Old World Blues

Anything you might want to try out that doesn't temporally or thematically fit the serial should go here. This is an ideal space for all your what-ifs and might-have-beens, as well as for your average silliness.
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Karl the Mad
 

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Re: Old World Blues

Post by Karl the Mad »

Marius quirked an eyebrow at Three. "Is it that obvious?"

Regarding the rest of the conversation, he just shrugged. "Sounds like my sort of place, honestly," he admitted. "I can be as ruthless as anyone else, if I have cause. And it sounds like some of these neocons need a lesson or two."
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IamLEAM1983
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Re: Old World Blues

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Three shrugged. "It's not obvious, but the signs are there. The thermal plant in Iceland, your stint with the Bitcoins and the Chinese farming arrays, you talking hardware... A lot of other immortals in your position would've settled with supernatural means of securing the same goals. You live long enough, based on what I've studied, and doing things the mundane way starts to feel inefficient. Why hire killers if you can conscript demons, why defraud an electoral system if you can stir primal fear and push the masses into voting for you or your candidate of choice..."

He rolled a wrist. "So on and so forth. It's how Mab's people think, and it's part of your old M.O. Bleeding-edge tech most people have no idea even exists, used to land the mother of all backstabs. Making connections from this to your interest in tech was fairly easy. Rendell focuses on tech for the same reasons. In his case, though, it's the crux of his operations. There's a fetishistic approach to tech in what he does. In yours, it was a means to an end. You're more lucid than he is by miles."

Drake then shrugged. "You're being followed, though. You're making progress. You're deviating - which is good. We couldn't have had this conversation a year ago, even without your curse. You wanting to speak to our friend's competitors is a good start - so long as you don't kill them over their predatory business practices. It'd be a waste of your talents."

The shopkeeper whistled. "Look at Mister Intuitive! Is that all you, or the thing they did to you in Afghanistan?"

Aidan shrugged. "People are like sightlines. They're never obvious unless you look at the bigger picture. I don't know, but since Azardad implanted me, I've felt this need to look at things from a systemic angle. Actions, reactions, cause and effect, the way people pinball into one another all day and every day... My friend Charles sees weak links to rip apart to get at the core of a situation. Then he shuts it down or destroys it. I see the way everything builds a kind of lattice," he said, intertwining his fingers, "and I push and pull at it until something good happens."

The Drifter scoffed amusedly. "Anyone ever call you Neo?
- It's social engineering, profiling and investigative techniques," replied Drake, who chuckled. "I can't stop bullets. If Marius so much as throws a weak-sauce right cross my way, I'm headed to the ER same as everyone else. I'll probably die, too."
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Karl the Mad
 

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Re: Old World Blues

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Marius sighed. "I have nothing to gain from killing you at this point, Drake, and rather a lot to lose. Take comfort from that, if you can." He stared off into space for a moment. "Don't think I didn't try doing things the old-fashioned way. Obviously, my curse got in the way, so I got used to dealing through intermediaries. The rise of the Internet was a boon and a curse for me; what greater intermediary than instantaneous electronic communication that cannot be erased or forgotten? On the other hand, security cameras that trip alarms when tampered with and send their footage to remote storage."

He spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "Truth be told, the curse was fading on its own. If you had not broken it yourself and stopped my plans anyway, I had predicted the curse would weaken to the point of irrelevance at a point six months from now, and lifted entirely three months past that. Not all at once, but a gradual drain." He then rolled his eyes. "Mind you, the curse was not going to last forever, not here on this plane anyway. I suspect those who originally created it had not meant for its use on mortals, or earthly immortals like myself. What would last forever in Heaven, obviously would not last forever down here."

He sniffed and looked sour again. "Then again, it's just as likely I'm wrong about everything I've said just now. So, whatever."
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IamLEAM1983
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Re: Old World Blues

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Three turned serious and put thoughts of Travis' rig aside for now.

"You're right, actually," he said. "We've had a year to investigate, and the Throne of Water found the culprit. I was about to head back to the office to draft an official request for a meeting between you, Rhadamantus and myself, but I can at least tell you who we're building a case against."

