Dennis M. Parente, Jr.
Prologue
Location: USMB 14-5-20.
Date: Located in File 29412.32.2.
Time: 1016 hours.
Subject: Aaron Lowes.
Re: ‘Annihilation’ Attempt.
…o just start talking?
It’s on now? Okay, that’s fine. Yeah, I’m good.
No need, I’m good. Yeah, thanks.
Okay, where do you want me to start?
Identify myself? I thought you…oh, right, the recording. All official and whatnot. Right.
Okay, well, if I’m going to go on record, I’m going to do it the way I choose to be recognized. Hope noone minds, but that’s the way I work.
My name is Aaron Lowes. I’m thirty-two years old, I have black hair, brown eyes, I’m about five foot five, and I’ve been recognized by those in knowledge of the subject as a mage of substantial perspective.
…Huh. Bet that’s the first time those words have been recorded for the US Government, huh, guys?
No? Wow. Must have had some real kooks in here.
Right. Get on with it. Sure. Well, how far do you want me to take this? I mean, it’s not like you need an autobi…
You do? Can’t you just do your shit with public records and whatnot? I mean, I know you’ve got a file on me a foot thick somewhere, can’t you just use that?
Ugh. Fine. Waste my time.
My parents are from a small town in Western New York; I was born there too. I have one sister younger than me, and a brother that’s older. Never met my grandparents on my mom’s side of the family, knew my dad’s folks before they passed in the nineties. Got pretty good grades when I was young, did well in high school. Left home when I was able; I care for my family, but it’s definitely a ‘distance-makes-the-heart-grow-fond’ kind of thing.
‘Why’ is none of your business. Big brother it up, if you’re so interested. I’m moving on.
Went to college, got a degree in social work, but it wasn’t where my passion really lied. …Lay? Lied? Lie? Ah, fuckit.
Got a real connection to a local organization in the Buffalo area, and from there I found my true calling. I’ll talk more about that later, if it’s all OK with you.
I like cats that are fat and furry. I dislike social media and the invasion of personal space it brings, let alone its inherent inability to keep our information safe. I’m in love with a beautiful girl that I can’t get out of my mind. I’m bad at math. I like half-cooked Cup ‘o Noodles and sweetened condensed milk, but not together. My religious beliefs are…complicated. My knee hurts.
No, seriously, my knee hurts. Can I get some aspirin or ibuprofin or something?
Thanks.
Right. So. Can I move on yet?
Well, what else do you want to know about me? That’s me in a nutshell. If you want more than that, you ought to bring in a psychiatrist to ask me questions, instead of leaving me with open air to fill on my own.
More than a few. And I’m not going into detail about that yet either. I tell my story my way, or I skate.
Look, if you’re thinking that there’s some big secret in my past or something that unlocked what I can do, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Not even the Alyefani can tell us where the Talent really comes from. It’s a conglomeration of ability, perspective, willpower, and hard study. Only about a quarter of their own people have the Talent, and they’ve been damned near breeding for it for the last thousand years or so, or close to it. I mean, they look at it a little differently, but imagine this with me: you’re born into a society where a quarter of anyone born is of an inherent ‘value’, and the rest are ignored or endured at best. And everyone starts with the same base of knowledge…but once they fail the tests for Talent, they’re given rudimentary jobs of keeping the place tidy while everyone else runs the government and manipulates the raw energies of the universe.
And the ones that fail accept it, have no problems at all with it - even defend it! Imagine it; our greatest, grandest violin player - not given the same level of social respect for a teenager in ‘magic school’. It’d never work in our society; you’d have lawsuits, riots, anarchy.
Besides, considering how small their numbers are, we probably have more mages than they do as it is, just by sheer volume of people, even at the minuscule percentage we’re at compared to them, and our lower level of training and experience.
And I get it. You’ve got problems with them because they’re powerful, they are blind to our own flavor of governmental boundaries, and sometimes they seem to have a really alien sense of morals. And that’s not even bringing into account the communication issues. I know; I’ve been there.
But what they’re doing here is good for us; good for the people, good for the world…and even good for the country, ‘land that I love’. What it’s bad for is the status quo. Money’s going to lose value as more people become comfortable with being Talented, social norms are going to change as their values merge into our societies, and don’t get me started on the implications of what the presence of another terrestrially-originated sentient species is going to do to religion.
And that’s important to realize too: this is their home as much as it is ours. They’re not encroaching on our space. They’re not invading us and taking from us. They’re reclaiming what was theirs, and they’re leaving all the other countries to be as involved with them, or not, as they choose.
And I mean, c’mon. They saved our lives. For the sake of argument, they saved the whole friggin’ planet by taking us under their wing. Sure, you can doubt their motives, but one way or another, they saved mankind as a whole.
OK, we. We saved mankind as a whole.
And now you want me to tell you how. From the very beginning.
Fine.