I don't even know...
Title: Genius Society
Theme: #21- Student
Claim: Robin
Words: 2559
Rating: K+/T (does language count?)
Warnings: AU. Seriously AU. And I kind of wandered off around the end (since I have a hard time staying with the main plot) so it might seem like my writing is just babbling. Ehh...
And I really strayed away from the theme. I'm so awful. *hides in shame*
This is heavily based on Harrison Bergeron, a short satire I read not too long ago. It's like one of those freaky future world things where everyone is basically the same, meaning you can't be smart or stupid- just average.
"D-. Try harder next time, Luffy."
"Okay!"
"Good job, Ace. C+!"
"Heh."
"Mm... Usopp, you can do better next time. B."
"S-sure."
The instructor paused beside Robin's desk. The rest of the class quieted down and watched them expectantly. Robin stared at at the scratches in the surface on the wood and refused to look up at him.
"Nico... A+." he said, setting her graded test down before her. He tapped his foot on the tiled floor, waiting for a response.
"I'm sorry, sir." Robin quickly said, her eyes still downcast. She winced as the recievers on her temples sent mild electric shocks coursing through her head for a brief few seconds. Two students around her cried out softly, clutching their own headsets.
"Is that all? Are you even trying?"
"Sir, I can't exactly help it if I-" Robin was cut off by another shock, briefly ruining her train of thought before she recalled what she was going to say. "I can't help it if I know things."
"You should get an adjustment. Increase the frequency. That might help." he suggested. "Class dismissed."
Robin remained in her seat as the rest of the students began to file out of the room. She shakily stood up, her head ringing from the shrill siren that her headset set off in her ears.
"Oi, Robin!" Luffy bounded up to her, his bag bouncing behind him. Ace and Usopp were following him at a much more leisurely pace. "Wanna go get a burger with us?"
"I can't." Robin warily eyed the instructor, who was scrutinizing the four teens as if they were doing something illegal. "I should go see the doctor about my headset."
"Aw, but you just saw him a week ago!" Luffy frowned, fingering the recievers on his temples absentmindedly. "If he does... um..."
"Increase?" Robin offered.
"Ah, right. Increase. If he increases the shock thingy, your brain might get... uh..."
"Fried."
"Uh huh." Luffy nodded, his adam's apple bobbing. "Fried. Ooh, guys, let's go get some french fries! And burgers!"
--X--
"Square root of 5476."
"Seventy four." Robin answered. She hissed in pain as Chopper pulled another wire, increasing the intensity of the shock.
"Not good. Okay, um, twenty ninth president."
"Warren... Warren-" Robin struggled to remember the answer as her vision blurred and distorted from the electricity. The insistent ringing in her ears didn't do much to help. "Warren G. Harding."
Chopper sighed and removed the wires from Robin's headset. "I'm really sorry, Robin, but this is as high as the levels go."
"I see." Robin squeezed her eyes shut, lights dancing behind her eyelids.
"If it were up to me, I'd take that thing off- off." Chopper stuttered, his eyes dazed as his own recievers administered a shock. He blinked rapidly. "What was I talking about?"
"My brain."
"Oh, right. Well, there's not much I can do. Your mind doesn't respond as drastically to even the highest intensity your cells can take. You're just too smart, Robin." Chopper said sadly, looping the wires back onto their appropriate hooks. He scratched at the puckered skin around the recievers clamped to his temples.
"I don't understand." Robin frowned.
"What was that?" Chopper asked, rubbing his head.
"Society will inevitably fail without the intelligence needed to support such a growing economy and population. Look at us, Doctor." Robin said, ignoring the fireworks going off in her ears. "Our technology has hardly progressed since the Two Hundred Thirteenth commandment had been approved. In fact, I'd say it has regressed since then. Everyone is... stupid."
"No, average." Chopper corrected. "And it was before the Equality Law was passed, when everyone was fighting each other because some were too smart and others weren't. And since they- ow... they... what was I talking about?"
Robin stared at the doctor for a moment before reaching up and fumbling with the straps keeping her headset on. Chopper yelped and swatted her hands away.
"You can't take it off!" Chopper said shrilly, glancing around nervously.
"Well, Doctor, I can't very well reach my fullest potential if I'm being hindered by this contraption, can I not?" Robin's icy blue eyes bore into Chopper, making him gulp nervously.
"You could at least pretend you don't know the answers to things..."
"And where would the purpose be in that?" Robin stood up and walked away as Chopper whimpered and clutched his head from another electric shock.
--X--
Robin watched figures moving around on the TV screen with disinterest, her fingers running over a crumpled index card she had found on her mother's bed.
