[PRP] a new day (Shiloh & Liam)

[Silverah]

"Memory magic is complicated," agreed Liam. "Here, in the cage, the pieces get shuffled every cycle. Starting positions change. Paths get redrawn. Like a computer running scenarios. But in memory... there's no flexibility. A few repetitions, it breaks down. But that's not really important, I don't think."

After all, it had been the least of what Shiloh said.

"You made a new sigil?" he asked, pulling the legal pad out of the book. He opened it to a new page and held it out to Shiloh, along with a pen. "What is it? Who are the principals?"

He narrowed his eyes, realizing something. "You... I felt it on you when you came in. Do you have any idea what you've done?"

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

The legal pad looked compelling, but that was only because Shiloh was an artist. Under Liam's stare, he felt himself shrink. It was a catch-22 of emotions, because he wanted to snap back as much as he waneed to run. Course, this was Shiloh, and he'd probably g with the latter if it came down to it.

Feeling the weight of the pen in his hand, he delicately started to sketch out the sigil. He didn't have the best look at it, but the sigil was put together the same, save maybe a few 'tines' on the key branches.

"Not really," he said rather openly, maybe even a little bitter. "I just wanted to go home. By the time I got the everyone else had already done every thing 'n I wasn't just gonna sit around and do ******** nothin." He sighed.

"They said if everyone was to cast as if they were the principal, it'd be stronger, so I did. Sonny said the magic chose me." He wrinkled his nose a little, "I-I was just trying to help. Did we ******** it up? Did we ******** it up really bad?" His eyes widened, knuckles white as he gripped the pen, "I didn't know-- I'm so ******** tired of being in the dark, all we can ever ******** do is guess, I just..."

He shook his head again as he nervously went over the lines he had drawn, the look on his face exasperated. First Court, now this. He had been handling it okay up to this point, but it was a lot for someone who was eighteen--sorry, wait, ninteen, because his birthday had been swallowed up with the ******** void.

"We were just..." he tried again, but he only ended up slowly crumpling over the desk instead, face smashed down as he edged the drawing forward.

Silveraaaah

 

[Silverah]

Liam took the legal pad back, looked it over. "Well," he said, bemused - "that explains the sport coat."

It did not actually explain anything, to anyone who was not Liam.

"Trying to help, right?" he finished, looking up at Shiloh. His expression was... calculating. "Chin up," he suggested. "We're so far off the edge of the map that it's impossible to say whether anything's failed. The original cage is gone. Disassembled. The power is now in your hands. You control your own fate - along with mine, my daughter's, and all those that you and I hold dear. If we assume that the outer limits of the cycle are the same..."

He shrugged.

"You have another year to contemplate your next move before it all resets. Assuming anything I know is still true. Which it might not be."

"Needless to say, it's a very new position for me to be in."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh wasn't sure how the symbol explained anything, but then again he wasn't The Enemy or in cahoots with them or Sunny or whatever. Actually, was it right to refer as Renard as the enemy? He always did because that's what everyone else did, but it wasn't like he knew the exact specifics of his actions. Always in the dark, always bumbling around, always two steps behind.

He was content to mope for the next hour and a half, but Liam's voice commanded his attention. His head wearily lifted from the table, but only enough so that he could see the man as he spoke. His chin still rested on the hard surface. Still-- Liam wasn't trying to kill him or anything, so that was a plus.

"A... year?" His eyebrows furrowed, "Is it like that every reset? We get to the same year and then that's it?" He seemed concerned by this, but mostly curious. Not like it really mattered, if he was in control of his own fate like Liam said. Could he change that-- him and the other principals? He finally sat up straight enough to rub his temple, but the majority of his body still remained bent over the desk, elbows propping him up.

"I didn't want to remake the cage," he looked a little down trodden still, "That's why the other three died--to break the cage--so was that all for ******** nothin?" A sigh, another knead against his head, "Sorry..." he was being petulant, he knew, but it was hard. "I'm just tired of ******** up all the time."

And it was a truthful admission, dripping with self loathing, but he shook himself of it. "That's why I wanna try hard to make sure everything turns out okay. It's just nerve wracking. ******** hate it."

