Remix Chapter 5: Recovery

Read first if you haven't already: http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/06/remix-visions-indestructible.html

DISCLAIMER: References to features of religions or faith beliefs do not necessarily mean that the authors, Terry Wilson, Matthew Costello, and Yoshitoshi ABe (or anyone else for that matter), take them seriously. All characters featured are new; none appear in either FWL, Doom 3, or Haibane Renmei. Also, don't forget that this is a work of fiction, not prophecy. This story was written by Terry Wilson, who makes no copyright claims against the concepts of the other authors. This work will never be commercially published without the permission of the copyright holders for all three worlds.

---------------
"I wasn't planning to touch the wall when I came out here, so it's a good thing you followed me," Tatakai says.

Shinomi responds, "I'm glad we found enough string to make it all the way. We don't have the same ability to navigate like you, Tatakai."

"It can be learned," Tatakai explains, then gasps, "I can feel it already, the dose must be huge. You drive. In about an hour, I will have no sense of balance."

They mount the scooter Tatakai left at the bridge and start driving. Shinomi says, "No one has ever touched the wall before. I don't know what to do."

Tatakai responds, "I seriously doubt you're correct. I remember my own kind had trouble remembering their history very far back. It seems like the Haibane have the same problem. If no one had ever touched the wall before, It doesn't seem likely that the Temple Garden would have everything we need to treat delta radiation poisoning. I'll write up a list when we get back. Who knows the garden best?"

"Kurai," says Shinomi.

"Just as I thought," says Tatakai.

Back at the guest room, Tatakai sits in a chair at the table. Menmo tapes a pencil to her right index finger. "You are freezing cold," she gasps, "How can you stand it."

"Easily," sighs Tatakai, "the radiation has screwed up my nerves so much that I barely feel anything. It also feels like I've lost a couple of stones of weight ... like I'm being vaporized from the inside out. I remember how it messed up the extra senses I had in my previous life ... it was quite unnerving to not hear the ground any more."

Tatakai continues to write her list of herbal ingredients. "Pick them in this order," she says, "The ones that need to be fresh are at the end. If you pick them first, they will lose their medicinal value before you get back. I don't remember how this remedy works, although I'm sure I once knew. All I know is that this is it. Hurry, I might be the only person in the city who can defend it."

Shimoni drives with Kurai to the temple. Shimoni is the only person who can take a scooter around the catwalk, although this will the first time she's ever done it with a passenger.

"Menmo," Tatakai sighs, "help me to the bed." At this point Tatakai can't walk on her own. Unable to even stand, Menmo picks her off her feet and carries her to the bed.

"Tatakai," Menmo remarks gravely, "If this keeps up, you're going to start growing frost."

"It won't," Tatakai says, "In about an hour, my temperature will skyrocket so much you'll think I'll burn the place down." Uselessly feeling her own forehead, she adds, "Perhaps it will help if you get a bath started, one that is slightly cool to the touch," she gasps. "I'm scared, this is I think about four or five times the dose I got in my previous life."

The two Haibane on the scooter drive it around the catwalk at high speed. Shimoni says, "We can't slow down, or the lift of our wings will not hold us to the wall. Both are bent forward on the almost sideways moped.

Kurai responds, "You know how easily we could die right now?"

"Yeah," Shinomi squeals, "Our odds are still better than Tatakai's."

They halt at the temple, jumping off the scooter before it is even stopped. Kurai has her list out. Without waiting for permission to speak, she says to the Washi, "Tatakai has repaired the West Wood wall ... part of that light show you couldn't have missed if you were anywhere near a west facing window. She used the light of The Savior against an enemy that was attacking it from outside."

"Who flew?" the Washi asks.

Shinomi responds immediately, "No one, athough I'm sure Tatakai could fly whenever she dang well wants." (They refer to the Day of Flight for Haibane.)

The Washi gasps as Kurai starts going about, following her list. "This one," she points out a tree to Shinomi, "then that one ... second and third on the list ... I'll get the first, fourth and fifth ones over there."

