Twisting Humanity -::[Haru|Gypsy]::-

[Haruchai]

There was no telling just how long it had existed. Even the wisdom of its' own age had been lost to Time. It was as old as anything it else it had known, and for eons it had writhed in nothingness, in Darkness. The endless reaches of space had been its cocoon, its womb, and it had hurtled through that cold void. Just what dimension it had decided to make its home was likewise unnamed and ageless. Still, from this place of darkness and skewed perception it thrived, roaming through countless rifts that manifested onto the Material Plane.

It was through these rifts that it had discovered new life. Utterly unlike its own, but thriving nonetheless. Predatory in its design, it hunted, seeking prey. The things that inhabited this world proved to be satisfactory in its feeding, though what it fed upon was not flesh and blood. That was disgraceful. Messy. Primitive. No, it fed upon the Mind. Emotion.

The Intelligence and Wisdom that It displayed was ingrained in its very being, and reached a nadir far beyond human understanding. That was how came to know the creatures that it fed upon. Human. That was what they called themselves. Traveling back and forth through the rifts it was soon worshiped as a god. The humans gave their sacrifices willingly, eagerly.

In return it took a somewhat humanoid shape. At least partially humanoid in appearance, this form towered at nearly eighteen feet in height. Because of this great size but bipedal appearance it roamed this plane, seeking food. The sacrifices and rites that were meant to placate and sate it proved to keep the hunger at bay for some time. Soon however, the humans rose up, defying its power. Understanding their need to resist, it began to mold itself further. It would no longer walk among them as Master and Lord. Instead the malleable form it possessed took smaller and smaller shapes.

Having long been able to penetrate the feeble minds of the human race, It could see their innermost desires and fears. Taking the forms of those that were loved or revered, it fostered in the humans the desire biochemical reactions upon which it fed. This made its feeding all the easier, and left the humans happy as well. Instead of sacrifice they now gave themselves willingly once more. The balance was once again reached.

However, millennia passed and It walked among them as It pleased. They no longer saw it for what it was, and its shape constantly shifted to serve its needs. By now it had the power to manifest the rifts between the dimensions, opening portals as desired and able to retreat back to the Nether. There within resided others like It, some sentient and some not. It was the oldest of its kind. The First. The glut if feeding had allowed it to multiply, and so its children now grew on their own, taking that needed.

Humanity grew and changed, and still it fed. Humanity grew stronger, more curious, slowly unraveling the mysteries of their world - which only served to widen their sphere of ignorance, raising more questions than answers.

It had grown complacent. That was the only explanation that it could conjure for the situation it now found itself in. Captured. Humiliated. It had been in the throes of a transiional shift, taking a human form of one that resided heavily in the thoughts of a woman close by. It managed to complete the shift and slam the rift shut before the accursed technology forced him to succumb.

So it was that it found itself in some sort of prison, slowly oozing lifesblood from a dozen wounds and peering out at this cold and utterly sanitary place from behind the facade it had been able to erect. The smooth cold floor beneath this form it had taken was slicked with its fluids, and it peered out of the strange geometric shaped prison.

 

[Gypsy]

“Mademoiselle, you have a video conference with General Addams and his colleagues.” An English accented voice echoed throughout the room, its source indeterminable. “Shall I patch him in?”

“Please, Jarvis.”

Perhaps the laboratory wasn’t an adequate place to conduct the meeting but the call arrived on such short notice that Dr. Esme Kaur had no time to prepare. Hauling her documents to the conference room was a hassle the woman preferred not to do, especially when there was a dangerous foreign being in her facility. Instead, she smoothed her lab coat and peered at the widescreen before her. Briefing with her superiors was always a nerve wracking agenda.

“Good morning, Dr. Kaur.” A man with a severe face and snow white hair greeted the good doctor as the feed connected. He was dressed in decorated regalia that befitted his station in the United Nation’s Bureau of Defense and surrounded by men garbed in similar fashion. “I hope you like what we brought to you.”

“Well,” Esme glanced at the incapacitated creature confined in the cube aways from where she stood before clearing her throat, “it’s certainly a leap up from the usual. I loathe to ask what measures your men went to catch this one.”

