capeandcowllogs | Chance encounters

Entry tags:

Chance encounters

WHO: Geddoe and Blue-chan
WHERE: some alley near some bar, midtown
WHEN: Saturday latenight
WARNINGS: psh the violence won't even be that violent
SUMMARY: anti-Import sentiment, Blue to the rescue, and maybe some chatting
FORMAT: ELLE

Sometimes, Geddoe just wanted a quiet drink, and sometimes the best bars in which to do so had the idea to have drink specials, bands, and massive crowds on just the wrong night. The one he frequented most, where the owner was cool with his sword, was unexpectedly busy this particular weekend, so he gave it a miss and kept walking, looking for somewhere else more to his liking. The seedier neighborhoods were more likely to have seedy joints where no one looked up and wouldn't notice a big guy in leather armor, but those locations naturally featured an increased number of drunks wobbling around the sidewalk looking for fights. To those also harboring a burning anti-Import feeling, Geddoe was a walking target.

"Hey, you!" Geddoe heard the accusatory snarl behind him, and knew exactly who was being hailed. He didn't acknowledge it or turn around until someone shoved him in the back. "Yeah, you! Tough guy! Think you're hot shit and all. C'mon, let's see you use that sword! C'mon!"

The mercenary turned slightly, but did not draw Wild Geese. He didn't want to give these sorts the satisfaction. His glare darkened at the situation; there were four of them, all reeking of alcohol. One pointed at him. "Haha! Look, he's a pirate! C'mon, Captain Jack! ARR!"

Disgusted, Geddoe turned to continue on his way. But one of them went too far, grabbing his arm. He swung around so fast that the fist was in the guy's face before he even saw it coming. But alcohol fueled courage, so instead of fleeing, they swarmed on him. The flash of orange light in the midst of the melee was the reflection of the street lamp on the blade of a sword.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Geddoe eyed him. "I hardly need a bodyguard." As long as no one else was going to drive a car straight at him. He huffed and looked away, then. "You're free to walk wherever you like, if our paths happen to be going the same way."

He didn't know Blue didn't live at the MAC. But he genuinely did not care one way or the other. If the willowy guy wanted to walk with him, so be it.

Blue's mouth quirked, quickly pressed into a thin line to suppress it. It really is like talking to Zel again... (But not that Zel. It's all coincidence or conspiracy, truly.)

He said nothing more to it, simply bowing his head and leaning into motion again – this time toward the MAC, as long a trek as it was. Not just once did he wonder suggesting to fly, assuming, somehow, he'd get the answer he knew he'd have gotten from his old friend...

Old friend or new, Geddoe would not have relished flying one bit, no. Fortunately, he wasn't even aware it was an option and contentedly strolled along. He kept Blue on his good side, mostly because it was still, after seventy-odd years, disconcerting to be talking to someone hiding in his blind spot. "You mentioned the growing tension," he said off-handedly. "It was no mere speculation. Can you sense that it actually is growing worse?"

"I can," Blue affirmed, sending his gaze about once more at the prompt. "It's not the easiest thing to explain, but...if you thought of this city as a kind of canvas, and the minds of the millions of people here as the colors on it...brighter shades have darkened in many places, changing the atmosphere of the whole composition." Color, he thought, was as close an comparison as he could get. Color...or sound.

"Or...music suddenly taking on a lower key in enough places to affect the entire ensemble's tone." He looked back at Geddoe. "Though many aspects remain about as similar as they did at the start, the influence of so many darkening tones inadvertently begins to darken the rest. It's unconscious in many, and hardly isolated to the natural-born humans here."

This was useful information. Metaphors aside, Geddoe could understand the vibe of growing tension. "Not isolated...? That would not bode well," he murmured thoughtfully. "Imports fighting amongst themselves. I have never been impressed with our inability to unite, but darker influences turning us against each other is far worse."

He had little loyalty to the cause, he didn't see the whole of Import-kind as an "us" to be against "them," precisely because they were so varied and really didn't know how to work together in the slightest. He thought of the tribes of the Grasslands and Zexen, and the squabbles around the war table while the Harmonian army marched to their doorsteps. This is more than any one man can handle, to be sure.

"Time and repetition," Blue said, his head and stare still turned elsewhere. "A...conditioning. Expectations. Ill-conceived good intentions. Apathy. The things here that seem to be nothing but predictable ebbs and flows will alter as time passes." His gaze fell, watching straight ahead with a thin-lipped frown.

"It can be assured that those here who feel the weakest here will be the ones to reach for the greatest extremes to change everything. It's already begun. And it will alter the scope of everything you've come to expect, little by little."

Saying such things allowed was hardly any comfort; Blue's shoulders drew up a little against it. "I do worry about it. What it means for everyone. What it might lead to. There's too much good here which could sour slowly."

"Such things are hardly unusual, in the scheme of life," Geddoe mused. "Taken alone, it is simply the human condition. If it all connects to one source, though..." His lips pursed with a frown. "Feelings are one thing. Prompts to take action, that's another entirely. If you must worry about anything, worry when people take those feelings and use it to fuel action. Like our drunk friends tonight."

His attention shifted to the Rune again, briefly. Even a will which could impress itself on another could be resisted. Feelings harmed no one, he thought, only actions. When it crosses the line from one to the other, then he would worry.

"Hardly unusual..." Blue's voice trailed from a soft sound to quiet. It was all natural, then? The course being taken? He'd wondered if it was, perhaps, something exclusive to the world they inhabited – the kind of humans it raised. No different, anywhere?

That was a sad thought. Sad, yet hopeful at the same time.

"Humans are similar here and where you're from, then?" he pressed at length, though already assuming the answer.

