First thing's first, brand new character. As in, came up with this morning and developed over the afternoon after a small revamp. This is what happens when Siani watches an awesome movie with her sisters, needs to write a fairly lengthy blog post, and really adores the inspiring possibilities found within said awesome movie. (AKA, Pacific Rim.)
Please meet Jandy Sparks (left) and Dechlan Scott (right). Brand new characters as of today. There are a couple more, but I don't know when I'm going to introduce them. Though I should mention that these are just mine. My sisters sort of jumped in and now we're world building and coming up with characters and it's great fun.
I don't know how many of you have seen Pacific Rim, the inspiration for this latest idea, but please know that we have rather completely re-revolutionized the idea and made it our very own. It is, in general, called Shattered Cage, but I'm going to let Jandy explain the idea to you in the drabble, because I am awful at explaining ideas.
Just as a heads up, though, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the writing format for this idea, so bear with me as I play a bit.
Word Count: 1,098 Minimum Goal: 1,020
I had been twenty-five and completely alone when the first report came. Something had broken through to the surface from underground; something big and almost undefeatable. No one had any idea what to call it, or how to take it down. Most attacks would bounce off their hides and sometimes… late at night, the newscasts would talk about men dropping dead in the vicinity of the creatures without a mark on them. No one knew what to make of it.
Four months after the first creature emerged and an semi-normal day-to-day life thanks to my location, they found me in my haunt, pristine in their suits. They’d said, through their translator, that they were from some private company run by an Finnish man named Asbjörn Unpronounceable-European-Name and that they needed my help saving the world.
I was sure they were joking. Japanese-American (though by then just American in name), halfway-to-becoming-an-alcoholic, tattooed and scarred me, save the world?
No way.
But they were persistent. Said they wanted me and that it couldn’t be anyone else. They knew about—about Jane. That we’d been twins. And then explained that they needed that about me because anyone else didn’t have the capability for what they needed.
It hadn’t taken me too long to decide to just go with them. I didn’t have anything left for me in Akita besides a rundown apartment in the bad part of town full of memories I was trying to forget. Packing a bag and leaving my door cracked, I left with the two men. Their translator, as well, because I couldn’t understand their gibberish with only a couple years of English under my belt.
The airplane travel alone was almost enough to send me running back to Japan. I hadn’t been in the air since I’d been a baby and even though they said air-travel had never been smoother, between take-off and turbulence, I was more than a little airsick.
Their company was based out of Canada, somewhere I’d never heard of. But, as someone who’d barely finished high school and proceeded to fail miserably at life, I hardly knew about anything outside of Akita and Japan. It was a huge compound, with shining buildings and manicured lawns. But it had felt empty and the air had hung around my escorts and I as they, well, escorted me towards the largest of the complexes.
There hadn’t been many people about as we walked through pristine halls and those I did spot seemed… tired. Worn-out. Weighted down but still pressing forward.
It was a strange vibe to get off people in such a nice place, that was for certain.
As it had turned out, Mr. Asbjörn was out of town and I spoke with one of his head assistants. Through the translator, again, because it didn’t seem like they’d been prepared for a non-English speaker. It hadn’t bothered me, though.
They’d wanted me to join a two-man team called a Dyad. I’d been found because I had, formerly, been a twin and there were still some residual capabilities in my neural pathways to make a connection. That was what the doctor/scientist had had to say, at the least. Not a lot of what he’d had to say had made much sense to me, even when in a language I spoke.
The whole message had taken a while to hit home, but when it did, I wasn’t sure what on earth I’d gotten myself into.
Apparently, the creatures crawling out of the core of our earth had some serious mind powers and were dropping people by just looking their direction—much like in a bunch of old stories from thousands of years ago. Some old guy – Asbjörn’s grandfather – had started the Dyad program lots of years earlier after he’d supposedly heard the creatures in his head and had done a lot of research on what they might be. The whole Dyad idea was born from that research. They recruited twins from around the world who had a good relationship, and then used some chip in the backs of their heads to give their brains a little boost out the door—and into the other’s.
Society had been advancing fast, but two-way mindreading was something unheard of. And, by that point, I had been more than ready to un-hear everything I’d already heard. Let someone in my head? I barely survived in my own head. How was I supposed to allow another person to be privy to every thought and emotion I had?
The assistant – Mr. Boyce – had been patient, though. So patient that it made me think he’d been around that rodeo more than a few times. He’d explained again their situation—that their Dyad teams were the only thing strong enough to not get crushed by the creatures’ minds, but they weren’t experienced enough to be taking down the creatures. They’d had many people injured, and lost quite a few more than that. Not to mention the ones who’d run after their first encounter with one of those creatures.
I had been ready to laugh at the idea of myself getting one of those Dyad partners and fighting monsters, because it sounded just like something out of one of the old manga that people either paid thousands for or used as makeshift brooms. But he’d been so serious. Patient, but serious. Aged beyond his years by the weight of this last line of defense that their science project had turned into.
Curbing my incredulity, I’d asked for some time to think. Mr. Boyce had been more than ready to grant it.
I got shown to a one-room apartment for the night, but wasn’t given permission to look around the premises without an escort, and thus had soon decided to stay in for the night. The meal-dispenser they had right in the pocket-sized kitchen only helped influence that decision a small amount.
Those sorts of luxuries had been something one only saw in the rich parts of town back in Japan, although I’d heard they were commonplace in Tokyo. The next thing had been the water. Hot water like I hadn’t ever had before. It was heaven and even though I’d had a lot to think about at the time, I’d enjoyed it.
By the time I had picked at three different meals and cleaned every inch of me until my skin was raw, darkness had fallen. I had been able to see city lights on the horizon outside my window and spent the rest of the night in a chair with a blanket, considering my options.
Now, as normal, if I have completely turned you around with my obscure explanations, please say so and I would be more than happy to fill you in on what I actually meant to say.
And if it did make sense... what do you think? Potential? No potential? Dechlan should be introduced in my next drabble, which I'm going to go write after I finish with this post. I am going to catch up tonight. Period, dot. The word counts are getting too large to not keep up.
So yeah. I'd love to know what you think and I hope that you guys don't mind this abrupt change in direction!
Ad astra per aspera.
To the stars, through difficulties.
