dualisnet | UN: presage

[ok, maybe this guy isn’t as stuffy as he’d seemed at first.]

Uh-huh ... and I’m guessing you mean “flaming swords” in the literal sense, not as a euphemism for something else?

[jack this is not a good time to take a literal deep dive into celestial anatomy!!]

So what you’re saying is, you’re a special snowflake? [she laughs.] Seriously though, that’s really cool. I haven’t gotten very far with summoning elements, just manipulating what already exists. It’s not super relevant to my interests, though, so I haven’t put as much effort into study and practice as I have with other areas.

[she shrugs, and produces her phone from her pocket as she makes her way to the now-open manhole. a few quick taps, and she’s pulled up a flashlight app and shines the light into the tunnel. the machines can’t function down there, but jack’s seen plenty of horror movies, and it would be dumb not to check for unexpected creepy crawlies. there’s nothing visible except concrete and the metal ladder, so they’re good to go. jack glances up at murmur with an excited grin.]

Ready for another adventure?

[Every now and then a tiny glimmer of personality shines through. It startles him as much as anyone else. It's been... so very long since he's understood what feeling anything was like. Much less something pleasant.

But that's depressing. And far be it for him to mope about anything. They have work yet to do after all.]

Oh, no, nothing so vulgar. [He shakes his head, making a face.] Very much in the literal sense ,the euphemism sense is a quick track to Falling after the whole Nephilim business. [That came with a dismissive gesture. As though it were old news and not worth his time discussing.]

[He mused as he moved to follow her, crouching down to also inspect the... rather unpleasant looking tunnel. Well, he's been in worse places what with Hell and all, even so he didn't wasn't enthused. Her comment about him being a snowflake earned a light chuckle. He didn't quite understand the full weight of the term, but he got the gist.]

Ah, yes, I suppose something along those lines. I have long been considered something of an eccentric among my brethren. Even, dare I say, mildly rebellious. [Oh those were the days.] Perhaps I could share some of my knowledge with you another time. Elemental manipulation is a fascinating realm of study.

[Oh there he is being the boring scholar again. Mostly he's stalling, that hole looks so cramped. Satisfied that it didn't look to be immediately dangerous, however, he was content to follow her lead. Her grin is encouraging, he certainly couldn't back out now just due to a little claustrophobia.]

I most certainly am. Lead on.

Edited 2020-09-07 04:35 (UTC)

And nobody wants Nephilim, right?

[she laughs at her own joke and tucks her phone back into her vest so she can have both hands free for climbing down the ladder into the manhole. but when murmur makes the offer to teach her, she pauses, glancing up at him with that same softened expression of slight surprise as earlier.]

Really, you’d teach me? That’d - that’d be really cool. No one’s ever taught me stuff before.

No one wants Nephilim.

[He confirms more somberly. After all, he was there, and it was a terrible time for all involved. The moral of the story is mortals should not bear offspring with Celestials. That ends badly.

He offers a faint smile in return.]

I do not make offers I do not intend to keep. Of course, I would be glad to teach.

[It's been a... very long time since he's had the pleasure. It isn't often he finds like-minded souls.]

I’d really like that.

[she feels almost self-conscious in admitting that - she isn’t used to voicing desires so plainly. for that matter, she’s not used to anyone caring much about what she wants. it isn’t often she finds like-minded souls, either.]

I had to teach myself basically everything I know. And that’s fine, I don’t really mind - it’d just be nice to learn from someone who knows what they’re doing, for a change. Fewer singed eyebrows, I’m betting.

[jack’s had her fill of that particular tribulation. but enough about her; they’d better get moving before any more iterations show up. jack climbs down the ladder and moves out of the way once she reaches the ground, turning on her cell phone flashlight again so murmur can see a little better to follow her.]

C’mon down, the coast is clear!

[He understands. Truth be told, he understands very well. He's spent a very, very long time alone, denying himself the ability to desire much less the want. With the cold, untrustworthy and ruthless persona he'd built it was no wonder no one cared to know him, as it was very intentional, but it was still lonely. Especially given that even before the fall it wasn't much of a change.

