a. mercer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
devastators) wrote2013-10-29 02:33 pm
devastators) wrote2013-10-29 02:33 pm
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proximabeta
PLAYER INFORMATION
➤ NAME: sy
➤ AGE: i'm 22, fwiw
➤ JOURNAL: i think i reserved underdevastators bc i don't have a personal journal
CHARACTER INFORMATION
➤ CHARACTER NAME: Alex J Mercer, codename Zeus
➤ SERIES: [PROTOTYPE] (no seriously that's how the creators wanted it to be written)
➤ CHARACTER AGE: 29
➤ REFERENCE: over here
➤ CANON POINT: one month into living in the cabin he rented from Flint in the comics, post the first game
➤ SEXUALITY: Alex Mercer is likely heterosexual: he had a relationship with Karen Parker (although she was just using him at Blackwatch's command), he develops feelings for Autumn in the comics, and he's never shown to lean towards men. But Alex Mercer is dead and what remains is the virus, and the virus reproduces by infecting anything: it doesn't really have a sexuality. If fucking someone to get something it wanted was required, it would do it without question, provided it couldn't just kill/consume the thing and get what it wanted first.
➤ PERSONALITY:
The first thing to understand about Alex Mercer is that the virus is not the same person as him.
Before the virus, Mercer had a rough childhood. He grew up with no money, bouncing around in foster care, until being returned to his mother when he was ten after her release from prison. In addition, his mother was an abusive drunk. He all but raised his younger sister Dana, and had to fend for himself growing up, against ridicule and against a horrible home life. Driven by his own miserable situation, Alex put himself through school, attending and graduating Columbia University at the top of his class. He never had time for romance, between school and his job as a researcher, and never had any interest in it.
Even without the addition of the virus in his life, Alex was already a borderline sociopath by the time he was attending Columbia University. Save for his sister, (of whom he rarely talked to), Alex cared about nothing and no one, only striving to get ahead. Strikingly intelligent, extremely cunning, and terrifyingly conniving, Mercer was cut-throat and determined before the infection ever hit. Graduating Columbia at the top of one's class is no small achievement: he was a freakishly smart individual, and people didn't really get on with him, which gave him more time to focus on his studies.
It's no wonder people didn't like him: Alex was never a warm individual. Removed from the rest of his peers and hardened by his experience at home, he had no time for social courtesy unless it served to give him an advantage. To Alex, people were synonymous with object, and he based their worth on quantifiable data, primarily what they could do for him. He quickly found a job with Gentek, a biological genetic research company, and rose in the ranks.
But Alex was paranoid to the point of dysfunction. Unhindered by a social life, and only mildly involved in a romantic one with his girlfriend Karen, he found himself researching things he probably was best staying ignorant of. His own anxieties led to stumbling upon restricted information within the company he worked for, which resulted in them attempting to kill him. His paranoia saved him and simultaneously damned him: he took a vial of possibly the most lethal bioweapon to have ever been crafted, the Blacklight virus, and escaped their custody.
And here's where the really fucked up, sociopathic side of Alex comes out: when cornered in Penn Station, instead of submitting to the militia attempting to kill him and secure the information he'd stumbled upon, Alex willingly released the virus upon New York City. Because Alex Mercer doesn't give a flying fuck about people, and has the mentality that if he's going to go down, then he's going to take the whole world down with him. Although brilliant, removed, and creative could all be used as words to describe Alex, the primary, driving characteristic of Alex Mercer was his wrath. At the core of who he was, Alex was a angry, cruel, vengeful human being, who ultimately cared about nothing but getting what he wanted.
After the virus took on Alex's form and his memories, it fixated on one thing and only one thing: revenge. All other motivations were secondary and expendable, and Zeus, more or less the fusion of Mercer and the virus, and the virus exposed Alex's vengeful core. That meant if he needed to rip people apart and consume them to get closer to his targets, he would. Although initially freaked out with what he'd become, Zeus quickly grew accustomed to the changes, and found himself consuming half the military, the innocent, and the infected alike to get what he wanted.
