WEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!
Dear Musashi,
It begins!! Huzzah. And I have posting. I felt very bad because everyone else already had writing way before me, but I caught up in no time. I don't think mine is terribly good, and I end my section rather abruptly, but eh. Whatever. Oh, and it makes no sense. But who needs sense? Really.
BOOK I: A LOADED GUN
Name: Charlie
Order: Orion
Class: Domination
Sex: Female
Excess: Fire starter
They never told us what they did to us.
You would think that would have been the first clue that maybe we couldn’t trust them, and maybe it was. I don’t really know. The beginning days were rather confusing, they always start that way. After the Rebirthing process things start to become blurry.
Is it ok to just jump into things like this? I feel like maybe I should explain things first. I mean, I’m not quite sure what’s the point of recording this anyway, but everyone seems to think it’s important. So it can be remembered.
Heh. Remember. That’s ironic. I was talking about the Rebirthing process, right? Well that’s the thing. I can’t really remember what happened. And I don’t remember anything before that, either. Whatever they did, they made sure that we couldn’t remember who we were and where we came from. I guess that’s why it took us so long to catch on. It was so easy to accept that we were just new people. New name, new place to live.
…What do I remember about the past? Not much. It’s hazy. I remember the ocean, I can see one, curving across the sides of a hill, just coming into view as we round a corner. I figure that means I must have lived by an ocean, but damned if I can tell you which one. I remember having parents, and a little brother. But I don’t remember their faces, much less their names.
My earliest memory was fire- and pain. Mostly fire though. That was my Rebirthing, but that only figures, because that’s my Excess. Everyone’s Rebirthing is different though.
Jezu, I’m not being very coherent, am I? It’s been so long… and it’s weird to go back and try and explain the way you’ve lived. I mean, for us it’s just normal, right? So how can I go back and talk about something that’s happened to me as if no one else understands. You try explaining to me how you live, and see if you can do it any better.
Excess is what they called it. Our “powers.” They split us into four groups based on our Excess, and they gave us a rank depending on how strong our Excess was. Our Excess was our life, it made us. What we could do, who we talked to, who we hung out with, what privileges we got, it was all based on our Excess. I’m a Orion Excess-Domination, so I never really questioned the fairness of that situation. I mean, Domination is pretty far up there, you know? So I had a pretty sweet life. And fire, well. Everyone respects fire. I never really talked to any Excess-Angel people, but then, I wouldn’t have really seen them around. They usually disappeared real fast. They weak didn’t last long.
Our Excess was the only thing They were interested in. They they they. I keep saying “they.” I mean they scientists, the whitecoats, doctors, whatever. It didn’t matter who “they” were. They were different- they didn’t have Excess. And yet they were more powerful than any of us. Someone- I think it was Os, pointed out how that didn’t seem right. But that’s just the way it went. They were God.
Not everyone opposed the way things were. Obviously. I don’t know what exactly started our dissension, but I suppose it began when Phoenix killed Fetch.
I still remember what she said that day, only because it rang back later. “Welcome to Hell.” I don’t know why she said that.
Later though, when we were in Iso. That’s when I remembered her saying it. Because that was Hell.
They really tried to break us there. They almost succeeded too. And it’s not because we were strong, that we held out for so long. It’s just- the more they tried to dehumanize us, the more we wanted to reclaim our humanity.
Have you ever been in Hell?
Charlie woke in fire. She screamed and screamed and it took her a while to realize that she wasn’t screaming at all because flames and smoke constricted her throat. Her head spun, and she tried to focus on the world around her - it danced around her like a room full of mirrors and finally she closed her eyes just to make sense of it all. She reached out instinctively, trying to control the flames, but the fire wouldn’t heed her at all. That could only mean one thing.
She licked her lips and opened her mouth to speak. The noiseless sound of the desperate came out and she tried again. Finally, a whisper. “Phoenix.” She coughed ash from her throat and managed to say louder “Phoenix! Please!”
The flames increased their heat, and she gasped in pain as seared her skin. They quieted afterwards, retreating to one side of the room, burning downwards and filling out a form, solidifying, until finally a naked girl sat in the middle of the dying embers.
Charlie let out a slow breath. The burns on her body were already slowly starting to heal themselves. Those whose Excess dealt with Fire usually healed quickly for some reason the scientists had yet to explain. Not that they’d have told them if they learned the reason why.
The part Asian girl leaned against the wall looking a mixture of angry and apathetic. Charlie decided it was best to let Phoenix speak first when she was in a mood like that, so she took the opportunity to look around her.
