Potentialities and Portents (Primary Part)
Nikolai, newly sane, discovers possible history and potential future. He's become a Gridshaman...or has he always been one without knowing what they are?
It's a perfect fit for him, at least. For what he is and has been.
I had to consciously keep myself from letting his grammar get too perfect. *grin* He's not all that mad anymore, but his diction was just so distinctive and more importantly, fun!
You head towards the main square.
DownWarp
Induction-Coil sits up. "Oh.. Hello."
You say, "Hm, hm, ho there."
Induction-Coil smiles. "How're you tonight?"
Nikolai glances up at the sky. "Ah...been overthought. Watching the frozen lightning again..."
Induction-Coil grins. "From.. when you..." He stands up. "Can I come see? I couldn't quite tell where it is.."
Nikolai nods. "Ah, hm yes! Saw it from the Freeway, but is harder from here. Off towards steam, here..."
Induction-Coil grins wide. "Okay!"
Induction-Coil wanders towards the billow of steam.
Induction-Coil has left.
You wander across the plain towards the cloud of steam...
Upper Shaft
The asphalt here is broken in spiderweb patterns that stretch up the sides of nearby buildings. Following one particularly large crack to where they all converge, you see a frozen vortex of metal spiraling from a pit in the ground. Steel rebar and pipelines that seem grown in place grasp hold of crumbling walls, slowly pulling inward towards the round hole in the middle of the street. An old steel powerline tower's framework nearby is distorted downward by the weight of a rusted machine reaching up towards the sky with lightning-flicker needle rods. Spindly 'trees' sprout from the concrete thickly all around, with clawlike branches holding remnants of partly shattered mirror-finish solar panes. Draped loosely over everything nearby are cables and hoses swaying gently in a breeze.
The pit's edge is round but irregular, eroded away by the fingers of metal from below. A guardrail along the circumference twists and its inner surface is lined with overlapping plating, like a centipede's segmentation. Squeezed around the edge of the pit is a rusted spiral staircase leading [down], and an electromagnetic field provides verticle travel in the center. Steam suffused with orange light billows up from below as you peer over the brim. A deep rhythmic bass thumping can be felt more than heard somewhere beneath the ground.
Downwarp's main [square] can been seen off beyond the pit, with the signature towers of Big Active visible beyond rows of half-collapsed apartment buildings.
Nikolai points toward the alleyway.
Concrete Jungle
The close-leaning walls in the alleyway are all but buried under chaotic masses of black wirestrands. Wires cross and recross fractal-coiling up the walls and rubble of fallen buildings like mechanistic ivy. Bulbs along the wires sprout television flowers all tuned to different stations, squawking at each other for attention with ancient hypnomercials and dramaverts. More than a quarter of the tubes are smashed into bits, shards still bursting audiovisual static in swept-together heaps.
The end of the alley runs into a thicket of trees, wooden trunks jammed together in a wall covered in tiny sparkling leaves. Chinks in the trunk of one tree ooze pale gray ironsap, wound into whorls and loops apparently by magnetic fields. The trees themselves stretch high into the air, then seem to turn and dive back into the ground beyond. There is an overall deep background hum, cycling soft and loud, barely heard over the screen chatter. Something high and bright rises half-resolved just beyond the trees, flickering flourescent against the halogen-lit undersky.
In the nearby rubble, a basement entrance provides a [tunnel] underneath the outer forest wall. The other end of the alley is lit orange-white by a column of [steam] rising from a rift in the ground.
Induction-Coil arrives, silhouetted by the underlit cloud of steam at the end of the alley.
Induction-Coil has arrived.
Induction-Coil looks around. "This is pretty extraordinary itself... Why haven't I seen this before..?"
Nikolai shrugs a little. "I've passed this sideway many times as well, perhaps...it was not manifest as a way through until it was needed. That..." He points to a collapsed part of the ground at the far end neat the treewall. "...collapsed when I came here..."
Induction-Coil nods, stepping closer. "That's where we should go...?"
