Xio sat down, stunned. He was trying to dig down deep into his memory to remember how he got into this predicament. Just a few days ago, he went to a shaman for a reason he could not remember, and he woke up with almost no memory. It was a terrifying prospect, because he was lost no matter where he went, so his only hope was to travel randomly, and hope for a miracle in finding his answer. This wasn't what he had hoped to find, but deep down inside, he felt like he had scrubbed his life clean for a purpose, and that purpose was now clear. Somewhat. Idris had left him with an unusual set of instructions and a seemingly impossible and slightly nonsensical goal. However, having a purpose, in Xio's mind, as odd as it may be, was better than having no purpose.
"They're coming." Jarren said abruptly.
"Who's coming?"
"Sentinels. They're coming to kill us. I have to get back to my place and save my wife and son."
"What about me?"
"Do whatever you want. I wish you had never come here, this will be the end of me."
From outside, in the rain, a pack of cat warriors had already gathered outside. "Come out! We only want to talk!" the sentinel Captain yelled.
"Should we go?" Xio asked.
"It's a trick." Jarren replied, "As soon as we go outside, we die. Our only option is to get to the roof and hope for a place to jump onto that won't destroy our legs."
"Can't we hide?"
"No, the local psychic will find us if the sentinels don't first. They have excellent hearing, so even the slightest noise you might make will alert them."
Just then, a battering ram made from an enormous log slammed through the front door, smashing it open instantly. Reacting quickly, Jarren knew sentinels would come racing through the door, so he turned and dove towards the first sentinel, disarmed him and used his armblades to cut his throat. The doorway funneled the sentinels one-by-one to Jarren, and he used his superior fighting skill to cut down one after another as they came through. The bodies of the sentinels began dropping all over the floor, creating a rapidly-expanding pool of blood.
The Captain realized what was happening, and ordered his men back after losing about 20 of them, but still had plenty by his side. "We're going to burn the place to the ground." he said after some thought.
Inside, Jarren was panting and covered in blood and had a large cut across his left eye. "No help?" he asked, looking angrily at Xio. "I'm not a sentinel." Xio replied.
"Look at you. You're bigger than an average laborer, but from the way you talk, you certainly can't be an intellectual. Now, pick up a damn blade, put it on your arm, and be ready to die like a warrior."
"I don't know how to use this!" Xio lamented, picking up one of the blood-soaked blades.
"Maybe you won't die like a warrior, you'll die like a bitch."
Bewildered and terrified, Xio asked what to do, but Jarren already raced up the stairs. Xio dropped the blade and followed him. They went up to the roof and Jarren peered over the edge. "Shit." He said, "They're lighting a fire... we're going to burn if we don't jump." Jarren began going along the edge of the building to look for a safe place to jump down to, but no such place presented itself. "Great. We're going to burn." Jarren muttered, shaking his head.
"What if we go back downstairs and talk to them?" Xio suggested.
"Are you stupid?" Jarren snapped, "Oh, that's right. Your brain was erased, of course it is."
Jarren peered over the edge again, and this time, an archer fired an arrow right through his chest. Jarren made a guttural sound and collapsed, bleeding profusely. Xio, even though terrified, rushed over to Jarren's side and asked "Are you okay?"
Jarren groaned and struggled to speak. "Y...you asshole... I... have an arrow in my body... suffice to say... I'm not... okay."
"I had no idea this would happen. I feel really bad about this." Xio replied, trying to be sympathic.
"It's not your fault. It's not your fault."
"Well, you seemed pretty upset with me, so I just wanted to make sure you weren't blaming me for-"
"Shut up. If you get out of here alive, take care of my son. He is all I have left, he is all I have worked for."
"I don't want to sound like a jerk, but I just met you today, and raising a kitten is a huge responsibility, and I don't think I'd make a great father, so... uh..."
Then Jarren died on the spot and his eyes rolled back into his head. "I hate this place." Xio said, and went back downstairs, which was engulfed in flames, and just walked out the front door.
The sentinels stared at him as his walked forward out of the burning building and said "I surrender! I surrender! Take me to the Chieftain, I can explain this. I didn't do anything wrong." and he was immediately punched in the face and hauled away to the Chieftain's residence. Xio was thrown at the feet of the Chieftain, who sat on a very regal-looking chair. By the Chieftain's side was a brown cat, who was a psychic.
"I can explain..." Xio started.
"Silence." The Chieftain commanded sharply. "What did the prophet say to you?"
"He..." Xio started. He knew he would need to pick his words carefully, or the Psychic would reveal that he was lying. "He told me a bunch of nonsense. I don't really understand what he wanted."
The Chieftain turned to the Psychic. "He's telling the truth." The Psychic replied.
"Tell me, did he say the world was going to end?" The Chieftain asked.
"Yes, he did." Xio replied, and the Psychic confirmed that it was the truth.
"Have you ever met Idris or Jarren before today?"
"No, I swear I never have. I didn't come here to make trouble."
"Did you kill my sentinels?"
"No, Jarren did all the killing. I don't even have a drop a blood on me. Zero blood."
"What did Idris want from you?"
"He wants me to 'travel through time'. I don't even know what that means. It's some H. G. Wells shit."
"Did he tell you how to travel through time?"
"He said there was a machine that could make it possible, but I didn't believe him."
"Where is the machine?"
"It's broken. He said it was in pieces."
"Where are the pieces now?"
"I don't know."
"Do you intend to find the pieces?"
"No."
The Chieftain mused for a moment, and then said "At my side is a very powerful psychic, Sirara. She was sent here by Queen Ta herself after she was warned about Idris. She will escort you out of the city and into the wilderness, where you will stay in exile. If you show your face in any village or city, you will be taken in and executed. I'm doing this out of the great mercy in my heart, but if you should break your end of this deal, death will come down on you like lightning, is that understood?"
"Yes... yes sir..." Xio replied.
"Wait." Sirara said. "You owe a favor to someone. Who is it?"
"It's nothing, we should get going. I just want to leave this place." Xio replied.
"It's Jarren's son. He was given to you."
"Yeah, and I told him no."
"He gave his life as a warrior, and you are too cowardly to fulfill his dying wish? Why did the prophet ever want to see you?"