He sighed. "Uriel Lightbringer. Lucifer's younger brother. The problem is, he's an Archangel. He's never left physical evidence anywhere. The only physical evidence we have is the Hiroshima-grade via levels at the site of an old church's foundation in Alexandria. Coptic Orthodox, early Dark Ages. It lines up with an angelic weapon, and it's negatively charged. Tom had relapses from your curse's effects for two days after coming back from Egypt - and you've been curse-free for a year.

As to who made you, we have a near-complete genetic profile, thanks to Tyler Renny and the Dusters. We have the dragon's family tree sketched over a few generations. We just need to find out which one is your maker."
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Karl the Mad
 

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Re: Old World Blues

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"Dark Ages..." Marius mumbled, a distant look coming over his eyes. His face seemed to go blank and slack, as memories were stirred in his head. Old church...? Alexandria, Coptic Ortho-

He drew in a long, hoarse breath and swayed on his feet, two steps away from falling over. "I need to sit down..."
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Re: Old World Blues

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Luckily, the store also carried a few brands of flashy "executive gaming" chairs packing all the latest in postural improvement technologies. By which, of course, you had to infer awkward padding and grooves, with lots of cutouts and garish color combinations. Three only had to reach for one of the display units and wheel it within reach with one hand. 

"Here," he said, "sit down. I'll get some water."

The salesman darted off towards what had to be the break room and came back with some chilled water in a sports bottle. "Here," he said. "I was saving it for lunch, but he looks like he needs it."

Drake then handed the bottle to Vlastos. "Just breathe," he said. "Don't force things, Doctor Naxos is only ever just a phone call away. You don't have to reminisce or discuss it with me if it's too painful. I'll have more details to share for when you'll be ready."
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Karl the Mad
 

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Re: Old World Blues

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Marius fell heavily into the proffered chair and sipped at the water, his mind awhirl with images and sensations. "The church... its clergy had insulted me, called me a godless abomination," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "At the time I was not so in control, and I lost my temper... killed the worshipers who screamed and tried to run. What did the monks do?" He laughed wearily. "Nothing! They wouldn't even look at me while I was tearing their flock asunder, they just sat there, kneeling before their altar, praying!"

He had more water. "When the laymen were all dead I started on the brothers, youngest first, and still they did not oppose me. Their passiveness enraged me more than any opposition could have; had they not the strength to back their strong words? Finally the Father was left, and I could see fear in his eyes, but still he prayed, muttering feverishly. I grabbed him, broke his back, plunged my fangs into his neck..."

The words and memories, almost tripping over each other in their rush to be spoken, now grew hesitant. "A sudden bright light... a figure I could not comprehend... was it a man? was it some colossal geometric thing? I turned and fought, but my strength was useless against the creature... I was forced back, down into the undercroft; it shouted words in a language I could not comprehend, the via in the area rose to unbearable levels, and I lost consciousness...

"When I awoke, all trace of my presence was as nothing. I could go wherever I pleased, do what I liked, and none stopped me or ever even noticed..."
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IamLEAM1983
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Re: Old World Blues

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Three could only nod as Vlastos' exactions were described. The past, in this case, was long past, even if the Alexandrian's deeds still displeased him. The young man knew he was in no position to remind the vampire of his crimes at present. Marius knew what he'd done and had paid for it in spades. All that was left was the option to corroborate.

"There's a few stones along the old foundation's perimeter; a few of them had several sources of human and anthro DNA on them. That supports you killing these people. There's bones, too. The church itself was never cursed, but both yourself and Uriel managed to spook the locals for several generations. They settled with considering it cursed a few years after the incident, and burned it to the ground. Overgrowth had covered the rest by the Crusades. The corresponding area in the Shadowlands is raw, festering with terror and what the ethereal plane recorded of your own rage. There's only bugs, weeds and wildflowers around for a hundred-meter radius around the foundations. No bird's nested there as far as the locals remember, no dogs dare forage around there either."

He sighed. "It's at the outskirts of what was Rakotis, Alexandria's Egyptian quarter, directly against the waterfront. The High Middle Ages saw Jewish and Muslim assimilation of the quarter, then Peter de Lusignan defeated the Mameluks in 1365. From that point on, Rakotis was absorbed into the rest of Alexandria's demographics. Nobody alive today even remembered the quarter's early Christian enclave, or the church that had serviced it."

