In which there are unpleasant conversations

[seventhsong]

Who: Lorelei seventhsong, Jade Curtiss sarcasmancer
What: Tending to a delayed conversation.
Where: Floor 89.
When: December 13th, Evening
Warnings: The Tower and Jade are involved. PG-13ish?



When Lorelei found a message from Jade about his decision to ask again why he wanted the things he did, the people he did - it seemed appropriate to find somewhere to speak where interruption was unlikely, or eavesdroppers for that matter. Lorelei knew where his isofons were and keeping them out of his head was an easy matter. Finding a location others might not wander into.. harder.

The hotel is selected simply due to being able to reserve a room. Paying the price had taken most of a day in attempting to beat down a strange monster in the pyramids and retrieve its still-beating heart but once the price was paid he had a room to himself for the night. It would have to do. And it gave him some time to mend the damage the monstrosity had done, carefully knitting back together bloody wounds and burns. He'll deal with his clothing later.

It's just a matter of waiting, then. The room thankfully had chairs and a small table as well as a bed, so there wouldn't be an issue of the Colonel finding somewhere to sit. Dinner is even provided! ...So what if it's meal bars it's still food, and that's something. And Lorelei was nice enough to even save the little chocolates left on the pillow so there's dessert afterwards.

Comments

[seventhsong]

"None of it was ever pointless," the redhaired man demures. He had a very different perspective on the matter, but that couldn't be helped. "Save 'pointless' for things where no possible good result could ever arise." And something did arise that was good. Many of them, in fact. Lorelei isn't going to pursue it for long, because there are other matters at hand. Like Jade's mental hiccups when it came to dealing with someone who looked like Luke and shared some of his behavior patterns.

At least that was one problem he could very easily solve.

And just as at ease with being small and fuzzy as humanoid, Lorelei settles comfortably where he is, radiating satisfaction. That should fix it. "And I should have known better than to face you with a form you know all too well so soon after losing a friend. It was thoughtless and cruel."

He sounds the same. He could adjust his voice to fit the form but he doesn't bother. He's not actually speaking anyway, the sound of his voice simply manifests. Cheagles didn't have the mouths and voice boxes to properly maintain human speech. "Yulia was terribly fond of them," he says brightly, ears perking up. "I went to the cheagles first, you know. Such a kind people. --Ah?"

And then he's picked right up. He feels exactly as a cheagle should, small and light and fuzzy and warm.. and rathe wiggly for several startled moments, small limbs kicking in surprise. But when he's not suddenly dropped or stabbed or anything similar, he relaxes quickly enough.

Foolishly or not, he seems fairly sure Jade wasn't going to suddenly hurt him. "It's just a matter of rearanging fonons. It's not that hard, really, but the collar means I can't pick some other form besides these two. It's a bit restricting. Probably anyone could do it, if they had enough control over every fonon in their body."

His eyes are the same color of vivid green, and wide and round. "Will it help like this?" No confusion between him and Luke now, surely.

[sarcasmancer]

Save 'pointless' for things where no possible good result could ever arise.

There's nothing Jade can say about that, at least in regards to what he was referring so, so he says nothing. The reference to Asch... well, Lorelei has already made it clear that he values his isofons highly. It's probably pointless to discuss that matter with him.

...Not that Jade was really forthcoming with that information even earlier, but then, he had to be sure Lorelei didn't agree with him.

Lorelei's apology for being thoughtless and cruel is ignored. It's not that Jade doesn't acknowledge it; it just makes him uncomfortable, and if he doesn't have to deal with something that makes him uncomfortable, he won't. The talk of cheagles and alternate forms is more than enough of a distraction from that matter as well.

"Did you? No, I didn't know that. I doubt anyone does," Jade replies, completely unfazed by Lorelei's struggling. On the contrary, he deposits him onto a palm, holding him in place with a smile until the aggregation sees fit to behave. No, Jade won't hurt him; he knows better than to needlessly provoke an entity capable of vaporizing him where he sits.

Needlessly.

"Fascinating. I'll have to do research into that," he replies, holding his chin. Enough control over every fonon in their body... Truly, truly fascinating. Jade doubts that a human being could manage that, even one like himself, but it's worth looking into--if only to sate his own curiosity.

Naturally, he won't let himself get out of control with it this time. But if death, accidental or otherwise, isn't permanent here anyway...

"Yes, this will do nicely," Jade replies, standing up and walking to the window, red cheagle still in hand. "I assume you still have control over all of your usual powers like this?"

[seventhsong]

It's not an uncomfortable place to be. Someone's hands were nicer than a cold tile floor. "Yulia knew." She knew many things, and didn't see fit to pass them on. Of course, Lorelei's not really had contact with anyone at all on the surface since then, save for Luke and Asch ... and his efforts to reach them were never for idle chatter. Would that it had been, perhaps the endless stretch of centuries would have been more tolerable.

"It might be harder for normal humans, you're all kinds of fonons. It's not just controlling a single element. I have it easy in that respect." Jade's palm is patted comfortingly. It'll just be more of a test of the Necromancer's power. "But you can think of it kind of like a ... controlled mutation. Of course if you get it wrong your body will probably make you regret it for the short time you have left but mistakes do sometimes come at high expense." It didn't seem to bother him at ALL. If anyone could figure out how to do it without turning into a horrible death ball.

