LimeyPanda
The Bearer of Bad News
Kiku wrapped herself in her field of invisibility as she finally gave into the urge of knowing more. The lucid dreams and the increased whispers had been nudging her closer and closer towards this for a while now, but the stress and unease of the Bunker right now was what finally pushed her to do it. She didn't know what it was; but she wanted to know...something.
The alleyway reminded her of a worse life. The sick, and the dying, and the drug-addled reminded her of a life in misery, and of hunger, and of the scum that once ruled it. She hated the sight of it and found her hand reaching for her pistol; until she saw the strange woman. She was pretty, in an alien-sort of way. Instantly, she tilted her head to just...look at her, if only to try and understand the strange reactions of her instincts. Normally, her instinctual reaction to people was 'Fight 'em, Fuck 'em, or Friend 'em.' Sometimes, it might cross the wires and combine a couple ideas. With this woman though? She just...couldn't get a read.
The Strange woman gave herself a voice: feminine, but, with a difficult to describe intensity. “If you wish to embrace your true potential, come closer.” She steps aside, and motions to a door leading into a small, abandoned structure. “Enter, but know that once you do, you cannot leave.”
Kiku glanced towards the woman, a little worried by how easily she'd sensed her, or could see her, through the invisibility. She looked back at the alley’s entrance, thinking about running, but instead she lowered her field of light-bending concealment. "I...I just want to talk first. Can I just talk first? No one ever lets me just talk before they demand things from me." She frowned at the woman, thinking about the world outside, about the orders and demands put on her shoulders by the Old Guard. It was maddening sometimes. Everyone seemed to want something and she felt so spread thin. Jenive had wanted something from her, Carolyn and Marie wanted things from her… Was it so bad to just want to talk?
The strange woman tilts her head, and steps out from the shadows of the alleyway. It wasn't Eve, it was someone else. "I remember you... You were hunting after Ezekiel, were you not?"
Kiku, blissfully unaware that this wasn't Eve, nods at the stranger. "Yeah, I wanted to make sure we could grab him peacefully...Just talk to him and stuff. I hoped maybe he could explain to people why mutants shouldn't be some massive Boogeymen. Instead, everything's worse, and nobody will even let me talk to him."
"Unsurprising. Why would any of them trust you? To them, you are a monster, a disease, to be cured. To be helped..." The strange woman smiles, in a sweet, if somewhat unnervingly wolfish fashion, as she places her hands behind her back. She speaks within Kiku's mind. "I am Lillian... Evelyn is inside, and is... Distraught. She lost one of her oldest children, and is preparing to try and help what remaining children she can, before these Children of Sodom drive her away, as they always do."
She seemed to wince at Lillian's words, taking umbrage with the bluntness of the woman. She probably wouldn't have cared about it so much if it wasn't stinging so true. At the mention of Evelyn, Kiku felt a small lump form in her throat. The thought of losing a child was one that resonated with Kiku, if only in reverse. She stepped forward as if to move past Lillian, but stopped just an inch from passing beyond the threshold. "Does the whole spooky 'Once you enter, you can't leave' thing still stand? I just want to talk with her for now."
"It does, child." Lillian states, simply, and without even a moment's hesitation. "What lies inside are truths, quite precious. The embers of hope... That could be put out with but a simple gust of wind. I can call for Eve, if you wish... Or, you can speak with me. Learn the truth, from me. Let me... Show you, the truth. With more than just these simple words, and sounds, but with images, too."
Kiku instinctively takes a step back at Lillian's intensity. For a second, her hand reaches for her knife, but she stops herself before she actually puts a hand on it. Every animal instinct was telling her to flee at this point, but she stood her ground...just. She had to do this; for her family, not for her. "Just...talking please. Call for Eve, I just wanna talk."
"Are you scared?" Lillian mutters aloud. She seemed to take an odd mixture of glee and disappointment in it, both with Kiku, and with herself. Lillian motions to the doorway behind herself, and steps aside. "I would never harm you, child. Have faith... Eve will see you inside, but will keep you away from our more sacred areas."
Kiku paused at Lillian's question, still taken aback by the woman's mannerisms. When she motioned inside, and made reference to keeping her from the 'sacred areas' she thought about how it was likely not getting any better. She almost turned away, but for the burning questions, and the voice in her head. If she were being lied too... "I fear losing my freedom. That's all I've ever been afraid of..." She spoke as much to herself as to Lillian. She certainly didn't have faith, not for Marie's lack of trying, but she had the unshakable need to know; to know more. "Thank you for being so...honest? I think that's the right word? If you're half as strong as Ezekiel, you could have just forced me to do this."
