OK so prev tags, since I occasionally get reblogs wanting to know more about these guys, and I've tried and failed to write the next part several times, I will give you some contextless snippets from my document!
Danny let his head sink into his hands. What was he supposed to say to that? Yes? I don’t know? That’s what the experts say? Was he supposed to say, kid, it’s been a long time since I’ve believed in an immortal soul and all that religion crap, and call me a cynic but I don’t think the Agencies do either.
“I don’t know,” he groaned. “I don’t – I don’t know, okay.”
He thought he saw the Path’s head jerk up, in surprise, though he was too well trained to look up at Danny still. “You don’t know?” he said, tentatively. “I thought – I thought you knew everything.”
Danny chuckled bitterly, scrubbed a hand across his eyes. After all of this, TJ still thought that? “Not quite,” he admitted. “Sorry, kid.”
“But, but, this is important!”
“I’ve never seen it happen,” he said eventually. “I don’t know how it’s supposed to work. You see some poor bastard that’s, I don’t know, in a coma or some shit, and they’re like, oh that’s his soul, got sucked right out of him, but funny enough if you ask them how they know that there’s always some bullshit nonsense answer. Nobody every showed me one on an x-ray or a lab printout, you know what I mean?”
TJ’s head was wavering, his hand doing that fidgetty thing to the hem of his shirt he sometimes did. Danny realised he probably hadn’t followed most of that.
“You never saw it... and you don’t know?” he repeated plaintively.
Danny squeezed his eyes shut. God, what a mess.
“But they told you it would happen. And you thought they were… wrong?”
“TJ asked you about the soul thing, didn’t he,” Glen said.
“You were listening in?” Danny scowled. “Or, well, I guess you don’t have to.” These people can eavesdrop after the fact on just about anything. “Why bother asking me what I said?”
“That’s neither a correct nor fair assumption,” Glen said. “Nobody’s being read. TJ said at breakfast that he was going to ask you. He asked me.”
“Oh, and what’d you say?”
“The truth, as I know it,” Glen said. “That I don’t think it’s real. How about you?”
Danny gritted his teeth and looked away.
“Well, I’ve never seen it happen,” he said grudgingly. “Not saying it doesn’t. But I’ve never seen it.”
“So you told him the truth,” Glen said. He sat back, rested his chin on his hand, and looked at Danny like he’d just given him something to think about.
“He doesn’t need to be here with you bunch of psychos frightening him,” Danny snapped. “He needs to go to… to a good Agency. A professional facility, with, with the stability he needs and people who are trained to look after him.”
Glen leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table thoughtfully. “Hmm.”
“You think you’re doing him a favour with all of this, and you’re not,” Danny said. “You’re just confusing him, and scaring him.”
Glen nodded placidly. “Back up a moment, please, Mr Tavai. You said, a good agency.” He steepled his gloved fingers in front of his face. “How long have you been working in the industry?”
“I – I don’t fucking know, like six years?” Danny said. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“How many Agencies have you worked with?”
“Four,” Danny said, suspicious. “Five, if you count…”
“And how many of those would you say was a good Agency?” Glen asked mildly. “Be honest. You say you want the best for TJ, and I believe you. You obviously thought the Agency he was in wasn’t good. So what of the others? Of the Agencies you have worked in, which would you feel comfortable placing TJ in, and trust that he’d be taken care of well?”
“I – ” Danny started to speak, trailed off. He knew better than to think these dangerous Paths would agree to drop TJ off if he named a suitable Agency, but he had an answer anyway. Didn’t he?
He reviewed his – admittedly, not spotless – career in his mind’s eye. A few he dismissed out of hand, but surely the others…
“Regardless of how useful or otherwise he is,” Glen added, pointedly.
The first job he’d had after graduation, that had been okay. Hadn’t it? Danny hadn’t been happy there but the Paths were taken care of… weren’t they? He remembered a few incidents and winced.
Danny knew that TJ was useful, valuable, but would he trust any of his supervisors to see it? The way TJ was now?
“He just needs to go into a less stressful line of work than a court Path,” Danny said defensively. “Once he gets over all of that, I know he’d be fine in any reputable Agency.”
Glen raised his eyebrows. “Meaning… the places you’ve worked in, you would be happy to put him in all of them? Really?”
“So, were none of the ones you worked in reputable?”
“No, I –“ Danny gritted his teeth. Why was he getting engaged in this argument? He sat back. “Fuck you, actually. My work history’s none of your business.”
Glen shook his head. “I’m not trying to cast aspersions on you and your career, Mr Tavai, I’m just making a point. You think he’d do well in a ‘good’ Agency. But you haven’t… seen any of these good Agencies? Are your experiences standard? Even if they’re not, even if you’ve been unlucky and encountered a few bad apples…” He shrugged, spread his hands earnestly. “How many bad apples is too many? You’re talking about TJ’s life here. All of our lives, if you had your way. What probability of getting a bad Agency is low enough that we can accept it?”
“I don’t – you can’t – ” Danny snarled wordlessly in the back of his throat.
“I know the industry too, you see,” Glen said. “I’ve seen it from a different angle than you have. And let me tell you, your experiences are not unusual. Everything you and TJ have described?” He shrugged. “That is what Agencies are, Mr Tavai. This hypothetical good Agency that wouldn’t squeeze every last drop of use out of TJ and wash their hands of him afterwards?” He shook his head. “I’m telling you. It doesn’t exist.”
