Lindsey Majors (not_a_doll) wrote,
@ 2010-10-17 22:10:00

Doomed from the Start
There wasn't a day that went by that Lindsey didn't feel like crying. But she couldn't. She no longer had any tear ducts. All she had was a brain, some bits of spine, and a few other internal organs. The rest of her body was wholly artificial; she didn't claim to understand the process at all, something to do with nanobot clusters and other things that made her head hurt. She had a journalism degree, not a science one.

The upshot of it was she looked like someone had made a Barbie-doll out of her. Maybe pretty to look at at first, but clearly not real. The Cadmus people alleged that they had saved her life with this process.

They should have let her die. Her family, her husband, her children, thought she was dead. And in this monstrous, misshapen half-life, she had no right to tell them otherwise. Project Cadmus promised one day they could make her human again. She clung to that tantalizing thought like a life preserver. She would see her children again some day. She would go back to being a wife and mother.

She wondered what the Project administrators wanted with her. They'd asked that she go to one of the private offices. It was sparsely decorated, like the person who it belonged to rarely used it, though she did spot several candy bar wrappers in the wastebasket.

Food. She remembered it, even if she had no sense of taste any more. Or smell. Or touch.

What could they possibly want?

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check_my_flow
2010-10-18 12:32 am UTC (link)

Roger was the next to arrive. He'd gotten the hang of mimicking facial expressions through the bandages around his 'face', so he greeted the other person with a smile.

"Well hello there. Who might you be, miss?" He extended a hand. "Roger Smith, pleased to meet you."

Always best to be polite, whatever she, he, or it, might be. Being hesitant and rude was for people who couldn't deal with trauma. Not him.

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sucker_punch
2010-10-18 12:40 am UTC (link)

Johnny had made an error this morning and she could still feel the effects even now, a few hours later. She'd touched her face briefly with her bare right hand. She was so pissed about it, even if it was really hard to be convincingly pissed off with a serious case of the giggles.

It was also really hard to seem serious while still grinning like the cheshire cat, which was what she was doing when she walked into the room.

"'sup?"

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not_a_doll
2010-10-18 12:44 am UTC (link)

The bandaged person was giving off extremely strange readings, at least as far as Lindsey's ability to interpret her sensor-data was concerned. But she took and shook his hand carefully; she still wasn't used to the strength she now possessed, nor did she have the best tactile sense.

"Lindsey Majors," she said, politely as she could.

The girl seemed strangely normal. "Do either of you know what this is about?"

---
A slight cough behind them, from the doorway, would draw their attention to an older man, probably somewhere in his late fifties or early sixties, bushy bearded and confined to a wheelchair.

"Perhaps," he said, "it would be best if I explained that."

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check_my_flow
2010-10-18 12:50 am UTC (link)

Roger sighs, insomuch as he makes the noise. He doesn't actually breathe anymore. "And here I thought we were going to have time to chat and get social first."

He grabs hold of a chair and spins it, sitting down with it facing the other way. "Ah. The man in charge. Finally we're getting somewhere." Roger points at the older man, twirling his finger slightly. "I've seen you around. Big man on Cadmus. The low rider himself."

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	sucker_punch 2010-10-18 12:55 am UTC (link)
	Everyone looked so serious. This only served to irritated Johnny more, which of course came out as something else. Her cheeks hurt from the grinning. "Looking forward to what you've got to say, mister. But if I start giggling...try to ignore it." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

not_a_doll
2010-10-18 01:10 am UTC (link)

"I remember you," Lindsey said. "When they..." she struggled for the right word, "out of the mold. You were there. Back away from the others."

She doesn't sit. She doesn't trust chairs unless they've been specially made for her these days. She doesn't look it, but she's many times denser and heavier than before. The number she'd seen on the scale--used to weigh large specimens or trucks--had been downright embarrassing, or would have been, if that was remotely her concern.

---

The man nodded slightly. "Of course, Miss Finch," he told Johnny. "I am well aware how prone to accidents you can be."

He looked to the others. "Mrs. Majors. Mr. Smith. I am Doctor Niles Caulder. And I am far from the so-called "Big Man," as it were. I have simply offered my services to the Project in order to create a better world."

He steepled his fingers. "But at my recommendation, the Project has agreed to offer the three of you a job.."