Yet, there was a small difference between Zeus and Alex: Zeus couldn't remember what had happened, or who had released the virus. As Zeus consumed people, he took on their memories, little pieces of their motivations, using Alex Mercer as a base personality. But Alex Mercer was dead; he'd died in Penn Station. The virus, despite being the literal manifestation of Blacklight, would go out of its way to protect humanity. It had no qualms eating whoever it needed to gain strength, but when informed that the military was going to nuke New York City and kill whatever was left of the eight million people that lived there, it flew the nuke out to the ocean at the risk of eliminating itself, just to protect those people. Although arguably worse than Alex, because you know, Zeus eats people, it cares more about people conceptually than Alex ever did.
Given his canon point, Alex teeters on the edge of mental oblivion, that is, he's clinging to the hope that there's something redeemable about being human, or at least about protecting humanity from the infection. Everywhere he's visited recently, Africa, Russia, the American South, every place he's seen has been riddled with society's cruelty and chipped away at Alex's investment in the human race. Recently, he's begun to find his hope restored after lodging in a cabin in the North, and found himself falling for a girl named Autumn. Because of this, he's just ever so slightly invested in helping other people, in human emotions, and in not consuming the innocent upon first meeting.
Now it should be noted that the virus knows Alex is not who it is, but for simplicity's sake, has taken on his identity and name, and attempts to blend in with the rest of humanity. It's capable of making friends, feeling remorse and other emotions alike, and has a sense of morals that Alex never had. It has the capability to feel love, (or at least it thinks it does), and demonstrates a familial kindness toward Alex's sister Dana, deciding to treat her as it's own sister. It's not incapable of making friendly connections (or semi-friendly anyway) for the greater good, as shown with Sgt. Robert Cross.
Overall, though, it still emanates most of Alex's core traits, officially described as: distant, predatory, super-intelligent, terrifying, vengeful, blank, and searching. It tends to be very serious, very blunt, and very intimidating when it talks, speaking plainly, instead of pedantically, and usually veers towards being dark and threatening. It's primarily serious due to Alex's proclivities, but there's definitely a sense of humour about the virus, and a colloquial attitude to boot. Maybe it's because Alex was a New Yorker, or maybe it's because neither Alex nor the virus happens to be very nice, or maybe it's just the virus' own insanity, but it tends to curse a lot and find homour in the macabre.
➤ POWERS: Mercer has been described as one of the most powerful video game characters ever created, and with good reason: he can crack a tank with his fists, take down a helicopter with his arm, and level a building if he so wishes. For handy reference, Alex's abilities are as follows:
Shapeshifting: since Alex's body is no longer made up of blood and bone, he can mutate his ability at will into different shapes. Technically, he could morph his body into any shape he wants, and turn his mass into writhing masses of black, but there are five weapon shapes he uses primarily:
Claws: both of his hands become giant, two feet long claws, capable of slashing through muscle and bone with little effort. Can also slash through metal, wood, and other objects, though its primary advantage is its speed, not its strength.
Hammerfists: this includes Alex turning his hands into giant, bulky masses used to smash things. Think like the Hulk. Using this, he can pretty much smash his way through cars, rock, and most metallic objects with a few blows. Tends to slow him down.
Whipfist: Alex's right fist turns into a whip, which he can use to either latch onto something and yank himself closer, such as a helicopter, or to wrap around someone and yank them closer.hello tentacle fantasies, you rang?
Musclemass: similar to the hammerfists, though this just looks like a really muscular arm. It's used primarily for fighting organic targets, and when used against a normal human, can shatter them like a hammer to a diamond.
Blade: the most powerful of Alex's transformations, this includes him transforming his entire arm into a blade, which can slash through tanks in just a few blows, let alone people.
In addition to all of this, Alex can take on the form of the last person's genetic material he consumed. This includes the clothing they were wearing, if he so chooses. If the information he's seeking is related to a certain skill, Alex can consume certain people and wide up with an ability he didn't have previously. For instance, if he wanted to fly a helicopter, and didn't know how, consuming a helicopter pilot would give him the ability to fly a helicopter. He can also adopt the voice of the person he last consumed, and can card through certain memories, though typically only the ones that are of crucial importance to him. That is to say, you couldn't offer to pay Alex to find out if the dude who you thought was banging your wife was banging your wife, because even if Alex consumed him, he wouldn't have enough emotional involvement in the case to find out any crucial information. He'd probably make a tasty snack though.
