[prp] the apples fell far (moms + mercers)

[cibarium]

Eve made a frustrated face at the mention of Renard. He'd given her that notebook and nothing she tried could convince it to open. She would have to go see him eventually, but his apparent obligations out of town was making it difficult to chase him down for a meeting.

"You mentioned a possibility," said Leila. "What did you mean by that? Something we can do?"

iloveyoudie

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"... admittedly, his feelings for her must be complicated," Jeremiah replied, "because it was Liam that made a point that she was his daughter but Renard also mentioned that perhaps getting rid of someone spooky would have been a choice on the night of the red moon." As on those nights, deaths stuck. "Yet he did what he did in the void because she was his."

His fingers were tangled with Algie's now, though he leaned to pick up his glass and drain it. It had been a brief topic with his husband but ... "As for what we do? The possibility? We open the cage."

iloveyouDIE

cibarium

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg hadn't been privy to Renard's opinions on Sunny at the ball. It hadn't come up in the council chambers but if Liam was against it, which he knew, then it wasn't likely his husband would work against him in front of his face. No, easier to manipulate the others to make the choice without his own responsibility attached.

The author mulled it over in his mind, and if it had been Sunny, he would have done it himself.

"The cage, which should have a key now.." Alg looked between them all, "From what I'm told."

He was fishing in his coat for his notebook, which had the sigil drawn within. First a rough drawing by Shun and then a much cleaner one by his own hand.

azuredreams

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Eve was inconceivably grateful the new sigil had keys built into it, in light of this new information. In order to begin processing the task ahead, she too emptied her wine glass.

"I gave Jer a memory of the sigil casting a while back," said Leila as she watched Algernon fish around. "Let me know if you want that... there's context there that doesn't show up in the final product. I'm starting to think I should be prepared to pass stuff like that along to anyone." Her own glass was still half full, and she was working at it more slowly than she did before she'd gone and developed dangerous psychic abilities. "Check behind your potted plants, by the way. I don't know what for, but I'm guessing one of your cats has a sock stash."

iloveyudie

azuedreams

 

[azuredreams]

Leila got a small nod about what she said, the memory of the sigil casting having been incredibly helpful (and not like the one that had come earlier at all). There was a small snort about the potted plants mostly because there was no telling what it likely was.

"The key is ... potential," Jeremiah replied. "Not that there is an actual key somewhere, so far as I was told. Just that we are more likely to be able to have a way out." He leaned, a touch of chill in his fingers as he reached for the wine bottle and refilled glasses as necessary.

"First step would be to speak with the Principals about the possibility of releasing the cage. It isn't so simple as just that but we've at least moved back closer to a world like-" He blinked and paused, leaning back. "That's another thing ... What the world was before all of this, what they were trying to do that lead to it all."

cibarium

iloveyouDIE

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg's lips twitched at mention of the flower pots but he didn't say anything to the offer of the memory sharing. Despite how helpful it might be, he was adverse to it. His mind was his sanctified space and he wasn't exactly willing to open it for even helpful sharing of thoughts. When the world around them, their lives and jobs and things could be changed and switched and manipulated.. his mind was his own. Stubborn? Yes. But he wasn't ignorant of that either.

The truth was that Jeremiah knew more of all of this than he did, and what he knew was mostly second hand, so Alg simply accepted a new glass of wine and listened.

azuredreams

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

"Making a sigil like the Cage is sort of violent," mused Eve. "There was no chance for the principals to give consent to play the roles they were given. It's only natural their consent is needed to open it."

Struck with an idea, Leila untangled herself from her mutual embrace with Eve and set down her wine glass to fish her tablet out of her purse and set it up on the coffee table along with the keyboard. "If time's an issue... there's something we can do we probably should have been doing months ago," she started. "Plenty of visitors are Rider-Waite students. Between Algie and I, we should be able to compile some of their emails and start a listserv. Once we've done that, we can get this info out, along with a summary of events that led up to the new sigil, and updates after that... really handy. Easy enough after the fact to add more people, or make it possible for visitors we don't know to add themselves."

She was reviewing campus resources on how making such a thing worked as she spoke, but took a pause from it to look back up at the husbands. "Willing to help me with this, Algie? Not just with getting e-mail addresses, either... my writing's drier than a soup cracker."

iloveyouDIE

azuredreams

 

[azuredreams]

"There has been a lot of things done in regards to this cage that lacks consent," Jeremiah agreed. "I would like to see that change."

Still, he fell silent as Leila proposed her idea, glancing towards Algie.

iloveyouDIE

cibarium

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"I can write and collect contact information," Algie certainly knew how to email but anything more than that was outside of his skill set. "But I don't know what a .. listserv is. I'm assuming a mailing list.."

