"Then please, by all means, be very clear about what you and he mean because telepathy isn't in the wheelhouse of any SOLDIER."
Well actually it is just not in his, that's a Sephiroth thing, mostly used for tormenting Cloud. As Shaw looks around at the scattered inmates and wardens, he sighs again, more about the circumstances of gym than anything else, shoving himself to his feet. "Don't think anyone's going to care if they over hear, but the garden is usually empty this time of day. You can give me your 'good authority' as we go."
Shaw doesn't plan to share Zack's full comment. It's a bit long to read out loud, and it was written with her as the intended audience, not Angeal; as far as she's concerned, it's intel for her to mine herself, not a message to be passed on. But there is one line in particular that she feels Angeal could stand to hear in full - so she finishes chopping her current potato, wipes her hands on a dishrag, and picks up her communicator.
"'It's just like before'," she recites from the screen. "'Him deciding to be a stupid fucking martyr without even bothering to ask how he can actually help'."
She lifts her gaze back to Angeal.
"I'm saying no matter how rational and well-intentioned you are, you're not infallible. You're not gonna be the best judge of how to fix your own mistakes, and considering your track record, you're sure as hell not in the best position to unilaterally decide how to help going forward. He's not pissed that you disagreed with him. He's pissed that if you care about his feelings and opinions at all - and I'm guessing you do - you sure as hell don't act like it."
The silence that falls is a whisker away from outright incredulous.
It forces him to review everything said that he could recall of his conversation with Zack, and by the fact that nothing like annoyance or resentment creeps in, he's not finding an explanation. "What," he says with slow carefulness of someone measuring their words and thoughts as they go, "Am I supposed to be asking for help on, exactly, when the subject is whether or not Sephiroth should regain his memories? How is it making me a martyr? How was I being a martyr before?"
Of course Zack's opinions and feelings matter, but how they applied to this, IF they applied to this ... seemed terribly off-base.
"Was that actually the point of that conversation?" Shaw asks, sliding her communicator away again. "When I said I wanted you to talk to Zack, did I say, 'Hey Angeal, go brainstorm together about how to handle Sephiroth's issues, because that's definitely top of my priority list'? Because the way I remember that conversation going, I wanted you guys to talk about what you did to Zack and how it affected him."
"Maybe Zack had a different idea about what was important to discuss, since it came up very quickly and was almost the entirety of our discussion. If I'm supposed to be drawing different conclusions other than it being about Nibelheim and Sephiroth, then I missed it, because Modeoheim didn't come up."
Well, it did, but by then it was more an accusation than a discussion. There's no disparagement in his tone, either for himself or Zack; he knows his limitations. And Sephiroth absolutely is important to him even if it wasn't other people's priorities. "And maybe that's on me, because I chose to leave when it became obvious the discussion was going nowhere beneficial, for either of us."
"Did he tell you he wanted you to use the intel he gives you to work on yourself, instead of just zeroing in on Sephiroth? And did you tell him that you think the key to your graduation is doing the opposite?"
Shaw doesn't think Zack lied to her during his sum-up, and she doesn't think Angeal is lying to her now: but it's becoming clearer and clearer that their perceptions of the conversation had differed massively.
This sets off another silent review. As much as he'd like to just dismiss things and focus on the issues at hand - the issue it was about - it was the least he could do to make sure he's as accurate as he could be in his retelling.
"No," he concludes gradually, still ruminating. "Though he did say it wasn't just about Sephiroth, but about how he relates to others and the world around him, and that 'this', whatever it was meant to be, is what he thinks caused Modeoheim." It wasn't the same, at all. At least not to him. The circumstances were vastly different, and this had nothing to do with his then-wish to die. "It's .. some of the same people, in that it involves Zack and I. Sephiroth hadn't been there, and it ... had been selfish of me. Focused on myself." His fear. His worry about what would happen, and how fast it would happen.
Sephiroth had been left behind by all of them except Zack, and apparently that hadn't been enough. "If part of my graduation is making up for what I'd done, then I can't repeat that pattern. It's what caused this in the first place."
She picks up her knife again, getting to work on another potato.
"Sounds to me like we need to focus on finding you a workable middle ground. Because from where I'm sitting, your problem isn't selfishness in the sense of only caring about yourself: it's that conviction that you have to carry all this on your own, and because you have to carry it on your own, you know best how to handle it. That's a different kind of self-focus."