"I don't know. I wish I knew."
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Monday, July 8, 2013
The Death Machine In The Sky
Countless years pass.
The humans and cats have both evolved - the cats have taken over the Earth, and although cannot harness the most advanced human technology, have a crude understanding of engineering that has been advanced greatly by the growth of their opposable thumb. They have been able to fight a seemingly-endless interplanetary war with the moon, where the humans now reside in biodomes and underground tunnels. A major mismanagement of the humans' food supply caused a near-extinction of the human race, leaving an elite few to fight on against a vastly superior population of cats on Earth. Despite their setbacks, the humans continue to fight on bitterly, determined to win at any cost.
In that day, a new prophet appeared. He began proclaiming doom to everyone alive, and quickly caught the attention of many followers. At this time, the Earth's former cities were left to rot and crumble, as the cats had no means of maintaining the structures built by mankind, and so the former cities became overrun by vegetation, rust, and wild animals. Every day, an old building, bridge, or some sort of structure would collapse from hundreds and hundreds of years of decay. Still, cats would hide out in the abandoned buildings, creating a sort of make-shift post-apocalyptic society that fed off the former abundance of the world before.
This is where the prophet went to speak. His name was Idris, and he was an albino with white fur and red eyes. His gift was to have future-dreams. According to cat culture, an all-white cat was a sign of bad luck, and this seemed to be the case with Idris. He would have nightmares about the end of the world, and began to speak about it despairingly to whoever would listen. At first, he did so to receive comfort, but his village kicked him out because they feared he would bring bad luck to them, and so he wandered until he found a destroyed human city where the cats there took him in.
Idris was getting old, and was going blind in his right eye, and had difficulty speaking. His adopted family grew increasingly worried about him, because the stress of his nightmares, they knew, was causing him to quickly die. The city's chieftain sent his personal bodyguard, Jarren, to watch over Idris and to attend to him.
One rainy day, while Idris was sleeping on a thousand-year-old mattress in the corner of a former office, he awoke suddenly and said "I'm feeling much better today."
"No nightmares?" Jarren asked.
"No, but I fear I'm getting old and will die soon." Idris replied stoically. "A refugee is coming. Go to the Chieftain and meet the refugee."
"I'm not allowed to leave your side."
"I need you to bring him to me. I can't walk in this rain, my joints are grinding together."
So Jarren obeyed the order and went to the Chieftain, and sure enough, some of the city's sentinels had found a stranger sleeping on the outskirts of the city's perimeter. The sentinels were simply the soldier-class of cats; very large, fearless, but not particularly intelligent. Every community had a some sort of military-style caste that trained from birth to fight, to leave the thinking to the intellectual caste. The selection for the sentinels varied from commune to commune; some were comprised entirely of males, others all-female, others were a mix of genders, others would include only certain breeds, and others would exclude certain breeds. The cats did have access to some ranged weapons, such as bow-and-arrow, but did not have the proficiency to manufacture firearms, so many sentinels built their own bladed weapons out of metal, and would either carry them as swords, or strap blades to their arms, legs, and even tails in some cases. Since cats need their tails to maintain their balance when standing upright, most sentinels preferred to not arm their tails, although truthfully, everyone knew that sooner or later, their tail would be chopped off in combat. Many of the older sentinels were missing at least one limb and/or tail, would be missing an eye or an ear, or have a scar of some sort.
Jarren, for having higher intelligence than the average sentinel, was promoted by the Chieftain to a commanding position, and eventually, to the Chieftain's personal bodyguard. Jarren's wife and son were also of the sentinel class, and trained their single son to become a sentinel. It was unusual for a cat to be the father of only one kitten, but the entire litter of kittens died, except for one. Like a strong soldier, Jarren left his emotions by the wayside, and concluded that the one surviving kitten must be destiny.
The Chieftain was part of the intellectual-caste, who ruled the entire cat population in a feudalism-style hierarchy. Though there were many other castes and classes in cat culture, the intellectuals would minimize their social interaction with other classes and castes, and only maintained friendships with other intellectuals. Many of the intellectuals were powerful psychics with varying powers, but nevertheless, were considered snobs and arrogant by the other classes. Their power was absolute, and all of catkind lived under an all-encompassing dictatorship that the sentinels enforced for the intellectuals. Defying the ruling caste meant death or exile without a trial.
Jarren defied the Chieftain's order to stay by Idris' side by returning to the Chieftain's residence. The Chieftain was infuriated when he saw Jarren there without Idris. Jarren attempted to explain "There is a traveler here, according to the prophet, sir."
"You idiot." The Chieftain replied disdainfully, "I should have all your limbs cut off right now. Didn't I tell you to stay with him at all times?"
"Sir, he made another prophecy about a coming traveler."
"As a matter of fact, we found some stray sleeping by the roadside this afternoon. He's sleeping upstairs in the loft. What did the prophet say about him?"
"Simply that he would arrive and to bring him."
"Listen to me carefully, Jarren. I don't care for prophets, psychics, or any of those mind-bending-shits, but I respect Idris, and that's why I'm going to allow you to bring the stranger to him, but after that, report back here for punishment, because you deliberately disobeyed my orders."
"Yes sir..."
Jarren went up to the loft to find the stranger sleeping on some hay. "Get up." Jarren ordered, and the stranger woke up and asked "Who are you?"
"I should ask who you are." Jarren replied.
"I'm looking for the answer to that myself." the stranger replied.
"You don't know who you are?"
"No, well, yes, but my memory was erased by a witch-doctor. All I remember is I went to him, and he cooked me an eel - he deep-fried the eel, it was gross. It wasn't like anything I'd ever eaten before. It made me sleepy and sick, and I passed out. I woke up and threw up, and I could barely walk. Once I woke up, I realized I was in a strange place and had been sleeping for several days. I can't remember anything except for a blurry details."
"Do you remember your name?"
"Yes, I think so. My name is Xio."
"Do you remember which village you came from?"
"I can't remember my village. I just have been walking and hoping I would find the answer to my questions."
"Come with me, I have your answers."
"Really now?"
"Yes, there is a great prophet here. He has foreseen your arrival and has asked to meet you."
