Vice

Wesley listened as the footsteps came closer, before a woman drew closer from the side, peering in at him. She was overall rather average in apperance, maybe passably pretty, but there was a supreme confidence in the way she moved and held herself that jus tmade her seem like she was so much more than she actually was. And that had caused Wesley to swallow slightly as sh fixed her bright blue gaze upon him.

The woman's dark hair was short, hanging just past her ears on both sides, parted even ly in the middle. It was definitely a military cut, but despite the fact that she seemed to hold this poise and confidence, Wesley also noted that she couldn't be more than a couple years older than h im... then again he also realized he might just be bad at guessing a women's age.

"You are Wesley?" she asked, and at hearing his full name aloud, the young man frowned, but nodded in response. "You don't look much better awake than you do near-death, but I suppose that's the case for a Tier One."

Immediately, his eyes narrowed at the woman. He didn't really care who she was, but talking to him like that was not at all what he thought was fair. "Right. What do you want?" he asked pointedly. He didn't bother to play nice with her, not after she had just started out on the very wrong foot with him.

The woman's gaze didn't falter under his own annoyed response, merely moving forward to look at him more closely, and then at the monitor which held his supposed Framework. "Is this right?" she asked him, not bothering to even make eye contact, focused on the monitor itself. He imagined that she was cleared to see this, but he had no idea at all. If just anyone could waltz in and see this, his Skills weren't going to be secret for very long.

"Yeah. It's right," he responded, giving a small sound of annoyance with her still being here and just ignoring his question. "I'm not sure if you've got the clearance for me to share-"

"She's got the clearance man. A Tier Three basically has clearance for everything," the doctor called over, and Wes frowned.

That was a dumb system.

Victoria's gaze moved from the monitors to him then for a moment, curious as to what he was going to say. Her sharp eyes were watching his every movement, as if she were expecting him to do or say something that offended her on some personal level. "Well?"

He exhaled slowly. "I don't know the specifics," he began, not sure what all she wanted to know. "When I had my Framework examined, it was zeroes across the board. Life, Space, Death, Time. Everything was zero. Then when I got my Skills, I had one called Devour Energy, which allowed me to basically take Framework away from things and have it myself. I have a little bit from my allies, and then I used the Skill on the Beast, and on the fallen firebird."

He took a breath as he finished, grateful at least to get it all out in the air... even if he had no idea who this woman was. "So that's why it's showing me up over a hundred percent. I figure I will have to give back some of the Framework to others whenever I see them again."

She arched a brow. "You can grant Framework to other people as well?"

He blinked, the question coming on suddenly and with a lot more intensity than he had been expecting. "Um. Yeah. When I was trying to get some Framework at first, so I could get through the Basic Training without needing to deal with accusations of sitting out, I took and replaced Framework a couple of times from my allies."

She stood, beginning to move back away from the bed, pacing a bit before she paused, turning to look at him. "And you say you were able to take Framework from one of the Beasts? The one I killed?" she asked, as if she were clarifying each and every thing that had been said. He nodded, and she raised a hand to her mouth, beginning to chew lightly on her thumb. The confident air she had been showing a moment ago was starting to fade, and she frowned, looking at Wes who was still strapped down in the bed. "This is not a power someone like you should have."

Immediately, Wes' eyes narrowed in response. "What do you mean, someone like me? You don't know anything about me," he growled, his tone clearly conveying a great amount of annoyance as he watched her. "Maybe someone like you doesn't deserve to be a Tier Three. Each of us can say whatever we want- it doesn't make it true."

She stiffened in response to that, a cold look in her eyes as she looked down at him. "I am one of the few Tier Threes that the Military has," she spoke, her tone full of ice. "If it weren't for us, the humans would be long overrun."

"So they've sucked up to you for all this time because you're someone that can actually fight those things and not just annoy them like the rest of us," he muttered. "Great. So you're basically a spoiled brat for no good reason," he added. "Good job being born with a Tier Three Framework. I'm sure you worked hard for it," he spoke, his scathing tone coming out in full as he glared at the woman.

Inwardly, he wasn't quite sure why he was acting as he was. This wasn't like him- he knew that. He wasn't being coolheaded or level or any of the things he would have normally attributed to hiself. Instead he was acting like a selfish jerk... and then his eyes widened slightly. The high Space and high Death Frameworks. They were both impacting his personality. Sasha had mentioned it briefly when they were back at their little camp, but he hadn't stopped to actually consider it in its full effects.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Victoria hissed, her right hand clenching into a fist as the wind began to blow a bit around them.

"Hang on, hang on," Wes spoke, forcing the biting, acidic words down before they could bubble forth from his lips. "Wait. I apologize." She paused, as if not expecting such a sudden change in personality from him. "Look. The Frameworks dictate our personalities, right? Lazy people have high Time Framework, like the doctor here, right?"

From a short distance up, the doctor gave a small snort of laughter. "Fair dues," he called, not seeming all that flustered by the conversation happening between the two.

"I just got this Space and Death Framework this high a few hours ago. Or however long it's been since we fought the Beast. It's... affecting how I think. And act. So I didn't mean anything by any of that. Or, I guess to be honest I did, but I wouldn't have said it otherwise," he spoke, figuring that it would at least pay to be truthful. "That was a rude thing to say."

Victoria's hand slowly unfurled from a fist, the wind settling back down as she examined him further. "Doctor, are you writing this down?" she asked, and received an affirmative sound from the man. "I had wondered that immediately once I had seen your numbers and you explained how your Skill works. If it can affect personalities... that's a dangerous Skill in your hands."

Wesley frowned in annoyance. "Yeah. You've said that already- I get it. I don't plan to abuse it. I'm just trying to get enough Framework so I can be helpful and kill the Beasts. I don't have any other goal other than that. They took my parents away from me. They took Sasha's parents away from her. What more could I want aside from getting the ability to return the favor?" he asked, his gaze lifting to her.

"Every person is born with a Framework, they can't control that. They can't control their Tier. But maybe I can change that. Maybe I can push us to be able to contend with them directly and so we won't have to rely on you and the other Tier Three's all the time."

She didn't respond for a long moment, and he eventually just rolled his eyes, looking away. "Very well," she spoke after a moment before beginning to make her way out of the room. "Dr. Tenor. You may release him from his monitors. He's of no threat to us," she spoke on her way out, the door shutting behind her in a gust of wind.

Wesley blinked, having not expected that sudden return before the doctor rolled back in his rolling chair, fixing the young man with a grin. "Nice job, impressing Vice like that. Good speech," he spoke, clapping Wesley on the shoulder before he began to unhook the instruments around his arm.

"So what now?" Wes asked, before his stomach gave a sudden, loud, painful growl.

"Now, my man, go and find some food. Your group got cleared to eat from Vice and Shannon already. They're all at basic training but there's food for ya. I'll walk ya down there," the doctor offered, stepping back and allowing Wes to stand up, rubbing his arm.

Food sounded fantastic, right now. The young man couldn't help a small breath as he followed along with the doctor, headed toward the mess hall. Now he just needed to explain everything to the others.