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 Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:09 am
Scholomance was learning quite quickly that scientific investigations were a whole lot of pissing around until he unintentionally struck a target. Adding to that was a huge sample size to justify the pissing around and to possibly provide enough variables that an answer became available. But Scholomance knew very few transcended individuals, having tapped the few sources he had. With no one left, he turned to his contacts list for more answers.
And the first person on his list for that was the lovely Scylla, whose extroversion and social ease garnered quite a lot of friendships. If she didn't know any transcended senshi or knights past the few he knew, there probably weren't any left. With a brief sigh at his perpetually shitty handwriting, Scholomance began his note.infinities Dearest Scylla,
It's been a touch since I contacted you this way. I hope you don't mind; I'm still working out the rather puzzling problem of improving my handwriting. It's atrocious, I know.
But my intentions aren't to reach out to you to practice better penmanship, I assure you. You are the most wonderfully social senshi I know, and I can think of no one better to ask when my questions come down to social networking. You've been at this for quite a long time now; I imagine you've met quite nearly everyone on our side of the fence. So for this, I ask: have you met any transcended senshi or knights? I'm certain you've heard what constitutes transcendence, but if there's any doubt in your mind, they feel cleaner than a normal knight or senshi (like fresh laundry, if you will) and often sport glowing markings on their skin. If you know of any, will you contact me? My research will thank you.
In exchange, as I am ever a fan of exchange, I would be overjoyed to invite you into the loop of my research project. It's still quite in its budding stages, but I imagine that with a few more volunteers on my hands, it will proceed smoothly. The results should be to our liking — both for knowing how to transcend, and how to best bend it to our benefit.
Ever yours,
Scholomance, Knight of Saturn
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Posted: Fri May 04, 2018 2:16 pm
It was a lovely night, and she'd only planned to go out for a quick patrol, then right back home. Sometimes, however, it was okay for plans to go awry- and the note that popped into her hand almost as soon as she powered up that evening was an excellent reason.
It had been a spell since she'd gotten a letter from any of the knights, much less Scholomance. Which meant it was probably business, not... Well. The message in that careful chicken-scratch was from Scholomance, and so she peeled the small note open. Bright purple eyes peered it over. And Again. And a third time, before she pressed two fingers to the bridge of her nose.
Have you met any transcended senshi or knights? The answer to that was straightforward enough- she knew several. Kallichore, Celsus, Maia... and a quick look in the mirror reflected what she'd been for months now. The symbol of her homeworld stood out on her forehead, and the tattoos shimmered around her eyes, up her arms, and along her spine like watery starlight. Scylla wasn't sure how much like fresh laundry she felt, but thanks to her homeworld she felt that the majority of those boxes were checked.
Just having powered up, she could feel her homeworld singing to her, calling. She'd had to cut her weekly trip a bit short this Wednesday, due to Giulia having some mini-recital for her ballet class, and she could feel the world calling to her. Calling for her to come home. But not tonight, Scylla. Tonight, she was going to go give a magical hello to a friend.
She sent him back a reply via both of her phones- whether he was Isaiah or Scholomance, the text was short and succint. The place she picked to meet up, if he was so inclined, was close to the cafe he'd taken her to once before. The owner still kept his shotgun close when she swung by, but she'd yet to be shot, and the coffee was gradually becoming less s**t the more she paid.
Hopefully he wouldn't be horrified by her almost-complete lack of the formal decorum that made his knight letter so enjoyable to read. At least she remembered her salutations.
Strickenized Hey Scholomance, I think I know someone who meets your criteria. If you want to meet up tonight, I'll be near that one Shotgun Cafe, or whatever it's called. Yours, Scylla.
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Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 9:32 pm
"Oh, very funny." Ice received the response not quite an hour later — he'd spent most of that hour having personal time in the shower — and was a touch nonplussed to find that she'd invited him back to that café. It wasn't a bad café by any means. In fact, he quite enjoyed its shitty ambience. But for her to call it the Shotgun Café simply because the owner got a little skittish around powered folk was quite close to making fun of his fundamental preferences. s**t on where a man gets his coffee and s**t on him.
