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tampered2007-11-02 02:49 pm
overelegant.livejournal.com) wrote in tampered2007-11-02 02:49 pm
Log: Complete
When; November 2, afternoon (before her date with Greed)
Rating; PG-13 for Adiane's foul mouth.
Characters; Lord Genome (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
helixking) and Adiane the Elegant (overelegant)
Summary; Pissed off after her falling out with Viral, Adiane seeks the advice of one of the only humans she's ever liked: Lord Genome, her creator.
Log;
Hime-sama was a good person to ask concerning the whereabouts of their Lord Genome, though Adiane hadn't quite pegged him as the flower-admiring sort. Nevertheless, she had been told he was in Xanadu appreciating the gardens. Perhaps soon enough, she idly mused with a wry smirk, she would become humble enough in death to learn to appreciate the little things, too.
The transition between worlds had been difficult, though it was only until just recently that the full weight of everything came crashing down on her. To realize how petty and insignificant her existence really was back on their world, coupled with the plethora of other realizations -- people change a lot over seven years, after all -- calling Adiane bewildered was an understatement.
But right now she was pissed. Pissed because, after apologizing for humiliating him, even after flat-out admitting her dependency on him, he said such awful things. Adiane got her kicks from watching people suffer -- it should not have been any different with that petulant little punk. Somehow, though, a cruel twist of fate had reversed their positions and now, she needed him. More than he needed her.
And she hated it.
Spotting her former lord, Adiane approached him and, out of habit, knelt before him. "Sir--" That was also out of habit. "--if you don't mind, may I have a minute of your time?"
Lord Genome had been strolling amongst the hydrangeas that afternoon, just like usual. He had taken to the habit of walking around the beautiful gardens and reading what books he could find in the past month he'd been there. Most of his time was spent with his nose in a book, sitting in a tree. He hadn't had much time for poetry during the Spiral Wars-- now was the time to fulfill the warrior-poet role.
After he died, he figured it was a waste of time to perpetuate the role of a malevolent dictator bent on the suppression of the human race. He had decided that humility and hermitage would be his modus operandi in this afterlife.
Hearing someone approach from behind, he turned to discover that it was Adiane, a former loyal general in the Anti-Human Army. She was Viral's commanding officer and a very formidable warrior, but in death, she was just like everyone else, woing largely to the fact that she was missing Sayrune.
"Adiane, how pleasant to see you. What would you like to speak about?" He reached his massive hand out to her, his muscles rippling impressively. "No need to kneel, I'm not that scary, am I?"
"Forgive me," she said, picking herself up from the ground and meeting his gaze levelly. With a sardonic smile, the former Heavenly General explained her purpose for initiating this encounter. "I was told to spend more time with you so that I may learn some respect."
The extent to which her loathing soared for her former subordinate in that moment surprised even her. Once a respected, honored soldier of the strongest army on the planet, dependent only on her Lord, and now so miserably dependent on that little shit who she used to eat for breakfast. It was maddening.
It was not Viral's back-talking that upset her so much. She had been relieved of her duties as a Heavenly General and as such, they were equal now. It was the brutal honesty he daringly displayed towards her that made her blood boil. The cruel truth that she had known but was reluctant to accept.
It was then that she realized it was not Viral whom she loathed. Rather, herself.
"And who told you this?" Lord Genome smiled pleasantly, feigning mock ignorance. Of course he knew who had told Adiane off and exactly the reason she had come to him. Viral had grown a pair and shook free the mantle of dependence on Adiane, which made her furious. He understood that she felt completely useless without her machine, and more importantly, without a purpose and an army; that she felt the need to assert her dominance over Viral to perpetuate some semblance of usefulness. Anyone in control must be useful, correct?
Lord Genome turned and clasped his hands behind his back before starting to walk away. "Follow me and tell me your concerns. While you may not be my faithful servant any longer, I am still Lord Genome."
"Yes, sir."
Falling into step beside him, Adiane struggled within herself to fully comprehend the feelings that Lord Genome understood with ease. Though she was no longer one of his precious generals, the demand to treat her creator with the same undying loyalty and respect was nevertheless her first and foremost objective in life -- and death. She would treasure his advice.