So they went out and made their way back to the prophet's residence, where Idris was patiently waiting for Xio and Jarren to arrive. Idris sat at a little table where he poured some tea into a tiny cup, just the right size for a cat's paw.
"Come in." Idris said frailly.
Xio stepped inside out of the rain and came over to the table with Jarren at his side. "So," Xio said, "I heard you might have some answers for me."
"Well," Idris replied, "In life, we look for answers, but oddly enough, find only more questions. You will find the answer, but it is not the one you want."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that it would be better if you didn't know."
"Ah, I see. So you're someone who speaks in riddles."
"No. I will tell you specifically why you are here. I am dying and cannot fulfill my task. The Chieftain has been feeding me poison. I pretend not to know, but it is there, and I have nowhere to go to now. I would not make it a mile outside of this house where humans once went about their day."
Jarren looked surprised, but Idris said "You don't believe me? The Chieftain is keeping me here. Why do you think he had you look after me? You weren't caring for me, you have been guarding me, and the food you give me is tainted with mercury."
"Why?" Jarren asked, not sure what to think.
"Because," Idris replied, "I've proclaimed that the end of the world is coming. The humans have been building a death machine in the sky to kill us all and our beloved ruler, our goddess on Earth, Queen Ta, is silencing all the prophets who foresee this event taking place. While she proclaims that the Earth is safe from any threat under her guidance, the humans are developing a weapon that will tear the moon apart and send a huge chunk of it directly into the Earth, killing every living thing on the surface."
"Damn." Xio replied.
"Xio, there is very little time to spare. Because I'm dying, you have to do something that will test everything you know, or in your case, don't know. There is a door, a portal, that will let you pass back and forth through time. I've seen it, but it is broken, and its fragments have been scattered into four places. You have to find and assemble the pieces, then go back to stop George from establishing the cat kingdom."
"Whoa, whoa, what? You want me to go back in time, then just let the humans rule the Earth?"
"Yes."
"How can I possibly do that? You realize time-travel is impossible, right? If I go back and stop George, then this will have never happened, therefore, I couldn't go back. If I did go back, this would already be changed, which means that I've already failed."
"You must do it. You must."
"What you're saying is completely absurd, and even if I could do this, I wouldn't want to, because humans are disgusting. If they want to kill themselves in order to kill us, I say let them."
"Xio, you must forgive Gothford."
"That saying... it means nothing to me."
"Listen, you must meet with The Duke and Arcadius. They will tell you what you need to know, but for now, you must reassemble the portal, for the sake of everyone alive. You, as well, Jarren. The Chieftain has already dispatched his minions to kill both of you, as he does not want you to find out the truth. Queen Ta will certainly target you to kill you as well."
"No! What have you gotten me into?" Xio lamented.
But with that, with his dying breath, Idris completed his life's purpose and went to sleep. Xio was left there alone with Jarren, overlooking the body of Idris, while hearing the sound of raining splattering on the ground outside.
The humans and cats have both evolved - the cats have taken over the Earth, and although cannot harness the most advanced human technology, have a crude understanding of engineering that has been advanced greatly by the growth of their opposable thumb. They have been able to fight a seemingly-endless interplanetary war with the moon, where the humans now reside in biodomes and underground tunnels. A major mismanagement of the humans' food supply caused a near-extinction of the human race, leaving an elite few to fight on against a vastly superior population of cats on Earth. Despite their setbacks, the humans continue to fight on bitterly, determined to win at any cost.
In that day, a new prophet appeared. He began proclaiming doom to everyone alive, and quickly caught the attention of many followers. At this time, the Earth's former cities were left to rot and crumble, as the cats had no means of maintaining the structures built by mankind, and so the former cities became overrun by vegetation, rust, and wild animals. Every day, an old building, bridge, or some sort of structure would collapse from hundreds and hundreds of years of decay. Still, cats would hide out in the abandoned buildings, creating a sort of make-shift post-apocalyptic society that fed off the former abundance of the world before.
This is where the prophet went to speak. His name was Idris, and he was an albino with white fur and red eyes. His gift was to have future-dreams. According to cat culture, an all-white cat was a sign of bad luck, and this seemed to be the case with Idris. He would have nightmares about the end of the world, and began to speak about it despairingly to whoever would listen. At first, he did so to receive comfort, but his village kicked him out because they feared he would bring bad luck to them, and so he wandered until he found a destroyed human city where the cats there took him in.
Idris was getting old, and was going blind in his right eye, and had difficulty speaking. His adopted family grew increasingly worried about him, because the stress of his nightmares, they knew, was causing him to quickly die. The city's chieftain sent his personal bodyguard, Jarren, to watch over Idris and to attend to him.
One rainy day, while Idris was sleeping on a thousand-year-old mattress in the corner of a former office, he awoke suddenly and said "I'm feeling much better today."
"No nightmares?" Jarren asked.
"No, but I fear I'm getting old and will die soon." Idris replied stoically. "A refugee is coming. Go to the Chieftain and meet the refugee."
"I'm not allowed to leave your side."
"I need you to bring him to me. I can't walk in this rain, my joints are grinding together."
So Jarren obeyed the order and went to the Chieftain, and sure enough, some of the city's sentinels had found a stranger sleeping on the outskirts of the city's perimeter. The sentinels were simply the soldier-class of cats; very large, fearless, but not particularly intelligent. Every community had a some sort of military-style caste that trained from birth to fight, to leave the thinking to the intellectual caste. The selection for the sentinels varied from commune to commune; some were comprised entirely of males, others all-female, others were a mix of genders, others would include only certain breeds, and others would exclude certain breeds. The cats did have access to some ranged weapons, such as bow-and-arrow, but did not have the proficiency to manufacture firearms, so many sentinels built their own bladed weapons out of metal, and would either carry them as swords, or strap blades to their arms, legs, and even tails in some cases. Since cats need their tails to maintain their balance when standing upright, most sentinels preferred to not arm their tails, although truthfully, everyone knew that sooner or later, their tail would be chopped off in combat. Many of the older sentinels were missing at least one limb and/or tail, would be missing an eye or an ear, or have a scar of some sort.
