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Message: <blockquote data-quote="gideonpepys" data-source="post: 7365451" data-attributes="member: 79141">Zeitgeist Zuesdays Session 45, Part Three - NeedlewireThey learned the name of this strange substance when they questioned Ob captives about its use – though they could not say what it was used for, thanks to their geas, they were able to say what it was called.  But the unit already knew that it was used to summon Nicodemus and all the evidence suggested this was done through an injection.Of foremost concern to Korrigan, when presented with the idea, was that Kasvarina might be influenced by Nicodemus.  To this, she responded with clarity and certainty, “After learning what he did to Launga, nothing will ever persuade me to side with him again.  Even if I come to be the person I was after five-hundred years. This changes everything.”  Thus satisfied, the next question was what she hoped to achieve.  Kasvarina said she wanted to clear her mind before heading to Methia, and she hoped that the opportunity to ‘holler at Nicodemus’ would prove cathartic.  As Kasvarina’s state of mind and continued allegiance were paramount (and perhaps motivated by sheer curiosity) Korrigan agreed.They took heavy precautions: the ‘host’ would be expendable and deserving of their fate. In the end they settled on Mayhew Fisher, Ob officer and physician in charge of the asylum in Slate where poor Chatwood had spent the last thirteen years.  Despite his protestations, they took him to a cell in RHC HQ, with a transparent mirror that allowed the rest of the unit to observe the encounter, while only Leon accompanied Kasvarina inside. They strapped Fisher into a chair, fitted him with mage cuffs and (ignoring his screams) injected him with Needlewire.  At once his head spiralled as if afflicted by sudden vertigo.  Then it snapped to attention and blinked about it.  Nicodemus was present. Kasvarina had already insisted that Leon let her do all the talking. This is how the conversation went:Nicodemus: Well now, this is interesting. An unexpected move. It’s a pleasure to see you again, Kasvarina. Have you come to your senses at last?Kasvarina: I wish I could kill you here and now. But even if I could I know it wouldn’t stop you. I’ll just have to settle for cursing you face-to-face.Nicodemus: I’ll take that as a ‘no’, then. So why am I here? You’re not going to try to convince me to change my mind, are you?  Remember, I’m not the one who’s had my brain stolen. (To Leon.) I don’t suppose you’ve done the decent thing and brought me a cigarette?Kasvarina: What happened in Methia, ‘William’?Nicodemus: Ha. ‘William’, is it? I must really be in your bad books.Kasvarina: What happened in Methia?  Tell me and you can save us all a lot of trouble.Nicodemus: Oh, it’s no trouble, I assure you. (He produces a cigarette from somewhere and begins smoking it; if tied up, it appears in his mouth and he talks around it.)  But since you ask, I died there. You lived.  I’m afraid if you want the finer details you’ll need to go and find out for yourself.  Although Han doesn’t think we should let you, so you’ll have to get through his army first.  Why not come alone? I think you’ll find it easier. I guarantee your safety under those circumstances.  I’d love to have a chance to reintroduce you to yourself and win you away from the fools you’ve taken up with, with their infantile, black-and-white vision of…Kasvarina: (Interrupting.)  Morality? Is that what you were going to say?  Another speech on morality now? I know what you did, William. I know you betrayed me to Latika and Sor, and I know why you did it.  I just wanted you to know before we next meet.  You stole my one and only living daughter, knowing what the death of Dala had done to me, and you killed her to keep me on your side.  That’s what happened, isn’t it?Nicodemus: Hmph. I see Marshall Korrigan has done his usual, thorough hatchet job.  I must admit that I’m surprised you found out about that, and I admit to being just a little embarrassed.  But you have to put the whole thing in the proper perspective… Kasvarina: ‘Perspective’?  That’s all you have to say?  I lost my whole family, William.  First Pillai, then Dala.  All I had left was Launga, and you killed her.  How could you do that to someone you claimed to love?Nicodemus: Ah. Well that’s just it.  There are many kinds of love.  For centuries now I have been immune to the simplest and most base variety.  My love is for all mankind and I plan to do all I can to make life better for them.  I did what I had to do because you were vital to our Grand Design and yet you had grown distant and unreliable. I’m sorry for what had to be done.  And I’m sorry you had to find out the way you did. But it’s a measure of how highly I think of you that I still hope to win you back to our cause.  I think you have the capacity to see beyond petty, temporal concerns and look at the big picture with dispassion.  Not right now, perhaps, but…Kasvarina: (Interrupting again.) William, know this: I will never again be your ally.  From this point forward, I seek only to thwart you at every turn. I know I cannot kill you. But I can disrupt your plans.  You know I can.  I will not stand idly by and watch the vision of one so corrupt, so flawed come to fruition.  It is not, nor it cannot come to good.Nicodemus: (Growing slowly and steadily more angry and vitriolic until by the end of the speech he is shouting.) What would you know about ‘good’?  Like everyone else you see right and wrong through the lens of personal interest and convenience. You think you have the right to stop my plan to better the world because you lost your daughter?  Think about that – your daughter against the whole world.  A world of empathy, of peace, of harmony.  A world without poverty, starvation or disease.  A world free of the power-hungry, the malicious and the violent.  That is what I seek to create, and it is the altar on which I sacrificed my own morality long ago.  Because I could see a way to do what needed to be done, and knew that it could not be done without pain.  So I took that burden on myself and swore that I would not stop until my vision was complete.  And so your daughter had to die.  If the circumstances were the same today I would not flinch.  If you seek to thwart me it is I that will kill you, along with anyone else who gets in my way.  I will meet you on any battlefield you choose and though I love you dearly I will tear your soul apart to get what I want. What a disappointment you are, Kasvarina.  Grow the **** up. This conversation is over.(His host sags, limp and then begins slow slowly regain consciousness.)In the moments following this encounter, Uriel turned to the others and said, “Did you notice he said ‘what I want’?  It’s all about him, no matter what else he says.”</blockquote>

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