DreamLyrics™ Play-by-Post Forums Alternate Reality PHX: Phoenix Reform Academy PHX: Anne and Grey.

As Anne is walking out of the room, Grey falls into step beside her.

"Mind if we talk a bit Anne? Perhaps over a bite to eat?"

Anne

Her shoulders wiggled just a little bit. She had bad associations with that kind of comment from her mother. Nothing was ever just a talk. She hesitantly nodded. She could always eat. It had to be something to do with her power, she just never stopped, never gained weight, just had to have regular infusions of food. She supposed that regular infusions would satisfy the beast, but she rarely did that, unlike her mother.

Grey

“Anne I am not your mother. Perhaps at one point I could have been. I chose not to. I altered myself. I freed the better angels of my nature. You are in no danger from me. I cannot say the same of those who would now harm you.”

She walks with her over to the kitchen and starts pulling out the makings of sandwiches and putting them on the table.

“Here. Feed the beast.”

She waits a moment for her to get herself something.

Anne

"A sandwich is always an option," she admitted. Her hands started to knock the parts from the fridge into their component packaging. A little bit here a little bit there, bread, mayo, and whatever else she could put into it.

Soon it was almost too big to fit in her mouth, so she stopped, putting the lid on it. She then took a bite, it might have looked alien and odd to someone else, but it clearly fit the bill with the look on her face.

A few long chewing motions "I know you aren't my mother, I just can't help associate certain feelings with certain tones." She took another big bite to allow her time to think.

Grey:

“I completely understand. I don’t read your mind, but I often cannot help but feel your stronger emotional states.”

She pauses a bit, and pulls out a soft drink, opening and sipping.

“It is, however, your mother we are here to talk about. And your other relations. How you got where you are. You never really knew your father, did you?”

Anne

She took a moment to take a bite of her preparation before answering.

"I have no information on my father. Nyx never talked about him. Heck, she could have sucked the life from somewhere and created me, for all I know. It wouldn't have changed anything I suspect. That sounds pessimistic, and I am not. It is just that Nyx is overpowering in so many different ways. It is her way or your pain," she said simply with a complete lack of obvious emotion.

“As to that, I am pretty sure we have figured out who the man was. It may seem largely academic. However, he shares something in common with both Nyx and Alchemy. And at a remove, with many others here, both staff and student. Among them me, and also Mariel. That line that draws back through us to one specific person.”

Anne

"My mother?" Her voice couldn't hide the incredulous feelings swelling up inside her. "I have always had it in my head that she sucked the life out of my father and that it was easier to take that way.

"I just can't see her as a mother, even though she was mine." She finishes lamely. She is still stunned.

Finally, she asks, "I assume he is a villain?"

Grey:

“Name is Psychogen, still alive, still active surprisingly enough. However, I’m not sure he even knows he is the father and would be quite surprised if he found out as he has no particular desires in that respect. And you were most definitely ‘edited’ after the fact. Someone has interfered in your development. The same person, we think, that has interfered in many others we have here, including at least a few of the staff.”

Anne

"Interfered with," her voice carries the question that she meant. "Do we know how or why? You obviously have an idea of the who."

Grey:

“As to the who, I think you suspect. Same person had a hand in Cadence, in Hadasha, in Blake, in Lamar - in many here in fact. In me. I suspect of course that that person is Enkidu. As to how, how he does whatever it is he does I don’t know. Eric might be closer to that than me. As to why ... perhaps he is trying to achieve something specific? Not entirely sure, but what we are becoming more sure of is his footprint may be larger than we ever suspected.”

Anne

"It might be my mother's machinations driving this thought process but I am sure he has a bigger plan in mind. I just can't imagine what that is at the moment. My mind doesn't work like my mother's."

She spoke very softly "if she was even my mother?"

“Oh, we’re pretty sure of that. At least we can tell you are related to Mariel, and there are only a few ways that could happen. We determined that pretty early on. Besides which, your powers definitely fit in that family tree. No, I’m pretty sure that Nyx donated a good sized piece of your genetic material>. Motherhood is more debatable.”

Anne

In a slightly stronger voice she said "genetically makes sense from what little I know about the man you guess is involved.

"If you're Endiku and want to create something really powerful like a super being that has many powers. Having access to the genetic material would be required.

" One way to get those samples is to say hey I will give you a child in return for a sample. I really don't want to contemplate him being my father genetically. But I wouldn't put it past my mother to agree to such a devil's bargain just for her own egomaniacal reasons.