She sat up straight as the screen flickered to a different scene. It was time for the daily executions.
"Hiruluk. For attempting to patent new medicines une... unesus... unecessary to mankind's benefits." a reporter read off a clipboard. A grinning old man was brought up to the platform surrounded by the gunners. He stared directly at the camera.
"I'll enjoy watching your average world crumble from the skies above." the old man laughed before the gunfire drowned out his words.
"Nico Olvia." the reporter read. Robin's breath hitched and her grip tightened around the paper. "For attempting to revive the records of the Un- un..." the reporter squinted at the clipboard. "Unnneeekul. Unequal. For, uh, reading things. Yeah."
Robin bit her lip as she watched her mother being led up to the platform. Despite being moments away from death, Olvia still held her head high and coldly regarded the gunners.
"Don't give up, Robin. Go and live." Olvia smiled at the camera. Robin choked and slammed a fist on the remote. The screen blinked and Olvia disappeared. Robin was suddenly aware of how empty and quiet the apartment was. She burrowed her head in her hands and lay there on the couch until the sun rose, her head ringing.
--X--
Robin reread the worn out index card for the umpteenth time, her footsteps echoing down the dank, abandoned alley. She stopped in front of an iron door that had wooden planks nailed all over it and knocked twice.
"Who the hell are you?" a female voice demanded through a slit in the door that would have gone unnoticed to an untrained eye.
"My mother sent me." Robin quietly said. She nearly stumbled when an electric shock caught her off guard. "M-my mother. Nico Olvia."
"Olvia." the door slid open. Before Robin stood a girl around her age with hair that reminded her of marigolds. "You're Robin."
"Yes."
"Well, don't just stand out there like a moron. Get in!" the girl yanked her inside and quickly shut the door again. "Oh my god, you have no idea how glad I am that we found another one. Olvia... she's said enough about you. I'm sorry about what happened to her. Come with me. I'm Nami."
"My mother didn't exactly give details before she was arrested." Robin said. Nami didn't reply. They continued down a dimly lit concrete corridor that vaguely reminded Robin of the old subway systems she had once seen in books her mother had hidden from the Handicappers. Robin suddenly gasped and stumbled into Nami as a harsh screech resonated in her head.
"Are you stupid? Get that damn thing off your head!" Nami held the trembling teen steady and snapped the straps of the headset off. The ear phones clattered to the ground as well as the metal pieces. Nami sighed and tore the recievers off Robin's temples. The little discs sparked and crackled before they were crushed beneath a set of heels.
"I..." Robin straightened up. She gingerly touched the raw skin beside her eyes where the recievers once were. "I thought-"
"The law? Give me a break. Fuck the system." Nami smirked. "We've got our own ways of doing things here."
"...!" Robin's eyes widened as they suddenly emerged into what appeared to be an enormous lobby, metal stairs spiraling up and the sun shining through glass windows. Men and women were walking around, their heads free of the handicapping headsets people were supposed to wear. "Mom was right."
"Well, duh." Nami rolled her eyes and smiled. "Welcome to our world, Robin."
--X--
"Not all the "smart" people were killed off. Some, like my own step-mom, managed to group together and live in secret. See, the "average" people out there have the numbers. And the Handicappers make our mission harder." Nami said as they walked through a hallway of carpet and chrome. "This place is safely hidden by natural geography. And that gives us an advantage. The people out there forgot about nature. They just depend on their government to do things for them."
"But then the government is above average intelligence, then."
"Well, yeah. They're the nutcases who think it's better if everyone's a vegetable and lemming. Damn lemmings." Nami scowled. "See, our goal here in our little secret society of geniuses is to restore what we used to have. We're going to plan a revolt soon, to revive what the human race used to be. We're still finding recruits like you- people who're above average. They're hard to find these days."
"Revolutionaries." Robin smiled, remembering the old fairy tales her mom read to her as a child.
"I guess, but we're more subtle about it. Incognito. Undercover. Spies." Nami said. They paused by a window to look at the mountains below. "Like Usopp. USOPP!"
"Sheesh, quit yelling." a figure suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"What was that?" Nami held up a fist.
"Nothing! Nothing!" the boy fidgeted when he saw Robin looking at him curiously. He raised a hand in greeting. "Hey, Robin."
"You people were watching me the entire time. In other words, you were monitoring my process." Robin said, realization dawning upon her.
"We wanted you to join us earlier. Your mom was really stressed out about it." Usopp said nervously. "But protocol and all that crap. We had to make sure you actually had the potential... then Olvia was captured. And Hiruluk. He was one of our greatest doctors."
"I see." Robin nodded, her eyes never leaving the mountain view. She had never even knew that such untouched nature still existed.
