Wild New Years Traditions
Wild New Years Traditions
41461
THREADID
32
POSTS
21 - 30
DISPLAYED
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Presence
Education
Occultation
"I'm not a Luddite", he says pocketing the device, "Follow me, I want to show you two something", and with that he departs through one of the side hallways, headed toward the center of the Courtyard.
"Study the phone with your sights, what do you see?", he says once there, holding the phone for the two to see.
Okay, so the liquid crystal screen is not in shards yet. That's... good?
Winter's mentor act is greeted with perplexion, but for the moment Shodan decides to play along. If an example will bring their debate to the next level, and if it grants him more insight into who the Guardian is, then the investment of trust is worth it.
Prime scrutiny
Supernal Vision is not really a go-to spell to study a marriage of electricity (Forces) and alloys (Matter). However, it does have unquestionable subtlety, and that trait serves the Prime Mover well. He is able to pick up on the slight ebbs and flows that make up the device's resonance, hijacking the magics of Aether to know and see.
"Resonance, obviously" He answers after a long while of scrutiny "I can now also be absolutely positively sure it is a phone" Winter was clearly just waiting to make some kind of point, his 'aha!' moment. The Libertine simply waits for the plot to unfold.
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The shaman evaluates the phone, assuming he'll see a sleeping spirit of communication or information or technology or.... addiction.
Pre5 (Authority)
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Presence
Education
Occultation
The Lie was a dirty whore. It flaunted her alluring goods in front of your eyes, hoping to draw in the weak willed and keep their attention away from the knife hidden behind her back.
But the Lie wasn't entirely without merit, fragments of truths filtered to this side, or had never left.
"It's just a phone. The phone is merely a degradation of the truth. Don’t mistake it for the truth itself. A finger pointing at the moon is not the moon. The finger is needed to know where to look for the moon, but if you mistake the finger for the moon itself, you will never know the real moon.
It is useful, it's like a raft that carries you to the other side, but once you've crossed the river don’t hang onto it as your property. Do not become caught in it, don't let it become your prison. Use your technology, but don't put your Faith in it. Only Gods are worthy of our worship, and they're all but dead". They could miss the moon, but not the Truth. Stare directly into the Sun, and you'll be made painfully Aware.
"Close your eyes, open your will to mine", he says shortly before he begins chanting. The imago of a spell, blue strings flow mid air rearranged into the pattern of a glyph, to let their eyes perceive the metaphysical weight of the Supernal. He steps to the side, "This is the world through a Guardian's eyes", he gestures with his arm at the place where the Clock stood, Ouroboros, the Artifact holding the circle together. This is the difference, "Not just a clock".
you can contest by rolling resolve + gnosis if you wish
"It's not like the gods did a lot for us, when they were alive, either. Which is probably for the best" Not that Shodan believes in any worship-worthy figures - that kind of subjugation is just all wrong to him - but if those half-remembered Greek mythology lessons in school were correct, the gods were pretty vicious, self-serving dicks. If they don't interfere, it's all the better for humanity.
For some inscrutable reason, Shodan does not interfere with the Guardian's casting. Sure, he could've tried and stopped the forming glyph by counterspelling it, or force himself to reject it once it was latching onto his Pattern, but he didn't. Maybe it's because his curiosity overcame his better judgement in this relatively safe environment? Regardless, his eyes are open to the weight of Fate and it feels alien.
He can't rightly describe it, even, this pull around the Clock. It's like he's grown a new appendage, or like he has water in his ears. Just... weird "Funny that you mention the Clock of all things, because it illustrates a point about the Truth. I mean, we went back in time with it once to stop the Seers. Who knows how many times that's been done before. And yet it took an outside influence, a completely new factor to sweep them away. And they...it did it like it's nothing" At least going by the words used by the Hierarch that day when he returned "The old is worthy of study. It's good to use it when it's useful. But we need new ways of thinking, new ways of doing if we want to win" If you don't expand, move forward, you die. Just ask the dodo "I understand your point. At least I think I do. I just don't agree with it" And they will probably have to accept these fundamental differences and... well, move on.
