015 - Banana Creme

[deadly_ned]

Alpha, Digby and I are on walkabout. If you need to reach us, please leave a message at the tone.


[Private to Alpha

I have to get off this ship.

We. We have to get off this ship. Pick whoever you want to be, I'll dress to match, and we're going to...go into this port and have a good time and I don't..know what else. Whatever you want to do.

[Private to Dean]

Um. Problem.

[Private to Arthas]

Hi.

Uh.

I know we don't...talk much.

I just.

Wanted to see how things were going.

How are things...going?


[Spam]

[The Piemaker has never been to L.A., never stepped foot in California before. But while the discomfort of another yet-unfamiliar place was, as usual, all-encompassing, at least this unfamiliar place was stationed on Earth. The Piemaker could pretend for a little while to be normal.

He's taking that opportunity now, dressing up in the manner of a Hollywood B-Lister with shades and expensive clothes to match. Now fully in his role, he steps off the Barge to begin his new, pretend life for four days]

Comments

Spam

[darknessb4me]

It wasn't my lack of heart that was keeping me dead. The Lich King's magic is a poison of the mind and body that removes its hosts from the ordinary binary of life and death. Flawed as it is, until now I thought it was the closest a corpse could get to imitating life again.

Spam

[deadly_ned]

Do you think if I touch you again - kill you - when you revive, you'll be whole again?

Spam

[darknessb4me]

I have no idea. You might make me alive for a few seconds before I made you take it back.

Spam

[deadly_ned]

That's disappointing.

So...what do you want to do now? Was it all a waste?

Spam

[darknessb4me]

No. I feel... different. More awake. It wasn't a waste.

Spam

[deadly_ned]

But not...alive.

[Help, Arthas, the Piemaker looks about to cry from disappointment. All that, and you're not alive?]

Spam

[darknessb4me]

It's better than it could be.

Spam

[deadly_ned]

But not as good as it ought to be.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

What ought to be is irrelevant in the face of what is. All you can do is move forward.

Spam

[deadly_ned]

How would you?

...Move forward, I mean.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

Hell if I know. But I won't throw away what's been spent on me.

[Arthas doesn't want to think about this. Or talk about it.]

How far have you tested the limits of what you can do?

Spam

[deadly_ned]

...Extensively, when I was nine. But it's not a muscle. I can't push myself to....improve, or somehow make it better. The rules are solid.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

[Arthas huffs, disappointed in this answer.]

...Outside of the Barge, I can raise the dead, but it's very different from what you can do.

Spam

[deadly_ned]

Slavery, zombies, no free will?

No, I'm just a pie-maker with a magic finger.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

That's the way it's always been, yes. But I haven't tested my own limits yet.

Spam

[deadly_ned]

Try fireflies.

That's what I did.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

[This strikes Arthas as a waste of magic.]

I can't ask a firefly if its mind feels different or not. I want to be able to use what I can do on people without hurting them.

Spam

[deadly_ned]

...If I die here, you can test it on me.

Only fair.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

I can't use it at all yet.

[Arthas sits back and flexes his hands, as if frustrated with how useless they are.]

What I want is to make the results of my magic behave more like yours. Have you tested it on something with a soul?

Spam

[deadly_ned]

Yes. Many...many times.

It works consistently.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

How do they... feel? Do you know?

Spam

[deadly_ned]

They feel fine. The same.

Chuck says that food tastes sweeter and her dreams are more vivid. And she smells a little, little bit like death. But it's faint.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

We can't taste anything at all.

[Arthas runs a hand through his hair, looking for a moment like a tired young man in over his head. Then it's gone again, and he's back to business.]

Who have you used it on?

Spam

[deadly_ned]

...I've only kept a few people alive longer than a minute. I've touched...hundreds of others.

Spam

[darknessb4me]

Who in particular, and why?