8163/Sentinels: Tread Slowly

Sentinels: Tread Slowly
Date of Scene:	03 July 2019
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	SHIELD and the NYPD try to figure out who gets to keep the Sentinel.
Cast of Characters:	Bastion, Frank Quaid, Phil Coulson, Darcy Lewis
Tinyplot:	Sentinels

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Bastion has posed:
Sebastion, the entity known to be some variation of Sentinel technology and cyborg human mixture, recently was allowed to shower and change his clothing. He evolved out of the dingy clothes he'd come in with (as nobody was going to actually unshackle him to deal with that), and is now in some classy khaki prison uniform attire.

The shower actually taught the NYPD a few new things, such as that his missing arm just at the elbow terminates in a mash of wires and exposed bolts, and that he has off-colored patches where clearly a different leg than his own was added at the hip on one side, same side as the missing arm. There's some other patchy colors on his low torso, and a number of wounds on the clearly different organic lower body parts. It just makes him seem a little Frankenstein monster.

Dressed, though, and placed at the interview table, he looks human enough, aside from where his missing arm is covered in a little tacked on towel. He's in shackles on his feet again, and his hand is still chained to them by a lead.

Sebastion himself is a bulky, military looking male, with short very pale blonde hair, square jaw. He's not a handsome man, more along what one would expect from perhaps some movie general or Russian bodyguard.

Frank Quaid has posed:
Frank waits in the hallway near the interview room. He looks impatient, feeling antsy any time he is out of cell service and not plugged into the continuous stream of messages from his units and superiors. The armed guards are all still in place inside and outside the building, but this delegation is expected. They are told to disarm outside the cell area, though. NYPD wants as few guns in there as possible, and to have any in that area be under their own control. The fact there are /any/ firearms in cells right is signal of just how serious the situation is and how dangerous they think Sebastion could be.

Phil Coulson has posed:
The ICER and Beretta that Coulson usually carries are both given over without a problem as he approaches the hallway, and soon enough the Agent is walking over to Frank, his arms crossed as he stops in front of the Captain. "Trying to deescalate the visible threat around him? Interesting approach." Phil half muses, half notes as he offers a warm smile to Frank, "After you, then. I'll come in once you give the word. I don't want to spook him."

Frank Quaid has posed:
"Department rules. Having these two guys in here is giving my boss an aneurysm alread," Frank says, with a nod to the two armed tactical officers who stand a bit down the hallway from the interview room, facing it. "This is your show, I'll keep quiet unless you need me."

Frank opens the door and steps into the interview, then closes it behind him.

"I'd say thanks for coming, but that'd be rude. How about thanks for staying. I know we couldn't really stop if you didn't," Frank says. "SHIELD is outside. Agent Coulson, very senior, very respected. You mind if I let him in?"

Provided Sebastion allows it, or at least does not object, Frank opens the door and gestures inside with a tilt of his head. "Agent Coulson, Sebastion," he introduces perfunctorily and closses the door.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"This is going to be fun..." Phil mutters to himself as he moves into the room. Phil is visibly on the latter half of middle age, with very visible crows feet, and has a warm, friendly demeanor to him a he steps inside. "Sebastian." Agent Coulson offers in greeting as he moves to sit down at the table.

"I'm Agent Phil Coulson. I'm here on behalf of SHIELD to evaluate you, see what we're dealing with. Let me be up front with you on a few key facts." Phil brings his hands up on the table, and folds them in place as he 'settles in', trying to give a casual visual. "I'm not here to make any decisions yet. This interview is strictly that; an interview. There has been no talk of dismantling or otherwise taking you apart. We want to know what you are, and what /should/ be done with you."

He smirks, "I'm sure you have some ideas on that front yourself, if you care to share them."

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion is simply sitting there, his eyes down on the table. He looks up slowly, as if he were mildly drugged, and watches Coulson arrive. He tips his head forward a little bit: there's a politeness, and a sense of military training, properness, to how he's holding his body. He listens quietly to the description Phil lays out, but his jaw hardens noticibly when the first topic relates to taking him into pieces. He looks past Phil at Quaid, and then his pale eyes drift back to Phil. He may be analyzing, or just slowly processing.

