The Journey Of A Thousand Miles...

Log Title: The Journey of A Thousand Miles ...

Characters: Interrogator, Major Bludd

Location: Eiringen, Switzerland

Date: 13 July, 2018

TP: I Am A Rock TP

Summary: Interrogator and Major Bludd discuss their troubles and possible solutions.

As logged by  Major Bludd

Eiringen, Switzerland
Eiringen is a city in Switzerland. A bit of a famous reputation actually. Place of the deaths of literary fiction figures, Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty. There is a slight irony to this with a museum to that effect there. Which all means tourism money and workers.

Free from Cobra's clutches for the time being and eager to leave Luck, California behind, Major Bludd opts to return to Europe. He doesn't want to be caught at any of the places where he typically winds up, so while he's chosen Switzerland, he's not in any of the French-speaking cantons he's used to. He's currently aimlessly wandering the marketplace of Eiringen, taking in the atmosphere and the varied and colourful wares on display.

Interrogator is in the Eiringen marketplace after "meeting" with a merchant of Borovian artifacts from its Communist days. He looks around for a cafe where he can rest before returning to Washington DC.

Interrogator
A tall, well-built man with blonde, crew cut hair and blue eyes. he looks like Dr. Alexander Johan Hamilton, the infamous Borovian Chief Gulag Warden way back when that country was Communist. He wears a pair of custom dark, charcoal grey leather pants and a royal purple fishnet shirt that show off his body. On his feet he wears a pair of black, laceless, boots.

Major Bludd
This dark-haired man stands about six feet tall and is dressed in blue jeans and a loose-fitting olive coloured t-shirt. A black vanDyke beard frames his thin lips, and his left eye is covered with a black eyepatch, evidently to hide the remnants of a past injury.

Bludd finds a cafe with outdoor seating and takes a seat at a table under a decorative umbrella. He leans back in the iron chair and takes a deep breath, closing his eyes.

Interrogator sees a nice cafe and notices a familiar man. He smiles and calls to his friend, "Sebastian, you look well!"

Bludd sits up abruptly, instantly on alert. He stares at Interrogator for a long moment before recognising him. He waves the man over, grinning. "C'mon over. You look alright yourself." He smirks and raises an eyebrow. "You following me or something?"

Interrogator joins him and laughs, saying, "I had some /personal/ business I needed to take care of here. I'm glad you're looking better. The arm looks well."

Bludd nods, holding out the arm in question and regarding it for a moment. "Yeah, healed up pretty nice. Wanted to get away from the States," he says, "from all that... stuff." He shrugs. "Maybe figure out what the hell I'm gonna do with myself now."

Interrogator nods sympathetically and says with understanding, "I had a setback too and was in a dark place. It made me realize a few things and I'm being reassigned within the company. They're giving me lighter duties while I get my head back together. I must admit, I had inspiration from a most unlikely source."

"Reassigned?" Bludd frowns. "What's going on with you? I know you had troubles with a certain monocled dentist, but I've been out of the loop for some time."

Interrogator sighs and says, "There was some fallout from our hostile take over attempt in Moscow and I thought a ghost attacked me at our home company. He was looking for our boss to exact payback. As for the dentist, I'm still keeping an eye on him for the boss."

Bludd regards Interrogator curiously. "I hadn't heard about a hostile takeover. And... a ghost? You sound like maybe you need more of a break than I do. And I've been living in an occupied city for a while."

"It's complicated." Interrogator says wryly "But I believe you said you were trying to figure yourself out. I can explain what is helping me and you should be able to teach yourself how to do it." "It's actually from a book I dismissed as New Age crap. You can get it anywhere."

Bludd gives Interrogator a suspicious glance. "New Age, huh? I have a friend who's into horoscopes but even she doesn't live her life by them. It's helping you though?" He glances aside. "I got piles of stuff to work through," he adds quietly. "Everything's so different now."

Interrogator nods and says hauntingly, "We both have our Dragons that need to be tamed." He says while looking around suspiciously, "Let's go to my room to talk about /Company/ business. It's a /clean/ room."

Bludd gets to his feet, ready to follow Interrogator. "Alright. Let's talk about Dragons." He smirks. "And snakes."

Interrogator gives Sebastian a sly glance and says, "We'll focus on the Dragons. The Snakes can wait as I want, no /need/ you back as soon as possible. I'm making a bold move and if things go South, I'm going to need all the help I can get."

"Well, now I'm definitely intrigued," Bludd replies. "Lead on."

Some time later, the pair arrive at the hotel. It is one famous for the discretion of its staff and popular with questionable businessmen.