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	check_my_flow 2010-10-18 01:20 am UTC (link)
	"That's fantastic, Doc." Roger replies, without missing a beat. "I mean, I was planning on joining the police, but lately I don't think I'd pass the eye exam." He tugs open a section of bandages over his face, revealing a colorless liquid mass, which snaps back into containment once he reaffixes the material. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sucker_punch 2010-10-18 01:22 am UTC (link)
	Johnny starts laughing hysterically. "Oh my god that is so gross. Like Inside Out Girl only without the goo." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

not_a_doll
2010-10-18 01:32 am UTC (link)

Lindsey's jaw dropped at the sight of what was behind those bandages. "Oh. My. God!" she shrieked, bringing a hand to her mouth, before remembering that she no longer had the stomach or esophagus to throw up with.

"How... how can you be laughing at that?!" she demanded of Johnny.

---

"You can hardly surprise me, Mr. Smith," Caulder said. "After all... I designed the bandages and other equipment which give you some semblance of form. Miss Smith's gloves and Mrs. Major's robotics were also my design."

He went on. "You see... I specialize in, well, you might say I specialize in fixing broken things. Situations. People. I've done it many times before, to no small degree of success, if I do say so myself."

He fixed his gaze upon them, quite serious. "Now... if I may discuss the job I mentioned?"

(Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	check_my_flow 2010-10-18 01:37 am UTC (link)
	"Well thank you." Roger creases the bandages, trying to simulate a wink at Lindsey. "You're a looker yourself, miss." He does his best to portray 'serious business' at the Chief as he continues. "Break it down for us." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sucker_punch 2010-10-18 01:50 am UTC (link)
	"I can't help it!" Johnny shrieked and then clamped a hand over her mouth to stay the laughter. "Spill it," she said to Mr. Caulder. She was having a hard time. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

not_a_doll
2010-10-18 01:57 am UTC (link)

This was turning into a bad day. No, scratch that. They were all bad days ever since the accident, ever since waking up in this prison of a robotic body. No, today was turning into a worse day.

She was still grappling that Caulder had designed the process that had turned her into this doll-like monstrosity. Surely someone that smart could have done better?

"...All right," she said, crossing her arms. "I'll listen."

----
Caulder nodded. "Each of you was the victim of a horrible accident, the end result of which has left you with abilities far surpassing those of other men. A long time ago, I assembled three other such people together and made them heroes. The Doom Patrol. I would like to do the same with you.

Project Cadmus is one of the premier research institutions in the country. They need an able field team to handle their investigations and otherwise deal with threats and forces beyond their capacity to contain. And, sadly, some times their own projects get away from them and need containing.

We would like for you three, with my aide and guidance, to be that team."

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	check_my_flow 2010-10-18 02:00 am UTC (link)
	Roger tilts his head from side to side, seemingly thinking it over. Morgan and Dorothy probably think he's dead. Police beat just isn't going to happen. Not like he has any other options. "Sure Doc. Me and my amazing ability to be a liquid are on the job." (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

sucker_punch
2010-10-18 02:06 am UTC (link)

Strangely what Caulder had to say seemed to sober Johnny. It wasn't every day that she got a legitimate job offer. The gloves usually weirded people out too much for her to do much of anything, mostly because people thought she had some sort of mental illness rather than a physiological problem. That's part of why she'd come here to begin with, that physiological problem getting in the way of every damn thing.

"Are you still going to fix us?" She'd rather starve than go unrepaired.

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not_a_doll
2010-10-18 02:10 am UTC (link)

Her husband and kids thought she was dead. And she wouldn't change that until she wasn't a monster anymore. But she knew she was going stir crazy just sitting around the Project, being tested.

She didn't fancy herself a hero (though she'd seen Superman. Once, when she was small and her class had gone on a field trip to Metropolis) or a super-hero or even much of a fighter.

But Lindsey Majors had never backed down in her life before. And she couldn't now.

"...Okay," she said, at long last. "And I second the fixing thing."

----
Caulder smiled slightly, clearly pleased. "Excellent," he said. "And I promise I shall do everything in my power and use all the resources at my disposal to make you normal again."

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	sucker_punch 2010-10-18 06:09 pm UTC (link)
	Johnny considered this for a moment, her eyes falling onto her gloved hands. She'd nearly forgotten what it was like to simply touch things. "I'm in. Just get me out of these damn gloves." (Reply to this)(Parent)

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