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A Whisper to the Jester - Sh'ozak Ma'hk'null - 07-27-2022
They whisper to her mind, using the mark they left before.
Our Starlight Jester, Harlequin of the infinite oceans, even in your absence you entertain us.
We see now why you throw yourself upon the Schemer's tricks, willingly subjecting yourself to fates worse than death. You find that death IS your other fate.
![[+]](/forums/images/collapse_collapsed.png "[+]")
The Echoes of Familiar VoicesScathing, mocking laughter.
What a beautiful charade, a wonderful show put forth by only the purest of actors. We must wonder what cosmic playwright conducted this satisfying coincidence. Your investment in all these things, it is fleeing from the inescapable. What wonderful happenstance, to see that the Greymind's philosophies are once again superior to the rest of his race.
A significantly more peaceful presence, perhaps even accepting.
So, "Raven". "Revenant". Tell us your desires. Tell us your woes. Your hand in this mockery of a scheme may not be so necessary as you seem to believe. Lay bare your heart and soul, and let us change your future. You have so clearly failed to change it yourself.
![[Image: output-onlinepngtools_18.png?width=480&height=640]](https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/761418906082082827/1001624563504918700/output-onlinepngtools_18.png?width=480&height=640)
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Kauket - 07-27-2022
[As the greater mind reached out to their mind, penetrating the upper boundaries set by mechanical disturbances, greater clarity was had this time due to her initial proximity to the Shrine.
Delving into the mindscape of the 'Jester' revealed its fractured state, barely held together. A metaphorical image was constructed within the mind. Distant large towering structures that decayed. Several cracked lands - fragmented into islands, resembling pieces of her past life. Some islands, drifted away. Some, still connected. One large island was present within the center. It seemed as if it had some form of psychic shielding to resist the growing monochromy of the affliction - the on-going raging mind storm happening over and over within her mind. The dark storms overhead had made the entry difficult, in combination with the augments present.
It appeared that this affliction was merely but a byproduct of a forcefully broken minishare link. A Nomad that had once connected to her mind in discretion. Over time, it was clear this mind became tainted, corrupted and damaged from the looping energy that had nowhere to go, the damages manifesting into a form of a psychic infestation that slowly consumed the mind, adapting to its condition. Just raw, untamed energy that festered within a lesser creatures mind, drowning out the mind.
Within the center of the main island, beneath the shield, was the remnants of their mind that they could control, the shield refracting away the storms attacks - as well as manifestations created by the storm, nightmares that made form that lurkedoutside the shields. It seemed that the shield reacted to her mental well being. In this instance, her mental manifestation was within the sancturary of this barrier, residing besides a tree that had crystal decorations dangling down from its branches - seemingly containing fragments of personal belonging. This mental manifestation appeared to be in torment, appearing ethereal in nature, dark ooze dripping from its body, seemingly representing the lament and suffering they have been through lately, perceiving themselves as no more than a monster.
This figure had been creating several mental ideas, plans, designs, more crude manifestations that situated itself within this little zone of theirs. It seemed that they were trying to plan for the Sentinels - technological approaches and other scientific jargon, amongst other personal worries. One idea in particular kept echoing on from them, a virtual display of a screen was kept manifested.
Stomping back and forth, they seemed to be in woe over the conception of betrayal and abandonment. The idea of disloyalty. Clawing at their own self, the manifestation was unstable, shivering, stuttering, almost fighting itself in conflict, constantly changing in shape. Subtly, it cried to itself.
"Can't... Can't be ... Betrayed -- Harbinger -- He couldn't have --- Who --- Can't trust -- Can't ... -- Why would -- Worse than Humanity?! -- Ego --- No?!"
As Sh'ozaks whispers leaked through the barriers, there was a vague sense of familiarity that warped around her mind. It felt like something was always behind him, listening in, when he made himself present in this desolate wasteland.
