truth_is_cold

058

[Private to the Admiral | Audio]

[Ugh, he doesn't want to do this.] Return Mariska's duplication ability at one half strength.

[Public | Audio]

[He's feeling a little terse.] I have returned Mariska's duplication ability at one-half strength, with the understanding she will only use it in self-defense. [Yes, he is very unsure about this.] If she doesn't use them in this way, she is aware there will be consequences. [Both in losing her abilities and people defending themselves.] This will allow her to produce four copies of herself that she remains in communal contact with. If she is attacked for no reason, I will defend her.

[And he's out. Because he has to go scrub his face like that would remove the memory of her breathing in it. He has a feeling he's going to have to go kidnap a legitimate genesmith from his universe and figure out a way to save that baby himself.]

[Private to Castiel, Buffy, Dracula, and Dean]

[And he comes back to add...]

I would like to speak to you if you would be willing. I admit to being hesitant to return any of her abilities. I am out of my realm of expertise, but I know that I need to give her the chance to behave responsibly with her abilities rather than jump to any conclusions.

However, if something does happen, I would like to be prepared. She's susceptible to head shots, and her bite is currently not infectious.

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[Slight sigh.]

I understand.

And hey, duplicate zombie. That's exciting and new.

Hopefully the time won't come when you need me for this, but when it does. I've got it.

I'll be honest. I have no idea what I'm doing.

I don't know why he thinks that I can help her.

[Attempt at lighthearted dark humor!] Well, she hasn't eaten anyone yet which is a bonus.

[Then, more seriously.] ... I don't know. Still kinda trying to adjust to the fact that Franklin's allowed to be a warden.

We don't have zombies like her where I'm from. I don't even know where to start. ... Have you had any moral-type conversations with her yet?

Edited 2012-09-13 22:07 (UTC)

I really don't want her to take up that habit. [So many issues with people being eaten. You can smell the gross on her breath.] She very genuinely believes that by forcing people to become what she is, she's enlightening them. That they want it but they don't know they want it.

I told her that in my culture with as many species as we have, we still call forcing someone to propagate your own kind "rape" even if it doesn't involve human standards of sex, but as someone who originally came from a free love society she can't grasp the idea that one is as bad as the other.

[He rubs his hands down his face.]

It's "different because they return to life better".

[Allow Buffy a moment to be grossed out.] Euuugh.

That's just- Great. Agreeing with you on the rape-y vibe.

[She rubs her eyes briefly.]

Maybe look into other kinds of.. Er- [She does the air-quotes.] "Enlightenment." Y'know. The kinds people have.

O-Or. ...I've got nothing.

[That sound she just made is how he feels.]

She used a number of hallucinatory drugs. I don't think she'll see any other way to enlightenment- I have to resolve myself to just convincing her she can't just change people against their will to something they don't want to be.

[Nod.] Yeah got the flower child thing.

Maybe there'll be some kind of flood or something that turns her into something she really really doesn't wanna be. That could help.

[Pause. Blank face.] Oh god I just mentioned floods in a positive way.

Nothing living will work, as she's already been alive and sworn never to return to the state.

I think my only option is to stick with my ideals and make sure she doesn't harm anyone. But I don't suspect people will be leaping over one another to befriend her.

[Dean was in a coma for the initial Mariska thing, but he's heard about it since then; he'd still been going to ignore this, until the private message popped up anyway, so now here he is. Being an attention whore on video feed, as usual.]

Wait, wait, wait. She's her own zombie horde?

One of her, three minor duplicates. It, surprisingly, was one of the more mundane powers I could return and I cut it in half. She can't teleport or infect people or swell her hands up to overwhelming size to make attacks or form a rocket out of the ether to blast people with fuel.

[There's a tone here that indicates he has no idea what the actual fuck to make of all of this.]

[Dean just blinks, having no clue where to start, either. Because yeah, the zombies back home? Don't do any of that.]

Um. Well. Good call, then. [What the fuck.]

How overwhelming we talking?

It doesn't say. [There's the sound of flipping paper.]

...I'm sure that I won't like knowing. [You have the strong genetically engineered good-at-heart inmate, Dean! Do you know how lucky you are?!]

Apparently since she had "rock" in her soul, the gas that she encountered in the afterlife turned her into what she is. [He wishes Beka were here. She would at least give him musical reference for the era.]

[Yeah, Kon's a good kid. If he flips his shit, Dean won't be able to stop him from killing everyone on board, but he's a good kid in the meantime.]

Alright, I'm game - whadaya need from me?

