itinere | OPEN | Network | I'm just a kid, I know that it's not fair

Entry tags:

{criminal minds: derek morgan

OPEN | Network | I'm just a kid, I know that it's not fair

((ooc: please, please, please make sure you comment to Bo's opt-in/opt-out post before responding, just so that I'm not accidentally godmoding you to keep her in character, k? I can totally work around opt-outs but my default is to roll with whatever I can with this one))

[ The camera opens with Bo with her stuffed turtle, Stanley floating in the air beside her. She's grinning at the camera because she's in a good mood having seen her ~~crush~~ favorite superhero on the network before. He might not know her, but that's okay; he will. Everybody will, if she can help it. Bo loves people. Good, bad, dubious; she just likes people in general and she might come off as the type who trusts too easily, but the thing of it is she can sense the good hiding in people, even the bad ones, and she knows that everybody is redeemable if they really want to be. She can help. She's good at that. ]

Hi everybody! I'm Bo and I'm twelve. My dad and I just got here a few days ago and now that I've had some time to adjust [ translation: mourn; and yeah, she just called Sirius her dad because he's the closest thing she's had to it in her entire life, so far, even though he's only been with her for two years. That probably says more about the caretakers before him than Sirius himself, but that's really neither here nor there. ] I wanted to say hi to everyone!

[ She points to the floating stuffed turtle. ]

Oh and this is Stanley. I don't have any real pets, so he's gotta do for now. But that's okay, he likes to boogie, so that's good enough for me.

[ At the word boogie, the stuffed turtle starts dancing around in the hair as if on his own. Bo's doing it, of course, with her mind, but that kind of never gets old. She wonders if it ever will. ]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Derek is so relieved when a girl this young says she has a dad here. He's always had a soft spot for kids, especially kids in need. He's a dad figure to a lot of kids back home, and maybe a few here too. So from the second her face pops up on the screen of his device he's instinctively wondering if she's being taken care of, looked after, if she needs anything.

Knowing someone is already in that role, makes him simmer down just a bit.

Still, he smiles brightly into the screen. ] Hey, Bo. I'm Derek. I bet Stanley's glad you and your dad are here to look after him. Did all three of you just get here?

[ Bo nods a little. ]

Stanley's always been with me, my mom left him for me when she died.

[ ...she's not great with reading the kinds of things that could potentially make someone uncomfortable to hear when they don't know her very well. Sorry, Derek. ]

It's been a couple of days. I like it here. It's nicer here than where we were. You've been here a long time or no?

[ He feels like he's been here a while, anyway, but it's a lot harder to tell that kind of thing when she's not in physical proximity, so instead of saying, she's asking. That's progress for Bo, believe it or not. ]

Sorry to hear about your mom, Bo. My dad died when I was a kid. It's not easy.

[ Derek was ten when his dad died. He knows the lasting impact something like that can have on a kid as they grow up. Of course, this just endears him to her even more.

Derek nods. ] I've been here a long time... longer than most of the people here. [ He's seen a lot of people come and go. ]

Where were you before here?

I never met my mom. Milton said she left me Stanley, though, so I bring him everywhere. I'm sorry about your dad.

[ Bo's mother died having her and Bo knows that, but that is something she knows makes people uncomfortable to hear sometimes, so she doesn't elaborate. ]

I was in LA for a while and that was kinda fun, and I was in Las Vegas and that was not fun, but that's where I met my dad and Mika, so it wasn't all bad.

[ She pauses thoughtfully and Stanley slowly levitates down to the mattress beside her. ]

Do you miss home? Your team and everything? Or you like it here more?

Milton's your dad? And he's here with you?

[ Maybe he's getting a little bit confused because he is not psychic at all. He can read cues on a person when they're face to face, but that's as close as it gets. So much information begs a few questions and hopefully explanations.