"Half as strong..." Lillian mutters under her breath, wrinkling her nose. She seemed rather offended by that remark, but kept herself from outright snarling as Kiku opened the door, and stepped on through.
With a single blink, she found herself somewhere that didn't seem right. The door behind her had vanished, and all that was left was a brick wall. Something crunched underneath her foot, and one look down would show a floor of dead leaves. Brushing it aside reveals a bleached white floor, without any distinctive markings. It looked to be made of a material that Kiku was rather unfamiliar with. The walls around her were perhaps made out of the same material, but she couldn't see them, as they were were covered in leaves--from thick branches that had grown out of the walls. The branches themselves were covered in a thin layer of skin--human like in appearance and texture, stretched sufficiently that one could see through to the bark underneath it. The occasional drop of blood rolled down from the tips of the branches, giving the leaves beneath her feet a distinctively red hue, where she might have originally thought that it was simply the result of it being the autumn months.
She found herself in what appeared to be a small, circular chamber--an entryway, perhaps? Ahead of her was a small and short hallway, that would make it difficult to navigate without incidentally touching the branches. It seemed that the place she was in would reshape itself to move her where she needed to be. Down this hallway was a moderately sized room, about fifty square feet in size. There were a few beds, made out of leaves, with a few people resting upon them. Kiku would recognize a couple of them as other listeners from the colony who had vanished without a trace. Standing in the middle of the room, with her back turned on Kiku, was Eve. She remained silent, perhaps giving Kiku time to adjust to her surroundings.
Kiku ignored all of Lillian’s offense as she first entered the abstract abode of the Children of Eve. Of all the things she had expected in the building, dead foliage and what looked like human skin was not it. The gentle crunch of dying leaves felt like trampling on tiny finger bones, and the disquieting scenes of gore spread over bark and blood dripping from gnarled limbs reminded her of the carnage of her day of freedom. She spun around a couple times, taking note of the sealed door and the resting listeners on beds of leaves. She recognised a few of them, a few even from a shared moment in, albeit less disturbing, beds of their own.
Eventually though, the lodestone of the circular room drew her attention. Eve was, without a doubt, the epicentre of all of this. She’d never met the woman, but she knew to whom the voice that kept whispering to her belonged now: the voice that had whispering to her in the lonely moments. She was honestly a little shocked at how…normal Eve looked. She didn’t know what she’d expected, and a subconscious part of her was horrified that Graveyard would be the pinnacle for any listener. Instead, here was a relatively normal looking woman; radiating such a strange aura of power, like brambles spreading out and choking anything that resisted. It was equal parts awe-inspiring and terrifying for the more primal Listener. “So…You’re the one who’s been calling me here for so long.” It was so strange to be face-to-face with her. Putting eyes upon the disembodied voice of her loneliness; it was like seeing an imaginary friend in the flesh. “Why? Why call out to me? Do you really hate the ‘children of Sodom’ or whatever you call non-listeners? What is it you really want?” She stepped forward, towards Eve. She kept an intentional two steps between them. Even if she couldn’t see an exit, she was listening to every primal instinct that said ‘don’t let her touch you.’ And ‘Don’t forget why you’re here.’ “Who are you really?”
"You are in my domain, child." Eve states simply, without turning to face Kiku. Behind her, she feels a hand grasp her shoulder. A second person stood, who looked identical to Eve--she was in two places at once. "None of this is real. It is all, merely a desperate attempt by your mind to rationalize that which it cannot understand. I will agree to answer your questions, if you agree to listen to what I have to say to you afterward, and consider a proposition. Understand, child?"
Kiku momentarily recoiled at the touch, more out of shock than disgust. To not be able to trust her senses - her sight especially - was a hefty blow for her. The abstract was oft lost on the more feral of the Old Guard's associates. Still, she faced the first Eve, and then pivoted to face the second, then back to the first. "Listening won't hurt. As long as I get my choice to say no, I'll listen to whatever you've got to say." She paused, before smiling a little. It was sheepish and nervous, but genuine enough. "I guess I've never been afraid to be a Listener."
"There is no need to feel fear. I will never force you to do anything you do not wish to do, child." The second Eve wraps her arms around Kiku from behind, and simply holds her gently. Gently enough that, if Kiku wished to escape, she easily could. Nonetheless, Eve continues to whisper in Kiku's mind, sweetly, and gently--in a manner that seemed almost entirely impossible, that seemed almost like a fairy tale.
