truth_is_cold

080

[Public | Audio]

I'm completely certain that this will be ignored, but with a flood on I would recommend that people refrain from extremely intimate activities or brazen murders until it's over with. We've all seen the worst case scenarios more than once.

...I am noticing that certain things don't seem to... line-up, properly, at the moment. Has anyone else noticed this?

[Private to Ben | Audio]

I should speak with you.

OOC: Rhade is affected. His Barge memories are spotty; he may remember someone as their original self or their alternate self. He vaguely remembers being an inmate even though with his history he has no reason to ever have been. He managed to warn Dylan of the Nietzschean insurrection and both ended up weathering the Long Night together. Now he's actually closer to an inmate than he ever has been in this timeline, because he's never properly dealt with his rationalizing the Battle of Witchhead (where he had to participate in the destruction of thousands of his own people) and starting to act a little bizarrely towards Magog-infested Dylan. Canon point is early Season 2 AU.

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I think...

I think we may be the-

Nevermind. May I come see you? [Because there's another terrible memory in there, one of Dylan laying dead on a floor. And it just hit him like a ton of bricks.]

Sure.

When you get here, you can tell me what you think we may be. Other than smart, devilishly handsome, and the last hope for civilization.

Edited (adding silly Dylan words) 2013-04-21 06:43 (UTC)

We already know that much. [Ego battles are getting harder for Rhade, though, especially when everyone else seems more fond of his own kind than he is.]

I'll be right there.

[And he leaves, going to the room where he knows Dylan is, checking up on him for multiple reasons at this point.]

Yeah, but it's always nice hearing it anyway.

[Dylan's waiting for Rhade. Dressed for off duty in loose pants and a T-shirt. His hand is absently resting on his abdomen like an expectant mother.]

[That jars him to walk in on. He knows it's because there are horrible larvae growing in there, that it's going to cost Dylan his life even if there is a death toll here (which is the greatest benefit for having accepted a deal). But there is Dylan in such a familiar position and he's trying so hard not to think of it the way that he's thinking of it.

He cooly comes in and goes to get Dylan a glass of water- reflex, almost.]

I can't recall who T'Pol is, yet I know she was here. There are pictures on my desk of unfamiliar people, but I still recall them somehow. [He brings the glass over to Dylan, doing his best to keep his eyebrows from climbing.]

[Dylan takes the water and drinks. At least he's holding the glass with that hand now, instead of feeling little Magog bundles of opposite-of-joy moving inside him.]

Do you think the flood is giving you fake memories?

I think we may be affected. But I don't know whether I should say anything or not. [He sits beside of Dylan, and to soothe the tension in his stomach rests his hand on his abdomen.

He has been trying so very hard not to think of what's happening under his fingers, or the heartbreaking image that Rev Bem carries with him. It says something about the horrors in there that he hates to consider.]

It's probably best to keep it quiet unless we know exactly how we're affected. So far, I feel perfectly normal.

[He glances ruefully down at his stomach.]

Normal as I ever do these days.

[He thinks about a time he was laying Dylan's body on his bed, looking down at him mournfully. But this didn't happen, it couldn't have, or these squirming things wouldn't be under his palm.

He pulls back his hand, tucks it closer to himself so he stops... well... thinking about it.]

I remember things going differently. Just a little. They didn't go well then, either.

Guess I've got bad luck in every branch of the timelines. That's a bummer.

[He probably should be more upset at Rhade's implication that he dies horribly in every version of events. But the infestation has made the idea of his own death very familiar.]

I think we're the ones affected by the flood. [He says with no small amount of distaste.

And upon a moment of consideration, he rises again.] Don't worry. In my memories you came out fine. [After a while. Because he can feel that hand against his chest too, and an echo of searing pain running through him.]

I think you were better off without me.

[Dylan steps forward and puts his hand on Rhade's chest. He means it as a gesture of affection, but some echo of a memory may be driving him in ways he isn't aware of.]

I can't imagine that. We've been a team for so long, I can't imagine doing this without you. There's no one I trust more, no one I'd rather have at my side to save the universe.

[He glances down at that hand, looking remotely unsettled, before he puts his own hand on Dylan's forearm.]

I think you'll have to do it without me. Ben doesn't seem as though he'll graduate. [But he knows that he should, and that's perplexing.]

They messed up that poor boy bad. But I'm willing to wait as long as it takes. No man left behind.

And yours? [He has to ask. One of them has to assure that Dylan will get those Magog out... though he's never told Dylan the specifics of his deal.

He has a feeling he would disapprove.]

I think mine is coming along.

[He should be thrilled about the prospect of getting rid of the Magog larvae soon. But they've been in him for long enough now that the thought of having them gone almost feels weird. Maybe he's going crazy.]

[And he has to stop and consider what it is he's going to say here. He starts to pace again, a bad habit of his. But it seems more likely that Dylan's deal will be fulfilled first.]

Would... you be opposed, perhaps... if the Hajira Magog were to raise them once they were removed? [The problem would be getting them into something they could still feed off of as they grew. Not to mention the peculiarity of painful horrors inside of him.]

[Dylan latches on to that idea.]

That's a good idea. I mean, if it's them or me, I'm not going to let myself be Magog food. But what happened isn't really their fault. If there's a way to get my body back without killing them, and a way to raise them to not be monsters, I'm all for trying it.

[He's actually glad the response is favorable. He hates the idea of destroying something with Dylan's DNA in it if it can be avoided.] It may be possible with your deal, and then we could leave. [He sounds eager about that idea.]

[Dylan always wanted a family. A brood of Magog was definitely not what he had in mind. But for all he knows, maybe they'll make him proud. Maybe with the right rearing they'll all become pacifists and philosophers like Rev Bem.]

Looking forward to getting back to saving the universe?

Yes. I hate it here. [He's far too blunt about that, and it's even without the issues of having been an inmate.] I feel stagnant. Knowing that you can't die here makes it worth staying, but I don't believe either of us want to be here indefinitely.

You've got that right. This isn't exactly home sweet home. [He just stops himself from saying that this is no place to raise a child. He won't be raising any Magog children on Andromeda either.]

What will we do if they manage to hatch before Blonsky graduates.

[He honestly doesn't want to put them down. Even being Magog- he's seen Rev Bem. He knows what they can be.]

[Dylan sighs heavily.]

If that happens, we just have to hope we can control them and keep them from eating everyone on the ship.

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