WHO: Ozzy, Quebec, Madeline and Zero (brought to you by Paul Ballard) WHAT: Oz takes Quebec to get some ice cream after she helped him move the body. Madeline brings Zero to the kitchen to get some ice cream for saving Topher. Eventually, they all start talking about Paul's ... hero complex.
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After they'd dropped off the ... body, Oz had taken Quebec out of there. Dr. Saunders and the medical staff could look after him now. Instead, he ended up taking her to the kitchen. Madeline was probably out, or up in the handler housing taking care of Zero. So ... he figured she wouldn't mind so much if they sneaked in and had some ice cream. Quebec had earned it.
There wasn't a lot of ice cream, but a lot of the handlers had their private stashes of food that weren't part of the Actives' menu. There were sweets all over the place, really, if you knew where to look. Quebec was bloody and looking shaken, her pretty pink silk robe and nightie stained red in blotches. She was still barefoot, and despite the climate control in the Dollhouse, she was cold. Of course she was, her clothes were so wispy. She hadn't meant to be all... out and about in them.
She tightened her robe around her body and shook her head. "Don't believe it... this whole thing, I dunno how I sleep at night. I don't think I'll be sleepin' this particular night, that's for sure. I'm Quebec, by the way. I mean, you... know that. You're one of them handlers. Right?" She didn't remember seeing him. Because Oz had been trapped in a closet for two weeks. "You're the one who..."
"Right, with the closet." Oz came back with a pint of Ben&Jerry's. "Here. You'll feel better after you eat this." Imagine Whirled Peace. How ironic. He handed her a spoon. "I'm Oz. This isn't usually how I like to meet people."
"Ain't my choice, either." Quebec took her spoon and glanced over the ice cream. Read the nutrition facts and ingredients. "I'm so sorry about... I don't know what kinda sick person can do that to someone else. Glad you're okay." She offered him a lopsided smile. "I wanted to throttle that hussy."
Ozzy grinned, sitting down across from her. "So do I. But it works out; she's with another handler and I'm freed up to look after Lima. Poor girl."
Quebec grimaced. "I think you're a good person to do what you do," she murmured. "She's... you're right. Poor girl." She poked around the ice cream with her spoon. "She needs someone to be kind to her. I dunno what would happen if someone did that to Stacy. I feel like I don't even know the man but I know that if he was just up and killed..." She shook her head. "Makes me sick just thinkin' about it."
He nodded. "That's what it does. It all seems twisted at first, the idea of handlers, but this is the only active job in the dollhouse that's about protecting you. They could just send guards, but the bonds are there no matter what. The Actives need an emotional tether that doesn't rely on their imprints. I think it keeps you sane."
Quebec tilted her head. "Keeps us sane or keeps us in line?"
"We could keep you in line without the handlers," Oz said matter-of-fact.
"We're imprinted with all kindsa people," said Quebec. "I mean, I don't remember nothin', but we ain't gonna listen to some bodyguards without a connection... but I'm programmed to trust Stacy. Lima was so strongly programmed to trust Ben that it really messed up her poor little head. If I was some kinda... I dunno, some kind of assassin, I wouldn't go listenin' to just anybody. Just someone I trust, someone I'm forced to listen to."
"You listening to us and us controlling you aren't necessarily the same thing," he reminded her. "Normally when a handler dies like that, Topher fixes it right away. The Active gets wiped so they don't feel the pain, and eventually they get a new handler."
"Ain't that convenient." It wasn't completely judgmental. Quebec drew designs in her ice cream with her spoon but didn't eat. She tilted her head and watched him carefully. "You ain't lookin' at me like I'm less than you."
He shrugged. "Should I?"
Quebec leaned back a bit. "Not used to someone lookin' at me like that," she said, a little surprised. People looked at her like she was less than them before the Dollhouse.
"Well I'm ... sorry...?" Oz wasn't sure exactly what to say to that.
Quebec made a face. "You're sorry for treatin' me nice?"
"Not really. I just didn't know what to say," he admitted.
"'Sorry' ain't the right answer." Quebec grinned, her teeth white and straight and perfect. Her lips seemed pale----ordinarily she had lipstick.
"Sorry." Oz grinned in turn, cheeky.
Quebec finally took a teeny, tiny bite of ice cream, smiling around the spoon. "You're forgiven, sugar." Her smiling seemed to hurt, like she realized how wrong all of this was. "Ohhhh. We just dragged a dead body around." She looked down at her robe, which had mostly fallen open. The nightgown underneath was just as bloody. "I need another shower, I ain't goin' to bed like this. But apparently Foxtrot knows how to get blood outta clothes."
"Try not to think about it too much," he advised. "At least until the morning."
"You want me sleepin' in bloody clothes?" Quebec shook her head. "I'll change, at least." She recrossed her legs and went back to poking at her ice cream.
"I didn't say don't change. I said try not to think about it." Ozzy's trying not to, anyway.
Quebec smiled, a little shaky. She'd found two dead bodies this week and she wasn't sure if she wanted to find a third. "This ain't how it always is at the Dollhouse, is it?"
