Musing about a monster (zand)

by **Ximal** on March 27th, 2013, 7:02 pm

He drew a deep breath and listened to her speaking, she was telling him what he wanted to know for a change, the words. "djas vasat" meaning " i fight" or possibly..."fight me"? Xi's own theological musing upon it, mostly saw he'd heard it screamed at him before the events that unfolded. But the one that gave him a small amount of chills. "djas rozatlas" "i am dead" He told Xi what he was before he asked the purple woman. Dammit! He wasted a question and precious moments. Xi sighed and drank a little more the absolutely weak ale that the nykans drank to save on water. Repulsive. Still he listened onto zand, he could see she was shaken, visibly worried about something, angry. But what Xi had no clue of. Still he interjected at the end of her answering about the words. "If you wouldn't mind I'd appreciate it, it's been driving me mad. And thank you. For once giving me a straight answer."

Xi sighed slightly as he saw her reaction to gregor's name, a cross between confusion and anger. Xi was now slightly intrigued as to what she was shaking about, or rather thinking about. Something was causing her to act very much unlike her other self. And Xi then found out why, gregor was dead. Well that was fairly obvious. Xi sighed and gave her a sideways look as she continued on with her small speech. And was he sure he wasn't being mislead ? Xi sighed and responded after another short gulp of that weak ale. "I'm fairly sure i wasn't being mislead, after all she called me Ximal, before hand and i'd never told her my name. Also i kinda figured out that he was dead having both him and the woman in purple tell me he was. Never losing a battle in nine-thousand years, and i almost had him...Almost....But id did lose and i see why. Also you remember that proof of mine...It's gregors arms. His gauntlets. Also what do you know about this woman in purple that I don't ? After all I'm the one who met her so i kinda think I'm owed some sort of an explanation. Even if only a slight one."

by **Zandelia** on March 29th, 2013, 5:17 pm

“I answer properly, and directly, when the topics matter Ximal. Everything else is a game,” she told the man opposite her as he attempted his usually annoying and thoroughly predictable attempts at manipulation by thanking her, “this is not a game. Decidedly not. The dead walk...fight…and you gain a pair of ancient damned gauntlets!” she whispered to him, she would not risk others hearing her words.

She wondered if the male warrior ever truly used that dense brain of his, he could do so much more if he entered its cobwebbed interior on occasion. How could he think that this whole thing was a petching game? It wasn’t just a lost fight, Zandelia was almost certain of this. She suspected that Ximal was holding something back, as if he expected her to go to the trouble of trying to deceive him on what she had – at first – thought was a simple issue of drunken brawling. The stakes had been raised however and she would not be found wanting. No, she would delve into this darkness and illuminate the mysteries with her intellect or she would damned well die in the attempt.

A mysterious woman…ancient gauntlets…the Aperture…Ancient Tongue…Gregor’s words with myself. No, this is no coincidence? I’m expected to accept it’s an accident Gregor, a man long dead now, fights someone I know – out of the hundreds of thousands he could have here – after talking to me with the help of the Mirror? No…something else is missing she mused, trying to slot the pieces of the information together.

“You think your real name is Lucifer? Interesting. If so…then only a few people would know of it. Most of them probably dead by now. Is it possible that…it was your mother? Or a vision of her like Gregor was?” she asked him, wondering if he knew anything about his parents and just never shared it. She didn’t care, it could be vital information now.

His last question was one that she couldn’t truly answer, not without further investigation at the very least. Her own experiences with the Protohuman Gregor might have been coincidental. His words too may have been slanted by his perceptions. There was no telling if any of it could be put together into a semblance of truth. She doubted that it was all coincidence, it was far more likely that a deity somewhere was pitifully torturing them all – though that itself was a supposition with no basis in fact either. No, further research was needed before she could even begin to conclude the basics of a framework to work within.

“I do not know Ximal, but I will find out. IS that everything you know? Everything they told you, said to you? Did?” she asked him, her gaze flinty and piercing, ready to detect a lie, “because if I don’t have complete information then I cannot give complete conclusions. Even the slightest utterance could prove fantastically important. So?” she asked him again, finally.

I can’t tell him about Gregor’s words as I don’t even know what they mean. He wasn’t specific, nor was he forthcoming with anything even when I could understand him. It was all mysterious and unexplained – the worst damned kind of conversation! she thought with steely mind as she awaited Ximal’s verdict.

by **Ximal** on March 29th, 2013, 8:10 pm

that was a sharp tongued remark, she seemed almost jealous of what Xi had attained. Though in all fairness it wasn't really deserved. Xi took a slow breath as he was often want to do. Letting his head hang a little he mulled over some thoughts trailing over the events of what had happened down there, and now zand had believed him it turned out that.... Wait, with zands reaction Xi could probably piece together the fragments of what he was missing using her knowledge. Zand...You seem to know who gregor is and what he's talking about, could you help me understand what's going on here as well. After all as you've said this isn't a game and I'm as deep, if not deeper in this shyke than you are." Xi's often calm eye's now took a stony edge. He needed to know now, after all he'd told her and was willing to tell her more but he needed to know about what she did as much as she needed to know what he did.

