matchbreaker | Recollé IC Inbox

[Naturally, we start with Excella. Okay, let's...]

Yes. From what I can tell, Uroboros is a virus that induces rapid, grotesque mutations in its host; once these changes take hold, any organic matter that comes in contact with the mutated appendages and outgrowths will be absorbed into it, encouraging a massive and immediate increase in size and destructive capacity.

Excella's particular mutation occurred within rather close proximity to a large number of corpses on the deck of that ship. The results that garnered were...well, you saw them.

[ Wow, that's... incredibly disgusting, holy shit.

She busies herself with making her float but.. ]

That's horrifying on so many levels.

I'd be more alarmed if you didn't consider it to be, honestly.

[no, really. shit's nasty.]

I can scarcely imagine someone who wouldn't. I can't imagine a purpose for that other than... well, to kill everyone, honestly.

[ Because holy shit. ]

[...Yeah, that's. Well.]

That was the purpose behind it, yes.

[ . . . . ]

That's something a step beyond what I thought of when I thought of bio-terrorism.

In fairness, that wasn't the original plan, as far as I know.

[Which is not that much better and he knows it.]

Beyond a certain point, however, I believed it to be both my right and my responsibility to pass ultimate judgement on the human race - to determine who deserved to live and whose loss would be of no general consequence to the continued existence and evolution of the human race.

I decided that the best way to achieve that judgement was to utilize Uroboros.

[This sounds insane. He is very acutely aware that this sounds insane.]

Viruses are impartial, untainted by bias or emotion, unable to be swayed from their determined course once released. As such, I planned to unleash it on the world as a whole; those that were chosen by Uroboros would be the ones that would survive. Everyone else would die.

[ That's...

What the hell even is that? That's so - human - ... why did her mind go there? Ah. Ah no, she knows why her mind went there, that's the instinct of the woman she's been remembering. The instinct which made her beat that one girl, the instinct born out of that hated memory that Wesker saw.

Perhaps she's not much better. Her eyes have shifted to catlike mode even as she toys with her float. ]

Are there people with immunity to it... or something?

I don't know if I would call it full immunity. More along the lines of an ability to bond with it.

[For his own part, his words are remaining strangely blank. The way they usually do when he discusses these things.]

Bond with... it? Isn't it a flesh eating- or well, appropriating, I suppose, virus?

I don't precisely know how it works; only that bonding is possible.

[...]

I didn't die after infecting myself with it. I remembered that shortly after I discussed the possibility of that with you. I was capable of bonding with it instead.

[ Oh.

... Jesus. ]

... Albert, you've been given so many wretched things in your memories.

[ "I'm so sorry." She stirs her float... ]

Something like that would cause so much damage to this city, even if by accident.

It would. It's a fair amount of the reason why I hope Retrospec has any control at all over what we receive back from our worlds.

That would be quite the lesson for them, to have that suddenly appear.

[ . . . But if he was bonded with it, could he control it? ... Could they ask that of him? No, of course they would have to but at the same time, that's a horrifying thought all its own too. She presses her lips together. ]

Do you have a thought one way or the other on that front? I'm increasingly worried they don't.

[That gets him to seize up a little, to withdraw a bit; he doesn't shift physically but it's still obvious that something in his demeanor had changed, bringing with it a marked sense of distance.]

...I don't know.

[ . . . ]

No, I suppose neither of us do.

[ Spinning her glass a little, she scoops out some ice cream, not even bothering to know if it tastes like anything. ]

[He's quiet for a long moment at that; he knows he should be saying something - it's part of why he sought her out in the first place - but words aren't...happening for whatever stupid, counterproductive reason, and it just...takes a bit.]

If they do have any control over it, then either they're collectively sadistic or they don't understand what they're doing.

[...]

My blood tests have begun coming back abnormally.

[ You know she was going to ask, eventually, about what if anything he's done with her blood samples she sent him. But that honestly makes her own blood feel cold. She tightens her grip on her glass before she realizes the risk of breaking it and lets go of it entirely, inhaling.

... Abnormally.

She focuses her gaze back more clearly on him and, ]

In what way?

Indicating viral infection.

[So, you know.

He's calm about this, from the sound of it, even though he probably shouldn't be. There are a few indications that all isn't particularly well - he isn't interested in touching anything she's laid out, his posture is tense in ways that it usually isn't - but generally speaking he's remaining as even as possible.]

I've isolated it, of course, to verify a few things about it... However, ultimately, it's nothing that I've seen before, nor can I find any information on the precise thing I'm looking at.

[ . . .

. . .

Well, she's going to reach out then, trying to coax a hand into hers. ]

You've not seen anything similar? ... No, I shouldn't put it like that. That's a very scary prospect, Albert.

...It's fine. I don't mind the question, at any rate.

[He'll accept what she's doing, at least; his grip is fairly tight, honestly, though again it's nothing she can't handle.]

It appears to be structured similarly to ebola, of all things - its behavior seems similar as well, in terms of replication, but the progression of it is completely different.

And bluntly put, if it were ebola we would definitely know by now.

[It's been longer than a few days by now, in other words.]

[ Her eyes widen with surprise and then fear at the word ebola because... yes, that would be obvious basically immediately right? Even best-case scenario Albert should be showing a fever or muscular weakness or something, which he clearly doesn't have. Her eyes, still catlike, narrow a little as she squeezes his hand back, trying to be reassuring as best she can. ]

Of course we would, ebola would have had some very apparent signs. Does that mean that whatever this virus is ... the thing's dormant or something?

[ This wasn't the field of medicine she was as experienced with (certainly far less than him) but her mind is racing for viable answers here ]

[Pretty much; ebola tends to show up and wreck things within 48 hours, whereas this is...not, for whatever godforsaken reason.]

To the best of my knowledge, yes.

But it's obviously in your bloodstream.

[ Probably ... mm. ]

I suppose the worst case is that it is dormant uroboros.

[...jesus- ]

I don't think it's Uroboros - there was still a...

[...a...what, exactly. How the hell do you explain anything that happened with that?

He pauses for a moment before shaking his head and trying again.]

Bonding or not, it still affected me. To a lesser degree than it affected Excella, certainly, I was still in control of myself and the amount of assimilation wasn't nearly as severe. But there were effects that were both severe and immediate.

If I had to guess, it's more likely that it's one of the experimental viruses that I was told about in one of my memories.

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