Her tone changed dramatically when she was faced with all of these realizations; it was difficult to maintain her composure even in front of her lord. That was Adiane the Elegant. "The fucking little snot told me off," she began, her rage mounting. "The only fucking person I want to depend on is you, my lord, but since you have relieved me of my duties I can't do that anymore. I don't fucking know shit about this place, and those from our world have changed so much I don't even recognize them anymore. Even you, my lord, are not the same as I remember you. Try as I fucking might to grasp all of this, I just fucking can't."
She stopped walking when she realized her hands were shaking.
"Maybe I just miss Thymilph too goddamned much," she muttered, clenching her fists in a feeble attempt to stay her trembling. "Or maybe I don't miss him enough. I don't know." Scenes from the fountain haunted her thoughts. "I think what pisses me off the most is how much I fucking admire Viral. Not necessarily for the things he's done -- I don't care about helping no monkeys -- but for how damn strong he's gotten."
"I see." Lord Genome paused for a moment, bending over to take a deep breath of what appeared to be roses. She was fuming, the Elegant mistress. Her foul tongue ironically gave her namesake a bit of an endearing quality, at least to Lord Genome's ironic sense of humor.
"What do you intend to do about Viral, Adiane?" Turning to face her, he gave Adiane a stern look, crossing his massive arms over his equally massive chest. "Do you intend to continue to assert dominance or will you understand that I chose him to be immortal and that he has gone on to become a savior of the universe? Thymilph was a good general, and so were you. You're right to miss him. But like him and the other two, you were all what soldiers are to any supreme leader-- disposable. Forgive my bluntness."
"As for your confusion, I think that you may need to understand the benefits of relaxation. Don't attempt to make sense of it all-- this is our life now." He grinned, showing his teeth. "We can't be bloodthirsty, human-slaughtering rulers anymore, now can we?"
"I respect your decision to make him your immortal messenger, sir," she said quickly, a small trace of something akin to jealousy underlying her tone. Though Lord Genome had chosen Viral for a reason and she understood that, to be one of the many Beastmen he had so easily sacrificed for his ulterior motive was a huge blow to her ego. In her mind and in her heart, she feared she didn't deserve the devotion of someone like Viral, let alone respect. He had been nothing but loyal and helpful to her the entire time and she had gone out of her way to belittle him in the most humiliating way possible. She tried to justify it as payback for his sexist remarks to various females in the City, but even that justification wasn't enough to alleviate her newfound turmoil.
We can't be bloodthirsty, human-slaughtering rulers anymore, now can we? As much as she would have liked to pick off quite a few of the stupid naked monkeys in the City, she had to admit that her lord was right. The demands of this new existence overshadowed her previous resentment towards the human race, as they should. Keeping a watchful eye on Hime-sama, the curses that no one was immune to, and the questions surrounding their purpose for being brought to this plane -- so much to keep one busy. As much as she abhorred the idea of retiring from her job of slaughtering humans, she had in fact done so already, the moment she died. Died for a cause that was obliterated along with the great city of Teppelin, the foundation of everything they stood for.
Her mission, that city, even she herself... they were a memory. Nothing could be done about it, aside from starting anew with the new chance they were offered.
"...About Viral, I will take responsibility for my cruelty towards him and apologize again the next time I see him. Seven years... is a fucking long time... but I'll do my best to catch up to the rest of you. Not gonna make any promises about not hating humans, though. Fuck humans."
Lord Genome chuckled, a rumbling laugh that filled his whole voice. One great hand stroked his mustache thoughtfully as he regarded the newly-humble Adiane. That was one thing that Lord Genome actually admired about Adiane's new ability to adapt to this city-- she would have to learn what it meant to value a life, but at the same time she clung to her own sense of independence and defiance. These are the things, Lord Genome noted, that he was proud of his "children" for.