That was a fair point most of those who knew his real name were probably dead by now. Though it hurt for him to admit it....It was true. Most of the people who knew his name were probably dead, including his family most likely. Xi sighed and Xi responded in a calm if somewhat...Slow manner. "To be honest...I've no idea. But i know none of it was fake. Nor a vision, or else i wouldn't have my stomach bandaged. Trust me that was no vision." Xi listened to zand speak about that being everything. It wasn't everything but ne wanted to hear what she knew. "Zand, tell me what you know, it might bring to light something i thoguth was not important. So please, tell me. What is it you know about what happened to me ?"

by **Zandelia** on March 30th, 2013, 10:19 pm

Zandelia wondered whether she should tell Ximal about the mirror, whether she even could tell him. She had kept less important secrets from him than her encounter with Gregor – though up until a few chimes ago she had never equated it to be of much relevance to her life, merely an oddity of occurrence to be remembered with puzzled fondness. Now, however, it was perhaps one of the most important memories she held in her mind. If Ximal were telling her the truth, and she had little reason to suspect that he wasn’t unveiling the truth to her as he saw it, then Gregor was far from a dot in history…he had transcended history. Coincidence did not even come close, this was something the was beginning to feel engineered.

I suppose it can’t hurt to tell him some of it, the facts and not my concerns upon them… she considered, reluctantly deciding to give him something a the very least.

“I saw Gregor Ximal, years ago in Nyka. It was in the Mirror of Tanroa. We talked…didn’t understand much until the end of the conversation, then he left,” she revealed to the man sitting opposite her, “the details of the conversation are immaterial – they were spoken in a language I can’t really understand for the most part – but the fact that he has appeared now is…compelling”

“Think about it Ximal! Of all the seasons, of all the people, he appears to the both of us – in different ways and years apart – and those two people are sat in the same room in the city central to the tale. Do you think that to be coincidence?”

She sighed deeply, she was becoming vexed at the fact that there was little she could do, so few facts at her disposal and the fact that coming to a logical conclusion seemed to be particularly pointless. She rubbed her forehead with the fingers of her left hand, trying to ease the tension caused by her repetitive frowning. Her day was fast about to descend into the bowels of historical research, she could feel it, and she had so much to do without having to worry about spectres from the past she was almost inclined to let the whole matter drop for a while…almost. She growled, deep and angrily sharp.

“We need to find out more about what was here before Nyka was built. There was an ancient dwelling here, there must be records that explain what happened to it. Rumours at least, elders in this place that can be of use to us in this regard?” she muttered, thinking out loud with her eyes closed, “perhaps. Ximal…what do the gauntlet’s look like? Have you seen them? Perhaps there is someone who knows about ancient artefacts in Nyka – would be willing to tell us for a glimpse at your new prize?”

Clutching at straws…always clutching at them! Why can’t the past every remain bloody in the bloody past!? she raged internally.

She wracked her mind for anything she might have forgotten, a name mentioned during her past enquiries perhaps. Or a direction towards a particular artefact. She couldn’t remember – frustrating as that was for her. So much had happened between then and where she sat now, so many things seemingly more important. She was tired of having to remember everything, it was starting to feel as if her head were twice as large as it actually was, mental filing systems redundant under the weight of various data.

“I don’t know what happened to you Ximal, if I did there would be little point in telling you otherwise. I don’t like it but there it is. Still…I will find out. If I have to track down every Monk historian I will have answers” she told him simply.

by **Ximal** on March 30th, 2013, 11:08 pm

So she saw gregor too, well he'd kind of put two and two together correctly there, but when was the issue, she'd seen him years before Xi had ?And then he'd just left, kind of like Xi's strange encounter. Xi took a deep breath and sighed slowly. spoken in a language she couldn't comprehend. Xisighed slowly and then thought about it. Zand was right something was going on he'd spoken to two peole who knew each other almost years apart adn now something was going strange here. Xi spoke back, his tone calm but some what icy not aimed at her but about his thoughts. "It's a strange turn of events that a man whose dead, speaks to the pair of us, however zand...What's more disturbing is the fact that well he said something coming. Something that hasn't been in millennia, I'm almost willing to be this is what, he fought and is trying to warn us of. Zand-" He almost cut her off but listed to the rest of ehr conversation before wolfing down the last of the bread and ale before taking the plate and mug to vysia. Then returning. "Right, you want to see these? Follow me I'm not doing this inside the city. And after wards,you do what you will, for once i agree wholly. I want answers, and i want them yesterday. And i don't care if i have to beat the living petch out of whoever tands in my way. I'm getting them." Xi icked up his cloak and headed out the door hopeing that zand was in tow, leading her outside the city and aroudn the outer walls to the small foresty area to the south-west of the city, there he'd show her, but not where prying eye's could watch and certainly not where a certain little thief could see and get herself in trouble.

