Alone... considering he was apparently not a fighter himself, we can assume Zymandis either did not authorize his actions, or thought it an easy enough task for a single agent, yes?
The way he spoke of it...he volunteered. So it would seem that as you say, they may have deemed it a simple task. According to him, if it worked, Zymandis would use it again. But what he had on him was the last of it for the time being.
After Loki used his sword to extract the truth, Percy attempted to use machines to attack us and fled. He didn't get far. While we were fending off the robots, he said that he'd concocted the virus out of several strains in order to create a "super virus". And he was...excited...about its efficacy. About its efficiency.
Especially when he...
[Here he falters, an obvious stutter in his transmission]
He confirmed that he'd been. [A pause, he tries again] He was feeding them. To each other.
It sounded like more than facilitation to me. He specifically said they became more readily violent after he began feeding them to one another, so I took it to mean he...the "meat" people found in the sewers, and the bodies...
[It's disturbing to think on, for more ways than one.
But the worst is that he feels as though he's known such a horrible person, in a past life that wasn't his. A mad scientist delighting in creating monsters...]
Apparently, the intention was to spread this disease across the universe, and harvest its energy in the aftermath.
Something most people wouldn't do, a step most people would find too abhorrent, or too vulgar to even consider, but she can see what he was thinking. How he could have used it to accelerate the weaponization and aggressiveness of the virus-
And for a moment, she finds herself respecting it. That degree of intelligence and ability to do whatever it takes to accomplish your goal.
No one should create such things, things that served only to hurt people. Even if it was cleverly done, even if he was intelligent enough to have nearly outmaneuvered a team of Audentes' smartest-
The pause is longer this time.]
I see. That is a valid way to accelerate his timeline...
It is a good thing we were able to intercede before then.
[What a time to get into issues of amnesia, but it's difficult to explain otherwise]
I think I once told you I was the product of experimentation. At least, if I'm not mistaken. Changing humans into ghouls...making them unable to subsist on anything but their own kind...
Although I can't recall him, I think I was reminded of that person. Kanou was his name, so I was told.
Yes. This mission has felt...quite familiar, in some respects. People hunting one another. People changed such that their hunger became impossible to control...
[He may have been like that, once]
As I understand it, Kanou was transplanting organs from ghouls into humans, which creates...well. Something like myself, if successful.
I've kept perspective, regarding the separate nature of this mission, but...something about the way he spoke was...disconcertingly reminiscent.
[By the way Haise had spoken to her about eating with others, she'd not imagined a human life for him... but without memories, perhaps it was like that. He had been human once, and someone like this Percy, (someone, perhaps, almost like her), had forced him to become one someone who devoured the flesh of others.
Without having become infected, she can't say she knows the feeling, but.]
That must have been difficult to confront, then. I am sorry, I did not know.
I don't mean to trouble you with it. We all have our difficulties.
[The past, whatever it was...it's behind him. Haunts him, but there's nothing for it. He doubts he'll ever remember. If he did, he's pretty sure that he'd cease to be himself anymore.
That too is a disturbing prospect]
But it is strange to think someone would devise such a method, and that it would come close to some other one, in another world entirely.
...I hope the people here won't remember it. What the hunger did to them.
[... doesn't she know it. But for some reason, several people have suddenly told her things during this mission they hadn't before. Sonia. Urahara. Haise.
It almost made her think she ought to. Until she tried, and nothing came out.]
Sometimes I think intelligent life is not so very different, no matter the culture or world.
But I am sorry to tell you the chance is high they will. At least, they will remember as well as anyone does when possessed of a high fever.
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What?
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After Loki used his sword to extract the truth, Percy attempted to use machines to attack us and fled. He didn't get far. While we were fending off the robots, he said that he'd concocted the virus out of several strains in order to create a "super virus". And he was...excited...about its efficacy. About its efficiency.
Especially when he...
[Here he falters, an obvious stutter in his transmission]
He confirmed that he'd been. [A pause, he tries again] He was feeding them. To each other.
He sounded so...
So strangely delighted.
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He was creating situations for infected to cannibalize other infected?
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[It's disturbing to think on, for more ways than one.
But the worst is that he feels as though he's known such a horrible person, in a past life that wasn't his. A mad scientist delighting in creating monsters...]
Apparently, the intention was to spread this disease across the universe, and harvest its energy in the aftermath.
1/2
Something most people wouldn't do, a step most people would find too abhorrent, or too vulgar to even consider, but she can see what he was thinking. How he could have used it to accelerate the weaponization and aggressiveness of the virus-
And for a moment, she finds herself respecting it. That degree of intelligence and ability to do whatever it takes to accomplish your goal.
Just like her mother had always encouraged her.
Don't let things like morals stand in your way-]
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No one should create such things, things that served only to hurt people. Even if it was cleverly done, even if he was intelligent enough to have nearly outmaneuvered a team of Audentes' smartest-
The pause is longer this time.]
I see. That is a valid way to accelerate his timeline...
It is a good thing we were able to intercede before then.
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[It disturbs him, the familiarity of it. How much anger simmers low in him, that he could swear is not his own. How much disgust.
And how much disappointment.
So much of it feels as though it isn't his, these feelings roiling about]
It is fortunate we stopped this before it reached such a scale.
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[It's the first time she's heard him say something about that- remembering something.]
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I think I once told you I was the product of experimentation. At least, if I'm not mistaken. Changing humans into ghouls...making them unable to subsist on anything but their own kind...
Although I can't recall him, I think I was reminded of that person. Kanou was his name, so I was told.
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[It is hard to imagine, somehow- Haise, as human. Despite how human he appears.]
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[He may have been like that, once]
As I understand it, Kanou was transplanting organs from ghouls into humans, which creates...well. Something like myself, if successful.
I've kept perspective, regarding the separate nature of this mission, but...something about the way he spoke was...disconcertingly reminiscent.
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Without having become infected, she can't say she knows the feeling, but.]
That must have been difficult to confront, then. I am sorry, I did not know.
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[The past, whatever it was...it's behind him. Haunts him, but there's nothing for it. He doubts he'll ever remember. If he did, he's pretty sure that he'd cease to be himself anymore.
That too is a disturbing prospect]
But it is strange to think someone would devise such a method, and that it would come close to some other one, in another world entirely.
...I hope the people here won't remember it. What the hunger did to them.
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It almost made her think she ought to. Until she tried, and nothing came out.]
Sometimes I think intelligent life is not so very different, no matter the culture or world.
But I am sorry to tell you the chance is high they will. At least, they will remember as well as anyone does when possessed of a high fever.
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I wish that weren't so. If it were me, I... [A pause. Though she can't see it, he chews his lip] Mm. No. I would be stopped.
[There's a level of certainty in that statement that translates even in text. And then he simply moves on from it, as though it bears no explanation]
But a ghoul reaching a point of starvation would run on pure instinct, and would be liable to recall nothing until after their hunger had been sated.
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[If they were lucky, anyway.]
That would be the difference between biological impulse and sickness. There are tales in my library of similar creatures with "hungers".
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What sorts of beings do those stories talk about?
[Maybe that will be a lighter subject]
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You may have similar stories in your own world. Nachzehrer and the like.
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That's some sort of vampire, right?
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But then, I guess it'd be a bit excessive on top of ghouls.
[The weakest stab at humor...]