Disappearance |Open|

[Emby Foster]

A young blond sat with her back against an apple tree. Orange light filtered through the leaves as the sun rose. She had come to sit here possibly at one in the morning, maybe two. She was unsure of the exact time. She just knew it was early in the day, or some may call it late at night. She yawned and her eyes slipped closed. Now that the sun was up, she felt it was safe to sleep. Maybe she could fool herself into thinking she was camping. Anything to keep away the panic attacks that stirred her from her nightmares of Freakopolis. Oh wait, they weren't nightmares. Freakopolis was now her reality. A reality she'd live with for a short time now but one she knew she'd live with for the rest of her life. Unless, Sulley's promise came through. That of escape.

She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her head on her knees. She may have looked uncomfortable but her heart was already slowing, though she kept alert enough so she cold hear anyone coming near her. She didn't want to be caught with her guard down but since she couldn't sleep in the cell blocks, she needed to find better places for her dreams.

[Lucian Verdus]

The noise that just barely disturbed the air was not particularly strange; no music, no mechanical humming, and no whirring of motivators and joints. It was a rustling in one of the nearby bushes, accompanied by a disturbance of the leaves. Whatever it was that made the noise, it wasn't there for long. It moved through shrubs and foliage, ensuring that its form was left unseen, darting up into a tree with the same speed and agility. Given its swiftness, it would have been safe to assume that such a disturbance was caused by no more than a squirrel or something similar. Such an assumption, however, would've been rendered utterly incorrect as the creature poked its head (and, essentially, its entire body) out of the top of the tree.

It was a skull, and it didn't look too modified or mechanical on the outside. The most obvious hint of it being one of Lucian's creations were the eight small, spindly, metallic spider-legs that came out from its sides. The eyesockets did not have large, bright optic lenses encompassing them, like the rest of the machines did, but, instead, had smaller optic sensors in the back of the eye-socket. They glowed a bright red, giving the skull a singularly frightening appearance as a whole. The skull was not a machine in the way that the servitors or Lucian were; it possessed no brain matter at all, and no biological functions had been preserved or replaced. Instead, it was a purely mechanical creation, just using a skull as its chassis.

The skull probe, though lacking even a lower jaw, began to make a strange noise. It was a continuous, monotone beeping like one would hear accompanied with colored bars on the television screen. After about ten seconds, the tone began to change, usually in about one second intervals. First lower, than higher, than slightly off (a musician may identify it as the 'sharp' of the tone). It repeated this tonal shift again, and then went silent. The optical sensors focused, the skull moving across the top of the tree on its spindly legs.

[Emby Foster]

Emby's brain slowly slipped into unconsciousness though she kept fighting. Her head would lift an random intervals as she tried to shake off the sleepiness. She wanted to rest but at the same time, she didn't know what to expect and it was safer to stay alert. The soft rustling of leaves kept her eyes opened, wondering if Freakopolis had small animals. The thought made her smile, albeit a bit bitterly. They really tried to make Freakopolis feel like 'home'.

She back away from the tree and turned around, hoping to catch a glimpse of a small creature. She turned around just in time to see a weird, skull machine. She let out a scream, her eyes widened. She scrambled up and backed away from the tree, tripping backward and landing on her rear end, looking up. She closed her eyes as the weird pitch reached her ears. It wasn't painful just annoying. She struggled to maintain her breathing, feeling as if they eyeless skull spider was staring through her.

She took a shuddering breath as she heard it sink back into the tree. She opened her eyes. Her breathing was hard and fast. A hand was pressed forcefully against her heart, willing it too slow down. She didn't know what could upset Claude's hold on her virus. She thought a panic attack definitely could. "What was that?" She muttered loudly to herself, fear ringing in her voice.

