deercountry | IN THE GREAT SHIPWRECK OF LIFE (WE ALL FALL DOWN)

[They squint.]

...Not immediately, no. Do you feel any different?

... Not really? Gotta say, I'm almost disappointed that it hasn't poisoned me or something interesting yet.

[Suddenly, a thought occurs to him imagining that maybe it would have had a stronger effect on Zim, were he here to consume the chocolate. Maybe full-blooded Irkens would be sickened by it and die. Would they turn strange colors, or turn their guts inside out when poisoned by stuff like this? That would be funny, killing Zim by poisoning him with chocolate...

An amusing enough thought indeed that Zib has started smiling without really noticing it, as he opens a notebook of his own among the books he had been collecting today and starts idly writing the idea down about torturing Zim via poisonous foods the next time he ever sees them again...]

[They mutter to themselves, taking notes of their own.

Does it make the consumer suicidal? Subject appears to be considerably more sinister...

That's before they notice the notes. They stand up and lean over.]

Can I read what you've written? It could be important for understanding the effect.

Huh?

[Chara speaking up breaks Zib's train of thought, and he's reminded that he is supposed to be doing something else right now. Albeit, it's not as important as plotting Zim's demise, and for a moment he stares in mild irritation that Chara is interrupting such an important line of thinking. Maybe he should kill him too, once he figures out the right combination of things to successfully poison them...

... And then he blinks, frowning. No, he shouldn't do that. It wouldn't really aid in his quest to kill Zim for him to just start randomly killing other humans. Not unless this person gives him reason to think they would get in the way of that...

So after a beat of silence, he carefully turns his notes and slides them over to let Chara read them better. He can decide after what to do, depending on their reaction to him actively plotting the murder of another.

Either way, Chara will be greeted with Zib's notebook being open to a page about someone named "Zim" and their Irken biology. There's several complicated-looking equations written on one side that were already in the notebook beforehand. But, the new notes now has something written speculating if it would be possible to poison them if their bodies have a more severe reaction to chocolate than other species, given their weakness to other basic things humans consume like meat and even water...]

[Chara raises their eyebrows at both the glare and the notebook.

Not suicidal then... homicidal. They give him a curious glance after reading these plans over. Some of them seem interesting, if extremely personal. Whoever this Zim is, their new lab partner must really have it out for him.

Fascinating.

They write in their own notes.

Makes the consumer violent and murderous. Specifics of the target yet to be seen.]

It seems to be making you really want to kill someone. The chocolate, I mean. Do you mind if I ask who Zim is?

[Zib taps his fingers on the table here for a moment as he watches Chara read his notes, and when they don't seem to be bothered by them, he answers.]

Zim is an alien. Specifically part of a group that calls itself "The Irken Armada", and he showed up on Earth to plot many schemes to try to either take over the planet to put under their jurisdiction, or just destroy it entirely. I've been fighting with them over the fate of the world for... a very long time, it feels like.

I see... so he's someone you hold a considerable amount of pre-existing animosity for.

[They cock their head a little. They're mostly focused on finding out the effects of these chocolates but...]

Are you human, then?

Yes.

[A pause, before Zib sighs, examines the back of his grayish green hand that had previously been tapping against the table.]

Or rather, I was. Nowadays, I suppose I'm not anymore, depending on how you look at it.

...Care to elaborate?

[There's a pause as he decides how to explain, before he decides that the easiest way is to just show the PAK. So he reaches up to his hood, and knocks it back so that the PAK is on display.

It also ends up giving Chara a better look at his face as he adjusts his cracked glasses, miraculously somehow staying on his face despite not appearing to have a nose or ears.]

This thing--you saw it in action a few times when we teamed up during Mr. Ozpin's teambuilding exercise, but I never really explained what it was. It's called a "PAK"--it contains various means of self-defense, as well as storing all of the knowledge and memories of whomever it's been attached to. It's typically used by the Irkens, and mine used to belong to Zim... but then it ended up getting attached to me. And as it turns out, it affects the biological makeup of whatever it's attached to, thus prolonged exposure causes parts of your body to become more Irken.

...In other words, you have Zim's memories?

[It's not an unfamiliar situation to them, oddly enough, though their own version wasn't quite so... hostile.]

It seems like something that would be difficult to remove from someone. Unless they were dead, anyway.

... And you would be right about that--removing it normally kills Irkens, and Zim was no exception. He died within ten minutes.

So you're probably thinking "so why are you still wanting to kill him, if he's already dead"? Well, at first I thought that maybe our long fight was finally over.

... until, another version of Zim appeared. And another. And another.

[He reaches for his notebook, flipping a few pages looking for something until he finds a page with several complicated looking math equations.]

It turns out that there are multiple timelines that Zim still exists in, and for whatever reason, mine is apparently the only timeline where he had lost. And not only that, the device I had built to defeat him and the rest of the Irken Armada had created several tears in the fabric of time and reality, and accidentally began drawing in different Zims from all these other timelines that had decided to investigate what was going on.

Hmmmm, so your end goal is to kill every last iteration of him, I presume?

[There's something amused in their smile. Definitely not disturbed, more... fascinated.

What an utterly fruitless endeavor. Seeking to complete the infinite. Chara can certainly respect it.]

[He knows on some level that it is a rather pointless endeavor, but... he still can't see an alternative that exists at this point. Either he succeeds, or he eventually dies trying.]

Yes, exactly. I can't use the exact same method I used to defeat my Zim on the rest of them, since it's what ended up causing these other Zims to show up in the first place. Even so... I've got several ideas to consider, since now I can try to access their timelines, just like how they managed to find their way into mine.

[There's a pause, before he tilts his head upon taking notice of Chara's reaction to all this.]

Does it not bother you, to hear me talk about killing someone like this?

[They nod. It's a solid plan for an impossible task.]

Not at all. [They cock their head with a considering glance.] Why would it?

Edited 2022-03-06 02:05 (UTC)

Well, I kind of got the feeling from talking to some people that killing anyone is generally frowned upon, so I guess I just assumed that everyone here thought that.

[From Zib's tone, it sounds like they don't really see murder as being a bad thing themselves. Or at least, not when it comes to Zim.]

That's stupid. We're in Trench. It hardly even matters here.

But no. Some people just really deserve to die. [They mean it as a positive. Only the truly wretched deserve to live in the horrid world they've spawned. People like Chara.

The abyss is a mercy in comparison.]

I don't make a habit out of getting sanctimonious about problems that aren't mine.

Edited 2022-03-07 11:44 (UTC)

... I can't believe I'm saying this, but that might be the most sensible thing anyone has actually said to me here.

[This is definitely not true, but it's also entirely possible that Zib thinks it is regardless of whether or not it's because of the influence of the candy being very on board with thinking about homicide.]

IN THE GREAT SHIPWRECK OF LIFE (WE ALL FALL DOWN) | Open

no subject

cw: violent thoughts towards zim

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject