Ack! Only two chapters into my new system and I've already gone and managed to miss my deadline by a day. Uh... blame midterms! --hides--
Well, anyway... I'm not sure anyone really noticed, but I decided to go back to chapter three and take out all instances of Garet calling Isaac "Ize." I'm not sure why, but a lot of reviewers seemed to find that name weird, and who am I to argue with them? The change is hardly major, but I just thought I'd let you guys know.
Also, Brynn Parker has taken on my art request! It's not quite finished yet, but keep an eye out for a link to appear on my profile page within the next few days or so. :) In addition to that, you can also expect a much more recent (and, IMO, much better) picture of myself to appear in my profile sometime in the next week (i.e. as soon as my very lazy friend gets off her ass and sends it to me). It's about time that I get rid of that old picture of myself...
Finally, review responses have been sent out on time this time around. As always, thanks to Insanity Team! (a.k.a. Violet), Kodoku and The Donkey of Terror for their reviews (though methinks Donkey needs to read up on Garet's character a little better), as I can't send you guys replies. In any case, here's chapter four!
chapter
four
Ivan
and Garet
ambiguous
morals
Ivan's ability to read minds was just one of those things whose morality he had never really questioned. For as long as he could remember, other people's thoughts had always been open to him, and he had never really wondered whether it was right of him to hear them—the ability to do so was just something he had accepted as normal. In fact, it was only a few years ago that he had learned that most people couldn't do what he could, but even then, it had done nothing to stop him from using his powers. After all, it wasn't as though other people could tell when he was reading their minds, so what was the harm? He had continued to listen, and nobody had ever found out about it.
Meeting Isaac and Garet marked the first time in Ivan's life when he had read someone's mind and that someone had been aware of it. It also marked the first time when he realized that some people didn't like having their inner thoughts known to another person. Still, Ivan hadn't made his promise to never read his two friends' minds again because he thought it was the right thing to do. It was simply because of the fact that they were friends. After all, while they had never explicitly come out and said it, Ivan knew that Isaac and Garet felt rather uncomfortable when they knew their thoughts were being read, and Ivan didn't want them to feel that way. It was simply a matter of respecting his friends' unspoken wishes, and there was nothing deeper about it than that.
Reading Mia's mind, however, was the incident that had changed everything for him.
Mia. For some reason Ivan found it a little more difficult to spark a conversation with the Imilian healer than with his other, male companions, but she was still a very close friend, and always the person he could talk to if he was feeling a bit depressed or insecure. But while Ivan had promised Isaac and Garet that he would never read their minds, he had not done the same for her, which was why he and Garet had decided it would be better for him to ask Mia about any... feelings she had for Isaac, just in case she was stubborn about admitting them. Their plan had worked, to be sure, but now Ivan was having second thoughts about what he had just done as he lay on his bed, watching the sunlight from outside the ship dim slowly.
Granted, he had caught Mia thinking about something that was obviously a very personal matter for her, but still... it was obvious enough from her reaction that her affection for Isaac was not something he had been supposed to find out. It was something that should have remained secret until she was ready to tell someone, not a feeling that Ivan should have forced out of her with his powers. Yet it was a difficult thing for him to come to terms with, because before today, due to his abilities, Ivan had never really thought of a person's mind as a place where secrets could be safely kept. Nothing about a person could be successfully hidden from him; if he so desired he could simply delve into someone's mind and learn everything there was to know about him or her. There was no limit to the information he could obtain about another person by reading his or her thoughts.
But was it right of him to do so?
It's just... well, we're supposed to be friends, Ivan. That was what she had said, and that was what was bothering him. Reading the mind of some random townsperson in order to obtain information about their quest was one thing, reading the mind of his friend for no other reason than amusement was another.
I always thought that you'd... respect my privacy, because of that. She had said that, too. She had always known that he could have read her mind at any time, but she had trusted him enough to believe that he would never do that to her... because they were friends. And without even considering how she might feel about it, he had gone and broken that trust.
