8FOLD: Mancers # 8, "Remember"

[Drew Perron]

Okay, time for the intense final chapter!!

On 8/26/2018 10:09 PM, Tom Russell wrote:
<snip>
> LIEKE VAN RIJN, age 26. Doppelmancer.
> Split into two autonomous, functionally immortal bodies. One of these
> is with the secret circle.
> 
> ANGEL, age 26. Doppelmancer.
> The other Lieke, mind-wiped and depowered, held by The Company.

...ohhhhhh. I didn't get that before >#>

> DAVID COLLINS, age 30. Mnemonomancer.
> A unwitting sleeper agent embedded within The Company by the secret
> circle. His identity has been compromised, and he has been murdered by
> Claire Belden.

And I wasn't sure if that part was a magical dream?

> It's raining in Maile's dream, raining hard. She tries to control it,
> tries to slow it down, but she can't.
>     "Because it's a dream," she says to herself. "It's not real rain so
> my magic can't touch it. Only dream magic can."

Like this! <3 Also man, that's some good dream logic power.

>     As if in response, there's a clap of thunder. Thick heavy drops
> pelt her relentlessly, blinding and cold. She covers her face with her
> arms, and the moment she does, she gets that rollercoaster feeling,
> feet lifting from the floor as it barrels down from the summit.
>     Only she's going up. Her face is still covered, but she knows she's
> going up. She can see herself ascending, becoming tiny, watching
> herself eyelessly from the ground.

Those are intensely good visuals and feelings.

> Just before she disappears into the
> charcoal-black clouds, she uncovers her eyes, and there's a hard cut
> into the clouds, then through them, then into outer space.
>     "Hello, Beth."
>     Beth appears like an eclipse, obscuring the sun, backlit, light
> around her edges. She smiles at Maile, and begins speaking.
>     Maile can't hear her. "You can talk to me," she says. "I'll listen.
> I'm here. I'm one of you."

Aaaaaaagh this Feels so dream! You are EXTREMELY GOOD at putting across dream logic!

>     Maile gasps, trying to breathe, trying to speak. Beth pulls away,
> snared by the gravity of the sun. Maile reaches for her, but cannot
> reach far enough.
>     She's short of breath when she wakes. Short of breath, and
> frustrated. 

I absolutely have dreams where I have physical Weirdness left over from them.

> Lieke had said that the problem was
> that Maile was resisting, that Maile wasn't letting her guard down
> enough, wasn't letting Beth in.
>     "Well, that's a load of crock," she mutters to herself as she gets
> dressed. "I'm practically begging her to talk to me. She's the one
> that's resisting."

Truth. o3o

>     "Have you been sitting here all night?" Maile asks again.
>     "Hard to sleep," says Lieke. She stops her music player, pulls out
> the other bud, and lets the whole mess sit in her lap. "It's never
> been this long before."

oh sweetie.

>     "That's just it, Maile," says Lieke. "If something goes wrong, it's
> not hard for me to get out of the pickle. Knife in the throat,
> drowning, throwing myself off a building. We have a long history of
> gruesome suicides, me and me. Sometimes it's an expedient - the way
> out of a botched mission. And sometimes it's more, what is the word?
> Genuine?"

oh double sweetie

>     "Then we fell in love with ourselves. I used to hate myself. Used
> to think I was ugly and worthless. But when I looked at her, she was
> so beautiful, and so kind, and so good. And she saw the same in me.
> Caught us by surprise.
>     "Surprised our parents, too. They could not accept it. My father
> separated us. Sent one of us away. I don't remember if it was me or
> her; we've died so many times, shared so many memories and so many
> lives. Neither of us could stand the pain. The one that was away
> committed suicide, and the next morning we woke up together, alive and
> in love.

Ohhhhhh heck. @@ That's hecking intense and Fits.

>     "And it's easy to look back and to say that we were young, and when
> you're young, everything's the end of the world, everything hurts more
> than it ever has for anyone in the history of everything. But. Even
> today. Even now. When we're apart, it still hurts that much." She
> pauses, yawns.

awwwwww! sweetie!!!

>     Maile wants to say something, something useful, something that
> isn't trite, something that isn't "it's going to be okay". Anything
> would be better than "it's going to be okay". But that's all she has,
> so that's what she says.