Upon arrival Xi pulled the stones out iof his pockets and showed them to zand. Before speaking. "I show you this in good faith, i swear if you tell anyone i'll know it was you. I know your good at keeping secrets but petch it all were dealing with things neither of us understand. So yeah..." Xi wasn't spooked he was...anxious, cautious, something he hadn't been in a long while. He held the stones in his hands and focused looking at the ground before squeezing on the stones as the woman in purple had told him to do. An slowly the stone shifted, climbing falling rising and coating his arms shifting to a flat stone surface over his arms. almost immediately after he felt sluggish, slow as if he'd been running all day and was out of energy slow. He took a slow swing at the air not as fast as his normal but not comically slow. He was about as fast as he had been back in sunberth, quick to some but vastly slow to others. "This is what i received from gregor, he called me his " champion. Zand i know your normally secretive and very tight fisted with your information but right now i need to know all of it, just like you do. the smallest thing might mean the greatest difference."

by **Zandelia** on April 1st, 2013, 12:19 am

“I think it is unwise to jump to conclusions Ximal, if you do you tend to try and make facts fit theories rather than theories to fit the facts. It is a dangerous game to play and best left to when the data you have at your disposal is more extensive than hearsay. Believe me, I know,” she counselled him, the last thing she needed was for him to wreak havoc in the city over spectres that might not mean anything, “and yes, show me your new…items” she responded, pushing herself to her feet as the giant took his cloak and headed towards the door.

The following journey was a long one, in her mind it was going a little bit too far in terms of seeking security but they were Ximal’s possessions and as such his decision where or when he chose to show them to others. She merely kept up with him, exchanging greetings with the occasional person who knew her by face if not her real name. It was strange, in a shorter period of time than she had predicted there was a growing sense of likability from the citizens of Nyka. Not all of them, of course, but enough to help spread the word and aid her image. It would be extremely fortuitous to be seen as a friend and ally of Nyka, especially seeing as she was seeking somewhat the opposite. The city was exited, the gates open yet stoic and forbidding as always. In short time after that they found themselves in a collection of small trees and shrubs.

“Well then Ximal, I believe we are acceptably well hidden,” she stated simply, “though you could have just shown me in my room. None enter it without knocking these days” she tilted her head before listening to his response.

He asks for an oath about something that would have me condemned as a mad woman. There really is no need at all she chided him internally.

She said nothing and simply nodded her assent as Ximal fumbled with what looked like two smooth pebbles. The forthcoming display was surreal and difficult to follow. It was almost as if the pebbles melted, but then against hey didn’t they just grew and reshaped themselves. Her mind couldn’t make sense of what it was seeing, flickering through various perspectives until the beginnings of a headache crept upon her. Eventually though it was over and what remained were solid items, stone plated gauntlets running up the majority or the giant’s arms. She brushed them gently, feeling them out and rapping her knuckles to check their hardness. She breathed out a sigh, hands upon her hips as she considered what she had just seen,

“Well, that was certainly a show indeed. Magical gauntlets after a score of days here Ximal. Must be your lucky city” she responded to him, filtering through her memories to the Mirror and not recalling the Gregor possessed these items when she had seen him.

He must have found them afterwards she mused, wondering when and how.

“Champion…no…I don’t know why he would call you that. He did mention something else to me but it’s something I think was lost in translation. He said they had been fighting demons, they had been doing so for a long time and just before he left me he was told they had captured the queen,” she stated with a deep breathing out, “though what the means I have no idea. Again…I will have to research it”

“Well…we find ourselves at a crossroads with no signs to point the way and no idea as to whether we are on the right road. Strange isn’t it?” she asked him rhetorically.

by **Abstract** on June 14th, 2013, 2:49 pm

Loot, Lore, and Skills!

Ximal :

Zandelia :

I found this pretty interesting, and I loved Zand's doubt about what Xi was explaining. I also like how completely calm Xi seemed after the experience... though it was slightly strange too. The ending was sort of abrupt too, since you finished it just as it seemed like the thread was starting. Please PM me if you have any questions, concerns, or comments!

Closed Musing about a monster (zand)