He has various offensive attacks, such as the groundspike, where he can send a tremour of biomass through the ground and create a eight to ten feet tall pillar of spikes, impaling anything trapped in its range.
Enhanced endurance: because his body is just a writhing mass of living flesh being consumed by the virus, Alex can withstand anything from falling off a hundred story building to getting blown up with a rocket launcher. Bullets feel like being pinched, and punching him, at least when he's at his usual mass, will feel like throwing a fist at a wall made of reinforced titanium. Running a car into him at full speed will most likely result in the car being destroyed, and Alex being slightly annoyed.
Enhanced speed: due to the virus, Alex can run faster than most vehicles, for hours on end without respite. There's no need for him to parkour: he can run up the side of a building the same way he'd sprint down the pavement. Also, due to god only really knows what, he can due a double sprint in mid air, and he can glide, though the longer he glides, the faster he will descend, until after about twenty seconds, it's more or less just a free fall.
Healing factor: this is where the consuming people comes in. Basically, he's great for all those vore fetishists out there. Or at least the really hardcore ones. He must find, kill, and consuming living creatures to add to his mass, as that's what gives him access to most of his abilities. He could probably temporarily survive off of animals if forced, but it's easier to just kill and consume four or five human beings and adopt their mass. Though Alex can actually regenerate his health if he's stationary for a certain amount of time, so if wounded to the point of being close to death and without anything to consume, he could theoretically go somewhere to hide and manage to heal himself without outside help.
Infrared vision: basically what it says on the tin. He can see through objects and for a good mile or so and pick up on the heat signatures of the living beings in the area. He also has a similar ability for seeking out the infected, but that doesn't apply if he's not in his world, as it's only for the Blacklight virus.
Devastators: oh yeah, and he can do this shit.
➤ SUITABILITY: From any other canon point, Alex would either be concentrated on revenge and information seeking, or wiping out humanity. But because he's taken from the brief period wherein he actually wants to believe in humanity and find a reason to salvage it, he might unite with the civilians taken in order to find the truth behind why they've been forcibly relocated, and who is in charge of their relocation.
Initially, he will take his kidnapping very poorly. Might try to kill a scientist or two, or anyone he encounters who doesn't claim to be in a similar situation. He'll only comply with the initial experiment if he's told he'll lose his abilities, otherwise, he's not a particularly sexual creature, and won't comply. But upon finding out he'll lose his powers, Alex is ruthless, and even though he's trying to have his faith in humanity restored, he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. If that means submitting to the experiments until he can find out who's in charge and tear them limb from limb, he'll do whatever it takes, and whoever it takes.
Assuming that the scientists found a way to put a chip into a sentient virus, Alex/Zeus will gather whoever's done the kidnapping is extremely advanced, with a plethora of resources at their disposal, and while he'll ultimately focus on exerting his revenge (or at least leaving his mark on the Dome), he'll play nice and not just destroy/infect half the city, if only to get what he wants and gather the information he needs.
➤ FIRST PERSON EXAMPLE:
So what? They're just gonna keep fucking doing this until we're a bunch of obedient little fuck-sheep, humping each other in public whenever they snap their fingers? Tch, never thought I'd meet a collective more fucked up than Gentek. [ the image shifts out of focus for a second as Alex reaches up to place the tablet against the wall, ignoring the fact the new view has all but obscured his eyes, hidden in the shadow cast by his hood. ]
Maybe their previous playtoys enjoyed this. Maybe they grew to enjoy it. Maybe they just didn't know how to fight back. Maybe they weren't able able to. Maybe they were weak. Doesn't matter. Whoever's done this, whatever's done this, they've fucked with the wrong person. [ a chuckle, and Alex gets up, turning his back on the device. ]
And you. Yeah, you. [ he glances back over his shoulder at the device. ] I don't know who you are. But I know you're watching. So listen up: I'm coming for you. And when I find you, I'm gonna make you pay. [ and suddenly, there's an explosion of black tendrils over his right arm, which splits apart, reforming into a long black rope. in one motion, he throws the tangle of black at the device and the visuals spin, shake, and then cut off, and the feed dies. ]
➤ THIRD PERSON EXAMPLE:
[ there's a lot of weight one can have, arguing the consequences of biological warfare far outweigh the benefit. risk of contagion. inability to stop spreading infections. mutated strains with no feasible cure.