Angels weren't always very good at being kind to each other.]

You've done well, all things considered. I shall endeavor to ensure a minimum of singed eyebrows.

[He offered with an amused lilt to his tone, choosing not to touch on the fact that he picked up on her almost self-consciousness. It was a delicate subject, he understood. She needn't know he was annoyingly aware of what lay behind that.

And yes, they should move. The pile of ice and crushed machines would remain for some time, allowing for a barrier and distraction. That still didn't mean Murmur was eager to post-pone their true mission any longer. He's had his fill of play for the evening.

He was quick to hop down after her, largely foregoing the whole ladder business and just sliding down until he hit the bottom. Didn't look liek he even did that to show off, the durability of his mortal vessel was greater than that of most humans and sometimes he just casually forgot that.]

They cannot function down here you said, correct?

[Although he did kind of... waver. Once he was down there the magic of the place descended upon him full force. Nothing he hadn't encountered before, mind you, only surprising given how light on magic the rest of the place had been.]

Yeah, the Iterations brick if they’re dumb enough to try following anyone down here. There’s no signal either, but I can get the camera and flashlight on my phone to work, at least. The compass goes wild, though, so you have to make sure you pay attention to which way you’re going if you want to find your way back to the same place. Luckily, I came prepared.

[from inside one of her vest pockets, jack produces a small box of chalk, removes a stick, and marks an arrow on the wall in the direction she indicates for murmur to follow her.]

C’mon. This way.

[Also good that Murmur had a pretty good memory for mazes, though the chalk definitely simplified things! Good thinking, Jack.]

Are there additional threats we should be concerned about?

[Suddenly the angel that just Elsa'd the hell out of Iterations was being very cagey about threats. What could that be about? He was making a point to memorize what he could of the twisting, turning tunnels all the while. As well as tracking those magical lines likely invisible to Jack's eyes.]

After you.

[Don't worry he has no intention of getting lost, he'll stick with her.]

[jack hums lightly as she considers her answer, casting light on the path ahead of them as she begins down the path.]

Not that I know of? I came across a skeleton once or twice, one of the people who lived here at the time Skynet was created and then got mass murdered, but it didn’t do anything but look dead. [she shrugs.] I haven’t even seen any rats down here, like you’d expect.

[she pauses and glances over to murmur with a faint smirk.]

Why? You’re not afraid of the dark, are you?

Nothing dangerous in a long-evacuated vessel.

[He confirms. Bones weren't more dangerous than a tripping hazard, a corpse only to mortals for the possibility of disease. That wasn't what he was concerned about.]

I have observed the conspicuous lack of living organisms in and around the city. Presumably our captor's doing?

[There's something very off-putting about any area not full of life. Even in urban settings there would be animals adapted to the environment, insects in every dark corner, rodents, cats, birds. And yet here there was nothing. Frankly, he didn't like it.

Her comment earned a huffed laugh.]

Light or dark, dangers remain ever the same. Only difference is in how quickly one perceives them.

[Which, to answer her question, no he wasn't.]

However I must confess I will require your further assistance, [He added after a long pause of consideration, beginning to roll up his sleeves as they moved. Contrasting quite distinctly with the middle-school librarian look he had going on his arms were covered in tattoos. Elegantly geometric designs that one might be forgiven for confusing as being tribal of some kind.] I am possessed of a particular gift rare among my brethren, that of clairvoyance. Such abilities ever come with their burdens, and mine is being wholly consumed and separated from the present while I seek the past and future. I'll need you to watch over me.

[For as casual and monotone as he sounded, it was a huge request. To trust someone he'd only barely just met with his protection was kind of a huge deal for an angel. Yet somehow he felt that Jack might just be trustworthy enough to pull it off.]

Edited 2020-10-07 16:24 (UTC)

Oh, I’m sure - this whole place is a rat maze on a grandiose scale. I mean, there’s a zoo and a cat café, and sometimes people end up with a pet, but there aren’t any strays on the streets like you’d expect in a city this size. Hell, even Omaha gets a random mountain lion every so often, and it’s not anywhere near as big as this place.

[she pauses at an intersection, flashing the light up ahead down one path, but stops and turns to murmur when he makes his request. jack gives him a quizzical, almost shocked look - nobody has ever trusted her with something so important before, and he’s only just met her, maybe an hour ago. the tattoos garner a quick glance, too, but she’ll ask about that later.]

You want me to spot you while you’re having visions.

[she doesn’t phrase it as a question or ask if he’s serious; he’s already made his stance clear on that sort of thing. jack is just taken entirely off guard by the fact that he’d ask her for this kind of help.]

Yeah ... of course, I can do that. Are there special rules or any weird things I’d need to watch out for?

No strays, no pigeons, not even cockroaches. How does one eradicate cockroaches?

[They're specifically designed to be nearly impossible to eliminate! It's alarming, is what it is. Urban areas should be teeming with life, like all reaches of Earth or any other life sustaining planet. This are was wrong, horrifically so.

He paused as well, watching her with a light air of expectation. He realized it was quite the request, and so soon after they'd met, but he was hopeful he wasn't misplacing this budding trust. Jack had taken things well so far, seemed uniquely honest. He had faith he wasn't making a poor decision here.

At her question he simply nodded, awaiting her answer. That was, roughly, the gist of it. When she finally did answer he offered a faint smile, which is a lot coming from the emotionally mute angel.]

No, not this time. I haven't sensed the presence of any other Celestials in the area, I think we are safe from their snooping. Should something arrive, simply shout, I should be able to hear you. If not, give me a shove, I only ask you refrain from touching my skin.

[Uninvited visions suck, hell invited visions suck. It's just part of the job.]

[one eradicates cockroaches by being a murderous, tyrannical sentient ai with control issues, apparently. the almost-complete lack of people makes the city even more starkly unnatural. it's like - well, it's like some of the nightmares jack tends to give people, actually.]

Got it, [she says, with a nod and a faintly pleased smile. maybe it's fast to be asked for such a favor, but jack finds herself unexpectedly happy about it all the same.] Are you going to ... have a vision right now?

[There's something especially wrong about eliminating one of the most resilient forms of life to exist. Murmur's offended. The lack of people also makes it even more creepy, as yet again one of the more resilient forms of life, for one, and the ones typically responsible for building cities in the first place.

If ever Murmur wanted to know what a dystopia was like, he need but look around.]

No, [He shook his head.] I can usually control when they happen, so I will wait until we reach a sigil. I am merely preparing myself.

[The experience was always unpleasant, he had to hype himself up for it.]

[jack has never had visions herself, nor has she met anyone with the ability until now, but she knows the tropes well enough to guess that they’re an intense experience - especially if the experience comes with a side of disorientation, which is what sounds likely from what murmur’s asked of her. preparation would be a key step, she guesses - just like with any sort of complex magick she might work.]

Is that what the ink’s about? [she gestures to his tattooed arms, squinting to make out the designs in the dim light.] That’s not tribal, is it?

[Oh, he's ready for it to be intensely unpleasant. It's been some time since he's willfully volunteered for such a thing, and it's never particularly enjoyable. Murmur just hopes he's reapplied his protections adequately since having to secure a new vessel.]

Perceptive, you're correct. It's pre-written spellwork that assists in both focus, and defense. To filter out unnecessary noise or interference, and increase efficiency. [Her question earns a puzzled look.] Tribal? Of which tribe?

[There have been a whole lot of tribes through history.]

[jack looks very pleased with herself when murmur confirms her guess as correct.]

