![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
[ Thancred calls out, and the puppet turns a corner and into view. There's a mildly satisfied air about it, but it's certainly dimmed by the events of the last two days. ]
I am not wont to lie in wait, yet your arrival left me curious to learn where you might search.
I am not wont to lie in wait, yet your arrival left me curious to learn where you might search.
Edited 2025-11-09 07:40 (UTC)
Ah, there's the scholar of the hour.
[He'll bow his head a little.]
Well, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too horribly long. You gave us much to think about tonight, after all.
I merely followed what I thought might be priority.
[He'll bow his head a little.]
Well, I hope I didn't keep you waiting too horribly long. You gave us much to think about tonight, after all.
I merely followed what I thought might be priority.
[Dang. Alright, duly noted, careful with the levity.]
Only if you wish it.
I imagine you've had your share of other's words this evening.
Only if you wish it.
I imagine you've had your share of other's words this evening.
...
[He exhales slowly. His thoughts are quiet. His frustration, complex. Split over many disappointments.]
Did we prove anything to you this way? Following the confusion and charade, the day of silence prior. The bickering amongst ourselves and against you, the wasted time and paranoid tangents. All to show for it? An unrepentantly guilty man and a corpse that should very well not have existed. A fight with a blade that should not have appeared. No answers, only further questions and spilled blood and rousing mistrust.
Did we prove anything to you, in all of that?
[He exhales slowly. His thoughts are quiet. His frustration, complex. Split over many disappointments.]
Did we prove anything to you this way? Following the confusion and charade, the day of silence prior. The bickering amongst ourselves and against you, the wasted time and paranoid tangents. All to show for it? An unrepentantly guilty man and a corpse that should very well not have existed. A fight with a blade that should not have appeared. No answers, only further questions and spilled blood and rousing mistrust.
Did we prove anything to you, in all of that?
Edited 2025-11-09 08:20 (UTC)
[ Sage falls quiet, tilting its head to think as a little puppet hand comes to rest against its cheek. ]
Our caution was well warranted.
[ A harsh truth, but if Thancred is going to speak freely, so will they. ]
I anticipated chaos, and it was what we received. I cannot speak to what we expected as a result of holding a discussion to pin the individual culpable for a death of you and yours, but we had hoped to deter the rise of mistrust.
Mayhap we mitigated it somewhat by acquiescing to the request of you and yours to determine his fate, though my greater hope is that we deterred more carnage. Violence begets violence, and I would not have placed blame on those who would seek to harm us had we carried out a decisive punishment.
Our caution was well warranted.
[ A harsh truth, but if Thancred is going to speak freely, so will they. ]
I anticipated chaos, and it was what we received. I cannot speak to what we expected as a result of holding a discussion to pin the individual culpable for a death of you and yours, but we had hoped to deter the rise of mistrust.
Mayhap we mitigated it somewhat by acquiescing to the request of you and yours to determine his fate, though my greater hope is that we deterred more carnage. Violence begets violence, and I would not have placed blame on those who would seek to harm us had we carried out a decisive punishment.
Well. Whether it would have been better or worse in regards to mistrust remains to be seen. [laughtrack as the narrator pans to the execution results later... rip rosemary]
Were you and yours the ones who hid the evidence until the autopsy was finished? If it were a glamour, it sounds as though it were an impressive one.
Were you and yours the ones who hid the evidence until the autopsy was finished? If it were a glamour, it sounds as though it were an impressive one.
Edited 2025-11-10 03:57 (UTC)
[you know what he is tired enough after today that all he can really do at that is just
sigh. very deeply.]
And the reason you did not share that, being?
sigh. very deeply.]
And the reason you did not share that, being?
And were you truly believed any more by saying nothing at all?
[Stern right back, thank you, but it doesn't sound all that accusatory. He listened to people talk in circles about things like the dolls and their motivations rather than the dead and the task at hand. But it could have very well gone the same way debating whether things claimed were the truth or not, muddling the evidence.]
If something else was involved in keeping that from being found out, outside yourselves and the rest of us, then instilling reasonable doubt in your own favor may very well have done more for muddling that mistrust than it would for damaging it further.
...
Was there anything else affected that way, that you were aware of?
[Stern right back, thank you, but it doesn't sound all that accusatory. He listened to people talk in circles about things like the dolls and their motivations rather than the dead and the task at hand. But it could have very well gone the same way debating whether things claimed were the truth or not, muddling the evidence.]
If something else was involved in keeping that from being found out, outside yourselves and the rest of us, then instilling reasonable doubt in your own favor may very well have done more for muddling that mistrust than it would for damaging it further.
...
Was there anything else affected that way, that you were aware of?
[ There's still a hint of prickliness there, in Sage's tone, but it ebbs away. ]
No, as far as any of us are aware. 'Twas beyond our ability to control.
[ The puppet shakes its head. ]
To have no evidence for the crime we stumbled upon... was most unsettling.
No, as far as any of us are aware. 'Twas beyond our ability to control.
[ The puppet shakes its head. ]
To have no evidence for the crime we stumbled upon... was most unsettling.
I'd imagine so. And if we truly wouldn't have been able to see anything the day prior, when that crime was committed, then it's no wonder you stayed your hands.
I know the matter of his weapon also seemed suspect. You heard of my findings with Urianger during the proceedings, correct?
I know the matter of his weapon also seemed suspect. You heard of my findings with Urianger during the proceedings, correct?
In appearance only at first, yes.
On first glance, it had been a pair of daggers I'd used for near a decade, though had set aside quite some time ago. When I investigated, they felt the same as the very weapons I remembered in the palm of my hand. But their appearance had changed instantly, to a mere pair of shoes.
