①
The SeerSighters seemed to be very fickle, preferring to only answer some questions and not others pertaining to their abilities. The Journalist not getting any success there decided to try interviewing the other team members instead, starting with the closest individual available.
“Could you tell me a little about yourself?”
“...........”
“What are your thoughts for this mission?”
“......................”
“Do you have any aspirations you strive for?”
“............................................”
“Any words you’d like to say to anybody back home?”
“........................................................................................................”
“Uh, okay. I’ll come back later.”
The Alien Woman had met all the Journalist’s questions with a stony cold unblinking expression. Trying to get a response from her was like talking to a wall that wasn’t in a talking mood.
The Accountant sidled up to the Journalist. “You got off lightly.”
“But she didn’t even talk to me!”
“It’s when she shows interest in you that you should worry.”
“Weren’t you two together once?”
“I hear that you’re poking around, asking questions, making all kinds of people wary.”
“Don’t dodge the question.”
“If you’re looking for drama you’re going to be disappointed. Our relationship is purely professional. You seem like someone looking out for a juicy story.”
The Journalist put on an expression of thoughtful insight. “I am tired of doing fluff pieces on unsustained gossip...”
“Stick around. I have it on good authority that you may be seeing some interesting times in the future. And, when the Revolution comes, I shall be there to join their number!”
②
“So, getting back on track, I heard rumours at school that there were experienced older students who were getting some action, and I wanted to get in on that action. I saved up enough money to splurge on - ”
“That was you???”
The question came so suddenly the Girl was unable to process it at first and did a triple take. “What was me?”
“You were that young woman who was pregnant with a smelly fetus?”
“Uh, yes?” The Girl was surprised at the Alien Woman’s sudden recollection. In all the other instances where they spoke, the Alien Woman never bothered to look at her, her attention always veered off to the side, as if there was something more interesting happening elsewhere. Now that the Alien Woman was actually looking at her, her intense stare was very disturbing.
“Where was our first meeting?”
“We were in a cramped dark room!”
“You’re going to have to be more specific.”
“There was a mirrored wall you shouted at!”
“More specific.”
“You made me hit myself!”
“More specific.”
“I was in my late-term pregnancy after your gang invaded the Germ Cult, and I was only saved by the Man with the Mustache who stormed in and stopped you with a passionate speech!”
“...more specific.”
Those were all the pertinent facts she could recall. What else was there that she convey?
“...It was very smelly.”
“Oh! Why didn’t you say so?”
It was an unorthodox method, but if the Alien Woman was amiable to making amends, it was a start. However, she ruined that act of goodwill with her very next move, gesturing towards the SeerSighters in a questioning manner.
“Did you foresee this coming?”
{No, we didn’t}
“So, you didn’t arrange this,” she said. “It was a good theory though. Purposely arranging events that already occurred, repeated countless times before.”
She was incredulous. That wasn’t an apology. That was an experiment.
③
The Girl turned from her reverie to get back into her monologue narrative, but the Accountant had apparently escaped when she wasn’t paying attention. She looked around and saw he was in animated discussion with the Journalist, whispering confidential words in his ear. Shortly after, the Accountant left, and she was about to rejoin, resuming her life story, until she saw him meeting up with the SeerSighters, waving multicoloured papers with mindbending patterns, no doubt talking about number theory.
It was just as well. The Accountant’s brief description of the Alien Woman didn’t jibe with her encounter. He’d left out just how uncomfortable she made her feel. Maybe the Alien Woman wouldn’t do that this time, but the Girl wasn’t going to take any chances. The sooner she got out of here, the better.
She started walking off in a nonspecific direction, not bothering looking where she was going, until she stopped mid-stride. There was something at the corner of the opposite end of the room that caught her eye.
①
The Accountant gave a question that only a handful of people could understand, and the SeerSighters gave a response.
“Exactly right. That’s exactly right! How did you know?”
{It just came to me}
“Well, that’s promising. Now, let’s move on.”
The session continued with more increasingly complicated math questions with no problems (the answering problems part, not the unable to answer problems part) until an unforseen complication arose. After a strong start, the SeerSighters no longer seemed able to answer any questions properly.
“You were doing fine earlier! What’s wrong?”
{Interruptions}
“I’m very curious - what’s your thought process at getting the answer?”
{I couldn’t tell you}
“Could you describe it?”
