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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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 Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 9:51 pm
Encke watched Scholomance's hand work, unable to help his curiosity. Shaky as it was, Scholomance's drawing actually looked rather good. A lot better than anything Encke could produce, for certain. Encke had always been okay at art, never great; on the other hand, there were definitely signs of practice in Scholomance's art, and Encke was impressed. He might ask to take a closer look at that afterwards. "If I put on a mask, I'd basically be unnoticeable," remarked Encke, with a laugh. He didn't really have a good idea of how much was a lot and how much was a little, either, considering he didn't really know any other transcended senshi, but he figured that a couple markings on his hands and feet probably wasn't a lot. Certainly didn't seem it to him. Unless the normal amount was just the symbol on the forehead... He hadn't really thought of that being a possibility. Of course, he hadn't really thought too much of others until he realized there were likely others, either. Encke seemed quite entertained by Scholomance's apparent distraction, smirk widening into a grin before narrowing back into a devious smirk again. He tilted his head to the side in a playful manner, replying, "5'11", 190ish, and," he glanced to his feet, shrugged his shoulders innocently, and glanced off in the direction of some of the bookshelves. Of course, he wasn't going to provide that level of detail. He let that sit for a couple seconds before getting back to the point, responding with something a little more relevant to his actual transcendence and not what might be seen on a senshi version of Tinder, "Can't say I remember that. It was as often as I could, though, so a lot. Spent a while there each time, too. I made time to go every three weeks at first stage, every two weeks since the upgrade." Encke's brows furrowed. "Well, every week now. That's one of the things I've noticed. I've been able to go to my comet more often. Seems to be once a week, which is nice." He liked getting to spend more time on his comet. "In general I've felt ... better, I guess? I feel more energetic. More at peace." He didn't yet realize that was likely the energy coming from his comet talking. "Not really a new ability or anything, but it's nice. Feeling's strongest on my comet." Probably related to the fact that he seemed to have gotten the glowing because of his comet.
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 10:42 am
More notes appeared in the corner of his page before Scholomance finished up his sketch. It was informative enough for a first go of it; he didn't expect a lot to come out of the cursory investigation. But as Encke stubbornly refused the most pertinent information at hand, and then went on to explain how he'd felt better, the words offered another trial idea. He could give Encke a quick endurance physical and record those necessary numbers fairly easily.
"Once a week's about where I'm at with this dump." Scholomance waved a flippant hand to the grandiose room. "Quite interesting that you're able to match me now. I admit, I'm almost jealous. Well, except for the part where I hate this place and would prefer to never see it again."
He excused himself from the table, coat furling about his legs, and collected his paper. A quick fold left it pocket-sized and he filed it away for now. "How about we test that energy? This marooned little complex is on a pretty wide island-ish base; say you lap that as many times as possible with this on and we call it a day?" As he spoke, he raised his signet ring into view. A careful thumb pressed to the chain clasp and the ring was let free to clatter onto the table.
While it laid on the surface, Scholomance's touch brought its bios to life. And in touching the signet itself, Scholomance called up something of an interface — a faint blueprint-esque background popped up with a number of bars and meters that sat stagnant. He touched a few, brushed some others away, and touched a plus sign in the corner to specify another. Slowly but surely the screen filled out again. "Just keep this on your finger while you go for a run and it should collect all the information I need. I think the whole complex must be about two miles in circumference, so… Try to run five laps if you can. Then if you're still bound for more questions about Scholomance, we'll have a rest and I'll play a proper tour guide."
