|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 11:20 am
Silverah Babylon, The code is a pice of s**t. No - even excrement glorifies the code. And worse than that is my wonder. Can we talk? Yours, Scholomance
Included in the page was a highlighted group of words, together assembling an address and time.
After passing a few hours immersed in soap operas, with the volume turned to minimal levels, Isaiah scraped himself off the couch to make his way to the meeting place. Atop the DCBC it was, where he knew Colin worked long hours. Something about the proximity to his unknowing friend lent him a measure of comfort. And while the trek to reach the place grew long and fraught with difficulties for his limp, he managed the distance due to that pain. Otherwise, he feared, nerves would eat through his resolve without question. And at times, they very nearly did.
But once Scholomance landed on the last parapet, and dismounted with cane in hand as acting support, he took a seat. He waited. He considered calling Babylon to see if he received the message, if he was on his way, how close he was, whether he was even interested. A thousand questions and uncertainties pushed him to make the call, but he resisted for suspicion of coming off overly clingy. He asked for Babylon's help, not his hand in marriage.
Mistral already claimed that, he thought, as he looked at the upgrade encircling his signet ring.
Instead Scholomance stewed in his hyperactive vigilance, listening to the sounds of night traffic and travel, picking out all nuances of onerous activity therein. Sometimes he thought he heard an officer, or felt a youma, or caught the tail end of a Dark Mirror flitting by, but he knew all of these to be curses placed upon him by welling stress.
He hoped Babylon arrived soon.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 18, 2015 9:31 pm
Babylon had been on track to turn up on time, but then he had to take a major detour because there were like, three generals in his way? There must have been a convention in town or something. That wasn't the kind of mess he'd go get involved with even on a good night, but tonight he especially wanted to avoid conflict. Scholomance's message had him concerned - as bad as his own recent conversation with the code had been, he suspected Scholomance's had been worse. "Hey," said Babylon, landing heavily on the rooftop, his cape flaring dramatically out behind him. "Hope I didn't keep you waiting too long. Some kind of Nega meeting going on over behind the grocery store. Or they've all become freegans." That seemed... unlikely. "I had an unsettling conversation with the code recently as well," he added. "It was... uncharacteristic of it. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours. Maybe it'll help us figure out what's going on."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 3:06 am
Scholomance jumped visibly when he heard Babylon's voice, even as he sensed the approach. His gaze remained far off, toward a sensed youma presence a couple intersections away. He wondered what type it was and whether it could climb - or fly - to their location. He supposed it didn't matter now; Babylon was a seasoned knight who could probably take care of such threats with ease. Or he liked to think so; the considerations of it eased some of his generalized tension.
However, he groaned at the news of the Negaverse meeting. If they headed their way... "I'm going to say they became freegans. Let them dig around in the garbage cans for a while." He knew precisely the location of the grocery store, as it was one he frequented, though the news of their relative distance brought him no comfort. Negaverse agents touted the ability to teleport damn near anywhere; all they needed was a general sense of their auras and the lot of them could cross the distance instantaneously. As covertly as possible, Scholomance pinched the inside of his wrist to disseminate some of his anxiety.
Finally he directed his attention to Babylon, who had a few things to say about the Code and its bullshit ways. "How do you know that's uncharacteristic? You've taken tea with it before?" Scholomance stared at him, his eyes half-lidded.
"It called me down to the bottom of the tower. Scholmance has this giant tower in the center, and I thought it just went from the ground up, but there's evidently a bottom to it too. Anyway, I come down there, and it's just sitting there in this basin so I ask it some questions. It told me..." He paused to recollect the information, then counted off on his fingers as he ran through the gambit. "That I'm a piss poor knight, that I can't ask about any relation between the Code and Metallia because I know nothing about Metallia, it said Scholomance wants me in that kind of creepy way that gets you thinking that it just wants my life, that my ancestor doesn't trust me, that I can't give my knighthood away and even if I could no one would want it, and then it implied I'll die a knight of Scholomance and do the same shitty vigil that Blaine did.
"Then I had this awful dream where it told me that I'm probably better off a Negaverse agent. Which, to be frank, is sounding like an excellent option right now." He breathed a steady sigh.