Her cutting board is pretty full of diced potatoes by this point, so she slides them into the baking tray, then moves to continue chopping.
"When you decided you had to die, and you decided Zack had to be the one to take you out - why'd you do it the way you did? Was transforming just a foolproof way to force his hand, or did you think killing you in, uh, chimera form would be easier on him?"
This is going to take a couple different oven temperatures, so he starts on the low end. 350 would mean a longer bake, but also .. would it crisp, EVENTUALLY? Or would it need to be hotter? And then, onion time. The acrid eye-burning will just have to be tolerated. "Some things are mine alone to deal with. Others are not. I do understand the difference, it isn't .. one response fits all situations."
The pungent smell of onion marks any eyewatering going on as purely onion based; right now, this conversation, with someone as steady as Shaw, it's not enough to draw tears out of the man.
As for what he did.. "It seemed reasonable at the time."
The knife is waggled a little; his tone is sober for all that the answer seems frivolous at first blush. "Degradation ... eats away at your ability to make rational decisions, and you'll still be so certain what you're doing is the right thing to do even as you're ... mm, carving pieces of yourself out to feed to monsters. It all makes sense. Sounds right, feels right." The onion, chopped fine enough to pass, is dumped onto the potatos. He can get through this, it's just a discussion. "I know what I did then made perfect sense at the time. Zack would fight if he was forced to, even without ... that form. But he would hesitate to finish it; he still saw me as a human being, and I knew I was not. Becoming visibly what I already was would remove that hesitation."
She's just guessing, here: it's not a question that she asked Zack. But from what he has said, and from how she knows he sees Angeal, she's pretty damn sure that he never saw Angeal as less than human no matter what form he took, and that hesitated as much and as long as he possibly could.
"Do you have any mental framework for not being human that doesn't come with, uh-- a value judgement? Not human, but also not an evil monster?"
"It did, he killed me as I wanted him to." And now there's an edge of reproach creeping in, though it's not aimed at Shaw. Things went exactly the way he'd wanted them to, and right through giving into the numbing pull of death, it had seemed like the right choice, the only choice.
Egg. Baking powder. Guessing on amounts, but that was par the course for most of his recipes. "Like I said. At the time, it seemed sensible. I didn't say it seems sensible now."
Lesson learned: do it himself, coward. It's a value judgment he'd keep making, too. "...My file didn't go into what was happening to us enough if you're asking that question." Cheese. How much cheese is too much? "You have a pretty strong stomach, right? I can clarify."
"I've got a strong stomach, sure, but I think your file went into it plenty."
She pops a second half-dozen carton of eggs out of the fridge, just in case he wants to throw in a few more.
"My mental framework says that even if your decision-making takes a hit, as long as you have some ability to make choices, you have the ability to make better ones, even if it's harder for you than it is for other people."
"You'd be wrong." The sticky, potatoey mess is considered for a long moment before he avails himself on an egg or two further, mixing carefully. Consistency is fine, it goes back on the pan, thin enough to hopefully crunch up. "If it was as simple as 'make better choices', none of us would have had the problems we did. Not just Genesis, Sephiroth or myself, but every single SOLDIER, monster and person we infected. This wasn't the equivalent of getting drunk and making a few bad choices."
"Who says making better choices is simple?" Shaw asks, arching an eyebrow at him. "It's hard as hell, not to mention confusing and complicated. A lot of the time you don't know what the right or wrong choice was until you're looking back on it in retrospect, and sometimes not even then."
The knife is put down, as is the pan. It should go in the oven but having something in his hands right then would have been a terrible idea, had he access to his full strength. Limited only to human norms, it's .. safer, he can't bend steel as he is. "You're not listening. This isn't some debate about morality and choices and what makes a person a person. There's no cure. There's no way back once it starts. If it happened to you, you would degrade once infected with our cells, just as we degraded. You will kill, and you will want to. Your body will warp and mutate, and you will become a monster. You will hate, you will rage, you will find excuses to lash out, and take as many with you as you can. It is inevitable, and it is terminal."
Angeal points one eggy, potato-and-cheese shredded finger at Shaw, expression dark, voice a low growl. It's not a sound that should come out of a human throat, turning his voice rough and grating, but there's stranger onboard this ship. "Sooner or later, you will be an unthinking creature of destruction, until something puts you out of your misery or you disintegrate. I watched it .. again and again and again. It isn't something you willpower your way out of. We are monsters, we are an infectious disease, and sooner or later instinct and nature would win, just like it did with ALL of our victims. My mistake wasn't in making sure I died before I stopped being able to think or could spread my cells any further, it was that I involved Zack. I should have killed Genesis myself and then seen to my own death without dragging him into it."
