The Astonishing Alchemist - vol. 01

Well. That's a curious response...

"Hm. Yes, I imagine they do tend to hog all the covers," the Alchemist responds aloud. He digs furrows in the sand with his toes, resisting the urge to get down and build a sandcastle. "They're quite the outfit, I'd agree. I've had the occasional run-in with them myself."

To say the least...

"So since you bring it up, maybe we're in a position to help each other then. If you tell me a little more about what sort of deal you made and what this place is, I might see my way clear to right a few wrongs."

Anton seems surprised at first. Maybe even a little suspicious. "If I recall correctly, wasn’t it just one night ago that you were chasing me and my men through the streets of San Espero? Lloyd Laboratories must have really done one over on you if you're willing to forgive my men for using you for target practice. Oh well. Enemy of my enemy, am I right?"

He takes another sip from your drink and still seems very satisfied with it. "I am an artist. A filmmaker. But I’ll be the first to lament the stagnation of the artform. Very little innovation has taken place since its invention. Lloyd Laboratories is taking advantage of my desire to push the envelope and develop new filmmaking tools. Mainly my desire to utilize this place."

He spreads his arms wide and the scenery changes many times in a matter of seconds. You are deep underground surrounded by mining gnomes, you are on the peak of a mountain, you are inside of a star, and finally back to the beach.

"Imagination unbound. Finally mankind can bring anything you can imagine to life. Not only to see and hear, but to touch, smell, taste, and interact with!" The enthusiasm wanes from his voice and the sky grows dark with rain clouds. Off in the distance lighting strikes. "Lloyd wants to bring these things into the real world. And if you truly have had prior dealings with them, I don’t have to tell you that their imagination is filled with nothing but darkness. No good can come from giving Lloyd Lab. the ability to unleash their wildest creations upon the world."

This is... disconcerting...

"No hard feelings. Sometimes you don't have the whole story. All I knew is that you were taking suitcases of... well, what were the suitcases full of anyway?... from Lloyd, and that makes me awfully nervous. Especially if they're bringing in kids from all over the city or something. And the dogs? The kids called them 'familiars', but I don't think they're real dogs. Are they some sort of mad creation Lloyd's already unleashed on the world?"

As the rain clouds begin to build, Lang imagines a retractable umbrella that pops out of his mask and opens up, each section of the nylon fabric a different color of the rainbow.

Anton starts with the last question asked. "The dogs are a tool of manipulation used by LL. They don’t give me a lot of details, but I’ve managed to overhear things that the kids say. I believe they are all orphans. They all lost their parents to disease or tragic accidents. Each of the kids received a puppy as an anonymous gift to help them get through it."

He shakes his head. The storm clouds grow darker. The rain falls harder. Strong winds threaten to turn your colorful umbrella inside out. "They did something to the real dogs. Put something in them so they could..." Anton runs a finger across his throat. "And then sent someone to teach the children how to recreate the dogs inside here. What we are left with are their familiars.

"Lloyd Laboratories took away the one thing these kids had left because they thought the strong emotional connection would make it easier for their abilities to come out."

Anton sits in the rain for a minute. He lets it soak into him; making no attempt to shield himself as you have done. "I am told that the suitcases contain devices that will help me to record experiences inside this place. I fear that I am being duped. My men are still tearing one apart to look at the insides. I believe LL simply wants more control of the project and that these devices are the method."

The Alchemist doesn't say anything for a while. He turns his expressionless mask on Folstad, trying as best he can to see inside the virtual man's head.

He'd come here expecting a dastardly supervillain, and while he was certainly getting a monologue, it's not exactly in the form he was expecting. At all. You've got no other leads, Lang... you'd probably better let this one play out as long as you can.

"Look. I probably have less love for Lloyd Laboratories than you do, for... well, good reasons. We'll leave it at that," he says. "But if you're genuine in wanting to get out of their clutches, and seeing a dangerous project ended..."

The Alchemist draws a long breath. "...I can help you. I can't believe I'm saying this, after our first meeting went so poorly, but... we can help each other."

The rain lessens to a slight drizzle and the storm clouds start to part. A bit of sunlight manages to reach the beach again. Anton reaches a hand out for a shake. "Thank you for looking past our unfortunate introduction to one another. I think this relationship will be beneficial to the both of us. Now what do you say to getting out of here?

"I’ll let my men know that you have free reign of the house. Would you like a tour? If we’re going to be working together you should probably understand the operation and Lloyd's involvement in it. I must warn you though, getting out of here isn’t going to be pleasant. You’ve adapted extraordinarily well to this environment, but you are still untrained. It's going to feel a bit like getting hit in the head with a sledgehammer. If you’d like, I can mentally put you under until the effects of the exit have worn off. It's up to you."

The Alchemist's umbrella folds up and manages some impressive extradimensional origami to compress and go back into hiding behind a panel in his mask. He reaches out and shakes Folstad's hand.

"If it's all the same, I've been given a bit of a challenge that I'd like to see if I can manage for myself first. I'll suffer the aftereffects as necessary, Mr. Folstad," he says as he stands up from the beach chair and makes a sort of jaunty half-bow.