That is really impressive. I have a spell tattoo too, but it’s much smaller scale. Did it myself, stick-and-poke style - that’s actually what I was researching when I came across all that stuff I mentioned earlier about the God-Machine. I was looking for something specific about any connections there might be between magick and technology, any spells or charms that would work at blocking technological surveillance, but I couldn’t find anything that was useful long-term. [she shrugs lightly.] So I went back to the ol’ drawing board, created a sigil, and stuck it on me permanently. It was pretty handy back home, but it’s literally saved my life here. Big Brother drags all of the meatsacks off for execution and disposal after a year, and I’ve been here almost three. As far as I can tell, the machines have no idea I exist.

[and that’s how she likes it, frankly. jack’s always been more comfortable out of sight.]

Tribal art in tattoos usually means some type of Polynesian - Hawaiian, Samoan, Maori, and so on. They’re traditional tattoo styles tied to those cultures that’ve been appropriated by white people, usually dumbass dudebros who just think it looks edgy and cool. [jack rolls her eyes.] Anyway, it’s totally disrespectful, and I would’ve needed to have words with you about it if that’d been the case.

[luckily, mumur’s off the hook. jack shines her flashlight down the other path and points in that direction, indicating for murmur to follow her. once she’s through the intersection, she pauses to mark another arrow on the wall with her chalk and shine the light on a symbol painted higher up on the wall - an anatomical heart.]

There was a resistance group here that used these tunnels pretty extensively, and they painted these hearts to indicate a useful path in an intersection. In case you ever feel like wandering around down here on your own, [she adds, as an explanation for why she’s pointing this out.]

Edited 2020-10-11 02:58 (UTC)

[Oh! They have something in common. Designing their own stick-and-poke tattoos. His required some assistance to finish, of course, given the lack of flexibility mortal vessels have. Much of the work he did himself.]

Given the success you've had thus far I am certain, with enough time, a more permanent method may be discovered. Ideally the sigils we're researching tonight will lend some insight into that very subject.

[Using magic to bypass technology. It was a good hunch, given that the Iterations couldn't function down there. There must be a reason. As for her explanation he gave a huffed laugh.]

Ah, you mean the very same type who get words they cannot read printed on themselves claiming they mean something like "courage" or "soul" only to find later it meant "toilet"?

[Yes he's met those.]

No, fortunately this vessel was largely unmarred when I found it. While some of this work is indeed built upon principles honed by human minds, I do not believe geometry falls under an offensive category. The rest is angelic, the designs themselves the work of centuries of trial and error.

[Except for his own sigil but he doesn't need to bring that up. He simply continues to follow as she leads. The conversation has helped to keep him distracted enough to not work himself up over much, not that he'd let any of that display outwardly but the heaviness of the air did press upon him. The tingle of past events, years of horrors and atrocities pooling their collective energy down into these dark tunnels. Even without risking touching the walls he knew the task ahead would be deeply unsettling.

He pauses at the heart symbol, nodding at her words.]

Just like the one outside. Given the current state of things I expect that this resistance group met with an unfortunate fate?

[Nicest way to put it.]

[jack laughs quietly at murmur’s description.]

Yep, the very same. Serves them right for getting a terrible tattoo, in my opinion. I really don’t get why it’s so hard to leave stuff along that doesn’t belong to you, but cultural appropriation is everywhere you look.

[when the subject of what befell the heart comes up, her mood takes a notable shift down, likely palpable even in the dark.]

Yeah, if you want to call getting rounded up and publicly executed in barbaric ways “an unfortunate fate.” [she scowls.] I didn’t like the Heart - they were a bunch of showboating amateurs, and I told them as much when they tried to recruit me. But as a witch, I’m contractually obligated to be pissed off when someone’s burned at the stake.

[her booted foot finds a rock in her path, and she kicks it angrily ahead of her.]

I wish they’d listened to me about toning down the theatrics. I’ve done protest organizing before, so I have a good idea of what works and what doesn’t. Scare tactics don’t usually go over well.

[He does have to chuckle at that, ah yes. Those ones are something else. Entertaining, briefly, but ultimately it was short lived. They weren't generally intelligent enough to offer stimulating conversation.

Oh, that mood shift was very palpable. Especially considering he was an empath, so he very much felt it. In this case he would have felt it regardless, the shift was so potent.]

