- Joined
- Nov 4, 2021
- Messages
- 96
- Reaction score
- 143
My name...
What is my name...?
Those words rang out in the vast darkness. The boy who was suspended in the tank couldn't for the life of him remember... anything.
He would get flashes of memory. Sparks that lasted only a moment before being lost to the ether.
He remembered running. The feeling of intense fear. A massive tower falling.
His mind was reeling. How could he forget his name? How could he not know anything about himself?
He would cry or scream if he could, but he couldn't. He was like a brain trapped in a jar.
A bone-chilling cold gripped his very body deep to its core, contrasted to the very skies burning red from the flames that engulfed the shattering death throwes of a city ablaze around him; Smoke burned his eyes and lungs with every haggard step or breath. While infernos still distant blistered his skin in their intensity.
It had all lead up to, culminated to this very moment. An endless hell of death, exhaustion, moments of rare lucidity. The massive tower, once but a needle-thin construct on the horrizon was now so great before him and so tall that could he even see through the clouds of smoke launguidly holding above the city as it billowed that he knew it would pierce the very heavens and continue on even further beyond he, or anyone, could see.
"ʸᵒᵒ ʰᵒᵒ~" A voice broke the stupor of exhaustion; It came from everywhere and both nowhere all at once, and sounded weak and distorted as if he was underwater...
"ʸᵒᵒ ʰᵒᵒ, ᵇᵒʸ~"
The boy, who had been searching and searching for any type of memory, was startled by the soft voice. "Hello?" He asked into the ether.
"I can't... I can't see you. Where am I? Do you know who I am?" He asked words running into each other as he finally had a chance to speak with someone other than himself.
"ᴴᵒʷ ˢʰᵒᵘˡᵈ ᵃʰ ᵏⁿᵒʷˀ" Closer now, almost perceiveable as he looked about, everything blending together in shade of black and browns as debris and burned and broken buildings all blended together in a macbre scene.
And then, there, almost unnoticed but for the slight pale of her skin where head face just barely peaked out behind a set of green-stained curtains in the remains of a storefront where only half the facade still stood.
Peering out was the emancipated visage of a young girl with the noticeable pate freckles and orange hair of the rathcroghan as she; Her voice the only indication of her gender with how gaunt and thin what little bit of her he could see, stared on impassively at him as if she couldnt decide if the stranger before her was a threat or not.
"Dun stand in the open, daft fool!" She hissed at him.
As the scene unfurled, the memory was easier to grasp. He remembered running through burning streets. It was as he ran that he saw the girl. She was at least a few years older than him.
She saw a stocky boy, covered in soot and ash. Quietly he ran into the store, tripping just inside from pure exhaustion.
Silence greeted him when he finally pulled himself up from the floor, at least as silent as a dying city in turmoil could manage as dust and plaster fell on his head like snow when an explosion a few blocks away shook the building.
Not moving from her spot, she neither retreated nor advanced on him, simply watching him from the window display, watching him both as a hawk might its prey and like a deer in the headlights about to bolt.
"ʸᵒᵒ ʰᵒᵒ~" Again from nowhere and everywhere, like a great horn in his head despite its distant nature.
The girl still stood crouched there, unmoving, unspeaking, her eyes hooded behind unkempt orange locks of hair.
As he was about to speak in the memory, the voice rang out again.
He was pulled back to the present, and back into the dark. He looked around once more attempting to pin point the voice. "Where are you?" He asked.
"Open ye eyes, silly boy~" It cooed, closer, just off to his side in an accent not at all dissimilar from the girl who still stared at him daurly.
... why didn't he think of that?
Attempting to open his eyes, he was blinded by light. His unused eyes burned from the intense exposure. Carefully this time he cracked one eye and blinked several times. He then did the same with the other.
"You sound... so familiar..."
The light that blinded him was unlike most; Being more akin to the spots left from staring at the sun for too long as they exploded like fireworks in his vision, burning like the smoke had what somehow he knew was so very long ago despite feeling like just a moment before.
"Is this the part where ye ask if im ye mother or some such?" 'She' asked, clearly a womans voice.
When the sunspots receded, only darkness remained; Eyes open, for he could feel a cold air on them...
He could not see...
Somehow he knew that was wrong. "No... I don't believe you are. You sound like that girl... from the shop."
As he tried to open his eyes again he only found darkness which terrified him. He couldn't see? Why couldn't he see!?
He tried to reach up to feel his eyes. They had to be covered! That's why he couldn't see.
All that answered him back was a contemplative "Hmm" as he pulled his hands up from what felt like a very small and narrow bed of some kind that had an incline. His hands felt like they were trying to pull through mollases as he brought them up as something other than weakness impeaded them. "You shouldnt attempt to move just yet." A new voice made itself known, sounding slightly more distant as if the speaker was standing at the other side of the room.
"'S for ye own safety, and his" The female voice concluded, somehow he knew she was gesturing over her shoulder with one thumb, despite the nothingness. With some mental flexing, a sense of awareness flooded him like a fog parting in his mind.
