FJ 3.4 Speaking with the Hungry Man

[20:00]	Arkalest	Sabina The voice comes sudden and whisperlike. Morose. |I had told you to stay out of this.|
[20:00]	Sabina	stands shadowed in the alleyway beside the bike, glaive in hand.
[20:01]	|<--	Sarah has left irc.systemnet.info (Ping timeout: 123 seconds)
[20:02]	Sabina	|And if you knew me half as well as you should you would know why I cannot.|
[20:02]	Arkalest	|There comes a point at which pursuing duty becomes suicidal.|
[20:03]	Sabina	\Only in death does duty end.\
[20:03]	Sabina	|Only in death does duty end.|
[20:04]	Arkalest	|Not even then, for some of us.|
[20:08]	Sabina	|I don;t recall you being all that clear on what you wanted me to do.|
[20:08]	Arkalest	|I simply warned you- Or a part of me did. It is hard to remember, nowadays.|
[20:09]	Arkalest	|Let me be clear with you: We can both walk away from this with our duties fulfilled, but only one of us is going to do so with a clean coscience.|
[20:09]	Sabina	|Your warning consited of telling me to be ready and that you would reclaim what is yours. Rather vague and I see no bearing on my present situation.|
[20:11]	Arkalest	|The paintings.|
[20:11]	Arkalest	|I want them  back.|
[20:12]	Arkalest	|They are mine, and mine alone. My property, paid for handsomely. |
[20:13]	Sabina	|No. They are wretched things whose presence I cannot nor will not abide.|
[20:14]	Arkalest	|I will put them beyond the reach of those who stole them, trust me.|
[20:15]	Arkalest	|Don't you think I understand how wretched I am, to yoour eyes?|
[20:16]	Sabina	|Then you understand why this is a pointless discussion.| There is no venom in her voice, only hatred etched into the steel of her discipline.
[20:16]	Arkalest	|Our world and your world was never meant to touch. I am trascendant, now. In a way your doctrines can only wish they'd understood.|
[20:17]	Sabina	|You expect me to /envy/ you? Really?|
[20:17]	Arkalest	|And I am not talking about life beyond death, or a clearer understanding of the universe, or some sort of deeper knowledge or spiritual one.|
[20:17]	Arkalest	|I am simply more than what I once was. Do you know what the great chain is?|
[20:18]	Arkalest	|No, I am expecting you to /understand./ |
[20:18]	Arkalest	|After all, you have been poised to.|
[20:19]	Sabina	|The supposed hierarchy of matter and life, descending from God on downward. I am familiar with the concept, but it is one that is not held by me or mine.|
[20:20]	Arkalest	|There is a far more concrete application of  this than you can care to imagine. Psionics, for example. Do you think mankind used to occupy a high position there? No, we didn't.|
[20:21]	Sabina	strums her fingers along the shaft of her glaive.