"I have gone along with all requirements of me. I wish to cooperate," replies Sebastion. "I want to do something worthwhile before I die."

Frank Quaid has posed:
Frank purses his lips at the mention of disassembling at all, and shrugs unknowningly, just slightly, to Sebastion from where he stands. He is listening to Coulson at least as attentively as to Sebastion. It would not be too hard to pick up that he truly does not know what will happen here.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"So I've heard." Phil nods, "it's why I think we can actually help each other, possibly." He brings up a hand, starting to count off fingers. "We have Trask and his associates on one side. They have some sort of anti-mutant agenda that probably goes beyond Sentinels themselves." Second finger, "we have the Sentinels themselves being major pains in the behind at every turn, with programming that simply does not make sense for their stated purpose." Third finger, "And we have the Avengers... who for all their good works, you seem to have taken issue with."

The hands are placed back on the table, "From everything I've been told about you, I've gotten the impression 'worthwhile' for you means protecting humanity from some kind of threat. Am I warm?"

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion taps a few of his fingers on the table, a frown touching his features. He seems to have finished scanning over Phil: Frank has seen him 'study' people before, and the study was completed. Whatever it meant. "Trask Industries makes sentinels, and sells them to buyers. They have back-doors that Trask or those that pay him well could access. Including in those sold to the government. Or you." Sebastion watches Phil thoughtfully.

"That does not make them any worse than selling another mechanized piece of equipment. They are weapons. It depends on the person who has them to use them correctly, responsibly. Trask has not shown responsibility," Sebastion describes. "I removed multiple Sentinels from his control, and took out the back-door. Their programming can be changed to be /better/. As for the Avengers, they asked me to stay with them for safety, as a guest. I was not a prisoner, until my attempt to leave, and I had an altercation with their AI, Vision, when he opened attack on me. It was unfortunate, I don't bear them any animosity. I've shown that, working with Spider-Woman, even afterward. I did not have to contact her. I'm aware she no doubt told the Avengers about me."

"I want the Sentinels to be what they SHOULD be. Protectors against threats, to aid humanity. Under the control of humanity."

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Standing at the side of the room, holding a SHIELD tablet, and being oh so very good and quiet and restrained (for once?!) is Darcy. Her only real movements at the slight shifts as she makes notes on the transcript her tablet is making of the interview, even if she's very much biting the tip of her tongue.

Better programming? That's real subjective, that bit. Not a prisoner until he attempted to leave? Very unclooth, Earth's Mightiest. Vision attacked, well... don't know anything about Vision. Time to look him up or at least whatever SHIELD has on him.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"It sounds like you can teach our people where these backdoors are so we can work on our own solutions as well." Phil notes, before he nods. "You say they can be better... in what way? I assume you mean aiding humanity. Protecting it."

Frank Quaid has posed:
Frank just watches the interaction, hearing familar themes in Coulson's line of interview and Sebastion's replies. He doubts it will lead to anywhere but the limits of Sebastion's flexibility, but is too experienced to write things off yet.

Bastion has posed:
"Yes," Agrees Sebastion to Phil's questions. "To all of what you said. The doors could be removed, or altered. I chose to remove them, and allow only specific authorized control. I have seen the Avengers use the back doors before. I use another way. I 'feel' them."

"But as for their change, I think they could be modeled on the same rules the Justice League operate under. Primarily used on those which would invade and threaten humanity's existence. Not in civilian areas. There has been too much death." Sebastion's expression clouds, in an emotion of pain and dismay. Guilt, dislike. "I am related to them, but I am not one of them. I make my own choices," he says softly.

Phil Coulson has posed:
Emotion. Not something robots mimic usually. It could be a deception... still, no need to provoke on that level. "SHIELD has a mandate for the defense of Earth. It's true. If you can make the Sentinels safe for us to operate without Trask interference, I can only see that as a good thing, personally." Phil muses, before he shrugs, "I've found it odd that big robots meant for defense all have mutant nullification weaponry. Don't you find that odd?"

