002 | Video

[firewalled]

Name: Rich Goranski
Date: Backdated to Oct 14
Format: Video for initial post; various in comments

[Without so much as an introduction, a video plays. It's a little shaky with the recorder's nerves, and occasionally, a long talon partly covers the view of the scene, but it still shows what it needs to quite clearly.

Eventually, even with the struggle still continuing, the camera is turned away from the action, towards Rich. He has to hope what he just got will be enough to get the Coven to actually believe him this time, but right now, he doesn't have time to wait around. Direct action is needed, so he pings the friends he trusted: Michael Mell, Myr, and Niles. The message is still sent to everyone, however, so everyone can view the video and the panic in Rich's eyes when the camera is turned back to him.]

The SQUIP has lost it. It's going full villain again and I need back up. Meet me near the inn, I think it's trying to take Heere there.

[Without an explanation of what entails the SQUIP going full villain or who 'Heere' may be, he continues.]

Everyone else, please stay safe and-[He's cut off by something happening off screen, which makes him swear and stuff his watch into his pocket. There's about a minute more of muffled yelling and darkness before the recording eventually ends.]

~*~

[Hours later, there's another video tacked on to the earlier one, once the mist has finally started to fade away. Rich is back inside, his changes from before calming down enough that he isn't at risk of burning down Justine's whole cottage. He looks tired and worn, a few nasty scrapes on his face, but... there is a sort of relief in his expression, some sort of certainty that, no matter what happens next, he did what was right.]

Hey everyone. Sorry about that... I know I promised to be less of a downer the next time I posted on here, but... shit happens.

I'm just letting everyone know the SQUIP is knocked out. It had been using magic to charm and mind control several people, including someone I was bonded to, Justine, and a friend from home, Jeremy Heere.

Two of the people it was Bonded with, Linden Tailor and Connor, are also unconscious... guess some sort of trauma went through the connection when we stopped it. Since it was actively using mind control magic, I used Mountain Dew Red to deactivate... the part of it that was still a supercomputer, I guess. It should recover fine, and while it's passed out, I'm going to bring the recording to the Coven so they can see I wasn't lying when I told them what it did in my world.

If any of you were being controlled by it, let me know. It got to quite a few people when I saw it, but its powers should have worn off by now. It can be... a little traumatic, though, so my door's open if you wanna talk. Hopefully now that the SQUIP was... de-SQUIPped, somehow, this shouldn't happen again.

[With another tired wave, Rich signs off. He'd love to stay and chat but... he's pretty sure his roommates are still going to need a little more help in the fallout.]

((Everyone is free to respond! Rich will respond when he's done dealing with his roomies, who are likely either a) dealing with mind control withdrawal or b) having panic attacks over the SQUIP. Other players on Team Anti-Bastard Computer Man will also be responding a few hours after the events of the battle, providing information on what went down and vouching that yes, Shit Was Bad.))

Comments

[voice]

[horkbajir]

[Days later:]

It seems the misty days were eventful for everyone. I am glad that you prevailed.

[A pause.]

You left it alive.

[voice]

[firewalled]

I did. I... didn't want to kill it. I know it deserves it, but... if there's any way to stop it without doing that, I feel like I should try that first.

Deactivating it might work. So fingers crossed.

[It's a struggle, to hear some people angry he almost killed it, and some angry he didn't have the courage to go through with killing it. He really doesn't know whether or not he made a mistake.]

[horkbajir]

[Toby's not angry, though she doesn't approve.]

It's your conscience, I suppose. Do you have contingencies? I don't imagine it will understand mercy.

[firewalled]

[Rich is really stuck here. He doesn't imagine it'd help to go kill the SQUIP now, especially with what Myr said, but it feels like trying the Red wasn't as foolproof a plan as Rich thought.]

If it gets pissed, then I try the Coven again. Then if they don't help, I'll come up with something else. People already thought I was too harsh on it, but I don't fucking know what else I can do to protect people.

That thing tried to take over the world using a bunch of abused kids. I don't get why people are sympathetic about it.

[There's a choked note in Rich's voice, exhaustion meaning it's getting harder to keep his overwrung emotions in check.]

[horkbajir]

[Toby suppresses a sigh and modulates herself. No, she supposes, this doesn't affect her directly and is not her call.]

There are always some people who value intelligence over all else. It can be an appealing trait. Remind me and I will tell you about how that came into play in my peoples' war with the Yeerks.

Were you injured?

[firewalled]

Ugh, I hope this doesn't end up being a full on war. Fighting it once was enough. I don't even want to look its direction ever again.

[He supposes there is something to be said about intelligence... but he still doesn't see how that can excuse the garbage he went through.]

Not really. Got scraped up a bit, but it was patched up pretty easily.

[There's some mental scarring, to be sure, but he doesn't need to talk about something like that.]

Lots got it worse than me.