He held the ring out to Encke should he accept the small challenge. And if he did, the outdoors was only a short walk away. Hopefully the fog burned off by now — or receded to a reasonable visibility.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:28 am
Once Encke noticed that the sketch seemed to be complete, he moved to put the pieces of his uniform back on -- though admittedly, he didn't mind letting his feet breathe, he honestly didn't like shoes -- and leaned a bit over the table to get a better look at the drawing. Done, it looked even more impressive. Encke definitely couldn't pull that off with his off-hand even if he wanted to. He also took a cursory glance over what Scholomance had written down, curious as to what he considered relevant, before Scholomance folded up the paper and tucked it away. "At least you can't be bothered here, and your ancestor is gone," remarked Encke, with a quirked brow, wondering what exactly Scholomance was doing with his ring-- Oh, laps? Scholomance honestly didn't have to say another word. Anything involving running caught Encke's attention immediately, and he hurried up to put his other boot back on so he could hop to his feet. "I love running," replied Encke, as if that wasn't already obvious. "Sounds fun to me. You got any map of what the ring around here might be like, or is there a simple path I can follow?" He plucked the ring from Scholomance's hand. Hm. He turned the ring around a bit before looking down to his right hand. Well. It definitely wasn't fitting on his ring finger. And if it wasn't fitting on his ring finger, it likely wasn't going to fit his index finger, and definitely not his middle finger. Pinky it was. The ring fit onto his pinky for the most part, even if he couldn't quite get it all the way to the base. At the very least, it wasn't about to slide off or strangle his finger. That was probably the best he was going to do. "That'd be about ten miles, yeah? I've run marathons, I can definitely do that." That almost sounded like a brag. His grin hinted that it might have been. "Hopefully I won't keep you waiting too long."
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 5:01 pm
Scholomance's brows rose at the sudden eagerness to his companion's tone. True to word, he simply brightened up on the spot. How was that for a little echo of transcendence's power? That surprise soon grew into a crooked smile as Scholomance sat back to survey Encke.
"No need to get that cheery about it. There's not really much path available — a few destroyed cobblestone whatevers between some of the campus buildings, but nothing more than that. So, I think the best prospects for running laps would be..." He squinted afar, the corners of his eyes wrinkling in practiced concentration. "Pick a direction and walk straight until you reach the lake. Then turn left or right and follow the water's edge. I'll stand around at the starting point so you don't have to guess how many laps you've actually made. Oh, and since the whole place is circumscribed by water, you're basically running a giant circle anyway. Or oval. Or… Well, you get the idea."
He rose, then, after watching Encke's tango with a ring not made for bulky fingers. From his experience, the Scholomance signet often adapted to any finger to which he applied it — until he learned that keeping the ring on a finger wasn't in his best interests. A distant look was spared to the empty slip of his glove, the constant reminder of what wasn't. He could not afford to dwell, however, and started his trek back to the building's vestibule.
Scholomance knew well enough where the water's edge lay, so when he threw open the doors for himself and his companion, he led their walk at a leisurely pace. Bone heels kicked lightly at the dirt and petrified plant matter — remnant reminders of wayward groundskeeping — and their collective footprints tamped new life into the otherwise dead wonder. Their short talk did little for allowing the fog to burn off, but enough lifted that twenty feet of visibility was guaranteed now. Perhaps another ten feet of visibility might add to that during the course of Encke's run.
To reach the water's edge was not a long trek, and its short silence was shored up by Scholomance's last attestation. "Don't worry about me, by the way. I've got Candy Crush to keep me occupied. I've got a stupid amount of levels on this thing." As if to prove the point, he pull his phone from the snug pocket of his coat.
"Whenever you're ready," he invited while still looking at his phone.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Apr 15, 2018 6:15 pm
Encke just kept grinning when Scholomance suggested he needn't get that cheery. Why not? He was about to go running. On someone else's wonder, at that. It was like exploring space and getting a good run in at the same time. Encke couldn't think of a single complaint to give. There even seemed to be a fairly straight-forward route he could take around the place, from the sounds of it... "Oval, circle, same difference." Technically, no, but they were similar enough... Encke followed after Scholomance obediently, observing the path they took as he did. They were definitely in a swamp. He hadn't really been to swampland very often, but he recognized the fog and the petrification of organic matter as something that happened in swamps. It would have probably been creepy if it wasn't so fascinating by the matter of being in space on Saturn. The fog was inconvenient, but he could see far enough in front of him that he probably wouldn't fall into the swamp. He bounced on his heels a bit when Scholomance pulled his phone out, clearly ready to go. "That game can be a black hole. Try not to be lost for an hour." And with that, Encke was off. He was pretty damn fast, considering that he was not only a super senshi, but he also regularly ran, and he vanished into the fog in about a split second. He kept his pace up despite the urge to observe and take in the place he was in, because he knew if he slowed down to attempt to smell the petrified roses, it would probably ruin the whole point of the exercise he was doing. He had five laps, though, so it wasn't like he was in a rush to identify everything around him in the first go. Scholomance the Wonder was definitely a gloomy place, which wasn't too surprising, considering