He could feel things. Remarkable and undescribable sensations in and around his body. Every nuance and sensation stretched raw and exposed like pure adrenaline had been pumped in his heart.
He was not restrained in a physical sense, he could tell, somehow. But with the ice in his veins and the millions of thoughts running through his head and this new overwhelming sense of being flooding into him like the very universe itself was slowly pouring into his mind through a funnel.
""Ere we go, doc." The woman grinned; He knew this despite not being able to see it. "Better get the good stuff ready!"
He couldn't move his arms... and there were more people in the room.
Taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself he found he was able to see. Yet he wasn't seeing through his eyes...
He was cold, like his blood had been replaced with ice water. His body shivered involuntarily. He needed to try and focus. He was able to see the woman somehow, so seeing a little further into the room shouldn't be to terrible... right? Just not with his eyes... easy.
"Ho?" The girl chimed curiously, as he took a hold of this new sense and expanded it outwards. He became aware of his suroundings in a way he could not yet consciously understand but could at least process.
It was so disorienting. With his eyes closed he saw outlines of shadowy figures. Even covered in shadow he could make out their faces. Oddest of all was that he could see two of everyone, but one was moving faster than the other.
"Did I hit my head... because this doesn't look right." He said matter of factly. His stomach churned from the sensory overload and he retreated back in on himself. It was to much information. It felt like his head might split in two.
One of the figures moved forward from where she sat next to the bed on some kind of stool, and a fraction of a second later the afterimage followed as she came to lean over him, head tilted to the side.
"Heirophant." The other at the corner of the room standing by what was quickly developing into focus as a door reached a hand out cautiously as a second later the following hand matched it.
"Nah, this ones interestin." The girl chimed, clearly not caring about him being fully able to hear him.
"Didnt scream, didnt thrash or lash out. Calls me his 'Ma' and says all doesnt look 's it should."
There was a pressure, that started like a pillow being placed over his face and held down; almost feeling like it would suffocate him despite still being able to breathe just fine before it faded and localized.
"You... cant see?" She, Heirophant, wondered out loud before leaning close enough over him that a few lockes of her short hair tickled his nose.
"No. It's more like somethin's not letting ye see." She mumbled.
"From the trials and diagnostics hes perfectly healthy for his age; No scar tissue or damage to his optical nerves or sensory systems." The doctor examined a slate of some kind.
"You're not like meh." Heirophant concluded with a strange sense of finality before a slight perkiness entered her tone. "Ye something special, though."
"Whats his name?" She asked, still looking at him. Or... There was the sense that she wasnt quite looking at him in the same way he had know either.
"No contract data." The doctor concluded, examining his slate again. "Another pickup from the tower group.
"So," she wondered at him. "What's your name, 'special boy?' "
The boy felt 'Heirophant' move closer to him. Her presences was familiar and comforting. His head lulled in her direction.
He racked his mind again, searching for any answers to her question.
"I... I can't... I don't..." His minds was reeling trying to pull information that should have been there but wasn't.
"I don't know my name..." He replied in defeat.
There was an expectation to such a statement. Condolences, pity, empathy.
Instead, Heirophant chuckled mirthfully and lightly patted him on the cheek before stating rather boldly,
"Thats rather cliche, innit?" She threw herself back, and he took notice from the way her and her afterimage.. No, it was the oposite; The afterimage was the real thing he knew somehow, and followed the path of the first Heirophant, would miss her stool by a considerable margine.
But as she sat, the stool moved of its own accord to have her land perfectly on it.
"No cliche or corny title that no sane person would ever decide was acceptable thing to call themselves popped into your head, that we would just naturally accept and would end up beign a reference to the title of the movie? Do you at least have flashes of some mysterious villian from the neck down because you didnt see his face because you were too busy staring at the barrel of his smoking gun, or some noticeable birthmark or scar to obsess over in your path to revenge?"
He was confused. The stool. She was gonna fall. He could see it. (Which he still couldn't understand how he could see...) But then the stool slid forward to catch her. Nothing was making sense.
"No. Nothing. I can't remember... anything. I had flashes. Running from... something. Explosions and gunfire. There was a girl there. Orange hair, gaunt." He explained, his voice monotone as he ran through the flashes of memory analytically, relating each detail that came to him.
As he did he tried again to open and closed his eyes. He wanted to see. He was tired of the shadows.
"Alright then." Heirophant leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. "Ill be straight with you then, you're dead."
Dead? That was quite the thought. It would explain a lot, like seeing shadows. But he could sense that there was more to this. He felt his heart beating and he was pulling air into his lungs. So being dead is out.
"By that you mean?" He prompted.
"Dead, died, ceased to endure life, moved on from the land of the living." She counted off on her fingers as the doctor behind her groaned.
He shook his head. "No you smart ass!" He shot back. "Obviously I'm breathing so don't be so obtuse."