The Drifter seemed a bit unsure as to what to do with himself. "W-What about Amiel?
- Uriel," corrected Three. "If Lucifer was the Lightbringer, Uriel is the Dawnbreaker. He used to stand besides Gabriel as one of the supporters for God's Creation, but he doesn't agree with our ability to govern ourselves. He thinks we fall prey to our baser natures all too easily and that we need exemplars, standard-bearers, to live up to our supposedly lofty ideals. Going by that notion, Marius would've disappointed him. He must've believed he was within his right to punish him, but never found anything strong enough for him in the standard curse sets Tom Magnus researched."

Drake shrugged. "When the mortal plane's best warlocks fail you, you turn to what was used to damn the Fallen. Apart from Marius here, the only other known examples of Damnatio Memoriae involve Leviathan and Legion; two of the strongest and most dangerous Princes and demons in the Pit."

The salesman nodded. "I know about Leviathan, kinda... Who's Legion, though?
- I'm no mage and no Seminary specialist, but I've gathered that Legion is noxious conformity. He's people being dicks on social media, focus group members pushing for more extreme reality shows or community leaders quashing self-expression. Legion's the singular consciousness behind every angry mob, the contempt at the heart of extreme Karthian mental optimization structures and the repression behind Stalinist Communism. The Many becoming the Few, becoming the One - only the One carries hate in this case, and crushes everything that stands in its way."

The Drifter whistled. "I can see why they'd consign him to oblivion... What does that mean, in practice?
- It means Legion and Leviathan only can be remembered because a few people choose to, and need to, in order to keep us safe. Solomon's Court, for instance. Otherwise, there's no rituals left that show how to summon them, no means of contacting them, no meaningful or direct presences in the popular consciousness. You only know Legion as the New Testament character or as the Pop Culture concept. Leviathan's even hazier - he got conflated into ideas like Godzilla or Chtulhu. Clive Barker referenced him in Hellraiser 2's script, but with no real ties to the actual figure."

He looked back to Marius. "If we hadn't lifted the curse off of Mister Vlastos here, we would've been forced to keep bombarding the airwaves with pirate messages. Legal pressure would've forced the Vienna Council to abort and de-fund the operation - and Marius would've faded back into obscurity." 
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Karl the Mad
 

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Re: Old World Blues

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Marius was only half-listening, though. Remembering the events anew, he was absorbed in the mental reawakening. "What made me special?" he muttered sourly. "Churches had been attacked before, and for years afterward. Or what made that one church or its people so unique that the Dawnbringer himself answered their prayers?" He shook his head. "After it was too late, of course." For all their vaunted Angel Time prowess, the angels sure seemed prone to showing up moments too late. Or barely in the nick of time, as it were.

"Perhaps if I visited the ruins of the church, I might remember more," he went on, half to himself. "Ugh, if I have to go through this every time I remember something momentous..."

The vampire fixed his gaze on the Drifter. "Do you know anything about memory recovery? Brain mapping or whatever?"
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Re: Old World Blues

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The salesman shrugged. "Sorry. I'm just your average expat, not one of those much-talked-about former Elysium brain surgeons or whatever. If you want your noodle popped out, your best's to leave the gravity well and head for Gliese, see if some of the older Yakuza still keep a front on that business. With Rendell trapped on Earth, the demand for brain mapping or artificial cerebral maturation shrank down to almost nothing."

He rolled his eyes. "Or you could bankroll an outdoors activity for Rendell if you're willing to sign a ton of waivers; get him out under close supervision. He'd know on which doors to knock. Strong guy like you, I'm sure you could crush the lizard's windpipe if he so much as scratches at whatever tracking implant they'd stick in him."

Three seemed unconvinced. "Sure, but there's the small matter of Marius still barely having started to convince the public that he's gone straight. Taking a Transgenic megalomaniac out for a stroll halfway across the galactic arm so soon might be ill-advised. Even if he manages to kill Rendell before he tries anything or even if he leaves him high-and-dry on Paradise, him associating with Rendell is going to lead to all kinds of nasty speculation."

He eyed the vampire. "I know, measly mortal and all - but trust me. You don't need that kind of bad PR. Not now."
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