Precipice of Evolution: First Genesis [Closed;Started]

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Elliot's eyes snapped open as the announcement began, giving him a very good look at dirt and darkness, and not much else. Where the hell am I? He straightened, smacked his head on the way too low ceiling. There was sunlight near his feet, though, and he awkwardly twisted around, then squeezed through a narrow hole between two huge roots and emerged into the sunlight. As Elliot took in his surroundings, he sighed. Another episode.

This was, unfortunately, not the first time Elliot had come to naked with no idea where he was. The counseling and the drugs had helped him to regain his Humanity to an extent - he thought in English again, usually walked around upright instead of like an oversized Gollum, and had even taken to wearing pants again.

Then these events started happening. They didn't make sense - Elliot had never lost control before PRACC had taken him. He'd lost himself, yes, but he clearly remembered the feral days of solitary hunting and eating and running. Speaking of which, he could feel his stomach gurgle, and there seemed to be viable prey nearby. In the forest of the PRACC facility, Elliot Greaves was the apex predator, a hungry God amidst terrified, delicious subjects. Elliot extended his claws and quickly scrambled up into the treetops, beginning to make a series of crawling hops, watching and listening for prey.

And soon a bounty was delivered to him, a small group of deer passing through. The wind stirred around him, and they sniffed at the breeze. Froze momentarily, then bolted.

But the momentary hesitation was the harbinger of death for one of them. Elliot dropped from the tree hands and feet first, driving claws into the doe's back, digging into the creature's sides until he had a firm grip. The creature let out a cry of terror and agony that cut off as Elliot's teeth found her neck, slicing through the large veins and granting her a quick end. The kill done, Elliot began to messily eat, ripping and tearing chunks of flesh from the slain creature and consuming them, much of his body now slick with blood. Table manners were still something they worked on.

Not long after with a good chunk of the carcass eaten, Elliot stepped back to let the forest scavengers have the rest, his hunger slaked.

He'd need to return to the detention facility, report in and declare last night's incident. PRACC seemed to have developed a means of dealing with him when he became like that, just let him go into the woods and wait for him to come to. If the worst happened he did have a tracking anklet permanently attached to him - he'd tried and it had proven impossible to cut or tear with claws or teeth, and impervious to any damage he could think of to do to it. He supposed he could gnaw his own leg off and escape that way, but that option held little appeal to him. He departed the site of the killing and headed for the detention facility, still streaked with blood.

 

[VaudevillianVeteran]

The announcements seemed to mark the congregation of students into the university, gossiping, a few demonstrating their powers in jest, talking about the idea of Summer events and the idea of visits. There was no age limit for those in the university but the usual demographic were the much younger citizens of the facility, heading to their assigned classrooms for first period.
During the week, the college was probably one of the most popular gathering places for residents, some came to learn, others to socialize, it was clear that the PRACC made a good decision in allowing its expansion after Summer.

[hr]

"The important thing to remember is that these are just people." A seasoned and tired looking doctor reminded what looked like an intern as they walked through the containment area in the detention center. The younger man looked nervous.
"I'll be asking you to assist Doctor Hawthorne with our easier tasks for today, along with rehabilitation, we work as a "time-out" for residents who act out," The older doctor with greying hair said removing his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose, "admittedly, we get mostly repeat offenders or those who just slipped up and need a slap on the wrist. They're mostly understanding of what the did wrong and why they're put here. The rest of the inmates here are under strict supervision and constant care. Their 'skills' are somewhat of a burden on them and they need all the help they can receive."

The younger man nodded, taking notes on his clipboard, seemingly opening his mouth to ask questions before closing it and jotting something else down.
"...Wh...Why is it always so quiet here?" The young doctor finally asked when the older gentleman stopped giving information.
"We find that some of the residents here need quiet to fully reflect on their actions. Besides, sound does not carry well in this building." He gives a small weary smile before pointing to a high clearance door to the far end of the cell block. Several card keys are seemingly needed along with a hand scan to open it.
"That, Doctor Palmer, leads to our therapy rooms, we keep it extra secure for many reasons, plus only few are actually trained to deal with those sent in. We're expecting a young woman to be admitted there this afternoon actually."
"I-I see...Is she dangerous?"
"Dangerous is an interesting word. I believe she's going in there for a consultation mostly, to see if she'll need long term care here or not."
"I see..."
"In any case, there's Doctor Hawthorne. I'll be seeing you, I said that I would cover for one of our psychotherapists in medical due to a personal engagement." Before the young Doctor Palmer could say another word, the older doctor was gone and he was left alone in the sterile white hallway, he could hear the sounds of movement in the cells and admittedly it unnerved him. The idea that the things in the sealed cells were capable of Godlike powers and the building itself made him sweat.

