The IBIF Chronicals

Status
Not open for further replies.
"An interesting question, for someone who just shows up to a home that isn't theirs and destroys everything and everyone in sight." He responded. He brought a hand up to his face, pulling at his lower lip. These supernatural beings. They were all the same. Killing and more killing. That was why their very organization was formed. To defend and protect, although Tybalt had to admit that lately they were doing a lot more offensive things. But that was just to insure safety before another attack happened.

"We get along with some other species, although so far nothing even remotely intelligent." He answered. Tybalt had thought about this multiple times before. Was it just their nature, to dominate and fight? If a species couldn't be 'tamed' would the human race eventually just kill them off? He stopped his musings to continue. "There are a plethora of races on Earth, but so far we humans are the only ones to have shown intelligence apart from the demonic monsters that have been cropping up recently."
 
H-30's eyes followed Tybalt's hand, and he stared intently at Tybalt's lips as the man tugged at them. From the few times he had to fight humans, he remembered hitting them and feeling them breaking. He wondered how humans could be so elastic, yet so fragile at the same time. He wondered if the same could be said of their minds.

'That sounds egocentric, and to me it seems like your eyes aren't open enough.' He said, closing his eyes. 'Your turn.'
 
This game was turning out to be less lucrative than Tybalt had first thought it might be. He ran his fingers through his hair and then leaned back against his hands once again, staring at H-30. He thought about asking something stupid. Something easy, just so that he could get some sort of satisfactory answer out of H-30. Something like 'whats your real name', but he'd probably just screech at him again. "Is it everyone in your species that becomes weak when they get depressed or feel negative emotion?" He asked. For all they knew, one could get weak from being happy and one could get weak from getting excited. That would turn out to be even more problematic, and it was safer to assume nothing and question everything. So that's what Tybalt did.

He said nothing what so ever about egocentricity. Maybe H-30 was right, but the truth of the matter was that they hadn't attacked the things they were at war with first. The monsters had attacked them. They were only retaliating now. Tybalt hoped that that was still true, anyway.
 
'While I'm tempted to discuss about whether those kind of emotions are negative or not...' H-30 slowly opened his eyes again. '...my answer is yes. Some are more susceptible than others of course.'

He glanced down. He knew humans tended to avoid eye contact when they were nervous or trying to hide something. Once it seemed like he'd expressed his reluctance to keep talking well enough, since some of those humans felt more at ease the more human he seemed, he leaned forward, and made his voice sound only inside of Tybalt's mind. 'I'm very susceptible to it since I'm very young.'

'Was that pleasing enough?' he spoke again inside of everyone's minds.
 
Finally, an answer that held some grain of importance. Tybalt didn't quite realize that H-30 had spoken only to him when he said he was very young. He just nodded his head. "Yes. You can ask a question now." He agreed. Finally. There was a big sense of relief flooding through Tybalt. It wasn't the most helpful of information, but it was something. Apparently these aliens were going to keep coming here, and they had to fight them off somehow. Blasting depressing things wasn't the most ideal, but at least it was some sort of defense.
 
The relief H-30 could feel in Tybalt was almost tangible to him. He could feel his own being going back to a more relaxed state, and the urge to shift back to his true appearance faded. On the line of his previous answer, another question popped up in his mind. 'Are you mature?' he said, but then decided his question wasn't clear enough.

'I mean, compared the average lifespan of a human. Are you young? Old?' Maybe if the people before him still were new to this world, they would have more powerful humans somewhere else.
 
Tybalt was, at first, confused by the question. He was about to ask what the heck he meant by that when H-30 clarified it himself. "Ah. Well, I'm not particularly young or old." He answered with a shrug. "If you consider the average life span of a human is around 80 years old, and I'm 22. But we do an awful lot of growing in our early years both physically and mentally. I'm all done physically, and while SOME people stop growing mentally at 23, I am not." He claimed.

"Do you know why we can't use our scanners on you?" He asked his next question without waiting to see if his own answer was satisfactory. He couldn't say much more on the subject.
 
H-30 didn't have a notion of what a year was, aside from assuming it was a way to measure time. He couldn't know how long that was compared to his own time, but knew enough math from poking around everyone's minds to understand the other information Tybalt gave him. But if humans were done growing around 22 years old, why did they live so much more?

'Scanners?' he repeated in his mind, before reading his preferred woman's mind, searching for a definition. 'Oh, those tasty things.' He thought. How silly of him to believe humans had finally discovered how to feed him. He had quite enjoyed eating from the little things they used to scan his brain.

'I'm sorry, I don't know how your scanners work, so I don't have a clue as to why they don't work on me. Feel free to ask another question.' he replied, hoping that wouldn't make Tybalt's mood drop again.
 
Tybalt wasn't exactly too concerned that he didn't know about the scanners. He shrugged himself, thinking of something else to ask. He was going to have to get iput from the other numbers as to what, exactly, they wanted to know. Then he could base his questions more accurately.

"Does your race have some sort of hierarchical system?" He questioned. Maybe, if they could cut the head off of the snake... the rest would scatter. It was worth a shot, anyway. Tybalt felt like he needed to know EVERYTHING about H-30 and his race that had yet to be named. Anything might help in the eventual annihilation of their species. Obviously there were more aliens out there too. If they were hostile like H-30's species, then maybe they'd think twice before making Earth the next great vacation destination.
 
'Yes, and no.' H-30 started with this. His race's society could seem confusing to people from the outside. 'The fact that we mostly move and act with consensus from everyone else, makes it seem like there's no hierarchy, since there's no need for it.'