She had forgiven him for his mistake, that much was true. And it made him feel a lot better to know that she wasn't still angry at him, but it hadn't done anything to make him stop his newfound wondering about the morality of his powers. Was it right for him to use his abilities so... indiscriminately, even if ultimately it helped him and his companions in their quest? Was it all right of him to delve into the personal lives of people he didn't even know, even if they didn't realize he was doing it? And most importantly, was it all right of him to invade his close friend's privacy... even if, in the end, it could help make her and another one of his close friends happy?
He never got a chance to answer those questions for himself, however, as the sound of a key clicking in the lock of the door of the room broke him out of his reverie. Moments later, the door opened and a grinning Garet made his way into the room. "Hey, Ivan," he greeted cheerfully as he walked over to his own bed and sat down on it.
Ivan had always been one to get rather annoyed when someone interrupted his internal musings, but he would gladly make an exception for Garet right now—they had important information to exchange, after all. "Hey, Garet," he replied, sitting up with a small grin to match the Mars Adept's. "You look pretty happy."
Garet's expression suddenly looked rather mischievous. "Three guesses as to why," he responded, his teeth now showing in his grin. "First two don't count."
Ivan's smile grew a little wider as well—so Garet had succeeded. "I'm impressed," he remarked, chuckling. "You actually got Isaac to just come out and admit he likes Mia?"
Garet shrugged, but it did nothing to diminish his mischievous expression. "Well... I wouldn't say I got him to 'just come out' and admit it," he explained, chuckling as well. "But I managed to force it out of him, yeah. I didn't need to read his mind, either," he added playfully, sticking out his tongue at the Jupiter Adept.
"Yeah, well, you've known him all your life," Ivan countered, giving his friend a shrug and a look that silently said, whatever. "I think it's much harder to talk to someone that you've only known for two months about this sort of thing... especially a girl. Heck, compared to me, you probably didn't even have to try," he remarked, also sticking out his tongue.
It was silly, childlike gestures such as these that personified the sort of relationship that Ivan and Garet shared. Though he would never do anything to hinder their quest, Ivan was a child at heart, and was always looking for a way to embarrass his friends for his own amusement—within reason, of course. Likewise, while Garet wasn't the type to actually go out of his way to prank someone, he could always appreciate a good joke and was always willing to share a good laugh with his friends. The two of them had gotten along well almost from the moment Ivan had joined the group, and had become "partners in crime" of sorts as the journey went on. If anything embarrassing happened to Isaac or Mia, chances were that it was the fault of Ivan and Garet.
And this was their best idea yet: getting Isaac and Mia to fall in love with each other. It was one of those strange things that they weren't sure how they knew, but it had only taken a few days of the Mercury Adept traveling with the group for Ivan and Garet to realize that she and Isaac were made to be together. And so the name-calling had begun: they had called the boy and girl "lovebirds," "sweethearts," and any other names they could think of that might get the pair to slowly begin to look at and think about each other as more than just simple friends. It looked now as though their tactics had worked, too; Isaac and Mia weren't exactly confessing their heartfelt love for each other just yet, but there was an affection there, that was for sure. And all that Ivan and Garet had had to do once they had noticed that was to get the two of them to admit to themselves how they felt about each other.
Now there was only one problem.
"Anyway..." Ivan said slowly, "what are we supposed to do now?"
Garet shrugged, his mischievous expression fading. "Well... I'm not really sure, to be honest," he answered. Now that they knew that Isaac and Mia liked each other, there wasn't that much else that could be done. "Still, at least we know we don't have to worry about making them like each other anymore," he added, with a small smile.
One of the things Ivan and Garet had agreed upon was that they couldn't actually force their two friends to tell each other their feelings. They could try to encourage the pair, try to get them into situations where the two of them were alone, but in the end the actual telling was the one thing that had to be left up to Isaac and Mia themselves—if they were forced to confess their affections before they were ready to do so, the results could be disastrous. All that Ivan and Garet could really do now was wait and see what developed between the two of them.
"I guess not," Ivan remarked, laying back on his bed and looking up at the wooden ceiling. It was several moments before he spoke again, and when he did, his voice was filled with uncertainty. "Do you think they'll... end up telling each other in the end, though?" he asked softly.
Garet responded to that with an incredulous snort. "Do you really think there's a chance that they won't?" he asked, staring at Ivan with his eyebrows raised. "We know they like each other," he remarked, with a confident grin. "It'll end up happening eventually, I know it."
