Wee! 10249!!
Dear Musashi,
I made today's deadline!! And it was even before midnight. Go me.
“Are you sure they can’t hear us?” Charlie asked Tehx for the seventh time.
“Oh right, now that you mention it they can hear us. Because you know, I was lying to you the first eight million times you asked.” Tehx rolled his eyes. “I know what I’m doing, Ok? It’s my Excess. Do I ask you if you’re sure you’re burning something?”
“Really, Char. Calm down. We used to do this all the time during the planning stages at the Ward, remember?” Dopple asked.
Charlie raised a brow. “Right. And look how well that turned out.”
“Hey!” Tehx exclaimed indignantly. “Whatever problems we had with our plans it wasn’t because of my Excess. If the scientists knew what was happening, it wasn’t because the technology leaked us through.”
The subtle implication towards Link lay heavy in the air. No one had flat out said it yet, by some unspoken rule. No one had mentioned that it was strange for Link to be missing, because Lin was gone too and no one would accuse Lin of sedition. Everyone pointedly ignored the fact that Link alone had been outspoken against their rebellion, had been so sure that they would fail but had agreed to go along with it anyway. They didn’t say anything, perhaps because they still didn’t want it to be true. It wasn’t that camaraderie was highly valued amongst them, it’s just that it was all they really had. It was hard to accept that when you couldn’t trust the scientists and the other Excess, you couldn’t even trust those who had planned and rebelled with you.
“Can we go back to the topic at hand please?” Osseus asked with an irritated voice. Which may have had to do with the fact that he disliked deviation from tasks at hand. But then again, perhaps it was because, while he’d never admit it, Link had once been considered a friend.
“Are we escaping again?” Rhodon asked with a sardonic voice.
“You’ve already told us that you don’t plan on leaving.”
“No.” Rhodon corrected. “I’m leaving. But I’m not leaving without Lin. If we do this, we do this subtly. Maybe convince them that we’re reformed first. Lull them into a false sense of security. I think we went about it all wrong last time, rushing into things like that. Maybe we should target the scientists instead, try and mindfuck with them for a change. If we play our cards right, we might be able to get them to turn on each other. There’s got to be some kind of dissension amongst them. And maybe start riling up the other Excess a bit.”
Tehx shook his head. “I like what you said about targeting the scientists, but I think we should do it with a bang, you know? Manipulation is so lame. We should go for an all out war this time. Explode out like last time, but this time have better offense.”
“You’re awfully bloody minded for someone in Andromeda.” Dopple remarked.
Tehx shot her a withering look. “My Order has nothing to do with my personality.” He remarked coldly.
Osseus leaned back in his seat and resisted the urge to sigh. It was so hard trying to organize these people. “So we have two options here,” He began slowly.
“Unless you count giving up.” Dopple muttered.
“Is there anyone here who would like to choose that option?” Osseus asked acidly.
No one said anything. Everyone here had their own reason for wanting to escape.
“Good then. As I was saying. We can either try and escape covertly, or try to do it more offensively, so that leaves us with the
limitations of two options.”
“Three.” Phoenix stepped through the doorway she had made the first time they had all gathered to this spot.
“And she arrives.” Rhodon said, amused. “Why were you late this time.”
“I decided to go for a walk.” Phoenix said flippantly. Osseus studied the girl with interest. She seemed oddly - stable. Determined. And bound in this reality in a way that she usually wasn’t.
“You said we had three options?” Osseus asked, intrigued.
Phoenix nodded. “I’ve been remembering a Prophecy of Cassandra’s. She said that the scientists would try again- that they wouldn’t be satisfied with just the Excess. They’d want to create something new, something better. And that they would try.
“I’ve gone out and ascertained the validity of this prophecy, and I can tell you now that she was right. They have tried again. They wanted to make a more powerful Excess- something that had the power of all four Groups. Preferably something they could manage easier.