Time to see if the cyborg has anti-mutant tendencies indirectly.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Like Hugh," Darcy quips. It's a bright almost happy and definiately out of place sound. She's looked up from her tablet, head tipping to the side as she regards Sebastion. She heard the guilt and the dislike of so much death in his tone. But then Phil's continuing on, and Darcy closes her mouth. She does not immediately go back to making notes, her eyes on Sebastion.

Frank Quaid has posed:
Frank gives Darcy a sideways glances, but sees no reaction from Phil, so assumes it is part of the way these two work together. Every agency is different and he has almost no experience of SHIELD operations. It is at least interesting to watch.

Bastion has posed:
If Sebastion is an emotional mimic, it's very good. The cyborg looks like he's holding back emotion, keeping himself in check. There aren't any cues, visually, that would say he's a robot, just from looking at how he moves or speaks. He's acting a little thoughtful or slow, but not in an inhuman way: just more like he's a little drugged on something mild.

"Why would I find extensive defenses odd? They are rudimentary power dampeners, which might not be effective outside of mutants. I'm not certain. Mine are more broad." Sebastion pauses. "I'm not saying that as an intention to threaten, but to be truthful and honest. I have some kind of defensive ability to block powers near me. I don't see how that is a threat to others, when used to keep myself safe."

Sebastion stares more directly at Darcy, as if trying to decide what he thinks of her. "Who?" he asks.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
"Hugh. He was adorbable. From one of the Star Trek series. He's from a race of cyborgs. They go around the universe collecting and assimilating new and diverse information and life forms into their own. The trouble was that they wer pretty brutal and ruthless about it, which made then try to like take over everyone they met. It was bad. Anyway, in one episode? The crew found one that was injured, and so they made repairs and it woke up but it was cut off from the rest of the collective and started to learn to think on its own. Through him and the capture of the series' main character by the Borg - he got rescued later but only after he was sort of turned into a borg and then got turned back so he was mostly all better afterwards - the heros of the story figured out a way to make them all stop attacking Earth and trying to wipe out all of everything, converting it all to Borg," Darcy says, her tone sounding like she's rambling, and maybe she is but true to 'orders' from Phil, Darcy did not really ask a question, all while answering a questions directed right at her. See? Darcy CAN behave well!

"The problem was... the Borg were really really horrible? And they sort of used every trick in the book to be the aggressor. They nearly wiped out everyone. So, while it's not a terrible thing, to me at least, that you've got all this power dampening doohickey things, a whole mess of borg-things, controlled by one person that wants to over take everything or even just a single line of whacked out code that trips up Asimov's Laws can turn these things from saviours of humanity - yay! - into giant locust-like robots of death and destruction and RAR."

Darcy pauses a moment, glancing from Sebastion to Frank then to Phil, before she presses her lips together a bit.

"I...have no idea where I was going with that...." she admits softly, and so, turns back to her tablet. This is not the interruption you were looking for.

Also: Still didn't ask a question, so please don't ground me!

Frank Quaid has posed:
Frank blinks and stares in open disbelief at Darcy. Just about everything he believed about SHIELD was just confirmed for him. He gives Phil a 'what the hell' look, and walks past the seated agent close to Sebastion.

"You're not doing well," Frank points out neutrally, hoping to give the SHIELD people time to... Something.

"You're slower. Is it getting worse? What do you need to keep functioning?" he asks, drawing that much out onto the table for Sebastion to bargain with. He is suddenly not so comfortable as we was with Sebastion being turned over. Not that it mattered at wit what he was comfortable with.

Phil Coulson has posed:
For his part, Phil just listens. She's still within the bounds of her orders for this interview, and Sebastian /did/ ask about it...

"Well then." Phil looks back to Sebastian, "There you go. She's pretty well versed in pop culture, though she didn't need to put in all /that/ much detail." A look to Darcy, "She's still fairly new to these sort of interviews."

Phil looks over to Frank... then over to Sebastian, "That was going to be my next question. As he said, you don't look so well."