Rude, Scylla. The phrase followed him through the apartment, down the hall, into the elevator, out the hall, and across the street. It followed him into an alleyway, past the adjoined courtyard, around the bend, and to a dreary little alcove where a pair of butcher shops once rivaled each other. And the phrase continued echoing in his mind when he powered up to Scholomance and received a duplicate message by way of his signet ring.
Grand, he then thought, and the word alone followed the curmudgeonly knight to the next location.
As he slipped into the area, seedy though it was (as some areas quite lose their luster in a short span), he spread his awareness for his companion. A beacon of brilliance, warm like summer's day. Perhaps a newly minted rain after an unconscionably long dry spell. Scylla felt as much like a relief as a source of veritable power. But as he leapt to the café's rooftop and dropped into a seat on the parapet, he felt nothing more than the transcended eternal senshi Scylla spoke of. But Scylla was nowhere — no second signature could be felt for a solid mile.
Scholomance, fed up by this, shouted into the ether. "Thanks for standing me up, b***h!"
With any luck, the patrons below would chalk it up to the ambience.
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Posted: Mon May 07, 2018 1:16 pm
She hummed as she made her way on a quick loop-dy-loop, making a patient circle around the coffee shop where she would be meeting up with Ice. There were a couple stray dogs she was able to send on their way, but not anything she really had to pull out anything beyond a Shoo for. It seemed quiet- she could appreciate that. Be grateful for it, truth be told, because now she got to sit back and allow herself the luxury of figuring out how she was going to tell her friend 'So this thing happened over 6 months ago and I didn't tell anyone, really. Surprise!' Jada wasn't quite sure how well he'd take not being told about that for so long. Would he care? Would he not? Would he think sharing something like 'My magic is fundamentally kind of weird and I have glowing tattoos now' was important?
In her own, brief, unverbalized defense, there were less than a dozen people who knew the change had occurred. Myrrha, though Scylla wasn't sure she would remember; Kallichore, who most certainly would. Caedus, of course, because Jada still visited him weekly. Hyperborea- Ciel, who was another of the transcended she knew. Who else had she actively met on patrol? Not many. Avoidance hadn't been the plan, it had just... happened.
But it wasn't happening today- she settled herself down near the location she'd told Scholomance she would be and waited. Perhaps she had assumed he would just make his way over to her, perhaps she had underestimated how different her energy signal felt to others. But she could feel the knight approach, and then... nothing. His head didn't pop up, no hand dropped on her shoulder, no leer went to her cleavage, no comments on her tattoo filled the air. Instead, she was treated to a rousing, echoing, "Thanks for standing me up, b***h!" It made her blink, head lifting, and she pushed the heavy tail of hair behind her, letting it flop down her spine.
She was only a hop-skip away, and the senshi took it, bouncing towards the voice, heels clacking against roofing as she landed. "You stood up on your own," she replied mildly to his back, "You're quite welcome to sit down, though, I won't be offended." The attempt at a joke was probably as horrific to his ears as it was to her in hindsight. Thank the gods she had other talents, because her humor was turning into dad jokes gone wrong.
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Posted: Thu May 10, 2018 3:17 pm
Wait, what? No, that was clearly Scylla's voice reaching him But there was only one eternal, and she said she knew someone —
Oh, of course. Oh that's cheap. That's something I would do. Scholomance indulged in a long cringe when he realized the purpose of the message. He stepped up regardless, and crossed a narrow brick arch between buildings to meet up with her.
"Look at you," he exclaimed upon seeing the delicate touch of lurid purple to her forehead and the trailing coils down her arms. "When in blazes did that happen? And why so coy about it? You should've come bashing my door down with half a bar in celebration. I think celebration, at least. You're alright with your planet, yes?" He recalled the austerity in the crumbling columns and promenades of Scylla the planet — the throne room long-standing and proud, even as all the life left it. And Andromache's legacy would weigh on Scylla's mind for every visit that passed into memory. Was she alright with her planet?
Scholomance paced about her as much as she would allow. He was proud of her, for one — proud that she made such a connection with a planet like hers. And from what he learned of transcendence so far, it proved a boon to everyone who encountered it. None had regrets for their current state. And perhaps she had in all her silence about it, or she was one of those people who wanted to be weirdly private about her senshi life or whatnot. And for as public as Scylla was about her life as Jada, he could imagine a want for a little privacy.
