Galaxy's Edge Space Bar (archive)

[Terenia]

<<Yeerks are sapient, and therefore capable of inividual thought,>> Efaen concedes. <<However, their government has a strong pull on the general population. I do not find it wise to ally myself with a Yeerk group, even if they perform a good deed to gain my favor. There is no way of knowing if that deed was meant to lull us into a sense of security.>> Efaen sighs as her drink arrives. She places it on the ground and sticks a hoof in. <<I need more proof than heresay. Even speaking to their leader tells me nothing, except that he is actively recruiting.>> She gives Claxter a sideways glance. <<More elaborate ruses have been created in this war.>>


<You can't find my ship?> Terenia asks, alarmed. <How likely is it that your scanner isn't working?> She sounds nervous; her agitated circles in the swampy water have gotten more violent. The Yeerk version of pacing.

[KitsuneMarie]

"Alright, here we are," Illim says as they reach his tiny, slick ship. The ramp hisses out of a hidden compartment and neatly snaps into place as he arrives. Upon placing the first foot on it, the hatch opens, and Illim heads inside.

"Sorry it's so cramped," he says to Derrel, opening a wall compartment to retrieve his personal pool. "Go ahead and have a seat, if you like," he waves an arm at the co-pilot chair nearest the hatch door.

[radgeek]

Any was making Taylis second guess much of her reasoning for leaving the war.  <Temrash, how much time do we have before a neither Amy or myself can go back on our commitments to joining the cause or, as is my case, staying out of the war?>

[Chad32]

<<I suppose it's possible that Ossanlin could be deceived. At least on some level. I don't have any espionage expertise, but I actually know a Warrior who does. I suppose...I don't know if I could get in trouble with this or not. I mean, maybe I could ask him to try to gather some information. He'd have to square it away with his Prince, who might ask questions. Maybe if we could get some kind of third party that we know has no loyalty to Yeerks, and is good at gathering information, we might get a better idea of what's going on.>>


Derrel sat in the seat, becoming engrossed with the ship. It was different than the last ship he had been in, to be sure, but he did his best to resist the urge to touch anything.


"Once you arrive at the location and are entered into the system as officially belonging there, it would be hard to take you out without anyone asking questions." Temrash said.

[KitsuneMarie]

Illim watches Derrel for a moment before leaning over the pool. <Don't leave me too long, alright? And don't tell him too much,> he cautions his host, turning his head so his left ear is facing down. A moment later, he has detached from the human brain and is wriggling through his ear canal, falling the short distance into the sludge with a quiet splash.

Serid remains still a few moments after he has regained control of his body, but then he straightens and wipes away the muck from his ear. "Greetings," he says, giving Derrel a straight-backed, stiff nod. "My name is Serid."

[Chad32]

Derrel half missed Illim coming out of Serid's ear, so for what it's worth he didn't make a disgusted face or anything. "Hi Serid. So, Illim want me to be his new host. I was hoping you might give me some advice. Maybe help me make a decision. I know you have reasons to tell me whatever you can that will get Illim into my head and out of yours, but I'm hoping for some honest feedback on what being a Yeerk host is like."

[Myitt]

"Calm down, it's probably the damn machine," Corliss says quietly.  "Besides, what're the odds that your ship would...would be..."  

He hesitates, frozen by the thought.  

"Efaen," he says cautiously.  "You don't think she'd do anything so crass?"

[KitsuneMarie]

Serid walks the short distance to the pilot's chair, into which he lowers himself carefully. His spine remains straight, and his demeanor is far more rigid than Illim's. "That," he responds after a few seconds of silence, "is a complex request."

In contrast to his rapid, clipped tone when addressing Tora, he now speaks slowly and deliberately. "For me, being a Yeerk host is more... complicated... than it could be for you. I do admit, however, that Illim is the least objectionable of the four Yeerks who have resided in my mind for any length of time. He permits me liberties that most Yeerks would not, and our goals are largely in alignment."

His fingers curl around the ends of the armrests and he watches Derrel closely. His brown-skinned face, which typically looks so easy-going when Illim controls it, now looks like a Greek bust. "Permit me to ask you a question: what is your purpose? What is your incentive?"