Had he been a human, he'd have sighed deeply at this point. 'But if there's a deviant, those who are higher in hierarchy, which means those who are more powerful, get the deviant eliminated.' With an empty voice, he added 'I do not wish to keep talking about this topic.'
 
H-30 was right. It was confusing. Tybalt's eyebrows knitted together. "Wait. I don't understand. If someone becomes more powerful, they are killed off?" He wasn't sure that he'd heard or understood H-30 correctly. If that was true, then there was no head to sever. It also seemed like there was some sort of hive-mind going on, although limited, perhaps, since clearly H-30 had control of his own self.

Tybalt also wasn't certain why H-30 didn't feel like talking about it anymore. Did something personal happen because of this yes and no hierarchy?
 
H-30 frowned when the man kept insisting. With another expression he adopted for himself, he glared at Tybalt. 'I said 'deviant', not 'powerful'. The ones who are different are killed off.'

The bad memories started coming out to the surface. He stood up, turned around, and slowly walked over to the opposite side of the cage, only to sit down again, his back facing Tybalt. 'I don't want to play anymore.' He said, sounding almost childish.
 
It was then that Tybalt understood. He had mistakenly thought that those who became more powerful WERE deviants. Now he understood that those were powerful killed off the deviants. It then also occurred to him that maybe H-30 was a deviant, and perhaps that was why they could capture him. H-30 had suggested he was already weakened when they caught him. Maybe he had been running from someone more powerful than he was.

"Ask a question, H-30. I want to keep playing." Now he was more curious than ever, and he was thinking about making the scientists and other people leave for his next question. He might even turn off the video surveillance. He had clearance to do so.
 
H-30 went silent for several minutes. He felt numbed down, the sadness and fear from his memory invading all of his system. He felt extremely weak. He pressed himself against the cage's wall, and took his time to absorb the energy emanated by the televisions. Once he felt like he'd be able to keep talking to everyone through his minds without exerting himself, he spoke.

'Can I have a book where it's explained in detail how your body works?' he asked shyly. He had given in to his curiosity and desire, but right now he wanted to cling to whatever hint of hope was available for him. His mouth wasn't moving now, but his voice was clear inside of Tybalt's mind.
 
Tybalt thought about how to answer this question. A part of him told him to answer with no, that it could be dangerous. If H-30 learned something about them he could use to his advantage and then escape, it would be entirely his fault for allowing the book. The other part of him wondered what H-30 would do with information like that. Finally, Tybalt decided on an answer. One that would likely not please H-30, but also not upset him too much either.

"Maybe. I'll have to ask the person in charge, and they're going to want to know why you want it to begin with." It was a way to ask a question without using his turn up. It was also the truth. If he appealed to One to get him a book on how the human body worked, One was going to ask why. No matter H-30's answer, it likely wouldn't be allowed, but he'd ask anyway.
 
'I still have a thousand questions about how you eat. I didn't want to stall the game, but your answer wasn't that satisfying for me.' H-30 spoke as he went back to his previous spot, sitting in front of Tybalt.

'That. How do you perceive the world around you. Why you stop growing at a certain point, and then keep on living instead of dropping dead. It's my first time being around a species like yours for so much time, and the curiosity is "killing" me.' He tilted his head. 'I've heard that's a figure of speech. Did I use it right?'
 
Tybalt couldn't help it if his answer wasn't satisfying. He had done his best to answer the question, and that was all H-30 could expect him to do. H-30's answers hadn't been that satisfying to him either, but he wasn't complaining about it. At least, he wouldn't to H-30. Still, he would relay this information to One when he turned in his report. "I will ask the person in charge." He settled on this response. It would have to be enough for H-30. At least for now, until he got a yes or no from One. Tybalt would put money that it would end up being a 'no' though.

"You did use it right." Tybalt responded. He glanced around the room a moment and then decided to leave the people working in this room where they were at for now. He turned his attention back to H-30. "Are you a deviant?" He didn't care if H-30 replied only to him or to everyone in the room, but he was going to ask it anyway. Why he was interested in this, he wasn't certain, except that maybe if he was a deviant, asking questions about him specifically wouldn't matter in the long run about learning on H-30's species.
 
The frown appeared on H-30's face again. Being able to express discontent was starting to be quite easy for him. 'I refuse to talk about deviants and hierarchy. I want to stop playing.' He said with determination. He wasn't angry at Tybalt for not giving him the book right away. He had expected an instant negative response, so just saying he'd ask about that to the person in charge was enough for him. But he didn't want to keep going on, talking about this topic.

'Either that, or ask something different.' He added, squinting his eyes.
 
Tybalt watched as H-30 instantly shut down again. He suspected his question was right. That H-30 was a deviant. But a deviant how? Tybalt stood up, stretching, and then shrugged. "Alright. We can stop playing. Let me know if you want to play again though." He decided. He had enough information. Not a lot, but enough to keep H-30 alive for a little longer until he could get some more out of him. For now, he was tired. Tybalt hadn't slept the night before, and he was thinking a nap before turning in his report might do him good.
 
'Will do.' H-30 said as he turned around. Before taking a step, despite being able to see Tybalt anyway, he glanced above his shoulder, focusing his eyes on him. 'Please tell me when you have a response from your superior, even if it's to say I can't have the book.'

With that, he assumed their conversation was finished. He walked over to the other side of the cage and lied down. He curled up and closed his eyes, pretending to sleep. Everybody knew he didn't actually sleep, but humans were less likely to bother him when he was like that.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom
Back