Topic: The Soul Project

In the Rough

Date: 2010-04-02 17:24 EST
It wasn?t all about the genes. It might have been once, maybe it still was. Maybe it was something nesting deep inside the blood just waiting to be awakened. When Jessa and I were first introduced to the project it was just a new thrill, a new opportunity? hell it was a promotion. Better pay and a chance for adventure. It was just what I was looking for.

Don?t get me wrong, I loved my job. Dabbling in the heads of the crazies every single day to find out how they ticked was just something I lived for. Course ask anyone on the team and when you look at a forensic psychologist you have to just wonder if maybe it?s just that the one doing the brain wander and getting in the head of the serial killers was maybe just as crazy? and that?s why we were so successful at our job, because we understood.

I still remember the day of the offering into the Soul Project like it was yesterday. I had just come out of a tough mind game with Jacoby St. Laurent. One of the most sadistic serial killers I had ever run across, he made Hannibal look like an amateur at the trade? and the man had a following? god but he had a following. A following worse then Manson? maybe worse then the Beatles, I couldn?t really tell it all became so complicated but the fan letters said enough.

I was slurping down my second cup of Starbucks, a double shot of espresso this time to leave my mind singing when I was interrupted from my musings by Rory Lafayette. He struck up a conversation all based on small talk that seemed more like flirting then anything else, that?s what the normal woman would think when a handsome man with a debonair southern charm spent his afternoon hours just asking about the normal boring hopes and dreams of a young business woman. Luckily I was smarter then that and knew exactly what he was up to, information gathering? and given my intrigue in this sudden interest in me rather then my looks? well let?s just say I played along.

I told him I wanted to see the stars up close and personal. It was a coy and pretty game of words I was playing with but I didn?t mind, I was interested to just see exactly what this guy was up to. I never gave him enough but he handed over a card to me, a snazzy looking business card with a design like a vegas playing card. Cute.

I guess the game really was more then I expected. Needless to say I was bored with life and needed a little adventure. I gave the number a ring, figuring it was some prank being played on me by my coworkers? but no? that little shiny slick card was my invitation right on into the crazy masquerade that the Special Investigation Operation called the ?Soul Project?.

Funny thing was? after some wining and dining, and the chance of a lifetime? to get myself in a sleek space suit and actually see the star and the moon up close and personal. Like I could touch them? I couldn?t help but think it was nice to be introduced into a business that kept their word.

What was even more amusing? A few visits and ?courtship? later by the Soul Project I found out really what they all were about? and more so? that they wanted me? and my sister.

In the Rough

Date: 2010-04-02 17:29 EST
They called it the chance of a lifetime. To live and be born again as if you had a new soul, a new chance to try life in ways unimaginable. I had to admit these marketing people were good, damn persuasive even for someone that was used to picking minds of the most complex brains and masterminds out there. Some of my coworkers said I had a knack for it, an innate gift that seemed just to be natural? or maybe supernatural. Ha funny.

Those boys always had such humor but then it was a forensics group, they needed to have some dark, jaded sense of humor to get through the day. Otherwise they?d be sitting across from me one day and I?d be analyzing them to find out what made them tick. Then again.. I was tempted to do that just on a normal day when restless boredom struck me, but then we can?t mix the business with the pleasure in such close quarters now can we?

So there we were sitting and listening to all the complex mumbo-jumbo of scientific definitions and complications and possible side effects. I couldn?t help but watch Jessa to see her reaction. I could see she was doing her own talent of observation. That girl had a gift of being able to tell when someone was lying just by watching a subtle twitch of eye lid, a twist of lips, a nervous intake of air. She was one of the best out there and one of the quiet ones too that always seemed to be thinking of something far more complex then anything the normal person could fathom.

It seemed to me that we were being introduced to a project that was a bit more then we ever expected to get involved with. All that talk of bio-genetic reformation and meta-physical enhancements seemed even above our belief of what was possible but looking back on it all I wouldn?t change a thing. Jessa and I were in positions of power in a man?s world. It was about time we took the power in our own hands. It all came down to just one final requirement and decision? where did we sign to make it all official?

