Chapter Text
“It has been postulated that a demon could be bound to an individual’s dreamscape in a similar manner that one can be bound to a single part of physical space. The Mcmenoman barrier that is found in dreamscapes of a cognitive class-3 organisms would, when properly enforced with the wards necessary to bind a demon, largely cut off the demon from its own power source, making it so one could theoretically use this technique to both contain and control a demon. The demon would only be bound while the host remains alive, and as most demons are powerful enough that even constricted they could still destroy a normal Mcmenoman barrier, and because such bindings would effectively force the demon to possess the host, this technique could not be used unless either a host was found within an unheard of cognitive class or a mechanism could be implemented to ensure the demon did not seek the destruction of the host.”
- Excerpt from “On the Limitations of Modern Binding Techniques”, Dr Brinner, The Journal of Theoretical Magics
The premises were set up impeccably. The vinyl floor was completely smooth, with no marks besides the deeply engraved circle that dominated the room. Outside of the subject there was no living creature on site larger than 0.3 micrometers. The ley lines were carefully controlled to keep the amount of excess magical energy to an absolute minimum. The walls were heavily reinforced. The floor of the experiment, as well as the two floors in the facility directly beneath the worksite, were temporarily evacuated outside of necessary personal.
Security was minimal. If everything went right very little would be needed. If things did not go right it was deemed best to minimize potential losses.
Things were not going to go wrong. The scenario was well rehearsed. Every factor that could be controlled was, including those expected to have largely negligible effects.
The subject was in the center of the circle. They were presently heavily sedated. They were presently restrained using chains plated in pure silver, which connected to the ceiling to prevent any disturbance to the circle.
Everything was perfect.
Everything was ready.
A small drone rolled into the premises. It was holding a large rat and a knife contained in a tray. The drone did not have much manual dexterity or gripping strength. The rat was heavily sedated. The knife was pure silver. It entered the circle, and reached the subject. Slowly the drone cut into the rat. The drone could not move quickly. Any outside factor that made the drone move too quickly would cause it to break entirely.
The rat was bleeding profusely. It had also been given an injection of a powerful anticoagulant. Blood filled the tray. Blood coated the knife. The drone slowly put the tray on a platform hanging from the ceiling, and slowly brushed the flat of the knife against each of the six rune inscribed circles on the subjects chest. It first put blood on the five exterior circles before making a minor incision on the sixth interior circle. The subject was not bleeding profusely. The subject had not been given anything that might add additional complications outside of the sedatives.
The drone exited the premises.
Everything was going exactly as anticipated.
From the observational room, six mages began to chant. The chant was projected into the experiment room using five speakers inset into the walls of the room. The chant was muted in the observational room using a simple charm.
At the last verse of the chant, the tray containing the rat and associated pool of blood was inverted, spilling its contents. The tray mechanism retracted back into the ceiling.
A ring of blue fire filled the circle on the floor, before rushing towards the subject and igniting the circles on their chest with bright cyan. This was anticipated.
The subject appeared instantly active. This was anticipated.
The subject was expressing signs of anger and confusion. This was anticipated.
The subject was expelling large amounts of cyan fire. This was an accounted-for possibility.
The chains that had been constraining the subject were rendered inoperable from the heat. This was unideal, but an accounted-for possibility.
A facility security alarm went off. Something had broken a window on the other side of the building. There was no indication that this had anything to do with the experiment. This was not anticipated. This was alarming.
The subject had left the circle with a negligible amount of resistance. This was anticipated.
A facility alert notification informed staff that security footage from the east plaza was no longer being received and that two restraining units were no longer communicating with the security network. The situation was beginning to seem slightly fucked.
The project lead failed to initiate contact with subject through speakers as planned. The project lead was consulting with the security lead. The backup lead was rehearsing the prepared speech as they finalized adjustments on the equipment.
Fire alarms began to go off, manually activated from the east plaza.
The security lead was redirecting five floors’ worth of drones.
And that’s when the bomb went off.
There were no absolutely no words great enough to communicate the pure fury that filled Alcor, that became his very existence. He was possessing someone, they were a child. He did not possess people. He did not harm children. He couldn’t identify who this was. He couldn’t see their soul on the mindscape. He could see the curling silver smoke dissipating from the sacrificed rat but there was not any sign of the soul that should be inhabiting this body. He couldn’t access his library of knowledge. This pathetic chamber was absolutely nothing to him and yet it was stubbornly remaining unleveled.
The room was filled with his fire. It was the only thing that flowed freely through him. Slowly it pushed at the walls, burning through them. The slowness of it was intolerable; it would be faster if only he had any idea where to focus his damn magic. He should know where the door was. The walls’ apparent seamlessness shouldn’t matter to him, this should be no challenge at all and yet somehow it was.
There was a faint taste of panic in the air. It was sweet, a tantalizing taste of what was to come. What he would bring.
