thespherelogs | The first night work

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The first night work

Who: Seregil, Alec and Jag
What: Seregil posed a thought on the network and now he, Alec and Jag are discussing it in further detail
Where: One of the less occupied or inviting pods
When: The beginning of February
Warnings: Scenes of a conspiering nature (possible interesting vibes if Jag gets touched)

The boy had been an exciting find. There was sarcasm, but no bravado to offset it. Seregil had decided rather early in their conversation that he enjoyed engaging with the boy. And that he would be useful. There were things that he and Alec were lacking and, he had become well aware of that when he'd been here for some time before Alec arrived. This wasn't their world, and they needed to compensate for that. Having been exiled from his people and thrown into a world, he knew little to nothing about at such a young age had taught him more than he should ever know about that.

One couldn't exist on one's merits alone, there needed to be at least some form of a network in place, and unfortunately, Seregil feared they would have to establish it themselves. Especially when you added those damn locks into it, they would be the death of their trade if there weren't some adaptation. This was the first step.

Alec was warier then Seregil; something still a bit disconcerting to him. The man he'd left was a wide-eyed and trusting man full of good nature and accepting of everyone. A trait that Seregil feared would get him killed one day and the reason he kept him as close as he did when he knew it would eventually break his heart. This Alec was closed. Not to him, but it seemed to others. There had been no bright and shining pretense over the network or attempts to establish a connection. There had been sticking close and to himself. It made Seregil wonder what they'd been through that had caused the change. What horrors would await him in his future - or had awaited another him in another future

One day he might crack the man's shell and learn what had caused the change, but not wasn't the time. So they waited, him watching his friend with cautious curiosity as they waited for the boy to arrive.

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Admittedly, Jagger hesitated before following the directions provided him. It wouldn't be the first time he tromped off to meet someone he's never met before, at least in person, knowing very little of what to expect from the meeting, but it was the first time he'd done so miles under the ocean's surface with no backup, so that was fun.

Still, Jagger was curious to a fault, and so he went, cautiously scouting one pod after another until he found the one Seregil had mentioned. He even knocked as the slid the door open.

"Boo."

Alec was his own private sea of troubles since Seregil's arrival, but for what it was worth, he disguised it well. Polite and trusting were very different things, and Alec tended to err toward the former these days. But Seregil vouched for this man, and he'd never given Alec reason to doubt his judgment before.

At least, it had been quite some time since Alec doubted his judgment. Seregil generally read people well, in any case.

Alec offered a small smile to Jagger, and inclined his head in greeting when the man slipped into the pod. He was seated on a counter, ankles crossed, and for want of something to do with his hands, he was pressing something back and forth between his palms. Silly Putty?

"Thank you for joining us."

There was a disturbing and passing thought to reach back and take Alec's hand, squeezing it reassuringly. Instead, he kept both clasped around a knee that was sitting in front of him, smiling brightly at the boy's introduction.

"I assume you're the toaster expert that I met."

It isn't as if they'd exchanged names in any way. So it was up to content instead.

He hadn't expected another, but neither of them seemed threatening at least. Jagger comes looking as though he's dressed for the part of scavenging, dark colors, an overcoat, leather gloves.

"I wouldn't say I'm a toaster expert, but I know how they work, yeah." He inclines his head but doesn't approach either of the men. "It's Jagger."

Alec's brow knit, a sidelong glance cast to Seregil, along with a quick hand signal that Jagger may not have caught unless he knew what to look for.

"Alec," he said, smiling attention back on Jagger. "A pleasure to meet you."

Seregil pointedly ignored the gesture from Alec. There was no convenient gesture for that explanation. Besides, it was more fun watching Alec's confused face in the midst of all this.

The direct offers of names was a slight relief. Jagger was already apparently a novice at intrigue, but Alec, well, it was a refreshing slip-up, and he couldn't help the soft smile as he glanced at the other man from the corner of his eye.

