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Post by Zyren on Jul 7, 2023 13:11:59 GMT -5
He listened with great interest as he pondered over her expression, wondering to himself absently if he had said something wrong. Probably the innuendo. Poor taste indeed. I should add 'unable to chat to women' to my list of various titles. He finally decided when a bead of sweat trailed down his temple.
However, that quickly changed when he straightened a bit, then asked in an animated manner: "Corruption and darkness? I assume this is different from the causation caused by the Tree of the End? Or..."
He paused, pondering, and spoke quietly to himself as he hummed: "Or was it called the Tree of Death here? Hmm." WC: 110
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Post by Sitka on Jul 10, 2023 18:05:56 GMT -5
Combat Rune, Telepathic Link
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Post by Zyren on Jul 11, 2023 14:15:22 GMT -5
At the mention of the appropriate word, he gave her a grin, his chagrin forgotten at messing up the phrase; "That's the one! As he listened to her continue and ask her own question, he paused, his smile faltered as his eyes grew distant. That hiccup however, lasted only a moment, and he shrugged. "I've seen both the seed as well as the tree itself...and the fruit."
A memory blossomed in his mind's eye, of a beautiful world in a different time; a world that bustled with life and technology. Then, a returning visit to find it war-torn and barren of any and all life - except one. A friend-now-turned enemy, floating amongst the bodies of their order.
A dead order.
He looked away as he rubbed his temple, partially to disguise the nervous tick in his hand as he adjusted his hair. "I will have to agree, from a scholarly standpoint. It's fascinating that a thing such as it exists and how it conducts it's business, and how it can condense all that energy into one tiny fruit for such miraculous results.
WC: 182/292
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Post by Sitka on Jul 16, 2023 18:57:49 GMT -5
Her expectations panned out. He had definitely lost some type of civilization to the Tree of Might. He didn’t say it out loud, but his body language spelled it out clear as day. Someone else might have put on a sympathetic face but Sitka merely watched him with a pleasant expression as if she couldn’t read him at all and they were talking about flowers or the change in season, albeit with a little more interest.
In the end he folded to her logic, and she wondered if that’s what he really wanted to say on it. It seemed so, at least in the wants bubbling at the forefront of his mind. Bury it. Distract. Think on something less emotional.
“The more catastrophic an event, the more it probes the mind. Even if you don’t want to think on so much death, the overwhelming force of it is a marvel. How did that happen? Why did we let that happen? Could we stop it? Could it be replicated? The questions are endless.”
//
He nodded, relaxing as his eyes studied her distractedly, wondering if she caught his various hiccups or if she was truly unable to catch it; true to his nature of hiding away his bad memories. After a moment of silent pondering, he mentally gave a headshake. She has to be really good at hiding it. I doubt anyone I've met that can access this plane be incapable of a decent poker face...or be that unattentive.
"The questions are endless," he said, acknowledging her statement as true, "Regardless, I believe I distracted you from the original topic at hand, Miss Sitka. What was the corruption that you had mentioned? I've heard nothing about it, nor have I read anything on the subject."
//
Sitka looked back ahead, keeping her ‘poker face’ as it were. The reality was simpler, though a bit more cruel. She wasn’t purposefully feigning not to know, it was just that knowing wouldn’t take the conversation where she wanted it to go. She doubted it was where Soul wanted to go either, so she showed her interest in continuing the conversation, but politely, so he could change the subject it he wished, which he did, and that suited her just fine.
“The fringes of the universe are not often topics of study. It’s tedious to even get out there without any jump gates, and so many star systems in between the civilized galaxy and anything interesting, are, well, boring,” she explained. “Every so often someone will get out there but those areas are constantly changing making returning a struggle. You can try and place a ki signature to return via something like instant transmission but it’ll vanish in no time at all, and the signals come back extremely murky. Technology falters and distorts. Placed Jump Gates fail. Most people give up. There’s enough mysteries to study within the civilized galaxy to get through before venturing into an area no one needs to venture to.”
//
Soul had many thoughts swirling about him as she enlightened him on reports, theories, or general information that she had. Was it specifically one of those, or neither? No, not important. Jump gates. A way for ships to travel from one gate to another. Was it instant? Faster than light? Folds in space---no, not important.
His ship didn't need to use one on a general basis, as it had an ancient power core. Technically, all he had to do was plot coordinates and-no, not important either.
Soul's mind abruptly stopped on the fact that technology and Ki signatures failed. Was it people interfering? The Dominus Alliance? Or was it something like...
His brain started to overthink itself once more over the few seconds since she told him all of that information, and he shook himself, stopping it as he asked: "Surely there are theories? People that might be interrupting and causing trouble? Or is it something like anti or dark matter?"
//
“There are many theories, but when proving them requires traveling back there…not much gets proven at all,” she explained, looking back to him as if she could see the gears churning in his head. He was definitely a scholar.
“Though, rumor has it there’s an entire division of the Galactic Science Association camped out there. Maybe they already know, but like a dead star, the change hasn’t reached us,” she offered him, giving him even more to think about.
Despite the name, the GSA had closer ties to Damaskia then the entire galaxy, but that was simply because Damaskia allowed for such questionable practices. The GSA in comparison to the scholars, while both fixated on learning, lacked the same moral compass. It would be happy to abandon its scientists on the other side of the galaxy just to see what happened, even if they didn’t find out for centuries.