He was quiet for a bit before speaking up again, "Why'd all of this happen in the first place, anyway?" He looked up to Liam, "The cage and getting rid of all the magic. How'd it get this


Silveraaaah
 

[Silverah]

Liam nodded. He looked almost... proud? Like Shiloh had just solved a particularly difficult math problem. "The cage reaches the time of its origin and then resets," he confirmed. "Goes back to a point in the past and runs again. It is a medium of constraint, not creation."

Still, he seemed rather optimistic for a man who'd just learned that his prison had merely changed hands, as opposed to being sprung. "I wouldn't consider it a failure," he said. "Or a ******** up. Rather, the keys are now in your hands. The cage is an instrument under your control. And even now, there are cracks in it - that's how the magic gets in."

And there was more magic in the cage now than ever.

"If your goal is to destroy this prison," said Liam. "You are well on your way."

But he digressed.

"If you've been to 1989 then I daresay you've been as close to the beginning of all this as anyone is going to get. Our friends were dying all around us. The people in power were content to let it happen. Magic and medicine have always been separate fields, mostly due to superstition - and, in this circumstance, prejudice. Given the victims, no one thought it was worth it to cure the disease."

He paused, letting the scenario hang in the air for a moment, though he didn't ask if Shiloh was following.

"When Renard began his research, all he wanted was a way to cure our friends - a way that neither medicine nor mainstream magical thought would find. But the research grew beyond its original scope, and, in the eyes of many, it grew dangerous."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh considered what Liam was saying, though he didn't nod or give any other real cue that he was listening. Honestly, in the end, he didn't know if he wanted the cage to be completely broken—it was just what the original three had eventually decided to do—break the cage, defeat the Enemy. It felt like the tangibility of their deaths lost worth. In the same breath, being stuck in an unending cycle sounded like absolute horse s**t. He wanted the chance to grow up. He wanted the chance to experience life outside of his own marred childhood. He wanted to go out into the world and see things with Jamie—as stupid and domestic as it sounded—because these weren't goals he had but a year ago.

Regardless.

"Right, I remember that." The wake had been somber, and he remembered what his 1989 counterpart had said; Straights don't care about fags like us—and he grimaced at the slur. They had it a lot easier in these times, he realized with a respectful retrospect.

At the next bit, he finally lifted his head from the table. "That... that doesn't sound bad." Shiloh ventured his thought out cautiously, propping his palm against his face. "At least, I'm guessing you didn't think it was that dangerous." Maybe he was being naive, but he assumed you probably wouldn't stay with someone for so long if you didn't agree with their actions. Or maybe you would. Love was weird; but he liked to think you wouldn't.

"So that's why they made the cage? The first three? 'Cause I dunno, never ending cycle bullshit seems worse."

Silverah

 

[Silverah]

"I sincerely doubt," said Liam evenly, "that a never-ending series of cycles was ever meant to be a permanent solution. It was likely a stop-gap. A holding pattern meant to buy time as the original creators decided what to do next. But it is such an easy pattern to get stuck in. That's the danger you're in now - complacency."

He looked down at the legal pad. At the sigil. Bit his lip.

"The truth is," he continued, "neither Renard nor I had any idea what fruits our research would bear. By the time we were stopped, we were closing in on a tremendously complicated piece of spellwork - one that could never be truly tested before deployment. The fear was that we would, somehow, rend time and space to pieces."

"And perhaps we would have. But we'll never know."

Melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

Shiloh was silent for a while, and then he said "Alright, well, that makes sense."

At least, messing with the fabric of the universe seemed pretty damn concerning. "So you guys got held up in a stalemate that went on for a thousand or so years, that's cool." only he was being sarcastic, but it was hard to tell which way it was directed. Maybe at both. Maybe at neither and more at himself. Either way, he was caught up in this nonsense now. He could perpetuate the continuation of the cycles, or maybe he could stop them. Still, if he did decide to go with the latter, he was pretty sure that a lot of people wouldn't be on board. He'd have to go over all of this with Jamie later.

