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Blue barely probed at Isaac's memories, merely skimming them, and watching Carlton Drake beyond the glass. A brief flick-through, then the hunger set in deep, and dire. Frightening. They've never been locked up before. They've been hungry, but not so deeply nor so insatiably, and it is so frightening. That is something they haven't felt in so long, either. Apathy, hunger, joy (or, as these people have a name for it, schadenfreude), exasperation, but not fear. Not in so long. Not--
Isaac is gobbled up before Blue can control themselves. Launching at the glass, at Carlton Drake, is all they can do.
"Bring in the next subject."
Fuck Venom. And Riot. Both idiots.
-
Fear might be a long-unfelt feeling, but grief is entirely new. When Yellow gasps and chokes and then dies, Blue nudges the current body to turn over, turn away, and lurk beneath the body's heart. If only they could sleep.
-
Someone else comes in. Not a guard, but someone else who shouldn't be here. A flash of something white illuminates the glass cage.
Then there's noise, slamming at the glass. High noise, yelling. Woman and man, they think. Then glass smashing.
Venom is out. They know without looking.
If Yellow were still alive, Blue might've bothered too move the body to action, to beg for an out.
-
The body is dying. Surely, these dumb bastards would've figured it out by now, what it is that they need to survive. Phenethylamine! C'mon, people, use your fuckin' nerdy little scientist heads to figure this shit out!
Then that doctor is frog-marched in, arms squeezed by two guards -- Treece and the other one -- and she says, "I'm sorry."
Yes, she's next.
-
Unlike every other person in that shithole, Dora Skirth isn't a raging fucking moron. She knows how appeal to survival. Play dead. Play possum. And honestly? She is refreshing. Very interesting. Her mind is... more exquisite. Refreshing. Invigorating--
Where the fuck are all these words coming from? Yes, Dora Skirth is smart, and an enjoyable host because of that, enough that Blue is considering something of a long-term--
Oh fuck, they sound like Venom. "Long-term", the fuck.
But staying, at least for a while, would be pragmatic. Sensible.
(When Dora climbs up to her home, and sees her sister and children, Blue feels that, too.)
(Dora is so, so smart. Much more so than everyone else Blue has ever known.)
-
After Drake's death, and between gobbling up one corruption incarnated as a rich white man and the next, Blue has time to consider what they're going to do next. Whether to stay, or whether to go. The most immediate problem is finding someone else who would be so willing to be their host. Counter-question: why would they leave when they have it so good with Dora? A steady supply of chocolate, pigeon heads, the rich and powerful, and the occasional potato (jacket potatoes have become a fast favourite). And a growing... affection. Fast-growing, like a fungal infection. Venom-like. And, well, doesn't that just irritate them to no end, to be constantly reminded of Venom because of this association of affection.
Well, there's learning these human things, and there's unlearning everything that's associated with affection. New concept, that -- "unlearning". Dora talked about it sometimes. For that, and for many other things, Blue might tell her their actual name.
But anyway, it looks like their becoming attached. Great.
-
Yellow was still dead, until Rosie Collins rolled up to the Skirths' new-ish house, a little yellow blob bobbing just bobbing the left of her. Dora is flooded with relief, no questions on how Rosie survived the fallout of both Drake nor the ongoing dissolution of the Life Foundation, and smiles, and hugs her close.
Rosie didn't leave her to die. Tried to intervene, actually.
Blue isn't immediately concerned with that, barely paying attention when Rosie splutters how one of their fellow scientists was pinned to a wall by Drake (and Riot -- must be dead then, surely) for trying to abort the launch of the rocket. No, what's going through Blue now is that Yellow is alive again. Maybe they should be more concerned how Yellow is undead (and the word "zombie" ebbs unpleasantly through their mind), but Rosie and Dora are in each others' arms on the lawn, and Yellow is inching towards them along Rosie's skin.
Blue meets them.