Gotta keep my allegiances open until I figure out just who's who at this particular zoo, he thinks, and goes on to send a message to Rocky.

Nothing ever goes the way I expect it to, you know? I've just met with Folstad himself, and we may have struck up a tentative collaboration, he sends, and summarizes the conversation with Alicia and Folstad both. The kids challenged me to find my way out of this place on my own. Folstad offered to take me out, and 'put me under' until the aftereffects wore off, but I'm going to give it a go for myself. If you don't hear from me in a few minutes, maybe you should find your way back to Alicia. If you don't hear from me for an hour after that, then it's big trouble.

The Alchemist takes a series of slow, deep breaths to calm his mind and focuses on the image of the hallway, standing outside the arcade room, hearing the electronic beeps and whistles and music, Rocky sitting and watching him reappear out of thin air. He brings in as many of his senses as he can -- the smells, the temperature of the air, all of it.

Everything seems to be going well. Trying to juggle so many elements of reality within your mind is difficult. You lose track of focusing on the slight increase in temperature that the arcade room had, but find that it remains anyways. That has to be a good sign, right? You peek open one eye, hoping to see the image you’ve been focusing on.

Rocky is there. He sits perfectly motionless. Your vision of the room starts to go blurry so you quickly close your eyes and double down on your focus. This proves harder than expected because of the individual somewhere nearby that just will not stop screaming at the top of their lungs. After about 30 seconds you realize that the voice belongs to you. That’s when everything goes black.

---

You come to lying on top of a padded doctor’s table. You can hear the heartbeat machine beeping at a steady pace. Folstad undersold the whole sledgehammer to the head. This was like a nuke with off in your head. It has largely subsided but it still feels like there is a parade marching around in there that won't lay off the cymbals.

"Easy there." The voice sounds familiar. The man lays a hand on your chest to prevent you from trying to rise to a seated position. "You’re going to want to ease into getting up. Take your time." You cannot help but ignore his warning when you realize who is talking. You sit bolt upright and the pain nearly causes you to black out.

When your eyes finally focus you find yourself looking at the worried face of James Benson. Your former supervisor at Lloyd Laboratories.

"What the..."

Lang wants to scramble backward, but his limbs are giving him the cold shoulder and refuse to cooperate. He wants to scream, but even the thought of it inside his own head sets it to pounding like a whole chain gang worth of sledgehammers. The harshly whispered words he does get out make his throat want to curl up into a whimpering ball.

"Explain?"

Oh. My. Stars. Are you there? That was... highly, HIGHLY unpleasant. How long have I been out?

James holds up a hand, signaling for you to hold on a minute. As he removes the IV from your arm, you get a response from Rocky.

"Boss! We were worried about you. After 10 minutes I managed to find a way past the fence and made my way back to Alicia. It’s been about 20 minutes overall since you contacted me." His voice bounces around in your skull like an echo at maximum volume. It is hard to focus on the individual words and your vision starts to blur the longer Rocky stays in contact.

"I said you’re going to want to take it easy," James repeats. "Anton called me over and said you passed out from shock. It's common enough in new trainees and it is my job to get them back on their feet while limiting the side effects. Had I known you were going in, I would have whipped up something to put your mind at ease ahead of time. But nooooo. Nobody around here wants to keep me in the loop."

James takes a seat on a stool by the door. "You, uh, seem a bit different than the normal guys they send in there. You're quite the snazzy dresser." James tilts his head and peeks into the hallway through the cracked door. Satisfied with what he sees, he quietly closes the door. "Seems to me like you’re the one that should be explaining themselves. I’m guessing you’re not here voluntarily either?"

Stay there... hard to focus. Back in touch when I can...

The Alchemist lays back on the gurney and tries to slow his breathing. "Depends how you define voluntarily," he murmurs and turns his head to get a look at the long-lost James Benson. "If you mean was I forced to be here against my will, then no, I'm here voluntarily. But if you mean it in the sense that I'm in league with..."

He stops, sudden distrust welling up in him like nausea. Or maybe it's just nausea.

"I'm investigating. There's an awful lot here to investigate, don'tcha think? And while I appreciate all your help, I hope you'll excuse me when I say that you've given me no reason to trust you. I'm sure you're a lovely human being, but I'm not sure I know you well enough any... yet. Yet. Not any-yet."

Smooth, Doc. Real smooth. You're a regular secret agent.

James folds his arms against his chest and smirks. "You certainly have the right attitude. You can’t trust anyone here. I am not a freeman. I am just a number. One that gave up any hopes of escaping this village long ago. But in the meantime, you can call me James."

He sits and studies your reaction. It is no easy task when the subject is wearing a mask. "Do you trust me enough to tell me what, specifically, you are investigating here? There are no shortages of reasons why one might be looking into this place; so you haven’t exactly narrowed your goal down at all."

The James talking to you matches your memories of him. Same personality. Same way of carrying himself. Even though it hasn’t been that long, in the grand scheme of things, he has aged more than you would have expected. Wrinkles are deeper. Hair is thinner and more gray. Overall the most jarring change is how his speech somehow sounds... hollow? The style is there but without any of the passion behind the words. He sounds like a man that has given up.