video; un: fiona

[cachemoney]

[Fiona is a little out of breath, like she just hustled very quickly away from somewhere. Which she did, but that's neither here nor there. The background behind her is some innocuous wood panelling; she's in a house.]

Okay. So. Crunch time. Things are getting nuts out there, if you didn't notice. We are gonna wind up super screwed if we don't hop to figuring out what the hell to do.

[She holds up a vial. It has some alien writing on it, as well as a familiar symbol on the label.]

We found this inside the hospital. A shit-ton of them, actually. So who wants to find out what Zymandis asshole is responsible for this mess and beat an antidote out of them?



[ ooc. PS, maya, hanzo, and mccree might show up in your threads. feel free to threadjack as well! ]

Comments

[respired]

Ask what? We have our own work on the cure. We need nothing else from him.

[ He grows increasingly frustrated. ]

I will not allow evil to flourish so that the rest of you can waste time.

[moneyballer]

Whoa, hey, hey, hey.

I'm with you on this one. This shit right here? This Night of the Living Dead garbage? It's awful, dude. I feel ya! If one guy really is responsible for all this, he deserves whatever he's got comin' to him.

[He tilts his chin downwards, as if he's not trying to start a fight.]

Would you hear me out, for a sec?

[respired]

[ He folds his arms over his chest. He's already agitated by the responses so far, and by people elsewhere TALKING LIKE HE ISN'T THERE. ]

Go on.

[moneyballer]

[Koltira's gaze is terrifying, not because of what he can do-]

There's a chance that whoever started this is a part of a bigger picture.

[But because of what he will and won't believe.]

If we kill him outright, whose to say this won't happen again?

I know, I know, it might! Even if we try to find somethin' out.

There's no guarantee he or she or it or what the hell ever will even talk, or tell the truth, but it's a worth a shot.

[He does his best not to be condescending in tone, keeping his voice level.]

It'd suck if they did this somewhere else, in another universe.

I'm super bummed about everything that's been goin' on. Isn't that why you're mad too, bruh?

[respired]

[ Asher's colloquialisms do him no favors; they make Koltira want to dismiss him. But he tries to control his own temper, nevertheless. ]

You lot have no evidence for your preposterous conspiracies. The only 'bigger picture' is this: a group that wishes to eradicate all that is, by whatever means necessary. I have dealt with such forces before. It is a hydra of many heads, no doubt, and those heads may regrow as we cut them. But it is still the only means of defeat.

[moneyballer]

I get what you're sayin'.

[Asher doesn't know much of Koltira's world, though it sounds like his culture has something to do with being a warrior. The other has a sword and talks like he's from another time and place entirely, so perhaps he isn't used to running into things like loopholes or legal jargon, technicalities.

Sometimes it's the technicalities that get you locked up.]

I just think that chargin' in all guns ablazin'... You might playin' into somebody's hand. You're a strong guy, I know that.

[Nobody on this team was able to stop him, and that's saying a lot.]

It's just... I don't want us to be making close calls if it'll only get more people in trouble. Our people.

[Still, what if they can do the unthinkable? "They" meaning whoever started the virus, if it can be attributed to one person.]

That's it.

[respired]

[ Literally what is this nonsense? The arguments about collecting information offer only the thinnest useful thread--as Koltira believes there is little to gain from questioning the doctor--but playing into someone's hand? ]

Again. You have no evidence for that supposition. Do not waste my time with conspiracy unless you have something to present outside of wild speculation. If anyone will suffer because of our choices, it will be due to you and those like you--those who waste their time on meaningless distractions.

[ He scowls, baring his vampiric canines. ]

Do not stand in my way.

[moneyballer]

[Koltira has a point, and it says a lot that Asher is more scared by the uncomfortable feeling in his gut than the sight of those teeth. He hopes that this will all end if they whack some crazy mad scientist dude, but as he's come to learn, things don't tend to be that simple.

For the team's sake, he hopes that it will be.]

I'm not gonna.

[Implied in his tone of voice and in the defeat of his posture are the following words:

"I can't."]

You might wanna take a chill pill after all o' this is over, though.

[asher u have seen him

the only chill koltira has is... his low body temperature???]