[20:21]	Arkalest	|Then we made you, and I made myself into something else. |
[20:24]	Sabina	|And how litteraly do you mean "me" , were you one of the ones that created my people? Or to induce Psionics in post/trans-humans?|
[20:24]	Arkalest	|I wouldn't put it past past-me to  do the former, but let's go with the latter.|
[20:24]	Arkalest	|I was but one of t he cogs in the great work, and believe me- if my existence gets your panties in a twist, you  should see the others.|
[20:25]	Sabina	|Without knowing what you are, I cannot say, but your connection with the Hungry Man does you no favors.|
[20:26]	Arkalest	A sigh. |I am the Hungry Man, you twat.|
[20:26]	Arkalest	|Or rather, a part of him. It. Us.|
[20:27]	Arkalest	|It's hard to tell. One of  the cons of  being like this  is that you kind of lose yourself. Just a bit.|
[20:27]	Sabina	|A Gestalt entity?|
[20:28]	Arkalest	|A spread consciousness, if you will. |
[20:28]	Sabina	|And what are the paintings then? Some means of interacting with the real world?|
[20:30]	Arkalest	|They are more than that, but let us say that it's not hard to put  them to a bad use.|
[20:32]	Arkalest	|I goddam want them /back/ because I paid  /handsomely/ for  them as I said.|
[20:33]	Sabina	|And aside from the fact that you've given your "word" to keep them out of place, I have no reason to return them to you.|
[20:33]	Sabina	*only given your word
[20:33]	Arkalest	|And then some people misplaced them, and now they're driving people mad.|
[20:34]	Sabina	|All the more reason why I distrust your ability or inclination to keep them "out of reach" if they were misplaced once.|
[20:35]	Arkalest	The voice cracks. |Oh, come /on./  It only  happened once, and it's a fucking /painting./ |
[20:35]	Sabina	|The drives people insane, and if it happened once it puts rather strong doubts that they really were placed "out of reach" .|
[20:36]	Arkalest	|You should see the kind of other shit I risked misplacing back that day. Just ask Dubiers.|
[20:36]	Sabina	|You are giving me fewer and fewer reasons to trust you.|
[20:37]	Arkalest	|Look, you know this is going to end with us flaring up and dozens,  if not hundreds dead while our respective horrifying abominations duke  it out.|
[20:37]	Sabina	takes a breath
[20:37]	Arkalest	|So you can either do the dutiful thing and be a smartass about this and accidentally wreck a commericial district|
[20:37]	Arkalest	|Or you can do the /right/ thing.|
[20:37]	Arkalest	|And stay out of the way while I handle this.|
[20:38]	Sabina	|Whether or this is the right choice is pointless. My orders are quite clear. I cannot stand by and allow this lead to leave.|
[20:39]	Sabina	|If you want us to hand the paintings over, then I would have to discuss it with my superior.|
[20:40]	Arkalest	|Oh, right, your goddam /orders./ I see now, you little thincan soldier. Your orders, yes- Precious orders. What did your superiors tell you to sweeten the motherfucking pill? What beholdens you so much you can't fuckin put your god-given /morals/ to use?|
[20:41]	Arkalest	|You know what? Fine. Keep trucking in, prattling about orders and justice and whatnot. About how it's all academic. It's all whimpering anyway after all! Shit, don't you think i heard this same fucking doggerel a /lot/ ?|
[20:41]	Sabina	|My morals tell me to serve the clan as best as I may, and that means working for the Constables. Regardless of my personal feelings on the matters, I cannot afford to risk my clan's position by acting against the Constable's woders.|
[20:41]	Sabina	*orders
[20:41]	Arkalest	|Oh yeah, the good ol' tribalism thing.  You know what killed the world, kid?|
[20:42]	Arkalest	|Little perfect soldiers like you, who didn'0t hesitate when asked to push that goddam button.|
[20:43]	Sabina	|And who pays the price when I choose otherwise? My family? My people? I don;t know why I am here, I don't know if there were threats made against my people or if this was a agreement or if they sold me like chattel. And until I do I cannot risk them.| She snarls
[20:44]	Sabina	|Do you think I enjoy this? Do you think that this is my choice? That this is where I even want to be? I never asked for this, but that never mattered. It never has.|
[20:44]	Sabina	|It never will.|
[20:44]	Arkalest	|No.|
[20:45]	Arkalest	|No, don't ever fucking say that.|
[20:45]	Arkalest	|It /always/ matters, you twat. You are a /person/, not some sort of animal, to be hounded and twisted and used. You are you, not a tool to  be drawn and discarded. You could be more- So, so much more.|
[20:46]	Sabina	|I know that this is my choice, that I am choosing to do this. I;m not going to say that I don't have free will. But that doesn't mean I have freedom form consequences either.|
[20:46]	Sabina	|Save your pity, I have no use for it.|
[20:47]	Arkalest	|I am not pitying you, goddamit.|
[20:47]	Arkalest	|I am simply asking you to...Fuck, I don't know. |
[20:47]	Arkalest	|There's a whole world out there, a whole multitude of paths you could  be threading. Is it really your  choice when you have not know anything else your whole life?"