There was a faint pain coming from the body’s chest. A piercing burning sensation that cut deeply into the skin. It was actually a fairly severe pain; the body was choking on its own breath. He didn’t care.
Someone dared use him, someone dared try to make a tool out of him. And they didn’t even have the decency to show their face. And they were just toying with him now, letting him bash his head against the wall without even revealing their intentions, waiting for what? Him to exhaust himself? He was the most powerful entity on the planet he was not going to simply give in to this… whatever this was. He would break out of this pathetic prison, like he did every attempt to contain him, and he would ḿ̹̗͔a̗͙̞̪͎͔̫k̶̳̜͓̥̻̗̝e̟͔̪̝͓̺͡ ̜ͅth̲͙̫é̮͈͓̣m̦̲̻͢ ̸̹̬p͈̬͔̫̯a̺͖̻̠̯̭̝y̷͓̹.
He could faintly hear an alarm go off. He didn’t care in the slightest.
The massive explosion wasn’t so much heard as felt, roaring against one of the walls, shaking the world in a symphony of screeching metal and breaking glass. It managed to register as probably significant, if all else failed because the shaking floor caused him to fall on his ass for the first time in centuries.
The shaking stopped. His fire sizzled with little direction from him. For a moment, things were still. The moment was obnoxiously broken all at once as several additional alarms screamed into life, each somehow managing to drown the others out so there was no longer any distinct patterns but a single panicked wail.
It was unideal, but would be a satisfactory enough soundtrack for what was going to happen next.
The sounds were slightly louder in the center of the wall. He pulled his fire to him, savoring the protests of the body, and slammed it forward through the hidden door. It held, just for a moment, hidden runes desperately trying to hold back the tidal wave of energy, before shattering forward; projecting wood, metal, and cement down the long hallway like a canon.
He grinned, face protesting how wide he ordered it to spread, and took a deep breath. It didn’t matter what his summoners had planned. He was in control now.
stopitstopitstopit
Alcor hesitated. The feeling of panic from earlier was stronger now, filling with savory despair, but it wasn’t coming from down the hall, or from another room. It was coming from him. From around him.
A breath happened. It wasn’t a smooth breath, but a short choked thing that couldn’t decide if it was a gasp or a snarl and mostly failed to be anything at all.
“You’re still alive?” He said, louder than he liked in order to be heard over the alarms. He knew why he couldn’t see the child’s soul.
stopstopstopsto- what?
“You. This is your body right?” He looked around quickly. Making them pay would have to come later, he needed to focus on getting the child to safety and determining exactly what the hell those pathetic fucked up mortals had done.
its me why can’t i move whats happening
“You’re being possessed. I don’t know how because I sure as hell didn’t initiate this, but apparently it’s happening anyway.”
The long halls were yellowing plaster, illuminated by bright white LEDs inlaid in the ceiling. Large black numbers were periodically placed, some with arrows and some without. There did not appear to be a convenient directory on what any of the numbers might signify. Hallways branched off in a labyrinthine network, turning and splitting in seemingly random ways. Although Alcor rushed down the hallway he did so aimlessly.
Miraculously, nothing in the immediate surroundings was on fire.
“Do you remember anything that lead up to this?” Alcor asked. “If I actually knew what happened I might be able to fix this.”
i didn’t really understand anything that was happening. the doctors refused to talk to me.
“I don’t care if you understood,” Alcor said. “I just need to know what happened. You know that there were people doing things. Who were they? What did they do?”
they um, they said that there was a new disease going around and that they just needed to take me in for a bit and do some tests. i thought they worked for the government, the carestaff acted like they did.
then i was here, and the doctors kept doing things and they seemed like normal doctor things but they wouldn’t talk to me wouldn’t tell me what was happening and then they made me sleep and then when i woke up my chest hurt and there were these weird circles and then they made me sleep again and now i can’t i can’tican’t
“If they could successfully come off as government enough to take a child… I should have noticed a group this organized. It never should have gotten this far.” The hallway terminated at a push door that didn’t have any locking mechanism. He shoved it open. “I suppose it would be unreasonable to expect that you would have actually learned anything useful. I should have paid attention to the summoning circle; it probably wouldn’t be that hard to reverse engineer it. Do you think it’s too late to go back? If this is an evacuation there probably won’t be anyone stopping us.”
He strode into the room. Lines of beige lockers lined the walls. The harsh red light of a glowing exit sign was subsumed into the pulsing lights of the alarms. The door beneath it was solid black with a small keypad next to it. Next to it stood an old wooden coat hanger and a water cooler.
icantcantcantcant
“Uh, kid? You’re kinda losing all coherency.” Alcor walked down the room and grabbed a sweater from the coat rack and slid it onto the body. It was much too large, with its bottom reaching to brush the body’s knees. “Are you alright? Is... is this traumatic? This is probably a traumatic experience isn’t it. Um...”
Something was crashing down the hall behind them. It, or possibly something near it, was shouting, although what it was saying couldn’t be parsed over the alarms and distance.
