matchbreaker | Recollé IC Inbox

[ O o h . . . ]

Okay! What did you remember?

I believe you wanted me to tell you if I ever remembered something along the lines of mind-control parasites.

[IT'S GONNA BE ONE OF THOSE DAYS, ELDA.]

So I did...

They're called Las Plagas. I have no idea where I got them but apparently I wanted them - whether for personal use or just to sell them is another question I don't have an answer to, but judging by something I vaguely remember Excella mentioning I assume I obtained them eventually.

[ . . .
. . . ]

Seriously? That's really unsettling! There's a lot of horrors that world had.

Quite a few, yes. And I had no problem obtaining them by any means necessary, judging by my memories; I've remembered stealing infected corpses if I couldn't get them through other means, I've recalled doing it twice now.

Oh, so I suppose you didn't design the parasites...?

I actually don't think I liked working with parasites very much. That was what my...coworker? Friend? I'm not sure what to consider him, but that's what he tended to specialize in.

So I can only really assume I either bought them or I stole them somehow. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter, but it's possible I simply had a contact.

So that means it's unlikely you're going to remember the finer chemical details of them? Or do you think that'll still happen?

Either way, mind control parasites.

Wow.

I somewhat hope I don't remember much of that, to be frank. I dislike the notion of having access to substances that are capable of things like that, for what I imagine to be fairly obvious reasons.

[His past life's stellar track record with brainwashing his friends, for one thing.]

Oh no no of course, I understand that!

Honestly . . .

Actually, on that note, do you understand the chemistry (biology? genetics?) of what happened to you now?

The most I can really posit as a theory is that I had antibodies present in my blood that rendered me immune to the negative effects of whatever I ended up infected with.

Somehow.

...The other thing I can put out there is that my world didn't really care much for logic.

I mean, I've got a world with vampires, ghosts, and now reverse-vampires. Not like I've got room to talk.

Still, that antibodies bordering on magic and mind control parasites exist... eeesh. It's probably that I only hear about most of it secondhand, but it sounds so insane when you think about it.

Or well, when I do.

If it's any consolation to you, context doesn't really make it any better.

I'm sorry, sometimes I feel like I don't sound like I'm taking these things seriously.

Asking you to tell me things and then... all I can do is pretty much bare witness and respond.

It's been like that for me from the start, if you want me to be honest about it. The things I've been remembering are all either bizarre or abjectly horrifying in a way that's difficult to process, even for a person witnessing it directly.

No, that's perfectly understandable.

The fact of the matter is that ... Well, I've ever known you to be pragmatic. I figured there was some catharsis for you in saying it, and that if I acted as if I could process it seriously, try to think of cataloguing, that made more sense.

...I see.

I do appreciate it, Elda; there's an element of catharsis in it either way. It's not always easy for me to approach it from an angle that isn't clinical; whether you do the same or not, however, is really more up to you than it is me. I don't mind it if you don't.

I can never pull off fully clinical. Especially about you, Albert.

But I do try to handle it... well, not hysterically? I think I manage that.

It's been admirably not hysterical, for what it's worth; I'm fairly sure you handle these things better than I do at least some of the time.

Now you're flattering me.

But then, I do only get it secondhand.

But okay, to make sure I've got everything straight... there's a virus that can revive the dead, one which eats flesh and spreads by air, antibodies that remove a lot of the effects of the dead-reviving one, and mind control parasites?

...There's another virus that I know almost nothing about. One that my...

Let's call him a friend for simplicity's sake. The one that worked with the parasites - he was also working on a virus of some sort that was very important to him. I retrieved his body after he died for the sake of getting a sample of it, because clearly I was a highly well-adjusted individual.

It had done some horrible things to his body, but I don't know anything about what it was supposed to do otherwise.

That past you must've really trusted that friend to just be injecting them in willy-nilly like that! Particularly if the results were horrible?

But okay, that's...

Wow.

I don't know if I wanted the virus he was infected with for personal use or if I just wanted it for reasons unknown. Or perhaps to sell it.

Another running theme back then, it seems.

He did give me the one I'm currently infected with, however, back when he was still alive.

Why?

I mean I guess you might not know but did he like you? Consider the whole state you're in now good?

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