She noticed for the first time that there was water in the room, an inch off the floor. It was warm now, a residual affect of Phoenix’s fire. Charlie thought that a rather odd thing to cover the floor. She tried to remember where she was, what had happened. She rubbed her temples. Pain. She remembered pain. She flicked her eyes back at Phoenix. The Sirius Excess-Seraphim had always made her nervous, and being alone in a room with her did not fill her with any sense of comfort. Especially when she wasn’t sure what was going on.
“Liar.” Phoenix said suddenly.
“Me?” Charlie exclaimed nervously.
“Everyone.” She looked down at herself. “I’m naked.”
Charlie tried not to show visible signs of relief. Phoenix seemed to be going back to her normal self. Not that “normal” Phoenix was any less dangerous, but at least Charlie didn’t have to worry about breathing fire for a while. Unless she pissed the other girl off. Which she was going to try very hard not to do.
“Where are we?” Charlie asked carefully. “Why are we here?”
Phoenix snorted. “Isn’t it obvious? We failed.”
Charlie blinked. Right. They’d been trying to escape. It was going well too, so what had gone wrong? She looked around the room again and figured that they must have been thrown in some kind of punishment ward.
She looked down at her body. Her own clothes were tattered and singed, mostly from Phoenix’s destructiveness than anything else. Faintly she saw the outline of needle tracks, thin scars and bruises. “They hurt us.” Charlie said, disbelievingly.
Phoenix let out a bitter laugh. “Did you really think they wouldn’t?”
“N-no, but.” They must have been here a while then, judging by the way her body looked. Bits of her memory was starting to come back to her. Injections and television screens. She felt nauseous.
“If you’re going to throw up do it on yourself.” Phoenix ordered. “I don’t want bits of whatever’s in your stomach floating around in this water.”
Charlie knew better than to snap back at Phoenix’s lack of sympathy.
“I want clothes.” Phoenix stood up, wincing as she did so. It was only then that Charlie noticed the heavy welts and gashes across the other girl’s body. They must have been really bad, and recent, to still leave marks like that, because Phoenix healed faster than Charlie. “You hear me Jezu-fuckers I want clothes!”
“Are they watching?” Charlie said, looking around alarmed. The room didn’t seem to have cameras. It didn’t seem to have much of anything.
“They’re always watching. Someone’s always watching.” Phoenix studied one side of the wall and then laid her hand against it. Charlie sighed, because she knew what was coming.
The wall crumpled to ash, burning from the inside. “I still want clothes.” Phoenix remarked nonchalantly. She stepped through the wall, uninhibited by that fact that she was still sans clothing.
Charlie sighed again, and got up to follow the Sirius out the newly made door. They walked down what seemed like a corridor, passing several rooms with glass windows. It looked very much like the Ward they used to live in. Rows and rows of “rooms” that were sealed off by glass so the scientists were always able to look in. Only, something about the way the looked made these cells look more- sinister. Phoenix kept on walking, and Charlie wondered if perhaps she knew where she was going. She wanted to ask her if she did, but she wasn’t sure if she should. Do you recognize this place? But even such a simple question had to be withheld carefully. At least until they found others.
Charlie hoped they would find others soon. She wondered why the scientists hadn’t come out trying
to stop them yet. Maybe they didn’t care where they went in this labyrinth of menacing halls.
They finally reached a door blocking their path. Phoenix lifted up her hand and for a moment Charlie thought she was going to burn her way though everything that got in her way, but no, she merely slammed her palm down as hard as she could, causing the door to burst open with a loud prominence.
Blinking eyes met their entrance. “Took you long enough.” Rhodon said with a smirk.
“Fuck off.” Phoenix snarled.
Charlie slunk past the other girl to meet up with calmer companions. Rhodon sighed and stripped off his shirt. With the air of a gentlemen he handed it to Phoenix and she graciously accepted without comment. It went down to her thighs.
It’ll be Ok now. Charlie thought. We’re together. We tried to escape and we failed. But we’re still together. It wasn’t a sense of family, or companionship, that made her think this way. It was just the feeling that as long as she had people to suffer alongside of, things wouldn’t hurt so much.
Rhodon was here. Sarcastic, quick-tempered Rhodon who was the only one who could really keep Phoenix in check. And strong charismatic Osseus, who was the one largely responsible for planning out their escape. They were the only ones from Sirius that had wanted to leave the Ward. There was silent Raven and jumpy Dopple, Aquarius, and Techx. She scanned the room looking at their small band of rebels, all scattered from Andromeda, Orion, Jupiter and Sirius, ranging from Powers to Seraphim. She felt discouraged, looking at them, because it seemed like if these group of people weren’t enough to escape from their captors than surely it was impossible. Surely the scientists were just to powerful.