and Alex Mercer. what was Alex Mercer, anyway. he'd make a pretty damn good argument against biological warfare, or human experimenting in general. not that the powers that be ofthis world intended to take that into consideration; he'd already been subject to two experiments since arriving here. funny how things worked here: what was the point of the experiments? was it for the betterment of... whatever kind that lived around here? was it for scientific advancement? or did they just want to see what happened?
didn't matter. as long as he abided by their rules, they allowed him to bend theirs, and it worked out fine for Alex. it wasn't New York City, and there were a thousand open-ended questions without answers suspended in his consciousness, but it wasn't all bad here. no Black Watch. no infected. no Blacklight virus, or at least none to be found anywhere except within him. made living a bit easier. made taking the moral high ground a little less work.
though it was always a little inconvenient to gather Biomass. killing people here wasn't hard, it was just the fucking cameras everywhere that made things difficult. even in the South City, there was the distinct feeling of someone watching at all intervals. in this back alley, with this woman backing away from Alex, orange-red vinyl dress stretched taut over her hips as one high-heeled foot clicked against the pavement, that looming feeling of being observed plagues Alex, and his upper lip curls into a snarl as he approaches.
it doesn't stop him. one arm splits apart in a flurry of black, coiling tentacles and reforms into a blade. in one swift motion, he's torn through the woman and enveloped her in a swathe of writhing obsidian. a moment later and it's just him in the alleyway, arm reshaping until it's indistinguishable from how it was to start, and he turns on his heel, exiting the alleyway, slightly heavier than he was before.
but he knows he's been watched. what he doesn't know is what's to be done about that.
it happens in an instant, and slams into him hard enough to bring him to his knees. he snarls, groans with his jeans planted against the sidewalk, cracks in the asphalt formed around his legs, arms curled around his middle. it feels like something searing through him, changing him, guiding him, demanding him to take action. to do something. someone. to obey. to fucksomething. wet, sticky fire burns from his gut to his groin, and he feels the edges of his fingers breaking apart, black sinew weaving about his arm. this part of the city should be bustling with life, but amidst the blanket of night, it's barren. as his snarling subsides, he searches the darkness for something to alleviate these symptoms.
there's a reason they say the South City is so dangerous. ]
➤ NAME: sy
➤ AGE: i'm 22, fwiw
➤ JOURNAL: i think i reserved under
devastators bc i don't have a personal journalCHARACTER INFORMATION
➤ CHARACTER NAME: Alex J Mercer, codename Zeus
➤ SERIES: [PROTOTYPE] (no seriously that's how the creators wanted it to be written)
➤ CHARACTER AGE: 29
➤ REFERENCE: over here
➤ CANON POINT: one month into living in the cabin he rented from Flint in the comics, post the first game
➤ SEXUALITY: Alex Mercer is likely heterosexual: he had a relationship with Karen Parker (although she was just using him at Blackwatch's command), he develops feelings for Autumn in the comics, and he's never shown to lean towards men. But Alex Mercer is dead and what remains is the virus, and the virus reproduces by infecting anything: it doesn't really have a sexuality. If fucking someone to get something it wanted was required, it would do it without question, provided it couldn't just kill/consume the thing and get what it wanted first.
➤ PERSONALITY:
The first thing to understand about Alex Mercer is that the virus is not the same person as him.
Before the virus, Mercer had a rough childhood. He grew up with no money, bouncing around in foster care, until being returned to his mother when he was ten after her release from prison. In addition, his mother was an abusive drunk. He all but raised his younger sister Dana, and had to fend for himself growing up, against ridicule and against a horrible home life. Driven by his own miserable situation, Alex put himself through school, attending and graduating Columbia University at the top of his class. He never had time for romance, between school and his job as a researcher, and never had any interest in it.
Even without the addition of the virus in his life, Alex was already a borderline sociopath by the time he was attending Columbia University. Save for his sister, (of whom he rarely talked to), Alex cared about nothing and no one, only striving to get ahead. Strikingly intelligent, extremely cunning, and terrifyingly conniving, Mercer was cut-throat and determined before the infection ever hit. Graduating Columbia at the top of one's class is no small achievement: he was a freakishly smart individual, and people didn't really get on with him, which gave him more time to focus on his studies.