Jarren, for having higher intelligence than the average sentinel, was promoted by the Chieftain to a commanding position, and eventually, to the Chieftain's personal bodyguard. Jarren's wife and son were also of the sentinel class, and trained their single son to become a sentinel. It was unusual for a cat to be the father of only one kitten, but the entire litter of kittens died, except for one. Like a strong soldier, Jarren left his emotions by the wayside, and concluded that the one surviving kitten must be destiny.
The Chieftain was part of the intellectual-caste, who ruled the entire cat population in a feudalism-style hierarchy. Though there were many other castes and classes in cat culture, the intellectuals would minimize their social interaction with other classes and castes, and only maintained friendships with other intellectuals. Many of the intellectuals were powerful psychics with varying powers, but nevertheless, were considered snobs and arrogant by the other classes. Their power was absolute, and all of catkind lived under an all-encompassing dictatorship that the sentinels enforced for the intellectuals. Defying the ruling caste meant death or exile without a trial.
Jarren defied the Chieftain's order to stay by Idris' side by returning to the Chieftain's residence. The Chieftain was infuriated when he saw Jarren there without Idris. Jarren attempted to explain "There is a traveler here, according to the prophet, sir."
"You idiot." The Chieftain replied disdainfully, "I should have all your limbs cut off right now. Didn't I tell you to stay with him at all times?"
"Sir, he made another prophecy about a coming traveler."
"As a matter of fact, we found some stray sleeping by the roadside this afternoon. He's sleeping upstairs in the loft. What did the prophet say about him?"
"Simply that he would arrive and to bring him."
"Listen to me carefully, Jarren. I don't care for prophets, psychics, or any of those mind-bending-shits, but I respect Idris, and that's why I'm going to allow you to bring the stranger to him, but after that, report back here for punishment, because you deliberately disobeyed my orders."
"Yes sir..."
Jarren went up to the loft to find the stranger sleeping on some hay. "Get up." Jarren ordered, and the stranger woke up and asked "Who are you?"
"I should ask who you are." Jarren replied.
"I'm looking for the answer to that myself." the stranger replied.
"You don't know who you are?"
"No, well, yes, but my memory was erased by a witch-doctor. All I remember is I went to him, and he cooked me an eel - he deep-fried the eel, it was gross. It wasn't like anything I'd ever eaten before. It made me sleepy and sick, and I passed out. I woke up and threw up, and I could barely walk. Once I woke up, I realized I was in a strange place and had been sleeping for several days. I can't remember anything except for a blurry details."
"Do you remember your name?"
"Yes, I think so. My name is Xio."
"Do you remember which village you came from?"
"I can't remember my village. I just have been walking and hoping I would find the answer to my questions."
"Come with me, I have your answers."
"Really now?"
"Yes, there is a great prophet here. He has foreseen your arrival and has asked to meet you."
So they went out and made their way back to the prophet's residence, where Idris was patiently waiting for Xio and Jarren to arrive. Idris sat at a little table where he poured some tea into a tiny cup, just the right size for a cat's paw.
"Come in." Idris said frailly.
Xio stepped inside out of the rain and came over to the table with Jarren at his side. "So," Xio said, "I heard you might have some answers for me."
"Well," Idris replied, "In life, we look for answers, but oddly enough, find only more questions. You will find the answer, but it is not the one you want."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that it would be better if you didn't know."
"Ah, I see. So you're someone who speaks in riddles."
"No. I will tell you specifically why you are here. I am dying and cannot fulfill my task. The Chieftain has been feeding me poison. I pretend not to know, but it is there, and I have nowhere to go to now. I would not make it a mile outside of this house where humans once went about their day."
Jarren looked surprised, but Idris said "You don't believe me? The Chieftain is keeping me here. Why do you think he had you look after me? You weren't caring for me, you have been guarding me, and the food you give me is tainted with mercury."
"Why?" Jarren asked, not sure what to think.
"Because," Idris replied, "I've proclaimed that the end of the world is coming. The humans have been building a death machine in the sky to kill us all and our beloved ruler, our goddess on Earth, Queen Ta, is silencing all the prophets who foresee this event taking place. While she proclaims that the Earth is safe from any threat under her guidance, the humans are developing a weapon that will tear the moon apart and send a huge chunk of it directly into the Earth, killing every living thing on the surface."
"Damn." Xio replied.
"Xio, there is very little time to spare. Because I'm dying, you have to do something that will test everything you know, or in your case, don't know. There is a door, a portal, that will let you pass back and forth through time. I've seen it, but it is broken, and its fragments have been scattered into four places. You have to find and assemble the pieces, then go back to stop George from establishing the cat kingdom."
"Whoa, whoa, what? You want me to go back in time, then just let the humans rule the Earth?"
"Yes."
"How can I possibly do that? You realize time-travel is impossible, right? If I go back and stop George, then this will have never happened, therefore, I couldn't go back. If I did go back, this would already be changed, which means that I've already failed."
"You must do it. You must."
"What you're saying is completely absurd, and even if I could do this, I wouldn't want to, because humans are disgusting. If they want to kill themselves in order to kill us, I say let them."
"Xio, you must forgive Gothford."
"That saying... it means nothing to me."
"Listen, you must meet with The Duke and Arcadius. They will tell you what you need to know, but for now, you must reassemble the portal, for the sake of everyone alive. You, as well, Jarren. The Chieftain has already dispatched his minions to kill both of you, as he does not want you to find out the truth. Queen Ta will certainly target you to kill you as well."
"No! What have you gotten me into?" Xio lamented.
But with that, with his dying breath, Idris completed his life's purpose and went to sleep. Xio was left there alone with Jarren, overlooking the body of Idris, while hearing the sound of raining splattering on the ground outside.
Monday, June 24, 2013
George
"What does your cat civilization think about human civilization?" The Doctor asked.
"We won't forget Gothford, but we forgive him. What we cannot forgive is that we are treated as prey." The cat Chieftain replied.
