[BNW] Delta Death Cults

[Mark Kilfoil <kilfoilm@nbnet.nb.ca>]

For some reason, this failed to send the first time..  Maybe I'm closer to 
the truth than I thought...

encafONE

 >
 >(Someone may have mentioned something like this idea, given the "origins of
 >Deltas" thread that I'm only now catching up with.  If so..  well, here's
 >my take on the idea..)
 >
 >DELTA DEATH CULTS
 >(the encaffeinated ONE)
 >      There is a strange and rather disturbing phenomenon going on in some
 >of the more desperate parts of the world, folks, and it needs to be faced
 >head on.  There may not be a solution, but we shouldn't just stand by and
 >let it happen.
 >
 >      I'm speaking of the emergence of what could be called "Delta Death
 >Cults", or perhaps more accurately "Delta Manifestation Cults".  These
 >groups and individual misguided regs have become obsessed with manifesting
 >Delta powers, and are willing to try almost anything to obtain them.
 >
 >      Although the popular media has shied away from presenting the
 >apparent source of Delta manifestations, these people have read the
 >underground magazines, or they have simply figured it out for
 >themselves:  the primary way that regs become Deltas is through death -- or
 >getting as close to Death as possible without dying.
 >
 >      Hundreds die every year trying to become Deltas.  The reasons are as
 >varied as the people:  some do it out of desparation, because there are
 >obstacles they feel they cannot overcome any other way; others do it for
 >the simple reason that Deltas seem somehow "better" or are more fascinating
 >than the average reg.
 >
 >      On a more sinister note, I have heard a few stories of Defiants
 >coming into contact with larger groups, where the leader promises his or
 >her followers that they will become Deltas, in return for all of their
 >worldly possessions.  To the followers, it is like a twisted religious
 >epiphany, a beatification of Deltas above regs, a suggestion that regs can
 >become "holy" and "divine" through "ascention into Delta-hood.
 >
 >      Often, these groups seem to be led by Charmers who are nothing more
 >than con artists, or regs preying upon their weaker-minded or desperate
 >brethren.  On occasion, Defiant spies have noticed that the leader appears
 >to be a Bargainer, and that the pledges *do* appear to change, often
 >transforming into hideously warped creatures whose twisted appearance
 >suggests some sort of daemon.
 >
 >      One of the strangest cases involved a leader who seems to have been a
 >Delta Gadgeteer.  His claim, first of all, was to have been a direct
 >descendant of the biblical Abel.  Abel, he claimed, did not die when his
 >brother Cain struck him down, but instead "ascended to a higher level of
 >being", becoming the first Delta.  Thus, all Deltas are in fact "touched by
 >Abel" or "Abel's Children".  The day was coming, he warned, when Abel's
 >Children would rise up and revenge Cain's fratricide, and Deltas would take
 >up arms and destroy Cain's descendants, i.e. regs.  When the regs came
 >forward to ascend, to prove their allegiance to Abel, the Gadgeteer took
 >them into his "mystical alcove" (i.e. laboratory) to "check their pedigree
 >to Abel".  Those who are "true" are "transformed" in a brutal ceremony
 >involving a sinister, shiny black, metal machine shaped like a barred,
 >caged coffin, its internals filled with dozens of busy mechanical
 >arms.  When the pledge was placed into it, his screaming was terrible,
 >although it produced a satisfied smile and glowing look on the eyes of the
 >Gadgeteer.
 >
 >     Not all the pledge survived this, of course.  Those who did were
 >scarred and changed, and exhibited some Delta-like abilities, and were
 >utterly subservient to the Gadgeteer.  Some of the pledges were afraid to
 >go through with the procedure, but the Gadgeteer told them that they would
 >be able to serve Abel's Children and they would be forgiven for their
 >ancestor's terrible act.
 >
 >     This Gadgeteer's operation was shut down by a brave team of Defiants
 >working in conjunction with a Delta Prime squad, but the Gadgeteer himself
 >disappeared and is still at large.
 >
 >     If you should run across one of these groups, proceed with caution,
 >but swiftly before any more harm is done.  If one of your reg friends is
 >considering trying to "awaken" Delta powers through an attempted suicide,
 >counsel them, talk to them, and try to make them understand that being a
 >Delta has a burden of its own.
---
             the encaffeinated ONE
   --- saving the world one COFFEE at a time ---
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