[20:48]	Sabina	|I am I. Nothing more, nothing less.|
[20:49]	Arkalest	|Aren't we all more than that, then? Aren't we all all the sume of our experiences and our possibilities? You may have a limited time here, but during that time, you should be endless.|
[20:50]	Arkalest	|You shoudl be what you choose to be.|
[20:50]	Sabina	|No. I should be as I am needed to be.|
[20:51]	Sabina	|As I am.|
[20:51]	Arkalest	|Gopddasmit, kid. Why- Why the defeatism, for fucks' sake? You've got  the power, you've got  the teachings to control it, to actually make something out of  this unknowable hedgepodge of shit you were handled.|
[20:52]	Sabina	|Defeatism? Is that how you see this? That my acceptance for my role is a defeat? A failure?|
[20:53]	Arkalest	|Resignation. You're what, 16? Habe you known /anything/ else?|
[20:53]	Arkalest	|Choice is  borne oout of  having possibility, and choosing one among them.|
[20:53]	Sabina	|And shirk my duties? I think not. I am not that selfish.|
[20:54]	Arkalest	|At what point does your duties end and you  begin?|
[20:55]	Arkalest	|At which point are yoou going to  stop being lonely?|
[20:55]	Sabina	|I told you, my own feelings don't matter.|
[20:55]	Arkalest	Sabina |Ands who told you that? W ho taught you that?|
[20:56]	Sabina	|My parents, my teachers, my clan. It is a given that we must set ourselves aside when our duty demands it.|
[20:58]	Arkalest	|Once, a man was asked to sacrifice everything he ever had for his clade. To embark on a path.|
[20:58]	Arkalest	|I am what lays at the end of that path.|
[21:01]	Sabina	|I. Am not. You.|
[21:01]	Arkalest	|No.|
[21:01]	Arkalest	|Yoou aren't.|
[21:01]	Arkalest	|Pray you never will.|
[21:03]	Sabina	|I will. . . tell my superior that you want your paintings back. And that you promise to keep them out of reach *if* we hand them over.|
[21:06]	Arkalest	|And I will...Keep out of the White Scars. For now.|
[21:07]	Sabina	|I suppose we shall speak later then. Until next time.|
[21:07]	Arkalest	|Be careful.|
[21:09]	Sabina	takes a few moments to regain her composure, and then puts in a high proroirty request to talk to Tuissant
[21:10]	Arkalest	Sabina |Sabina, are you okay?|
[21:12]	Sabina	[I have been better, but that's not what matters. I just spoke with the Hungry Man, or rather a. . . part of it. It's some sort of Gestalt entity.]
[21:12]	Arkalest	[what]
[21:12]	Arkalest	The connectionc closes.
[21:13]	Sabina	[It wants the paintings back. And says it will keep them somewhere "They cannot be reached", and that the ones in the White Scars hands will be dealt with.]
[21:13]	Sabina	". . . Hellfire and damnation."
[21:13]	Sabina	". . . Oh, I should probably let the others know too. ." mumbles to herself
[21:14]	Arkalest	[what]
[21:14]	Arkalest	[What.]
[21:14]	Arkalest	[What?]
[21:14]	Sabina	[It wants the paintings back. And says it will keep them somewhere "They cannot be reached", and that the ones in the White Scars hands will be dealt with.]
[21:14]	Arkalest	[LIKE  ASS IT WILL DO.]
[21:14]	Sabina	[With the implicit threat that it will take them back by force if we do not hand them over.]
[21:15]	Arkalest	[THAT STUPID PIECE OF SHIT HOW CAN IT EVEN DARE SHOW ITS FACE AFTER ALL THE BULLSHIT TROUBLE HE CAUSED TO ME AND MINE THAT WALKING SHITSHOW]
[21:16]	Arkalest	|FIRST HE FUCKING /LOSES/ A WHOLE INSTRUMENTALIST AND NOW  THE PAINTINGS]
[21:16]	Arkalest	[ I AM SO GOING TO EAT ITS FUCKING FACE]
[21:16]	Sabina	sighs and braces herself against the alley with one arm she rests her head against the cool wall while Tuissant vents
[21:17]	Arkalest	[GETTING BACK TO YOU AFTER I FUCK UP SOMEBODY, GOD.]