He watches the doll levitate and isn't so much disturbed by that (he's seen some crazy things here) as he is by the fact that she just asked about his team and she knows nothing about him. ]

Yeah I miss it. But I've made this place a home too. [ Being here so long will do that. He has attachments here. ] What do you mean by team? [ He decides to go that route rather than asking her what made her ask that outright. ]

Oh, no. Milton used to take care of me when I still belonged to Orchestra when I was little. Sirius is here with me. He's not my real dad, but he's closer than I ever actually had, so I just call him that. It's easier to explain than Guy I Met in an Apocalypse Who Took Me In and Took Care of Me for Two Years.

[ Her whole life had been such a confusing mess that being magically yanked into that apocalypse ended up being the beginning of most stability Bo's ever had. Even if you include the dimension hops to LA and the here. Sirius got taken away in Vegas, but everybody leaves her. He's just the only one who ever came back. ]

I already like it better than home. I don't think I'll have to run so much. Or at all.

[ At his question, Bo looks appropriately sheepish and her shoulders hunch up a little. She doesn't mean to do that, sometimes it just happens. ]

...sorry...sometimes it's still like hiccups. But I meant your team at home. What's the "bau"? [ She pronounces it "bow" and then she pauses. ] Sorry, never mind. I shouldn't ask questions like that, sometimes I just forget. It gets jumbled a little.

[ Of course Matt can't actually see the video, but that doesn't mean he doesn't know how to work the device. He hears her voice and it makes him smile. Not everyone is pleased to be here, especially not when they've newly arrived. ]

Hi, Bo. I'm Matt. I've been here a few months. So Stanley, tell me about him?

[ She's seen some people were sunglasses inside or when it's not bright outside, sure, and some of them were just doing it to do it. Or to hide bruises. Not this one.

Bo looks a little sad for a second before he asks about Stanley — he feels so complicated; he's been through so much — and then she smiles again. She always likes talking about Stanley. ]

Stanley's my stuffed turtle. I got him from my mom when I was a baby. He's small, like the size of a volleyball and he's green. He's a little bit dirty cuz I've had him a long time and I take him everywhere, but it's not so bad. I'm scared the washer will ruin him, so I'd rather him be a little dirty.

[ She pauses, wondering whether she ought to elaborate. He sounds nice and he looks nice, so she doesn't think he's asking to humor her, but at the same time, it doesn't feel like he has kids, either, like Derek. Well...a connection to kids like that. Again, it get a little jumbled and confusing when it isn't happening in person, so she could be wrong, but she continues anyway, trying to give him as much detail as she can so that he can picture it, since she can tell he can't see it. ]

Sometimes when I get excited or really happy, Stanley floats in the air next to me and he was when I started talking. But then he started dancing. He kind of shuffles around like he's walking on air and he bobs back and forth a little.

Do you like it here, Matt?

Hey, some family you choose. I get that. I'm glad you've got Sirius here.

[ He's getting the idea that her life has been a series of speed bumps. It doesn't seem fair because she seems so young to have that many speed bumps. Basically, he thinks she needs hugs.

All of that screeches to a halt when she mentions the BAU, at least he thinks that's what she's asking about, even with the mispronunciation. And he has no idea what she means by hiccups. ]

The bow? The BAU? [ Derek says the acronym the right way. ] How do you know about that, princess?

[ Bo smiles a little at that. She's never really thought of it that way, but she guesses that's pretty accurate. Sirius and Derek and Mika, they were family that she chose and she's no stranger to loss, so the absence of the other two doesn't ache as acutely anymore, and at least she has Sirius. They came here so she wouldn't lose him again. ]

I guess I do!

[ She can appreciate that he's still talking like this is all normal and he's just curious, but now she thinks maybe she's making him uncomfortable and she feels bad. ]

Ooohhh, it's an acronym, okay, that makes more sense then spelling bow "bau." I just know things sometimes. I get feelings sometimes, too. But it's a little like hiccups, like I don't know when it's coming. Sometimes it sneaks up on me. Sorry...

[ It might not be normal in the world he's from where, as far as he knows, there's no magic or special powers or anything of the kind. But he's been in Itinere long enough to have seen and experienced his fair share of the abnormal. He's learned to take much of it in stride.