"Shh..." A voice hushed putting two manicured hands on his shoulders, "They can smell fear..."
Doctor Palmer froze up at the touch and the words, "B-Bu-But he said..."
"...I'm just fucking with you. But seriously, you should calm down," There was a harsh laugh before the hands lifted, "They'll eat you alive if you don't get your composure. You'll mostly be observing today but when dealing with small-time offenders...well, the standard is to give em' the same respect you want to get, these aren't bad people, but put someone in a place like this dome for long enough and eventually you'll go a little postal. Speaking of postal, after saying hello, I'd ask you to wait by the entrance, we should be expecting one of our regulars soon."
The woman was only slightly taller than him, about 5ft, 8 in heels, dressed in standard PRACC doctor wear with dark hair pulled into a messy bun, she was around her early 30s and on close inspection, had a silver cigarette box in her jacket pocket.
She went to the end of the hall and proceeded take her own clipboard, she gave a preemptive bang on the first cell. The door barely noticeable against the wall, a small window at eye-level to look in the only thing to differentiate between wall and door.
"Lysander, make sure you're decent, Doctor Hawthorne and guest coming in. I knew I'd be seeing you again soon."

[hr]

The bartender finished cleaning his glasses and gave a gruff sigh, stretching, the middle-aged man with dark sunglasses on and thinning hair tried to turn the TV on again, receiving no signal and turning to his solitary customer sitting in the booth.
"Can you believe this? Those PRACC sonsabitches have no problem keeping track of when we need to go in to be poked and prodded but only after months of shitty broadcast they've finally got off their asses to do something about this..." He gave a chuckle to a joke heard in his head before giving a throaty cough and turning back to the man, trying to work out if it was a regular or not (it was hard to keep track when he had the only bar in the dome).
"Got somewhere to be? Or can I get you something?"

 

[SteakHeart]

Jerald looked up at the bartender. "No, thank you. Just looking for a place to sit a while, if that's alright." He managed to muster up a polite smile and went back to reading the paper.

He thumbed at the fiber wire in his pocket, a length of wrapped wire attached to two handles. He had it clumsily wrapped around its handles, but he could easily unwrap it in a pinch. This would come into play later on today. He flipped through the pages of the paper, now focusing more on the job he had planned than anything else. It was simple, but in an environment as busy as a university, isolating one man is difficult. Not impossible, not improbable. Just difficult.

He glanced at his watch, a cheap analog watch with scratched glass. 7:15. He needed to get to work early to prepare, but not for a while. Needless to say, waiting around in a dingy bar was not in his best interest - that's not to say he didn't end up there almost every night anyway. He stood up and placed a one-dollar bill into the tip jar, then left, going for a walk to pass the time. He strolled into the park, walking slowly, without purpose.

 

[Safe in the Dark]

"Yeah... Yeah... I'm about as decent as I normally am. I can't exactly do... That, very good any more considering my left hand." Revis half joked to himself as he awaited the usual 'talking to' he got whenever he ended up in the detention facility. "We both know how this is going to go... You're gonna tell me to resist my anger. I'm gonna ask about my sister. You're going to say the same thing that you've said every previous time I've asked. I'm going to get mad as hell and ignore you, Etcetera, Etcetera." Revis had formed him arm into a simple chair and was sitting on it, leering at the doorway. "My name's Revis, or Rev, Lysander was my asshole of a dad, but yes Doc, by all means, come in." He said using a sarcastically polite tone of voice.

 

[2ndblackjedi]

Alice scowled about the cold temperature and pulled her zipper up more. She hated this weather. With just a bit of concentration, she warmed the air around herself. Alice felt much more comfortable, but the unusual heat would definitely be noticed by anyone walking close to her.

Alice's stomach growled at her, reminding her of the breakfast she skipped. She changed her plans, deciding to stop at the café near the library first. Alice had grown to like the toast and eggs served there, although the toast was never charred enough for her tastes. Wanting to get there as quickly as possible, Alice took a shortcut through the park. There were more people around but Alice mostly ignored them.

 

[Black Rock Shooter]

The odd girl on the park bench still hadn't decided what to do. She looked around and saw a somewhat familiar face.

"Custodian."

She said aloud, not as a beckoning, but merely as an observation of the man she had seen a few times before. Her head whirred slightly to the left as she detected the thermal anomaly that was Alice Palmer.

"Unknown subject, subject seems to be followed by... Or is generating thermal energy in the air."

She said in a stiff mechanical voice after having shifted back into her more observational mode.

