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 Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2018 8:48 pm
Writing earned a special place of hatred in Scholomance's heart when he swapped to his left hand, though he never escaped the need to draft letters. Even with the new improvements to the signet ring, his own now upgraded thrice over, there remained a certain quaintness and accessibility to the old-fashioned knight letters. And given that he now had a personal list of older, more established senshi and knights, he considered it an exercise in penmanship to write to the lot of them and ask after his next research question.
He was familiar with the marks from seeing them scrawled on a number of bodies. They called it 'transcendence' — a name both pretentious and curious. He imagined that, after a time, the band of transcended senshi and knights would grow, and eventually form an elitist sect that would try to take down the Negaverse on their own and inevitably get killed. Or they'd become special targets for the more vindictive of their enemies. Or they'd just stand out as obvious targets from a mile away, given how their skin glowed beyond their will. Whatever their fate was, transcendence looked permanent. Not only that, but their number slowly grew over the years. Blaine, he supposed, would have liked to see such an interesting facet of knighthood.
But Blaine wasn't around anymore, and Scholomance's research was his own. Taking up his pen once more, he began his third letter:Seiana_ZI Dearest Encke,
I hope this letter finds you well. It's been quite some time now since I first saw your comet, astounding as it was, and I write to you now with further interests in our complicated heritage. Perhaps it is forward of me to ask such a favor, but research and necessity implores that I do.
It is my intention to look into transcendence as a phenomenon that affects only certain knights and senshi. I want to understand what it can do and how it manifests, how we can use it, what we can learn from it. Presently I am casting about for subjects: anyone who has transcended and is willing to submit to rudimentary tests. Physicals, spars, that sort of thing. If you happen to come across one of these transcended individuals, spotted by the glowing marks on their skin and unusual signatures, please let me know their names that I may ask for their time myself.
Kind regards,
Scholomance Quote: Encke can call him on the senshi phone, they can meet somewhere after a post or two?
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2018 12:16 pm
Encke hadn't received much in the way of knight letters. He was a senshi that was primarily familiar with other senshi, and even those senshi did not contact him very much. His list of knights he knew well enough to be actively contacting him was even smaller. There was Scholomance, and Venice, and... That was about hitting the limit of knights he actually knew decently. He didn't get around very much, did he... So the appearance of a letter surprised him. But he figured it was likely from one of only a few people, and he went ahead and read it. Scholomance. That made sense. Now what was he-- His eyes stopped on one particular word that wasn't really familiar to him now in any way, shape, or form. Transcendence? That sounded pretentious. Almost more pretentious than the concept of a senshi prince-- Wait. He looked down, checked his own hand, and read the letter once more. "...spotted by the glowing marks on their skin..."Oh. So that's what that was. Admittedly, Encke wanted to know more about it himself. He had figured out a few things on his own. He could go to his homeworld more often. He seemed to feel a bit more energetic. He felt even more connected to space. He felt better. That didn't exactly tell him a whole lot about the technicalities, though. And Scholomance had been a nice enough person-- He whipped out his senshi phone, figuring that Scholomance was likely still available considering he had just received the letter, and dialed Scholomance's "phone." They had those weird rings, didn't they?
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2018 5:05 pm
Ice had just begun his next letter when his ring lit up with all the livelihood of his cell phone. Rather than an obnoxious ring tone and awkward vibration, however, the ring only purred its urgencies into his mind. He huffed then, not for the first time cursing about a lack of caller ID, and swept up the ring for quick answer.
"Hel— ow, ********, dammit…" Isaiah's knee struck the coffee table from which he wrote as he tried to leave the couch. With the ring projecting a view of his recipient and the same granted in return, he noted that Encke had full vew of Scholomance-out-of-costume and his newly-dinged knee. "Don't ever buy glass coffee tables. They sabotage you every chance they get."
