Service With a Smile- AkA Some HCs about Messenger’s Conditioning and How it Effects Her Strategy

For Prime Verse

Sometimes I forget that Barbara has been under the Administrator’s thumb since she was 18. Despite starting to work directly under her at 21, the whole reason Babs got her original office job in the first place is that Helen discovered her coincidentally through recon on The Berserker.

The job description on the flier Barbara happened to find was specifically targeted at this particular desperate, naive woman.

It drew her out from her small town (and father’s protection but story for another day) into a coastal city, and into the dehumanizing conditions of her first job.

It was super bad to the point that whenever Mess feels overwhelmed, overworked, or stressed to the point of illness, she remembers the first office and her brain goes “okay well compared to that this isn’t so bad.”

Convenient, huh?

Even Hale treats her more like a person than her old bosses did, and offers the occasional positive reinforcement. Which is like crack to Messenger. Especially from a superior, or even just an older adult man. Validating her usefulness wins people major points, especially if you’re on relatively equal footing and she’s like “oh hey it’s not coming from a place of hierarchy, neat.”

Messenger is very easy to manipulate if she trusts or is loyal to you. But she doesn’t trust easily, and her loyalties are very difficult to shift, so she is also the perfect pawn to send out as a sort of Admin proxy/negotiator with allied and rival orgs.

Especially since she has also been conditioned to see herself as the most expendable asset in any situation.

After a few tricky hostage situations, Messenger underwent training and physical conditioning so that now, if the stress or pain levels she experiences get past a certain level, she will “check out” of the situation by passing out into a borderline comatose state. Because intel can’t be accessed without her, even on a drive or in a packet, this renders torture absolutely useless.

On a personal level, Barbara herself has always been highly loyal and a people pleaser, which was a lucky point for Admin. It also means that she applies her work logic of ‘most expendable asset’ to interpersonal relationships as well. Messenger will willingly, and cheerfully, die for anyone she loves or deems more important than her.

Which is p much everybody she doesn’t hate.

(Who she’ll kill for, though, is way more picky. She has yet to be put in that situation. She’s also got a hold on strategy and calculation, so her sacrifices are rarely spur of the moment, emotional “take me instead” moments. Rarely.)

But, and this is a fun point, this way of thinking has been around wayyyy before she ever even heard of Mann Co. Which in a way makes it sweet, because she really does put others first out of love, but on the other hand…trying to separate what comes from her conditioning versus her active, willful choices is…virtually impossible.

Not even admin knows just how lucky she got when she decided to hire this particular child of an ornery ex-employee.

@talariis Roped In– reply to Scout’s Rewriting the lore ft. Messenger spends five and a half months in jail with Spy and Scout

————

“Who me? Escape plan? Psh, pshh naaaawwww I would never,”

The playful sarcasm was a bit more tired than usual, but Mess still managed to grin at Scout from the bottom bunk. She’d been keeping quiet today and mainly just staring at the graffiti above her. And avoiding looking at Joey Murders. She was pretty chill with most dangerous people, but this one high key terrified her. It was the nose, she was sure of it.

Messenger held her hands out to catch the book.

“You’re doing a lot of work, buddy, and It’s pretty damn admirable, but honestly? I don’t think we’re getting out of this one so easy.”

She sat up and faced him, leaning against the wall.

“The verdict is gonna be guilty, Scout. I know you’re from a big city with actual interesting things happening and a…relatively… somewhat functional judicial system, but Teufort’s not like that. Grew up in a sorta backhill sweetcorn and horses, hunting farming town so take it from me when I say we’re not gonna convince anyone anything. We’re up against him boredom, bud. The mercs’re the only interesting thing this town has so they’re gonna squeeze a last bit of entertainment out of us now we’re fired.”

She took a pause and looked up at an interesting fleck of something on the ceiling.

“Our best bet is to play to that. Verdict’ll be guilty because we don’t know exactly what we’re being accused of so how the fuck do we prep for it, and also cuz Mike is a giant chode. Dodja know he hung a man for jaywalking in his own cornfield a few years back?”

“But I think I can get you out. I’m really good at playing the excited idiot: I think I can convince mike to draw out the fun by killing us one by one. Like a pageant. Then I’ll volunteer to go first, people love a go getter, and, while everyone’s focused on hanging me, you and Spy get the hell out of dodge.”

@talariis: Questions and Answers

❝ What is it like deliverin’ messages n’ guns for the teams? Is it dangerous? Didja’ ever get into any fights with the other guys? Why a messenger? What’s even your real name? Would you like to go on a date? What made you choose to work for Mann co.? Which team do you like better? Would you link to hang out at the base with me?❞

“Woah wow woah boy- I need a minute,” she put her hands up and pulled out a pad of paper to scribble the questions down before she forgot all of them, “…Y’know, honestly? Delivering to you badlands teams is actually the most relaxing part of my job?”
She paused and put a pointer finger up.
 “Mail wise and stuff I mean, not TV messages so much. Some guys still…don’t like that.”
 “So yeah, it’s dangerous. I mean, it’s been dangerous, right? Back in uhh…’60? People were still dying and swapping out all the time before respawn got solidified so it was a coinflip on friendliness day by day. Now I at least know who to avoid and/or use ranged delivery on so local delivery is somewhat less life threatening. But uh, I wouldn’t call anything here a fight. Little too one sided for that. Mostly I just hit the deck and wait, y’know? Not much I can do if anybody really gets a hankering to kill me…mostly.”

