Out of the Blue

Re: Out of the Blue

Postby Glenn » Wed Dec 18, 2024 8:19 am

"Not immune," he licked at his lips, thinking for a word. That wasn't like him, not at all, but then they were in the sort of uncharted territory they only ever ventured into every other day or so. That was one reason why he didn't rush off to Her side. So long as he had Benedict, he didn't need to. Neither bird nor human had made that connection, and if neither of them did, the Tuatha Queen almost certainly did not. She didn't see either of them in the exact right way to connect such dots. If she did, would she be relieved or would she be aghast? But there was a word he was looking for and having found it, he decided to try it out. "Neutral."

So much work and it was only exactly as the raven had thought it, but of course, for Glenn, it was a positive thing. "This is tricky business. All of this," and at that he gestured to papers upon papers stacked in the corner of the room. Research. As you noted, Glamourie. It follows rules but they are a symbolic sort. Don't step off the path, right? That's the heart of all of it. Extrapolate that out, Benedict." As a magician, he was, as he was in all other things, a sophist. The things that went bump in the night specifically went bump, specifically in the night, because you could not reason with them. Otherwise, they'd sip tea in the daylight. But then his stubbornness to agree to that one simple tenet of reality had gotten him so far, earned him so much, and cost him all the more.

And it had landed him right here, with a talking raven, a fairy queen, and the bard of all bards. "There are endless paths. Every decision you make can be on or of a path. Every attitude. Every desire. So long as I want nothing tangible, I am on the path. So long as I do not crave power, I am on the path. So long as I am pure of intention, I am on the path." No fingers rose up as often did when Burnie started his lists. He did snort just a little at the end, another rare occurrence. "So long as I am good as dead, I am on the path. The moment I take a breath and want something more than a steady, balanced, even exchange that is for the sake of itself and learning for the sake of learning, that is when I am off the path." He did not look at Benedict then, but past him, through a wall towards the direction that he, mapmaker that he had been, knew the Queen and her camp might be found, no matter how many miles away. "And not a second sooner."
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Re: Out of the Blue

Postby Niabh » Sat Jan 04, 2025 12:57 am

"Yeah, but you ain't dead, though." The very idea tallied so well with the raven's own dire predictions (being a raven, and naturally inclined to gloom, he might be forgiven for being a little dire) that he began, unconsciously, to side-stepped at Glenn's feet, back and forth across the treadworn rug. Tall as he was, it annoyed him to have to look up at Glenn at a time like this, but Glenn occupied the only empty chair and there was no room on the desk without sweeping off half its contents. "You sure have a strange idea of 'dead,' wanker. Dead is dead. Dead is the end of choices, the end of preferences. If you're still alive, you still have something to lose. What I been tryin' to tell you all this time, and what she's been tryin' to tell you, is that if you follow this path long enough, sooner or later, you'll reach the point where the choice ain't yours anymore."

He shivered, fluffing out his feathers in a miasma of translucent dust that drifted in the lamplight. "I hate your feckin' death-talk, mate. You talkin' about being dead while there's still breath in your lungs to say it is an insult to those of us who risk our damn necks to stay alive."

He was less angry than concerned, as if this difference simply had not occurred to Glenn yet. Humans lived cheek-to-jowl with death; you'd think they'd be more familiar with its vicissitudes. The raven had gathered in the Morrigan's shadow and knew, unmistakably, the cold chill there.

"The High Bard knows. She knows a lot of things. You're honestly probably a lot safer with her than the Queen, because the High Bard knows what you are. The Queen's still learning, but she ain't careful."
Anything can be magic if you're gullible enough.
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Re: Out of the Blue

Postby Glenn » Wed Jan 08, 2025 7:51 am

Benedict had accomplished at least one thing with his musings on life and death and just what Burnie had yet to lose. He quieted the man. Glenn now sat in silence, looking not down at Benedict but instead at the wall, arm draped casually across his own chest, thumb pressed lightly into the edge of his chin while he rubbed underneath his opposite ear in soft, steady motions with his index finger. It seemed that he had stopped to think it all through. "Dead or not," he said finally, "I was lost. It took years to pull myself back. It was like waking from a dream." He was still staring at that wall, though his finger had stopped its twitching. "Waking and be surrounded by flames you set," a pause to swallow, a need that he was usually so good at stubbornly pushing through, "burning down everything you cared for. I crawled back, inch by inch, towards the light, only to find such fire in its place. I regained the ability to feel only to awaken in a world with nothing to do but mourn."

When he did look back down, it was with that wry smile, looking very much alive. "I was my own fairy story, Benedict."

The smile didn't fade even as he looked back away, not one to stare at a being that did not want to be stared at. "We humans, our stories end. Is this a postscript, an epilogue? One might find meaning or an inversion within such a thing, the dots connecting, pieces coming together, action given purpose." But then the smile faded and he shook his head. "It all seems too disconnected from that which came before."

Back to looking at Benedict then, this time with a dour expression yet cheery purpose. "I cannot be whatever I was. I am too stubborn to stop. I am incapable of it. Therefore, I must figure out who and what I am to be, and damn it if brushing up against the High Bard isn't as good a way to do so as any."
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