“Soooo… what do we do now?” Dopple asked. “We just wound up in a worst place than where we came from.”
“We try again.” Phoenix said.
“Is your brain damaged in some way?” Tehx exclaimed.
Phoenix looked at him. He shrunk down in his seat, but he didn’t take back his words. Charlie admired him for that.
“We’re in Iso.” Phoenix explained, ignoring the boy’s comments. Everyone looked rather annoyed, like had already figured that out for themselves. Isolation was the notorious place of punishment. Out of them, only Phoenix had been there before. Charlie felt a little stupid for not having realized it before. “They’re going to torture us, try to brainwash us, and leave us in alone in the dark for days at a time.” She paused. “No. Correction. They’ve already done that. They’re going to do it again. Until we break. Until we-” she twisted her mouth in an ugly shape, like the word was disgusting to say, “reform.”
“Why are they letting us talk like this then” Dopple asked.
Phoenix shrugged. “Tactics.” Osseus put in. “It makes strategic sense. It’s like Phoenix said, they don’t want to simply punish us, they want us to reform. To learn our lesson and never try to escape again. That won’t happen if we think they’re completely evil.”
“They are completely evil.” Phoenix put in. “And we need to keep trying. We have to keep on trying to escape. I say this time we attack them directly.”
“With their Guns. Smart Phoen.” Osseus said sarcastically.
“It’s better than slinking about!”
“No.” Rhodon said. “I can’t move against them anymore.”
Phoenix whirled on him, angry and betrayed. Rhodon only looked at her with a measured look. “They have Lin.”
Phoenix snarled.
Osseus arched a brow. “Why is that, by the by? Why isn’t she here in the chaos with the rest of us?”
Rhodon didn’t say anything.
“Fine.” Phoenix said angrily. “We’ll keep working on that part of our plan. But we have to keep trying.”
Tehx hit his head with his forehead. “Oi. And how are we supposed to do that?”
“And why should we?” Dopple asked. “Our genius maneuvering didn’t do squat for us last time. We might as well accept what they want from us. Why should we keep trying.”
Phoenix gave her a withering look. “Because.” She said, as if she was talking to complete idiot. “Things are going to get a lot worse.”
Wee. It should get better soon. Or something.
Phoenixeiros.
It begins!! Huzzah. And I have posting. I felt very bad because everyone else already had writing way before me, but I caught up in no time. I don't think mine is terribly good, and I end my section rather abruptly, but eh. Whatever. Oh, and it makes no sense. But who needs sense? Really.
BOOK I: A LOADED GUN
Name: Charlie
Order: Orion
Class: Domination
Sex: Female
Excess: Fire starter
They never told us what they did to us.
You would think that would have been the first clue that maybe we couldn’t trust them, and maybe it was. I don’t really know. The beginning days were rather confusing, they always start that way. After the Rebirthing process things start to become blurry.
Is it ok to just jump into things like this? I feel like maybe I should explain things first. I mean, I’m not quite sure what’s the point of recording this anyway, but everyone seems to think it’s important. So it can be remembered.
Heh. Remember. That’s ironic. I was talking about the Rebirthing process, right? Well that’s the thing. I can’t really remember what happened. And I don’t remember anything before that, either. Whatever they did, they made sure that we couldn’t remember who we were and where we came from. I guess that’s why it took us so long to catch on. It was so easy to accept that we were just new people. New name, new place to live.
…What do I remember about the past? Not much. It’s hazy. I remember the ocean, I can see one, curving across the sides of a hill, just coming into view as we round a corner. I figure that means I must have lived by an ocean, but damned if I can tell you which one. I remember having parents, and a little brother. But I don’t remember their faces, much less their names.
My earliest memory was fire- and pain. Mostly fire though. That was my Rebirthing, but that only figures, because that’s my Excess. Everyone’s Rebirthing is different though.
Jezu, I’m not being very coherent, am I? It’s been so long… and it’s weird to go back and try and explain the way you’ve lived. I mean, for us it’s just normal, right? So how can I go back and talk about something that’s happened to me as if no one else understands. You try explaining to me how you live, and see if you can do it any better.
Excess is what they called it. Our “powers.” They split us into four groups based on our Excess, and they gave us a rank depending on how strong our Excess was. Our Excess was our life, it made us. What we could do, who we talked to, who we hung out with, what privileges we got, it was all based on our Excess. I’m a Orion Excess-Domination, so I never really questioned the fairness of that situation. I mean, Domination is pretty far up there, you know? So I had a pretty sweet life. And fire, well. Everyone respects fire. I never really talked to any Excess-Angel people, but then, I wouldn’t have really seen them around. They usually disappeared real fast. They weak didn’t last long.
