Sekii Rei
Wow. I love this song.
Anyways, I've been having a great but stressful day and don't want to talk about it. The point of this entry is to post some more Illuminati! Whee. I'm posting two sections this time, because the first one... is... erm... unfinished. Nivedita's introduction will eventually be written when I learn enough about Oracle cards to pull it off.
II Nivedita
It was raining.
When Neliyah left, Lacey had spent her last half-hour before the bell checking the girl's washroom for survellience equipment. It wouldn't have surprised her, truthfully, but the fact that she had not thought of it herself made her feel inferior. Sure enough, there was a cleverly hidden mini-camera installed inside each of the soap dispensers (which explained why they never did do much soap dispensing). After finding the cameras, she calmly exited the bathroom, found a secluded corner in the back stairwell and unfolded Neliyah's message.
Which is why she was standing in the rain out in the middle of the central alleyways, watching up and down the foggy streets, waiting for the blonde girl to arrive. Lacey dug her arms deep inside the sleeves of her jacket, shivering against a chill that was damp, heavy and settling in her lungs. Finally she spotted a dark figure on the horizen, wrapped in mist and huddled inside it's own dark-hooded coat. The figure eventually became Neliyah, who was stamping her way messily through the puddles in tall, lace-up stilletos.
"You came." she stated dully, handing Lacey an umbrella.
"Where are we going, Neliyah?" Lacey attempted to fall into step with Neliyah, but ended up skipping along-side the other girl's long-legged strides.
"Nell."
"Huh?"
"Don't call me 'Neliyah'. It sounds stupid. I hate that name."
"Then why did you introduce yourself as Neliyah Bentois?"
"Because 'they' were listening. Don't argue, just call me 'Nell', okay. Especially when we get 'there'."
"Okay."
They walked in silence. Lacey glanced up at her taller companion every few minutes, not so much because she wished to start a conversation (what would they have to talk about after all), but because she was attempting to read her. It annoyed her that she could never tell what other people were thinking, yet she could read their pasts and futures with absolute clarity.
"Where are we going?" she asked again, just to be annoying.
"You'll see."
"Can't you just tell me?"
"Absolutely not."
They pulled into a corner and Lacey found herself face to face with a thick metal door all outfitted with bolts and chains. She blinked and watched Nell knock twice, then once, then tap lightly three times.
'Secret code' she noted. The door opened, warm light pouring out into the dull street like orange paint spilling onto a colorless canvas, or fire burning at the edges of a black and white photograph. She stared dumbly, but Nell sighed and dragged her in by the sleeve of her raincoat.
"This is our headquarters. We have to keep it well hidden, so if we decide that we can't trust you, we're going to have to kill you."
Lacey evened her gaze and frowned, "You don't really mean that."
"Sit down." Nell commanded, falling into one of the rickety, straight-backed waiting chairs that looked as if they'd been stolen from a High School, "And sure, if you don't want to believe that I meant that then I guess I didn't mean it."
"Okay."
"Hey, you try at being stuck up or something?"
"Why not."
Nell huffed and crossed her arms. Lacey rolled her eyes and the clocked ticked.
Three minutes later: "What are we waiting for now."
"The boss."
"The boss?"
"Yeah. Haven't you figured it out yet? We're an underground resistance group. Y'know, a rebel fractions."
"Really now."
"Yeah."
"Then why do you want me."
"Cause you see stuff."
"Uh huh."
"You know about Illuminati, right?"
OFFICIAL DEFINITION AS APPROVED BY THE GOVERNMENT: Illuminati - pro-noun, descriptive
Humans born with genetic defects in the brain that cause an induvidual to fall into maddening dellusions. These people believe that they are graced with the gift of sight, therefore they think that they have pre and post-cognitive visions. ie, psychic powers. These induviduals are usually rooted out within the first few levels of pre-education and placed in high-security mental facilities maintained by the government.
"Pshycics."
"Sort of. It's more than that."
Lacey nodded somberly, wondering what this had to do with her.
Because of the abnormality in the brain, Illuminati also tend to have grevious
personality defects. They are often sociopaths with no sense of empathy or apathy. They tend to be master manipulators and are capable of gathering confidence and building influence among the masses. Be wary of those who tell of prophetic visions, for an Illuminati's sight will always lead to ruin.
"I'm an Illuminati." Nell said suddenly, "I get dream-visions like the people in the Bible."
"Okay." The clock had no second hand. It was analog, which was strange- most everyone used Digital nowadays.
