Day One, Greenie.

[wegotarunner]

[Open Spam]

[Thomas arrives on the deck of the ship with a look of weariness not only on his features, but one that's settled into his shoulders. Chuck's carving is still clutched tightly in his hand. There's still blood on his clothes. On his hands. His face is streaked with dirt and sweat and blood from a cut above his eye and another on his cheek.

So this is the Barge.

He looks up at the sky with wide eyes, momentarily distracted by the sight and forgetting the events of the last few hours. But only momentarily. He blinks himself out of his dazed stupor and rubs a hand over his face. It takes him a moment to get his bearings. The first thing he needs to do is find his room, and take a long, hot shower. Change his clothes. Get something to eat. It's been hours since he last ate anything and his stomach isn't happy about it.

And then he's going to explore the Barge, find out where everything is. Figure out what to do from there. He's sure there's a lot to learn about this place, about the people he's now sharing space with. He's not completely thrilled about having to meet a whole slew of new people. People who won't know him, who will probably treat him like an outsider. Like he's not to be trusted.

Truthfully, he's still not sure should be. He remembers Newt's words. That who he used to be doesn't matter, it's who he is now that counts. And he can't save them if he focuses on things he can't do anything about. He has to stay focused.

For Newt. For Minho. For Teresa. For Alby. Ben. Even for Gally.

But most of all, for Chuck.]

[Video]

[Thomas appears on screen looking better than he had only an hour ago for those who ran into him on the way from the deck to his room. He's cleaned up, all the blood and sweat and dirt gone from his skin. The cut above his eye and the one on his cheek are still there but they look a little less angry now. He also looks a little hesitant, like he's not sure about this.]

Someone said I should introduce myself.

I'm Thomas.

Comments

[wegotarunner]

[Join the club, Dean. He'd love to have a lot more answers than he has.]

I don't really know all the details. I woke up in a metal box and I didn't know what my name was and there were about sixty other guys there already. They said that the Creators sent a new person up once a month.

[He looks frustrated, but he runs a hand over his face.]

It all has something to do with some kind of end of the world event. I don't...know all the details.

[surfaceshine]

[What Thomas is saying sounds so familiar; details are off, of course, but they always are. It's always a little different for everyone. The problem is that it was so long ago that Dean has to dig to find it, so far in the past that it's almost obsolete. It is, however, where it all started.

Or maybe ended.]

Sent up a new person once a month to do what? Just hang out, wait around? Or were you supposed to be doing something?

[Were you supposed to fight to the death to lead an army?]

[wegotarunner]

[He bites his lip, nodding.]

There was a maze. We had to find the way out. People had been trying for over two years. It changed every night.

[surfaceshine]

[Well that... is not at all what Dean was expecting. He raises an eyebrow.]

Well, that's a new one on me. What if you didn't?

[wegotarunner]

There were these things inside the maze. We called them Grievers. They were huge, half kind of machine, half...I don't know what exactly. Giant spiders, maybe? They used to stay inside the maze. But the doors stopped closing at night and they came out. They were attacking.

If we hadn't gotten out, they would've killed everyone.

[That was the trigger. The motivation to get out. He had it without that, but so many of the others had been okay with just staying in the Glade, like Gally.]

[surfaceshine]

[It's one Dean understands - obviously anyone would. Obviously no longer being relatively safe where one is would be motivation for even the most recalcitrant to begin climbing walls.

He tips his head back slightly, eyes narrowing.]

But you did get out.

[wegotarunner]

[Thomas nods at the question. Some of them had made it out. He had. Too many others hadn't.]

Yeah. But I don't know what's left outside of it.

[He's afraid that there probably isn't much, if the video left by Chancellor Paige was anything to go by.]

[surfaceshine]

So you just thought... what the hell. Here's this asshole I know nothing about saying he can fix everything, I'll give that whirl.

[It's an educated guess; Thomas could be an inmate, but he's not nearly confused enough for it, he's not asking enough questions. He clearly doesn't know everything but, well, that seems par for the course with the Admiral.

It's still amazing to Dean, sometimes, what people will do without thinking. Self included.]

[wegotarunner]

If you screwed up everything you touched and someone said they'd give you a shot to make it right, wouldn't you?

[surfaceshine]

Funny story: that ended up screwing things up even further.

[He doesn't say it like it's funny. Or like he's joking. It's not, and he's not.]

[wegotarunner]

You made a deal with the Admiral and it made things worse?

[Now he's warier than he was before.]

[surfaceshine]

I made a deal with something I couldn't explain for something that was impossible, and it happened, but it also destroyed everything I care about. On a global scale.

I can't prove the Admiral is the same kind of creature, but no one else can prove what he is, either.

[wegotarunner]

Wait, creature? [What the hell?] What do you mean?

[surfaceshine]

Seriously? Do any of you even think before just plowing ahead full tilt?

[Dean makes a very genuinely disgusted noise, but he doesn't wait:]

The Admiral clearly isn't human. Humans can't do what he promises and what he does. So what is he, then? Where's he getting the power? What good are lost souls to him, and what's he get out of giving you wishes? It ain't out of the goodness of his heart.

Congratulations. You just accepted candy from a goddamn stranger just like you were always told not to.

[wegotarunner]

[Not human. That makes so little sense to Thomas. Sure, he'd dealt with the grievers and they definitely weren't human. But they were also made by WICKED. They hadn't been intelligent creatures by their own right, they'd simply done what WICKED had programed them to do. He's not sure what to make of the rest of Dean's words, but he does feel his defenses rise at the accusation.

It hits a little too close to home, is a little too much of a reminder of Gally and all his accusations.]

Maybe it'll end badly like you think. Maybe it won't. But at least I did something. At least I'm trying to figure it out.

[surfaceshine]

[Dean means for it too, of course; he means to be enough of an asshole to make people - currently Thomas, but anyone really - wake up and think about what they're being offered, why, and how it happens. Because Dean has seen behind the curtain. Dean knows how ten years can seem like nothing could possibly even matter by then, but he's seen the other side.

Better feeling defensive with Dean than a lot of other things out there in the world. He doesn't back off.]

No, you're not trying to figure anything at all out. You're taking the easy exit and you don't even know where it goes. You didn't even ask, did you?

Jesus christ, what does he say to you morons to get you to just go along with it?

[wegotarunner]

[He stares at Dean in a sort of dismay. The easy exit? Thomas is pretty sure there's not even really such a thing. There's terrible, and there's worse. He hasn't decided which this is yet, even though Dean's opinion is pretty clear.]

Well I'm glad at least someone knows everything about the rest of us.

[His voice is flat, and he doesn't bother giving Dean a chance to respond before he hangs up on him.]