Nikolai nods. "Da. "
Cyclotron Forest
Here the overgrown reaches of quasiorganic technology have choked the towers to dust. A clearing free of buildings except for a few wallnubs visible in regular rows, the heaps of rubble appear to have been torn down by the encroaching vines, while the middle of the clearing bursts with a remnant of a well-forested city park.
A wall of twisted trees arch impossibly high with spiraling trunks, then plunge back into the broken asphalt like a solar prominence following magnetic lines. The packed-together tree trunks seem to be wooden, but breaks in the bark reveal a dull grey ferrometallic sap oozing out. Branches covering the highest arch-points wave agreen with leaves that, on closer inspection, are veined with tiny photovoltaic cells. The looping trees seem to be lined up radiating from a central point, swirling magflux in tight vortices. A huge label-covered metallic container has been pushed into place in the locus of electromagnetic fields, skid marks still visible on the AluminoTurf. Small [totems] form a rough circle around the container, and neon-glowing symbolistic [graffiti] covers its sides.
From a gaping hole in the top of the container spikes a massive lightning bolt ten, twelve stories into the air. Intensely blue-white at its thick base, it grows spiraling upward frozen in place, sending out smaller and smaller spikes until attenuating at its peak. The whole column of captured energy quivers and flickers in the storm of fields holding it in place.
A slender line of concrete spirals down from the [Freeway] to land at one end of the park. Opposite the sleek lines of the megaroad, a cluster of buildings remain free from entropic pull of the vines. A curiously rebuilt [skyscraper] rises into the gloom next to a dilapidated old parking [garage]. A few meters away across the plain, there's a big, battered cargo container that seems to have been converted into a bar. Loud music and multicolored light spills from its open [hatch]. In the rubble of a nearby building, a [tunnel] leads underneath the outer ring of trees.
Induction-Coil has arrived.
Nikolai stops just after the tunnel's end to take in the view again.
Induction-Coil looks around, eyes wide. He cranes his neck up, gazing at the lightning for a long moment. "Spark..." He says, reverently.
Nikolai nods slowly, also looking upward. "Grand magnificent spark, yes, hm. You...should explain this more. Public records sparse on the, ah, gridshaman.
Induction-Coil doesn't quite even hear, just stepping forward to look more closely at the totems, and the graffiti. He pauses, looking at the nearby building. "I LIVE there..."
Induction-Coil says, "I haven't been back in days, actually... but.. I never really noticed this square before..."
Induction-Coil reaches out toward the pillar of lightning, his markings glowing more and more as he gets closer, like a flourescent light near a Tesla Coil.
Nikolai says softly, stepping up behind Indi, "This of course where I leaped..."
Induction-Coil nods rapidly. "This... must be new here... the trees, the power.. What's going on...?" he murmurs, eyes bright.
Nikolai points at the markings on the container. "I...think your brothers have been here before..."
Induction-Coil kneels and nods. "It'd certainly be a place they'd gather.." he murmurs. Finally he dips a hand closer to the lightning, a smaller (though still huge) spark arcing to his hand, wreathing his body in radiant blue light.
Nikolai's eyes widen. "May be consuming, is safe?"
Induction-Coil knows what he's doing. It's hard to tell his markings from the sparks so covering him now, and his eyes are glowing, but he seems not to be in pain.. He leaves left arm raised to draw power from the tree of lightning, and kneels, drawing his right hand across the container, a focussed spark now arcing, cutting through it like an industrial tool. The coyote concentrates, adding another symbol to those ringing the container.
Nikolai whistles softly. "Hm.....ah."
Induction-Coil arc-cuts a stylized canine head into the metal itself, the edges of it glowing for now, the new opened area continuing to flicker with the electric light from inside the container. He lets go then, and the electricity over him seems to harmlessly dissipate after a few moments, leaving him just breathing hard.
Nikolai gives a clap. "You...the lightning passed through..."
Induction-Coil sits at the base, and nods, tired, but quite happy and satisfied. "Spark likes me." He grins. "You should see what happens when I dance."