In the Rough

Date: 2010-04-03 20:53 EST
"I don't like this, Esme, it hurts. It hurts so much."

My fingers were curling against the porcelain of the sink as I looked at my sister through the mirror's reflection. Her tear streaked face, the red at her cheeks and eyes that showed she had been crying for quite some time.

I couldn't help but sigh as I splashed the cold water on my face, turned my dripping visage to Jessamyn before reaching for a towel.

"I know."

There was nothing more that could be said. I knew the pain she had undergone, the pain I myself had gone through. There was no turning back now. I palmed the dogtags that rested around my neck.

New names. New alliances. New services. New dedication.

The camoflague and wifebeaters. Honed like weapons.

Bodies altered and minds tampered with. I couldn't help but see how it had already altered Jessamyn. The way she was so terrified to touch people.

To even touch me.

One time she had and she cried out like I had hurt her. The things she saw, she told me... what they were to do.

She never told me though. Looking back on it all, could I really blame her?

After all that was done... I know now why Jessa didn't talk about it.

I knew all too well.

Wandering Touch

Date: 2010-04-07 13:46 EST
?I can?t believe you are here.?

The sapphires of Jessamyn?s eyes were wide and bright as she stood out in the middle of the weight lifting room, staring with noticeable shock at the woman being spotted by another one of the Souls.

?What?s so surprising it about it lovey? You knew something crazy was bound to happen to me. Parents didn?t want me, fixed me to street rough and not up to their classy ways. You remember that don?t you? How I wasn?t proper enough for them.?

It had been five years since Jessamyn had last seen her sister Jezabelle, remembered watching the 17 year old girl kicked out on to the streets and left out in the cold. From mansions to street life and broken down apartments had been the promise for Jeza. Now here Jezabelle was, a member of the Soul Project and looking like the military had honed her as their own personal weapon of mass destruction.

That sharp killer grin that back in the school days could make a man wild but still hold that light of caution around the residential ?bad girl? came across her lips as she sat up and then leaned forward as if to reveal the greatest secrets to her sister.

?You know I was here before you all. They took me in a long time before they even knew about you both. Maybe they did know. Who really knows? but I like it here. I belong here. I feel it in my bones.?

?I don?t like it here??

?Jessa c?mon this is a chance in a lifetime.?

?I don?t like what I see, it hurts what they do to me.?

?The pain will pass.?

A sigh was breathed out as her jaw jerked with that tempermental twitch as she got up off the bench and threw her arm around her sister?s fragile slight shoulders as Jezabelle?s dog tags swung and offered their dull metal gleam to the world.

?I?d think you?d be happy that were all back together, sister.?

?Well it is nice to see you??

?But??

?But this wasn?t what I wanted.?

Jezabelle could only scowl as she headed out of the gym with a shake of head. There really was nothing more to be said as she grabbed her leather jacket and headed for the door.

There was only that pause as the door was swung open and Jeza looked over her shoulder.

?You know. It?s too late now. We signed ourselves over? we belong to them now.?

Jessa couldn?t help but feel uncertain of these decisions made. Jezabelle she could understand why? after all this place had to be a bit better then the streets, but Esme? Why? why would Esme make the decision.

There had to be a reason. There had to be something more that Jessamyn had yet to discover.

The Final Act

Date: 2010-04-07 14:00 EST
She moved like the apocalypse in boots as she cut her way through the soldiers and the Souls in training. It was a constant cycle that Jezabelle had become quite accommodated and adjusted to. After all this was better then the glitz and glamour lifestyle she?d been outcasted from, and far better from the street rough life she almost had come to know.

It was too hot for the leather but like a security blanket she would carry it with her as she attempted to calm herself after the unsettling cross meeting with Jessamyn. Never once had she brought up Jessamyn to the Project. Jessamyn was gifted at her job, seemed to know just the right way to read people but to be meant for the Project, well that was just an entirely different story. Jezabelle couldn?t help but worry that the middle sister would be broken or at least damaged by the experimentation. The alterations of not just the bio-genetic but also of the mind could easily break Jessamyn and the sweet ways of her spirit. Even through all those years there was still a strange touch of innocence to Jessamyn, a pure acceptance and hope of the best.