"... And that, perhaps, core to my question. Why do you turn from me, child? I offer you freedom, I offer you power. I offer you the greatest chance for self-control in your own life, that no others could offer... I would even be willing to awaken you, partially. To spark some of that inner power, and still let you go your own way--choose your own path. No others would offer this... They live in fear of you. They live in fear of what you could become. They try to control you, they lie to you... I do not hate the Children of Sodom. I did not even give them that name. All of this biblical referencing, it's all a way to make it... Easier to understand. It is something universal, something that many can cling to when the very reality around them makes no sense. We are quite emotional creatures, and for a while, it is hard to control your new talents when you gain them... So having a, veneer of absolute authority to cling to, it makes it easier. That is, until they grow old enough that they no longer need such authority anymore. I offer you total freedom, like no other can, and you shun it away... Why?"
As much as being in Eve's embrace had a shiver running up her spine, she did not resist it. She knew she was in the den of lions, and she would not walk out of it without a little...well...a little trust. She listened to the words Eve offered and resisted the urge to speak up, even as the thoughts filled her mind, and battled against the impossibility of Eve's voice inside her brain. When she asked that final why though, Kiku gulped back the fear that she should be coy, or conservative here. It would be easier if she just let the question hang, and yet she wanted to answer this woman. This stranger who felt so personally invested and close to her. "I'm...I don't have a lot of things. They were taken away from me. So the few things I do have, I try to cling to them. I don't have many real friends, but the ones I have are precious. I don't have a lot of things I'm good at, but I cling to those talents like a vice, because they are all that define me. I don't have any family, but the one person who treats me like family is so very, very precious to me. You say you offer me freedom, but I already feel free. You offer me control, but I don't need that. You offer me something to believe in, but I've got plenty to believe in." She stopped for a second, before she thought about the things that mattered to her. Revenge, Marie, Carolyn, Freedom, Listeners being able to just...exist, new friends like Bob, and friends she wanted to make like Mouse and Jenive. She thought about how powerless she'd been against the men in the armour, and how hurt Carolyn had been because her father had been robbed from her. She thought about the Sociopaths in the Coalition: the man in the rebreather who'd treated everything like a cold puzzle; the woman in the dark clothes who hated her just because she existed. She clenched her fists, before she turned to face Eve. "I don't know much about the world. I don't. I know that you aren't what people say you are though. They say you’re a god, but God doesn't exist. He wasn't there when I needed him. They say you're a cult leader, and that you steal people's identities and break them; but I've seen people who've had everything stolen from them...seen people just...broken. I don't know who it was who gave the people in the Bunker the name Children of Sodom; but they did it in your name. If that's a lie, and you say that's a lie, I believe you. I do."
She frowned as she took a half-step backwards, straining the hug but not breaking it as she turned to face Eve's form. She wanted to stare her in the eyes for this bit. "I want to be with them. The humans, the Non-listeners, the people from the Bunker, or whatever you want to call them. I want to be with Marie, and Carolyn, and Bob, and the grumpy bastard who sells me shitty coffee, and chewy bread. I like it down there, but there are people who don't want me to exist like that. U-ARM wants to lock me up as a monster, the Coalition wants to put everyone under their boot, and I don't even know what the guys in the armour want. I don't know how to tackle those guys, but at least I know where to start with you." She took a deep breath, before taking the half-step closer, touching foreheads against the 'Eve' in front of her. "I'm scared of you, a little. That's why I push you away. You're so...different to me, but at least you want to talk to me. The Coalition wants to destroy my way of life, and the rest just want to destroy me. But if you're willing to help me keep what's precious to me safe, then I don't see why we can't at least talk, and maybe we can talk about...this awakening thing, or about what you want with the rest of the Bunker once the ones who want to hurt us are gone."
"Evolve." Eve states, one simple word, staring straight back into Kiku's eyes. Her tone was serious, and perhaps, held a sliver of disappointment. Nonetheless, her aura of comfortable compassion endured. "If we should win, my plans are simple. I will help each listener awaken their true potential, become something more than they are now... To cure disease, to cure ageing, to cure all the ails of mankind, and leave your potential to only be limited by your imagination, and hard work. I would leave the people of Bunker Chicago alone, and over time, the normal human population will dwindle, as more listeners appear in each generation... Until no harm would be done by our further expansion. I will live for eternity, I can leave non-listeners alone... Let them live their small lives, and then die. All I seek to do is to uplift listeners, prevent them from toiling in mediocrity, from having their true potential suppressed by those who live in fear... By those who want to maintain the status quo, even if it is ultimately to the detriment of all humankind."