"Think I mighta heard of this place." Bludd follows Interrogator up to his hotel room.

"I'd be more surprised if you hadn't." Interrogator chuckles as he stares intently at the door handle. Whatever holds his interest there appearantly is satisfactory and he opens it. He scans the room and then enters.

Bludd grins at Interrogator's inspection of the doorknob. "Can't be too careful, eh?" He, too, instinctively scans the room as he enters.

Interrogator says as he shuts the door, "No, in our business it's not paranoia because somebody is always out to get you." He sits down at the small table and motions to the seat across from him. On the table is a book and a royal purple dog collar with rhinestones that look like diamonds. The book looks like it has spent quite some time in a backpack and its pages are slightly yellow with age. It looks like it has only recently been read, and read heavily.

Bludd takes the proffered seat, gazing curiously at the collar on the table. "What's with the collar?" he asks.

"It's my gunners' idea of a hint to quit acting like a bitch." He sighs and runs his fingers through what little hair he has and says with a pointed glance, "Yes, I was that bad. WOrse than with the Brainwave Scanner."

"But enough about me" He says with a dismissive wave of his hand before continuing in a genuinely concerned tone, "I'm worried about you."

"That's a bit harsh, ain't it?" Bludd settles back in his seat. "Sorry to hear you've been through so much. But me, well..." He interlaces his fingers, pressing his thumbs together. "I was in New York when the Dreadnoks attacked it. Then I found out Cobra was doing the same damn thing all over the US, including in Los Angeles. I have some dear friends there. Couldn't stand the thought of them at the mercy of some bloodthirsty biker gang so I went out there to help protect them." He sighs, shaking his head. "What a rough time that was. One man trying to defend such a big house... I was usually exhausted, but I tried not to show it." He looks up, smiling faintly.

Interrogator says thoughtfully, "It souds like you ran yourself ragged. These must be some special friends for you to go to such lengths to protect them. Please don't go into details as I am currently trying to get deeper into The Coil and don't want to compromise innocents." He says matter-of-factly, "I managed to seduce Hannibal and Hannibal and Zandar are lovers. i believe Hannibal to be the one Dr Mindbender was referring to when he said he was grooming somebody to replace Cobra Commander. He continues sadly, "Forgive me, we need to focus on getting your Dragons tamed. He hands Sebastian the book and says softly, "My gunners gave it to me as a present. I had it in my flight bag for years and never read it, never gave it a second thought. I was recovering from a psychologically damaging combat injury when my gunners brought it to my attention." "I was a fool not to have read it sooner." A civillan wrote a book on self hypnosis that blew my mind and brought me back to myself." "Take it, I didn't mark it up at all."

Bludd stares at Interrogator, blinking in surprise. "You did what now?" He shakes his head as if to clear it. "Nevermind... Hannibal, eh? I'm not familiar with him. How close do you think Mindbender is to making his move, then?" He accepts the book and flips it open, scanning its table of contents.

Interrogator sighs and says with worry, "He's the one in charge of the BATs so I imagine he's tied up with that at the moment. If anybody is going to make a play soon, I figure it will be Hannibal and Zandar." The first chapters of the book are entitled: About this book, Dragons and our collective psyche, Introduction to psychtherapy and self hypnosis, The Inner Dragon - my journey begins, and Inner Dragons - your journey to self.

"So you think they're gonna take out the Commander?" Bludd reads quickly over the first few pages, an eyebrow occasionally quirking up at what he's reading. "This does seem kinda..." He looks up from the book, holding up a hand and waggling it from side to side. "...dodgy."

Interrogator says with a sigh, "I know, now you see why it's been in the furthest reaches of my flight bag for years."

He continues, deadly serious and leaning forward for emphisis, "I could go into the technical details, but I don't think you have the time and I want to get back to Cobra Commander."

You say, "Technical details of all this hypnosis stuff, you mean?"

"Yes. It is sound. I read it once on pain medicine, and then I took myself off the pain medicine to reread it to make sure I read it right the first time. I was up all night reading and rereading it." Interrogator says forcefully.

Bludd nods solemnly to Interrogator. "Okay, I'll take your word for it. You are the interrogation expert, after all." He closes the book and regards the dragon on its cover. "I can keep this?" he asks.

Interrogator says, reaching for his friend's hand, "Yes, I wish I could be of more help, but..." He shrugs sadly and continues "...Physician, heal thyself."

Bludd smiles, reaching out to clasp the other man's hand in his own. "Too right," he drawls. "Thanks for this. I'll give it a read." He sighs quietly. "So you're going back to DC?"