"I see. I think that's a wise course of action, especially considering how despite your actions it's easy to tell how you truly feel about Viral." A devious twinkle in Genome's eye could be perceived before he turned and started walking again. They grow up so fast, hmm? "Even beastmen can feel human emotion; whether they like it or not, Adiane the 'Elegant.'"
Looking decidedly ruffled -- it's easy to tell how you truly feel about Viral -- Adiane's mouth worked desperately to come up with some sort of argument in response, but only succeeded in humiliating herself even further. Her great tail curled and uncurled anxiously and her face turned rosy pink. Swallowing hard, the proud woman choked down what little pride she had left and confided one last thing in her creator.
"That's why I'm apologizing."
It was not an emotion she was completely ignorant about. While she did not wish to pursue anything romantically with Thymilph -- generals had other, more important things to worry about as it was -- it was definitely something similar to love she had felt for the other Beastman. Something like intense admiration coupled with the gratitude she had for him for treating her like an equal. Thymilph respected her.
Trying to discern how exactly she felt about Viral was easy, when she stayed the torrent of hot-headed emotions inside of her long enough to think clearly. Newfound admiration for the former soldier, along with the irrefutable fact that she needed him more than he needed her, along with the undeniable attraction--
"Maybe I just like powerful men."
Adiane regarded Genome curiously at his remark. "Is there anything else we can do, like humans can as well, sir?"
Quite amused by her reaction, Lord Genome couldn't help but laugh at Adiane's resigned state of mind. The things that she confided in him were things she would rarely confide even to herself, and that was quite understandable. Adiane either saw him as one of two things-- A father figure or, more likely, a "powerful man" that she respected and was comfortable with revealing what Lord Genome could only imagine things she'd kill any other man immediately after she told them.
"Well, to be quite precise... You're not exactly NOT human." Lord Genome looked Adiane in the eyes, a slight frown on his face. "You see, the three things that make you different than humans-- the ONLY three things-- is the inability to reproduce, the fact that you are crossbred with animals, and you cannot use Spiral Power. Aside from these things, you are essentially human. I created you, Adiane, and all the beastmen. I have the ability to modify your code as I see fit." He watched Adiane carefully as he spoke. "Do you understand what I'm saying, Adiane?"
Adiane frowned when he laughed, wishing at that moment she could hole up somewhere and die again. Had she not wanted to confide in him -- and she did -- she hadn't much of a choice. There really wasn't anyone else to confide in, save for Viral himself. While she and Hime-sama were close, the girl was oblivious to the inner workings of a Beastman and would spend too much time trying to get Adiane to eat her cooking while rambling on and on about some nonsensical bullshit she didn't want to listen to.
"I understand, sir." Or at least she thought she did. Being compared to a human made her uneasy. Her first thought was to bellow out in sheer disgust, but she managed to suppress the impulsive urge to do so and only cringed instead. Said cringe slowly melted away, however, replaced by a deep frown.
Human, huh?
Lord Genome mused for a few moments before turning around to show Adiane his back. "You should go to him, Adiane. Say you're sorry. Tell him why you're sorry and why you'll never do it again. That is my advice to you, if you wish to take it." He bent over, once again, thinking about his choices to make Beastmen have human emotions. While for the most part emotions were healthy displays, a severe fault he saw with Beastman emotions is that they all seemed to have severely homicidal and maniacal personalities, quick to rash behavior and blind hatred of other species. This, Lord Genome deducted, was the result of combining wild animal DNA with the human helix. This was also the precise reason he did this-- to make a race which would methodically persecute and murder human beings. It went against their very genetics to tell them to stop killing them, much less even hating them. Such a burden, Genome thought, to have mastered genetics.
"Now, is there anything else you need, Adiane," Lord Genome asked idly as he bent over, examining a tiger lily.
"Yes, sir. And no, sir. Thank you very much for your time. I'll be going now."
Her single eye gave her lord one last, lingering stare before she turned on her heels and stalked off. She would take his advice and follow it to the best of her ability, depending on Viral's behavior. She still had a date to prepare for, one she wasn't entirely sure she should be going on in the first place after all of this. But, she had made a promise and was still feeling bitter at Viral's jabs that deflated her ego.
