And PLOT COMMENCES. Terrible plot. Horrible, whiny plot.

[starofchaos]

[There is a Liquid wandering the halls. Usually, Liquids are full of zest. This one... not so much. Odd, really. He's been feeling drained all day. His throat is scratchy and it's difficult to breathe properly. Worse, even his reflexes seem to be dulled! His head aches and his body is shaking with the cold. Why is he suddenly feeling the cold? He doesn't know! He's pale as death. He makes a quick call-]

Ocelooooot, where are you? I need you right now.

[-and hangs up. He can't help the rare whininess in his (particularly shaken and scratchy) voice. Liquid has never been sick a day in his life, excluding some of his imprisonment - and the less said about that the better. He leans against the wall, looking miserable, and sinks down to sit on the floor.]

This is a really rotten week... first the gray hair and now this...

DOES THE UNIVERSE JUST HATE ME LATELY?!

[His words break down into a fit of coughing and he buries his face in his hand for a moment as if that will hide his identity.]

(Long story short, Liquid is sick. It's not serious, even though he looks like hell, but prepare for whiny bitch syndrome if you approach him! He's not used to feeling this rotten.)

Comments

[bb11]

...How are you feeling?

[James hopes he hasn't overdosed his bigger alternate.]

...You know, I sometimes wish I could take you home with me and introduce you to my David. I wonder what he'll think of you...

[starofchaos]

Maybe he'll come here. Who knows?

[He laughs tiredly.]

I think he'll prefer you. As to your question, I feel a little better. Dizzy, however. Thank you.

[bb11]

Mmmmph. [James murmured.] Maybe. [His feelings on this matter are mixed, to say the least.]

- Good. [He wipes Liquid's brow again.]

Well, I'd hope he wouldn't try to replace me or anything, but I think he'll like you too?

...On the other hand, if Father ever saw you... [Har har har.]

Say. Do you - talk with any of the Fathers, here?

[starofchaos]

The old one. And I've spoken to two of the younger ones. One of them disappeared a while ago and I haven't seen the other since the blackout.

[He stared at James.]

Why? Do you think he yours would be angry?

[bb11]

...Oh. What're they like? [James sighs.]

I've talked to a teenaged one. He's a good kid.

[And he'd had some kind of not really screaming match with another one, but whatever.]

[James thinks about this.]

I don't know. He'll probably look at you, look at me, look at you again, and then grab whatever strong alchohol there was at hand.

- Or maybe not. ...He'll probably like you better then me, I think? At least.

[Or appreciate the non-shrimpyness, anyway.]

...You're big and strong and good at fighting. Brave, too. [And kind, he thinks, but James is afraid that he'd embarrase Liquid if he says that.]

[But on the other hand, David was all that, too, in his admittedly biased opinion, and Big Boss...Oh, well, never mind that now.]

[starofchaos]

Father... hated me before I came here. And I hated him too.

[Odd, how much he felt like talking. His voice was a little dazed. Just a little.]

I wanted to kill him and he wanted me to have never existed. He was so fond of our brother, however. Always Brother. So I went back to the Patriots and he... he stayed out. Not free, no matter what he thought, but still out. He at least had the illusion of freedom. In the end we were both chained. Him by his false morals and I by the Patriots.

...they're strange. It's like he changes, in our time. The older one is hard to understand; he seems almost to like us. The younger ones... they vary a little. I think... I like the one I haven't met much the most of those two. He's less insane. Although the crazy one did give me a musket that shoots tornadoes. That was nice of him.

[bb11]

...My world's Father...Doesn't really like me or David.

[Sigh. David had eventually gotten the Snake codename, but just barely - And Father had insisted that it be on a probationary basis, damn him.]

I dunno - I suppose we remind him of - something he doesn't want to think about, or something?

[Something that the 'younger brats' apparently didn't do, oddly enough.]

[Basically, both James and David ended up collectively being 'Liquid' (IE, the not favored at all offspring) in his world - Not that James himself has quite thought of things that way yet.]

And David's strong, too. He's a good fighter, and...

[starofchaos]

He tried to kill Brother. Father, I mean. He didn't choose for us to exist, so... we weren't wanted.

I should damn well hope he's a good fighter. He's Snake.

[bb11]

Oh, he is! [Grin]

...But. [James sighs.]

You know, I understand about not being happy that somebody went and made your genetic offspring without getting permission first, but...

It's not like he was the first soldier ever to go off to war - or come out of a coma, in his case - and discover that he had kids when he came back, you know?

[And it's not like he was pregnant with them for the required 10 months or so - The woman with the tits had done that.]

[And then they'd taken them away from her. James doesn't really think that she was happy with that, either.]