The Washi says, "How do you know which herbs and what order?"

Kurai answers, "Tatakai made this list. She remembers the recipe from her previous life."

The two Haibane race through their list and have it ready in twenty minutes. The Washi notices, "How did you get the scooter here?"

"Very carefully," Shinomi points out as she takes off at high speed. The sun is just starting to rise.

They arrive at Old Home to an alarming scene. Tatakai (in her robe) is in a steaming bath with a towel over her head.

Kurai gasps, "Menmo, what the heck? A hot bath is the last thing she needs!"

Kurai says this just in time to see Menmo set an old freezer's evaporator coil in Tatakai's lap under the water. "This heat is coming from her," Menmo says, "I ran out of ice almost an hour ago." To Tatakai, she asks, "Is that helping?"

Tatakai nods. As Menmo pours some water over her head to cool the towel.

Kurai and Shinomi make haste to get the medicine prepared. "Oh, crap!" one mutters as she grinds up the herbs in a mortar.

Menmo comes in as the brew steeps, "What a stench!" she cries. She carries it into the washroom, where they hold it to Tatakai's lips. She can't lift her arms out of the water, but slinks lower into the tub to increase the angle, aggressively consuming the brew.

Once swallowed, Tatakai throws up half of it into the bath. "Ew ... the flavour's about right, I hope I got enough of it down."

Kurai then asks, "When will we know?"

Rasping, Tatakai answers, "About an hour ... either way."

Remix Visions: Indestructible

It is a song she heard as a child in her previous life, even before her flying wings had grown. Almost a hundred years before she was born, it was written by a band named Disturbed, but she doesn't remember that part.

First the sounds of an ancient battle fill her ears, ancient even by the standards she was used to as a Featherwing, although today she can't help but imagine the characteristic final cry of the creature she forgets is called an "Imp" or the discharge buzz of her super-cannon [BFG 9000] The sounds of her kind flapping through the air, and the ancient cry of an airstrike warning siren.

She walks up to the wall on the other side of the West Wood, very easily keeping her bearings this cloudless night. Even without the moon, stars, and watch, she could find her way back by a series of distinctive trees she looked at for that purpose. She was compelled to come here, knowing that she was going to return. She stares purposefully at it, then begins to sing her song.

"Another mission: the powers have called me away
Another time to carry the colors again
My motivation: An oath I've sworn to defend
To win the honor of coming back home again

"No explanation will matter after we begin
Unlock the dark destroyer that's buried within
My true vocation, and now my unfortunate friend"

She defiantly points her finger at the wall, remembering, even as those ancient forces of darkness obviously won her war. No power can stand up to The Saviour.

"You will discover a war you're unable to win"

"I'll have you know
That I've become
Indestructible"

Her wings begin to glow, starting to outshine her halo ... maybe she hasn't noticed.

"Determination that is incorruptible
From the other side, a terror to behold
Annihilation will be unavoidable
Every broken enemy will know
That their opponent had to be invincible
Take a last look around
While you're alive
I'm an indestructible
Master of War"

A straight bolt of light flies straight up out of her body into the sky for a few seconds. She starts pacing back and forth in front of the wall, either ignoring or encouraged by this light. It fades as she continues to sing.

"Another reason, another cause for me to fight
Another fuse uncovered for now for me to light
My dedication to all that I've sworn to protect
I carry on my orders with not a regret "

She reaches over and strokes her own wings while she continues to sing:

"A declaration embedded deep under my skin
A permanent reminder of how we began
No hesitation when I am commanding the strike
You need to know that you're in for the fight of your life"

The glow starts again.

"You will be shown
How I've become..."

Flashes in several directions accompany the song's title word

"Indestructible"

She starts pointing her arms and gesturing, to see how much command she has over this new light.