It would have to wait until later.
Rating; PG-13 for Adiane's foul mouth.
Characters; Lord Genome (
helixking) and Adiane the Elegant (overelegant)Summary; Pissed off after her falling out with Viral, Adiane seeks the advice of one of the only humans she's ever liked: Lord Genome, her creator.
Log;
Hime-sama was a good person to ask concerning the whereabouts of their Lord Genome, though Adiane hadn't quite pegged him as the flower-admiring sort. Nevertheless, she had been told he was in Xanadu appreciating the gardens. Perhaps soon enough, she idly mused with a wry smirk, she would become humble enough in death to learn to appreciate the little things, too.
The transition between worlds had been difficult, though it was only until just recently that the full weight of everything came crashing down on her. To realize how petty and insignificant her existence really was back on their world, coupled with the plethora of other realizations -- people change a lot over seven years, after all -- calling Adiane bewildered was an understatement.
But right now she was pissed. Pissed because, after apologizing for humiliating him, even after flat-out admitting her dependency on him, he said such awful things. Adiane got her kicks from watching people suffer -- it should not have been any different with that petulant little punk. Somehow, though, a cruel twist of fate had reversed their positions and now, she needed him. More than he needed her.
And she hated it.
Spotting her former lord, Adiane approached him and, out of habit, knelt before him. "Sir--" That was also out of habit. "--if you don't mind, may I have a minute of your time?"
Lord Genome had been strolling amongst the hydrangeas that afternoon, just like usual. He had taken to the habit of walking around the beautiful gardens and reading what books he could find in the past month he'd been there. Most of his time was spent with his nose in a book, sitting in a tree. He hadn't had much time for poetry during the Spiral Wars-- now was the time to fulfill the warrior-poet role.
After he died, he figured it was a waste of time to perpetuate the role of a malevolent dictator bent on the suppression of the human race. He had decided that humility and hermitage would be his modus operandi in this afterlife.
Hearing someone approach from behind, he turned to discover that it was Adiane, a former loyal general in the Anti-Human Army. She was Viral's commanding officer and a very formidable warrior, but in death, she was just like everyone else, woing largely to the fact that she was missing Sayrune.
"Adiane, how pleasant to see you. What would you like to speak about?" He reached his massive hand out to her, his muscles rippling impressively. "No need to kneel, I'm not that scary, am I?"
"Forgive me," she said, picking herself up from the ground and meeting his gaze levelly. With a sardonic smile, the former Heavenly General explained her purpose for initiating this encounter. "I was told to spend more time with you so that I may learn some respect."
The extent to which her loathing soared for her former subordinate in that moment surprised even her. Once a respected, honored soldier of the strongest army on the planet, dependent only on her Lord, and now so miserably dependent on that little shit who she used to eat for breakfast. It was maddening.
It was not Viral's back-talking that upset her so much. She had been relieved of her duties as a Heavenly General and as such, they were equal now. It was the brutal honesty he daringly displayed towards her that made her blood boil. The cruel truth that she had known but was reluctant to accept.
It was then that she realized it was not Viral whom she loathed. Rather, herself.
"And who told you this?" Lord Genome smiled pleasantly, feigning mock ignorance. Of course he knew who had told Adiane off and exactly the reason she had come to him. Viral had grown a pair and shook free the mantle of dependence on Adiane, which made her furious. He understood that she felt completely useless without her machine, and more importantly, without a purpose and an army; that she felt the need to assert her dominance over Viral to perpetuate some semblance of usefulness. Anyone in control must be useful, correct?
Lord Genome turned and clasped his hands behind his back before starting to walk away. "Follow me and tell me your concerns. While you may not be my faithful servant any longer, I am still Lord Genome."
"Yes, sir."
Falling into step beside him, Adiane struggled within herself to fully comprehend the feelings that Lord Genome understood with ease. Though she was no longer one of his precious generals, the demand to treat her creator with the same undying loyalty and respect was nevertheless her first and foremost objective in life -- and death. She would treasure his advice.
