trans_9 | Slip Sliding Away [Closed]

Entry tags:

Slip Sliding Away [Closed]

Yavek is worried. He can feel his tenuous grasp on the ship's crew being tugged away. The Punishment was a disaster, and Stacy's refusal to go through with it made him and the other Daligig look stupid and weak. The Punishment was supposed to terrorize the population into falling into line, but instead it only added fuel to the fire.

They could go through with a full lockdown, putting the crew in their place by force, but they might take casualties in turn. They could put Warden back in place and try to suppress Stacy entirely, but again, the crew could attack.

Perhaps it would be better if the threat to the crew came from within the crew themselves.

Yavek approaches Zetta's fortress, without his body guards but certainly not unarmed.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The fortress remained no more than a crude building created of improvised masonry and reinforcements, cobbled together into walls that protected by bulk rather than architectural magnificence. Yavek would probably find it pathetic. Well, so much the better.

A couple of his vapid minions stood guard outside, but that was entirely perfunctory; they made no move to intercept Yavek as he approached. Inside, Zetta sat on his throne, looking... kind of silly. He was a book, after all.

Yavek turns up his chin at the state of the Zetta's abode, thinking that if this is how their Council lives, perhaps Zetta has even less power than the meager he laid claim to.

If Yavek had a sense of humor he might find Zetta's position entertaining, but Yavek, being a colossal douchebag of the highest calibre, doesn't even have the saving grace of wit.

"How has the crew reacted to your display of allegiance?"

Hey, don't knock Zetta's crapass fortress. Check out the size of the TV he has. It's huge!

The book smirked. "Not much, yet -- because they're still in shock over everything. But how are they going to react? The same way they react every time any of you guys try to tell them they shouldn't be running around like idiots, more concerned about protecting their precious 'rights' while the cosmos dissolves. It's Galilee all over again."

Yavek's TV can kick your TV's ass, Zetta.

"Right, Galilee. We saw the reports from that. Indeed, we might not have even decided to board the ship had that mission not gone so disastrously." At least they got the medical technology. "It's despicable, really. Such flagrant individualism over the war effort as a whole."

Well well, Zetta will just file THAT little nugget of information away for later. "Exactly. I was selling the same arguments then, too -- shut up and go through with it so we can get the freaking medical tech -- and it turned into one giant messy argument."

Even Zetta had the wisdom and tact necessary to not point out that he'd switched opinions as dramatically and violently as possible in that whole circumstance, but Yavek seemed like he didn't really pay much attention to the details, so he figured he was safe bringing it up. In fact... "Here, look that up," he said with a side glance to his leader-minion, who obligingly pulled out her omnicomm and began searching back.

"Oh, and don't get me started about the people who were advocating killing powerful crew members just because of their past," he grumbled on. "Man, the names we got called. We're lucky that one girl got repodded before she actually managed to kill Azula. No sense there. This is the crap we have to deal with on a daily basis. Hell, go ahead and laugh at us, we deserve it. It'd be a lot funnier if the freaking cosmos wasn't at stake."

"Hmm. Huh eh." It sounds almost as if Yavek is trying to laugh and has completely forgotten how to do so in an enthusiastic or not-creepy manner.

"And I don't suppose that, with your knowledge of the ship, you'd know what we could do to reach our mutually beneficial goal of bringing them into line?"

This was where Zetta would have liked to cross his arms purposefully. But he couldn't. So he just looked stern. And furiously tried to think of how to phrase things properly.

"Simple. Give us the tools to stop these jerks. They're running around sabotaging things and even reprogramming the freaking ship. They turned off Violations and Punishment at one point, remember? But the people who say 'hey, you're ruining everything', well, what do we have to stop them? If we try to talk to them, they put it to a vote, like democracy has some freaking place in the middle of a war. If we try to beat them up or put them in the brig, we're pissing off everyone else, and we're locking away people who OUGHT to be up here kicking Ohm ass.

"But the ship? The ship can do that sort of thing and more. And everyone knows that already. If the ship grabs someone for seditious behavior and locks them up, well, that isn't the Council's fault. No one has to know that we were the ones who gave that order, wink wink. We're just innocent victims too, all of us subject to the mean prison ship," Zetta said, casting his eyes up innocently. "Meanwhile, we're playing them like Prinny Pinball Madness."

"So you would like to give the crew the illusion of a united front against us, rather than to promote the idea that resisting us is unacceptable. I'm not sure if we will be able to allow that."

And yet Yavek doesn't storm off or shut Zetta down then, because while he doesn't like this proposal he also sees Zetta as someone worth working with.

"But the idea of giving the Council more power isn't completely off the table. If you can't control your populace, perhaps it really is that you simply lack the tools."