Ivan couldn't help but smile slightly, still staring at the ceiling. Well, that was Garet for you, always the one to think positively no matter the situation. Still... there was a chance that they might not tell each other, and as long as it was there, Ivan still felt slightly ill at ease. If Isaac and Mia did really end up falling in love with each other, then it would be okay that he had read Mia's mind, but if not... "What if they don't, though?" he asked, frowning to himself.
Garet raised his eyebrows once again. "'What if they don't?'" he parroted incredulously. "What's with you today?" he asked, with the faintest hint of concern. "I thought the whole idea of this was to make sure they ended up together."
"Yeah, I know," Ivan sighed, frowning thoughtfully. "I've just... been thinking about a lot of things." Silently, he wondered what Garet might think of him for getting so worked up about his natural abilities. He could already see the Mars Adept, laughing and telling him he was being an idiot... but Ivan didn't want him to react that way. This was a rather serious matter to him...
"Yeah?" Garet responded, sounding genuinely interested and just a tiny bit worried. "What sort of things?"
Ivan rolled away from his friend. "I-I don't know if I want to say," he replied softly, his frown deepening and his voice very small. "If I tell you, you're probably just going to laugh at me..."
"Hey, man, if it's that big a deal to you, then I'll take it seriously," Garet reassured him. "What's the matter?" Ivan, however, was still unsure and didn't reply to this, so after a few moments he heard Garet complain, "Sol, why is everyone ignoring me today? Come on, Ivan, I'm your friend! I'm not gonna laugh at you."
Ivan rolled back so that he was facing the Mars Adept. Violet eyes shining with uncertainty, he looked straight at his friend and asked, very softly, "You promise?"
Garet just grinned. "You know, I'd think that you'd have started to trust me just a little after traveling with me for four months," he remarked playfully. "Of course I promise."
Ivan couldn't help but grin a little as well as he sat up—the Mars Adept certainly had a way of making people feel better. "Well..." he started slowly, uncertainly, finding it difficult to keep his eyes on Garet's, "I've just been thinking about... my Mind Read," he confessed, his tiny grin fading into an uncertain frown.
Garet cocked his head slightly, his expression confused, as though he was wondering how anyone could possibly be uncomfortable with such a power. "What about it?" he asked slowly, carefully.
"Well... I don't know..." Ivan said softly, finding it hard to put his troubled feelings into words. "I just... it's just that when I read Mia's mind earlier today, she got really... upset at me," he explained, sighing sadly as he recalled the memory. "It just... it made me wonder whether..." He trailed off, suddenly finding it too difficult to continue.
"Whether what?" Garet helped him.
"I don't know..." Ivan repeated. He suddenly looked up and stared directly into Garet's eyes uneasily. "Is it... okay for me to read her mind... or anyone's? Is it okay for me to... just invade people's privacy like that, even if it helps us in the end?"
For several seconds there was silence between the two Adepts as Garet slowly took in what his friend had just asked. Ivan just kept frowning uncertainly, wondering more and more as time wore on whether it had been a good idea to tell Garet what had been bothering him.
Finally, however, Garet spoke up. Letting out a breath and shaking his head, the Mars Adept frowned thoughtfully and remarked, "That's... one hell of a good question."
Ivan sighed and let himself fall back onto his pillow. "I know," he responded softly. "I just... I don't even know how I'm supposed to feel about this."
"I don't blame you, man," Garet said, with the ghost of a grin on his face. "Me, well... If I had your power, I'd be reading the minds of everyone that I could." He sighed, somewhat sadly. "But then again, I'm not you."
Ivan could feel the corners of his mouth twitch upwards slightly without his control as he stared up at the ceiling once again. "I don't even want to know what you'd go around doing if you could read minds," he remarked jokingly. "But still..." he rolled back towards Garet, his expression serious, "... what do you think about... well, this?"
In response to the question, Garet leaned back on his hands, looked up at the ceiling, and let out a sigh very slowly. "Well, I guess I'm in the same boat as you," he said after a few moments. "I don't really know what to think about it either. There isn't any one good answer."
The first part of his answer only made Ivan frown, but the end of it made him look up. "What do you mean by that?" he asked slowly.
