random BSG ficlet, Cavil.

[lyssie]

spoilers for the plan, etc.


"Hello, brother." Cavil One (or Resistance!Cavil as he'd dubbed himself sometime during his conversations with a Four that seemed more Simon than machine, given his inability to kill even the least member of the resistance. Though he hadn't begged for his life, in the end. He'd simply died) had been waiting for Cavil Two for quite a long time. This place in the afterlife, such as it was, was grey and quiet. Featureless. Boring. It suited him well, though he occasionally was rather miffed that no one came to join him.

Cavil Two glare around himself, "Who are you? Where am I?"

Pursing his lips and trying to hide his amusement, Cavil One shrugged, "Where do you think you are, brother?"

"Oh, it's you." His tone one of scorn, Cavil Two added, "Are you going to spout existential nonsense now? Something about having found enlightenment?"

"You know that's never been our style. Besides, you started it with your ridiculous questions. Really, brother, use that brain our parents programmed and start collating data." It wasn't that Cavil One didn't want to help him, but Cavil Two was a tough nut to crack at the best of times. Besides, it was more fun this way.

"We boxed you."

"I know. And let me tell you, it's almost sort of restful after a while."

Cavil Two gave him another glare. "Don't be ridiculous. You don't have any consciousness while boxed."

"And you would know, I'm sure. Really, brother, did it have to be suicide?" Going on the offensive, Cavil One continued, "It seems like such a cowardly way out. And you almost had your goal, too: immortality."

"Screw you. They would never have let me live, anyway." Cavil Two looked unmoved.

"I've never tried that in here. Still, not really my thing. And aren't you supposed to be a man of the cloth?"

"Sins of the flesh, brother."

Cavil One smiled. "That's what they all say. I suppose we should be lucky we don't believe in eternal damnation."

"If I'm stuck with you, I might start to."

"Don't worry, brother. We won't be here long. They've got plans for us--well, for you, mostly." Cavil One grinned, which didn't really look good on his face. "She promised me my own neutron star."

"Neutron star? What are you talking about--no, don't answer that. I'm sure it's some claptrap about the afterlife and forgiveness being fulfilling. Well, screw that." Crossing his arms, Cavil Two settled onto a nothing which might have been a chair and almost pouted like a small boy.

"Something like that." With a sigh at his brother's inability to adjust and evolve, to make a true change, Cavil One glanced across the nothingness. "My ride's almost here. It was good to see you again, brother."

"There's nothing there, stop having delusions."

Cavil One stepped up into the raptor that had appeared and nodded to the ECO at the controls. He looked back over his shoulder at Cavil Two. "Try not to throw a temper tantrum this time."

With a shudder of nothingness, the raptor wasn't there anymore.

Glaring at the spot it hadn't occupied, Cavil Two (now One, of course), hunched his shoulders even more and considered settling in for a good sulk. Maybe he could find some humans to kill.

Comments

[auroramama]

That is pretty damn cool. I like the idea that one version of Cavil might eventually get it. Also, for characters that hard to like, you write them both well.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I was sort of fond of that Cavil after The Plan. And someone needed to mock the other one in the afterlife for shooting himself in the head. =D

[grey-sw.livejournal.com]

Personally, I think that Cavil did adjust, evolve, and change during The Plan... it's just that he adjusted, evolved, and changed in the other direction. He learned his own "lesson about love" aboard Galactica, it just wasn't the same one... :P

Great fic, though. I especially liked the Raptor that wasn't there. Who was the ECO?

Please say it was Racetrack! ;)

edit: bah spelling

well, now that I've actually seen The Plan (spoilers)

[auroramama]

Temper tantrum really is the mot juste, isn't it? I spent a good part of the attention I could spare from Anders being nobly beautiful all over on trying to figure out what the sins of humanity were, exactly. Being more lovable than Cavil? Because he really doesn't say much about how the Cylons were enslaved and all, and he doesn't say much about humans being killers, for which heaven be thanked, given how hypocritical it would be. The bit about there never being room for the Cylons if there were still humans alive anywhere only makes sense if the problem with humanity is that Cylons and Final Fivers are attracted to it. Otherwise, there's a whole galaxy out there, minus the negligible blob of space that contains the rag-tag etc.

I kind of see it this way: Cavil's stupid plot to sour the Five on humanity by letting them think they're human and then destroying the whole species could only have come from someone who knows nothing about psychology. (Anyone's psychology.) And yet he knew lots about humanity. He was just unable to see anything good there, which made him unable to imagine anyone else doing so, even when they were thrown into close proximity for years. So it had to be something weird and infectious about the humans that messed with good machine common sense. The alternative being a universe where everyone but Cavil got it, and the problem was Cavil.

I still don't get why Cavil couldn't build his own damn X-ray spectrometric glasses, et alia. Or more precisely, why he thought the Five (1) should have known that's what he'd want, and (2) would have had a better chance of creating a free-flying sane super-hybrid than Cavil did. If there's canon around how and when their biological technology was achieved, demonstrating that the Five were responsible for all of it, I'm not aware of it.

(Anyway, Cavil is based on Ellen's loving memory of her father? Really? Cynical nihilism is one thing, but the sleazy, abusive sexuality and the mean streak a mile wide? Shudder. I want to blither about Cavil One and how he subverts that personality, but maybe when I have a brain.)