"Heh, not permanently. There's a rebellion coming, one way or the other. People are talking about it openly now." Plan or no, he wouldn't mind shooting a little trouble the way of a couple of people. "But you've got to break that sort of thing from the inside. The leaders aren't doing the dirty work, after all. If you don't have people on the inside, you catch their grunts and their patsies. You catch the leader, when they've been passing themselves off as the mastermind who'll lead them to victory? That breaks the rebel spirit. Once the brains and the loudest people get locked down for good, everyone else'll fall into line just because it's easier."

He kept a close eye on Yavek, not wanting to oversell this point, but if a couple of people could be in the middle, the chances of pulling this whole caper off shoots way up.

"But either way... you know, there's people who do nothing but try to rewire the ship. We can't even stop them because they build in protections for themselves. ANYthing would help."

"Is there now?" Yavek looks faintly amused, as if he's just been told that the local alleycats are about to protest living conditions by not hunting the mice anymore, but secretly there is a bit of fear in him there. It would not be impossible to murder this crew, like they did the last, but it would set them back. And the wound on Yavek's shoulder came much too close to killing him for his comfort. A few inches to the right...

"I don't suppose you'd know who their leaders are? We've realized from the last demonstration that a public display of consequences means nothing to this crew, but we have methods of shutting people down that are much less seditious."

He's still hedging around the idea of giving Zetta any power, but maybe in exchange for some names...

"I just know who the loudest ones are... and they're pretty much the same ones who jumped you at the Punishment display," Zetta said. Couldn't hurt to remind him of what happened there, right? "The ones that are smart enough to lead are the ones that are smart enough not to tell the freaking Councilor they're an enemy, or attack you when you're here. Unless they don't have a choice.." He let that note hang ominously. "But I'm pretty sure they're betting you guys have better things to do and can't keep babysitting us forever."

"So you're not sure of who they are either. Without granting more power from the ship, could we supply you with manpower? Or...something else?" Yavek's eyes do light up at the idea of getting off this fleshy heap. He has more important things to attend to. Much more important things.

Zetta did his damn best to sound disheartened and petulant. "It'd be terrible to waste valuable manpower on us. What else could you even give us? I'm sure there's not much you're even allowed to use up on us, considering how much effort we already are and how little we actually do."

Challenging his ego and at the same time giving him an opportunity to boast about his options and power? Well, it would work on a different Overlord. Zetta hoped Yavek played by the same genre conventions.

"It would be a waste to continue to let this crew flounder, though. You have vast capabilities that you simply squander. And if you, as a crew, continue to behave as you have, we may need to retool you yet again."

Yavek puffs deep out his nose and thinks. He's not about to tell Zetta the extent of the Daligig's power because even an ally is dangerous if they know too much. He hopes the implied threat will be enough.

"Do you happen to know anything about Programming? Or know of trustworthy persons who do?"

"I have minions for that." Zetta, with a glance and a turn of his, uh, book, indicated one of the minions that looked more science-y, standing over by the TV. "They're perfectly trustworthy because they're just extensions of my own mana power."

Yavek looks over the minions with some curiosity. How much easier it would be to have extensions of himself to control, rather than frittering away time subjugating the Ghyyl. "There are ways to override the ship's security protocols for certain individuals."

"In other words, we can put them down without penalty, but when they try to put us down, they get stopped." It made sense; how else would the Daligig be immune to the ship's security? "THAT would give us an edge."

"Yes. Repodding the troublemakers would look too suspicious now, but removing their protections...a few Kessek might move a little too fast for Stacy to interfere." Yavek steeples his fingers in an overtly villainous manner, because he wouldn't recognize subtle if it punched him in the face with mittens on. "There are files in Stacy's system for every crew members, awake or not, and every visitor to the ship. They each have a customizable security setting."

Overlords actually have job description that specified 'evil', so Yavek isn't exactly in foreign territory here.

"How customizable?" Zetta said, arching his eyebrows suggestively. If Yavek wanted to interpret that as Zetta wondering if he could abuse that power just a little... well, actually Zetta would totally do that if he had the opportunity.

"Based on categories of persons, so no new settings can be invented." Yavek strokes his chin. "Of course, I'd have to trust you to be subtle in your alterations."

Zetta heaved a dramatic sigh. "I'm not big on subtle... but the shock value when the changes come to light would be worth it, so I guess I can call it an 'evil plan' and still be within my rights."

"Good, then." Yavek proceeds to tell Zetta a bit about the security setting passwords, noting, though, that even finding where the passwords go would required a very skilled hacker. "The rest of the Daligig don't know about this meeting, but they will fall in line if I tell them to. Good day to you, Councillor."

And with that, he makes his exit, and possibly a gust of wind blew his space-cape at a dramatic angle.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Slip Sliding Away [Closed]

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject