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Chapter V
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:02 pm    Post subject: Chapter V  

V

I woke up in a strange bed, in a strange room. I looked about. The walls were paneled with a rich brown wood halfway up the wall, from where the walls turned white. The wood and the plaster looked old, almost ancient. Light barreled in from a large, clear window with 9 panes. The lining between the panes was the same brown wood. Other than a nondescript, brown door, there was nothing special about the room.

I didn’t remember when I fell asleep. I remember entering the building, shaking some old man’s hand, and being led down a hallway. I must have fallen asleep after I reached the bed—there was no possible way Ms. Parker could carry me.

So this was what life at the Organization was like.

I got up and walked about for a short while. Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, a hard, blunt F natural. Ms. Parker walked in. She held a pile of clothes in her arms- a blue sweater with green stripes, a pair of dark jeans, a leather belt, and a crisp, white pair of socks. Her smile flashed white.

“I brought you something to change into. You’ve been in those clothes for a couple of days now.” She set the new garments down on the bed. “Hurry and get changed so I can show you around. You’ve got tons of people to meet.” The door closed and she was gone.

I stripped away the only remains of my past life and changed into the new clothes.



When I came out, Ms. Parker beamed. “You look great. Just right for meeting people. I should know, I picked out the outfit myself.” She gave me a sly wink, put her delicate hand over my shoulder, and started leading me down the hall. She stopped in front of another brown door.

“Right now you’re on the third floor. The first floor includes reception, entertainment, dining, and other living rooms. The second floor is mostly made up of classrooms. The third floor is where all the male students reside; females on the fourth, and faculty and guests stay in the eastern wing of the estate. The room you stayed in was for one person, but most of the times we pair like-aged students together. You’ll get a roommate as soon as another boy your age comes to us. One is reportedly on his way, so you don’t have to worry.” She took a breath and pointed to the door we had stopped by. “This is they boy’s restroom and showers. Sorry, but the bathrooms are all communal.” She then led me down some nearby stairs, down two flights to the first floor.

The first floor was abuzz with people my age and the occasional adult walking around, talking with each other, laughing. One by one they noticed me, however, and the activity ceased. The adults stared at me, beaming. Everyone else looked curious. Ms. Parker looked about the room and smiled at all of them.

“Since we already have everyone’s attention, I would like to introduce you all to Brandon. He’s a new student here and has been through some hard times. As you all have probably heard, he is an All-Art. Please show him kindness as respect during his stay here.”

It was strange. When she said I was an All-Art (whatever that is), the grinning adults grinned wider and the children seemed awestruck. I didn’t have long to think of this, however, as Ms. Parker pulled me from room to room. Dining room, living room, kitchen, assembly hall, foyer, music room. Everywhere dwelt people without colors, people whose keys I could not discern. I felt sick. I had become used to the colors—they told me more about a person in one look than that person probably knew about himself. For the first time in my life, everyone was a mystery. I couldn’t tell if anyone was good or bad or happy or sad or what.

For the first time, people could lie to me about themselves and I would never know.

The thought flashed through my mind but was soon gone as a girl my age tripped over my foot. The plate she was carrying sailed out of her hands and into the air, flashing a cobalt blue and crashing on the ground with a jarring B major. I winced at the intruding sound. She turned to face me, cheeks scarlet.

“Watch where you’re going you oaf!” She shouted.

Ms. Parker made a small sound. “Jackie, I would like for you to meet Brandon.”

The girl’s color drained. “Ms. Parker! I’m sorry, I really am.”

Ms. Parker smiled her “understanding” smile. “It’s okay, Jackie. I actually need a favor from you. I need to go speak to the HM. Would you mind showing Brandon around? You know, from a student’s perspective?” I looked at her nervously. “You don’t mind, do you Brandon?”

I looked at the girl. She wore all black. She was large. She was slightly threatening. But what could I do? I shook my head.

Beaming, Ms. Parker nodded. “I’ll find you later today to introduce you to the Headmaster.” She started to walk away.

I blinked. “Ms. Parker…” She turned to face me. “Is the Organization a school?”

She laughed, a light laugh like bells tinkling. “No. This is just the training complex, so it’s very school-like. See you later, Brandon. Thanks a ton, Jackie.” She sauntered off, her hips swaying seductively.

The girl turned looked at me and held out her hand. “I’m Jackie”

I nodded. “Brandon.”