It's no wonder people didn't like him: Alex was never a warm individual. Removed from the rest of his peers and hardened by his experience at home, he had no time for social courtesy unless it served to give him an advantage. To Alex, people were synonymous with object, and he based their worth on quantifiable data, primarily what they could do for him. He quickly found a job with Gentek, a biological genetic research company, and rose in the ranks.
But Alex was paranoid to the point of dysfunction. Unhindered by a social life, and only mildly involved in a romantic one with his girlfriend Karen, he found himself researching things he probably was best staying ignorant of. His own anxieties led to stumbling upon restricted information within the company he worked for, which resulted in them attempting to kill him. His paranoia saved him and simultaneously damned him: he took a vial of possibly the most lethal bioweapon to have ever been crafted, the Blacklight virus, and escaped their custody.
And here's where the really fucked up, sociopathic side of Alex comes out: when cornered in Penn Station, instead of submitting to the militia attempting to kill him and secure the information he'd stumbled upon, Alex willingly released the virus upon New York City. Because Alex Mercer doesn't give a flying fuck about people, and has the mentality that if he's going to go down, then he's going to take the whole world down with him. Although brilliant, removed, and creative could all be used as words to describe Alex, the primary, driving characteristic of Alex Mercer was his wrath. At the core of who he was, Alex was a angry, cruel, vengeful human being, who ultimately cared about nothing but getting what he wanted.
After the virus took on Alex's form and his memories, it fixated on one thing and only one thing: revenge. All other motivations were secondary and expendable, and Zeus, more or less the fusion of Mercer and the virus, and the virus exposed Alex's vengeful core. That meant if he needed to rip people apart and consume them to get closer to his targets, he would. Although initially freaked out with what he'd become, Zeus quickly grew accustomed to the changes, and found himself consuming half the military, the innocent, and the infected alike to get what he wanted.
Yet, there was a small difference between Zeus and Alex: Zeus couldn't remember what had happened, or who had released the virus. As Zeus consumed people, he took on their memories, little pieces of their motivations, using Alex Mercer as a base personality. But Alex Mercer was dead; he'd died in Penn Station. The virus, despite being the literal manifestation of Blacklight, would go out of its way to protect humanity. It had no qualms eating whoever it needed to gain strength, but when informed that the military was going to nuke New York City and kill whatever was left of the eight million people that lived there, it flew the nuke out to the ocean at the risk of eliminating itself, just to protect those people. Although arguably worse than Alex, because you know, Zeus eats people, it cares more about people conceptually than Alex ever did.
Given his canon point, Alex teeters on the edge of mental oblivion, that is, he's clinging to the hope that there's something redeemable about being human, or at least about protecting humanity from the infection. Everywhere he's visited recently, Africa, Russia, the American South, every place he's seen has been riddled with society's cruelty and chipped away at Alex's investment in the human race. Recently, he's begun to find his hope restored after lodging in a cabin in the North, and found himself falling for a girl named Autumn. Because of this, he's just ever so slightly invested in helping other people, in human emotions, and in not consuming the innocent upon first meeting.
Now it should be noted that the virus knows Alex is not who it is, but for simplicity's sake, has taken on his identity and name, and attempts to blend in with the rest of humanity. It's capable of making friends, feeling remorse and other emotions alike, and has a sense of morals that Alex never had. It has the capability to feel love, (or at least it thinks it does), and demonstrates a familial kindness toward Alex's sister Dana, deciding to treat her as it's own sister. It's not incapable of making friendly connections (or semi-friendly anyway) for the greater good, as shown with Sgt. Robert Cross.
Overall, though, it still emanates most of Alex's core traits, officially described as: distant, predatory, super-intelligent, terrifying, vengeful, blank, and searching. It tends to be very serious, very blunt, and very intimidating when it talks, speaking plainly, instead of pedantically, and usually veers towards being dark and threatening. It's primarily serious due to Alex's proclivities, but there's definitely a sense of humour about the virus, and a colloquial attitude to boot. Maybe it's because Alex was a New Yorker, or maybe it's because neither Alex nor the virus happens to be very nice, or maybe it's just the virus' own insanity, but it tends to curse a lot and find homour in the macabre.
