They understood not the person that they saw, nor the mind that they observed, even still. Therefore, they had locked him in yet another room, though that was more for their reassurance more than anything else.

It was not all reassurance though, as the room that they had locked him in was a part of the Test, Observation and Experimentation of Anomalous Life Forms Department. As for what that meant, it had an energy harvester inside it, that concentrated the energy people and the anomaly gave off and used it for their experiments.

As such, the place was flush with energy fluctuations, and they hoped that would keep him inside the cell like enclosure. It was supposed to disrupt his understanding of reality, or that’s what they hoped it would do.

He caught glimpse of the giant thing from behind the bars, and it was indeed beautiful, even if heretical. It was a large coil of silver metal, a story or two, as wide as noble fir. It pulsed ever so often, shifting off into different spectrums and summoning all manner of colors while it vibrated. It, the machine was a beautiful thing, but its purpose was far more disturbing.

They studied anomalous lifeforms, which implied that they had to get them somehow, and that process was the same as the bears. A submerged mind, and a body to become a bridge between worlds, or a portal if you would.

The bears and all other animal hybrid experiments were surface level discoveries, which therefore implies deeper discoveries. One of those said discoveries was bringing over ideas completely, for that though, multiple humans were required, and they would not survive the process.

There were vats and vertical tables, both used to restrain people and animals throughout various stages of inception, or rather, the birth of a pure idea into the material world.

They’d inject the victims with DFT-4100, a very potent strain of the substance, and then they’d allow the idea to take root inside the body, borrowing itself into the flesh. If a hybrid was the goal, the process was over, if an idea was, the process had just begun.

They’d then move the host into one of the vats containing the same strain of DFT, only influenced to nurture and care for the idea. The substance was influenced in such a way that the hosts body was a foundation.

In simpler terms, the body was both an egg’s shell and the yoke. Thus, as the analogy implies, the idea would eventually crack out of the shell, no, not necessarily. The body—bodies— would, over an extended period of time, normally six months, be twisted to fit the needs of the idea.

As such a body would form around the abdomen, and usually fragments of the person were left behind. They were sometimes organs, but mostly they were hands and feet. The parts were also perfectly preserved by the substance they were submerged in, and as such, they never removed the residue. There was another reason as well, sometimes other ideas used the remains to help construct themselves.

As for where all this information emerged, they had kept August locked up for almost two years, unsure of what to do with him. The council in particular, after all, he wasn’t like Fate, he could move freely, and he had no qualms with interfering in mortal events. He was a liability. It was not all for naught though, as within that time, he watched them experiment, and he forgot nothing.

The energy they used, the way they influenced it, and the ideas they grew, the way it was done, it was all stomach churning. It’s quite obvious at this point, that for the energy to be used, it had to be influenced somehow, as for the process, one relevant example will suffice.

The best way to approach it is as if they were building a circuit, with a source and a load. They’d connect the energy harvester in series with a set group of people, usually six of a certain type, based on dispositions, physical or mental.

Then, the worst part, they’d condition them into focusing on the specific idea and desired effect, then pump them full of energy burning them alive in the process. They’d then collect the energy from their dead bodies.

So, as for energy made to be of nurturing influence, women would be used, and I’ll go no further into details. I will however, give an interesting fact, nurturing energy is generated twice as fast as the rest. All that was tame none the less. The way they grew ideas, it was a complex process, but it was just as beautiful as it was disgustingly horrifying.

After an idea had been through the first two stages of its inception, grafting and incubation, the third, final and most vulnerable stage would begin, realization. The being would be conditioned into being subservient, just as they had done to some animal hybrids, but only these ones were smarter, and more powerful.

As such, it was more of a gentle negotiation and influencing, and if that failed, the things would get violent and be terminated. Then, there was still the problem of the body. The creatures would be transferred into a new vat after the initial six months, and three people would be lowered inside to be used as nutrients for their feeble bodies for another two months. It may have been assumed that casualties were no longer necessary at such a point, but the things refused anything that wasn’t living matter, and human.

The unfortunate details were lost on the final product though, or rather, they weren’t. They looked human, but they weren’t, they lacked all the normal organs, were mostly muscle and bone and they ran on anomalous energy.

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They were almost built to be lifeforms of war, yet, they would easily die while constructing their bodies. The causes usually cited being diseases, infections and the like. As for inception success rate, August witnessed two of the documented successful ten, and both had less than ideal endings.

The first of the creatures, Sentient Enlighted Anomalous Resident Number 434, Seara, awoke prematurely by a month at exactly; 28:04:06:09:06 of her cycle. It should have been cause for celebration, but it still had a month left for its body to develop. As such, it would prematurely move and set some of its bodies processes into motion.

The things had four organs apart from those associated with the senses; the brain, the heart, altered lungs and a small stomach. The problems would begin in the stomach.

