Microstory 118: Patience Cooney

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

A great deal of people were aware of Patience Cooney’s special ability, though they were all sworn to secrecy. Like Upton, she never learned what she could do; it was just something she grew up understanding about herself. A theory floated around the science department of Bellevue that anomaly abilities always presented themselves in the best way possible, and that everyone who could potentially present an ability would. This meant that no one died never having discovered what they could do. Neither Upton nor Patience would have discovered their abilities organically since they were so specific and obscure, so nature gave them the answer ahead of time. Also like Upton, Patience could create special stones. But unlike him, a cooney stone did not contain her life; it was capable of sustaining anyone she put inside of it. Guests, as they were called, would not age while inside, they were fully aware of the passage of time, and if they shared the space with others, they could communicate with them telepathically. With further study, Bellevue discovered that her guests were not in the stone itself, but that the stone acted as a focal point--a key, of sorts-that provided access to an artificial simplex dimension. Guests can break themselves out of the stone as long as they are not hindered by some kind of barrier (e.g. inside of a box made of the earlier mentioned bellmei). Patience can pull guests out of her stones naturally, but due to her dangerous line of work, she also attaches a secret code that can be uttered by anyone who knows it. Patience was an extremely important member of the same organization that saved the life of Wilma Vann’s twin sister from Amadesis cult that wanted to kill her. Patience acted as a mobile underground railroad, ferrying rescues from their old life of death and wickedness to their new life on the other side of the world. She could place the rescues in one of her stones and transport them anywhere she wanted without anyone knowing they were there. When all is said and done, Patience Cooney was largely responsible for the continued lives of thousands of Amadesis defectors.