You had a table full of vaguely occult items and a test to pass.
A test, that you had been assured of your well being in, yet you couldn't help but wonder if you were truly safe given that you couldn't tell exactly what you were hearing in the walls about you.
Had they put a bird in a crawl space to accomplish this?
A very large and unhappy sounding bird.
A bird that stunk like swamp water and hate.
You had a table full of crap that you couldn't discern a use for, replica sacrificial knives that looked like they'd snap the moment they were used, charms that looked like they were mass produced imitations due to how perfectly machined they were.
There was even a dream catcher or two in there.
Were these all foci for them to get some form of reading from anyone with potential, without providing them with a tool capable of properly channeling their powers?
Why, for that matter, were you allowing fear to have you so suddenly believe all this?
Fear.
No, it wasn't fear.
This went beyond the primal terror that plagued you.
This table was laughable though.
The sheer selection of faux occult items was great, but there was nothing here what so ever that you felt drawn to.
No religious symbol, no fur, feather or idol.
The trinkets and charms were nothing more than distracting and sparkly jewelery.
No, there was nothing here for you.
You straightened your back as you stood upright, your arms folding over your chest.
There was nothing here for you other than fear and you would have no part in that any longer, you wouldn't allow the primal feelings that gripped at you beyond your rational senses to control you.
"I'm done here," you called out, figuring that they would have microphones permitting them to hear you.
"Does nothing on the table appeal to your senses?" came a response over a concealed speaker. This was a voice you didn't recognise, though their identity wasn't of importance at this moment.
"There is nearly nothing upon the table that would appeal to anyone. Everything is either a cheap imitation or lacks the connection someone would need to use it," you responded. Your knowledge of more occult matters helped at times. Some of these things had to be made by a practicioner historically, others wouldn't work without proper anoitation.
The religious symbols you were unsure of, but you assumed that without faith they were but iron.
None of those symbols had a place with you, you didn't believe in a god you couldn't touch.
No, you didn't believe in anything you couldn't witness, and right now all you were witnessing was apathy taking the place of fear.
This wasn't how it should be, this limp experience with a caged animal hidden behind a wall used to stir a reaction.
This moment should have been one of excitement and adventure, one where you had the truth of the matter revealed to you - one where you could feel it, grasp it, taste that power.
Power, that was what you wanted to see.
And here you were, listening to the pathetic screeching of their pet while they awkwardly observed you.
"Would you like to take another look at the table before we reschedule this specific test?"
"Why would you reschedule it?"
"It's a test to see if you can be provoked into revealing something we can pick up on our instruments. If you're done, we'll run you through a few tests that may assist in-"
"How many times will I be run through that cycle?"
"As many times as it takes to either gain results or rule out any potential abilities."
"How likely is it that I'll-" you paused. "No, don't answer that. Right, provoking results, table full of..." you muttered as you took a deep breath.
It was truly futile though to tell you to grasp something you didn't believe in and use it to accomplish something you thought impossible.
The sole thing you believed in here was yourself, as that was the only thing you knew you could trust. You were, even mildly addled still by the bump to your head from earlier, confident that you'd see nothing unless it came from within.
You just needed to lower your guard, allow those walls that you had built up over a lifetime to fall.
You needed to relax, to reach deep down.
To grasp that spark deep within you that whispered sweet promises of what you would accomplish if you just let go.
There was a name for that voice.
Hope.
It was your hope that dared to voice itself in the face of such insanity as you letting go of everything you knew to be true, to find something deep within you that made you more than just the mundane girl everyone knew.
Fear and uncertainty couldn't persist in the face of such hope, hope so innocent and naive.
Child like.
It was everything you had ever dreamed of being when you were little, every power fantasy you had ever had rolled into one.
You were a princess.
A queen.
A lady.
A ruler of a nation.
A goddess.
"I..." you breathed as you trembled with something far more powerful than uncertainty. This was every dream you had ever had singing in unison as you felt your body hum with a strange power, a power that was oh so familiar and yet ancient and alien. It was a power that you knew immediately was not the equivilent of some cheap parlour trick granted to you by a toy like equivilent of a witches charms or a mystics runes.
No, this power was a power that came from deep within you.
This was your power.
"I am DONE here," you yelled as you lunged for the wall in a moment of sheer insanity. For a moment the world felt less real, as if the underlying fabric was little more than ripples to be dispersed about your form.
You could feel the scream of world about you as it tried to reassert order threatening to snap you back to reality, yet your hand plunged forwards and into the concrete as if it were no more than fluid.
The majority of a solid was made up of the space between atoms.
If the atoms wouldn't disperse, if they wouldn't flow about you, then you would flow between them.
Atomic bonds could kiss your ass.
Your hand closed about what you knew lurked behind, pulling it back sharply.
And then you paused, dumbstruck for a moment as you found yourself face to face with...
A speaker?
You could see the wires trailing back through the wall where you'd pulled it through, the sound of a bird coming through it clearly - at least that was, while you still held it.
The moment you released it the sound coming from it cut off - while the sounds from the rest of the room continued.
Briefly.
They too fell silent as you felt a sensation of warm and wet heat running down the front of your face.
Blood, your nose was bleeding again from... From... Some strange sensation of pressure, like a cosmic backlash had just hit you for what you'd dared to do to it.