[Lucian Verdus]

The tones were repeated again, this time faster, and the skull-probe jumped from the tree. Upon landing, it skittered towards the girl. Her image, sent to Lucian, registered within Lucian's memory banks as one who was ill, and would've been cured of both her illness and impure state of being, had there not been interlopers. One living subject, it was Lucian's prediction, would lead to more. As soon as he had another, one of 'them' to testify to those that would doubt him, it was inevitable that more would come. Lucian transmitted orders back to the probe, which let out another combination of tones before skittering closer to the girl.

It stopped at about five feet away, raising itself up on its small legs to about two feet in height to make sure it was visible. Then, there was a quiet beeping noise, and a loud whirring and mechanical shifting from inside the skull. Another, louder beep, and it spoke. It was not the role of the skull-probe to speak outside of combinations of tones, but it did have the capacity for voice. It did not have the proper faculties to process words and put them in order on its own, however, and it was restricted to its near-musical form of communication. Lucian, however, could speak through them, using them as emissaries or messengers, as he was now.

The voice that emanated from within the skull was unmistakably Lucian's. It was of a particular pitch and style of speech that distinguished it from mere servitors, and had about it an intelligence and lucidity not present in the lobotomized minds of Lucian's servants. "We meet again. I did not expect that I would find you alone. It has been my experience in the past that those who have denied my gift have ensured to take precautions not to hear from me again. Usually, this takes the form of more-than-willing males who believe themselves righteous for doing so. In conclusion, I am fortunate.

"Our conversation was interrupted, last time, and I would like to conclude it. I spoke to you of eternal life, of one without disease or the deterioration of body. I did not tell you about emotion. You will retain all but a small amount of your emotion and personality, but there is an advantage to possessing them in a pure state as this. With a thought you can temporarily shut off any emotion or desire you find that is unfitting for a present situation or your disposition. If this influences your response or reaction to my offer, or if you would like to discuss this state, then now is the time to do so. It is my desire we are not interrupted again."

[Emby Foster]

Emby let out another scream. The new one was higher and fear filled it's sound. She back away from the jumping skull, her breathing filling her ears and silencing the world around her. Her body broke out into a sweat. Through her short time here at Freakopolis, she never had encountered anything like this. She didn't know it's purpose. For all she knew, it was a invention of the guards. This new idea sent her head spinning and she pressed harder against her chest, feeling her skin stretch painfully beneath her palm.

Emby managed to crawl away as it came further but her arm fell back, twisting beneath her painfully and she noticed the thing stopped not too far away from her. She would've let out a shriek of pain if she wasn't currently choking on her breathing. She couldn't remember the tricks to calm her nerves. A strange fear of dying by the skull played in her mind and she just hoped she would pass out before that. Then maybe the skull would think she was dead already and just walk away. Or however it transported itself from place to place.

Suddenly, she heard the murmuring of words. She couldn't make them out, her breathing too loud in her ears to understand but she forced her body to relax. At first, it only hitched up her adrenalin but slowly, her breathing quieted before she was just panting and able to hear the voice that spoke to her. She vaguely remembered it as belonged to some man who offered her immortality. She shuddered, wondering how he made the skull machine and what purpose it served.

She tuned in to his words, catching him halfway through. He was offering his deal again it seemed. Another shudder shook her body. She didn't know what to do. All she wanted was Jacob by her. He would know what to do. He would say the right things and he wouldn't have let her get so excited as to send herself into a major panic attack. Her breath hitched as he said they wished they wouldn't be interrupted. She slowly dragged her knees to her chest. "I-I..." she stuttered, wondering if maybe her hyperventilation caused some brain trauma. Could that even happen?

[Lucian Verdus]

The second scream did not bode well. Given his luck, chances were that one of those aforementioned virile protector-males would come along and interrupt things yet again. It didn't seem like this girl was even a possible candidate for purity, at that point, as all she was interested in doing was making loud, meaningless noises to clutter up the probe's audio matrix. There was an odd, twittering, quiet sort of tone from the skull probe, and its eyes flashed once. It rebalanced itself on its legs, glancing up at the terrified girl.

