"I know. It might not mean much to you anymore, but I am sorry."
"You've been around me long enough by now to know what my eyes clouding over means. He meant for the vids of our childhood to make me act rashly, create an opening for him to attack. It almost worked. I wanted things to be like they were before my stupid cards took us Above and that damn thing bit him..." He stops as he starts shaking and looks away. It takes a few moments before he can speak again. "I took control of him while blocking my memories of what he really was. The magic broke a few hours after we left, and he was about to go hunting again.. before I convinced him otherwise."
"The reason I didn't.. remove him from existence when I had the chance.. are the very scars I got from his feeding. He could have killed me so easily and left, afterall, how would you have found? Would you have kept looking after the attacks in Mentor stopped? Something kept him from killing me, from making me like him and having me assassinate you both... I think my brother, the Keaton I knew, is still in there."
"I'm trying to bring my little brother back."
"You took control of him? So, the arena, and the people we had to fight...that was all your doing? And, by the way, him not draining you dry doesn't really mean that much. In case you've forgotten from what you told us, the creature Above didn't kill Keaton outright either. He still died from his wounds and turned into that later anyways. I mean, that's what you told us, isn't it? And why all of that drama, Ryo? Why not just tell us the truth?"
"I could have helped you. I made you a whole new limb, didn't I? Not, apparently, that you needed to lose the old one. I still don't understand what all that was supposed to be about. And what about those nanites in your body? You know, the ones that repair your cells, fight off disease, all of that. You don't think that those might have been useful in curing your brother?"
"You betrayed my trust, and I still don't understand why."
"The magic broke Aananda, I was no more in control of him then you our Tamrin were. Even the armor I wore and the blade I held were nothing but illusions! Without my cards, it was one of the few things I could do."
"I was thinking about what would have happened if I suddenly went from 'kill the monster' to 'no don't kill him'. I lost part of my arm in an attempt to save to save my family Aananda, which included you two by then, even if none of us knew it. Don't try using the nanites against me, I didn't know about them until very recently, remeber?"
He shrugs.
"You've helped me so much, I didn't want to bother you about this. Especially now, when you have much more on your mind than I do."
"Gods, Ryo, you can be such an idiot!"
"You better be really sure you know who is really in control."
"And the whole more on my mind thing is a stupid excuse and you know it."
She looked angry, like she was gearing up to say something else, but instead she just burst into tears.
Kar smiles at Adsila, "I don't really care, I have the stomach for almost anything." He says. "Sorry for trying to steal from you, I don't do it often, only when I need to. I guess I owe you for not killing me." He says
"Gods, Ryo, you can be such an idiot!"
"You better be really sure you know who is really in control."
"And the whole more on my mind thing is a stupid excuse and you know it."
She looked angry, like she was gearing up to say something else, but instead she just burst into tears.
Tam scratches his chin, realizes he's using Ryo's mechanical hand, then makes a face and drops it back on the bunk. ;P
When Aananda moves to leave, he heads over to the hatch, and when she starts crying he puts an arm around her and pulls her to him. Looking over at Ryo, he takes a deep breath, then speaks his mind.
"Okay. You helped stop that Silver from bringing back everything he tried to get for Chan, and you brought me back from the Beyond. I can't be overly mad at you for doing that. I can, however, be a little hacked off with you for making Aananda cry."
"Truth begets trust, and trust begets truth, man. I get that people in your profession are persecuted, believe me - I've lived it every single day since I decided to become a wizard in the Dragon Empire. But I also don't buy using that as an excuse to mistrust everybody - especially people who haven't ever given you a reason not to trust them."
"You keep saying we're 'family', yet you hide stuff from us that could come back to seriously bite us in the rear if something went wrong. You say you want to save your brother, but you slap a collar on him and essentially enslave him to your will. I don't know about you, but where I come from, that's not the definition of 'family'."
"What price are you willing to pay to 'save' Keaton? What are you willing to do, and who are you willing to endanger, on the hope that you can reverse what happened to him? If you've tried wishcraft and it hasn't worked, maybe it's time to accept the fact that the only way to free your brother and at least put his soul at rest is to end his unlife. Not to mention the simple possibility that if you did 'kill' him, you might just be able to resurrect or reincarnate the body - I've seen it happen with other intelligent undead before, and it's one option I haven't even heard you mention...which speaks volumes to me."
He shakes his head.
"Ask yourself this, Ryo: What would Adsila, Ormarr and Razule think of you if they knew you were like this? Could you live with yourself if they knew? Because those kids depend on you, despite their bravado. They are your family, your siblings now. And they are suffering because of your obsession with this. That's not fair to them, and you owe them better than that."
"Alright, you still need some sleep, so get it. You're no good to travel exhausted. We're heading back to the comet once you're back to 100%, and once we get back to Agartha, we'll talk things out from there."
Aananda's sobs slowed down as Tam spoke. She was grateful for his ability to stay calm in the middle of chaos. She wiped away some of her tears and tried to focus on slowing her breathing and calming down.
When Aananda starts crying, a look of fear and guilt becomes clear on Ryo's face.
"Nononononononono! Don't cry! Scream at me, hit me with the arm, but don't cry!" He trys very hard to get her to stop crying, but fails horrendously. This might explain why Adsila's garden is so big. ^-^
After he gives up trying to calm her down, Ryo listens to what Tamrin has to say.
"How am I supposed to know about reviving the undead? I'm no cleric or necromancer! All the knowledge of vampirism I have came from an ancient book! If he could have been brought back that way, why didn't you tell me sooner?"
Kar smiles at Adsila, "I don't really care, I have the stomach for almost anything." He says. "Sorry for trying to steal from you, I don't do it often, only when I need to. I guess I owe you for not killing me." He says
"You owe us nothing. I know someone who tried to steal something a bit different from clothes because of circumstances, and he's turning into quite the young alchemist. He still like to eaves-drop on people though."
A vine creeps to the doorway, then whips around the corner. The is a soft sound. like a thud, and a surprised yell followed by the sound of running.
"You'll have to excuse Razule, he has a few habits that are hard to break."She grins as she starts setting out the food and drink.
"Because," (hic), "you didn't trust us," (hic), "enough to tell us," (hic) "the truth." (hic)
She paused to take a breath and try to get the hiccups under control.
Kar smiles at Adsila, "You certainly have an interesting place here." He says, "If you don't mind me asking, how did you get all this together? do the other locals give you any trouble?" He asks.
When Aananda starts crying, a look of fear and guilt becomes clear on Ryo's face.
"Nononononononono! Don't cry! Scream at me, hit me with the arm, but don't cry!" He trys very hard to get her to stop crying, but fails horrendously. This might explain why Adsila's garden is so big. ^-^
After he gives up trying to calm her down, Ryo listens to what Tamrin has to say.
"How am I supposed to know about reviving the undead? I'm no cleric or necromancer! All the knowledge of vampirism I have came from an ancient book! If he could have been brought back that way, why didn't you tell me sooner?"
"Because," (hic), "you didn't trust us," (hic), "enough to tell us," (hic) "the truth." (hic)
She paused to take a breath and try to get the hiccups under control.
Tam nods at Aananda's words.
"Because you let us believe that you had already destroyed him, and that you had exhausted all other options already. And I don't know that it would work, but if the results are either freeing his soul to go to his final rest, or bringing him back to life - those are still better options than leaving him stuck between life and death, if you ask me."
"You want the truth?"
"Long ago I looked into my own future once, by mistake, and saw me and Keaton. We were happy. We'd both gotten married to wonderful women, and he had moved to the city to be a merchant. If what happens in out timeline is set, what the hell happened? What changed so much that to cause this kind of pain? By all acounts, I shouldn't be here arguing with you!"
"Buy even if we go our seperate ways when we go back, even if we never see our talk to eachother again... I won't be sad that I knew you."