➤ POWERS: Mercer has been described as one of the most powerful video game characters ever created, and with good reason: he can crack a tank with his fists, take down a helicopter with his arm, and level a building if he so wishes. For handy reference, Alex's abilities are as follows:
Shapeshifting: since Alex's body is no longer made up of blood and bone, he can mutate his ability at will into different shapes. Technically, he could morph his body into any shape he wants, and turn his mass into writhing masses of black, but there are five weapon shapes he uses primarily:
Claws: both of his hands become giant, two feet long claws, capable of slashing through muscle and bone with little effort. Can also slash through metal, wood, and other objects, though its primary advantage is its speed, not its strength.
Hammerfists: this includes Alex turning his hands into giant, bulky masses used to smash things. Think like the Hulk. Using this, he can pretty much smash his way through cars, rock, and most metallic objects with a few blows. Tends to slow him down.
Whipfist: Alex's right fist turns into a whip, which he can use to either latch onto something and yank himself closer, such as a helicopter, or to wrap around someone and yank them closer.
Musclemass: similar to the hammerfists, though this just looks like a really muscular arm. It's used primarily for fighting organic targets, and when used against a normal human, can shatter them like a hammer to a diamond.
Blade: the most powerful of Alex's transformations, this includes him transforming his entire arm into a blade, which can slash through tanks in just a few blows, let alone people.
In addition to all of this, Alex can take on the form of the last person's genetic material he consumed. This includes the clothing they were wearing, if he so chooses. If the information he's seeking is related to a certain skill, Alex can consume certain people and wide up with an ability he didn't have previously. For instance, if he wanted to fly a helicopter, and didn't know how, consuming a helicopter pilot would give him the ability to fly a helicopter. He can also adopt the voice of the person he last consumed, and can card through certain memories, though typically only the ones that are of crucial importance to him. That is to say, you couldn't offer to pay Alex to find out if the dude who you thought was banging your wife was banging your wife, because even if Alex consumed him, he wouldn't have enough emotional involvement in the case to find out any crucial information. He'd probably make a tasty snack though.
He has various offensive attacks, such as the groundspike, where he can send a tremour of biomass through the ground and create a eight to ten feet tall pillar of spikes, impaling anything trapped in its range.
Enhanced endurance: because his body is just a writhing mass of living flesh being consumed by the virus, Alex can withstand anything from falling off a hundred story building to getting blown up with a rocket launcher. Bullets feel like being pinched, and punching him, at least when he's at his usual mass, will feel like throwing a fist at a wall made of reinforced titanium. Running a car into him at full speed will most likely result in the car being destroyed, and Alex being slightly annoyed.
Enhanced speed: due to the virus, Alex can run faster than most vehicles, for hours on end without respite. There's no need for him to parkour: he can run up the side of a building the same way he'd sprint down the pavement. Also, due to god only really knows what, he can due a double sprint in mid air, and he can glide, though the longer he glides, the faster he will descend, until after about twenty seconds, it's more or less just a free fall.
Healing factor: this is where the consuming people comes in. Basically, he's great for all those vore fetishists out there. Or at least the really hardcore ones. He must find, kill, and consuming living creatures to add to his mass, as that's what gives him access to most of his abilities. He could probably temporarily survive off of animals if forced, but it's easier to just kill and consume four or five human beings and adopt their mass. Though Alex can actually regenerate his health if he's stationary for a certain amount of time, so if wounded to the point of being close to death and without anything to consume, he could theoretically go somewhere to hide and manage to heal himself without outside help.
Infrared vision: basically what it says on the tin. He can see through objects and for a good mile or so and pick up on the heat signatures of the living beings in the area. He also has a similar ability for seeking out the infected, but that doesn't apply if he's not in his world, as it's only for the Blacklight virus.
Devastators: oh yeah, and he can do this shit.
➤ SUITABILITY: From any other canon point, Alex would either be concentrated on revenge and information seeking, or wiping out humanity. But because he's taken from the brief period wherein he actually wants to believe in humanity and find a reason to salvage it, he might unite with the civilians taken in order to find the truth behind why they've been forcibly relocated, and who is in charge of their relocation.