“I’ve seen what they have on their computers. They did try. First they took people who were Rebirthing and altered them in some way. They tried to put all four Excess types inside of them, and largely failed. Almost every one of their subjects died. They decided that method was a failure.
So they tried something else. They tried making something from scratch. And they succeeded. They call them the Enhanced.”
“And how exactly did you find all of this out? With your oh so superior hacking skills?” Tehx said, exasperated. Osseus could see where he was coming from, because all of this seemed so improbable, and it was coming from Phoenix after all. She wasn’t the most reliable of sources. But he could see the fiery determination in her eyes, and he could tell that she was being deadly serious. That left interesting implications.
“I told you. I took a walk. You should really get out more often Tehx, it’s good for you. You’re starting to get all pasty looking.”
“What exactly are you suggesting with all this?” Osseus interrupted the banter. “Assuming what you said is all true, you said that
we had a third option here.”
“I propose that we go to these Enhanced, and we bring about their fall.” Phoenix gazed out at them. “Don’t you guys see? It’s not enough to just escape any more. We have to stop them. They can’t just keep manipulating life like this for no reason. They’ve decided that it’s too difficult having creatures that think for themselves. Now they want something new, something impressionable, that they can mold like clay and use for their own intentions, and that cannot happen. We won’t ever be free if they’re still creating chains.”
There was a long silence. Finally Rhodon spoke up, “It’s not that I’m doubting what you’re saying Phoen, but do you have any proof for all this?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I do. Him.” All the time she was speaking she hadn’t moved from in between her doorway. Now she stepped out and revealed- empty space. She looked at the doorway expectantly for a few minutes. When nothing happened she sighed and went through the door, then came back pulling a figure into the room with her.
Tehx sat up, alarmed. “I didn’t block out their visuals!” He exclaimed, clearly alarmed. “I only made sure their auditory mechanisms malfunctioned.”
The strange, sickly looking beautiful young boy smiled shyly. “You plugged their ears. I gave them their eyes back but blurry. Can’t see right. Hit on the head, they only see three fingers when there’s really four. And the thumb doesn’t count as a finger either, because it’s not. It’s a thumb.”
Silence.
Phoenix shrugged. “He’s crazy.” She explained. “But he’s got reason, so that’s ok.”
Tehx raised a brow. “Technically, we all have reason to be crazy.”
“Not like him, we haven’t. Remember how I said that almost every one of their first subjects died? Well, he’s the only one that survived. They pumped him full of whatever and now he has all the Excess but defective mental capacity.”
“Shouldn’t ignore the other children.” The boy muttered. “It isn’t nice.”
“His name’s Eiros.” Phoenix continued. “Eiros, the one frowning is Rhodon. The one looking at you with interested calculation is Osseus. The loudmouth is Tehx, the silent one is Raven, and the horrified one is Charlie and the ditz is Dopple.”
“Hey!” Dopple said.
Eiros giggled.
Osseus gave an amused half-smile. Interested calculation? Apt description. If he really did have all the Excess, that certainly held lot’s of possibilities. Possibilities that should be exploited to their fullest extent.
“You’re saying that this guy has all four Excess types?” Tehx said, doubtfully. “What four things can he do?”
Phoenix opened her mouth then closed it. She tilted her head and then looked back at Eiros. “Well kid, what four things can you do?”
Eiros blinked up at her. “Kid does not comprehend.”
“Your Excess. Excesses? If they gave you all four Excess types that means you can do four different things, right? I’ve seen you do illusions and mess around with Technology. Wait, those would be two Andromeda right?”
“You haven’t seen me do any illusions.”
“Yes I- oh wait. So all those things were real? So then, what, is your Orion power Materialization? ‘Cuz that’s neat. Rare, but neat.”
“I don’t understand. Eiros does whatever Eiros wants to do.”
“You-” Phoenix froze. Realization something seemed to dawn on her. “Limitations to Excess not yet determined.” She breathed out, as if quoting something. Then she said, “Huh. Well that’s neat.” As if nothing had came to her. She turned back to Tehx. “He does whatever he wants to do.”