"No detailed data on either subject. This is unacceptable. Requires further investigation."

The strange girl continued to sit on the bench, formulating which of the 'subjects' she would gather data on.

 

[Fury Is Me.]

Once all the students have arrived, Cid stands up, flicking the book closed and tossing it onto his desk with one swift motion. "Good morning, class. Today we'll be discussing advanced quantum theory and mechanics some more." Cid says, as his Colonies form his name on the board perfectly in his handwriting, and the rest plaster themselves in a large block shape below it. "Now, open your books to page..." Cid goes on teaching the lesson for today, like an average college professor, if average college professors had Micro machines creating the writing on the board.

All went well for the longest time until Cid noticed that someone had fallen asleep, someone in the top row, in the corner of the room. He stopped his lecture quickly and turned to the rest of the class. "Class. It would appear that Mr. O'henry has fallen asleep. Now, you all know what happens when someone in my class falls asleep." Cid said. Some of the class began to snicker. Cid smiled and put his finger to his lips and said "Shhh" to his class. His colonies slinked off the chalk board and formed into orbs again, quietly floating over to the sleeping student. They wrapped themselves around his arms and legs without waking him up and formed a chair beneath him, helping to keep him in the exact same position he was in while sleeping. They floated him down to the middle of the classroom where they disbanded back into orbs, all except the ones on his arms and legs. Cid counted down from 3 and on "go" he began to have his colonies dance the boy around like a puppet. The young man in captivity snapped awake. "whoa! WHOA! HEY! Put me down! Stop! Wait! AH!" Cid twiddled his fingers in the air, pretending for his class that there were invisible strings on them controlling every joint of the boy. In a mock voice, he says "I find this class so boring that I think I'll just waste Mr. Kayfer's time and sleep. Boy, it sure is gonna be a doozy when that test next week comes up! I can't tell a lepton from a photon, but I'm not worried!"

 

[BoosterGold]

As his 7:30am history class began to filter into the lecture hall: David Gold thought to himself, This was going to be a relatively constructive morning. This was because his students seemed to be, for the most part, partially awake, one even seemed wide awake a rarity in these morning classes. He was fond of the students in the 7:30am class, they were a bright bunch. He was not however delusional enough to think that this time of the day was when anybody waned to hear a history lesson, but then again that was why he had office hours.

As the last student arrived, he prepared to great the lecture hall full of tired students. He then concentrated slightly, on his desired size and mass, a task which years prior required his full attention, now felt like second nature to the history professor. David began to grow bigger, he grew from the his standard base size of 5' 11? to a much bigger 15 ft, his head just below the curve in the lecture halls ceiling. This caused the students that were awake to groan and sigh because this was a daily occurrence


?GOOOOD MORNING CLASS!? shouted the giant professor, in what could only be described as a terrible impression of Ms. Frizzle and Robin Williams at the same time, it was over the top, but than so was David so it really fit, that didn't however make it as entertaining or 'Cool' as the teacher may have thought. After delivering his traditional greeting he resumed his standard size, and picked up a white board marker. ?Alright, now that I see that you're all awake lets begin where we left off yesterday.?

For the next hour and a half David Gold spun tales of the past, today's topic was The Dark Ages, which was a personal favorite of his. The class found it to be fascinating or at least as anyone could find a lecture on the economical and political demographics of dark age Europe. When 8:55am approached he noticed that the class was packing up, and David had wrapped up his lecture.
?Alright folks, remember to read chapters 4, 5, and 7 for next time.? he shouted to the the class before they left.

David, walked out of the lecture hall, and adjusted his tie. He knew he should probably head back to his office and finish grading his tests but, he was feeling restless. In situations like this his best course of action was to go see what Cid Kayfer, his fellow teacher, and wielder of high tech nano machine colonies, was up too. David made haste to the building which housed the Science lecture halls, He found the exterior window of the one he knew Cid was teaching in. and grew tall enough to see inside.

 

[2ndblackjedi]

Looking forward, Alice saw the strange figure sitting on the bench and looking back at her. Her eyes narrowed and wondered why she was being watched. Alice's current walking speed would bring her past the bench in a matter of seconds. The air around her grew slightly warmer.

 

[Fury Is Me.]

Cid was still puppeting the boy around when he noticed David Gold appear in the window. "Well, class, why don't we all say hello to Mr. Gold. That includes you too, Mr. O'Henry." Cid had the colonies float the O'Henry boy up to the window and wave his hand. The rest of the class responded with a polite "Hello, Mr. Gold."

