[Fanfiction] Normal

[22tankmaster]

Thanks Kale for the double-shot again! Always a pleasure to read your work. Also, don't put yourself down. You are a master with these things I can never use properly... WORDS. I don't think many other people on these forums put as much time and care into their work as you do. Keep it up!

Edited August 11, 2013 by 22tankmaster

[Kalenath]

Normal

 

On a small, devastated human habitat orbiting the planet Jupiter, a small plaque suddenly appeared one day. The Grineer survey crew who had been checking the ruins for salvage or usable technology found it and examined it, but could not make heads nor tails of it. It was obviously Orokin in origin, the golden metal a dead giveaway. It had no power sources, no energy signature that anyone recognized. It was just a metal plate with writing on it that had suddenly appeared attached to a building. Every attempt to move it, or sample it's construction failed. They fled when a shadowy form that looked almost like a Corpus MOA attacked them, injuring two of them and chasing the rest away. The only clue that the scavengers took with them was a holo that they had taken of the inscription on the plaque. The words would take some time to be translated, they were in an ancient language called 'English'

 

In memory of Mari

 

A Normal Human

An Extraordinary Friend

 

You are missed

 

 

***

 

Cecelia moved through the dojo she called home now, her non-existent heart heavy. Her metal body was cold from her visit to the memorial. It would warm quickly. She visited the memorial every week and no one so much as blinked at her requests to go. Her feet made ringing noises as she tramped, but no one minded. She hated fighting, but chasing away the scavengers had been fun. A few scary holograms, a few strategically placed shots and they had run like scalded rabbits. She hadn't wanted a battle. She didn't want to kill anyone, not even degrading clones that it would be a mercy to kill. She wasn't a combat unit. She never wanted to go into combat again and Karl had said flatly that no one was going to make her.

 

"Cecelia?" A soft voice had the MOA pausing. She looked at Tenno Jac was standing at a junction, her face worried. "I heard you were back. How did it go? You okay?"

 

"Hi Jac. I chased away some Grineer scavengers. But... No." Cecelia said with a sigh. It still surprised her how human she could feel when she wasn't. Mari's final gift to the MOA had been a data dump of information on what it was to be human. It helped Cecelia understand, and the rest of the clan were always ready to talk to her. Cecelia treasured Mari's parting gift, but used it as well. "It still hurts, Jac." She said sadly, then paused as Jac stepped close and threw and arm around the MOA, tears starting to fall from the Tenno's eyes. "It hurts..." Cecelia said, crying.

 

"I know." Jac said sadly. "I barely knew Mari and I loved her. Her being...gone hurts me.  I cannot imagine what you are feeling." She hugged the MOA tighter. Cecelia felt worry.

 

"Don't hug too hard." Cecelia said quietly. "I am metal, remember?" A quick medical scan showed no harm to Jac's unborn child. "It can't be good for your baby."

 

"Metal? Only on the outside." Jac said, tears still streaming. "You are hurting and I want to help."

 

"Everyone says only time will do that, Jac." Cecelia said with a sigh. "I am...functional."

 

"But you are not happy." Jac said quietly. "Come on. I want to see if you can do something besides parse through data and mope."

 

"I am not moping." The MOA said with a half hearted snarl. "You all won't let me."

 

Indeed, the entire clan, from Karl all the way down, had taken it upon themselves to keep Cecelia occupied, to keep her busy. She did appreciate that. But every time she visited the memorial, the pain came back. She didn't want let it go. She knew it wasn't healthy. Alicia, Amelia and Jimmy had all expressed themselves eloquently -and profanely on occasion- on that subject. Jimmy was very kind to Cecelia, but then again, he understood more about her predicament that the others by the simple fact that he was a cyborg himself. He didn't feel the same way she did. His emotions had been dampened by what the renegades who had hurt him had done to him, but he did understand and it helped. Everyone had pitched in to help her update the dojo computers and storage systems and now she had an archive worth the name. She had a place. She had a job. Now if only the pain would fade. "I am not really your sister."