He scooped the ring off the floor and made it so far as the entry way to pocket his keys and grab a proper winter coat. He seldom spared a look at the holograph as he spoke. "Didn't expect to hear from you so soon. Do you have a special name burning on the tip of your tongue?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2018 2:45 pm
Encke didn't quite realize at first that he didn't need to have his phone up to his ear until the "hel-" was a bit louder than he was expecting. As he quickly yanked his phone away from his ear, he also noted a rather loud bang and winced. "You alright?" Ah, he was a civilian. He wasn't sure what Scholomance's name was in this form, so he avoided mentioning it for the moment. He figured a table wouldn't hurt that badly overall, especially to a knight, but the associated cursing also didn't sound very pleased. "Noted." With a snort, he added, "I think there might be one around the house. Unused. Maybe I should use it for target practice." He was mostly joking. Probably. He waited for Scholomance to speak again before he spoke any further. Names burning his tongue? Well... "Yeah. My own." Encke laughed. "That pretentious a** name, transcendence? Thanks for naming what happened to me. Didn't know until now." He lifted his hand up near the camera of his phone, in case it wasn't obvious already by the glowing on his forehead and near his eyes. Scholomance didn't actually appear to be looking all that hard. Which was fine, it looked like he was getting ready to head out-- "I'd admittedly like to know more about this myself. Can't deny feeling better, but that doesn't tell me a whole lot."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 10:06 pm
"Well ******** me in half, you transcended? How about that." Ice spared a chuckle. "Not that I doubted you, what with how you were willing to walk into a government building with a complete stranger and give a tour. I can't think of anywhere more boring on earth than government offices. Good to know the same applies to other worlds too.
"Anyway, yes, transcendence sounds incredibly pretentious. No, I did not coin the term. Someone else holds that dubious trophy."
He retired his ring for a moment as he handled the door and excused himself outside. Largely the condo complex was empty in the halls at that time of day, and being ever the risk-taker, he made a jaunt toward the elevators nonetheless. He kept his voice low as he spoke, however. "Ow, damn, really need to sell that table… Anyway, yes, Laura, bring home some eggs tonight. I'm feeling a little frisky in the baking department, if you get my meaning…"
Upon sneaking into an empty elevator, his speech returned to normal. "Sorry about that. Sort of slinking around the condo complex. I'd hang up on you but I rather like a touch of excitement in my life." A touch of a button and the machine rumbled to life. Elrvator cameras prevented him from powering up.
Upon exit, he jaunted straight for the door, sparing only a cursory salutation to the desk jockey. "Be out in a minute.
"Okay. There." After rounding into the anonymous comfort of an alleyway, Ice became Scholomance in little more than a moment. "Glad to hear you're on board for learning a little more. Meet me at Friedman's Coffee? It's pretty central stuff. If it's not too much trouble, fill me in on your fabulous story of how you became a glowbug while we travel?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2018 11:17 pm
"Hey now," playfully warned Encke, with a smirk. "At least it wasn't a DMV." He was relieved that Scholomance did not coin transcendence, though he was curious to know who did. He would ask about it, but Scholomance seemed to be entering into a hallway and also was definitely not talking about anything related to anything powered, so he simply lifted his voice a tad and said a, "Oh sure, honey," in the highest voice he could muster. Considering he was a baritone, it was only mildly effective. His voice could passably be a woman's. Maybe. He waited for Scholomance to get himself out of the complex and into an alley where he became ... actually Scholomance. He'd have to ask Scholomance about that civilian identity later. And possibly reveal his. It felt odd to know what Scholomance looked like, but Scholomance not really know about Ignacio -- but that wasn't the point. "Friedman's?" He glanced up at the sky for a moment, attempting to map out in his head where exactly he was going. "I don't think that's too far away. Gimme a sec." For a moment, he tucked his phone away in the comfort of his shirt--it was admittedly rather tight-fitting so he didn't think