“Why ‘Messenger…’ well it’s kinda a rank thing on one hand? I’m like…the least expendable of the messengers and‘ve always had more job variability than ‘em so I get that nice proper noun priveledge. Lower pay grade technically but I’m pretty sure only one of em has managed to collect more than three times. And when they die I get half their severance as kinda a reward for outliving another grunt…I donate that.”

“On the other hand, Boss essentially owns my name, and I don’t want to put my family at risk so. Sorry Scout, it’s confidential.”

She looks over the questions again and goes pink very fast.

“Uh, I um I’m gonna answer that one last. Mann co was a… well I needed a job outta town and happened to see a listing for a satellite office of Mann Co that had like…the qualification was essentially having a pulse so. Then uh…that office…closed. But I…got moved. To HQ. Figured it was easier than searching for a different job so… eh,” she shrugged, “I need money if I’m gonna buy a little farm and have a bunch of dogs and horses someday. With room for my mom.”

Certain aspects of that answer could be seen as somewhat guarded.

She raised an eyebrow at the favorites question:
“You better not spread this, but so far Red’s ahead. I fear for my life significantly less when here. Some nice guys on blu, but generally I prefer y’all. Plus that Hot Choc won you points. Y’all would’ve lost points for killing my grunts and using their bones as art deco… but blu’s done it too. So you’re even.”
“So count that as yes I’d like to hang out sometime. Not running around for a bit is nice, and I like bothering you with shitty jokes.”
She took a breath, her face getting a whole lot redder. She rubbed her neck and shoulders and looked at the floor. 
“I mean. If you’re actually serious about a date? S-sure? If it’s a joke, that’s fine.”

She looked up with a smile, responding in a very level voice, “It’s funny, in that case.” 

Messenger blinked, confused at his first statement. Not the terrible jokes bit. She knew darn well how much of a horrible gremlin she was. But…
“I uh, superior? I mean, don’t get me wrong I appreciate the not killing, but I don’t think I’m really…above y’all rank wise. Parallel maybe? But uh!”

She pulled a smile back on, pretty easily because she was genuinely excited. Not really at the prospect of seeing the guys splatter each other on the walls, not that it was worse than what she saw on the regular, but the prospect of being at the cameras and puns… that was nice. 

“I’ll be there! And no worries on the comm-I have like three different types on me at all times anyway.”
She paused for a moment and leaned against the wall with her arms crossed, cocking her head to the side and grinning evilly.
 “Not that I’m gonna lay down and let you win the pun fight so easy. Not with you a captive audience.” 
The grin eased into a crinkle eyed smile.
 “Seriously though Scout? I’m really looking forward to this. Even if I’ll proooobably get flak for leaking live intel to you because there’s no way I’m gonna keep my mouth shut if I’m at the monitors.Can’t do it even when I’m not.”

Under the stars

“Oh boy I don’t like your phrasing there,” she grimaced, “what might go wrong sounds a bit better. Though at LEAST you didn’t say ‘what could go…’ you know the phrase.”

Messenger strapped herself in and leaned out the window like a happy dog.

“I haven’t been camping since… jeez since…well I haven’t been non-”Hale Style” camping since I moved out west. I think the last “for real” time was in Iceland. Yeah. We used to go all the time when I was a kid. Thanks for offering Dell…it means something big to me.”

MUSE AS A DEITY.

rules : Think carefully about your character and their development through their journey (canon or oc ) within their story. Fill out the chart and tag whoever you want!
Repost, do not reblog.

image

deity of :   lost causes & climaxes/turning points 

associated with : narrow escapes, changing luck (for the positive), unlikely survival,  theater, benign tricksters, castaways (literal or societal), serendipity, dice games, wordplay, change, charity,  dominoes, rescue, endurance, twists of fate, clouds, sunsets, and the last minute

sacred plants :  Dandelions, Funny looking orchids (especially in her colors), lichen, moss, wild onions, aloe vera, sweet potatoes/yams

sacred stones / gems :

Carnelian  (

thought to bring courage, energy and creativity to the wearer while helping to get rid of fear.),  natural citrine, garnet 

sacred animals : opossums, geckos: ESPECIALLY fish-scale geckos (

Geckolepis megalepis), Atlantic Eels, weasels,

colors :   orange, pink, yellow, purple, blue (normally together in sunset hues)

food :  Yes. She is often associated with Survival foods, such as tubers, dandelions, sassafras, onions, cicadas and other edible bugs, things that keep a person alive long enough for life to get better. Offering wise, giving your food to someone else who needs it more is much preferable to burnt sacrifice. She doesn’t really respond to the latter.

scents : fresh air after a long time without, rain, coming rain, the air before a snow, sassafras

accepted offerings : Actions in aid of others. Pebbles. little things you think are neat. Dice, Dominoes, broken things, jokes, interesting stories, performing (poetry, theater, improv etc), cute puppets

ways to honor: Random acts of kindness, responding to calls of alarm or distress, stealing from people who mistreat others, planting her plants, feeding and taking care of stray animals, charity, making people laugh, responding to signs that something is off, reckless heroism, refusing to give up, making domino art at her shrines- especially in fun shapes, 

performing (poetry, theater, improv etc), taking a hit for those weaker or more venerable than you, blowing dandelion seeds everywhere you can (there’s probably a small festival for it)

Tagged by: @refiinedrogue​
Tagging: @udidntexpect​ @running-in-blind​ @bluteamblueprints​ @donnez-moi-vos-vivres​ and anyone I didn’t hit who wants to do it!