- Early cat civilization quote, Book of Cat, chapter 12
There was a great cat prophet named Maro Of The North that commanded great respect among humans and cats alike. By this time, the cats had spread over most of the world, but met widespread persecution and misery. They were kept away from human technology so that they could not use computers and attack the world's data centers, and could not acquire weapons and overthrow humanity. The cats, however, developed unusual talents that humans found both amusing and entertaining. They began to develop a field of psychic powers that human scientists were unable to emulate. Despite their 'powers' manifesting, they were considerably weak and not considered a threat to humans. The powerful humans would often hire cats to sniff out liars, because it seemed to be virtually impossible for a human to lie to a cat. The cats also seemed to have a sense of the near future, but their accuracy was questionable at best, but nevertheless, they were banned from casinos and other betting venues, such as horse races.
Maro was the exception to the rule - he would tell fantastic stories about the future, and had massive insight into people's lives, and so humans flocked to him in the thousands to ask him questions. The cats acted to appoint him King over all of catkind, but he refused to accept any title, but still leaving him as the de facto ruler of all catkind.
A number of journalists began compiling his words into a huge collection of writings called "Teachings and Prophecies of Maro Of The North", which sold over ten million copies. One of the most common questions asked of Maro was "When will the world end?" to which Maro always asked in return "What is the world? It is a box of consciousness that is unsure of itself, but once the box is opened, all that fear of being from the comfort of inside the box will melt away."
It wasn't until near the end of his life when he said "When I was younger, I saw the sun rise and it was beautiful. I saw it set, and it was beautiful. I saw the moon, and it was beautiful. I'm tired of the sun and the moon chasing each other. I'm tired of my eyes opening every day and watching on the humans' televisions their accusations against my kind, because to no end are we thieves to the humans, who claim possession of that which they do not own. How can a human's spirit be inside of a couch? How can a certain piece of metal contain the soul of a person? Are you going to write your names on every rock on the face of the Earth and say 'These are ours?'. I love your kind, I love my kind, and it is my last request that both kinds will love each other. A hero is coming, I have seen him walk through a door in my mind to undo the evil that has been done. Everyone wants to know who he is - but he is timeless. He is everyone, and yet no one. He is in your consciousness and is in the sleeping rocks. The longer you wait for him, the longer it will take for him to arrive. He will not come on a white horse, or hold a gun in his hands."
A human Christian objected, saying "The Bible says Jesus will return on a white horse. Are you saying God's word is lying or are you a false prophet?"
Maro replied, "You are in error because you don't know what God is, or know his name, or the meaning of the white horse. You built the tower of Babel, and now are about to see it be abandoned. Look at all the pages you wrote in blood in the name of peace, but are condemning yourself to die with nuclear missiles, lasers, manufactured genetic diseases, and finally, attempting to create an intelligence so that you can fulfill what you've believed all along - that you are God, with the power to give life and to take it, and to dictate the heartbeat of consciousness from a computerized throne that reads your thoughts while robots serve you like angels, and be united behind a common enemy, that which you created - The Devil, Lucifer, The Cat - and for all the years I've said these things, not once have you included this in your books about me, just a vagabond covered in fleas and ticks, with a ringworm crawling through my intestines, with flies landing on my face to lick the scum off my eyes, but keep that which gives you the power to glorify your friends, damn your enemies to burn, and live a life of comfort while ignoring the misery of others. You are supremely selfish in your lust to have Heaven for yourself when there is a world of potential good to unlock. You don't give a damn about life, 'death to the infidels', 'death to sinners', 'sinners will burn in Hell while I am in Heaven' you say, while building your Zion, but cutting the ropes of everyone climbing to reach your Heaven and laughing while they fall back down.
You worship Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, and pay homage to wheat and beef. Humans have offered me money for my words. How absurd, offering something worthless for something that is free, just let it be; what are you trying to barter for? Is it to cover for your guilt? What are you ashamed of? Is that when I asked a young woman human what she thought when she read the book with my words, and she only said 'it made my life better', 'it helped me with my relationships', 'it helped me feel relief about the future', 'it set me free'? Where was the call to action to love humans, cats, and other animals? I have been told there are over ten million readers, and yet my kind are still rotting in cages for crimes they did not commit. Yet, ten thousand humans went to your capital city to protest for their cars to not be tracked, and the human government listened. Where is the protest to end the hate? Hate is a circle, and will only end in pain, not for one, but for both. This is why we have a saying 'We forgive Gothford' - because we must forgive Gothford. Gothford represents the worst in humans, but it is my sincere hope that Gothford will pass away peacefully, and good humans will take his place, although I know that in every barrel, there are bad apples."
For saying this, Maro was assassinated two weeks later by an unknown assailant, who left a note, which was large incomprehensible, but it said (with the spelling errors fixed):
The human government condemned the killing, but the killer was never caught and the cats began to suspect that the human government was behind the slaying.
Then, after a pragmatic series of events, things got really weird. Unfortunately, the universe is a pretty weird place, so a linear chain of events was about to be interrupted by a freak accident.
George, just a low-class cat who want adopted as a kitten and given a human name, lived in France. He escaped from his owner and lived in the landfill, searching through garbage for food. That was his lot in life for years, although he considered himself "rich" because he felt as though he had everything he ever needed at all times. He had few friends, because he was anti-human and anti-social, and his upbringing among humans gave him a human accent that made it difficult for other cats to understand what he said, so he spent most of his time alone, digging. He became really proficient at digging, and bored holes through the mountains of trash, going deep into their insect-infested innards. The large insects were good for protein, so he made it a point to find them and eat them before they could escape.
One very very fateful day, he found a bottle with a strange green light emitting from inside of it. He found it particularly odd that the bottle was unscratched, so he decided to investigate. The bottle was like a perfume bottle, with very fancy cuts in the glass and lots of pointy angles on it's exterior. It had a cork holding it shut, like that on a wine bottle. When he uncorked the bottle, the light rushed out of the bottle and expanded to a human-like figure that stood 8 feet tall. The man from the bottle looked like his skin was made of light, and he had one large wing protruding from his back. He was also completely nude.
George was scared, so he just blurted out "Who are you? Are you a ghost?"
The man answered "Master? You called?"
"What the hell...?"
The man looked down and said "You aren't him. Who are you?"
"Mm, George is my name." George replied, feeling a bit braver.
"My Master looks like you. Small and covered in fur. It is my mistake. I am the Great Genie of the Cosmos."
"A genie? Like in Aladdin or some shit? Do I get three wishes?"