[Wait, did you say something about musical references and rock? Because. Um.] Rock? Gas? I don't... She must be one of the hoodoo variety plus a bit soft in the brainpan.

[And yet somehow it still seems so much easier.] If she attacks someone, and you're available, shots to the head will take her down. I'm not so foolish to say to contact me first; I'll get there as quickly as I can but I would rather the threat be removed than someone be eaten.

[Dean blinks. This is... a surprise. The confusion clears from his expression long enough for him to study Rhade for a second from an altogether different side of his personality - one he hasn't shown very much of.]

Alright. Any sorta special ammo? Silver, iron? Or will just plain lead do the trick?

[Seeing as how he doesn't think her gravebed is anywhere nearby, nor any packs of wild dogs likely to be available.

Fucking zombies, man.]

Lead will suffice. She's durable because she's not susceptible to conventional damage, but a head shot will stop her immediately. Do you have any large gauge weapons?

...Also what music was popular in 1969?

I got a 12-gauge sawed off back in my room, and I carry a .45 most of the time. It's enough to make a helluva mess with good aim, and that's something I've always got on me.

Uh. Music? [He actually considers this for a moment, dropping the cocky act long enough to show the wheels turning, perhaps unintentionally.] The Beatles are probably the big name, but then, they always were. Led Zeppelin came out that year, Elvis was still on top, Dylan, the Stones, just... a lot of awesome bands. Why?

Beka was the person that knew about rock. Not me. My mother was an opera singer.

Apparently it had a strong effect on this woman's life, enough to help give her the abilities she possesses in the afterlife.

I don't know any Bekas, but I do know my rock music. I have some records if you wanna hear some of it sometime.

...dude, a zombie with good taste in music? How is that even fair? And should I start paying attention so I know what to warn people about happening to me if I'm ever zombified?

She's her own barbershop quartet?

Hm. Well. I am supposed to be the undead liaison for the Barge, so I think I will approach her. If her appetite is anything like vampiric bloodlust her triggers will be hunger, extreme boredom, fear-defense reaction, and rage. I could put in a vote of confidence for you, as you were one of those who handled me initially and you have always treated me with consideration and fairness.

She won't be hungry, however she's suggested she has the intention of provoking people into violence against her and she feels that she is doing people a favor by turning them into one of her kind.

She has nowhere near your sense of decorum, even back when you were newly arrived.

Those are not good signs. I will keep an eye out for trouble with her. And with Steve Newlin, who apparently is a liar of the first order, young, and impulsive.

Something about him made me apprehensive. [It was the adamantly religious thing, though.] I will keep that in mind.

I am going to try and mitigate any potential problems. Even if he is a liar from a questionable background he is a young vampire and he has a need for community and support. I won't condemn him before the fact, but...be wary.

In my universe, there is a race that I have mentioned. They are the Magog. They eat sentient beings, invading whole worlds and devastating their populations. They reproduce through rape, infesting unwilling living sentients and then their progeny devour their way out. The first planets they attacked and destroyed when entering the Known Worlds were ones settle by my people.

But among this race, there was a Magog who infested a monk. This monk taught him the ways of the Saints. Most religions by that time had become a uniform fixture, and he taught him about the iconic figures of Buddha, Jesus, and the Divine and the Way.

Wayism was started by Magog that wanted to live with others in the universe. A Magog in monk's clothing can almost undoubtedly be trusted as safe, or as having great restraint. Magog aren't given to lying or deception, anyway, so they find strength in their religion rather than use it against anyone. Even as what they are, they still represent it well.

I knew a Wayist and he was a good man. If you've not noticed, I've been careful not to attack someone who has yet to do anything to me or mine. Mostly thanks to the Wayist I knew, as there's nothing I despise more [or he's more bone-quakingly afraid of] than the Magog.

A story you might want to keep in mind when talking with Mr. Newlin.

[He listens quietly, and gradually his expression becomes one of mild horror and grief. He pities these beings even as he despises their actions. But...at least some of them seem to have found a way of becoming...different.]

It is my ambition to lead my people, and as many of other bloodlines as will listen, in the pursuit of a higher form of vampiric existence. I have hope that both he and Willow will eventually embrace such a path. But I suspect they're both quite a ways off from that.

And now I understand the depth of tolerance you showed when I was wounded and you led me down to the blood stores. I am in your debt.

I believe very strongly that an organism capable of deeply contemplating its future should have the ability to choose how its body should enter that future.

I'm... unsure of how to approach my current inmate, and I doubt she will take my claims in earnest.

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