- Not that I'd be happy at all if anybody did anything like that to me, but I hope I'd handle things better then that.

Say - Did you know there was a young Solidus here that's living with his Father? He said that in his world, Father was bringing up all three of us.

[starofchaos]

...ah. I met him a while ago. Cute kid. Messed up, though.

Don't forget, we're not people. We're clones. That's gotta feel like a betrayal of some kind.

I can't have kids but... if I suddenly found out I did, and that someone had had sex with me and become pregnant with my children without even asking me if I wanted to? I'd be rather angry. Not at the children, I suppose. But at the woman.

[bb11]

...Yeah. He said his Father... [Solid is the best] Oh, never mind.

But we are people, Liquid. Being made in a lab doesn't make us not people.

Well, yeah, I probably would to, but... Well, I want kids, so it's different for me, I suppose. Dr Clark said...

[starofchaos]

His father preferred Snake.

It makes us unnatural. Like monsters.

What did she say? The failsafe doesn't allow us to be able to reproduce. So if you want children you should adopt.

[bb11]

...He also said his Father came and saved him when he got caught by some nasty people, though. [On the other hand, the boy probably wouldn't have been caught in the first place if his Father hadn't said something rather thoughtless, to say the least, he thinks.]

Humans in general are unnatural, I think. And monsters are all over the place.

[Failsafe, huh. One of the other Liquid's had mentioned that, too. James sort of wants to check out Liquid's DNA now, and see what the differences are, but...Not now.]

Dr Clark said that it should be possible to create kids with my DNA in a lab - Well, um, they could do that now probably, but I want healthy kids who have a normal lifespan and could procreate in the old-fashioned way, and that's not as easy, so.

[starofchaos]

Father is special like that. One of them saved my life a while ago.

We are beings not made by god but man. Abominations developed solely for the purpose of sins. [He leans back in the chair, coughing a little.] We too will fade with time and be forgotten.

Perhaps engineered sterility could be repaired. There's a lot that can be done now that could not in the past.

[bb11]

...Yes, but mine wouldn't go save David. From Iraq. Because. It was inconvieniet.

- So what? All humans beings were made by human beings. Or if you believe that God made the world, then everything in the world is made by God - It's not like we were created from nothing, you know.

[Wipes Liquid's brow, and risks a small hug.]

And everybody fades in time and is forgotten - [Even Father.]

Well... [In his case, he doesn't really think that the sterility was engineered but he doesn't want to mention that now.]

- I know! And I mean to help it along, too! {James has Plans, alright?]

[starofchaos]

Mine didn't save me from Iraq either. That's alright. It's good to know where you stand. Bastard...

I'm not religious. I don't know or care where anything came from. But I know that I came into existence unnaturally and unwanted. [He wraps an arm around James' back, lightly hugging him in turn.]

Everything fades. But not everything is forgotten. What do you plan to do?

[bb11]

...He was too busy playing politics. [Political chicken games with Very Important People, damnit.]

[Hugs him a bit harder and lets go!]

- I don't care about the 'unnaturally' part and - and -

Well, she with the tits wanted us, I think? And - other people, too.

[Grins] I'm planning to do stuff to - push developments along. I mean, medical technologies are going to go forward anyway, but it should help if somebody's giving things a push, right? ...Plus, we probably could make a couple of billion fortunes, if we play things right.

[It sort of helps that he knows a lot of people of the Mad Scientist-y type, thanks to Dr Clark and co.]

[starofchaos]

..."She with the tits"?

[He stares at James in confusion.]

You mean Mama? I know that Mama wanted us.

...huh. You really are a civilian, aren't you?

[bb11]

...EVA, yeah. She gave me cookies, once, when I was little.

- So we weren't unwanted. She was the one who carried us in her womb and she wanted us. Right?

[Chuckles at Liquid's expression.]

Don't worry, I wouldn't give you civilian cooties. ...I think.

[starofchaos]

Mama... wanted us because we were his, right? [He frowns, thoughtfully.] I like her. I should speak to her more often.

[He raises an eyebrow.]

I should hope not.

[bb11]

...So she wanted us because we were the children of the man she loved. That's not to shabby as reasons go, I think.

Well, her taste in men, on the other hand... [Teasing now.]

[starofchaos]

[Liquid bursts out laughing.]

Oy! I'm supposedly similar to that man in many ways, you know. [A thoughtful hum before he smiles slowly.]

Or maybe I'm better.

[bb11]

Weeell, I'll think so, but then, I'm biased.

[Trufax!]

[starofchaos]

[He smiles that rare smile again, letting his head fall back.]

Understandable. Have you met Mama here?

[bb11]

...I did, but... I didn't get to talk to her much, I'm afraid.

What's she like? [He already knows she loves to show off her...assets, of course.]