Eventually, she calmed down enough to utter what may have been an attempt at communication. If this meant anything, it was only that she was receptive. "I ask for a one-word response of 'yes' or 'no'. I am not here to harm you, not unless I find reason to." If those males were becoming attached to her, or were vehement about protecting her, she would make a useful tool. He needed only pull the right strings in their chaotic, flesh-based minds. That is, of course, if his servitor models didn't develop at a rate sufficient enough to deal with them. The design for the long-ranged firearm servitor was nearly complete as it was, and he wasn't running all too low on corpses just yet. The ambassador design, perhaps better suited for this scenario than the skull-probe, would also soon be deployed.

"Two things have spread across this compound prior to my arrival. The first is a disease, which ravaged the living. The second is revival, which has risen up the dead. One is not my doing, and one is. The difference is that one is ending life, and one is bringing back the departed to give them use. I would be so easily misconstrued as evil for all of the good that I have done, and willingly demonized by the impure creatures that do not understand. I ask why you hate, and tell you that you are ill. We just want to fix you." Those words may as well have echoed down from time. It had been a multitude of years since he had ever heard that phrase, even paraphrased, again, much less listened to the recording thereof. For all of his adaptations and improvements, it seemed, his programming had never fully changed.

[Emby Foster]

Emby silenced her screaming and glanced at the probe. It scared the crap out of her but now that she knew it wasn't going to kill her or a guard spying device, she calmed just a little more. She stood up, making herself taller then the probe. This calmed her even more. She wrapped her arms around herself, staring down at the thing while Lucian's voice came in more and more.

Emby fought a scream as Lucian said he may have to hurt her. She fell back a step. She could out run the thing hopefully. Maybe destroy it with some wind or earth. Her hand slid to her back pocket, where she used to keep a lighter. She muttered something and sighed, remembering she did not have that lighter anymore. Wind and earth were enough though. Her hands clenched into fists and wind drew around her, as if she was drawing a shield of sorts around herself but really, she was ready to gush it all at the probe.

She stayed quiet, waiting for Lucian to finish. She found herself disgusted by his words. He had no right to bring back the day. She also found herself disgusted by them. "I think I'll have to say no," she whispered, scared of what reaction it might cause in Lucian. She didn't want to become like him. Mostly robot and without much emotion. They caused her trouble but she would rather love then not be able to. She'd rather cry then have to worry about fritzing out if water hit her or something."I like being human," she said, a little louder and a little defiantly.

[Lucian Verdus]

"And what is it about humanity that appeals to you?" It was an immediate reply that he had gone over time and time again in his internal processes. The significance of the human condition had been a topic of much consideration to him once he had considered living specimens for conversion. It seemed to him that the most prime attraction to being so impure was emotion. Emotion, in its complexity, dominated much of human decision and pursuit. Compared to machines and his own ilk, it seemed to be something they prided themselves on.

"I have drawn it to be that your varied states of emotion are something that appeal to you. Myself and my servitors are poor examples of the end result of others. Perhaps this is why it appears unattractive. Servitors do not need emotion, and they lack sufficient remaining brain matter to ever possess it. And I, myself, have sacrificed it for a higher state of knowledge and thinking. I am capable of emotion, but only in a different form. Civilian and higher caste servitors, however, would be capable of very human emotion. According to design, they would possess all of the emotion and tonal variation of their previous state, but with a significant improvement. With a thought alone, an individual could turn off the capacity for hatred, sadness, anger, desire, or any other, and turn it back on at will. I was once this way, in my earlier stages."

The skull probe skittered backwards a foot, "There is no excuse for defiance." The visual receptors flashed again, "To be stripped of the negative aspects of humanity, and improved, given life that is eternal and a body that will not wither, and with all of the high points of humanity along with them. I have asked of you all only once to defy your nature regarding what you fear and do not understand. It is not a large request, and the benefits are many. None of you need to be as blind as you are, and cling to illusions of self-righteousness all the while. But, as long as you persist, I will wait. I can wait forever."

