2.5|Peril comes to the Wading Snipes

 

2.5|Peril comes to the Wading Snipes

 

Lowered to the depths of the prison, Amity and Protlyn examined the Oohts held in captivity, drooling and masturbating behind the gigantic glass tubes. The fluid filled through them did nothing to stop their activity, and the odd growths on their body were oddly too recognizable for comfort, Protlyn rubbing her arms. Swollen and monstrous, sleek and with a smooth shell formed around much of their avian body, the infected would self-pleasure in an aggressive maddened way behind their containers.

"They call it Jezinkahalion disease." Amity examined one of the specimens, reaching up like an ape reaching for the fin of a blue whale. "It has no cure, and it never stops evolving."

"How can this happen?" Protlyn asked.

Amity and her turned to one of the guards.

He cleared his beak. "We don't know. Perhaps the infection allows them to mutate to another state, or the infection alters them too much to go back. It seems to prolong their life while also contributing to an endless libidinal drive."

A light caught their eye, one of the infected being shocked repeatedly in a glass

fluid-filled tube. "You, electrocute them?" Protlyn covered her eyes.

"Not electrocute. Experiment. Try to possess their substance."

"What substance?"

"It doesn't have a physical substance. It can be a thought, an emotion, an

image. They can possess other forms of self-expression and alter their very

 natures."

"You're talking about possession?"

"As much as I am talking about anything else. But they also can control an ethereal energy field, a deluge of light, that our scientists have been unable to crack. It seems to seek them out and cling to them, but we're not sure why. They have some meta-cognitive way to control this energy and manipulate it, although we suspect they're far too out of their minds to do so properly."

"The Cascade?" Amity uttered, looking back to Protlyn. "Llavalites were known to use the Cascade, they had some way of 'thinking with it' unconsciously that was impossible for other lifeforms and harnessing it."

"Have they ever consciously controlled this energy to say, travel, displace space or teleport in any way?" She asked. The guard nodded and continued. "It has happened before. There are records of it. Most of them were in secret societies, using this energy to further their own ends. They're not insane. They just believe they're gods. They could even be working for... others."

"Others?" Protlyn looked at her with wide, open eyes.

"The first records of life in this world came from the other side of the universe,

and they, or someone else, has seeded life here."

"Interesting.."

She turned to Amity. "Amy, I have a request. Can you transfer all data your Comm has on the Cascade to their research authorities? I have a feeling we may be onto something here."

"We'll be leaving now."

The guard nodded and they exited back up the shaft. Once they left to the upper floors, they walked by the Courtier.. Theo, sitting in the corner of his cell. "Didn't catch the crazy bug from them did you? I heard you were down the rabbit hole theorizing with me. I didn't know you were into Cascade voodoo."

"Ha! I didn't find anything down there. Not anything remotely like the Cascade. Your delusions of a connection to the supernatural do me no favors. You're a psychopath." She looked at the his legs. "As a scientist, what have you done to me to make you believe in something so ridiculous?" The Courtier's only response was a grin.

There was a loud commotion outside. The guards were flying out as fast as they  could. "What's going on?" Protlyn asked.

"It's the Oohtlets, they're making a fuss again. Some mix up with their food rations. They make great pets and suitable workers, but some at the top of our council distrust how they've started to make turmoil in our city." In the corner, the Theo's ears peaked up, laying back on the floor, he started filing his nails and caring for his hair while scheming his days away.