Scholomance the Person had a rather gloomy get up. After a few minutes, Encke had determined that Scholomance the Wonder felt a bit like a magic school, which made sense considering the giant library it seemed to house. It was a magic school hidden away on a hard to access island (due to the water and the swamp, of course), hidden further by all the fog around. He could see it being in a fantasy novel, maybe as that creepy dark school on the hill that no one talks about (that felt familiar for other reasons), or the mysterious place that housed a bunch of smart witches. Were there any cauldrons nearby? Gloomy as it was, it was a fascinating place, and every time Encke looked around, he took the chance to spot something different, whether that be some other petrified plant or a different angle of a building that he managed to get some sight of through the fog. (Admittedly, he wished there was some way to dispel the fog.) It wasn't the cleanest run, considering what he was running on, and after a couple laps he noted that his boots were getting ... dirty. Maybe he would take a closer look at what he happened to pick up once he could actually stop running. Running made Encke feel at peace, even moreso than the transcendence had, so the combination of the two left him feeling fantastic. His strides didn't seem to be slowing down to any obvious extent, even on the fifth lap, at which point he seemed to be simply enjoying the run and not observing anything particularly closely. His brain was, for a few minutes, not buzzing this way and that, and he didn't feel like he was grasping at straws that he could never fully hang on to. It was nice. He came to a stop in front of Scholomance, nearly skidding if it wasn't for the fact that the ground they were standing on wasn't built for it. "That good?" The only sign that he had been expelling energy was probably the fact that he was noticeably breathing hard now that he had stopped.
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 1:56 pm
Scholomance wondered, as he stared blankly at his open Candy Crush game, what Encke thought of the place. Did he recoil when he spotted all the broken terrariums full of petrified would-be bushes? Did he scorn the looming gothic architecture that passed benignly through the mist? Did he tire of the expanses of nothing, of dead grass and dead groundcover and rolling cobblestone paths where nothing new sprung into view but a few equally dead red maples? Did he stumble and curse when he found the boggier stretches of ground that never dried and never produced any plants to stymie the erosion? Or did he simply press on, unhindered and untouched by the gloom? Did his transcendence help with that?
Scholomance scoffed to himself. Of course he'd happily sign up for transcendence if it meant no longer being bothered by the wonder's dolorous exterior. He'd certainly trade for a few glowing lines to spruce the place up a bit, especially if that entailed a slightly less creepy variant. But if transcendence required more time on his planet, more hours of service to Scholomance and more moribund experiments, then such an outcome remained forever beyond his will.
He kept count, however, by speaking aloud the number of laps Encke completed on the few occasions where he saw the senshi pass. His pants a brilliant and saturated purple, Encke's visage looked as though he didn't belong in this swampy environment. And that thought was precisely correct, he supposed, due to the vast differences between their respective houses of power. For Encke, a fantastic comet with architecture out of mid-century sci-fi novels instilled a sense of wonder. And for Scholomance, the isolated estate that was the epitome of gothic literature instilled a sense of foreboding. Of course Encke didn't belong here — by his outfit alone, he was a beacon of positivity.
He almost laughed to himself for that terrible joke. "Positivity," he mumbled aloud.
Finally Encke came to a stop, having completed his task where Scholomance only stared blankly at the Candy Crush level that haunted him for months. The knight was too excited to leave that feat for another day. "Yes, of course, that should be enough."
With little respect for their personal spaces, Scholomance leaned over to access the ring's interface. A touch, and it lit with a holographic display. Another few touches, and the same array of bars, pi-charts, and graphs bloomed excitedly with proffered information. "Looks like you didn't break a sweat. You're not tired at all, are you? Granted, this thing was built more for magic management than physical exertion, buuuut…" Scholomance shrugged; development for signet rings was ever a work in progress.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2018 2:41 pm
"Great, though I wouldn't mind looking around more..." It didn't seem like Scholomance was that inclined to keep playing Candy Crush while Encke did so, though, considering how quickly the game was put away in favor for -- -- getting in his face. He didn't really mind it, being an extrovert naturally and familiar with Scholomance at this point, but it did surprise him a bit. It probably made the ring holograms a little easier to see, though. It was just a ring. Not exactly huge. He waited quietly for Scholomance to gather what data he needed from the charts that had popped up. "Tired? Nah." Encke laughed, though the sound was a little breathy as his heart rate continued to slow down. "I could honestly probably handle another lap or two, easily. Maybe more. I imagine some of that is assisted by my natural endurance," that sounded like a brag, but evidently, it seemed to be true, "but I'm sure some of it is also related to the whole, transcendent super senshi thing." That word was still ridiculous. Encke observed the charts himself, as well as he could from the angle he was at. While he wasn't exactly certain what they all meant, they were interesting to look at, anyway. "Does the ring store all this stuff, or will you lose this info if I take it off?" He smirked. "Probably would be easier to take a look if you didn't have to careen over here." He knew quite a few gigabytes of data could be shoved into things smaller than his fingernail these days, but he wasn't exactly sure that would be the same case for a modified old ring from a knight of Saturn.