[Emby Foster]

Emby's eyes widened at his answer. What was it that appealed to her? She knew one thing. It was just how much his offer didn't appeal to her. It felt wrong and evil, no matter how much he promised purity. She stared through the skulls eyes, wishing Lucian was here himself, though that would only scare her more most likely. And if it did have to boil down to one thing, Emby did like her emotions.

SHe half listened to what he was saying. She wasn't sold and hadn't she told him no. He was pushing to hard on her and it wasn't bodding well. Her eyes flickered across the ochards looking for another human. It was so darn early! She looked bakc to the probe. "I don't want to be able to turn them off and control them at will. That's not the point. Part of the thing about emotions is their spotanity. They reveal to me how I am. I would be nothing if I could control them. It'd be the same thing as emotionless," she tried to explain to him, drawing from the little facts that had reached her ears during his lecture.

She narrowed her eyes at the probe. She was self-rightous? He seemed to be pretty full of himself and his mission. "Look! Just leave me alone okay? I'm done. I said no! You asked, I answered. I think you can go creep someone else out." She was a little insulted now. He was talking to her as if she was stupid. She took a step back, ready to turn.

[Lucian Verdus]

"Were you only not so blind." The skull probe skittered around her in a circle, an attempt to constrict and randomize her escape route. "If you will cling to your impurity until your life ends, you will still not escape becoming one of mine. For as long as I remain here, death will only feed my numbers. They are limited, and they do not hold the appeal that living machines do, but they are numbers all the same." The probe stopped in front of her again, skittering a foot backward. "Your irrational, chaotic thought processes are nothing to be proud of. Why any of you would think to present that, of all things human, as something honorable does nothing but to affirm said irrationality. I do not think that the capacity to kill in the heat of passion, nor to go fully insane, is something to be proud of."

The skull probe paused, the processor inside of the brain casing whirring loudly for a moment, before continuing on its toneless diatribe. "You did not diverge from apes kicking and screaming. I do not see, then, why you will not accept the next, more favorable state of being. It is simply evolution; the natural order of things. And yet you would rather that the impure murder one another over unfitting and unintelligent things. And yet, some of you would be so bold as to consider me some sort of evil, demonic presence; clinging to your simplistic customs of leaving the dead to rot uselessly instead of benefiting the living."

Again, the skull probe made a few circles around the tree, silently this time. Were all mutants like this? If so, the situation seemed hopeless. He seemed to have found only the one sensible mutant, who had been one of the very few to ever see his procedures with their own eyes. But, that was one, out of far too many. Still, they would serve him, one way or another. "Consider my words. Think on your flawed humanity, if denying a hateless, deathless society is truly worth it, in the end." The skull probe lowered itself down on its spider legs and sped off, clattering loathsomely as it did.

[Emby Foster]

Emby followed the probe. What he didn't know was that he wasn't ruining her plans at all. She just had to push the air around a bit and the probe would be out of the way and she'd be free to run as far as she liked. And she would like to run very far right now. But seeing as the probe had yet to threaten her directly, she didn't want to give away her mutation just yet. Sulley had told her to keep that as one of her most guarded secrets, and she did. Emby narrowed her eyes, not sure what he meant about becoming one of his...machines when she died. She shuddered, in spite of her confusion. "Why you are so proud of your self-righteousness, I'll never know either," she retorted.

Emby backed away from the probe and the air stirred around her. It was beginning to feel like a time to make a break for it. She gathered the air in front of her, like pulling a blanket over ones self and let it rest, waiting to be provoked to push the probe away and run. Her breath hitched in her throat as the probe spoke about using the dead again. She wanted to vomit as she began to get what Lucian was selling.