"I take it the Code told you something similar?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 9:39 am
"Not... tea with it, no," said Babylon, shaking his head. If he was being honest, this had been his first one-on-one interaction with the code ever, but he'd seen it enough times in Olympus meetings to know that it was cryptic... but never cruel. It was on the side of the knights. It had no reason to undercut their self-confidence. When you factored in the vividly bad dreams he'd been having lately... something was wrong. "I saw it at my Wonder," he replied, "somewhere I've passed a thousand times but it had never revealed itself to me before. It said I wasn't trying hard enough. It called me blind. It said I was a coward who hid myself in light so I couldn't see the darkness coming." He frowned. "It was like it was inside my head seeing everything I'm insecure about and just... bringing it up. Like sticking a finger in a wound." Exhaling shakily through his teeth, he looked over towards Scholomance. "The code telling you to go join the Negaverse is definitely... not right," he said. The squire had said it was a dream, but just because it was a dream didn't mean it hadn't been the Code's presence talking. "The Negaverse isn't ever a good option. Yeah, it can cut off your connection to your Wonder, take away that anxiety, but it makes you a slave to Chaos and Metallia. It's like a drug." He knew people who could speak from experience - Babylon could only speak from trying to bring people back from that darkness. He took a step towards Scholomance and put what he thought of as a reassuring hand on his back. "I'm sorry this is your introduction to the Code. It's never been particularly forthcoming, but it's also never been outright malicious before."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 6:47 pm
"Wonderful. So it's been an a*****e to both of us. Now is it singling us out, or are there other knights who are getting the s**t end of the stick from our so-called cosmic protector? Personally I'd prefer it if the source of power for my Wonder wasn't trying to rush me off to the Negaverse because I suck at my job. It's not like I know I'm performing poorly. Isn't my ancestor supposed to correct that? I mean, there should be some kind of feedback system that corrects him when he's being a poor supervisor... HR for the Universe or something..." Scholomance's train of speech devolved into component parts of mumbling and self-doubt, kept low to avoid overhearing.
Babylon had a point, though - Scholomance had already been considering the Negaverse before the Code insisted it was a proper option. It suited Babylon's description of the Code seeing his doubts.
Chaos is like a drug. I guess that takes my personal battles to another level. Scholomance considered telling Babylon he had more than the average person's knowledge and exposure to drugs, but decided against it - ruining connections with Babylon by clarifying his origins as street trash wouldn't help either one of them. And responding to him with insistence about Chaos only prolongued an argument that wasn't the focus of their conversation - if the Code was behaving unlike itself, then that likely took precedence over Scholomance's petty personal issues.
Babylon roused him from those thoughts regardless; the hand on his back urged him to look to the other man. "Yes, well - excuse me," Scholomance pilfered the pockets of his coat for a vape and found none. He ground his teeth instead. "Unless you know about someone else who got bitched to high heavens by the Code, I'd say the two of us is the Code having a bad day, or us legitimately ******** up. Or it could just mean that it thinks this whole faction is going to hell." Enough doomsaying, Isaiah.
"Otherwise... I don't know. Maybe it caught a cold."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 1:01 am
"I'd have to ask around," said Babylon, watching Scholomance fidget. Was he - was he okay? It must have been the stress. He'd had enough troubles dealing with a disapproving ancestor. To put up with that kind of s**t-talking from the code seemed like a whole new level of awful. "Hvergelmir. Mistral, maybe. Come to think of it, it was behaving really strangely the last time we were at Olympus. Lots of people saw that - it can't all be in our heads." The squire's shoulders felt tense, and Babylon rubbed his hand in a gentle circle. "You're okay," he said, making his best guess at what Scholomance needed to hear right now. "You're not a ********, you wouldn't be better off in the Negaverse, and you're doing fine. Everyone sees how much you're learning. How hard you're working. You're okay. You're doing good." He raised an eyebrow at the squire - had that worked?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:34 am
"If it isn't personal attacks, then what can you expect to do about it? 'The Code' is a cosmic force that I don't understand, and it might be safe to say that the rest of the knights don't know much about it either. I can't say standard logic applies to it. I can't say much anything about it, beyond that it powers Scholomance. If it's a change, it could be anything - a virus, an alteration in molecular composition, an evolution, or a change that's beyond our scope of comprehension as the Code doesn't need to adhere to human behavioral predictions. I don't know." Scholomance spread his hands over his face and sighed. "Why does everything have to be complicated."
Babylon's touch drew him from his hands, and he searched the other man's face. "I appreciate the sentiment, but it's not so much about my being a ******** or doing well, but the fact that I know next to nothing about this driving force that has claimed so much of my life now. I lost my condo to a Negaverse agent, I've been getting pulled along by a Wonder, badmouthed by the Code, attacked by a senshi and the worst part of all of this is that I have an impossibly small knowledge base about it.
"It's against everything I've learned. I am being asked by all sides to make decisions based on minuscule information, when my entire line of work is based on collecting as much knowledge as possible before making that decision. But what is there to even work with? Knights, Senshi, Agents - they still remain bottomless mysteries so many months after the fact. Even in talking with you and Hvergelmir - information is supplied, but it's just not falling into place. I'm not even certain I have all the questions to ask. This entire concept is a jigsaw puzzle with an unspecified number of pieces and no big picture given to orient myself. All I can do is fill out the edges and hope I get somewhere with the pieces that do fit together." He sighed, dropped his hands, and looked to the stars. Briefly he considered approximating Saturn's position and flipping it off.
