the devil in the details

[isocelesmonster]

Who: Bill Cipher
Broadcast: none
Action: Anywhere in the fleet
When: The night of the 22nd, and ongoing.

Although ostensibly the Golden has a new crew member, there's no new person in attendance at any meals. No new faces in the hall, nothing additional in the laundry. One of the standard crew cabins has been sealed up as tight as a tomb, the brass nameplate on the door unhelpfully scratched out with something sharp. No noises at all come from inside.

It'd take a careful eye to notice the only other change: the same sharp instrument has been used to carve little eyes of providence, no bigger than a fingernail, in strategic public places around the ship. They're shallow markings, not deep enough to interfere with any of the working parts of the craft, and no great works of art - each little scrap of graffiti is a matter of five lines at most. But they're there - and if sometimes the way the gold of the metal hull glints in the pupil is strangely canny, it's probably nothing to be worried about.

(It's not that Bill doesn't care about the flesh puppets that make up his new crew - oh, he does, they're all going to get very careful scrutiny over the coming days - but more important is finding out what his new playground looks like.)

When the fleet sleeps, their minds open and blossom like night-blooming flowers, each one illuminating a new section of the shared dreaming plane. For all of their poetry, few humans realize that the state of dreaming is as real an exploration as whatever meaningless actions they take while awake. It's irrelevant to their survival, most days, so evolution has never sought to provide that particular revelation. They're a young species. Five senses, auditory languages, limited psychic potential, and as far as they know when they dream they're just watching random electrical impulses fire in their brains. Ha!

(There's an expression about a one-eyed man's status in a land of the blind, and Bill intends to make it a reality.)

He steps sideways out of the material world into the closest dream as easily as a three-dimensional being can move along any of their limited axes. He makes himself invisible, at first, just to get his bearings.

[Bill is visiting dreams, as a way of saying hello! His permissions post for this ability is here. I am treating this ability on an opt-in basis. If you didn't give me the okay, he won't be spying on your character at all tonight ~but where's the fun in that~?]
ZOGSLFTS GSRH DVZP ZMW RWOV GSVNV

RH ML NLIV BRVOWRMT YFG Z WIVZN

DSVM NLIMRMT GZPVH BLF UILN NB GSIZOO

YV TOZW R OVG BLF DZPV ZG ZOO

Comments

[isocelesmonster]

THE TRUTH? DEPENDS!

[Bill floats up to peer at the armor Al. The little triangle is barely the size of the stern helmet, and quickly moves into what most people would consider "personal space." Is it really just an empty metal bucket in there? Wow!]

WHAT IS TRUTH?

[This question has several possible meanings. Which one Bill intends at the moment is anyone's guess.]

[sonofgold]

[Yep, it's definitely empty- and Bill will probably notice a circular design drawn in blood on the neck of the armor if he chooses.

Al looks uncomfortable at the intrusion, even though his soul has long since left the armor.]

Truth is... All. And One. And God. And the Universe. It's you, and it's me. It's many things.

[isocelesmonster]

[Aha. There's a magic circle - that's probably important.]

MAYBE YOU, BUT LEAVE ME OUT OF IT! I DON'T GO IN FOR RELIGIOUS STUFF!

[Bill sounds perfectly cheery, and reaches his little black hands out to try to just. Lift this helmet off entirely. This is neat!]

[sonofgold]

Well, you can believe what you want. The Truth will remain what it is. We're all part of One- all parts of something that come together to make the universe exist. One is All, and All is One.

[And the helmet will indeed come off, though the body turns to face Bill, almost disapprovingly.]

But again, who are you?

[isocelesmonster]

THE NAME'S BILL CIPHER! NICE TO MEET YOU IN PERSON!

[He knows perfectly well he's wearing the kid's patience thin, so after a perfunctory inspection of the helmet that involves conjuring a Bill-sized cane out of thin air and prodding it around inside, he sets it back on the armor's body and gives it a little pat for good measure.]

THIS SURE IS A NEAT TRICK! THE ALCHEMISTS I KNEW NEVER GOT AS FAR AS MIND-WORK!

[sonofgold]

In person...? Have we met before? I think I'd remember a floating yellow triangle.

[Al still looks wary, despite the fact that Bill's stopped messing with his armor. He'd never mentioned alchemy around this... thing, and yet he'd mentioned it out of the blue. Unless he knew about Al's version of it and recognized the blood seal?]

... You know about alchemy? Most people in the Drift Fleet don't.

[isocelesmonster]

YEP, THEY'RE PRETTY CLUELESS!

[A tiny, Bill-sized version of a drift fleet communicator poofs out of thin air and into his hand.]

FORTUNATELY, UNLIKE THEM I KNOW THE VALUE OF RESEARCH!

[sonofgold]

[Al tilted his head.]

Research...? You mean you've been spying on people?

[isocelesmonster]

SPYING'S FOR HUMANS!

[He sounds... slightly offended.]

I'M THE ALL-SEEING EYE! I'M JUST MISSING A COUPLE OF PIECES RIGHT NOW, SO I HAD TO IMPROVISE!

[The communicator in his hand vanishes into some hammerspace behind his back.]

[sonofgold]

[OK, that just made him look more confused.]

Are you omnipotent? Because for someone who doesn't, as you said, go for religion, you sure seem a lot like a god.

[isocelesmonster]

AM I A GOD?

[Bill considers. It's a little too devious a look to ring as sincere.]

WELL, IF THE SHOE FITS, I GUESS!

[With a 'pop!' sound effect, a pair of truly hideous lime-green crocs appear on Bill's feet. They are awful. He leans back to admire his work.]