“Well I guess that answers whether or not anyone is going to try and stop us.” He stopped, looking back at the door he had entered. “You’re really not going to be good with me just blasting through them, are you? Assuming I even can right now without frying this body outright.”
“Guess we’re doing this the hard way,” he said, spinning around and slamming a hand onto the emergency release button. This presumably set off another alarm, but there was really no way to tell anymore.
The door clicked, and easily pushed open, releasing the demon and child outside.
It was dark, or at least significantly darker than the well-lit corridors of the facility had been. The dry, chilly air stung the lungs and sweaty skin of the body.
The building behind them looked fairly insignificant: one story tall, grey cinder blocks that could be centuries old, and windows covered from the inside. It looked disused; the parking lot that they were standing in was cracked and filled with weeds. Small trees encroached on the edges of the lot, becoming a dense wall just beyond it.
There was a large amount of commotion around the corner. Alcor ran from it, sprinting into the woods. As he reached the edge of the lot, the door behind them opened. A tall humanoid was silhouetted in the bright doorway. By their side hovered two small drones. Alcor couldn’t make anything else out before plowing through the mass of thick foliage.
Thin branches whipped at the body, catching on the rough knit fabric of the sweater. Undergrowth pulled on the legs, scratching the body’s bare feet, pulling him back, slowing him down.
This offense would not be tolerated.
Twin cyan jets of fire shot off in front of him and behind him. They were, disappointingly, much less intense than the one used to blast open the first door, held back by the pleading ache of the body’s chest. They were still plenty intense enough to level a line through the foolishly unwarded forest, leaving the remaining larger trees charred and bare of surrounding foliage and low branches. Hopefully it would also be enough to do something about the robots behind him.
Alcor charged down the convenient path, blocking of the area around the entrance with fire that would only burn animals, keeping an eye on the sides for something less horribly exposed.
He ignored the yelling behind him. There was nothing that they could do to harm him , and they would have to be exceptionally dumb to do anything too drastic, anything that would further provoke his wrath.
Then again, they just summoned the most powerful demon there was, apparently just to do something that would explicitly anger him, despite the numerous bloody historical incidents that clearly illustrated how he responded to such things.
He shoved away the fear that was trying to worm through him. It was not his; he didn’t fear anything anymore. It was the racing heart of the body, the adrenaline that flooded the system. It was the hysteria of the child (t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶f̶a̶u̶l̶t̶) and he wasn’t going to let such a stupid and pointless feeling have any power over him.
There was a small opening on his left. Just the size for a child squeeze through, a narrow path of hard dirt going perpendicular to the trail he had blazed. It would suffice. It would have to.
Looking back to make sure that there wasn’t anyone on his tail yet, he backtracked a handful of long strides before turning away from the trail and sending another line of fire down into the night. He left the opening burning, and slipped down the small path. It wasn’t the most subtle red herring in the world. He wasn’t sure he could trust these insolent morons to catch anything less.
It was slower moving through the winding trail in the living wood, but overall a small price to pay for cover. The sweater he had stolen was a red-tinged brown, which worked well with the body’s rich brown skin and smooth black hair for fitting in with the early autumn foliage. The beige pants were less serendipitous but ultimately weren’t terrible and were half covered by the sweater anyway. He was probably fine, for the moment.
He had absolutely no idea where he was. He had absolutely no idea where he would go even if he did.
He had absolutely no idea what was going on with his pursuers either, or for that matter if he was actually being pursued. It seemed unlikely that they wouldn’t give chase, but he wasn’t going to pretend he understood what it was that these summoners were actually trying to accomplish.
He couldn’t hear anything over the gasping breaths and pounding heart of the body.
He needed a better strategy than simply running.
There was a spruce tree through a short patch of thick undergrowth, with tightly clustered branches that started low with thick needles that obscured the trunk.
It would do. It would have to.
Everything protested the climb. The arms were determined to convince him they couldn’t pull the rest of the body up. The feet, which were fairly raw from just getting here, cried out on each step. The back didn’t like being hunched and twisted in the narrow space. Sap covered the palms and made them tacky, which the body didn’t seem to care about despite how disgusting it was.
He climbed until the branches started thinning and sat on two adjacent branches, leaning on the trunk. The body felt so heavy, like all its limbs were weights, like even sitting up would be a massive feat.
He could see the path he had cleared. The winding trail hadn’t actually taken him that far from it, although it did make it so that the shortest path between him and it had a thick bramble of raspberry bushes rendering it largely unnavigable.
The clearing lit up in a bright flash as someone set up an omnidirectional spotlight. As the spots cleared from Alcor’s vision, and how eyes that couldn’t function in the dark would become temporarily worse when exposed to light he couldn’t fathom, he could make out four humanoids, three of them in uniforms and one in a slightly more casual professional outfit. They hadn’t yet reached the fork he’d made, but had definitely noticed the second lingering fire. The odd one out was talking rapidly at the others, gesturing quickly and walking quickly, almost pacing around the others. The uniformed people were moving relatively slowly, sweeping the edges of the woods with bright flashlights. One reached the second fire, purposefully moving an instrument around it.
“You doing any better, kid?” Alcor asked, quietly.
…
“Right, right.” He scratched the body’s neck. “So... do you have a name? I’m Alcor.”
.
.
.
charlie
“Charlie huh? Good name, that.” A deep breath was taken. ”So, now that the imminent danger seems to be relatively low, do you want to see if it’s actually possible for me to release control of your body?”
!yes!
“I’m just going to try and ease out then. Unless I’m vastly misjudging whats going on here I don’t think I’ll be able to actually leave, but I think I can at least take a back seat. Be ready to take over and try not to fall out of the tree.”
okay lets do itgetoutgetout
Alcor closed the body’s eyes and relaxed, letting the heavy limbs hang down and sink into the bark, taking deep, slow, breaths. Floating up, into the dreamscape around him.
Everything jolted. Charlie sat upright and rigid, gripping the branches beneath zir tightly with zir legs, zir arms wrapped around zirself.
Fear flooded the system again.
What’s wrong now?
Alcor pushed himself into Charlie’s awareness.
“I can’t climb!” Charlie frantically whispered, looking down, past all the branches (how were there so many branches?) at the ground, which was much farther away than it had seemed when ze was simply floating numbly, watching through eyes ze couldn’t direct. “I’m gonna fall. I’m gonna die.”
Well, it’s a good thing we don’t need you climb anywhere then. All you gotta do is sit there for now, okay? Pretty sure you can manage just sitting in a tree.
Also, you should be able to just think at me, I’m in your mind after all so you really don’t need to make any noise and risk someone noticing us.
oh, so like this then?
Yep. Just like that.
wait you’re in my brain?
I was just in your body, why is this a surprise? And technically I’m in your dreamscape - the brain's just a lump of meat. Not much room there for anything else.
why does everything hurt?
Probably because I was channeling far more energy than a human body can actually withstand before I realized that you were still alive.
‘mnot human
Huh.
That should have been pretty obvious. Being binded to you is limiting my knowledge for some reason, and being in your body feels like what I remember being in a human one being like.
What are you, anyway?
what are you?
I’m a being of pure energy.
.
.
.
so
do you actually have a plan?
i don’t think that hiding in a tree forever is really how I want to spend my life.
Of course there’s a plan.
Figure out what they did to bind me to you and fix it.
So no then.
It’s a plan. You didn’t ask if I had a rigorous plan.
“This is all we can!” Came a voice from the clearing. “We’re horrendously understaffed, which was your idea I remind you, and half our equipment isn’t even accessible because of the damn evacuation!”
One of the uniformed people was shouting at the casually dressed person. The other two appeared to be trying to keep doing their jobs, one hacking down the undergrowth around the fire while the other investigated the woods on the other end of the clearing, getting worryingly close to the actual place that Alcor had gone.
“We can’t afford to lose another one!” Came the retorted, “Especially not this one. Recovery needs to be our highest priority!”
Another one‽
“We can’t afford to lose any of our own! We aren’t dealing with a damn runaway here: as you have been so keen to point out, we just let loose a monster.”
How have I missed this?
Casual pressed their hands into their eyes momentarily, and then responded calmly, too quiet to make out.
“Damage the subj… You know, I don’t think he gives a shit!”
Casual remained calm, and whatever they said seemed to diffuse the situation enough that eavesdropping became impossible once more, although the two still appeared to be at each other's throats.
The one who had been cutting a way to the decoy path got the attention of the fighters, who quickly rushed over.
A large jet of cyan briefly flashed far down the false path, dissipating high above the trees. All four of the people forced their way around the fire and down the path.
That…
wasn’t me.
is it just me or have there been a lot of suspiciously useful things happening?
I wasn’t going to say anything but yeah, there really have been. I was thinking earlier that someone was just taking advantage of the fact that everyone was distracted with whatever they were trying to do with us, but that was weirdly personalized.
At the very least, someone knows an awful lot about what’s going on. Could be an inside job, if there are others I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some staff that found this to be the last straw.
do you hear something?
Not really, these ears are awful. I don’t know how so many people can function with this limited of senses.
seriously shut up I think there’s something out there
With a bit of focus it became apparent to both of them that there was definitely something moving through the woods. Leaves crackled and undergrowth shook as something pushed past them. It sounded too big for the path.
There was also the low murmur of voices.
It was too dark to see anything, and almost impossible to see anything on the ground nearby anyway due to numerous branches.
“I’m not casting any doubt on your abilities,” came a rather loud whisper, “I am merely concerned about the continually reducing distance between ourselves and the fallen sickle tree.”
“Well worry no more,” came a different voice, one that sounded very close, “we’re here.”
“Are you trying to tell me that we went through all this past night’s trials for the wondrous privilege of promenading to a random spot in the woods, one that by all measures appears completely indistinguishable from any other spot?”