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:20 pm
"Tell me more about that natural endurance," Scholomance purred, winking. Finger and thumb lightly pinched one of the senshi's exposed biceps. Teasing, naturally — Scholomance knew better than to push his interests — but the offer remained inevitably open should Encke decide to take him seriously. Still, it was just as well that he didn't ******** up his research variables by complicating any interview relationship.
Straightening up, he curled his hand against his hip. "Well now, that's some good stuff. It's a pity I didn't have you run track for me before you transcended. Can't be helped, though. I assume we don't often know when it's about to happen, and thus prepare for it. I think that might be cheating in the world of powered research. What with having the answers basically handed to us and all that." The knight gave a shrug of his shoulders, exchanging one thought for the next. "Anyway, yes, the ring will store everything you just did. How? I don't know, probably some kind of cloud storage analogue. Mistral was the one who designed that system, not me. I just piggybacked off it to make this chart-and-bar-graph ********. So take it off when you're ready; it should be quite fine.
"Though really, I don't mind the careening," he added with a lift of brows.
"I suppose I should keep up my end of the bargain now. Proper tour guide it is. Let's see here…" Rubbing his chin, Scholomance scanned about in the fog. He knew, now, which buildings were in which directions despite the lack of visibility. A thin hum issued from him. "I don't know everything about Scholomance, but I know a pretty good amount. I've gotten bits here and there of my own discovery and some from Blaine when he was around. So how about I return that loaded question you asked me on your comet, eh? What would you like to know? You only have the entire complex to ask about.
"Oh, and don't piss around with an answer like 'whatever you can tell me'. Then I'd be telling you to get out."
The walk to reconnect with the campus was relatively short, with few guesses once they picked up the stony path. Every building stood equidistant from the next with structures connected to the central area, so finding any one place was an easy venture.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Apr 29, 2018 9:52 pm
Maybe Encke couldn't really help himself, but when Scholomance pinched his bicep, he tensed his arm just a tad, making the muscles even more prominent. He was definitely bragging. His eyes narrowed a bit and his lips curved into a bit of a smirk, but he didn't say anything aloud to Scholomance's purring. Instead, he just looked a bit smug about it. There was a whole cavalcade of responses that paraded their way into his head, and he thought about saying a few of them, but he eventually decided that the smirk likely spoke for itself. After a few seconds, though, Encke settled back into his natural state, snorting. "********? Seems pretty useful to me, even if it's a lot of data." He pulled the ring off as soon as he could, mostly because he admittedly didn't enjoy having a round thing just sitting on his pinky, and went to pass it off to Scholomance. "Even if you don't mind the careening," he glanced up to the sky just slightly at that, "I imagine it's a bit more useful off my finger, eh?" It was unfortunate Scholomance was asking Encke to be more specific, because honestly, he wanted to know whatever Scholomance could tell him. Space fascinated him. The whole concept of wonders and planets and ancient societies captivated him. He honestly wanted to know everything he possibly could. So where should he start that might give him the most information? "I've kind of gotten the impression Scholomance is a gloomy magic school," remarked Encke, looking around, probably going for the most obvious thing he had managed to put together first. "I've seen where all the research was kept, but I'm curious about the Apothecary. What kind of research was actually done there? "Also," not to add questions, but, "what kind of wildlife lived here? Before it got all petrified. Do you know?"
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Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 4:34 pm
Encke was certainly right about the ring's usefulness — Scholomance quite eagerly accepted the ring and replaced it on its chain — and he sounded like he understood its purpose perfectly. While '********' was more of an affectionate term for Scholomance, they hadn't shared enough space together to really get a bead on one another's senses of humor. And for Scholomance, whose humor often reached the vile or the flippant, his sense of humor required a touch longer than the usual timeframe to become familiar.
