[PRP] What the Deuce (Preacher/Chester)

[Smerdle]

Chester had many questions, not the least of which was who is this cat, but he hesitated to seek out answers to any of them, mostly because the most convenient person to ask was his roommate. He wasn't technically afraid of her anymore, thankfully, but she did make him feel stupid, and that was something he preferred to avoid as often as possible.

Once he had decided he needed to speak with her for longer than it took them to pass in the hall or wait for the other to finish with the toaster, he could think of no better way to do so than to plant himself in a spot she had to pass to get into or out of the house, so in the kitchen he sat, a notebook on the table in front of him and his newly acquired letter beside it.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

As if the very thought of her had summoned Preacher from thin air, she appeared. Her hair was a tangle around her head and she bee-lined for the fridge. Yanking open the door, she pulled out a carton of chocolate soy milk and twisted the lid off.

"'Sup," she said, before drinking from the carton. There was a reason they did not always pool groceries. A meow sounded from her feet, although no cat could be found.

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

He glanced up from the near page full of notes on elements and frames and charters he had already amassed upstairs, smiling then looking vaguely disturbed over the span of several seconds. Cat sounds with no cat. Soy milk backwash. An average day.

"Did you end up going to the conference?" Chester asked, putting down his pen. It wasn't the first question he had planned on asking, but apparently it was the first one he did. "No one was killed or anything?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Mmm, nope. Though I made a magical chick mad. Thinkin' 'bout 'pologizin', but I ain't good at that." She sat down next to Chester and side-eyed his notebook. "Ya want a rundown n' s**t?"

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Yes, actually. If you've got time? And... there's a cat here someplace around here too, right? That's fine, it's not against any unspoken rule or anything, I would just like to make sure I'm not insane."

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Yeah... sorry. Yo Mink, get yer a** over n' say hi ta Bester." A grey cat slunk down the hallway before smoothly jumping up onto the counter. Bright green eyes stared hard at Chester. Then, he opened his mouth and meowed loudly. The sound reverberated from upstairs.

"So I, uh, got 'im in bullshit land. but ya, tha Charter. Basically, they wanna
destroy it."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Mink. Hello." He smiled, or tried to. The meowing thing was weird. And it seemed like the cat was judging him. "I'm Bester... today. Nice to meet you." He could only hope Preacher hadn't taken someone's cat by mistake, someone who would come here and splatter them both all over the walls. Chester swallowed, turning back to his notes.

"Yes. This letter... I thought it might have been sent to the wrong person, but I was trying to make something of it anyway. Did they say anything about stopping the cycles with this Charter restructuring?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

She sighed, propping her chin on both hands. Mink came over and began to vigorously rub himself on her arms. "Well, I ain't sure if re-doing the Charter will stop the ******** cycles or not tee bee aitch. There's at least three sigils in play currentlike - the original: tha sword n' stars, the new one wit tha tree, and tha charter one. Charter one split weres n' wargs up, made tha nobles." She swung her legs out, thinking.

"Afore, the meeting I went to was only for weres, wargs, n' nobles. M'glad they are stickin' tha rest up. I'm assumin' yer magical then?" She slanted a glance at him. Mink abandoned her to stare intently at Chester, getting as close as possible without touching him. "I thought tha old sigil was what created cycles, but I dunno. Nobles were created to withstand tha cycles, so that people'd persist from one cycle to tha next, I think. Also, cuz people wanted someone rulin'-like."

"They voted ta destroy it, in tha meetin'. Mainly cause a lot of 'em are mad tha charter got hooked onto some chick and made her go crazy. Also cause apparently torture is like... tha norm in tha court."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Chester nodded to indicate he'd grasped the stuff about the sigils—taking a second to get around how she spoke—then did so again when she asked if he had magic. He would have thought being on the listserv in the first place might have been proof enough, but he rarely hesitated to use his powers in situations where he wouldn't get hurt, even for frivolous displays. Pulling Odal's note closer, he ran a hand just above it, leaving behind a page full of pretty, but indecipherable runes. His hand paused for a second, then continued moving until it was poised over Mink's head in a silent offering. I will pet you if you don't maim me.

"I can't turn into anything or talk to animals, but I am. Undifferentiated, they seem to call it." He'd thought it was another word for useless until he had spoke to Vivien. Not that he'd done anything with that knowledge since.