An awkward silence followed, after which Jackie sighed. “Well, I’d better show you around. Hold on a second though, I see James.” She started gesturing wildly towards an older boy who was walking towards us. “James! Can you fix this?”

The boy smiled and sang a note. The shards of the plate quivered for a second and then leapt up into the air, reassembling themselves. I stared at the now whole plate, but Jackie seemed unperturbed.

“Thanks!” She yelled after him. “Now we can go.”

As we walked, she talked to me, but I was so silent it seemed that she was speaking to herself. “Well I think you’ve already seen the first floor and the second floor is classrooms… I guess she wants me to show you some of the more interesting stuff around here. Let’s see…” She thought for a second, and I suddenly asked a question.

“What do you do?”

She looked at me and blinked. This was the first time I had spoken directly to her, and she seemed shocked. “I… I… tell stories.” She was silent for a moment, and then her eyes lit up. “Oh! I know. We’ll go visit the prophetess!” She grabbed my arm and started to run in down an adjacent hall.

“Prophetess?”



We finally stopped in front of double wooden doors. From inside the room I could hear random notes being played softly. Jackie put her finger to her mouth and shushed me. She spoke in a quiet voice. “You have to remember that her prophecies aren’t always clear. She doesn’t get to pick what she sees.” She turned to open the door, but then thought of something else. “Also, she only sees possible futures. Nothing she tells you is written in stone or anything.” She turned back to the door, then back to me. “Also, she doesn’t like loud noises, so be quiet, although I don’t think that will be a problem with you.” Finally she opened one of the doors and pulled me in after her.

The first thing I noticed in the room was a giant instrument. It looked like the inside of a piano—strings of varying sizes all lined up on a wall, pulled taught. There were more strings than a piano had, however. Whereas a piano had 88 strings, this contraption had hundreds. Jackie stooped and faced a little girl, who couldn’t have been older than 5, sitting at the base of the contraption, her attention rapt upon the strings. Jackie said something to her and then got up and stood next to me.

“She’s going to foretell something in honor of your first day here. She does this for all the new kids.”

I whispered nervously. “Are the prophecies usually about the kids?”

Jackie thought for a second and then shook her head. “No, but there’s a lot of students here who know whether it will rain or not on the 23rd of January, 2009 in Sicily.”

I choked back a laugh.

She suddenly became serious. “Now quiet and watch. She sees the future in the vibrations of the strings. See if you can see anything.”

Quick as a flash, the girls pulled out two mallets and started hitting different strings. As the hit them, she would mess with their tuning pegs. Small, quiet notes wafted to me, but the Prophetess wasn’t interested in sounds. Finally the girl nodded, her blonde hair bouncing us and down and she hit the strings she had just “tuned.” Then she stared at the strings for a few seconds.

Suddenly, her eyes widened and she yelled. Jackie ran over to her and embraced her, holding her still as she tried to run, tried to hit. Jackie made shushing noises. “It’s okay. What did you see? Tell us, it’ll be okay. It probably won’t happen. What did you see?”

The little girl whispered it into Jackie’s ear.

DP!!!

What did the Prophetess see?
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2008 2:03 pm    Post subject:  

Here you go! Now, I didn't use all the suggested chars in this chapter, but I will keep putting them in here!
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TruePurple



Joined: 18 Sep 2008
Posts: 256

Posted: Wed Dec 31, 2008 6:50 pm    Post subject:  

Did you use any of mine? So far I havent seen it, but then maybe we haven't met them yet.
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2009 8:32 am    Post subject:  

I used the one who sees things in strings and the one who tells stories that come true. Other than that, none.

Anyways, get cracking on the DP everyone!
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Crunchyfrog



Joined: 12 Dec 2006
Posts: 3998

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:26 pm    Post subject:  

HAha, clever.

Lots of people he cannot trust. He's now discovering what it is like to be 'normal' - i.e., not using his talents to be more knowledgeable than his 'normal' friends.

And also the sudden pairing of a person who can manipulate the future by telling stories, and a person who can see possibe futures but not know which will be played out.

Interesting that Jackie should decide to show Brandon the Prophetess first. Because whatever possible future is whispered to Jackie, Jackie can make it come true just by re-telling it. She could be a dangerous person, that Jackie! :grin:

Right. Well my suggestion is that the Prophetess sees Brandon's old friends are going to die in an arson attack on their school. This is of course only a possible future, depending on turns of events between now and then.

