|
   In a hidden laboratory in in the outskirts of the city, two men can be seen in heated argument. One in a spotless labcoat, the other in a decidedly less spotless black robe. "... and that's why you're clearly wrong, Ivan!" "'Tis YOU who foolish be, Giovanni! How could a stupid meat computer access the Art? Perform the decisions that make us people!" "...Well I still think you're wrong. Advancements in scanning technology and neural mapping have clearly shown that all those things are perfectly possible with just a head full of neurons. Indeed, no research paper I have ever read would seem to indicate otherwise. This whole 'soul' business is in itself nothing but superstition based on conjecture." "BAH! Thee and thine papers, you ignorant man! What would idle chemical impulse between fatty little tendrils know of the flow of the essences, the sublime winds of the aether! Utter foolishness say I!" "Be that as it may. Are we... really going through with this?" "You and with your petty concerns again, Giovanni! This waif is dead! The grief of her family over a missing corpse is a small price to pay for knowledge this deep! A noble sacrifice to help us, indeed, the entirety of mankind reach greater understanding! With our soul separator, and the charms of necromantic animation, we shall finally and conclusively prove whether it is THE BRAIN or THE SOUL that performs the action of thought and reason, and functions as the home of the personality!" A conveniently dramatic flash of lightning illuminates the insides of the laboratory, as the devices get to work during Ivan's cackling. And indeed, a blue, see-through projection of the girls body removes itself as the animative magics prop the body itself into a stiff, sitting position. "Now", Ivan exclaims, "Whichsoever of you the real girl be, answer my Greeting!" "Uhh... Hi?" They answer is complete unison.   Clatterclaw and Miss Wraith quote:The Joined quote:Who were you to each other before you Joined? "Hah! Now that's bit of a silly question now isn't it? Body and soul you could say! Me the former, her the latter!" "Hi." quote:How did you Join? "Right. So we were Rachel Allison. I mean, we still are but that's besides the point. The point is that Rachel had a perfectly ordinary life. You know, she went to school, had some clique or another, got good enough grades, practiced theater as a hobby, suddenly died when walking home due to some undiagnosed congenital heart abnormality, you know, the usual stuff." "...That last one is not usual." "...Yeah. Good catch." "You don't mean that." "But anyway, our freshly dead corpse was (or so I hear, we were kinda dead at that point) swept away by this supremely weird and creepy wizard named Ivan." "He's not so bad after you get to know him." "And as I was saying, Ivan and his accomplice, this biologist by the name of Giovanni had long argued about the seat of sentience. Ivan claiming it was the soul, Giovanni saying it had to be the brain. Now, they had built this strange soul separating machine to find out which one was right. All they were missing was a fresh corpse with the soul still hanging on. Now, since you can quite clearly see you're talking to a spirit as well as the prettiest walking corpse you've ever seen, you can probably tell who it was!" "It was us." "...Yes. Nevertheless, they were fairly surprised to find out that both of us could do the thinking and the personality just fine. It has not helped abate their debate though. Just added more fuel to the fire." quote:Apart from the powers, what keeps you together? "Mainly the fact that we are the same person? Like, would you feel comfortable leaving your left half home when you went for a walk? Jackass." "Don't be rude." "Right, sorry, sorry. Really though, you just get this... hollow sort of feeling if we get too distant you know? It's impossible to describe how it feels like, to someone like you who is still happily in one piece. It's this sort of, totally bleak emptiness. I don't know. Like, if you want to know, the soul separator is still perfectly functional, so by all means go out and figure it out yourself if you want to know so hard." quote:Someone outside the team thinks you’d be better off separate. Who are they and why do they think that? "So, have you yet heard the good message of 'The Singularity of Perception'? No? Yeah, I guess they are kinda obscure. And by them I mean this one guy right here. Lemme just show you the pic."  "The Solipsist" "Oi, The Solipsist. And he's a piece of work I tell you. He's got this philosophy, you know? Basically, he believes that supreme power over reality can be found in accepting that only the 'self' is real and the rest of the world is illusory perception. And true enough, he does seem to have minor reality warping powers that magical scholars have yet not managed to identify. But yes, a central tenet of his preachings is that one must focus on the self, and on one's perceptions, and ignore the reality of all else. Now clearly this is sort of difficult for us, since even though we have no sensory links or anything, we are very much parts of the same. The Solipsist disagrees, and is constantly telling us how our connection is 'holding back our true potential' or what have you. Besides, the whole thing about a single 'self' being separated into two does not mesh with his worldview, so I bet some of his obsession with trying to convince us that we are totally different and separate beings is to convince himself that his ideas are