dear_mun | (no subject)

Current Mood: contemplative

Entry tags:

canon: criminal minds

(no subject)

A musebox.

Not a bad idea. It'd give us a place to be. And asking a few people to come along wouldn't be a bad idea, either.

Give it some serious thought.

Edit: Well, you've done it. Good luck.

bau_bullpen

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[His jaw clenches, but only for a moment.]

As I told you, I have died. Trinity went before me, and I hope that Morpheus, at least, has survived. Peace was promised, and that's what I fought for. In the end, I did what was required and passed on, but I wasn't alone.

[The fact that Trinity went before him was news - and a feeling that Aaron knew too, too damned well.] I'm sorry for your loss. It always leaves scars.

[Maybe that was part of his problem, he thought for one subversive split second. He wasn't like Dave. He couldn't just have a one-night stand. That went against everything in him.]

How do you mean you weren't alone, though? Alone in fighting? Or alone in doing what you had to do?

I wasn't the only one who died fighting for Zion, for peace between humans and the machines. I went into the Matrix, which had been overtaken by a rogue agent, a program...it was on that condition that peace was promised.

There were many who fell for Zion. The machines had been drilling to the city. But Trinity and I took our own ship to their city. It's a bit complicated, to tell you the truth.

It sounds complicated.

[Even if it also sounded familiar. His mind was going back to Sunday School and to a phone call with a distorted voice telling him, "If you stop hunting me, I'll stop hunting them." If he'd made the deal, a lot of people would still be alive - not the least of which being Haley.

But this wasn't about him. This was about understanding the man he was talking to.]

The Matrix. I'm not sure I understand that part. From context, I understand that it was a computer system of some kind?

[Since it had been overtaken by a program.]

The Matrix is what the majority of people go through their entire lives thinking of as reality. The Earth and universe they know. New York City, Tokyo, London, Paris, all the cities and countries of history and recent years are still there. The real world is much bleaker, the machines just keep people in pods with the Matrix as a facade. Those cities are still there.

There's just no people in them.

[And suddenly, he remembered that book and the case in Seattle. Empty Planet. He took a shaky breath before nodding.]

And if the agent you were talking about took over the Matrix, what did that mean for all of humanity - besides those who weren't... plugged in? Did they die?

[Oh, well that's bleaker than the real world. Sad times.]

No. Smith had infected them as a virus, but as soon as he was taken care of, it only makes sense that they'd all be turned back to as they were originally. I wouldn't have gotten plugged in if that weren't the way of things.

[But Hotch was wondering what it was they'd seen when they were looking through that rogue program's eyes. If they even remembered that time, or if, when it all had been brought back around, they'd gone on as if nothing had happened.

The thought of living in a computer program, not knowing that it was a program... Would there still have been murderers? People who abused their children? It would've been easier, he thought, to get rid of all of those personalities, or quarantine them ahead of time, but... But who knew, really, how machines thought.]

It's a terrifying world you live - or lived - in. I don't know if I could've dealt with it. But it might be like parenting. It might be that the only way that could've been answered is if I'd been in the situation myself.

It was...it was definitely a one-of-a-kind thing. So yeah, a little like parenting in that regard.

[And the regard that everyone looked to Neo for answers and salvation.

But he got food out of it, and that was the other way around with kids. Plus one for being the Messiah, no?]

[Answers and salvation. Sounded like being the person to speak to the family of the deceased.]

What about your family? Before you... found out about what reality actually was. What happened to them?

[Ah...the family.]

I'm sure they're the same as they were before, just with less Thomas Anderson in their lives. We weren't really all that close. Regular family, really. I went off to school and work, dropped a call on Mother's Day, Father's Day, a few Thanksgivings and Christmases...flew the nest, basically, returned when it was appropriate.

[And that got a faint smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.] You remind me a little of me. But more of my brother. Independent. Neither of us really see our mother anymore.

[Oh dear. Don't get too attached, Hotch.]

My family was always the ones on The Nebuchadnezzar and in Zion. I just didn't realize it for a while

[Oh, don't worry. He had enough on his plate without going around and trying to adopt people. No, that's one of the mun's other characters who does that. Chronically.]

The family you choose instead of the family you're born into. [Hotch nodded.] Just as valid.

[Maybe Hotch should pass his therapy off to them.]

Yeah...that's pretty much it. That part's not so complicated.

I think I've said "I" enough times today. Probably a bit of overkill, really.

[Nah, they're good at being family to people. It works out. At least Neo's talking to the FBI agent instead of ... one of the others.]

I take it you don't talk about yourself that much.

[Oh dear. A direct question, and he's already said "I" too many times. How to deal...]

There's more important things to talk about.

Such as?

[More important things? Just now?]

...pretty much anything, actually.

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