"You're quite right about the gloomy magic school bit. Sort of like a horrorshow version of Hogwarts, it is. Only they weren't really teaching people how to become wizards and go out in the world to do wizard things. It was more like… People were taught here, sometimes, but mostly just to stay here and continue the research work. So I suppose it's more like a university than a high school? Rather less about the teaching, and more about coming up with new and exciting ways to melt the faces off your enemies. More or less." He spared a shrug as they walked. Bone heels thocked their morbid agreement into the stones beneath their feet.
The walk to the Apothecary, at Encke's mention, was a short one — one that required much the same locking tactics as the Observatory door. Once again Scholomance slipped his signet ring's chain from about his neck, plugged it into the recession, and watched with a keen eye as glass tubes once again filled with the brilliant, yet ethereal, coalescence of magic. With the eye lit upon them at the arch's apex, both doors opened up to allow them entry.
Like the Observatory, the Apothecary offered a sprawling cylindrical space. Inside, it resembled a modern-day chemistry lab with repeating sets of tables, the occasional one sporting a mortar and pestle, and carved maple stools. Spanning the entire length of the walls but for the vestibule to the stairwell, shelving offered their ingredient contents behind clear glass doors. Anything once contained behind them was likely either petrified or long deteriorated, leaving much of the stock useless. However, a few pieces still remained for proper examination — mostly leaves, sticks, and a unique orange powder sitting in a wood bowl.
"As far as I know, the Apothecary was like a modern-day pharmacy. They basically added item A to item B to see if the created item C was at all useful. There… Was something else, though. Something about the swamp." Scholomance paused to lean against one of the marble-laden counters. "Anyway, there's a couple floors above us for ingredient storage. And I can't quite get into the top floor for some reason." He spared a shrug.
"But for the wildlife, I know a couple things. They used a lot of the red maple out there, which is the predominant tree. Blaine said it would glow at night. I imagine it looked quite striking coming out of the mist. And he also said they harvested it in part for use in this Apothecary? But what, precisely, they got out of it besides the wood is a touch beyond me.
"Then there's this type of orange flower that used to grow out on the lake surface. Or maybe it was just out in the swampland, I don't quite know. But I found the only living iteration of it down in a basin in the bottom of the Observatory. Looks beautiful, not terribly friendly. Apparently the pollen it gives off turns water into something horribly toxic. Think like, ah, caustic soda. Is that term too old? Did I just date myself?" He frowned, pouting.
"And I did find a book someone published on the swamp itself. But I only knew it was a book on the swamp from this snatch of memory, and that snatch of memory didn't exactly read it to me. So it's sitting upstairs in the knight's quarters being useless. I do know, however, that the swamp was a pretty horrible place to go back in the day."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Tue May 01, 2018 7:45 pm
Melt the face off your enemies. He had gathered Scholomance was morbid, which seemed to fit the environment of his wonder--he didn't know his life outside of any of this, so he couldn't gather if he had any reason outside of this to be morbid, but an extended life of being powered seemed to lend itself to morbidity--but that remark seemed worth noting, considering Encke had just asked what they actually researched there. It was Saturn and gloomy. He supposed the idea of them researching new and interesting ways to kill people fit the bill. As Encke stepped through the doors, he couldn't help but ask, "Does every building here require that kind of entry, or just these ones?" Also, did everyone here have a copy of Scholomance's signet ring, then, or did there used to be other ways of entering besides for the ring? Perhaps each person had their own stamp of entry. Maybe there was some form of primitive magical fingerprinting going on there. If it truly was a magical university, there were a lot of possibilities he supposed. Maybe there was some kind of blood drawing... When they entered and Encke managed to pull his brain back into the present, he wandered ahead of Scholomance, clearly still listening but taking a look at what was actually present in the room. After taking a quick glance of the lab tables and their chemistry equipment, his eyes wandered over to the shelves. There were a lot of ingredients there that seemed to be long gone or lost in usefulness to time, but he did eye with curiosity the things that still seemed to potentially be usable. The sticks and the leaves he presumed came from former plants in the swamp, considering the swamp seemed to keep coming up as important. The orange powder -- was that at all related to the orange flower that Scholomance had mentioned? "I don't think we're that different in age, Scholomance," teased Encke, as he attempted to take a closer look at the orange powder without getting too close, just in case it was toxic. He had no interest in dying today. "You mean lye, right? That seems like a problem, especially if it was growing on the swamp. Might explain part of why the place was so awful." He frowned a bit. "Wonders and planets can both sometimes be a bit of a pain when it gets to actually getting into places, but maybe you'll figure out some way to get that door open. Of course, all things considered, maybe you don't want to go up there." It didn't really matter, Encke wanted to go up there anyway. He was almost morbidly curious. What could a Swampland Hogwarts University of Medicine and Death possibly be trying to hide? He paused, and rewound a bit in the conversation, casually observing, "It's interesting both your wonder and my comet have glowing plants. Well, had. My plants seem to be coming back, though. Maybe the red maples will start coming back to life? Sounds gorgeous." Encke finally backed away from the powder, though he still seemed curious about it, glancing back at it even after he glanced over to Scholomance. "I imagine there were a lot of really smart people here. Or perhaps off their rocker. Maybe both."
