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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/KyleKKent on 2026-04-17 22:45:43+00:00.
(I do not like that I have been so consistantly late recently. I will make an honest effort to correct this.)
Meanwhile! At the LAB!
“So that was a lot more involved than I expected.” Vlad notes as he watches the Axiom stitch the slight cut across his knuckles shut. Whoever that guy was he got him right in the mouth and the punk had been snarling with that knife.
“We confirmed a lot of things, and gained a lot of useful information. Frankly put I’m shocked that we haven’t been jumped by researchers and other such unsavoury sorts already.” Christos replies.
“We’re not allowed to potentially damage the contents of that room. Get out here so we can mug your ass for information properly.” Someone replies and both Ode endowed men share a look and laugh at that. “Not funny! Move it soldier! We need information.”
“We have demands!” Vlad calls out.
“This is a not a hostage situation!”
“The hell it isn’t! We got something you want and we want things in return!”
“I can get a superior officer to pull rank on your Gypsy ass!”
“No you won’t!”
“Fuck’s sake man, get out here before I start breaking things that’ll try to break me back!”
“You haven’t even listened to the first of my demands!”
“And what are they?”
“A full fridge of ice cold beer and lager to the side while we talk, bottemless bowls of snacks, pretzels for me...”
“Any kind of nut or raisin for me.” Christos adds.
“And in one of the debriefing rooms with the comfortable chairs! You know what I’m talking about!” Vlad calls out and the door opens and decidedly unimpressed Scientist is giving him a disappointed look over his glasses. “What?”
“You soldiers and your sense of humour...”
“At least we have a sense of something mister scientist! Now, will our demands be met? Or must negotiations continue! For you have merely heard our cheapest offer!”
“I can still get an officer down here.”
“Do you honestly think that an officer will listen to you after hearing our side?” Vlad asks.
“Probably not. Come on, I’ll send some runners to get the stuff.”
“I’ll do that.” Another man says leaning into the frame and saluting before vanishing.
•-•-•Scene Change•-•-• (Conference Room Five, Undaunted Laboratories, Undaunted Territory, Centris)•-•-•
Vlad passes over a slightly frosted lager to Christos who quickly twists the top off and takes a swig.
“Alright, the time is... Three Twenty in the afternoon. Tuesday. The date is...” The Scientist rattles off the date and nods. “Noted by most soldiers for being a Taco Tuesday, when most newly augmented recruits get their first taste of properly spiced food. Leading to a great deal of merriment in the mess halls. This is an interview and initial report of Medical Officer Christos Ekmekci and Specialist Vladimir Racz, often goes by Vlad. Functional ranks are Field Medic and Sniper respectively.”
“Our interviewer is Doctor Jack Samuel. No relation to the actor.”
“Yes, yes. That joke’s been made plenty of times. Now to the meat of things. Both Christos and Vlad are confirmed Other Direction Energy users. Particularly in the sensory department with extra sensory abilities. Christos is capable of flawlessly and effortlessly divining the details about anything he is carrying. Whereas Vlad is preternaturally capable of sensing everything that senses him through the same medium. In explanation, if you see him he sees you even if he has no way of seeing you and if you have heard him, he has heard you. This stretches to all known senses.”
“These two individuals in questions have just finished a mission where they have rendered aid to another set of individuals with an Ode Endowment of some form. This interview is to establish the general understanding of this new form of Ode power and how they utilized their own and if they did so in any novel manners. For clarification, both individuals have learned to temporarily share their abilities in some manner, Medic Ekmekci allowing others to sense all that they are carrying with minute detail that while not at the level of sheer detail that he posses sis still to such an impressive level that it is noticeable. Furthermore Sniper Racz is capable of extending his awareness of anything observing anything observing something he is holding or a person he is in contact with. Even through a chain of individuals. We will begin with new novel uses of their abilities.”