"More knowledgeable than either of us, but the toaster isn't why I asked you here. Alec, tell him your theory on that dream of the sphere. I want to know how plausible it is on a technological level." He wasn't planning on beating around the bush with this, but he was planning on integrating Jagger into their investigation if he proved useful, or at least intelligent enough.

Other than familiarity with the realms of science fiction due to literary tastes, Jagger doesn't really have a pool of expert knowledge to pull from in this regard, either, but he'll do his best.

He nods to both of them in turn and then looks to Alec expectantly. "Alright, then. Let's have it."

"It's not much to go on," Alec floundered, and pushed a hand through his hair.

He wasn't even sure he fully understood what this theory was, much less how to put words to it. Explaining it to Seregil had been challenging enough. But his head tilted to one side, gaze fixed momentarily on the floor, trying to imagine how Thero might explain it.

"We're not familiar with this thing; whether it's magic or technology, perhaps a combination of both. But those who understand it seem sure that nothing can penetrate its barrier. Which leaves a few questions in my mind.

We've known people who can move through objects, or travel instantly from one place to another as if it's commonplace. Perhaps someone here had that ability. It would be the most likely scenario, but I also thought...

Whatever entered the sphere; what if it was able to enter because it is like the sphere?

Consider it like, if a person has died and then come back, they might be able to see things and enter places, simply because they've been touched by death. So perhaps this is similar."

The beginning was what Seregil already knew. Alec had mentioned it to him back in the bedroom when they were trying to pick those damn locks. The later or at least the talk of death was new and brought a brow raise from him in Alec's direction.

Clearly, they needed to have a talk when they got back home.]

Jagger listened, becoming more and more interested as the explanation goes on. He's heard of teleportation, of course, and even rumors of bi-location but he's never actually seen magic or any sort of special gifts outside his own and a few select others. Nothing as stupendous as what they're claiming. Of course, they were also brought here by means that were unexplained, and that was hardly the point at the moment.

After Alec finishes his explanation, he begins to pace, thoughtfully running a gloved hand back through his hair as he tried to make the pieces fit together in one image or another. After a moment, he reaches up to the golden circle behind his ear, activating it to replay the Sphere's memory again before responding.

"You mean like...oil mixing with oil, yeah? Or something similar?" He nods. "And the Sphere wasn't expecting this...other entity, either, but it was connected to everyone it'd brought there." He stops in his pacing, raising a hand. "It doesn't know the passage of time, but it also didn't know loneliness or solitude, and that didn't seem connected to the heart monitors. it's entirely possible there are more of them...these entities. It is possible, I suppose, but in that respect, its motives would be nearly impossible to glean without more information."

"Well that's the trick, isn't it? How do you get more information from a thing like that? How do you even trust that the information we have is accurate? Or understood fully?

"Who's to say the council knows much more than we do about anything?"

Alec swung his leg idly, glancing to Seregil. "But you seem to think they're trustworthy, talí."

It seemed Jagger was interested enough, good. Seregil wanted him to be interested. He could be their in to understanding this technology. Even if he didn't know as much as some, he knew far more than they did.

Alec's glance was met with a guarded one back. He had questions about that comparison, but now wasn't the time for those. Instead, he mildly commented on what Alec had said.

"Some of them, and it's more they're useful for certain needs. The question is 'who has the most to gain by this' and by the council vote, it seems Annie may be our mark in that respect."

He starts to tick things off on his fingers. "She seems quick to cover things up and call the investigation closed, she's also quick to be abrasive toward the newcomers, and I'll bet she's the one behind the price changes. It's easy to gain blind trust when you're offering a common enemy."

Finished, he put his hand back down to twine with the other around his knee. "The other one I can't say I've heard much from or about."

Jagger nodded, crossing his arms once more. "Neither have I, and Annie does seem the most likely culprit, if only because her answers are the most evasive and least detailed."