Jezabelle was smart enough to know that it was best to become jaded when it came to life. She had learned that early on just as much as she had learned that Esme was a manipulative and calculating creature playing that masquerade behind a permanent mask of poised perfection.

Esme would be the Diamond in the Rough to the Project. The pretty package that seemed so well mannered and worldly but when it came down to it was a dangerous destruction of thoughts and manipulations. Her mind would make them all puppets, controlling and disruptive and defiling. That flawless, multi-faceted extent of her power was something that yet to have been fully tested by the Project. Then again, Jeza just had to wonder if maybe that was because they feared that they may just have made Diamond? too well.

As for Jessa, well Jeza had learned well of what was planned for the middle sister and why she was in such constant pain. It was the Touch. Jessa?s skills and gift for a reader of the expressions of the population to tell a lie or a truth but a mere alter of visage or change of voice had left her to be the obvious choice as the touch-know.

Sweet, innocent, na?ve Jessa would lose her innocence when the changes within were awakened. After all when one could know every thought, every desire, every wish of that which the person she touched that they wanted to show her well? it didn?t leave much opportunity for innocence. Especially given when her powers fully manifested, well she could inflict her own revelations of precognitive and postcognitive visions and desires. That touch could be a channel? a link? a bond that just might never be broken if given? repeat infliction? well Jessa would become like a sweet intoxication, she would become addictive.

There had to be a reason for it all, the selection and how Esme had found out about the Project. She knew that the Project had hunted down the Diamond like she was meant to be a rare jewel, but when Jeza was advised of her family being brought into the Project, Jessa had not been part of the arrangement.

?What the fxck are you up to, Diamond.?

A faint scowl touched on her lips as she grabbed her helmet and settled on her Kawasaki. Jeza was the end of it all. The all means and the final act. She was made to tie up the loose threads, clean up the mistakes, take care of business and make sure that no one that shouldn?t come back did? especially if it happened to be an AWOL Soul or if one of them became too? hungry.

She couldn?t help but wonder if Diamond was heading in that direction, and if she did? well? Jeza would be waiting for her at the end of the road.

A diamond might be fairly indestructible, but well? even a diamond could not stop Death.

The Final Act

Date: 2010-04-14 17:34 EST
Esme?s dogtags felt cold and hard against her chest as she entered the interrogation room. Jessamyn had been grilling the man for what seemed like hours, playing the role of ?good cop? and surprisingly enough keeping her hands to herself. Diamond wasn?t so patient to play make nice with the mob bosses and scum of the earth. Terrorists and traitors that seemed to stretch and grow across the globe like sewer rats. She had got the call when it came to the point that Jessa didn?t seem to be making headway. Of course Esme couldn?t help but think if Jessa would just grab the man?s wrist and put a bit of enforcement in her talents she?d obtained from the Soul Project, but Jessa unlike Diamond still had the notion that free will in the mind of criminals was reasonable.

A look was spared over her shoulder, sapphires offering a subtly dangerous narrow at the woman that walked behind her. Even though Jezabelle had no need for weapons she still carried the guns and knives on various points of her body. Jezabelle always would come off as looking too sleek, too bony and thin to serve as a proper bodyguard but that was the point. Jezabelle had far too many fall into that ploy of fragility before those that doubted or questioned her as an enforcer and death dealer found themselves losing a limb or no longer with a head. Jezabelle?s sharp wit and dry humor and that constant bemused grin probably was another reason no one ever took her quite so serious, but then it was all another part of Jeza?s game.

Diamond was on as Jeza gave her a subtle jerk of head to acknowledge that she had the door if anything went out of the ordinary? which when the Blue sisters were together? such usually happened. Bad things usually happened and to Esme and Jeza, that was just fine despite the severe sibling rivalry and dislike of the other?s means and motives ? that at least was one thing they agreed on. Jessamyn was far too good and pure, her personality almost seemed childishly na?ve.