"Determination that is incorruptible
From the other side, a terror to behold
Annihilation will be unavoidable
Every broken enemy will know
That their opponent had to be invincible
Take a last look around
While you're alive
I'm an indestructible
Master of War"

For thirty six seconds she is silent, listening to the song in her head. She realizes that the light she now wields is combatting the darkness of the night, and the evil just on the other side of the badly deteriorated wall. She figure that it's probably been neglected because of the delta radiation seeping through it. Suddenly sensing that the evil she chants against is trying to regroup, she holds out her arms and continues to sing:

"I'm Indestructible
Determination that is incorruptible
From the other side, a terror to behold
Annihilation will be unavoidable
Every broken enemy will know
That their opponent had to be invincible
Take a last look around
While you're alive
I am indestructible, indestructible"

She reaches out and plants both hands flat on the face of the wall, singing ever more loudly, commanding her light through the wall to the other side. She has no idea what she's battling. The light swirls off her fingers, along and through the wall.

"Indestructible
Determination that is incorruptible
From the other side, a terror to behold
Annihilation will be unavoidable
Every broken enemy will know
That their opponent had to be invincible"

The light is somehow repairing the wall in front of her. She spreads her arms wide in front of the wall, commanding her light to repair the entire height in front of her.

"Take a last look around
While you're alive
I'm an indestructible
Master of War"

On the other side of the wall is a frustrated and mortally injured Hogosho, a modern evolution of the ancient Guardian, Tatakai could so easily defeat on the wing with BFGs and rocket launchers. This Hogosho had built in eyes, and was by her reckoning, entirely invulnerable to any weapon she had previously encountered. But she hadn't previously encountered this. She had been ramming herself against this part of the wall for well over a year, learning from the Toga that it was not inhabited on the other side. She thought the Haibane were harmless, especially these little girls, scared not just of the wall itself, but of the woods between it and their home. The Hogosho had been looking forward to a feathery snack, curious as to how similar they might be to the extinct Featherwing creatures that almost wiped them out at Armageddon.

She collapses, dying in front of the intact wall, twitching and groaning. She realizes as she slips out of consciousness, that there was only one power left that could have defeated her at all, let alone so easily: that of The Savior.

........

Menmo catches up to the ancient warrior first, rather surprised to see Tatakai standing there in front of the wall. Kurai is next.

"You're still here!" she cries.

Tatakai scoffs, "What? Where else would I be?"

Menmo explains, "The light we saw looked just like a Day of Flight. We thought you had left us forever. I was a little skittish because you've only been with us for two months."

Shinomi catches up, then gasps, "Oh my! They fixed it!"

Tatakai turns and asks in an almost disgusted tone, "Who's they?"

Shinomi says, "The Toga, I think."

Tatakai turns back to the wall and says, "I fixed it myself ... with help from the Savior, of course. The enemy was damaging it on the other side, so I sent some light through the wall." Then she asks Kurai, "Do you know your way around that herb garden? ... I have a nasty case of delta radiation poisoning. Something was trying to get through ... perhaps I'll never know what."

Remix: The Hogosho

Featherwing Love vs. Doom 3 vs. Haibane Remix

Opening Song: http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/05/visions-precious-child.html
First Chapter: http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/05/featherwing-vs-haibane-vs-doom-3-remix.html


DISCLAIMER: References to features of religions or faith beliefs do not necessarily mean that the authors, Terry Wilson, Matthew Costello, and Yoshitoshi ABe (or anyone else for that matter), take them seriously. All characters featured are new; none appear in either FWL, Doom 3, or Haibane Renmei. Also, don't forget that this is a work of fiction, not prophecy. This story was written by Terry Wilson, who makes no copyright claims against the concepts of the other authors. This work will never be commercially published without the permission of the copyright holders for all three worlds.