"Trust me, its a very immersive afterlife. You ever notice how you subconciously breathe? Its like that."
"Heirophant." The doctor behind her chided in a warning tone that the girl waved off.
"See, you died unfufilled. So we, super-powerful afterlife orginization that we be, decided to give ye a second shot and send ye back to the land of the living to act as our agent punishing the wicked and all that hullabuhloo, ye following all this?"
With unseeing eyes he started blankly at her. "I maybe young, but I'm not stupid." He replied as he looked to the doctor across the room. Expanding his focus back outwards he tried to examine the doctors face. "What's really going on." He asked.
"Yeah, you got us there." She chuckled, "Its a little more borning. Pretty much you have untold psychic powers, and you're being woken to join the efforts of a clandestine inteligence agency among other burgeoning psychic individuals like myself, oh and also you now, to further our society while also fighting corruption and evil behind the scenes."
The boy chuckled softly. "So you start with the completely impossible to make the next idea seem not as crazy. Even so I can't explain seeing like this. Or the fact that I can see 2 of everyone. That still making queezy.. how do I turn that off..."
"Precognition?" The doctor questioned, earning an affirmative 'nn' from the girl as she tucked her head against her shoulder.
"To be honest, im not sure." she admitted. "I dont have much precognative abilities myself. I'm more based around enhancing my perception and senses, personally."
She didnt give him much time to be down or dwell on it for too long, however.
"What we are, AUGURs they call us; Are mental powerhouses with alot more higher brain functions than normal people. Essentially we're tapping into powers beyond anyones understanding and controlling them off of hyper-functionary mental processing. You dont know it yet, because you have not to interact with anyone else enough to notice; But you, me, all of us are something like geniuses, and we create and tailor these powers by need, desire, and subconcious command."
"What Heirophant is trying to communicate," the doctor interjected, annoyance tinging his tone at clearly being back-seated on what he could likely guess was an interaction he usually led. "Is that you should be able to conciously control your precognative abilities given time, and if not should naturally become acustomed to you as near as your base senses are right now."
"Actually ah was ju gon tell 'em te ju not see te future like'n all that." She mocked back, her rathcroghan brogue being unecesarily deepened as she slowed down and enunciated every word as if the doctor was simple in the head.
The boy snickered. "I like Heirophant's explanation better." He replied looking back over to her and smirking.
"So... you're ability is to see, but that's not all is it? Is that why I can't see anything with my eyes right now? You blocked my sight." He said, taking a stab in the dark as to the extent of Heirophant's abilities.
"Yes, and no." She stated more daurly, a pit forming in his stomach. "I cant see either, though I can see things in ways others cant to compensate. And so can you, with some training. But for whatever reason you cannot see; I am not the cause."
"From what I can tell your blindness is likely self-inflicted as a result of some kind of trauma, and your powers are manifesting as early as they are to compensate. It's... Not uncommon of a phenomina among my generation, though very rare among yours."
He felt his heart drop. After waking up, it was the first time the boy had shown any significant emotions. Tears welled up in his eyes as he fought to hold it all back.
"So... I saw something so traumatic that my stupid brain decided I should just not see anything else ever again." He breathed angrily. He just wanted to throw something, but his damned arms wouldn't budge.
His mental energy began surging with his raging emotions. The 'doubles' that the boy had mentioned became faster. A couple seconds faster than the originals. He could also see farther into the room.
"Could be," She shrugged, patting her lap a few times before clapping once. "But there are more important things to tackle right now!"
"Like a propper breifing and indoctrination suite before moving him to cultivation." The doctor announced.
"Yeah, like figuring out just what to call you since you've yet to have your protagonist flashbacks that would exposit just enough for a cringey but markitable franchise or at least two movies and a prequel." Another groan greeted her as the doctor projected annoyance that he could now feel as his senses expanded.
"So im thinking Mollay Dedman. So that way when you come across a member of the evil orginization that killed you and they say something along the lines of 'You're supposed to be dead, man.' you can reply 'I was allways a Dedman', keen?"
He closed his eyes and pulled his vision back in and sighed. Wiping his face on the bed beneath him he looked back over to the doctor.
"Let's get on with the breifing then." He replied looking back over to Heirophant. "And no that just sounds dumb."
He looked studied her face for a moment, then asked. "Why do they call you Heirophant?"
"My real's Kay, Scathach Kay. It doesnt really matter if we all know each others names to them, but, like, everyone else i guess has to call me 'Heirophant' like its going out of style. As for briefings? Its just a fancy packet a hundred or so pages long telling you that you're a danger to society so they OIA is seizing your contract until a time is reached where they deem that you're no longer a threat to yourself and those around you, and that you can properly contribute to babel again."
"They tell us that often enough verbatim from that so you dont really miss much by not actually being able to read it, i certainly didnt! The rest is just alot of the lads in my generation doing a sitdown with yours a few times a week to learn you how to control your new gifts.