To prevent her talents from making possibility turn into probability, Jackie changes the story and tells Brandon that there will be an air-crash over France and there will be no survivors.
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:43 pm    Post subject:  

Oooh, that's a good idea! I didn't think that what Jackie tells Alex could affect the Prophetess' predictions!!!
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 1:05 pm    Post subject:  

Ummmm.... Hello????

*echo*

Yeah, so I would like to start the poll in a week, so please get more suggestions in...
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TruePurple



Joined: 18 Sep 2008
Posts: 256

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 2:53 pm    Post subject:  

So your saying this character is always in godly magic story telling mod? Maybe it could be limited to only when shes specifically trying to weave a tale?
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 8:22 pm    Post subject:  

Well think about the consequences of her abilities. She can never tell anyone a story ever because it could come true. That constitutes everything from reading out loud to writing her own fiction to telling a lie.
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TruePurple



Joined: 18 Sep 2008
Posts: 256

Posted: Fri Jan 09, 2009 10:49 pm    Post subject:  

Well you haven't told us it worked that way till now. It could be that she could require specific effort to make these god like changes. That it drains her and other bad things for her. Otherwise, why not just have her tell away all troubles that would befall them? Even if it doesn't hit the spot, as long as its in the ballpark... Like, "We're under attack!" her "No, we're not under attack, our enemies are now nice and friendly forever" Problem solved.

In light of that, she should just lie to him, tell him its something very good(making up the specifics there in) That or say what the fortune teller told her, except to say thats whats not going to happen. Or both. If the fortune teller wishes to reveal the truth she can (or if someone else wants to do it for her) You haven't given us any indication that someone telling a tale different then the one she tells will make that change of reality any less likely.

Its like she has unlimited wishes.

I don't get it, you rejected all of my ideas, (you didn't like any of them for your story? I gave you four as I recall. ) yet you accept this one, the worst of the bunch in my eyes. :?
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:15 pm    Post subject:  

I have not rejected any ideas, I just have not used them yet in this chapter.

This world is complicated. There are different tiers of power.

Of course I have not revealed the limits of her abilities yet, this SG is through Brandon's POV and he doesn't know what she can do yet.

Anyways, the DP is to tell me WHAT the prophetess predicted, not how Jackie tells it.

This world is complex and has rules attached to it, which is why I put Brandon in a "school" setting for a few chapters, so he can learn those rules and you all can learn them through his experiences.

Don't worry, this isn't my first rodeo. I've got it handled.
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TruePurple



Joined: 18 Sep 2008
Posts: 256

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 9:25 am    Post subject:  

Alegria wrote: I have not rejected any ideas, I just have not used them yet in this chapter..

Alegria wrote: I used the one who sees things in strings and the one who tells stories that come true. Other than that, none.

The way you said that, said to me that, those were the only ones you were going to use. Otherwise why state the obvious about what you have already used (and not used) up to this point?

I'll give some thought on what the prophet predicted DP.
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Sun Jan 18, 2009 11:19 am    Post subject:  

I meant that in the sense of "I have used none of the other ideas yet, as in they will be included in subsequent chapters.:
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Alegria



Joined: 04 Mar 2005
Posts: 1199
Location: On the beaches with Dr. Suess' Sneeches. Only the star-bellied ones, of course.

Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2009 8:19 pm    Post subject:  

So.....

Since there's only been one suggestion (Whitey's), I'm going to say that her suggestion wins by default and start the next chapter...

Sorry, but I need to get a chapter up before I get fined.

Hoping for a better response next time,

Alegria.
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Bookwizard



Joined: 07 Oct 2007
Posts: 639
Location: Gallifrey

Posted: Thu Jan 29, 2009 3:25 pm    Post subject:  

Darn, I finally found time to catch up and missed the deadline by a hair... oh well. If you are still working on the chapter and will allow me to subconsciously effect your writing, I have a suggestion. I would like to expand on Crunchys idea, something involving his friends getting hurt, not necessarily a fire... but something. And have Brandon despretly try to go and stop it, most likely resulting in him disregarding all the assurances that it will not come true and sneaking out. Then in the end it will be him that causes the disaster by trying to stop it, resulting in the death of Bobby, but not Jacob, not to dictate your story of course, just a suggestion that can be changed in any random way you like. Looking froward to the next chapter *sits and waits*.
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