Tour Guides were never this Cool [Closed]

[expendable-mind.livejournal.com]

So Splicer had actually enjoyed that for the most part? This last pod pop had been smooth enough, at least compared to a few others. One thing he enjoyed the most was the people he had met, one of them who he would be taking around the ship in a personal tour. He didn't mind of course, always one to enjoy pleasant company and any chance to chill and relax with someone new.

Life after popping was chaotic, sometimes stressful for most. He on the other hand, had been through a similar situation, just not as enclosed as being on board Stacy, so he did his best to help others relax and make the best of it so that they might feel at ease and focused while on board.

He lit a cigarette as he leaned back against one of the pulsating walls, clad in his usual get up of black leathers, t-shirt and jeans, donning one of his many shades as he waits for the girl he had met and promised a day out; passing the time by making the smoke that comes out turn into small smoke baubles and sending them off in a random direction.

Comments

[gunspluscells.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was a lot to take in. Aya listened carefully as they walked through Central Park. Just... poor guy. It seemed like something out of a sci-fi story: children kidnapped for their potential then used and abused by the government. Aya could relate - but not quite on the same level. She knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of government dickery though. At least she had her mind intact. And so did Splicer, for as much as she could gather.

She let out a whistle as she put her hands on her waist.

"Hm. And then what happened? You seem to be here unscathed."

[expendable-mind.livejournal.com]

"Dunno, think it skipped me or whatever." Which wasn't true... he just wasn't aware of it.

"I did know a lot of the ones who were though... It just sucked big time yanno? Specially when there was nothing we could do about it but follow orders. Where else was there in the world for those like us?"

[gunspluscells.livejournal.com]

"Hah, well... glad to hear that? I guess." She frowned and looked over at him. "They never think that far, the government."

They had reached a space in Central Park that looked like a massive open air concert arena. Fitting, considering what worth this place held in Aya's memories.

"The same applies here - I could ramble or you can ask whatever you want. This seems like the most appropriate place to do it."

[expendable-mind.livejournal.com]

"Same deal then, you seem like you'd be thorough with all the info I could prolly ask anyways. And you wouldn't answer my personal ones either way," he added as joke, obvious grin on his face as he tried playing around before looking to the concert arena.

"Nice place. I've read about old earth, but not in detail. Most of the info give to us was that the UED wanted the Dominion gone and they were the enemy." He paused for a moment then shook his head remembering not everyone was from his timeline.

"UED was the United Earth Directorate. The government that still controls Earth and the sectors involved in it. They're not fond of the Terran Dominion and all that, even if technically they're the one's who sent those people away and opted to 'forget' about them until the Dominion started making itself known."

"But that's for later, right now?" he smiled at her, "S'all bout you."

[gunspluscells.livejournal.com]

The joke flew over Aya's head for a moment there. And so did the rest of what he said as she looked solemnly over the grounds. A lot of lives were lost that day. It was horrific. And she had survived, unscathed and awakened to who she really was. Perhaps more than horrific then, if such a thing existed. Because it was so ingrained in her mind, she marvelled at how the other man could look at it with outsiders eyes.

"Okay, so... it started off in the city that Central Park is from. New York. I was twenty five when it happened. The opera at Carnegie Hall on Christmas day. I just saw an ad in the paper and then it just spiralled from there."

Aya took a deep breath.

"Up until then I was just an ordinary cop, doing my job. Everyone around me in that fancy opera house just spontaneously combust as this creature called Mitochondria Eve made the cells in their body just... explode with energy. Except mine. Because I was just like her - I had highly advanced mitochondria too."

"It was six days of hell. Since I was the only one who had a chance against Mitochondria Eve, I had to go in there. Alone, just me, my gun and my body with all these cells. Central Park was one of these places I faced off against Eve. There were people that helped but at the end of the day, I was alone."

"I believed for a time that I was inches away from becoming a monster like her, so to keep my humanity I had to fight her. Resist with every inch of my body. She just couldn't terrorise the world at her whim. So I had to stop her birthing the Ultimate Being. That's why being in the ship freaks me out, you know? It just reminds me of being inside U.B."