[respired]

[ Koltira's been immersed in modern slang for long enough that he knows a few colloquialisms--or at least, he's able to patch together meaning out of context clues.

He grits his teeth. ]

I can take no such pill.

[ A beat, and then he adds, before Asher can rush to correct him -- ]

And I know you do not mean actual medicine. But the fact remains.

[strictdiscipline]

[Just gonna casually slide on in here, what up Asher.]

Most people with strong convictions tend not to bow easily under pressure. How much pressure are you willing to place on him, if we find him?

[moneyballer]

[He is a lawyer.

This much, he knows.]

Honestly, after everything that's gone down, around here?

[What people do not seem to understand, since it is not one of the many things he broadcasts even by accident, is that he is capable of doing horrible things when his emotions get the best of him. Horrible meaning that he is not above killing a man with his own bare hands if pushed into the right miserable circumstance, because for all his hesitation to fight in a good majority of situations...]

A lot.

[The ability to murder, well?

Doesn't matter how big or small or kind or sad you are.

Anybody can do it.]

gently slides back in

[strictdiscipline]

[She has no idea of what might be going through Asher's mind, and honestly barely knows anything about the young man other than his relationship with Jin, but he's never struck her as someone with much of an interest in the darker aspects of life, at least on a personal level.]

Perhaps she's wrong.]

So you're saying you'd be willing to torture him, if pushed?

[moneyballer]

Yeah.

[Spoken as if it weren't even a question.]

This shit's fucked.

[strictdiscipline]

So is torture, last I heard.

[Said dryly, but internally the answer isn't sitting particularly well with her.]

[moneyballer]

You're really gonna play that card, when the whole city's up in flames?

[He sounds offended.]

I'm not about to play nice with the psycho who started all of this.

There's no way in hell that this zombie bull was an accident.

[strictdiscipline]

I doubt it was and Doctor Percy deserves no kindness from any of us, but torture is a slippery slope.

[There's a moment where she deliberates adding more. She's never tortured anyone and she's hardly the expert on moral quandry but]

I don't want you to fall too far down the wrong side.

[hedonistic]

What's the rush? We could always crush their limbs so they can't escape, see what we can get out of 'em and finish the job after. Plus, if you're into the whole retribution part, just slitting his throat is a bit clean and easy, right?

[...A bit dark, perhaps, but--Kagari never claimed to be a good person.]

[respired]

[ He neither likes nor has a high tolerance for Kagari at this point--seeing as how the guy has been nothing but disrespectful and invasive--so Koltira doesn't have a lot of tolerance for this remark. ]

I have no personal desire to 'get' anything out of him. Nor do I wish to torture him. He is simply a threat that must be neutralized.

[hedonistic]

Don't get me wrong, I'm with you on the neutralizing part--

[That's how it's generally done in Japan, too. When a suspect resists arrest, you fire the Dominator first and ask questions later. It falls to Sybil's hands whether they live or die. Of course, that final part is different here, but Kagari doesn't particularly have compunctions about doing it nonetheless.]

But we don't lose anything trying to see if we can find out who else is involved in this whole mess, either. End result, he's still gonna be dead. Kinda doubt one asshole can pull all this off on their own, anyway. There's probably other threats that are gonna need neutralizing.

[respired]

Evidence so far gathered does not suggest a large presence.

[ He shrugs. ]

But I have already agreed to let Loki use his sword of truth. He can ask whatever question he likes.

[ Game over after that, though. ]

[hedonistic]

Damn, just when I thought things couldn't get more JRPG, a fuckin' truth sword.

[Just don't ask, Koltira. Just. Don't ask.]

But you're right, there's no real point keeping him around after that, if you're not into the whole torture scene.

[respired]

[ In point of fact, Koltira's definitely into the torture scene--but he'd rather not be. Besides which, he honestly doesn't see how it'd help anything this time.

He glosses over the language he doesn't understand; ordinarily, he would ask, but his patience is too thin to care. ]

There is little point to any of this debate.

[hedonistic]

Except having the moral high ground, probably. People on this team love that.

[#salt]

[respired]

[ He mutters. ]

That is undeniably so.

[hedonistic]

I guess that's what happens when you put together a bunch of naive idealists and tell them they're saving the multiverse, though.