Tehx looked like he was going to argue the impossibility of this but Rhodon broke through, “look, I don’t care if he can fart atom bombs, let’s get back to the whole revolution thing. Phoenix, are you crazy? You’re sounding like some kind war hero, fighting for the common man. I thought all we wanted to do was escape, stick it to the man.”
“The man needs sticking it to!”
“Well that just sounded wrong.” Tehx muttered.
“I like being stuck by men.” Eiros informed brightly. Everyone looked at him. He grinned. “Sugar anyone?”
“I think Phoenix might have a point.” Osseus said, in his usual “I’m plotting something that’s going to work well in my advantage” sort of way. He looked at Eiros speculatively. “If he really can do what he says he can, then that gives us an interesting trump card that we didn’t have earlier. And if they really have created some kind of Enhanced creature, than if we escape it’ll just be all the more difficult to remain free. There’s something to breaking the entire institution that is oddly appealing to me.”
Rhodon sighed. “Fine. But we should be more careful this time.”
“Wait, just like that?” Dopple put in. “We’re going to revolutionize the Institute just like that?”
“Well I imagine there’s going to be more planning involved.” Osseus said dryly.
“I mean to say that you guys are crazy! We couldn’t even escape and now you want us to destroy the entire system?”
“Well, really Dopple. We’re already in Hell. If we fail again, what more can they do to us?” Phoenix asked.
Dopple looked a way and almost pouted. No one pointed out that the scientists could kill them, because in many ways death would have been preferable.
“Anyone else have anything to say?” Osseus asked.
“Golden rays of sun between the Gulf of Heaven and Hell are powered by Chaos. We have to find the Gatekeeper.” Eiros offered.
“Anyone else?” Osseus asked dryly. No one else said anything.
“Well alright then. Let’s plan dissension.”
Man did I ever steal a lot from Milton for this one. Although Eiros is completely breaking away from the plot of Paradise Lost, I think that should be pointed out.
Phoenixeiros.
I made today's deadline!! And it was even before midnight. Go me.
“Are you sure they can’t hear us?” Charlie asked Tehx for the seventh time.
“Oh right, now that you mention it they can hear us. Because you know, I was lying to you the first eight million times you asked.” Tehx rolled his eyes. “I know what I’m doing, Ok? It’s my Excess. Do I ask you if you’re sure you’re burning something?”
“Really, Char. Calm down. We used to do this all the time during the planning stages at the Ward, remember?” Dopple asked.
Charlie raised a brow. “Right. And look how well that turned out.”
“Hey!” Tehx exclaimed indignantly. “Whatever problems we had with our plans it wasn’t because of my Excess. If the scientists knew what was happening, it wasn’t because the technology leaked us through.”
The subtle implication towards Link lay heavy in the air. No one had flat out said it yet, by some unspoken rule. No one had mentioned that it was strange for Link to be missing, because Lin was gone too and no one would accuse Lin of sedition. Everyone pointedly ignored the fact that Link alone had been outspoken against their rebellion, had been so sure that they would fail but had agreed to go along with it anyway. They didn’t say anything, perhaps because they still didn’t want it to be true. It wasn’t that camaraderie was highly valued amongst them, it’s just that it was all they really had. It was hard to accept that when you couldn’t trust the scientists and the other Excess, you couldn’t even trust those who had planned and rebelled with you.
“Can we go back to the topic at hand please?” Osseus asked with an irritated voice. Which may have had to do with the fact that he disliked deviation from tasks at hand. But then again, perhaps it was because, while he’d never admit it, Link had once been considered a friend.
“Are we escaping again?” Rhodon asked with a sardonic voice.
“You’ve already told us that you don’t plan on leaving.”
“No.” Rhodon corrected. “I’m leaving. But I’m not leaving without Lin. If we do this, we do this subtly. Maybe convince them that we’re reformed first. Lull them into a false sense of security. I think we went about it all wrong last time, rushing into things like that. Maybe we should target the scientists instead, try and mindfuck with them for a change. If we play our cards right, we might be able to get them to turn on each other. There’s got to be some kind of dissension amongst them. And maybe start riling up the other Excess a bit.”
