The Lotus Eaters
A.N: I wasn't going to post this chapter for a few more days, until I was done writing chapter six, but I an anon requested it. I hope that it's not too error ridden. I've only looked though it one time since writing it.
Update: I almost certainly won't post the next chapter this quickly. I just wanted to help an anon be less stressed for their finals. I would say the next one won't come until at least Sunday.
Reviews:
Canofsprites: THANK YOU! and yes that was a reference. There's one point to you, my friend.
Mellarkingabout: I'm thrilled that you're enjoying it and I hope that you continue to do so.
Analya-Goddess of emotions: That's a good suggestion, but I can't tell you exactly what I'm planning. Wouldn't want to spoil it.
Guest: Thanks for the compliment, and OH MY GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT PASSED THROUGH MY RADAR! Thank you for informing me of that. I went back and fixed it.
Piper stepped out of the tardis to enormous glass skyscrapers coated in rainbow lights.
"Where are we?" asked Piper as she turned her head to the sky.
"I believe the more accurate question would be when are we," the doctor replied with a smirk.
Piper glared at her and the doctor hastily answered her own question, "New York City, 3,703"
"So what happened in New York in 3,703?" Piper asked. Wherever the doctor went, trouble seemed to follow.
"Nothing that I know of," the doctor said, "but I've heard that they have phenomenal coffee in this era. I haven't been to New York in a long time."
Piper gave her a skeptical look and asked, "we traveled through time and space for coffee?"
The doctor asked, "We can, so why wouldn't we?"
"When was the last time you were in New York?" asked Piper.
"A Yankees game in 1910," said the doctor, "they might not have won, but I got this brill hat."
"So that's where the Yankees hat came from," Piper thought with a smile. She didn't really have a response, so Piper followed the doctor into this futuristic metropolis.
"I'd like one chocolate cappuccino," the doctor told the barista. Piper looked over the menu and all of its obscure types of coffee. She was finally able to settle on an iced vanilla latte. They sat down in a black fabric covered booth close to the window. Piper took her first sip of coffee in the dimly lit café. It was cold on her tongue, and the flavors of vanilla and coffee beans melded nicely together to form a unique sensation. A thousand years down the line it didn't seem like life was all that different, at least that's what Piper thought. There were couples on dates scattered about the store, and people drinking coffee and laughing. A thousand years in the future didn't seem all that different from good old 2013. Piper wondered how her dad was doing. Then it hit her. She was a thousand years in the future. Her dad was dead, and had been for hundreds of years.
"My dad's dead," she whispered under her breath.
The doctor sent her a sympathetic look and then said, "but he's still alive where you're from."
"What does that mean," Piper asked, her throat constricting, a burning feeling consuming it.
The doctor paused a moment, trying to fathom her thoughts into something coherent, and then started, "Time, time isn't linear. It's more like, have you ever had a string of fairy lights?"
At one point, Piper had owned a string of Christmas lights. She assumed that was what the doctor was referring to. She and her dad put them up one year and put them in the closet until the next Christmas. When they tried to take them out again, the lights were tied in knots and tangled beyond the points of recognition and salvageablility.
"Yeah," she said, "they were tied in knots before we'd had them for two years. The lights went every which way."
"That's kind of what time is like," the doctor said, "it twists and turns every which way, sometimes tying itself into knots. It's more like a big, tangly ball of fairy lights than a ruler aided straight line."
"Your point is," Piper asked, the burning sensation returning to her throat.
"Give me your phone," the doctor demanded. Piper took her phone out of her jeans pocket and passed it across the table to her. The doctor took out her sonic screwdriver and starting tinkering with the phone while Piper felt her eyes dampen. Her dad was dead. Her dad was dead and she'd never even said goodbye. He may not have been the world's best dad but he didn't deserve had Piper had done to him. Piper still loved him and how she damned him to worrying for the rest of her life.
"Done," the doctor chimed, passing Piper her phone, "go ahead and call your dad."
"How," Piper asked, the word catching in her throat.
"Just try," the doctor said, glancing at Piper's cell phone. Piper dialed her dad's number, and it rang four times before she heard someone pick up.
"Pipes," came her dad's voice, a hint of worry tinting it, "I was a bit worried when I got back and you weren't home. Where are you?" Piper could feel the relief washing over her, a wave of spring heat after a long, cold winter. She didn't know what to say, but she found herself laughing.
"Piper," he said, the concern more evident now, "Piper are you alright?"
"I'm fine, dad," she said, "I'm just really happy."
"But where are you?" he asked.
"I'm traveling with a friend," she said, her voice sounding overjoyed even to her own ears, "I won't be home for a while."
"What, when did you decide this?" he demanded.
"A few days ago," she said, "but I've had a great time. I'm sorry that I didn't ask you."
