Pete Tong (part 8)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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31st December 2012
18:03 GMT
This is the most 'on display' I've felt since Lanterns Natu and Nax physically took me apart. Since there wasn't any particular spell residue on me -and between my spell eater and tattoos that was about what I expected- he's having to go deep. As in, lift the maintenance hatch off my soul and manually test the components.
Not the most fun experience I've ever had.
On the other hand, it is interesting to get a similar view of Dr. Balewa. I'm not getting any real detail of course: he's a god tier wizard and I'm a giant snake's parasite. But I can see the general flow of the energies he's-.
"Thet is a little distracting."
"Sorry."
Like this, I can see the sort of merge point where I shade into the Ophidian. Larger than a normal patron connection, but nothing like as large as I was worried it might be. Dr. Balewa has a similar one to the Life Entity, though in his case it's… Like a placenta: two separate systems exchanging vitality, rather than two brains smushed together haphazardly.
"Ah."
"Ah?"
"I hef found an abnormality, but it is very slight. I do not know if it is what has caused your memory difficulty, but..."
A pearl of white light appears in front of him, some sort of faint… Smoke? Contained within.
"What is it?"
"I do not know. It is a strange thing. It is like… Not a thing in itself, but the shadow of a thing. Perhaps even less than that. If I had to guess, I would say that it is simply marking a place, perhaps to guide an external force later."
"Mister Edge made it clear that they were using magic as part of their tracking and communications system. Is it part of that?"
"I would guess thet it is not. I am familiar with the simple geomantic systems they are using, and this is quite different. It is not a residue left by exposure to a distortion in the world's magics. It is something… External. It is not something that the practitioners which the Alliance of the Just can call upon would use."
"Are you sure? There are some very incautious magicians around the place."
"Incautious in their communications and treaties with demons. This is not demon magic. I do not know-."
The smoke wafts, as if blown from the centre of the spell bubble and pushed against the side. There's a slight shimmer, and when it calms the smoke is gone.
"Odd."
"Did you mean to do that?"
"I did not do thet. The energy received no external instruction. It appeared to be a natural reaction to the power of life."
"Do I have any more in me?"
"Not thet I could find, but it did not respond in a normal way to my efforts to detect it. I had to manually examine everything about you in order to see even thet much."
"Doesn't respond..? So I can't just go FEED ME and get rid of it?"
"I do not know for certain, but I would guess that any such energy that could survive connected to your conjoined soul would not be affected by your efforts to speed up the process."
"But would it be dangerous?"
"I cannot say for certain, but if you take into your gut something that you cannot digest…"
"Right. Great. Think I should get Hinon to take a look as well?"
"If the sample had survived and we had something to show her, then I would say 'yes'. As it is, what would you say?"
"Not sure. Have you finished poking me?"
"I have."
And… Re… Com…
Pile.
Ugh.
I let the orange light flow through my body, not really 'fixing' anything per se, but definitely making me feel better. That's my sort of glowing light, not whatever that weird shadow stuff was.
And 'weird shadow stuff that doesn't interact with other energy' doesn't ring any bells. Stuff has to interact with other stuff. That's how magic and conventional matter work. Even kaahuite interacts with other forms of matter and energy, and that's literally outside of Creation. So the idea that it doesn't, particularly after it was unmade by Dr. Balewa's magic, sounds like nonsense.
Dr. Balewa's magic.
"Doctor?"
Dr. Balewa opens his still glowing eyes on the other side of the ritual space.
"Yes?"
"I know it looked like the shadow destroyed itself, but if whatever it was is as good at parasitism as you're saying, are we sure that it's not just in you now?"
His eyes return to normal.
"Thet is disturbingly possible. But if it is attracted to my magic, then I should be able to draw it out of myself by deliberately weakening myself in the presence of a stronger source of power."
"I don't think we're working to a deadline, here. It's best that we learn everything we can before trying to confront whoever Father Bruno really is."
"What makes you certain?"
"People who sign up with the Alliance of the Just are generally well intentioned, but most of them are part timers. The teleporters aren't going to see major usage until the end of the New Year holidays. Probably the weekend after. If they're important in some way, that's when whatever's happening will happen. And if they're not, and Father Bruno's just… I don't know, manoeuvring for position, then we don't even have to worry about that deadline. He'll just be gradually moving towards whatever his victory condition is."
"Thet makes logical sense, but why would he speak with you at all?"
"Two possible places I came into contact with whatever that was: the teleporter and Bruno himself. Alan came into contact with both as well. But a lot of other people in the Alliance would have used the teleport… Er. Um."
"Yes?"
"Did..? You check those… Alliance members who died for whatever that was?"
"I did not."
"It just.. occurred to me that.. if they were exposed in some way…"
"I do not know if anything would remain after all this time, but you are right. It would be wise to check."