"I stopped her, at the end of those six days. It was a long struggle but... it happened. Afterwards I agreed to move out to California to deal with an uprising of these Neo-Mitochondrial Creatures. I was with a Mitochondrial Investigation and Suppression Team. MIST for short. These creatures... man the scientists there were doing experiments and it went wrong. So they were all out in the desert. Or I was meant to believe. They had... they had used my DNA to evolve these beings in the first place. It felt terrible."

She steadied herself by holding onto a convenient railing.

"I stopped it all in the end. Kicked their asses well and truly. I found my sister, Eve as well. They left me to be after that."

The ring on her finger was still there, they gave it back to her. Was Kyle still alive? She hoped he was, but considering that she was all alone, it was a remote possibility.

"I've led a peaceful life since. Sorta. I went back to being a cop. It was a lot better when you didn't have really scary creatures to deal with."

"But yeah, I'm supposed to be 36. I'm not. I might live way longer than I should be. I have lightning fast reflexes and senses. And I have energy that's like magic that can heal and do other neat things. But I always think I'm inches away from being a monster."

[expendable-mind.livejournal.com]

Splicer listened, inadvertently tapping into her thoughts and seeing what she was seeing. The entirety of the scenes she was recollecting, the inner struggle, the fights with her own body and the mitochondrial creatures. The abomination that was the Ultimate Being and how it'd be easy to feel as if she was really trapped inside of it just by being inside Stacy.

And this was all on Earth, which bothered him even more. He knew that in his time, Earth had in fact developed enhanced humans and creatures and such, but this was what? Twentieth century? These sort of things he only researched about was seen in films, or games, but Aya went through it ALL. Every single bit as a normal every day human with unexpected enhancements would have. And she never once backed down? He had a new admiration for the girl for sure.

He moved to her side when she seemed to falter somewhat, taking off his jacket and offering to place it on her should she allow him to, he wouldn't have minded if she didn't however, it was a comforting gesture and if she didn't need, it then she didn't need it.

"How old do you think I am?" he said, more as an outward thought than an actual question as he looked at the theater he had just revisited with her for a moment.

"If you're inches away from being a monster, then let me tell you how knee deep in monster juice I really am..."

He took a moment to pause and sigh. "Spectres don't get names. We're expendable. We don't exist. My 'experimental' number was 779... Splicer was my codename... creative considering what they experimented on me. I'm not a full human anymore. My DNA's been merged perfectly with the other two alien DNA that the Terrans knew about... I'm a hybrid, a human, zerg and toss hybrid."

And that was something almost no one on the ship knew...

[gunspluscells.livejournal.com]

She let Splicer put his jacket over her, it's not like she minded so much now since they began to make headways in the field that was trust. She nodded her head as if to say thanks and let go of the railing.

Aya was about to answer the question about age, but she stopped as he explained his his hodgepodge origins.

"!"

Ouch. She couldn't help it, but she winced slightly. The wince turned into a sad expression, laden with sympathy.

"That's horrible!" she couldn't help but exclaim, holding the jacket closer to herself. Her expression turned to one of anger now. "You damn well exist, organizations be damned and all of that."

Aya held onto the dogtags on the chain her neck. They were part of the reminder that she was once a number and text on a file.

"Nobody can tell you that you're replaceable or you don't exist. That's for you to decide. And even then, you've already proven that you're an individual."

[expendable-mind.livejournal.com]

He smiled, appreciating her words. But she was right, partly. It wasn't until he arrived on this ship that he started taking in on a more individuality... or was it before... when he lost his team? But he hadn't! They were still with him... He shook his thoughts away for a moment and nodded.

"I appreciate that, but that's just how it was for those like me. My team was the same, each with their own codename and number. It wasn't until later that we gave each other nicknames to step out of that rut." What was his? He frowned for a moment, trying to remember... but nothing came out so he simply shrugged it off.

"Sometimes it became harder to keep my individual thoughts due to my specialty and if I was on one of those missions for too long. You see, I'm a doppleganger, an infiltration specialist. I was sent to eliminate a special target and replace them for as long as my superiors needed me to."

To drive his point home, he stepped away from her and gave her a reassuring, warm smile... and then morphed almost instantly into an exact duplicate of Aya, even as he spoke, his voice was exactly like hers.

"What made it perfect was the fact that being a Spectre and a Ghost, I could already read minds... I'm rather adept at it so it made my job easier, steal memories, act like the targets etc." He switched back to his normal form and looked to the 'skies'.

"Whatever was needed of me by my owners."