trans_9 | Welcome to Orongo

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Welcome to Orongo

Once those who decided to go along on the mission were gathered on the Obs Deck and had time to go over the mission briefing, the detachment procedures began.

As with the missions before, the doors to the Obs Deck closed before it detached itself from Stacy, tethered by a massive umbilical cord. Those who had been on missions before would find the experience familiar if still somewhat unpleasant, but for those of whom this was their first mission, the sudden lack of gravity and lurching feeling as they entered the atmosphere would come as a surprise.

Thankfully though, the ride was quickly over as they landed safely on the planet below, the gravitational dampeners of the Obs Deck gently dropping the crew members back on their feet. One of the walls opened up, forming a ramp to the ground below. There was a sudden, slight gust of air as the door opened as the thick air rushed in. Even so, the air felt quite warm and refreshing.

Looking outside, the crew would see the bright yellow sun looming overhead, quite close in comparison to the sun on most planets. A handful of small, silver clouds dotted the blueish purple sky.

Ahead of them stood a rather impressive looking plateau, surrounded by a tall, ornate stone wall which was covered in tribal markings. Directly ahead was a large gate through the wall, with several small stone buildings in front of it. Beyond the gates, a larger settlement could be seen. Surrounding the plateau and covering the surrounding region were numerous strange, blue and purplish trees and plants.

~~[ooc: hold up until subthreads are set up]~~

[ooc2: ready! feel free to tag!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Yes, I suppose you're right. You know, some of our scientists said the same thing. They were very insistent we all be allowed enough time to develop personalities and experiences on our own, as opposed to being programmed with the information we needed."

He paused. "By the way, are you also from Earth? Or an Earth?"

Alex nodded, "A-an Earth it seems, u-unless the g-government was hiding y-you too, an' doing a better job of i-it. It's g-good that the the scientists that thought like th-that g-got their way."

Zouichi looks surprise. "You were hidden by your government? Why?"

"And no, I'm not under any governmental jurisdiction; I was created by a private biotechnology company in hopes of locating a cure for a virus epidemic. Its two competitors were more interested in... human countermeasures."

Alex pressed his lips together. He really didn't like the sound of human countermeasures. "S-sorta. It was c-complicated. They d-didn't hide us, b-but lied about us and the e-experiments we were in. There was a l-lot of misinformation.

"It s-sounds like y-you came from a g-good place."

"I see... so you were a research subject? Those are the worst kind of researchers; the ones for whom the ends always justify the means."

He gave Alex a wry look. "Well, I'll say that I probably came from the best place possible, considering the other organizations I could have been devoted to. But the situation was pretty grim. Most normal humans had to remain hidden in shelters by the time the ship picked me up."

Research subject sounded better than experiment. Alex decided to keep that in mind for later use. "Y-yeah, the ones th-that get to do wh-whatever they want if they m-make some sorta excuse." He bit his lip and cast a bit of a hateful look off to the side.

"S-sounds like it was p-pretty grim in your world."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry you had to go through that. Can I ask what they were trying to gain by subjecting you to experiments?"

"Well, long story short, a bunch of people in charge decided research on a promising virus might unlock the secrets of immortality for humanity. Instead, they ended up creating an extremely infectious airborne pathogen that rewrote human DNA and turned its victims into mindless drones."

His smile now was a little cynical. "But you know, the scientists never would have been allowed to do it if their higher-ups hadn't approved the research."

He flinched a bit at Zouichi's story and bit his lip. That really did not sound good. it made him glad that at least most people in his world were healthy and not-zombies. "They're as c-corrupt as the scientists, i-if not more. I know."

Alex shook his head and shrugged at the question. "I d-don't know. None of u-us were told why th-the experiments were being done. R-rumors were th-that they were making s-soldiers, which, I g-guess sorta makes s-sense, b-but there w-was no war to f-fight, and m-most of us, I think, w-would abandon the b-battlefield as s-soon as we entered, 'c-cept for the ones that snapped."

For all he knew they were trying to make all of the people snap, but it still seemed like if you had control of these children most of their lives that brainwashing would be a far more effective way to turn them into soldi

Zouichi frowned. "Sounds more like they were using you as preliminary test subjects. They might have been planning on trying those same experiments on actual soldiers after... well."

"But you didn't snap, did you? And you didn't give in to them, either."

He paused. "So what were they trying to do to you? Give you superpowers? Or just make you snap?"

Alex scratched at the back of his head and looked away nervously, "W-well, I'm n-not... exactly... s-stable..."

It might not happen too often since he got away from both his father and the labs, but that he dissociated meant that he couldn't be that stable. "B-but I didn't g-give in. W-we were fighting back. Q-quietly, but still, we were managing t-to get information and used th-that information t-ta get more.

"We g-got super p-powers. I c-can see negative emotions, b-but I also need t-ta eat 'em ta l-live. Th-there's also other powers, th-that are a bit m-more complex, and different for e-each Shadow Eater."

Zouichi looked at him, considering. "Well, you managed to escape, and now you're programming for Engineering... by all rights, you seem to be doing quite well for a government experiment."

"You can see negative emotions? And you... eat them?" Now he was really curious. "How? What do they look like?"

"And there are more people like you?"

He nodded and asked grimly, "W-would you want t-to see? I c-can show you. I c-could e-even probably sh-show you how I eat, th-though I've n-never had anyone r-really watch before."

Sighing, he ran his fingers through his hair. "Th-there's t-too many who c-can. Th-they've b-been doing th-this for about 20-s-something years, g-getting whoever, at d-different ages. I'm the youngest of m-my friends, b-but there's new ch-children in the labs a-all the time."

Zouichi nodded. "If you'd be willing to show me, I'd be curious to see how it works. There were a few people with unusual powers back on Earth, but I've never come across someone who can eat emotions."

"They induct children into these experiments? What do they do, kidnap them off the street?" He couldn't imagine they'd have permission from their parents to fiddle around giving them psychic powers.

Alex shook his head, "N-no, they u-used a l-lot of orphaned ch-children, since they're wards of the s-state. A-at the beginning, s-some w-well meaning p-people were t-tricked t-too. Th-then there's p-people like my f-father, who j-just wanted the money offered f-for putting their ch-child in the program. Theoretically, i-it was supposed ta g-go to me, b-but they never policed that." His father did a lot of using him just for the money he could get out of it.

Taking a breath Alex drew on the twisted feeling of pity and disgust he felt over his father's actions, and used it to reach out towards Zouichi. When he connected, Zouichi could see the shadows the same way Alex could, as well as the fine line of shadow that connected the pair of them.

Around Alex hovered a dark, thick shadow that just seemed to consume him, yet somehow, even though the shadow ought to have obscured him, the details were still there, as if they were both separate images seen at once.

Alex waited quietly, letting Zouichi get used to the change in the way of seeing the world.

Well, this was unexpected. Zouichi half-expected the shadow over Alex to simply fold in and... what, eat him? His systems were, for once, giving him little to no information on what he was seeing; they kept trying to identify the shadow as a target. But it didn't actually exist in any way that he could interact with, did it?

"You eat these?" he asked, looking disbelievingly at the thing.

Alex could feel his heart beating a little faster nervously. He was still uncertain about using his powers again, but he was trying to get used to it. Trying to trust that he won't lose control.

He nodded before looking around, and found a woman who had a small shadow around her. Compared to his own it was like a swarm of gnats. "Y-yeah, it's not the m-most pleasant thing."

He walked a little closer to the woman and paused, like he was trying to find where he was. The shadow was drawn towards him and away from the woman until it was completely gone, though Alex looked even more uneasy for another moment. The woman on the other hand, let out a sigh, as if she was finally able to relax.

He turned back to Zouichi and forced a bit of an awkward smile, not exactly sure what to say.

Zouichi watched as Alex took the woman's shadow with some interest, raising his eyebrow when it was all over.

"You know, I think I was expecting more theatrics. Like your shadow laughing theatrically and menacing other shadows before messily devouring them. But she almost seemed relieved that you ate hers."

Alex walked back to him and shook his head, "N-nah, m-my shadow h-has almost n-nothing ta do w-with it all, unless I u-use it for one of those m-more c-complicated power things I m-mentioned, and e-even then, the only effect it has on the other p-person is relief. I e-essentially e-eat pain." He sighed a bit heavily, looking entirely unhappy about this."

He frowned. "Does it... hurt to eat other people's pain?" He'd met people with psychic abilities before, but they'd never really seemed to suffer the ill effects they inflicted on other people. Or perhaps what was bothering Alex was that he required the suffering of other people in order to survive.

Alex was actually bothered by both things, though he voiced the second part less often. Normally people didn't ask such in-depth questions, and if they didn't, he didn't usually volunteer that.

"I c-can feel wh-whatever e-emotion I eat. It c-can give me a s-sense of what was b-bothering the p-person, as if it had b-been bothering me, s-sorta like h-how you c-can taste if s-something's been hickory-smoked, or c-cooked over charc-coals... b-but, w-well, r-really different."

"I see. Then it must be a very unpleasant ability to have to live with." As if realizing for the first time that he was asking Alex an awful lot of questions, he shook his head. "I'm sorry if I seem overcurious; it's just that your abilities seem very different from the ones I've encountered so far. Feel free to ask me anything you want, by the way; it's only fair."

Alex shook his head, "I-it's something I've b-been trying ta find a w-way around, b-but at least I c-can help others with it. I d-don't mind the questions either, I-I've g-gotten used ta it. I-it's not exactly u-usual- my powers- apparently."

He was curious about Zouichi though. "Y-you said y-you were a Synthetic Human... Is there any difference b-besides h-how we're b-born?" He did his best to try to not be insulting, but he had a hard time thinking of another way to phrase it.

"Well, I wouldn't say I was 'born', exactly. My body was constructed in its adult form, and integrated with a series of electronic systems. The company had me hooked up to a simulator until I learned what I needed to know... and then I was released.

"I don't actually even have any human components, since human beings are extremely susceptible to the N5S virus. I'm just designed to strongly resemble one."

It didn't seem to bother Zouichi to explain this, for whatever reason.

"I g-guess that makes sense... S-so... you never had the ch-chance ta just be a k-kid?" His childhood hadn't been the best but it still involved childrens games on occasion, and he felt like he remembered at least one stuffed animal, even though he couldn't quite remember it completely. Plus, he got to be pretty normal while he was at school. He drew pictures and played kickball like any other kid.

"U-unless, the simulator...?"

"I started out as a young child in the simulator and gradually aged, as a human child might. And there were others there with me; they even had the daughter of one of the scientists go in with us, to teach us as we grew up." He smiled. "It probably wasn't as fun as most, but it was probably the most peaceful period of my life."

He still remembered the bluffs where their lessons were held, covered with long, green grasses that rolled in the breeze. "In fact, by the end of it, I just wanted to get out, and finally put to use the things that I'd learned. Although as it turns out, the actual world is vastly different from any virtual space."

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