She heard him pause a moment, before continuing, "Piper. You're eighteen now, so I can't really tell you that you can't do this, but I want you to promise me you'll be safe."
"I will, dad," she said, tears of joy cascading down her cheeks, "I promise."
"Alright, Pipes," he said, "I love you."
"I love you too, dad," she said, hanging up her phone. The doctor smiled at her, and she took another sip of her watered down coffee. A waiter stopped in front of their booth.
"Would you like a lotus flower?" he asked in a monotone.
"No thank you," Piper replied.
"They are free," he said, holding a tray of flowers out for Piper to look at. Piper starred at the flowers for a moment and decided that no, she didn't want one.
"No thanks," she said. The man shoved a flower into Piper's face.
"Eat the flower," he said. Piper and the doctor met eyes, and they both hopped over the back of their respective ends of the booth. They ran out of the building with the man not far behind.
"The fuck was that thing," Piper asked between pants. She looked over her shoulder and saw that the man was still following them.
"Still following us, apparently," Piper muttered. Her lungs felt like they were about to burst from all of this running. She felt someone grab her arm and drag her into an alleyway.
"What are two doing?" asked the woman who had dragged her here. She had almost luminous green eyes and innumerable freckles. Her curly red hair was tangled and matted.
"What is going on here," Piper demanded, looking the woman straight in the eyes, "we just got here and people started attacking us! Trying to force us to eat some sort of flower."
"Oh god," the woman said, "you're actually new here."
"Yes," Piper said, "we have no idea what's going on here."
The woman gave her a sad look and then said, "We might as well start at the beginning. My name is Rachel." They introduced themselves, and then Rachel continued with her story.
She said, "A little over a year ago, a company called Lotus Incorporated started giving out free snacks called Lotus Flowers. Almost everyone took them because they were free. A few of us were skeptical, like me, but most people just took them. The effects were obvious. Everyone has been in a drug-induced stupor for the last eight months."
"Shit," Piper muttered, "shit, shitty shit shit."
The doctor stepped forward and said in a confident voice, "Where is this Lotus Incorporated?"
"It's a few miles South of here," said Rachel, "it's the largest skyscraper on 1117th Street."
The doctor sent Piper a look, asking if she was okay with this. Piper sent her a slight nod in return.
"Piper and I will go over and try to dismantle the operation," said the doctor.
"But you've only been here a few hours," Rachel said, "how could you possibly-"
"Just trust us," Piper interrupted in a confident and reassuring tone.
"Alright," Rachel replied, "good luck. You're gonna need it. Taking down Lotus Inc. is going to be like trying to battle a god with a blue plastic hair brush." Piper didn't know if that was some sort of odd future slang, but she knew what it meant: this was going to be difficult and dangerous. Well, she'd fought statues, a woman who could turn people to stone and a mob of angry mid evil villagers. She was fairly sure she was up to the challenge.
Piper tilted her head up to look at the skyscraper.
"Are you ready?" the doctor asked her, twisting the sonic screwdriver between her fingers.
"Yeah," Piper said, "let's go dismantle this dystopia."
"O brave new world,
That has such people in't," the doctor muttered sarcastically, opening the large glass doors with her sonic screwdriver. The building had glass walls, high ceilings and elegant chandeliers. A perky Asian woman with shoulder length hair greeted them in the entry way.
"Hello," she said, "my name is Kameko Parker and welcome to Lotus Incorporated." The doctor flashed the physic paper at the woman and her voice changed.
"Oh," she said, "you seem to be new to the building. I'll give you the grand tour." Piper sent the doctor a confused look and the doctor simply shrugged her shoulders in response. They followed the woman through various corridors and to an elevator.
"We'll be touring the basement," said Kameko, "where we produce the world famous Lotus Flowers."
"What exactly are they made of?" asked Piper.
"Love," said Kameko with a smile so hollow Piper's breath hitched in her throat, "they're made with love." Piper sent the doctor a terrified look, but the woman stepped into the elevator.
"Come on, Piper," she said, gesturing to her, "get in the lift." Piper bit her lip and against her better judgment forced herself to step through the elevator doors.
The elevator doors opened and a vast room expanded in front of Piper. Various factory machines were working to produce the Lotus Flower that their tour guide had spoken of. There were empty seeming humans hustling between different pieces of machinery on the floor, occasionally taking a bite of one of the little white flowers. The conveyer belt started at the back of the room, where ingredients were being poured into large vats and then molded into a white flower shape. On a slightly elevated platform, a man sat in an elegant looking chair that was more like a throne. He looked at them, and then a huge smile flashed across his face. He stood up and strode towards them.
"I'm impressed," he said, examining both the doctor and Piper herself, "No other rebels have made it this far. I'm not sure if that's because you're braver, smarter, or stupider than the rest."