Cid, however, walked up to the window and knocked on the glass. "Mr. Gold, I'm teaching a class, and your presence 15 feet above the ground and in my window would be distracting to some of my... less attentive students. We can talk after my class is over." With that, Cid Kayfer walked back down to the front of the class and resumed going over the finer points of neutrinos.

 

[BoosterGold]

David saw Cid moving Sean O'Henry around like a puppet, Mr. O'Henry must have fallen asleep during class again.
It was also at this point that he realized that his forgetfulness had once more gotten the better of him. He forgot that on Mondays Cid' class was 2 hours instead of the standard 90 minutes. This was a minor embarrassment, but one that would only bother him if he let it.

"Oh sorry Mr. Kayfer, I'll see you when you are finished here, Good luck kids." and with that he shrunk back to normal size and decided that he could use this half hour till Cid's class got out to get a good cup of coffee, for once. the best cup of coffee in the entire dome, according to Professor of History David Gold, was found in the vending machine on the third floor of the Computer Sciences building, next to the Computer lab where they taught advanced coding, behind a plastic fern. David pushed the button on the machine, and a paper cup dropped onto the tray, and from the dispenser came a magical elixir, known as Pumpkin spice coffee.
David took a sip of his drink and, savored it, he then made his way back to Cid's classroom and waited the fifteen minutes for the Science class to end.

 

[SteakHeart]

"Custodian."

Jerald cast a sideways glance at the girl who looked at him. He recognized her, vaguely. Maybe he saw her on the arrival to the colony. He wasn't sure, but he ignored her, changing course for the university. The school was an imposing sight, clearly built to look top-of-the-line and very postmodern. In Jerald's mind, however, all it really succeeded in looking like was pretentious.

Jerald arrived at the maintenance entry to the university, flashing a keyfob and walking in. He waved to a passing janitor and walked into the mudroom, where he changed into work clothes, which were really just a pair of overalls over whatever one wanted to wear underneath. He slipped the fiberwire into a pocket where it wouldn't be noticed in the form of a bulge. He then looked up at the assignment board.

Jeremy Latkis: Boiler Room
Jane Kanay: Garage
Jerald Withers: Kitchen

And so on. Jerald cursed under his breath and checked Jeremy's locker - he hadn't arrived yet. That was good; he needed the boiler room to himself for this job. He switched the assignment magnet from Jeremy's to his own and his own with his fellow custodian's. He then walked off to the boiler room.

Once he got there, he checked the walls. No security cameras inside it, but there was one guarding the hallway. He whistled as he walked down said hallway, arriving under the camera's blindspot, looking as if he saw something needing a fix. He grabbed a paperclip from inside one of his pockets and pressing the tiny "Factory Restore" button. The camera switched off, then on. Now, it would simply broadcast the last frame it saw until it was recalibrated. Given the empty nature of the hallway, nobody would expect a thing; they'd see an empty hallway.

The final step of the preparation was to grab a hazardous materials container from the supply closet and hide it behind one of the boilers. These were a favorite tool of his - when marked as contaminated, the boxes would not be screened, merely incinerated. Easy disposal.

Once this was done, he got to actual work, biding his time with repairs until the target arrived to work. A fellow janitor by the name of Carl. A nobody. But someone wanted him dead, and for good reason - apparently, the man was a serial rapist who used his powers of suggestion on innocent women. Jerald didn't feel remorse when it came to killing scum.

 

[Lizmichi]

Lisbeth was woken up by the announcement and yawned. "Dammit, it's already 7 a.m? I'm so going back to sleep. I should invent something from my room to block out the damn announcements. I'm too damn old to go to college, hell I have a PHD." Lisbeth said sitting up and scratched her head.

"Well I should at least take a shower and get something to eat. Hmmm a fried egg sandwich sounds good this morning." she said slipping on some panda slippers and walked stumbling to the kitchen flipping the switch for her coffee machine. She was more then grateful for her morning cup of coffee but a few weeks into her stay at the facility she realized she needed to improve her coffee pot. She made a machine the used canisters with coffee beans and filtered water to feed into the coffee machine for grinding and brewing, all she had to do was turn it on and within 2 minutes she had fresh perfectly brewed coffee.

Her cat run up to her and purred meowing for her morning feeding. "Alright, I'll feed you Ajani but I swear to god if you trip me while I feed you I'm punting you. It's too early for this." she said searching the cupboards for a can of cat food finally her hand clasped a small Fancy Feast can then looked at the label. "Let's see what you're having today, hmm, beef it is." Lisbeth said scooping the food into her cat's bowl then set it down. Ajani looked at the bowl then looked back up at her meowing. "Don't look at me like that, you're too fat as it is and I'm putting your fat ass on a diet." she pointed her finger at the cat's bowl then turned back to her coffee.

