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#1003975 Tue 01/12/20 19:56 UTC
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Arssanguinus
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Soon enough, everyone finds themselves in a different room, same teacher. Previous sessions have been basics, history, law, how both relate to the powered. This somehow feels different coming in.

Grey is up front.

“Today, we have something different in mind. Sometimes the best lessons are nothing one can find in a book. They are what has happened. They are the past of people you have met.”

There is a long pause.

“You may have guessed that, aside from perhaps Kemp, none of us here are precisely Boy Scouts. We are flawed. I am no exception. In my early life, I found it much too easy to be obeyed. To be in charge. To get what I want because others would want it too. When you are able to do things that other cannot match, it is much to easy to get away with things. I am sure, Lamar, you know this first hand.”

She gives him a steady look.

“All of you have either seen this or done this to some extent, how easy it is to be ... superior. Some of you have been on the other end of the equation.”

Another long pause.

“There are those right now who wish to use their power to be in control against those without. Not all. Are villains. People are complicated. Some of those complicated people are determined to use you. Are you willing to be used?”

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Anne

She didn't say a word, but it was clear that she was listening. Especially when she gave a full negative toss of her head. It seemed unconscious even though it was certainly not a small movement.

She made her choice the night she chose not to kill the man her mother wanted her to destroy just for the lesson of it. Never mind the night she went to try and stop her mother and Alchemy.

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Ben

"Never. You can be incarcerated, killed, forced to do something. But for someone to use you, you have to give them permission. The end result might not change but the permission...that is the difference."

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Lamar

“I could certainly give the impression of willingness if necessary.” Commented the one called out. “Give them the impression that their demands are being heeded, should doing so provide a potential tactical or strategic advantage.”

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Grey

“I think you well understand that people both here and there wish to use you. That sometimes villainy is a matter of degree and shades of grey. That no one. Not you, not me, no hero, no villain - is a cardboard cutout. Not even Alchemy. Not even Nyx. None are evil in their own mind. Good, evil, both are a matter of choices in the now. Hard or easy. Pain for yourself or pain to others. I made my choices and seized them on my own terms. You are having the choice forced upon you, but nonetheless it remains a choice.”

She spares a small look at Cadence.

“It is quite possible in the very near future that things will be happening. That darkness is falling. At that point there will no longer be a choice to be had. It is a weight on your shoulders that no one young should have, but the moment you were born you were destined one way or the other to make it.”

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Ben

He couldn't have agreed more with her on the first part. He knew his parents engaged in actions that were criminal but they had still been good parents, had been kind to others and charitable. No one was all black or white, but Grey. A fitting name for his teacher as well it seemed.

Her second statement though brought a frown to his face.

"What darkness are you talking about?"

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Anne

"More like what happened the other night is to come?" Her voice carried all the consulted emotions that ran through her.

She hadn't intended to speak out quite so quickly, but concern got the better of her.

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Cadence Marie Weathers

She listened. She was doing a lot of that. The idea that she was in a class-room environment (even if it was a school for powered misfits and screw-ups like herself) felt odd and 'wrong'. Maybe not wrong, but she still hadn't accepted that she had been allowed to have any measure of freedom. There were things about her powers that she was coming to realize and she wasn't sure that anyone, save for Mariel... maybe... Oh, and Grey, because she could read minds or something, truly understood. Cadence herself had just enough understanding of the known science related to dark matter and dark energy, and it wasn't much, to be a true hazard. In her test, Mariel had her perceive things from the middle state, for the lack of a better word, and when she did she realized that her powers were at the core of what the Inky-doo guy was trying to achieve. Mariel and Hadasha, maybe even her... 'cousin' Anne as well. Cadence glanced sidelong at Anne as she asked if there was more to come like the 'other' night. Could this place really even hold her? They put the heavy duty anklet on her and maybe it would work. Maybe it wouldn't. The prime aspect in how she used it was to slip from one state of being to another by going through a portal. Kind of like her Mother's power, except she was confined to the known states of matter and energy. Cadence thought on the reality that was the difference between her and Hadasha... If Inky-doo had done something to Dash and it was considered a failure... then, would Cadence be considered a success? It felt mind numbing to her... and sort of pointless.