Garet just shrugged, not looking at him. "Well, I mean, you can't just say 'it's good' or 'it's bad,'" he explained. "It's... too complicated for that."
Ivan considered this for a moment, then replied, "Yeah... I guess so." That didn't really help him, however.
Garet wasn't done, though. "Still..." he added with a small smile, "I don't think you should really let it bother you so much."
That got Ivan's attention. "You don't?" he asked incredulously, sitting up—how could he just ignore his own dilemma like that? "Why?"
Garet just shrugged, his smile widening slightly. "Well, I mean... you're not hurting anyone, are you?" Ivan opened his mouth to speak, but the Mars Adept quickly cut him off, "Aside from what just happened with Mia, I mean."
Ivan blinked, thinking. Finally, he replied, "Well... not really, I guess." He frowned. "Non-Adepts can't even tell what I'm doing."
"So what's the harm?" Garet asked, shrugging again.
Ivan stared at him—what was he getting at? "Well, for starters," he began, "there's the fact that I'm invading someone's privacy, and learning things about people that I'm not sure I'm supposed to know, and—"
"But you're not doing anything bad to those people," Garet interrupted him again, still smiling. "I mean, it's not like you're using their thoughts to get them in trouble, is it?"
"What about those thieves back in Vault?" Ivan fired back cynically.
It was Garet's turn to be stunned momentarily. He blinked for a moment, and then, regaining his composure, he shrugged and asked, "Well, that ended up helping out all of Vault, didn't it?"
Ivan opened his mouth to say something, but closed it after he realized that he had no good reply to Garet's words. "Well... I suppose..." he said softly.
"And the rest of these people," Garet continued, clearly gaining steam. "You're not doing anything bad with what you find out from them, and for all they know, you didn't even do anything. So what's the matter?"
"Well... I don't know..." Ivan responded meekly. "It's just that Mia was so upset with me, it made me wonder if—"
"Is Mia still mad at you?" It seemed as though Garet didn't want Ivan to finish a sentence. "She seemed fine enough when I saw her earlier."
Ivan stared at his friend again, blinking. Finally, he replied, "She's not mad at me anymore."
"So she forgave you, then."
"Yeah..."
"Well then, there you go," Garet remarked, with a confident grin. "So you made a mistake, big deal. She's not mad at you for it, and now you know not to read her mind again. Is that so bad?"
"I guess not..." Ivan replied. "But still," he added, staring straight at Garet uneasily, "I found out something I wasn't supposed to, and—"
"'Something you weren't supposed to find out?' Are you talking about the fact that Mia likes Isaac, here?" Garet asked incredulously, still grinning. "Dude, the whole reason you talked with her in the first place was to find that out. Even if you hadn't read her mind, I'm sure you would have gotten her to admit it sooner or later."
Ivan frowned slightly, looking at the ground for a moment before back at Garet. "You think so?" he asked uncertainly.
"Of course," Garet replied, his grin now becoming rather mischievous. "Besides," he added, his teeth showing in his grin, "since you did read her mind, we know she likes Isaac now. And that means, if things go how we want them to, that we can make her a very happy girl." He chuckled. "Don't you think so?"
Finally, Ivan smiled slightly. "Yeah..." he responded. "You're right."
"'Course I am," Garet said playfully, looking rather pleased with himself. "Now will you stop being so depressed about this?"
Ivan had to chuckle. "Yeah, okay, fine," he replied. Then, after a moment, he asked jokingly, "Man, how do you always stay so optimistic?"
Garet just shrugged, still grinning. "Hey, someone's gotta make sure everyone here doesn't mope around all the time," he replied. Ivan just kept smiling at him.
Okay, so... maybe it's the lack of outright romance, but something about this chapter bothers me. It feels... well, filler-ish, for lack of a better word. Still, what do you guys think? Remember, please don't hesitate to point out any problems you see.
Anyway, I'm excited to get started on chapter 5 bright and early, because it's going to be an exclusively Isaac/Mia chapter. I've already had a lot of ideas for what will happen in it, so expect it to come out a lot quicker! In the meantime...
Please
review!
-TheOneAndOnlyT
next
chapter: Mia and Isaac
expect
next chapter by: April 15, at the latest April 23
