Turn 65

--- Maya ---

Her Scan() program was an incredibly useful tool. It had the ability to take any information she ran through it and scour the internet and her Informant Network() for similar things. All while quantifying the physical makeup of the things she scanned into a handy little number that told her the object’s breaking point.

Unfortunately this powerful informational tool had several drawbacks, such as its inability to actually store or save any of the information it gathered. Instead deleting said data the moment a second Scan() was used.

Which is why with the time she had before her weekly lessons at the M.A.D. club she was working to fix this sizable flaw in a way that wouldn’t devour the entirety of her COMP’s memory capacity.

(What if we create a temporary data cache to store everything we’ve scanned, while clearing it on a timer?) Her inner reason suggested.

“That could work but we’d have to create a way of locking in Scan data of stuff we want to remember.” She pointed out.

(Well we could create a secondary database for priority targets.) Her inner madness suggested in one of her rare instances of helpfulness. (Fuck you too.)

“Actually, if we’re going to create a secondary database for priority targets, I’ve got an idea for a sort of combat database.”

(You mean an enemy bestiary?)

(Likely more of an enemy given how most of our enemies will prove human in the world of masks.) Her inner logic corrected.

(Right, we’re the ones who’ll be beastin’.)

---

“So what exactly were you working on before I showed up?”

“Oh, uh, I’ve got this scanning program but it has some parsing issues I’m working on.” She shrugged, while holding a piece of metal in place for Melvin.

“Uh-huh. Kim was telling me you had some kind of electronic scanner thing.” Melvin nodded. “Which makes me wonder why you want so much help with metalworking instead of electronics?”

“Uh…”

(Shit he knows!) Her inner madness yelled.

(Don’t panic. He might just be curious.) Her inner reason argued.

“I need better tools than I’ve got to work on what I want.” She half-lied as calmly as she could. “I’m hoping once I’ve got a better handle on all of this, I’ll be able to actually work on my stuff.”

“Huh… you know you can just borrow tools from the club right?” Melvin asked, seemingly believing her.

“Yeah, but… it’s not the same thing as working with something I made myself, you know?”

“Eh, I can get that.” Her fellow M.A.D. admitted. “Even with the club's tools I still prefer to work with the things I made myself. There’s just that minute sort of precision you can’t get unless you made them yourself.”

“Exactly.” She nodded emphatically. “I mean, I know the tools I’m using now are kind of crap, and they waste a ton of metal that I don’t need to, but at the same time I can do shit with them that I know I can’t do with the store bought junk I raided from my dad’s toolbox.”

Melvin gave her a snort of amusement at that. “Yeah, I remember when I went through my own toolbox raiding phase. Took me four whole months to work my way out of it, all while my old man was trying to figure out what the hell was going on.”

“He didn’t realize you were an M.A.D.?” She asked without thinking about her own situation with her parents.

“Nah, I first started sparking back when Sanctuary and the Heroes’ Guild were first getting off the ground. Most people didn’t even know what a Deviant was back then, just that you didn’t want to be one.” Melvin admitted with a shrug. “Honestly, didn't figure it out myself until a few years later. And by then the worst of the riots were over, so it wasn’t too big of a deal.”

“Huh…”

“Hey, keep your hands steady. The metal is starting to drift.” Melvin told her.

“Sorry!”

---

Despite her determination to help Elizabeth as much as she possibly could, Maya was aware of the fact that there were several long term problems that she’d have to address with the asylum patient.

The most prominent of which being the fact that all Deadmen (and women) were known to need to eat living people to survive.

Now of course Maya was fully aware after her previous conversation with Elizabeth that she would require a certain… delicacy that she lacked with her regularly blunt and hotblooded nature.

Which is why she was currently scouring the internet for anything and everything related to how to talk to a victim of a crime. Something that while not entirely accurate to her current situation, was likely as close as she could get without flagging herself to Sanctuary.

Thanks to her previous attempts to talk to people (both honest and dishonest) as well as a few of the things Ying had told her during her various rants on the social hierarchy, she was able to take the majority of her findings and boil down to a few universal (and kind of obvious) tips for dealing with those recovering from an emotionally stressful experience.

The most pertinent of these being to try to remain calm and patient with whoever you’re talking about, while reminding them that the things that had happened to them were not their fault, and also attempting to keep the victim’s ego and confidence stable with a steady stream of assurances that they were handling things as well as anyone could be expected in their situation, all while actively avoiding any triggers related to their ‘trauma’ incident.

With any luck as long as she maintained these habits, she could hopefully keep a steady dialogue going with Elizabeth long enough for her to actually help the Deadwoman to complete her unfinished business.

(Here’s hoping this is enough.)

---

Once more standing outside of Elizabeth’s wing of the hospital, Maya forcibly steeled herself as she prayed this meeting would turn out better than her previous meeting with the Deadwoman.

(Remember: Keep calm. Remain patient. And stay kind.)

(And don’t bring up the fact that we electrocuted her like her past abusers.)

