A) A tree in the Black Forest mountain range, Germany
A) Safe serums
B) Watch the cat
Your observation finds the cat finally manifesting some kind of unnatural ability... maybe. The wandering feline spends months in the care of a Turkish mechanist, or perhaps the other way around. Your drones note no changes in the cat's behavior or any proof of ability use, but they do find very interesting if subtle changes in the human's actions. The man is in the grip of depression and disappointment when the cat finds him, but within weeks the fires of his ambition have banished the darkness. He takes to long walks in the city and delves deep into the study of all things mechanical, spending sleepless nights in libraries or poring over his books with the cat purring in his lap. He orders Western books on engineering, particularly on aeronautics, and studies their foreign languages with newfound passion.
He is very fond of the cat, but sees it as just an ordinary animal - one of countless strays making their home in the bustling city. It's evident to you that the cat's having some kind of effect, though. When the human begins an ambitious construction of a primitive dirigible, the cat suddenly leaves. It strays out of Constantinople without pausing, following some scent only it can recognize. The pattern becomes clearer when it finds its next caretaker - an Austrian scientist and explorer returning home after visiting the site of the Living Inferno. The cat adopts him as affectionately as it adopted the Turk, despite this man's rather less friendly demeanor. The two men have their differences, but there is something they share over all else: their curiosity and their ambition, which burn even more brightly after the cat finds them.
Soon the scientist dreams of a flying ship that could carry men over the ice to the North Pole in a daring expedition. When he requests funding for such a project, the cat disappears. It hops on a ship unnoticed and crosses the Mediterranean all the way to the city of Gibraltar, where it finds a curious young woman left giddy and excited after a hot air balloon ride. The cat's presence ensures that the excitement lingers, and grows into something far greater - a wish to transcend society's role for her, and take to the skies on her own...
The cat grows on you through your observations. Is it the flashing gleam of her eyes that brings so many to name her after flame and fire? Whenever she's there, they dream of flight and the wide open skies. The dreams grow, as do their will to make them reality. Yet she leaves them behind, each one in turn, seizing any chance to escape adoption into a subservient
pet. She gives them what they didn't even know they wanted. Even if they fail to see that, they never forget her.
It takes a beating in Marseille, intruding into the wrong tomcat's territory. In Girona, local children throw rocks at it in the uncaring cruelty of the adolescent. She never walks the same again. The wife of one of her chosen tries to kill her with poison in Lisbon, but she gets away with a scare and an episode of puking that leaves her weak and at the mercy of Fate. Soon after, in Coimbra, she lingers for longer than usual with a kindly parish priest and enters a fiery courtship with a young and self-sure village cat. Finding her belly heavy with kittens, she stops for the first time in months - but knowing that as soon as she is strong again, she will take to the road again.
***
The cat's proving almost a distraction. You realize you haven't made any injections in months and hurry to sift through your observation reports for anything worthwhile.
You've dealt enough with thinking creatures. It's time to turn to humbler, non-aware forms of life, namely, a tree. It's no ordinary tree, but rather a mighty and old oak tree on a hilltop in the depths of what's called the Black Forest in the lands of the Germans. Noble is its towering visage, strong its crooked limbs, radiant and vibrant its leaves, far-reaching and ancient its roots. It is a tree of legend, a blessed bearer of life, an exemplar among things that grow!
...okay, it's a tree. You don't usually waste serums on singular plants, but why the hell not. It'll be an experiment. You've chosen a place which humans pass fairly often, so however it turns out, they're bound to find out sooner or later.
You shock Machine until it finds you the next suitable set of Safe serums. They're an interesting mix, though you're not sure how exactly they're going to map to a
tree.The options this time around are...A) 'Tinker Red'. Safe.
Effects: Grants a creation power, enhances memory, creativity. Powers are affected by user's emotions.
Manifestations: mental, physical.
Power Level: Average-Strong.
B) ’Consul Green’. Safe.
Effects: Grants sensory powers, an extreme-range transportation power, and a resistance power, enhances intellect, empathy, social insight. Powers are affected by surroundings.
Manifestations: plant life, sound.
Power Level: Middling-Average.
C) 'Regent Black'. Safe.
Effects: Grants a defensive power, a control power and a resistance power, enhances willpower. Powers harm the user, usually physically.
Manifestations: water, mental.
Power Level: Average-Strong.
D) 'Jester Blue'. Safe.
Effects: Grants an illusion power, a mobility power and an offensive power, enhances speed, reflexes.
Manifestations: light, energy.
Power Level: Middling-Average.
E) 'Agent Orange'. Safe.
Effects: Grants a concealment power, a close-range offensive power and resistance powers, enhances memory, perception. User is able to use powers only in separate transformed form.
Manifestations: physical, extradimensional.
Author
Topic: Caveman's Arsenal [SG] (1820, Injection #5: The Tree of Desires) (Read 13911 times)