She flies over the nameless battlefield, Tatakai dreams, still unable to remember her old name, nor those of any of her colleagues. She took off that evening to tackle an enormous monster that was threatening a village, had cut off its evacuation route. The enemy she fights against has no qualms about wiping out whole camps of refugees. She flies. She is supporting a squad who are armed with rifles. She is armed to the claws for this one. She has a rocket launcher on each of her grey wings and in her hands is the super-cannon she remembered dying with in her cocoon dream. (BFG 9000) In this memory, she does not remember the name of the beast, but somehow winds up refering to it as "Hogosho" (Japanese for Guardian, the beast is of the type you need to defeat in Doom 3 to rescue the Soul Cube.)

There are several types of monsters on the ground, but the most dangerous to her squad, as well as being the easiest to take on the wing, are the enormous Bushi no Shito (Hellknight), which throw green fireballs capable of blowing a marine armored car to pieces. There's only eight of them, she thinks. Smaller, but far more dangerous, are the commandos with the chain guns. Watching their tracers trying to find her, she cuts loose a pair of her rockets and goes into a harsh right roll. Her team's sniper concentrates on them from a distance, switching ammo types with a big straight pull handle (this weapon does not exist in Doom 3.) She hears over the device she forgets is called a "radio" that his position has been compromized, and that he is in range of the Bushi fireballs. She comes in low over the field, able to line up four of the beasts, who are too busy dealing with her sniper friend to notice her. She empties her eight remaining rockets into the beasts, and lets loose a broadside quarter strength blast from her large cannon.

She lands in the midst of her squad, two of her colleagues nursing wounds that burn instead of bleed. She pops the bottle out of her super-cannon while slashing one of the small orange-fireball throwers (Imp) with her left alula claw. A colleague reloads her rocket launchers for her, anxious to see her back in the sky. Two others cap what basically amount to nearly harmless flying headlights, the Hogosho's Sakigake (Seeker). She taps a rifleman with a primary, telling him to spare the little creature for a few seconds while she slams home a replacement bottle in the left side of her super-cannon.


"Tora! Tora! Tora!" she screams as she runs several paces in the direction of the Hogosho. Her rifle colleague shoots the Sakigake creature, which goes dim and drops. The Hogosho calls for more as Tatakai lifts off, getting her alula claws back into her rocket launcher trigger loops. Flapping to gain altitude, she clears over sheets of fireballs emanating from the beast. The Hogosho's portal opens up as she charges her super-cannon. The Hogosho sees her way too late, rising high over its horizon in the angriest shade of flourescent green. Too late to change its mind over the portal it has opened above itself, the almost blind creature is almost totally unaware of anything other than Tatakai without its seeker. The green fireball separates from from Tatakai's super-cannon, which she then lets go of because it is too hot for her hands, letting it dangle from a lanyard she doesn't release in this flight. Six rockets pass the fireball on their way to the glowing blue portal above the Hogosho. She screams the name of a fallen friend, so silent is her voice in the dream. Tatakai the Haibane can feel the loss and rage of Tatakai the Featherwing in her mysterious dream.


The Hogosho screams as its portal is destroyed. It falls down and comes apart into flaming bits. Tatakai lands next to her sniper colleague, now deceased, his body torn apart by one of the smaller creatures. "Saviour!, we need you now!!" she cries as she surveys the human smithereens that used to be her marine squad. Without time enough to rest, hardly mourn, she raises the sniper's rifle to her shoulder and starts using it immediately, her super-cannon still too hot from the Hogosho.


Tatakai wakes from her dream in her room in the town of Glie, lying on her face, her small white wings spread from her shoulders. She has cut into her simple white gown, openings for the wings she had in her previous life. In gratitude, in mourning, or perhaps, just in case. Even she isn't so sure.


"Eight hours exactly," Kurai remarks dryly.

Tatakai, folds her new wings over her back, then sighs, Now I have time to mourn, to rest after the battle, under the altar with my friends, waiting for the Saviour's return.


She gets up, accepts Kurai's offer of hot water, which she then uses to clean her new body. As she cleans her wings, she misses a husband she can't remember, who cleaned her large grey wings for her. She misses cleaning his wings as well.


She goes up to the temple to visit the Communicator. (See Haibane Renmei Episode 3 to become familiar with the temple procedures.)