BIG MOOD

> Angel has the mirror dream again. It's the only dream she's ever had -
> that she can remember, anyway. But her memory only goes back four
> days. She wonders if she had the dream before then, or if it's new.

aaaaaaaaaaaaa ;.;

>     It's not much of a dream. She's in a bathroom - a bathroom that
> feels familiar, that feels like home, but one of course that she
> doesn't really remember - and she looks in the mirror. She has no
> reflection. Sometimes that's it; that's the whole dream. And sometimes
> she gets a reflection, but when she does, that's all she is; she's the
> backwards image in the glass, and when she looks out into the real
> world, there's no one there.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ;;;;;;.;;;;;;

>     She looks at her own face. And it creates a warmth in her that she
> can't explain. An outpouring of affection for the face in the mirror.
> That's kind of embarrassing and gross; was she some kind of
> narcissist? The warmth is replaced by shame, and the shame by a
> tremendous ache.

MUST TELEPORT IN AND HUG

> If not for Sarah
> hovering around behind the sofa, the secret circle would be fifty
> percent cats, and June probably wouldn't have a problem with that.

I know that one

>     Maile sits down across from them, carrying a carton of salt. She
> pops it open and holds one hand over the glass coffee table. Then she
> pours.
>     It's not a lot. Just a sprinkle. Just enough for her flesh to
> sizzle and pop and steam. Just enough that she'll be feeling that for
> days. Just enough to get their attention.

...wait, salt affects them negatively? I didn't know that part @.@

>     "I don't want it to change me," says Sarah. "I'm trying to be
> myself despite this thing on my arm."
>     "And we respect that," says Maile.

*drinks the Respect Sarah juice*

>     "And in between those two points, I was a different person. The
> magic brought out the worse in me. I did terrible things when I was at
> The Company. And before one of you breaks in and tells me that I
> wasn't responsible, don't. Because guys? I know. I've known for a long
> time. I figured it out like two days in. All of you are terrible at
> lying."
>     They look terrified, but also relieved. They've been waiting for
> this other shoe to drop since the beginning.
>     "Relax," says Maile. "Like I said, I figured this out super-quick,
> and I'm still here, and you're still alive.

I didn't expect this aspect to be resolved this way but I'm Super Happy about it.

> That doesn't mean that I'm
> chill about it, because I'm not. There are some days when I look at
> you all, and I get so angry. Because what you did was awful. And I
> don't think I will ever forgive you for that. Don't expect that from
> me, because you won't get it.

And that's Super Good.

>     "But I don't expect to be forgiven either. The things I did, I own
> those. I made those choices. I wish I hadn't. And I don't understand
> how I became that person. Did I become that monster overnight? Did I
> resist? Did I justify it to myself? How much did I know? I don't have
> answers for any of that. You took those answers away from me. You took
> part of me away. It's a part I don't like, but I feel like it's
> important that I understand that part of me. You've made me less of a
> person and, like I said, I'm gonna be raw about that for a good long
> time.
>     "But however I got here, here is where I want to be. However I
> became this person, this is who I want to be. If the choice is between
> the end of the world and the end of magic, well, I'm in favor of the
> world not ending. We're on the same side. But for us to be on the same
> side, we have to trust each other."

MAILE IS! THE FUCKING COOLEST PERSON IN THE WORLD! <3.<3 <3.<3 <3.<3

>     "But can you trust us?" says June. "After what we did?"
>     "I think it's worth trying to find out," says Maile. "The bigger
> question is, can you trust me? Enough to be honest with me? Because I
> can't lead this group, we can't win this war, if I don't know what the
> heck is going on.

I love this

>     "Sarah?"
>     "Right now, I trust you more than the rest of them."
>     June winces. "That's fair."

It is. X3

>     "You told me something once about my mother," says Maile.
> "Something you could only know if we worked together before. Something
> you could only know if you were working for The Company."
>     "There's an explanation," says Trevor slowly.
>     Maile doesn't give him the time. She tosses the salt in his face.
> Nothing happens; he seems as surprised as the rest of them.

DAMN.

>     Trevor leaps up from the couch. Before he can make a run for it,
> Sarah brains him with a frying pan. (There's a reason Maile had her
> standing behind the couch!)

Now shoot him into space!

> He falls face-first onto the floor. The
> back of his head is crushed,

Oh realistic frying pan, okay

> and from inside his skull, Maile can hear
> a weird hissing noise.
>    She turns him over. His right eye dangles out of its socket, the
> wires exposed.
>     Maile stares at it. "I. I did not have 'robot' on my list."

Holy FUCK :D :D :D ME EITHER I LOVE IT!

>     "I think I recognize this," says Sarah. "This is hush-hush
> proprietary stuff." (Maile thinks it's better not to ask how Sarah
> found out about it.) "Only one company in the world makes these
> eyeballs. This is Cradle Tech. Why would Cradle be working with The
> Company?"
>     "That's not surprising," says June. "Through some of their
> investment firms, The Company owns the majority of Cradle's stock.
> They have ever since Ray Cradle's kid took it over."