I see this AI takes after the worst tendencies of mortal kind.

[He murmured quietly. So, the Head wasn't one to toy with. Which was fine, Murmur wasn't one to make empty threats nor boasts. Any warning he offered he fully intended to back up with action, as Jack had already witnessed a small piece of his capabilities.]

I do not imagine an artificial being to be particularly susceptible to fear and intimidation. Particularly that which may as well be a bluff.

Oh, they weren't bluffing. They liked to set off homemade bombs in strategic places - train stops, public gatherings, that sort of thing. They weren't trying to intimidate the machines - they wanted to shake up the people who were still people, get them to join so they could put their heads together and come up with a plan to take the Head down. Why they thought that level of violence was likely to bring people to their side is a complete mystery. As you can see, it didn't work, and now they're all dead.

[all except the bartender from earlier, and she clearly had no designs on continuing the heart's work. and maybe it's a little hypocritical for jack to criticize the heart's methods, considering she also uses fear as a tool to show humans something they should know. but there's nothing to be done about it now. the heart is dead, the city is deserted, only a few people remain and they all know the nature of this place. she shrugs, and crosses through another intersection, pointing to the leftmost path for mumur to follow, pausing to draw another arrow underneath the painted heart.]

Weren't you going to tell me a story, before we were rudely interrupted by Iterations?

...

[Yes he is most certainly shooting her an incredulous look. That... yeah that sounded like one of the worst thought out plans he'd ever heard.]

So they tried to... terrorize people into assisting them, with a plan they didn't even yet have?

[Yes, listen, it's all very sad when mortals die and all that, but honestly that just sounded stupid. Fear can be a powerful motivator, but like any tool there were proper ways to use it. Spontaneous acts of poorly explained violence upon the group you're beseeching for help is not one of them.

Another mark, another heart. Those might come in handy next time he decides to come down to do a bit of research on his own.]

Ah, yes, did you wish to hear more of the Thresholded angel?

[she nods, and returns his look with her own thoroughly unimpressed expression.]

Yup, exactly. Not the most well-thought-out strategy, obviously. You can see why I wasn’t so keen to jump on that bandwagon. I mean, I’m all about resistance efforts and overthrowing oppression, but you have to be smart about it. People like that are the same kind of people who give anarchists a bad name. Plus, they were running on a totally authoritarian hierarchy, and I don’t do well in those sorts of power structures.

[another intersection, another path chosen with another painted heart, and jack marks another arrow in chalk.]

I do, actually, want to hear about the Thresholded angel. You’ve got me very curious about what happened.

A well executed rebellion can significantly alter the course of history, many times they are they only way to implement a much needed drastic change. [He shakes his head.] Disappointing.

[He's sometimes a fan of rebellions. Not ones so poorly formed and executed, however. It sounds like they only managed to hinder any progress that might have been made with the other people who had been captured.

By now he had picked up the pattern: Follow the hearts. Though right now he was mostly concerned with following Jack, who he did hope would also lead him back out given he expects his faculties will be somewhat compromised after he's finished with the heavier version of his work.]

Well, as you might expect the existence of a Celestial not bound by the laws of either the Eternal City nor the Halls of Morning was quick to cause a stir. Both rising to action to bring the being to heel. Of course, her consent was never a matter of concern.

[Celestials aren't very good at that whole taking choice into account thing.]

Of course, fate would not set her upon an insurmountable task without assistance. For her feeble prayer could be heard by one, an angel so far fallen from grace he could scarcely hold up his wings any longer. Not the most useful of guardians, to say the least.

[jack frowns as murmur begins the story; she already doesn’t like the direction it’s heading. attempting to control another sentient being doesn’t sit well with her on principle, and the fact that murmur refers to the being in question as her sounds like an all-too-familiar case of patriarchal misogyny. but she’s no expert on celestial culture.]

Was she actually doing anything harmful, or was this just a case of “you’re different so you must be controlled”?

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