[Ford crosses the floor to the multicolored, glittery smear.]
All right. Let's see what he was up to.
[Ford scans the area. The scanner beeps. He examines the display, then draws his eyebrows together.]
Nothing. At least, nothing that shouldn't be here.
[Ford turns it around to show Jon the display: it's a little flashing admiral's hat, with a bar gauge to the side falling safely between two parallel lines indicating normal. Press a toggle button, and it will run through all the physical substances it detected: nothing but wood and the chemical components of ordinary nail polish.]
[ He watches the meter curiously but he doesn't say anything until Ford is done with his explanation. Then he frowns and looks at the spot on the floor again.]
I'm curious how... lingering the power in your world is. Where I'm from, we've never noticed any particular- once the item is no longer there, the energy is gone too.
[ He looks over at Ford curiously, because this kind of study is a bit beyond him. The way things work in their respective worlds is different but some things he can at least guess on.]
Is it possible he's amassing something, some sort of power?
[Ford looks at Jon, and there's something surprised, and then something a little bit hopeless, in his face.]
It is entirely possible.
Whether or not we should be worried about that depends on how much you trust the Admiral. I've been told that when his safeguards work, they work. He's managed to keep Bill contained this long, and no one on the ship seems to believe Bill could get up to anything too serious.
But then again, the Admiral forced us all on board a stolen ship when his performance review went badly, and now we're on the run from the otherworldly beings he answers to, so I'm surprised anyone trusts the Admiral at all, anymore.
The Admiral offers devil's bargains behind the rest of reality's back and meddles with the souls of the dead. If I had any other choice, I wouldn't be here, but given that the only thing of any certainty seems to be that he fulfills said bargains, here I am. 'Trust' is not a word I'd use in regards to him, however.
[ ...actually, to be perfectly frank?]
...also, 'the Admiral' is the name of my friend Georgie's cat so I honestly can't take the damn thing seriously.
[ He clears his throat.]
The fact of the matter is, just because something has been contained doesn't mean that it will remain so. Either through incompetence or pure, unfortunate, luck.
[Ford gives a sad sort of chuckle at the mention of the cat. If he were still journaling, that's the sort of thing he'd be tempted to draw. Or maybe Mabel would. He saw some of her cat-icatures. Remarkable likenesses. She's such a talented artist.
But the levity fades as quickly as it came.]
I don't think anything can contain Bill forever. Not if he doesn't want to be. He's very old, very cunning, and unbelievably patient. If there's a weakness, he'll find it.
[ For once, his thoughts don't go to Sasha. Instead, they go to Michael, or rather to Michael Shelley. To Helen, now.
'A full recovery'. Was something like that only available in another world, a kinder and brighter one?
It seemed like people hardly even survived brushes with the Entities in his world, let alone something like that. There's a vicious, awful, selfish, mean twinge inside of him at the idea, the idea of a 'full recovery' when his own soul feels like it's missing pieces. When he thinks of the bitterness in Michael's voice as he told his story. The way he'd screamed as he'd unbecome himself. He shoves it down, away.
Because that's only a part of him. The majority of him, most of him, is just glad that ultimately, someone got away. Someone got away, and that was... that was a good thing, even if he's sure he'll have a much less pleasant end.
Besides, Ford was here. Maybe his brother hadn't been the one to pay the price.]
I want to know a lot of things, Ford. And that one is... singularly intriguing, obviously.
[ It would be unfair to say that Jon 'feels' it. That the story itself, in it's larval stage as Ford figures things out, has any kind of tingle at the edge of his senses. It's nothing so supernatural as that; he knows what someone looks like before a statement, though, and he knows that the tape recorder is no doubt hungry for more information.
So Jon is quiet for similar reasons, mostly to do with figuring out how to explain to Ford that he'd best write the whole thing down for him as opposed to anything more... audible.]
There's a number of ways to kill something like him. My first plan was the Quantum Destabilizer. One shot from that to his center of mass, and he'd be history! Unfortunately, a gun like that only holds so many charges, and finding something powerful and stable enough to use as a power source is...challenging.
The second way is to assemble a Zodiac. I'm still not entirely sure how it works. According to an ancient prophecy, if ten people who correspond to a set of symbols stand in a circle, they form a mystical human energy circuit powerful enough to stop Bill. Unfortunately, we weren't able to test it. Also, I can't say whether or not it would work on something like him. ...though I accidentally tapped into a similar principle recently when I made a device that was able to trap and contain him while he was at full power.
But the way that was ultimately successful...it involved the mind.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2019-02-14 08:39 pm (UTC)All right. Let's see what he was up to.
[Ford scans the area. The scanner beeps. He examines the display, then draws his eyebrows together.]
Nothing. At least, nothing that shouldn't be here.
[Ford turns it around to show Jon the display: it's a little flashing admiral's hat, with a bar gauge to the side falling safely between two parallel lines indicating normal. Press a toggle button, and it will run through all the physical substances it detected: nothing but wood and the chemical components of ordinary nail polish.]
