[What Point Man had to start with were facts - a million projects no one knew about, second prototype, first prototype, first was deemed a failure (surprise and guess what, soldier), the Synchronicity and all that death and enraged warnings on answering machines from a voice that somehow, deep down, scared him a little. Those, and a scant few hallucinations, or visions, or memories. This is more. The connecting pieces between what he knew and what he thought he knew. Hard facts and nightmares and this.
It doesn't all register for him. Not Paxton's emotions, at least, but his mind latches on to the memories and fills in with frustration and bitterness. All of the pain and trials and he still amounted to nothing to the scientists, no matter how much he pushed himself. Which he had, even if it failed to impress, which is often did. There wasn't a way he could match up, to the men and women in the white lab coats. Not that it mattered when the tests were over and he could just spend time with his cellmate without it being a competition. The only real social interaction he got, but it was... happy... until the scientists came back. Happy enough, though he could recall instances of fights between them - silly kid stuff (even with what they endured they were still children, sometimes) and a few more serious. And all those times his cellmatebrother had gotten upset and he got worried when the beds started moving by themselves. Being disturbed when the coloring came out of the books and onto the walls and floors because something was going wrong here and he didn't know what. Those moments were interspersed with play shootouts and jumping on the beds when they weren't supposed to and the occasional game of Keep Away (where his height had advantage over Paxton's brain, for once).
The hallucination throws him for a little bit of a loop. Things that were never to be.
His fingers twitch briefly as it ends, and he takes his own step back, looking at his brother with at least a little more recognition than he had before. He cards one hand through his hair before saying anything.]
They liked you best.
[But even what little he'd gotten back, familiar as it was, it felt like watching himself through a camera. It was there and it made his stomach turn... and it was all so far away now. He hadn't been that kid since he lost those memories.]
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It doesn't all register for him. Not Paxton's emotions, at least, but his mind latches on to the memories and fills in with frustration and bitterness. All of the pain and trials and he still amounted to nothing to the scientists, no matter how much he pushed himself. Which he had, even if it failed to impress, which is often did. There wasn't a way he could match up, to the men and women in the white lab coats. Not that it mattered when the tests were over and he could just spend time with his cellmate without it being a competition. The only real social interaction he got, but it was... happy... until the scientists came back. Happy enough, though he could recall instances of fights between them - silly kid stuff (even with what they endured they were still children, sometimes) and a few more serious. And all those times his cellmatebrother had gotten upset and he got worried when the beds started moving by themselves. Being disturbed when the coloring came out of the books and onto the walls and floors because something was going wrong here and he didn't know what. Those moments were interspersed with play shootouts and jumping on the beds when they weren't supposed to and the occasional game of Keep Away (where his height had advantage over Paxton's brain, for once).
The hallucination throws him for a little bit of a loop. Things that were never to be.
His fingers twitch briefly as it ends, and he takes his own step back, looking at his brother with at least a little more recognition than he had before. He cards one hand through his hair before saying anything.]
They liked you best.
[But even what little he'd gotten back, familiar as it was, it felt like watching himself through a camera. It was there and it made his stomach turn... and it was all so far away now. He hadn't been that kid since he lost those memories.]