But to hide it like this? To just leave him in the dark about it all this time? That certainly said where she thought their friendship laid.
"Well." The knight breathed a sigh, letting his shoulders drop. The evening felt suddenly chilly. "Your humor hasn't changed, at least. I suppose we should turn this into business then? All QnA with none of the frills."infinities here have a very very public tag, can edit if need be, bit hard to concentrate out here
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Posted: Sat May 19, 2018 11:25 am
If she hadn't been looking for the twitch, she might not have noticed it. Even looking, perhaps it was wishful thinking that she noticed the moment he realized he'd been... well. Set up? So to speak. Not exactly right, but not wrong, either. She remained where she was, watching the knight turn and draw closer. Her eyes slid to his coat, to the tails fluttering as he walked. Look at you, he said, and she tugged on the rope of her hair, spinning so he could see the column of light that decorated her spine, tentacle crawling from waist to hairline. "It happened a while ago," she admitted, "I didn't really knock anyone's door down, to be honest."
No- her state wasn't well-known, but maybe it was time to change that.
"It was more or less an accident," Scylla continued, "Scylla tried to drown me, and I survived." she finished her slow spin, the corner of her mouth quirking up in a wry half-smile. "It appears I'm an adult, now." You were chosen. Jada could remember the way her Self had spoken, a language she couldn't repeat if she tried, filling her ears like roaring. And with the memory, her world spun and burned inside her, calling to her like a siren, singing a song that almost made her body tremble. "
To answer your question, though, I'm alright." Better than alright, some days. Jada stepped forward to meet him, her heeled boots clicking on the rooftop not unlike the elegant shoes she'd once worn. And then she smiled, bare hands dropping to her hips. "It feels kind of odd," she admitted, "Like I've gone from being a round peg in a square hole to a different shape, still wrong but more right." It was hard to explain- she wasn't sure she should try. Not yet. So Ice sighed, shoulders dropping, and she adjusted herself, straightening, shoulders pressing back. "Not even this could fix a sense of humor like mine." her snort was indelicate, amused. "No need to be all business about this though. Q and A can come first, then maybe get some coffee to thaw out? I brought my wallet and have street clothes on as a civilian."
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Posted: Fri May 25, 2018 11:25 am
Scholomance tried to lose his anger in a shrug. Some of that worked — he felt lighter for it — but some of it stuck around in the form of why didn't you tell me you transcended, you selfish ********>. Maybe a touch of whiskey would sate the rest.
"Well. I suppose I should say you look good. And you do, of course, but…" Scholomance sucked his teeth testily. "You'll have to make it up to me. Not telling me about how you basically established a major bond with your planet and then skipped off about telling people like a responsible friend-and-soldier. And not celebrating it with champagne or some more Scylla-esque alcohol. Not that I'm bitter or anything. Or hurt. Or annoyed. Definitely not annoyed." His voice suggested the opposite, however.
But maybe it was time to stop grilling his friend over her personal choices.
Scylla gave a digest of her story, however, and Scholomance quirked a brow. "Quite the coming-of-age ceremony, isn't it? Here you go, little one — avoid drowning and we'll call you a grown-up. Can't say I have regrets about growing up elsewhere." Wisconsin had its drawbacks, especially with so little to do but beer and cheese and sports and drugs and hotboxing in minivans, but Scylla had a habit of treating its warriors with a benign cruelty. At least, that was Scholomance's understanding of the planet. Scylla undoubtedly understood more by now.
With Encke, his transcendence coincided with an explosion. With Scylla, it was a drowning. Was it too much to say that transcendence coincided with bodily harm? Or that it worked in tandem with a climactic event?
"Round peg, eh? I always pegged you for being pretty square," he teased in equal parts bad humor. He caught her wrist to examine the tapering, delicate lines in their descent. Would you look at that. Glowing is certainly a staple.
