Character Memorial

"America? Never heard of it," said Cornelius. "There are plenty of representative democracies in the area, although some of them are so closely tied to Carthia they might as well still be its colonies. Hmm."

He glanced at the boy in the fountain. Immature, even for his age. He'd have thought a junior high-schooler would have better impulse control than that.

"Excuse me," he called out to the boy, "but why are you doing that? It serves no purpose, you're getting wet, and in this weather, you're going to be frigid within a few minutes."

If people were not going to pay attention, Alex may as well get something useful out of this. He began taking off his shirt. He hadn't gone back to the hotel his class was staying at while visiting the capitol, and by now he wouldn't have a chance to get back, even if they weren't panicking about finding him.

Water was one of the most fantastic substances known to man. Known to the universe, even. Well, the inhabited universe, which man did not yet know how big it was.

EDIT:

Alex looked back at the man who had ignored him previously.

Oh shit, maybe he wasn't as invisible as he had first thought — but when he tried to open his mouth, no sound came out.

edited 12th Nov '11 5:02:28 PM by ohsointocats

Zach facepalmed from his own realization, "Why did I not think of that?" he shrugged as he moved the Wani into the water, the Wani soon swimming toward a duck, snapping it in it's jaws, and eating it whole. The Wani swam back toward Zach, moving itself out with it's limbs. Zach pet the creature as he sat down, rubbing it's back, "You're a good little shark, dragon, crocodile thing, aren't you?"

edited 12th Nov '11 5:04:45 PM by draconiansuperior

Cornelius rolled his eyes. "Look," he said to the boy, "if you're not going to speak up, at least put your shirt on and get out of the water. It's practically six in the morning in..." He quickly glanced around at the trees. "... in late autumn and you're wallowing in a fountain. You're going to get hypothermia if you don't stop that. When you do, don't come crying to me."

Alex breathed a bit, trying to find his vocal chords. They were somewhere in his throat, but either way as he tried to find them he continued to give the man a weird look, almost as if he was surprised he had been seen, which would not make any sense to any outside observer. By the time he had regained his faculties of speech, he was already soaking wet.

"Coldest part of the day is over," he said.

Brittany stared in confusion, completely bewildered by what the child was doing. It seemed it was time for her to show some discipline.

"Hey, you!"

Grabbing him by the wrist, Brittany dragged the boy away from the fountain.

"Show some respect, kid! Don't be doing things like that as long as I'm here!"

"Oh, yes," said Cornelius dryly. "The coldest part of the day is over. Just like the coldest part of the sun is still three thousand degrees. This is autumn. Autumn is cold. Ergo, today is going to be cold. You know what that's called? Common sense. Get some."

He leaned forward, muttering darkly to himself. He wasn't going on about "kids these days"; they obviously weren't all like that. But was the kid really that stupid? That impulsive? Honestly. Jonathan showed more impulse control than that, and he devoted his entire life to killing Shaurei and his thralls.

Seriously. Why?

Ugh, ninja'd. I'll wait.

edited 12th Nov '11 5:28:10 PM by CrystalGlacia

Alex froze as soon as he was dragged out of the fountain, staring at where Britt's hand touched his wrist. It took him a moment to understand what was going on, as someone just beginning to realize that they had suffered a probably mortal-looking wound.

"Don't touch me!" He struggled out of her grasp.

Zach frowned at the kid, "Seriously, show some respect, this is a memorial, not a public pool."

Brittany raised an eyebrow at the boy.

"It's not like I was going to hurt you or anything, but just don't do anything like that in the future, Ok?"

He stared down at his wrist again, the mortal-wound shock again.

"Why did you... why did you have to do that?" he began wrapping his soaked shirt over the wrist.

Brittany looked at the boy.

"Hmm... maybe it's because you shouldn't have been in that fountain, perhaps?"

"There are these things you can use, called your words, you have them don't you? Thus we are able to carry out this conversation right now, because air molecules vibrate every time we use our vocal chords to create sounds and these molecules hit other molecules that hit ear drums and thus we are able to communicate without physical contact, unlike base animals. You aren't a base animal, are you? I hope you're not." As he tilted his head up from the arm he had a wild look in his eyes. "This is our first line of communication, as human beings, is it not? No first warning before first blood is injustice."