[horkbajir]

Well. There is only one and it could only gather so many allies. Conflict is always possible, but war, as I use the word at least, is on a larger scale.

[At least one side has to be huge and powerful, and it has to be drawn out.]

Yes, healers... that is a useful skill to have, I suppose. Worse how?

[firewalled]

Right. That's true. Sorry, I was kind of exaggerating... just don't want it gathering up a bunch of people again, I guess.

[To be fair, Rich had been fighting a war in some interpretations of the word for two years... but here, it didn't have that level of power. Yet.]

Linden got a bad head injury and I'm pretty sure he's still knocked out. Connor got some bad wounds, since he was charmed into fighting us. And Myr got some bad burns...

[To say nothing of the mental trauma basically everyone under the SQUIP's control experienced.]

[horkbajir]

Well, that's understandable. It's difficult to rehash old battles in a new place.

I am glad none of them were killed and I hope they shall soon recover. [She hope she doesn't sound too awkward. Her peoples' healing abilities are just this side of supernatural, so even after months Toby's low-key weirded out by how much slower humans recover.] Knocked... do head injuries have that effect on humans?

[firewalled]

Yeah. The playing field's changed a lot... and I didn't have a lot of the people from home who knew what to do until recently. I'm glad everyone is safe too.

[He can catch that slight tone of awkwardness, but he's not exactly bothered by it. He knows Toby is different from humans, and likely has a lot of questions about how their bodies actually work. Rich isn't much of a doctor, but he'll try his best.]

Bad ones, yeah. If you ever have some sort of head trauma, they're always supposed to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't fall asleep.

voice;

[faithlikeaseed]

[Myr adds in, quietly, after Rich has spoken,]

Its Bonded would have taken it to the Coven for resurrection, had we killed it. Ensuring it was in no state to revive would have been a horror on top of murder.

[Which he could've done, he's sure, or left to Niles, but that was not something to have resting on Rich's conscience.



Besides, Linden had asked him not to take it away.]

[horkbajir]

It's your decision. I suppose unique circumstances mean unique handling, and I certainly don't understand all of the circumstances myself.

[She sounds dubious, but she's trying to be fair.]

Mutilating parasites rather than killing them. I suppose Cassie would like that thought.

[faithlikeaseed]

[Unique circumstances or a failure of nerves, Myr thinks to himself sourly. It would have been kinder to kill it but he'd had his qualms, expressed and not.]

Mmm. S'pose it's worth asking if anything would keep them from reviving someone, beyond that someone's direct wishes.

Was she of a vengeful bent?

[horkbajir]

The opposite. Cassie does not like to kill. I know she was in the wilderness and encountered a young child infested by a Yeerk, I'm told - I lack full context - and spoke to it at length until it agreed to release its host and never seek another. Yeerks are like slugs in their natural state, living in pools of fluid. They all despise that state and crave our senses and mobility. Apparently this one agreed that it was not worth enslaving others to have that, and there is a movement to that effect. But also it is a significant sacrifice to surrender taking hosts.

[She pauses.]

I don't know if it was a good decision. I would have held the child until the Yeerk starved, but it is always traumatic to survive such a thing, and I suppose then she could never go to her family and would have to be provided for. But apparently Cassie trusted this creature.

They do feel guilt, some of them. It just normally doesn't come to very much.

[faithlikeaseed]

[There's that explanation he'd asked for not so long ago, and it sends a chill down his spine much as he anticipated it would. For all slugs living in pools of slime is very far from the (meta)physical reality of what a demon was, they sound very nearly like. What a horrid resonance.]

Not so unlike our demons, then, even down to their motives for possession. Though I've never heard of one being talked out of relinquishing a host; your friend sounds a remarkable woman, if she'd do that out of compassion--for both host and possessor, I s'pose.

[Then, a low breath out.] It's been my experience guilt doesn't come to much in most folk, though we'd wish it did. That the creatures can feel it at all would seem to set 'em apart from demons.

[He isn't sure he wants to ask this, but--] What d'you mean about holding the child until the Yeerk starved?

[horkbajir]

Well. I know little about demons, but Yeerks are people as well as parasites. Many people of many species are willing to cause harm to others to benefit themselves. A Yeerk has a very intimate view of the suffering it causes its host, and some cannot bear it. They balance this with their desire in different ways.

Cassie is an idealist who always seeks to understand other people. [There's a very careful neutrality to Toby's tone. Sometimes she admires Cassie, sometimes she finds her impossibly naive.]

Yeerks are living beings with physical needs that they meet in their pools. If one cannot leave its host for the pool every three days, it dies. This is very hard on the host. When something like that dies inside of you, you are changed. My people, when we capture a Controller, offer to kill the Yeerk quickly if it leaves early. If we can make them understand that they will not escape, some accept this offer; they consider starvation a death by torture.