--X--
"You'll bunk with me for the time being." Nami said, sliding a metal door open. "Do you want to go back outside to get your things from your apartment?"
"No. I had nothing there to lose." Robin shook her head. She smiled when she saw the bookshelf in the back of the neat little room. "You have books."
"Well, of course." Nami said incredulously. "The library is better, though. I'll show you the entire society tomorrow. You must be really tired."
"Nami, why am I here?" Robin suddenly asked. Without the headset constantly blurring her mind, she found herself constantly being bombarded by thoughts and questions, theories and ideas. "I understand you all are trying to restore human society, but why am I here?"
"To help us." Nami said as if it were the simplest thing in the world. "We could use all the help we can get."
"Doctor Chopper." Robin suddenly remembered the little doctor who had tried to help her in all the wrong ways. "And everyone else. My classmates."
"Someday, I promise. Someday we'll overthrow that handicapping government and teach everyone how to be above average. We'll destroy all those damn headsets and start printing books again. Hell, we'll start printing money like our grandparents used to have!" Nami's eyes sparkled. "Money! Lots and lots of money!"
"And until then?"
"We learn more, of course. After all, potential is just an estimation. But you probably already know that." Nami grinned brightly, thumping Robin on the back.
--X--
"Astounding. I never knew there was so much." Robin said, surrounded by dozens of open books as she skimmed through pages and pages.
"I can see you're enjoying our archives." Nami said, chewing on a muffin.
"Thousands and thousands of years of history have been kept secret from mainstream society." Robin said, flipping madly through a book on her left. "If I wasn't so excited about reading all of this, I would have the urge to snap necks and break spines."
"That's a pleasant thought." Nami muttered.
"My mother knew all about this. This is where she got her books from." Robin leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, gently rubbing her slightly-sore temples. "I do believe humankind has some chance of rebounding from the dredges of monotonous life... if they don't collapse into themselves first from corruption and fried brains."
"What are you, a pessimist?" Nami shot.
"And yet there's still a whole universe of things to learn." Robin looked out the window. "Most astronomy was lost about one thousand three hundred and eighty seven years ago- an estimation, of course- but we can get it all back. We can learn how to read the stars again."
"Whoa, whoa, I thought you were focusing on history." Nami held up her hands.
"Yes, I am." Robin looked at her, slightly puzzled. She resumed to skimming madly through the books. "So many centuries, bursting with the fruit of humankind's sucesses. The Dynastic Cycles, ancient civilizations, countless wars, the Age of Pirates."
"You read too fast." Nami said, opening a bottle of water.
"It's all so much, my mind..." Robin's eyes suddenly closed and she slumped over a thick almanac. Nami stood up in alarm.
"Hey, Robin. Robin! Hey!" Nami shook her and prodded her limp arm. "Hey!"
"Bothering the scholars again?" a man who had been napping in an armchair nearby opened one eye. "Typical, Nami."
"Shut up, Zoro!" Nami hissed, lightly slapping Robin. "She just passed out!"
"No shit. She only got her headset and recievers taken off yesterday. Usually it takes a week for a mind to adjust." Zoro yawned.
"Hm." Nami half-smiled. She sat back down and waited for Robin to wake up again.
--X--
"There's lots of other people here. You'll meet everyone over time." Usopp chattered, tinkering with what looked like a cross between a toilet and a microwave. "Brook's really good in musical arts, Sanji makes the best food in the whole society, and Franky can turn a tin can into a jetpack."
"No one in the outside world has such talents." Robin frowned, handing Usopp a wrench.
"Nope." Usopp agreed. "It's so everyone's equal, remember?"
"Fuck the system!" Nami called from across the workshop.
--X--
"When will I return to the outside?" Robin asked, looking up from a book.
"Whenever you see fit." Nami replied, brushing knots out of her hair in front of a mirror.
"No one here seems to be in charge." Robin noted.
"Of course not. We don't need leaders telling us what to do. We're smarter than that." Nami tapped the side of her head and smiled. "Of course, we do work off each other's suggestions and advice and stuff, but we're kind of like a people-government."
"Are there any books on politics I can look at?" Robin asked.
"Yup."
"What do you study, Nami?"
"Geography. Cartography. Stuff like that." Nami answered carelessly. "After the revolt is over, I'll be free to travel to re-map the world. All the old maps were burned, and satellites are just space junk now. All thanks to the government's equality program."
"Screw the system." Robin smiled teasingly.
"Fuck the system." Nami corrected.
Well... I couldn't think of a better ending. And everyone totally sounds like hippies in this one. I apologize, it's midnight and my mind's half-dead.