“Went through hell and back, believe me. My boys have been using these field trackers Arms equipped them with the past year. Just a pilot run to see if it’d work and detect something. All’s quiet usually. It wasn’t last night for the squad in Breckinridge. Trackers went nuts for a whole minute but the boys followed its signal.”

“That’s when you found it.”

“Not just that worm, Dr. Kaur. The Beyond. It’s a roamer.” General Addams’s eyes glittered in spite of his grave tone. The men who lined the table behind the general either donned expressions of shock or discomfort much like what the doctor on the other end felt. “There has been no sightings of the Beyond for years. Yes, I know. I’ve forwarded the footages of its capture to your chips. You’ll see that what I say is true. Unfortunately, the roamer managed to close the rift before it was captured.” There was visible agitation in the general’s demeanor which led Esme to believe that he would have killed it if he didn’t think that it could part the curtains to the Beyond again. “Dr. Kaur, we have no clue what it is except that it’s not human. It may look like it but it’s not. Exercise caution. We don’t know what it’s capable of. That’s where your knowledge comes in. Patch it up, study it, see if it’s something we can use. Most importantly, see if it can open up a rift. All that we know is already in the files I sent you. We’ll speak again in a week.”


In the ten years that Dr. Esme Kaur worked for in the United Nation’s Bureau of Defense, never had she seen a creature more impressive than a chupacabra until today.

Before her, in a glass cube, was what seemingly appeared to be a mundane human sans all the wounds that marred its—his?—body. Yet Esme knew that his appearance was a disguise. The footage that was sent to her moments after its arrival in the facility granted her a glimpse of its real form in the thick of its capture in the outskirts of Breckinridge, Colorado. Every thing was recorded from the eye-cams of the squad that felled it, even the ingress to the Beyond. From a monstrous appearance, it managed to morph into a human male and close the tear it emerged from amidst the hale of bullet fire from the Armed Force’s special operatives before it was tranquilized, seized, and transported to Area X.

Legends and literatures spoke of creatures like this in one form or another. Hawaiians had their goddess Pele, Africans had ilimus, Indonesians had leyaks, and Scotsmen had selkies. There were an abundance of myths about beings that could take on the form of a human to benefit their needs and walk amongst men. Although Esme researched and read these stories in and off work out of duty and intrigue, this was the first time she truly had something concrete and physical of this caliber in her presence as opposed to textbook passages. A part of her was thrilled, but a small part of her was also terrified. Despite being a part of a department that specialized in this aspect of society, the biologist lived by the principle of not believing in something until she saw it with her own eyes.

As chief biologist of the Research and Development for Astrobiology and Cryptozoology division, Dr. Esme Kaur’s clinical fascination towards the creature overruled most of her emotions. Her job was to examine what was brought to Area X, determine its abilities, and attempt to use it to the UNBuD’s advantage. Prior to present, brownies, chupacabras, death worms, and other minor creatures were delivered to her doorstep. They were interesting enough at first yet they were ultimately useless to the UNBuD if they weren’t sentient or threatening. Such was the reason why her superiors thought it best to let her live and run Area X, a highly classified detachment in Colorado Plateau, alone and to her discretion. In truth, Esme hadn’t really minded. Area X was contained—one sprawling building atop subterranean floors—and equipped with all that she needed to maintain the facility and accommodate its unusual guests. Besides, she always had Jarvis, Area X’s artificial intelligence, to accompany her.

“I believe it’s awake, mademoiselle.” Jarvis announced, his voice ostensibly omniscient in the lab.

Esme crouched, her white coat fanning behind her on the floor and concealing a figure-hugging cream dress, inspecting the roamer and its wounds within its enclosure. The cube that housed it and the anti-field generator that sedated it was fortified with tech and magick, locking in and suppressing any creature that didn’t belong in this world. Above the cube was a number of robotic arms of varying sizes that Esme could maneuver through Jarvis or her tablet.

“Hello,” Esme greeted in a neutral tone that belied her wonder and apprehension of the man-like monster, “welcome to Area X. I’m operating under the assumption that you’ll understand me since adopting human form wouldn’t be half as convincing if you didn’t understand or act human. I’ll be your host during your stay here... somewhat. Before I start with anything, I’ll extend a courtesy unless you’d like to be called ‘34’. What would you like me to call you by?”

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