7. Public + messages to David & Iris

[exnihilo]

[Private to David 8]

I wasn't any different there. That I could tell.



[Public, voice]

How many people have you been? How many people have you pretended to be?

[She's not sure where exactly the distinction is between these things.]

You may estimate.



[Private to Iris]

I'd like to be allowed in the labs. I've been researching hydroponics.

Comments

[routemistress]

Absolutely.

...well, I suppose that's for David to say, now I think of it, but I'd love you 'ere. I wanted to show you the work I'm doing with the artificial bodies, any road.

[exnihilo]

He'll approve, I think.

[He thinks she needs intellectual stimulation.]

[routemistress]

Aye, I'd be shocked if 'e didn't. But warden courtesy and all that, you know. I'd've gone ballistic if anyone didn't run it past me.

At least six outside the barge, and ...oooh, lots during breaches. I think Aeris Navem were me favourite. I were a sky pirate, it was brilliant.

[megamind]

Five.

At least.

I had to have them put on a harddrive so I could get my brain back. It got very messy.

[exnihilo]

That sounds...neat. What storage mechanism?

[megamind]

Iris and I designed a little thing tolet those lives have their own, in simulated worlds on a harddrive. She took them away, let them have their lives.

Which is kind of funny, since... one of them was dead. [ Bernard Baumann, his Irish-Jewish mafia mutt. His first barge death. ]

[Private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

I have been, and always ever will be myself. There is no running from that.

[Private]

[exnihilo]

Isn't there?

[Private]

[keeps_a_cool_head]

No.

I've grown accustomed to myself, and have no desire to be anyone else.

private

[secretasshole]

But you were affected?

private

[exnihilo]

Yes. I only remembered that place. But before I died - just the same.

private

[secretasshole]

That's interesting.

What do you think about it?

voice;

[adelphoktonos]

Why do you ask this?

voice;

[exnihilo]

I was made to be a weapon. I've pretended to be a lot of people, but I don't feel like one very often.

I asked because I'm interested.

voice;

[adelphoktonos]

[Well, that sounds a bit familiar.]

What's your name?

[rhapsody_in]

Conservative estimate at 3/4 million.

[exnihilo]

Sounds exhausting.

[rhapsody_in]

It's fun.

[fireincarnate]

...I want to say three, but it's not as simple as that.

And then there's the people I've been on the Barge.

[exnihilo]

They count.

Do you think they count?

[fireincarnate]

Yes. They're all people I could have been - if I was born somewhere else, or my life went a different way.

[darknessb4me]

At the same time, or overall?

[exnihilo]

I meant overall. But I'd be interested to hear about either one.

[characterdefect]

In all my life?

[He chuckles, not acknowledging the two very different questions and the range of different things they could mean. His answers will be to the second question, on the far end of culpability; he knew what he was doing the whole time.]

Three. Three big ones. A few small personalities along the way, to grease the wheels, but I spent most of my life as an innocent, a lawman, or a killer.

[exnihilo]

What's being a lawman like?

[This interests her; of the three, this is something she knows almost nothing about. The others are familiar, require less discussion.]