"No. No, usually it's a lot more calm." Oz looked down at his hands. "Things tend to go smoothly and being in the Dollhouse itself used to be incredibly calming. It was a spa in here."
Quebec was cut off by Madeline bursting through the door, smoothing her hands back through her hair and looking a little frazzled. "Oh----Oh, God, I didn't expect to find anyone in here."
Ozzy twitched, sitting up a bit straighter. "What? What's wrong?"
"You just startled me..." Madeline shook her head. She looked back over her shoulder. "The hero of the hour needs some ice cream." She peeked out the door. "Zero."
Quebec held up her pint. "He can have mine." Wait, why was he hero?
"What did he do?" Oz asked as Zero dutifully followed Madeline in.
He was wearing new, fresh pajamas. As calm and unbothered as anything he announced, "I had to see Dr. Saunders."
Madeline took the ice cream from Quebec and got Zero a fresh spoon. "He saved Topher's life," she murmured, glancing at Ozzy. Ozzy understood Topher's significance more than Quebec. She didn't know Topher.
Ozzy frowned. While Zero went to sit and enjoy his ice cream, Oz asked, "From what?"
"From Alpha. ---Here. Here, come sit down. Be careful moving." Madeline brought him ice cream and a spoon, pulling a chair over for him to sit.
Quebec covered her mouth with her fingers. "Alpha?"
"Alpha?" Oz echoed. "What did he do?"
"Tried to kill Topher," Madeline said. "I don't... I don't know the details. I just know Topher's being looked at and he's lost a lot of blood. Badly hurt. But Zero stopped him."
Quebec slowly glanced back at Paul. "Stopped Alpha?"
"Mm-hmm."
"How?" Ozzy looked stunned. "He's wiped. He's a walking veggie."
"I don't know, I wasn't there. But Zero was stabbed..." And Alpha could kill a person in seconds. He must have been badly hurt. "Which is why he has to be careful. Isn't that right, Zero?" It was weird. Madeline had once been November, she'd once been on engagements with Paul, and now Paul was the one in the blank state.
"I have to be careful," Zero announced around a mouthful of Whirled Peace. "I'm not my best." And yet, they'd given him ice cream. Huh.
"That's not your fault," Quebec chimed in. "You'll just have to be better."
Zero looked toward Madeline, swallowing and cocking his head. "How can I be my best, please?"
"Eat your ice cream and move slowly," said Madeline. "I don't want you getting hurt because you're hasty. Just rest as long as you've been told to rest."
"I'll do that." And then he dug into his ice cream, content as anything.
Oz watched him, shifting uncomfortably. "I think I want Ballard back."
"That could be any of us," Madeline said. "He's lucky he wasn't killed. Trapped, maybe, but ... it's no different from..." She glanced at Quebec, who smiled thinly. "The only difference is that we knew Paul before this happened."
"But what does that say? He stopped Alpha. As a Doll. Does this mean we need to make sure our Actives are beating us to death in their blank state if things go back to normal?"
"I don't know what that says." Madeline watched Paul. Zero. "Instinct. I've heard that the current wipes aren't complete, that the Actives who experience them have had the sensation of being trapped in their own minds. Paul might have gotten to the forefront there. Then again, I don't know how quick Paul would have been to save Topher." She smiled a little. It was a joke. Sort of.
"Maybe Ballard has a hero complex." Ozzy had no idea.
Madeline smiled a little more. "Maybe."
Oz cocked his head. "What do you know, Miss Madeline? I know that look."
"Oh, he's got a hero complex," said Madeline. She nodded sagely. "A big one."
Quebec giggled, covering her mouth with both hands. Oh, that wasn't supposed to be a dirty joke.
Oz looked over at Quebec, cocking an eyebrow. "Do we mean hero complex hero complex, or is Quebec laughing because he's hung?"
Madeline's cheeks went red. "I meant hero complex as in hero complex."
"But he's the other thing, too," Quebec said, giggling. "I mean, just... because he was walkin' down the hall with not a stitch on, poor dear."
Madeline pressed her lips together. "But hero complex."
"Wait, what? Why was he walking around naked?" Ballard, what the hell.
"He's in the blank state, Oz. You know how Actives are. They have no... sense of modesty or shame or sexuality. So he took a shower and went wandering to find some clothes." Madeline grimaced.
"...Wow. I'm glad I missed that." The last thing Oz needed was a Ballard-induced inferiority complex.
Quebec looked all shy. "He's really good-lookin'." Madeline shot Quebec a look and Quebec grinned helplessly, embarrassed. "I mean, for lookin'. And for bein' a zombie."
"Ew." Ozzy shifted, uncomfortable. Maybe it was because he knew what an asshole Ballard could be to the other handlers. "Men like that give other men mental problems, you know that?"
Quebec pulled her eyes from Paul to look toward Ozzy. Tall, handsome but certainly not gorgeous Ozzy. He was kind of schlumpy compared to Paul. Then again, most people were. "Men think like that?"
Madeline glanced at Quebec and raised her eyebrows.