"We figure you might be too. I guess. It would make sense, but we can't really know until the Mistress gives you 'The Test'" Nell sounded as if this prospect made her gloomy. Lacey spared her a quick gaze and noticed that the girl's eyes were clouded over with something almost akin to inferiority.
An Illuminati's madness will peak during their mid to late teens, at which point they will believe that their imaginary prophetic powers have reached a level of unprecedented power. When they reach eighteen, their "powers" will begin to diminish as their brain shuts down due to the stress of their madness.
"We're actually hoping that you are Illuminati. We've only got me, the boss and the mistress. And only I can really do anything. The boss is twenty-nine and nearly gone. The only reason he really laste so long was that he wasn't too powerful in the first place. Mistress Niveditha's just turned twenty-two, so she's not ma yet but her power's slipping."
"Okay."
"Would you stop it." Nell growled, "We're trying to help you."
"Okay."
((insert oracle card stuff and Niveditha stuff here))
III Coffee
Lacey stumbled home through the darkness, head still swirling with the scent of spice and heavy smoke. Her glasses were hanging between the fingers of her left hand while the fingers of her right hand pressed against her temple.
'Where am I?' she wondered, watching the world through blurry eyes and tilting vision. Her mind couldn't decide which question she was really asking- where am I in the city? Am I even in this universe anymore.
'I'm lost.' she decided after a few moments and stopped walking. She couldn't find her way back home and he mind couldn't find it's familiar niche in the back of her head anymore. She breathed in the damp night air and a hand landed on her shoulder. She jumped and her glasses fell to the pavement.
"I'm sorry." a soft voice ammended and a dark blur bent to retrieve her glasses, "I didn't mean to scare you." instead of handing her the object, he placed the spectacles on the ridge of her nose and came into focus, smiling. A tall, pale boy with over-long limbs, too much clothing and not enough body. He had deep, dark and sad eyes that were glassy behind a pair of glasses that looked like they worked a lot better than Lacey's. His black hair shone more like a dull, blue-grayish color beneath the dry circle of his black umbrella, and the bangs fell in his face, the back around his neck.
"Are you Lacey Watson?" Lacey didn't nod. Didn't need to-he already knew who she was. Everyone seemed to know who she was. His smile widened. It was a strange sort of smile- one of those ones that never seems quite to reach the eyes. He held out a long, white hand, "I'm Zachairah Kline. Pleased to meet you. Can we go inside?"
+--------------+
Zachairah drank very strong coffee. Lacey didn't know much about coffee, especially not the kind of coffee that one buys at midnight for something like six dollars and fifty eight cents. It was very black and very smelly, with a little circle of inky circles spinning in the center of the cup like the nucleus of an atom.
Zachairah was sixteen years old, out of school, very rich and very, very unhappy. Well, Lacey didn't know if he was unhappy or not, but he was one of those people who always smiled and never looked like he meant it.
They had been sitting without speaking and Lacey was one her tea when the boy finally decided to talk.
His voice was soft and droned like the murmer of a near-muted radio station- but his words were sure even if his manner wasn't, "I know." he said.
"Do you now."
"You see things."
Lacey pretended to be drinking her tea even tough it was gone, "How do you know?"
"I see things too."
"Do you see them like I do?"
"I don't know. How do you see?"
"It's hard to explain."
"Oh."
"How do you see."
"I already told you- I know."
Lacey raised an eyebrow.
"Sometimes, I just know things. Things that I have no way of possibly knowing."
"Mirrors."
"What."
"I see through Mirrors."
"That's strange."
"I think knowing stuff is strange."
"I never said it wasn't."
"No. No you didn't."
Zachairah's coffee was very strong and very black and very smelly, but he didn't seem to be drinking it. Soon it would be very cold, "I work for the government."
Lacey froze up for a split second. Just a blink of they eye. She pretended to drink her tea again and hoped Zachairah couldn't see her shaking, "Oh. That's interesting."
"What do you know about Illuminati?"
L:acey paused with the teacup touching her lips, trembling. That question caught her offgaurd- what did she know about Illuminati? That they existed, for one, and that the government wanted the general populance convinced that they were sociopathic maniacs. That they all died early. That she was one of them. Maybe.
"Not much." not true.
"You're an Illuminati, you know."
"Yes. I know." really not true.
"I don't know how to say this any other way- we want you."
Tea cup back to table, hands folded cold sweat beginning. Lacey wanted to do something terribly cliched- like pinching herself. What were the chances- two times in the same night.
"You're not the only one."
"I'd imagine not."
"Hmm?"
"Well, you're very powerful."
"How would you know?"
"Well... we keep tabs on these sort of things."
"That's not creepy at all."
