mental link, day 32

[headinjuries]

[ Sam crashed hard after the vigil, because between all the lies making him feel like he was going to puke and trying to pick them apart giving him one mother of a headache, staying awake felt like something you only do if you really hate yourself.

Do all newfound psychic powers suck this bad? He was fine with just flying and blowing things up, thanks. ]

( By the way, just figured everybody should know: Seong-Hye Ngazi is full of crap, the Public Safety Commission isn't half as gung-ho about bringing the bomber to justice as she makes it sound, and I'm like ninety percent she actually knows who did it, but that part I'm not quite positive about.

So, you know. In case anybody wanted to break into her office or stalk her or something. I hear some of you guys are actually good at the cloak and dagger stuff.

You're welcome. )

[ He can be found in the common area of the Bearings, scrolling through news reports and radiating pure frustration, if anyone would rather comment to his face instead of over the link. ]

Comments

[decommission]

( Yeah, he does. Adds water to our last hunch, that he did follow up but whatever information he uncovered with that reward was something he really didn't want going public.

What made you think Ngazi might know who's responsible? )

[ He's got a general idea of Sam's lie detector abilities and the limitations. ]

[headinjuries]

( Whenever she mentioned something about how the bombers were still unknown, it just felt...really off. It didn't feel like a straight-up lie like the part about how hard they were working on it did, but that might be because it was more like mentioning them instead of making a direct statement about them...? I'm not sure, but there's definitely something weird about it. )

[decommission]

[ Huh ]

( Does that ability of yours work on pre-recorded stuff, or does it need to be live? )

[headinjuries]

( I'm...not sure, actually. Gimme a few and I can test it out. )

[ If he doesn't sound too thrilled about testing it out, it's because he certainly isn't. But that same speech should be floating around the net, so he has a baseline for recordings he knows are full of lies. ]

[decommission]

( Take your time. )

[ There's no strong sense of urgency, but if it does work, well, Ngazi's a public figure. They might be able to find something useful in the news archives to take a second look at. ]

[headinjuries]

[ A short while later: ]

( Yeah. It does. )

[ Sam sounds like he needs to go put his head between his knees. ]

[decommission]

[ A flicker of sympathy. Sorry about that, buddy. ]

( How long've a break do you usually need before you can go again? )

[headinjuries]

( It kinda depends? Most of the time when I think someone's lying I just kind of shrug and keep going, because it happens a lot and the less attention I pay the faster I stop feeling it.

But at the vigil I was really trying to pick apart what she was saying, and then I got back and crashed for a while because my head was killing me. )

[decommission]

[ Hm ]

( I think I'm gonna go check up on some of Ngozi's old speeches, see if there's anything that looks like it might help narrow down what her game is - if I find something, can I bring it to you to for a double check? )

[headinjuries]

( Yeah, that's fine. )

[ He sounds...thrilled.

But people are dying so who's he to complain about puking, take one for the team, blah blah blah sigh. ]

[decommission]

( Thanks, Sam. )

[ You're a good egg ]

[headinjuries]

( No problem. )

[ Well, problem, but he'll live. ]