Her tone changed dramatically when she was faced with all of these realizations; it was difficult to maintain her composure even in front of her lord. That was Adiane the Elegant. "The fucking little snot told me off," she began, her rage mounting. "The only fucking person I want to depend on is you, my lord, but since you have relieved me of my duties I can't do that anymore. I don't fucking know shit about this place, and those from our world have changed so much I don't even recognize them anymore. Even you, my lord, are not the same as I remember you. Try as I fucking might to grasp all of this, I just fucking can't."
She stopped walking when she realized her hands were shaking.
"Maybe I just miss Thymilph too goddamned much," she muttered, clenching her fists in a feeble attempt to stay her trembling. "Or maybe I don't miss him enough. I don't know." Scenes from the fountain haunted her thoughts. "I think what pisses me off the most is how much I fucking admire Viral. Not necessarily for the things he's done -- I don't care about helping no monkeys -- but for how damn strong he's gotten."
"I see." Lord Genome paused for a moment, bending over to take a deep breath of what appeared to be roses. She was fuming, the Elegant mistress. Her foul tongue ironically gave her namesake a bit of an endearing quality, at least to Lord Genome's ironic sense of humor.
"What do you intend to do about Viral, Adiane?" Turning to face her, he gave Adiane a stern look, crossing his massive arms over his equally massive chest. "Do you intend to continue to assert dominance or will you understand that I chose him to be immortal and that he has gone on to become a savior of the universe? Thymilph was a good general, and so were you. You're right to miss him. But like him and the other two, you were all what soldiers are to any supreme leader-- disposable. Forgive my bluntness."
"As for your confusion, I think that you may need to understand the benefits of relaxation. Don't attempt to make sense of it all-- this is our life now." He grinned, showing his teeth. "We can't be bloodthirsty, human-slaughtering rulers anymore, now can we?"
"I respect your decision to make him your immortal messenger, sir," she said quickly, a small trace of something akin to jealousy underlying her tone. Though Lord Genome had chosen Viral for a reason and she understood that, to be one of the many Beastmen he had so easily sacrificed for his ulterior motive was a huge blow to her ego. In her mind and in her heart, she feared she didn't deserve the devotion of someone like Viral, let alone respect. He had been nothing but loyal and helpful to her the entire time and she had gone out of her way to belittle him in the most humiliating way possible. She tried to justify it as payback for his sexist remarks to various females in the City, but even that justification wasn't enough to alleviate her newfound turmoil.
We can't be bloodthirsty, human-slaughtering rulers anymore, now can we? As much as she would have liked to pick off quite a few of the stupid naked monkeys in the City, she had to admit that her lord was right. The demands of this new existence overshadowed her previous resentment towards the human race, as they should. Keeping a watchful eye on Hime-sama, the curses that no one was immune to, and the questions surrounding their purpose for being brought to this plane -- so much to keep one busy. As much as she abhorred the idea of retiring from her job of slaughtering humans, she had in fact done so already, the moment she died. Died for a cause that was obliterated along with the great city of Teppelin, the foundation of everything they stood for.
Her mission, that city, even she herself... they were a memory. Nothing could be done about it, aside from starting anew with the new chance they were offered.
"...About Viral, I will take responsibility for my cruelty towards him and apologize again the next time I see him. Seven years... is a fucking long time... but I'll do my best to catch up to the rest of you. Not gonna make any promises about not hating humans, though. Fuck humans."
Lord Genome chuckled, a rumbling laugh that filled his whole voice. One great hand stroked his mustache thoughtfully as he regarded the newly-humble Adiane. That was one thing that Lord Genome actually admired about Adiane's new ability to adapt to this city-- she would have to learn what it meant to value a life, but at the same time she clung to her own sense of independence and defiance. These are the things, Lord Genome noted, that he was proud of his "children" for.
"I see. I think that's a wise course of action, especially considering how despite your actions it's easy to tell how you truly feel about Viral." A devious twinkle in Genome's eye could be perceived before he turned and started walking again. They grow up so fast, hmm? "Even beastmen can feel human emotion; whether they like it or not, Adiane the 'Elegant.'"