 

"No. You are Mari's daughter, and she was our sister." Jac said, easing her hug and moving back a bit, but leaving her arm draped over the MOA's chassis. "That makes you our niece and you are grieving. So no, we won't." She shook herself and stepped back, her hand still on the MOA's hull. "Come on."

 

"Bunch of pushy Tenno." Cecelia said with a sigh. But fighting them didn't work. There was simply no way that Cecelia would hurt any of them and they knew it. They used that advantage the same way Tenno used every advantage. Ruthlessly. They dug their heels in and became rocks. Trying to out-stubborn Tenno without resorting to violence was a losing proposition, Cecelia had found. As he had warned, Karl had a lot of songs at his disposal and had used them ruthlessly when she balked. "You don't need to fret. I am not suicidal. Not...much anyway..." Cecelia admitted when Jac looked at her. "I won't. Mari wouldn't like that." She said with only a small catch in her voice.

 

"This isn't about Mari, Cecelia." Jac said as she led the MOA into another room in the dojo. One set up as a classroom. It hadn't been used in a long time, but Jac didn't even flinch from the dust as she moved the MOA to a pile of stuff that had been laid on a table. "This is about you. And me." Jac admitted as she sat at the sole chair that had been set at the table. "Can you reach this stuff?" Jac asked as she pulled the pile closer to her.

 

"Yes." Cecelia admitted, perplexed. "You? Are you okay? Your vitals are good." She said, worried.

 

"I am...having some problems myself." Jac said a bit sheepishly. Cecelia froze and Jac hastened to reassure her. "No, no...Nothing really bad. I just... I have been a soldier for so long, I don't know how to be anything else. I want this, and Aeron wants this. We both understood what I would give up. Or... I thought I did. I do, I just... I need to think some." Jac said, her face falling. She shook herself and pulled something from the pile. "This always helped me when I was young. I think... Maybe it will help you too."

 

"Is that...paper?" Cecelia asked, awed. Wood pulp paper was a myth in a world of high tech transfers of information.

 

"It is." Jac said quietly, setting one piece in front of herself and other in front of where the MOA stood. "I used to paint and do calligraphy as a child. It is...relaxing."

 

"I..." Cecelia took a step back as Jac set a series of brushes out, within easy reach for her and for Cecelia. "I wouldn't trust myself with something so precious."

 

"It's not." Jac said quietly, not moving. "This paper is made from recycled materials. We have lots of those, Cecelia. The paints, likewise. I am glad I remembered how to make the pigments, but I am not sure I remembered it quite right. So we are testing this."

 

"Jac..." Cecelia said, dazed. "I... That... The amount of recycled material to make that much..." She gulped, looking at the stack of materials. A large sheaf of the paper was prominent. "For something to waste on a test? Paper is unique and priceless."

 

"So are you." Jac said, her voice still quiet. "I did this for myself, but then realized you might enjoy it. Try? For me?" She asked, her face sad.

 

"You are going to insist, aren't you?" Cecelia asked, her tone resigned.

 

"No." Jac said as she pulled a brush from the set, uncapped a small jar and dipped the brush in. "But I think you might enjoy it. You need something to express yourself. Especially now that Amelia and Alicia have delivered their verdict."

 

"I wasn't sure from the beginning." Cecelia replied heavily. "I am not human, Jac."

 

Alicia and Amelia had worked feverishly to try and find a way to transfer Cecelia's mind into a cloned body, but the docs had hit snag after snag. Finally they had determined that the material the Corpus had used as the shell for the life support system enclosing her organic brain blocked most forms of mental transfer. It allowed for an impressive resistance to many forms of mind control, but it also hindered any attempt to transfer her to another body. The docs hadn't given up, they were looking for options, but no one was hopeful now.