And. And maybe Sephiroth too. He didn't know if he had what it took to bring down Sephiroth. Maybe he would have died trying.
Shaw is entirely stony in response: not in a hostile, angry, or resentful way, but in a way that aggressive tone and body language aren't actually touching her. She's fully engaged, completely present with him as she meets his gaze, but nothing about her indicates that she's going to back off just yet.
"That sucks," she says, matter-of-factly. "It's a horrifying thing to have hanging over your head. But you aren't there yet. You still have control here, you still had some control at home, and you owe it to yourself and the people around you to keep using it well, the way you were trying to before you decided to have Zack take you out. You also have a hell of a lot more resources and options here than you did back there. You got any idea what Zack's deal is? I've never talked to him about it, but I'd put a lot of money on it being related to doing something to fix this mess."
Only now is the tray snatched back up - and put with precise care in the oven to cook. He'd always prided himself on his self-control, and it hadn't failed yet in the Barge. Throwing things around in a temper tantrum might be tempting, but not something Angeal indulged in.
"It's irrelevant here, and the only reason I have an opportunity to change things. The Admiral's been gracious enough to put a stop to all of that while I'm onboard. Probably part of routine disarming of inmates. If I am sent back to the time I died even temporarily returned to health I should have time to ..do something." As fast as anger came on it ebbs by degrees; it's not an emotion that he can hold onto for long. Never could. "I don't know what any of Zack's deals were, but if any involved what we are and what happened to us, it didn't affect my fate any." Timelines may diverge, with the Admiral's interference. Whatever saving happened may have simply happened to another Angeal.
"Okay, first of all, no way is it irrelevant," Shaw says, as she steps back to give him better access to the oven door. Stretching up on her tiptoes, she pulls a bottle of whiskey down from an upper cabinet. This is an intense conversation, and intense conversations call for a drink - maybe not during, but certainly after.
"It colors how you think about yourself, your past, and your actions. And second of all - I'm using Zack as an example, not as, I dunno, some kind of catch-all solution. I'm not saying Zack's gonna fix everything, so don't even worry about it. I'm saying he's using this place as a resource, and you can, too."
"Irrelevant going forward in this specific way," the SOLDIER grumbles, wiping his hands on his pants instead of anything more useful like an apron or towel. "Here I am not dying, losing my mind or able to cause anyone else to suffer the same affliction." Still a monster, but one with its wings clipped and claws filed and teeth extracted; he can do no harm that he doesn't intend to, and it was one of the greatest blessings this ship offered. Not a day went by where he wasn't grateful for it.
It absolutely colored things, but so did having that pressure stripped away. "Let's pretend I haven't been making use of anything here and have just been spinning wheels since I arrived." He crosses his arms over his chest, watching not Shaw but the oven. "What resources should I be making use of?"
"Before I can answer that - I have to know what you've been doing already."
Though she thinks he probably has been spinning his wheels in a lot of ways, she's under no illusions that it's due to laziness or boredom. Guilt, self-loathing, and fear are heavy burdens, and the best way to keep them from consuming you is distraction, not inactivity.
"You work a lot, yeah?" She nods at the oven. "You're doing this in your off-time."
Angeal shakes his head. "Nah, assume I've been doing nothing at all, since you're putting off a pretty strong impression that I must be.. I don't know, just sitting in my room all day feeling sorry for myself." The longer they speak the more certain he's becoming that she's gotten ... inaccurate information from somewhere, and has run with it. "You put it out there, so follow through. Zack's using this place as a resource, I'm apparently not, what should I be making use of?"
"Dude, you drummed up an industrial kitchen's worth of potatoes to cook all by yourself; the last thing I think you're doing is sitting around. I think you're probably doing a lot of work to keep yourself from wallowing, but whatever you are, you're not lazy or pathetic. Or the kind of guy who feels sorry for himself."
Self-pity is pretty distinct from self-hatred, after all. She leans back against the counter, crossing her legs at the ankle as she studies him.
