#like he's more willing to set them aside for nonhumans than people (which is surprising but that's bc people alienated him)

[glorykill-a]

How quick is your character to suspect someone else? Does this change if they are close with that person?

in essence    ,    it depends on who and what the person is    ,    and how much they mean to him overall.    doom is not a trusting person to begin with    ,    his countless years in hell have worn away at his ability to fully put his life in someone else’s hands    (    with the exception of the master chief    ,    alex mercer    ,    samus aran    ,    and other people that are important to him    )    so he does a lot of things on his own due to this distrust    ,    as well as believing that no one else is capable of what he has to do.    one of the people that has aided in his inability to fully trust someone else has to be samur maykr aka samuel hayden    ,    an angel that manipulated him into stepping inside the divinity machine and stripping him of his humanity to give him divine power.

it was the most painful experience he has ever felt    ,    he saw things that no human was ever meant to    ,    how the universe was created and how it could possibly fall while being torn apart and put back together atom by atom.

i wouldn’t say he ever fully trusted samur but he was an angel    ,    and he was taught to give them respect as he was growing up    ,    that they could give wisdom and prosperity...    but samur’s manipulation of him    ,    taking away the last thing he was clinging to from his old life    ,    it’s severed his ability to trust others at first glance    ,    to fully have faith from the get-go.    however    ,    like i said earlier    ,    it really depends on if this person is nonhuman or human.    orion tends to trust humans as a whole    ,    he trusts in their ability to endure and improve    ,    to learn from the mistakes they’ve made if given the chance...    though he doesn’t trust a human as an individual. unless he knows them very well    ,    he has a tendency to keep an eye on them in perilous situations because he knows some people cannot handle the stress of demonic events    ,    that they’re liable to snap and harm others if it comes down to it.    he’s immediately suspicious of a person on their own    ,    he loves humans    ,    but he’s not ignorant to their innate tendencies and he knows that they’re also prone to being possessed.     he would only to start to trust someone and show less suspicion if they consistently prove that they’re capable of handling themselves and that they can keep calm during highly strenuous events.

there’s always this thought at the back of his mind that there could be ulterior motives to their actions    ,    he doesn’t make his suspicion obvious    ,    he takes the time to observe and give them a false sense of security.    if   they don’t show him any reason to doubt them further    ,    he’ll be prone to trusting them more.    however    ,    if they confirm his suspicions    ,    he will have no problem with confronting them.

when it comes to nonhumans    ,    it’s slightly different.    doom views them in a similar fashion to humans    ,    giving them the benefit of the doubt but not fully trusting them initially...    but his relationship with nonhumans is complicated.    although he does have a lot of faith and love for humans    ,    he is alienated from them due to their constant worshipping and dehumanizing of him    ,    as well as people being terrified of him and his power  -  causing orion to view humans as almost separate from him despite his origins as a human.    in contrast    ,    something nonhuman can understand the feelings he has towards humans    ,    and it’s this empathy that makes him more prone to developing a kinship with them    ,    thus having a buildup of rapid trust    ,    but the same logic of being initially suspicious can also be applied to nonhumans.    it’s an entirely different story for angelic or demonic entities    (   and even half breeds    )    because he will never waver his suspicions of them no matter how much he seems to trust them    (    which is a challenge in and of itself because he despises angels    ,    and demons are his sworn enemy    ).

now    ,    if doom completely and utterly trusts someone with every fiber of his being    ,    his suspicions are next to none    ,    because they have proven to him that they would never double cross or harm him in any capacity.    his relationship with master chief can be used as an example    ,    with an unwavering and undying trust in the man he loves    ,    believing that he could do no wrong...    it’s blinding    ,    in a way.    orion has put all his faith in someone if they have his trust    ,    meaning that he can never suspect them    ,    his emotions can cloud his judgement.    even if someone were to approach him with possible evidence that someone he loves could be doing something completely wrong    ,    he’d vehemently deny it in favor of siding with the person he cares for...    but if the suspicions were correct and they misused    /    betrayed his trust    ,    then he would never fully trust them again.    it takes a lot to build up trust with doom    ,    and though it’s not easy to lose it    ,    it can never be fully reestablished if it’s broken.