CAN'T BLAME ME FOR BEING SKEPTICAL, THOUGH! EVEN THE SYSTEMS THAT INCLUDE ME-

[Another snap of his fingers traces four black glyphs into the air above them - Fire, Water, Earth, Air.]

-ALWAYS SEEM TO FORGET I'M AROUND!

[All four triangle symbols blink open round eyes at their centers, which train themselves on Al before closing again and vanishing.]

[sonofgold]

And "Bill Cipher" seems more like a name for a person than a god, I suppose.

[Al is then startled by the popping noise, and he just... stares at the ugly-looking shoes on Bill's feet before he gets distracted by the triangle symbols.]

And what were those? Uh, both the shoes and the symbols. They look kinda familiar to me...

[isocelesmonster]

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF ALCHEMY! AT LEAST WHERE I'M FROM! FIRE AND WATER, AIR AND EARTH!

[Bill's cane is back, and as he points to each symbol they fill with an image of their corresponding element.]

IT DIDN'T GET FAR! TOO MANY PEOPLE INTENT ON BURNING BOOKS AND KILLING PRACTITIONERS! BUT THE IDEA THAT EVERYTHING COULD BE REDUCED TO ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS STUCK AROUND WHEN THE NAME GOT CHANGED TO CHEMISTRY!

SPEAKING OF THAT, YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW MY REAL NAME, TIN MAN, BELIEVE ME! BILL CIPHER'S JUST FINE FOR NOW!

[sonofgold]

And some alchemists in my world still conjure by those elements! It's pretty limiting, though... but still, when you know chemistry, you know alchemy. It's all about changing matter into new forms.

[He then shrugged.]

Sure, I'll call you whatever you want. But are you real, or just a figment of my dream?

[isocelesmonster]

REALITY'S SUBJECTIVE! BUT IF I'M NOT REAL YOU DEFINITELY AREN'T.

[Bill cackles. It's as obnoxious as his odd, echoey voice is.]

WHAT'S YOUR BETTER SYSTEM, IF THAT'S SO LIMITING?

[He leans on his cane. Alchemy had been fun. They'd all had some laughs. He'd convinced them to put triangles all over it.]

[sonofgold]

Then I guess we're both real. Dreams can be just as real as reality is, after all.

[He shrugged.]

It's my alchemy. When you can break things down into their most basic elements, and know all the chemistry behind what objects are made of, you can remake them into anything. Of course, alchemy has limits, too. I can't turn my armor into a plate of food- the right elements aren't there.

[isocelesmonster]

[Bill's about to say he could turn his flesh body into a plate of food instead. It's all meat, after all. The kid's reaction to that would probably be great!

Sigh. Patience. One thing at a time.]

SURE, MAYBE NOT AT THE ATOMIC LEVEL! BUT ISN'T THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONE CHEMICAL ELEMENT AND ANOTHER JUST A MATTER OF PROTONS?

[sonofgold]

Well, yeah... but breaking up elements into even more basic ones can be dangerous in the wrong combination. Like water... it can easily become a flammable gas. My friend Colonel Mustang used that to his advantage more than once.

[isocelesmonster]

I THINK YOU MEAN IN THE RIGHT COMBINATION. HYDROGEN'S A GREAT EXAMPLE! YOUR FRIEND SOUNDS LIKE HE HAS THE RIGHT IDEA ABOUT SPLITTING ATOMS.

[I.E.: Do it constantly, in large population centers if possible.]

I'M ACTUALLY MORE CURIOUS ABOUT THIS THING, THOUGH!

[The blood rune from Al's armor appears, hovering ominous and red above the four triangular symbols.]

[sonofgold]

But making flammable gas can cause a lot of destruction, too. "Alchemist, be thou for the people". We don't want to kill anyone.

[Al then flinches at the appearance of the blood seal in midair, before he reminds himself- that's not going to harm him any more.]

Why do you want to know?

[isocelesmonster]

WOW, YEAH! DEFINITELY DON'T WANT TO HURT ANY PEOPLE!

[He says this with a straight face and a touch of sincerity, because he's amazing. A world-class actor. He should get an Oscar.

To Do List: steal an Oscar.]

BECAUSE I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT! I DIDN'T THINK THE HUMAN RACE WOULD GET TO THE LEVEL OF VITALUS ALCHEMY UNTIL THEY'D GONE THROUGH ANOTHER COUPLE OF RENAISSANCES!

[Bill floats over to near Al, to admire the blood rune from his angle.]

[sonofgold]

That's right. I don't like killing or even hurting people if I can escape it... sometimes reason works better than fists.

[It had even worked on Scar, in the end.]

Well... it attached my soul to the armor when I got separated from my human body. Your blood contains your soul, and the iron in the blood bonds to the iron in the armor, thus binding the soul to it as well.

[isocelesmonster]

OH I ALWAYS GO TO PERSUASION FIRST! A FEW GOOD WORDS CAN TURN LOTS OF BAD SITUATIONS INTO OPPORTUNITIES INSTEAD!

[Like this one.]

I DON'T HAVE ANY BLOOD! DO I HAVE A SOUL?

[It's really not something he cares about, hence the breezy tone.]

[sonofgold]

Yeah. Negotiation can go a long way toward diffusing a bad situation... and remembering that the person on the other side of the argument has their own feelings and their own reasons for doing things.

[Al shrugged.]

I believe every living thing has a soul- but you probably don't believe in them, do you?

[tetractys]

OH, I BELIEVE THERE WAS SOMETHING YOU BOUND TO THIS!

[Bill zooms over and knocks on the armor again. Clang clang.]

CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT! LET'S GO WITH "SOUL"! BUT YOU'RE A SCIENTIST - HOW DO YOU USE SOMETHING IN AN EQUATION IF IT CAN'T BE QUANTIFIED?