Re: The Grand Battle II! [Round 3: Escheresque!]
11-10-2009, 12:30 AM
Originally posted on MSPA by Schazer.
The black-sand imprint of Galus seemed to be struggling for a good reason to refuse Vyrm'n's request. Attempting to change the subject, he asked, "So, whose form are you taking?"
You don't know them, Vyrm'n replied with some mettle.
"Try me."
Vyrm. Sand-Galus laughed at that for some reason, the girl glared resentfully back. What?
"Well, you can't be serious. I mean, who on earth would name someone-" the shadow of the Urisian stopped laughing abruptly when the revelation hit him. Vyrm'n still stood, feet staking out the edge of the water, watching the sandman warily. Galus, curious now, tried asking the Faceless:
"So... Vyrm. She was the first human you met?"
Vyrm'n considered not responding, but eventually the breathing of the sea was overlaid with: No. She was a Tleilaxu; a ghola. One who had died in service... a service in which she served so well, her master could not bear to part with her. The sandman looked uncomfortable with this topic; most would. These clones of the dead, able to restore memories of past lives under extreme circumstance, were a prime example of an ethical quandary made flesh.
The way the Faceless had given it a gendered pronoun... to something which had been named slave. Every part of that statement grated against the figment of Galus' being.
But my past does not concern you, Vyrm'n concluded. I want to know... about Luna.
Sand-Galus tried his other weapons; they also suffered from a lack of cohesive detail on the Faceless' part. He discarded them and watched them melt back into the sand they sprung from, indistinguishable from the mass before long. "What about her? Found her resting in a cargo hold on Ceres, then after she killed some kid of Zreb's called Jack, she followed Zreb around-"
-How did she kill him, interrupted Vyrm'n.
"I don't know, we were in there one moment, then left the two alone, next thing we know it's - Luna's got Jack's face on her and the kid's lying dead on the floor."The girl seemed dissatisfied with this answer. No... did she ever describe what happened then? Pensively, Vyrm'n glanced up at the black orb, the travesty of a sun. Was it growing? She couldn't tell. It's ominous resentment at the existence of the beach it hunched over agitated Vyrm'n, though.
The impression of the pilot frowned, thinking. It was hard for the construct, as Vyrm'n's experiences to date with the real Urisian had not particularly exemplified him as a notably astute thinker. As such, this pale shadow of the real Galus Lee Matthews was a being more inclined to point his gun at things (or, at least, on a more regular basis than the real Galus.)
"I think she tried... several times. But it was always confusing, it was like she couldn't describe it on paper, and her thoughts were too scattered to communicate through telepathy."
Not what the Faceless wanted to hear. Fighting the angry prickle of the sun - it was returning with its usual vehemence, she was sure of it - the sea murmured, And how about before then? Did she ever-
"-Nope. Always tried, seemed desperate to know. But never seemed able to remem-"
Sand-Galus' explanation was interrupted by an arm, lashing out in frustration. Though the memory-water had the cohesion to hold Galus' form together; it could not take the forcible blow Vyrm'n struck on it, spurred on by what felt like thousands of needles in her head as the sun's rage grew and it attempted to destroy everything in the little scene, even boil dry the ocean if it were capable.
The void had finished altering the mill-water's song, and had returned with a vengeance to stop Vyrm'n from wandering the coastline.
Vyrm'n fled as the detail of the world disappeared in a ramping-up of the contrast, until sea and sky and sun and sand were all the same, blinding, burning black.
--------
The black mass still drifted and fell, drifted and fell through the mill. Cabaret's shrapnel still cohabited this darkness, but now it took up less space proportionally, and thus the shadow's mind was capable of working through the intrusive song and finding itself in control again.
Rising sluggishly from the channel which had originally been reserved for water, Vyrm'n tipped itself out of the pool, disentangling bits of itself which were still completing a tour of the physics-warping mill. Vyrm'n was surprised to notice it had grown in mass since Destructo-World; the gamut of traps it had run through had sheared off bits of darkness at a rate which seemed infinitesimal but evidently had made a differnece in the long run.
With the new mass, though, Vyrm'n stood a comfortable half a foot taller than it had at the start of the Battle.
However, the Faceless was presently more concerned with the disruptive song piercing its mind than the fact it had grown. Wriggling and thrashing, it eventually expelled the remnants of the conjurer's handiwork, scattering them all over alien ground. Not as thorough a job as Gestalt had done; but enough to get the Faceless' thoughts back on track.
The preliminary work done; the Faceless extended out its consciousness to take in the brave new world it had awakened to.
The black-sand imprint of Galus seemed to be struggling for a good reason to refuse Vyrm'n's request. Attempting to change the subject, he asked, "So, whose form are you taking?"
You don't know them, Vyrm'n replied with some mettle.
"Try me."
Vyrm. Sand-Galus laughed at that for some reason, the girl glared resentfully back. What?
"Well, you can't be serious. I mean, who on earth would name someone-" the shadow of the Urisian stopped laughing abruptly when the revelation hit him. Vyrm'n still stood, feet staking out the edge of the water, watching the sandman warily. Galus, curious now, tried asking the Faceless:
"So... Vyrm. She was the first human you met?"
Vyrm'n considered not responding, but eventually the breathing of the sea was overlaid with: No. She was a Tleilaxu; a ghola. One who had died in service... a service in which she served so well, her master could not bear to part with her. The sandman looked uncomfortable with this topic; most would. These clones of the dead, able to restore memories of past lives under extreme circumstance, were a prime example of an ethical quandary made flesh.
The way the Faceless had given it a gendered pronoun... to something which had been named slave. Every part of that statement grated against the figment of Galus' being.
But my past does not concern you, Vyrm'n concluded. I want to know... about Luna.
Sand-Galus tried his other weapons; they also suffered from a lack of cohesive detail on the Faceless' part. He discarded them and watched them melt back into the sand they sprung from, indistinguishable from the mass before long. "What about her? Found her resting in a cargo hold on Ceres, then after she killed some kid of Zreb's called Jack, she followed Zreb around-"
-How did she kill him, interrupted Vyrm'n.
"I don't know, we were in there one moment, then left the two alone, next thing we know it's - Luna's got Jack's face on her and the kid's lying dead on the floor."The girl seemed dissatisfied with this answer. No... did she ever describe what happened then? Pensively, Vyrm'n glanced up at the black orb, the travesty of a sun. Was it growing? She couldn't tell. It's ominous resentment at the existence of the beach it hunched over agitated Vyrm'n, though.
The impression of the pilot frowned, thinking. It was hard for the construct, as Vyrm'n's experiences to date with the real Urisian had not particularly exemplified him as a notably astute thinker. As such, this pale shadow of the real Galus Lee Matthews was a being more inclined to point his gun at things (or, at least, on a more regular basis than the real Galus.)
"I think she tried... several times. But it was always confusing, it was like she couldn't describe it on paper, and her thoughts were too scattered to communicate through telepathy."
Not what the Faceless wanted to hear. Fighting the angry prickle of the sun - it was returning with its usual vehemence, she was sure of it - the sea murmured, And how about before then? Did she ever-
"-Nope. Always tried, seemed desperate to know. But never seemed able to remem-"
Sand-Galus' explanation was interrupted by an arm, lashing out in frustration. Though the memory-water had the cohesion to hold Galus' form together; it could not take the forcible blow Vyrm'n struck on it, spurred on by what felt like thousands of needles in her head as the sun's rage grew and it attempted to destroy everything in the little scene, even boil dry the ocean if it were capable.
The void had finished altering the mill-water's song, and had returned with a vengeance to stop Vyrm'n from wandering the coastline.
Vyrm'n fled as the detail of the world disappeared in a ramping-up of the contrast, until sea and sky and sun and sand were all the same, blinding, burning black.
--------
The black mass still drifted and fell, drifted and fell through the mill. Cabaret's shrapnel still cohabited this darkness, but now it took up less space proportionally, and thus the shadow's mind was capable of working through the intrusive song and finding itself in control again.
Rising sluggishly from the channel which had originally been reserved for water, Vyrm'n tipped itself out of the pool, disentangling bits of itself which were still completing a tour of the physics-warping mill. Vyrm'n was surprised to notice it had grown in mass since Destructo-World; the gamut of traps it had run through had sheared off bits of darkness at a rate which seemed infinitesimal but evidently had made a differnece in the long run.
With the new mass, though, Vyrm'n stood a comfortable half a foot taller than it had at the start of the Battle.
However, the Faceless was presently more concerned with the disruptive song piercing its mind than the fact it had grown. Wriggling and thrashing, it eventually expelled the remnants of the conjurer's handiwork, scattering them all over alien ground. Not as thorough a job as Gestalt had done; but enough to get the Faceless' thoughts back on track.
The preliminary work done; the Faceless extended out its consciousness to take in the brave new world it had awakened to.
peace to the unsung peace to the martyrs | i'm johnny rotten appleseed
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow
clouds is shaky love | broke as hell but i got a bunch of ringtones
eyes blood red bruise aubergine | Sue took something now Sue doesn't sleep | saint average, day in the life of
woke up in the noon smelling doom and death | out the house, great outdoors
staying warm in arctic blizzard | that's my battle 'til I get inanimate | still up in the same clothes living like a gameshow