Log:Zero Tolerance Policy

2020/01/26 	 Lien Breach Indira Zero

1

There are alot of the recent developments that Lien is unhappy with. The most lingering of which is sensation of the need to constantly look over her shoulder. Leave it to SOME UNNAMED STARGOTH to put paranoia in her skull. It doesn't take for more than a few days for Lien to come to the simple realization: F$#!@ THAT $#!^

To that end, she sends Zero a rather simple message:

WE NEED TO TALK.

I'M AT HOME.

Zero is meditating in a hotel room, surrounded by half-eaten room service trays. She's looking for a solution to her torn loyalties but the Presence is so certain their way is the right and only way forward.

That bucks against her natural inclination to be free & unshackled- that is when she can maintain her focus enough to feel all that over the tide of the Monoculture.

She's surprised when her PDA alerts her to Lien's message.

She reads it over a few times wondering what she should do.

Biting her lip nervously she replies.

<<'Sure. I can handle that, but maybe we should keep our hands to ourselves? My jaw is still sore.'

Lien sucks in a breath at the contact, but accepts the reply. Her brain is still a little sore, itself, in a fashion, so it's still a bit guarded. <> She even nods, not that Zero can see it.

Zero nervously packs a small bag and slides out the window with her linegun.

She uses her ninja-like training to avoid the eyes of those about the city as she goes. But in a short time she comes rapping at Lien's back door.

She's not in a disguise since she has no intention on being seen at all.

Still, she's careful and with her mask's transcranial stimulator on she can use her ESP all the time. With the danger she's in its worth the migraines she gets from using it for extended periods.

Lien isn't sure who might be accompanying Zero this time. She presumed she was alone the last time, and she wasn't. This time, she looks out the back window, first, checking for other blondes, redheads, arachnids, beetles, or whatever else might have also wandered in before she opens the door.

Breach is definitely not doing his best to be a suit of decorative armor in a remote corner of Lien's apartment.

That would be silly.

Ridiculous even.

Especially with Lien checking for the presence of redheads in the vicinity of the apartment.

The at times luminous Indira is staying in the bedroom near the closed door, dressed in her armor-plated spacesuit as she waits.

Zero arrives, via the back door. Not disguised- well not as someone else. Just her Zero gear, mask and all. Afterall- even during the day she can make herself almost impossible to spot until she wants to. Like now, as she struts across Lien's back lawn towards the rear door.

She sends Lien a quick message as she arrives. <<"I guess it would ahve been wise for me to ask that we have our talk alone huh?">>

Still, despite her message she still comes- either fearless or crazy. Maybe both. Probably at least a bit of both.

Lien spies just Zero through the window and unlocks the back door prior to her ETA to it. It even opens just ahead of Zero, albeit to an empty doorway, as Lien opens it while remaining on the hinge side rather than silhouetting herself.

Breach doesn't know that he's been blown. Or perhaps he doesn't care. Either way, the Undead Soldier doesn't move when Zero arrives/enters.

Indira remains still hidden in another room, listening and waiting.

Lien shares across PODNet <>

Rick (Breach) responds, << Confirmed. >> Someone's all business.

Indira adds, <>

Zero enters Lien's home confidently but with a notable somberness that she doesn't usually carry. Her eyes look like she's tired and certainly burdened by something she can't quite wrap her hand around. Also- she has a black eye from where Lien punched her when last she was here.

Likely why she came here today.

Still she keeps her eyes on where Lien is, seemingly ignoring the very still Super Soldier & the patient Plant-Based Ambassador.

She enters and takes a seat. Putting her hands on the table to show she isn't up to anything. She really did just come to talk.

Rick (Breach) mentally shrugs. << Maybe hold that in reserve? >>

Lien closes the door, locks it, then heads for the table. She really did invite Zero here to talk... or converse, to be more accurate. She even put some effort to what to say, as she taps he qPid and then just sets in on the table in front of Zero. Then she crosses her arms in front of her and just eyes her

I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE OFFERING ME, BUT I DON'T NEED IT, AND I DON'T WANT IT.

STARGUARD'S LOOKING FOR YOU. YOU KNOW IT. I KNOW IT

SO, IF ALL THAT WATERWORKS LAST TIME, AND EVERYTHING BEFORE, WASN'T JUST SOME SMOKESHOW, THEN PROVE IT.

TURN YOURSELF IN. RIGHT NOW. I'LL WALK YOU THERE MYSELF.