    :   /   /   character development questions   (   accepting   )   :   @crimenight

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

HASO, “Not Yet Ready.”

Hope you guys enjoy the story for today!

Dr Umbra set down the holo pad on the table with a grunt and turned to look at the human sitting across from her at the table. She hadn’t worked with many humans, so the way its eyes hovered over her was enough to make her squirm in her seat nervously. If she could have hazarded a guess, she would have said it looked hungry, ready to crawl across the table and take a bite from her, but she shook off the thought and set the holo-pad down on the table.

Outside, the glassy planet swirled and undulated below them, the ground most obscured by thick wafting vapors of red, blue and green. On occasion large swaths of the ground would be uncovered giving them a distant view of barren landscape dotted with black spires, before being plunged back into the mist again.

This human wasn’t likely to do that.

“And this is your account of what happened, nothing left out.”

“The human memory isn’t exactly reliable, but that is what I remember.” The human said sitting back in his chair. In comparison to her, he was a very large creature, maybe two feet taller than she was with creamy skin and light tawny hair. His eye though, was an unsettling shade of bright green that felt unnatural in this lightning. All around them the other scientists murmured in surprise and consternation, not really sure what to make of the human’s account.

One of the other Tesraki scientists stood, “It might have been telepathic, like the starborn, and used some sort of mental manipulation to make you feel the way you feel. I would not be entirely surprised, though how something could have survived for so long without access to nutrients or other Stimuli, I do not know.”

Their only Vrul scientist, aside from Dr. Krill stood, “There is only one way to sort this out. We analyze his memory directly.” He said pointing to the machine o nthe other side of the room, calmly sitting on a side table and waiting to be utilized.

Dr Umbra turned to look at the human, “Are you willing?”

“Whatever you need.” He glanced at the machine, “However, I must warn you, I don’t think…. What I remember is something that machine will be capable of capturing.”

The Vrul waved a hand, blowing him off slightly as he stood and walked over to the other side of the room.

The group of scientists bunched together, gathering around as Admiral Vir took his seat in the chair, and allowed the Vrul to fix the nodes of the machine to his head. Dr. Krill stood close by both sets of arms crossed over his chest.

Dr. Umbra glanced at him repeatedly unnerved by the strange way in which he stood, arms crossed, leaning on two set of feet more than the others, his head cocked unnaturally to the side for a Vrul. Even the way he moved was unsettling, but she supposed that is what tended to happen to you when you spent too much time with humans. He may have written the book on the humanization phenomenon, but that clearly didn’t make him immune to it.

The projector was set up to face an empty wall, and the science crew gathered around.

The human leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

The picture that was brought up before them was obscured in red. The memory boosting capabilities of the machine projected the image in sharp relief against the wall, in almost cinematic quality. Seeing through a human’s eyes was rather disorienting, such a narrow field of view but with such sharp edges. The fog swirled around him as he explored through the strange monolithic city, until, at some point, he did fall through the wall and into the dark room shining with little red bulbs.

The memories had been sharp up until this point, but as soon as he came into the room where the strange contraption was described… suddenly the memory went hazy. When his eyes were focused on the thing before him, the memory was blurry and confused, constantly moving pieces of the object as if it couldn’t decide where to put them. It was like trying to watch a very old computer render an object that was to complex, until the brain gave them a watered down version of the object that was nothing more than a ball of twisting shapes without any texture or refinement.

All around them the crowd muttered in nervous surprise.

Sitting before them, the human breathed deeply.

On the screen, he reached out a hand…. And his fingers made contact with the strange alien contraption.

The screen before them went blank, and they staired at it for a long moment. 