As for 'why?' When you get to be super important and useful like me they upgrade your contract to an 'alpha' contract. Having one gives you alot of power and authority over alot of vague subjects but at the same time we; Us fancy, spooky, secret psychics also dont technically exist yet in the public eye so they give us pretty cringe codenames, likely becomes someone in the nametag and embroidery department at babel got a little too bored and has a surplus of stuff laying around with these titles and such. Why do you want one?"
The boy sat there for a long moment before nodding. It was something to call himself at least. Without any idea what his name was, a callsign would do just fine. After Kay's explination he also had a distinct feeling that he wouldn't see the light of day if he didn't have an OIA collar on. Not now that he was developing powers...
He still hadn't fully processed that either. He had powers now? He could see into the future. Not to far ahead, but with training who knew how far he could see into the future. It was the stuff of every kids dream to get powers and become a super hero. Though in this case, it was more like they were gonna be treated like freaks locked up deep down in an OIA basement.
"I do." He added quietly, looking Kay directly in the eye.
A weight felt like it had been lifted from him the moment the words left his mouth as the sudden sensation holding him down lightened considerably as waves of force retreated from around him and circled before disipating around Kay. It had been so sudden and had been pressing him down so long like a lasting fatigue it had been easy to write off the perceived weakness as such until the other psychic released it from restraining him.
"Good," The grin in her tone was obvious as clearly he had passed some kind of test or threshold. "Usually some desk-jockey decides and does some paperwork and passes it down through some comittee or what not but i figure we can skip all that.
I hereby dub thee 'Six of Cups."
The silence that followed as she no doubt waited expectantly was cut by a groan from the doctor who finally excused himself from the room with a sigh.
He sighed with relief as felt the weight disapate. He then cocked an eyebrow at her. "Six of Cups? That's a mouth full. I want a cool name like you." The boy replied, a bit disappointed with Kay's idea for a name.
"Besides I can't go around introducing myself like 'Hi, I'm Six. Six of Cups.' I'm sure the great Hierophant has an even better name picked out." He replied, giving the woman a sly grin.
"Well I allready know a six of cups; Kind of a hardass so uh was hopin it would irk him some when iffin we unveil ye. As for a cool one? I cannae say I have any good judgement on that front, boyo."
He sat there for a few seconds, mulling over her words. It was then that one of her words struck him. "Judgement... is Judgement one of the codenames I can choose?" He asked. With an ability to see the future, Judgement seemed like an apt moniker.
"It... Is!" She hesitated at first, but then perked up at what was clearly the gears working towards a cliche 'revenger' name. "'S better than what ah was going to pick next. 'Luke Mercy' just doesnt have the same ring to it."
The boy rolled his eyes at Kay, but gave a slight smile. "Luke Mercy? Really?" Laughing he tried out his new name. "Judgement... I like it. Now that the issue of what to call me is dealt with, what happens now Ms. Kay?" He asked looking back over to her.
Kay did not answer. There was a clear sense of uncertainty radiating off of her despite Judgements lack of ability to see. She fidgeted for a moment in clear anticipation.
"Not really sure," She admitted. "Usually you guys wake up screaming or panicking, or take a few hours to settle down enough to listen so whoevah gets this job 's usually kinda restraining you lot for a while; So we got a few hours to burn before we're off scheduel. Got anything in mind you want to be doin, or knowin while its just you 'n me?"
Judgement cocked his head to one side as he took in her statement. "...am I really that much of an oddity?" He finally asked her after several long moments. Thinking about it, this situation truly should have warranted a much grander reaction. This was the stuff straight out of a cliche scifi novel. He also couldn't remember anything about himself. Yet despite all that, he has been able to remain relatively calm.
"We're all weird here, dove." Was his answer, and wasnt hard to believe from the one encounter if Kay was the norm.
"Aint a single one of our heads right, you'll see. But it's not that any of us are crazy; Just that your head and mine function a bit differently from everyone elses, its a good thing though you'll see."
He nodded. "Okay. Well... I'm guessing I won't be leaving this compound anytime soon. Can you show me around the facility?" He asked.
"Nope." She answered flatly without hesitation. "Aint a one of us; You or me, can see a thing of the world like the others can. Blind as a bat, ye call?"
He shrugged. "Well we can still both see... kinda." He offered, but quickly relented on the subject. "How long will they keep me in here then? I want to do something."
"Oh, ah can think of something to pass the time. Ye been pitching a tent there since ye woke up and ol' Scatchach knows a few good ways to settle that kinda thing down." Kay answered in a startlingly sultry tone before the sound of scraping metal on tile could be heard as her stool scraped the floor.
When the doctor returned from his absence to clear his mind and hit up the nearest water-fountain he made to stop by the checkpoint at the hall before the revival-chamber where the newest subjects were revitalized and woken from cryostasis. What he saw on the cameras there from which the two OIA agents manning the desk were rather engrossed with he couldnt believe his eyes.