Kiku didn't flinch at the disappointment in Eve's voice. If anything, it emboldened her. She knew she wasn't beholden to this women, and she knew that she didn't need to acquiesce to her wants unless they fit her. "And the choice to evolve, it'll be entirely on the listener, right? Some people might like their small little lives." She didn't back down from Eve, remaining at eye level and at eye contact with the woman. It might not be her wisest moment, clashing with the locus of the entire Listener change, but she was doing it. "Because if you agreed to that much, and that you wouldn't hurt anyone from the Old Guard, I'd be willing to...to talk this out with you, and with the people in charge of the Old Guard. We don't necessarily want different things here. The Old Guard just want to be able to exist, without kneeling to some outside force, and you guys just want to exist, right? Everyone deserves the right to choose, at least." She was grasping at straws, a little at least, in her attempts to justify not fully burning the bridge with either side. She didn't want to have to choose between being a Listener and being a part of the Old Guard. Both were at the core of her being. If she had to choose, she felt she'd be lesser for it.
"Have I not allowed you to have your choice?" Eve replies softly. She did not seem intimidated by Kiku, and maintained her gentle tone. "I cannot build a better world with fear and hatred. You, and all of my other children, are free to do as you wish. As for the Old Guard... You know I cannot make that promise. I know it is where you call home, child, but I cannot promise to do no harm to a group of people who mean for a great deal of harm to my people."
"Well, I..." She paused as she grasped for the right words, knowing that their were more than a few people who were afraid of Listeners, and of the Children of Eve. Hell, she lived with one of them. "...Bah, I hate this politics stuff." She took a step away from Eve, breaking the contact for the first time as she rubbed her temple with her palm. It was odd feeling nothing but frank frustration, especially in the face of her potential doom, but she was too focused on her pitch to feel fear right now. "Alright, so I want to work with you guys. You want to get rid of the U-ARM people who hate people like us, and the Coalition won't ever work with you right? So if we work together, then both sides come off better, right? We'd be in an alliance and stuff, because we can co-exist right? We just need someone who can be a go-between. Someone like me, I guess." It sounded sensible in her head, at least. "Oh, and Ezekiel is alright with us. We didn't have to hurt him or anything, we just talked. I should be talking with him personally soon, as well. Anything you want me to say to him? That's gotta be a show of faith, right?"
"You don't need to say anything to him. I can still speak with him." Eve smiles a little, and Kiku got the distinct impression that Eve would not explain how. "I am concerned for you, Child. Do not worry about Ezekiel. He will be fine." She offers her hand. "If you wish to be awakened, take my hand. If you are so certain that The Old Guard would not abandon you, then you have nothing to fear in gaining more power, do you?"
"I don't even know what this awakening is. I'll become more powerful, you say, but how? What changes? It's more than just being able to do different things. Nothing is free." She looked at Eve with a curiosity tinged with caution. She remembered Marie's words, about how much she'd be changed by the Children of Eve. She wanted to know what changes actually happen, before she agreed to anything. She certainly didn't fear losing her 'soul' or naught. She was just afraid that she wouldn't be...her anymore.
"Everything changes." Eve replies, cryptically. Yet, sympathy seems to enter the voice in Kiku's mind, as Eve continues to speak. "You no longer are bound to a simple, basic form. You can be ever changing, ever evolving. Wear any face you wish, be whoever you wish. Boundaries become mere words on a page, or the lacklustre imagination of others. Death which comes so easily to others, will find you much more difficult to deal with... Take a bullet for an ally, and it will be as if nothing happened."
It all sounded too good, when she heard Eve talk frankly about the change. There was almost certainly something she wasn't being told, but if she could be given the power to protect the people that mattered to her was almost too tempting to resist. "And you're happy that I'd still be with the Old Guard? You'd be willing to trust me to do what I want, and whatever I choose is just...okay with you?"
"My only goal is to help you see your true potential, child." Eve replies, gently.
It took Kiku one last glance around the room of flesh, and one last fleeting memory to make up her mind. She was already a monster, right? She was a freak to the woman who should have been her friend, and she was already as good as the enemy to strangers. Nothing she could do short of eating a bullet would change that. "Alright, I accept." She took a cautious step closer to Eve, and just...waited.
Eve smiles warmly, and grasps Kiku's hands, pulling her into a warm embrace. "This won't take long..."