AH! AMAZING TIE-IN :D and also AAAA FUCK @-@ That's bad

>     "What do you think you're doing here?" says Lydia. "I put you on
> leave. Garland's head of security now."
>     "He was," says Claire. "Briefly. I've since relieved him of his
> duties, and of his life."

Damn.

>     "All terminations go through HR," says Lydia. "I would have been
> looped in. Mr. C wouldn't have done anything without consulting me
> first."
>     I DO AS I PLEASE, says the chorus bleeding at the edges of their
> brains. The room grows black, and cold, and wet.
>     Lydia immediately sinks to her knees, averting her eyes. "My dread
> lord," she says, trembling in terror and ecstasy.

Hot

>     The maggots start to crawl out of Lydia's mouth. Claire waits until
> Lydia finishes gagging before she goes on. "You were kept out of the
> loop in case you might be responsible." She pauses. "I determined that
> you are."
>     "No!" says Lydia. "You're lying! She's lying! Traitor!"
>     ENOUGH, says the voice as Lydia's body is squeezed and twisted like
> a rag. YOU HAVE SERVED YOUR PURPOSE.
>     "Venus, destroy us," Lydia whispers in gratitude.
>     Claire steps over the pile of loose, ragged skin that remains, and
> sits in Lydia's chair.

No longer hot, but, HOLY FUCK INTENSE. @. at vvvvvvv

> Before he opens his eyes, before he takes a breath, before he thinks a
> single solitary thought, he feels something in his mouth. The thin,
> flat disc tastes like blood, metallic and sickening. He tries to spit
> it out. Something presses against his mouth. A hand. He opens his
> eyes.

Every frickin' opening is intense as hell

>     "I was dead," he says. "You killed me."
>     "I killed one of your bodies, yes," says Claire. (How does he know
> her name?) "The circle made you a spare before you went undercover. It
> was the spare that was destroyed; this is the original.

Oh, wow. :o

>     "No," says Claire. "I serve the blue lady. I serve the balance. The
> midnight war has been fought for millennia. It started long before you
> and I came into this world, and it must continue long after we're
> dead. If the Company wins, that's the end of everything. If the circle
> wins, that's the end of magic."
>     "That'd be preferable," says David.
>     "Spoken like a member of the circle," says Claire derisively. "But
> now, more than ever, the earth needs magic if it is to survive what is
> to come. We can't permit either side to win. When the balance seems
> ready to tip, the blue lady sends her agents to lean on the scales.
> The Company's running the board, lately, and so: this is me leaning.

Ahhhhhhh, interesting.

>     "It's why I helped Maile. She hated what she was doing, what she
> had become. She wanted to defect to the circle, but she knew the
> circle would never trust her if she came to them openly."
>     "It was Maile's plan," realizes David.

...NICE!!! I LOVE MAILE EVEN MORE

> Of course then we throw you in the mix and things will be so lopsided
> in the circle's favor, I just might need to lean back in the other
> direction."

Hmmmmm *gets long-term plot ideas*

>     "Me?" says David. "All I can do is make people forget things."
>     "Oh, sweet, stupid David," says Claire. "You can do more than
> forget. You also have the ability to remember. Pretty soon, you'll be
> remembering things that happened long before you were born. You'll
> remember secrets that no one living has ever heard. You'll open doors
> that everyone else has forgotten existed. The Company is freaking out
> about Sarah Avery, but you're the one they should be scared of.

I love it!

>     The darkness starts to dance before his eyes. It hurts to look at
> it. He closes his eyes, and when he opens them, it's not an umbrella
> he's holding. It's a sword. But it's unlike any sword that David had
> ever seen. It's red, deep red, red as rust, red as blood. He can't
> recognize the material; it shines like new steel but has grain like
> old wood. The blade isn't quite straight but it isn't quite curved;
> its teeth are many but irregular. It doesn't look like a blade that
> was made, but one that grew, natural and organic.
>     "This is Thirteen, the sword of stories," says Claire. "The only
> weapon to ever taste the blood of Venus. In time before time, before
> the Lullaby, before men walked the earth, one of the gods of Venus was
> slain with this blade by Quasha One-Eye."

...AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

aaaaaaaaa
AAAAA!
Aakfsldkflksdkldsjfkls AAAAAA.

...aaaaaa.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!

I like this o3ov

>     "I know this sword," he says softly.
>     "Of course you do," says Claire.
>     He looks up; he's alone in the darkness. But he still hears her
> voice: "David, David, David. My dear, stupid brother. It's been in our
> family for generations."

Damn.

This ended a lot more open than I expected, rather with One Big Final 
Confrontation. But I am SUPER excited now. :D

Drew "that's POWERFUL" Perron