NOW,I'M GOING TO DO THAT NO MATTER WHAT YOU CHOOSE, EVEN IF I HAVE TO DRAG YOUR ASS THERE IN A SLING.

BUT I'M GIVING YOU A CHOICE ON HOW IT GOES.

WHICH IS F***ALL MORE THAN YOU GAVE ME.

Indira stays still and waits, still alert and ready for Lien and Rick to give a signal.

Breach watches, quiet and still.

"Is that really an option then?" Zero asks, turning to Lien curiously.

She places her hands in her lap and folds them delicately.

She doesn't divert her gaze from Lien's angry gaze but knowing she has Lien at least at a slight disadvantage she uses the opportunity to respond.

"I thought I knew what I was offering. But you... you proved that I didn't know what I was getting into. And that I was an idiot." She tightens her lips as she takes a moment to keep her composure and drown out the Unity's suggestive whispers.

She lifts her hands in a dismissive manner before returning them to her lap.

"Nevertheless, I want you to know- that I'm sorry about all this. In the end, I thought I was helping everyone be whole... I just wanted... I just wanted to feel whole again."

She brings her hands to he heart, suddenly having a difficult time breathing.

"But now I can't even feel my broken heart... I can't even tell what I lost." She says as she finally looks away from Lien. She looks away from even the people who aren't in her visual line of sight.

Breach is watching you Zero. Unfortunately, Breach is not here to be a hero. Not for you, at any rate, Zero.

Indira finally steps out from the side room and walks calmly, purposely towards the rear door to block one way of escape, opposite where Rick is. Vines begin to creep under the door to lock it into place. "You gave up your options when you took Lien from us. When you aligned with a force that breaks up families," she says in an unemotional, matter-of-fact tone that's practiced from being a diplomat.

Her hands come to steeple fingertips together at waist-level. "You must realize by now you're hurting people. Taking away their choice. Their lives, even though they are technically living when you are threw with them. How could you not turn yourself in after that, if you truly had remorse?"

Zero doesn't turn to look right away. Instead she produces a tissue. She dabs at her eyes, wincing when she gets to the one that Lien punched previously.

"I didn't know. I thought... I thought everyone would be like me. Just connected. Whole." She sighs. "What happened to Lien... what happened to the others was the last thing I ever wanted- and once I found out... I tried to find another way. A way to bring everyone into ... into what I thought would be a beautiful future. No more death. No one forgotten." She says, her voice low and full of pain like a quiet storm. A second sigh comes. This one much more wistful. "Just imagine. It would have been beautiful. Everyone on Earth- connected, just like the three of you are."

When she turns to face Indira the Ambassador will find her between two points- one with a soul full of pain & agony and then the one given by Unity- calm, peaceful & serene.

"I thought I was ready to pay any price..." She shakes her head as if to say she wasn't in the end.

"Your vines are very nice by the..." She frowns, bringing her fingers to the bridge of her nose. "I'm sorry. The Unity is not too happy about this as you can probably imagine..." She says, trying to stiffle the voices in her head and the sensations along the band.

She looks back up to Indira and asks, "Can you... I dunno. Do flowers? Flowers would be nice. In any event, I already made my decision when I came here. I'm not going to resist. I see what I did now- and I just want to help undo what I've done. Then... then you can lock me up and throw away the key."

"You haven't got the first idea about death and memory and loss," replies Breach, his tone flat as his helmet's faceplate stares just as emotionlessly at Zero. Everyone, psychic or not, can feel the baleful glare implicit in his words and posture. If looks could kill, Zero's soul might get slaughtered by the atomic powered murdersight radiating from somewhere behind Breach's mirrored faceplate.

Indira is quite the opposite in temperment, but she is not exactly happy with Zero's crimes upon Lien. "But you did not try to save them," she says sadly. "Eternal life at the cost of ones spark is not beautiful."

Her pink glowing eyes lift to Lien and Rick. "Comparing our bond to what you had done to our Lien is not the same. I would never destroy their bodies and minds; quell their uniqueness--their essence--as part of our connection. They are still themselves, still free to grow and blossom."

Her eyes go to Rick and Lien in sympathy before they return to Zero. "You have been sold a false paradise. The very price of it means it cannot be. It is a cruel fate, pacified by the stripping of self. It is death while stuck in a living shell."

