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abrightboy

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From:

cactusy

[In response, Shaw actually smiles - it's small and tired, but self-satisfied.]

I went ahead with those tattoos.

From:

abrightboy

Oh yeah? What did you go with?

From:

cactusy

A lot. I did a few myself, I got Steve to do a more complicated one for me...

[And she'd had Sweeney do something, but maybe she shouldn't freak her pseudo-therapist out by jumping right into scarification.]

From:

abrightboy

I didn’t know Steve could… do that. Is it inappropriate to ask if I can see any of them?

From:

cactusy

They're not tramp stamps, Malcolm.

[He might even be able to spot some on her arms and wrists already, though the first one she shows him is on her ankle: she pulls her pant leg up and sticks her foot out, revealing a little black outline of a payphone.]

I used to get tattoos to mark my career path - med school, the Marines. This is, uh... a thing, from my current job.

From:

abrightboy

Are you someone’s handler?

From:

cactusy

Nope. Why'd you guess that?

From:

abrightboy

A phone. Law enforcement. I’m sure you’re not a 911 operator…

From:

cactusy

Yeah, can you imagine?

[lol]

We communicate via payphones, sometimes.

[Sure, that's one way of putting it.]

Doctors have a symbol, the Marines have a slogan, the ISA has a couple--

[She lifts one forearm, showing him her older tattoos (a Rod of Asclepius, and the letters U.S.M.C.), as well as a newer one (the words SEND ME written in an arc above the others). ]

But we're not really an organization, we're just us. Had to get creative.

From:

abrightboy

What did Steve do for you?

From:

cactusy

He did the payphone, 'cause I can't draw. I did the ISA slogan.

[She taps SEND ME. Yes, the ISA had tried to kill her; yes, they had killed her partner. Yes, the work she'd done had been suspect on multiple levels. But it had still been a part of her life, and she wouldn't have gotten to where she is now without it.]

I also did these.

[She leans forward a little, twisting her arms this way and that to show him all new nice new decorations: INDIGO FIVE BETA written on the inside of an elbow, Morse Code lettering ....- .- ..-. wrapped like a bracelet around one wrist, a forward slash mark / written on both the back and underside of her other wrist. She's been busy. She's also not sure that she's done.]

From:

abrightboy

[Malcolm examines the Morse code.]

I’m rusty. Does that say 4… A… F?

From:

cactusy

Mmmhm. Doesn't seem like much, but it saved my life once.

From:

abrightboy

What does it mean?

From:

cactusy

I can't say.

[Samaritan knows the acronym, but they don't know what it stands for. And whether Samaritan is watching or not, that's still hers, and no one else's. No one else alive, anyway.]

From:

abrightboy

As in ‘it’s too personal’ or as in ‘if I told you, I’d have to kill you’?

From:

cactusy

As in I don't want it to get back to the wrong people, who won't really care, but who might try to use it to drive me insane.

[Which is is aware sounds insane in and of itself; she raises an eyebrow in wry acknowledgement of this.]

From:

abrightboy

[It doesn't sound crazy coming from someone who may have been conditioned to assassinate people against her will.]

It's a kind of journaling. Your tattoos.

From:

cactusy

B suggested writing things down, but, uh... I told him I couldn't.

[But this is different. She runs a thumb down the line of one of the forward slashes on her wrist.]

This one's a computer thing; it symbolizes the root directory of a filing system. I don't know if you know what that is.

From:

abrightboy

[He smiles a little.] But you are.

[He looks at the symbols.] Kind of. So. Is it symbolic of where you come from?

From:

cactusy

Computers are, I guess. I basically work for one. But, uh-- a root user is like a superuser, who can access everything other people can't. And a root directory is the top-most directory; everything else on the system is inside of it. Root means... the origin of everything.

[It also means complete power, which she suspects is closer to the real reason that Root had chosen it as a moniker. Shaw can take something different from it, though.]

From:

abrightboy

But what does it mean to you?

From:

cactusy

It means my files are all jumbled up, without anything holding them together and keeping them organized. No root directory for me.

[She smooths her thumb over the symbol again.]

Just this.