Latest revision |
Your text |
Line 385: |
Line 385: |
| and (if no one else interrupts) moves to speak privately with | | and (if no one else interrupts) moves to speak privately with |
| Carl as he asked. | | Carl as he asked. |
− |
| |
− | '''ELSEWHERE'''
| |
− |
| |
− | REBECCA
| |
− |
| |
− | Rebecca waits until you are both settled into the chairs, offers you some
| |
− | more tea -- though you may be pretty tired of it by this time.
| |
− |
| |
− | She is wearing her "all business" attitude, though not hostile, she's
| |
− | definately focused and directed on the discussion at hand.
| |
− |
| |
− | Elwar leans forward, and rattles off his list of questions in short order -
| |
− |
| |
− | "Rebecca, What are the energies being manipulated by Ellis? How has he
| |
− | come to know how to harness these energies? Is this magic? Are the Fey
| |
− | men? Or something other than mankind? Please describe! If guns are of no
| |
− | use why do you and Auda carry so many? Have you had occasion to use guns
| |
− | for your own defense? If so what were the circumstances? Carl has
| |
− | mentioned Ponic Flux, Hyperborean Phrasing and Ley Lines. What do these
| |
− | terms mean?"
| |
− |
| |
− | She waits until you take a breath, and then holds up a hand, with a faint
| |
− | smile . . . "Wait . . . wait . . .slow down a little . . ."
| |
− |
| |
− | John falls silent, looking a bit chagrined at his own outburst.
| |
− |
| |
− | "There are answers to all of these questions, maybe not answers that make
| |
− | sense, or seem realistic . . ." she makes a little shrug as if to say it
| |
− | doesn't matter to her whether you believe the answers or not. "but --
| |
− | I'm not an expert on everything. I can tell you what I know - and maybe
| |
− | send you to someone else who knows what I don't. And some of what you're
| |
− | asking I probably can't answer in as much detail as you like , because we
| |
− | have to sleep sometime."
| |
− |
| |
− | A little pause as she looks at both of you, "Doesn't mean I won't answer
| |
− | you . . . just means that the explaination will take longer than we have
| |
− | right now."
| |
− |
| |
− | For a moment she looks down at the fire, gathering her thoughts. The
| |
− | flickering shadows make her look younger, and oddly vulnernable. Then
| |
− | with a drawn in breath, she turns her attention back to the two of you.
| |
− |
| |
− | "Some of this Jack and I've been talking about, already . . . There are a
| |
− | couple of different . .. ah . . . 'flavors' of energy that Carl uses.
| |
− | It's all basically the same stuff, it all just has different signatures to
| |
− | it." She glances over to Jack, as if he should know what "signature"
| |
− | means.
| |
− |
| |
− | "According to Carl, everything in the world produces this energy in some
| |
− | amount, even rocks." she makes a little noise, indiciative of what she
| |
− | thinks about the rock theory - - - not much apparently.
| |
− |
| |
− | "Think of it as a sort of electricity that the body, and other things,
| |
− | generate inside themselves. The energy, when you understand how it works
| |
− | and what it's laws are, can be used to effect things around you."
| |
− |
| |
− | She takes a moment to sip at her tea, which is sitting on the mantle.
| |
− |
| |
− | "Is it magic?", another one of those shoulder shrugs. "I suppose you
| |
− | could call it that. I've grown up with it all my life, so I don't think
| |
− | about it that way. Carl would cringe if he heard that word thrown around,
| |
− | because he's spent a long time figuring out what it's rules are. I expect
| |
− | that a before there was any sort of means of scientific testing, that
| |
− | magic is the word people used to explain it. " she thinks about this for a
| |
− | bit, before going on.
| |
− |
| |
− | "But magic is just a word. Just like Ponic Flux, or Ley Lines . . . it's
| |
− | a way of describing something, but describing it, doesn't always give any
| |
− | sort of understanding.
| |
− |
| |
− | "As for how Carl learned about it . . . I don't know, that was before I
| |
− | met him, so you'd have to ask him about that. But I do know that anyone
| |
− | can learn to use this energy - to a greater or lesser degree - by
| |
− | practice."
| |
− |
| |
− | She turns to stir the fire, which has burned down a bit, then back to face
| |
− | you both again.