the phone was terribly likely to go anywhere--checked his surroundings, and leapt into the sky. Once he landed on a roof, he pulled the phone out of his pocket and hit the ground ... jogging. It kept his voice even for the story that Scholomance wanted. "Ah, fabulous might be exaggerating it a bit. But I found an alternative entrance into that building we were in, before? The main entrance had managed to lock itself. It seemed to be a back path into everything at first, but then I located some meeting rooms with screen in them that made me think of an office. Makes sense, governmental building. Of course there's meeting rooms. But I hadn't been expecting the screens." Up until that point, he hadn't really experienced much in the way of technology. It was possible Encke had just missed it, or didn't know what to look for, but the screens were very obviously technology in the way that people from Earth would know it. "So I went a little further down the path expecting more of that and I," he paused to take a breath, "did find some more of that, after some sidetracks with some other things in the hall, including something that actually answered who I was, but what I found was a room with a bunch of the screens and a big," he took a moment to think of the right word, "conductor, because when I used my power on the conductor based on another memory I had it ... caused a lot to happen. My comet has electricity. The screens are working. Lights are on." He grinned a bit, at this. "Anyway, I got knocked unconscious and woke back up this way."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 2:45 pm
Encke would soon learn that he was the captive audience, now, to one of Scholomance's many peculiar habits. When left to navigate the vast, sprawling buildings of Destiny City on his own, the knight made a habit of muttering to himself. Most of the time, the comments consisted of 'no, not that way' or 'that's a touch steep', but they occasionally wandered into the purview of 'I can spot her cleavage from way up here'. He kept his voice low enough, however, that it wouldn't intrude too heavily on Encke's telling.
As he walked, he remembered the building they inspected. Large initial area, with far too many doors to choose from and no real labels on any surface. They went up and around a bit, then visited a vast amphitheatre-style room with bench seating that faced a stage of a few ornate chairs. Thrones, more liike, if he remembered properly. And Encke himself caught a small vision there — not terribly telling, but enough to indicate that he was a powerful governmental figure with no taste for politic. Or maybe just ritual. To hear that Encke went exploring in that direction again suggested that he must've found something juicy on Wikipedia, or said 'to hell with it' and went poking about Indiana Jones-style.
Which worked, from time to time. Or so he was led to believe.
Strange that the main entrance locked itself, and stranger still that the place had screens. Most of the planets he'd been too looked quite magical rather than sci-fi, and none so adept as human technology today. Scholomance's faced scrunched into a squint as the explanation went on, as he crested another set of buildings, and he added his own thoughtful hum to the mix. "So you turned iit on and it turned you on. Kinky. I like that." Jokes aside, the story presented a very immediate cause and effect. Encke pumped his magic into the conductor, which more amply powered the screens he saw, and despite the resultant explosion, he came to with transcendence markings.
Assuming that what Encke noted was the entire story of it. Whether there were additional happenings that provoked the transcendence while he was knocked out was an angle to consider.
Finally he arrived at the top of Friedman's, where he cast a cursory glance about for Encke's imminent arrival. The building allowed for easy access between rooftop and ground level, making it a pleasant stop both for coffee and for powering up. Was Encke grabbing a coffee? He hoped so; he didn't know how long this investigation would keep them.
"That's actually quite interestiing. I hadn't heard many transcendence stories before, and that one actually sounds quite simple for having such a profound effect. Or I imagine it's a profound effect, anyway. What with the whole glowing lines across your body and such. From what I hear, the glowy lines are supposed to be a side effect to doing your planet a service. I suppose in your case, it was turning the lights on. And since not every planet even has lights to turn on… We can't quite make generalizations from that yet.