“Apparently.”
“I amend my earlier statement; I am very much casting doubt on your abilities. Are you sure you actually know what you are doing?”
“What kinda question is that? Have I ever once in my life done a single thing to give you the misimpression that I have even one clue what the hell I’m doing?”
“I suppose the fault lies in my hands for making such a brazen assumption that the statement ‘Naw, trust me on this one I know what’s up’ could possibly imply some degree of confidence.”
“As long as we got that sorted.”
“In all seriousness though, we really don’t have that much time. If you could have some brilliant flash of insight as to the precise nature of why we are here of all places I would highly appreciate it.”
“Maybe we’re just boned no matter what we do and it’s just a really good time to appreciate some trees.”
“Once again, your astounding insights continue to…”
“Uh, Earth to Renee? Don’t tell me that you became too overwhelmed by the majesty of nature to fulfill your sworn duties of local snarker.”
“There is something deeply wrong with that tree’s aura.”
Fuck.
“Trees have auras?”
“In my experience? No. Although I cannot say I would be at all surprised to learn that in their hubris they produced such a thing. It could be some sort of dryad situation too, I suppose.”
“Illicit tree experimentation obviously makes way more sense then say, I don’t know, someone climbing a tree. Anyway, we don’t have time for this bullshit.” They raised their voice to a more normal level and said, “Hey! Is anyone up there?”
Seems we’re busted then. They don’t really sound like they’re a part of whatever was going on earlier though. Could be our mysterious helpers, or perhaps working with them would be more likely considering how little the seem to know.
what am i supposed to do here they know where we are
Well, we could respond, see if we can figure out what their intentions are, or I could blast them and hope that’s enough to get them to leave.
…
Charlie?
. . .
Charlie you need to make a decision.
i don’t know!
what if they’re with the weird doctors and they were just trying to sound like they weren't or what if there something ever worse i'm stuck here i just want to be home
My offer to try and kill them still stands
i don’t want to kill anyone!
“Welp, no response. Guess you were right, totally is an illicit arboreal affront against nature.”
“Obviously. Why else would anyone, especially in this area, not respond to random people shouting in the woods.” Renee said. “Anyway let’s just do this the easy way.”
“Going to shed some light on this mystertree?”
“I could leave right now you know.” Renee said, as a small light appeared at the base of the tree.
Through the branches Charlie could vaguely make out both figures at the base of the tree. One of them, presumably Renee, had the small light cupped in their hands. They had dark, blotchy skin and seemed to be relatively humanoid. The other figure was a brown avian wearing a shiny red skirt, swaying back and forth between their legs.
The light started to move up the tree.
“No you couldn't. I’m the closest thing you have to a friend,” said the avian.
“That is probably the most depressing fact I’ve ever been told.” Renee said. “Now shut up, I need to concentrate.”
you wouldn’t be able to like, get rid of that, could you?
I probably could, but then what? They’re still going to be there.
maybe if we wait long enough they’ll give up and leave us alone? One of them did say they don't have much time…
You know, I kinda doubt that their reactions to running out of time will be to shrug and walk away. They came here with a purpose, and considering I’m not getting the impression they want to be here, I doubt that they are going to leave until they complete it.
well if they don’t even know why they're here maybe -
Oh, hey. Looks like you’re out of time.
The light drifted through the branches that Charlie was sitting on, settling to a stop around chest level. It was soft, not quite reaching the ends of the branches, and felt warm despite casting no heat.
Alcor Felt someone watching.
“Okay, I see someone, looks like they're just a kid,” Renee said before raising her voice a little, “Are you alright up there? We don’t - wait, Charlie ?”
You know this person?
the voice is kinda famili-
“Wait,” Charlie said, “you’re THAT Renee? I thought you were dead!”
“Oh, is that what they told everyone?” she said.
“I think they actually said that you had cancer or something? I don’t remember too well, you just never came back and then some kids started saying that you died.”
“They just told me I had a dentist appointment,” she said. “Although I suppose that excuse would presumably have to be altered to explain my indefinite absence to anyone else. What are you doing here?”
“Just uh, sittin in a tree I guess.”
“Am I supposed to know who this kid is?” the avian asked.
“I wouldn’t think so. Charlie and I lived in the same foster home before I was taken to the forbidden idiocracy.” She paused. “I suppose I should make sure everyone’s on the same page here, Charlie, he’s Vin, he sure is a person who exists, and Vin, zir Charlie, I would say something about zir but I haven’t seen zir in years and we weren’t even that close back then.”
“Great, now that we’re all introduced and junk why doesn’t Charlie come on down so we can get as far away from here as possible?”
“I can’t,” Charlie said sheepishly.
“Well that could be a problem,” Renee said. “Are you hurt?”
“No, well a bit actually, but that’s not the problem.” Charlie clenched zir hands. “I can’t climb. I don’t know how to get down.”