[21:17]	Sabina	[Yes ma'am.]
[21:19]	Sabina	turns around and slowly slides down the wall and into a sitting poistion as she brings her arms around herself, head hanging low and face covered by the hood of her cload.
[21:19]	Sabina	*cloak
[21:19]	Sabina	"I want to go home. . " She mumbles to herself.
[21:21]	Arkalest	Sabina Five seconds later, Ikris calls you.
[21:21]	Arkalest	[boss just threw me a wall]
[21:21]	Arkalest	[cant feel faced]
[21:21]	Sabina	[Sorry, I think that was my fault.]
[21:21]	Arkalest	[think gyrworth is now stomach ]
[21:22]	Sabina	[Sorry. . .]
[21:25]	Arkalest	[why am bleeding pink]
[21:25]	Arkalest	[no is okay]
[21:26]	Arkalest	[what happened?]
[21:26]	Sabina	pulls her legs closer into her chest and shivers.
[21:27]	Sabina	[I'm. . . feeling homesick.]
[21:27]	Arkalest	[Feel you]
[21:30]	Sabina	[I don't know what to do.]
[21:32]	Sabina	". . . Oh yeah. . . Biax and Alex. .  ."
[21:34]	Sabina	". . . The others are coming back, prolly should't let them see me like this. . . . . ." She stands up and rolls her shoulders.
[21:35]	Sabina	And a few moments later she looks as though nothing is wrong.
[21:36]	Arkalest	[Be safe, please.]
[21:37]	Arkalest	Sabina Tuissant's AR message arrives. [No. ]
[21:37]	Arkalest	[Or rather, not before I figure out what it wants. It, Sabina.]
[21:37]	Sabina	Ikris [I'll do my best]
[21:37]	Sabina	Tuissant: [I did not agree to anything, I simple told it I would pass on its mesage to you.]
[21:37]	Arkalest	[Don't let its good manners fool you, Sabina. It more or less lost the right to define itself as an individual after it troughly turned itself inside out in its pursuiot of..What?]
[21:39]	Sabina	[Yes ma'am, I simply felt it prudent to not overly antagonize it at this interval.]
[21:40]	Arkalest	[Don't you understand how those things can't /simply/ be allowed to roam freely? Do you think society has any love for those ugly, misshapen have-beens and maybes and perhaps, those evolutionary dead ends?]
[21:41]	Arkalest	[This world eats its own children alive, Sabina. What do you think it'll do to such a thing, to such an anomaly?]
[21:42]	Arkalest	[It's a monster, sure, but you know what this world, this society needs, Sabina?]
[21:42]	Arkalest	[It needs monsters.]
[21:42]	Sabina	[It is a Abomination ma'am. Somethign so abhorent to me and my people that is everyone's duty to see such aberration form the order of the universe cast out. Dharma demands nothing less least we damn ourselves.]
[21:42]	Arkalest	[It needs somethiong outside to gwap at, to hate and despise. A scapegoat, least they look inside ]
[21:43]	Arkalest	[And don't make the mistake of acting and rushing. If we kill a monster by becoming a monster, at the end of the day we're still left with one.]
[21:43]	Sabina	[I know, these things must be dealt with carefully. And I trust that you are more familar with how to deal with it than I.]
[21:44]	Arkalest	[Perhaps.]
[21:44]	Arkalest	[Please be careful, Sabina. I don't want to lose anything else.]
[21:45]	Sabina	[I'm not oging to rush off to confront it ma'am.]
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[21:47]	Sabina	[But I do want to know ma'am. Is this why I am here? To use my connection with this thing as a means to combat it?]
[21:47]	Arkalest	[Yes.]
[21:48]	Sabina	[I live to serve ma'am.]