He paused a moment before continuing his monologue, "I really don't understand you people. I can bring you perpetual bliss, the freedom from knowledge and decision-making. Who doesn't want that?"
"No one wants that," Piper said staring at the man and his long graying beard and his jovial smile.
"You'll accept it once you have it," he said, "Everyone, I think our guests would like a Lotus Flower." The workers abandoned their posts, most grabbing Lotus Flowers from the conveyer belt.
"What do we do," Piper hissed to the doctor.
"I'm working on it," she replied, "but coming up with life-saving plans isn't as easy as it looks." Kameko sent them a slasher smile and grabbed Piper's arms. She held Piper's arms behind her back as though they were in handcuffs. Piper tried to break them away, but the woman was strong. Piper kicked backwards, and made contact with Kameko's crotch. She cried out in pain, but held Piper's hands firmly in place.
"Doctor," Piper said darting her eyes around the room, "how are we getting out of this one?" The doctor had already grabbed her sonic screwdriver out of her shirt pocket and was heading towards the beginning of the conveyer belt. A tanned woman was approaching Piper, a Lotus Flower clutched between her fingers. A large group of people were surrounding the doctor as she attempted to dismantle the conveyer belt. Piper tightly closed her mouth as the woman came within a foot of her. She kicked at her, but the contact wasn't enough to stop the woman. She started to try pry Piper's mouth open and tried to shove the flower in. Piper allowed it to enter her mouth, and then spit it back into the woman's face. She flinched back in response. Piper heard a screeching noise, and knew that the doctor had halted the conveyer belt. The room started to blur slightly, and Piper worried that she'd allowed herself to swallow enough of the Lotus Flower for it to reap its dastardly effects. She didn't feel her free will slipping away, so Piper assumed that she still had her wits about her.
She felt Kameko's neck against her head, and Piper propelled herself upwards, hitting Kameko's chin with the full force of her jump. Piper's head ached, but she didn't pass out. The woman fell onto the hard, cement ground. The other woman tried to grab Piper, but she was already running towards the doctor.
"Piper," she said, fighting off people with one hand, and crushing flowers with the other, "help me destroy these things!" Piper pushed between two men and started crushing the few remaining flowers. A few minutes of punching, kicking, and crushing later, all the flowers had been decimated. Piper heard slow clapping coming from the platform.
"Congratulations," the man said, "you almost bested me, but you still win. You'll still be awarded with eternal happiness."
"We destroyed your flowers," said Piper, "you can't control us."
The man rolled his eyes and replied in a mocking tone, "You think that I don't have more upstairs in that vast expanse of a building?"
Piper asserted, "But when you run out-"
"We'll make more," he asserted, "it's not that difficult." Piper noticed that many of the people were holding their heads. Some had looks of confusion on their faces.
"But the people will come out of their drug induced stupor," Piper said, "and they'll be pissed. They won't let it happen again." Many glared at the man. They were already awakening.
"I've seen history unfold," said the doctor, "and things never work out in the favor of those who try to control their people. Revolts, revolutions; the new age is coming. The people are awakening. They are the true oncoming storm."
"Please," he said, "it's not that difficult to keep the drugged under control."
"We're not drugged anymore," a red-haired woman said, stepping forward, "and I'm afraid we won't be taking orders from you anymore."
"But how-" he said.
"You had to ensure that we restocked our systems with lotus flowers every fifteen to twenty minutes," said the woman, "they must have kept us occupied longer than that." She smiled at them both.
"Thank you," she said and then she glared at the man, "I think it's about time we start those revolts." The woman chased after the man, followed by her fellow former lotus eaters.
The two walked through the streets of New York, as people resurfaced from their drugged haze.
"Let's not visit another dystopia," Piper said "I'm not very fond of them."
"I expected it to be more like a bit more like The Jetsons than Huxley's Brave New World," said the doctor, "but we'll try not to end up in a political cautionary tale come to life next trip."
"Good," Piper said, "you want to know what's more fun than a corrupt futuristic government?"
"Anything," quipped the doctor.
"I was going to say surfing," said Piper, remembering the good times that she'd spent surfing with her dad, "though, I suppose you're right. Just about anything is better." The doctor opened up the tardis door.
"I bet we could go surfing," said the doctor, adjusting her ponytail.
"Really?" Piper asked, stepping into the tardis' main room, "just surfing? No robot adversaries? Or alien sharks? Or political assassination attempts?" The doctor touched the tardis' controls.
"An assassination attempt would be a lovely change of pace," said the doctor. With the grin on her face, Piper wasn't sure whether or not the woman was joking, but that didn't lessen the happiness that rushed through her at the doctor's smiling face.
A.N: Today's quote of the day is from William Shakespeare's play the Tempest, though it's usage is more reminiscent of Huxley's famous dystopian novel, Brave New World.
