Day 341 (protected x2 from Arcana listening in)

[youandyoualone]

Would someone who is only investigating be willing to help me retrieve an object from Moonfall and bring it to liminal space? I can give the location, but for various reasons, I would rather the Cabalist whose body I am sharing not learn of its continued existence.

Said object is about the height of a child of a child of seven and a bit more than twice the weight. It can be safely handled by anyone as long as one doesn't try to kythe with it. I'd ask you to bring it to liminal space via portal and hammerspace and after the Jaunt I'd take custody of it.

Comments

[desperate_times_right]

I mean, that's basically what happened to me, right? And their bodies mean less to them than ours do.

[youandyoualone]

Much less, but in my experience they do have some degree of physicality. It is just that what exists is as much a place as a person.

[desperate_times_right]

I won't ask you to speculate further, but my understanding is that just killing the body - though difficult - isn't enough to end them in any meaningful way. Killing a projection of an idea might be enough to leave an empty 'body' behind.

It's still not enough, since it'd net you like, three at the outside and the others would all know you did it, and if you really used a hellstone - hypothetically really - you'd burn it and whoever brought it out after those ones anyway. If you had a good team that knew other reliable ways to kill them and could hit the others at the same time it might work, but it'd still be a long shot.

public --> private x2 protected

[youandyoualone]

Which is why I would not actually attempt to use it against an Arcanum, even though the divide between the spaces which they inhabit and ours would be enough to keep the effects of the weapon from affecting us.

[He doesn't need to speculate further. He's the one person in this conversation who has killed an Arcanum.

But mayhap he'll take this discussion of how to do so to a more complete privacy and secure the conversation's protection against all who aren't Chloe.]

But no. It is true. Killing the body isn't enough. First, you must weaken the idea.

Re: public --> private x2 protected

[desperate_times_right]

[She's being managed again, maybe, pushed away from the conversation about the fate of the hellstone. It's irritating but also she's been dying to know more about how this works and it's never been safe to ask her confirmed suspects about it.]

How could a surprise attack possibly weaken the idea behind the Tower?

private x2 protected

[youandyoualone]

[... this is it. If he tells her, she will know. He has not known her long, but he feels that on many levels, they understand each other.

Is that enough? He wants to tell her. But he had wanted to tell Melisande of the Unseen Guild and look what had happened because of that.

In the end, it is how close they are to the end of this that decides him. If there was ever a time to risk it all, it is now.]

'Twas not the surprise attack that weakened him. 'Twas the infusion of pure order into his corpus, done with the skill that lets us change the fabric of liminal space. And, I think, whatever was done to him in-Merge.

Re: private x2 protected

[desperate_times_right]

Ah.

[She really hadn't expected anyone to just tell her, particularly without any conditions first, and it takes a second for her brain to come back to life.]

Shit, really? The skill people use to decorate for parties? That's not even a jaunt skill. I knew you guys did it on your own!

Re: private x2 protected

[youandyoualone]

[ That's the thing about Anafiel Delaunay. Most of the time he is sneaky and calculating, but on occasion he'll throw caution to the wind and make a stupid, rash decision. Just like this. ]

It has many uses, although I will own that it was my idea to make it part of our combat. In truth, it was my only blow against Tower. I spent the rest of the battle remotely tapping into the senses of our true fighters, for I am but one man without offensive magic to supplement my skill with a blade.

[ Even a year later, he's still one of the more mundane fighters in liminal space. He's really good with a sword--but that's all he's got. ]

You understand, of course, that if this gets out, it would quite possibly mean my life is forfeit.

But yes. We did it on our own. And now half our band is lost out of ambit and I do not know to what degree my fellows understand how it is that we accomplished what we accomplished.

Re: private x2 protected

[desperate_times_right]

Normally in situations like this I prefer to trade, keeps everything even, but I don't think I carry anything of equal weight. I think you know me well enough to know I won't cooperate with them. And luckily for you I'm not strong enough to take them out on my own.

They thought you had help - hell, some of us thought you'd had help! Instead those things handed you the keys to your own cage.

God, people use that skill all the time and I'd never thought about it that way. What's 'merge'? I don't think I've heard of that one.

Re: private x2 protected

[youandyoualone]

In truth, the only help we had outside our conspiracy came unknowingly from an agent of mine, who I tasked to watch over my body while I physically remained behind as the others fought--and who later, after I had bridged to join the others and the one who was to return us to liminal space had fallen in battle, we contacted and asked to bring us home with her own bridging capabilities.

She was, I'm afraid, not best pleased with us. But as she'd been there when I'd quite suddenly disappeared to join the battle at Tower's corpus, she was also the logical person to beg rescue from. Later, when our prolonged quarrel on the subject was finished, I tried to make it up to her by allowing to review my memories and further question me, so that at least she would have more data on our hosts.

