DoubleBlind

Lilibelle waited with bated breath to see if Karl would lash out. His hands were balled at his sides and his eyes narrowed to slits. Even in the low light of the hangar, she could see the muscles in his jaw tensing and flexing. She raised a hesitant hand to give him a consoling touch on his shoulder

Conjoining two Dynamic Frames was a nerve-wracking process that Karl wanted no part of. Each of the instructors insisted he, Lilibelle, and Daidari were prepared for such a maneuver, but the very idea of lashing a long cable between two enormous machines sounded like a fine way to commit suicide. Ja

Lilibelle slammed her door shut as she stepped into her room. Every emotion she’d been bottling up for the day wanted to explode all at once. She wanted to scream, kick, claw, and shout every obscenity she’d learned. Striking Karl across the face had crossed her mind more than once, her advance stop

Karl never skipped breakfast, but today he made an exception. It was going to be hard enough seeing Lilibelle and Daidari in class, so if it meant that he could go another half hour or so without burning in the cheeks and stuttering over his words, then he’d take it. Unfortunately, all that did was

Decompartmentalizing what had happened was proving to be difficult. Karl had heard hundreds of stories, detailing exactly what happened to a man and a woman the first time they neurolinked. Tingling nerves, shared sensations, dizziness, and sexual tension were some of the more common effects, but no

Lilibelle kept her arms folded under her chest as she glared at the Frame containing Karl and Daidari. Her foot bounced rapidly while the men in lab coats relayed their orders to the conductors within each Frame. The Frames hummed and whined with every movement. To avoid any damage or danger to anyo

Goosebumps littered Karl’s skin as he undressed to get into his neurosuit. He clenched his teeth the entire time he dressed, hundreds of what-ifs swirling around in his head; no less than half of them involving Lilibelle and Daidari. Once he was completely nude, he leaned against the wall of his bat

Jark was the spitting image of positivity when Karl delivered the news that Lilibelle would be accompanying them to see Cever. Wrench was equally jubilant, holding hands with Jark as she jumped for joy. Short and Dart exchanged exhausted expressions but were otherwise unaffected one way or the other

To say that Karl felt stupid the other night would be a massive understatement. It was incredible what one good night’s rest could do to reset the mind. He found himself replaying the night’s events over and over again in his head, chuckling at how foolish he must’ve appeared to Lilibelle. The fact

Lilibelle clenched her teeth, tried not to let her frustrations get the best of her, while she strode beside Karl. Even though she’d woken him up in the dead of night, he seemed positively jubilant. He hadn’t acted this way when she’d delivered the news that Sean was awake, so she had to assume she

An annoying blare stirred Karl from his slumber. His eyes fluttered open, and the cool air stung the tender flesh. Who the hell was ringing his doorbell? He ran his hand over his face and turned to lay on his side, hoping whoever it was would leave. Once he was settled into a comfortable position, h

Lilibelle worked her jaw as Derrin continued to bother her. He was an incessant guy, constantly trying to make friendly. His tone grated on her nerves, as if he couldn’t comprehend that maybe some of the people in the room weren’t as thrilled to partner up as he was. The fact that Deadeye saw fit to

Miles of digitized forest stretched beyond the horizon. The DF hummed as it soared through the air at a brisk speed. Karl periodically checked fuel and energy reserves, ensuring that the system was funneling power to the appropriate locations, most importantly the thrusters. “All systems are in the

The punching bag swung away as Lilibelle’s fist connected. As it came back, she pivoted to her left, struck it with her right shin, then spun on the ball of her right foot and threw the heel of her other foot into the bag as it leaned left. Drops of sweat spilled down her head, off her brow onto the

Karl spent the morning leading up to class avoiding Lilibelle. Though, as he thought about it, he wondered whether it required any active effort on his part, with Chovek’s punishment hovering over Lilibelle like a cloud. In any event, he saw her on his way in, and made a conscious effort to avoid lo

Lilibelle bounced the ball of her foot as the classroom clock ticked. Her mind was consumed by what had happened between Karl and Daidari. She bit her thumbnail, trying to concentrate on the task Instructor Boldwin had set before her. Once in a while, she’d glance to her left at Karl, who was conten

Karl and Daidari rushed down the halls and into the elevator together. Daidari pressed the button for the fourth floor, keeping to one side of the compartment while Karl took to the other. They passed various forms of glares and grins as the elevator rose. Daidari’s bangs stuck to her face, slathere