For all the world it looked like two blind teenagers trying to play cards...
What is my name...?
Those words rang out in the vast darkness. The boy who was suspended in the tank couldn't for the life of him remember... anything.
He would get flashes of memory. Sparks that lasted only a moment before being lost to the ether.
He remembered running. The feeling of intense fear. A massive tower falling.
His mind was reeling. How could he forget his name? How could he not know anything about himself?
He would cry or scream if he could, but he couldn't. He was like a brain trapped in a jar.
A bone-chilling cold gripped his very body deep to its core, contrasted to the very skies burning red from the flames that engulfed the shattering death throwes of a city ablaze around him; Smoke burned his eyes and lungs with every haggard step or breath. While infernos still distant blistered his skin in their intensity.
It had all lead up to, culminated to this very moment. An endless hell of death, exhaustion, moments of rare lucidity. The massive tower, once but a needle-thin construct on the horrizon was now so great before him and so tall that could he even see through the clouds of smoke launguidly holding above the city as it billowed that he knew it would pierce the very heavens and continue on even further beyond he, or anyone, could see.
"ʸᵒᵒ ʰᵒᵒ~" A voice broke the stupor of exhaustion; It came from everywhere and both nowhere all at once, and sounded weak and distorted as if he was underwater...
"ʸᵒᵒ ʰᵒᵒ, ᵇᵒʸ~"
The boy, who had been searching and searching for any type of memory, was startled by the soft voice. "Hello?" He asked into the ether.
"I can't... I can't see you. Where am I? Do you know who I am?" He asked words running into each other as he finally had a chance to speak with someone other than himself.
"ᴴᵒʷ ˢʰᵒᵘˡᵈ ᵃʰ ᵏⁿᵒʷˀ" Closer now, almost perceiveable as he looked about, everything blending together in shade of black and browns as debris and burned and broken buildings all blended together in a macbre scene.
And then, there, almost unnoticed but for the slight pale of her skin where head face just barely peaked out behind a set of green-stained curtains in the remains of a storefront where only half the facade still stood.
Peering out was the emancipated visage of a young girl with the noticeable pate freckles and orange hair of the rathcroghan as she; Her voice the only indication of her gender with how gaunt and thin what little bit of her he could see, stared on impassively at him as if she couldnt decide if the stranger before her was a threat or not.
"Dun stand in the open, daft fool!" She hissed at him.
As the scene unfurled, the memory was easier to grasp. He remembered running through burning streets. It was as he ran that he saw the girl. She was at least a few years older than him.
She saw a stocky boy, covered in soot and ash. Quietly he ran into the store, tripping just inside from pure exhaustion.
Silence greeted him when he finally pulled himself up from the floor, at least as silent as a dying city in turmoil could manage as dust and plaster fell on his head like snow when an explosion a few blocks away shook the building.
Not moving from her spot, she neither retreated nor advanced on him, simply watching him from the window display, watching him both as a hawk might its prey and like a deer in the headlights about to bolt.
"ʸᵒᵒ ʰᵒᵒ~" Again from nowhere and everywhere, like a great horn in his head despite its distant nature.
The girl still stood crouched there, unmoving, unspeaking, her eyes hooded behind unkempt orange locks of hair.
As he was about to speak in the memory, the voice rang out again.
He was pulled back to the present, and back into the dark. He looked around once more attempting to pin point the voice. "Where are you?" He asked.
"Open ye eyes, silly boy~" It cooed, closer, just off to his side in an accent not at all dissimilar from the girl who still stared at him daurly.
... why didn't he think of that?
Attempting to open his eyes, he was blinded by light. His unused eyes burned from the intense exposure. Carefully this time he cracked one eye and blinked several times. He then did the same with the other.
"You sound... so familiar..."
The light that blinded him was unlike most; Being more akin to the spots left from staring at the sun for too long as they exploded like fireworks in his vision, burning like the smoke had what somehow he knew was so very long ago despite feeling like just a moment before.
"Is this the part where ye ask if im ye mother or some such?" 'She' asked, clearly a womans voice.
When the sunspots receded, only darkness remained; Eyes open, for he could feel a cold air on them...
He could not see...
Somehow he knew that was wrong. "No... I don't believe you are. You sound like that girl... from the shop."
As he tried to open his eyes again he only found darkness which terrified him. He couldn't see? Why couldn't he see!?
He tried to reach up to feel his eyes. They had to be covered! That's why he couldn't see.
All that answered him back was a contemplative "Hmm" as he pulled his hands up from what felt like a very small and narrow bed of some kind that had an incline. His hands felt like they were trying to pull through mollases as he brought them up as something other than weakness impeaded them. "You shouldnt attempt to move just yet." A new voice made itself known, sounding slightly more distant as if the speaker was standing at the other side of the room.
"'S for ye own safety, and his" The female voice concluded, somehow he knew she was gesturing over her shoulder with one thumb, despite the nothingness. With some mental flexing, a sense of awareness flooded him like a fog parting in his mind.