"In any case, there's a call to action in all that, isn't there? 'Figure out what's going on with the Code or maybe risk losing the power that keeps you a knight'."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:25 am
"Well, yes," said Babylon, after a moment. There was a call to action there, if the knights were willing to hear it. Perhaps the problem was that they were all so dead-set against the code. Everyone was asking the Code for help and receiving none in return. It was greedy, really. No wonder it treated them like a bunch of spoiled children. "No one's ever thought to ask the Code if it needs help," he said thoughtfully. "It's the source of our power, but imagine how we've behaved, from its point of view. We take and we take and we take and then when it asks us to serve it we get all no ******** you you're not my real dad. And right now, when there may be something seriously wrong with it, we're pushing it away even more when what we should be doing is trying to help." He sighed - the thought of going back to Babylon and dealing with the Code again was unpleasant, but being an adult meant eating your vegetables. "I'll see what I can learn from my piece," he said. "You can try asking yours for more information if you're comfortable with the idea. I don't want to ask you to put yourself in danger."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 1:08 am
"I would think of things from its point of view if it wasn't incredibly assumptive of me to presume it thinks like we humans do," Scholomance returned, somewhat harshly. "The Code is not human. We can't personify it just because that sounds like a good idea. No one can say how it thinks or feels, or even if it does think or feel. Maybe it's using condescending tones and shitty suggestions as its only means of interfacing with us about something that needs to be fixed. We can't assume that it's infallible, either - maybe all these attempts at talking to us are just trial and error runs while it figures out how to get us to do what it wants. If it even wants us to do anything. I don't know. I'm not a scientist. So much of this is pretty damn far out of my scope."
Scholomance sighed slowly, and he watched his breath steam toward the night sky. "I'm not saying your idea is wrong - it could be right. And it's the only thing we have to go off of right now. It's not like I have anything better. Sorry." Apologizing irked him, but it needed to be done.
"I'll try to talk to it again. I guess it's better than just waiting for the Negaverse to hunt me down and repurpose me. Give me a heads up if you find anyone else that's been having problems with the Code. We can see how far this little tirade spans." By all accounts, his choice remained far easier if he simply adhered to the Code's advice and joined the Negaverse. There, he would have no further need of the Code, or Blaine, or any of the dolorous tasks forced upon him by either entity.
But he needed to be certain that he found no way of salvaging this life before moving onto the next. If pursuing the Code with further questions assisted in accomplishing that, then he would pursue it regardless of personal displeasure. Wearily, he nodded to Babylon. "I'll tell you what I come up with. Thanks, Babylon."
It seemed like the knight was looking for the end of the conversation, and Scholomance knew that was the easiest way to dismiss further need of talking to him. Babylon likely had ideas to try and places to go with it, whereas Scholomance allowed himself to become mired in second guessing. That would have to change if he wanted his life to turn around from its current low. "I'll be here for a while before I head back home." He lifted his attention to the stars again, where he felt the ever=present watch of Scholomance. It felt no different than it had as a Page - he must've made no progress in all these months.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:31 am
Yes, well--Babylon nodded, holding his tongue for a moment. Scholomance was right, of course - it was terribly presumptive of him to assume the Code even had a human level of feeling, especially seeing how it had always seemed to coldly rational in all their prior encounters. "You're right, of course," he said to the squire's apology. "I am being overly anthropomorphizing." Scholomance seemed antsy to go, and Babylon wasn't going to hold him up for small-talk. They'd come to discuss the code, and while he was curious about how things were going with his wonder, that seemed like it might send Scholomance reeling into the negative again. Better to avoid it and bring it up at a later junction. "Alright," he said. "I'll confer with Hvergelmir and a few others, see what I can turn up. We'll reconvene in a few weeks, bash heads together, see what we can figure out." He dipped his head to Scholomance and started to turn away. "Don't be a stranger," Babylon added. "You need anything, you just want to talk, you know how to reach me."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 1:58 am
"Alright. I'll check with Mont Blonc and..." Scholomance paused as he searched his memory for other knights met and kept in contact. He smiled wanly. "I'll check with Mont Blonc. We'll see if anyone else has encountered issue with the Code. He's bound to have a few contacts." Mont Blonc was well-liked for his earnest intention and kindness; Scholomance hadn't met a single soul to curse the man's name. Unfortunately, those magnetic personality traits attracted the attention of the Negaverse in the worst ways. Could the Code have something to do with that as well?
"And, thanks for meeting me here. I mean it. Things are starting to get pretty hairy." Although none of the poor reformations to his life would remain permanent, beyond perhaps the damage to his leg, Scholomance found that weathering all aspects of his dire straits alone exacted a telling toll. Finding means and welcome to commiserate with Babylon perked his spirits for a time, and he now felt more capable of surviving another week of these bizarre magical happenings. If he could just assume that the Code malfunctioned somehow...
Scholomance gave Babylon a nod. "Of course. I'll send you a pile of letters if ever I feel the need. At least they'll keep you warm in the winter." Secondarily, he wondered if anyone disposed of the letters he sent. He hoped so; would the Negaverse be able to locate them and perform writing analyses otherwise? He pushed the thought away; it wouldn't do him well to focus on that currently.
With cane in hand, Scholomance started to the opposite end of the building from whence they spoke. "Have a safe night, Babylon," he called back to the other man before starting the long trek back home.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