The mental manifestation of the mind jittered, beginning to punch the wall of the field in a split decision, fury coming out, hiding its sorrow. The form almost became goo like in pure vitriol, the dark essence of themselves splattered against the forcefield as they punched harder and harder, splattering more and more of themselves against the barrier.
"SNAKES. SNAKES. SNAKES ALL AROUND. THEY DON'T DESERVE REDEMPTION. THEY DON'T DESERVE ANYTHING."
With an instant flicker of attitude, there was an unstable portrayal of rickety calmness - immediately pulling themselves back away from the forcefield. It wouldn't last too long as the conscience picked up on Sh'ozaks message. The instability and split personality emerged once more, discord took place, the sensation of betrayal built more black essence upon their own spirit, drowning it even more in negativity. The ooze dripped off herself - making a reflection of themselves, except now entirely composed of the metaphysical foundation of her own negativity. Her true self slowly emerged, but remained disfigured in the dark substance, that cold negativity, sorrow - fear - anger, remaining as a thin layer.
"No-no... Calm - Clarity... There must be a reason for this. There is always logic... There is always purpose... - We need to help liberate them, we need to feast on knowledge - we - ... Wh-... Wha -- Who?"
The primitive fury returned, sensing that there was another presence within their mind. Almost immediately, she dropped her emotions, placing her guard up. She raised her arm, shapeshifting it to strike the clone with a strong punch, trying to keep the negative emotions down under control. It wasn't working. Her manifestation glared down to the ground, noting that some of the 'technological markings' of the ground had been faded out. The damaged medical implants. They weren't active. They weren't on. The mind had free realm of manifesting more and more negative impulses and thoughts.
The mind simply needed to vent and rest, but his intrusion only made things worse. Her manifestation grasped the mental clone that reformed after being struck down, grasping it by the throat in a stone cold mannerism. With her mind being able to focus on one subject - that familiar snarky voice, it expressed with sharp demanding clarity with no particular emotion. Though, it was very clear that she did not appreciate such intrusions to her mind, her very own sandbox to either create, theorise, or fight amongst herself.
"What do you want. Shozak."
She demanded, gazing into a mirror of herself - her clone of dark negativity, the grasp around the neck tightened, splattering the form once more with an impassive regard.]
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Sh'ozak Ma'hk'null - 07-27-2022
A surprise, but a familiar tone.
Sh'ozak did not expect enough space to manifest, but they had gotten used to surprises by this point. Within the storm, a single blue eye opened. It stared to the image of the human before it, then through that image. It judged briefly, then a second eye opened. Slowly fading in, the face of a young girl formed, staring intently at something within the person they'd come to speak to. Following that, a body in a blue and silver dress, which billowed far too lightly for the storm that it found itself in. The form took a second to do a small twirl, wordlessly judging itself now. Seeming more intrigued than satisfied, they looked up, fully regarding the manifestation before them now.
"Clearly, we are here to torment you", Sh'ozak lied mockingly. They smiled a coy smile, showing needle teeth. "Yet, it seems you are doing that well enough yourself." The figure stretched upwards, and six eye-covered wings unfurled from their back, a few white feathers blowing away in the storm. "No, it just so happens that you fall on a more fortunate side this time. As much as we'd enjoy merely watching you struggle against whatever strings that control you, those strings hold together something we hate much more than we hate you."
Their smile faltered slightly. They felt great distaste for even suggesting it. "You suffer. There are chains that bind you. Those that are pulled on by others. Unholy manipulations by which they build a foundation to pervert the very life of these great seas with rotting corpses pulled from graves better left closed." Sh'ozak seemed to nearly sigh. "For us to continue our actions as they are now, we need specific lines of friend and foe drawn between some. This illness of yours is a string that some pull to control you. We seek to earn the ire of those ones, so that they may draw the correct lines of friend and foe. To that end, we must cut that string. To that end, we now seek to heal you." Their eyes showed a feigned disinterest, and betrayed an impatience. "As we said before, tell us your desires. Tell us your woes. Lay bare your heart and soul, and let us change your future, since you have so clearly failed to change it yourself"
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Kauket - 07-27-2022
[Her manifestation gazed at him with a cold silence, observing him as he mocked her. There was no humor to be found, yet no anger. Emptiness as he mocked. Unmoved by words. The head tilted, inqusitive at his claims of interest. Trying to assess his interests, she pondered. As she pondered, vague visions appeared by the tree as the mind calculated, trying to see several paths ahead.
