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Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 2:25 AM

[Not sure what category this falls under. Put it this way, there'll be blood.]


This was a peaceful part of the sea, far from the swimmers and their noise. Out here the land was a distant memory, nothing but the curve of the world on the horizon, unless you got high enough to see the edge of Lambastia in the distance. The surface of the sea was undisturbed apart from the ruffling of the water by the wind.

An enormous black cube floated several meters above, the setting sun reflecting off its smooth surface. There was no sign of any door or window; it was entirely featureless and still in the air. Occasionally a bird would fly past it, sometimes with a squawk of alarm. Once something briefly leapt out of the water and splashed its surface; it dried almost instantly.

Inside sat Heulwen Pugh.

She perched on the bed that took up a large part of the floor, and watched the rippling water through the window that was most of the front wall. Or possibly the back wall, or the side, but such distinctions were unimportant. It all looked the same from the other side of the glass, anyway.
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Re: Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 2:26 AM

She sat there on the blue comforter and sharpened her tools. Their box, utilitarian black like the building, lay open next to her. Once she dropped a needle on the bed, and cursed loudly as she struggled to find it, but otherwise she just stared out at the sea below. Occasionally she blinked. She tried not to let her mind drift too much to the task at hand, or rather the purpose of it. So much easier to get the work done when she hadn't put too much consideration into it beforehand.

A door closed somewhere behind her, audible through the wall. The cube was a carefully-designed building, having all the amenities of a comfortable hotel room—with a few more personal touches, of course—while also being permanently suspended in the air, and impenetrable unless you knew the secret. There was a small control room to allow her to steer it, but right now she was happy to sit above the calm water. And it wasn't as though anybody else would be protesting.
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Re: Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 2:26 AM

Footsteps, the sound of running water. Strangely soothing to hear, in a place such as this. Her home away from home. All this time it had felt incomplete, and it had taken her so long to figure out why. Even now she had trouble believing it. But then she heard those steps, the quiet murmur of someone talking to herself about something unimportant, the little noises of companionship, and the place began to feel real.

The door opened, letting a narrow beam of light in; it was far from dark in here, of course, but it was the faded light of an ending day, rather than the warm brightness of the lamps. This room didn't have any lights, just the window. It made sleeping easier.

More footsteps, hesitant, claws clicking against the floor. A voice. "Heulwen?"

She smiled, set aside her tools. "Esyllt. I wondered when you would be ready."
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Re: Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 2:50 AM

Esyllt Tittensor was shy, retiring, always trying to conceal herself despite her vibrant colors. It was what had first drawn Heulwen's attention to her, apart from the surprising grace with which she moved; Heulwen always expected shy people to stumble over their own feet, so caught up in their own seclusion they couldn't see what was around them, but Esyllt never seemed to have that problem. So Heulwen decided to break through the shyness, because it couldn't be entirely real, could it? Not with movements like that.

And then, as is the way of things, they'd got to talking.

There had never been anything strange apparent at first, nothing but a certain hesitation when answering some of her questions. And that voice, as well, was quite unusual, lower than you would expect and with a coarse edge to its mainly smooth flow. Heulwen would later hear that roughness in greater and lesser degrees, the voice whispering in her ear, making her smile as she rarely did. Even now, after so long, it brought her that same happiness.
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Re: Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 2:50 AM

They had known each other for a long time. They had shared experiences they had never shared with anyone else. Heulwen couldn't have been happier. And Esyllt had her moments of strangeness, times when she would curl in the back of a room and not speak to anyone, and Heulwen was careful to respect her wishes. She thought—hoped, maybe—that it was part of the reason Esyllt always said she was happy, too.

Then, of course, the cuts.

It started small at first, as all such things do. Minor changes, alterations for strength, speed. Other things, which they never discussed in solid words. Nothing to change that voice, nothing to change those careful, delicate steps. Just things that seemed to make Esyllt feel better. They always discussed it beforehand, and there were a few times that Esyllt changed her mind and Heulwen listened and undid what she'd done. It was always simple, and easy. Until the day it went wrong.
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Re: Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 2:51 AM

They weren't in this place, the cube. The cube was a new development, commissioned a year ago when Heulwen's adventurous urges returned with a startling ferocity. On that day, the day she was sure neither of them would ever forget, they were in a small house.

It didn't belong to either of them. It was a little cottage in the middle of the woods that was sometimes rented out by one of Esyllt's cherished friends, and it just so happened to have a nice sterile room in the middle of it. So they'd gone off to stay there, laughing and talking about the fun to be had in the nearby little town that would occupy most of their stay. And Heulwen brought her tools, of course, to take care of the other minor detail.
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Re: Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 2:52 AM

At first the work seemed to be a success, Esyllt murmuring silly little things as the tools were put to use, the two of them talking as they always had: about the weather, about what they were doing, anything and everything that came into their heads. There were faint snipping sounds and, once, a tearing noise which would have horrified someone with a weaker stomach. But they had no such qualms in their happiness.

Partway through Esyllt asked to be anesthetized. This was not unusual, though it was a little unexpected; normally she was more resilient, but everyone had their bad days. So Heulwen continued with her work, repairing the few errors she made. Later she would lie awake over those errors, wondering which of them had been the cause, if any of them had been the cause.

Eventually the anesthetic wore off, and Esyllt came into the room where Heulwen sat curled up on the couch. She was watching some sort of family-oriented movie when she heard the footsteps, at once familiar and unfamiliar.

And turned. And saw.

The grace was gone, replaced by a stumbling and shuffling step. It was not just one leg that was afflicted; all four had the same jerky, uneven quality to them, as if each of them were shorter than all of the others. Esyllt kept her eyes fixed on her feet, the only way to be sure she was putting them in the right places. Then, finally, she stopped, and looked up, and Heulwen saw the look in her eyes.
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Re: Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 2:54 AM

A few hasty words were exchanged later that evening, when Esyllt returned to the city. No mention was made of their next meeting. Heulwen stayed in the cottage, doing her work on anyone who came to her and asked. It was her living, after all. But something had gone out of it. Something was different. And, somewhere, she knew what it was.

It was with considerable surprise, therefore, that she saw Esyllt again.
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Re: Clean Incision [Self, Poss. G/A]

Postby Indigo » 02/23/2013 3:01 AM

It was in the city that they met, if you could really call it a meeting. Heulwen was walking with her bag slung over her shoulder, trying to whistle a reasonably merry tune; she gave up after a while, discovering that the only sound she could produce was more along the lines of a dirge. In recent months people had suggested that this was because of the events at the cottage, a comment she detested. She had always been this way. Hard to make a living doing what she did, otherwise.

She was crossing a large square, which was actually circular but city planners didn't know a thing about geometry. The sun shone brightly, she was surrounded by strangers, and there was no way any of them could know who she was. Good. She was rather fond of anonymity. She'd left the cube outside the city limits for that very reason, though depending on which way she faced it was still visible peering over the tops of some of the shorter buildings.

She wasn't thinking about anything in particular when she saw it—the movement.

At first she couldn't quite believe what she saw. It was another creature, of a type she'd seen before—yes, she knew that species very well, and it pained her to think of it, so she pushed it away—flowing through the crowd with a careless grace only granted to the very few. This was not, could not be, the same as the one she had known—she had seen that movement disappeared, destroyed, before her very eyes.

And yet.
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