picturing a similar team up. Jessica's lack of an answer dashes her dreams of an epic battle stuff in scary labs. Oh well! She'll settle for teenage solo adventures and hook up with them later.

"He also terrorized what passes for the internet here when all our names got changed." Kamala supplies helpfully. "I guess that explains why he knows so much. I didn't even realize this is like a 2.0 version of the village." She can't help being a little bitter about the fact that no one mentions this stuff after she specifically asked to be told stuff. She huffs irritably as she thinks about it. "Am I a jerk for thinking everyone who has been here for a while kind of sucks? Because this shouldn't be the first time I'm hearing all of this. No wonder we're stuck in some weird science conspiracy. No one shares anything worth knowing here!"

Yeah, Frank's description doesn't leave her with the impression that he's covered it all. It's no more reliable a lead than her little glass bottle of fluid is in protecting them from the Overseers' influence and she prefers to work one hopeless case at a time. Kira could be telling the truth, he could be messing with them for shits and giggles, or he could be an observer planted here by higher ranking manipulators. The hard evidence below the lake won't provide nearly such expansive room for doubt.

She's had her sip and finished it by the start of Kamala's tirade or her laugh would have splattered black coffee on the wall and couch. Kamala being angry isn't funny; her typically cheerful voice narrating Jess's thoughts? Is absurd. "I thought I was being misanthropic." Or "her usual asshole self" but she's censoring herself in current company.

It's a good point, but Kamala makes a lot of those. Frank smiles softly in agreement even though the girl's frustration is palpable.

"We shared info a lot better in a place where we didn't even talk. Pretty ironic."

Kamala groans. Yes, she's going to let it all out so she can move on. It's the smartest play she has. No one needs a teenager stomping around a secret lab and pointing out they could have known sooner if not for all the secrecy. "Why do you think I'm so frustrated?! I literally learned sign language! I taught you how to not suck at texting! Where is the effort here?! We could have liked died a million times over and everyone was just hanging onto this stuff because why not?! They suck!" She's just going to scream into the couch pillow now.

They had a guide back there. One which she barely read herself, but that didn't stop-- Jess stares into her coffee, gripping it as hard as she can. She's still sort of amazed it doesn't shatter in her fist, a feeling she latches onto to get above the threat of memories. Jess minds her breathing and she minds minding her breathing, and her posture, too static or too twitchy, anything amiss, he's likely to notice. She gulps down more coffee as Kamala rants to her heart's content, though she's tuned out from the exact words. Once she shoves her face into a pillow, Jess assumes Frank will address it or encourage her to wear herself out or do whatever people who are more nurturing than a desert naturally know how to do.

The thing is, Frank knows Kamala will be fine. This is how she gets things out of her system. It's upsetting, but they're one step closer with or without everyone else. As far as he's concerned, they don't need anyone else anyway. But when Jess goes quiet, his gaze finds her and holds on, concerned for her and not bothering to hide it. He sits back down in the armchair, scooting it closer to the table and leaving his coffee there again, one knee bouncing like he's already had too much caffeine even though it's still half-full.

"The important thing is we know. We're telling each other what we know, just like we've always done, right? We're gonna crack this thing. The three of us." As usual, Frank's brand of sincerity comes with wild eyes and visible unease, but the two people he trusts most are in this room, clones or not.

Frank is right, of course. She lowers the pillow from her face once she's done screaming and instantly feels much better. She glances from Frank to Jessica and back to him. She can't argue where he's coming from. The important thing is that the three of them are on the same page. They can work together to make some progress with the mystery. Who knows? Maybe get some people invested. Kamala thinks the pod alone might have done that trick though.

"You're right." Kamala agrees softly. "I can't expect things to be like they were before, but the three of us can all agree we need to get to the bottom of this before someone else dies, right? So let's team up. I swear I'm a million times more useful than most people think." That's mostly directed at Jessica. Frank's known her deal for a while now.

[MINGLE] PLOT: Siren's Call

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