illirica
Well-Known Member
Oh, great. Emil was hearing voices.
Well, no, that wasn't necessarily the issue. They were probably all hearing voices, in some sense of the word, it was just that Emil thought that he could understand them.
He wasn't necessarily wrong. The problem was that he wasn't experienced enough to know that not being wrong wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Zahir looked through the offered notebook, turning the pages a little to see if anything else important had been imparted there, then let it go, staring off down the path Emil wanted them to take.
"Okay. So. First fallacy: assuming that you really do understand what they're telling you. You picked up on that one, and that's good." It showed promise, anyway, it was just that Zahir knew that sometimes promises got broken.
"The second fallacy, though, that's assuming that if you are interpreting them correctly, they're not out to get you." Because that was a big problem. "'Come into my web,' said the spider to the fly. You know that one." He scanned the team - just four of them, and he didn't know if he wanted to split them up already. Doll was weighing in, offering to go along, but she seemed to have the same hesitance about splitting up unnecessarily as Zahir did.
And Henry-
Well. There were a whole lot of sentences that could start with and Henry, and Zahir wasn't sure how many of them he wanted to finish. He liked the idea of having eyes in the sky - that was generally regarded as a good idea in most of the Folds, because it could give them a little bit of advance notice if something was, say, coming up to murder them.
It was just that in this case, the eyes in the sky would be Henry, and - well, Zahir was well aware that he was definitely experiencing some prejudice here because they were weird. Not Weird, capital-W, because they were all Weird here. But Henry was also weird, and that was a thing.
Henry probably had complex PTSD and Zahir should be more tolerant, if only because if he wasn't, the Colonel's lecture when they got back was going to be scathing. She had a thing about that.
Zahir did not have a thing about that, nor did he have PTSD or anything. He did have a plant or something like it writhing under his skin, but he wasn't going to bring that up right now. She - it, it was usually quiet, outside the Folds, but it got a little spicy inside them. That let him make the bracelets and do a few other neat parlor tricks, but... well, he usually tried to keep it under wraps. He didn't know why. It wasn't like the Organization had the manpower to pull him, anyway.
Enough of that. He made a decision. "All right. Emil - telling someone was the right thing to do. Henry - wait until I tell you to before taking off." Because otherwise they were absolutely going to do that mid sentence, Zahir knew it. "But yes, let's get you airborne. I want you to stay within shouting distance, and don't shoot things without checking first unless someone is in imminent danger. We'll move as a group for now, and we're going to head down Emil's path, but carefully. Just because we don't trust the information doesn't mean we can't use it. We didn't know anything about lights, before, so that's something to be aware of, whatever it means. Emil, I want you in front-" So I can keep an eye on you "-So you can let us know if you source any new information. Dahlia, I want you in the center so you're the most protected. I'll take the rear so I can cover our exit and keep eyes on whatever's ahead."
Not ideal, but it was going to have to do. "Range out about four - no, three meters from each other, that'll be close enough that we can hear each other even with the audiostims, but hopefully far enough that we won't all get taken out together. Henry, I want you to let me know if you hear any other tones up there, or if the ones we're hearing are louder or anything changes with height." Anything else - there was always something else, but Zahir didn't know what it was. He rolled his shoulder, trying to settle his skin.
"Fine. Good enough. Henry, you can go."
Well, no, that wasn't necessarily the issue. They were probably all hearing voices, in some sense of the word, it was just that Emil thought that he could understand them.
He wasn't necessarily wrong. The problem was that he wasn't experienced enough to know that not being wrong wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Zahir looked through the offered notebook, turning the pages a little to see if anything else important had been imparted there, then let it go, staring off down the path Emil wanted them to take.
"Okay. So. First fallacy: assuming that you really do understand what they're telling you. You picked up on that one, and that's good." It showed promise, anyway, it was just that Zahir knew that sometimes promises got broken.
"The second fallacy, though, that's assuming that if you are interpreting them correctly, they're not out to get you." Because that was a big problem. "'Come into my web,' said the spider to the fly. You know that one." He scanned the team - just four of them, and he didn't know if he wanted to split them up already. Doll was weighing in, offering to go along, but she seemed to have the same hesitance about splitting up unnecessarily as Zahir did.
And Henry-
Well. There were a whole lot of sentences that could start with and Henry, and Zahir wasn't sure how many of them he wanted to finish. He liked the idea of having eyes in the sky - that was generally regarded as a good idea in most of the Folds, because it could give them a little bit of advance notice if something was, say, coming up to murder them.
It was just that in this case, the eyes in the sky would be Henry, and - well, Zahir was well aware that he was definitely experiencing some prejudice here because they were weird. Not Weird, capital-W, because they were all Weird here. But Henry was also weird, and that was a thing.
Henry probably had complex PTSD and Zahir should be more tolerant, if only because if he wasn't, the Colonel's lecture when they got back was going to be scathing. She had a thing about that.
Zahir did not have a thing about that, nor did he have PTSD or anything. He did have a plant or something like it writhing under his skin, but he wasn't going to bring that up right now. She - it, it was usually quiet, outside the Folds, but it got a little spicy inside them. That let him make the bracelets and do a few other neat parlor tricks, but... well, he usually tried to keep it under wraps. He didn't know why. It wasn't like the Organization had the manpower to pull him, anyway.
Enough of that. He made a decision. "All right. Emil - telling someone was the right thing to do. Henry - wait until I tell you to before taking off." Because otherwise they were absolutely going to do that mid sentence, Zahir knew it. "But yes, let's get you airborne. I want you to stay within shouting distance, and don't shoot things without checking first unless someone is in imminent danger. We'll move as a group for now, and we're going to head down Emil's path, but carefully. Just because we don't trust the information doesn't mean we can't use it. We didn't know anything about lights, before, so that's something to be aware of, whatever it means. Emil, I want you in front-" So I can keep an eye on you "-So you can let us know if you source any new information. Dahlia, I want you in the center so you're the most protected. I'll take the rear so I can cover our exit and keep eyes on whatever's ahead."
Not ideal, but it was going to have to do. "Range out about four - no, three meters from each other, that'll be close enough that we can hear each other even with the audiostims, but hopefully far enough that we won't all get taken out together. Henry, I want you to let me know if you hear any other tones up there, or if the ones we're hearing are louder or anything changes with height." Anything else - there was always something else, but Zahir didn't know what it was. He rolled his shoulder, trying to settle his skin.
"Fine. Good enough. Henry, you can go."