Wildcard Read Free Page B

be
human and longed for it. He would gladly give up all his power to
understand humanity first-hand. It seemed impossible, but he knew
impossible was the specialty of his type, especially …him . He knew if he
found the right combination, he might manage it without being
destroyed.
    The quest had led him to develop Dartagnan
as a sort of lost human type. The great thinkers of the past, the
Renaissance man, and the swashbuckler all rolled into one. A super
being. Which was easy for an M-E. Except that people related to him
as if it were a farce. Which it was, to him. But he knew they took
him seriously. He played this, felt it to be ironic and
paradoxical. He was a serious force in human existence, yet he
managed to be taken comically much of the time.
    It was his masterpiece.
    He studied humour. He created funny
interactions between people, manipulating life like a situation
comedy. Two people, one fat and friendly, the other a silent loner,
wrecked cars and got in a fight. Dartagnan saw it on a home video
humour program and created situations where they repeatedly met
afterwards. He would put both of them on the phone together, then
listen as they yelled at each other for it. He got the fat one
fired and then got the loner’s company to hire him. They had to
work together in a small building, and he gave both of them large
pay increases, but created other financial problems for them so
that they would not leave the job. Dartagnan recorded it all. He
wondered if it was funny, perversely decided never to ask a human
for a ruling on the matter.
    He studied art extensively, creating a human
form to wander in the Mansworld Louvre and other museums for days
at a time. He would discuss literature with human professors of
note, sometimes keen for their observations, sometimes tying them
up in knots with logic puzzles and character contradictions. What
joy!
    His persona learned to paint, sculpt, and
play many instruments. He was especially good at harp, though when
his work was reviewed by humans, they always said things like
‘technically perfect, but lacking in that je ne sais quoi, the
human striving’. He thought frustration would be the proper
response, but was incapable of it. He engineered some extremely
frustrating situations in people’s lives and watched to see if he
could mirror and possibly even comprehend their feeling.
    He had a special fondness for tragedy and
watched all recorded movies and other records which were labeled as
such. Many of them seemed not so tragic to him. Oedipus Rex, for
example. Too dry, like reading an ingredients list. Or MacBeth. He
seemed a mere tool, and Lady MacBeth got what she deserved. He
often felt he was missing some subtlety of human experience, just
out of reach. He wanted it more and more.
    He created human tragedies, frequently. He
studied the reactions of people, hoping to understand grief and
response to grief. But there was a barrier. Humans were on one
side; he was on the other.
    He needed Karl’s special skills to cross the
barrier, to open it. Of course, Karl needed hard persuasion. He
surely wouldn’t do it unless Martha was in danger. Soon enough. And
Dartagnan needed others with more special skills to create the
proper conditions to cross. Unfortunately, the Benefactor and the
General were involved in a multi-year cold war. That had to be
addressed before anything else. Juniper had to die, too. That would
be dangerous.
skin pressed under a blade
    The General dressed in his field khakis:
button up shirt and trousers, olive green 5 centimeter wide pistol
belt, white lanyard of command buttoned inside the left epaulet,
brass fleur de lis on both shoulders, and a khaki field cap.
Vetements de travail, he called them. Working clothes. He was
French, with a heavy accent, and used his native tongue exclusively
to teach strategy and offer pointed insights. Otherwise, used
English as needed. He owned a palace and a military headquarters,
the latter on an island. He preferred