The Return of Malfeas IC

[Maugan Ra]

Watson does not hesitate for even an instant. One moment, he's reclining in a chair, drink in one hand while the other taps out a casual rhythm on the metal table next to him. The next, he's upright, swinging the table around in an elegant arc that makes a hideous crunching noise as it connects with Rosnikov's chin.

"Anton Rosnikov has been dead for 400 years." he says coldly, his other hand drawing the blaster from his belt and aiming it squarely between the eyes of the so-called Lunar. He's also instinctively moved to place himself between Berger and the unknown individual - keep the commanding officer alive. The bar around them goes momentarily quiet, all eyes turning instinctively towards the sudden violence, and Watson's voice is therefore clearly heard.

"So why don't you drop the act and explain who you really are."

[horus42]

The imposter cracks his jaw back into place and wipes some blood from his lip. "Damn "Efficient Secretary Technique". Should have seen that coming." He pauses, then looks up.

"Fair enough, I lied about my identity, and my service. But I am a Lunar." He looks pleadingly at Berger. "Colonel, we were made for each other... Don't you understand? Solars and Lunars have been bonded since the beginning. You don't remember me, but we've met before. And I've loved you since I first saw you... So I went out and found an old Lunar Shard, had it bonded to myself so we could finally be together..."

[sun_tzu]

Berger pinched the bridge of her nose. This was getting complicated in a hurry. "This is all rather news to me, Mister...What should I be calling you, actually?"

[horus42]

"Well we never... formally met. So you probably won't recognize my real name. Just call me Demetri. And I'm sure this is a lot to take in."

[sun_tzu]

"Well we never... formally met. So you probably won't recognize my real name. Just call me Demetri. And I'm sure this is a lot to take in."

"To put it mildly, Demetri." She nodded to Watson - no need to keep a gun aimed at the guy, she very much doubted he could have gotten inside the place unless he was safe. "I'm not quite sure why the big interest in me. I'm hardly the only talented spec ops officer in the galaxy. Even the Solar Exaltation was a fairly recent development." And I'm not really buying this story about the Lunar Shard. Obtaining those involves ridiculous amounts of resources or luck, and even then, it wouldn't have been one specifically bonded to my own Solar Shard...assuming this whole concept of bonds isn't hokum. Weren't Solar Exaltations invented long after Lunar ones?

[horus42]

He shrugs. "I'm not so sure myself. I can't quite explain it."

[sun_tzu]

((The italics are Berger's thoughts, not spoken out loud. ;) ))

[horus42]

(...I knew that. I'll get it fixed. )

[sun_tzu]

"Well, Demetri, I don't really have a ready-made answer to life's big question. And I don't think I put all that much credence in the idea of anyone being made for anyone - I'd like to think we all have more agency than that," she said with a smile, even as she helped him up. "But for now, glad to make your acquaintance."

[horus42]

"But... but... I can be anything... anyone, you want me to be." He tries to smile again, as he finally gets back to his feet. He still sounds a tad desperate.

[sun_tzu]

"But... but... I can be anything... anyone, you want me to be." He tries to smile again, as he finally gets back to his feet. He still sounds a tad desperate.

"Perhaps you could be. Doesn't necessarily mean you should."
Berger poured a glass of nectar from the buffet and handed it to him. "Imagine someone's husband, or wife, or whatever died. And you wanted to be with the poor widow. So they took the mind of the late spouse, and uploaded it to your brain. You'd essentially be that person. And then, suppose you got with the widow. The widow would have their spouse back...but you? You'd be gone. There'd be someone else in your skin.
That's a hyperbolic example. But what I'm trying to say is...rather than trying to be what someone else wants, you should probably focus on being what you want. Otherwise, you won't make yourself happy - you'll make an imaginary you happy."

[horus42]

He takes the drink and sits down, holding the cold glass to his wounded jaw. "Oh... I see." He doesn't quite seem to fully understand, but he shrugs. "S-sorry to have bothered you, Colonel Berger. I knew this was a long shot, at any rate."

[sun_tzu]

He takes the drink and sits down, holding the cold glass to his wounded jaw. "Oh... I see." He doesn't quite seem to fully understand, but he shrugs. "S-sorry to have bothered you, Colonel Berger. I knew this was a long shot, at any rate."

"It's no bother," she said. "Sorry about the sore jaw, by the way." She looked around. "I'm still pretty new to the whole Solar thing. I imagine I'm probably making a lot of mistakes along the way."

[Maugan Ra]

With some reluctance, Watson holsters the blaster. Then, he sighs.

"Theoretically, colonel, he might have some vague justification for the... fixation." he admits, frowning. "Every Exaltation carries a degree of... experience with it. Quirks and remnants picked up from how it was used by the person who was last implanted with it. Upon transfer to a new recipient, they're meant to be reset to default, in order to avoid overloading the new guy with too many abilities that they don't know how to use. Sometimes, there's a glitch, or something gets overlooked, and the... foibles remain behind."

