Quoted By:
>Bodysnatching
>97, 103, 65 vs. DC 75 — Success
>Spendy
What do you say? More importantly, how do you say it? It's true you've managed to produce a body-ish construct, but it begins to fuzz away if you look too hard at it— you're not sctually sure you're capable of speech. At least not comprehensible speech. And even if you could, and Rudy understood it, wouldn't your voice reveal your age and sex? You're trying to exercise caution, for God's sake. (Yes, Richard. Caution.)
Could you disguise your voice? It <span class="mu-i">would</span> be a highly Josey Hatchcock-esque maneuver, but it's something you've rarely attempted, and you have a sinking feeling your pure and honest heart might interfere. It's true that on occasion you do wish your heart lent itself a smidge more to cowardly deceit, like Richard's clearly does— or Gil's, to be frank. Though of course he'd never lie to <span class="mu-i">you,</span> you have noted a certain propensity for... er... well, he was at one point arrested and executed...
Not that you hold it against him! Actually, it's a positive: the sneakier he is, the less <span class="mu-i">your</span> pristine conscience is sullied. You've never done anything wrong in your life! Excepting yesterday, but that wasn't <span class="mu-i">you,</span> really, and he asked for it, so— so, you— (you hope Gil isn't mad at you for that, and for the communion thing, which you didn't even know he'd mind, and now you've left him alone to stew in his disgust, and God, what a—)
—great idea! Wow! You have developed this excellent, wonderful idea, which is Gil-related, except in a positive way! Would you look at that! You've been thinking (of this, and nothing else)... didn't Richard swallow a beetle, and then Gil hijacked his voice? And doesn't Richard hijack <span class="mu-i">your</span> voice all the time? How hard could it be? You're already inside Rudy's head, and you've already stolen his vision, and his voice is not that far away.
Easy, then. You lean out the window, letting your body and the blackness trickle away behind you; you stare into the mirror, survey Rudy's nervy face, find his throat. Then you bite. Not like that, but it's similar— a pounce and a physical give and something running down your lips.
And they are your lips. You own them, they move to your will: you spend a few moments making funny shapes with them in the mirror. The control's not perfect, given that you lack the rest of the face (turns out that's saliva running down), but certainly it's enough to deliver a message. "Ahem," you make him say.
Hmm. Maybe the 'what' was more important than the 'how,' actually, because you're drawing blanks. Are you telling the truth? Attempting a lie? Attempting to lie your way into the truth? Better think fast, because Rudy's face-sans-mouth has contorted. "Ahem," you/he says, to stall for time. "Um, I— <span class="mu-i">mmph!</span>"
(1/2)
