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

[voice]

[loveyourenemy]

I'm not really sure how to answer that question... sometimes it helps, but sometimes it's very difficult. I don't know if I could call it a blessing or a burden. But... if I had the choice, I don't think I'd want for it to be taken away.

I don't know if that's what you're asking or not.

[voice]

[unastregadoro]

[A beat. After a bit, Beatrice chuckles lightly.]

There's no right or wrong answer...I was simply asking an opinion.

So...you consider your abilities second nature now, is that correct?

[voice]

[loveyourenemy]

Yes, I suppose that's true.

[voice]

[unastregadoro]

Do you have trouble controlling them? After all, I'm sure people are quite noisy, in terms of their thought processes.

[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?

Voice

[unastregadoro]

[She chuckles.]

My dear Lyra, you make it sound as if I've done something wrong. I can assure you that I was merely fending off some miscreant who attempted to steal my purse.

Voice; Private

[unastregadoro]

You certainly cannot.

Ah... [A titter.] ...as was well-suited to his overall level of skill, I had him under the illusion that he was being covered in rats, rats that were gnawing at his clothes with the same reckless abandon he displayed when he tried to steal from me.

[voice]

[i_hate_alistair]

I have heard that some cultures remove a thief's hand as punishment for such an act. And one wonders why crime is rampant in this more civilized land.

I do not possess the power to read thoughts, only to project foreign ideas and visions into another's mind. I hardly see why one would wish to. Very few have remotely interesting thoughts in my experience.

'Twould be a particularly heavy burden here, as I would rather not know what possesses a man to dress in skintight leather and leap between rooftops.

[voice]

[unastregadoro]

Hoh! Indeed, Morrigan! To cut one's hand off in compensation for the loss of property indeed drives the point home, doesn't it? Ah...a shame that the humans of today lack such...common sense.

Ah! Like illusions, then? A useful ability, indeed! [She laughs approvingly.] But---imagine the wealth of knowledge that you'd have if you were able to read another's thoughts, if you found the right individual to target! Their sins, their fears, their desires...everything laid out before you.

The only thing left to do would be what to use that knowledge for.

[voice]

[i_hate_alistair]

But then our illustrious police force would likely have fewer instances to revel in their power. We cannot have that, I suppose.

In my experience, 'tis not difficult to determine those things without such an ability. Especially when one is dealing with a man.

I take it you desire such a power? I have seen some capable of those feats, but 'tis an ability that comes with a... price.

[voice]

[unastregadoro]

True, true---and then we would lack our source of amusement.

[A particularly loud and mocking cackle.]

Then the people around you must have been quite honest people, more foolish than the silly liars I was surrounded by. But no...I do not desire such an ability, to look into people's hearts. I feel it's all the more fun to make them see that for themselves, rather than know it in spite of their own knowledge. It's much too easy.

I was simply curious to see how similarly-powered individuals saw that ability, is all.

[Voice]

[pureblood]

Don't tell me you let him go.

[Voice; private]

[unastregadoro]

I'm afraid I had to do so for appearance's sake.

[More for Jonah than Lyra (she's a little suspicious of the latter), but that's neither here nor there.]

[Voice; private]

[pureblood]

How unfortunate. Still, I hope that he has been punished adequately for his crime.

[Voice; private]

[unastregadoro]

Well--- [An ominous little titter] ---I certainly did not let the miscreant come away intact, Lady Bellatrix.