1st Game | Video

[sanguine_corruptio_lamia]

[There’s nothing but a boring background for a few minutes, then whiskers pop in from the side. A cat moves his face into the screen and starts walking over the keyboard.]

SQCOIKEBJ OIRE NOIEJGPOI B POEYGTKPH

[He plops down right in the middle and watches letters running across the screen. His head moves in the same direction. The letters aren’t stopping. He pokes at the growing line with his paw, meowing.]

BNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

Comments

[sanguine_corruptio_lamia]

[Bad kid. Now Duzell might feed from you later, when he feels hungry again. See what you started?

Are you kidding? He's not gonna apologize. He is licking his hand to pick up those last few drops of blood. He doesn't care if the boy feels better or not.

But since he's trying to pass off as a cat, he starts purring a little, just loud enough to be heard by the kid.]

[absolute_perception]

[Welp, it looks like it might just be the case. He's not going to tell anybody about it. The purring did comfort him a little more and the incident was soon forgotten.]

[sanguine_corruptio_lamia]

[He settles in his arms and keeps licking his hand for a little while longer. When all the blood is gone, he bends down to rub his head against the boy's hand. He has to get the kid to trust him even after the bite, so he can come back for more.]

[absolute_perception]

[The technopathic clone certainly didn't fight that action. He liked the cat even if he bit him. It's what cats do...or at least this one. Fighting it wasn't going to help and so, he continues petting the cat gently.

Elian finds a seat and settles into the chair, setting Duzell on his lap.]

It's not often that animals would let me pet them. I guess to them I smell strange. Unnatural, I can't say I blame them.

[sanguine_corruptio_lamia]

[The cat curls up on his lap, tail swishing back and forth. He looks calmer now that he's had some blood. There is something strange about the kid's blood. It tastes different from other humans, and he's bitten plenty of them. His blood makes him feel more energetic and stronger, like he can shoot off magic spells in this form.]

Mrrrowl?

[He can tell the boy isn't human from his blood. His smell is off too, but he didn't know why. Just what is this kid? Too bad Duzell can't ask him.]

[absolute_perception]

[Elian comprehends the sound as a prompt to keep going. He never did get the chance to really tell anyone about what he really is. He nods.]

Alright. My father has the ability to control air pressure. His Alter powers were refined to such a degree that the only way they could keep testing him was to make a clone. Four of us were created. The first one died from a blood clot to the brain that caused my older brother to have a stroke. He bled out from his ears because of it. He wasn't able to sustain the pressure for very long.

Then came my turn. The put me in the chamber and deprived me of oxygen. It was then that I learned how to use my father's ability to create a shield of air around me so I could breathe. In retrospect, in a vacuum, I could nearly survive by gathering oxygen and surrounding myself with it. But the trouble with that is I can't sustain it long. It's not my primary ability I was born with.

Don't misunderstand, I can concentrate air pressure to push someone back if I wanted to. I can shield people too. Air pressure is like a force field only it's not magnetic. I can't use magnets. It does funny things to me.

[He thinks on this a little more. It feels good to talk about it to someone that wasn't going to repeat it.]

I guess you can say they were trying to create my father's ability to perfection but it failed. I was considered defective and I was scheduled to be destroyed. If my father hadn't bartered for our freedom and became something he really didn't want to be, I wouldn't be here.

[He looks somewhat sad.]

I should thank him.

[sanguine_corruptio_lamia]

[A clone? Did he come from that experimental facility too? Ishtar had told him about that place, how these doctors created clones of people and put memories into their heads. If only Duzell could get a hold of those doctors. He would make sure they suffered for every waking minute before they finally died.

He had to remember that this kid had some powers, for such a frail looking thing. Controlling air pressure? He could suffocate someone to death. The boy was too kind hearted though, and probably wouldn't do it. Shielding people; for crying out loud, he sounded like Ishtar running around and wanting to save everyone.]

Mew...

[The cat kept licking at his hand. So that was why his blood tasted different, because he was a clone. It didn't make much sense though. The kid was the clone of a human, wasn't he? Would Ishtar's blood taste different too?]

[absolute_perception]

[It takes a lot more than a bite to put him under. His life, for someone so young, has a very complicated past and purpose. There is a lot more to him than what meets the eye. He watched the cat lick his hand with a small smile.]

Well, to tell you the truth, controlling air pressure was my father's ability that they tried to refine through me. I was able to succeed in one area he couldn't. My main power can control electronics. My Absolute Perception allows me to gather information and send it to another source. Generally, it was my father I would send it to.

