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

[ex_adept136]

His negligence is a problem, I can't argue otherwise. But we should try to determine the extent of his involvement before actions are taken.

[respired]

The extent is clear enough to me.

[ex_adept136]

Is that firsthand information?

[respired]

We have seen the devastation he's wrought. What more do you need?

[ex_adept136]

Answers.

[They'll go around like a carousel till one of them gives up]

[respired]

[ Undeath means unyielding ... unfortunately. But he does sound frustrated. ]

What kind?

[ex_adept136]

[Haise remains unvexed, simply because he's accustomed to being disagreed with.

ALASTAIR has been his first opportunity to voice his thoughts so freely]

I want to know why this method...

Why choose something so inefficient, after we intervened last time? It's like an open invitation for us to be dispatched here, and that's concerning.

[respired]

Foolish conspiracy with no evidence. You are all too quick to jump to conclusions that have no bearing on logic. They began their work here far before we arrived. They have operated for hundreds upon hundreds of years while taking ostensibly little notice of ALASTAIR--and we in Audentes only ever even knew of them recently.

To think they are suddenly planning around us is not only ridiculous, it is arrogant. And it has. No. Weight.

[ Accustomed to disagreement? Pal, he's right here under a dogpile. As he has been before, as he's sure he will be again. ]

[ex_adept136]

Not just us. Not just one team, but we have no communication with the others.

[Well, at least they're both accustomed to dissent. Haise remains placid, if only because he's spent his brief existence being dismissed, and has grown inured to the sting of it to some degree]

I think it's arrogant to assume we have the whole picture. Let's consider what we do know, from experience. The last world we were in, Zymandis chose an efficient, fiercely destructive method. Does Earth of this era have sufficient space travel to even spread the virus, and is that at all comparable to breaking a crystal that would wipe out worlds?

[respired]

Their mission is to destroy. Whatever they can, whenever they can, wherever they can. Chaos is not always efficient, as I well know. The best kinds, in fact, are messy and unpredictable--as they cause the most prolonged suffering.

You are all desperate to see patterns that do not exist. Fine. Stab this man with your sword of truth. And when he laughs at our name--if he even knows it--I will spit at your ignorant feet. And then? I will cut his bloody throat.

[ex_adept136]

I'd rather be laughed at and know for sure than take an irreversible action and risk overlooking anything pertinent, where lives are on the line.

[They're not in such a position of power that Haise could find the idea of simply mowing down opposition a comfortable one. And even if they were, he's just not that sort of man]

We're all on the same side. I just don't want us to have regrets later if we forego certain avenues and opt to destroy like they do.

[respired]

Do not suggest that the nonsense you seek to prove has anything to do with preserving lives. This creature's knowledge of us or otherwise has nothing to do with what's happening here, now, and on this planet--nor what might happen if you lot tried to hold him and he escaped. You simply want to see order where there is chaos. You are wrong, and in being wrong, it is you who will cause suffering.

[ex_adept136]

And if I'm not wrong, there'd be greater collateral damage. Can you tell me with complete certainty that isn't the case?

[respired]

What damage do you speak of? What delusion do you imagine now? In all scenarios, the universe is safer with this villain dead.

[ex_adept136]

I've said nothing about what you ultimately intend to do, even if it's not in my nature to snuff out lives if it can be avoided.

[And he doesn't mind admitting that. He's been told countless times that he's too soft.

He accepts that, because it's better than being too callous, in his mind]

If you're there, his inability to escape is rather assured, isn't it? I doubt any of us have the power to stop you. All I'm saying is that it is worth trying to figure out, for instance, the degree of Zymandis presence on this world and why they chose this method over others.

Surely, both are relevant. And I have no reason to doubt that a god like Loki could be helpful in seeing if Percy knows anything before you mete out your retribution.

[Goodness knows he couldn't overpower Koltira; all he can do is make this appeal]

[respired]

[ After Nalawi, Koltira does still think of this position as soft--but he thinks of it as deadly self-righteous, too. Sometimes life must be culled in order for the greater world to flourish. That is nature, and it cannot be avoided or denied. Allowing one person to live in order to save countless other lives is not callousness; it is justice. ]

Evidence suggests he's a lone agent.

[ As to the why, he shrugs. Honestly, he doesn't care. Chaos and death are Zymandis's chief aims, so far as he understands them; nothing else is required. ]

But Loki will have his time.

[ex_adept136]

[And some souls in the universe don't presume to be some higher authority, or think they know better. Some are simply that benign, though Haise has never known it as anything but "too soft" by the standards of his superiors.

Ironically, in this case, he's just that concerned with how much they don't know and might lose the chance to find out]

Thank you.

[It's all he thinks to say, if only because it's the best he could hope for. Haise holds no illusions he can change others' minds so simply, and all he can argue is that they need more information.

So he leaves it at that, so as not to take up more of Koltira's time than he already has]