Seriously kid? This tree is practically a ladder.
i’m not great with ladders either and i’m not the one who got us stuck here so you can shut it
How is this your idea of being stuck when you just spent who knows how long locked in a room and sedated?
“How the fuck did you get up there if you can’t climb?” Vin asked.
“I don’t know,” Charlie said.
“Okay I really hate to be that guy but you need to not know your way down pretty quick cause we don’t have that long till the drones reactivate.” Vin said. “And I sure as hell don’t have the arm strength and general physiology to get up there and help.”
“I would offer some assistance,” Renee said, “but I find it highly dubious that the branches could support my weight, even assuming I could get up at all. If the advice of someone with very little experience with trees means anything, I would advise you to try taking a few deep breaths while focusing on one branch at a time.”
Okay this is absurd you want me to just take over and-
ＮＯ
alright, fine. Let’s try something else.
Alcor thought very hard about pinching the nose he didn’t have and sighed. Even with all the limitations of his current predicament it should still be relatively trivial to just push a little and…
Alright you should be able to see me now, right?
you’re a star?
I’m a… okay yeah apparently I’m a star that’s a thing sometimes.
Anyway.
Seeing how you refuse to do this the easy way, I’m going to tell you exactly what you need to do, okay? All you gotta do is listen to what I say and you’ll be fine.
…
Just, take your left hand and grab this branch alright? Don’t even need to move the rest of you, just that one arm.
“Okay,” Charlie called down, “I’m going to try getting down. I don’t suppose one of you would be able to catch me if I fall or anything?”
“You’re joking right?” Vin said. “I got hollow bones, I’d die. Also I can’t see shit right now.”
Look if you start to fall I will just take over - very briefly - and grab a damn branch. This isn’t hard. I have seriously encountered staircases more perilous than this fucking tree.
could you possibly go one minute without yelling at me? i’m trying okay.
Fine. No yelling. Just gentle guidance. To this branch. That I would really appreciate if you could please grab in a timely manner so we both don’t end up back in a situation far worse than being twenty feet off the ground.
Charlie looked at the branch. It was pretty close. Ze wouldn’t even have to move much. Ze could do this. Ze lifted zir arm and grabbed the branch in a deathgrip. The branches beneath zir were stable. Ze could do this.
Great! Look at you, holding a branch. Now, keeping your hands where they are, go and put your left foot on this one right here okay?
The indicated branch was low. Not that much lower, really, but beneath zir. Backdropped by the unignorable distance to the ground. Charlie gingerly reached with zir leg, edging it out from under zir, reaching for the branch.
The branch Charlie was sitting on dipped from zir movement. It was slight, it could be nothing, but it was probably the first sign that it was going to break and ze was going to fall and break all zir bones and die.
Ze couldn't do this.
Charlie.
Charlie look at me. You're doing fine. The tree is fine. Just, calm down okay? Breathe. You have to move.
Charlie did have to admit that he was right in that the tree did seem to be fine and not dropping zir to zir death. Tentatively the foot reached out again, bracing against the lower branch.
That’s it now just shift your weight to the other side, mkay? Yeah just like that. See you didn’t even need me to tell you to grab that with your other hand. Although you might want to crouch a bit, standing isn’t very stable. Let your arms go over your head it’s fine.
Slowly Alcor coaxed Charlie down. The light floated down with zir. Zir feet hurt. Zir everything hurt. Everything was awful and Charlie would hate it if it weren’t for the fact that hating everything seemed like it would take too much effort. Maybe falling wouldn’t be that terrible. Except then ze would break something and everything would somehow hurt more.
Today was bullshit and needed to stop.
Everything was bullshit and needed to stop.
This tree kept scratching zir and needed to be burned to the ground.
The ground that, while we’re on the topic, needed to just be here already. Instead of.
Huh. The ground was actually pretty close.
And would you look at that, we’re practically done.
“You want a hand with that last step there?” Renee asked.
Within the soft glow of the light she could clearly be seen now. She looked about how Charlie remembered, albeit bigger now. Shiny black scales broken up with dark purple blotches that glistened in the light. Her fin (a somewhat rare feature in naga, Charlie recalled) was lighter and somewhat transparent, running down both sides of her body: one end starting at the top of her head, the other ending on her side before the navel. The external gills on the right side of her face were severed. Charlie had forgotten about that. She was wearing an old, ratty hoodie colorfully sporting the logo of some football team that Charlie had never heard of.
“I would like that, yeah,” Charlie said. “I don’t really want to drop; my feet hurt a lot.”
“I would imagine so. They look awful.” She slid up to the base of the tree, bracing against it to pull herself up. “Are you going to be alright?”
“Am I going to be alright?” Charlie repeated.
Everything hurt. Ze didn’t know where ze was. Ze had no idea how long ago anything had happened, or what happened or why or really anything. Everything hurt so much . There was someone else in zir head and he could probably take control of zir body whenever he wanted and. Was ze okay?
Charlie was laughing. Choking. Shaking a bit. Was ze going to be alright?