Diamond would waste no time as her palms slapped down on the table and she leaned forward, her lips pulled into a pleasant, professionally smooth smile that never would reach her eyes.

?Now? we?ve tried this the nice way, and I think it?s about time we do it the hard way. My way. ?

She eased up to straighten as a hand moved effortlessly through the shining strands of her hair. A diamond in the rough she always would be. Rough though? was never so bad.

?You have two options. You can either give us the information we want? or we can take it from you. I promise? the last won?t be as pleasant.?

There could be weapons of torture and torment easily to come to Jezabelle?s disposal, or even Diamond?s mind could easily break the man? yet she had a notion after so many years as a forensic psychologist that this one would only break with the innocent sweetness of Jessa?s ways.

Esme could only smile in her cool, pleasant way as she nodded in approval. ?Well your silence tells me you?re electing for option two. A fine choice, now show her what she needs to see.?

Her voice was edged with the thread of power as she nodded to Jessamyn to take the man?s hands. She did just so as her brow took on furrowed lines as she concentrated. Not even with Diamond?s will was Jessamyn getting the answers she wanted in that touch. A soft sigh of reluctance and Jessa pushed her power into the man?s spirit. Enforcing her will and her power to see what she wished over his own spirit, breaking him down to find his fears and all that he was hiding. The revelations made her scream out in pain and Diamond heard Jezabelle swear softly as she took a step forward.

Confusion marked Esme?s face before she saw that look on the man?s face and snarled out silently. Fury ignited within her spirit for the sheer ignorance of the project to not test the subject before throwing him in the interrogation room. The fxcking man was a telepath and a strong one at that, so strong even Esme?s powers were barricaded from the realization until it was too late.

?Let her go!?

A faint snarl of words as the man kept his grasp upon Jessa?s hands as he tore into her mind with blades of his own power. The tears in her eyes were slick with blood.

The sight of it had Jezabelle in reaction as she pushed Diamond out of the way ?God damn it, you stupid bitch could you not have mind swiped him before you threw him in there with her??

The words were muted only by the sound of Jezabelle?s gun going off as the grey matter and blood of the man?s head splattered against the back wall.

?Damn it Jezabelle! Now we?ll never get the answers!?

?We wouldn?t have anyways. He would have killed her before then. C?mon Jessa, let?s get you looked at.?

There was a warning glance back over her shoulder as Jeza locked eyes with her sister. A shake of head as the door slammed behind the pair of women as they exited the interrogation room.

Oh there were so many things they all would have to answer for?

Wandering Touch

Date: 2010-04-27 17:47 EST
Touch was always such a powerful thing. For Jessa it was everything that could provoke her and captivate her. Bewitching and seductive. The more she learned of her particular gift the more she worried over it.

They had made her near addictive. Like a Drug. So many touches, the more contact any would have with her could take their minds. The Soul Project knew it all to well what a delicate seeming creature they had in their hands, but how much of a weapon she would be.

She could possess them as her own without them knowing until they were too far gone into that addiction. The Perfect Drug was what they whispered about the touch know. Those threads of telepathy and empathy could draw not only the emotions of others out to play like a picture of promise in their minds of the one's she came into contact with... but Jessa's own will could be drawn into that.

Jessa well had learned well of her ability when she learned far too late of the manifestation of her powers to the next level when a man denied her touch killed himself... right before her eyes.

It would leave her haunted and uncertain of herself day by day.

She would shy from the touch... from that physical contact even as her soul yearned for it.

So many years would pass without that touch... until now...

Until Jamo, Until Jason, Until Kalinda... yes... even until the Slaver had awakened her again.

There would be no turning back. And deep within her spirit... Jessamyn had no desire to turn back... perhaps she craved... more.

In the Rough

Date: 2010-05-22 14:31 EST
"You have become quite the apt pupil, Diamond."
"Well was that not what you had planned for me?"