"Well. Coffee sounds fine afterward." Pursing his lips a moment, Scholomance let her go and considered where to start. "Alright. So. Is there anything more you can give me on how it happened? Was there a ritual of some sort? Were you cleaning up part of Scylla and flood tides rushed in to stop you? Was there a bunch of little things over several previous visits that led up to the planet nearly drowning you?" As he asked the questions, Scholomance pulled a pocketbook and pen from one of his well-concealed coat pockets.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 8:51 am
Not telling me about how you basically established a major bond with your planet and then skipped off about telling people like a responsible friend-and-soldier.
"I'll try and make it up to you," she agreed, trying hard not to wince at the sharp irritation in his tone, "I told so few people, I feel like I'm going to be busy for a while." Those who had managed to find out were so far and few between, and her list of friends who knew she was a senshi was growing so terribly long... Ice, however... she supposed he had a reason to take it more personally than most of the others. She had been a bit selfish- now that she thought about the fact she'd kept something so important from... everyone. And they, in turn, had kept her secret. Not even some gossip about her state to have reached through the grapevine.
But his brow quirked, and Scylla couldn't quite explain the surge of relief as he moved on from his irritation and into the business part of the evening. "You aren't wrong. At least I-" she paused, considering what she had been about to say. At least I didn't have any monsters to contend with, but she could still remember the way the coral had breathed, the glassy eye of the corpse that had passed her, and the feeling that even in that deathly cold darkness, she had not been truly alone, that something knew she was bleeding, and woke. She shook her head and reached up, tugging on the rope of her hair again. but he caught her wrist, peering at the lines that streaked up her arm. Anything more on how it happened?
"It's a bit of a story, but the cliff notes would be easier. You know last year I'd been a bit..." her free hand spun at the wrist, as she sought for a polite way to phrase it. "Stressed. Loopy? Constantly getting dunked in the ocean every time I went to my homeworld and being quite frustrated by it?" Arguably about to go batshit insane wasn't something that she thought appropriate to her story. Drinking, again? A lot. Also not really relevant to the tale. "So I started thinking of ways to cope. And I had a friend, who shared what she had done- she had kind of... prayed, to the cosmos, and her planet had helped her. I went to Scylla, hoping it would do the same, and it didn't. Of course." Scylla felt her lips twitch, quirking into a wry smile. "Peace isn't something that my world can really offer. I hadn't quite grasped that yet, though. I thought I just wasn't worthy." Her head tilted back, considering. "The things I'd done- the silence was the response I'd deserved. But I tried again. Failed again. And again. So my last ditch effort was to try and drug myself."
She paused, breathing, letting the frantic memory that beat at her spill through her veins, sending her pulse fluttering. "You've heard of Ayahuasca, right? Generally considered a psychadelic spirit trip- except this stuff was actually magical. I- I know it was a hallucination, but it was interspersed with memories, and I guess it felt like.... my homeworld spoke to me. Through remembering. I know that probably isn't what really happened, but I came out of it knowing what I had to do. I was Scylla, but I wasn't Scylla. I was still a child. I hadn't-" I didn't want to be what I became. Jada could still hear Her voice, booming like a drum, soft as a whisper. So many of us died before we truly became.
With a deep inhale, she continued. "I decided to perform the ritual of adulthood. I could be the last person alive to do it. And I had to do it. A ritual that bonded a planet, bound those offworlders who were brave enough to dare. A tiny thing, to some, but a ritual that killed the weak. Why would my homeworld help a child who was afraid to try and prove herself worthy of the task she had been chosen for?" Saying the words, voice unshaking and bland- that she had been chosen, like her life or death would really have mattered to the planet, in the long run. "And so I did it."
Hand pulled away from his grip, and she turned, letting him see the marking that ran up her spine. The memory welled, choking her, closing her throat- the Great Eye, Briseis' gentle voice, the feeling of Her Own hand and tangled fingers, the breathing, and the arm lifting her to the surface. I am with you. Life and death in an endless, emotionless circle, a singular spoke in an eternal wheel. Strength, from the violent end to weakness. Merciless. Defiant.
"I Became. When I came out of the water, alive, with proof of my triumph, I was truly Scylla. I was an adult. I was everything, and I was nothing. And I was changed. Scylla gave me more than just marks on my skin."