“Hey,” Renee said. She was right next to zir, body pushed against the tree with an arm wrapped around the trunk. “Charlie. Can you grab onto me?”
She slowly brought her other arm around zir back. Charlie leaned in, catching zir breath and clutching her tightly as she gently lowered them both down.
“I don’t know if I can walk for long,” Charlie said, quiet. A bit hoarse. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine.” She set zir down. “You’ve had a very hard night, and I can’t imagine that things have been that great before now either. How long were you in the fasted Italy anyway?”
“The what?”
“Right. I,” she rubbed at her neck. “I’m sorry, it’s been some time since I’ve been able to converse with someone lacking familiarity with my personal lexicon. When discussing the institution from which you just escaped we used to call it the facility, for lack of any manner of official title. At some point one of us made a typo initializing a rapid spiral to an absurd cycle of ever escalating nomenclatural abstraction. I could make an effort to simply call it the facility again if that would be useful to you.”
“Oh. No, I think it’s fine, now that there’s context?” Charlie said. “I don’t actually know how long I was there. I was sleeping for most of it, I think. Do you know what day it is?”
“It’s the 26th of September, I believe,” Renee said.
“Okay, so I guess it’s been about a week then?”
“Wait are you serious?” Vin said. He was about Charlie’s height, with reddish brown feathers, a large scar across his forehead and a slightly poofed crest. “We’ve been planning this shit for literal years and you just fucking stumble out after a week? That you slept through?”
“Considering what ze was capable of doing after just a week it’s almost certainly for the best. I highly doubt that their end goal was confined to the generation of magical fire, absurd intensity aside. It simply doesn’t fit with anything else we’ve seen from them.” She signed. “Regardless, we should depart. Charlie, since you’re hurt, how would you feel about the possibility of riding on my back for awhile? I should be able to handle your weight temporarily.”
“That would be great, if you’re okay with it.” Charlie said.
“You’ve never offered to let me ride on your back,” Vin commented, as Charlie carefully slipped over Renee’s fin.
“You’ve never ran around the woods barefoot until your feet are bloody after casting excessive amounts of energy for what I’m assuming is one of the first times. I’m exhausted after everything we’ve done tonight, and I’m used to this. Anyway, zir like twelve.”
“I’m almost fourteen.” Charlie objected, hugging Renee’s smooth torso.
“Really?” She asked, “I recalled our age gap being greater than that. I suppose a couple years feels more significant when you have lived through less of them.”
Now would be a fantastic time to try and get more information. They mentioned the drones were disabled? It would be great to know how they did that.
“Um,” Charlie said, “not that I’m not really greatful and all, but how are you guys even here? Or, why, more like, considering that you left already and didn’t actually know what was going on with me.”
“Seemed like a good idea,” said Vin.
“The short answer is that in our years at the faulty cist there were various things done to us that resulted in the unnatural manifestation of various magical abilities.” Renee said, “-”
“No, that’s definitely the long answer.” Vin interrupted. “The short answer is that I thought it was a good idea. The short answer Additional Context Bonus Edition™ is that I thought it was a good idea and I have a goddamn incredible intuition, because fuck me is why.”
“He possesses an artificially induced form of Sight that, among other things, manifests passively through an intuitive understanding of potentially beneficial actions to take in seemingly any circumstance.” She clarified.
“I made a bomb out of random junk, miscellaneous trivia about early transcendental weaponry, and guesswork!”
“He got the idea it would be a good idea to mount a small attack today, but an infuriating lack of why.” She said, pushing thin branches out of her way. “He had already made the bomb at that point. I can’t genuinely say I think he was actually waiting for any sort of phenomenal premonition to do it.”
“So then,” Charlie said, “You guys were acting today because you knew the drones would be down?”
“Oh no,” Renee smirked. “That was me. See I currently possess the ability to create extraordinary illusions, a skill that has been critical to the success of our escape. You might have personally witnessed this earlier if you noticed the false flame that I used as part of a distraction for the remnants of the security team. It’s also why I’m largely unconcerned about this light - I can just cut off its ability to be perceived outside of the area that we need it in.
Unfortunately for us, however, illusions, or at least my illusions, can only affect cognisant entities, which makes them effectively useless once a computer gets involved. Although theoretically there’s no reason a sufficiently advanced AI wouldn’t be able to perceive them. Anyway, considering the fact that most of the security systems here, well most places really, are largely controlled by AIs this becomes a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, and it would be were it not for the fact that paranoia over the possibility of hackers and viruses is presently quite high and almost any institution that has anything serious to lose in the event that their drones go haywire also has a monitoring station, operated by a traditionally cognisant entity, so that the whole system can be shut down in case of an emergency.
This job is horrendously tedious and in general the operators are paying so little attention that even if something did go wrong they would, ironically, only notice if they had their attention drawn to it by one of numerous automated systems. Fortunately for us, someone went and set off a bomb, causing everything to go onto high alert, and ensuring that someone was actually monitoring drone behavior. This enabled me to create an illusion over the readings that the operator was receiving to make it seem that someone had hacked the system and was controlling the drones for their own purposes, forcing them to do a full system reset.”