Just ambient Barge energy at normal levels.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-17 11:13 pm (UTC)I'm curious how... lingering the power in your world is. Where I'm from, we've never noticed any particular- once the item is no longer there, the energy is gone too.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-18 04:15 pm (UTC)It depends. I've found that there are many different kinds of magic, each with its own unique, and often confusing, rules. It's usually worth a shot.
[Ford looks back at the readout.]
Either whatever it was Bill was casting vanished without a trace, or no magic happened here at all.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-18 07:40 pm (UTC)[ He looks over at Ford curiously, because this kind of study is a bit beyond him. The way things work in their respective worlds is different but some things he can at least guess on.]
Is it possible he's amassing something, some sort of power?
no subject
Date: 2019-02-18 07:52 pm (UTC)It is entirely possible.
Whether or not we should be worried about that depends on how much you trust the Admiral. I've been told that when his safeguards work, they work. He's managed to keep Bill contained this long, and no one on the ship seems to believe Bill could get up to anything too serious.
But then again, the Admiral forced us all on board a stolen ship when his performance review went badly, and now we're on the run from the otherworldly beings he answers to, so I'm surprised anyone trusts the Admiral at all, anymore.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-18 08:01 pm (UTC)[ ...actually, to be perfectly frank?]
...also, 'the Admiral' is the name of my friend Georgie's cat so I honestly can't take the damn thing seriously.
[ He clears his throat.]
The fact of the matter is, just because something has been contained doesn't mean that it will remain so. Either through incompetence or pure, unfortunate, luck.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-18 08:21 pm (UTC)But the levity fades as quickly as it came.]
I don't think anything can contain Bill forever. Not if he doesn't want to be. He's very old, very cunning, and unbelievably patient. If there's a weakness, he'll find it.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-24 05:08 pm (UTC)[ Because the rules for inmates, well, that is rather curious. He'd have thought something like Bill to be rather, er, deathless.]
no subject
Date: 2019-02-24 05:15 pm (UTC)I do. I was there for it. I pulled the trigger that erased him from our reality.
[The sadness in his tone makes it very clear that this was not a moment of heroic triumph.]
no subject
Date: 2019-02-24 05:18 pm (UTC)He also knows what sadness like that can feel like, from a very personal place indeed. He knows why a victory might be less than triumphant.]
I'm sorry for your loss. Whoever, or w-whatever it might have been. I didn't-
I'm sorry.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-24 05:43 pm (UTC)[Ford shrugs it off.]
You want to know how I did it.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-24 05:51 pm (UTC)'A full recovery'. Was something like that only available in another world, a kinder and brighter one?
It seemed like people hardly even survived brushes with the Entities in his world, let alone something like that. There's a vicious, awful, selfish, mean twinge inside of him at the idea, the idea of a 'full recovery' when his own soul feels like it's missing pieces. When he thinks of the bitterness in Michael's voice as he told his story. The way he'd screamed as he'd unbecome himself. He shoves it down, away.
Because that's only a part of him. The majority of him, most of him, is just glad that ultimately, someone got away. Someone got away, and that was... that was a good thing, even if he's sure he'll have a much less pleasant end.
Besides, Ford was here. Maybe his brother hadn't been the one to pay the price.]
I want to know a lot of things, Ford. And that one is... singularly intriguing, obviously.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-26 10:12 pm (UTC)[Ford turns the scanner off and puts it back in a coat pocket.]
I don't think we're going to find anything else here.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-27 09:57 pm (UTC)[ His interest is one thing, but asking questions (or politely not asking questions) where Bill could hear is not a good plan. ]
Back to my cabin then, if you don't mind.
[ He'd made the tea, after all. And he could make it again.]
no subject
Date: 2019-02-27 10:23 pm (UTC)[On the way back, Ford gets his thoughts in order. He's going to have to tell the story, at least in part. How much of it does he want to recount?]
no subject
Date: 2019-02-28 02:10 pm (UTC)So Jon is quiet for similar reasons, mostly to do with figuring out how to explain to Ford that he'd best write the whole thing down for him as opposed to anything more... audible.]
no subject
Date: 2019-03-01 10:01 pm (UTC)He'll probably focus on the mechanics of it, he decides. Keep the human drama out of it -- as much as Ford can keep drama out of anything.]
no subject
Date: 2019-03-02 04:57 am (UTC)So...
no subject
Date: 2019-03-05 08:56 pm (UTC)There's a number of ways to kill something like him. My first plan was the Quantum Destabilizer. One shot from that to his center of mass, and he'd be history! Unfortunately, a gun like that only holds so many charges, and finding something powerful and stable enough to use as a power source is...challenging.
The second way is to assemble a Zodiac. I'm still not entirely sure how it works. According to an ancient prophecy, if ten people who correspond to a set of symbols stand in a circle, they form a mystical human energy circuit powerful enough to stop Bill. Unfortunately, we weren't able to test it. Also, I can't say whether or not it would work on something like him. ...though I accidentally tapped into a similar principle recently when I made a device that was able to trap and contain him while he was at full power.
But the way that was ultimately successful...it involved the mind.