Interrogator smiles tightly and says as though extremely frustrated with himself, "Yes, I made quite the mess and need to clean everything up. I need to rebuild my head on a stable foundation instead of the shit it was built on. That house of cards has cost Cobra dearly and I am fortunate the Commander has been so forgiving."

Bludd nods absently as Interrogator speaks. "I thought I knew who I was," he says quietly. "After everything that happened in L.A., though..." He looks at Interrogator. "I told you, back in that medical facility, that I regretted killing that operative. I had to protect my friends, and I couldn't see a better way. But it was different. Used to be I could just do what needed done without worrying about the fact my target was a living breathing human being with ..." He makes vaguely circular gestures with his hands. "...feelings and family and whatever. They're in my way, I knock 'em down. Not this time. I hated myself for doing that. That's new. And I'm not really sure how I feel about it. Any of it."

Interrogator says gently closing his eyes as he remembers all the people he has hurt, killed, mentally raped, "It is a necessary evil." He stops the train of thought, but not before it hits the final station: I'm going to have to do more of the same.

"Is it?" Bludd sits forward. "That troop would have brought more Cobra down on us if I hadn't done what I did. And Cobra was occupying the city. Typhoid tried to give me the speech on how life under Cobra's rule is safer, blah blah, but dammit, people deserve to live in a place that's not run by some dictator! Where they can go to the corner grocery without worrying if a Viper or BAT is gonna grab them and throw them in a cell or something. Cobra caused all that damage. If they weren't set on controlling everything... what the hell does Cobra Commander actually want, anyway? Why..." He shakes his head, getting to his feet and beginning to pace. "Why can't they just leave people alone?"

Interrogator listens quietly and attentively, seriously gauging Major Bludd's mental condition.

"Cobra was always the most stable, most dependable client I had. I had no trouble ignoring their agenda, burying the damage I was doing, gladly in some cases, in the back of my mind. Hiding it from myself, from that part of me that would have been horrified." Bludd scowls. "I met someone who believed in me, believed I was more than just a murderous son-of-a-bitch. Believed there was still a good man inside me someplace. That's the man I used to be. That's the man who hates what I've become. It's like I'm two people in the same body. And they're oil and water. There's no middle ground." He casts an intense, almost pleading look on Interrogator. "I don't know who I am any more."

Interrogator says gently, "That book gives you the tools to find that out. Years of training broken down into easy to understand practices. Tame your Dragons, Comrade. Rebuild on a stable foundation like I am."

Bludd looks down at the book in his hand, then looks back at Interrogator. "And what if my foundation puts me at odds with yours?"

Interrogator sighs and says, "While I hate answering a question with a question, I have two to ask you. First, which do you prefer - the enemy you know or the one you do not? Second - is there a lesser of two evils? If I am captured by any of my enemies before I succeed in bringing down The Coil, I plan on asking my captors that. I'm curious as to their responses. Don't tell me yours, I do not believe you are in a position to answer that truthfully yet, not even to yourself."

Bludd stands there silently for a time, gazing at the book's cover. When he lifts his gaze again, he wears an empty, somewhat haunted expression Interrogator has never seen on him before. "I guess not," he responds in a murmur. "I guess... I guess I got a lot to think about." He frowns briefly, glancing about furtively. "Can I... can I call you? Once I've worked through some of this shit?"

Interrogator smiles in encouragement and says, "Yes. I've abandoned enough people in my life - both intentionally and unintentionally. I don't want to do it any more."

Bludd flinches slightly on the word 'abandoned', then nods emphatically, pressing on as if to leave unpleasant thoughts behind. "Thank you," he replies, approaching Interrogator. "I'm not in the habit of trusting too many people. I'm sure I don't have to tell you why." He smiles faintly. "But I think we have some important things in common just at the moment, and I think we oughta try and stick together, as we can."

Interrogator holds out his arms to embrace Sebastian as a friend and says, "Yes, we do."

Bludd steps forward and embraces the other man. "Thank you," he repeats, giving Interrogator a brief but heartfelt squeeze, then stepping back again.

Interrogator simply nods and says, "You're welcome, and thank you for all you've done for me. If you want me to rent the room for you so you have time to yourself, I can do it. Throw enough money at them and they'll forget THEY exist, right?"

Bludd smiles, nodding. "I wasn't planning on staying, but I don't really know where I should be going. So I may as well stay here for a bit." He holds up the book. "Give this a read. Settle into my own head a bit."

"Sure." Interrogator says, returning his smile.

"Have a safe trip back to DC," Bludd says. "And keep your head down, mate, eh?"