Both Urianger and I attempted to remove the items from the room in which they were found, but the moment we stepped out, the feel of them changed as well to match their new appearance.
[And now he has a cool new pair of shoes that used to be daggers somewhere in his room.]
Why Giyuu was able to find a weapon in the same room, let alone leave with it intact... I don't know. But many other pieces of this feel too conveniently orchestrated. Perhaps that was simply one more of those pieces to add to the growing pile.
On first glance, it had been a pair of daggers I'd used for near a decade, though had set aside quite some time ago. When I investigated, they felt the same as the very weapons I remembered in the palm of my hand. But their appearance had changed instantly, to a mere pair of shoes.
Both Urianger and I attempted to remove the items from the room in which they were found, but the moment we stepped out, the feel of them changed as well to match their new appearance.
[And now he has a cool new pair of shoes that used to be daggers somewhere in his room.]
Why Giyuu was able to find a weapon in the same room, let alone leave with it intact... I don't know. But many other pieces of this feel too conveniently orchestrated. Perhaps that was simply one more of those pieces to add to the growing pile.
[ glad thancred got himself some legally distinct new balances ]
A piece of the puzzle that does not quite fit neatly into what we have already put together... By your experience, he should not have been able to leave with a sword, yet he managed and did not seem to care to explain.
This phenomenon sounds much in line with other happenings here, does it not? The intervention of something else, mayhap even a spell of some sort.
A piece of the puzzle that does not quite fit neatly into what we have already put together... By your experience, he should not have been able to leave with a sword, yet he managed and did not seem to care to explain.
This phenomenon sounds much in line with other happenings here, does it not? The intervention of something else, mayhap even a spell of some sort.
Aye, though this would have to be quite the array of spells. [Just listing them off on his fingers.] To bring us here, to pull us to and fro multiple times, to either halt time or present the illusion, to trap us all and set us to slumber, to set a weapon in one specific man's hands without detection, to hide the evidence of all wrongdoing... and that is not including if either Beryl or Giyuu themselves were affected deeper than we realized.
Would that we had a way to confirm any of it beyond process of elimination and blind faith. [A glance is given back to the huge collection of magic books stuffed into the shelves.] Though I've no doubt you're looking.
[He's just not holding hope that much will be shared, given Sage's other answers.]
Would that we had a way to confirm any of it beyond process of elimination and blind faith. [A glance is given back to the huge collection of magic books stuffed into the shelves.] Though I've no doubt you're looking.
[He's just not holding hope that much will be shared, given Sage's other answers.]
You are quite correct. Whether the information in those tomes bears any fruit, however, remains to be seen.
[ They can at least offer Thancred that much, that this is very much a process of plucking through pages and hoping to find what works or fits. ]
Your list would seem impossible to most, yet with enough power and knowledge, each could be accomplished with relative ease. Whether that be with the simple snap of a finger or more... I intend to discover it. 'Tis a mystery at the heart of this realm that begs to be discovered.
[ They can at least offer Thancred that much, that this is very much a process of plucking through pages and hoping to find what works or fits. ]
Your list would seem impossible to most, yet with enough power and knowledge, each could be accomplished with relative ease. Whether that be with the simple snap of a finger or more... I intend to discover it. 'Tis a mystery at the heart of this realm that begs to be discovered.
Ever the curious sort, even in crisis... [His lips quirk.] You certainly remind me of someone.
But you've the right of it. I've seen far too much in my short time to know some magicks are beyond understanding to all but those who wield it in their hands.
...And what would you do with this mystery, once it's unraveled? What lies for you at the end?
But you've the right of it. I've seen far too much in my short time to know some magicks are beyond understanding to all but those who wield it in their hands.
...And what would you do with this mystery, once it's unraveled? What lies for you at the end?
[ Sage sounds amused when it next speaks, as if the lips of the one behind the visage of the puppet have quirked too. ]
The end? Resuming my quest for knowledge, naturally. Mayhap what is learned here can unravel further mysteries elsewhere...
[ A pause. ]
As for my intentions, I hope to use my newfound knowledge to solve the dilemma the others and I have been collaborating on.
The end? Resuming my quest for knowledge, naturally. Mayhap what is learned here can unravel further mysteries elsewhere...
[ A pause. ]
As for my intentions, I hope to use my newfound knowledge to solve the dilemma the others and I have been collaborating on.
[And the reminders continue. Like he can still see her there, lifting the wine glass from across the table at Sharlayan mere days ago, with Urianger and Meteor flanking them both.
It's an answer that comforts him, and in as fast a moment, aches at him. But he lets it go with an exhale. It's a reminder, nothing more. Like hearing a ghost.
...]
The one you did not wish to share details on before, yes.
Is it a dilemma only meant for this newfound space of ours, or from where you are originally from?
It's an answer that comforts him, and in as fast a moment, aches at him. But he lets it go with an exhale. It's a reminder, nothing more. Like hearing a ghost.
...]
The one you did not wish to share details on before, yes.
Is it a dilemma only meant for this newfound space of ours, or from where you are originally from?
Edited 2025-11-13 02:48 (UTC)
[ Sage ponders that for a moment, as if there's a better way to answer Thancred's question.
It seems like they settle on it. ]
This dilemma has spread far beyond where I am from, and is why the four of us who arrived before you and yours were collaborating.
It seems like they settle on it. ]
This dilemma has spread far beyond where I am from, and is why the four of us who arrived before you and yours were collaborating.
So nothing so simple as a conflict, I take it.
Have you evidence of it repeating in our current circumstances?
Have you evidence of it repeating in our current circumstances?
Page 1 of 5