You staggered, your hand rising to prevent blood from ending up on your top, then stumbled as you fell flat upon your ass.
Laughing.
You were Alyssa, and you believed in yourself.
Now, nothing could stop you.
Not while you believed in yourself.
The door to the testing chamber swung open as the medic, Millicent and a man in a lab coat rushed in, the medic rushing to mop at your face with a bandage as he pulled various items from a container with a red cross daubed over it.
"What the actual fuck did she just do?" came Millicent's voice as the man in the labcoat stared dubstruck at the speaker that dangled from the solid concrete wall.
"I don't know, i've never seen anything like this in my time here," came the mans response as he gingerly reached for the wall. "The walls hot where she put her hand... Into it," he muttered, while the medic waved a small light before your eyes.
"Can you count to ten for me?" came the medics voice as you made a show of wilfully turning your head away from the light.
"Do I have to?" you responded, yawning as you did so. "I'm very tired all of a sudden... Hungry too. Did I pass the test?"
"Yes, you have to. I need to make sure you're okay after... That."
"Okay," you responded, before falling silent for a moment.
"Well?"
"I'm being defiant, you can't make me satisfy your fetish for sequential strings of numbers, nor your oppressive desire to allow them to only briefly see double digits before they are relegated to a lowly numerical state."
"She's fine," came Millicent's voice as you rubbed at your eyes. "She's too busy being a brat to die on us,"
"That's miss brat to you," you huffed.
"How can you be so dismissive after she just did something impossible?" asked the man in the labcoat as he nudged Millicent with an elbow.
"She pulled what, geomancy?" Millicent shrugged.
"You didn't feel the power coming from her when she pulled this out the wall?"
"I can't say I did."
"Can I go now?" you asked, as you started to struggle to stand. Your arms and legs felt like jelly now, yet you were in oddly high spirits for how exausted you felt.
Perhaps it was just an adrenaline induced sense of euphoria, but you'd take it right now.
"I think we should-" the man in the labcoat started, only for Millicent to cut him off.
"No, you don't need to test her further, right now what we need to do is-"
"Hey, I'm right here," you huffed as you pushed the medic's hands aside and hauled yourself to your feet. "And right now, I want to... To... Eat like, everything. You have no idea how hungry I am," you grumbled as you rubbed at your stomach.
This was a strange sense of hunger that you felt though, one that you felt wasn't going to be possible to properly sate just by eating.
Maybe it'd take eating and lazing around for a bit until you felt rested.
But... You couldn't quite justify doing that, could you?
No, they were going to want to further test you, and-
Wait, logic applied here.
"Hey, don't you have the authority to say that my well being comes before their tests?" you asked as you turned towards the medic.
"Technically I can make that call if I believe-"
"All this blood and a concussion isn't reason enough?"
"I... You have a point actually," the medic sighed as he turned to look at the man in the lab coat. "You'll have to make do with the results you have so far, she's not going to give you many answers dead."
"Her results say she's an immortal."
"My authority over-rides your own."
As they bickered you stumbled towards the door, holding your head in your hands as you did so. Everything felt over-exposed and too loud, as if the volume on everything was being gradually turned up - even the clinical colours of the facilities walls.
The fact that colour felt loud to you at the moment was enough to tell you that enough was enough - You'd done something amazing and now you felt like you had an oncoming hangover. Maybe you'd get bacon and eggs for your replacement breakfast.
That sounded nice right now.
Even as the sound of the two men arguing rose in intensity behind you, a familiar voice echoed in your ears.
"Come on, lets get you out of here," came Millicent's words, filled a clear disapproval for the escalating argument behind you.
"Do you want to get breakfast too?" you asked her, with a bright, though slightly spacey smile.
"Breakfast sounds wonderful. I'm sure the Boss'll come out of his cave to join us," she laughed softly as she placed her arm about your shoulders to guide you towards the elevator.
As you stepped into the elevator you found yourself wondering what your next course of action was going to be.
You could of course pig out with breakfast, then sleep off this exausting experience.
Or you could tell her boss that you wanted answers.
Or... You could even do something crazy and submit yourself to further tests.
There was also phoning your sister and seeing how she, as well as your family were doing.
The question was, what was your biggest priority?Fire: 3 (Markswoman)
Earth: 3 (? ? ?)
Air: 4 (? ? ?)
Water: 4 (Detecting Deception)
Gift of Mystery:
Perfect Form - Forever in your prime.
Spark - ? ? ?
---
((If it's not a spoiler, just what direction were you hoping for?))
I would also want to know this
Yup
Mostly, the things I'd have picked myself lost out to more popular choices - I'd have personally gone with her as a witch for example. I'd much rather remain flexible and let the players dictate the direction of the story, than railroad things just because I wanted them though.
There's been a missed opportunity to give a little of the story of the prior games intended ending.
It'll come again soon enough though!
My vote is still on no supernatural abilities, just supernatural skills, but I suspect I'm outvoted.
Sorry! You're outvoted - If it's any consolation, she'll still take time to hone her abilities to any level of signifigance. Even after that, it may still be preferable to approach issues other ways than to abuse her power.
messing with people's minds.
There's always a possibility down the line to develop that kind of ability.
Author
Topic: I told them I could be anything... (Read 27852 times)