Kar smiles at Adsila, "You certainly have an interesting place here." He says, "If you don't mind me asking, how did you get all this together? do the other locals give you any trouble?" He asks.
"Other locals? The city is the closest thing to locals we have. The only people from there that ever gave me trouble were the people that didn't like their doors sprouting limbs and windows sills laying down roots. I can still do it, but now I have control over my magic and can do it when I chose to."
"I actually had nothing to do with any of this. You see, I'm a cross between street urchin and foundling. When Ryo, my teacher, found me, he brought me here to help me learn to control my special kind of magic. That was years ago though. I'm sure there are several people that think the word 'interesting' is an understatement though."
"Well I have my share of interesting aswell." He says, smiling at her. "I know what it's like living on the streets. This guy Ryo sounds like a stand-up guy. Taking you in and teaching you control, might like to meet him." He says
"You want the truth?"
"Long ago I looked into my own future once, by mistake, and saw me and Keaton. We were happy. We'd both gotten married to wonderful women, and he had moved to the city to be a merchant. If what happens in out timeline is set, what the hell happened? What changed so much that to cause this kind of pain? By all acounts, I shouldn't be here arguing with you!"
"If I had to guess...I'd say probably the tampering by the time demon and the attempts to correct it by the alternate versions of ourselves caused the changes. With the sheer volume of temporal magic flying around (that we know of), I wouldn't be surprised if there were 'ripple effects'."
"Buy even if we go our seperate ways when we go back, even if we never see our talk to eachother again... I won't be sad that I knew you."
"And there you go, assuming again..." he says with a sigh.
"You want the truth?"
"Long ago I looked into my own future once, by mistake, and saw me and Keaton. We were happy. We'd both gotten married to wonderful women, and he had moved to the city to be a merchant. If what happens in out timeline is set, what the hell happened? What changed so much that to cause this kind of pain? By all acounts, I shouldn't be here arguing with you!"
"Buy even if we go our seperate ways when we go back, even if we never see our talk to eachother again... I won't be sad that I knew you."
"Were you not paying any attention when Ephebe was explaining about time?! Time doesn't work like that. It's more complicated. What you saw exists in some version of reality that may or may not be the one you actually live in. That's why we've been trying to make this timeline as different from the others as possible since they all had unhappy results. Maybe you should think about that for a bit."
"Family doesn't walk away just because you're an idiot, by the way. And I'm done talking to you for a while until I calm down."
"Well I have my share of interesting aswell." He says, smiling at her. "I know what it's like living on the streets. This guy Ryo sounds like a stand-up guy. Taking you in and teaching you control, might like to meet him." He says
"You missed the point." Ryo thinks sadly.
"How do we know how time works? Because Ephebe told us? How do we know what was true in her reality is the same as in our own? There are places where time follows no rules at all."
[ooc]Shut up and get back in the card!
"You missed the point." Ryo thinks sadly.
"How do we know how time works? Because Ephebe told us? How do we know what was true in her reality is the same as in our own? There are places where time follows no rules at all."
"Since she worships a god of time - yeah, I think she knows what she's talking about." (^.^)
"And what you saw in that vision could very well be the end result of everything we're doing here now. Have you stopped to consider that?"
"All we can do is try to make a better future. That's all any of us can do, Ryo."
"Then I guess the question is: Do you still want my help making the future better, or would you prefer it if I left?"
Ryo's face is blank, and his eyes give nothing away.
"Then I guess the question is: Do you still want my help making the future better, or would you prefer it if I left?"
Ryo's face is blank, and his eyes give nothing away.
Aananda sighed and stamped her foot with frustration. "What part of 'family doesn't walk away just because you're an idiot' was unclear? Honestly. You are so...so...aagh! Just don't ever lie to me again or I'll kick your butt."
Aananda sighed and stamped her foot with frustration. "What part of 'family doesn't walk away just because you're an idiot' was unclear? Honestly. You are so...so...aagh! Just don't ever lie to me again or I'll kick your butt.""Then I guess the question is: Do you still want my help making the future better, or would you prefer it if I left?"
