User:CarrieBerg/The Eyes Have It

I see eyes everywhere.

No. I'm not paranoid. But I know my words won't convince you.

I doubt you'd believe me even if you did see them.

But doubtless of whether you believe me or not, whether you see them or not, they are there.

And they are watching me. Tracking my progress.

OK - now I know you think I'm crazy. I assure you, I am not. My employer just has a... unique way of watching me.

Ah, perhaps it would make more sense if I started at the beginning of the story...

Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Galena. A not-so-average human. A Class-3, Galactic Standard Being, or a C-3 GSB, if you will. Average humans are Class-5. My boss, on the other hand, is a Class-1, Interdimensional Being, or C-1 IB. He's not quite a god, but I'm sure he'd like to think so. And his powers, in all honesty, do make him seem very god-like to us humans. My paltry abilities seem like nothing when compared to him.

Yet, he still needs me.

Why does he need me? I can't claim it's my stunning good looks since I have none. No, it's for my good ol' human curiosity. What else? C-1 IBs, while stunningly powerful, haven't quite mastered the ability to sift through vast random events and find what is useful in them. They don't have curiosity, they don't have flashes of insight or intuition. It is precisely for those skills I was hired in the first place. My curiosity knows no bounds. And my intuition - it's, ah, part of the reason why I'm Class-3, instead of a Class-5.

I am a "freelance researcher". That is my official title, anyway. I'm not really a detective. In fact, I serve rather the opposite purpose. People hire me to throw detectives, or whoever is watching them, off track. They openly hire me under some pretense to find out information that they want other people to think they are seriously looking into. Meanwhile, they secretly hire someone else to find out what they really want to know. It isn't expected that I'll find out anything useful, but if I do, all the better. Though I usually keep what I find to myself - and I'm paid very highly to do so.

I am the ultimate red herring. You might think that some agencies have caught on to my activities. In fact, I'm sure a few of the better one's have. But they can't ignore or overlook me because I might find out something they don't want my employer to know. So they can't afford not to watch me. Which ultimately spreads them thin, and so my employer is still pleased with my work.

So why would an Class-1 Interdimensional Being hire me?

Obviously to lay down a false trail for other Interdimensional Beings.

While you might find this dangerous, playing with powers far more than what I possess, I find it exhilarating. I've never worked with IBs before. I expected the experience to be something new. I wasn't mistaken. But I wasn't really expecting the eyes.

Then again, I'm pretty sure they weren't expecting that I could see them.

And if my luck holds, two of them still don't know that I do.

There are three distinct pairs. All deep black - like a void, or a black hole. They suck in the light when they appear. But even though they all look similar, I know they are different. My boss, for one, never appears unannounced. He always lets me know he is there. There's usually a slight breeze first, then rippling lights, and then his eyes are there, watching me, and his voice is in my head. Not surprising, really. It's hard enough to form physical eyes, so why bother forming a mouth when we can talk perfectly well mind to mind?

I'm pretty sure he knows about the other two sets of eyes. How could he not? He did hire me, so he must have some idea that he was being watched.

One set is bored. Like the IB has much better things to be doing with it's time. I've met this type before, just not in IB form. They believe I won't do anything worthwhile, but they've been paid to watch me, and so their ass is on the line if they ignore me. So they sulk, and often overlook a great many things I do find as inconsequential, much to their detriment. I smiled at the thought.

The other set will not be as easy to fool. No, this set knows something is going on, even if it doesn't know what just yet. These eyes are not writing me off as inconsequential. In fact, these eyes seem to be taking much too much interest in me. I have a sinking suspicion that this pair of eyes has noticed that I can see them. And I have an even bigger suspicion that I shouldn't be able to unless they want to be seen. Which means the interest might be more than professional - now it might be personal. And I don't know if I can protect myself from that.

Now, IBs are both more and less powerful than you think. Yes, they are interdimensional, but that just means they are not native to our dimension. They can visit here, but only at a great loss to their powers. Kind of makes you wonder how powerful they are in their own dimension, doesn't it?

As I was saying, they can't fully interact with the physical world without using something as a medium. Usually that medium is furniture. Don't ask me why, but I think it has something to do with the potential energy trapped inside chairs... Or perhaps it has to do with Plato's ideal chair. Or was it Aristotle's chair? I don't remember. But what I do know, from my own experience, is that IBs prefer to use furniture, especially chairs, to interact with my world.

What that means is that, instead of creating a whole humanoid body so they can interact with other physical beings while visiting, the IBs enter into a chair and temporarily change it. They make it alive, so to speak, by adding a mouth, or ears, or in my case, eyes.