"Now, please dispel" He says. Didn't they just have a situation like that at last Consilium meeting? The least Winter could do was inform them what kind of spell that is "And I'll have my phone back"
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Always eager for more information there is no resistance as the effect washes over him. The Shaman smiles at the both of them. They don't see what he sees they don't understand, the clock ticks, but on what? That which slumbers.
"I'm afraid you're only seeing the passage of time, but you're failing to see what is beyond the lie. The lie only exists here, but there is far more than here to exist. Here let me show you."
He quickly grants the other two vision into the the spirit world, the dormant spirit of the phone and the world around them not particularly interesting.
"You see just a phone, and the sleeping idea of a phone, but I see potential."
With unfocused eyes and unbridled joy the Shaman works. A quick chant in the Old Tongue, and his imago flairs bright and yellow. In an instant, where the faded, monochromatic phone had sat unremarkable, it comes alive.
The Shaman looks up with pure glee. "Would you like to talk to it?"
Pre5 (Authority)
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Presence
Education
Occultation
Unsurprisingly, neither Libertine seemed to acknowledge the difference between a phone, a simple form shaped from the Lie, and a manifestation of the Truth.
It is exactly because the clock is still here - despite attempts to erase its existence - that the item was beyond doubt Real. Alas, the deduction would be lost on his interlocutors.
To add insult to injury - as a very familiar feeling crawls through the drape of his neck - the Shaman has the gall to compare whatever he does with the Shadow, with that which lies beyond the great Rift.
Disrespectful - not toward himself, he didn't care about that - but toward the Truth. He pinches the bridge of his nose, at a loss for words.
Some people really could't handle it. "I suppose we agree to disagree", he replies rather diplomatically, returning Shodan his own device now cum spirit.
"Whatever floats your raft", he says without looking back. Hundreds of blue shards mark his departure.
Winter leaves the scene
"I suppose we do" He mutters in the general direction of Winter's back "Good talk" He says a little louder. With a bit of luck, the Guardian will still hear him.
With him gone (although the spell remains in place, forcing the Libertine to wait until it wears off naturally), Shodan can focus back on Anima, who seems very excited about the fact that everything around him - including, apparently, the phone - is alive. Spirits were never a topic Shodan paid much attention to, so he allows himself a moment of childlike joy "I... I can? Yeah, I can, can't I? I mean, it's not like I'm a spirit expert, but they are supposed to dwell everywhere, right?" He doesn't wait too long before basically answering himself "Neat"
Nevermind the fact that he has three different Sights on him. This newest one feels more like a sound, though, a constant hum of barely audible conversations you never noticed were there, but they were "I don't think we're going to have much of a conversation" How complex and self-aware could the spirit of a phone be? "But I'll try later. Potential... yeah, I think I see what you mean"
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A little narrative
The Clock glimmers, partially hidden under the tessellated tiles of the floor. The structure of the cathedral flashes briefly before the Sybil's Sight is withdrawn.
The phone beeps happily, as if it had just been plugged into a charger. With the Second Sight, the device now seemed crisper and more solid against the slightly drained hues and colours of the larger world. As one might expect for an area seeped in supernal magic, the frieze-like gauze of the Gauntlet that framed the periphery of their vision seemed weaker than average, but not dramatically so.
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The Shaman grins and releases his spells. The phone will remain alive for just the moment, not enough time to gain rank and power, but in the future...
“I’d love to show you again! If you were looking for a familiar a phone is a great place to start in today’s age. I can help bind it to you, and teach you to converse. Potential... that’s what everything has, just like the beautiful sleeping masses.”
He turns to walk away, pausing to look back
“Happy New Year Shodan”
Pre5 (Authority)
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Status (Neurosurgeon)
