A Story, Bit by Bit
Hellbender: Chapter 39 – Cooperation

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He was almost there; Ronove could feel it. A few more tests, and he knew he’d have the solution. Then once again the rules of the game would change, and they would be that much closer to freedom.
Ronove heard a noise. He recognized it as the fake clearing the throat sound humans would sometimes make as a signal to give them attention. It had a higher pitch to it, so it likely came from a female. Ronove turned around and confirmed there was a female human standing behind him on the entrance to the lab. She wore the staff uniform of his people, but the face of this one was unfamiliar. “I don’t know you.”
She made the loud, repetitive noise Ronove knew to be laughter. “That’s because your looking with those crappy eyes you made.”
Ronove was busy and did not want to waste time on whatever this was. Two of his people were assisting him in the lab — men much larger than the woman — so he turned to them and said, “Deal with her so I may work.”
As they approached the woman, she lifted a hand towards them and said, “Abrakadabra-alakazam!” The two men fell to the floor. She looked to Ronove. “Come on, Ronove. Venture out of that bag of meat you made for a moment and gain some perspective.”
There was no need. He now knew who this was. “They call you Elza now, I believe.”
“The humans need to call me something.” She walked around the lab, fiddling with random objects. “So why waste all that time making such a horrible excuse for a body when you could just possess a perfectly nice body like me? It’s much easier now that we don’t have that nasty Jesus to kick us out.”
Ronove really didn’t have time for this. “So you’re embracing the human’s fairytales?”
“It makes us more interesting.” The edges of her mouth curled up, making the human facial expression of happiness or bemusement. “Evil demons fighting against the power that created the universe — that’s much more entertaining a notion than whatever narrative you made up for yourself… that you’re some interdimensional alien or something.”
“I’m not interested in stories. So how did you get your human body in here?”
She made the laughter sound again. “Oh, I am part of a little invasion force that’s infiltrated your lab. You should hear gunfire and explosions soon.”
This was why the others never dealt with Elza anymore. “I am doing important work here–”
“Oh, get over yourself. You get too concerned about what’s happening in this world… like anything here matters. You really need to venture out of that little body of yours and get a look at the big picture once again. Everything in this universe is just so small and insignificant.” She walked over to the cube in its current glass case. “Like the infinite barrier that used to imprison us. Here’s it’s just a little, metal–” Here eyes widened, an expression of surprise. “Hey, someone put cute little bunnies on it. That’s neat.”
“It didn’t imprison us.”
“Whatever you like to tell yourself, Ronove. I know Asmod is hoping he can use it in his silly little war. Speaking of which, I have something that you, me, and Mr. I’m Too Good for a Three-Dimensional Existence can all work on together.”
“Loch?”
“Yes.” Elza reached into the case and pulled out the cube. “He’s watching intently right now, wondering if he has anything to fear from the cube and its bunniness.”
“I believe he’s at war with me.”
“No, Serpine is at war with Asmod — none of us really care about that. Let them have their pointless little battle.”
Circumstances seemed to have left Ronove no choice but to work with Elza. He just wished Asmod had a better handle on things to keep him from these distractions, but apparently his pure science going uninterrupted was too much to ask. “What’s your game, Elza?”
“I’m here to help you, Ronove. I was thinking that the power of three gods combined should be enough to finally defeat one malnourished, imprisoned idiot.”
Ronove really wished he had a better option than going along with this idiocy. “Don’t belittle the work I’m doing. This could be a breakthrough equivalent to the War. How do you propose to help?”
“I’ve been watching your work, and I happen to have the missing element you need along with me.” Elza turned here eyes to something unseen. “So, Loch, rumor has it you are so restrained by the other you actually have a human doing your bidding. How would you like to actually get your hands dirty, causing suffering to a human like you have never had the freedom to do before?”
The room darkened. Even limited to human senses, Ronove could feel the cold pleasure Loch was emanating. Figuring most of his experiments here were ruined, Ronove let himself move beyond his body and see the current situation as it truly was. He knew Elza had her motives, but she told the truth. The stage was now set. Ronove may not have had the controlled scientific study he wanted, but at least now he would his result: The complete destruction of human being.
NEXT

Is Sarah Palin Putting LSD in Liberals’ Water

Is Sarah Palin drugging liberals? I know, liberals often drug themselves, but they have been going completely insane as of late. I mean, we’re talking worse than BDS. They’re like cornered rats lashing out in any way they can. I guess they saw victory coming, and now have become violently angry now that it looks like it’s being snatched away from them.
Look at this article by Deepak Chopra I found linked to in The Corner. My brain can’t quite take it and the comments after it seriously and is still trying to process the think as some sort of elaborate joke. It’s basically arguing everything about Palin is evil and everything about Obama is good (without getting into any specifics about him, of course). It’s an argument a two-year-old would make dressed up in smarty-sounding psychology terms. Just look at one part of it:

She is the reverse of Barack Obama, in essence his shadow, deriding his idealism and exhorting people to obey their worst impulses. In psychological terms the shadow is that part of the psyche that hides out of sight, countering our aspirations, virtue, and vision with qualities we are ashamed to face: anger, fear, revenge, violence, selfishness, and suspicion of “the other.” For millions of Americans, Obama triggers those feelings, but they don’t want to express them. He is calling for us to reach for our higher selves, and frankly, that stirs up hidden reactions of an unsavory kind. (Just to be perfectly clear, I am not making a verbal play out of the fact that Sen. Obama is black. The shadow is a metaphor widely in use before his arrival on the scene.) I recognize that psychological analysis of politics is usually not welcome by the public, but I believe such a perspective can be helpful here to understand Palin’s message. In her acceptance speech Gov. Palin sent a rousing call to those who want to celebrate their resistance to change and a higher vision.

How do you even write like that? Do you have to inject estrogen directly into your shriveled testicles every hour?
And apparently Roger Ebert had written a whole article criticizing Palin based on her glasses, but it looks like the effect of the LSD finally wore off and he took it down.
I was hoping the whole BDS stuff would fade away with a McCain presidency because he isn’t anything like Bush no matter how much the liberals like to play pretend. It looks like we may reach whole new levels of derangement from the left with Palin, though. She so much of what’s good about America that they like to think doesn’t exist, so they need to destroy her.

9/11

I don’t know what’s left to say. There is a war going on, and most of us are back to our same silly selves seven years later. You can’t separate this from the politics: Some people don’t want a serious world with serious problems. They can’t get in power in such a place. They needs us fighting global warming with recycling instead of taking on people bent on killing us. Still, if on 9/12 you told me we’d somehow make it seven years without another major attack on U.S. soil, I wouldn’t have believed you. Perhaps we are better prepared now, but if we ever withdraw from the real problems in the world and think we’re safe, it will happen again.
Well, those are my rambling thoughts. What say you?

Bush Is Trampling the Constitution and It Is Somewhat Overcast Today

On a poll of whether Supreme Court Justices should make ruling based on the Constitution or on their sense of fairness, only 29% of Barack Obama supporters think that decision should be based on the Constitution. I guess when all the liberal talk about Bush “trampling the Constitution”, they’re not complaining so much as making a dispassionate observation.

Question

Do you think the reason Obama hates Palin so much is that her name is different from his and she doesn’t look like the other presidents on the dollar bills?