Sitting up I cast a considering look to the side profile of the man who's bed I shared. Despite what they all thought I hadn't worked my way up in the ranks by sleeping with the powers that be. No. If it happened I got promoted just for having a tumble in the sheets with another military official well good for me. It was just another added bonus.

He had talked about marriage far too often for my liking. I was never meant to be a housewife. I could see it in his head... the full story of how he wanted to whisk me away and make an honest woman of me. Treat me like a Queen and pamper me till the end of days. It didn't sound so bad, I wouldn't mind being treated like a Queen after all... but in his head it seemed like a trap.

A beautiful, glistening trap. I leaned over Joseph, pulling him into my embrace as I murmured a soft bit of pillow talk. I was surprised that I managed not to make some sort of expression that would give me away.

It was so easy to get into his head, to twist his thoughts away from me and suggest a better match for him.

That was the blessing of bedding the brawn rather then the brains... they were so easy to take advantage of, to get in the heads of and do some damage control.

Apt pupil indeed. A kiss left to his jaw before she zipped up the sleek white of her dress and exited his room, palming exactly what she came for as the zip drive was easily tucked away into her cleaveage.

Sometimes... Diamond just loved her job.

In the Rough

Date: 2010-05-23 12:20 EST
"How in the world did you manage to get that?"
"Practice makes perfect, darling. You should realize by now."

I smiled up to Jezabelle even as the zip drive was sent home into the Soul Project's main computer. I wasn't suprised when the pass code popped up for the fire wall amongst other codes. Top secret stuff, I didn't expect it to be easy. Luckily I had prepared for that.

A series of clicks of the keys and I was in, sitting back as I smiled up to Jessamyn and Jezabelle. It was priceless what we had managed to find for the Soul Project.

The files on all of us. Every single person that had ever been considered and were part of the Soul Project.

The military had kept it under wraps for the mere concern that if the information got into the wrong hands it could be problematic.

The Soul Project had a different opinion about that. They figured what was theirs belonged to them. I can't say I disagreed with them on that theory.

Profiling was my speciality. Getting into the heads of people was my talent. It always had been even before the Soul Project came along... they just added a few enhancements to make it easier for me to get the job done.

Everything we needed was there. A cd copy was made, the boss had requested only one made for his references but I made two. You never know when this sort of thing could come in handy.

Sliding a grin over to Jezabelle and offering a reassuring wink to Jessa I handed over the zip drive and cd to Jez and tucked away the other copy in my purse.

We all had to look after ourselves. If the Soul Project was keeping tabs on us all and selling it off to every branch of the military and then wanting it all back... I knew something was up. The Project no longer could be trusted and if it was about to burn to the ground for its flaws I knew good and damn well my sisters and I weren't going to fall with it.

In the Rough

Date: 2010-06-08 20:25 EST
I hated this. I hated it so much.

The room was a mess and it wasn't the mess in the literal vision of a normal girl's life or bedroom. We had been the equivalent of college students when they had been taken in for the Soul Project. I had been the shining star of the Psychology department in college. Of course I was. That was why I worked for the mental institution so early in life.

But even this, this even my mind couldn't wrap around. Even then I didn't have that indifference to not... well... feel that.

They had taken Jessamyn out of the house hours ago. I could understand why, it had been one of her 'addicts' that had done this. She had felt... everything that he had done as if that connection had gone all the way down to the bloody bones and soul worn ways.

Jezabelle was perusing through the other rooms but I was stuck in this one. The worse scene.

Jezabelle had already been here, had been untouched and indifferent to the carnage around us. It was only so much meat that a person became from becoming a body... to just... meat.

I felt the bile rise in my throat as I looked around the room, the blood painted walls, the smell in the room that carried the aroma of not only blood and death but that scent of outhouse that you only got when someone had gone deep into the bowels.

There were so many parts of the body thrown about the room like discarded bits of flesh. Haphazard and overzealous. Attention drawing.

He had been Jessamyn's addict... a lost 'Soul' that we had come to round up only months ago... but he had been so much more then that.

As I looked to the wall that painted out not just a masterpiece of carnage but so much more... I knew.

He had written my name in blood.

He was my addict too.