He could feel things. Remarkable and undescribable sensations in and around his body. Every nuance and sensation stretched raw and exposed like pure adrenaline had been pumped in his heart.
He was not restrained in a physical sense, he could tell, somehow. But with the ice in his veins and the millions of thoughts running through his head and this new overwhelming sense of being flooding into him like the very universe itself was slowly pouring into his mind through a funnel.
""Ere we go, doc." The woman grinned; He knew this despite not being able to see it. "Better get the good stuff ready!"
He couldn't move his arms... and there were more people in the room.
Taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself he found he was able to see. Yet he wasn't seeing through his eyes...
He was cold, like his blood had been replaced with ice water. His body shivered involuntarily. He needed to try and focus. He was able to see the woman somehow, so seeing a little further into the room shouldn't be to terrible... right? Just not with his eyes... easy.
"Ho?" The girl chimed curiously, as he took a hold of this new sense and expanded it outwards. He became aware of his suroundings in a way he could not yet consciously understand but could at least process.
It was so disorienting. With his eyes closed he saw outlines of shadowy figures. Even covered in shadow he could make out their faces. Oddest of all was that he could see two of everyone, but one was moving faster than the other.
"Did I hit my head... because this doesn't look right." He said matter of factly. His stomach churned from the sensory overload and he retreated back in on himself. It was to much information. It felt like his head might split in two.
One of the figures moved forward from where she sat next to the bed on some kind of stool, and a fraction of a second later the afterimage followed as she came to lean over him, head tilted to the side.
"Heirophant." The other at the corner of the room standing by what was quickly developing into focus as a door reached a hand out cautiously as a second later the following hand matched it.
"Nah, this ones interestin." The girl chimed, clearly not caring about him being fully able to hear him.
"Didnt scream, didnt thrash or lash out. Calls me his 'Ma' and says all doesnt look 's it should."
There was a pressure, that started like a pillow being placed over his face and held down; almost feeling like it would suffocate him despite still being able to breathe just fine before it faded and localized.
"You... cant see?" She, Heirophant, wondered out loud before leaning close enough over him that a few lockes of her short hair tickled his nose.
"No. It's more like somethin's not letting ye see." She mumbled.
"From the trials and diagnostics hes perfectly healthy for his age; No scar tissue or damage to his optical nerves or sensory systems." The doctor examined a slate of some kind.
"You're not like meh." Heirophant concluded with a strange sense of finality before a slight perkiness entered her tone. "Ye something special, though."
"Whats his name?" She asked, still looking at him. Or... There was the sense that she wasnt quite looking at him in the same way he had know either.
"No contract data." The doctor concluded, examining his slate again. "Another pickup from the tower group.
"So," she wondered at him. "What's your name, 'special boy?' "
The boy felt 'Heirophant' move closer to him. Her presences was familiar and comforting. His head lulled in her direction.
He racked his mind again, searching for any answers to her question.
"I... I can't... I don't..." His minds was reeling trying to pull information that should have been there but wasn't.
"I don't know my name..." He replied in defeat.
There was an expectation to such a statement. Condolences, pity, empathy.
Instead, Heirophant chuckled mirthfully and lightly patted him on the cheek before stating rather boldly,
"Thats rather cliche, innit?" She threw herself back, and he took notice from the way her and her afterimage.. No, it was the oposite; The afterimage was the real thing he knew somehow, and followed the path of the first Heirophant, would miss her stool by a considerable margine.
But as she sat, the stool moved of its own accord to have her land perfectly on it.
"No cliche or corny title that no sane person would ever decide was acceptable thing to call themselves popped into your head, that we would just naturally accept and would end up beign a reference to the title of the movie? Do you at least have flashes of some mysterious villian from the neck down because you didnt see his face because you were too busy staring at the barrel of his smoking gun, or some noticeable birthmark or scar to obsess over in your path to revenge?"
He was confused. The stool. She was gonna fall. He could see it. (Which he still couldn't understand how he could see...) But then the stool slid forward to catch her. Nothing was making sense.
"No. Nothing. I can't remember... anything. I had flashes. Running from... something. Explosions and gunfire. There was a girl there. Orange hair, gaunt." He explained, his voice monotone as he ran through the flashes of memory analytically, relating each detail that came to him.
As he did he tried again to open and closed his eyes. He wanted to see. He was tired of the shadows.
"Alright then." Heirophant leaned back, crossing one leg over the other. "Ill be straight with you then, you're dead."
Dead? That was quite the thought. It would explain a lot, like seeing shadows. But he could sense that there was more to this. He felt his heart beating and he was pulling air into his lungs. So being dead is out.
"By that you mean?" He prompted.
"Dead, died, ceased to endure life, moved on from the land of the living." She counted off on her fingers as the doctor behind her groaned.
He shook his head. "No you smart ass!" He shot back. "Obviously I'm breathing so don't be so obtuse."