Initially, he will take his kidnapping very poorly. Might try to kill a scientist or two, or anyone he encounters who doesn't claim to be in a similar situation. He'll only comply with the initial experiment if he's told he'll lose his abilities, otherwise, he's not a particularly sexual creature, and won't comply. But upon finding out he'll lose his powers, Alex is ruthless, and even though he's trying to have his faith in humanity restored, he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. If that means submitting to the experiments until he can find out who's in charge and tear them limb from limb, he'll do whatever it takes, and whoever it takes.
Assuming that the scientists found a way to put a chip into a sentient virus, Alex/Zeus will gather whoever's done the kidnapping is extremely advanced, with a plethora of resources at their disposal, and while he'll ultimately focus on exerting his revenge (or at least leaving his mark on the Dome), he'll play nice and not just destroy/infect half the city, if only to get what he wants and gather the information he needs.
➤ FIRST PERSON EXAMPLE:
So what? They're just gonna keep fucking doing this until we're a bunch of obedient little fuck-sheep, humping each other in public whenever they snap their fingers? Tch, never thought I'd meet a collective more fucked up than Gentek. [ the image shifts out of focus for a second as Alex reaches up to place the tablet against the wall, ignoring the fact the new view has all but obscured his eyes, hidden in the shadow cast by his hood. ]
Maybe their previous playtoys enjoyed this. Maybe they grew to enjoy it. Maybe they just didn't know how to fight back. Maybe they weren't able able to. Maybe they were weak. Doesn't matter. Whoever's done this, whatever's done this, they've fucked with the wrong person. [ a chuckle, and Alex gets up, turning his back on the device. ]
And you. Yeah, you. [ he glances back over his shoulder at the device. ] I don't know who you are. But I know you're watching. So listen up: I'm coming for you. And when I find you, I'm gonna make you pay. [ and suddenly, there's an explosion of black tendrils over his right arm, which splits apart, reforming into a long black rope. in one motion, he throws the tangle of black at the device and the visuals spin, shake, and then cut off, and the feed dies. ]
➤ THIRD PERSON EXAMPLE:
[ there's a lot of weight one can have, arguing the consequences of biological warfare far outweigh the benefit. risk of contagion. inability to stop spreading infections. mutated strains with no feasible cure.
and Alex Mercer. what was Alex Mercer, anyway. he'd make a pretty damn good argument against biological warfare, or human experimenting in general. not that the powers that be ofthis world intended to take that into consideration; he'd already been subject to two experiments since arriving here. funny how things worked here: what was the point of the experiments? was it for the betterment of... whatever kind that lived around here? was it for scientific advancement? or did they just want to see what happened?
didn't matter. as long as he abided by their rules, they allowed him to bend theirs, and it worked out fine for Alex. it wasn't New York City, and there were a thousand open-ended questions without answers suspended in his consciousness, but it wasn't all bad here. no Black Watch. no infected. no Blacklight virus, or at least none to be found anywhere except within him. made living a bit easier. made taking the moral high ground a little less work.
though it was always a little inconvenient to gather Biomass. killing people here wasn't hard, it was just the fucking cameras everywhere that made things difficult. even in the South City, there was the distinct feeling of someone watching at all intervals. in this back alley, with this woman backing away from Alex, orange-red vinyl dress stretched taut over her hips as one high-heeled foot clicked against the pavement, that looming feeling of being observed plagues Alex, and his upper lip curls into a snarl as he approaches.
it doesn't stop him. one arm splits apart in a flurry of black, coiling tentacles and reforms into a blade. in one swift motion, he's torn through the woman and enveloped her in a swathe of writhing obsidian. a moment later and it's just him in the alleyway, arm reshaping until it's indistinguishable from how it was to start, and he turns on his heel, exiting the alleyway, slightly heavier than he was before.
but he knows he's been watched. what he doesn't know is what's to be done about that.
it happens in an instant, and slams into him hard enough to bring him to his knees. he snarls, groans with his jeans planted against the sidewalk, cracks in the asphalt formed around his legs, arms curled around his middle. it feels like something searing through him, changing him, guiding him, demanding him to take action. to do something. someone. to obey. to fucksomething. wet, sticky fire burns from his gut to his groin, and he feels the edges of his fingers breaking apart, black sinew weaving about his arm. this part of the city should be bustling with life, but amidst the blanket of night, it's barren. as his snarling subsides, he searches the darkness for something to alleviate these symptoms.
there's a reason they say the South City is so dangerous. ]