Fucked up, like everything else. Now it's perfect. Terry's upset; Robbie can hear it in his voice. Robbie upsets people; it seems to be what he's best at.
He isn't prepared for this apologizing, which makes very little sense. Robbie was the one who had been messed up, yet he was still aware enough to know that, if Terry hadn't done as ordered, they would have used nanites on him.
It's very easy to get people to do what you want when you can shock them and make them vomit by remote control, but they hadn't needed to use them on Robbie. He hadn't objected to what they wanted him to do. Bring in the untrained, the unregistered, the criminals who will wind up killing someone - like you did, son.
He didn't mean to yell at Hazmat like he did. It's not her dreaming about kids screaming and the smell of burnt pork. It's him. That's why he's up this early and why he'd bothered to see if Terry was awake in a moment of weakness. Robbie should have run for the hills. Instead, he leaves a bread crumb trail because he thinks he's smart enough to meet it head-on.
He's as dumb as everyone thinks he is.
"You aren't a bad guy." Robbie is determined to keep the focus on Terry. "There weren't any good decisions to make."
White-knuckling his coffee mug finally leads to tension making it pop out of his hands like a shot. It falls to the floor in slow motion and explodes like a grenade. Robbie sighs and crouches down to start picking up the pieces. "... this isn't a metaphor, I promise. You could make the awful choice or the other awful choice. Really, the only difference was who got hurt, and I was. It wasn't any worse than what I was doing, anyway. I'd be the bad guy for the students, if I could. But…"
He shrugs helplessly and refuses to look over at Terry. "I have to get out of bed and face Vance every day. I don't think I can scare teenagers and still do that."
no subject
He isn't prepared for this apologizing, which makes very little sense. Robbie was the one who had been messed up, yet he was still aware enough to know that, if Terry hadn't done as ordered, they would have used nanites on him.
It's very easy to get people to do what you want when you can shock them and make them vomit by remote control, but they hadn't needed to use them on Robbie. He hadn't objected to what they wanted him to do. Bring in the untrained, the unregistered, the criminals who will wind up killing someone - like you did, son.
He didn't mean to yell at Hazmat like he did. It's not her dreaming about kids screaming and the smell of burnt pork. It's him. That's why he's up this early and why he'd bothered to see if Terry was awake in a moment of weakness. Robbie should have run for the hills. Instead, he leaves a bread crumb trail because he thinks he's smart enough to meet it head-on.
He's as dumb as everyone thinks he is.
"You aren't a bad guy." Robbie is determined to keep the focus on Terry. "There weren't any good decisions to make."
White-knuckling his coffee mug finally leads to tension making it pop out of his hands like a shot. It falls to the floor in slow motion and explodes like a grenade. Robbie sighs and crouches down to start picking up the pieces. "... this isn't a metaphor, I promise. You could make the awful choice or the other awful choice. Really, the only difference was who got hurt, and I was. It wasn't any worse than what I was doing, anyway. I'd be the bad guy for the students, if I could. But…"
He shrugs helplessly and refuses to look over at Terry. "I have to get out of bed and face Vance every day. I don't think I can scare teenagers and still do that."