Putting mere words to it was difficult. How could she truly express what had happened, in that darkness? She felt like her tale offered so little explanation of it- how could she share the gravity and the power in that dream, or the terror of the trial she had surpassed? How could she explain how her homeworld sang to her now, a beacon, a siren's song offering power and security and- she'd sound like a madwoman. Or a zealot.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 12:42 pm
Scholomance figured it was best not to interrupt. Scylla knew what she wanted to say, and if she hadn't told much of anyone, then she'd likely bumble her way through the story on her first few tries. Depending on how soon it happened, most words wouldn't carry enough weight to describe. And as the memory cooled, as she described it more and more and picked out the few turns of phrase that still held meaning for it, she'd sharpen her picture of what happened. She'd deepen the shadows, resolve thee figures, and flesh out the background.
But if she was honest, then this tale would be one of her roughest yet. Scholomance took down what he could, his pencil moving furiously as he braced the pad on a nearby parapet. Often his hand cramped without his ring finger to keep middle and little separate. She mentioned the lead-up quickly, and Scholomance remembered it well — saw it himself, one day, when she stole them away to austere Scylla and only a distant splash marked her arrival. That she was constantly moored in the sea sounded terribly obnoxious, like something Scholomance would do, and he briefly wondered if each ancient place of power sported a similar grouchiness.
Next came outside insight — a clearer connection to the world. An impetus, however obscure, to move forward. Scylla intimated an old ritual, perhaps not so different from Encke's repairs of his own planet. Though rather than an explosive transcendence, Scylla's came with the quietude of the sea. She nearly drowned, and then she donned the eternal garb of Scylla. She wore her fuku as a second skin now, as if it merged with her as much as the planet with her body.
If nothing else, these transcendence stories taught him of how perfectly these people fit their planets. No one but Encke could have the technical mind, the gregariousness, and the calm demeanor to engage with his planet and repair it so diligently. He earned his transcendence when he paid back that thousand years of dilapidation — when he finally brought electricity back to the planet of plasma. And Scylla, a planet that he knew he wouldn't survive, that he wouldn't care for with all its harsh histories of powerful warriors, and the one inheriting its power was debonair Jada. And her strength was a new one, one wrapped in smiles and goofiness and a soft self-deprecation, but the planet sussed it out. The planet nurtured that strength in its own way and Scylla grew into it. Now she had a light octopus glowing out of her back. Little unnerving, perhaps not his kink, but he could respect that.
"Well." Scholomance parked his pencil at last. "Let's pretend I said something profound and comprehending. Because really, what do you say after all that?" A quick, circular gesture tried to encompass her. "I'm guessing something in between 'congratulations' and 'my sincere condolences'.
"But jokes aside, there's more I need to ask. Encke confessed that he felt more energetic, that he could visit his home world more often with transcendence, but he hadn't more to say than that. What about you? Have you noticed any changes since transcending? Are you also able to visit your home world more often? Or have more energy? Anything that you can describe would help."
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 1:54 pm
He listened to her in silence, his pencil scratching across paper the only sound other than her voice. Occasionally, perhaps, the honk of a horn, the raised voice of a civilian in the distance. But there were no auras to alarm, and no interruptions to obscure her tale. And the words she spoke seemed so... bland? Spartan, when she couldn't figure out how to give voice to the riot of thoughts, and feelings stewing inside her around her story. How she wished she could just... close her eyes and share her mind, her memories, give some kind of visual understanding to help her tale. Or that she'd thought about the inevitability of having to share her story, and words that could make an impact.
But Ice listened, and Scylla supposed it was a good thing her story was fumbling and awkward, without the swell of emotion and knowledge and strength that she wished she could share, that call. It hopefully let him get more of... whatever he was trying to figure out, to write down. She hadn't even asked why he was doing this research- what had so intrigued him as to kick off this little project. Maybe if she'd been paying more attention to her friends instead of greedily keeping this connection to herself... What else had she missed out on? Who else had she so abandoned that she was disconnected to this level?
"Congratulations and Condolences are both pretty well appreciated." she said after a moment, turning to face Ice again and offering her friend a small, warm smile. "I wish- I wish I could explain it all better, Scholomance. Not just the what happened, but what I saw. What I remembered? Dreamed?" She had always isolated herself before, treated Scylla as this... other person, that sprang out of Jada. That the henshin that gave her anonymity gave her pieces of personality that weren't her own, and over years it had left her feeling fractured and fragmented, twisting the difference between who Jada was expected to be and who she wanted to be further apart. But now... Now she felt whole. Now, life or death, she and her power had a purpose.