It had consumed a portion of DFT, and while it would seem fine, the substance was more resilient than most. Eating it was not the same as injecting it into the veins. The reason being, upon introduction to the blood stream, it would seek out the host consciousness which resided in the brain using the cardiovascular system, dissipating in the process of a dive.

Such a natural conclusion was impossible from the stomach, and especially one that didn’t work the right way.

The thing’s stomach, the size of a fist was behind its large singular lung, that would make sense of the affliction. It was not noticeable at first, seeing as they couldn’t study the energy distribution and profile of the thing submerged in DFT, but as the days and weeks past, it became more apparent.

A patch of silver would appear on its right breast beneath its skin, and yes, though it had no working genitalia, it mimicked a woman. The assumption being more women than men were used for its realization.

It was a shame too, it was a fine specimen, ashen gray skin, jet black hair and pitch black eyes, six feet two inches, two hundred and forty pounds. Her eye lashes were long, her hair silky smooth, and her face as gorgeous as the moon and as soft as its curves.

It was a healthy specimen. Yet, the silver plague began spreading through her like a tumor, resonating with itself and absorbing the energy inside the woman. She would survive the realization still, though born with a silver undertone to her skin, and most her veins in full view.

Her birth was far more interesting than her accompanying curse still, as she was an idea after all. The moment they drained the vat, her eyes fell still, and her body went limp as she began hyperventilating.

Her suffering halted soon after as she went completely still, entering catatonia. It was strange to say the least, but it made more sense than just looking at her could provide. She was an immaterial being born into a material world, she had experienced sensory overload the moment she was left on her own. The sensations of heat, cold, pressure, gravity, light, sound, smell, taste, breathing. The very sound of her heartbeat was too much for her.

It was not the end still, as she was not completely human, and in time, she began looking around, moving in small arcs of motion. It must have been painful, infinite thought stuffed into a finite vessel, forced to divorce all that it had learnt and become over all of time to survive. It must have had to kill a part of itself to remain alive, as to why it acted that way, like a child.

She would learn motor functions in the days following her birth, and with relative ease at that, crawling on day one, stumbling on day two, falling in front of August’s cage. She’d catch glimpse of him as she picked herself up, and she seemed to understand.

Seara froze for a few moments looking at the man in the dark locking eyes with her. He’d pay just as much attention to her, to the rot that reached her neck. That wasn’t the most interesting to him still, as it seemed that even in that state, any idea would recognize it, him, and that was fascinating.

She’d begin walking on day three, and though she’d awknowledge him, she was careful not get too close.

As for her communication skills, even as they used words, graphics, writings and videos to communicate, she never spoke, or rather, she couldn’t. She’d open her mouth every now and then, but she would make unintelligible noises followed by gurgling and then silver tinted blood.

The way the DFT manifested was like a terminal cancer, eating through her. August had seen such a thing from the start, perhaps that was the reason he felt nothing for her. He watched it anyway, the way it crawled up her jaw and unto her face. They tried to operate on her, but she healed instantaneously, preventing treatment.

Her life looked to be festive still, and it would from behind metal and stone cold walls. They actually took the thing outside too. The first outing was nowhere far, the beach. She’d come back covered in sand, hands filled with shells, smiling almost uncontrollably.

She was like a small pup that had been taken for a walk. She played with them for hours, the sounds they made when knocked together, the way they felt, the way they were all different. It was eternal entertainment for her, and perhaps, that’s why she was stood at the bars, offering him one through the grates.

He should have hated them, hated her, so they all believed, but he took it, and though he said nothing, that was enough within itself. That time, he couldn’t help but to see it, halfway up her face, the pulsating rot.

They would also take her out for food, though she didn’t need it. That was the peak of her life, or so it seemed. She brought back a mountain, pastry, meat, vegetables, fruit, all of it, all for pure enjoyment. She’d eat it all, her otherworldly stomach dissolving it all and changing its state into pure energy. She’d collapse with every bite, the flavors numbing her mind with pleasure, and it made sense.

They were born and left to be unfeeling entities for eternity, but she was actually experiencing the world. She was no longer a puppet master, but a puppet herself, and it was amazing. So amazing she decided to share it with August.

It wasn’t much, only a bar of candy, but that was already too much for an infinite entity that had never eaten anything since the beginning of time. He’d take it, looking at her affliction yet again, even trying not to, but it had covered her entire face. Yet, she smiled with such vigor and excitement, but she must have known, she must have.

As for how it happened, she was treated with more humility and humanity than those of their own kind powering their technology. Her end was a long ways out, and so they’d all gather, even Elizabeth, the head of the operation.

So, even if she was only born an experiment, she died surrounded by those she might have assumed loved her, a smile on her face: 35:03:01:02:32. Those unsettling black eyes of hers succumbing to a greater darkness as she returned to her own world, or would she. If only for a blink, she was human, and that, that was worth something.