//
He hummed, thinking over various formulae and calculations, of potential possibilities as well as the impossible ones; "I see." Soul looked up, then paused, a thought occurring to him much like how lightning struck to leave someone befuddled. "Couldn't one be stationed there and given a link to this realm, which they could use to provide feedback and reports reliably?"
The Saiyan grew excited as his melancholy about the previous topic faded; "The Galactic association could use it to keep in contact real time. Potentially provide several crews and countermeasures to keep in contact with one another on that side, then if all fails, provide a concise reason as to why."
He paused, then gave her a grin full of chagrin; "Not necessarily the best case scenario expecting the worst for the people sent or volunteered for such a task, but if a military group were to act as body guards for the scientists, surely more information could be gleaned than mere speculation." Another pause, and he added; "Or does the interference also hinder the Astral realm?"
//
Sitka smiled as lightning struck, even if it was the same lightning that had struck other people in the past. She waited for him to finish, asking the final question to kill his thesis.
“It does,” she said but not in the tone of someone disappointed by another failure of transferring information. Apparently, this additional issue made it all more intriguing for her.
“That brings us back to the original phenomena I spoke off. A corrupting force that destroys entire worlds and potentially leaks into space itself to distort reality in such a way it finds disconnect with our side of it, and even with the Astral Realm,” she explained. “Now, of course, that in itself is a theory. It could be a vast number of other things, but there has been witness of this at least dismembering planets, with an assessment that on these worlds its almost impossible to get contact out even back into nearby space.”
//
He frowned, not at his questions being easily dismantled but because how efficient the corrupting force was. "Dismembering planets? Does this corruption have intelligence, and does it do what it does because that's what its nature decides, much like how a bear is, or is it malignant?" His frown deepened when he asked the questions on his mind, for something about this seemed...familiar? Was this a memory fragment lurking in the shadows, waiting to be called or a specific piece of information to be revealed to finally reveal itself to assimilate once more back to his mentalscape and soul?
Or, was it something more mundane, something he had read in his countless pursuits in the library of nearly 'endless' knowledge and forgotten about it because it was relevant to what he was searching for?
//
“We’d have to ask those camped out GSA members,” Sitka said her smile growing almost sly. Of course, there was only limited data. It took too long to get back and forth and who knew what studies had actually been conducted. It was a matter for long life species, and such scientific progress would take a very long time to actually progress.
But, the woman had suggested this was something she wished to study, and not with the GSA but with the scholars.
“I’ve heard some data will be surfacing soon,” she explained. “Someone is making it back, potentially with samples,” she said, her tone staying in that easy drawl rather than quicken with excitement. “The GSA is brazen enough to do it, and the study is of such significance that Grand Master Adel has made some inquiries. The Library has certain tools beyond the GSA. It could be quite fruitful, but I imagine the findings won’t be published for a long time.”
//
"Oh." He said, his voice dropping a bit at that bit of information. Was it nice? Yes. Why didn't he hear about this before she, when it was part of his order? Did that mean she knew either people on the inside, or was she a part of a different organization? Possibly. Did it matter if the information wasn't to be distributed to anyone for either a long time, or if they didn't have the right clearance--
"OH!" He said, this time more excited as his tail whipped around and he held up a finger; "You could always join the Scholars--if you don't mind being tied down-and work your way upward to get the information." Soul paused, eyes on her to judge her response as he turned in place, walking on the streets and uncaring if it was raining as he did so; his own grin turning either a bit sly or witty. "If you wanted, of course. I could always help you ascend the ranks--not that I doubt you'd have trouble on your own--if you want company?"
//
Sitka looked back to him expectantly when he let out the more ecstatic ‘oh,’ then she laughed at his newest lightning strike. Just a chuckle that was good natured more than condescending. It all brought them back to the beginning of the conversation after all, and his almost startled jump back there was cute.
She wasn’t sure, as she stated at the beginning. Soul’s thoughts were beyond her, but the reality was that she had some connections in the GSA, as well as the various channels of things. Information was a valuable currency, so she had ways of finding out things like Adel even speaking to the GSA. It was all out of her hands ultimately. She would go where the script told her to go.
“Are you high in the ranks?” she asked slyly, perhaps realizing he meant in 'company' that he wanted to work together, but taking it for how it sounded in order to tease him. After all, it sounded like a pompous Sage hitting on a future student with promises of pushing them forward in their ambitions. He didn’t seem the type, but she figured he’d realize quickly his newest vocal plunder, hence the tease.
//
He got a laugh, that was a good sign, or so he hoped. He didn't really have any hopes toward a potential friendship or whatever this was or could be, but a shot not taken was one destined to fail. At her question, however, he would have stalled if it wasn't for him emulating the rain that fell around them. "Not at all! I've satisfied myself reading and doing what I can at the basic 'scholar' rank, but as you've said and the reason I've alluded to; information is probably better available to the one's that have earned it. I'm merely asking that if you decided to join, would you want to work as peers?"
The Saiyan turned around and looked upward into the dark clouds, then shrugged, a bit bold, yet also a bit skittish. Did he screw up? Did he do another innuendo on accident or screw up in the conversation somewhere? Who knows? Best to back off a bit, see how she reacted and use the time to try and recover and think; "Hell, you could join and work by yourself or with whomever you want. You seem to have a great mind for it and I'd be remiss to squander this opportunity to embark on the journey with you, wherever the destination may lead."
//
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