"Only on possible Illuminati. We usually find them at their peak. You're just about to reach yours."
"Are you going to drink your coffee?"
Zachairah, who had been unconciously drawing closer to Lacey, leaning across the table with a rather possessed expression on his face, fell back, startled, and eyed his foam coffee cup. He took a sip and made a face, "Cold." he muttered.
"Wouldn't have been if you drank it."
He stared at Lacey long and hard for a few moments, then stated brightly- "I like you."
"Do you?"
"You're blunt."
"Thank you."
"But do not lack tact."
"Tact is useful."
"Indeed."
"You, on the otherhand, are rather tactless."
"Allow me to demonstrate- what's you IQ, Lacey?"
"258." she answered smoothly."
"And it keeps climbing, right?"
"Of course."
And you realize that it's not natural, don't you?"
"Is there a point to this?"
"The education system, you understand how it works, right?"
Lacey sighed and rested her chin in her palms, letting the words flow out evenly as if recited from an oft-practiced script, "Students progress throughout the education levels based on their ability and intelligence. Each level opens up a new set of information. This system is designed to keep people happy because humanity had learned the hard way that ignorance is bliss, yadda, yadda, yadda and everyone knows that level six is the highest level just like everyone knows that level ten is that farthest you can go and that there is a level thirteen that only super geniuses ever make it to that teaches all the secrets of the universe." beat, "I miss anything?"
"How'd you like to break out of the education system?"
Lacey tipped her head, "I suppose you're going to say that taking this government offer will open me up to endless knowledge and unboundried experiences."
"I need to give you a reason to accept."
"You really don't have any tact."
"Nope."
"But you see, giving me a reason to accept right off the bat is going to make me think that there's good reason for me to refuse."
Zachairah smiled sheepishly, "Ah. Well, there is."
"Naturally."
"You want to hear all about it?" Lacey rubbed her eyes and checked the clock on the facr wall. Digital, like a normal clock. She had such a problem with analog clocks- her brain could never sort out the arms and the ticks and the hands. One twenty-three. Her parents might be worried. Then again, they also might be in bed.
"Hear all about what?"
"Illuminati. The government. You. Me."
"Will it take long?"
"Years."
"Okay, then save it for later. I need to sleep."
"Will you at least think about my offer?"
"You didn't really give me much to think about."
Zachairah shrugged, "Think anyways."
Anyways, I've been having a great but stressful day and don't want to talk about it. The point of this entry is to post some more Illuminati! Whee. I'm posting two sections this time, because the first one... is... erm... unfinished. Nivedita's introduction will eventually be written when I learn enough about Oracle cards to pull it off.
II Nivedita
It was raining.
When Neliyah left, Lacey had spent her last half-hour before the bell checking the girl's washroom for survellience equipment. It wouldn't have surprised her, truthfully, but the fact that she had not thought of it herself made her feel inferior. Sure enough, there was a cleverly hidden mini-camera installed inside each of the soap dispensers (which explained why they never did do much soap dispensing). After finding the cameras, she calmly exited the bathroom, found a secluded corner in the back stairwell and unfolded Neliyah's message.
Which is why she was standing in the rain out in the middle of the central alleyways, watching up and down the foggy streets, waiting for the blonde girl to arrive. Lacey dug her arms deep inside the sleeves of her jacket, shivering against a chill that was damp, heavy and settling in her lungs. Finally she spotted a dark figure on the horizen, wrapped in mist and huddled inside it's own dark-hooded coat. The figure eventually became Neliyah, who was stamping her way messily through the puddles in tall, lace-up stilletos.
"You came." she stated dully, handing Lacey an umbrella.
"Where are we going, Neliyah?" Lacey attempted to fall into step with Neliyah, but ended up skipping along-side the other girl's long-legged strides.
"Nell."
"Huh?"
"Don't call me 'Neliyah'. It sounds stupid. I hate that name."
"Then why did you introduce yourself as Neliyah Bentois?"
"Because 'they' were listening. Don't argue, just call me 'Nell', okay. Especially when we get 'there'."
"Okay."
They walked in silence. Lacey glanced up at her taller companion every few minutes, not so much because she wished to start a conversation (what would they have to talk about after all), but because she was attempting to read her. It annoyed her that she could never tell what other people were thinking, yet she could read their pasts and futures with absolute clarity.
"Where are we going?" she asked again, just to be annoying.
"You'll see."
"Can't you just tell me?"
"Absolutely not."
They pulled into a corner and Lacey found herself face to face with a thick metal door all outfitted with bolts and chains. She blinked and watched Nell knock twice, then once, then tap lightly three times.