 

"I know." Jac said calmly as she dipped the brush into the jar and then laid it to the paper, sweeping an arc of paint on it. "You are who you are, Cecelia. If we can help you, aid you in any way, we will. You have suffered enough." Jac said quietly as she painted.

 

She focused on her work and Cecelia watched for a moment before stepping close.  The MOA took one of the smaller brushes in a delicate appendage and slowly examined it. Jac smiled but did not comment.

 

Cecelia took the brush, dipped it in the paint and slowly traced an outline on the paper in front of her. Then she paused and, with a sigh, started filling in the lines. She worked quickly, but carefully as she filled the figure she had made, changing paints and brushes twice. Jac paused from her work and looked at what Cecelia was concentrating on. The picture was a flower with white petals. Or... some kind of insect with wide white wings? Jac went back to her work and was quickly done with a picture of a large storage vase in ancient Orokin style. She looked at what Cecelia was painting and nodded.

 

"That is nice." Jac said softly as she looked at the picture. "What is it?"

 

"A Mariposa. I looked up the word." Cecelia said without looking at her or pausing in her painting. "Mariposa was a flower and a word in a language called 'Spanish' for a small insect with wide wings called a butterfly." Then she threw the brush across the room, picked up the paper in two appendages and ripped it in half! "No! It wasn't fair!" The pieces of paper fluttered from her grasp as she screamed and collapsed to the floor. "First Mariposa then Mari... It just wasn't fair!"

 

"Oh, Cecelia..." Jac was at her side in an instant. "Let it out, honey. Let it out..." She rubbed the MOA's warm hull in a soothing fashion as Cecelia started to sob. "We are here for you, Cecelia. Now and always."

 

"Mari told me she would die. When Mariposa let her talk to me... " Cecelia said, crying hard. "She just wanted a normal life, a family, a chance at children... Why couldn't she get that?" She asked Jac.

 

"She got a family." Jac said softly. "We, you and the clan, were her family and she died to protect us all. And as for a normal life? Cecelia, what is 'normal'?" Jac asked, hugging the machine gently.

 

"What?" The MOA asked, confused.

 

"Cecelia..." Jac said quietly. "Every sentient judges themselves by the ones around them. Good, bad or indifferent, they judge themselves by the ones around them. Mari was always too hard on herself. She was not Tenno. She was not born into this, or trained into this. She didn't have Cora's muscle, Miguel's experience, or Karen's stubborn cheerfulness. She thought she was lessening us. Bringing us down. She wasn't." She pleaded with the MOA. "She made us remember what we fight for, Cecelia. What we swore to serve, and why."

 

"I don't understand." Cecelia said after a moment. "She kept saying she wanted a normal life."

 

"Mari didn't know what she wanted, Cecelia." Jac said in a sad voice. "She didn't fit in here despite everything we all tried to do. We wanted to give her a chance to find a better way." She shook her head. "The thing was, she was never going to be what she wanted. She was never going to be 'normal'. Normal was a concept created by people selling things, by psychologists to justify their own existence. It doesn't exist anywhere except in people's minds, Cecelia. And normal for one is different from normal for another. Mari wasn't normal. Not by any stretch of the imagination. Neither am I. Neither are you." She patted the quivering hull gently.

 

"I know." Cecelia said sadly. "I knew from the moment I saw her that she was special. Physically, she was a normal human. But in every other way...?" She started crying again. "She was my mom..." The MOA wailed.

 

"I know." Jac said, holding Cecelia's shaking form. "I can't wave my hands and make the pain go away and none of us will allow you to sunder your memories." Cecelia jerked and Jac shook her head. "Your queries on human memory patterns were noted, Cecelia. Karl will talk to you later."

 

"I just want to forget." Cecelia said softly. "It hurts so much and I want to forget!"

 

"Cecelia." Jac said sternly. "You knew her better than any of us. If you don't remember her right, who will?" Jac glared at the MOA who seemed to wilt a bit. "She deserves better than to be forgotten, Cecilia."

