CANTO VI | VOICE

[unastregadoro]

[There are the sounds of a scuffle the moment the feed begins---a man's frightened yelp, followed by the sound of something being sliced (but it sounds like it's just fabric being torn) and Beatrice's typical menacing chuckling.  Is she up to trouble again? Bullying innocent civvies for little, if any, sort of reason? It's really anyone's guess,

Comments

[permavoice]

[lastsonofmars]

It can be both, or either. It depends on whether one can control it, as I can. It is still something to be used carefully.

[permavoice]

[unastregadoro]

Indeed---after all, having that level of knowledge about one's thoughts can be used to deadly effect. You must have immense willpower, if you are able to keep yourself from opening the floodgates too widely.

[lastsonofmars]

Willpower, and also experience. I have been at it a very long time. on my birth planet, I was the equivalent of a human cop for many years. Discipline and mental strictness taught me much. As has my time on Earth.

[unastregadoro]

[A pause. If this were video, Beatrice would actually be reduced to blinking like fish. In fact, she sounds oddly perplexed when she asks:]

Ah...so you are from...the stars? My, my---so beings like yourself do, in fact, exist! And to think those in power allegedly tried to cover up that truth!

This is quite momentous, indeed! [She chuckles.] So, how do the thought processes of your native beings compare to that of humans?

[lastsonofmars]

Well, from this star, actually, and from Mars.

In many ways. There were incredible differences, but my first greeter here helped me learn about humans by sharing his mind with me, so i could understand human thought waves.

[unastregadoro]

Ah...half-human? Well! That certainly makes for an interesting heritage...but I'm certain that it's quite difficult to conceal your...otherworldly blood.

[She makes a sound of acknowledgment.] Hm...interesting! What is it like, to link minds with another?

[lastsonofmars]

I suppose you could say that, after the link, I was.

Well... sometimes it has been.

Strange, sharing, warm, scary, incredible.

[unastregadoro]

Do people dislike you for...being of half-blood?

[This is asked out of genuine curiosity. Leading such an existence couldn't possibly be easy.]

...An odd combination of words, yet...suitable. The human mind is a many-layered thing, yet it harbors the simplest impulses driven by the most complex motivations.

As fragile as they are, humans are perhaps the oddest beings of all.

[lastsonofmars]

Few saw me that way. Most simply saw me as an outsider, an alien. I concealed that, sometimes, and used it to be a hero the rest.

Sometimes, and yet... they hold wonders untold.

[unastregadoro]

I suppose it was the only thing you could do, to make them see that despite being different, you meant no harm...

[She sounds oddly contemplative when she says this. In an way, she could relate. Of course, she's none too noble, but...still, she chuckles.]

Indeed. Humans are walking paradoxes. It's quite hard to describe them.

[lastsonofmars]

And yet, there is so much beauty and potential, so much joy, within them. It makes this long watching a very pleasant thing.

[unastregadoro]

Agreed. Observing the humans does, in fact, prove quite entertaining---but conversing with them...living among them...is perhaps the greatest entertainment of all.

[She'd add "testing their sanity" and "killing them," as well, but that's neither here nor there.]

Your name, if I may ask?

[lastsonofmars]

Entertainment, and fulfillment.

J'onn J'onzz. And yours?

[unastregadoro]

Fulfillment, you say? What an interesting way to look at it.

Ah...a pleasure to meet you...J'onn. You may call me Beatrice, otherwise known as the Golden Witch.

[lastsonofmars]

They are not so different from any other people, as I have found them.

A pleasure to meet you too, Beatrice.