'Secret code' she noted. The door opened, warm light pouring out into the dull street like orange paint spilling onto a colorless canvas, or fire burning at the edges of a black and white photograph. She stared dumbly, but Nell sighed and dragged her in by the sleeve of her raincoat.
"This is our headquarters. We have to keep it well hidden, so if we decide that we can't trust you, we're going to have to kill you."
Lacey evened her gaze and frowned, "You don't really mean that."
"Sit down." Nell commanded, falling into one of the rickety, straight-backed waiting chairs that looked as if they'd been stolen from a High School, "And sure, if you don't want to believe that I meant that then I guess I didn't mean it."
"Okay."
"Hey, you try at being stuck up or something?"
"Why not."
Nell huffed and crossed her arms. Lacey rolled her eyes and the clocked ticked.
Three minutes later: "What are we waiting for now."
"The boss."
"The boss?"
"Yeah. Haven't you figured it out yet? We're an underground resistance group. Y'know, a rebel fractions."
"Really now."
"Yeah."
"Then why do you want me."
"Cause you see stuff."
"Uh huh."
"You know about Illuminati, right?"
OFFICIAL DEFINITION AS APPROVED BY THE GOVERNMENT: Illuminati - pro-noun, descriptive
Humans born with genetic defects in the brain that cause an induvidual to fall into maddening dellusions. These people believe that they are graced with the gift of sight, therefore they think that they have pre and post-cognitive visions. ie, psychic powers. These induviduals are usually rooted out within the first few levels of pre-education and placed in high-security mental facilities maintained by the government.
"Pshycics."
"Sort of. It's more than that."
Lacey nodded somberly, wondering what this had to do with her.
Because of the abnormality in the brain, Illuminati also tend to have grevious
personality defects. They are often sociopaths with no sense of empathy or apathy. They tend to be master manipulators and are capable of gathering confidence and building influence among the masses. Be wary of those who tell of prophetic visions, for an Illuminati's sight will always lead to ruin.
"I'm an Illuminati." Nell said suddenly, "I get dream-visions like the people in the Bible."
"Okay." The clock had no second hand. It was analog, which was strange- most everyone used Digital nowadays.
"We figure you might be too. I guess. It would make sense, but we can't really know until the Mistress gives you 'The Test'" Nell sounded as if this prospect made her gloomy. Lacey spared her a quick gaze and noticed that the girl's eyes were clouded over with something almost akin to inferiority.
An Illuminati's madness will peak during their mid to late teens, at which point they will believe that their imaginary prophetic powers have reached a level of unprecedented power. When they reach eighteen, their "powers" will begin to diminish as their brain shuts down due to the stress of their madness.
"We're actually hoping that you are Illuminati. We've only got me, the boss and the mistress. And only I can really do anything. The boss is twenty-nine and nearly gone. The only reason he really laste so long was that he wasn't too powerful in the first place. Mistress Niveditha's just turned twenty-two, so she's not ma yet but her power's slipping."
"Okay."
"Would you stop it." Nell growled, "We're trying to help you."
"Okay."
((insert oracle card stuff and Niveditha stuff here))
III Coffee
Lacey stumbled home through the darkness, head still swirling with the scent of spice and heavy smoke. Her glasses were hanging between the fingers of her left hand while the fingers of her right hand pressed against her temple.
'Where am I?' she wondered, watching the world through blurry eyes and tilting vision. Her mind couldn't decide which question she was really asking- where am I in the city? Am I even in this universe anymore.
'I'm lost.' she decided after a few moments and stopped walking. She couldn't find her way back home and he mind couldn't find it's familiar niche in the back of her head anymore. She breathed in the damp night air and a hand landed on her shoulder. She jumped and her glasses fell to the pavement.
"I'm sorry." a soft voice ammended and a dark blur bent to retrieve her glasses, "I didn't mean to scare you." instead of handing her the object, he placed the spectacles on the ridge of her nose and came into focus, smiling. A tall, pale boy with over-long limbs, too much clothing and not enough body. He had deep, dark and sad eyes that were glassy behind a pair of glasses that looked like they worked a lot better than Lacey's. His black hair shone more like a dull, blue-grayish color beneath the dry circle of his black umbrella, and the bangs fell in his face, the back around his neck.
"Are you Lacey Watson?" Lacey didn't nod. Didn't need to-he already knew who she was. Everyone seemed to know who she was. His smile widened. It was a strange sort of smile- one of those ones that never seems quite to reach the eyes. He held out a long, white hand, "I'm Zachairah Kline. Pleased to meet you. Can we go inside?"
