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[tsunergy]

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"This is Mikleo. I'll get back to you when I can."

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[tsunergy]

[okay but what if he wants to punch you]

Fine. Where?

[angelofthevored]

[better get a step stool first]

Here. [Beep boop coordinates, to the library where they'd first met.]

[tsunergy]

[YOU BASTARD

but fine, okay, he shows up a short while later.]

[angelofthevored]

[Castiel is already there, hunched over at a table and looking under the weather but at least not wounded. He doesn't look up when Mikleo enters, but isn't surprised when he approaches the table.]

We may have seen what devoured the other ship you mentioned. [No preamble then, ok]

[tsunergy]

[Not like Mikleo expected small talk. He drags a chair out and sits, brows furrowed.]

What? You saw it when you attacked?

[angelofthevored]

[Holds out a couple of trembling fingers, though he doesn't go as far as touching Mikleo yet.] It would be easier to show you.

[tsunergy]

[Mikleo hesitates, skeptical and uncomfortable; he doesn't know what that means, and he doesn't trust this guy, either. And yeah, he'd told Sorey where he was going, but still.]

How?

[angelofthevored]

I would share with you the memory of what I experienced. [Look, he doesn't have another way of showing you, but he could...try and explain the thing. With dumb, clumsy mortal words.

...all right, the kid clearly does not trust Cas, but from what Cas saw in that post, he's not an untrustworthy person. They might not get along but he'd been so ready to offer his services to heal. So Cas sighs, slips his angel blade from his sleeve and sets it on the table between them, handle toward Mikleo.] This is the only thing in this Fleet that can kill me. If you feel I've harmed you, you're free to wield it against me.

[tsunergy]

[Mikleo glances down, eyes widening, and after another pause reaches out towards the weapon- to push it away, rather than accept it.]

I'm not interested in killing anyone. You're a friend of Sam's, aren't you? So you can't be all that bad.

[Even if you're kind of an ass. Sam didn't make the best first impression either, so. Hmph.

Anyway, he offers his hand out next. Do your worst? He's pretty sure a small army would track the guy down if anything bad happened to him, anyway. Edna would at least punch his kneecaps in.]

[angelofthevored]

[Yeah...not going for the hand, sorry buddy. Cas leans forward across the table to touch two fingers to Mikleo's forehead instead, just beneath that circlet and then

you're in space, form compact and thrumming, blocked at every turn until you see it. The thing flows like a river of darkness, like the Empty made manifest, made fluid. It seeps through the hallways of the ship, as far as you can see from the tiny window you should be able to pass through, but cannot. The dread simmers sick in your not-stomach, screams at you to flee but you hold on steadfast, stubbornly, desperate for any sort of clue to Sam's whereabouts because death is preferable to leaving Sam to any more torment.

The thing splits now and then, wedges opening up in its muck much like two great toothed jaws spreading, revealing little else but snow before it slaps like waves against the walls and corners. It has intent. It might not be alive but you know, you know it can't be

Castiel withdraws his hand.]

[tsunergy]

[ah--

Mikleo had remained in place throughout the vision - memory, whatever - as if frozen by it, but as soon as Castiel withdraws he flinches back like he'd been struck. A hand lifts to his forehead, shaking a little until fingers brush against skin and metal, and his gaze drops to the table.]

...It's the same. It's definitely the same. It... it felt like that.

[angelofthevored]

[Lowers hand to the table, looking a little sweatier than before.] Then it's likely what we saw wasn't something on the ship, but the ship itself. [Maybe it's an entity that can move around the ship as it likes but honestly, Cas doesn't see a difference.]

[tsunergy]

A sentient machine? Or like some sort of armored monster?

[It's awfully freaky to imagine, considering how they all start out there. More freaky than usual, anyway.]

[angelofthevored]

It would be a waste of time trying to classify it with just that little glimpse. [Squints. He really is very human-y. How strange.] Its true nature isn't what we need to know anyway; what we need to know is how much influence it has over the Fleet. Over us.

[tsunergy]

[Speak for yourself!!]

It's pretty obvious that it controls plenty. It decides who has access to it and when, it's where we're brought into the fleet, and it's apparently where we're taken whenever they want to mess with us in some way. And it's-

[He pauses, hesitant; he'd gotten into the discussion just enough to almost forget that he's speaking with, essentially, a stranger.

...A friend of Sam's, though. That does count for something. So finally he mumbles, heavy with reluctance,]

It's where the dead are taken to be revived.

[angelofthevored]

I see. [Not shocked by that 'dead being revived' thing, partially because it happens all the fuckin' time back home and partially because he's already read a bunch of shit on it, but...interesting. So they show back up at the Marsiva.] And these augments in our bodies...they must be a part of whatever that creature is.

[tsunergy]

[There's a flicker of relief at not being prodded about it- it's there and gone in a matter of seconds, and then Mikleo glances away.]

Most likely. Carrying a part of it inside of our bodies is a pretty compelling reason as to why we can only escape if we're sent away.

[angelofthevored]

So this creature, it controls or is the Marsiva. It controls and alters us through the augments. It is very likely responsible for reviving the dead, and is likely also responsible for bringing us here in the first place, as we also arrive on the Marsiva. Though- [he pauses for a moment, checking his feverish mind to make sure he's covering everything,] -though, as far as I'm aware, when on the Marsiva after just arriving, no one experiences that same feeling of dread.

[tsunergy]

No, not to my knowledge. I've been there a few times and it only felt like that the one time.

You're familiar with glitches in the augments, right?

[angelofthevored]

I've yet to experience one, but I read about it. [Since he read as far back as the network would allow, and people generally go there first for info when weird shit happens.]

[tsunergy]

They're... not exactly fun, but I've found them mostly harmless so far. I can see how it might go very poorly if the wrong change were to happen. Just another way for them to mess with us...

[angelofthevored]

[Yeah, well, okay they sound sucky but,] Do you mean the augments, these fragments of that creature, they might be altering our bodies as the creature does the Marsiva?

[tsunergy]

It's just a theory, I've nothing concrete. But the degree of influence they're known to have over our bodies and what it's able to do to itself leads me to believe that they're of a similar ilk.

[He drums his fingers idly against the table.]

Do you have the ability to change to an incorporeal form?

[angelofthevored]

Something like that. [Clears throat and fiddles with the collar of his coat for a moment to indicate all this business here,] This is a flesh and blood vessel that I can vacate. However, the effects of the augment still remain with me even when I don't have a physical body.

[tsunergy]

It's a similar situation for me- the augment, that is. I can feel it regardless of my corporeal state.

[and it's jarring as hell every single time.]