The next moment, Kiku wakes up--alone, in an alleyway. The business had been done, and she had been knocked unconscious and moved away from Eve's home. The last memory she had was of sinking into Eve's chest, and then... Nothing.
The alleyway reminded her of a worse life. The sick, and the dying, and the drug-addled reminded her of a life in misery, and of hunger, and of the scum that once ruled it. She hated the sight of it and found her hand reaching for her pistol; until she saw the strange woman. She was pretty, in an alien-sort of way. Instantly, she tilted her head to just...look at her, if only to try and understand the strange reactions of her instincts. Normally, her instinctual reaction to people was 'Fight 'em, Fuck 'em, or Friend 'em.' Sometimes, it might cross the wires and combine a couple ideas. With this woman though? She just...couldn't get a read.
The Strange woman gave herself a voice: feminine, but, with a difficult to describe intensity. “If you wish to embrace your true potential, come closer.” She steps aside, and motions to a door leading into a small, abandoned structure. “Enter, but know that once you do, you cannot leave.”
Kiku glanced towards the woman, a little worried by how easily she'd sensed her, or could see her, through the invisibility. She looked back at the alley’s entrance, thinking about running, but instead she lowered her field of light-bending concealment. "I...I just want to talk first. Can I just talk first? No one ever lets me just talk before they demand things from me." She frowned at the woman, thinking about the world outside, about the orders and demands put on her shoulders by the Old Guard. It was maddening sometimes. Everyone seemed to want something and she felt so spread thin. Jenive had wanted something from her, Carolyn and Marie wanted things from her… Was it so bad to just want to talk?
The strange woman tilts her head, and steps out from the shadows of the alleyway. It wasn't Eve, it was someone else. "I remember you... You were hunting after Ezekiel, were you not?"
Kiku, blissfully unaware that this wasn't Eve, nods at the stranger. "Yeah, I wanted to make sure we could grab him peacefully...Just talk to him and stuff. I hoped maybe he could explain to people why mutants shouldn't be some massive Boogeymen. Instead, everything's worse, and nobody will even let me talk to him."
"Unsurprising. Why would any of them trust you? To them, you are a monster, a disease, to be cured. To be helped..." The strange woman smiles, in a sweet, if somewhat unnervingly wolfish fashion, as she places her hands behind her back. She speaks within Kiku's mind. "I am Lillian... Evelyn is inside, and is... Distraught. She lost one of her oldest children, and is preparing to try and help what remaining children she can, before these Children of Sodom drive her away, as they always do."
She seemed to wince at Lillian's words, taking umbrage with the bluntness of the woman. She probably wouldn't have cared about it so much if it wasn't stinging so true. At the mention of Evelyn, Kiku felt a small lump form in her throat. The thought of losing a child was one that resonated with Kiku, if only in reverse. She stepped forward as if to move past Lillian, but stopped just an inch from passing beyond the threshold. "Does the whole spooky 'Once you enter, you can't leave' thing still stand? I just want to talk with her for now."
"It does, child." Lillian states, simply, and without even a moment's hesitation. "What lies inside are truths, quite precious. The embers of hope... That could be put out with but a simple gust of wind. I can call for Eve, if you wish... Or, you can speak with me. Learn the truth, from me. Let me... Show you, the truth. With more than just these simple words, and sounds, but with images, too."
Kiku instinctively takes a step back at Lillian's intensity. For a second, her hand reaches for her knife, but she stops herself before she actually puts a hand on it. Every animal instinct was telling her to flee at this point, but she stood her ground...just. She had to do this; for her family, not for her. "Just...talking please. Call for Eve, I just wanna talk."
"Are you scared?" Lillian mutters aloud. She seemed to take an odd mixture of glee and disappointment in it, both with Kiku, and with herself. Lillian motions to the doorway behind herself, and steps aside. "I would never harm you, child. Have faith... Eve will see you inside, but will keep you away from our more sacred areas."
Kiku paused at Lillian's question, still taken aback by the woman's mannerisms. When she motioned inside, and made reference to keeping her from the 'sacred areas' she thought about how it was likely not getting any better. She almost turned away, but for the burning questions, and the voice in her head. If she were being lied too... "I fear losing my freedom. That's all I've ever been afraid of..." She spoke as much to herself as to Lillian. She certainly didn't have faith, not for Marie's lack of trying, but she had the unshakable need to know; to know more. "Thank you for being so...honest? I think that's the right word? If you're half as strong as Ezekiel, you could have just forced me to do this."