Bastion has posed:
"That I'm dying wasn't a lie for sympathy. I should probably rest. But I don't trust any of you, and I don't know how long it will take." Sebastion admits, but it isn't accusatory. He lifts his wrist with the shackle on it, making it jangle. The distrust of him was made obvious, and every movement reminds him, with the shackles there.

He can't take a rest if he needs to be aware and protect himself constantly. Vigilence. He also encourages Darcy, "Can you also define what a 'Terminator' is?"

There's a funny little amusement there, that Frank might catch at close range. He's aware of the stress of Darcy rambling, and is feeding it.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
New to these. Thanks! Threw me under the bus. It's all communicated beautifully when Darcy flicks a single glance at Phil just before the jingle of shackles and Sebastion's admission that He Is DYING draws her full attention. She studies him closer now before looking between Phil and Frank. There's a glare in her eyes that Phil might maybe recall from New Mexico, the same glare she'd given him and all the other SHIELD agents that evacuated the town and IGNORED the pet store. It was the same glare she'd given them when she STOLE a truck, loaded all the pets into carriers, and then drove off, flipping each and every one of them off as she went. Because they were going to just leave the puppies and the kittens behind to be roasted by a giant death space robot from Asgard. Her gaze turns back to Sebastion, the expression softer but no less aggitated.

"Oh, sure. That's another cracked out robot. But the T300 turned out to be a badass in the end and was the hero, even if he started out as the nasty-bad. Movie night at my place comes with popcorn and ice cream and me ready to tazer peeps that don't have prior permission to join the fun," she states. It's like there's a tacit invitation there, because Darcy's recognized two things: The guy needs sleep and the fuckers here at NYPD ain't letting him have it. Darcy, Rescuer of Critters, Adopter of Big Scary Bad Bads That She Has NO Business Even Talking To Half the Time, strikes again.

And look. Still no questions from her. All by the book. Also, her place is in the middle of the Residential floor of the Triskelion, but no one past SHIELD needs to know that right now.

Frank Quaid has posed:
Frank watches the look pass between Darcy and Phil, listens to what comes out of her mouth. He narrows his eyes at Coulson and Lewis, trying to discern if this is some kind of colossal joke to them. His face darkens.

"Agents, you need to step outside. Now. Wait for me in the hallway," Frank says, sternly. Frank waits for the two to leave. Provided they do he sets down heavily in the chair Coulson had been in.

"Sebastion... You've gotta focus for a minute. You can't go with these people," he says. "Look, you have leverage still. We'll trade the parts you need for control over the Sentinels. Okay? You hold that card hostage. Tell them you'll only deal with me and I'll get it to the Governor, and then it's up to the government. Which is human. If I put you back in that cell to rest," he gestures out the door.

"You're gonna wake up with these clowns if you don't. And I dunno what they'll do. Make the deal, Sebastion."

Phil Coulson has posed:
When it becomes clear that Sebastian is actively prodding the encylopedia, Phil was about to shut it down himself when Frank throws him out. Not looking to antagonize the NYPD over this yet, Phil looks to Frank, nods, and leaves. Giving a /very/ pointed look to Darcy and a nodding gesture to follow him. Phil is not humoring arguments on this one.

When they go into the hallway, Phil turns to her, "he's trying to press your buttons in there, Agent. You're giving him control of the narrative." Phil points out.

Bastion has posed:
"That's very informative, I was referred to as a Terminator." A pause. "Oh? Sounds like a good experience. I'll go with you, then," Sebastion says, coolly and smooth, to Darcy, in a very serene way. He recognized her protectiveness related to him mentioning his death. He's not 'asleep', not at all. "Or, if that isn't feasible, request you as a personal guard while I rest for a short time," he adapts, tone turning sad.

But then Frank Quaid makes them leave. Sebastion turns his gaze to Frank in a way that says he was innocent. Just talking. Which means hardly innocent. "I heard them, there might be a movie and popcorn. I'd like to feel human again, Captain Quaid. That's an improvement." Or an opportunity to just walk out, and Sebastion's hardly foolish. SHIELD appears to not be afraid of him or under the same hair-trigger alarm that the NYPD is.