"Energy?" she considered, sucking briefly on her teeth. "Much like Encke said, I can go to Scylla more often. I have, when I get particularly... buzzy. But I try and keep it to my weekly visits for my own schedule." He was probably going to be confused by what she meant by buzzy, wasn't he? So she took another moment and tried to explain. "I feel like... there is a thread, constantly between me and Scylla. This... skein of energy, that I am constantly drawing from, whether I want to or not. I can open it, but I can't close it. Or- like I am a cup, constantly on the edge of spilling over. And when it gets too much, I have to find someplace to put it. I have been giving it to Caedus. To help him go home. But going back to Scylla helps too." She could ground herself, there. "I can bury my feel in the sand and- I don't know. Ground myself, maybe? Like a live wire. Feed that energy back into the world. I don't know if that's what's actually happening, but... I feel better, after."
When else had she spilled off the energy? "I can give it, to someone else. Not just to Caedus' stone- I met a knight who used their power to help heal a wound I'd gotten on my arm, kind of like the ribbons that Hver gave us after..." After the night he'd almost lost his starseed. "I did something similar trying to help another senshi who was wounded."
Two people who knew about her secret before she'd told him. Her teeth dug into her lower lip, and she decided to continue with a question of her own. "You said you're doing some research on people who... transcended. What are you looking for? Or why did you get interested?" Had something happened? Or was he just looking for a project? Or... she didn't know, and the curiosity was beginning to eat at her at last.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 2:31 pm
"It's a bit of a bear, isn't it? That we can't quite give over our memories to each other as well as our planets and wonders can give theirs to us. Until we discover some magical artifact that can do just that, this is the best we can do, really." Scholomance wasn't terribly impressed with the self-reporting method, either. Just as Scylla admitted, it had its faults with relaying the gravity of the tale. The wonder, the interest, the visuals, the fear, the swell of pride at the end. All these aspects were lost to the impotence of language. And, perhaps unlike him, Scylla didn't give much credence to explaining her adventure in a pantomime of sex acts.
Buzzy was a strange word that hadn't come up before. Encke never mentioned anything about spilling over. Was it an aspect unique to Scylla that she felt a little too vibrant at times? Or did Encke simply visit often enough that he never had the pleasure of that buzz? It, too, went into the journal beneath Scylla's tale.
So far, there remained a couple similarities between the pair. Feeling mentally different afterward, perhaps calmer. Having more energy cropped up with both. And each of their transcendences coincided with a major event on their planets — with Encke, restoring the power; with Scylla, finishing the ritual. Perhaps he could call these coincidences necessities. He'd have to ask Encke about feeling a little antsy later. Maybe that one simply didn't come up in their first conversation.
"So you can heal people now? That's quite convenient." Scholomance's pen moved even as he frowned beneath the mask. Yes, of course. Go on your merry way and do your transcended duty with strangers. Don't worry about trying to be a team player. Really. "And it works like Hver's ribbons…" Beneath that went another note. Was that what transcendence could contribute to others? A little comfort for aches and pains? It seemed like such a small consolation compared with what they needed to win the war.
Scholomance licked his lips, his tongue rings clicking against false teeth. The question raised wasn't one easily answered. "Transcendence has been around for a while now. At least, as far as I can tell — Babylon, for one, has been transcended since I was just a squire. But what do we really know about it? Just whatever people have felt out on their own. And even at that, there might not even be communication between those people to share and compare. Now that makes it sound like I've got some kind of kumbayah research paper going on, but I promise, that's not the brunt of why I'm doing this.
"Part of it's just looking for a project, yes. Patrolling around like a lunatic gets boring once that adrenaline rush of 'I'm-going-to-die' wears off. But we need some kind of edge to push back with. Something… Sturdier than what we've got, I suppose. And if I'm supposed to head up a magical weaponry research facility, then who better to see if we could possibly weaponize transcendence? Whatever it is."