Lilibelle glared at the slop on her breakfast tray that Charley had just plopped down. One scoop of some bean-and-meat mixture. The stuff barely moved with the shake of her tray, and she briefly wondered if it would make for a good throwing weapon. It had the consistency of dog food and smelled over

Karl opened his eyes, rubbed them, then scrambled for the clock on his bedside table out of fear that he’d missed class. He tapped the button on the digital box. 4:38 popped up in red lettering. Relief swelled through his muscles. He wasn’t due to be in class until 6:00. He rolled to his back and st

Lilibelle’s skin crawled. The elevator hummed with its ascent, and each time she looked up at the counter, her heart hammered harder against her chest. She racked her brain for any possible inaccuracies or incomplete particulars she may have left out. Nothing came to mind. “Are you all right?” Karl

Lilibelle’s kneejerk reaction was to stand up in front of the class and debate with Instructor Kuuna. These new protocols felt like a slap in the face after they’d just spent the same week emphasizing how important it was not to switch partners. An intimate bond was built between the conductors and

Karl lumbered through the halls, pinching the bridge of his nose. His mind was at war with his body, having gone the night prior with only an hour of sleep. Writing his report had taken considerably longer than he’d anticipated. Now that it was over, he dreaded what Admiral Chovek’s response would b

As soon as Karl stepped into his room, the neurosuit came off. He threw it into a corner and stepped over the coffee table at the center of the room to get to his dresser. Protocol asked that he deliver the suit to the neuroscience department whenever it wasn’t in use, but he couldn’t care less for

Trauma doctors were on the scene as soon as the helicopter dropped down on the helipad. They rushed over, heads ducked, shouting over the din of the rotor blades. When they asked who had found Sean in this shape, Karl stepped forward, Kalki right behind him. Lilibelle used the butt of her gun to pus

EDIT: The previous chapter 10 was chapter 11. My mistake. The post has been updated. Lilibelle took long, measured breaths, drumming her fingers along the handguard of her rifle while the helicopter's blades spun. She was seated in the back corner, taking careful inventory of who was aboard, what th

Karl sat beside Noose while Kalki performed preliminary checks to make sure everything was running properly. Save for the obvious missing arm and a few systems that had malfunctioned during the crash landing, she reported it to be in decent shape. The legs had taken some damage, but were still funct

A team of doctors pried Ivy from the DF and gently placed her on a gurney. Not a single word was uttered between Lilibelle and Warrick while medical professionals performed vital checks. One man insisted that he look at Warrick’s arm, but he was immediately dismissed, Warrick urging him to instead g

Karl’s head was pounding when he at last came to. He wasn’t sure where he was, only that he was hovering several feet off the ground. The world was blurry, but detailed enough that he could see grass below him. He drew breath and the urge to vomit took hold. Shutting his eyes to fight back the nause

Lilibelle twiddled her thumbs impatiently while Warrick and Ivy silently maneuvered the DF. It’d been almost an hour like this. Each time she tried to strike up conversation, her chaperones rarely responded with more than a word. If she was exceptionally lucky, then they’d offer a sentence. A singul

Karl listened to the hum of the DF while Sean and Carly periodically adjusted the DF’s velocity and altitude. While most DF units were equipped with partial autoconducting technologies, such things were limited due to a combination of the DF’s complexity and adaptability. So, while Sean and Carly’s

Karl sat at attention while Instructor Shea Kuuna pointed to a photograph of a creature he’d taped to the white board. It bore an almond-shaped body and four thick legs. Littering its body were innumerable eyeballs, and a distinct tail with aquatic scales. The quality of the image made it difficult

Karl tried to steady his breathing while Doctor Strobar sat cross-legged in the armchair with a clipboard in her hand. Karl sat across from her in a similar chair, wringing his hands between his legs. It was hard to breathe. Why was the air so warm and stuffy? How many times was she going to twirl t

Karl stared at his computer screen for what felt like hours. He tried to think of a scenario in which the words, ‘meeting expectations’ were a good thing, and came up short. It felt like a furtive way to say that he was lacking. He leaned back in his swivel chair, covering his face with his hands, w

Beads of sweat collected on Karl’s forehead as he stared at the barrage of missiles soaring toward him. As the muffled hiss of ignited fuel met his ear, he squinted and battled against his fear of death, gripping the armrests of his seat. He punched his bicep in hopes of snapping him out of it, but