"You're speaking, also, as if I get to choose where I'm going. Do I? Just the other day you threatened my life for standing up. If it is up to me who I go with: I haven't been threatened to be outright killed by SHIELD, yet. And I remember being told I would be given no parts, here. What has changed? Your partner said that. I will die here if I stay, won't I?"

Frank Quaid has posed:
"For Christ's sake, Sebastion, we thought you were about to kill us. None of this is personal. You're trying to save humanity, I'm trying to protect it, too. You're a military man, think it through. You wouldn't have done any different," Frank says, not taking the bait. He is clearly at the limit of his patience with everyone involved, Sebastion included. "You might die here. You might die there. We don't know. Now I'm not going to ask again. Are you taking my deal or not?"

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy smiles at Sebsation, eyes warm and gentle surrounding this mounting heat of fierce in a tiny package. She nods at his statement, of popcorn and ice cream and her being his guard.

"Totes. I'll pack an extra tazer," she promises him, the robot, this thing that everyone else seems to be treating like some horrible inhuman monster. Kicked out by Frank, Darcy smiles at him too, but her smile is not warm in the slightest. Nothing is said, however, and Darcy follows after Coulson neatly, no arguement. Not until they are out of Frank's sight anyway.

"No. He's trying to press everyone else's buttons, and yes, he's controlling the narrative by hooking onto a life line that he's not some deranged mass-murdering soulless automaton. He's sleep deprived. He's Nat and Buck behind enemy lines, in enemy faces, and he can't shut down for an hour or they'll off him. We want his help, we need his trust. We don't get that if he feels like he can't rest. And this place sure as hell ain't giving him that," Darcy says, keeping her voice low and level even if the white knuckles on her tablet make it clear that she's a breath away from saying fuck all to everyone and boosting the robot right now.

"Phil. This is stupid. He's suffering. Tell me you caught that?" she asks, head tilting and brows pulling together. One hand slips from her tablet to reach out and rest on Phil's elbow.

"Please, man. We gotta get him out of this shithole. I'll baby sit him. I promise it'll be okay. I'll work with May and R&D and everything. I'll drop every favor I've ever built up, but I've seen this before: warrior backed into a corner, no one on his side. He's going to lose it. It's gonna be bad if he does. Please? I promise... I won't ask to touch your car, ever again. I'll stop giving you shit about that iPOD. I'll buy you new ties every Christmas!"

Her tone's still low, but she's pleading, in a way she didn't do with the situation in New Mexico even though it's the same fire.

Phil Coulson has posed:
"He's visibly suffering. I'm not blind." Phil agrees, "and I'm not treating him as a soulless automaton. I'm treating him as an unknown who is either human at his core, or very good at mimicing humanity. We won't know for sure either way until we can scan him, and I'm not going to provoke him by saying anything either way."

Phil looks inside, "we're here for an evaluation... that includes his health, his intentions, his motives, and what he offers. This isn't my first rodeo." He looks back to Darcy, "If anything, I'm probably the most on his side of anyone here."

Bastion has posed:
Sebastion can hear through the door. His senses are excellent. He doesn't have the ability to mask it well, Frank will probably observe him looking a little vacantly after the SHIELD officers. And he's present enough to suspect he'll be caught listening. He looks calmly back at Frank. He lifts his hand in a shrug. "No, it isn't personal. Let me process for a moment, please, and attempt to be calm. Facing death has not kept me rational." He sits back in his chair some, eyes dropping to the table, registering sort of through it. There's no 'loading ...' progress bar, but there may as well be one, with his distant look.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Darcy seems to calm, pulling her hand from Coulson's elbow and following his gaze to the door.

"Well.. his health is shit, his intentions sound good to me, and his motives right now are not dying. I'd say that's more than enough, but then..." darcy pauses, tiping her head back to Phil to gift him a tiny little smile. "...I'm the newbster here, right? Right."

Frank Quaid has posed:
"I'll let you calculate," Frank says and pushes up from the table. He walks out into the hallway with a scowl, just in time to hear the end of Darcy's remark. His scowl deepens.

"You brought a rookie here to..." He starts and bites himself off. Frank closes his eyes and takes a breath.