"What? Of course." Duh, Quebec. "We think we're all right. We think we're big and strong and attractive---even around the Actives, because that's different---and then Paul Ballard shows up and we cry. The man is built like a Greek statue."
Quebec's smile faltered and she shifted, recrossing her legs and adjusting her robe, pulling it closed over her thin nightgown. Don't do that, Ozzy.
Madeline laughed softly. "Oh, please..." She glanced back at Zero and his ice cream. "Does Paul make you insecure?" Paul was tenacious and fit and... not lazy. "Is that why you're all so rude to him?"
"Yes. Yes, that's exactly it." It was hard to tell if Oz was being serious or not. "Look at him." Ozzy gestured, banking on the fact that Zero was blankly oblivious. "It only helps his case that he's a jackass. Women don't like him, but they'll certainly sleep with him, and then there are the rest of us, with our wit and our flab, and we don't stand a chance."
Madeline snapped her attention back to Oz. "I like him."
"...Oh. Well." Way to derail his point, Madeline! "Why?"
"Because I talk to him. Christ, Oz. For someone who's so interested in having people look beyond physical appearance, you're being a judgmental ass." Madeline didn't whip out the nasty phrases often.
"I think I've earned it," Oz said defensively. "Ballard's been nothing but a dick to everyone he meets here."
Quebec tilted her head, offering a benign, "He asked me a couple rude questions but he was nice... y'know, once I told him he was bein' rude."
"Ballard has some weird thing about the Actives. I've never once seen him treat a member of the staff like a person, but he's like Mama Duck with the Actives. Have you ever seen him with Echo? I think he's in love with her." Ozzy 'humphed'. Because that was gross. "I mean that seriously. He's way too devoted to that Active and it creeps me out."
Madeline shifted uncomfortably. She didn't like the idea of Paul being in love with Echo. "He's here to save her. Save the Actives. You're... we're bad people. Lesser people, because we run this place. People like Echo----like Quebec----are victims."
Quebec was examining the blood stains on her clothes. "He's sittin' here, you know."
"And so enamored with Ben and Jerry he's probably not even listening," Oz quipped.
Quebec blushed and looked down at her hands. "I, um. I really ought to ... the blood on me's startin' to give me the heebie-jeebies if y'ask me, so..." She slid off of her chair and shivered into her robe.
Ozzy's whole demeanor shifted, softened, reminded of what had happened tonight. "You should go shower. I'll get you some new pajamas while you're in there."
Quebec hesitated, looking toward the kitchen door like she could see how busy the showers might have been from there.
Madeline rested a hand on Quebec's back. "You want to use my shower..?" She knew.
Quebec made a face like she was thinking about it and didn't want to intrude. "If I could." Madeline nodded and sent her off, watched her go.
"Don't blame her. The co-ed public showers are one thing when you're programmed not to care." Madeline smiled a little. "Not like you'd want to shower next to Paul, or... Ava, or someone."
"I could stand to shower next to Ava," Oz said flippantly. "But I don't hold it against her. It's intimidating to be naked around other people."
Madeline started to grin. "You like Ava, eh...?"
"Well, she is mad hot. Also not a lesbian." Unlike Joan. Who was also mad hot.
Madeline folded her arms across her chest. "Glad to know your standards when it comes to whether or not you like a man don't apply to women, otherwise you'd be all over my wit and flab." She raised an eyebrow.
"Whoa, now. Sweetie, notice how I never ruled you out. I would be much more attracted to you if you didn't have Adonis trailing around after you. It's difficult to flirt with a girl when a Greek statue is in the way." Yeah. He thought Madeline was gorgeous. Of course he did.
"You're sweet." Madeline shook her head. "And a flirt. Is there anyone here you don't find attractive? Apart from the women who locked you in the closet." And she wasn't about to be rude and suggest he liked that kind of thing. That wasn't something to joke about.
"Of course there is!" Ozzy had standards! "Blanche isn't quite my thing. Darcy's too young, and Dr. Tennyson is frigid as hell. I don't know why Anderson trailed after her for so long. And for the most part, I've sworn off looking at the Actives, though Quebec is cute."
Madeline blinked, genuinely surprised by that last one. Out of all the Actives, singling her out? She'd expected ... Romeo or Juliet or Foxtrot or... Delta. "Quebec?"
Oz cocked his head. "Why not Quebec?"
"She's not Ava."
"Most people aren't."
"I'm just surpr----"
She was cut off by Quebec bursting back into the kitchen, skittering across the floor in her bare feet. "I need your key, sugar---!" she whispered. Madeline reached into her pocket and gave Quebec her key, closing her fingers around it. Quebec flashed a grin and then she was ducking out again. Now she could actually shower.
Ozzy smiled, gently ruffling Madeline's hair. "I promised her I'd get her pajamas. I'll see you later." And he was off, leaving Madeline alone with Zero.
Madeline glanced back at Zero, tucking her hair behind her ears. "Can I have some of that ice cream?" She went to sit with him.
"Of course. I like to share," Zero answered. Seemingly oblivious.