“This is why you never ask her to explain anything.” Vin said, jumping purposefully through a series of crunchy leaves. “You could have just said ‘I brainfucked some IT guy’ but nooooo, you gotta explain why that suspect burrito you had for breakfast was actually necessary to save some rare arctic owls from extinction.”
“Wow.” Charlie said. “You thought of everything! That’s amazing.”
“Well,” Renee put a hand to her cheek, “I would like to think that I would be capable of manifesting some rather extraordinary feats after years of careful planning and practice. And extensive research carefully spaced to reduce suspicion. And continuous monitoring of the behavior of someone who is too bored to actually do any monitoring themself. ”
“Wait how did you watch the inside of the monitoring station?” Charlie asked. “I’m guessing they didn’t let you in there.”
“She got magic vision too, but where I can see futurely she can see distantly.” Vin said quickly.
“That is a massive oversimplification.” Renee said. “This is slander. Slander on my good name of someone with clearly understood abilities and limitations. You monster.”
“Look I think we can all live with an approximate knowledge of what’s going on here and now without getting into paranoid ramblings.”
“They are not paranoid ramblings,” Renee corrected, “they are perfectly reasonable theories considering the constraints of our knowledge.”
“I think in order to count as an actual theory you kinda need to have some unconstrained knowledge.” He kicked a rock. watching detachedly as it bounced and tumbled down the growing slope to the side of the path.
“Our whole lives are knowledge!” Renee thrust her arms forward in a wide gesture. “To say that because no one ever specifically monologued their intent at us we’re completely blind to any greater picture is to erroneously discount both of our whole experiences as irrelevant and meaningless.”
“Whatever you say.”
“I’ll never understand how you can possibly be so apathetic to the reasons behind the forces governing your life.” She absently snapped a branch off a small tree as she passed it, peeling the smooth bark off in long strips.
“It’s not like any amount of theorizing ever made them stop.”
“That’s so incredibly shortsighted.” Renee said. “How do you expect to stay out if you have no indication on how they might act?”
“I dunno, the same damn magic I used to get out in the first place?” Vin sighed. “Look I ain’t saying you gotta stop or anything. I would never want to cut you off from such a source of pure unadulterated joy as conspiracy theories. That be fucking unconscionable. Instant nomination to the worst friend ever award right there. I’m just saying that sometimes it can all be a bit much is all.”
“You are aware that I’m not doing this for enjoyment, right?”
“I think I might be interested in some perfectly reasonably paranoid rambling,” Charlie said, slumped into Renee’s back. “But maybe not right now? I’m really tired.”
“I suppose I could somehow manage to hold back the full force of the typhoon of my indiscriminately plausible theorization momentarily.” Renee said, tossing the naked branch, “just know that the longer you hold it off the more the pressure will build, the more fearsome and inescapable this storm shall be. You seal your own fate.”
“Where are we going, anyway?” Charlie asked.
“Oh, we found this wonderful place.” Vin’s wings flapped, “It’s roomy, got open living space, real granite floors, natural lighting, minimalistic decor and a fantastic view of the woods.”
“It’s a cave.” Renee injected helpfully.
“It’s a cave system and it’s amazing.” Vin said. “And it’s right next this great joint full of cool shit you can just take.”
“That would be the abandoned landfill,” she clarified.
“More like the awesome landful,” he spread his fingers widely. “Everything theres’s in like, perfect condition.”
“That’s presumably because it’s older than the popularization of biodegradable plastics so everything just sits there failing to rot.”
“Weird trash cave sounds a whole lot better then sleeping in a tree,” Charlie said. “And while we’re still in the neighborhood of questionable plausible speculation, there is one potential problem that I’m kinda confused about, and I think it should probably have come up by now? They still have my skin.”
Oh, you’re a selkie.
That’s actually important you know. You really should have mentioned earlier.
“I would imagine the most probable reasons it hasn’t come up” Renee said, ”would be that either they left it behind it behind in the evacuation, in which case it’s probably going to become an issue soon, or that whatever they did to you affected the coat’s hold. I’m not entirely sure how the whole coat binding thing works in the first place so it’s hard for me to speculate with confidence. Either way, there isn’t really anything we can do about it now so just, try not to dissolve into seafoam in the meantime.”
“The seafoam things a myth.”
“Well that’s good. I would hate this long-belated reunion to be sullied by an untimely demise.”
“No, the death things real. We just leave behind a normal corpse is all.”
“Oh.” Renee went quiet.
Don’t worry kiddo, that coat’s connected to me too now.
And I wont let anyone do á͚̗̙̻̘ń͈͔y̳t͎͓͠h̫̤̰̘ͅi̺̙̣̞͡n̷̬͈g͍̰̜̘̝̩ to it