Creepy? Definitely. But also useful. It is a very economical expenditure of energy. And supposedly the chairs are not changed enough to gain any permanent sentience from the merging of energies. Though you'll find a great many people will not longer sit in those chairs...

So, I'm not a crazy as you first thought, getting hired to lay down a false trail for IBs. Since they aren't acting at full power, all I have to do is lead them on a merry hunt, preferably well away from whatever my employer is searching for.

Which brings me to what I am looking for.

I was hired to find a rogue C-1 IB.

It happens sometimes. The powerful no longer want to deal with the troubles that come with having power. So they run off to do something totally mundane.

However, in this case, totally mundane means transforming into a humanoid creature, giving up the ability to shift dimensions, and becoming vastly less powerful than before.

In short, I had to find a being that could literally be anywhere and look like anything.

Well, anything except a chair with eyes.

But my task was not as hopeless as it seemed. My employer had provided me with a place to start looking. A place not to far from where I grew up, actually. So poking around there wouldn't be too difficult.

And he gave me a way to find out if a person was once an C-1 IB.

Not surprisingly, it was all in the eyes. They could turn into any form, look like any creature in the universe, but their eyes never changed. They were still black, without reflection, as deep as the void.

Which was helpful information, but not entirely so.

Sadly, there is this little invention called the contact lens. You know, those things that you put in your eye that can, well, change their color? Yeah, those things. And I was willing to bet that any transformed IBs would be wearing them. I certainly would. And I wasn't about to go around asking people, "Hey, are you wearing contact lenses? Could you take them out so I could see if you are an Interdimensional Being?  Thanks."

You already think I crazy because I see eyes. Wouldn't you think I'm even more crazy if I started asking about yours? Thinking you were an Interdimensional Being? Yah, I thought so too. So I decided I'd research first and ask about eyes later.

I know you are curious as to who else my employer had hired. The person (or persons, depending on how paranoid my employer is) who was hunting down what they really wanted to know. Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm curious too. I'm never told about anyone else my employer may hire. For safety reasons mostly, in case I'm questioned. I can't lie if I don't know the truth.

I see you don't quite believe me. Well, it is true that my employer doesn't tell me. If I find out on my own, well, that's a different story. What my employer doesn't know won't hurt him.

But as of yet, I could discover no other person he had hired. Much less any other research goals. I had asked around, discretely, and had even pulled in a few favors to find out.

But there was nothing.

It was as if I was the only one he hired. Either my employer was much cleverer than I thought, or he was making a big mistake.

I'm not sure I wanted to be the only one. I'm far too used to playing by my own rules to start being a legitimate researcher now. This does not mean that I usually use illegal methods of gathering my information! That would be useless! Not to mention utterly inadmissible in court.

No, what I'm saying is that I'm too used to being the decoy to be the true researcher. I prefer the thrill of being chased, the excitement of staying one step ahead of my pursuers. But the more I looked into it, the more I realized I was going it alone. If that was the game my employer was playing, he really was much smarter than I thought. But if I couldn't pull this off, I was screwed. And so was my employer.

It was a bold move, making me into the true - and sole - researcher. It would certainly get all those watchdog agencies in a twist. Was I the decoy or not? Oh, the chaos it would cause! With luck it would give them doubts about me in the future too. If I managed to successfully complete this assignment.

So, that brings me back to researching the missing IB. The reason I'm talking to you. If my employer isn't going to hire anyone else to be a decoy or researcher, then I guess I have to take initiative and provide that person myself.

You'll be wanting to know what I pay. Let's just say that it is more than enough to cover any problems that may arise. This is a lucrative business, despite what others my think.

Just don't look too surprised if you spot an eye or two.

Remember - you've been hired to be watched.

So look calm, act natural. And never forget:

Keep an eye on the chairs.

.:.:.:.:.:.

The statues I chose from the Olympic Sculpture Park I know most people overlook - even though the carvings don't overlook you. Do you know the Father and Son fountain? How about the chairs scattered around it? Those chairs are carved like eyes. There are three sets - two pairs are facing away from the fountain, and the last pair is located facing away from the water, a slight ways away from the other two pairs. All three eyes can be seen from standing on the overlook and looking down. One set it half-lidded, one is open wide, and one is angled away from the viewer so it is harder to make out. But all look on, even though most people's eyes slide right over them... Why don't you look for them next time? Then you too can see eyes everywhere.

And, this is as far as I believe I'm going to get on this story at this time. Sorry. I will work on it more in the future - I have great plans in mind. Sadly, I do not believe I have to time to finish it before the end of the quarter. (I admit, I rushed this ending. I'll probably change it in the real version.)  So, let's just call this Chapter 1, or Prologue and leave it at that. For now...