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Reaping Recollection (Part XV)

Posted: Sun Nov 28, 2021 1:52 am
by Rivin
25 Ash, 121

Rivin spent the next week inspecting and cataloging the vast collection of slides the doctor had been sent. There were well over a thousand and the task was interesting enough to make the repetitive nature of it less onerous. He discovered what he believed to be sixteen new specimens not on the official list. When he was done he set about analyzing the data, putting together a report on the likelihood of each known and unknown entity to be on any given slide and which ones were more prolific in different subsets. The subsets had been collected from different sources, so it was useful to understand which were likely to be in any source, and which were only found in some, or one.

When the report was compiled he brought it to Ilex, who set it aside and asked him to come read over a report on the newest batch of children to be produced in the experiment. Rivin did this without complaint, despite the fact that he hated reading about new children. This was partly due to knowing how most of them would live, and subsequently die, short, pointless lives in the darkness. The rest of his hatred came from the idea that among them might be a specimen closer to Dr. Ilex's vision than he himself was. Only a handful had ever gotten close, and those that had made it to receiving their runes had either died in the resulting sickness or gone mad and been put down. Others of his generation, as well as those that came after who were old enough to receive a rune but were not considered good enough candidates for one, were often kept for breeding purposes. If they were close but not right, their offspring might be better.

Rivin knew that, eventually, he would likely be called upon to breed, others his own age already had been. But he was special, in more ways than just the magic etched into his skin. He tried not to think about it, there was no point to it. It would happen and he would have no knowledge or contact with whatever specimens were created from his seed. The likelihood that he would eventually be called to unwittingly analyze his own progeny was high. When that time came he told himself he wouldn't look for ones that were the right age, wouldn't try and figure out which might be his. It wouldn't matter, they would be analyzed to the same standards as all the others and disposed of or move forward with the same cold logic.

It was nothing to do with him anyway. Not as if he would choose a mate or have any influence over their raising. A parent was a parent by choice, either in the creation of the rearing of a child. He would not be a parent, only an inseminator. He had worked with little glass droppers to fill tubes before. He imagined his level of involvement would be roughly equivalent to that.

When the report had been turned into a set of notes, one for himself and one for Ilex, and the specimens had been marked, some for removal from the experiment, some for additional testing, he turned the report back over and waited to see if Ilex had additional duties for him. The doctor was deep into a report of his own and wouldn't be giving Rivin more instructions until he was finished. Depending on what sort of report it was, it might be hours.

Sinking down the wall outside Ilex's office so he was sitting on his heels and backside Rivin began to let his mind drift. It was something he did sometimes, letting his thoughts go where they might, making connections he mightn't have if he'd been doing it intentionally. It would pass the time in the hallway as well as it did in a cell.

~~~~

In the week following his meeting with Dr. Ilex Rivin had been taken to meet with another human man, slim to the point of looking hungry and sharp-featured he had put Rivin through a rigorous set of tests in everything from the history and geography he knew well, through maths, and on to subjects the boy knew nothing of. Marks were made in a little notebook quite like the one he'd stolen and his hands twitched to get ahold of it and find out what was being written of him. The inducement was nowhere near worth the cost, even if he was only punished and not denied the promised instruction.

The week after he met with the slim man again and began taking lessons in new disciplines of math. He had also been taken to meet with a woman, plump and energetic, who had begun to teach him about the ideas behind science; the discipline which governed experimentation, even Dr. Ilex's. Between the lessons the two teachers gave, and the reading they assigned, Rivin was also allowed access to some sections of the library. He still enjoyed history, and his weakness for fiction persisted even when he had to discipline himself to only one work of fiction per week.

Rivin's life after the doctor decided to get him tutors went faster than it had before. Perhaps it was simply more full, so he spent less time sitting and doing nothing. Sometimes the days blurred together and he would look up to realize that weeks had passed while he'd been buried in all the knowing he was being fed as quickly as he could swallow it. He still spent most of his time with his mother, though as he began to realize that what he knew was growing to outstrip what she did in many areas, their relationship shifted from teacher and student to something vaguer.

Now that she was not in control of his primary education they talked less, and he was old enough to care for most of his own physical needs, so they touched less. It felt lonely to realize the connection points that had once made them so close were fading as he grew. He'd even brought this up once, and she had answered that children and their mothers grew apart as they needed each other less. Detecting a sort of sadness from her wasn't hard, but it was detached, perfunctory, as though it were perfectly normal. As though she had done it before.

The realization that his mother would have reached sexual maturity significantly before she had given birth to him hit him hard. Had she had other children? Had she left them behind when Dr. Ilex had bought her? Or had he bought her young enough that her other children had been part of the experiment? Had those done as well as Rivin, or had they failed the tests somewhere along the line and been removed?

The questions weren't ones he would willingly ask her, nor would asking Ilex or his tutors be wise.

He stilled worked out his body with her, learning that the first slow dance she had taught him was just that, the first. There were others, each harder than the last, but he was now conscious of what they were doing to his muscles and sense of balance so he appreciated the learning more. They still went into the yard when it was warm, still met with other sets of mother and child, but the disconnection he had felt when meeting these boys, similar but ignorant, grew wider and deeper as he learned. They seemed stupid to him now, and slow, in body as much as mind. He was beginning to try more and more daring things, climbing to the tops of the columns that were set in the four corners of the courtyard, leaping from one branch of the trees to another. When Rivin tried to talk to the other boys they often just stared at him. His vocabulary and topics of conversation were so far beyond them as to sound like a different language. They disgusted him and he soon learned to ignore them altogether unless he was in a peevish mood and wanted to tease them or shame them in races or other games of physical challenge. Even the boys who were physically much larger than him did not seem as though they had trained their forms enough to understand how to use them. They would attempt to tackle or grapple him and always reacted in surprise when their arms came up empty.

Years passed in this way of slowly fading from his connection to his one parent, disconnecting from the idea of even a passing relationship with any of his peers, and a growing reliance on the doctor. As he grew older, began to reach toward the first inklings of adolescence his instances of examination grew closer together. He saw the woman who had the marks on her hands more often. His physical form was tested in many ways; how long he could hold his breath, his reflexes, his pupil responses. When he began to have trouble reading a special mage was brought in who made his strange second sense feel like he was filled with static as he took Rivin's head in his hands and did whatever it was that mages did.

He knew about magic from the books of both history and fiction he'd read, but none had gone into detail of how any of it was done. He even learned that the marks on the normal mage-doctor's hands were runes of power. He was afraid to ask more, as asking about things that made one powerful were discouraged. When the made had stepped back his eyes hadn't been willing to focus for the rest of the day, but when he awoke the next morning, the words in his books had been perfectly clear. Whenever he suffered major illness or injury, a doctor had been called back to tend to him, either the woman or the man. The man seemed to specialize in dealing with the smaller, more delicate parts of the body, whereas the woman dealt with more common and general things.

Ilex checked on his scholastic progress often. Sometimes having the boy present while his tutors reported on his studies and sometimes only sending a note of praise or suggestion. Rivin kept all the notes in his bedside drawer, and he kept the memories of all the meetings hard in his mind. They were the only way he had to understand if his behavior was pleasing, if his areas of study and progress were considered sufficient. They were the only way he had to avoid punishment and earn more of what he wanted.

Re: Reaping Recollection (Part XV)

Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 1:54 am
by Finn
Review


Experience: 5 xp, but not for magic.

Lore:
Biology:
Breeding Lines

Chemistry:
Calculating Odds of Occurrence
Analyzing Data
Noting Sources
Writing Reports

Endurance:
Long Hours of Study

Injuries: N/A

Loot: N/A

Note: The baby.