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Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 5:33 pm
The question about the doors was pertinent; Scholomance made a light backtrack to touch on it. "And yes, all the doors require this little ring. No idea how they managed that with however many people attended this campus. Maybe they had a handle on magical 3D printing back in the day, or — wait, no." Brow furrowed, Scholomance squinted down at his own ring. "Any ring would do. It doesn't even need power. It just needs the shape, so there must've been some plain jane copy for it. The other ring that was used here worked just fine." He remembered well the day that Ashanite let him into his own campus. Doubtful that the ring he used carried any power anymore, the locking mechanism must've proved more mechanical than magical.
Scholomance hummed thoughtfully as he watched Encke snoop the glass doors guarding a profusion of different ingredients. The senshi looked curiously bright compared to the drab, gothic stonework framing the building. Great stone slabs stretched skyward, buttressed by their own careful moulding, then steepled together for a great vaulted roof. The light streaming through grime- and dust-encrusted windows, framed with wrought-iron as elegantly as they were, pooled over Encke and fell down his back in thick streaks. The fog lifted, Scholomance realized. The sun traced its delicate, meandering fingertips onto cloth and stone.
The lot of it looked picturesque, like a fleeting scene filled with enough angle and brilliance and shadow that he could've rendered it with aplomb. But those days left him with the use of his other arm.
"Maybe someday they'll all come back. I'd quite like to see the maples in action, though I don't know if I've the patience for however many years they might take to come back from stone. And if it requires transcendence…" Scholomance whistled. "This place is s**t out of luck if it thinks I'm doing it any favors. No, I quite prefer a week tops between visits. Assuming transcendence would shorten that any for me." Maybe there was a hardline roof to the planetary transactions.
"Then again, if I follow this little transcendence path, then maybe that opens all the doors I'll ever need. Though it's quite hard to care that much about a place like this. All old, dead, and decrepit. No one's going to live here again, I would think. No one sane, anyway. So to go chasing some kind of glory in here just to unlock a touch more… I don't know.
"But don't let me keep talking. About that, anyway."
Scholomance breathed a sigh. "I could tell you about my ancestor, if you like. Queer fellow for certain. Maybe wasn't the brightest at the whole social shtick. He was, however, the first and only guide I had."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed May 02, 2018 9:59 pm
Any ring? That didn't sound particularly secure, but it was probably secure enough for the purposes of this place. There probably wasn't a whole lot of copies of knight-shaped rings floating around. Perhaps it had been designed the way it did to allow knights and the members of this Swampland University to pass through. Did they get knights from other wonders here often? It seemed like a place that was rather hostile to visitors, what with the lye-producing death plants growing on top of the swamp. Then again, perhaps all of Saturn was similar to this. He'd need to go to other Saturn wonders to know that much for sure. He frowned when Scholomance mentioned that it was hard to care terribly much, though to some extent, he also admitted he couldn't necessarily blame him. A gloomy place like this one seemed like it might be harder to summon up the will for. Encke's Comet had been similarly dead, and to a large extent still was considering no one lived there, but it didn't give off the same oppressive feel as it seemed a place like this may have been capable of. Encke was too fascinated by it to feel weighed down by it, but he didn't live with it like Scholomance did. Still, "It is a place that's yours," offered Encke, looking over everything that was around him. "Nothing says you can't give this place a new meaning that'll work for you, even if it doesn't seem like anyone else would want to be here. Turn some of these old rooms into something you'd like. And maybe you'll get to see the glowing maple in the process. If you ever figure out how to get those glowing, I'd like to see, by the way." He was fairly sure that sounded more than a bit cheesy, but he hoped he got his point across. "In any case, I've enjoyed this whole," he used air quotes freely, "transcendence thing so far. It may be worth looking into, I think." But he'd drop the topic if Scholomance didn't want to start on about it. "I'd definitely be interested in hearing about your ancestor, if you're interested in talking about him. Us senshi don't really have ancestors, so." Admittedly, even if Scholomance's ancestor had sounded like he had been an a*****e, it still might have been useful to have some kind of guide when it came to his own homecomet instead of just happening to stumble upon the right things at the right time. "And plus, it sounds like he was a, ah," he pulled at his collar just slightly, " trip." Purposeful understatement of the day...