| |
− |
| |
− | "The Fae.", and there is a world of pent up dislike and disgust in those
| |
− | two words. She shakes her head. "I'm not the one to ask if you want a
| |
− | neutral opinion on them . . . or even an unbiased opinion about them. I
| |
− | don't consider them men or even remotely human. There's others that say
| |
− | that they are . . . just different from us . . . Carl will tell you that
| |
− | they're part of the world and we need to extend them at least tolerance,
| |
− | because they're going to be allies." You can tell from her body language
| |
− | and voice that she's never going to be buying into Carl's viewpoint on
| |
− | this.
| |
− |
| |
− | "My feeling is that The Fae are just as bad as the Outside Things . . .
| |
− | they're just a little lower on my priority list right now than the larger
| |
− | things that we're fighting against. I don't know the inner most details
| |
− | about the Fae . . . I don't need to. I know how to assess them as an
| |
− | enemy, and that's enough for what I need to do." Her voice has become a
| |
− | bit sharper, and more flat as she talks about them. Then she softens a
| |
− | little.
| |
− |
| |
− | "Look - you've got to make up your own mind about them, everyone knows how
| |
− | I feel - I'm not the only one who has had to deal with them. And my
| |
− | viewpoint isn't the only one to listen to." The mini-rant about the Fae
| |
− | has darkened her mood, and she seems more tired and edgy now.
| |
− |
| |
− | "Guns. You asked about guns."she makes a small, mirthless laugh. "Well -
| |
− | it's true. They're not much good against the really huge, Outside Things.
| |
− | But they work really well against any human bodies that are helping them.
| |
− | Sometimes breaking the concentration of someone who is talking to an Evil
| |
− | Dark Thing with a bullet is the easiest way of hampering It. Or buying
| |
− | time for Carl and the others to do what they need to do uninterrupted.
| |
− |
| |
− | "Have I killed people? Yes." the admission sounds so strange coming from
| |
− | this slip of a girl. "Both with guns, and with the energy we've been
| |
− | talking about. I'm not going to make any apologies for doing what was the
| |
− | right thing at the time." She closes off that subject fairly firmly - and
| |
− | you understand that at least for right now, she's not going to elaborate
| |
− | on the circumstances.
| |
− |
| |
− | "Ponic Flux . .. it's a term to describe the energy. Basically energy
| |
− | moving around. Carl uses the word Ponic as a catch-all phrase when he
| |
− | refers to it. You'll hear me call it Power, the Spanish that we work with
| |
− | call it Essence. Hyperborean . . . it's a language of some kind. It's
| |
− | suppose to be pretty old, I guess . . . I'm not sure where Carl learned
| |
− | it, or what he uses it for. You'd have to ask him about that part."
| |
− |
| |
− | She closes her eyes for a moment, looking suddenly very tired. The opens
| |
− | them again to resume her talk.
| |
− |
| |
− | "And Ley Lines. Those are like creek beds where the natural energy . . .
| |
− | Carl would say the Ponic Energy . .. of the world flows, kind of like the
| |
− | veins that carry blood through the body. Sometimes those flows . . .flux .
| |
− | . ." a little smile at using Carl's words, "get cut off, or blocked or
| |
− | misused. When they do, it's a huge problem, as well as indicating
| |
− | something that's pretty large, or very knowledgable, or very huge. You
| |
− | can't manipulate the Ley Lines very easily - they're too big and powerful.
| |
− |
| |
− | "You can sometimes draw energy out of them if you need to - but I wouldn't
| |
− | reccomend it. It's like getting sucked under by a huge tidal wave. It can
| |
− | pull you out of your body, and kill you flat in about 2 seconds if you
| |
− | aren't strong enough, or skilled enough.
| |
− |
| |
− | "Ley Lines run mostly straight, and are powerful enough to barrel through
| |
− | just about anything. So when Carl opened up that Ley Line, and it stopped
| |
− | at the Church, instead of going straight through . . . that's a problem.
| |
− | It means that something inside the Church is damming or bottling up, or
| |
− | using up that energy faster than it can move."
| |
− |
| |
− | A thoughtful pause. "Yeah. I don't know why the Ley wasn't working before
| |
− | Carl did what he did. But whatever is going on in that church . . . it's a
| |
− | real problem."
| |
− |
| |
− | The clock on a shelf near the bar chimes . . . she's been talking nearly
| |
− | non-stop for an hour, and is begining to run down.
| |