"Trust me, its a very immersive afterlife. You ever notice how you subconciously breathe? Its like that."
"Heirophant." The doctor behind her chided in a warning tone that the girl waved off.
"See, you died unfufilled. So we, super-powerful afterlife orginization that we be, decided to give ye a second shot and send ye back to the land of the living to act as our agent punishing the wicked and all that hullabuhloo, ye following all this?"
With unseeing eyes he started blankly at her. "I maybe young, but I'm not stupid." He replied as he looked to the doctor across the room. Expanding his focus back outwards he tried to examine the doctors face. "What's really going on." He asked.
"Yeah, you got us there." She chuckled, "Its a little more borning. Pretty much you have untold psychic powers, and you're being woken to join the efforts of a clandestine inteligence agency among other burgeoning psychic individuals like myself, oh and also you now, to further our society while also fighting corruption and evil behind the scenes."
The boy chuckled softly. "So you start with the completely impossible to make the next idea seem not as crazy. Even so I can't explain seeing like this. Or the fact that I can see 2 of everyone. That still making queezy.. how do I turn that off..."
"Precognition?" The doctor questioned, earning an affirmative 'nn' from the girl as she tucked her head against her shoulder.
"To be honest, im not sure." she admitted. "I dont have much precognative abilities myself. I'm more based around enhancing my perception and senses, personally."
She didnt give him much time to be down or dwell on it for too long, however.
"What we are, AUGURs they call us; Are mental powerhouses with alot more higher brain functions than normal people. Essentially we're tapping into powers beyond anyones understanding and controlling them off of hyper-functionary mental processing. You dont know it yet, because you have not to interact with anyone else enough to notice; But you, me, all of us are something like geniuses, and we create and tailor these powers by need, desire, and subconcious command."
"What Heirophant is trying to communicate," the doctor interjected, annoyance tinging his tone at clearly being back-seated on what he could likely guess was an interaction he usually led. "Is that you should be able to conciously control your precognative abilities given time, and if not should naturally become acustomed to you as near as your base senses are right now."
"Actually ah was ju gon tell 'em te ju not see te future like'n all that." She mocked back, her rathcroghan brogue being unecesarily deepened as she slowed down and enunciated every word as if the doctor was simple in the head.
The boy snickered. "I like Heirophant's explanation better." He replied looking back over to her and smirking.
"So... you're ability is to see, but that's not all is it? Is that why I can't see anything with my eyes right now? You blocked my sight." He said, taking a stab in the dark as to the extent of Heirophant's abilities.
"Yes, and no." She stated more daurly, a pit forming in his stomach. "I cant see either, though I can see things in ways others cant to compensate. And so can you, with some training. But for whatever reason you cannot see; I am not the cause."
"From what I can tell your blindness is likely self-inflicted as a result of some kind of trauma, and your powers are manifesting as early as they are to compensate. It's... Not uncommon of a phenomina among my generation, though very rare among yours."
He felt his heart drop. After waking up, it was the first time the boy had shown any significant emotions. Tears welled up in his eyes as he fought to hold it all back.
"So... I saw something so traumatic that my stupid brain decided I should just not see anything else ever again." He breathed angrily. He just wanted to throw something, but his damned arms wouldn't budge.
His mental energy began surging with his raging emotions. The 'doubles' that the boy had mentioned became faster. A couple seconds faster than the originals. He could also see farther into the room.
"Could be," She shrugged, patting her lap a few times before clapping once. "But there are more important things to tackle right now!"
"Like a propper breifing and indoctrination suite before moving him to cultivation." The doctor announced.
"Yeah, like figuring out just what to call you since you've yet to have your protagonist flashbacks that would exposit just enough for a cringey but markitable franchise or at least two movies and a prequel." Another groan greeted her as the doctor projected annoyance that he could now feel as his senses expanded.
"So im thinking Mollay Dedman. So that way when you come across a member of the evil orginization that killed you and they say something along the lines of 'You're supposed to be dead, man.' you can reply 'I was allways a Dedman', keen?"
He closed his eyes and pulled his vision back in and sighed. Wiping his face on the bed beneath him he looked back over to the doctor.
"Let's get on with the breifing then." He replied looking back over to Heirophant. "And no that just sounds dumb."
He looked studied her face for a moment, then asked. "Why do they call you Heirophant?"
"My real's Kay, Scathach Kay. It doesnt really matter if we all know each others names to them, but, like, everyone else i guess has to call me 'Heirophant' like its going out of style. As for briefings? Its just a fancy packet a hundred or so pages long telling you that you're a danger to society so they OIA is seizing your contract until a time is reached where they deem that you're no longer a threat to yourself and those around you, and that you can properly contribute to babel again."
"They tell us that often enough verbatim from that so you dont really miss much by not actually being able to read it, i certainly didnt! The rest is just alot of the lads in my generation doing a sitdown with yours a few times a week to learn you how to control your new gifts.