Yes he was that guy. He worked the school systems easy enough because they were point and click but he didn't talk about them, use terminology, or embark on grand schemes revolving around technology.

"I don't really do computers." Said with all the finesse of one who didn't do computers. "But between Eve and myself, as well as Cid's shop, we employ a good chunk of visitors between us already."

azuredreams

cibarium

 

[cibarium]

Leila didn't seem bothered by Alg's old-fashionedness when it came to computers (she hadn't at the small sign of reluctance about being on the receiving end of her telepathy either). "That's fine. If you can pick any names out of your course roster and get them to me, that works too," she replied. "The advantage of something like this is if you send a message to the list address, it'll automatically forward it to everyone in it," she added, mostly for the sake of feeling out how good an idea it was. "Anyone you or Cid know would be able to opt in too."

While her wife eagerly worked at the technology, Eve had more thoughts on the magic side of things. "Opening the cage sounds like the only way to know the real Sunny, too..." she guessed. "It's the obvious next thing to puzzle out. At the same time, though, we need clearer understanding of why Michael and the others decided to create a cage in the first place. The problem it was meant to address may still be going unsolved, and if it is we shouldn't ignore it."

azuredreams

iloveyouDIE

 

[azuredreams]

When it came to the pair of them, Jeremiah was the one that was savvy with technology. Algie often preferred actual books in his hand over a kindle with hundreds on one device like he did. "It sounds like a great way to get information out en masse to those that are part of all of this ..."

There were likely other details to work out but it did sound like some place to start. His eyes cut back towards Eve and he gave a slight nod. "I may be able to offer some insight into that? Though the specifics are not entirely clear, the cage was created because of what Renard and Liam were trying to do. As Renard was the one who masterminded everything," which was so weird to say, "he was the focus of the cage initially, or so I assume. After everything that happened with that rift and the information that came from there ..."

His fingers closed tighter around Algie's hand, bringing it up briefly to press a kiss to the back of his hand. Public displays of affection were not a thing he was worried about, not anymore (not unlike the teenager he had once been).

"It ties to the world that existed before the cage."

iloveyouDIE

cibarium

 

[iloveyouDIE]

Alg queezed the hand after the kiss, rubbing his thumb along Jeremiahs.

He honestly didn't know what to expect from the world, what a reality was like beyond a Cage. It wasn't like any of them remembered it, and were likely not ever going to, so to be seeking an end game that they didn't even understand was hard for him. The rules didn't fit in with his sensibilities.

What were they trying to achieve beyond stopping the cycles? They'd been so hyped up in the beginning about the ENEMY and now... now they were just trying to stay alive.

The professor was quiet, looking at his glass of wine as his mind drifted, and he chose again to say nothing.

azuredreams

sorry for the

cibarium

introspective doubter

 

[cibarium]

"I have an overdue appointment with Renard," said Eve, her tone slightly darkened. "Maybe I'll learn something then."

There was a brief, but neutrally flavored lull in the conversation for a few minutes.

"Hey, what about Pax and the other deer triplets?" Leila would pipe up after another careful sip from her wine glass. "Ezra talked about them having had a bond of some kind with the old principals... he described it as being like something he called an undeath bond. That involves sharing your life force or something, I don't remember how he put it." Friend was buzzing in her brain and correcting her, but she waved the specifics off for now. "Anyway, they're probably not in good shape without it, and... I don't know, the new principals might need something similar to be able to open the new cage."

Tracing the rim of her wine glass idly, Eve added, "Or they were originally bonded in that way to reinforce the old one."

azuredrems

iloveyoDIE

i love the introspective doubter u_u

 

[azuredreams]

Jeremiah shifted at the mention of the triplets, Noeh coming to mind. He glanced towards Algie and then back towards Leila and Eve.

"They're not in good shape," he said quietly, "so far as I am aware. There is something going on that is detrimental to them in the aftermath of this new world; the creation of the new sigil. Noeh - the Sorrowful One - is without her magic, Pride has not been seen, and Pax may very well be dying without some assistance." The mention of an undeath bond had a chill going down his spine.

"She doesn't want it back, she wants to go home but ..." The words were on his tongue, the topic difficult to talk about.

iloveyouDIE

cibarium

 

[iloveyouDIE]

"Not sure there's a home to go to.." Not for those. The world had changed, and she had implied as much even before everything happened. That she came from a different version of events.

"A tough reality may be that they aren't meant for this world.." There may simply not be a place for them here, for their purposes.

azuredreams

cibarium