Geddoe gave him a small frown, wondering at the nature of the question. "Of course," he answered. "No different at all. Those here may not worry as much about war as they do about their music and famous people, but in spirit, they are all the same." That it could be otherwise never occurred to him.

Blue's stare lingered for a few moments after the answer, slowly turning toward the way ahead. No different at all? With or without centuries of external breeding? Did that even factor in? He couldn't help but feel it would, despite what he'd heard often contrary.

It was left to silence, ultimately, as Blue gave no reply aloud. It was footsteps and the hum and growling of vehicles slowing and speeding up at corners, streetlights glowing all the brighter for the heights compact buildings reached in covering the sky. Many, many minds wrapped up in sleep – sometimes more vibrant in that state than waking, in ways.

And that gentle tug of something close but not altogether known. That, too. Blue frowned.

Without other runes around to react to, True Lightning's voice was muted, uncertain. It did not stir for just any power. But it was there, and as Geddoe was already thinking about his homeland and the past, it was showing a tendency to encourage those thoughts. Memories were the Rune's stock and trade, and it stored ten times as many as the century-plus-old man now carrying.

As for Geddoe? He was paying more attention to their surroundings than anything. But the long silence was comfortable, making that frown noticeable enough. His eyebrow twitched, and he gave a little "Hm?" as if to ask a question.

Prompted aloud at last, Blue's attention was pulled away from the puzzle, and his gaze followed back up to Geddoe. Seeing the question spelled out further in his demeanor, Blue pressed his lips together all the tighter as he tried to think of how to explain.

"There's..." He let out a small huff of air, brow furrowing. "It's almost like another mind, but not really...I've been trying to listen, but it's very quiet. But...still there."

"Mm?" Geddoe frowned back, perplexed, but then it dawned on him. To confirm it, he lifted his right hand and flexed it some. "By chance, is it here?"

The Soldier blinked. It seemed very random to have picked his hand, of all things, to...

No, wait. His eyes narrowed, having to stop and bid Geddoe stop, as well. Like trying to pick out a single instrument in a massive symphony, or a single stroke of color...but if one knew better where to listen or look...

His eyes flickered back up to Geddoe without being certain, questioning. Was it there? If it was, then...why?

Geddoe paused to accept the scrutiny, surprisingly patient. It had been a while since anyone else acknowledged it as anything besides a power, a tool, a weapon in his arsenal. "The True Lighting Rune," he murmured.

Unthinking, one of Blue's hands had begun to move for want to reach for it, but he quickly caught himself and instead drew it toward himself, a couple fingers curling under his chin as he pondered it over.

"It's...a living being, then?" he asked, slow and unsure if that was even the right conclusion to come to.

Geddoe lowered his hand, not once taking off his glove. "No," he said bluntly. "Runes are the source of magical power in my world. True Runes..."

His good eye shifted evasively. His tendency to keep his own secrets was eroding the longer he existed in this world, where heroes called each other by name all the time. "It is said, by some, that they were born at the creation of our world. They have a will of their own, and retain the memories of every person who has ever borne them. Perhaps that is what you sense."

"Incredible," Blue breathed, unable to keep the fascinated smile off of his face. Such things captivated him – things with so much force and impact through minds and hearts, memories part of it. It was something he craved, in ways, though not often consciously.

But...

He squinted up at Geddoe, as if to read the answer off his face right away. "What do you say of it? What it means..."

"What it means?"

Geddoe's own thoughts on the Rune were still in the realm of personal. His expression tightened subtly. "It is a part of me," he said simply. "If I were to lose it, I would die." And that was all he would say, though it didn't take a mind-reader to see that there was a lot more going on, there. He had only come to trust maybe two people in this world enough to tell them about its visions and nightmares, and no one knew the weight of its burden. The weight was lighter, here. Geddoe's reasons for keeping it safe were more along the lines of not allowing an enormous and uncontrollable Incarnation loose on this world a second time.

The fascinated smile had begun to wash out. The statement said a lot, yet very little. Soldier Blue couldn't possibly conclude anything for certain – not without prying further. Yet Geddoe's countenance was clue enough, without sensing what was beneath, that Blue was not invited to learn more. It was hardly a crushing revelation; they were still more strangers than anything their talk could lead to assume, weren't they?

His release of the topic was not instantaneous – nor whole – but Blue did nod his head once to accept the answer and proceed along their way. It gave him plenty to wonder about.

Geddoe was at least good enough at reading body language to know he had disappointed his savior. As they continued on, he added a little more for his benefit, in a low murmur. "I am not used to openly sharing about it. I was hunted for it, in my world, and spent a number of years in hiding to keep it out of Harmonian hands. There is no threat of such here, but the habit is hard to break."

"You've no obligation to tell at all," Blue assured, giving Geddoe a mild, understanding look. "It's something I've simply never...considered before. Something that...when I detected it, I couldn't ignore it, as much as I couldn't understand what it was without your explaining."

"Hm. I see." Geddoe had really not even realized that it was possible, but that explained a lot. He did not begrudge Blue's curiosity, in that case. "As long as it remains stable, as it is, it is no threat to anyone." A snort. "Save for those like the ones earlier who need a jolt of lightning to stop their rampage."

“It protects you, then?” Blue asked, encouraged anew to even ask. “Or...it gives you the mans to protect yourself?”

"It is the source of my lightning magic." Geddoe said so confidently, for that much was more than public. Of course, he did not know, at all, that the Porter had changed that, but the Rune itself still lived in his body and could not be separated from him so easily. So, he still believed fully that the spells he cast came off his runes, and the flicker of the second will inside him had no way of contradicting it.

Chance encounters

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)