“I have been to diagnose nad understand the Ode capabilities of those I am in contact with. To an extent. It is akin to getting one’s hand on an instruction manual, but not being familiar with the language it’s written in. The diagrams are still of use, but with practice and further knowledge I expect to learn much more in short order.” Christos states.
“I have learned that I am capable of matching the gazes of a truly absurd number of living entities. Being observed by the Sorcerers and an immense swarm of Hargath simultaneously has shown me in no uncertain terms that I am in fact capable of bearing witness, with no deviation in attention, to multiple quintillions of living entities simultaneously. Furthermore I can also observe then through The Other Direction and across massive, MASSIVE distances. I’ve dropped a small recall beacon on a world we were temporarily on but I did not recognize. Intelligence will no doubt have access to it and if you wish to know where it is, then you can understand that we were teleported next to someone there who then observed us through the Forests as we were returned to Centris. I was able to observe them right back despite the unknown location and time and engage in what is effectively a conversation at those distances.”
“Interesting. I will inquire as to the distance and insert the information into the notes.” Doctor Samuel says. “Now, what is the manner of the Ode Ability found?”
“Some kind of competitive compulsion, but it seemed to lack some kind of safety.” Christos says.
“No, there was a safety, but it the safety that had gone wrong.”
“Please explain the situation in full.”
“Very long story short a family that split into two noble houses generations back always have a pair of competative rivals each generation without fail. One girl from each house, always immediately hostile. Always fighting. But never killing each other, but also never being quiet or showing any shame at their actions against each other.”
“And this was compelled by the Ode?”
“It was.”
“Interesting, so we have another potentially negative side effect to an Ode ability?”
“What was the first?”
“In Operative Herbert Jameson’s earliest assessments, up to the point he was personally scouted by Sir Philip, he was often described as an unremarkable soldier. Despite passing Undaunted Training at a very high rank of competency. The best of the best was what was asked for and he proved himself exceptional even by those standards. But was noted to be unassuming, and uninteresting. He was actually sent as a control for what a more normal, baseline person who could also keep up to super soldiers would act like. Without anyone realizing the sheer oddity of that statement.”
“God damn. That dude is intense on a slow day and he’s here for pity?” Vlad asked.
“Apparently. His own stealth has outright sabotaged him many times. We’ve pulled all his records. He has been passed up for countless promotions, denied jobs and has been treated appallingly because his stealth makes him something people are unconcerned with. Thankfully he has personally risen to the occasion with such aplomb that he has effectively conquered what many would consider a near divine curse. But the point stands, Ode abilities can do harm to a person, but rarely in expected manners.”
“Still, stealth working too well is kind of expected. It showed up to protect a family of obnoxiously pretty people from being brutalized by perverts in power. It makes sense it would occasionally overshoot to keep them away from people in power even at the cost of wealth. What we saw with Warli’Satha and Bruna’Rella, each of the their respective noble houses of Soben Ryd, was something different. Their ability put them into direct conflict with each other.”
“Despite them being related?”
“The relation is fairly diluted at this point. While it was a pair of sisters who founded the different houses, enough generations have passed that the two houses could conceivably interbreed without any risk of incest. At least twenty three generations of Rivals have emerged, and apparently there was another two before the Rivals showed up.”
“So the ability took time measurable in lifespans to develop. Then developed, simultaneously in two different families with a common ancestor.”
“No. The power was in two pieces. Pieces that fit together and matched. I got a direct look at the energy, and beyond knowing I was seeing things only in an abstract form I could actually understand, the thing that stood out was that it was incomplete, that it was designed to fit together with another part. And the two parts of the two women who had the Rivalry Active in them were what fit together.”
“But they were hostile to each other?”
“On sight and without provocation. The Rella and Satha families often meet up and after a time both Rivals will calm down, often growing into friends, but then two young children, perhaps even newborns, will suddenly be upset with each other without end. It grows and grows until they’re duelling d...
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