championoftime | [Audio]

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I've had a good number of people travel with me over the years. One of them was a young man named Hex. He was a brilliant lad, a nurse, who joined us and at first was astounded and amazed at every wondrous thing I presented before him. The space ships. The alien worlds. Travelling to his own distant past.

But then he met Cromwell, and it was Cromwell who started him down the path to being broken. He'd taken quite a shine to Ace, who many of you met. And when he thought he'd lost her, he did terrible things in her name. They haunted him, later. A healer, suddenly burdened with the loss of lives that circumstantially or not, he led to.

Things became worse. He was held for interrogation as a murder suspect. He was brainwashed at a military installation. Occurrence after occurrence, gradually damning him until that was all he could see rather than any of the good he'd done. I still regretted it when he left. Selfishly, too, because I was frustrated I wanted to show him so much wonder and all I did was show him the value of death.

Thus far, I've been burnt alive, shot, stabbed, mentally violated, and caught a plague while aboard this ship. ...Doesn't seem like all that much in the grand scheme of things, now that I look at all the ways I've managed to die in the past.

[Filtered to magical warden people that probably have experience with potions]

Speaking of being stabbed. There's a particularly dangerous potion on board that prompted an inmate to attack me in the infirmary. If I were to provide a list of ingredients and tell you the observed symptoms, panic being a primary one, I was wondering if at the very least a potion could be made to lessen or counter the effects.

[Private to Mozenrath]

I have a question to ask. You're a necromancer, correct?

[Private to Narvin]

I'm ready to organize our meeting with Arthas. I swear on Pythia's pantaloons if you so much as switch a single neuron that oughtn't to be touched, I'll make you drop your trousers in front of him.

[YEAH! HOW'S THAT FOR A THREAT!]

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You'll--? [Horrified expression. Then he closes his hanging-open-with-shock jaw with a snap and puts on stiff expression.]

I wouldn't dream of altering a synapse in Arthas' perfect head.

What do you have in mind for a training technique to start with?

One psychically compels him with a weak gesture to sit or stand. The other instructs him on ignoring the impulse. Simple enough to start with.

Simple enough...if Arthas doesn't brain the person psychically compelling him in a fit of anger.

That's the risk you signed on for, I would presume.

Was there any particular point to that?

Yes.

And now I'm hungry. So I believe I'll make myself a sandwich.

[Dammit, Doctor, curtailing his gripe with logic! And it was going to be a good gripe, too. He sighs.]

I can't believe I'm doing this for Arthas of all people. [Nevermind that he's doing it in the hopes of getting lucky enough to pick a few juicy secrets out of Arthas' brain.]

Which would be?

And sandwiches are hardly a sufficient meal. [So much disapproval. You people and your sucky food.] Besides, I have a question.

[He'll make you do a striptease, Narvin. And then he'll tell Braxiatel about it. Because brothers who love their brothers give them nightmare fuel.]

I know precisely who I'm doing it for. There once was a good man there. You saw it, if only for a day.

[And he starts out with an "r" roll.] Refuse happens.

[What, why would he say "shit" when he could roll an "R"?]

What question would that be?

[Dryly:] Quite. You aren't one of those that tried to defend Doctor Nazarova, right?

How much do you know about regeneration? [Because he may want an assistant for this without giving up his monopoly on regeneration knowledge. And the Doctor is obviously not as smart as Omega or himself.]

You're an incurable optimist if you think you can make him that person again.

[And an evil evil little man for considering traumatizing ~~Arthas~~ ~~Narvin~~ Arthas and Narvin both with such a thing.]

It's an incarnation of him that's long gone, I think. [The Time Lord metaphor is particularly apt in this case, Narvin thinks. Arthas the Death Knight might as well be a different regeneration from Arthas the Paladin.]

I abhor violence and death. So no, I defended none of it.

I know enough. [Oh, we're going to be belittling people now are we?]

And what if I could bring him back to life? What if I knew a way to repair him at least for a while?

Frostmourne made him wrong. He simply doesn't know how to make himself right again. There's something in my mind that might take on a life of it's own one day, as well. I'd rather prefer that someone were there to take my hand and pull me free, than believe I'm not worth the effort.

Good. It's ridiculous. Killing her spared us all from more trouble and all she has to do is go through the death toll.

And how much is that? [It's one of his favourite pastimes.]

I didn't support her request for death, either. I didn't approve of the fighting against her. For her. He demanding death when someone had just fought for her. It was all wrong. All of it, and it escalated into something abominable.

I know the gene it's stored on. The way they lurk half formed in your head before coming to pass. That the more you've had, the madder and more risk of being fallible they become. That they're affected by your surroundings and stress. So on and so forth.

I can hardly believe that your mind has... [But then he remembers the Valeyard. And also a faint memories of something a bit frightening in the Doctor's mind before he was booted violently out of it.]

Well, I suppose we all have a few shadows we'd rather weren't there. [Sometimes still he wonders how much Pandora's genetic legacy influences his actions.]

All right. I'll accept that it might not be an entirely hopeless cause. And don't worry, Doctor, I'm sure that if your shadows should start to bite...your brother will save you. If he's not busy examining Martian sculpture, that is. [He's certainly not going to admit out loud that he'd help. But the sentiment's there.]

And how would you have solved the problem? she was obviously not going to calm down. Killing her was the fastest and most efficient solution and doesn't have any permanent consequences.

And how it actually works?

The most efficient solution would be destroying the boat with all of us on it. It would have taken care of all of our problems. Thankfully, I'm not a big supporter of "efficiency".

I have theories, but they're groundless here. I'm under the impression none of us have regenerations. They're completely countered and made invalid by the death toll.

He does have quite... oh what's the term? A "man-crush" on those Martians, hasn't he?

....Why do I suddenly feel a little dirty?

That would destroy the purpose of this ship, so hardly efficient. And again, how would you have solved it? Talking to her failed, you disapprove of killing her -- what else is there?

Not here. [You can hear the eye rolling when he says that.] My project concerns restoring them should regeneration be made impossible in some fashion.

Last time I managed to psychically puppet her down into Zero. I.... don't believe it would have broken the curse this time, but I was considering putting her back into my mind, at least for a time, keep her away from the squabbling until a solution could be found or the Admiral regained control of her abilities.

...[Wait, what?] What project is this?

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Stop always making me want to reapply her :c

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She couldn't help her badassery was too much for the nurse!

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Evil supervillains are on my scheduled list for next time!

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