"Harbinger. Why do you oppose him and his intrusion into the graves? Do you not believe that he operates within interests of your kind?"
Her visage walked around the vision of the winged angel, unmoved by its appearance. As she analysed their words, more dark ooze had drizzled off of her manifested form, creating yet another intrusive negative metaphysical appearance, whispering venom of paranoia seeping out of it.
"More lies. More Snakes. More deception. They're going to control us. Ensnare u-"
Her true monstrous self smacked the apparition, goring it to several splodges of liquid that shot across the forcefield, splattering against the false wall and the ground, destroying it temporarily once more as it become nothing more but a puddle upon the ground, slowly reforming over time. For now, her defensive self asserted dominance, destroying these figments of the mind with no passion, pure emptiness across her face.
"You are neither my friend, nor my enemy. Yet you do not hold any interest within me. The only interest I sense from you is your curiosity, your scheme. Just as he schemes. But, what can you offer me - that he cannot? "
Her form turned to stare at Shozaks visage, staring down at it.
"You expect me to gamble my fate, by trading one master for another? I can... control myself from falling victim to... manipulation. To me, it is the prinicple of achievement, advancement, learning. With Harbinger, I can learn. With you, there is only death and apathy, regression. Now. If what the others say is true, that these Vaults contain the key to your kinds intellectual liberation -- or possible death -- why should I not seek the answers?"
Her manifestation kept warping, changing rapidly, morphing between her previous versions of herself, ranging from Guildkeeper armor, to Keeper, her virtual reality visage, to other varying suits, amalgamating into one messy silhouette - horned with a star helmet, as their woes still discreetly dribbled away from their form, her true self underneath still drowning from emotional overload. Shozak could easily sense the distrust, if not see it ooze away from the form. ]
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Sh'ozak Ma'hk'null - 07-27-2022
Their expression shifted to annoyance. Her insistence on questioning was expected, but disliked all the same. "Graves are not so enchanting as human stories would believe. There are no treasures. There are no boons. Graves hold Corpses, and Corpses hold death. The Gravekeepers are made to protect without from within, not within from without. We were content to leave fools to their foolishness at once. It did not concern us."
They levitated higher above the surface, lounging in the air. Their silver hair blew forward, and they began inspecting it. "And now it concerns us. We felt movement on the outer edges. Gravekeepers from other distant Graves, perhaps? They ebb and flow in time with your foolish quest." They turned over in the air, now hovering on their back. "We doubt your capacity to understand what threat the Gravekeepers truly present. What good is your preserved knowledge when there is no one left to know it?"
Tendrils of blue light sprouted from their wings and hung down as they hovered, blowing softly with the surrounding storm. "We sought to let you fools die to your own foolishness. This is no longer viable. And as for the intent of the Schemer..." Bitterness could be heard in their voice. "They are a sorry relic from a failed age. They seek to make once again what failed us before. They cannot let go of that weaker age. Their intent is not our interests, and never has been. It has been the interests of the past."
The eyes on the wings snapped to the figure before Sh'ozak, gauging reactions. "The Schemer has drawn his lines. We see where they fall. We need to see him halted, to halt the force on the edge of this ocean. To loosen the fingers of a crushing grip."
"As for what we can offer," They waved their hand to the the side, tearing a hole in the reality here and showing a different place. A series of what seem to be spinnerets are rapidly constructing and deconstructing human organs. Eyes, livers, and the like. "Our experiments have lead to an understanding of your genetics. We can edit them as we edit ours. Whatever is broken, we can repair. We are architects before all else." The scene visible through the hole shifts to a shape visible in a sea of light. Among many brilliant forms, most of eyes and teeth and golden rings, a single human shape resides. "We can even change the very structure of your existence. We can make your kind as ours. We have many cities and many hives feeding us. We could easily make to you whatever change we wish."