"Half as strong..." Lillian mutters under her breath, wrinkling her nose. She seemed rather offended by that remark, but kept herself from outright snarling as Kiku opened the door, and stepped on through.
With a single blink, she found herself somewhere that didn't seem right. The door behind her had vanished, and all that was left was a brick wall. Something crunched underneath her foot, and one look down would show a floor of dead leaves. Brushing it aside reveals a bleached white floor, without any distinctive markings. It looked to be made of a material that Kiku was rather unfamiliar with. The walls around her were perhaps made out of the same material, but she couldn't see them, as they were were covered in leaves--from thick branches that had grown out of the walls. The branches themselves were covered in a thin layer of skin--human like in appearance and texture, stretched sufficiently that one could see through to the bark underneath it. The occasional drop of blood rolled down from the tips of the branches, giving the leaves beneath her feet a distinctively red hue, where she might have originally thought that it was simply the result of it being the autumn months.
She found herself in what appeared to be a small, circular chamber--an entryway, perhaps? Ahead of her was a small and short hallway, that would make it difficult to navigate without incidentally touching the branches. It seemed that the place she was in would reshape itself to move her where she needed to be. Down this hallway was a moderately sized room, about fifty square feet in size. There were a few beds, made out of leaves, with a few people resting upon them. Kiku would recognize a couple of them as other listeners from the colony who had vanished without a trace. Standing in the middle of the room, with her back turned on Kiku, was Eve. She remained silent, perhaps giving Kiku time to adjust to her surroundings.
Kiku ignored all of Lillian’s offense as she first entered the abstract abode of the Children of Eve. Of all the things she had expected in the building, dead foliage and what looked like human skin was not it. The gentle crunch of dying leaves felt like trampling on tiny finger bones, and the disquieting scenes of gore spread over bark and blood dripping from gnarled limbs reminded her of the carnage of her day of freedom. She spun around a couple times, taking note of the sealed door and the resting listeners on beds of leaves. She recognised a few of them, a few even from a shared moment in, albeit less disturbing, beds of their own.
Eventually though, the lodestone of the circular room drew her attention. Eve was, without a doubt, the epicentre of all of this. She’d never met the woman, but she knew to whom the voice that kept whispering to her belonged now: the voice that had whispering to her in the lonely moments. She was honestly a little shocked at how…normal Eve looked. She didn’t know what she’d expected, and a subconscious part of her was horrified that Graveyard would be the pinnacle for any listener. Instead, here was a relatively normal looking woman; radiating such a strange aura of power, like brambles spreading out and choking anything that resisted. It was equal parts awe-inspiring and terrifying for the more primal Listener. “So…You’re the one who’s been calling me here for so long.” It was so strange to be face-to-face with her. Putting eyes upon the disembodied voice of her loneliness; it was like seeing an imaginary friend in the flesh. “Why? Why call out to me? Do you really hate the ‘children of Sodom’ or whatever you call non-listeners? What is it you really want?” She stepped forward, towards Eve. She kept an intentional two steps between them. Even if she couldn’t see an exit, she was listening to every primal instinct that said ‘don’t let her touch you.’ And ‘Don’t forget why you’re here.’ “Who are you really?”
"You are in my domain, child." Eve states simply, without turning to face Kiku. Behind her, she feels a hand grasp her shoulder. A second person stood, who looked identical to Eve--she was in two places at once. "None of this is real. It is all, merely a desperate attempt by your mind to rationalize that which it cannot understand. I will agree to answer your questions, if you agree to listen to what I have to say to you afterward, and consider a proposition. Understand, child?"
Kiku momentarily recoiled at the touch, more out of shock than disgust. To not be able to trust her senses - her sight especially - was a hefty blow for her. The abstract was oft lost on the more feral of the Old Guard's associates. Still, she faced the first Eve, and then pivoted to face the second, then back to the first. "Listening won't hurt. As long as I get my choice to say no, I'll listen to whatever you've got to say." She paused, before smiling a little. It was sheepish and nervous, but genuine enough. "I guess I've never been afraid to be a Listener."
"There is no need to feel fear. I will never force you to do anything you do not wish to do, child." The second Eve wraps her arms around Kiku from behind, and simply holds her gently. Gently enough that, if Kiku wished to escape, she easily could. Nonetheless, Eve continues to whisper in Kiku's mind, sweetly, and gently--in a manner that seemed almost entirely impossible, that seemed almost like a fairy tale.