"A deal's the kind of thing that's far into the future. You could get one someday, and it could help you out in stopping the progression of this thing, but I'm not gonna ask you to depend on something that's twenty steps ahead of where you are right now. So I'm thinking, step one, we find you some super-powered babysitters - so that if we end up with a flood that lifts whatever the Admiral did that's stopped your infections in its tracks, there'll be people who can help rein you in and keep you contained, without you feeling like your only options are hurting people or dying. Back home, no one's immune. That's not going to be the case here."
There's more to go, but until the first round is finished and he knows how it went, peeling the next wasn't going to work .. they'd just get browned. "Habit," the SOLDIER rumbles. "Been kept busy since I was a kid, hard to stop." Not that he wanted to. Being active was being productive, and it felt nice to be able to do something more meaningful with his time than just sort magazines or something.
Deals would mean graduation and being a Warden and graduating his inmate - that's a long, long way away, assuming the Admiral even offered him the position. Counting on it was a bad idea, and so after a moment of consideration, it's put away. He's content with Zack's four - that's a grand track record. "If the Admiral for some reason lifts constraints, then 'contained' is the best possible option, not a babysitter. The true prisons down below cancel anything supernatural, don't they? If something happens, putting me there is for the best."
He probably won't even put up a fight! "Giving me a superpowered babysitter just risks having a superpowered second Angeal running around. Not really worth it, even if the Admiral can reverse the process."
"I didn't say 'someone immune' just to say it," Shaw says. She pulls down two glasses, setting them next to the whiskey bottle, but doesn't pour just yet. "I don't just mean the Admiral undoing it or bringing people back to life - I'm talking people for whom the laws of physics on your world won't apply. I bet I could find at least three wardens who could do it."
In truth, she can only think of one off the top of her head - but the Admiral nets enough powerful, invulnerable wardens that she's banking on there being a lot more.
Angeal rakes a hand through his hair, leaving bits of cheese behind. He's going to need a shower later. "Unless they also have the power to blanket nullify everyone in their vicinity, you're not ... treating this the way you need to be." There's frustration creeping into his tone, but he's not sure he's going to adequately explain this to someone else in a way that's going to get through.
"You're HOPING they might be immune, you don't actually know, and I'm unwilling to find out the hard way if you're wrong. And even if they're immune, what about everyone else? You need to stop thinking about this as ... something contained to just me, something that can be mitigated with handcuffs or a single magical individual with take-down skills and a sleep spell. Unconstrained by the Admiral, I.. it's an infectious pathogen that has nothing to do with physics to begin with. Stop thinking 'person' and start thinking 'plague'."
Admittedly, blood borne and thus harder to pass on than a common cold; if Hollander could have found a way to turn him or Genesis into an airborne contagion surely he would have just to see what would happen. "Though frankly it's medical I should be discussing that with."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2025-01-04 10:51 pm (UTC)Well actually it is just not in his, that's a Sephiroth thing, mostly used for tormenting Cloud. As Shaw looks around at the scattered inmates and wardens, he sighs again, more about the circumstances of gym than anything else, shoving himself to his feet. "Don't think anyone's going to care if they over hear, but the garden is usually empty this time of day. You can give me your 'good authority' as we go."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-06 03:38 pm (UTC)"'It's just like before'," she recites from the screen. "'Him deciding to be a stupid fucking martyr without even bothering to ask how he can actually help'."
She lifts her gaze back to Angeal.
"I'm saying no matter how rational and well-intentioned you are, you're not infallible. You're not gonna be the best judge of how to fix your own mistakes, and considering your track record, you're sure as hell not in the best position to unilaterally decide how to help going forward. He's not pissed that you disagreed with him. He's pissed that if you care about his feelings and opinions at all - and I'm guessing you do - you sure as hell don't act like it."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-06 04:43 pm (UTC)It forces him to review everything said that he could recall of his conversation with Zack, and by the fact that nothing like annoyance or resentment creeps in, he's not finding an explanation. "What," he says with slow carefulness of someone measuring their words and thoughts as they go, "Am I supposed to be asking for help on, exactly, when the subject is whether or not Sephiroth should regain his memories? How is it making me a martyr? How was I being a martyr before?"