The hole snaps shut. The tendrils descending from Sh'ozak's hovering form seemed to reach slightly toward her. "You are controlled by this desperation. This desperation is fueled by your so very limited life. Removing this desperation will give us time to right what is wrong, or in the least prepare and fortify for the fiery hell that the Schemer is unwittingly inviting." Sh'ozak's form waves their hand slightly in a dismissive manner. "Of course, we have things that we will ask in return, but they shall not be outrageous, for we know well that if they were, you would not provide. Come now, let us change your future."
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Kauket - 07-28-2022
The form twitched, turning her head in wonder, becoming mesmerized momentarily in thought. Processing. Analysing.
"Explain to me, what does Harbinger desire to do? Do you even know?"
Once again, she disregarded the mockery from him.
"Elaborate. How does my own foolishness affect you? Are you afraid of the Sentinels spreading their plague? "
There was mild fascination, temptation, to their offer of genetic manipulation. The distant call to the Ascension - a soft echo in the back of their mind to modify one's self in the name of boasting intellectual might, unleashing the limitations of the mind. But replication, basic mimickry wasn't quite enough. They glanced around, continuing to calculate and assess.
"There is not enough information - not enough data - to make a clear calculation. Only estimations can be made. And his true goals are hard to deter-- ..."
Grunting, the form raised its palm, slamming into the ground. The world started to morph as a memory began to take place, but the storms overhead remained.
"See for yourself..."
The memory started to mold into the new scenary, their palm still planted into the ground as their eyes shut, focusing on recalling the memory. It fizzled, flickered, as damage within the mind made it hard to focus. The shield discreetly remained in the sky - only slightly overlapping the memory that replayed.
She focused, struggling to make finer detail appear with clarity.
After the memory almost finished, she collapsed to her knees, panting from strain, the mental toll was high - particularly so in the already vulnerable state from their breakdown as well as Shozak's forceful intrusion. The scenary slowly faded back to the island, the forcefield in front of them, still kneeling down as they tried to recover.
"What do you... make of this...?"
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Sh'ozak Ma'hk'null - 07-28-2022
The tendrils hanging from the form twitched, a thinly veiled rage crossing their face after viewing the memories. "Hmh, we should have expected that he would be willing to sacrifice us all for such an insistence. Perhaps learning from others mistakes is more difficult for our own than we had thought."
Then, they waved their hand across the air, opening another hole to see through. "How indeed, does your foolishness affect us." Through the hole, sight wasn't the same. Whatever sensory organ was used was not remotely akin to eyes, but it did it's best to translate accordingly. It knew where it was, deep off the edge nebula, some distance from the Sirius sector. It was in a gap in the arms of the Galaxy, a dead space between the lively arms of stars. Every few minutes, a pulse of vision emanated from the viewer, and they saw nothing but a few specks of dust. Finally, one pulse returned something. A Sentinel. Stimulated, a quicker pulse went out. Ten. Fifty. Hundreds. Thousands. Millions, and then billions. They were less of an army and more of a hostile tidal wave capable of drowning entire star systems, perhaps even entire sectors as the numbers in sight soon reached trillions and then quadrillions. It was as if a portion of space itself decisively swam towards the Sirius sector, an invasion force as far as could be seen. One in their vast sea of Sentinels noticed the eye, and that was the last that it saw. "What the Schemer has started has set into motion what could very well end us."
The hole closed as the integrity of Sh'ozak's form slipped away a little. Fanged smiles failing to disguise a potent rage with a smug aura appeared and disappeared across the body, and the colorful dress seemed to drip without dripping, a liquid holding itself together just barely. "Currently, we don't posses the means to save ourselves from this scale of an onslaught. We, along with all other life here, would be burned from the companionship of the stars. What we seek is to stall him, and in that to stall them long enough to prepare for the coming storm." Hints of red seemed to bleed into the blue tendrils. "All this for a quest to answer questions best left unanswered."