She stands there, with her bells on her wings and wrists. The old voice asks her, "You named yourself Tatakai (Battle) based on your cocoon dream? Is that correct."


Tatakai shrugs both wings. She wants to talk, ask a few questions of her own, she's really not in the mood for this silent formality that is being imposed on her.


"Really," says the old voice of the Communicator, "You need to learn to use your wings as part of your body."


Tatakai gives him a wry smile, one that says, "I'm not going to take this insult seriously." She flaps her wings once, and the bells disappear under her ventral coverts, silenced by her alula claws. Then she flaps vigorously several times, blowing leaves all around behind her. Extending both her arms, she twirls around on her feet one way, then the other, her wings making the proper movements to maneuver her if she were airborne on the wings of her previous life, a beautiful smile shines on her face, and the bells on her wrists still jingle. She pauses, facing the Communicator, flaps several times as she returns to the greeting position. With her wings fully spread, she releases the bells from her claws, bows slightly, then folds them neatly over her back in a way no other Haibane has done before.


"Impressive display," the Communicator says. Tatakai quickly extends her left wing, jiggling the bells vigorously. An emphatic "NO!" according to temple procedures.


"Explain!" he barks.


Tatakai pulls from inside her simple robe a drawing of herself in her previous life, featherwings properly deployed, in actual flight.


"You may speak," the Communicator says.


"I could really fly. I was a warrior in the last battle; killed in action. The battle must have been lost. A question please?"


The Communicator (more casual than in the Haibane Renmei series; this is not the same person), responds, "What is your question, Feather Tatakai?"


"Do you know the Saviour?" she asks, "He is why my wings are white."

Haibane Doom 3 Remix Chapter 2

This is chapter 2 (The third post) of the Featherwing Love vs. Doom 3 vs. Haibane Renmei Remix by Terry Wilson.
The Opening Song is located at http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/05/visions-precious-child.html
Chapter 1 is located at: http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/05/featherwing-vs-haibane-vs-doom-3-remix.html
Next Chapter, "Hogosho": http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/05/remix-hogosho.html

DISCLAIMER: References to features of religions or faith beliefs do not necessarily mean that the authors, Terry Wilson, Matthew Costello, and Yoshitoshi ABe (or anyone else for that matter), take them seriously. All characters featured are new; none appear in either FWL, Doom 3, or Haibane Renmei. Also, don't forget that this is a work of fiction, not prophecy.

This story was written by Terry Wilson, who makes no copyright claims against the concepts of the other authors. This work will never be commercially published without the permission of the copyright holders for all three worlds.

She stirs. My wings? she thinks. She props herself up on her arms. They hurt. She moans.

"Tatakai?" Kurai starts to ask.

"Remembering," she says, "that I'm a Haibane now, not what I was before. What does your name mean?"

"Gloomy," her host says, "I was in a forest at night in my dream, crying. I don't remember what I was crying over." She turns to her, "Tatakai, you are one weird Haibane. No Haibane has ever slept exactly eight hours, to the second on her first night. And ... you snore like a sawmill. How would you hide from your enemies with a racket like that?"

"I don't remember if I ever slept in my enemy's presence," she sighs, "I guess they told you about me, huh?"

"Of course," Menmo says.

"You didn't sleep?" Tatakai asks.

"How could we," says Shinomi, "through all that racket? I didn't think a Haibane could be that loud on purpose."

Kurai chuckles, "You are one strange Haibane, Tatakai."

"Really?" she says, sitting up and looking around.

"Really!", Kurai says, "For starters, your wings are pure white, which is the first time ever. Haibane means ash feather, our wings have alway been gray, always. And, they've never been so big. Your first task will have to be to make your own wing covers, we don't have any that fit you. Anyway, down to business."

Kurai opens the smoking mould with Tatakai's new halo. She places it over her head with tongs. "Feather Tatakai," she says warmly, "To be a guide to your future as a Haibane, I give you this halo."