Bo's having an ability is no huge thing. The fact that it seems like she might be in his head space, well... that's the unnerving part. ]

No need to apologize, Bo. I just... [ Derek is a very private person. His outer veneer is a protective armor for the mess inside. He hopes she doesn't catch on to that. ] It's cool.

And yeah. The BAU is an acronym for the people I work with, my team, friends. Behavioral Analysis Unit with the FBI. I miss them, yeah. But I've got new friends here too, so it's okay.

[ Bo's shoulders slump a little. He doesn't like it. ...and she doesn't how how to make it stop when it starts. One of her hands moves to her face and she starts to chew on her thumbnail a little. She wants to apologize again, but then that's salt in the open wound if he already doesn't like it...so she uses her thumbnail to distract and keep herself quiet for a moment. ]

Like understanding how the bad guys work? Why they do the stuff they do? I'm glad you made friends here. I bet everybody is here because it's nice here. Bad things don't happen like back in LA. Just weird things but not as bad.

Hi! [Wanda offers the young girl a smile, even though Wanda isn't much in a mood these days to smile much, the girl seems happy and nice so she might as well try to not act like a total depressing buzzkill.] My name is Wanda. Stanley seems very talented.

[ Bo grins, pleased with herself. The compliment to Stanley, whether Wanda realizes it or not, is a compliment to Bo. ]

Hi Wanda, thanks!

[ She tries not to look too excited — she probably fails at the attempt — because Wanda feels...like she's special too, but Derek hasn't liked Bo actually saying anything, she's pretty sure, and she doesn't want to upset even more people the first time she talks on the network. One of these days, she'll learn to just wait until she knows someone and they know about her abilities already, but today had apparently not been that day. ]

Have you been here a long time?

[ It's surprising, that's for sure, knowing that someone can get in your head like that. Derek is trying to make sure the trajectory of his thoughts stays on the up and up, on the positive side. In time, he'll get used to it. But how could it not make him just a little uncomfortable right out of the gate? ]

Yeah, just like that. [ He nods. ] We help put the bad guys away.

[ Bad things have happened here, but they're few and far between. Most of the time this place is pretty peaceful. Maybe redirecting the conversation will help him keep his mind in a place that's okay for her, or anyone he doesn't know, to be in. ] What kinds of bad things happened in L.A.?

[ She gives him a tentative smile around her thumbnail before finally lowering her hand again. ]

Cool. [ She opens her mouth to ask another question and then thinks better of it, shifting gears to answer his question instead. ] It was worse in Vegas, there were monsters there. But I could just tell the monsters to stop it and they would. Usually. But in L.A. they played all these videos of us for everybody to see and I tried and I tried and tried to make them stop it and they wouldn't. It made everybody really upset...it got really loud and heavy. I feel things and when everybody's so upset like that...I feel things a lot. I didn't like it. The monsters were easier.

[No matter what else Katniss does in her life, she'll always be a big sister first and foremost. Four years isn't much in the grand scheme of things, especially not enough for Katniss to take such a parental role in Prim's life. Prim had only been seven when their father had died and their mother had fallen apart. She had been too young to really take on responsibilities. That had been Katniss' role to play and she never expected her sister to pick up any slack.

Even five years later, the same rule had still applied. Katniss hadn't hesitated to volunteer to take Prim's place in the Hunger Games. That isn't a decision she'll ever regret. Just like she'll never regret her choice to stay in Itinere rather than return to a life in Panem. Prim comes first. Sh'll almost always come first.

Recently, Katniss has started to come out of her shell. It's taken a good year but she's finally feeling comfortable enough to take these steps. When it comes to replying to Bo however, it's easy. The girl doesn't look much older than Prim had been the day of the reaping. She doesn't look much older than Rue. Children can be dangerous yes, but Katniss can't help but smile in response to Bo's video.]