Tehx shook his head. “I like what you said about targeting the scientists, but I think we should do it with a bang, you know? Manipulation is so lame. We should go for an all out war this time. Explode out like last time, but this time have better offense.”
“You’re awfully bloody minded for someone in Andromeda.” Dopple remarked.
Tehx shot her a withering look. “My Order has nothing to do with my personality.” He remarked coldly.
Osseus leaned back in his seat and resisted the urge to sigh. It was so hard trying to organize these people. “So we have two options here,” He began slowly.
“Unless you count giving up.” Dopple muttered.
“Is there anyone here who would like to choose that option?” Osseus asked acidly.
No one said anything. Everyone here had their own reason for wanting to escape.
“Good then. As I was saying. We can either try and escape covertly, or try to do it more offensively, so that leaves us with the
limitations of two options.”
“Three.” Phoenix stepped through the doorway she had made the first time they had all gathered to this spot.
“And she arrives.” Rhodon said, amused. “Why were you late this time.”
“I decided to go for a walk.” Phoenix said flippantly. Osseus studied the girl with interest. She seemed oddly - stable. Determined. And bound in this reality in a way that she usually wasn’t.
“You said we had three options?” Osseus asked, intrigued.
Phoenix nodded. “I’ve been remembering a Prophecy of Cassandra’s. She said that the scientists would try again- that they wouldn’t be satisfied with just the Excess. They’d want to create something new, something better. And that they would try.
“I’ve gone out and ascertained the validity of this prophecy, and I can tell you now that she was right. They have tried again. They wanted to make a more powerful Excess- something that had the power of all four Groups. Preferably something they could manage easier.
“I’ve seen what they have on their computers. They did try. First they took people who were Rebirthing and altered them in some way. They tried to put all four Excess types inside of them, and largely failed. Almost every one of their subjects died. They decided that method was a failure.
So they tried something else. They tried making something from scratch. And they succeeded. They call them the Enhanced.”
“And how exactly did you find all of this out? With your oh so superior hacking skills?” Tehx said, exasperated. Osseus could see where he was coming from, because all of this seemed so improbable, and it was coming from Phoenix after all. She wasn’t the most reliable of sources. But he could see the fiery determination in her eyes, and he could tell that she was being deadly serious. That left interesting implications.
“I told you. I took a walk. You should really get out more often Tehx, it’s good for you. You’re starting to get all pasty looking.”
“What exactly are you suggesting with all this?” Osseus interrupted the banter. “Assuming what you said is all true, you said that
we had a third option here.”
“I propose that we go to these Enhanced, and we bring about their fall.” Phoenix gazed out at them. “Don’t you guys see? It’s not enough to just escape any more. We have to stop them. They can’t just keep manipulating life like this for no reason. They’ve decided that it’s too difficult having creatures that think for themselves. Now they want something new, something impressionable, that they can mold like clay and use for their own intentions, and that cannot happen. We won’t ever be free if they’re still creating chains.”
There was a long silence. Finally Rhodon spoke up, “It’s not that I’m doubting what you’re saying Phoen, but do you have any proof for all this?”
“Yeah, as a matter of fact I do. Him.” All the time she was speaking she hadn’t moved from in between her doorway. Now she stepped out and revealed- empty space. She looked at the doorway expectantly for a few minutes. When nothing happened she sighed and went through the door, then came back pulling a figure into the room with her.
Tehx sat up, alarmed. “I didn’t block out their visuals!” He exclaimed, clearly alarmed. “I only made sure their auditory mechanisms malfunctioned.”
The strange, sickly looking beautiful young boy smiled shyly. “You plugged their ears. I gave them their eyes back but blurry. Can’t see right. Hit on the head, they only see three fingers when there’s really four. And the thumb doesn’t count as a finger either, because it’s not. It’s a thumb.”