Tatakai says, "are you sure about this?"

"Of course," Kurai says, letting go of the halo. It falls like any ordinary object right on Tatakai's head.

"Ow!" she cries, throwing it away with her fingers, which she then sucks on because of the burn.

Other things drop. Kurai's lower jaw, her arms, and her tongs, in that order. The halo on the floor still glows. "Another first," she gasps, "Halos fall from the the heads of new Haibane often, but around, at the least ... I've never seen one not even try."

"Let it cool, then we try again," says Tatakai. "Any other firsts?"

Menmo says, "Until you, cocoons never hatched in winter," waving her hands for emphasis, "not even once, and also ... you hatched on a Saturday, Tatakai. That is the first time such things have ever happened. [1]"

"What? Oh, no," Tatakai gasps, "That's never supposed to happen, is it?"

Shimoni answers, "Well, I'm not sure about supposed to, only that it has never happened before."

"Tell me, where am I? You said town of Glie when we first met in the North Wing?" Tatakai begs.

"Yes," answers Menmo, "Haibane are not allowed to leave the town, or even approach its walls, only the Toga are free to come and go, and while in town, they never speak or show their faces. Only the Communicator is allowed to talk to them, and usually they sign in a secret language with their hands."

"Walls? Not allowed to leave?" Tatakai gasps, "is this a prison camp?"

Kurai answers this time. "No," she sighs. "It may seem so at times, but really it is a haven," there is evil outside the walls," she explains, "even to touch the walls could mean death, only herbs from the Haibane Temple can cure the resulting sickness."

"Sickness?" Tatakai asks, "what kind of sickness."

Shimoni explains, "Nobody knows. You'd feel cold, numb, unable to feel your wings, toes or fingers. You feel fine otherwise, but freezing cold to someone who touches or comes near you ... then you run a high fever you die from without treatment."

Tatakai gasps, "Delta radiation? Oh no!"

Kurai scoffs, "Radiation! Never heard of it."

"Tell me, Menmo," Tatakai asks, "Who rules Glie?"

Menmo looks at the other two, all three Haibane just shrug, "We answer to the Communicator in the temple."

Tatakai, increasingly distraught begs, "Is there a man ... a man with holes in his hands and in his feet, white hair, fiery eyes, a voice that sounds like a waterfall, a glowing face, words that cut like a dagger, feet that glow like bronze? Is there anyone like that, anywhere?"

Again, the Haibane Remnei shrug.

"Such flights of fancy," Kurai mutters, "You remember that much from before your past?"

Tatakai cries, "I read about him in a sacred text [2], he's supposed to be here. He saved the world! Savior!" she wails, "Why are you taking so long? [3]"

Menmo says, "You can't remember his name, can you?"

Tatakai shakes her head, "But ... I knew him, where did he go? Savior!" she puts her head in her hands and cries. "Glie is all that's left, isn't it? The rest of the world is a wasteland because the battle I died in before coming here was lost."

She notices what she's wearing, the plain white robe that she emerged from the cocoon in. "I know now," she sighs, "I just have to be patient, don't I? [4]"

At those words Kurai again picks up the fallen halo with the tongs and places it over Tatakai's head. When she lets go, it stays there.

"How many Haibane are there?" she asks.

Menmo answers, "Well, there are more in the Abandoned Factory, but here, there is just us four Elder Feathers plus ... what is it, thirteen?" she turns to Shimoni.

"Fourteen Young Feathers," Shimoni answers.

"A total of 18 Haibane in Old Home?" Tatakai asks.

They nod.

"Good!" Tatakai nearly cheers, "We can tear down that North Wing and use its pieces to build houses that will actually last and be comfortable."

Next Chapter: http://featherwinglove.blogspot.com/2009/05/remix-hogosho.html

Author's Notes:

[1] Matthew 24:20
[2] Revelation 1:9-16
[3] Revelation 6:10
[4] Revelation 6:11

[7 June: Fixed misspellings of "Menmo"]