[Fic] Addition of Errors
Muse: Cain McKay
Word count: 667 words
Prompt: We have declared war on error. so be warned: Random is resistance! - I repeat: random is resistance! for ryuu_no_hime
Cain's eyes were starting to ache. He was tired, at least physically, and it was frustrating to high hell because he needed an answer. Something had gone wrong in her treatment--something had broken her beyond repair. She wasn't supposed to run away. She wasn't supposed to leave a sea of bodies in her wake. So what had gone wrong?
He reached across his cluttered desk to grab a file packed with charts. In the early years, Lydia's progress had been good--she was promising, scored well on standardized tests and hit each mark on development charts. Things had been going according to plan. And then she turned sixteen, and that was the first obvious error that had occurred. A mistake he had to take into account, misread calculations, a set-back--but not the death of the experiment. He had adjusted her treatment, chartered her progresses and continued onward.
But something had gone wrong. He had thought she was getting better--that they had that connection that was going to fix her, that she would follow him to the end of the earth. He had raised her, he had taken care of her for her whole life, and he was on his way to saving her from himself.
So where had it all gone wrong?
Cain's pounding eyes scanned the charts once again, glanced over the reports he had written. He was missing something, and it wasn't just the tiny Rakshasa demon who had run off. There was something else he had missed, something hiding in the data he had looked over. She wouldn't have left if there hadn't been an error--if everything had gone according to plan, she would have been fixed by now. He would have saved her.
But there was nothing. Everything that he had planned out had seemingly gone just as he'd wanted it. She had been improving--she could lay almost perfectly still with a small amount of angel blood in the room, if he turned on the faucet close to her head. Her episodes were becoming less and less frequent--she was settling down. Or he was breaking her down. Either way, it had been working. He had been fixing her.
So why did she bolt? Where was the glitch, where was the error he was overlooking? He threw the charts back down on his desk and sat back for a moment, staring resentfully at the mess before suddenly kicking the desk and thrusting himself from his chair. His heart raced as he paced the floor, either from the sudden exertion or from too much coffee--or maybe even sleep deprivation. He rubbed his eyes, then ran his fingers through his hair, his teeth clenched as he went back and forth across his office. Then, suddenly, he stopped, one hand resting in the hair on the back of his head as he stared intently at the floor.
Cain knew what had gone wrong.
He was in too deep, too close to the project. He had invested so much into fixing Lydia that he refused to take any signs as failure, refused to really look at his evidence, refused to let himself entertain the idea that she was beyond fixing.
Except she wasn't. He had proved that. He had taken investors down to see her in the experiment, archangels that had to curl their hands into fists to keep themselves from trying to attack her. She had a better control of her Calling than they did, and it was all thanks to him.
It wasn't over, Cain realized. There was no failure. Just another setback, just another stage in the experiment. From now on, there would be no more mistakes, no more errors. all he had to do was find her, do a period of observation and adjust her treatment according to what he saw. But he had to find her soon--she was vulnerable to so much right now. He had to get her back--he had to save her.
Word count: 667 words
Prompt: We have declared war on error. so be warned: Random is resistance! - I repeat: random is resistance! for ryuu_no_hime
Cain's eyes were starting to ache. He was tired, at least physically, and it was frustrating to high hell because he needed an answer. Something had gone wrong in her treatment--something had broken her beyond repair. She wasn't supposed to run away. She wasn't supposed to leave a sea of bodies in her wake. So what had gone wrong?
He reached across his cluttered desk to grab a file packed with charts. In the early years, Lydia's progress had been good--she was promising, scored well on standardized tests and hit each mark on development charts. Things had been going according to plan. And then she turned sixteen, and that was the first obvious error that had occurred. A mistake he had to take into account, misread calculations, a set-back--but not the death of the experiment. He had adjusted her treatment, chartered her progresses and continued onward.
But something had gone wrong. He had thought she was getting better--that they had that connection that was going to fix her, that she would follow him to the end of the earth. He had raised her, he had taken care of her for her whole life, and he was on his way to saving her from himself.
So where had it all gone wrong?
Cain's pounding eyes scanned the charts once again, glanced over the reports he had written. He was missing something, and it wasn't just the tiny Rakshasa demon who had run off. There was something else he had missed, something hiding in the data he had looked over. She wouldn't have left if there hadn't been an error--if everything had gone according to plan, she would have been fixed by now. He would have saved her.
But there was nothing. Everything that he had planned out had seemingly gone just as he'd wanted it. She had been improving--she could lay almost perfectly still with a small amount of angel blood in the room, if he turned on the faucet close to her head. Her episodes were becoming less and less frequent--she was settling down. Or he was breaking her down. Either way, it had been working. He had been fixing her.
So why did she bolt? Where was the glitch, where was the error he was overlooking? He threw the charts back down on his desk and sat back for a moment, staring resentfully at the mess before suddenly kicking the desk and thrusting himself from his chair. His heart raced as he paced the floor, either from the sudden exertion or from too much coffee--or maybe even sleep deprivation. He rubbed his eyes, then ran his fingers through his hair, his teeth clenched as he went back and forth across his office. Then, suddenly, he stopped, one hand resting in the hair on the back of his head as he stared intently at the floor.
Cain knew what had gone wrong.
He was in too deep, too close to the project. He had invested so much into fixing Lydia that he refused to take any signs as failure, refused to really look at his evidence, refused to let himself entertain the idea that she was beyond fixing.
Except she wasn't. He had proved that. He had taken investors down to see her in the experiment, archangels that had to curl their hands into fists to keep themselves from trying to attack her. She had a better control of her Calling than they did, and it was all thanks to him.
It wasn't over, Cain realized. There was no failure. Just another setback, just another stage in the experiment. From now on, there would be no more mistakes, no more errors. all he had to do was find her, do a period of observation and adjust her treatment according to what he saw. But he had to find her soon--she was vulnerable to so much right now. He had to get her back--he had to save her.