Griznuq Gaming

Ok, I rewrote our lovely little email ICD. To smooth things out, I wrote it completely from Leslie's perspective.

So some inner dialogue from other characters has been taken out or reflected in Leslie's observations.

I hope no one minds at some liberties I took, I think the final product is actually a fun read. Thanks for giving me great dialogue to work with!

The part of (Maccabeus) to be cast soon.

XXI WinterBegin, MMCXXXII

Winter solstice had come, and with it, the long awaited meeting of the Whisper Gang would be held tonight. Although two weeks was an eternity to a 12-year old, Leslie was no more anxious than all of her older comrades at the cafeteria lunch table.

Shannon was trying to keep her voice low, but her words were still in a harsh whisper. Leslie loved her, but shut her ears three words in, knowing Shannon's typical rant would be never-ending.

"The bastards are keeping it for themselves!" Shannon had started. "They keep the magic to themselves, deny it to the populace so that we have to depend on them thereby keeping them in power. All the more reason they should be exposed for the selfish, oppressive, power hungry, zealots they are!" She exclaimed while hitting the table with her finger. "They're trying to keep us in ignorance and fear so that we may become tools for their maniacal machinations of control. They use Kaine's name as means for justifying all of this inclining the masses to believe that what they do is Kaine's Will. That's blasphemy!" Leslie put her hand up a little, a note to Shannon to dull her voice, which, Father love her, she did.

Shannon continued more quietly, "So not only are they charlatans but they are hypocrites as well. They tell us not to use voodoo all the while they use it for themselves, it's" she paused with her hands up in the air at her shoulders, "... psychotic hypocrisy. They are dung wrapped in flowers...they look nice but smell bad. This is all the more reason we should take them down and seek freedom. I tell you now...trust no government... "

Thankfully Temmit interrupted her. "You know, not for nothing, but isn't it a bit possible that Kaine is a prisoner up in his tower? Isn't it possible that back in the day, the elders foresaw that Kaine would grow unhappy with them, and so they erected this tower as a trap to keep him contained so that they could take power for themselves?"

Harrison then bobbed his head. "Perhaps. If they could keep him prisoner though, why not kill him?" he asked. Leslie liked Harrison, he had such a cool head, like their leader Renee.

Temmit responded, Shannon now looking on at them, a slight roll to her eyes. The problem was, Leslie thought, each one of them new each other's opinion before it was even said. Since they had all been members of the same secretive group for months and in some cases years, and school-mates for even longer.

"Perhaps they can't go that far." Temmit continued. "Or...perhaps they've found a way to tap into his reservoirs of power to use for themselves," (And if they killed him then that power would also die, Leslie reasoned in thought).  "Perhaps the reason that our gifts began manifesting over the last couple hundred years is because the methods of their tapping have allowed some of his powers to escape into the atmosphere and absorb into our bodies." Temmit paused in mid-thought. No one interrupted, all of them enjoying the familiar but all too infrequent moments of wisdom from the quiet youth, who always put a fresh spin on things. Leslie wish he wouldn't keep so much to himself.

"And yet...."he paused again. Leslie loved it when Temmit went on one of these tangents, it gave her more to research at the library.

He finally continued, "Maybe he's up there, prisoner in his tiny world within our tiny world, looking for a way to escape, so he's gifting us with portions of his power so that we can break down the barriers and chains that are holding him hostage."

"Just thinking out loud here..." he said using his signature finish.

Free to speak Shannon brought back the cynicism. Leslie thought that if she wasn't so drop dead gorgeous with her big boobs, the boys would have tired of her. Not that Leslie didn't love the girl, and always in awe at Shannon's compassionate spirit and incredible eye for art, but Shannon was still unbearably outspoken.

"So the legend says" Shannon quipped. "You can't accept everything you hear as being entirely factual or the truth. Everything you hear...everything you're told...is merely someone's interpretation of reality...it is not reality itself. This is the first thing you must understand when you're an artist. Artists use lies to tell the truth...politicians use lies to cover it up. If you believe that they don't then you may well go grazing with the sheep by the lake and wait for the slaughter of your personal sovereignty." Leslie recognized that Shannon now realized that her passion about her subject had once again got the best of her as she took another bite of her sandwich and drank from her cup.

She loved to play though so while Shannon was distracted by lunch, Leslie rolled her eyes and stuck her tongue out to the back of Shannon's head. It darted back in as Shannon turned and Leslie was quick to say, "Well that is quite a cover up, since only about a thousand books and plays in the Library refer to the event."
 
Leslie huge bright smile made her friend Shannon almost choke as she giggled with sandwich in her mouth.

Xavier looked up from his doodling of flying ships shooting something he called lasers at each other. "Exactly! Who do you trust? This is why I want to get the hell out of here!" he exclaimed and then returned to his work just as quickly.

'Goober', Leslie thought, but then was startled at then the unexpected returning voice of thoughtfulness from Temmit.

'Twice in one day', Leslie thought, 'he must be really anxious on getting back to the Gang tonight'.

"Illusions are only relatively new to us," he continued, putting his fingertips together in front of him. "If I were to have even a quarter the power that Kaine had, creating the illusion that Kaine gave that speech would, I think, be no difficult task."
 