18:03 GMT
This is the most 'on display' I've felt since Lanterns Natu and Nax physically took me apart. Since there wasn't any particular spell residue on me -and between my spell eater and tattoos that was about what I expected- he's having to go deep. As in, lift the maintenance hatch off my soul and manually test the components.
Not the most fun experience I've ever had.
On the other hand, it is interesting to get a similar view of Dr. Balewa. I'm not getting any real detail of course: he's a god tier wizard and I'm a giant snake's parasite. But I can see the general flow of the energies he's-.
"Thet is a little distracting."
"Sorry."
Like this, I can see the sort of merge point where I shade into the Ophidian. Larger than a normal patron connection, but nothing like as large as I was worried it might be. Dr. Balewa has a similar one to the Life Entity, though in his case it's… Like a placenta: two separate systems exchanging vitality, rather than two brains smushed together haphazardly.
"Ah."
"Ah?"
"I hef found an abnormality, but it is very slight. I do not know if it is what has caused your memory difficulty, but..."
A pearl of white light appears in front of him, some sort of faint… Smoke? Contained within.
"What is it?"
"I do not know. It is a strange thing. It is like… Not a thing in itself, but the shadow of a thing. Perhaps even less than that. If I had to guess, I would say that it is simply marking a place, perhaps to guide an external force later."
"Mister Edge made it clear that they were using magic as part of their tracking and communications system. Is it part of that?"
"I would guess thet it is not. I am familiar with the simple geomantic systems they are using, and this is quite different. It is not a residue left by exposure to a distortion in the world's magics. It is something… External. It is not something that the practitioners which the Alliance of the Just can call upon would use."
"Are you sure? There are some very incautious magicians around the place."
"Incautious in their communications and treaties with demons. This is not demon magic. I do not know-."
The smoke wafts, as if blown from the centre of the spell bubble and pushed against the side. There's a slight shimmer, and when it calms the smoke is gone.
"Odd."
"Did you mean to do that?"
"I did not do thet. The energy received no external instruction. It appeared to be a natural reaction to the power of life."
"Do I have any more in me?"
"Not thet I could find, but it did not respond in a normal way to my efforts to detect it. I had to manually examine everything about you in order to see even thet much."
"Doesn't respond..? So I can't just go FEED ME and get rid of it?"
"I do not know for certain, but I would guess that any such energy that could survive connected to your conjoined soul would not be affected by your efforts to speed up the process."
"But would it be dangerous?"
"I cannot say for certain, but if you take into your gut something that you cannot digest…"
"Right. Great. Think I should get Hinon to take a look as well?"
"If the sample had survived and we had something to show her, then I would say 'yes'. As it is, what would you say?"
"Not sure. Have you finished poking me?"
"I have."
And… Re… Com…
Pile.
Ugh.
I let the orange light flow through my body, not really 'fixing' anything per se, but definitely making me feel better. That's my sort of glowing light, not whatever that weird shadow stuff was.
And 'weird shadow stuff that doesn't interact with other energy' doesn't ring any bells. Stuff has to interact with other stuff. That's how magic and conventional matter work. Even kaahuite interacts with other forms of matter and energy, and that's literally outside of Creation. So the idea that it doesn't, particularly after it was unmade by Dr. Balewa's magic, sounds like nonsense.
Dr. Balewa's magic.
"Doctor?"
Dr. Balewa opens his still glowing eyes on the other side of the ritual space.
"Yes?"
"I know it looked like the shadow destroyed itself, but if whatever it was is as good at parasitism as you're saying, are we sure that it's not just in you now?"
His eyes return to normal.
"Thet is disturbingly possible. But if it is attracted to my magic, then I should be able to draw it out of myself by deliberately weakening myself in the presence of a stronger source of power."
"I don't think we're working to a deadline, here. It's best that we learn everything we can before trying to confront whoever Father Bruno really is."
"What makes you certain?"
"People who sign up with the Alliance of the Just are generally well intentioned, but most of them are part timers. The teleporters aren't going to see major usage until the end of the New Year holidays. Probably the weekend after. If they're important in some way, that's when whatever's happening will happen. And if they're not, and Father Bruno's just… I don't know, manoeuvring for position, then we don't even have to worry about that deadline. He'll just be gradually moving towards whatever his victory condition is."
"Thet makes logical sense, but why would he speak with you at all?"
"Two possible places I came into contact with whatever that was: the teleporter and Bruno himself. Alan came into contact with both as well. But a lot of other people in the Alliance would have used the teleport… Er. Um."
"Yes?"
"Did..? You check those… Alliance members who died for whatever that was?"
"I did not."
"It just.. occurred to me that.. if they were exposed in some way…"
"I do not know if anything would remain after all this time, but you are right. It would be wise to check."
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