[Chad32]

Somehow it seemed Serid acted less Human when he was in control of his body than when Illim controlled it, and Derrel didn't know what to make of that. "have you ever gone through life with everyone thinking you're worthless? scrounging for meals, and wondering if you're going to die every time you get sick? When most people get sick, they go buy medicine. If I have no medicine, and I'm too sick to work for money to buy any, it's a scary experience. I haven't really said I'd be a host, but more than anythign else in the whole world I want to live. I want food. I want to be warm in the winter. I want someone to see me as someone they enjoy having around."

"I have no friends, nor a reliable means of existence. Now I'm stuck on a space rock, and even if I get home I might wind up infested anyway. Illim is giving me an opportunity, but I'm not sure if it's worth it. I've never been owned before."

[KitsuneMarie]

Despite the pathos of Derrel's story, Serid listens to him with what seems like attentive apathy. That is, until the very end. "Owned..." he repeats the word as if he has never considered it before. "I would be reticent to use such a term, but perhaps I have an unreasonable aversion to it. It has quite a negative connotation, no?"

He sighs and leans back against his chair, relaxing a shred. "Let me say this: the place to which he would take you treats hosts well, insofar as their freedoms; I have heard that the food is often reliable but not particularly good. It is a militaristic base full of serious individuals devoted to a cause. You would probably not be permitted to leave it for a long time, for your own safety; they would have no way of knowing who would recognize you due to your lost memories."

He spreads his hands, palms up. "Of course, I have no way to validate what I have heard, as I have never been there, myself. I am, in fact, the reason why he cannot go now."

[radgeek]

<I see,> Taylis said slowly allowing everything to be processed.
"Taylis," Amy pleaded.  "If you could help her or anybody else, then your making a grave mistake."
<I know,> Taylis said almost angrily as if that fact was in the way of the peace she was craving.  <I'm just sick of fighting and death.  I want no part of it anymore.>
"I want Larry back but I can't have that no matter how hard I try," Amy said.  "Maybe you can't have all that you want either."
<Are you volunteering to be my host again after me forcing you to kill, infest and lie?> Taylis said.  <Because I thought you had stopped fighting me because you were broken.>
"I'm fighting you now," Amy said.  "I'm not only volunteering I'm not taking no for an answer."

[Chad32]

Derrel weighed his options. He could go with Illim to a place where he'd be treated well, but he may not be able to leave for...how long exactly? He could try to find a way home, and go back to the way things were. At best it would be the same as ever, and at worst he could wind up the host of a Yeerk that didn't care about him at all. All the thinking was making his head hurt. Or maybe it was just the alchohol.

"I guess I could try it out. Take my chances." He walked over to Illim. Such a small thing swimming in a strange liquid. He was hesitant to make the metaphorical leap, though.




Temrash didn't say anything regarding Amy and Tayliss' conversation. It was about them.

[KitsuneMarie]

Serid gives a slow nod, and the corners of his lips give way into a small smirk. Things were going according to plan, and he had not told a single lie to achieve this small victory. This man was truly voluntary-material. Incredible.

"Should you wish to go through with the process, simply lower your ear to the liquid, and he will enter it. His body will numb your ear as he enters; it is quite painless."

His hand drifts from the armrest to his own ear, thinking that it just might have been home to a Yeerk for the last time.


Illim has been wriggling slowly in circles in the pool during their conversation, blind, deaf, left to wonder what is happening. It has only taken him a few moments to regain any lost Kandrona, and now he is simply biding his time. If I had fingernails, I'd be biting them, he thinks to himself.

After a moment, a shadow falls over the pool, and he pauses in his movements, trying to discern if it's Serid or Derrel. It's impossible to tell.

[Chad32]

Derrel took a deap breath, and leaned over the pool. He put his hands on the table to steady himself, and let his ear touch the water. He stayed like that a few seconds, feeling awkward while in that position. Hopefully this would work out for him. If not...he'd cross that bridge when he got there.

[KitsuneMarie]

At the ear's invasion of the pool sludge, Illim swims eagerly towards the orifice, still uncertain as to whose it is. He squirts out a generous amount of painkiller, just in case it is Derrel, and wriggles his way through the ear canal to the brain.

It is Derrel whose head he is inhabiting. He sees this now, clearly, as the memories are all foreign to him. He flips through a few, unconsciously, before stopping himself. <Hello, Derrel,> he says. <You can communicate with me through your thoughts.>

Serid folds his arms across his chest as he watches Illim take control of Derrel's body. How strange to be free with no hint that a new Yeerk might be coming along.