Like a jarring off-key note in the middle of a symphony, ExTank thought, Nazi Orcs?
Someone was pulling a mind-job.
Getting out of a mind-job was easy. Well, not easy, as such, but not too terribly difficult. The first thing that needed to be done, and this was the hardest part, was to realize that you were in a mind-job. After that, you just had to concentrate on something, like singing the words to your favorite song, or doing math in your head.
ExTank closed his eyes and thought back to one of the most amazing, life-changing things he’d ever been told.
*Most people didn’t realize that most of the beings humanity has called God or The Gods throughtout our history are real. The Organization calls them Eternals, because, well, that’s what they are. When this iteration of the universe collapses back into a singularity untold billions of years from now, and undergoes another Great Space Kablooey to form an entirely new universe, the Eternals will be there, and watching.
Most Eternals ignore us Lesser Forms, but every now and again, we manage to catch the attention of one of them, who sees something in us. Maybe they’ll give us a genetic “nudge” toward sapience, maybe they’ll try to give us some guidance, like, “Do Not Kill, Do Not Steal, etc., etc.,” and so on. The Organization is fairly sure both have happened to humanity.
The problem is that the Eternals live in essentially “God Time,” in which ten thousand Earth-years is less than eye blink, and so direct communications between Eternals and Lesser Forms is problematic at best, and the message is often garbled by our own preconceptions and cultural baggage. Which accounts for the usually bizarre and often contradictory nature of humanity’s various organized religions.
The communications problem is solved by Avatars, in which an Eternal basically imbues a chunk of himself (herself? itself?) into a Lesser Form and sends it forth amongst us Lesser Forms to deliver an important message (at least it’s important from the point-of-view of the Eternal in question).
There are over a billion people on Earth who would have a screaming shit-hemorrhage if they ever found out Jesus of Nazareth is alive and well, and is the assistant manager of a Kinko’s in Tempe, Arizona, under the alias of Jesus Navare. He doesn’t remember much of his time “back then,” unless you press him on the issue, which is officially discouraged as it may cause Bad Things To Happen. For the most part, he just comes across as a kind of pleasant, hippy-dippy stoner.
The Organization is content to let him remain that way, but keeps him under close surveillance at all times.
The problem humanity is currently contending with is what some call a “War of the Gods.” One small faction of Eternals doesn’t care for us Lesser Forms that have been “meddled with;” they see it as a form of cheating, of cutting to the head of the line over those Lesser Forms who have, or will, evolved naturally. The Organization calls them Malefactors, and contrary to popular opinion, or the implications of their given title by The Organization, they don’t actually hate us.
They just look at us the same way a home owner looks at a termite infestation.*
And just like that, ExTank was standing back in the lobby of the hospital.
Standing still, he slowly scanned the lobby, noting several people who were still off in la-la land in their own private Idahos. The real beauty of a mind-job is that the victims supply most of the illusion themselves, once the dream-state is induced.
What he was looking for couldn’t be seen, or heard, smelled, touched, or tasted. It was sensed, though, in a manner unlike finding the sun by closing your eyes and feeling its heat on your face, but that’s about the closest ExTank had ever been able to come to explaining it. And since there were several people being mind-jobbed right here in the lobby, his target had to be close, very, very close…
Slowly and carefully loosening the tactical sling on the shotgun, and panning his head slowly back-and-forth, as though scanning a distant horizon, ExTank sought The Emmisary, the earthly Avatar (or its Possession) of whichever Malefactor was gunning for humanity this time around…