hadriel | 003✖; (voice)

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003✖; (voice)

[Judging by the sound of her voice and the clunking of glass in the background, Rey has been drinking. Alone, no less. When that happens, she has a habit to get melancholy, and even more so now. Thanks, Sorrow.]

"So, let's get this straight.

"The goal in all of this, assuming that we have one to start with, is to bring all of these dead gods back to life so that they can work their asses to finally use that Door that brought us all here in the first place... to take us back to our own worlds. That is the mission, right?"

[Pause. Another clink of glass as she takes a shot. By then it's obvious that there's something off about the way she speaks. Devoid of the monotone and the robot exterior that she so often maintains in the presence of others. Now it's just too much work.]

"Not that it's supposed to be a bad thing. Am sure that some of you come from lovely worlds with minimal problems and actual lives to return to and whole prospects ahead of you. But where does that leave some of us?

"You know, the ones that don't have lives. People who are dead, or have nothing to go back to but a piece of metal rammed through your chest but you're not dead even though you'd probably be better off that way anyway because of your track record for only making things worse no matter how much good you try to do and..."

[...And Rey is digressing. That is also not something she wanted to actually say.

[In fact, none of these things she actually wanted to say.

[Realizing this, she cuts the feed with a muttered "fuck, never mind" at the end.]

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We were both created in a similar way, except she was an incubator for a massively destructive energy.

When she died, that energy transferred. Was not able to contain it the same way she did.

[And thus the Rey she was back then went boom, and the Rey now remembers every little detail of the unpleasant experience.]

What happened then?

[Not being able to contain something usually mean that something terrible happens, and she's alluded to as much, but he would like to know the details of it.]

It exploded.

[If she had it her way and it wouldn't have just led to more questions, Rey would have just left it at that. As it is, she can't help but feel that she needs to say these things to someone. Anyone. Doesn't matter who. Muscovy just happens to be asking the questions.]

Killed almost an entire civilian population. Others were wounded, sick, homeless, dying.

Was falling apart after. Could barely keep the body parts from falling off. Being killed was a mercy.

[One that she, as far as she is concerned, did not deserve. Because she is wicked.]

Edited 2016-08-05 04:07 (UTC)

So one town instead of many towns died.

[He has to wonder about that last bit, though.

Because he knows that it doesn't mean that things have ended for Rey. But still, she calls it being killed - dying. That's not what it is to him, never was. The closest that he has come is passing out for a while.

He knows that she gets new bodies, somehow, but he never wondered with enough force to ask how exactly that works.]

How did you get your new body?

A "town" that was full of people, of which millions were affected. A place that had once been home.

[Well, in a way. Her memories of Stone had been born on the streets of that city, and Rey herself had been created a mile under it. It's the closest thing she ever had to a home before Chicago, and now that is gone, too.

[She blinks at his question, wondering if her "other self" had ever told him about her past vessels. Doesn't sound like it, though.]

Have had many bodies. Am just data -- or a consciousness, however you want to look at it -- inside a husk. Can be transferred into other bodies like this one.

Yes. But it could have been much more. [A million means nothing to him. It's a fantasy number, far exceeding anything that he has a frame of reference for. The number of drops in the ocean, maybe.]

[He nods slowly.]

But only if there are bodies that the data can be transferred into. Like Gregory.

[Which was why they could have made him have an accident back on the planet had he shown up and he would have been dead for good.

...Why, he realized, that should still be possible. He hasn't seen empty bodies, and as long as bodies can't be emptied out... He might be thinking of Nick here.]

[Rey rubs her face, not sure if Muscovy is grasping the gravity of what she's telling him. Probably not, judging by his response.]

It could've been much less had a more calculative action been taken.

[What action, she doesn't know. Stone wasn't known for thinking before acting. She was a brash personality, towards the end.

[All of that gets pushed into the back of her mind, however, with Muscovy's next response. Rey drops her hand from her head, head snapping towards him and eyes widening slightly. It takes every inch of self-restraint not to shake the kid right then and demand information.]

The hell do you know about Gregory?

That he would have a terrible accident if he showed up here.

[They never told Rey about that, back on the planet. But they had it all set up, or at least planned out - multiple options, even. After the ship fell off the cliff, it had ceased to be a topic of deliberation, because someone new coming would have been close to impossible. But here in Hadriel, the concern is renewed, and Muscovy has looked into it. It's harder now that he has to think of ways in which he alone would be able to engineer it, and... well, the lack of acidic rivers is really troublesome here. They were useful for accidents, or covering them up.

He's not expecting Rey to get in on it; he's not even sure if it is a good idea to tell her. But it is the first thing that comes to his mind, and it has been weighing heavily enough on him to also find it's way onto his lips, even though it doesn't sound likehe's just blurting something out.]

[The fact that she -- the other Rey -- had apparently told him enough for the kid to come to that conclusion is pretty telling. Rey -- the one here and now -- isn't so sure what to make of that, or of the fact that somehow Muscovy feels protective enough that he would take such measured actions against someone who had put her through nearly a century's worth of hell.

[It's strange to think about. Normally she doesn't talk about that stuff at all, let alone share it with a child. Then again, it isn't like she's encountered many children to have an estimate on what she would or wouldn't tell them.

[Her mouth twists into an uncomfortable grimace.]

What else?

[This is a very personal, very private detail that Rey tends to keep guarded from most people. She has a hard time believing that that is the full extent to Muscovy's knowledge on the subject.]