Silence.
Phoenix shrugged. “He’s crazy.” She explained. “But he’s got reason, so that’s ok.”
Tehx raised a brow. “Technically, we all have reason to be crazy.”
“Not like him, we haven’t. Remember how I said that almost every one of their first subjects died? Well, he’s the only one that survived. They pumped him full of whatever and now he has all the Excess but defective mental capacity.”
“Shouldn’t ignore the other children.” The boy muttered. “It isn’t nice.”
“His name’s Eiros.” Phoenix continued. “Eiros, the one frowning is Rhodon. The one looking at you with interested calculation is Osseus. The loudmouth is Tehx, the silent one is Raven, and the horrified one is Charlie and the ditz is Dopple.”
“Hey!” Dopple said.
Eiros giggled.
Osseus gave an amused half-smile. Interested calculation? Apt description. If he really did have all the Excess, that certainly held lot’s of possibilities. Possibilities that should be exploited to their fullest extent.
“You’re saying that this guy has all four Excess types?” Tehx said, doubtfully. “What four things can he do?”
Phoenix opened her mouth then closed it. She tilted her head and then looked back at Eiros. “Well kid, what four things can you do?”
Eiros blinked up at her. “Kid does not comprehend.”
“Your Excess. Excesses? If they gave you all four Excess types that means you can do four different things, right? I’ve seen you do illusions and mess around with Technology. Wait, those would be two Andromeda right?”
“You haven’t seen me do any illusions.”
“Yes I- oh wait. So all those things were real? So then, what, is your Orion power Materialization? ‘Cuz that’s neat. Rare, but neat.”
“I don’t understand. Eiros does whatever Eiros wants to do.”
“You-” Phoenix froze. Realization something seemed to dawn on her. “Limitations to Excess not yet determined.” She breathed out, as if quoting something. Then she said, “Huh. Well that’s neat.” As if nothing had came to her. She turned back to Tehx. “He does whatever he wants to do.”
Tehx looked like he was going to argue the impossibility of this but Rhodon broke through, “look, I don’t care if he can fart atom bombs, let’s get back to the whole revolution thing. Phoenix, are you crazy? You’re sounding like some kind war hero, fighting for the common man. I thought all we wanted to do was escape, stick it to the man.”
“The man needs sticking it to!”
“Well that just sounded wrong.” Tehx muttered.
“I like being stuck by men.” Eiros informed brightly. Everyone looked at him. He grinned. “Sugar anyone?”
“I think Phoenix might have a point.” Osseus said, in his usual “I’m plotting something that’s going to work well in my advantage” sort of way. He looked at Eiros speculatively. “If he really can do what he says he can, then that gives us an interesting trump card that we didn’t have earlier. And if they really have created some kind of Enhanced creature, than if we escape it’ll just be all the more difficult to remain free. There’s something to breaking the entire institution that is oddly appealing to me.”
Rhodon sighed. “Fine. But we should be more careful this time.”
“Wait, just like that?” Dopple put in. “We’re going to revolutionize the Institute just like that?”
“Well I imagine there’s going to be more planning involved.” Osseus said dryly.
“I mean to say that you guys are crazy! We couldn’t even escape and now you want us to destroy the entire system?”
“Well, really Dopple. We’re already in Hell. If we fail again, what more can they do to us?” Phoenix asked.
Dopple looked a way and almost pouted. No one pointed out that the scientists could kill them, because in many ways death would have been preferable.
“Anyone else have anything to say?” Osseus asked.
“Golden rays of sun between the Gulf of Heaven and Hell are powered by Chaos. We have to find the Gatekeeper.” Eiros offered.
“Anyone else?” Osseus asked dryly. No one else said anything.
“Well alright then. Let’s plan dissension.”
Man did I ever steal a lot from Milton for this one. Although Eiros is completely breaking away from the plot of Paradise Lost, I think that should be pointed out.
Phoenixeiros.