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 Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 9:07 am
Beatrix just pursed her lips, this talk of hope and poison entirely too optimistic for a person who had endured the cancerous grasp of such people. "But for some things, second time isn't the charm." She said bitterly, hard to keep herself from not pitching in an opinion about keeping one self closed away from the world as opposed to looking naively. "Maybe once I live as long as you do I can reestablish faith in this world." She continued, but once he spoke of her goal the venom coursing through her subsided.
These matters, her past, was not something she wished to discuss.
"No, it is the only sensible goal." She corrected him, because truly, what else was more important in these times then curing the plague? There was peace across the land and there was no major problems at the moment, so this was really the only thing one should be devoting their time too. "I am, but I've been working primarily independently. And I don't consider that label to really say too much about me. I had half a heart to join the Fellowship, though I've been helping them since I came here. I care about doing whatever I can to achieve this goal." She explained, at the back of her mind thinking about the bureaucracy of the Council and how they were too wrapped up in themselves. The Fellowship seemed slightly better in that accord. "And what is your purpose?"
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Posted: Tue Mar 29, 2011 8:41 am
"Trust is a difficult thing to gain from others, and a harder thing to allow yourself to feel if you've ever been betrayed," Wickwright agreed. "It takes time, although I certainly hope it won't take you quite as many years as I am old. I've lived for longer than I deserve to in this time of plague, I'm sure." And now, if rumours were to be believed, he was immune to the disease, making his situation doubly unfair. Funny how he didn't feel particularly blessed about any of it.
"The Fellowship," Wickwright exclaimed. "A well-respected group to be sure. Wonderful that you could be of assistance to them, I'm afraid I lack the abilities to be of much use to either group, much as I wish I could be of some small service." Not entirely true. When Hopkin first became plagued, Wickwright briefly considered attempting to join a faction, the Scientists foremost in his mind as a man of truth from Imisus. However, the Jawbone Society took up too much of his attention for him to ever give the matter serious thought, and at the end of the day, Hopkin was a Jawbone Book. He was hesitant to let anyone else consider him theirs, even in the arbitrary manner that faction membership might claim. "But both factions seem to be just in their causes, right enough. Is the Fellowship more keen on seeking the cure? By the bone, I wouldn't have guessed."
"My purpose?" he paused, but Hopkin answered for him. "To seek the truth," said the little, reedy-voiced book boy from his hood. Wickwright coughed again, saying, "Pardon, my voice with this cough, sometimes it quite gets away from me. Yes, to seek the truth and write it down so that our descendants will know what happened in this time of plague, and what came before, and what came after."
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Posted: Tue Jun 21, 2011 7:43 am
It was becoming a little wearisome to hear this older man talk, especially about things that it seemed he didn't truly know about. It was easy enough for anyone to say what they wanted, but to say it with experience holding the words up was doubly hard. As far as Beatrix was concerned the man in front of her certainly ha never had his trust betrayed so harshly, especially not by someone they had loved so dearly. He was just a preacher, like those who talked of God or heathen beings, but in the end, they didn't really know what they were talking about.
"Wonderful for them, yes." She added, or perhaps corrected. As far as Beatrix was concerned she could have given her time and energy to any number of the factions to aid in their goal, but she had chosen the Fellowship. After all, she could have acted independently, but she would not have gained access to the plethora of equipment she had here. It was a quid pro quo, truly. She once again didn't seem pleased to have the Council brought up, especially in comparison. "I cannot say what the Council is striving for right now. At least the Fellowship is proactive when it comes to their members." She replied, but said nothing of justness, for she was more than keenly aware of the skeleton's in the Council's closet. And she did not doubt that it was the same for the Fellowship.
That small voice that seemed to pop in and out the conversation was beginning to unnerve her, only because she felt like she was going mad a little or this man was playing a trick on her. In that moment, Beatrix looked like she pitied him. "That is a foolhardy task. All information is second hand, and how can we know if it is true? People deceive as much as the senses do. And even if you were to manage to chronicle anything of value, then who is to say it would not be altered by whomever should find it after you have passed on? People want history to be written in their favor."
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Posted: Sat Jun 25, 2011 9:33 am
Hopkin was made nervous by Beatrix's statement, as it sounded vaguely blasphemous. How could the truth be anything but the truth? If it was false then by definition it couldn't be true, and that was a thing which should be patently obvious to everyone. However, Wickwright was not so taken aback and calmly countered, "All the more reason to have people trying to sort it out, then. If we don't know what's true, we must seek to discern it for ourselves."
Since Wickwright said it, it had to be true. Hopkin felt relieved that someone with all the answers was around and stopped squirming. He decided he did not like this woman. She was all sharp edges, that was what was odd about her, or not even that. She switched between sharp and soft without warning, and when she was sharp, she said things that made no sense. Hopkin got dizzy trying to comprehend her and for once he was glad he was hidden, albeit not very well. This was one person in the wide world he'd rather not see in his dream world.
Wickwright himself was far from interested in discussing the nature of truth with a woman, though, especially one so mercurial as Beatrix. He doubted it would be a very satisfying debate, so instead, he attempted to turn the discussion back to the factions. "However, do the Scientists not seek the truth? Are the Fellowship so good to their members as to make you switch factions entirely? It seems that a healer such as yourself would be of more use in Imisus, pardon my cheek. I simply wonder because of my own interest in the factions. I may not be of much use, but I meet people who seek admission, and if I could advise them even a little, you see..."
Hopkin beat him to the point, tired of the roundabout and eager to be done with this strange woman. "What do the Mages have that the Scientists do not?"
Wickwright was racked with coughing fits.
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