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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 2:35 pm
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Shiloh had... figured, in a way. The knowledge they were dead still sunk in his gut, but hadn't every Shiloh before him died? Now he was a principal and a Noble, and he'd likely be the last Shiloh to exist until forever. The thought was sobering.
"Those all seem kinda arbitrary." He sniffed, cataloging the information in his brain. If he didn't have a good poker face earlier, he was starting to acquire one now; his face was blessedly neutral as he mulled everything over. Liam's engagement ring, Renard's grimoire, crossroad dirt, Sunny...
"...A bird taught to mimic an air raid siren though?" He tilted his head inquisitively, "I mean, everything else seems easy to get," They had gotten Renard's original schema after all; it had to be possible, "But that just seems weird as ******** class="quote">azuredreams
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 6:06 pm
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"They were creating a cage and, in the creation of a cage, you need elements of the person that is going to be bound. As the practice was, for married couples, to pool their magic together, they needed things from both Renard and Liam," the grimoire and the ring, "that they could either say were freely given or likewise lay claim to without a need to counteract the fact that they were potentially stolen."
Another bit of proof that consent mattered. Items not freely given had to be counteracted.
"I assume they wanted to cover everything, so that was likely why the dirt, as for the birds? They were fed Renard's blood and the dirt, taught to mimic the air raid sirens in case Renard ever came close to breaking the cage." A small pause. "Did you hear one? During your time in the Void? During the eighties?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 12:56 am
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Hellbine perked them, rolling over onto his back and then onto his stomach as he stretched himself up on his hind legs, paws pressed to Shiloh's torso, to try and peer towards Bean. Plant baby.
"I've heard others who were within the different time periods state that there were air raid sirens going on during the reality collapses, like when the bomb went off. It could imply, for whatever reason, Renard was close to breaking the cage or that the cage was, in truth, close to breaking on it's own. We do not know." Nodding as Shiloh continued on, he couldn't be in more agreement. "Essentially, yes, I believe so. Due to the lack of consent and the fact that you were binding magic that was already bound ... we created a potentially worse problem but likely moved ourselves to a world that's more befitting of solving things.
"As for the cycles themselves? The original group did not intend them or that's what I've been lead to believe. They did not account for the fact that Renard's schema had a time element to it and in not accounting for that, the cage was created with the cycles."
Jeremiah was quiet a moment before he spoke. "I assume that the feeding of the dirt and blood was to attune them to the purpose they were meant to serve. As for locating some of it ... America and I are working on the ring, though there's little to be done until Liam Noor is no longer missing." A breath escaped. "The birds are also known in a manner. They're children, Beaumont. Rabbit's sirens are the descendants of those birds, changed by the magic over the thousands of years the cage and cycles have gone on. We have to find another way to deconstruct the cage without them." As obviously harming them was not acceptable in the slightest.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 5:40 pm
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Bean's eyes were huge as Hellbine observed him. He started up a cat-and-mouse sort of thing as he continued to peek out and then hide and then peek out again like it was some sort of a game. Shiloh seemed oblivious to this—or really good at ignoring it.
"I do remember that now, yeah..." He sighed. "Even if they didn't account for it, how did they thing doing something this large scale was okay? I dunno..."
Everyone had ulterior motives, he reminded himself.
"I hope they find Mr. Noor soon..." Shiloh said as he poked at the lawn, "At least you—?!" There was a strangled sound, "—W-Wait, wait, the sirens? Rabbit's? You mean Nev and Sy?" His eyes were huge. "There's no way we're hurting them. I'm not hurting Sonny or Sunny or whoever either. No one needs to hurt. No more death." His voice was raising a little, but he was absolutely adamant about it. "None of it. I'm having none of it."
But this was good to know, too. His mind was ticking behind his panic.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 6:00 pm
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"I won't tell anyone else. Nobles are supposed to protect Othercreatures, and they're no exception." The way he said it made it sound like he'd rehearsed it. This was likely because he had. This was probably due in part to Beel, but regardless. "I mean, aside from Jamie, but..." He blushed, "I can't really help that. It's really hard for us to keep secrets from one another."
Almost impossible, really, without a great degree of trust that the other wasn't going to go rooting around in their partner's headspace.
"I'll have to look into alternatives, because the cage has to be broken." He was the key, it kinda felt like his job, "Court too, and everything else. Remaking the charter is just a quick fix to free Melany, if nothing else. At the end of the day, I want it all gone." Burned to the ground, he thought. "I just want things to be how they were. Maybe they weren't perfect or great, but it was normal. We died and stayed dead. Life continued to move forward." He sighed. "The world didn't end in November. I wouldn't have to watch my brother die, or Jamie die. I wouldn't have to deal with the guilt of meeting their new-cycle selves, wondering if I should be treating them the same or differently, let alone waiting hundreds of years to even meet them."
Shiloh was silent.
"Sorry..." He sounded a little bitter.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 6:16 pm
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"Exactly," Jeremiah said in agreement. "We are meant to protect them as much as we are meant to ensure that they do not influence this world." His lips twitched a bit. "I'm not going to expect you to keep secrets from Jamie. It would be as if you were asking me to not tell Algie something." Jamie and Shiloh were not married but it was, in his mind, essentially so.
He was quiet again, listening to Shiloh speak and he understood. "The Charter is a failsafe. It frees Melany but it also is there for us to be able to continue and act, to do something that would enable us to break free of the cage and cycles if we cannot do so this time while stepping away from the mistakes of the old. " His focus shifted back to Shiloh. "I would much prefer a world without all of this. Magic, yes, clearly that's meant to be part of the world - it was before all of this - but none of this ... living for countless centuries, watching people we love and care for live and die again, worrying about what we should do when we meet them again, or being physically altered by the magic to the point we may have to step away from lives in this world."
A breath escaped.
"Which leads me to this: you remember, at the conference, when Silk referred to other ashdown as the real world? She is not incorrect. It is the real world. Potentially all of it that remains from before the cage."
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Posted: Tue Jun 06, 2017 6:02 pm
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Shiloh had his thumb in his mouth as he aggressively gnawed at his nail (or what could be considered his nail; his hands were pretty disgusting and rough). "That's just the thing though," He said finally, licking his lips, "The charter gives us this ability to survive through the cycles. If s**t goes bad this time? Hey, we'll have what. a couple hundred years to try again." He sucked in a breath, "But I just don't think that's gonna work, y'know?"
He looked up at Jeremiah with something weird in his eyes, something primal and harsh and like a cornered prey animal—or maybe like a hawk with an injured wing and nothing to lose.
"Like, I'm personally ******** either way. If we nixed Court now, I'm still a principal. I'd still live on in the cycles, prolly." The others did, "But I honestly think if we can't do it this time—if I can't succeed and Jamie has to die—there's really going to be no coming back." His eyes hadn't left Jeremiah, "Like, seriously ********, and it ain't 'cause I have trouble watchin' a loved one die. Sure, that'd rip my heart out, but I don't trust my head to stay screwed on right." Bean had knocked his beanie off, but in the midst of the conversation Shiloh didn't seem to care. After a while the sprout jumped off of his shoulder to dart around in the grass, still apparently entranced with this game with the cat.
"We're really close," He said as he drew shapes in the dirt, "Closer than close." Shiloh tapped his head, "Our minds got tangled up and they're only getting more tangled. I feel what he feels, he feels what I feel. If the link gets compromised it hurts." Nosebleeds, migraines, dizziness and nausea...
"I don't want to think what death would do to it." He finally looked away with a quiet sigh. "Anyway, it really makes sense doesn't it? That magic is malleable and easy to cast in Otherworld, and everything that could ever be considered magical is on that side anyway, and then you have the Court who's supposed to serve as gatekeepers so s**t stays separate." He paused, "It's almost like they ripped all the magic from the world and contained it. I mean, it is."
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