"Oh, and just to be certain… You wouldn't object to visiting my wonder, would you?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 18, 2018 3:14 pm
There were a few moments in Encke's talking that he happened to catch what of Scholomance was saying, and Encke might have had a note of amusement in his voice, but he tried to avoid commenting on it. A lot of people talked to themselves when just walking around. It wasn't an unusual habit. His own ramblings tended to be internal, but... ... Though some of Scholomance's comments in themselves were rather amusing. "My comet's into the mutually pleasing kind of thing, I suppose," remarked Encke, with a playful wink. It didn't take too long for him to spot the shop in the horizon. "It seems like my comet was actually fairly advanced," Encke noted, hopping from one building to another. When he got closer, he was fairly sure he spotted Scholomance on the roof, which would make sense because he was fairly sure the other had stopped moving. "I guess it does seem pretty simple, eh? But I've been trying to restore pieces of it for years now. Maybe it adds up?" As he landed on the top of Friedman's Coffee, he went ahead and hung up the call and walked over to Scholomance. "Anyway, I took you to my comet. I'd definitely be interested in going to your wonder. Never seen one before, actually." He glanced over Scholomance's outfit, mostly to make a point. "I imagine it's not the friendliest place, but that's fine."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2018 8:42 am
"It just might." While he met a handful of transcended senshi, and one knight, he seldom found the opportunity to inquire after their histories. Much of what they knew of transcendence or how they transcended escaped them. Was it as simple as visiting their planetary homes a number of times, until they bumble their way through a puzzle? Or was it more high-stakes like Babylon's or Encke's transcendence? Or were they all high-stakes, and the greater majority of knights and senshi never took that gamble or never saw its opportunity?
Whatever the reason, it always stemmed from their planetary home. And it always involved some amount of visitation, it seemed.
Scholomance sighed as he tucked his arm about his waist, his fingers absconding with a few of the bone charms that hung from a long strap. "No, it's certainly not the greatest place I've ever been. But it hasn't been particularly dangerous in a touch. Maybe… Since last year or so? Not terribly long, but not terribly short either.
"It's basically a research institution stuck in the middle of a swamp. Which seems like a piss-poor place to put a research institution to me, but they probably thought it was a bright idea at the time. Something something 'inspect the swamp on-site' something something death, probably something. It looks like a gothic cathedral setup but much taller and with six buildings instead of one. But the bridges that connect the locations look quite nice, and there's plenty of fog to hide the ugliness from the swamp. Oh, and most of the swamp stuff is dead or petrified, so you don't have to worry about contracting any weird diseases from walking through muck." He still shuddered at the thought of returning. Why couldn't he trade in his wonder for another?
"Well, I suppose that's enough stalling from me." Reluctantly he released the bone charms to offer his hand to Encke. "Shall we?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 21, 2018 11:52 am
Encke didn't really know enough (read: any) transcended people to draw a conclusion himself on if often visitation was required, but it seemed to make sense. Scholomance seemed to agree. Maybe they were on to something. He listened to Scholomance's description of the unfortunate place his ancestor once called home, and couldn't help but to frown a bit. The fact that Scholomance was calling it not currently dangerous implied that it had been at least once before, and he hadn't heard of a home world or a wonder being an active problem before. That didn't sound great. At least it wasn't dangerous now, though. His expression brightened as Scholomance's description continued, not necessarily because of the setting he was describing in itself, but the fact that it sounded so different from what his comet was. That was exciting, even if it involved wandering through some swampland. It was predictably dead swampland, though, so at least he wouldn't be at risk of some kind of bog death... Seeing Scholomance's shudder, though, definitely implied he had no real interest in exploring it. "Definitely sounds intense. Makes sense with the uniform, honestly. And the whole, uh, Saturn thing." He took Scholomance's hand. "Hey, at least I can light the way," joked Encke, with a bit of a cheesy grin.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 4:00 pm
Scholomance winced at Encke's attempted humor. "Kay-em-ess, my friend. Kay-em-ess."