My sister has a pet cat. [Although Katniss and Buttercup will always be at odds, Prim loves him. The children of District 13 loved him. Of course, none of them wanted to drown him as a kitten.] And a goat.

My name is Katniss.

[ Derek is glad to see her relax again. It helps him to relax a bit as well. For a moment, there was a weirdness on both sides. Derek would rather Bo be comfortable than focus on his own uncertainties about what she's capable of doing and all the things he never wants anyone to know about him without his knowing about it.

He's seen and fought monsters here in Itinere before. That's the only reason he doesn't balk at the idea of monsters. But at the same time, he hates that that was the norm for Bo in her world. He can't imagine living that way every day.

Derek shakes his head, naturally a little (or a lot) confused without having all the blanks filled in. ] Monsters listen to you? What kind of videos were they playing?

[ Bo gives a little shrug. ]

Some of them if I told them to stop it. Like with Joshua when he was doing bad things and hurting people and I screamed at him to stop it and he did.

[ The little girl casually leaves out the part where her screaming is more of a psychic thing and Joshua, being also an Orchestra psychic of lesser power, was overwhelmed by it. She broke the windows at Grand Central Station with that scream. She broke the brain of Joshua the manipulated psychic being used as a weapon against her. Bo's scream killed that man. She only doesn't feel bad about it because he was trying to kill innocent people at the time. Because Orchestra said so. ]

They used to play these videos about our lives. Stuff we didn't tell anybody or stuff we didn't like to think about. Sometimes stuff that hadn't happened to us yet — that's how I found out Tate's my real dad. He'd been taking care of me back home for a while and he was my dad the whole time and he never told me...I still don't know why.

It just used to make everybody feel a lot of things and then that made me feel a lot of things and it's hard to do anything when all you want to do is curl up in a ball and cry because you're overwhelmed with everyone else's upset and fear. It sucked.

[ Bo smiles back at that, looking a little surprised. It's a good surprise, but all the same. ]

She has a goat?! I never had a real pet before, I was always moving around too much. That's a cool pet to have!

[ Stanley does a somersault in the air and Bo waves at the camera. ]

Hi Katniss, it's nice to meet you.

Not really; I've been here a couple of weeks or so. [Using her powers over a communications device like this is something that Wanda has either not learned how to do, or cannot do -- she's not sure which that might be. But for now the technology acts like a barrier, an interference. However, she can make a couple guesses as to the turtle's movements.]

Is Stanley magic? [That's one.]

[ Bo shakes her head. Stanley drops to the mattress beside her. ]

I was doing that.

[ She doesn't elaborate or anything, because she wants to make sure whatever she's feeling about Wanda isn't jumbled up or flat out wrong — it's never wrong, but the older Bo gets, the more insecure she gets about things that she used to be confident about. Curse of adolescence. ]

Mine is more visible. Which means it's not as convenient for being sneaky.

[With that, she levitates the device with powers from one hand, and with the other, red wisps dance around her fingertips and she lifts a pen and flips it around in slow circles.]

I've never really met anyone else who could do that.

[ She's going to show Bo what she can do, Bo just has a feeling which is only cemented by the older woman's words. Bo grins as she watches. This is so cool! ]

I never met anybody that could do all the things I can do, but some stuff. Back at Orchestra. Not the moving stuff. And I never saw anybody who did it like that with the red...that's really cool, I like that!

[ Derek can't imagine that, having the things that he's been through broadcast out there for all to see. He tends to hold his secrets very close to the vest if at all possible. Trust issues, Hotch has told him more than once that he has horrible trust issues. Sometimes Derek thinks he's getting better at that. Sometimes he feels like he's getting worse at it.

Derek shakes his head. ] That's not right.

I mean, you found out the truth about your father, and there's something to be said for that. But people deserve some kind of privacy. They usually have a reason for keeping secrets, whether we understand that reason or not, it's valid to that person.

Maybe Tate will come here and you can get more answers from him.

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 3

OPEN | Network | I'm just a kid, I know that it's not fair

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

» network

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject