Istredd (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
magicalarchaeologist) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
abraxaslogs2022-09-12 01:58 pm
magicalarchaeologist) wrote in abraxaslogs2022-09-12 01:58 pm
magicalarchaeologist) wrote in abraxaslogs2022-09-12 01:58 pm
no subject
Usually, she won't get anywhere near the Singularity if she can see anyone there. Not only does she need to avoid being questioned about what she's doing, she also simply doesn't want to deal with anyone else. Other people make noise, or they talk to her, and they're just a fucking distraction. Her whole domain revolves around interacting with other people -- this is the only place in the whole universe that she wants to be completely alone.
No one else needs to know that she isn't alone at all. She's with the most intimate company she's ever known.
But it has been a long, long few weeks. Cleanup and resettlement efforts still hang heavy over the Cities, and the air is tense. Julie is someone who has always used the Horizon, the Singularity, for comfort and relaxation. They make her feel better, they soothe wounds she doesn't even always know she has. And she feels like that salve is being stolen from her, little by little, by all of these clueless fucks who have no idea what they're doing or why they're there, and she is tired. Tired of people being in a space that she has the sole claim to.
So today, today she doesn't stop short across the path, turn and go back to Steven and her friends in her club. Today, she keeps walking toward it, her heels clicking harshly on the ground. She restrains herself enough to not outwardly seem irritated, but her eyes are narrowed.
She looks like she should be heading to a party, not coming to sit with a giant rock. Her choker is peridot and diamonds, her hair clearly styled. Her nails are an inch past her fingertips, pointed and acid green. The look she fixes this... interloper with is unamused. ]
What are you doin'?
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He is peacefully just minding his own business at this point. He is wearing simple and boring clothes of deep blues that set off the unusual brightness of his eyes, and he looks up when she speaks. He hears the heels beforehand, but sometimes people pass through or have their own reasons for being there. Istredd doesn't move from where he is, raising his eyebrows at her. The obvious answer is right there in front of her face but he decides being sarcastic about it is hardly friendly. ]
I find the Singularity soothing to be around.
[ In a way it is, it reminds him of the monoliths, it reminds him of his studies. It gave him a puzzle piece that if he finds out the answer, he may have answers everywhere. It is fascinating. So while it is very much engaging his mind and obsession at all times, he feels calm about it. He doesn't know why she's asking but hopes that is enough of an explanation, going back to his writing. ]
no subject
Speaking of connection.
The eye is open again, as focused on her as ever, and unlike with Rhy, there's no indication it can even sense this new person. It winds around her like a psychic python, nudges at her with its metaphorical nose. Want, it says, like it always does, and today there is an additional curiosity, a questioning and a... loneliness? She knows the feeling of loneliness better than any other possible feeling. Where have you been?, it asks in its wordless way.
There is a beat before she answers the man, as she splits her attention, tries to soothe the Singularity at the same time as she formulates her response. It's so difficult; the Singularity is overwhelming as it always is, wants to encompass her entirely. It doesn't like when she tries to juggle.
These new folks, they're taking you away from me, she answers, and it feels like the truth. ]
You're talkin' to it. It's a rock.
[ For all her internal struggle, her voice is steady, accusatory. Like he's done something wrong. Which is something of a suspicion, because she doesn't trust anyone she doesn't know to not hurt the Singularity -- for all she knows, he could be over here muttering curses, trying to make it fall. He's certainly not trying to draw magic or worship(?) it like some of the others she's seen. ]
You find all rocks soothin'? Or do you just mumble sweet nothin's to all the boulders you come across?
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[ Istredd is a little confused to find anyone coming up here and claiming it is just a rock, he may not have as close a connection to it as Rhy does (yet), but he can feel that it's alive. Maybe not alive in the way other people would consider it, but he feels the energy when he touches it. Then again, there are people who would probably think that, which is fair. Everyone has different perspectives on what is or isn't alive. ]
Maybe a conduit or channel to an entity. [ He admits. ] I haven't figured out the details but I'm working on it.
[ There is no reason for him to think that she would have a problem for any of this so he seems very polite and genuine. He's not even annoyed that she disturbed him, it's fine, they all have a right to it, since they share its space. Or at least that's how he sees it. He really does feel comfortable there with it, maybe because for the first time in his life he may actually get answers. Istredd has never felt like he was part of fate or supposed to be somewhere and do something. It almost feels like that.
He flips pages back to one of his conduit or channel entries. He really doesn't think he'll get answers on that until he goes there in person, if ever, but the chance is there.]
Magical rocks are kind of my specialty back home. I know it doesn't make a lot of sense.
[ Istredd assumes she would think him crazy like a lot of people in his Sphere do. Crazy or boring or his plans unimportant, whatever it is. ]
no subject
[ And that is, as far as she can tell, the truth. The stone itself is certainly not anything particularly special; Julie has researched just enough to figure out that, as far as anyone has ever been able to test (given the obstacles), it isn't made of special minerals or an alien substance. It's just a very big, regular rock. What she does think is that, whatever the Singularity really is, it has somehow managed to attach itself to this specific rock -- but the Singularity's power and magic are not isolated to this spot. This isn't the source, it's just a big deposit. The Singularity's tendrils stretch through every world, apparently, and based on Julie's many, many conversations over the past year, no one else has a rock that looks like this. Behaves like this.
So whatever he's studying can be studied in his own fucking domain. Or, preferably, in whatever territory he comes from. ]
I'm real sorry you're a dork an' all, but this [ she gestures vaguely at him, as if to suggest his mere existence ] don't fly. Whatever this rock actually is, it needs to be safe from random motherfuckers who just show up and mutter at it.
[ And maybe that's what it boils down to. Julie doesn't know this person. She knows Rhy, and she's at least met the Kyle guy, the other two she's taken note of spending time here. Julie, far more than most others, is not just possessive of the Singularity; she's protective of it. Was long before she ever realized she herself was tied to it.
No one knows what happens if this rock is hurt. It could end this whole world. And that might be fine for the others who can get thrown back to their own home worlds, but Julie isn't one of them. This is her last chance. And, connection or not, she is not going to risk being sent back to her dead Earth -- or worse. ]
no subject
You know true details about the Singularity?
[ This is mind-blowing to him because frankly, Istredd has been hitting walls wherever he's been researching. There isn't a lot of information about it even in Thorne's amazing library, probably because until recently no one could visit it. Grand generic things about it, but he has been dying trying to glean anything. He has been asking people where he can, and some of the Summoned have been trying to be helpful, Geralt included, but he hasn't been able to make any real notes. It has been a lot of guesswork by being told about the Horizon, the start of all of this, the strange memories and nightmares.
She is the first person to just offer up concrete thoughts on it. That isn't to say she is right, he doesn't know that yet, but it's more than he has gotten from any other stranger so far, at least up front. ]
Sorry for the level of enthusiasm I'm about to get to, but you have no idea how desperately I've been seeking answers of any kind. There seem to be a very limited number of people who know anything true about it.
[ Istredd is rarely passionate about anything, he tends to be pretty calm outside of when he ends up ranting about historical inaccuracies or the fact no one takes the monoliths seriously outside of him. But this is different. ]
The Singularity may be one of the most important entities across all of our Spheres but this continent knows almost nothing about it. Which hasn't stopped them from poking at it like children, but ... sorry that's not important.
[ It's just him being frustrated at yet another group of mages who care more about getting power than whether they should have it. ]
Please, if there is anything you can tell me, I would be so appreciative.
no subject
The rest is suspicion over anyone new who's too interested in the Singularity. This man, who has yet to even introduce himself, is digging into something he can't understand -- Julie doesn't understand it, and it's within her being, so there's no way this man can. It's not normal. The other Summoned take a few months to get their bearings before they have any deep interest in the Singularity, by which point the others will know them and whether or not they are to be trusted. With information, with proximity, with anything at all.
Her apprehension riles up the Singularity's conscious within her, its metaphorical hackles also raised. They amplify each other. ]
I don't even know you.
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[ Istredd takes a step back and bows stiffly to her. He really has to start getting his shit together when it comes to interacting with new people. It isn't an excuse that he barely reacted to them for awhile now, he is now in a social situation and that means his social graces need to be worked on. He did learn them at school, they were all impeccably taught how to be diplomatic during magic. He can be charming, although usually only to normal people, most of his fellow mages write him off due to his interests. ]
I'm Istredd. If you know Yennefer and Geralt, I'm from their Sphere. Yennefer and I trained in magic at the same time back when we were young.
[ Very young, they snag them when their powers first emerge, and if they're lucky, it is when they are young enough not to kill someone or themselves using Chaos incorrectly. He was the first mage Yennefer ever met and while their relationship is fraught, it comes from a place of deep understanding. ]
They've both been helping provide me with information, but ... they've never talked about it the way you just did.
[ Probably because neither of them saw it the same way. Yennefer sent him toward Stephen Strange to talk out that more, and he is looking forward to perhaps getting to know Rhy better. Geralt is all about facts and he is only interested in it for the fact he has a young ward to worry about. Istredd has no idea she is here, and just assumes Geralt is still worried about her even here. The Singularity is too close to monoliths, it's impossible not to make the connection. ]
But you don't have to take my word. I will leave now and let you commune with it, but if you know them and hear from them that I'm trustworthy on this issue, I hope we can speak again. If you want, of course, no pressure.
[ Although he is very hopeful now that she will. This is the first person who spoke with any passion or emotion behind it at all, and that means she cares. And what he needs to learn is that sort of care. Intellectually is all well and good, research is another, but Istredd has always cared about it at his core.
He wants to ask her more, he is bursting with curiosity, but he definitely gets that he messed up the approach to this. So he sucks down his questions and nods respectfully to her again before turning to go, as promised. ]
no subject
It's just weird. Julie had not developed her own interest in the physical Singularity until well after she began learning magic, when she realized just how out of the ordinary her connection with the Horizon is. And even then, for quite a while, she had approached the concept of the Singularity as much more like a spirit than anything else. Still does, to an extent -- she has called on the Singularity from Cadens, in the waking world, and she's almost sure she got a response. She goes to it in the Horizon only because she's learned that's where it feels the most responsive. But it's the difference between speaking to someone who's awake and someone who's talking in their sleep. She can hear it either way, but it hears her best when it's awakened by her presence.
Her brow only furrows deeply when he brings up Geralt. Who the fuck is Yennefer? Istredd says Yennefer and Geralt, not Yennefer or Geralt. Doesn't that sound much more like they're somehow involved with each other, here? But he's never mentioned anyone from his world except Jaskier and Ciri. He's told her of Vesemir, of his brothers, and she has no reason to think that he would not mention them if they were summoned to Abraxas. Why would he not say that there's someone else here? And if it's someone that Geralt knows, then Jaskier and Ciri would know her too, right? How can all three of them be simply forgetting to mention a whole other person? ]
Um, thanks. I guess.
[ She only says it because she doesn't know what else to say. There's not anything to thank him for. Midwestern manners, more than anything else. If Istredd expects her to change her mind and speak up or stop him from leaving, he's sorely mistaken. She does nothing of the sort. She watches him leave, a deep knit between her eyebrows, her hand still on the Singularity. She's never taken it off.
The Singularity nudges her again, asks her what's happening. Its curiosity always feels more like pure question marks, a ??? of confusion rather than a pointed question, but she finds she understands it without need for words. Her weight settles closer to it, though she still stands, and she moves her thumb back and forth without thinking about it.
I don't know, she tells it honestly. She doesn't know what to take away from this meeting, from this man. She had not been expecting to hear Geralt's name, and it rattled her more than she would have thought.
Want comes the response, fills her like sudden starvation, and she leans her head to the stone for a moment, her temple against it. Yeah, I know, honey, she reassures. We'll figure it out together. Soon, okay?
Julie breaks contact and feels the Singularity give what seems to her to be a sigh, a rolling over. Acceptance. Then it fades away, trickles out of her body like it tends to when she leaves it, as if it wants to go back to sleep. She pats it idly and then heads back to her own domain, to see if maybe Steven knows anything about an Istredd.
Or a Yennefer. ]