Hey Guys! Sorry I took so long before posting this, but I have a good excuse this time. I forgot to save the file and my computer crashed! That's a pretty good one, right? However, I also couldn't figure out how to write about the Eldar, because I want to get to the part where things start blowing up. This is mainly a transition chapter, but I hope you enjoy!
Alexander was initially insulted to become an artisan for the Eldar, but soon he realized how much work it was.
Training started a few hours after he and his friends were returned to the cell. Then, they came. These weird Eldar appeared from nowhere, but they were different somehow. They laughed more and were dressed as jesters; an odd sight for a species that to Alexander usually just sat around and discussed their superiority. They were taken out of their cells and immediately separated. Fred, George, and Mary were sent to become sculptors, but Alexander was to become a musician.
"Are you serious?" he asked, disgusted with the fact already that he wouldn't be learning anything having to do with warfare for a while, but to become a musician? He had been around for much of western history, and even though he didn't live in Europe until 1700 (he did, however, come by every century to see what his brother was doing) and even though the only reason he moved to Europe from Japan was to secure enough money for transport to America, he was a master of Western culture. Alexander had been to Vienna and had learned the art of music. In fact, he and his brother were many of the West's greatest composers, from Beethoven to Bach. (Ok, so he did come back to Europe for a century or so due to Alexander's disgust for slavery). The point is that Alexander had graduated from every top university, had a degree in almost every subject, and defined different historical eras.
That meant nothing to the Eldar Harlequins.
They took him aboard their large ship and explained who they were, their importance in the universe, and that they performed for all Eldar, light or dark. They first marched him to a huge amphitheater, which was glorious in size but also the beautiful paintings that lined the walls. The colors were so vibrant that they seemed too realistic, as if reality could not capture the sheer grandeur of these huge beings on the walls. However, one huge elder painting stood out from the rest. This Eldar was laughing, and he seemed to be radiating pure humor.
"Who is he?" he asked to the Harlequin next to him.
"His name is Cegorach, the laughing god. Long ago, he stood against the Chaos god Slanesh and laughed in his face. He taught us how to laugh and to purge the temptation of pleasure so that we could never fall victim to his Chaotic power."
"It's a beautiful painting," acknowledged Alexander, trying to keep the otherwise awkward silence at bay as the Harlequins stood in their seats, waiting for God knows what.
"It is our greatest work," said the Harlequin.
The Spartan stuck his hand out. "My name is Alexander."
Harlequin withdrew. "What are you doing?"
"It's a human sign of greeting. You shake my hand."
He looked so disgusted that Alexander began to laugh. He couldn't help it. From the moment he awoke from that cryo pod his life had been a living hell. He hadn't actually slept since then (not including the three times he was knocked out). However, that was the moment when the main entrance gates opened and an old Harlequin walked in. Alexander kept laughing, knowing that it was probably disrespectful and could get him killed, but he still couldn't stop.
The Harlequin walked up to Alexander. "Why are you laughing?"
Alexander forced himself to stop, wiping the tears from his eyes. "My life was totally ruined. I woke up from a perfectly good cryo-sleep to find myself here," he gestured to the room. "This day has been going so badly that I can't do anything but laugh."
"Oh, so that's how it is?" he asked. Alexander held his breath, and the rest of the room seemed to too. Then, out of nowhere, he began to laugh as well. Alexander joined in, then the Harlequin next to him, and the one next to him. Soon, the theater was filled with maniacal laughter, a cacophony that Alexander believed would never stop. However, everyone after a few minutes ran out of breath.
Alexander then said to the Harlequin leader, "why are you laughing?"
"Because your culture is laughable. Shaking hands establishes friendship? Come on!" A few chuckled, but nobody could muster enough breath to laugh again. "You think you have beautiful music? We perfected music long before the first mon'keigh decided to bang sticks and rocks together to make noise! Your music, your dances, your culture is inferior to us in every way."
Alexander began to get mad. And what happens, audience, when Alexander gets mad? He becomes incredibly powerful.