"You're wrong Ben," she said aloud. "You don't need to give your permission to be used by someone else... especially if they're playing chess while you're playing checkers."

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Lamar

He nodded at Cadence's words, a somewhat wry expression on his face. "Cadence is right. Some can manipulate forces far beyond mortal ken. Some can manipulate people with the same level of proficiency, either directly..."

He inclined his head towards Grey,

"...or indirectly. In either case, you'd have no more say at the time than a lump of inert material levitated by a gravity controller. That at the time is the important part, given people have memories and the capacity for reason, and manipulators can't be at all places at all times. They can certainly plant pernicious seeds and hope we water them, however."

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Grey

“Yes, you need to learn to play the game - to be able to beat the game. How far are you willing to go to prevent worse? What are you willing to give up? To some degree, I made an intellectual decision to change my own mind, directly and literally - because I came to the conclusion that I no longer wished to be what I was. I have become that new person I created for myself. But one could argue that in a very real sense I committed suicide in doing so. You must decide what to embrace and what to leave behind. Some of you are in a state of relative innocence - and those are lucky. There is no guilt to expunge from your soul. You have the precious opportunity to build on a clean slate. For many others, you have your demons. Those you will have to fight, because I highly suspect that you may be pawns, possibly more than pawns - on the board. I realize fully we are open to the accusation that we are merely attempting to instead be the chess masters. All I can offer is that my best hope is to enable you to make your own moves when the time comes. I know it has not been long, but I am going to be completely honest with you here, including perhaps things which I should not be telling you.”

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Ben

He simply sits quietly now, listening to Grey and not commenting.

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Lamar

'Things I should not be telling you' was either a drawing-back of the curtain, or one hell of a good tag line to manipulate people into paying attention. Either way, it worked, and Lamar was all ears.

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Anne

She seemed more interested in this class than she had been earlier. Though exactly why probably wasn't quite as apparent.

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Ben

"Please continue. You have our attention." he said in encouragement.

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Grey:

“Quite frankly, all of us - me, Mariel, Kemp - Carver and his ... sources ... do not believe that having Alchemy - and other - in prison is actually having them under control. We know Nyx is missing. We have reasons to believe that others - Inanna and others - are involved. Convincing Eidolon among others, of this is no easy task. In fact it has so far been an impossible one. They just don’t think that way.

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Lamar

He went perfectly, impossibly still as Grey went on. Something she said caught his attention like nothing else, resulting in a poker face on exactly the wrong side of the uncanny valley for several seconds. It was one thing to halfheartedly believe something, quite another to have it explicitly stated.

Why would Inanna have gotten herself caught, and him with her? Was it all a setup, an elaborate ruse? He couldn’t discount the possibility, nor could he be surprised at the more strait-laced and orthodox of the powers that be from doing so. So, presume Grey is right. A bunch of heavy hitters getting incarcerated on purpose. Why? Going in to get out, to take others with them. Maybe to render it useless both as a location and an idea. Maybe that was entirely incidental and their grand prize was... a Yorktown. A decisive strike on an overconfident and unaware opponent guilty of the worst underestimation.

Lamar unfroze, watching Grey like a hawk.

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Cadence Marie Weathers

Ben ignored her. It wasn't like he couldn't hear her. They were in the same room. She said his name when she countered his assertion that in order for someone to use you, you have to give them permission. What if they take every option from you and doing nothing at all still gives them what they want? What if they twist all the answers, all the reason, all the emotions, all the logic... until none of it makes sense and whatever you do is what they want? What if they reduce you to the state of feeling less than human, worthless, and devoid of a reason to live yet powerless to die? catchy quote-like phrases work well for twitter sized replies, but in a real world where even the good guys don't really care for anything other than themselves or their brand or whatever it is that lets others know that they care.

Whatever. She didn't know him and he didn't know her.

"That's what I have been saying," she said slowly, feigning some disinterest in all of this. "Plans within plans." The truth was, she felt like she was screaming at the top of her lungs to these people that her mother was more dangerous now that she was inside. Cadence didn't know how, but just felt that whatever Alchemy was having her do by channeling dark energy through the ground at the Black Hole was for reasons others wouldn't understand.