After a sigh, he looked up at the stars. "I don't know how my wonder doesn't get tired of hearing this. I pledge my life and loyalty to Saturn, and to Scholomance. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine." He blanched with disgust at the formality shortly before they vanished altogether,
and reappeared not twenty feet before Scholomance's great Observatory. The tower's architecture boasted its multi-generational works, replete with decorated arches and flying buttresses and bridges and ribbed vaults and clustered columns. Walls many meters high bespoke grandiose windows, some circular and others rectangular, some stretching multiple stories while others supplied only a meager look out at the boggy fog. And in the center of the building, just fore the pair, stood its glass-fluted double doors with the Scholomance eye peering down at them. Its jambs and tympanum divulged the barest flecks of its history: on the left, a towering symbol casting its gaze to the stars; on the right, the multi-towered megalith sending its influence into the stars; and above, the cosmos replete in its splendors ensconced the Eye.
"Welcome to Scholomance. It's humid, a little cold, and a lot quiet. Oh, and stick with me if you can. While there's no more ancestor, and no more monsters lurking about, it's still not as structurally sound as it looks.
"And before I forget my manners…" Scholomance turned away from the grandiose building to squint into the fog. Nigh impenetrable, it cast its heavy blankets over the island with no reprieve. Scholomance only sighted the vaguest shapes of the other buildings through its soupy dominion. "That fat building there is the Sanctuary. Most people slept there. Over to the right is the Repository where they kept their records. You can't see it, but directly behind ths Observatory is the Ossuary, which isn't exactly a place you want to spend your time. And nearest you are the Infirmary and Apothecary, probably kept together because student researchers liked to blow themselves up and often needed some magical salve to prevent imminent death. Not the greatest tour, but we can delve into all that nitty-gritty history nonsense when we're done here."
Scholomance slipped a delicate silver chain from about his neck, whereupon the end hung with the weight of a single gold ring. On it sat the Scholomance sigil, etched into a deep sapphire, with its inner engraving reading nonsense to knights of present-day. He pressed the ring into a shallow depression between the double doors. The Eye was first to light, as it looked down at them booth, and from it shot a lurid, retina-blazing blue that sung through the doors like hot blood in veins. Soon they swept open, revealing to Scholomance and his charge the vast marble floors and vaulted high ceilings.
He stepped in unimpeded and the building responded with a few cold, white lights. Heavy maple tables of ornate, meticulous carving sat along the grandiose walls, with matching maple bookshelves forming a buffer between the many chairs and the cold stone. In the back of the vast room, near the center, stood the beginnings of a grand staircase and a receptionist's desk. The staircase then split in two and climbed the long walls, floating, and disappeared into the tower's upper reaches.
Bone heels echoed as he approached one of the nearest tables. "It's quite a lot to look at, but hopefully not too overwhelming. Have a seat when you're ready."
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Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2018 8:42 pm
The wince caused Encke's grin to lessen just a bit. "Well, I tried." Getting to the senshi planets seemed to be a bit easier than getting to a knight wonder. All he really had to do was press a button. They had to ... say a bunch of words. He supposed it got the same thing accomplished, though. This place was definitely about as grim as he would expect from a place that housed itself on Saturn. Swampland was accurate; it was humid and quiet for sure. There definitely didn't really seem to be anything ... living here. Maybe except for some swamp plants. He supposed that was pretty accurate of any planet that they went to, though, except for Earth. His brief sadness was overtaken with some fascination in short order. Encke really couldn't see anything very well in the fog, but he still squinted and attempted to take in everything that Scholomance was showing him. Sanctuary, Ossuary, Infirmary, Apothecary. The people in this wonder certainly liked their -ary words. "I'd definitely be interested in hearing more about the other places, honestly." He shot Scholomance a grin. "I want to know everything I can about other places. Even if it's, ah," his grin got a little more lop-sided, "grim." He followed after Scholomance, watching as he attempted to lead him into a building using the ring around his neck. The door reacted by beaming them with a blue light that was admittedly a little blinding considering how dark it was here. Was it a scanner? If it was, it accepted Encke, allowing him and Scholomance into a room that was ... definitely not quite so grim as the outdoors. He caught that there seemed to be some lights on in here -- were they magical, or was there electricity running here, like there was on his own home planet? Encke would have to ask Scholomance about that later. This place was grand and intense. The bookshelves made him think of a library out of a book about magic, and the desk hinted at where an old librarian may sit, but it was so large and so ... much that it also seemed palatial. After a few moments of taking it all in, Encke finally lowered his eyes back to look at the knight in front of him. "Damn, Scholomance." Encke whistled. "You got quite the place here." He proceeded to the table, pulling out a chair and taking a seat. "There's got to be ... eons of knowledge of space contained in here." Felt like it may have been literal eons. "This where your wonder's residents stored their research? Can you understand any of it?" Encke hadn't had any real luck understanding anything that the computers on his planet were telling him so far, except for the beginnings of being able to interpret what pictures may have meant. Scholomance had an ancestor and was also from a place that seemed dedicated to knowledge. Maybe he had more luck?