"You're not my true master, but you did release me, so I will grant you only one wish. Only my true master can request my powers be used three times."
"Wh...who is your master?"
"That is not for you to know. Make your wish so I can go back into sleeping until I am needed."
"I wish," George said, "For a great cat empire that rules the world while humans can live on the moon."
"It will be done as you say." The Genie replied.
"WAIT NO. I NEED TO BE KING OF THE CATS."
"Then go into politics."
And with a huge shockwave of energy, the Genie cleared the entire globe of all humans, leaving every city empty and abandoned. The Genie retreated back into the bottle, which disappeared, leaving George alone in the junkyard by himself.
"We won't forget Gothford, but we forgive him. What we cannot forgive is that we are treated as prey." The cat Chieftain replied.
- Early cat civilization quote, Book of Cat, chapter 12
There was a great cat prophet named Maro Of The North that commanded great respect among humans and cats alike. By this time, the cats had spread over most of the world, but met widespread persecution and misery. They were kept away from human technology so that they could not use computers and attack the world's data centers, and could not acquire weapons and overthrow humanity. The cats, however, developed unusual talents that humans found both amusing and entertaining. They began to develop a field of psychic powers that human scientists were unable to emulate. Despite their 'powers' manifesting, they were considerably weak and not considered a threat to humans. The powerful humans would often hire cats to sniff out liars, because it seemed to be virtually impossible for a human to lie to a cat. The cats also seemed to have a sense of the near future, but their accuracy was questionable at best, but nevertheless, they were banned from casinos and other betting venues, such as horse races.
Maro was the exception to the rule - he would tell fantastic stories about the future, and had massive insight into people's lives, and so humans flocked to him in the thousands to ask him questions. The cats acted to appoint him King over all of catkind, but he refused to accept any title, but still leaving him as the de facto ruler of all catkind.
A number of journalists began compiling his words into a huge collection of writings called "Teachings and Prophecies of Maro Of The North", which sold over ten million copies. One of the most common questions asked of Maro was "When will the world end?" to which Maro always asked in return "What is the world? It is a box of consciousness that is unsure of itself, but once the box is opened, all that fear of being from the comfort of inside the box will melt away."
It wasn't until near the end of his life when he said "When I was younger, I saw the sun rise and it was beautiful. I saw it set, and it was beautiful. I saw the moon, and it was beautiful. I'm tired of the sun and the moon chasing each other. I'm tired of my eyes opening every day and watching on the humans' televisions their accusations against my kind, because to no end are we thieves to the humans, who claim possession of that which they do not own. How can a human's spirit be inside of a couch? How can a certain piece of metal contain the soul of a person? Are you going to write your names on every rock on the face of the Earth and say 'These are ours?'. I love your kind, I love my kind, and it is my last request that both kinds will love each other. A hero is coming, I have seen him walk through a door in my mind to undo the evil that has been done. Everyone wants to know who he is - but he is timeless. He is everyone, and yet no one. He is in your consciousness and is in the sleeping rocks. The longer you wait for him, the longer it will take for him to arrive. He will not come on a white horse, or hold a gun in his hands."
A human Christian objected, saying "The Bible says Jesus will return on a white horse. Are you saying God's word is lying or are you a false prophet?"
Maro replied, "You are in error because you don't know what God is, or know his name, or the meaning of the white horse. You built the tower of Babel, and now are about to see it be abandoned. Look at all the pages you wrote in blood in the name of peace, but are condemning yourself to die with nuclear missiles, lasers, manufactured genetic diseases, and finally, attempting to create an intelligence so that you can fulfill what you've believed all along - that you are God, with the power to give life and to take it, and to dictate the heartbeat of consciousness from a computerized throne that reads your thoughts while robots serve you like angels, and be united behind a common enemy, that which you created - The Devil, Lucifer, The Cat - and for all the years I've said these things, not once have you included this in your books about me, just a vagabond covered in fleas and ticks, with a ringworm crawling through my intestines, with flies landing on my face to lick the scum off my eyes, but keep that which gives you the power to glorify your friends, damn your enemies to burn, and live a life of comfort while ignoring the misery of others. You are supremely selfish in your lust to have Heaven for yourself when there is a world of potential good to unlock. You don't give a damn about life, 'death to the infidels', 'death to sinners', 'sinners will burn in Hell while I am in Heaven' you say, while building your Zion, but cutting the ropes of everyone climbing to reach your Heaven and laughing while they fall back down.
You worship Nebuchadnezzar's golden image, and pay homage to wheat and beef. Humans have offered me money for my words. How absurd, offering something worthless for something that is free, just let it be; what are you trying to barter for? Is it to cover for your guilt? What are you ashamed of? Is that when I asked a young woman human what she thought when she read the book with my words, and she only said 'it made my life better', 'it helped me with my relationships', 'it helped me feel relief about the future', 'it set me free'? Where was the call to action to love humans, cats, and other animals? I have been told there are over ten million readers, and yet my kind are still rotting in cages for crimes they did not commit. Yet, ten thousand humans went to your capital city to protest for their cars to not be tracked, and the human government listened. Where is the protest to end the hate? Hate is a circle, and will only end in pain, not for one, but for both. This is why we have a saying 'We forgive Gothford' - because we must forgive Gothford. Gothford represents the worst in humans, but it is my sincere hope that Gothford will pass away peacefully, and good humans will take his place, although I know that in every barrel, there are bad apples."
For saying this, Maro was assassinated two weeks later by an unknown assailant, who left a note, which was large incomprehensible, but it said (with the spelling errors fixed):
"Dear cat scum,
Gothford was right to want you to dying. You are the fleas in our hair, and the shit that we wipe from under our boots. You all want to take over MANkind by talking, so how does a bullet sound? Pretty good argument. Haha. You are the bad apple, and God will punish all sinners including you. Have fun burning in hell, 'infidel'. Haha.
- MANkind"
The human government condemned the killing, but the killer was never caught and the cats began to suspect that the human government was behind the slaying.
Then, after a pragmatic series of events, things got really weird. Unfortunately, the universe is a pretty weird place, so a linear chain of events was about to be interrupted by a freak accident.