For now he's content where he is, and willing enough to indulge questions unrelated to the original reason they'd met here. "Yes. Along with a cheagle's usual arsenal." There is a brief puff of flame, barely more than a good lighter might put out. "Changing form doesn't change my nature, after all."

Silence then, for a short time. There was much to mull over. Not only that Jade hadn't exactly agreed to assist him yet, or the useful necessity of Dist the Reaper/Rose/Runny, but that the future he'd remembered would go so awry. He would have his freedom. But at the cost of his isofons?

"Was it worth it?" It's a sober question. "The price you and Auldrant paid to nullify my song. I imagine now, in this place, it's not worth it at all. All that effort, gone to dust. But at the time, before silence fell, was it a price paid willingly?"

[sarcasmancer]

Jade is about to say 'anyone still living,' but he stops. From a technical standpoint, assuming that their worlds truly are destroyed--a token doubt, given that Lorelei says they are and the aggregate consciousness of the planet's memory would know--the only ones still living are whomever happen to be here right now, and they don't necessarily need to be from the same time. That means that at some point, an Auldrantian from the Dawn Age, including Yulia Jue herself, could potentially appear.

Such a migraine. Though at the same time, when he thinks on it... "It occurs to me that, if people are brought in from destroyed worlds all the time, there are worlds not yet destroyed out there. If it's possible to find a way to access, we may not need to rebuild the world. With power failure imminent, that might be a more prudent course of action than building a planet from scratch, which, even with your power, is hardly an overnight venture," the fonist muses. "Do you have any idea how feasible this is? Given the malicious nature of most of the administrators, I doubt they would tell us truthfully if this were possible or not."

Colorful. Yes, Jade can just imagine what might happen to one if one lost control of one's fonons in the middle of self-inflicted fonon separation. Death would hardly be the worst-case scenario. "If I'm going to play with death for an experiment like that, I may as well do it at a time when death won't stick," he points out. "Though I'm in no rush to try, either." He nods at Lorelei's confirmation of his power, not so much as blinking when he breathes a puff of flame in his face.

But then there's that question. Jade's crimson gaze lingers on the red cheagle. Now, in this place? It matters little. Regardless of when it happened, everyone but him would still be dead. It is frustrating that all the effort he put into saving the world was for naught, but that would be the same regardless of when in his journey this happened, and the experiences he gained from that journey--the memories he has of them--are never in vain.

But at the time, before silence fell?

"It was," Jade murmurs, regard unwavering.

[seventhsong]

Lorelei would probably be thrilled to pieces if his missing friend was ever brought here. Time had never dulled his memories of her,a nd it would be effortless to pick up where they left off. For other people.. it might be harder. Especially with alternate realities weighing in. "Yes, in theory." He pulls an ear down and begins thoughtfully grooming the tufted end. Keeping clean as a cheagle was much easier than dealing with four feet of hair. "I suspect it's an outwardly expanding bubble." He had no real evidence to the matter but if he was right about what was causing the problems, then that might well be true. "Though I never intended to rebuild a planet from scratch! Just fix what's broken. Auldrant is still there after all, it's just dead."

The ear is let go after a moment. "There's also no saying that the world we find outside of this pocket of death will be anything like our own. But I don't think it's impossible. At the least, one of the administrators has alluded to other towers, and the desire to find a backup for us. But as things stand any world we move to could be subject to the same fate." It's a rather grim idea. What if they built new lives on a new world, only to have it snuffed out again?

He'd rather stop all this mess with the Tower, and put Auldrant back the way it should be. And if he didn't bother giving humanity his vision of the future again, then he doubted that would hinder anything at all.

As his question draws no immediate response, Lorelei simply waits for something, be it agreement, denial, or possibly being tossed out a window. None of their struggles came to much, now. They were the only survivors left, the tattered remnants of countless worlds.

There is a sigh, tremendous for such a small frame, when the answer does come. "Good."

[sarcasmancer]

If Jade were Tear, his three-sizes-too-small heart would no doubt melt into a puddle of goo at the sight of cheagle ear-grooming, which is an adorableness almost beyond the human capacity to measure. Jade is not Tear, though, so he merely takes note of this cheagle-like behaviorism and the fact that Lorelei switched from one set of behaviorisms to another as easily ("easily") as he changed forms.

"Possible," Jade agrees. "Unfortunately, I lack too much information to be able to postulate anything solid. What's more, without knowing how and why these worlds are being destroyed, your scenario is far from impossible. In short, we'll need the administrators alive for questioning."

The Necromancer may not have explicitly agreed to cooperate with Lorelei, but that 'we' speaks volumes all the same. As of right now, there are precious few other options and just as little time, and Lorelei, whatever he may be and as little as Jade finds he cares for him on a personal level, would be a powerful ally.

Lorelei heaves a sigh and voices his approval. Jade doesn't outwardly react to it; instead, he asks, "Was there anything else?"