Merge, my sweet, is an ability brought back from Questing Country, which involves submerging yourself into the landscape in order to learn much. 'Tis much like Interface, I suspect, which is why I have not tried to learn it myself, although all knowledge is worth having.

Re: private x2 protected

[desperate_times_right]

Ah, so we'll never be able to do it that way again anyway. Dreams crushed, but I'm impressed you guys thought of it.

[And if Thorne really does take over, they can't use the same method to keep her in check, though now that Chloe knows she's one of his she won't even hint at that idea]

Oh. I guess that makes sense, their whole little realm is 'them' sort of. So you were both able to hit the idea rather than the body.

Re: private x2 protected

[youandyoualone]

Yes. Mine was the swift stab of a blade, his was the infection that fells even more surely. And although 'tis only speculation, I think what he must have done was use an ability he brought back from inside the computers, which is called 'Convert,' while he was Merged inside the landscape, for Tower's face and body turned into his shortly before it crumbled away.

And, of course, one must not discount the actions of the others of our band: mystical warriors and powerful sorcerers all of them. My stab and his infection would not have been enough to defeat Tower alone, if they had not been throwing all their strength at him.

Re: private x2 protected

[desperate_times_right]

Most of the people I suspected at first were the people who can hit the hardest. [And one person that literally one of the first things he'd told her about himself was that he'd tried to kill a different one, but she's promised to carry his secrets close so she doesn't mention that] I've never fought one, but I've made a couple of them angry and that's enough to know that they could flatten me with no effort at all.

Re: private x2 protected

[youandyoualone]

Indeed, I was the least powerful of all our band. For all but two of the others, those powers were their own, brought from their own worlds.

Those other two, like me, had been without such powers before they came here--although again, like me, they had no little skill at weapons in their previous lives and indeed, had defended their homeland from invaders, much as I had. But those two had been here longer than I--much longer, in the case of one of them--and had gained abilities I had not.

[ There's a reason he'd watched from afar through most of the fight. ]

Re: private x2 protected

[desperate_times_right]

Hm. It sounds like people have made pretty creative use of those skills they've picked up on other worlds.

[Maybe she sounds a little distant - the people who've been saturated in this world for years forgetting what it's like to be human is something she's been thinking about as they draw close to the end of the line]

I don't mean just for killing.

Re: private x2 protected

[youandyoualone]

[He makes note of that distance, but does not mention it.]

Ah, no. Not in the least just for killing. In truth, I have often found that the place I end up using the skills I have learned in ways they were likely not intended to is, in fact, the bedchamber.

[So there's that.]

Re: private x2 protected

[desperate_times_right]

Huh... I don't know how many of mine could be put to alternate uses, though I'd imagine you could have some fun with Psychic Mirror.

VERY NSFW also these all come from PSLs I've done whoops (still private x2 protected homg)

[youandyoualone]

Surprisingly, I do not know that one--but yes, I imagine so.

But many skills of both natures are of great use while making love--most especially, Sensory Livestreaming and Eavesdropping For instance, if your young man has brought home a willing girl and is taking her before you, he might Livestream or you might Eavesdrop upon his sensation of touch, allowing you too to feel her around you. Too, the Memory Sharing of prior encounters can serve as a goad to your partner's desires. The liminal skills also have their uses--there is a trick I was taught of using hammerspace and Wardrobe Manipulation in tandem for instant disrobing. And of course, the skills that allow you to change form or features can give one or one's partner new and exciting body parts.

[desperate_times_right]

Sensory Livestreaming's an obvious one. Can't believe I didn't think of it myself, I'm slipping. [Between captivity here and girl problems at home, it's been a mortifying amount of time since she's had sex. If not for the pirate nonsense she'd worry that she might forget how]

Psychic Mirror is like... you can take on the nonverbal aspects of another person - posture, gestures, that sort of thing. I don't have a lot of psychic skills so I can only do it for like, five minutes, but for the uses I'd probably have put it to that's more than enough time.

[youandyoualone]

Oh. One can do such things with proper training, of course, but it might come in handy to do it automatically even so.

What must one learn first?

[desperate_times_right]

You've got all the prerequisites already if you can use Sensory Eavesdropping. I guess you're kind of piggybacking off the person you're copying's sense of how they move.

[youandyoualone]

Ah, yes! That does seem a fitting prerequisite.

[desperate_times_right]

I don't really use it much here - only picked it up because I wanted to learn that skill that lets you tell someone what they expect to hear. Probably not as useful for what we're discussing: I think I do that anyway.

[youandyoualone]

Some people do in bed.

[desperate_times_right]

Oh, sometimes you have to, especially when it's for work. But usually you don't need a super power to guess what they want you to say.