George, just a low-class cat who want adopted as a kitten and given a human name, lived in France. He escaped from his owner and lived in the landfill, searching through garbage for food. That was his lot in life for years, although he considered himself "rich" because he felt as though he had everything he ever needed at all times. He had few friends, because he was anti-human and anti-social, and his upbringing among humans gave him a human accent that made it difficult for other cats to understand what he said, so he spent most of his time alone, digging. He became really proficient at digging, and bored holes through the mountains of trash, going deep into their insect-infested innards. The large insects were good for protein, so he made it a point to find them and eat them before they could escape.
One very very fateful day, he found a bottle with a strange green light emitting from inside of it. He found it particularly odd that the bottle was unscratched, so he decided to investigate. The bottle was like a perfume bottle, with very fancy cuts in the glass and lots of pointy angles on it's exterior. It had a cork holding it shut, like that on a wine bottle. When he uncorked the bottle, the light rushed out of the bottle and expanded to a human-like figure that stood 8 feet tall. The man from the bottle looked like his skin was made of light, and he had one large wing protruding from his back. He was also completely nude.
George was scared, so he just blurted out "Who are you? Are you a ghost?"
The man answered "Master? You called?"
"What the hell...?"
The man looked down and said "You aren't him. Who are you?"
"Mm, George is my name." George replied, feeling a bit braver.
"My Master looks like you. Small and covered in fur. It is my mistake. I am the Great Genie of the Cosmos."
"A genie? Like in Aladdin or some shit? Do I get three wishes?"
"You're not my true master, but you did release me, so I will grant you only one wish. Only my true master can request my powers be used three times."
"Wh...who is your master?"
"That is not for you to know. Make your wish so I can go back into sleeping until I am needed."
"I wish," George said, "For a great cat empire that rules the world while humans can live on the moon."
"It will be done as you say." The Genie replied.
"WAIT NO. I NEED TO BE KING OF THE CATS."
"Then go into politics."
And with a huge shockwave of energy, the Genie cleared the entire globe of all humans, leaving every city empty and abandoned. The Genie retreated back into the bottle, which disappeared, leaving George alone in the junkyard by himself.
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Yurik
In the near future (how cliche) scientists began experimenting with genetics to speed up evolution so that it could be observed in a timely manner. They made some major progress in teaching mice to read and write, and learned that mice are basically a bunch of idiots that didn't really care about being subjected to testing if they were allowed to drink sugar water. And yet, the mice lacked a very crucial piece of the puzzle - the ability to create. They could be shown a particular pattern and repeat it, but could not create their own patterns. When the scientists asked the mice why this was, the mice simply replied by saying they did not understand the question. It was then that the scientists learned something peculiar - none of the mice, rabbits, monkeys or other test subjects were able to comprehend the question "why". Emotional responses were shown, but never questioned by the subjects.
So the scientists decided to inform the mice that all of them were going to be tortured and killed. This terrified the mice, and the scientists systematically began wiping out their mouse population. The mice begged the scientists to stop, they became paranoid and terrified, but never asked why this injustice was being committed. This project was known as the Gothford Experiment, after Dr. Franco Gothford, who led the project. It was his belief that he could push the mice to revolt against humanity if enough injustice was inflicted upon them, but the project never yielded such results, and finally was over when over 7 million mice had been killed, and all of the original test subjects had been terminated, and buried en masse behind the medical facility.
The Gothford Experiment was well-documented and the notes were used for a much more ambitious project, that would see if the same results would occur in "higher" intelligence animals - namely large populations of small monkeys, pigs, dogs, cats, dolphins, and crows. This was the Yurik Experiment, where the scientists isolated each population of animals from the others, so they could develop independently, and then teach them communication and logic skills. For the first few years, the animals developed differently, and each "race" began forming very distinct personalities. Each race worked very hard on their evolution, especially the dogs. They made a military-discipline effort to complete their project, and were unquestioningly loyal to their human overlords. Except for one race, which was the cats. The cats began to lag behind the other races badly in terms of overall development, and began to resist the training because they found it tiring and dull. The cats insisted that the project was pointless and that the scientists were wasting their time. Dr. Gothford spoke with one of the cats and asked him "Why do you think we're wasting our time?" and slowly and methodically, the cat assembled the letters to spell out "Because you're stupid."
The cats were the first to answer "Why", and once they learned what it was, began to ask "Why?" to virtually everything the scientists proposed to them, to the point of condescending their overseers.
Gothford posed a question to the cats: "Given your position, where we provide the food and water, where you are at our mercy, where we could kill you at any time, why do you continue to insist that you are superior to us?"
The cats replied: "Food, water, and death are all part of nature, you think you are so important that it disgusts us. You can make your houses, make your machines, and are big animals, but you are stupid animals because how can you not see that you need food, water and die just like cat? You think cat is part of human project. Human is part of nature project."
This was historic, because it was the first time any of the animals had personified nature, but it was argued that the cats had learned to use a rhetorical device in their reasoning, which would signify that they were actually ahead of all the other animal groups in terms of creativity. The consensus was made to dump all the other animals into a deep pit, and then cover the pit with a mountain of mud and rocks, so these genetic strands could not be released into nature, and so that they could study the cats more thoroughly.
The cats evolved more over the next few years, and were eventually able to walk upright (although they would still run on all fours), speak a very crude version of human English, and work with technology. The scientists involved treated the cats less like subjects, and more like people, and the scientists and cats came to respect each other. The most senior project leaders kept their distance though, and did not want to become emotionally attached to the cats, because they believed that at some point, they would need to terminate all of the test subjects.
That order came in one day to shift the focus of the project to begin testing humans and evolving humankind to a higher order, now that the process was shown to be relatively safe.
When ordered to terminate the test subjects, many of the scientists involved refused to obey their orders and locked themselves and the cats into one of the laboratories in the complex. The lab was surrounded by police and special weapons units to arrest everyone inside and exterminate all of the animals inside. A stand-off began between the police and rogue scientists.
The rogue scientists revealed to the cats the true nature of the project, a plan to turn humans into gods of some sort, and that millions upon millions of animals were killed without a second thought and without mercy. They revealed that the cats were the only race in the experiment to survive the culling, and that it was only a matter of time before they, too, were going to die.
