Meat n' Greet

[cityship]

The rest of the crew assembled on the Observation Deck to meet the latest editions to their numbers. After the revelation that their worlds are gone, many of them are even more eager to see people they knew from home.

Several people are set up near the doors to provide the new people with omnicoms and comm rings. New crew-mates might see a tall man in green armor and snake girl among their number. There are also several authoritative-looking figures ready to introduce themselves.

There's a lot to tell the new people. It's going to be a lot to take in.

[ooc: Only new characters and Command Staff can start new threads for introductions, to limit the number of threads. Everyone else, just tag in and have your guys greet the newbies.]

Comments

[smugearworm.livejournal.com]

"Would he? Do you think? Betrayal from the one corner he had hoped for it never to come from. Bravo, Jake. Win the hearts and minds of the world." Iniss smirked, a long, cool look that said he knew he had the upper hand. Jake didn't know. "The one person he was willing to sacrifice everything for and you demanded he sacrifice his life. For what? Because it was easier? Because big Jake had a plan and would move forward with it regardless of what everyone else thought?"

He snorted. "Yes, because every teenage girl dreams of turning into a bear and killing people. Well done, Jake. Very well done. Your crazy blond weapon with a license to kill for the sake of the resistance. How much blood stains your hands, Jake? How many lives have you destroyed? And yet I am the villain?"

[hadabrother.livejournal.com]

Jake's fists clenched and he resisted the urge to snap, to yell, to start screaming. His brother was in there somewhere and if he had a chance to save him again, he was going to take it. So instead he just took in a deep breath and stared Iniss down, face calm, composed and utterly impassive.

"We wouldn't have had to kill yeerks if you hadn't decided to turn our planet into your next vacation spot. If you hadn't decided that enslaving us was the easier option, we wouldn't have had to fight and we wouldn't have had to become just as ruthless as you in order to win. I know I have blood on my hands and I live with that. But yes. I was willing to give up my brother if it meant stopping the Yeerks from taking the world."

And that particular decision still haunted him. It still gnawed at him when he thought aobut it. There hadn't been any other way out, though. Not then.

"Your people destroyed lives. Your people took over people, forced them to become killers. And you call me a murderer and a villain? Sell it to someone who wasn't there and didn't see what an Earth ruled by the yeerks might've looked like."

[smugearworm.livejournal.com]

Iniss laughed. "I don't claim to be moral, Jake. I don't claim to be good. That is something humanity aspires too. I aspire to survival, I think it's a rather humble goal, don't you agree? But where you with your morality can sacrifice something valued, I don't. The clear line, Jake, between winning and losing. Victory calls for sacrifice, but how much have you convinced yourself that it was needed?"

He stepped backwards, letting some of the crowd drift between them. "We have, and we have also saved them. You don't understand greys, Jake. Just black and white. Either you are the hero or it was all for nothing, correct? I must be the villain, we must be evil. There can be no give or moral compromise. You can commit to actions that you see as evil, but they must be for the best of reasons."

He smiled. "But Jake, even if you don't remember it, I have ever kept my deal with you." He took another step back. "You'll find Tom at the Winchester house, this body is only a shell. The real Tom is free, as we agreed, big Jake. By my will alone, by my mercy, he is free. Black and white, isn't it? So what am I, Jake? Hero or villain?"

[hadabrother.livejournal.com]

"You're right. You are the villain. I don't take over people's bodis and minds and force them into servitude. I've been infested, I know what it's like. So don't tell me you weren't really making us suffer or that you don't consider us a resource for you to use."

He'd really had it up to here with yeerks. At least his last couple years of life had been mercifully free of them. But the Controller's words gave him pause.

"...what? He's free? Just like that?"

[smugearworm.livejournal.com]

"Yes, he's free. Just like that."

Iniss smirked, rolling his eyes. "Ah, but I'm a villain, aren't I? You've been infested, you know what it's like. Because every Yeerk is the same as every other Yeerk, carbon copies of each other with no room between for someone who just wants to survive or learn. You met a bad Yeerk, I've met several bad humans. I've met some good humans as well. Humans are so judgmental, so quick to judge everything based only on your personal experiences. Such a simple world. Ask someone else for directions, I have no more need to speak to you."

He smirked as he walked away, unable to keep from tossing a last barb over his shoulder. "You killed him, I freed him. Absolutes, right Jake?"

[hadabrother.livejournal.com]

"You are one of the bad Yeerks. Remember the part where you were going to stab us all in the back?" Jake shot back as Iniss turned to walk away.

"Stay away from me and my friends. And don't talk to me about morality."

[smugearworm.livejournal.com]

"And when, exactly, was that, Jake? I don't remember ever doing anything like that?" He rolled his eyes, dismissing the outright slander as what it was. These humans had no problem making up stories and telling lies. "I never claimed to be a hero, Jake. You're the one that deals in moral absolutes. I think you'll find that doesn't work here."

He smirked. "Why would I bother with them? Though you might wish to tell your brother to stay away from me, if you want an absolute separation. I might suggest not just springing your continued existence on him, he was rather broken up when you left the first time."

[hadabrother.livejournal.com]

"The last battle for Earth. When we took the Pool Ship," Jake replied calmly. He'd leave that part vague, just in case. "Moral absolutes or not, you still crawled into my brother's head and made him helpless. You took away years from his life that he's never going to get back."

A pause and he had to remind himself that hitting the Yeerk wouldn't help with anything right now. In fact, it would probably hurt. That didn't stop himself from imagining it.

"I'll tell him that."

He ignored the jab about his other self leaving. He wasn't going to indulge that. He already had enough guilt to deal with.