[seventhsong]

It's a good thing Jade's not Tear, then. He's not anticipating being hugged or squished by enthusiastic young ladies right now, and if Jade fell into such behavior patterns it would be surreal beyond even Lorelei's ability to handle. "I suggest Riki or Zo, then. The latter seems directly interested in our health and happiness, the former the architect of this place. From what I can tell, Riki is already looking for alternatives to leaving all of us in this tower. Of course he also might be looking for more space to practice worldbuilding too."

There isn't much Lorelei doesn't overhear, when it's in a large room full of people chattering. Sometimes it's actually useful.

Time is the one thing he doesn't have. None of them do. As Jade asks his question, he perks back up, thoughtful. "It's 'December', which means it's Jason's month. The Administrators have popped up in person a couple of times. Do not approach or engage this one, if he does appear. He's worse than you were, when you were young. Much worse. There's no telling what he might do to you out of simple curiosity alone, and the changes the administrators make can be permanent, to mind body or soul. If he's motivated by more than just curiosity.."

Well it's a bad thing. "It will go poorly. Even Ruana doesn't seem to stir the anger and fear Jason does in the people here."

Anything else.

There's countless things. Endless things. He doesn't address them immediately. "..One other thing. It may be asking a lot, but I will ask anyway. Please don't unduly torment my isofons. Especially Asch. He's unusually obstinate already and I'm worried if people from his own world pick at him too much it might only grow worse. If I am to ever teach him how to do more than destroy, I'll need him at least some measure of cooperative." Given it's Jade, that might be too much to ask. Jade has difficulty not picking at people.

[sarcasmancer]

"Mmm. I did hear that they were the more benevolent of the administrators," Jade agrees. "I heard Zo was in charge last month, so unless there's a way to contact a specific administrator on an off-month--" entirely possible, if Zo wants to help the denizens of the Tower; Jade just doesn't know what it is "--I doubt he'll be available for questioning for a while. In any case, if all Riki cares about is building, he can still be used. Recreating worlds will require architects, after all; there's leverage enough there to potentially sway him." Even if he has a twisted sense of aesthetics. Not that Jade is bothered by twisted, but he can acknowledge it all the same. "I take it the administrator rotation follows a set pattern?"

Then Lorelei warns him against Jason, and Jade frowns at the description. Asch had described him as being the second-worst, after Ruana; Lorelei's description makes him sound the worst by far. Anyone who can be described as 'much worse than a young Jade' must be a true monster, even without the actual descriptions of what Jason has done in pursuit of his curiosity and worse.

"I see," he says simply. "I will keep that in mind."

Then Lorelei moves on to the matter of his isofons, and Jade's expression doesn't change. He's not surprised by this request, even if it does irritate him. The fonist affects a sigh and sets the aggregate down on the table. "Lorelei, are you aware that Asch and his friends are the ones who caused the countdown to power failure? According to him, he didn't know that would happen at the time, but if given a chance to do it over, he would still make the same decision."

Jade peers down at Lorelei, unsmiling. "I fear you're too late to wean him off his taste for destruction."

[seventhsong]

There is a small shrug from the crimson cheagle. "I don't know exactly. I have heard of people writing the various administration letters, it's possible the active one could just pass on the note." But he sounds a bit dubious. If any would at all that'd be Zo handing it to other people, and he's still a ways off. "They do. Ruana was before Zo, and Riki before her, so we should as of the next month be dealing with Riki again." Lorelei was fairly sure unless something went horribly wrong that this was so, and since horrible things did seem to happen with relative frequency.. "The months here are strangely short, and they only have twelve of them. Every thirty days they swap to a new one, and a new administrator." It's important to know; Jason won't be there for another fifty days. He wasn't even precisely sure how this calendar would line up against a proper one.

Jason was worse. Ruana hurt you because she was flippin' crazy. Jason did it on purpose, with calculated deliberation. Lorelei came to that conclusion after a good month and a half of working it out. "Be careful."

Jade would do as he pleased. Lorelei could offer caution anyway. He wasn't going to directly interact with any of them if he could avoid it!

Set down on the table, he looks around briefly before finding a comfortable place to plunk down. There's still a meal bar waiting, and the carefully saved chocolates, if Jade ever remembered they were there. If not, well, a second dinner for Lorelei. He was okay with this.

The loss of power in this place was what gave it a deadline. There isn't an immediate response, as he weighs what Asch could possibly have seen as a good outcome from giving them all an expiration date. It might have been accidental, but to willingly do it again.. "Apparently you had a more interesting conversation with him than I thought," the cheagle says slowly. There's no immediate snap reaction one way or another. "Did he mention, when speaking about how willingly he would doom us all, what benefit has arisen from such actions?"

Maybe something's come out of it beyond pain and suffering. He hasn't been here long enough to know. There's a brief shake of the head. "Destruction and construction are two sides of the same coin. I may not have to wean him off it.. just teach him to rebuild what he's ruined." But it's subdued, this. Asch could have found an outcome Lorelei didn't know about. Maybe such efforts meant there was a greater chance of escape one day. "It sounds ominous. I can agree to that. But what things sound like, and what they truly are, are sometimes different. What else leads to this?"

There is no blind acceptance one way or another. He needed more information.