He sits back down. "So if the last guy to hold your exaltation was extremely good friends... or more... with the last guy to carry Demetri's, there might be some residual psychological effects."

"That said, he's still committed about half a dozen serious breaches of conduct by his actions here tonight."

[horus42]

Demetri nods, looking to Watson. "See what I mean? Even your Sidereal friend agrees."

[Maugan Ra]

"I said it was theoretically possible. And even if it is, it still basically means it's the result of someone making a mistake somewhere in processing." Watson returns. "It's enough for you to claim some degree of mitigating circumstances, when I have you court marshaled for harassment, impersonation of military personnel, and depending on what the investigation turns up, potentially theft of military property in the form of the Exaltation."

His tone is level, but looking in his eyes there's no doubt he's quite serious. "Off the top of my head, that's enough for anywhere between demotion, imprisonment or outright execution, depending on exact specifics of the case and how lenient the tribunal is feeling."

[horus42]

He raises an eyebrow. "Can't have me Court Marshaled if I'm not military, can you?" He grins. "And besides, they'd never catch me, even if you tried. I can be anyone, Watson."

[sun_tzu]

Berger raised an eyebrow. Demeteri couldn't possibly be as stupid as he was sounding, could he? A Lunar exaltation wouldn't keep one from being found by the Empire's Sidereals. Not by a long shot.
But if he wasn't in the military, how had he gotten inside this place of all places anyway? A ceremony headed by the Son of Heaven himself wouldn't exactly allow anyone in...

[Maugan Ra]

"You honestly think we've never had to hunt down shape-shifters before now?" Watson says, very calmly. "You're underestimating the Division of Secrets. That's an immensely bad idea."

[horus42]

He shrugs. "Underestimating them, or purposefully overstating my own abilities. Who's to say? At any rate, it was lovely meeting you, Colonel. I'm sure we'll see each other again soon." With a wink, the seemingly deranged Lunar starts to walk away.

[sun_tzu]

Once he was out of hearing range - which, for this purpose, she was treating as several times further than human hearing range - she spoke to Watson: "I'd rather avoid hurting him more than strictly necessary, but he's going to be trouble if we don't figure out quick what his deal is and how to handle him. Thoughts?"

[Maugan Ra]

Watson shakes his head and sighs. "Honestly, if you don't want him harmed, then for now we let him go. He seems reasonably harmless for now, and the fact of the matter is resources don't always allow us to easily pursue every possible problem."

He takes another drink. "Right now, he's tomorrow's problem. Relax, enjoy the celebrations, and then see what we can do about our next assignments."

[sun_tzu]

"I don't know about tomorrow's problem, Watson - a vaccination today prevents a plague next week. To the very least, I want to know who we're dealing with, before he does something genuinely harmful."

[Maugan Ra]

"All right, I'll take care of it. I'll pass the details onto the Division of Secrets, and they'll do some follow-up checks for us. Find out who he is, where he's going, stuff like that." Watson says, small holographic symbols appearing in front of his hands as he taps out a few messages and files the report.

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Basically, use the googlespider to work out what that fellow's birth name was, attach it to a file with a recording of the conversation, and send it off to the Division of Secrets for some analysis. Hey, this is their job...

[sun_tzu]

"Thanks," Berger smiled. "Hm. Wonder if I could have discouraged him by mentioning my orientation...Nah, he'd probably just have shifted to a female form." She paused. "...Might have been worth seeing," she added with a chuckle.

[Maugan Ra]

"You're a Colonel now, and a celebrity besides. Odds are, you could have anyone you wanted, without needing to resort to a shapeshifter... assuming they passed a covert background check." Watson glances over at Berger, his yellow eyes filled with sly amusement.

[sun_tzu]

"You're a Colonel now, and a celebrity besides. Odds are, you could have anyone you wanted, without needing to resort to a shapeshifter... assuming they passed a covert background check." Watson glances over at Berger, his yellow eyes filled with sly amusement.

"Oh please, Watson," she waved faux-dismissively, "like I needed to be a celebrity for that."

[Maugan Ra]

The Sidereal manages to retain a straight face for a few moments, before his mask of composure cracks and he laughs hard enough to very nearly spill his drink.

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And if this were a TV show, that would be where we end the episode and time-skip to the briefing for the next serious appointment.

[sun_tzu]

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Yeah. Anything else going on at the event itself?
Like she admits herself, Berger does consider her career, so I imagine she'll be trying to make some useful connection. Other than that...I imagine over the next few weeks, when she isn't busy with military work, she'll be trying to leverage her newfound influence to fix Barsoom.
And then of course, there's the matter of preparing for future assignments. Renovating the Mercury. Perhaps making very specific additions to the crew (and making sure existing crew members to the very least get decorated for the Battle of Barsoom). And she's gonna be trying to get some input into what her next assignment will be...

[horus42]

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Yeah, that would make sense. So, is there anything specific you'd like to do, now that the celebration is over?