{Once you figure it out, the rest comes easily}
“It’s clear that you’re skipping some steps to arrive at the answer.”
{Our methods differ wildly}
“Let’s try something different.”
The Accountant held up another sheet of questions with elaborate colours of azure, emerald, vermillion and gold printed on the back. At first, the SeerSighters gave an answer of {Azure, Emerald, Vermillion and gold} as he expected, then...
{No... not right...}
{Doesn’t make sense...}
{Why would you...}
While the SeerSighters floundered with the answer, the Accountant slunk away under the pretense of getting more questions to tease their minds with, when he was actually getting a second opinion.
②
The Girl could’ve sworn there was somebody on the other side of the room. It couldn’t be a SeerSighter - they were right over there. Was somebody else in here? If so, that could be a very convenient sacrifice for who could die in her stead!
She started moving in the direction of the mysterious stranger who noticed her presence and started walking off. Every time she thought she was getting closer, the figure kept moving away, and all the curved half walls kept getting in her way, blocking her path and keeping the elusive figure maddeningly out of sight.
Not to mention that the mysterious stranger kept mocking her. When she raised her arm, the figure raised their arm as well. When she stumbled, the figure fell flat, only getting up when she got up as well. She tried crawling across the floor one time, but the figure must’ve wised up to her antics, since the figure turned out to be sneakily crawling away as well.
If there was any consolation, she seemed to be wearing the figure down. She just had to keep going faster and catch up before the figure regained their strength. She asked the people she passed by if they saw anybody go this way, and also not to stop her, but any strangers who shouldn’t have been in here.
“Any strangers go by?”
“No, just you.”
That mysterious figure must’ve been some master of disguise to go by so many people undetected. You’d think somebody’d notice!
“Anybody go past?”
{Not yet}
“What do you mean not yet?!” Either this elusive stranger was a master of subterfuge, or these all-seeing all-knowing floating SeerSighters weren’t every observant!
③
The Accountant had a clandestine meeting with the Alien Woman, the two of them standing parallel side-by-side, not even bothering to look at each other.
“I think they’re cheating.”
“I’m observing.”
“I can’t articulate why, but they seem to come to the answer without really understanding the process in reaching the answer.”
“It’s difficult, since they’re not in their natural habitat.”
“They can calculate all the factors in a squared number between plaid indigo purple/brown and cyan counterclockwise parallel zigzag stripes, but can’t tell you what red plus red means.”
“To truly comprehend these beings, you need to understand their thought process.”
“Sometimes I have to repeat the question as much as three times before it sinks in.”
“Just the kind of reaction someone who's edible might say.”
“I gave them a basic quiz that even a child could answer, and they went all, [I don’t understand the question]. For some reason, they’re capable of giving the right answer at odd intervals, but other times, they can’t, despite the level difficulty.”
“Things that come easy to them come hard to us, and things that come hard to them come easy to us.”
“I’ve given them complicated mathematical problems, some they’ve been able to solve with ease, others taking a little longer. Just now, I gave them one of my unsolved formulas. Even wrote the wrong answer on the back. They started off giving the first conclusion I came to, before realizing it wasn’t right. However, in some cases, they presented two answers. One being the right answer, the other being woefully off the mark. I said that only one could be accepted. They said that they were both right. How could they both be right??”
“They don’t seem the sort to make wild guesses.”
“I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how they could possibly reach that figure. Whether they’ve been calculating the numbers rearranged in a different manner to arrive at that figure. Worse of all, they refuse to show their thought process. When pressed on how they came across the right answer, they had trouble explaining how.”
“The answer’s somewhere in there. We just can’t see it yet.”
“It doesn’t help that they seem utterly confident that I’ll figure it out. What if I don’t figure it out?? Then I’d be blamed for letting everybody down.”
“They haven’t been proven wrong yet.”
“They have! I have documented proof they’ve handed over, insisting that their numbers are right! I’m not going to cook their books for them if their predisposed numbers are going to be wrong!” The Accountant slumped on the table. “In the event of my death, I won’t be able to settle my debts. Who’ll pay for my rent? And worse yet, when the Revolution comes, I won’t be there to join their number!”
“You’re just upset you haven’t figured it out in the first ten minutes.”
“It shouldn’t take me this long!”
“If they could figure it out, they wouldn’t need our help.”
“Good productive talk.”
“You too.”
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