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 3:39 pm
Note to self: Look for a magical artifact that can transfer thoughts, feelings, and emotions more eloquently than language. Or experiences. Those would do too. Maybe one of the cats had something, or there was something on the moon that could add a little flavor to an otherwise hum-drum story. Scylla tilted her head back, peering through the hazy aura of city lights towards the sky above. She didn't have to see the stars to feel them- she knew where, out in that darkness, her homeworld lingered. It didn't twinkle, it didn't give a light that her eyes could see, in those dark, not-so-empty spaces between the other stars, but if she was able to really see the sky, she would know where to look. It was as easy to feel the right place to look as it would be for Peter Pan to say- Second star to the right and straight on 'til morning.
"It isn't healing. Not in the sense that... scratches knit beneath my hands. So I guess... not exactly? But you know how when people are healing, they're... tired?Maybe they get a fever, their immune system weakens. I think I just... replenish that, for them. Give them the extra strength to keep going, keep fighting. A magical shot of five hour energy, more than actually healing someone?" it was a question, aimed at someone who probably didn't know any more than she did. "And honestly, I don't know if that's actually how it works, or if I'm just trying to rationalize it in the only way that makes sense to me. I've only ever tried it once, myself. Other than that it's just been passing my energy into a rock that was built to drain it." Or something like that. Now that she thought of it, though... she hadn't passed out from holding Caedus' stone since...
His tongue rings clicked against his teeth in a sound that was familiar to her, and her eyes shifted from the sky to his mouth, briefly. And then she straightened, forcing her ears to listen to the words coming out of his mouth. He had a point- what had happened to her... there were a few of them, before. Transcended people. Scylla had never bothered to really consider them, before, certainly not in a weaponized sense. She had always set that as something that wouldn't happen to her. A level of peace and communication with their power that was beyond her reach. But it hadn't been.
"It wasn't..." she sucked in a breath, puffing out her cheeks. "It wasn't hard." she said at last. "I mean, it was, but what my world sought from me wasn't some great trial. I didn't have to go kill a Kraken, or slay a dragon, or make life burst into bloom. I just had to listen. I had to learn to hear what it wanted. Scylla needed something from me, just as I needed something from Scylla. I guess what I'm trying to say is... I don't think weaponizing this would be hard." she held out her hand, peering at the tattoos. "Our homeworlds and wonders are already a weapon. They were a bastion against Chaos for a long time before they fell."
Her lips pursed, then she shruigged. "I guess what I'm asking is are you looking to weaponize this, or weaponize us, giving it a form we can more easily understand to use? An easier way to understand it, I guess?"
Maybe she was overthinking it. She did that a lot.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 5:17 pm
"Magical Five Hour Energy. I think I'd prefer cocaine myself, but I suppose this has fewer side effects. Less addictive, too, probably." Scholomance sniffed. After crossing out healing on his notes, he penciled energy replenishment over the top of it. Perhaps it was an oversimplification, or besides the point altogether, but any information was good information at this stage. "I think we can say for certain that you're giving something to someone else. What that something is, and how it affects them, is up to question. That might be cause for an unorthodox experiment later, but don't quote me on that. I don't quite fancy the implications." Another note, smaller than the first, fit into the margins.
Energy giving and energy draining — if Order and Chaos were so oppositional as their names implied, then it made sense that Scylla could give energy where her corrupted counterpart would take it. But wasn't that a little too convenient? And there was the question of Caedus, how he fit into the war, but Scholomance would save that consideration for a particularly rainy day.
Scholomance hummed to himself before he pocketed the notebook. Sitting up, bone heels dragged across a graveled roof. His gaze settled on Scylla where the swell of her chest rested near her arm. "Sorry, wasn't quite trying to say that you ran the marathon for transcendence. What Encke told me of his transcendence shares some characteristics with yours, though not many. His was…" The knight paused to catch the words. "Like stumbling onto an invention, I suppose. He was tinkering around with his planet, however one does that, and found a way to restore the electricity. Nothing much, but then there was a boom, and he came to with transcendence markings like yours. Well, not exactly like yours, but they glowed nonetheless." He shrugged.