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Apr 06, 2018 6:22 pm
"It's quite the place of old, moldy strangeness," he confirmed with an easy c**k of his head. The knight irreverently propped his feet up on one of the unused, adjacent chairs. Leaning back, he tipped his chair just so, and tested the quality of a seat made more than a thousand years in the past. "Mostly it just smells old. And judges me."
The knight breathed a quiet sigh. "It'd certainly make me quite the useful knight if I could understand any of it. This place used to investigate weaponized magic — and had the proper securty measures you would expect for such research. Doors that wouldn't open uless you had the proper signet ring at your disposal, sort of like how keycards work in present times. Well, maybe not quite that advanced — it's more like a regular key but magical. But nowadays the doors just don't work. Like there's not enough magic left in the place to run all its faculties." He shrugged an idle shoulder.
"And my ancestor wasn't a terrible lot of help, either. You'd expect he'd be willing to help his protegé along, right? Maybe give me a tour of the place, introduce some knightly duties, recommend some way to not suck at my job. But no, that thousand years of solitude drove him right crazy. Straight out of his mind. Tried to kill me a couple times in hopes of my taking his place so he could wander back to the Cauldron." His feet came down from his perch, reluctantly, and met the ground with a bone-enforced clop. "Batshit, sniveling ********," he muttered under his breath.
He stood, and paced the long span from their shared desk to the one crowning the grand staircase, all the while considering what to say and how to say it. How to keep the conversation alive so that neither of them was subjected to the awkward silence inherent in the old institution. He never liked hearing the distinct lack of electrical hum behind the wonder's many lights. But no continued discourse came, and he instead retrieved one of the old, crusted notebooks in silence. The journey back was just as fruitless for conversation; he rejoined the desk feeling a little defeated.
Scholomance shot his companion a sidelong look, considering both artistically and objectively how the wonder's cold lights reflected off his face, and how the warm glow of transcendence underlit the skin around it. Encke looked to be humming with energy, right before his eyes. He hadn't known Encke well enough to claim awareness of how transcendence affected him psychiatrically — nor did he expect Encke to know himself. Whether he felt more settled down, or amped up, or evened out amounted to a 1950s-style self-report. Any changes that weren't consciously picked up on were lost unless Encke could recommend a good few friends for Scholomance to interview. Well, that was what interviewing the rest of the Transcended population was for.
"So, transcendence." Scholomance pulled a pen from the sidelong snap in the notebook. "You don't mind if I draw them, do you? Your transcendence lines, I mean. Part of the whole 'catalogue everything' approach to investigation.
"Oh, I'll also need to record the basic stuff too. Senshi name, power sphere, age of awakening, age of transcendence, date of transcendence, all that. Basically the bone-dry, boring part of getting-to-know-you exercises." The exciting ones all happen in the sack.
