[Open - Mingle away guys!]

[the_good_doctor]

Who: Watson, Clinic Staff, Interested Parties, Random Passers-by, possibly Holmes.
What: A picnic to celebrate the hard work of the clinic staff/get to know each other.
When: Day 62 - mid-day to mid-afternoon!
Where: Gefion Park.
Rating: ... PG for Holmes.

[It was hard to find anywhere in the lavishly tended gardens of Gefion Park to set up a picnic blanket, but eventually Watson found the perfect spot of green grass -- and was it ever green! Surely grass had never been so vibrant? -- lots of sun, shade provided for those who wanted it in the form of some meticulously sculpted evergreens and even enough space to play cricket, should they want to. I'll bring a bat next time, Watson decided before catching himself -- there wouldn't be a next time.

Still, all the more reason to spend what time they had left together in fun. He'd lost Holmes -- or Holmes had lost interest and wandered off while Watson was making the preparations for the picnic, but Watson had no doubt that his friend would find him again when he was ready -- and hopefully there would be some members of the picnic party around to introduce when he did. Until then --

The day was warm, and there was a cool beer in the hamper with his name written all over it. Hanging jacket on the box-hedge, and discarding his tie with it, Watson rolled up his sleeves before settling back in the sun with his beer, utterly content.]

Comments

[the_good_doctor]

So when you spoke of technology able to create illusions --

[pitied]

My whole life is a lie. Claire Saunders doesn't exist.

[the_good_doctor]

How did you find out?

[pitied]

One of the original actives took me hostage. He told me. My codename was Whiskey.

[the_good_doctor]

By 'actives' you mean, one of the founding members of this company?

[pitied]

No. I worked at a place called a Dollhouse. An active was a doll, someone stripped of their own personality.

[the_good_doctor]

To what end? To allow the company you worked for to ensure your dependence on them?

[pitied]

No. [She gave a sad, grave smile.] It's called a Dollhouse for a reason. Very rich clients come to it wanting a night or a weekend with their perfect person. Using technology, actives are erased of their own personality and designed to do whatever the client wants.

[the_good_doctor]

That's -- but that's appalling! Outrageous--

[Watson took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down.] My apologies, Dr Saunders. Any outrage on my part must be just so much words for you -- already well acquainted with your employers as you are.

[pitied]

There was nothing to be done about them. The Los Angeles branch is one of twenty three around the world.

My scars. They were given to me by another active. He also killed the original Dr. Saunders. I was known as Whiskey. I was the best active and it seems the human brain should not be underestimated. Actives have the ability of developing despite being erased of all previous personalities. Alpha fell in love and took me out.

Whiskey was out of commission and they needed a doctor. Dr. Claire Saunders was born in that decision. All that I am is computer coding made by a technician.

[the_good_doctor]

Twenty-three--

[That's hard to take. That man could be so selfish -- but then they'd seen it before? Blackwood, sacrificing girls in a mock ritual that would convince his followers and the world that he was the possessor of supernatural powers -- and willing to do the same to a full parliament.

Watson listened gravely.]

What does that mean to you? Is it -- enough -- to be Dr Saunders?

[pitied]

They're always expanding. They have people in every established government, can pay people off. They do what they want. I was created to be the minor morality of it all, to remember the actives were people, too. This is why despite everything else that I am, unfriendly and not the warmest person, I am good at my job.

[She crosses her arms, the vulnerability coming back in waves.]

If you were told that everything you know was not real, that everything you felt was just a button on a computer, how would you feel?

[the_good_doctor]

And here, you don't even have that.

[Watson grimaces.] I can imagine how it would feel. I was a good army medic, popular with the troops, earning a name for my dedication and my sharp-shooting both. I was young, foolish, believed I was invincible.

You'll have noticed my limp. I'm luck to have survived both the wound and the fever that followed, though it didn't feel that way at the time. Going from the active life of the soldier to a dependant invalid -- I felt I had lost what made me me. So I can guess -- but it's not my imagination but your reality. It's your answer that's important.

[pitied]

[She listened before holding her knees. It was a comfortable position.]

But you have your memories. Of who you once were. Everything I am is not me. Skinning my knee when I was five, my first kiss, graduating from med school. None of it happened. And those innate reactions we have, what make us who we are, everything that tells me to do something, I can't abide it.

But I can't be anything else. I don't want to not exist any more. I don't want to be erased. The original personality isn't me either.

[the_good_doctor]

[Watson nodded simply.] I do. [He'd been at pains not to suggest their situations were comparable, but it seemed he'd not succeeded. Still, the confidence had helped Dr Saunders understand what he was trying to ask.]

So even if you could remember, you wouldn't want to be changed by those memories ... ?

[pitied]

Why would I want to know about what I was, essentially, forced to do, all the personalities I had? Granted, there has been evidence to suggest that naturally our brains do develop like that. But it takes some other tech to be able to write all of it onto your brain. But I do know of two actives who have done that. All forty some of their imprints.

[She looks down.] He believed we're the next evolution of humanity.

[the_good_doctor]

So it's not possible to remember selectively -- just your original self, for example?

[The more Watson learned of this Dollhouse, the less he liked it.]

The next stage -- meaning not everyone could become an 'active'?

[pitied]

You're not supposed to remember anything. After every engagement the active is wiped, meaning they revert back to having nothing, no personality. But our brains learn how to adapt to that. There were two actives where I worked, they loved each other. They were always being wiped, but they ate dinner together, he had a very physical reaction to her in the showers, and when she was attacked, he was concerned. They didn't know each other before, but they've adapted.

[She looks down.]

Anyone can become an active. I didn't know I was for months. That's why I'm not entirely sure this is real or what it is. All it takes is for you to be wiped and imprinted. They can make you believe anything. I once gave a surgery to an active that implanted a chip into her eye that made her brain think she was blind, but all output was sent back to the FBI.

Their power is limitless.

[the_good_doctor]

[Their power is limitless -- chilling words. Just as chilling, Saunder's clear belief in them. Watson hesitated -- but Holmes never drew back from knowledge and this was knowledge that might be neccessary to help a friend.]

I'm afraid I don't understand -- if anyone can become an active, what did your colleague mean by saying actives represented the next stage of human evolution? Did he mean that wiping and rewriting the brain constituted making full use of the brain's cognitive powers?

Or was it the ability of those actives who retained vestiges of themselves or remembered all their ... incarnations that so impressed him?

[pitied]

I don't know what Alpha meant. He wasn't the most stable. Even before he had forty personalities in his head. He became fixated on Echo.

[She sits back and squints. Echo was the one that was going to bring them all down, of this she was sure of now.]

Rossom and the developers never calculated growth. Never underestimate the human brain, Dr. Watson. Or what we're capable of.

[the_good_doctor]

[Despite the sober nature of their conversation, Watson can't help a rueful smile.]

I've often said the human heart was the greatest mystery -- all these years, I should have been aiming somewhere higher.

I'm glad you've told me this, Dr Saunders. I'm sure it wasn't easy -- and there will be still much I fail to grasp. But as much assistance as this old soldier can give is entirely at your disposal, should it ever be needed.

[pitied]

It just is, Dr. Watson. [She shrugs.]

I don't... like people, but you-- [She sighs.]

You are different.

[the_good_doctor]

Quite the compliment.

[First Holmes, now Dr Saunders -- did it say something about Watson that his friends that they tended to be anti-social? Still, Watson smiled as he nodded to the rest of the picnic.]

I shall try to keep the socialising to a minimum.