right. He is annoyingly persistent, but he's a hero too at the end of the day (even though a hugely eccentric one), so I doubt he'll try to force the issue." quote:Why do you care about the team? "Because they are... good people? The reason you usually care for others, sheesh." "They are nice." "But yeah, I suppose it's fair to say there's a bit more to it than that, especially for the two of us. I mean, I bet this comes as a massive surprise for you, but most people don't want to hang out with a clammy corpse." "Or a ghost." "Yeah. The only people we dealt with at first were Ivan and Gio, but they knew it would be cruel to keep us locked up. And, well, for people like us, normal ways of life are out of question. I, we could not exactly go back to normal school you know. It was basically a choice between the academy or being circus freaks." "I don't think they have circus freaks anymore." "The point is that yeah, we decided that perhaps heroics would be good because that line of business tends to attract the occasional weirdo. But yes, the Team, and the superpowered community at large is basically the only place where we can have a semblance of a normal life you know. People to talk to, that sort of thing. They are the closest thing we have to a family." "Family." "I, yes. When applying for heroics, the authorities obviously, uhh, informed our parents. We did meet, once. They could not really handle the news." "We don't like to talk about it." quote:What made you decide to join the academy? "We already told you." "Uh, yeah, there really isn't that much to add. We basically had to join for us not to become outcast vagrants, or unemployable NEETS living in Ivan's basement." "In the internet nobody knows you are a corpse!" "Ye-, wait did you just tell a joke? Hah, I suppose something new came from this line of questioning. But yes, both the compulsion and the fact we can actually be useful likely entered their consideration." quote:Which hero sponsored your entrance into the academy? What did you do to impress them?   "Yeah, who else but Ivan and Giovanni. Turn out, they are not exactly members of the Justice Alliance. No, no, their work is far too much on the grey area, they would look bad on the books you know. But it's not like they are villains either, you know? And they are very good at what they do, too much of an asset to throw away, yeh? So, they function more as... independent contractors of a sort. They help out the heroes, the heroes don't meddle with them too much unless they go over the line." "They went over the line with us." "Yeah. Royally. When they came to the heroes with us in tow, they got chewed up so bad I could practically feel it, and I'm a corpse, hah! But what is done is done, and the heroes recognized that we really did not have many other places where to go. Also, due to our... state, we held some unique potential." "Ivan and Giovanni helped us." "Yeah, those people really are very good at what they do. So even though they did this to us (to be fair, we would be dead. And I mean like, dead dead without their interference), and even though they meddle with us a bit too much to my liking, they've given us some really neat crap. Giovanni has stuffed my body full of all kinds of cybernetic enhancements, really powerful and radical ones too since there are no vital organs sans my brain that need to be spared or replaced. Like, check out these huge adamantite claws on my cloak. Could never lift them or use them if I didn't have all these motors stuffed in my arms and torso. And 'Miss Wraith' here, well, Ivan has been real busy teaching her magic. And since, you know, the soul is just kinda hanging there, it has easy access to the aether." "He's a surprisingly good teacher." "So yes, they've caused us a whole slew of problems, but they've been diligent in trying to help us too." quote:Tell me about that one interesting person in your class! "Hah, tell you about that ONE interesting person in our class in a school filled with superpowered people? Are you trying to figure out if I or Missy here have a crush or something?" "Probably." "Well, I won't bite the bait. A lady's got to have secrets after all, haha! But yeah, even if we had it's kinda hard for us to date since the whole 'being a corpse' thing is kind of a turn-off for most people." "And we're always together..." "Yeah, people are kinda leery of that too. And I mean, since we're still mostly human looking what with some unique color schemes, we aren't even weird enough to hang around with the truly transformed since they think we have it easy. We're kinda stuck between the normals and the, well, less normals that way haha." "It's not very funny though." "Well I mean I suppose, but there's no need to be such a huge downer about it sheesh. So, in relation to all that, I suppose that if we had to pick one interesting person in a school of interesting persons, I suppose we might as well pick Mike." "His hero name is Shooting Star."  "Right. I mean sure, he's real cute (could just eat him up omnomnom) and has the power to make hard light constructs at which he's real good too, but the main reason I chose him to talk about is because he's one of the few people here who's not opposed to hanging out with us. Which I suppose makes him the most interesting person to us here since we actually know him personally? If that makes sense. "He's nicer than he looks." quote:What's your favorite class? What about least favorite? "Did I mention we're into theater?" "You did." "Righto. So probably doesn't come as a huge surprise that we are into Art first and foremost, kinda enjoy math and physics too but it's not like I'm some genius at them at any rate. And Missy here excels at the theoretical Sorcery classes since she's got what's basically a private tutor in Ivan. And, uh, really she's the one here bringing the grades home anyway haha. I mean I'm not bad or anything, more aggressively average except at those things I mentioned earlier." "Less than average at history though." "Ugh, yeah. History is kinda annoying. Like, those things that I mentioned are cool because they don't involve all that much boring book memorization, and are more about active application of tools that you're taught you know? That's kinda fun. Well, as fun as schoolwork can be I suppose haha. But history? It's just endless memorization, and that kinda stuff is something I really dislike. "Me too." "...Still get good grades though." quote:What do you like to do in your free time? "Well, the theater thing has come up like twice now I think, so I think it's kinda obvious we like to do that kind of stuff. But I suppose it would be a bit of a cop-out answer to just answer that again huh?" "Yes." "Well, let's see. We hang at the theaters, and Ivan and Gio's place, and our own place. Don't really visit the parents since, uh, you know, the whole family situation is a bit complicated with us as you might recall. At least we get two rooms at the school, so there's that silver lining, heh. But there's some bookkeeping strangeness there, now that I think of it. See, whilst we get two rooms and are thus considered different people I guess, we still only get one stipend for the both of us each month. Which kinda eats into our free time since that does not quite cut it for two ladies." "..." "..." "We work as cashiers at a campus grocery to make ends meet." "They don't care that we're dead!" quote:New Arcadia’s a pretty sweet place, isn’t it? Tell me about that one cool place you like! "Hmm. Kinda of a toughie actually. With all the newfangled and barely tested crap being constructed at breakneck speeds and with varied results, there's a lot of weird crap floating around a city like this that could deserve that particular distinction." "Floating around?" "Huh? Yeah, that's what I sa- Ohh, yeah I get what you're after. Yes I suppose that was quite the sight to see the first time we were here. And yeah, it still manages to amaze, on occasion. The cloud quarter, we mean. You know, that thing the rich industrialists built together with a bunch of engineers and wizards and what have you when they apparently decided that no high-rise was quite high enough for them to bother living in. I mean, when we first saw that? That ridiculous complex of excessively decorated airships just looming over the city, elevated by who knows what magics and... anti-gravity thrusters or something? We almost thought we were being invaded by overtly gaudy aliens, hah!" "But yeah, sometimes we take lifts there to look at stuff we can't afford." quote:(Optional) Hey, guess what! They’re making a variant cover focusing on you! Please describe the cover to me! Clatterclaw is lunging towards the reader with a peppy smile on her face, her claws tearing apart the page and revealing the panels beyond. Miss Wraith cab be seen on the background, a strange ethereal mist emanating from her and wrapping the page in a blueish hue. Theantero fucked around with this message at 01:42 on Jan 20, 2017 |
#
¿
Jan 19, 2017 23:26
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 14:42 |
|
|
Tardzilla posted:Hey, have we met before? Eh, it's probably my imagination. Anyways, tell me more about the theater you hang out in. Have you ever been involved in any plays? "?" "No I don't think we have?" "It's a meta thing Clatters." "Ahahah okay." "..." "..." "Well, anyway, yeah, the theater, right. So, first off the bat, I'll just have to say that the main Arcadian Theater is something else entirely when compared to older theaters from back before heroes had started to become commonplace you know. Like, sure, all theaters of note have started to use the superpowered in their operation these days, like, what industry hasn't? But since New Arcadia is both so new and so fancy, they built the whole edifice to accommodate that from the ground up. Hell, even the owner is a superhero on his free time! You know, the White Mask?"  "It's a beautiful place." "Yeah understatement of the century there, Missy. You seriously should go see a play sometime. Sure they can be a bit expensive in such a fancy locale but oh man it is so worth it. They've got large scale hologram projectors, a entire summoning circle hidden backstage, and even this topomantic dimension twister to make the stage appear larger than it is for massive scenes and such. But like there's little point in just describing, it's an experience you have to live yourself. "Maybe one day we'll get to perform there too." "Haha, yeah, even if that doesn't seem so likely. Like, realize that we're still schoolkids. We have schoolwork, heroics and our jobs to balance, with theater nothing but a hobby. And the main Arcadian Theater, is, like, one of the biggest theaters in the country nowadays. So yeah you can probably figure out that it's wayyy outside our league." "For now!" "Well yeah, maybe if we get to actually study theater after school is over or get into the trade proper. But for now we're mostly stuck performing in the school's theater club. Well, stuck is a bit of a mean term, they're good people. Missy is particularly popular since she's the only spectral entity in there, and there's a lot of stuff only she can do on stage. "I do special effects too." Tardzilla posted:You just found out you weren't the first revival experiment conducted by Ivan and Giovanni. There was one before you. What was it, and how did you find this out? "Yeah. Don't know how I feel about it honestly." "She's strange" "Yeah. Styx is her own little ballgame for sure. Always in her own little world, I honestly worry sometime. See, these parents had a dying kid, except unlike in our case they knew she was about to perish beforehand, and nobody could really help. But since they were very well connected, they'd heard of Gio and Ivan, see, and as a last desperate gambit wanted to have them... do their thing.  "It worked, too." "Yes, sort of. Those two really are quite skilled huh? Thing is, they were keeping watch over the girl, and did the operation the moment the life signs ceased. But because of this, the soul never separated from the body, which made the parents happy sure, but Gio and Ivan didn't get the answer they were seeking about the resting place of the consciousness." "They were happy but only at first." "Yeah. Didn't take her parents long to figure out her particular brand of oddity. She started keeping to herself, muttering to herself. On occasion walking through walls and on others claiming that invisible obstacles blocked her path and that she couldn't proceed. Also, you know, developed that third eye on her forehead. We only figured out her power when she started following Missy with her gaze even through walls and such. "It was creepy." "Turns out she's a seer, of a kind. The sort that consults spirits of the dead. Haha, yeah, she quite literally sees dead people. Asks them for advice. And the reason she's often so distant and easily confused, is because she apparently exists halfway between this world and the nether, and sees and hears both at the same time. Like, try imagining constantly trying to deal with two overlapping worlds. Man, you'd get a headache for less haha." "But yeah anyway, we figured out this whole story by actually taking the time to talk to her, since you know, she goes to this same school, even though she's one year our senior." "She's nice, even despite her oddity." Tardzilla posted:You work... in the campus grocery? Oh, oh you poor girl(s?). There's a reason why nobody wants to work there. Probably has something to do with stock-piling food from other dimensions/planets. How have you managed to handle yourself (yourselves?) there for so long? "Oh boy." "Heh." "Okay, so, did you know that many spirit creatures require nourishment too?" "Depends on spirit." "Right, sometimes they are easy to find things, or otherwise very common, but sometimes they are rarer things. Things that are hard to find. Well, hard to find in places that aren't a warehouse serving the needs of a whole bunch of aliens, extraplanars and mages. Like man, most of the time 'the back' in a store is just a tired old closet, but ours is something different. So, since there's all this stuff, a spirit decided to roost there. Enter Jackal, who on occasions disappears different sorts of goods without any seeming rhyme and reason. I'd show you pic but nobody has ever seen him. "He hides what it is he actually needs by taking random things also." "Yeah he's a clever little bastard. And honestly if that was all he did, it would not even be all that bad. The monetary loss isn't that big. The problem is that he's a right rear end in a top hat." "He's a poltergeist." "Yeah, a poltergeist. Always getting to annoying hijinks, and with annoying I mean stuff like opening entires crates of jam and painting rainbows across the freezer with them or whatever. Which is far less cute when it's you that needs to work 3 hours extra cleaning all that, all the while listening to that heckling laughter of his. And he knows the campus too well, he's impossible to get a hold of, even if he mostly stays in the warehouse. Like, even the faculty can't get rid of him. I don't even know why, they refuse to tell me. Maybe he's just weirdly massively powerful? Maybe he's too clever to be caught? Maybe there's some other reason for him not to be worth the effort to remove? All I know is that apparently he's been a thorn in the side of every worker that's ever been here since this place was built, and the reason nobody sane wants to work there." "Heh." "Haha. But see, this is actually kinda funny. When we started working there, we got all these ominous warning and rumors from former employees about Jackal. But when we are there, no issues arise. Everything seems to go fine, you know? We were a bit weirded out by that, thinking that maybe Jackal was trying to give us a false sense of security before alpha striking. But nope. Nothing. This went on for a couple of days, with us none the wise, before it happened." "I woke up with gifts next to my bed." "Yeah. Jackal is totally crushing on Missy. And honestly it would be kinda adorable if, you know, leaving gifts next to someone you don't know while they sleep wasn't supremely creepy? But on the other hand, maybe he can be sort of excused for being spirit with little knowledge of such things." "Better than having to work overtime for hours every shift." "...I still don't know how to really feel about it though."
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2017 22:26
|
|