"But I've got my doubts about transcendence. If it's truly so useful, then why aren't the rest of us transcended? Why haven't our planets and wonders pushed us to turn into glow worms? I'd like to know the whole picture, and not just to weaponize it, but to defend it too. What if you're suddenly more vulnerable to Negaverse weaponry? Or magic? Or whatever else they might have up their sleeves? It'd be prudent to know as much as we can.
"The end goal, I suppose, is to weaponize transcendence itself. Once we understand it, we can use it. And once we can use it — once we understand what's going on with our bodies — then we stand on better footing against Chaos. Or, you know, we find out that transcendence was a terrible idea and now we're all ********. But basically, it's not you I'm looking to use. It's your space herpes. However one manages to do that. Does this fall under biological warfare? I might violate the Geneva convention… Oh well, small losses I suppose." Scholomance gave Scylla his best pout.
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Posted: Sun May 27, 2018 7:29 pm
"If you change your mind about an unorthodox experiment, let me know. I can give you one." her lips quirked and she smirked at the sky. She wasn't sure how the magic would appreciate being used for what she had in mind, but s**t happened. His heels dragged across the roof, and Scylla glanced up at his narrow face, lips quirking. She had an unorthodox experiment drifting through her mind that would go unfortunately unmentioned. "Cocaine isn't magical," she said mildly, "and you remember a lot less of the fun after." she couldn't speak to the addiction front, and frankly, she hoped she never found out if their ability to give energy was addictive.
His heels scraped over the roof, and she tilted her head to peer up at his narrow face, thoughtful. "I wasn't exactly trying to say anything about a marathon either," she mused, "just that.... it was easy. Or accidental, in the cases of... everyone I've heard about, now." Encke's accident. Kallichore's prayer. Her own vision, and test. "If there is a formula, then once it's unlocked, it should be easy. But..."
Her brow furrowed. His words- triggered something. What if you're suddenly more vulnerable to Negaverse weaponry? Or magic? "Years ago," she said, and stopped. Years ago- the future. "Years ago there were... waves of nightmares." A future, dark. A future without Hope. She had been a different woman. A different Scylla. "They had to make choices." Her father, he had made his only remaining child attend the executions. Kept his hand tight on Jada's arm as he waited, to see if Zora or Lucas would be among the captured. Will you repent with your actions or your life? "They had to choose. I don't- know if we're weaker against them, but... I think we're stronger in one way."
She lifted her hand, pressing it to her chest. Under it, somewhere, lay her starseed. And... a choice? Or maybe not. With time, and changes in her life, the memories of that dream faded to general feelings of pain. Distaste. Horror. With changes to her had surely come changes to the accuracy of that future she'd dreamt- surely not everyone else could have stayed true to the path leading to doom they'd seen. The deaths they...
"But as for my space herpes," she cleared her throat, dropping her hand, "I may as well be a guinea pig if you need one. We need every advantage we can get, and if I can help answer your questions, or suffer through your... unorthodox experiments... may as well. It isn't like I have anything else to do during the day, long as I'm home by dinner." her smile was wan.
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Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 9:43 am
What sort of 'unorthodox experiment' was Scylla planning? Was his lewdness starting to rub off on her? Scholomance started to think so. He could plan out his own less serious unorthodox experiments, even if they didn't quite have the bearing on the war he wanted them to — wait, maybe they could. He quirked a brow in quiet thought.
"Who else have you heard about? The more stories I can get ahold of, the better." Scholomance readied his pencil; if he could manage a robust entry about transcendence and any speculation to its usefulness and acquisition, then that was more information for Order's repository. and they desperately needed information, given how often the war left their favor.
But Scylla broke off on a tangent he didn't quite follow. "Years ago, there were nightmares and you had to make choices," he echoed. "'They had to choose'. Choose what, Scylla? Who's 'they'? And what do nightmares have to do anything? Were people having nightmares over their choices? Over having to make some choice? I'm trying to follow you, but you're not making any sense." Who was them? Was it the same 'them' both times? Two different 'them's? Was she even talking about the Negaverse anymore? Scholomance frowned under the half-mask; perhaps transcendence was a bit of a brain-scrambler.
His pencil rapped a handful of times against the notebook. "Once we get through this information, I'd like to take you up to Scholomance and run you around the 'track' a bit. It'll expand that pool of data for transcended versus non-transcended."
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