"I've heard a little about Melany, but the possibility that I might do something about it seemed remote. I've been more concerned with not waking up one day as another version of myself. If destroying the Charter prevents that, then I'd be happy to help this... fetch. Is that really what they call themselves?"

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Mink ducked his head, clearly pleased at the attention. He would allow pets.... for now. Preacher was mollified that at least Mink seemed to like Chester.

"Oh ya, undiff'rentiated. Limitless potential, n' all that. I'mma were; I dunno if I said..." Chester being magical didn't come as a surprise, considering she'd bought him ice cream from the listserv, but still. He didn't look particularly magical.

"I dunno what destroyin' tha charter will do. Tha way I see it - we got all these sigils bindin' us, n' maybe we should dissemble 'em all and go back ta how it was. But magic's got fallout. N' dissemblin' them would prob like... have weird side effects; no one knows what. Of course, there's tha stip'lation that undoing this s**t needs destruction. Of all components. And tha sigils often had a human element." She shrugged. "N' yeah, fetches. I'll probably tryna grab somethin' ta help out with the.... the fetch quest." Preacher snorted loudly.

"Technically, ever since December, I ain't been m'self. Not since tha new sigil. When tha cycle goes through, us normies won't remember, but nobles will. I mean, even if we ******** up n' repeat... the next version of us won't know. We've prob' already even had this conversation afore, some version of us."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"I figured it out," he said, petting Mink as he spoke. "The were thing." He felt like an idiot for not having noticed anything sooner, but he wasn't in the habit of poking through Preacher's hair looking for animal ears either. "Is it rude to ask what you become?" Even after speaking with Eve, he didn't know the protocol for those sorts of questions.

Chester smiled a little at 'limitless potential', but it didn't last. He might have been able to do whatever he liked in theory, but he felt like an author confronted with a blank page. He could do anything. Without boundaries to force him in a single direction, he had no idea where to begin.

"I'm planning to help with the... fetch quest..." nice one "...as well. I have a library to visit first, and, well, that's it, but I'm hoping that I might get a better handle on those very problems. I feel it's important to know more about the things we don't remember we've done wrong." He paused, replaying what he'd just said in his head. It was as clear as he could make it, but still a convoluted concept. About as convoluted as not being himself.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"It ain't rude, s'long a ya promise not ta make fun o' m'cat's name after. I turn inta a mink. It just makes me wanna swim once a month p much." She perked up at the mention of the library. "I'm plannin ta go to tha library, too, well, a library - bullshit one. YES we gotta know tha ******** we did afore 'fore we go changin' things!" If Preacher had had a tail, it would be wagging furiously.

"Like we dunno how or exact-like why tha original sigil was made, like people's intent behind it. Same wit tha charter, too. It's all pretty stupid ta try and mess with s**t we don understand."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

Chester smiled to himself at her excitement, careful not to laugh. He thought naming her cat after her were form was a nice homage, cute even, and he didn't want her to think he was poking fun.

"I agree. I feel like there must have been people asking these same questions in previous cycles as well. What if some of them were on the verge of discovering how to fix all of this when they just... reset? We would be much better off if we could build on their research rather than starting from scratch."

Feeling suddenly self conscious, like he was blabbering on about obvious things, Chester busied himself by briefly shifting from Mink back to Odal's note. He passed his hand over it again, rendering it readable once more.

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

"Pride tol' me - he's the one what moonwalkers n' weres come from - told me that viewin' past mistakes might mess up ya magic. Like whatever spell ya tryna do. I don't really hold wit' that view, though. I wanna ********' know." She paused a moment.

"Hows about, if I get some info 'bout s**t, I'll powow witcha round this table. Like pool our knowledge n' s**t. Magic's funky business."

smerdle

 

[Smerdle]

"Yes," Chester said with a nod to back it up. "I'll do the same." He didn't agree with this... Pride... at all, confident that he could use the past as a foundation rather than a point of confusion. There were no questions about moonwalkers and weres sharing a point of origin, even though he was curious. He had time to find out more about that later.

"Have you thought about what you'd want to look into regarding this?" he asked, smoothing the edge of his note.

The Semblance of Unity