He hesitated before responding further, though, glancing down before looking back between the two of them. "I tried to learn something more of it, but the glass enclosure is...mysteriously clean...psychically, I mean."

"Psychically?” Alec's eyes widened a little. "How do you mean?"

Now, this hadn't been part of his and Jagger's discussion. It was new information that might have been better to learn beforehand, but if the boy was a wizard, well, that could be even more useful.

Back home, it was always so difficult for Jagger to explain without someone looking at him as though he'd grown a third head or something equally ridiculous. It was easily validated if he were to touch something important to the one offering the questions, or even more so if he were to touch the individual themselves. Without focusing his mind, he perceived only the briefest of glimpses, indistinguishable from blurred images viewed from the window of a speeding railway car, easily missed and nearly impossible to identify unless he were to turn, hone in, interpret.

Somehow, he got the feeling these two might understand without the necessity to be considered insane or the never satisfied requirement of proof. He shifted, holding his hands out before him, still gloved but almost as though on display.

"Ever since I can remember, I've had the ability to...know things about objects, people by touching them. Objects are easier to read. Whatever's touched them leaves a sort of...finite impression upon them. People are changing constantly, so it's harder to get a read on them. They're like...trying to pause a kaleidoscope being turned by someone else."

Alec's brow rose, and he nodded slowly. He couldn't imagine that was an easy kind of life, but it was--

"Useful," Alec said. "At least, in certain situations."

Ferreting out contraband and blackmail from nobles' studies would be a hell of a lot easier with a compass like that. It could have some applications in street performing too, though something told Alec that Jagger wouldn't care to degrade himself like that.

Alec and Seregil certainly weren't above it.

Ah, magic then. That wasn't so surprising really. Home, in Aurenen most possessed some form of it; why would it be surprising for someone here too as well?

Alec was right though, it did sound useful. It would certainly make the following of someone or weeding out a spy easier if one could read objects or people the way Jagger could.

"And you used it to read the glass around the sphere?" At least that seemed to be what he had been implying.

"Useful, sure, and annoying." Even when he focused his mental eye, they were riddles at best.

"And I did, yeah, but it was...very clean. Too clean."

"Too clean? As if no one else had ever touched it?"

Or some other thing was erasing the history and impressions from it. Not for the first time since their arrival, Alec wished Thero were with them. He'd have a more solid idea of what could cause these things, about what manner of magic could purify it in such a way.

"Have you ever encountered that before?"

Seregil had other ideas regarding understanding what was going on, but he let Alec follow his line of thought. He wished Nysander were here. He'd know the right things to ask to figure this all out.

Jagger shook his head to answer the question. "No, never. It's...really impossible. At least I thought it was. Everything I know about this ability I've learned through trial and error, but...generally, everything collects some sort of impression from people or spirits. For it to be completely clean?" He shakes his head. "I'm at a loss."

"But that's alright! Because that tells us something too. It's impossible for the thing to be totally clean, right? Logically, considering how many people must make contact with it, and must have in the past as well, there has to be some history. So let's try to look at this a different way."

A different way, indeed. Alec wasn't even sure he understood what needed understanding with any of this. It all felt so far outside the realm of possibility. Then again, so had a good deal of his life in general over the past five years. Was this really so much further removed?

Alec stared hard at the ground, brow in a deep furrow as he absently tucked his hair behind his ear. As his fingers brushed the gold disc, he suddenly looked up between Seregil and Jagger. The discs... now that was an interesting thought.

"What if it's blocking you from getting anything from it?"

"I know quite a few wizards who could perform a spell like that." Seregil was certain that there were others from other worlds who could do the same. After all, a spell like that seemed like it would be universal.

"Perhaps....I mean, It's possible, yeah." He began to subtly pace, not a conscious gesture, as he thinks, running a hand back through his hair as though that somehow makes things clearer.

"So, you think some wizard or...mage cleaned it...magically?"

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