Our Excess was the only thing They were interested in. They they they. I keep saying “they.” I mean they scientists, the whitecoats, doctors, whatever. It didn’t matter who “they” were. They were different- they didn’t have Excess. And yet they were more powerful than any of us. Someone- I think it was Os, pointed out how that didn’t seem right. But that’s just the way it went. They were God.
Not everyone opposed the way things were. Obviously. I don’t know what exactly started our dissension, but I suppose it began when Phoenix killed Fetch.
I still remember what she said that day, only because it rang back later. “Welcome to Hell.” I don’t know why she said that.
Later though, when we were in Iso. That’s when I remembered her saying it. Because that was Hell.
They really tried to break us there. They almost succeeded too. And it’s not because we were strong, that we held out for so long. It’s just- the more they tried to dehumanize us, the more we wanted to reclaim our humanity.
Have you ever been in Hell?
Charlie woke in fire. She screamed and screamed and it took her a while to realize that she wasn’t screaming at all because flames and smoke constricted her throat. Her head spun, and she tried to focus on the world around her - it danced around her like a room full of mirrors and finally she closed her eyes just to make sense of it all. She reached out instinctively, trying to control the flames, but the fire wouldn’t heed her at all. That could only mean one thing.
She licked her lips and opened her mouth to speak. The noiseless sound of the desperate came out and she tried again. Finally, a whisper. “Phoenix.” She coughed ash from her throat and managed to say louder “Phoenix! Please!”
The flames increased their heat, and she gasped in pain as seared her skin. They quieted afterwards, retreating to one side of the room, burning downwards and filling out a form, solidifying, until finally a naked girl sat in the middle of the dying embers.
Charlie let out a slow breath. The burns on her body were already slowly starting to heal themselves. Those whose Excess dealt with Fire usually healed quickly for some reason the scientists had yet to explain. Not that they’d have told them if they learned the reason why.
The part Asian girl leaned against the wall looking a mixture of angry and apathetic. Charlie decided it was best to let Phoenix speak first when she was in a mood like that, so she took the opportunity to look around her.
She noticed for the first time that there was water in the room, an inch off the floor. It was warm now, a residual affect of Phoenix’s fire. Charlie thought that a rather odd thing to cover the floor. She tried to remember where she was, what had happened. She rubbed her temples. Pain. She remembered pain. She flicked her eyes back at Phoenix. The Sirius Excess-Seraphim had always made her nervous, and being alone in a room with her did not fill her with any sense of comfort. Especially when she wasn’t sure what was going on.
“Liar.” Phoenix said suddenly.
“Me?” Charlie exclaimed nervously.
“Everyone.” She looked down at herself. “I’m naked.”
Charlie tried not to show visible signs of relief. Phoenix seemed to be going back to her normal self. Not that “normal” Phoenix was any less dangerous, but at least Charlie didn’t have to worry about breathing fire for a while. Unless she pissed the other girl off. Which she was going to try very hard not to do.
“Where are we?” Charlie asked carefully. “Why are we here?”
Phoenix snorted. “Isn’t it obvious? We failed.”
Charlie blinked. Right. They’d been trying to escape. It was going well too, so what had gone wrong? She looked around the room again and figured that they must have been thrown in some kind of punishment ward.
She looked down at her body. Her own clothes were tattered and singed, mostly from Phoenix’s destructiveness than anything else. Faintly she saw the outline of needle tracks, thin scars and bruises. “They hurt us.” Charlie said, disbelievingly.
Phoenix let out a bitter laugh. “Did you really think they wouldn’t?”
“N-no, but.” They must have been here a while then, judging by the way her body looked. Bits of her memory was starting to come back to her. Injections and television screens. She felt nauseous.
“If you’re going to throw up do it on yourself.” Phoenix ordered. “I don’t want bits of whatever’s in your stomach floating around in this water.”
Charlie knew better than to snap back at Phoenix’s lack of sympathy.
“I want clothes.” Phoenix stood up, wincing as she did so. It was only then that Charlie noticed the heavy welts and gashes across the other girl’s body. They must have been really bad, and recent, to still leave marks like that, because Phoenix healed faster than Charlie. “You hear me Jezu-fuckers I want clothes!”
“Are they watching?” Charlie said, looking around alarmed. The room didn’t seem to have cameras. It didn’t seem to have much of anything.
“They’re always watching. Someone’s always watching.” Phoenix studied one side of the wall and then laid her hand against it. Charlie sighed, because she knew what was coming.