Looking decidedly ruffled -- it's easy to tell how you truly feel about Viral -- Adiane's mouth worked desperately to come up with some sort of argument in response, but only succeeded in humiliating herself even further. Her great tail curled and uncurled anxiously and her face turned rosy pink. Swallowing hard, the proud woman choked down what little pride she had left and confided one last thing in her creator.
"That's why I'm apologizing."
It was not an emotion she was completely ignorant about. While she did not wish to pursue anything romantically with Thymilph -- generals had other, more important things to worry about as it was -- it was definitely something similar to love she had felt for the other Beastman. Something like intense admiration coupled with the gratitude she had for him for treating her like an equal. Thymilph respected her.
Trying to discern how exactly she felt about Viral was easy, when she stayed the torrent of hot-headed emotions inside of her long enough to think clearly. Newfound admiration for the former soldier, along with the irrefutable fact that she needed him more than he needed her, along with the undeniable attraction--
"Maybe I just like powerful men."
Adiane regarded Genome curiously at his remark. "Is there anything else we can do, like humans can as well, sir?"
Quite amused by her reaction, Lord Genome couldn't help but laugh at Adiane's resigned state of mind. The things that she confided in him were things she would rarely confide even to herself, and that was quite understandable. Adiane either saw him as one of two things-- A father figure or, more likely, a "powerful man" that she respected and was comfortable with revealing what Lord Genome could only imagine things she'd kill any other man immediately after she told them.
"Well, to be quite precise... You're not exactly NOT human." Lord Genome looked Adiane in the eyes, a slight frown on his face. "You see, the three things that make you different than humans-- the ONLY three things-- is the inability to reproduce, the fact that you are crossbred with animals, and you cannot use Spiral Power. Aside from these things, you are essentially human. I created you, Adiane, and all the beastmen. I have the ability to modify your code as I see fit." He watched Adiane carefully as he spoke. "Do you understand what I'm saying, Adiane?"
Adiane frowned when he laughed, wishing at that moment she could hole up somewhere and die again. Had she not wanted to confide in him -- and she did -- she hadn't much of a choice. There really wasn't anyone else to confide in, save for Viral himself. While she and Hime-sama were close, the girl was oblivious to the inner workings of a Beastman and would spend too much time trying to get Adiane to eat her cooking while rambling on and on about some nonsensical bullshit she didn't want to listen to.
"I understand, sir." Or at least she thought she did. Being compared to a human made her uneasy. Her first thought was to bellow out in sheer disgust, but she managed to suppress the impulsive urge to do so and only cringed instead. Said cringe slowly melted away, however, replaced by a deep frown.
Human, huh?
Lord Genome mused for a few moments before turning around to show Adiane his back. "You should go to him, Adiane. Say you're sorry. Tell him why you're sorry and why you'll never do it again. That is my advice to you, if you wish to take it." He bent over, once again, thinking about his choices to make Beastmen have human emotions. While for the most part emotions were healthy displays, a severe fault he saw with Beastman emotions is that they all seemed to have severely homicidal and maniacal personalities, quick to rash behavior and blind hatred of other species. This, Lord Genome deducted, was the result of combining wild animal DNA with the human helix. This was also the precise reason he did this-- to make a race which would methodically persecute and murder human beings. It went against their very genetics to tell them to stop killing them, much less even hating them. Such a burden, Genome thought, to have mastered genetics.
"Now, is there anything else you need, Adiane," Lord Genome asked idly as he bent over, examining a tiger lily.
"Yes, sir. And no, sir. Thank you very much for your time. I'll be going now."
Her single eye gave her lord one last, lingering stare before she turned on her heels and stalked off. She would take his advice and follow it to the best of her ability, depending on Viral's behavior. She still had a date to prepare for, one she wasn't entirely sure she should be going on in the first place after all of this. But, she had made a promise and was still feeling bitter at Viral's jabs that deflated her ego.
It would have to wait until later.