Ryo's face is blank, and his eyes give nothing away.
"As long as you don't break it. I'd hate to wake up one morning and.. You know what? I'm going to stop before I give you anymore ideas."
"Okay, so we still have to give Fivain the extra autocasters, and then it's time for us to go home. We are going to need to talk about this more later, Ryo. If for no other reason than to figure out how to help your brother. But Tam was right. We can wait to talk about it until we're back at home."
Laughing a bit, Kar starts to eat. An unfortunate side effect of baing able to become big, was having to eat big. As he eats he makes small chatter with Adsila, mostly talking about small talk topics, the news, weather, ect. After he has finished the plate he sets it aside.
"So." He begins, "I'd really like to repay you for your hospitality, is there anything I can do for you?"
"Okay, so we still have to give Fivain the extra autocasters, and then it's time for us to go home. We are going to need to talk about this more later, Ryo. If for no other reason than to figure out how to help your brother. But Tam was right. We can wait to talk about it until we're back at home."
"Alright - we'll take care of that. Ryo, pull yourself together" Tam says with a grin as he tosses the arm back at him, "and get some food in you. When we find Ryleh we'll come get you and head back to the comet."
Tam and Aananda head off to find Fivain.
"Yeah, sure." Kar says, "Hopefully I'm not getting in over my head here." He says scratching the back of his head.
Tam and Aananda head off to find Fivain.
Aananda wipes away her tears, blows her nose, and does her best to make it look like she hasn't been crying. She doesn't think Fivain likes her very much to start with and she'd rather not add to that.
Kar's eyebrows raied sharply as she said the word 'acres' but they lowered back quickly, he volunteered after all.
"Alright." He says, raising his hands in surrender when she eyes him about weeding the wrong plants, "I get it, no weeding the wrong ones. Just tell them not to attack me and I'll be fine." He says, following her to the area where the weeding needs to be done.
Tam and Aananda find Fivain on the Stellar Observation Deck. She is seated, going over something in a datapad in her hand.
Tam and Aananda find Fivain on the Stellar Observation Deck. She is seated, going over something in a datapad in her hand.
"Um, Fivain? I don't mean to interrupt or anything, but I have something for you. I, uh, think you'll like it."
Tam and Aananda find Fivain on the Stellar Observation Deck. She is seated, going over something in a datapad in her hand."Um, Fivain? I don't mean to interrupt or anything, but I have something for you. I, uh, think you'll like it."
She blinks, slowly - almost deliberately - before looking up, eyebrow raised appraisingly.
"If the rumors spreading around Engineering are any indication, I may indeed," she replies with a small smile.
Kar listens intently, not wanting to mess up and pull the wrong ones. He is tentative while weeding, and if he's not sure, he'll ask her before making a move.
Tam and Aananda find Fivain on the Stellar Observation Deck. She is seated, going over something in a datapad in her hand."Um, Fivain? I don't mean to interrupt or anything, but I have something for you. I, uh, think you'll like it."She blinks, slowly - almost deliberately - before looking up, eyebrow raised appraisingly.
"If the rumors spreading around Engineering are any indication, I may indeed," she replies with a small smile.
"These are autocasters," she said, setting down the two extra autocasters she had made on the table in front of Fivain. "They work like a starcaster, only personalized. They can provide oxygen, gravity, and elemental protections as well in case someone accidentally, or on purpose, ends up transporting into space."
She set the datapad next to the autocasters."All of the schematics and instructions on how to build these is right there on that datapad. I copied it from my personal notes. Also, I included my preliminary research on how to adapt this technology to provide a safer, more efficient power source than fusion reactors. Obviously it's up to you whether you want to pursue that or not."
She puts down her datapad and picks up the one Aananda placed on the table, pulling up some of her research.
"It seems that all of the praise regarding your technical savvy that has been heaped upon you is justified," she says after a moment. "Thank you."
She puts down the datapad and stands up.
"It has been...a very give and take experience, Aananda. I wish you the best in your travels," she says with a formal nod.