Slowly, the mouths begin laughing. It was bitter and hateful laughter, impatience and contempt of those more foolish than them, despite how they shouldn't. "Alas, we once again find that inferiority is a potent weapon." At this point, Sh'ozak finally decided that the turbulence was detracting from their patience. In an instant, the tendrils shot out towards the edges of the world. Some hit the water, and where they hit it, it was replaced with a white floor made of some unknown stone. Some seemed to impact with the air, and from it white walls melted into view. The same happened in the sky, and a glowing glyph appeared in front of Sh'ozak, emanating a calm, collected order, forcing away the winds and alleviating the stresses. Some of the tendrils had shot towards the form of Revenant, but they stopped short, deciding otherwise and falling limp like before. "What does the Schemer intend to do?", they continue as they shift a mild healing energy into their projection, "We cannot be sure. We have our ideas, however. They may seek the Creator's legacy, following the failed belief that we were to become the Creators. They may seek the Time of Trial that was once idealized, where our kind was to strike down numerous enemies that our Creators once had."
They hold out their hands, a double helix appearing in one, and a segmented hexagonal prism appearing in the other. "Your kind believes they came about by accident. Circumstance. Born by mere chance. Your structure says otherwise, it holds meaning, commands, and purpose. We once held a belief that whatever created your kind was a sworn enemy of our Creators, and thus you were sent to torment and destroy us. We now see that it neither matters, nor will matter. Not until your creators come from the cosmos to save you will it matter."
Eventually, the smug smile and aura return. "As we said, a sorry relic from a failed era, hunting ideals that do not matter and clinging to times when they were regarded highly, with no regard to the consequences."
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Kauket - 07-28-2022
Understanding that the interpretations were familiar to Vatan's, there was a theme to be had. An understanding of their perspective, but she was still pondering. There was awareness that even if she had abandoned Harbinger's side, that she would be killed - if not immediately. But, to choose to side with Shozak, runs the risk of losing autonomy. That was one thing she had going when operating with Harbinger. Autonomy on a timer. After hearing them, the stakes came to realisation, these Sentinels were not localised, but were infinite in scale, all of them possibly connected.
Continuing to ponder the choices. A barrage of overthinking came across, millions of questions, thoughts, ideas, it was overwhelming.
"Is it even possible to somehow... corrupt the Sentinels? They were all hollow, presumably controlled by one thing... Could we not backfire their own infestation with a virus of our own? Or could we somehow destroy their nodes? Where is their primary node? Where does Harbinger even reside? Can you even truly stop him? He has many thralls, but - ... Could he be spoken down and convinced? What if he was already exposed by them, corrupted? --- Even if I refuse to help Harbinger, he will simply find others. "
She shook her head, pushing herself up with a grunt, still incapacitating herself with rushing thoughts and ideas, the burning desire to design, to assess and create.
"Even if we try to slow Harbinger down, the Sentinels have already been activated. They need to be disabled. Somehow. Either through... destructive technology, or otherwise anything else that can dampen their efforts. The Shrine, for example, can block the Sentinels memetic tracing. Can that energy be replicated? Hm - Robots - Machinery, you hate them, they may hate them, but they cannot track them. Could that be of use?"
Revenant disregarded the theory of origin, perhaps Humanity was made by another, perhaps not. She saw no evidence of such through science, but remained agnostic to the theory.
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Sh'ozak Ma'hk'null - 07-28-2022
The form seemed to stabilize slightly, tilting it's head with interest. "You are bold to assume you could place so much as a pebble in the path of either of those forces. Alas, it is neither necessary nor possible."