Maybe not all of it; he did respect confidentiality, to a degree.

"Was it just you and Renard?" He was rubbing his chin, "I mean, you said you started all 'f this back in the eighties, so like, what about the rest of us? Me 'n Jamie and Mercer and Kuroda and stuff. We were all on board with it too?"

He paused.

"Or did we end up dying like the rest of 'em?" Another pause, a little click in his head, "Or... did we try and stop you too, back then?"

He let up a little, "Sorry, I'm not—I don't like asking a million ********' questions, I just wanna understand."

Silverah

 

[Silverah]

Liam cringed. "If I knew," he said, "if you'd been involved, I'd tell you for sure - but the work we were doing was so risky that only Renard knew everyone who was involved. If anyone had gotten spooked and gone to the authorities..."

He trailed off - maybe that was how they'd finally been found out.

"You grew up," he said. "You moved out. You were okay."

It wasn't really clear if he was telling the truth or not.

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

If Liam was lying, Shiloh hadn't really caught onto it. That, or he was content to let it go for now. Actually, with all the bullshit going on, it might be nice to think about things that weren't the ******** up state of the world, or how shitty everything was.

"That sounds nice..." because even now in this time, it sounded like a dream. Growing up, Surviving. Being okay. Those weren't things he typically thought about; things he still didn't think about, idea's within ideas that sounded great on paper, except he was still only considering them as scenarios rather than possibilities. Jamie had helped to facilitate that.

"I just got one more question," he spoke truthfully, "But like, whenever we got into the eighties, obviously there were a lot of people I recognized from now. 'Cept there were some I didn't. Like, sitting at the booth with Jamie 'n I was some lady named Dana. She seemed really chummy with us, 'cept I definitely don't know anyone from now that was like her. Unless she's just a fluke."

He shrugged.

"Who was she? You know at all?"

Silverah

 

[Silverah]

"Dana..." said Liam, like he was trying to place the name. His eyes narrowed. "You mean... Right. She's around, though not in as much of a one-to-one conversion as you and your friend Jamie. The cycle shuffles the deck. The cards fall differently. People take different paths."

"Have you been to Darlene's lately?" he asked. "If you're interested in recreating that friendship, you might start by looking there."

Shiloh

 

[Melancholies]

"Darlene's? I was there a little while ago..." with Mercer, though nothing seemed terribly off, or stood particularly out, aside from the photographs of Borr. Even then, they were only off in the sense that they included another person. He shrugged, but seemed thankful regardless, "I'll have another look. It's not like I wanna recreate anything, I'm just curious."

Shiloh pulled out his phone, noticing the time. "'Nyway, I'm sure you're real busy with teacher-y stuff." He moved to stand up, glancing over the sigil he had doodled earlier. After a moment of silence, he finally spoke again, "There's still a lot I don't know, but I don't think you're a bad guy." Shiloh's admission was weary, but truthful. At the very least, their intentions hadn't been bad, and from what he witnessed in the eighties... he believed him. They wanted to save their friends.

"So I mean, take that for what it's worth I guess." He held his hand out again for another shake, "And thanks for answering the questions. Nice having adults who'll give you the time of day." That was definitely a plus one on Shiloh's end.

Silverah

 

[Silverah]

"That means a lot to me," replied Liam, corners of his eyes crinkling. He leaned across the desk, meeting Shiloh with a hearty handshake. "If you ever need some tutoring in magitech... please. Feel free to look me up."

melancholies

 

[Melancholies]

"Magitech? I might take you up on that." Shiloh had absolutely no idea what that would entail, but it sounded neat. Probably something only people with a knack for magic could harness anyway. He'd maybe look into it.

He felt like there was maybe more to say, but also that he'd said enough. He'd made his points and asked his questions and if anything else was going to come up, there was always next time. He started for the door after the shake, waving over his shoulder.

"C'ya, Noor." And he was gone.

Silverah

fin??? :D

 

[Silverah]

"Seeya, Shiloh," said Liam, watching the door swing shut behind him.

Melancholies

yup we done