"I like for things to add up. Why leave when there is so much work to be done? This was a millenia or so ago, wasn't it? Two? Would Kaine truly have thought that the few acres or hectares eked out there would be enough? Don't you tend a crop through to harvest?"

He had everyone's attention, especially Harrison, Leslie noted. Harrison was a talk first and act after, type of guy Leslie judged.
 
"Even if not illusion, we have all heard of puppetmasters, no? There have been some in our family here that can actually force others to do or to say things. If not by magic, then beguilement." he said, and Leslie could sense the final punch line.
 
"There is only one thing that I'm truly certain of: I don't know," he finished.

"shh," shushed Leslie to all at the table. The café monitor (Stu the Stooge) walked passed them.
 
"Ok we're clear. Thank goodness its Enday, I can't wait for the meeting tonight. What do you think Renee will want to talk about?" she asked the small group at their exclusive table. She knew, but she was waiting for someone to actually ask her, but then no one did. Didn't they figure it out yet? That half of what Renee spoke on was her research? 'No one cares about me,' she thought. 'Everyone thinks I am still a pre-house baby'.

A wry smile came upon the young face of Temmit, he turned from her knowingly but said to the others "As I say, I don't know."

Shannon smiled at the clever performance they had done. She sighed thinking about the meeting, "Y'know guys, I hope the meeting is more about doing something rather than talking about doing something. I mean, if all we do is talk well, where does that get us?"

Shannon lowered her voice to sound like someone else and while she bounced left to right she said, " 'Oh we talked about how silly things are...giggle' I mean WHO CARES?! We need to act...before it gets worse...before we get sent away."

Harrison sighed as he looked out the window. Leslie saw that he had a far away look in his eyes. It was like he longed for something beyond the city walls that he could not see, but new was there. His brow crossed as his mind returned, "I still say our best course of action is practice our gifts, and get better. The time will come, but right now is not that time," he said and returned his gaze out the window.


Xavier didn't look up as he sketched something twirling over his boat. "Yeah, I'd love a chance to 'practice my gifts' on some Kahr'Thul. I'd like to know just how tough they really are. I'm probably gonna have to take on a dozen or more at a time when I get outside the perimeter."

Leslie, ignoring Xavier's comment, looked like she had been kicked and huffed. 'No one was taking the bait, they weren't going to ask what Renee would speak on.' She panicked, trying one more time to put herself in the spotlight. "Six hours of classes left and you guys got nothing, I am going to die of brain rot in herbology I just know it."

"Whateveeer!" Shannon griped. "Sending us off to fight those things is just a way to get rid of unwanteds. I'd like to see the lawmakers take up their swords and get out there and fight for once. A pat on the back and a 'Good job soldier' ain't worth my life...especially since they probably don't care about me anyway. I mean, if they found out about 'things' they'd sooner lock me up even if I did help defend this place."

Xavier looked up again. Leslie could tell he was only half-listening. "Way I look at it is this ... if I want to be 'free' then I've got a choice between fighting the Kahr'Thul or fighting just about everybody in this place. I'd rather put a few bullets into those demons than any body here in Haven. Well, most anybody." Xavier glances over at Stu only to be caught looking at him. He gave Stu a quick friendly smile and head nod before turning back to the group.

"Hate that kid."

Leslie giggled.

"Stu?" Harrison asked. "Eh. He's just doing his job. He can't help that he was born without the brains to do anything but eat and fight."

Leslie's face became sober she spoke just behind Harrison's comment. "That isn't even the point Xavier! The Karh'Thul are endless in number, the Rim is the only thing that stands between us and insanity and genocide".

Harrison chuckled and turned to Leslie. "It's interesting you're all so quick to disbelieve everything about Kaine and such, but you take the outer rim so seriously, having never been there yourself. All we can agree on is that there are more questions than answers, but no one questions the stories about the rim."

"Silly boy, we all go there on the school field trip when we are six! And my Uncle died in battle there if you care to remember." Leslie lightly reprimanded.

"And she," she continued as she pointed at Shannon, "is the nutcase, not me. Kaine was real, just not sure where and who he is now."

Shannon raised her eyebrow at her only slightly smaller friend. "Nutcase? Did I ever say he didn't exist? No. I'm merely questioning the text written about him. Y'know...instead of eating whatever they try to feed me. But by all means...stick your head back in the trough and eat their garbage." Shannon said.

Leslie disarmed her with a quick innocent smile and quip, "Funny, I have never seen you in the library.....do you read?"

Xavier, always the teaser of Leslie, chimed in, "So if I write that I saw you kissing Stu and I put that in the library and you found it and read it ... would that be true, too?"

"ewwwww!" Leslie exclaimed with a wrinkle of her nose. She then sat back and gave Xavier the 12-year-old-I-am-going-to-hate-you-forever look.

Shannon smirked in victory. "Why yes I do read...and recently I read that you want to have Stu's babies..." she said while giving Xavier a wink

Leslie sulked, even as the chime to the grandfather clock in the cafeteria rang and everyone broke for class. Her smile quickly returned though as she got in the corridor and headed to herbology, as an idea had come to her.

'I think I will take out a library book tonight, in Shannon's name.....forever,' and she giggled all the way to class.