Of course Zack's opinions and feelings matter, but how they applied to this, IF they applied to this ... seemed terribly off-base.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-06 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-06 05:16 pm (UTC)Well, it did, but by then it was more an accusation than a discussion. There's no disparagement in his tone, either for himself or Zack; he knows his limitations. And Sephiroth absolutely is important to him even if it wasn't other people's priorities. "And maybe that's on me, because I chose to leave when it became obvious the discussion was going nowhere beneficial, for either of us."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 02:16 pm (UTC)Shaw doesn't think Zack lied to her during his sum-up, and she doesn't think Angeal is lying to her now: but it's becoming clearer and clearer that their perceptions of the conversation had differed massively.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 05:06 pm (UTC)"No," he concludes gradually, still ruminating. "Though he did say it wasn't just about Sephiroth, but about how he relates to others and the world around him, and that 'this', whatever it was meant to be, is what he thinks caused Modeoheim." It wasn't the same, at all. At least not to him. The circumstances were vastly different, and this had nothing to do with his then-wish to die. "It's .. some of the same people, in that it involves Zack and I. Sephiroth hadn't been there, and it ... had been selfish of me. Focused on myself." His fear. His worry about what would happen, and how fast it would happen.
Sephiroth had been left behind by all of them except Zack, and apparently that hadn't been enough. "If part of my graduation is making up for what I'd done, then I can't repeat that pattern. It's what caused this in the first place."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 06:53 pm (UTC)She picks up her knife again, getting to work on another potato.
"Sounds to me like we need to focus on finding you a workable middle ground. Because from where I'm sitting, your problem isn't selfishness in the sense of only caring about yourself: it's that conviction that you have to carry all this on your own, and because you have to carry it on your own, you know best how to handle it. That's a different kind of self-focus."
Her cutting board is pretty full of diced potatoes by this point, so she slides them into the baking tray, then moves to continue chopping.
"When you decided you had to die, and you decided Zack had to be the one to take you out - why'd you do it the way you did? Was transforming just a foolproof way to force his hand, or did you think killing you in, uh, chimera form would be easier on him?"
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 07:25 pm (UTC)The pungent smell of onion marks any eyewatering going on as purely onion based; right now, this conversation, with someone as steady as Shaw, it's not enough to draw tears out of the man.
As for what he did.. "It seemed reasonable at the time."
The knife is waggled a little; his tone is sober for all that the answer seems frivolous at first blush. "Degradation ... eats away at your ability to make rational decisions, and you'll still be so certain what you're doing is the right thing to do even as you're ... mm, carving pieces of yourself out to feed to monsters. It all makes sense. Sounds right, feels right." The onion, chopped fine enough to pass, is dumped onto the potatos. He can get through this, it's just a discussion. "I know what I did then made perfect sense at the time. Zack would fight if he was forced to, even without ... that form. But he would hesitate to finish it; he still saw me as a human being, and I knew I was not. Becoming visibly what I already was would remove that hesitation."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 08:05 pm (UTC)She's just guessing, here: it's not a question that she asked Zack. But from what he has said, and from how she knows he sees Angeal, she's pretty damn sure that he never saw Angeal as less than human no matter what form he took, and that hesitated as much and as long as he possibly could.
"Do you have any mental framework for not being human that doesn't come with, uh-- a value judgement? Not human, but also not an evil monster?"
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 08:11 pm (UTC)Egg. Baking powder. Guessing on amounts, but that was par the course for most of his recipes. "Like I said. At the time, it seemed sensible. I didn't say it seems sensible now."
Lesson learned: do it himself, coward. It's a value judgment he'd keep making, too. "...My file didn't go into what was happening to us enough if you're asking that question." Cheese. How much cheese is too much? "You have a pretty strong stomach, right? I can clarify."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 08:19 pm (UTC)She pops a second half-dozen carton of eggs out of the fridge, just in case he wants to throw in a few more.
"My mental framework says that even if your decision-making takes a hit, as long as you have some ability to make choices, you have the ability to make better ones, even if it's harder for you than it is for other people."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 08:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 08:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 08:54 pm (UTC)Angeal points one eggy, potato-and-cheese shredded finger at Shaw, expression dark, voice a low growl. It's not a sound that should come out of a human throat, turning his voice rough and grating, but there's stranger onboard this ship. "Sooner or later, you will be an unthinking creature of destruction, until something puts you out of your misery or you disintegrate. I watched it .. again and again and again. It isn't something you willpower your way out of. We are monsters, we are an infectious disease, and sooner or later instinct and nature would win, just like it did with ALL of our victims. My mistake wasn't in making sure I died before I stopped being able to think or could spread my cells any further, it was that I involved Zack. I should have killed Genesis myself and then seen to my own death without dragging him into it."