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Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 9:06 pm
"I knew someone who suggested that to me once before. Babylon, his name was. I'm sure he's still rattling about on his business somewhere. But he was saying it's my wonder, so I should do with it what I please. And who knows, maybe some past ancestor of mine did exactly that — changed some other version of the wonder into the research center it is now." And he hoped that person died badly if it was true. Quite badly. Melted-in-swamplands badly.
Scholomance tried to hoist himself on the table, found he lacked the upper arm strength for it, and sagged his way through an awkward failed hop. Pinching his lips together, he declined to comment on it.
Was Encke rushing him on his project? 'Worth looking into' as if he hadn't already started. Did he think research went underway and saw fruitful completion in the span of a few hours? Or did he think Scholomance wasn't capable enough to have a go at it on his own? Probably none of that, but… Scholomance still nursed his nagging suspicions. He blew out a sigh through his false teeth. "We'll see what comes of it." He declined to offer further comment.
Scholomance collected himself into the topic at hand, being one he was less impressed with, but knowledgeable on nonetheless. "Blaine was certainly a trip. Little nervous nelly of a man, no idea about anything Negaverse-related but we aren't going down that rabbit hole at the moment. He wasn't terribly sure what to think of me, either. Probably thought I was quite the trip myself — learned fairly early on not to hit on my ancestors — and didn't tax himself terribly with explaining the knighthood to some new page. Most of it, in fact, he forgot.
"Which isn't terribly surprising, I suppose. He spent the better part of, what, a thousand years alone? Probably would've forgotten his own name if it wasn't written under some portrait somewhere. But he certainly forgot his manners, and got quite obsessed with the idea of abandoning his post. So he decided if he killed me, then I'd be the one taking over on the ancestor business. But since I don't have any descendants of my own, the knighthood's got nowhere else to go. Fancy that."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun May 06, 2018 9:55 pm
Encke made a mental note of the name Babylon--perhaps someone to look further into later--as he listened to Scholomance. "Sounds like he had the right idea, then," teased Encke, with a bit of a grin, but he said nothing further on the subject. He figured a wonder like this could have probably been expanded on, and likely was at some point. Someone probably changed or added onto it at some point for some purpose. Universities on Earth got expansions all the time. It was probably the same for Saturnian Swampland Hogwarts Universities of Death and Medicine. He definitely wasn't trying to rush Scholomance on anything, and likely would have been flustered if Scholomance offered any hints that he was thinking that way. As was, though, Encke seemed content with the answer of we'll see what comes of it, and waited for the story of Blaine. Blaine who sounded like he likely needed to meet several ghost psychologists. ... Were there any wonders that housed former knights that were ghost psychologists? May have been worth looking into, from the sounds of it. He snorted appropriately when Scholomance implied he hit on his ancestor, but otherwise just seemed to look fascinated to ... fairly alarmed, by the end. "Uh-huh," he blinked rather obviously, for the dramatic effect. Yeah, perhaps ancestors may have been useful in some respects, but Encke was definitely glad that Encke's Comet did not possess a space ghost that wanted him dead. "Sounds like he was definitely short of sane. It sounds like he didn't care for the future of the wonder if he was willing to just try to kill you. Seems like you put a stop to that s**t, though, considering he is very clearly no longer here." Thankfully. "Do you think he was always that," he paused, before deciding to go with, " unbalanced, or was it just the years that did it?" He smirked a tad. "Was he always a nutty professor?"
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