 

"I..." The MOA gulped a bit. "Why can't I just turn my emotions off?"

 

"Because you are not a machine." Jac said patiently. "No matter your outside appearance, you are not a machine, Cecelia. Drugs won't work and there is no switch to flip."

 

"I wish there was." Cecelia said, her tone abject. Then she seemed to perk up a bit. "I... I don't hurt as much now. Is that...right?" She asked softly.

 

"Talking with others can hurt, but it often helps as well." Jac said softly, still rubbing Cecelia's housing as the MOA sat up a bit. "We are all here for you, Cecelia. Anything we can do to help, just ask. But we are not going to let you suicide and we are not going to let you wipe your memories."

 

"Pushy Tenno." Cecelia said with a sad chuckle.

 

"Only with those we love, girl." Jac said with a grin. "Oh, word of warning... Karl was looking at music when he told me he was going to 'talk' to you." Cecelia seemed to wince and Jac nodded. "Something called 'Barret's Privateers' I think..."

 

"I don't want to know." Cecelia said with a sigh. "He is so good at so many things, it stands to reason he would be bad at something. But... To be that bad..." Her hull shook, a MOA shiver. Jac laughed and rose to her feet.

 

"Want to try some more painting?" Jac asked, holding out a hand to Cecelia who rose and took her hand in an appendage.

 

"Yeah." Cecelia said with a sigh. "It was...relaxing. Until I..." She paused. "Wait a sec..." She was staring at the table, where a piece of paper lay. "I tore that. I know I did." The paper was Cecelia's picture of the flower and the insect. It was intact and... it showed two images.  The flower and an insect. Before it had been one image that could have been either.

 

"Yes, you did." Jac said, staring as well. "And the pieces fell away. So..." She shook her head, looking around. "No one else is here." She paused, Cecelia seemed to have frozen. "Cecelia?"

 

"Did you just pat my housing?" Cecelia asked, her tone scared. "Someone just patted my housing!"

 

"Cecelia, be calm." Jac said, laying a hand on the MOA's hull, which was twitching. "It's okay. Whatever it is, we will handle it."

 

"It was...comforting." Cecelia said, relaxing. "It felt...kind. I don't understand." She said, looking at Jac who shrugged helplessly. "I read some odd things in that data Mari gave me. Is this dojo haunted?"

 

"Not that I know of. But..." She froze as she looked closer at the paper. "Cecelia..." She breathed. "Look at the bottom..." At the bottom of the paper, a small symbol had appeared. A Lotus. As they stared, a line of text appeared on the paper beside the symbol.

 

'To the daughter of the human woman who was the host of my sister. May your life be less interesting than it has been. Oh, and Cecelia? Don't try to be normal. Normal is for fools and cowards. You are neither.'

 

Jac and Cecelia stared at the paper, but no further text appeared. Finally, Cecelia laughed, just a little bit hysterically.

 

"Well, we are not haunted." Cecelia said with a sigh.

 

"Good." Jac agreed wholeheartedly. "Now, you need some downtime and I need some food. How about we go handle that?"

 

"I would like to do some more painting. After the downtime. And after Karl tortures me with his idea of music." Cecelia said equably as Jac started for the door. They walked out chatting softly and neither of them noticed a hazy form that appeared in a corner of the room. Mari's face was sad, but proud as she stared after her mechanical daughter.

 

Thank you, Lotus. Mari said silently as she faded out. I appreciate it. I know I can't come back again, but it was worth it.

 

Not a problem, Mari. The Lotus replied. She is just as far from normal as you are.

 

Don't remind me... Mari's mental voice was tart, but held gratitude and contentment as she went back to where she now belonged.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Kalenath

[Kalenath]

And that is it for this fanfiction. It was hard to write this. I hope people enjoyed it. Mari may or may not be around, but Cecelia definitely will be.