"Or you could've, perhaps, listened the first time? Then maybe she wouldn'tve had to use physical force?" He kept his tone firm, like when he disciplined his own son. That, however, failed to shake his delinquent son, much to his own twin brother's dismay.

Maybe it was ADHD, but he wasn't one to judge. Eli was kind of like that at that age, he might not have the same situation as Eli.

edited 12th Nov '11 6:01:52 PM by CrystalGlacia

"I asked you what you were doing," said Cornelius, "and you stood there with your mouth open. You obviously heard me. And you can obviously talk. So you had no real reason to stand in the fountain. I listed off several reasons why being in the fountain wasn't a good idea, and yet you stayed in there. Besides, this is a memorial, and should be treated with respect. Finally, simply touching someone doesn't equate to trying to kill them. You, young'un, are a bit of a moron."

He turned to the guy who had carried the tiny dragon on his shoulders. "You got a sat phone? We should probably notify someone about this kid. He's disrupting the peace and he's out here with no guardian in sight."

"The thought of being a dead one left behind leaves a great amount of freedom, physical freedom, mostly, but loneliness," he went on, "and the whiplash out of that freedom is the same as capture into slavery, and at a touch, a lash of a whip, poisonous secretions, like frogs, they kill you if it reaches your blood stream. Looking at people who can kill with a touch, you look at them differently, but that's pointless, inefficient, when you learn you think everyone can kill you with a touch until proven otherwise. This is the beginning of a better sorting algorithm of people. Then that leaves people who can kill with a word... they... I guess I left them out..."

He was deep in thought, sitting down and holding his "uncontaminated" hand to his chin.

"The algorithm needs better sorting, and the dead are the dead, they're not us, we can't allow the dead to overtake the earth, that would just lead to overcrowding. Haven't you noticed?"

Zach nodded at Cornelius, "Yep, I have a Sat/cellphone," he pulled out a red phone from his vest pocket and handed it to Cornelius.

"Not yet," said Cornelius, shaking his head. "He's not too bad yet." He handed the phone back to Zach. "Besides," he said, and lowered his voice to a whisper. "I don't know the emergency numbers here," he admitted.

He turned back to the boy. "None of which," Cornelius said, "explains why you were messing around in a memorial fountain at 6 AM in autumn with no parents or guardians around. That's kind of important."

Zach took back the phone and breathed out as he looked at the kid, "Kid, I do not know what you're talking about, but you're okay. I mean you're not okay for messing around and being disrespectful like you just did, but you aren't sick or anything." The Wani on his shoulder snapped its jaw in agreement.

"I do not see why it is so important. There are certain things in life that seem to defy explanation, which is why we dissect them until they have one. This is science. Observational science, anyway..." he ran his good had through his hair, brushing droplets of water out of it. "Observational study is the better of the studies, fewer people get hurt that way. And isn't that how the world is supposed to run."

"Interesting," he said flatly. Eli was known to have incoherent ramblings like this, but Eli's sounded more like he was on a sugar rush. This boy sounded more like the Time Cube website read in a level, rational voice.

The kid was getting on Cornelius's nerves more and more; he was surprisingly self-focused. "What makes that science?" asked Cornelius. "You're dicking around in a fountain. How are you collecting data? Your memory? Your memory is surprisingly pliable. It can be tricked into thinking something happened when it didn't."

He sat back in a huff. "And if you absolutely must screw around in a fountain, do it over there, okay?" He jerked a thumb over to the massive reflecting pool. "There are some of us here who want peace and quiet."

"When I mean data, I don't mean myself. I mean you. You're asking me, why I'm here, why there are no adults looking after me, and as you have said, the mind is a pitiably weak thing, some weaker than others. But mine is most assuredly very very weak. So I have to wonder why you are asking for these facts from me when you know that they would be unreliable from my mouth. An experimental test may work, but those can be unimaginably cruel, people get strokes because of those, lose limbs, fertility..." he turned to the man in the kimono. "I have always wondered if a time traveler's thoughts traveled with them, if they went faster or slower..."

He smirked. "So, that's what this is about? I can't go out in a kimono without being suspected to've broken the laws of physics?"