[It's been months, and he had tucked the information away in a far out corner of his mind for a few of them because it wasn't needed anymore.

But he had memorized it very thoroughly before that, so it was not as hard as it could have been to pull it up again.]

What he looks like; that he was the one who usually had you killed in your former lives; that he's synthetic and thus could come back under the wrong circumstances. [He pauses, tilts his head as he ponders if he should add the obvious thought that comes with that in Hadriel and then decides that there is no reason to not mention it, because Rey is probably thinking it anyway and he should better show that he will be careful there.] So if he came here, Nick would have to be protected, too. [So his body can't be stolen. And if... well. You kill rabid dogs.]

[That's a lot of information. That is a lot of personal information, some of which Rey hasn't had the chance to even share with Nick yet. The subject of Gregory is something of a complicated one for Rey, given everything he had put her through and yet she still can't bring herself to hold any animosity towards the synthetic man.

[Not that it matters now, since he's dead. Hopefully for good this time, though she wouldn't find herself surprised if he ended up crawling his way through the woodworks once again.]

Don't think he'd ever go so far as to steal another's body. He is... or was too full of himself for that sort of thing.

[Resting her chin in the palm of her hand, her eyes fall to the tabletop as she mutters:] IV, on the other hand... She's the type that'd love to take someone else's skin out for a spin.

[IV is a sick puppy, and Rey's actually seen her do that sort of thing.]

Anyway, Gregory isn't a concern. He can't toy with me anymore.

[He would still be careful. Just that someone hasn't tried a thing before doesn't mean that they wouldn't if they were in a pinch, and it did sound like Gregory would have the ability to do so...]

...Who is IV?

[He's never heard that name before, but the way Rey mentions this person, it seems like very necessary information to have.]

And people come to places like this from the past of others. So someone who is dead in your time could come from a past time of your world and still be alive. My lady aunt came from a time when her whole family had been dead for a very long time, and yet some of them were in the place where I was before, too.

[Rey doesn't doubt that Gregory would try something if he was still alive, or brought to this place in the same manner as she. He is cunning enough to not only have manipulated the entire government cabinet for decades, but assumed total control over it in the end, and even continued to posthumously tug their strings after his supposed "assassination".

[She also knows Gregory's motives now more than ever, and understands why he did those things he did.]

Someone who Gregory was afraid of.

[And, in a way, Rey herself as well, but hell if she is going to admit that fear of hers.]

Am aware of that. Just saying, am not able to be controlled by him now like he could before, so it's not an issue even if he were to show up. [She scoffs.] Honestly, he'd be doing a service if he did come back somehow, just to blow his head off again. That would be satisfying.

[Of course, that had been just one of his vessels, so it didn't kill him at the time. But damn if it wouldn't scratch a serious itch.]

[His expression brightens up at her second statement.]

So you are stronger than him now, no matter what time he would come from, yes?

[That are REALLY good news. They make this whole worry of his a lot less substantial - if she'll be fine even if that guy doesn't suffer an accident immediately.]

Edited 2016-08-30 20:27 (UTC)

Technically, was always stronger than him. That's why he felt the need for control.

But no, he has no sway anymore even if he tried.

[And the only access to her programming to change that would require equipment that isn't available to this place, so getting into what makes her what she is just isn't possible.]

How did he control you then?

[He decides that she won't eat any more soup and grabs a spoon for himself to eat what's left, but watches her still between short looks down to coordinate his hands.]

[The subject matter has resulted in Rey forfeiting her appetite, so she lets Muscovy help himself to the leftover soup.]

Memory wipes. Replacing previous memories with new ones.

There was also a phrase in a particular song that would initiate a reset.

[If Muscovy can figure out what that Manchurian Candidate shit even means.]

[He only gets half of that, but it is enough to get a general picture.]

If you got new memories and new bodies, how were those other women still you?

[That's puzzling. Memories and body... sure, he's heard of immortal souls and all that, but he got the impression that it worked under the assumption that memories and some resemblance of continuity of the body were attached to it.]

[She sighs, scratching her forehead as she searches for the words to properly explain how this works.]

At the time, we were completely different people. But now, can remember all their memories. Their experiences. Thoughts and feelings. That's all that's left of them. Without those memories, those experiences, would be nothing. Would be empty.

[Having very clear memories of what it was like to be an empty shell, Rey would rather deal with the unpleasant memories of those women than to go back to ever being that way again.]

...Is that also why he can't control you again?

[It sounds like it is related to that, at least.]

One of the reasons, probably.

To be honest, don't think my father knew whether or not it would actually work or just kill me.

[As Rey had come so close to by her own hands throughout those four years.]

[There's something bugging him, something that has been like an itch that he couldn't scratch for a long while and he finally figured out what it is.]

Why do you still call him father?

[Rey's expression twists when a sense of déjà vu hits her.

...

[Yeah, Muscovy is hardly the first to ever ask that question.]

Was created by him. He's the closest thing to a father that something like me could ever have.

[By her logic, anyway.]

Nick isn't trying to do bad things to you, wants to protect you, cares about you and is a guy and looks older than you. So he is very much like a father too, yes, and in better ways than the one that you call that now.

[He doesn't think Nick is particularly awesome, but definitely better than this guy and also yeah. Has a number of father traits.]

[Rey now gives him an even more incredulous look, like he just started speaking to her in tongues.]

Are you suggesting that I consider Nick my father?

[True, they see each other as family. And she may have once mistaken Nick as the man who created her in a dream. But it just seems absurd... in theory.

[In practice is another matter entirely.]

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