He stood up, his eyes glowing blue. The Harlequin leader stopped smiling and anticipated a blow, but Alexander did not strike. Instead, he walked to the center of the amphitheater; all eyes were on him. Alexander radiated pure power, and suddenly the scene changed. The Eldar ship faded away into a grand music hall, and all of the Eldar were seated as the audience. The stage was at first empty, but then Alexander stepped on, dressed in a suit and carrying a baton. He tapped a music stand that was not there a second ago. The tap echoed throughout the massive hall, and an army of Alexanders filled the room and sat in seats that appeared everywhere on the stage. Two seconds later, each Alexander had an instrument. It was a full orchestra of Alexanders.
The conducting Alexander turned around to face the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen." He spoke in a booming voice, as if it was amplified. "I have heard the words mon'keigh and inferior in the same sentence too many times today, and it's time to end it now." He pointed at the lead Harlequin, who was completely stunned by the spectacle. "You want culture? I'm not just going to give you culture; I am culture.
He turned around and began to conduct the first movement of Beethoven's 5th symphony. The Alexander violin players began, and then the rest of the orchestra joined. Conductor Alexander moved with such passion (or was it anger?) that it was almost as entertaining as watching the orchestra. To the Eldar, the sound was simplistic; very simplistic. However, it was interesting to them that this young species had developed their own culture thousands of years before, and then they devolved into what they were now. Some of them scoffed, but others somewhat enjoyed it. Maybe it was the mon'keigh's anger that made it so entertaining, or maybe it was the idea that they have cultural potential. After a few minutes, the finale came, and Alexander waved his baton so wildly that some began to wonder if he had lost his mind. And then, it was over. Alexander turned around, bowed, and the scene faded back into the Harlequin ship.
An eerie silence once again hung in the air. They're going to kill me, thought Alexander. The silence continued. He wanted to tap his feet, wring his hands, anything to break the unbearable cacophony of noiselessness, but he did not move an inch. Then, he heard the lead Harlequin laugh, but nobody else joined in. He kept laughing.
"My name is Lailan, head Harlequin! And that was wonderful showmanship, even if the music was…simplistic."
"So you're not going to kill me?"
"I was considering it, but now I don't think I will. You may sit down now."
Alexander looked around and realized he was still standing in the center of the room. "Oh," he said, slightly embarrassed and shuffled to his seat.
When he sat down, the Eldar next to him stuck out his hand. "I'm Baerad."
Alexander withdrew. "What are you doing?"
"It's a sign of human greeting. You shake my hand." He smiled. Alexander smiled, and they shook hands, realizing that he made his first friend who was an Eldar. I might actually like it here.
"I can't do it!" shouted George.
"You have to! Concentrate!" yelled Fred.
George channeled all of his willpower towards a large pile of wraithbone, which began to ripple and boil. Then, it began to flow like a liquid, not down, but up until the column was 6 feet high. The wraithbone began to shape itself, as if an invisible sculptor was in the room, slowly molding the psychoreactive material. After a few minutes, there was a brilliant flash of light, and there before the twins stood a 6-foot tall statue of a cheeseburger. Fred and George stood there together, transfixed by the beauty which lay before them.
One of them began to cry. "It's so beautiful!"
At that precise moment, Hector entered the room. "What's going on…what the hell is that?"
"It's pure awesomeness in the form of a cheeseburger statue."
Hector applied his palm to his face. "This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen!"
Georges' eyes flashed an electric blue for a moment, and one could feel a tension in the air suddenly rise, and the two stared at each other for a minute, and just before it seemed that someone was going to roast someone with warpfire, the doors opened and Mary stepped into the room.
"What is going on here?" She asked.
Fred brushed his hair back and coughed. "The same thing that we've been doing ever since the Eldar put us on this ship and had our crazy sculpting mentor, Thareen, work us to the bone every day for 20 hours! Making statues!"
"Then why is there a statue of a huge cheeseburger?
"You were my inspiration!" shouted George, who had a crush on Mary, and had a major issue of blurting the most random words out when he was within 30 feet of her. "It's, um, fat and juicy! Just like you!" The moment George said it, he knew it was incredibly strange, but now it was out there, and he had to deal with the consequences.