Dr. Krill rose from his seat, just as the human spasmed. His back arched and his head was thrown back violently. His eyes were open now but were focused on nothing. His hands were clenched into claws, before them the screen erupted into light and dark. At first blinding white light and then a sudden collapse before thousands of stars whirling past in spiral arrays. The image flickered and faded and twisted and blinked.

The human seized again violently tipping himself over and onto the floor.

“STOP the machine!” Someone called 

Smoke erupted from the power source of the contraption as all the circuits started to smoke. The image in front of them had degraded into nothing more than pixels of light and dark swirling around in a confusing mass of chaos.

Then the lights on the entire ship began to shutter and blink.

A lightbulb burst nearby.

Everyone yelled, startled and dove under the nearest table. 

The human was on the ground still locked in a horrible rictus, back arched hands balled into claws feet on the floor knees somewhat bent, pink foam dusted the corners of his mouth.

Dr. Krill raced forward and ripped the nodes from his head in one foul swoop.

They came off with a loud popping noise leaving behind tiny circles of red on the human’s skin, but as soon as it was gone the smoking died away and the human slumped back to the ground.

Then the room went dark.

They could hear it, surprised and startled cries from around the ship as the entire electrical circuit went out. Someone turned on a pocket light, giving Dr. Krill just enough room to examine the human, who now lay unresponsive on the floor in front of them.

The lights blinked back on a few minutes later as the secondary generator pulled power from the fusion core. The lights were slightly dimmer to alert the staff that something had gone wrong with the main power grid.

So it was in that eerie yellow light they watched as the human slowly came back to himself. He looked groggy and confused his single eye distant as he sat up to look at them, and when he did the entire room stepped back in fear. No one could have said exactly why, but when the human opened his mouth it was not his voice that emanated from inside.

You Are Not Ready

The entire room staggered to their knees as the booming voice shook the very ship rattling the glass in the observation deck, and causing spidering cracks to appear on the surfaces of some of the holopads.

Every last human aboard that ship was brought to their knees, hands over their ears,and every last alien went completely prone passed out on the spot.

No one knew how long they laid there, but when the awoke, most of the humans were still crouched on the floor, their hands over their heads. They stood slowly, looking around the room.

Admiral Vir was lying on his back unresponsive, and no amount of prodding or nudging could get him to wake up.

The lights overhead were constantly in a state of flickering.

“What in the hell was that.”  Someone muttered

Off down a long dark corridor, someone would find Conn in a similar state of unresponsiveness as he floated, unmoving in the hallway.

***

Admiral Vir received an MRI, CT and  and EEG from the groggy and somewhat confused medical department before he finally started to come too. He groaned and rolled to his side as a couple of the doctors stepped in to steady him.

He lookd up and around in confusion at the people staring down at him in concern.

“Is everything alright….. What happened.”

“I….. we aren’t entirely sure, how dod ou feel?”

He reached up a hand to rub at his head, “I…. I’,m not sure…. I…. I can’t remember.”

They waited.

“The last thing I remember was the science team arriving and then…. nothing .”

It was hard to describe what he felt, it was like his entire mind and body were soar. It was similar to the feeling he might have gotten after a particularly difficult test during the academy, but magnified tenfold. It was so bad that he could barely string two words together the mental exhaustion was that profound. And that wasn’t counting the physical soreness, in his throat,and his chest, and his lungs and his entire abdominal cavity and all the muscles therein.

He felt as if….. As if…..

well ….

As if someone had worn him like a glove.

That was hardly something he bet that the others would understand, so he didn’t mention it, and lay back on the bed eyes closed. No one distrubed him when he slept for a continuous seventy two hours afterwards. In the end Dr. krill couldn’t decide if he had been in a coma or not.

As for the electrical components of the ship, many of the major circuits had been fried and required replacing, and the entire power box  on the first interface ahd to be replaced. Everyone else aboard the ship, no matter their shift or their history of sleep disorders, slept for just over ten hours solidly and without waking up.

The nonhumans were also affected. Those of them that were capable of sleeping slept almost as long as the humans did, and those that were not, like the Vrul saw a significant drop in their energy and IQ quotients for the remaining ten hours as if their cortical zones were trying to reboot themselves.

