1.4: Kilgrave

Kilgrave was in quite a pickle. After waking up from his restful night's sleep he had discovered his little pet was unconscious in a hospital room. His attempts to get answers by swinging the viewers around the unconscious girl were more or less fruitless.

When he was about at his wits end, he remembered the big red pain button. When his darling had imprisoned him, that button had been used to send a current coursing through his cell, a certainly quite unpleasant experience. In this new prison however the purpose of the objects had changed: what was previous used to talk to and see him now was used to do those things to Taylor. Perhaps, he reasoned, the pain button would also be re-purposed to interact with Taylor in some way. And if there was anything that was going to wake her up, that button would be it.

So, he had pressed it, and things had gotten weird. First, everything had gone black, next came an incredible feeling of grogginess and a sense of dull, distant pain. Slowly he had risen out of the fog and found himself face to face with a nurse in a hospital room. Naturally, he was able to quickly regain his composure and footing in the situation, and came to a rough conclusion of what the red button must do and his general situation.

Then Taylor spoke.

This was a problem, since she apparently had his precious body, and while the ability to possess someone not locked in a cage was a nice feature, he was still rather attached to his old accommodations, despite its problematic condition. Furthermore, while he was pretty confident his power had transferred over based on the behavior of the nurse, he couldn't exert any control over Taylor in this arrangement. He would have to talk himself out of this the old fashioned way.

"Now, I know we both got off on a bad foot, and I'm sure you think this is all my fault, but I think I can convince you it's not all my fault, and what is was a perfectly honest mistake."

"A bad foot? You call this a bad foot? You made me beat my own father! He's in jail because of you!"

Hm, he wasn't always the most careful of sort, but he was sure he would have remembered giving an order like that.

"Darling Tay-"

"DON'T CALL ME DARLING YOU MONSTER!"

"Right. Miss, ugh, Herbert, what exactly did I tell you to do?"

"You ordered me to take a fucking bath and go to sleep, and I had to get in a fight with my dad to try and comply."

"Ah, that's what happened. I think that's what we call an honest mistake and, before you explode, consider this: if I had wanted you to fight your father, why would I engineer it in such a roundabout way? If you consider simply consider what I said, was there any malice in my departing words?"

"Um. Huh. Why wouldn't you be more careful talking? I know you know you have a power."

"Ugh, everyone always says 'be more careful' as if it was as easy as that. I've had this power for almost my whole life you know, and I can't turn it off. Can you imagine trying to have a conversation without ever making a request of someone? Do you have any conception of how difficult, how impossible, such a level of careful word parsing is? To, as unfortunately happened to you, not be able to wish someone a good night without potentially dire consequences? Bloody hell, I've made several in that couple of sentences alone.

I think, if you look at the events objectively, you will see I meant you no harm with those parting words wishing you a good night. I know I did you an unfortunate amount of harm, but can you see that I did not mean for you to suffer? It was an honest mistake, an immensely unfortunate, but honest mistake."

"BUT! But . . ." He could practically hear the gears turning in the youngling's head, trying to find fault with his words. ". . . but, what about the talk? The walk home? You could tell I was suffering, right? Anyone with an ounce of empathy would have realized that."

He paused to think a moment. "I will admit reading people has never been a particular strength of mine. Since I've been - burdened with this power for so long my skill at reading people has never had the chance to develop. As my Jessica used to say, I've never learned to interact with people in a way someone would call normal. Jessica Jones, the little cricket on my shoulder, was the closest I'd ever come, which is rather sad when I think about it. Combined with my shock from finding myself in such a strange situation, my own significant problems clouding my mind, I honestly was in no condition to notice your dire state."

"Huh. I guess that makes sense, I think? Maybe? . . . Who's Jessica?"

"Ah, Jessica Jones, she and I were - close. She was a true hero as they say, always looking out for the victims of the world. Got her into trouble a couple of times, but her heart was always in the right place. We hero'ed together for a while you know."

"You really don't seem the hero type, and that name doesn't help any, Mr. Kilgrave."

He gave a little chuckle at that, which surprised him since it came out as more of a girly giggle. And brought about a coughing fit. Right, on to the important issue.

"You're more correct than you know. I often relied on Jessica to reach the right decisions during our heroing career. When we had to part ways, I was hopeless at it. You like heroes, don't you Taylor?"

"Well, yeah, everyone likes them. Everyone wishes they could be one."

"Would you like to be a hero Taylor?"

"Um, why are you-"

"Because I can help you become one. You seem a good girl. A bad girl would never react so strongly to getting in a fight with her father or put up with such merciless bullying for so long. Between my power and your morals, I think we could make a pretty good team."

". . . why are you, no. What are you offering?"

"Well, since we're stuck together, we will need to depend upon each other until we can find some sort of solution for the current predicament. And since, as you say, it is your body, it only makes sense that most of the responsibility to help rests on me. And I can help you a great deal, to be a hero, to be rich, to be popular, whatever you want, I can help you achieve it. So, what do you want Taylor darling?"

"What do I want? I want - I want my dad back. I want him out of jail. I want his reputation repaired! . . . and I want his forgiveness."

"Hm, baby steps are a perfectly fine way to walk down the path to happiness. Well, let's see if I can make your wishes come true. Do you happen to know a good Lawyer?"