"... And that, perhaps, core to my question. Why do you turn from me, child? I offer you freedom, I offer you power. I offer you the greatest chance for self-control in your own life, that no others could offer... I would even be willing to awaken you, partially. To spark some of that inner power, and still let you go your own way--choose your own path. No others would offer this... They live in fear of you. They live in fear of what you could become. They try to control you, they lie to you... I do not hate the Children of Sodom. I did not even give them that name. All of this biblical referencing, it's all a way to make it... Easier to understand. It is something universal, something that many can cling to when the very reality around them makes no sense. We are quite emotional creatures, and for a while, it is hard to control your new talents when you gain them... So having a, veneer of absolute authority to cling to, it makes it easier. That is, until they grow old enough that they no longer need such authority anymore. I offer you total freedom, like no other can, and you shun it away... Why?"
As much as being in Eve's embrace had a shiver running up her spine, she did not resist it. She knew she was in the den of lions, and she would not walk out of it without a little...well...a little trust. She listened to the words Eve offered and resisted the urge to speak up, even as the thoughts filled her mind, and battled against the impossibility of Eve's voice inside her brain. When she asked that final why though, Kiku gulped back the fear that she should be coy, or conservative here. It would be easier if she just let the question hang, and yet she wanted to answer this woman. This stranger who felt so personally invested and close to her. "I'm...I don't have a lot of things. They were taken away from me. So the few things I do have, I try to cling to them. I don't have many real friends, but the ones I have are precious. I don't have a lot of things I'm good at, but I cling to those talents like a vice, because they are all that define me. I don't have any family, but the one person who treats me like family is so very, very precious to me. You say you offer me freedom, but I already feel free. You offer me control, but I don't need that. You offer me something to believe in, but I've got plenty to believe in." She stopped for a second, before she thought about the things that mattered to her. Revenge, Marie, Carolyn, Freedom, Listeners being able to just...exist, new friends like Bob, and friends she wanted to make like Mouse and Jenive. She thought about how powerless she'd been against the men in the armour, and how hurt Carolyn had been because her father had been robbed from her. She thought about the Sociopaths in the Coalition: the man in the rebreather who'd treated everything like a cold puzzle; the woman in the dark clothes who hated her just because she existed. She clenched her fists, before she turned to face Eve. "I don't know much about the world. I don't. I know that you aren't what people say you are though. They say you’re a god, but God doesn't exist. He wasn't there when I needed him. They say you're a cult leader, and that you steal people's identities and break them; but I've seen people who've had everything stolen from them...seen people just...broken. I don't know who it was who gave the people in the Bunker the name Children of Sodom; but they did it in your name. If that's a lie, and you say that's a lie, I believe you. I do."
She frowned as she took a half-step backwards, straining the hug but not breaking it as she turned to face Eve's form. She wanted to stare her in the eyes for this bit. "I want to be with them. The humans, the Non-listeners, the people from the Bunker, or whatever you want to call them. I want to be with Marie, and Carolyn, and Bob, and the grumpy bastard who sells me shitty coffee, and chewy bread. I like it down there, but there are people who don't want me to exist like that. U-ARM wants to lock me up as a monster, the Coalition wants to put everyone under their boot, and I don't even know what the guys in the armour want. I don't know how to tackle those guys, but at least I know where to start with you." She took a deep breath, before taking the half-step closer, touching foreheads against the 'Eve' in front of her. "I'm scared of you, a little. That's why I push you away. You're so...different to me, but at least you want to talk to me. The Coalition wants to destroy my way of life, and the rest just want to destroy me. But if you're willing to help me keep what's precious to me safe, then I don't see why we can't at least talk, and maybe we can talk about...this awakening thing, or about what you want with the rest of the Bunker once the ones who want to hurt us are gone."
"Evolve." Eve states, one simple word, staring straight back into Kiku's eyes. Her tone was serious, and perhaps, held a sliver of disappointment. Nonetheless, her aura of comfortable compassion endured. "If we should win, my plans are simple. I will help each listener awaken their true potential, become something more than they are now... To cure disease, to cure ageing, to cure all the ails of mankind, and leave your potential to only be limited by your imagination, and hard work. I would leave the people of Bunker Chicago alone, and over time, the normal human population will dwindle, as more listeners appear in each generation... Until no harm would be done by our further expansion. I will live for eternity, I can leave non-listeners alone... Let them live their small lives, and then die. All I seek to do is to uplift listeners, prevent them from toiling in mediocrity, from having their true potential suppressed by those who live in fear... By those who want to maintain the status quo, even if it is ultimately to the detriment of all humankind."