The cats were appalled and demanded to know why, if the scientists knew about their impending death, did not set them free. Before the scientists could deliver a satisfactory answer, the cats took them hostage and order them to dig through the floor. "This is stupid!" one of the scientists protested, "We'll never be able to dig a tunnel out of here." but the cats worked with the humans to dig a tunnel 2 miles long that brought them to safety, and the cats all escaped without incident. The rogue scientists were eventually apprehended and arrested by authorities, although almost every single one of them was able to walk away from court. They presented a counter-suit against Dr. Gothford, which ultimately succeeded in convicting him of many counts of animal abuse, but he only received 5 years in prison, and was released after only 1 year behind bars.
So the scientists decided to inform the mice that all of them were going to be tortured and killed. This terrified the mice, and the scientists systematically began wiping out their mouse population. The mice begged the scientists to stop, they became paranoid and terrified, but never asked why this injustice was being committed. This project was known as the Gothford Experiment, after Dr. Franco Gothford, who led the project. It was his belief that he could push the mice to revolt against humanity if enough injustice was inflicted upon them, but the project never yielded such results, and finally was over when over 7 million mice had been killed, and all of the original test subjects had been terminated, and buried en masse behind the medical facility.
The Gothford Experiment was well-documented and the notes were used for a much more ambitious project, that would see if the same results would occur in "higher" intelligence animals - namely large populations of small monkeys, pigs, dogs, cats, dolphins, and crows. This was the Yurik Experiment, where the scientists isolated each population of animals from the others, so they could develop independently, and then teach them communication and logic skills. For the first few years, the animals developed differently, and each "race" began forming very distinct personalities. Each race worked very hard on their evolution, especially the dogs. They made a military-discipline effort to complete their project, and were unquestioningly loyal to their human overlords. Except for one race, which was the cats. The cats began to lag behind the other races badly in terms of overall development, and began to resist the training because they found it tiring and dull. The cats insisted that the project was pointless and that the scientists were wasting their time. Dr. Gothford spoke with one of the cats and asked him "Why do you think we're wasting our time?" and slowly and methodically, the cat assembled the letters to spell out "Because you're stupid."
The cats were the first to answer "Why", and once they learned what it was, began to ask "Why?" to virtually everything the scientists proposed to them, to the point of condescending their overseers.
Gothford posed a question to the cats: "Given your position, where we provide the food and water, where you are at our mercy, where we could kill you at any time, why do you continue to insist that you are superior to us?"
The cats replied: "Food, water, and death are all part of nature, you think you are so important that it disgusts us. You can make your houses, make your machines, and are big animals, but you are stupid animals because how can you not see that you need food, water and die just like cat? You think cat is part of human project. Human is part of nature project."
This was historic, because it was the first time any of the animals had personified nature, but it was argued that the cats had learned to use a rhetorical device in their reasoning, which would signify that they were actually ahead of all the other animal groups in terms of creativity. The consensus was made to dump all the other animals into a deep pit, and then cover the pit with a mountain of mud and rocks, so these genetic strands could not be released into nature, and so that they could study the cats more thoroughly.
The cats evolved more over the next few years, and were eventually able to walk upright (although they would still run on all fours), speak a very crude version of human English, and work with technology. The scientists involved treated the cats less like subjects, and more like people, and the scientists and cats came to respect each other. The most senior project leaders kept their distance though, and did not want to become emotionally attached to the cats, because they believed that at some point, they would need to terminate all of the test subjects.
That order came in one day to shift the focus of the project to begin testing humans and evolving humankind to a higher order, now that the process was shown to be relatively safe.
When ordered to terminate the test subjects, many of the scientists involved refused to obey their orders and locked themselves and the cats into one of the laboratories in the complex. The lab was surrounded by police and special weapons units to arrest everyone inside and exterminate all of the animals inside. A stand-off began between the police and rogue scientists.
The rogue scientists revealed to the cats the true nature of the project, a plan to turn humans into gods of some sort, and that millions upon millions of animals were killed without a second thought and without mercy. They revealed that the cats were the only race in the experiment to survive the culling, and that it was only a matter of time before they, too, were going to die.
The cats were appalled and demanded to know why, if the scientists knew about their impending death, did not set them free. Before the scientists could deliver a satisfactory answer, the cats took them hostage and order them to dig through the floor. "This is stupid!" one of the scientists protested, "We'll never be able to dig a tunnel out of here." but the cats worked with the humans to dig a tunnel 2 miles long that brought them to safety, and the cats all escaped without incident. The rogue scientists were eventually apprehended and arrested by authorities, although almost every single one of them was able to walk away from court. They presented a counter-suit against Dr. Gothford, which ultimately succeeded in convicting him of many counts of animal abuse, but he only received 5 years in prison, and was released after only 1 year behind bars.
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Catalyst
In an alternate universe, floating among many, the natural order of things was disrupted, which is usually good. In this case, it was bad. Very bad. You see, the Multiverse is a very delicate eco-system, and can explode in a nanosecond if one little thing goes wrong, which is why it requires expert care. The Multiverse is overseen by the Caretakers (or so I heard) who were able to escape from their universe, and began a system of overseeing and managing the Multiverse. They deemed most universes to be "too dangerous" to run naturally, and would intervene by altering aspects of that universe until it seemed safe. Unfortunately, the Caretakers didn't know just how bad they were screwing everything up, because their alterations actually began creating alternate universes. The Caretakers held a press conference stating, "We're really sorry. We had no idea this would happen, and unfortunately, we may all be obliterated at any time now. We urge calm and ask everyone to go about their normal lives, and hopefully, we can get this whole mess sorted out."
The procreation of universes created a kind of "cancerverse". This is a rapidly respawning universe that has no regards for time or space, and would duplicate itself over and over uncontrollably. All of the cancerverses were put on review for "termination" so that they wouldn't cause existence to cease by overwhelming the Multiverse.
The procreation of universes created a kind of "cancerverse". This is a rapidly respawning universe that has no regards for time or space, and would duplicate itself over and over uncontrollably. All of the cancerverses were put on review for "termination" so that they wouldn't cause existence to cease by overwhelming the Multiverse.
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