OVERLOOKED ㅤkotlc

020. Sixteen

It all started with the Human Assistance Program, a while after Vespera's shenanigans. Which I, by the way, don't approve of.

(Me neither.)

Shush, I'm telling the story, Alv.

(Sorry-not-sorry.)

Anyway—this was before the Neverseen was created, about a hundred years ago. Eighteen elves were chosen to go to the human world and introduce them to...

Actually, I forgot. What did they introduce them to again?

(I dunno. Good stuff. Probably food, because humans are imbeciles.)

Uh—okay. So, these elves went to the Forbidden Cities to introduce humans to... um, food. Okay, that doesn't sound quite right. Alvar—

(Just continue.)

Ah—fine. So, they introduced the food or whatever, and the humans were ecstatic. I mean—our food's good, you know? We have chocolate and stuff.

And—hey, stop laughing! Chocolate's good.

Anyway, they—Alvar, I told you to stop laugh—you just snorted, I—

Well. Um, Rosaleen, Dex, ignore him. Anyway, the humans were amazed. They kept asking for more things, and these elves were like, Okay, sure. Here you go!

But then, eventually, after the elves kept giving them stuff, they were like, This doesn't make sense. How do these people have all this?

And those dimwits came to the conclusion that they had magic.

(Humans are annoying.)

Yeah, we know.

(It's so dumb! It's not even magic, it's science. Logic. You know, big brain stuff. Those know-it-alls thought the world was flat back then! Maybe they should just—)

Well, that was a long time ago. But yeah, it is dumb.

So—

(Bleh, humans. Does anyone want to projectile vomit with me all over them?)

After this. Anyway, they decided to take—what's it called? They took their blood or something.

(Blood tests.)

Yes, that. They did blood tests on them, and then they realized the elves were... well—elves.

And at first, it was fine. They were all like, Oh, that's so cool!

(Then they started talking about aliens, too.)

No—I mean—well, yes, but that's not the point. They said it was cool, then wanted to do more tests. Like those freaky government things in their entertainment boxes.

(TV's?)

Yeah, that.

Anyway, they quarantined the elves, studied them, took more blood. They gave them their dirty mountain water or something—

(Their dirty mountain piss, you mean.)

I—uh, no.

Um, well, the elves drank bad water instead of Bottles of Youth, and slowly... well... gradually, after all this, they...

(The elves started dying.)

Well, that's one way to put it. But yes. The elves started dying, because they didn't get the nutrients they needed, and the humans kept giving them their dumb medicine and dumb X-Ray radiation stuff, and they wouldn't let them get away, then...

Well. You know.

(Death.)

Not quite. I mean—yes, they died. But not all of them.

Two escaped.

They escaped and watched their friends die, then lightleaped back to the Lost Cities. They told the Council, but do you know what the Council did?

(Nothing.)

Exactly.

Wait, no. They took this information, and put it into a stupid cache. Then they did nothing.

They were just like, Oh, we suggest you Wash this from your mind so it doesn't break. Don't worry, we'll destroy these records too and halt the program. It'll be like it never happened.

And—Alvar, what are you—stop scowling like that. We get it, you don't like them.

Anyway, it was so—dumb. These two survivors obviously didn't agree with them.

(For good reason.)

Yeah, I mean—they watched their friends die because of humans.

So they said, No, we won't let the humans just get away with this. And they suggested keeping humans imprisoned.

The humans would still be happy, they'd provide everything they needed: company, the illusion of freedom, their dirty water, their stringy vegetables—

(Ew, those taste terrible. Like, did you try them before, Ruy? They literally taste like—like fish turds or something.)

Um. That's—uh, no, I haven't.

Anyway, they proposed to keep a few humans in this prison, and they were like, Let's keep these humans in prison. The other ones will kill each other anyway, we just have to halt their progress in the nuclear stuff they're looking into.

But the Council said no. They said that the humans would still count as an intelligent species, and that they should be allowed to just roam free.

And so, these two elves said fine, but they didn't erase their memory. They started talking about how unfair it was and all, and then...

They realized how dumb the Council was.

They really were just going to take these sixteen deaths, then walk away and just forget? It was—It was so—

(Super duper stupid. Colossally dimwitted. Incredibly dumb. Extremely idiotic.)

Well... yeah. All of what Alvar said.

So... they started making plans: how to overthrow the Council, and how to stop the humans.

Rosaleen, you didn't mention anything about overthrowing the Council earlier, but if you have any sense, you should realize how unfair everything is.

The "Talentless"?

The Matchmaking? That one's especially dumb. Not everyone's straight.

The hatred against twins and triplets? Dex, you probably get this one.

(And the Talentless one. His dad, remember?)

Right. And that one.

See, the point is, it's all incredibly stupid. And we're going to fix that.

(Ruy. You forgot the end of the story.)

I did?

(Yeah.)

Oh. Yeah. I did.

Those two survivors are people you're probably very familiar with.

What? Oh. No, not Vespera. She was still in that jail place, Dex. They recruited her a couple of decades after this incident, since she understood humans better than anyone else.

These two survivors were...

(Oh my goodness, not the dramatic pause. You did the same thing with the Shade.)

Well, sorry, I was just—

(Gisela, and Fintan. The two survivors were Gisela and Fintan.)

˚ ༘ 🌷 ── author's note!

so ,, double update of two short chapters!! hopefully i'll write over winter break but like, i have a tendency to be lazy—