The wall crumpled to ash, burning from the inside. “I still want clothes.” Phoenix remarked nonchalantly. She stepped through the wall, uninhibited by that fact that she was still sans clothing.
Charlie sighed again, and got up to follow the Sirius out the newly made door. They walked down what seemed like a corridor, passing several rooms with glass windows. It looked very much like the Ward they used to live in. Rows and rows of “rooms” that were sealed off by glass so the scientists were always able to look in. Only, something about the way the looked made these cells look more- sinister. Phoenix kept on walking, and Charlie wondered if perhaps she knew where she was going. She wanted to ask her if she did, but she wasn’t sure if she should. Do you recognize this place? But even such a simple question had to be withheld carefully. At least until they found others.
Charlie hoped they would find others soon. She wondered why the scientists hadn’t come out trying
to stop them yet. Maybe they didn’t care where they went in this labyrinth of menacing halls.
They finally reached a door blocking their path. Phoenix lifted up her hand and for a moment Charlie thought she was going to burn her way though everything that got in her way, but no, she merely slammed her palm down as hard as she could, causing the door to burst open with a loud prominence.
Blinking eyes met their entrance. “Took you long enough.” Rhodon said with a smirk.
“Fuck off.” Phoenix snarled.
Charlie slunk past the other girl to meet up with calmer companions. Rhodon sighed and stripped off his shirt. With the air of a gentlemen he handed it to Phoenix and she graciously accepted without comment. It went down to her thighs.
It’ll be Ok now. Charlie thought. We’re together. We tried to escape and we failed. But we’re still together. It wasn’t a sense of family, or companionship, that made her think this way. It was just the feeling that as long as she had people to suffer alongside of, things wouldn’t hurt so much.
Rhodon was here. Sarcastic, quick-tempered Rhodon who was the only one who could really keep Phoenix in check. And strong charismatic Osseus, who was the one largely responsible for planning out their escape. They were the only ones from Sirius that had wanted to leave the Ward. There was silent Raven and jumpy Dopple, Aquarius, and Techx. She scanned the room looking at their small band of rebels, all scattered from Andromeda, Orion, Jupiter and Sirius, ranging from Powers to Seraphim. She felt discouraged, looking at them, because it seemed like if these group of people weren’t enough to escape from their captors than surely it was impossible. Surely the scientists were just to powerful.
“Soooo… what do we do now?” Dopple asked. “We just wound up in a worst place than where we came from.”
“We try again.” Phoenix said.
“Is your brain damaged in some way?” Tehx exclaimed.
Phoenix looked at him. He shrunk down in his seat, but he didn’t take back his words. Charlie admired him for that.
“We’re in Iso.” Phoenix explained, ignoring the boy’s comments. Everyone looked rather annoyed, like had already figured that out for themselves. Isolation was the notorious place of punishment. Out of them, only Phoenix had been there before. Charlie felt a little stupid for not having realized it before. “They’re going to torture us, try to brainwash us, and leave us in alone in the dark for days at a time.” She paused. “No. Correction. They’ve already done that. They’re going to do it again. Until we break. Until we-” she twisted her mouth in an ugly shape, like the word was disgusting to say, “reform.”
“Why are they letting us talk like this then” Dopple asked.
Phoenix shrugged. “Tactics.” Osseus put in. “It makes strategic sense. It’s like Phoenix said, they don’t want to simply punish us, they want us to reform. To learn our lesson and never try to escape again. That won’t happen if we think they’re completely evil.”
“They are completely evil.” Phoenix put in. “And we need to keep trying. We have to keep on trying to escape. I say this time we attack them directly.”
“With their Guns. Smart Phoen.” Osseus said sarcastically.
“It’s better than slinking about!”
“No.” Rhodon said. “I can’t move against them anymore.”
Phoenix whirled on him, angry and betrayed. Rhodon only looked at her with a measured look. “They have Lin.”
Phoenix snarled.
Osseus arched a brow. “Why is that, by the by? Why isn’t she here in the chaos with the rest of us?”
Rhodon didn’t say anything.
“Fine.” Phoenix said angrily. “We’ll keep working on that part of our plan. But we have to keep trying.”
Tehx hit his head with his forehead. “Oi. And how are we supposed to do that?”
“And why should we?” Dopple asked. “Our genius maneuvering didn’t do squat for us last time. We might as well accept what they want from us. Why should we keep trying.”
Phoenix gave her a withering look. “Because.” She said, as if she was talking to complete idiot. “Things are going to get a lot worse.”
Wee. It should get better soon. Or something.
Phoenixeiros.