And. And maybe Sephiroth too. He didn't know if he had what it took to bring down Sephiroth. Maybe he would have died trying.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 09:23 pm (UTC)"That sucks," she says, matter-of-factly. "It's a horrifying thing to have hanging over your head. But you aren't there yet. You still have control here, you still had some control at home, and you owe it to yourself and the people around you to keep using it well, the way you were trying to before you decided to have Zack take you out. You also have a hell of a lot more resources and options here than you did back there. You got any idea what Zack's deal is? I've never talked to him about it, but I'd put a lot of money on it being related to doing something to fix this mess."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-07 09:38 pm (UTC)"It's irrelevant here, and the only reason I have an opportunity to change things. The Admiral's been gracious enough to put a stop to all of that while I'm onboard. Probably part of routine disarming of inmates. If I am sent back to the time I died even temporarily returned to health I should have time to ..do something." As fast as anger came on it ebbs by degrees; it's not an emotion that he can hold onto for long. Never could. "I don't know what any of Zack's deals were, but if any involved what we are and what happened to us, it didn't affect my fate any." Timelines may diverge, with the Admiral's interference. Whatever saving happened may have simply happened to another Angeal.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-11 03:25 pm (UTC)"It colors how you think about yourself, your past, and your actions. And second of all - I'm using Zack as an example, not as, I dunno, some kind of catch-all solution. I'm not saying Zack's gonna fix everything, so don't even worry about it. I'm saying he's using this place as a resource, and you can, too."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-11 05:56 pm (UTC)It absolutely colored things, but so did having that pressure stripped away. "Let's pretend I haven't been making use of anything here and have just been spinning wheels since I arrived." He crosses his arms over his chest, watching not Shaw but the oven. "What resources should I be making use of?"
no subject
Date: 2025-01-16 08:02 pm (UTC)Though she thinks he probably has been spinning his wheels in a lot of ways, she's under no illusions that it's due to laziness or boredom. Guilt, self-loathing, and fear are heavy burdens, and the best way to keep them from consuming you is distraction, not inactivity.
"You work a lot, yeah?" She nods at the oven. "You're doing this in your off-time."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-16 09:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2025-01-16 10:24 pm (UTC)Self-pity is pretty distinct from self-hatred, after all. She leans back against the counter, crossing her legs at the ankle as she studies him.
"A deal's the kind of thing that's far into the future. You could get one someday, and it could help you out in stopping the progression of this thing, but I'm not gonna ask you to depend on something that's twenty steps ahead of where you are right now. So I'm thinking, step one, we find you some super-powered babysitters - so that if we end up with a flood that lifts whatever the Admiral did that's stopped your infections in its tracks, there'll be people who can help rein you in and keep you contained, without you feeling like your only options are hurting people or dying. Back home, no one's immune. That's not going to be the case here."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-17 09:28 pm (UTC)Deals would mean graduation and being a Warden and graduating his inmate - that's a long, long way away, assuming the Admiral even offered him the position. Counting on it was a bad idea, and so after a moment of consideration, it's put away. He's content with Zack's four - that's a grand track record. "If the Admiral for some reason lifts constraints, then 'contained' is the best possible option, not a babysitter. The true prisons down below cancel anything supernatural, don't they? If something happens, putting me there is for the best."
He probably won't even put up a fight! "Giving me a superpowered babysitter just risks having a superpowered second Angeal running around. Not really worth it, even if the Admiral can reverse the process."
no subject
Date: 2025-01-20 09:20 pm (UTC)In truth, she can only think of one off the top of her head - but the Admiral nets enough powerful, invulnerable wardens that she's banking on there being a lot more.
no subject
Date: 2025-01-21 01:35 am (UTC)"You're HOPING they might be immune, you don't actually know, and I'm unwilling to find out the hard way if you're wrong. And even if they're immune, what about everyone else? You need to stop thinking about this as ... something contained to just me, something that can be mitigated with handcuffs or a single magical individual with take-down skills and a sleep spell. Unconstrained by the Admiral, I.. it's an infectious pathogen that has nothing to do with physics to begin with. Stop thinking 'person' and start thinking 'plague'."
Admittedly, blood borne and thus harder to pass on than a common cold; if Hollander could have found a way to turn him or Genesis into an airborne contagion surely he would have just to see what would happen. "Though frankly it's medical I should be discussing that with."
(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From: