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[He nods.]
It said this was a "music store," but...
[He looks over the wares with a look of non-familiarity.]
It said this was a "music store," but...
[He looks over the wares with a look of non-familiarity.]
[ you know somehow it doesn't surprise him that this is unfamiliar territory. he puts his hands on his hips, the dulcet tunes of old time rock and roll continuing to play in the background. ]
Not your type of place, I bet. It's pretty - well, it's archaic for me, but it's got to be way futuristic for you, right? Do you like listening to music at home, Zelgadis?
Not your type of place, I bet. It's pretty - well, it's archaic for me, but it's got to be way futuristic for you, right? Do you like listening to music at home, Zelgadis?
[He shakes his head.]
I tend to avoid the kinds of places you hear music at. Too many people.
I tend to avoid the kinds of places you hear music at. Too many people.
[On Friday, Zelgadis can be found sitting on the steps of the museum on Memory Lane. He's still wearing this drip from yesterday. There's a kitten with a blue ribbon around her neck running up and down the stairs, but Zel? He's just kind of staring out into the foggy distance.]
[ his drip is impeccable but his face is so sad.
lu bixing is on his way from making his rounds, and when he spots zel, he pauses, turns on his heel, and comes back around to him, squatting on the stairs in front of him to see if he can catch his eye. he's got something in his hands! ]
....Zelgadis? [ you in there, buddy... ]
lu bixing is on his way from making his rounds, and when he spots zel, he pauses, turns on his heel, and comes back around to him, squatting on the stairs in front of him to see if he can catch his eye. he's got something in his hands! ]
....Zelgadis? [ you in there, buddy... ]
[Oh. He kinda snaps out of whatever distant headspace he was just in. He'll look up at Lu Bixing's face, and also at what's in his hands. Hello?]
-- Hm?
-- Hm?
[ it's a little container! and, its contents will make themselves known fairly quickly - he pops the top of it off, and offers zelgadis
a chocolate chip cookie! they're still warm. the yummy kind, with flecks of salt and chunks of chocolate. ]
Here. [ it comes with a soft, warm smile. ] You look like you need it.
[ someone's running around being a father today ]
a chocolate chip cookie! they're still warm. the yummy kind, with flecks of salt and chunks of chocolate. ]
Here. [ it comes with a soft, warm smile. ] You look like you need it.
[ someone's running around being a father today ]
[Oh. He will take one.]
... Thanks.
Did you make these?
[The kitten sees that he has food, so it runs over to perch atop a nearby step and mew loudly at both of them.]
... Thanks.
Did you make these?
[The kitten sees that he has food, so it runs over to perch atop a nearby step and mew loudly at both of them.]
[ he nods... ]
...yeah. I've never been any good with idle hands.
[ lu bixing smiles a little at the kitten when it comes, too, reaching over to let it sniff his hand, sniff at the cookie crumbs there if it wants them. ] So, I thought I might try and do something with it that would help people, too.
[ for the record they are extremely delicious cookies. and not poisoned i promise. ]
...yeah. I've never been any good with idle hands.
[ lu bixing smiles a little at the kitten when it comes, too, reaching over to let it sniff his hand, sniff at the cookie crumbs there if it wants them. ] So, I thought I might try and do something with it that would help people, too.
[ for the record they are extremely delicious cookies. and not poisoned i promise. ]
[Damn, why couldn't they be poisoned?
He'll eat it. The kitten will eagerly sniff and nibble at the crumbs.]
... Not bad. I suppose you're good at this kind of thing.
He'll eat it. The kitten will eagerly sniff and nibble at the crumbs.]
... Not bad. I suppose you're good at this kind of thing.
Well, baking is a science.
[ he says, with a little bit of a laugh. ] But, someone important to me doesn't eat very well, so I started learning for him. I fell out of it for a long time, but... recently, I started to pick it back up again.
[ he's pretty good at the comforting part, too, though. in the meantime: this cat is so cute so its getting all the gentle scritches now. no poison for you or this darling angel kitten no dying off schedule ]
How are you feeling?
[ he says, with a little bit of a laugh. ] But, someone important to me doesn't eat very well, so I started learning for him. I fell out of it for a long time, but... recently, I started to pick it back up again.
[ he's pretty good at the comforting part, too, though. in the meantime: this cat is so cute so its getting all the gentle scritches now. no poison for you or this darling angel kitten no dying off schedule ]
How are you feeling?
[The kitten loves the attention. She's immediately purring and rubbing herself against his hand.]
... Like an idiot. [...] Don't worry about it.
You're a scientist?
... Like an idiot. [...] Don't worry about it.
You're a scientist?
[ he winces a little sympathetically at the first part, flashing him a half smile. yeah... yeah... he knows why, but for zel he won't bring anything up, instead just pretending he's very, very focused on his cat.
the question makes him make a noise in affirmation. ] Mmhm! Well, an engineer and an astrophysicist, if you want to be really specific, but I've dabbled in everything. I was the one who labeled all the chemicals in the lab, in hoping no one accidentally burned their eyebrows off or god forbid, drank one or something.
the question makes him make a noise in affirmation. ] Mmhm! Well, an engineer and an astrophysicist, if you want to be really specific, but I've dabbled in everything. I was the one who labeled all the chemicals in the lab, in hoping no one accidentally burned their eyebrows off or god forbid, drank one or something.
I see... Probably a good idea.
... What about biology, medicine, that sort of thing?
... What about biology, medicine, that sort of thing?
[ he nods. ]
For medicine, I only really know the basics. I can do first aid. In terms of studying...anatomy, the human systems, medicinal plants and different kinds of drugs and treatments, that's easy, but when it comes to actual medical care, I never really needed to know. We have medical capsules that do that for us.
I'm pretty well read in biology, though. Why do you ask?
For medicine, I only really know the basics. I can do first aid. In terms of studying...anatomy, the human systems, medicinal plants and different kinds of drugs and treatments, that's easy, but when it comes to actual medical care, I never really needed to know. We have medical capsules that do that for us.
I'm pretty well read in biology, though. Why do you ask?
It's... a personal quest of mine. I've traveled the world, seeking sorcerers, healers, scientists... Anyone who might lead me to the cure I seek.
... I need a way to undo--
[oh hey you know what helps with explaining things? memshares! down into Memory Theatre they go. the cat just lands on top of lu bixing when they drop in here. hi.
a memory begins to play...]
[oh hey you know what helps with explaining things? memshares! down into Memory Theatre they go. the cat just lands on top of lu bixing when they drop in here. hi.
a memory begins to play...]
MEMORY: STRONGER
No matter how hard you try, it's useless.
Every day, you train with the sword. Every night, you study the magic arts.
And yet, you're still so much weaker than the men you're supposed to be leading. You have no talent for magic. No strength or stamina to stand up against a seasoned warrior. For years, you've tried to get stronger, and failed. You slip up, get wounded, and start to fall behind. Why are you the leader, anyway? You only fail them, time and time again.
And not just them. The villagers who rely on you for protection. The children, waiting for you to return with food and supplies in hand. And most of all... that man. The great sage you've devoted your life to serving. You're failing him.
"I have to be stronger...! Stronger...!"
Today, like many other days, you sneak away to train in secret. It's futile, but you won't stop trying. You swing your sword again and again, using a tree for a target, adding to its hundreds of scars -- all of them pathetically shallow. Desperation growing, you swing and you swing until at last, you collapse. Your muscles ache. Your lungs burn. Is this all you're capable of?
... A familiar chime pulls you from your thoughts. The sound of his staff.
"Allow me to grant that wish."
You can barely stand, but you just manage to turn to see him. The great sage, clad in red, extending his staff towards you.
In that moment, it's as if everything around you is bathed in crimson. Dark tendrils extend from him to you, binding you in place as the magic fills your body. There's a horrible crawling feeling, a feeling of things shifting in unnatural ways underneath your skin, a feeling so strange and terrifying that you can only scream. Your skin hardens, uneven rock protrusions forming in various places. Your sense of feeling dulls, and all that's left is a lingering sense of wrongness... and the bitter taste of betrayal.
Every day, you train with the sword. Every night, you study the magic arts.
And yet, you're still so much weaker than the men you're supposed to be leading. You have no talent for magic. No strength or stamina to stand up against a seasoned warrior. For years, you've tried to get stronger, and failed. You slip up, get wounded, and start to fall behind. Why are you the leader, anyway? You only fail them, time and time again.
And not just them. The villagers who rely on you for protection. The children, waiting for you to return with food and supplies in hand. And most of all... that man. The great sage you've devoted your life to serving. You're failing him.
"I have to be stronger...! Stronger...!"
Today, like many other days, you sneak away to train in secret. It's futile, but you won't stop trying. You swing your sword again and again, using a tree for a target, adding to its hundreds of scars -- all of them pathetically shallow. Desperation growing, you swing and you swing until at last, you collapse. Your muscles ache. Your lungs burn. Is this all you're capable of?
... A familiar chime pulls you from your thoughts. The sound of his staff.
"Allow me to grant that wish."
You can barely stand, but you just manage to turn to see him. The great sage, clad in red, extending his staff towards you.
In that moment, it's as if everything around you is bathed in crimson. Dark tendrils extend from him to you, binding you in place as the magic fills your body. There's a horrible crawling feeling, a feeling of things shifting in unnatural ways underneath your skin, a feeling so strange and terrifying that you can only scream. Your skin hardens, uneven rock protrusions forming in various places. Your sense of feeling dulls, and all that's left is a lingering sense of wrongness... and the bitter taste of betrayal.
[ ...oh.
well, in a way, he could've figured that out, but there's something so heartbreaking about seeing the young man desperately trying to get stronger and the way the universe, so cruelly, granted that wish for him. magic is out of lu bixing's purview, but this isn't that far from home, and as the feeling fades, lu bixing turns his head to look at zelgadis properly, brows knit together, and then slowly back at the screen. ]
..I see.
[ he says, softly; the words are heavy with emotion, a sympathetic care and recognition for zelgadis. he pets the kitten that fell in his lap for a moment, and bites his lip. the worst part of it is that he can think of an immediate cure, but it's one that's so cruel that he chases the thought away immediately. ]
Did he ever - did he ever explain why he did that to you? [ you can't just test on people without their consent smh sage guy ] I'm so sorry, Zelgadis.
well, in a way, he could've figured that out, but there's something so heartbreaking about seeing the young man desperately trying to get stronger and the way the universe, so cruelly, granted that wish for him. magic is out of lu bixing's purview, but this isn't that far from home, and as the feeling fades, lu bixing turns his head to look at zelgadis properly, brows knit together, and then slowly back at the screen. ]
..I see.
[ he says, softly; the words are heavy with emotion, a sympathetic care and recognition for zelgadis. he pets the kitten that fell in his lap for a moment, and bites his lip. the worst part of it is that he can think of an immediate cure, but it's one that's so cruel that he chases the thought away immediately. ]
Did he ever - did he ever explain why he did that to you? [ you can't just test on people without their consent smh sage guy ] I'm so sorry, Zelgadis.
[Zelgadis had to turn away during the last moments of that memory. He's already seen it far too many times, in his nightmares.]
... He said that he simply gave me the strength that I desired. And I... believed him, for a while.
But... some time later, I did learn the real reason.
Rezo was born blind. He studied the healing arts in order to cure himself, and became a great sage. But even though he could cure the eyes of others, he could never heal his own. He grew desperate... turned to other methods.
I discovered he had been conducting chimera research in secret. He believed he could gain sight by fusing another creature to himself, or by creating a compatible body and transferring his soul into it. What happened to me was merely an experiment to that end.
... He said that he simply gave me the strength that I desired. And I... believed him, for a while.
But... some time later, I did learn the real reason.
Rezo was born blind. He studied the healing arts in order to cure himself, and became a great sage. But even though he could cure the eyes of others, he could never heal his own. He grew desperate... turned to other methods.
I discovered he had been conducting chimera research in secret. He believed he could gain sight by fusing another creature to himself, or by creating a compatible body and transferring his soul into it. What happened to me was merely an experiment to that end.
[ ah.
lu bixing's expression darkens, immediately, his fingers stilling where he's petting the cat. he's silent, for a long moment, as if gathering what he wants to say.
and, well.
the screen flickers. it's crazy how memories explain things. ]
[ as the memory ends, lu bixing is perfectly still and utterly tense, almost frozen in place. ]
lu bixing's expression darkens, immediately, his fingers stilling where he's petting the cat. he's silent, for a long moment, as if gathering what he wants to say.
and, well.
the screen flickers. it's crazy how memories explain things. ]
[ the first time you remember seeing, you remember seeing a man, and you remember the glass and the liquid and his face. he's got scruff and wild hair, one blue eye and one gold, and he looked -he looked what you recognized even then as thrilled, when you locked eyes. or, well. eyes. you don't have eyes. you can see, though.
this man is your entire world. for five years, you get to know him from inside the tank. monoeye hawk, he is called, when he's on the phone, but you don't ever call him that - you're supposed to call him "dad". you see him, whenever you open your eyes. he's always there. and he interacts with you. he reads to you, he sings to you, he - brings you children's books that you're over immediately, that you find boring, because he tells you fairy tales about people like him. but that's not you. you're nothing. you're a series of nanomachines and sensors with a human consciousness strapped inside, held as delicately as a piece of glass.
you're not a person, really, until you're five years old, because when you're five years old, you start to look like him. like the people in the books, really, because you have a body, now. it's fragile, and delicate. you can't leave the tank, but you have ten fingers and ten toes, pale skin, hair. eyes. your senses are no longer confined to the machines that you know have held your consciousness up until this point, but the senses that make someone a "human" don't work. your father wanted to help you, so he taught you how to connect to the mental network, to sync with the cameras outside of the house, to see the planet that you live in. and you took that opportunity like a fish to water. enthusiastic to learn, desperately curious and confined to a tank, you learned. you learned enough to hack your dad's personal reading device, actually, and learned more about the world than he really wanted you to, hearing him mutter about changing his own reading material. it's funny, because the books that were supposed to be scary, or - about people kissing, they weren't, to you. they were just information, and your dad's reactions make you happy. you're just happy to see him. you're happy to see everything. you think you love the world.
--
it's not until you're eight years old that you disconnect from the wide open sensory systems, because you're able to open your own eyes for the first time. you're lifted from the tank, and taken to the world outside of glass. you are placed in a bed. your brain is in a body. a real, human body that works.
...doesn't it?
it doesn't.
simple tasks are impossible. it takes you days to learn how to lift a finger. it takes weeks to return to the personal device your father had taught you how to use in the tank. months, before you can at least sort of move your hand. you are constantly fighting your own body, trying to teach it how to breathe when you don't know how to, trying to keep your eyes open, trying to see the world, and you are so, so tired of fighting. you are only eight years old.
a world that was wide open to you was snatched away. you're so frustrated you want to scream and throw a tantrum - you are, after all, only eight, now - but you can't, because your body is too weak to thrash or scream. you experience pain for the first time, and you experience it in unending amounts. your love for the world, your curiosity, shrivels and dies; you hate existing. you hate the world; you feel jealousy and hatred for the people who walk and talk and breathe and live outside of your walls, and you know they'd look at you with horror, too.
one day, you use all of the strength in your tiny body to hack into the systems in the house, and you use the AIs to smash every single mirror in monoeye hawk's home. it takes you two hours and brings you no catharsis, even to know you won't ever have to look at this face that became yours. you give up on trying to look at cayley, give up trying to interact with people, with the outside, and you use your indextrous, useless hand to write, and draw, and doodle. you read books, on weaponry and mechs. you create plans for weapons that could destroy the whole world, and based on your calculations and studies, you know they would work.
your father doesn't know what to do with you, either. he thinks you don't see it, but you do, and you - even if you hate the entire world, even if you're miserable and painful and angry, you don't ever lash out at him. his kind, worried eyes, his demeanor - you can't, and he, the rascal, takes advantage of that and takes you outside in a wheelchair one day, much to your horror.
...but when it's just the two of you, you can't hurt him. and bit by bit, he starts to expose you to the world outside, and you start to take it in, again. you have to learn this, too, how to love, how to be human, how to care again.
one day, monoeye hawk gets a call that he has to leave. you've never been alone before - every time you opened your eyes, your dad was always there, caring for you. today, he's running around like a chicken with its head cut off, promising you over and over again he'll. be back, nagging you about something or the other, acting like he's going to leave and then turning right back around and returning to tell you something else, like a cat chasing its own tail. it's amusing, and though you have no verbal response for him, you can't help but faintly smile, affectionate, because you know this - you know you love your dad.
--
he's gone for 48 hours. it's not that long.
the automated wheelchair you live your days in is on a programmed path - and is going to drag you outside for your daily walk. at this point, you're used to it, but the idea of going outside without monoeye hawk terrifies you. you try to override the programming and steer the wheelchair back - it carries you along to the elevator in the house you always take to go to the ground level, and you reach up for the control panel on the elevator itself to try and stop it. your hands are shaking, always shaking, and they slip from the control panel, and the wheelchair errors, sticking in a handrail on the elevator itself. you have to try and wrench it out, and you are so, so weak that you're covered in sweat by the time you unstick the handle, and before you realize it -
the elevator kept going.
when the doors ding! they open not to the outside, but to the basement. six floors underground - with a digitally locked door marked with a skull and crossbones staring you in the face.
the lock is the same lock your father uses on all of his devices. you hacked this when you were still a brain and nothing else. you could get into this room, if you wanted. you just had to touch the lock.
curiosity flares in the back of your mind, for the first time in what feels like centuries. you lift your hands - your motor control is fine, now, it's just the shakes, your hands are just shaking, and as you access your personal device, you take thirty seconds to hack the door, and.
ding!
almost anticlimactic, it opens, and you're looking at the face of a girl. a child. in a glass tank.
only... it's not. her face is human - she has long hair that hangs free from her head, and her body is completely naked and exposed, but she's looking away, her arms at unnatural angles, held up by the mechanisms of what you know is a breeding tank, the same kind you grew up in. and - the lower half of her body isn't a human at all. it's a snake.
at the ding of the elevator door, her head turns, and it terrifies you. she looks at you, and her expression is listless, empty - apathetic, numb to every emotion, the inexplicable and utterly broken expression of human, human pain.
you don't even realize what you're doing. you stare at her, your heart pounding in your chest and you've moved. the security robot that must stand guard at the door is deactivated but it has, it has something, and you grab it, not even paying attention, you lift it -
your tiny fingers close unshaking around the trigger of a gun.
and you fire.
bang. the shot pierces through the glass and hits its target dead on, right in the center of the forehead - glass, liquid and blood explode backwards, showering the room as the snakelike woman jerks backwards, and you swear, you swear, she's smiling. as she jerks lifeless in the draining breeding tank, you realize in a jolt that you're standing out of your chair, and your body collapses, your useless legs hitting the ground, while your hands are still clutched around that still warm gun.
when they start shaking, you stare at it again.
No wonder I'm different from the rest of the world.
(the snake woman, with her constructed body, the way your body was made and not your own)
Everyone that's like me is here.
you lift the gun. you bring it up, your hands shaking so hard now that it's back to normalcy. you don't care. you don't want to be alive. you lift the gun, and you bring it up, up to your head, tears rolling down your cheeks, and as you're about to pull the trigger -
light flares through the room, as every single screen in this bizarre lab turns on, flooding the place with brightness. you blink, wide eyed and still crying, and as you look at the video screen you see - it's your dad.