She released her breath as the probe ran away and fell back, her head hitting the soft earth as the air she had captured pushed her back once she lost control of it. Her breathing picked up a bit before she gained better control. Too much use of her mutation typically sent her into a dizzying panic attack. But these were slightly easier to control then the ones induced by real fear. Lucian's offer buzzed in her head and chilled her. She just laid on the ground, a hand on her stomach as she breathed and tried to erase her mind.

[Another person can come in if they want]

[Jacob Jackson]

It had been hard. Recovering from such an abnormal virus. Jacob had been bed ridden before the attack on the guards and was sourly disappointedto have missed it. He wanted to show those fiends a lesson for hurting other mutants. Especially Emby. She didn't deserve anything like that.

Jacob Jackson slowly made his way through the Orchads his hands in his jean pockets. His white tee shirt and usual assortment of braclets hunng on his wrist. Lightly the man clicked his tounge listening to the echo,. It wasn't an echo to penetrate the ear drums as most. Just an echo as if it was bouncing off a cave wall or something like it. He enjoyed such noises. His mutation brought him solitude when he used it in a calm manor.

As he thought his eyes trailed along the ground until he noticed a pair of feet. He slowly stopped looking down on the girl. He frowned lightly before slowly dropping to his knees. Lightly he slid a hand under her back and propped her up. " Breath Emby. " he didn't know about the probe yet.

[Emby Foster]

Emby shut her eyes as a strange echo filled her ears. She focused on it, hoping to let it wash over and erase her mind that way but soon something better arrived. Jacob. Em by didn't resist as Jacob pulled her up. Her arms wrapped loosely around him and her head fell against his chest. She focused on his breathing and soon hers matched his. Him just being there almost made her forget about the probe, but then she remembered that Jacob had met Lucian, at least briefly.

She held him tighter. "Where were you five minutes ago?" She asked, pulling away slightly to look at his always-serene- face. She wasn't blaming him of course, just making a pitiful joke. "That...robot guy, Lucian, from the hopsital...he sent this..." She shuddered. "Skull-thing. He kept trying to...make me like him and then said if he didn't get me when I was alive..." Her breathing hitched. "He get me when I was dead." Her eyes were wide and slightly wet, but she was not about to cry.

She fell back against him, glad to have something living and breathing around her. Lucky to have had Jacob find her. She pulled away again when she was recovered. "Was that you...sending the echo things?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

[Jacob Jackson]

Jacob tilted his head to the side curiously as she asked where he'd been. " Walking here. I was released from the hospital an hour or so ago. " he smiled down at her lightly. He held her against his chest lightly keeping her ocmfortable. He definatly cared about her. So it wasn't akward for him to be holding her or anything.

Jacob's eyes narrowed lightly and he tensed as she mentioned the robot man. He remembered that guy. He hadn't liked him then. He thought he was a god and it annoyed Jacob. " I'll talk to him. He won't be touching you alive or dead. Trust me on this. I won't allow it. " He noddedl ightly even though he was still disturbed. He might have to report it to Lucia's superior in the Protectors even though he hated snitching. Looking at her he noticed her eyes were wet. Lightly he traced her cheek with his finger. " Don't worry about him. " he said softly.

Jacob lightly looked at her trying to think before he smiled. " Yeah that was me. It's my mutation. Echo's and what not have you. It's calming but it can also be deadly if I use it right. It's kept me out of tight spots with those Rebellion punks. "

[Emby Foster]

Emby's face grew worried and her arms tightened around him protectively. "So, you're better now? I was so worried! I'm so sorry! I tried to get that guy who helped me to help you but..." she shook her head, tremendous amounts of guilt washing through her.

Emby smiled weakly. "Thank your Jacob. You always know just what to say. I know you'll take care of me. I just wish I could do more for you." Emby swallowed. Soon enough, she would be able to help herself and maybe free Jacob and her from this place, though she knew that probably wouldn't be any time soon. It was just her hope.

Emby bit her lip when he mentioned the Rebellion, feeling guilty again even though she technically wasn't "part" of that faction. "How can it be deadly?" she asked, tilting her head to the side.