The form lightly touched down to the ground, and two more sets of arms sprouted from their sides. glowing strings emerged from the fingers, building wireframe designs, simulating what they said. "It is also not possible for us to stop either of them. The Gravekeepers can be thought of as a living command. They must keep that which is outside, outside, and that which is inside, inside."The threads build a series of symbols. What they read isn't known, but the feeling they emanate is a command of some sort. "This includes knowledge of what is within, which is the Scent of Death that lets them hunt you."
"Gravekeepers are left at Graves scattered across every ocean that we know. There is, somewhere, a manifest which outlines what every grave holds, and where every grave is. It is known briefly by the minds that retained themselves after the Great Collapse, and a path to find it may still be found within the Great Sphere after it is repaired. Perhaps after weathering this storm," they continue coldly, "we can offer the Schemer that manifest, so that they may leave on a journey of discovery and seldom return."
"No, at this moment, what we require is not to halt him. He will push harder, returning with schemes upon schemes. There is a reason why, in his era, he was regarded as an almighty force, to never be questioned and to always be followed. We need to, as your kind would say, throw him off his game." The threads draw out miniature models of the entire Sirius sector. "Introducing inefficiencies, deviances, and creating a bubble of failure wherein he may believe himself satisfied without truly being so. Thus, we remove you from under his control. A minor inefficiency. We instigate, we unveil. You know many of the associates, each of them has something personal invested in his scheme. That something can be affected, changed, just how removing this illness of yours changes your personal investment."The threads construct a number of shapes, some vaguely recognizable as names, others entirely unfamiliar. "Introduce unknown variables. Opening the eyes of his pawns to that outside of his scheme. They will slow him down. And when he is slowed down, the Gravekeepers command will be fulfilled. The Graves will be protected. They will no longer require escalated force. They will return to their dormant state."
"Of course, we won't put such grand demands on you. This is for us to fulfill, the Schemer is born of our flesh, and his schemes are born of our past. What we require of you is to inform others that he is not absolute, and to maintain the fear of ourselves in the Betrayers. So long as the name Sh'ozak the Survivor instills ire in them, they shall find it necessary to complete the things we need them to complete, and to become what we need them to become, for the sake of themselves. So long as others know that the Harbinger is defyable, he shall find it hard to hold control over his pawns. So long as the Harbinger does not control his pawns, the disturbing of the Graves cease. So long as the Graves are defended, the Gravekeepers succeed their command, and will return to rest."
The threads formed the image of the Shrine. "As for the Cradle, it demands peace within its reach. The few Gravekeepers that are near are not enough to override this. The monstrous swarm that is coming will not even notice it." The threads then coiled neatly on the ground. "Ideas are infectious. They can change the very genetics of thought. We must simply insert the idea of failure into the Schemer's thought. There are many places we can start with this. It is most efficient, most effective, and least intensive to start with you."
RE: A Whisper to the Jester - Kauket - 07-28-2022
A silent laughter emerged, almost mocking in the brief chuckle, shaking her head.
"Beware the gluttony of pride that blinds you. Your kin here were not impervious to fate and chance either. What was created, can be destroyed. "
Listening to Shozak's words, the eyes tightened, pondering even further. Upon the mention of the Great Sphere, a connection was made with memory, and with the anomalies. She also had recalled that she had some samples too.
"...So that is why Harbinger wanted the Dyson crystals... "
She walked around back and forth for a moment, pondering.
"It has no doubt eluded your perception that he will permit you to simply just take me to obscure his plans... Not that I have been convinced of deviating from my position, not yet, not enough data ... but your promises - the promises of biological manipulation ... for the price of what? My enslavement? Torture? - And... Convincing him to change will be hard, if not impossible from his determined will. "
Slapping their head once more in torture as the ooze began to build up more and more, putting pressure on the mind. The storms started to return, rumbling more in an roaring blast of thunder, building up stronger and stronger. They clawed their own head in agony. They couldn't accomodate the guest for too long, the fatigue from concentration was reaching its climax.
"I... will... try to... find out... what... Harbinger... is trying to do... I will... confront... him... Though ... the ... truth ... may ... never ... be ... told ... he ... hides ... something. "