"It makes me wonder if I have other things going on inside of me. Am I living on borrowed time? Am I a mistake?"

Grey

“Absolutely not. You are you. And if they made a mistake it was in underestimating you having a mind of your own. They do not get to define you. Only you can do that. We are now t defined by what we are but who we choose to be.’

She pauses a long time.

“I of all people can testify to that.”

Anne

She nodded, her eyes not necessarily agreeing fully with Grey's statement.

"I choose, but I have a lot of practice being another way. It also makes me wonder how specific a creation I am. For example, H's speed obviously didn't go as planned. I am clearly not a clone of my mother's abilities unless she just never tried to cause the energies to flow in any other direction.

"I.." her voice trailed off while she considered the whirling dervish of thoughts in her head. "Ultimately it doesn't matter what was intended. Nor I suppose even what was achieved. The question that seems important to me was what was the end goal. Probably being able to more easily replicate the powers that one desires. Though growing them through life seems like a really long-term project for most people.

"I can see why Mother would choose it. Not only does it feed it her manicial need to control things, it offers a potential ally that she can shape as she wishes. Too bad she was such a horrible mother," her voice pauses for a moment. Continuing she grudgingly says "at some things."

Grey:

“Mariel is almost certain that both she, Nyx and Alchemy were manipulated, not natural. You are at least second generation manipulated. I can’t be sure. But I suspect I may have been. You are among broken people and projects, who knows the intent. Abilities pretty much never manifest twice in the same way. Never found a case of it yet. Even when similar, there are significant differences.”

Anne

"I can see from a pure curiosity standpoint one would want to see how it all works. But from a humanity standpoint, I feel the pain that it would cause. I don't feel pity precisely, but I suppose that is part of the make-up of the feelings.

"My mother never talked about my father, no matter what role he might have played. Hearing you speak about things, it sounds like I was an experiment grown in some way and set loose in the world. Sure my mother cared for me in her own way, but it seems even more alien than what I actually experienced."

She returned to eating her large sandwich slowly, obviously thinking about their discussion.

“You are now your own person. Whatever you were is irrelevant. Nyx being who she is, I would not be surprised if your father such as he is, is dead. Your family is now a family of choice.”

Anne

"I agree I get to make choices, as obvious by the mere fact that I am making choices. That is the daunting aspect. I know everyone feels that, making a choice and hoping they make the right one. In our case, the children here, we have a bit more responsibility than some. Our choices can have more impact on others. Yet, in some small way that route leads to madness too. My mother made her own choices, didn't she?"

The last question wasn't really a question and from the tone, it was clear she saw it more as humor, though there was enough of a ring of truth that it also felt real.

Grey:

“Yes. Yes she did. She made choices that harmed herself, and those are the worst choices you can make. You harm everyone else.”

She pauses a moment.

“Your mother, however, was not in all ways in control of her own destiny. I think, in truth, there might be something actually wrong with her.”

Anne


"Really? That seems like the easy way out. Like an insanity plea at a murder trial. It may very well be true, but that doesn't make it anything close to reality, or right.

"What do you suppose was wrong with her? That she is a psychopath? Or is the correct term for her Sociopath? She certainly was erratic and prone to fits of anger.

"Or do you mean something else?"

Grey

“She had the problem you have of a manipulative parent. Only he was skilled at it in ways that perhaps only your cousin can understand. Still. That was no sentence. Mariel overcame it, in the end. She made her choice. Nyx, however … Nyx is ruled by her passions. I’m not sure she can reign in her emotions and desires long enough to make a choice. Her mind was never at peace.”

Anne

"That is interesting sentiment. I confess I never thought of my mother in that way. She ruled over my upbringing in such a way that I either hid from her attention or relished it. Till I didn't because of what I had garnered as a birthright.

"Even that as you eloquently put it earlier, isn't the same. I do not know if Nyx ever tried to heal anyone or if she was too selfish to consider that as a possibility. Or maybe it is just easier to suck the life from them and use that heady rush of power?" She shook her head for a moment and took a sip of her drink.

"I wouldn't know. I haven't had the courage to take a life. Well, I am not sure that is the proper verb really. Does it take courage? Or is there some other element in taking a life? Depravity? I mentioned selfishness. I am not sure that fits either. After all, she did raise me, that isn't exactly selfish. It can be for one's goals, but it takes time effort and much more."

Grey

“As with all things the quality taking a life is immeasurable without context. All things come down to reason, and rhyme, cause and effect. Nothing is that simple. The people who think it is that simple are the problems. When you think life and death are simple, you make decisions out of context.”