There was more she wanted to say, but she would only be guessing. But, as much as it sucked that she was the biological daughter of an evil sociopathic mastermind, she had some idea how Alchemy thought now.

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Ben

"Chess and checkers." he said quietly, looking at her and nodding. He had indeed heard her but Lamar had answered and then Grey started to talk and it had been interesting to hear what she had to say.

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Cadence Marie Weathers

"It's all like theater... Good Guys vs Bad Guys... Bad Guy tries to rob a bank, and a good guy goes out to stop them. Or as many good guys as it takes. Maybe two bad guys decide they can do something big, then more good guys are called out. And there's a mastermind and a couple bad guys who try to take over he world, so all the good guy get together and save the day. What happens when all the bad guys get together and realize that if they actually work together that things might end differently for them? Maybe they find out there aren't enough good guys to stop all of them at once? What if they already know this... and several masterminds are already working together? What if? Are the Good Guys so stuck in their roles, and their rules that they can't see that this could be coming?"

Cadence shrugged.

"Bad guys don't care about the rules or your morals. My biological mother is a sociopath and the only life she cares about is her own. She will sacrifice all the pawns... on both sides. She plays a whole different kind of chess."

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Lamar

Speaking up, he added,

"Even that's a bit too much of a simplification. Because those who prefer to be thought of as good are not necessarily upstandingly moral. Some might prefer to be controlling and find that aligning with society and civility hides a multitude of sins, particularly whilst others are being blatant, unrepentant and obvious. All as Grey alluded to at the start. This isn't a two-sided battle between good and evil, and that in and of itself is one of the angles being exploited."

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Anne

She sat there an odd look on her face. Her eyes dashed to Cadence and around. It was very clear to anyone who could read the most basic of emotions upon a countenance that she was struggling with something.

Finally, she said "The reason I am concerned that you feel there is more coming, is because I have felt that way from the very first night. I had intended to not say a word about who my parent is, or what she is capable of, but it is particularly germane to what we are discussing.

"My mother is the other half of the dastardly duo. Nyx." She left that hanging in the air for a moment before continuing. "When she met Alchemy to enact whatever they had planned. The fact that Nyx is at large is an important piece of the puzzle, of what is coming. At least in my estimation.

"I am sure we are not allowed to know the inner workings of what makes up the Hole. I think that also is germane to exactly what is planned."

She looked as if she had just given voice to something really horrible. She didn't think she would throw up but she felt like it was really close. Part of why she had changed her name was to hide from exactly what she just said.

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Grey:

“I on the other hand know exactly what goes on in the Hole. I make my judgement from a position of knowledge. You are more or less right, Cadence. Eidolon can’t think like that. Most of the Boy Scouts they have sitting on that side can’t think that way. Most of them are too stuck in the illusion that they are in control. I am not interested in stopping evil people. I am - we are - interested in stopping evil events. Myself, Mariel, Carver, Eric in his own way, all had one foot on the other side of the imaginary line at one point or another. I can say that none of us has a purely white hat history, and our perspective is colored as a result. Kemp ... I think Kemp is just old enough to have perspective which is perhaps lacking elsewhere. I have not entered your minds, and will not without your permission. But I can feel your strong emotions. And I consider myself a judge of people. And I think none of you would want that world which would result from them getting their way. The thing about pawns is that they can be some of the most critical pieces on the chess board. The positions of the pawns, in fact, can be said to decide the game.”

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Ben

"So you all would like to turn us into pawns for your game of chess?" he asked, glancing at Grey.

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Lamar

“‘Turn into’?” Scoffed the shapeshifter. “We were already on the board, long before we came here.”

He glanced over at Anne, his expression carefully controlled. He indicated himself with a flick of his finger as he spake the next word, “Inanna. I wouldn’t put her in the same category of deliberate malevolence, but she’s never let mortal morality constrain her, and I really, strongly doubt that the Black Hole is remotely capable of holding her, and that’s on her own by herself. In collaboration with even one or two of the possibilities mooted here and now? Yeah.”

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Grey

“Turn you into? No. The fact of the matter is that we are pawns in a game where one side wishes to destroy the game board and recast the rules. What I want is for you to be given the tools to take matters into your own hands. If I wanted you to be a pawn, I wouldn’t be having this talk.”

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