Kiku didn't flinch at the disappointment in Eve's voice. If anything, it emboldened her. She knew she wasn't beholden to this women, and she knew that she didn't need to acquiesce to her wants unless they fit her. "And the choice to evolve, it'll be entirely on the listener, right? Some people might like their small little lives." She didn't back down from Eve, remaining at eye level and at eye contact with the woman. It might not be her wisest moment, clashing with the locus of the entire Listener change, but she was doing it. "Because if you agreed to that much, and that you wouldn't hurt anyone from the Old Guard, I'd be willing to...to talk this out with you, and with the people in charge of the Old Guard. We don't necessarily want different things here. The Old Guard just want to be able to exist, without kneeling to some outside force, and you guys just want to exist, right? Everyone deserves the right to choose, at least." She was grasping at straws, a little at least, in her attempts to justify not fully burning the bridge with either side. She didn't want to have to choose between being a Listener and being a part of the Old Guard. Both were at the core of her being. If she had to choose, she felt she'd be lesser for it.
"Have I not allowed you to have your choice?" Eve replies softly. She did not seem intimidated by Kiku, and maintained her gentle tone. "I cannot build a better world with fear and hatred. You, and all of my other children, are free to do as you wish. As for the Old Guard... You know I cannot make that promise. I know it is where you call home, child, but I cannot promise to do no harm to a group of people who mean for a great deal of harm to my people."
"Well, I..." She paused as she grasped for the right words, knowing that their were more than a few people who were afraid of Listeners, and of the Children of Eve. Hell, she lived with one of them. "...Bah, I hate this politics stuff." She took a step away from Eve, breaking the contact for the first time as she rubbed her temple with her palm. It was odd feeling nothing but frank frustration, especially in the face of her potential doom, but she was too focused on her pitch to feel fear right now. "Alright, so I want to work with you guys. You want to get rid of the U-ARM people who hate people like us, and the Coalition won't ever work with you right? So if we work together, then both sides come off better, right? We'd be in an alliance and stuff, because we can co-exist right? We just need someone who can be a go-between. Someone like me, I guess." It sounded sensible in her head, at least. "Oh, and Ezekiel is alright with us. We didn't have to hurt him or anything, we just talked. I should be talking with him personally soon, as well. Anything you want me to say to him? That's gotta be a show of faith, right?"
"You don't need to say anything to him. I can still speak with him." Eve smiles a little, and Kiku got the distinct impression that Eve would not explain how. "I am concerned for you, Child. Do not worry about Ezekiel. He will be fine." She offers her hand. "If you wish to be awakened, take my hand. If you are so certain that The Old Guard would not abandon you, then you have nothing to fear in gaining more power, do you?"
"I don't even know what this awakening is. I'll become more powerful, you say, but how? What changes? It's more than just being able to do different things. Nothing is free." She looked at Eve with a curiosity tinged with caution. She remembered Marie's words, about how much she'd be changed by the Children of Eve. She wanted to know what changes actually happen, before she agreed to anything. She certainly didn't fear losing her 'soul' or naught. She was just afraid that she wouldn't be...her anymore.
"Everything changes." Eve replies, cryptically. Yet, sympathy seems to enter the voice in Kiku's mind, as Eve continues to speak. "You no longer are bound to a simple, basic form. You can be ever changing, ever evolving. Wear any face you wish, be whoever you wish. Boundaries become mere words on a page, or the lacklustre imagination of others. Death which comes so easily to others, will find you much more difficult to deal with... Take a bullet for an ally, and it will be as if nothing happened."
It all sounded too good, when she heard Eve talk frankly about the change. There was almost certainly something she wasn't being told, but if she could be given the power to protect the people that mattered to her was almost too tempting to resist. "And you're happy that I'd still be with the Old Guard? You'd be willing to trust me to do what I want, and whatever I choose is just...okay with you?"
"My only goal is to help you see your true potential, child." Eve replies, gently.
It took Kiku one last glance around the room of flesh, and one last fleeting memory to make up her mind. She was already a monster, right? She was a freak to the woman who should have been her friend, and she was already as good as the enemy to strangers. Nothing she could do short of eating a bullet would change that. "Alright, I accept." She took a cautious step closer to Eve, and just...waited.
Eve smiles warmly, and grasps Kiku's hands, pulling her into a warm embrace. "This won't take long..."
The next moment, Kiku wakes up--alone, in an alleyway. The business had been done, and she had been knocked unconscious and moved away from Eve's home. The last memory she had was of sinking into Eve's chest, and then... Nothing.