+--------------+
Zachairah drank very strong coffee. Lacey didn't know much about coffee, especially not the kind of coffee that one buys at midnight for something like six dollars and fifty eight cents. It was very black and very smelly, with a little circle of inky circles spinning in the center of the cup like the nucleus of an atom.
Zachairah was sixteen years old, out of school, very rich and very, very unhappy. Well, Lacey didn't know if he was unhappy or not, but he was one of those people who always smiled and never looked like he meant it.
They had been sitting without speaking and Lacey was one her tea when the boy finally decided to talk.
His voice was soft and droned like the murmer of a near-muted radio station- but his words were sure even if his manner wasn't, "I know." he said.
"Do you now."
"You see things."
Lacey pretended to be drinking her tea even tough it was gone, "How do you know?"
"I see things too."
"Do you see them like I do?"
"I don't know. How do you see?"
"It's hard to explain."
"Oh."
"How do you see."
"I already told you- I know."
Lacey raised an eyebrow.
"Sometimes, I just know things. Things that I have no way of possibly knowing."
"Mirrors."
"What."
"I see through Mirrors."
"That's strange."
"I think knowing stuff is strange."
"I never said it wasn't."
"No. No you didn't."
Zachairah's coffee was very strong and very black and very smelly, but he didn't seem to be drinking it. Soon it would be very cold, "I work for the government."
Lacey froze up for a split second. Just a blink of they eye. She pretended to drink her tea again and hoped Zachairah couldn't see her shaking, "Oh. That's interesting."
"What do you know about Illuminati?"
L:acey paused with the teacup touching her lips, trembling. That question caught her offgaurd- what did she know about Illuminati? That they existed, for one, and that the government wanted the general populance convinced that they were sociopathic maniacs. That they all died early. That she was one of them. Maybe.
"Not much." not true.
"You're an Illuminati, you know."
"Yes. I know." really not true.
"I don't know how to say this any other way- we want you."
Tea cup back to table, hands folded cold sweat beginning. Lacey wanted to do something terribly cliched- like pinching herself. What were the chances- two times in the same night.
"You're not the only one."
"I'd imagine not."
"Hmm?"
"Well, you're very powerful."
"How would you know?"
"Well... we keep tabs on these sort of things."
"That's not creepy at all."
"Only on possible Illuminati. We usually find them at their peak. You're just about to reach yours."
"Are you going to drink your coffee?"
Zachairah, who had been unconciously drawing closer to Lacey, leaning across the table with a rather possessed expression on his face, fell back, startled, and eyed his foam coffee cup. He took a sip and made a face, "Cold." he muttered.
"Wouldn't have been if you drank it."
He stared at Lacey long and hard for a few moments, then stated brightly- "I like you."
"Do you?"
"You're blunt."
"Thank you."
"But do not lack tact."
"Tact is useful."
"Indeed."
"You, on the otherhand, are rather tactless."
"Allow me to demonstrate- what's you IQ, Lacey?"
"258." she answered smoothly."
"And it keeps climbing, right?"
"Of course."
And you realize that it's not natural, don't you?"
"Is there a point to this?"
"The education system, you understand how it works, right?"
Lacey sighed and rested her chin in her palms, letting the words flow out evenly as if recited from an oft-practiced script, "Students progress throughout the education levels based on their ability and intelligence. Each level opens up a new set of information. This system is designed to keep people happy because humanity had learned the hard way that ignorance is bliss, yadda, yadda, yadda and everyone knows that level six is the highest level just like everyone knows that level ten is that farthest you can go and that there is a level thirteen that only super geniuses ever make it to that teaches all the secrets of the universe." beat, "I miss anything?"
"How'd you like to break out of the education system?"
Lacey tipped her head, "I suppose you're going to say that taking this government offer will open me up to endless knowledge and unboundried experiences."
"I need to give you a reason to accept."
"You really don't have any tact."
"Nope."
"But you see, giving me a reason to accept right off the bat is going to make me think that there's good reason for me to refuse."
Zachairah smiled sheepishly, "Ah. Well, there is."
"Naturally."
"You want to hear all about it?" Lacey rubbed her eyes and checked the clock on the facr wall. Digital, like a normal clock. She had such a problem with analog clocks- her brain could never sort out the arms and the ticks and the hands. One twenty-three. Her parents might be worried. Then again, they also might be in bed.
"Hear all about what?"
"Illuminati. The government. You. Me."
"Will it take long?"
"Years."
"Okay, then save it for later. I need to sleep."
"Will you at least think about my offer?"
"You didn't really give me much to think about."
Zachairah shrugged, "Think anyways."