 

Next one will be...a bit different.

[UnworthySeraph]

Great ending. 

Can't wait to see what is in store for the next one. :)

[Spikey844]

Next one will be...a bit different.

Why did a shiver go up my spine when I read that?

[KF5AQX]

I hope you mean different as in more blatant combat and destruction and less feelz?

 

Seriously, the feelz. I didn't cry at the funeral, but dammit, this nearly got me.

[22tankmaster]

I have this feeling, that the next one will be a musical with Karl as the main performer. Don't know why.

[SLI-fox]

 

About the next one. IF, and that's a Golem sized if, IF the next one is a musical I would pay you to somehow print it!

[Kalenath]

 

About the next one. IF, and that's a Golem sized if, IF the next one is a musical I would pay you to somehow print it!

 

Sry, no musicals. Karl kind of frowns on people outside of his clan insulting his singing. I am not going to cross him. Would you?

Edited August 11, 2013 by Kalenath

[22tankmaster]

Sry, no musicals. Karl kind of frowns on people outside of his clan insulting his singing. I am not going to cross him. Would you?

Hey, I was not insulting his singing! I just thought of that as soon as i saw "The next one will be.... A bit different" I would never want to be on the bad side of a Rhino using a decked out Hek and Orthos.

 

Oh yes, i meant to ask all of the regulars here: What's your favorite weapon and frame? Mine would have to be Banshee and Dera. Who doesn't like turning faces to slag with pretty pink lasers?

Edited August 11, 2013 by 22tankmaster

[Kalenath]

Banshee and Frost Prime for me, and yes I know my character who used a Frost Prime was scum. I am TRYING to redeem his actions.

[frogs2345]

Mine would be a Frost Prime or a Vauban with a tricked out hek, vasto, and  Hate or scindo.

[CrazyCanadian24]

Every 'frame or weapon has it's strengths and weaknesses, so I really can't pick a favourite. That said, my current go-to setup is a Volt with a Boltor, Vasto, and Kogake.

[Bozza]

Would have to be Volt, Dread, Bolto, Kestrel. All the ragdolls and pin shots!

[UnworthySeraph]

Frost and Latron Prime or Flux Rifle

[KF5AQX]

Loki for main. ALWAYS the Loki. Paris for primary, Lex for secondary, and Glaive for melee.

 

Full stealth, heavy damage, and you can't land a hit.

[22tankmaster]

I'm seeing a lot of love for Frost, not surprising because of Snow Globe being what it is... My choice including secondary and Melee would be. Banshee, Dera, Vasto, Scindo/Fang.

 

P.S Kale, do you like Banshee's new idle animations? I really don't think they match her character wise.

 

P:S:S How do i change my avatar? This forum boggles my mind with how unfriendly it is to that stuff.

Edited August 12, 2013 by 22tankmaster

[SLI-fox]

Loki/Nova and Sobek, Vasto and Kestrel. Why? Cause I can!

[Syius]

Ash with Lanka, Despair and Glaive 

shooting things is fun, but shooting them with rail gun is 2x fun

well Ash have now nice idle with throwing weap

and Glaive maybe sentiment after darkSector or just fun

 

and cmon dont dare to clone Mezner

Edited August 12, 2013 by Syius

[Alchemer]

Wow. I have spent all day reading this awesome story. It was amazing, and I was sad to see it end. I cannot wait for the next story from you and in the mean time, I will read your previous stories. Congrats man. Possibly the best fan fic I have ever read.

[FuryEnder]

Awesome.

[DJSeraph]

Fantastic story.

I haven't really had much to say, I rarely have anything to say.

I must say though, I enjoyed this story (and Rage as well).

 

Favourite gear? Nova, Snipetron Vandal (maybe a Sobek), Vasto (gathering stars on mine) and Fragor (with Brokk).

 

DJ Seraph

KJSR.net