"Bixing! Listen to me!" he shouts. it's cacophony - hes inside of a mech, barking directions and shouting at everyone around him, and he keeps looking back at the screen, at you, terrified and crying and about to shoot yourself in the head. you think, desperately, Why did you give birth to me? Why did you decide to keep me? Why did you raise me? Dad, living is too painful, but you haven't been able to speak for years and you can't voice a single word.
monoeye keeps talking. "Listen to me - I just need a little more time - two hours?! We haven't reached the transfer portal, make an emergency warp, I don't care how many times we've done it!!"
he's desperate. begging. begging you not to do it, not to pull the trigger. the signal is choppy and bad and you stare at your father's face, and you realize, his eyes are red because he's crying, too.
all of the lights turn off all at once.
you're left staring at the dead body of the snake woman, and the broken glass, hands shaking, and you wait for five minutes, caught in a moment of life or death, when monoeye hawk bursts through the door, crosses the room in half a moment, throws himself to the ground, and gathers you into a hug. (he turns his head and throws up because he made himself ill, too, but it's the thought that counts.)
the hug is awkward and uncomfortable and it hurts your body, but you drop the gun, and monoeye hawk kicks it away, and holds you. for two whole minutes, he holds you, unmoving, like he can cling you to life, because he loves you, and he wants you to be safe. he loves you.
your hands stop shaking. you only realize it because monoeye is shaking so hard that you're still.
... and slowly, you lift your hands. and slowly, slowly, you hug your father back. you bury your face in his shoulder, and silently, you cry, and hold onto him for - for dear life.
(he overexerted himself enough that this trip made him sick, and he spent days in bed. you tended to him, the best that you could, and when he was feeling well enough, monoeye hawk sat you down for a talk.
"The little girl you saw underground the other day was a specialty breed of the Eighth Galaxy; we stole her from a trafficker around the galaxy but couldn’t help her, so we just decided to keep her that way. Our Eighth Galaxy had suffered at the hands of the Rainbow Virus a hundred years ago--you remember Daddy told you this part of our galaxy’s history, right? After that, the Union never fulfilled their promise and tossed us all aside to die. There are plenty of other poor souls out there like that snake girl, and you were born in this world to save them. That’s why you’ll be like a caterpillar that sheds its skin time and time again until you evolve into a butterfly; you will go through trials after trials, and in the end…. maybe by the time you’re 50, you’ll be like a superhero. Of course, every trial will be difficult, like how you’re still getting used to your body right now, so will you be able to withstand the pain for the sake of the people that are waiting to be saved by you?"
this is such chicken soup for the soul bullshit that you know your dad has to be making things up. but years later, when the remnants of the nuwa project show their face in the eighth, you know at least the genetic experimentation, the human trafficking - all of that turned out to be true.)
[ as the memory ends, lu bixing is perfectly still and utterly tense, almost frozen in place. ]
[Zelgadis watches, speechless. There's a flicker of emotion in his eyes when he first sees that girl, and then again when the man bursts into the room and embraces the boy. There's a tension that lingers.
It takes a few moments for him to find any words.]
That girl... what was she?
[Because there was one word that immediately came to mind. She looked like a chimera.]
It takes a few moments for him to find any words.]
That girl... what was she?
[Because there was one word that immediately came to mind. She looked like a chimera.]
...A half human, half snake hybrid. Or, at least - an attempt at one.
[ his voice is very, very serious and soft, still looking in the direction of the screen. ]
I imagine what your Sage would have called a 'chimera'. A genetic experiment by a group of scientists called the Nuwa Project, aiming to do almost the exact same thing - playing God with human beings through genetic manipulation.
[ his voice is very, very serious and soft, still looking in the direction of the screen. ]
I imagine what your Sage would have called a 'chimera'. A genetic experiment by a group of scientists called the Nuwa Project, aiming to do almost the exact same thing - playing God with human beings through genetic manipulation.
[There's a slow nod.]
Even in distant worlds... the same thing. I wish I were more surprised.
... Was there -- [His voice is quiet, and it falters for a moment.] is there a way to reverse it?
Even in distant worlds... the same thing. I wish I were more surprised.
... Was there -- [His voice is quiet, and it falters for a moment.] is there a way to reverse it?
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