#nanowrmimo

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The fun moment when you find a picture that fits one of the antagonists in your novel so well that you alter his age and a bit of backstory to fit it ….

https://mobile.twitter.com/marshiroart/status/1331713476318916616

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There are even exorcists who think they are kind, or at least almost good.

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“You were placed in two weeks of isolation to no apparent effect following your verbal savaging of General Krieg during training.”

“I would not call it a savaging.”

“Not on your end, no. You never raised your voice or were worried; you did however insult Krieg’s command style and listed ways in which PathOne would be entirely unlike earth and how command structures that worked in the navy did not fit for a starship, let alone one designed to start colonizing another planet. For a spur of the moment discussion it was reasoned, biting and General Krieg will be spending at least a year recovering from your words.”

“He was a fool. I have a limited tolerance for people who wallow in ignorance; General Krieg had access to all of human history in his comm unit and had achieved the rank of general without considering how combat in space would work, what weapons we would need to use and how to make certain that the military could serve as an instrument of peace.”

“You did talk down a group of rioters even after shooting one of them.”

“It is easy to kill another human being, but there is seldom any value to that. No one learns anything from being dead, and the sum total of human experience and understanding is lessened. Teaching security for PathOne better methods of defusal and non-combat weapons and methods of dealing with passengers was the most viable option. A cursory look at the history of stalled craft – from airplanes to cruise ships – would have provided more than enough data for the general to realize that the military goals he espoused were not about saving lives but about killing enough civilians to intimidate the rest into fear.

“That was, and remains, a phenomenally stupid use of resources, and I told the general as much.”

“And then you shot General Krieg in both knees, I believe.” “I proved the general’s point. They were demanding I leave the class and had the rest of the class roused to their side, which was a perfect rioting situation. I shot the general, as they would have intended me to had General Krieg been leading an actual riot. The action only turned the class against me, which again proved my point despite the fact that I only shot to wound.”

“That was noted in the documents, as was your surrender of the weapon without issue despite having sixteen other weapons aimed at you and the general demanding that you be shot. No one took the shot, and after reported that you seemed entirely in command of the entire situation, even with half a class of trained security officers prepared to kill you.”

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We had such power to do each other harm. And that scared me more than any other power I have or know.

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“Had you not been present, that may have gone differently,” Dolan admitted in turn.

“You would have killed the head of security?”

“You would not have, to keep your secrets safe?”

“I never have before,” I snapped, and headed to use the shower rather than keeping talking.

Sometimes Dolan scared me.

Until now I’d never felt sad for him.

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Cookie was a human with some interior biotech involving the stomach as cookie was always eating cookies – hence the name -  and definitely had suppliers in a lot of the eateries on PathOne. Cookie was also the only non-shifter aware of what I was, because I’d insisted on having at least one non-shifter friend in my life, and Layban had arranged for Cookie to end up on PathOne as a result.

That Cookie appeared to be sixteen – and had for the five years I’d known them – was less surprising than the fact that I had never once seek Cooke without an actual cookie.

“Memm!” Cookie bounded from their bed as I opened the door to their quarters and plowed into me for a hug. “Are you all right? You’ve been gone for days.”

I extricated myself from Cookie with a laugh. “Sorry. I was sent out on an assignment and not allowed to let anyone know about it.”

Cookie stepped back, studying me frankly. “You look like you need more hugs. Also more cookies than I have.”

“You never run out of cookies.” “Exactly.”

I laughed and followed Cooke into their quarters. It contained mostly art pieces in various forms. Cookie had insisted on being awake between Jumps for reasons other than friendship, figuring at some point everyone would need art. I couldn’t disagree, since being a shifter was about making oneself into art as much as anything else.

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“Keeping secrets takes a lot out of someone, and I don’t know what fills it up after.”

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“My pars convinced me to sigh the forms, and the company needed to test a new set of legs for soldiers who had lost theirs in a war. They got a discount, but the system was entirely proprietary. There were lawsuits, which is why I’ve been able to afford biotech and made it over two hundred years just to spite my family. Leaving earth made more sense than remaining, especially because these legs are – breaking down.”

“And you can’t replace them?”

“That was part of the settlement,” Roget said bitterly.

“And no one else can access the system?”

“No. People have tried, and it leads to warnings and legal threats to deactivate my legs.”

I began getting out tools, studying the legs and trying to scan them. Even the most modern scanner I had came back with no results. “You can’t open yourself up to anyone.”

“I want to. It’s hardcoded into the system to let no one in, not even for diagnostics.”

“Which isn’t legal at all, I think?” I asked.

“It wasn’t. They wanted their data on prototype legs without anything interfering with that. My family wanted money. I was stupid enough to trust them.” Roget offered a not-smile. “I haven’t opened myself up to anyone in a long time, in any manner.”