As for 'why?' When you get to be super important and useful like me they upgrade your contract to an 'alpha' contract. Having one gives you alot of power and authority over alot of vague subjects but at the same time we; Us fancy, spooky, secret psychics also dont technically exist yet in the public eye so they give us pretty cringe codenames, likely becomes someone in the nametag and embroidery department at babel got a little too bored and has a surplus of stuff laying around with these titles and such. Why do you want one?"
The boy sat there for a long moment before nodding. It was something to call himself at least. Without any idea what his name was, a callsign would do just fine. After Kay's explination he also had a distinct feeling that he wouldn't see the light of day if he didn't have an OIA collar on. Not now that he was developing powers...
He still hadn't fully processed that either. He had powers now? He could see into the future. Not to far ahead, but with training who knew how far he could see into the future. It was the stuff of every kids dream to get powers and become a super hero. Though in this case, it was more like they were gonna be treated like freaks locked up deep down in an OIA basement.
"I do." He added quietly, looking Kay directly in the eye.
A weight felt like it had been lifted from him the moment the words left his mouth as the sudden sensation holding him down lightened considerably as waves of force retreated from around him and circled before disipating around Kay. It had been so sudden and had been pressing him down so long like a lasting fatigue it had been easy to write off the perceived weakness as such until the other psychic released it from restraining him.
"Good," The grin in her tone was obvious as clearly he had passed some kind of test or threshold. "Usually some desk-jockey decides and does some paperwork and passes it down through some comittee or what not but i figure we can skip all that.
I hereby dub thee 'Six of Cups."
The silence that followed as she no doubt waited expectantly was cut by a groan from the doctor who finally excused himself from the room with a sigh.
He sighed with relief as felt the weight disapate. He then cocked an eyebrow at her. "Six of Cups? That's a mouth full. I want a cool name like you." The boy replied, a bit disappointed with Kay's idea for a name.
"Besides I can't go around introducing myself like 'Hi, I'm Six. Six of Cups.' I'm sure the great Hierophant has an even better name picked out." He replied, giving the woman a sly grin.
"Well I allready know a six of cups; Kind of a hardass so uh was hopin it would irk him some when iffin we unveil ye. As for a cool one? I cannae say I have any good judgement on that front, boyo."
He sat there for a few seconds, mulling over her words. It was then that one of her words struck him. "Judgement... is Judgement one of the codenames I can choose?" He asked. With an ability to see the future, Judgement seemed like an apt moniker.
"It... Is!" She hesitated at first, but then perked up at what was clearly the gears working towards a cliche 'revenger' name. "'S better than what ah was going to pick next. 'Luke Mercy' just doesnt have the same ring to it."
The boy rolled his eyes at Kay, but gave a slight smile. "Luke Mercy? Really?" Laughing he tried out his new name. "Judgement... I like it. Now that the issue of what to call me is dealt with, what happens now Ms. Kay?" He asked looking back over to her.
Kay did not answer. There was a clear sense of uncertainty radiating off of her despite Judgements lack of ability to see. She fidgeted for a moment in clear anticipation.
"Not really sure," She admitted. "Usually you guys wake up screaming or panicking, or take a few hours to settle down enough to listen so whoevah gets this job 's usually kinda restraining you lot for a while; So we got a few hours to burn before we're off scheduel. Got anything in mind you want to be doin, or knowin while its just you 'n me?"
Judgement cocked his head to one side as he took in her statement. "...am I really that much of an oddity?" He finally asked her after several long moments. Thinking about it, this situation truly should have warranted a much grander reaction. This was the stuff straight out of a cliche scifi novel. He also couldn't remember anything about himself. Yet despite all that, he has been able to remain relatively calm.
"We're all weird here, dove." Was his answer, and wasnt hard to believe from the one encounter if Kay was the norm.
"Aint a single one of our heads right, you'll see. But it's not that any of us are crazy; Just that your head and mine function a bit differently from everyone elses, its a good thing though you'll see."
He nodded. "Okay. Well... I'm guessing I won't be leaving this compound anytime soon. Can you show me around the facility?" He asked.
"Nope." She answered flatly without hesitation. "Aint a one of us; You or me, can see a thing of the world like the others can. Blind as a bat, ye call?"
He shrugged. "Well we can still both see... kinda." He offered, but quickly relented on the subject. "How long will they keep me in here then? I want to do something."
"Oh, ah can think of something to pass the time. Ye been pitching a tent there since ye woke up and ol' Scatchach knows a few good ways to settle that kinda thing down." Kay answered in a startlingly sultry tone before the sound of scraping metal on tile could be heard as her stool scraped the floor.
When the doctor returned from his absence to clear his mind and hit up the nearest water-fountain he made to stop by the checkpoint at the hall before the revival-chamber where the newest subjects were revitalized and woken from cryostasis. What he saw on the cameras there from which the two OIA agents manning the desk were rather engrossed with he couldnt believe his eyes.
For all the world it looked like two blind teenagers trying to play cards...