Below them, that red planet continued to swirl and undulate, seeming peaceful though somehow dangerou.

Like a predator lying in wait.

The group of them tried to decide if they should even continue their scientific venture. Clearly something was going on that none of them quite understood. Perhaps it was something they were better off leaving alone, but whatever it was….. One thing was for certain.

Something strange was going on.

When one of the scientists tried to pull out a recording of what had happened, the electronics inside his camera was completely fried.

There was no physical evidence that what happened to them had happened, aside from a collective memory muddled and confused that took up about an hour of time for all of them. Once everything was back to normal it was almost impossible to believe that anything happened at all.

The Admiral awoke after his seventy two hours bright and cheerful as if nothing had happened still not remembering anything that had taken place, and below them, the planet continued to swirl with its strange and unusual mist.

***

Admiral Vir supervised the loading of the shuttles, watching as a near ton of scientific equipment was moved into the back of the shuttle. His hands were resting on his hips, though he could hardly feel anything through the gloves of his space suit: white this time and emblazoned with the GA scientific symbol.

One of the other science officers passed by carrying a crate, and paused long enough to set it down on the metal floor rolling his shoulders inside the space suit, “So we are still going along with this?”

“I hardly see that we have any other choice.”

“Whatever that was, it ook our our entire ship with just a memory. This is one of those times I think it might be best not to poke the bear.”

Admiral Vir nodded, “I am inclined to agree with you to some degree, however,” he motioned to the assorted aliens as they supervised the loading of the shuttle, “They plan to go with or without us, and I would rather not leave them unprotected.”

“No chance we can talk them out of it?”

Adam shook his head, “I don’t think that is going to be possible.” He turned to look at the other man, and seeing the dour expression on his face, he smiled and perked up patting the man on the back, “Besides, nothing is going to happen to us,  you want to know why?”

“Why sir.”

“Because we are just too pretty to die.”

“You’re quoting a movie I haven't seen, aren't you?”

“You know me too well.” He turned back to the door crossing his arms over his chest as Dr. krill came to join them.

“I am with our friend here. I think what you are doing is very very stupid.”

Adam raised his hands in mild offense, “You know what to be quite fair, THIS time it isn’t me. I tried to talk them out of it, but they say then need to go down and study it. I take no responsibility for the stupid decisions being made right now, none at all.”

“You could order them to stop.”

“No I can’t I am in charge of the GA’s Military fleet, not their scientists.”

Krill grunted, “You know, despite this being there Idea, I somehow get the impression that you are the one who is going to suffer for it.”

He scratched his head, “Things do seem to happen like that don’t they.”

“Don’t touch anything weird.”

“Well I think I  have proven incapable of keeping that kind of promise. However, I promise I will TRY not to touch anything that I shouldn’t.”

Krill sighed, “I guess that is the most that we can hope for.”

“I am bringing some marines along with us and hopefully that will be enough to keep everyone safe. I am having them briefed quickly on the methods of data collection that the scientists are going to be using, mostly so they don’t get in the way.” hge held up a hand as Krill opened his mouth, “And YES I have been briefed as well, and do not plan on getting in the way of the smart people while they do their work.”

The scientist glanced at hm as he spoke, “Don’t you have a degree in like…. Orbital physics or something.”

Adam rested a hand on the other man’s shoulder, “I actually have what might be the equivalent of a Ph.D in flight mechanics, and that does include orbital physics. However, I will be the first to admit that those facts aren't because I am naturally intelligent, I just worked really hard in the academy, and somehow it paid off. So next time you want someone who can calculate the flight trajectory of a rocket by hand, I am your guy, but when it comes to studying weird rocks…. I have no idea what I am doing.”

He glanced back at his assembled marines, circling the group of aliens as their protection detail, and not for the first time in so many months he wished that Sunny was here.

He would feel a lot better if he knew she was watching his back.