Mary and Hector looked at the statue, then at George, then back at each other with weirded-out looks on their faces.
"I can do better!" Fred shouted from across the room, and a pile of wraithbone molded itself into a ten-foot tall burrito.
George became infuriated and began to summon the warp to his command, enlarging his cheeseburger. Fred responded by doing the same to his, and all the while Hector and Mary stood next to each other watching the strange spectacle. After a minute of watching the cheeseburger and burrito grow, Hector, without moving, asked, "Do you want to leave now?"
"Yeah, let's go." And with that, the two turned around, opened the door, and walked into the corridor towards the dining area.
Hector had been in some of the most stressful political events in history. He watched his father start World War Four as American member of the UN Security Council, he observed the peace treaty negotiations, and waited for four nail-biting hours to see if his father would be elected president of the new UN. But none of those events prepared him for this movement. How the heck was he supposed to talk to a girl? From day one, he only studied political science, because his father wanted him to become the president of Mars when it would be become a substantial part of the UN Interplanetary Federation, or UNIF, the government his father was trying to build when he left. The only member of the female sex that he saw until 15 was his mother, and even though he wasn't entirely sure, that probably still didn't count. But now, walking down the hallway with Mary next to him, he didn't know how to initiate a conversation. Oh well, he told himself. At least I can't blunder as badly as Fred and George did. He took a deep breath and said to Mary, "I like the way your hair flows in the wind." Actually, that was probably worse than Fred and George. Shit. Now the hallway was filled with a tension, an awkward silence that tortured Hectors' ears as Mary tried to respond to his abrupt comment.
"Really?" replied Mary, still shocked from the cheeseburger/burrito affair. "Thanks…for being honest, I guess."
He needed to turn this around fast. What did his father always say? Ask a question! Of course! Too bad I didn't remember that a minute ago!
"So, what's your story?"
Mary looked at him. "We've been on this ship for almost a year and you don't even know anything about me?"
"Sorry, my dad always told me to immerse myself in my work. No distractions."
"That sounds incredibly boring, and sad."
"So sad that the way I initiate a conversation is by saying I like how your hair blows through the wind."
Mary smiled a bit. Maybe I didn't fail as badly as I believe I did! Hector Thought. "Like Robert said before he… you know."
"Exploded?"
"Yes." The smile faded and was replaced by an expression of deep sadness, almost hopelessness. "He fought in World War Four. But for some reason, my grandpa's friends who fought in the war said that…he just didn't die. A bullet went through his chest, but by the time the medic arrived, there was only a scar."
"He was a powerful psyker, he didn't know like the rest of us."
"But it wasn't just him. He said that his father had that same thing happen to him, who inherited it from his father, apparently going back for generations. Apparently, it went back to ancient Greece, at the Battle of Thermopylae."
"Thermopylae? But all of the Spartans died in that battle, except for Alexander. Unless…"
"Unless Alexander wasn't the only Spartan who survived."
That was the moment when the two reached the end of the hallway and the conversation stopped; it was the perfect conclusion to an incredibly interesting and dramatic conversation.
And now to respond to comments!
BIBOTOT: Thanks for the support! But I'm pretty sure that Alwaysbetonvoid will focus more on Legolas than I intend to.
SciFiFan96: Awesome
Guest: I'm not even sure who the Minotaurs are, I've never heard of that chapter.
Alexander Voss: Some Eldar are racist. That's how the 40k universe goes, I'm afraid. And yes, this is quiet an interesting piece.
CookieMonsta1233: Thanks for the grammatical tip. And oh yes, about that Inquisitor, I'm afraid he had a slight problem of keeping his head on his shoulders after a certain revolver bullet went through his neck…I can take a message though.
Guest: Really? I'm pretty sure a few million Frenchmen from the late 18th century would disagree.
Also, I want to try something new. Ask one of the characters a question, and they will answer as best as the author can type their response.
Review, or the calculator gets it!