Participants:
| Scene Title | Not Good Enough |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Robin Hood reports back to K.Apila. She isn't particularly impressed. |
| Date | June 25, 2009 |
Between
The evening was productive. Wade spent the evening scouring nets all around the country for information on a particular individual that might be beneficial in proving his worth to Tracy Strauss. However, there were other things that needed to be dealt with. His apology to Mallory Allistair was a bust. He was able to at least put back some of the money he'd transferred about. He spend one weekend moving Kimberlynn from the trailer part to a better apartment in a safer part of the city, if there is such a place. It would definitely be safer than where she originally was. He's not sure what more he can do to prove that he's serious so he reaches out once more.
Hood: K.Apila.
He sends this out several times hoping to catch attention.
It only takes once; the woman hears everything, and hasn't yet gotten to the pont of ignoring Wade. Someday, no doubt, but not today.
K.Apila: Hood.
As simple a response as there could be, nothing but straightforward and inscrutable acknowledgment.
Hood: I have attempted what you have asked.
Attempted. Not succeeded, mind you. At least in his mind, his attempt to right wrongs was not the most successful of exercises.
Hood: What more is there you would have me do?
K.Apila: Tell me what you have done.
Hood: I have contacted the one whom I wronged. While she was not as receiving of my apology as I had hoped, I did at least make the effort. I have, as fairly as I could, returns the money to those I took it from.
K.Apila: It is good that you returned the money. She's well aware it wasn't all of it, but even the token effort suffices in this case. In the other… What effort did you put forth, in the apology?
Hood: I explained I was wanting to make amends. That I was wrong. That I was sorry. Understandingly, she doubted my sincerity. Mentioned that others were looking for me. She was angry. It was her anger that caused the incident in the first place. I wasn't even aware that I could take over another body until she tried to attack me. Whatever it is, I did the best that I could.
K.Apila: Did you? Even without tone, the statement sounds — disbelieving. Regardless of what you knew, you remained in her body after taking it, did you not? There is a moment's pause before the older technopath continues.
K.Apila: What value a life, Robin Hood? What value the time you stole? Time that she may yet have to pay for, because what you did while in that body rebounds upon her. Is what you gained and what she lost worth no more than a failed attempt to patch over with a few words?
K.Apila: Is that truly the only value you place upon it?
He's at a distinct disadvantage of being without the knowledged gained by age. The selfish teenager inside him, limited in that capacity.
Hood: I know what loss is. I have lost myself and those I loved. My own body taken from me. Yet, unlike her, I will never get that body back.
He may selfishly have taken another, but in the end, he will never truly be Taylor Reed again, something for which he is, and may always be, bitter about. Hood: I cannot give her back the time that I took from her. And there is nothing that could replace time. Sentiment is all I have. To offer anything else would have been insulting.
K.Apila: You cannot return what was lost, she agrees. But the value of sentiment, the measure of its sincerity, is directly proportional to what it costs you to convey. A beat. I do not refer to anything so simple as money.
The ensuing silence is a little longer, the words that follow stark and spare, unadorned. K.Apila: Tell me this, Robin Hood. If someone usurped Kimberlynn's body for so little as a week, would you be content with words of apology?
There's a long silence. It was not a name he expected to be uttered. His words are slow in responding, as he processes the fact that K.Apila knows of Kimberlynn.
Hood: I would not presume to say to you that it would be. However, if it were Kimberlynn, she would offer it yet for another week. I have said many times that I do not deserve the fortune of knowing her. She is a far better person than I am. That being said, there would be nothing that could be offered to me to sooth my anger if someone were to do that to her.
She is patient through his silence, discerning that he hasn't quite connected all of the dots yet. Eventually, he will. K.Apila: Then do not presume, either, that apology alone is sufficient recompense to Mallory Allistair.
There is a reason for the axiom 'Words are cheap'.
Maybe he should send Mallory flowers. If neither an apology nor money is good enough. What? He's starting to consider he's better off on his own, then dealing with the riddles of life.
Hood: If you have something you'd rather I do, then tell me. It should be obvious that if I knew of what you were speaking that I'd have attempted it already.
K.Apila: If you would grow, you must seek the answers. I am not your tour guide.
As Hood considers that for a moment, he wonders if this is really all worth it. What good could ever come from him attempting to make amends with Mallory Allistair. For following these strange entities that reside in the net with him. Is it really his lot in life to blindly follow those just because they say so? What exactly is it they have to offer him? They have given him nothing. Nothing. Nothing but unanswerable riddles. While he's not entirely willing to cast them aside yet, his patience, or his impatience, is wearing thin.
Hood: I will consider what you've said.