She takes a step forward. "I can do many flowers. A field of them." She pauses to think on Zero's words. "Had you not harmed Lien as you did and hid away, I would believe your desire to help. I want to, but I think my friends would consider me naive for trusting. Perhaps they are right. The safest place for you is in a cell where you can do no harm. We cannot trust that this is a trick, just as you had tricked our Lien."

Lien says nothing, of course, though she also doesn't interrupt the others. Hers isn't the only opinion to be shared. Something that seems to be starkly at odds with Zero's ... whatever it is that she thinks she has. She picks up the tablet and now freetypes. Would a mental connection be easier? Most likely. Is she going to share her brain with Zero at this point? Signs point towards OH HELLS TO THE NO. When finished, she doesn't set the tablet down, merely turning it towards Zero.

MAYBE YOU KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON, MAYBE YOU DIDN'T. I DON'T CARE.

I ONLY KNOW WHAT YOU'VE DONE.

WE'RE NOT LOCKING YOU UP. THAT'S ALL BETWEEN YOU AND THE REGS.

THEY'RE THE ONES YOU NEED TO PLEAD YOUR CASE TO, WORK WITH IF YOU WANT TO UNDO THINGS.

WE'RE JUST YOUR ESCORT. THE SOONER YOU GET THERE, THE SOONER YOU CAN DO WHATEVER YOU THINK YOU NEED TO DO.

SO LET'S GET MOVING.

Lien then gestures for the front door.

Lien also shares with Rick and Indira that the sooner she can get a decent night's sleep, but she isn't going to tell Zero that. <>

Rick mentally patpats Lien.

Zero finally looks to Rick. She gives him a look as if she was grateful he decided to join the conversation.

"I wish that were true." She replies simply to the Undead Soldier.

Still she looks as if she expected that to be their thoughts on the matter. The same as hers- but she wasn't willing to give up that false paradise without first trying to move the Monoculture away from bugging people out. She nods in agreement.

"I did try to save them- I did try to stop them... and I took damn good care of Lien while I could." She says firmly, making eye contact with Indira, searching for something after she mentions being thought naive. "Still- I wouldn't trust me either. Your friends are smart. So I understand."

Zero reads Lien's words carefully. She nods and stands, hanging her head as she moves towards the front door. She grips the thumbdrive Hunter left her tightly in her hand.

Indira lets Lien and Breach take lead on the escort, but as Zero makes the comments about taking care of Lien, her expression loses all sympathy, becoming a neutral mask. "I believe you believe you took care of her. But what you did wasn't what she needed. It wasn't healthy, or good for her. Perhaps it was good for your own wellbeing."

If that is trying to stop them, or taking care of her... Lien joins Rick in emitting murderadiation from her eyes, and her fist clenches. It may be only that she did explicitly promise that there would be no punching involved that there isn't. Possibly only to prove that there are some words that can be trusted.

Instead, she vents her ire by stepping back from Zero and pointing adamantly, rather than gesturing suggestively, at the door.

She may well have nothing more to say to Zero.

Zero's head hangs low. It seems she doens't have anything else to say. She heads for the door- well the door without the vines blocking the way anyway.

Breach physically bristles at Zero's reply to him. It gets worse as she talks about taking care of Lien. Indira can feel the scowl radiating out from under Breach's faceplate.

The Impact Carbine is wrenched off of his back as Zero steps up toward him and the front door. He levels the alien tech weapon on Zero's downward cast head, the safety off as Breach growls loudly at Zero.

"You think you know loss. You think you know death. You think you know memory," snarls Breach, holding the muzzle level with Zero's domino mask, "But you're what? Barely old enough to drink? Please."

For a moment, Breach just tries to establish eye contact with Zero through his mirrored helm. He slowly powers down the weapon and slings it over his shoulder as he sizes her up. Shaking his head, Breach moves to unlock and open the front door.

"Let me share some wisdom from someone that can't seem to stay dead. If you think this is a healthy way to deal with the memory of the dead and the loss of someone you cared about, then you've dishonored them. You may as well have started a drug habit. You'd have come out of this in better shape, physically and mentally. Don't lie to me, don't lie to Lien, and don't lie to yourself.

"Being connected to everyone's minds - being immortal - isn't going to do anything for you. Connection is about more than just being up in everyone's shit. You lost more than someone you cared about, Kid. You lost your ****ing humanity if you think this is how to deal with your issues. And that's coming from a ****ing Undead Soldier."