"I offered him parts for control of the Sentinels. Which was the deal he tried to make with the Avengers and they obviously didn't take him up on," Frank says to Phil, then his attention fixes on Darcy. "But you know this, because I'm sure you read every piece of information we gave you and watched every minute of my previous interviews with him, and wouldn't walk in there so unprepared that you would let yourself get played like sucker out of the Academy. I am going to be very interested to see how this new interview strategy of yours unfolds. Kindly do not piss him off so badly that he tries to break out of here and gets my men killed."

Phil Coulson has posed:
"Agent Lewis came with me for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is she has talents I don't. If she crossed a line, I would certainly shut her down." Phil starts as Frank finishes, looking at him. "She has to learn somewhere, and SHIELD handles cases of all kinds all over the world."

Then, Phil moves to the door... before looking back to Frank again, "If I were here for an interrogation, Agent Lewis would not have come with me. As I said, this is an /interview/, and she was invited for the experience since he seems cooperative." Phil looks to Darcy, gives a nod, and walks back in.

"Hello again." Phil greets Sebastian, moving to sit down again, "Agent Lewis likes you, it seems vice versa." Phil smiles, "who knows, maybe we can become friends in time. For now though... I keep hearing that you need parts. Would you mind writing a list for me to bring back to my superiors?"

Bastion has posed:
"Provide either a computer or data drive for me to put the list on. It is extensive, I would need a lot of paper, alternatively," answers Sebastion, in a continuation of his vacant look. "You have maybe under ten minutes. I will have to do an emergency rest, probably. I can't think well to decide. But I prefer not to stay. If my choices matter: they have not mattered." He rattles the shackle again, and then sort of comes still, staring down at the table. It would match behavior for a cyborg that is running on low power or computation.

Darcy Lewis has posed:
Kindly don't piss off the robot? Did the beat cop just seriously say that to Darcy? She smiles as Phil lets Frank know excatly why she's present. Her lips: too brightly red. Her skirt: magazines would declare it too tight for her curves. Her heels: too tall to be practical. All in all, Darcy looks like little more than a tall drink of water. All except for that smile.

She turns to follow Coulson into the room, returning to the spot she had earlier, and resuming the recording of the interview on her tablet... But that's left on the background so she can start a running list of the supplies Sebastion's going to ask for. After all, this? This is exactly what Darcy's best at. She may have started as just a pencil supplier, hidden away in a tiny boiler room of an office in the sub-basement levels of SHIELD's headquarters, but now, years into service with the organization, Darcy Lewis all but completely runs the MOSS Division, skillfully coordinating the suppiles the organization needs to keep only just boots on the ground but coffee in Fury's office so no one dies. With Phil saying that she likes Sebastion, Darcy smiles at the robot, dipping her chin down to him.

"Coulson doesn't like, Handsome," she tells Sebastion, her tone light and breezy and oh! He'd like a data drive. Darcy dips a hand into the front of her blouse, snags the USB drive she had shoved into her bra earlier that day when she needed to manually run a PDF down to a printer because the network was being stupid. It's a blank form for more toliet paper, but Sanitation was demanding and their emails weren't working and Darcy was done. Now? Now, she could kiss the that really should be retired by now jantior. She moves to the table, watching as Sebastion looks like he's winding down, like the Clockwork Man in Return to Oz. Her eyes flick to Coulson for a heartbeat, before she's moving closer to the Killer Death Robot, perhaps too close for anyone's comfort but her own.

"Here you go. Data dump it for me, baby, then get a nap," she says, voice s soothing as if she were talking to a kitten. "Want me to help you get this into a port somewhere or something for you, darling?" she asks again, looking over at Phil again when Sebsation says he prefers not to stay here in police custody.

Frank Quaid has posed:
Frank stays outside the interview room until the agents finish. He nods to them, keeping his face carefully neutral. He promises to get them the recording of the interview as soon as possible. Then he goes back into the interview room.

"Time to go back to the cell. Your food will come at the usual time. If that's not fast enough, let us know," Frank says. He watches Sebastion leave with his guards and sighs.

"God, let this shit end."