"Thank god I have it built to make my coffee just how I like it, cream, lots of sugar and more caffeine then normal." she pick up her cup from the machine, fresh hot coffee waiting for her. She took and sip and a smile quickly spread across her face. "Yep I'm already awake. Damn this always does the trick." she said putting down her cup then softly scratched Ajani's back.

 

[Black Rock Shooter]

Eve's eyes rotated and focused slightly on the figure that had just passed by the bench.

'Sensors indicate a temperature increase of 12.44%.'

She had analyzed to herself as she eyed the figure. The girl's head began to hurt slightly as it sometimes did when she was near other changed. She dismissed the internal dilemma and switched to interaction mode, her motions grew less stiff and more natural and her words were no longer monotone and mechanical. "Oh! Good morning miss." She said as pleasantly as she could manage. "Nice day isn't it?" She asked nonchalantly, running through all the small talk she had gathered from studying other people. She hadn't blinked until just this moment, remembering to do so in order to fit in.

 

[2ndblackjedi]

Alice stopped walking for a moment.

"Nice day?" Alice asked, wondering how anyone could enjoy this weather. "Hardly."

She considered leaving and ended the conversation there, but couldn't just yet. Not until she knew why this person had taken an interest in her.

"I saw you watching me...Why?" Alice questioned, appearing both suspicious and annoyed.

 

[Black Rock Shooter]

Eve simply shrugged. "I had been watching the crowd for sometime. You had simply drawn my interest. Quite an interesting thermal signature indeed." The girl answered honestly, seeing no reason to lie. "When I observe the larger mass of people sometimes certain individuals draw my interest. You were one such person. I did not mean to trouble, or inconvenience you in any way." Eve said, her hand gestures and body language all akin to that of a doll, or a puppet, not that of a person.

She remembered to blink, assuming from her studies that this was a normal course of action. She chose to blink whenever Alice did, which only made her slightly more conspicuous.

 

[2ndblackjedi]

Alice blinked in surprise, at both Eve's movement and way of speaking. Alice was less curious about this person now that she had gotten and answer and her mind returned to the book in her hand and also getting breakfast. She decided to leave now, not wanting to waste more time than she already had.

"Right, well...whatever. I have somewhere to be," Alice said, giving off the same bad attitude she used with most people. She turned to leave, but still kept an eye on Eve as she did.

 

[Black Rock Shooter]

"Farewell. If fate decrees, we may meet again." Eve said simply before something popped out of her back and she began to fly away on what looked like a crude jet-pack. She usually garnered attention to herself this way, but it was a much more efficient form of transportation. She had decided that she would pay a visit to the library to spend an hour or two reading. She could clear several books in that time, and reading up on 'The Classics' had always interested her. The thrusters jutting from her back shifted slightly and she traversed the distance to the library by air.

"Today.... 'der Wille zur Macht' by Nietzsche." She stated to no one but herself as she neared her destination.

 

[2ndblackjedi]

Alice watched Eve fly off and eventually shrugged off the entire encounter as just another one of the weird things that happened in here. She told herself she wasn't nearly as impressed with the jetpack as she thought she was. Alice looked around at the trees in the park, not because they looked nice, but because she was wondering how quickly they could all burn down. She bit her lip as she pictured it and continued on that train of thought until she reached the cafe. A small building, directly beside the library that smelled like coffee inside.

Alice got toast and scrambled eggs with a small coffee. She sat by herself and put her notebook on the table beside her plate. Before eating, she shot a small jet of flame from her finger to her toast, burning it to perfection. Alice ate quietly, and let her mind wander freely. When she was finished, she took her notebook and half done coffee from the table and walked towards the library. Heat coming from her hand kept the warm drink steaming hot.

 

[Fury Is Me.]

Cid Kayfer had finished his class a little later, the class ending with him sitting on a floating chair of his Colonies and reading aloud from the book while writing down notes, feeling it nice to actually write something every now and again. He suddenly snapped the book closed and turned to the class. "That's all for today students. Read chapters 32, 29, and 34 tonight, and, also, get some sleep. Time doesn't stop for anyone." He put his finger to his chin and looked up, pondering. "At least, i don't think it does." He shrugged. "Dismissed." Slowly, the students flooded out of the room, followed by Cid, having reverted his colonies back to their least stressful state, three large orbs, and left the room, the orbs floating around him like a sigil surrounding him. He spotted David Gold and approached him with a smile, adjusting his tie and putting a hand in his pocket. "Hiya, David. How'd your class go?" He said, his mannerisms having completely changed.