(That, unfortunately, too…)

“Right…” She nodded with a sigh before pushing the doors to the mental wing of the hospital open and making her way to the area where the Deadwoman could usually be found.

“Um, Elizabeth!” She called, having been half expecting the Deadwoman to jump scare her again. “Elizabeth are you here?”

(Where else would she be?)

(Hush.)

“Maybe she’s asleep?” She tried, not actually sure if Deadmen needed to sleep.

(Perhaps she’s simply not in a talking mood?) Her inner reason suggested.

“Maybe…” She sighed, turning back the way she’d come.

“Maya!” A set of glowing green eyes greeted her from less than an inch away.

“Gah!” Startled, she slipped on the ground before finding herself crashing to the ground with a Deadwoman standing over her and her heart pounding in fear.

“Did you talk to the doctors?! Why are you on the ground?! Can I see my meadow flower?! Have I been a good girl?!” The Deadwoman asked, bombarding her with questions.

“I, um,” Swallowing down her apprehensions, she forced herself to stand while stalling by answering, “I just slipped, sorry about that.”

“I-it’s fine!” Elizabeth assured her nervously. “D-did you talk to the doctors though?”

“Um, yes.” She lied. “They’re uh, they’re currently going through the paperwork to get ahold of your case work so they can find your daughter for a visit.”

“R-really?” The poor mother asked in a tone filled with so much hope and desperation that Maya was sure if she said anything the dishonesty would kill her.

(Remember, we will find her kid.) Her inner passion reminded her, giving her just enough determination to nod to the Deadwoman.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Elizabeth repeated, while dragging her into a bone crushing hug.

“I-I’m happy to help.” Maya assured her. “But um, the doctors said to warn you that it might take them a couple of weeks to set everything up, and, and that you have to be on your best behavior until they figure everything out. Okay?”

“Okay, I’ll be a good girl.” Elizabeth promised.

“I, uh, I know you will, but um, the doctors… they want me to check in with you every now and then just to make sure, alright?” She continued to lie, all while telling herself that she’d make it up to Elizabeth by finding her daughter and making sure no one ever hurt them again.

“Alright.” Elizabeth nodded with a manic smile.

“Okay, then to start…” She swallowed again, knowing that this was something she needed an answer to if she was really going to reunite Elizabeth and her daughter. “The um, the doctors are a little concerned about what you’ve been eating.”

Elizabeth froze, before shaking her head. “I-I haven’t been eating an-anything. No-no matter how hungry I got, or-or how much it would hurt, I wouldn’t eat anything! I’ve been a good girl! I have I promise!”

“I, I know you have Elizabeth.” She told the panicking Deadwoman. “And, and if you’ve been eating then, then it’s not your fault.”

The Deadwoman blinked in confusion. “W-wha?”

“Y-yeah, it uh, it turns out the nurses haven’t been doing their jobs and uh, they were supposed to be feeding you, but since they haven’t been you’re not in trouble for eating.” She explained in a way that she was sure anyone in a better state of mind than the desperate mother would see through. “You see, they’re um, they’re not worried about the fact that you’ve been eating, but they don’t know what you’ve been eating and that’s what’s got them worried.”

“O-oh…” Elizabeth blinked again, as if she didn’t know how to process any of that, at least until she quietly asked if, “I’ve… I’ve been a good girl?”

“Yes, Elizabeth you have.” She promised.

“I’ve been a good girl…” The Deadwoman repeated as a smile slowly crept across her face and her eyes began to glow a ghastly green. “I’ve been a good girl!”

“Uh-huh.” She nodded, trying to ignore the instinctive dread those toxic green eyes were giving her. “But, but I uh, I still need to know what you’ve been eating, so that the doctors can know you’re not going to get sick from whatever you’ve been eating.”

“R-right!” Elizabeth nodded back, losing neither her smile or the glow to her eyes. “Come on it’s this way Maya!”

The excited Deadwoman grabbed her by her wrist before dragging her through the maze that was the mental ward in an excited dash that eventually left them standing before a large hole in the ground to what looked like a half collapsed water pipe.

“This is where I get the food I’ve been eating.” Elizabeth explained. “Sometimes food will come out of here and I’ll feel better after eating it.”

“Oh.” She said, feeling a little nauseous both from their trip here and the implications of what Elizabeth was eating.

“L-look, there’s one now!” Elizabeth pointed excitedly. “I just have to catch it.”

Similar to the first time she’d seen the Deadwoman, Elizabeth seemed to stutter her image bouncing around in place before she suddenly appeared a few meters away pinning a rat to the floor with one hand.

“Whenever I get hungry I just have to catch one of these like when my grandpa used to take me hunting, and then I can just-”

She forced herself to look away as something fought itself up her throat to the sound of ripping and squelching flesh.

(Well… This explains where all the rats are coming from.) Her inner reason laughed unsteadily.

“Oh, that’s rude of me, did you want some?”

“I’m good.” She whimpered.

“Are you sure, they taste better once you get past the fur.”

“Guh, I’m sure…”

(Just… Just be glad it’s not people.)