This Tower has that power blocked so I have to strengthen my other. I guess in a way, it's what happens to animals that lose one ability and gain another through adaptation.

When I came here, more and more I was beginning to see Darwin's theory of evolution. People from different worlds, forced to endure different things has created a lot of fascinating changes in people. I guess I'm no exception even if I was conceived unnaturally. I would like to find out who the other half of my genetic donor is. It almost has me a little scared and a lot curious.

You see, I don't have a mother... at least not in the same sense as others do. I wonder what it would be like. To have a normal life, to be a kid and not a tool created for the purpose of another.

I know I'm not very big. I'm not going to grow anymore. It's the price paid for having my genetics altered to such a high degree that my body isn't natural. Swap something like growth out for a power. Heh, I guess they thought that playing with DNA was like Lego's.

[He looks at his hands as he pets the cat, while the other hand is still in front of the cat's face and in biting range.]

Sure, take away my height and give me something that would tear apart flesh. If I were sadistic enough, I could, but I was raised by my father to be better than that. Everything is unnatural. My intelligence, height, hair, eyes, abilities, even my feet are a part of that manipulation.

[He lifts his leg slightly and sighs at the sight of his foot.]

A kid my age shouldn't have hobbit feet. Nothing fits right and everything's weird.

[sanguine_corruptio_lamia]

[What were electronics? His power source for sending information? That sounded like a useful ability.

Till the kid said that power was blocked. Duzell stopped licking for a minute to cover his face with his paw. His own teleportation skill had been limited, so he shouldn’t be surprised. What new skill could this kid learn to replace something like that?

Ah, so the kid was an orphan, like Ishtar. If she knew that, she’d start mothering the hell out of him. She liked everyone, but had a soft spot for kids, or humans that didn’t have parents. Of course, if she found out he had bitten the boy, she was gonna lecture him like crazy.

Hobbit feet? Yeah, whatever. So he looked a little different from the other humans. Big deal. They were all the same to the dreaded vampire king. As long as they had blood, he really didn’t care.

He rubbed his head against his hand, purring lightly. The boy might make a good pawn, if Duzell played his cards right.]

[absolute_perception]

[He felt at this point that he did enough talking to last two lifetimes. He never said this much to anyone except to his pet gerbil back home. The purring causes Elian to keep smiling and strokes the thick, fluffy fur of the cat.

Even though he was bitten, that never seemed to bother him. If he knew that eventually he would be used as a pawn, he wouldn't fight it. Most of his life was spent being played for something. He'll practice his abilities when he's not so tired from over-thinking.

Elian yawns. It wasn't a lot of blood that was taken, but it was enough that he was starting to feel a little tired. The light purring causes his eyes to drift slowly closed.]

I'm sorry if I'm not good company and that I talked you ears off, but I had to say something.

[sanguine_corruptio_lamia]

Meow. [Was all the cat said in reply. It was useful for him to learn that much info. It would give him something to work with, when the time was right.

The kid was getting sleepy. Perfect. He could slip away after he fell asleep. If he left now, the boy might chase him all around. The kyawl started purring louder, tapping the boy’s arm every now and then with his swishing tail.]

[absolute_perception]

[Even though they were in the hallway, Elian was tired enough to sleep just about anywhere. He looked at the cat each time he felt the light tapping or the swishing tail. His heavy eyelids were winning. He gave a small smile and dozed off on the chair in the hall.

His arms didn't hold the cat tightly. He kept it as comfortable as possible. His arms let go completely to let the cat free which allowed him to curl up and sleep.]

Thanks for listening.

[sanguine_corruptio_lamia]

Mrrrowl…

[The kid fell asleep. It was time to go. He jumped off his lap and started walking away, but then stopped to look over his shoulder.

The boy was curled up in a ball on the chair, half dangling off of it. The cat looked around the hall to see if anyone was around, but it was empty. He quickly changed back into his vampire form and picked up the kid, dumping him on some bed in the first empty room he came across. If this was 100 years ago, Duzell wouldn’t have hesitated to just leave him out there, even if it meant someone might come by and make off with the kid. But he could hear Ishtar bawling him out for “being so mean” to a kid, and he didn’t wanna put up with that. As long as nobody saw him doing any favors for a lowly human, he could just do this, and continue on his way.

Which he did. Minutes later, Duzell walked out of the room in cat form again. He ran off to another floor to see what the other humans could offer him.]