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Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 8:00 pm
Scholomance's wonder both sounded fascinating and also quite ... depressing. Especially the whole ancestor part of it. Maybe having an ancestor wasn't so useful after all. "That sucks," said Encke, for lack of a better thing to say. Because it did. Imagining the idea of his wonder housing someone who was occasionally trying to kill him, especially considering that someone would have been related to him ... He supposed that wouldn't make it a safe space, though it seemed that Scholomance had some level of control over this space now. It probably had something to do with the whole lack of ancestor. And also, it seemed that Scholomance was right -- it would be useful if he could understand what was here. But just like Encke, he couldn't. Hm. Encke would have said something about of course you're useful, Scholomance, but he wasn't sure if this was the right place or time, that would likely come off as cheesy, and Scholomance seemed to want to focus on transcendence, so he glanced over to a middle distance, clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, and then focused his attention on the topic. Transcendence markings. "Yeah, sure, go ahead. I don't really have a whole lot of them, I don't think, but if they help..." He pulled off his gloves so Scholomance could get a better look at where the markings actually ended on his fingers, and then moved to pull the boots and socks off his feet, revealing that there were actually similar marks on his toes. "Fingers, toes, eyes, forehead. That seems to be where they are." He attempted to hold his feet out a bit so Scholomance could observe them closely, while he tried to answer the bone-dry questions. "My official name is Super Sailor Encke, Senshi of Plasma. I awoke," he paused, "s**t, uh, I think I was seventeen when," when he got out of Barren Pines. He didn't need to dig that up. He moved on, "so that was early 2010, I think, I awoke in 2011, so eighteen. I awoke when I was eighteen. I'm twenty-five now, so that's the age of transcendence. Date was January 27th, so it's been about a month and a half, I guess." When he said he awoke at eighteen and he was now twenty-five, it sounded pretty pathetic that he was still only the so-called second stage. It sounded even more pathetic when he remembered his birthday was in a few months. He wondered how quickly Scholomance had become a knight. Had it been a year? A couple years? A few months? Probably hadn't been several. He needed to do better. He shook his head out of the topic and put on a bit of a smirk. "Do I need to fill out a personality profile? A line I might put on a Tinder profile?"
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Apr 11, 2018 10:59 am
At least Encke was dutiful and considerate enough to start stripping for him. Really, Scholomance wished he'd take off a little more (Encke rather reminded him of those many masc 4 masc matches he found on Grindr), but he settled for what was there. Idly he wished he was into feet; maybe they could get quite the show going for this old place then. Unfortunately, feet weren't exciting enough to overpower the bizarre transcendence markings. Or the note that Encke's feet were marvelously free of sock lint. Pleasures from the cosmic tailor, he assumed. Or Encke got a little foot attention before coming to meet him.
"I'm not quite certain what's a lot and what's not." Scholomance's gaze swapped from Encke's body to his page qute quickly, with more time spent eyeing up Encke's figure for replica than on the page itself. And while his linework spoke of the unsteadiness of the wrong hand, technique and formal training showed in the choice of shadow, dimension, shape. While shaky, figures held volume. Encke's outstretched foot rendered with proper foreshortening.
"I can say, though, that yours looks fairly unnoticeable. What with the gloves and shoes, of course. And that might be a bit of an advantage, except for the whole missing tiara and face markings bit. At that point it's really only your aura that gives you away." And most people wouldn't think to look at that — or have access to auric sensing, really.
The pencil paused in its motions and Scholomance shifted his grip further up toward the tip. As Encke wove through the history of his powered life, Scholomance made his notes on the top corner of the page. While minimalist, the notes were systematic:
2011 awoke — 18 y/o
01/27/18 trans — 25 y/o
Encke's levity caught him, and Scholomance flashed a lewd but entertained grin at his interviewee. "I wouldn't object to the Tinder bit if you're feeling generous. Height, weight, length; you know the drill it sounds like. I wonder if it glows." Scholomance tapped his pencil against the page, his grin growing a little devilish.
"The other questions I have are pretty basic and systematic. How many times you visited your wonder if you even know that number, because I wouldn't, erm… What you've discovered you can do with your transcendence. There were more, but my mind's a touch caught up right now. Still stuck on that Tinder bit. Your fault, through and through."
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