Nikolai sits near Indi, looking up at the tree again. "Need to get the Forge back, hm yes. Was full of sparks and lightning. My...hm, my lab also, had Tesla coils, frigidspark and flailing arclight..."
Nikolai sighs briefly at remembering his lab. His fingers waggle themselves as if remembering old procedures.
Induction-Coil nodnods. "I can't wait to go to the Forge again.." He smiles, and relaxes. "Was there more stuff you wanted to ask me about...?
You say, "Hm, ah...yes. Uncertain about this step taken....not so much knowledge on your, ah, practice, hm, as I thought."
Induction-Coil mms,and nods. "Yeah, lots of it ends up.. not written down, unfortunately. Well.. What do you want to know?"
Nikolai rests his arms on his knees. "So much...I have to, hm, keep myself from overhoarding information..." He glances up at Indi. "Want to know...who I am. But that not as prevalent as...what do gridshaman do? "
Induction-Coil grins. "Don't worry about overhoarding.. I'd be happy to tell you all I can, really." He pauses, then, thinking. "What do we do..? Well.. really.. what does anyone do here.. Change our part of the world in the ways we desire, find like-minded people to be with..."
Nikolai hmms. "I think I've been initiated, you said...am trying to discover how and what I capable of. Always surprise myself.
Nikolai gives a small chuckle. "As of course affinity toward Spark already shows itself.."
Induction-Coil laughs. "You can say that again. Maybe it always did. You said you've been inventing stuff for.. how long?"
Nikolai glances off and up somewhere, counting something on his paws. "Ahhh....that simple fact eludes me. Longtime, Wheels, seasons...I cannot identify beginning. "
Induction-Coil nods. "Long enough, then." He considers. "You'd consider yourself a gridshaman now? So you're wanting.. super secret shaman knowledge...?" He smiles.
Nikolai shrugs. "Is there much needed to know? How to live? What makes one different? How to...ah, recognize magic when it comes?"
Induction-Coil grins and nods. "That's it, yeah. There's no spell book, no secret levels of initiation.. You'd be surprised how many people think it's something like that. It's just... kinda a way of looking at the world."
Nikolai leans back up against the cargo container. "I would know that way, then. Outlook perspective of mine been quite narrow cone work-focused...not to mention mindsieve addled madthoughts unless applying self towards one idea or other. Have not had time for philosophy..."
Induction-Coil nods, leaning back next to you. "Aaaand now you're left wondering who you are, what you should be doing, all that stuff you said..? Pretty philosophical..."
Nikolai nods slowly. "Da. Had no inkling much effort sanity is."
Nikolai fiddles with his hands. "Still need to work...to create, to assimilate and coalesce knowledge...is it the best to try and cure Strange? Who am I to try? Have taken too much, I think...wish to start again, slowly and small."
Induction-Coil nods. "Start with what, then...?"
Nikolai raises a finger. "Question, hm yes, that is it." He shrugs. "What...do you see as magic? "
Induction-Coil chuckles. "Around here? Hard to say. What's magic for me is psionics for someone else, and is just an implant for someone else..." he muses. "Someone once called magic 'an act of will that causes changes in the physical world', and he meant just what it sounds like, that anything could be that, opening a door, walking down a street...
Induction-Coil says, "He'd be doubly right around here."
Nikolai nods. "I often assume that...I have not woken up, and this world is a dream. Mayhaps. But nobody wants to wake up...no difference, then.
Induction-Coil chuckles. "Then we're all in the same dream, and our dreams inside it are doubly interesting... But, I think I'm stalling. Tou asked what _I_ see as magic, right?"
Nikolai grins a bit. "Ah, hm yes."
Induction-Coil says, "Well, I almost had already say it." He dips a finger just gently into the pillar of lightning, his markings and eyes suddenly glowing a bit more. "Looking at the world from an abstract view, everything that happens can be seen as an interaction of systems. People are systems, but so are buildings and technology, and even ideas. Now consider acting as if all of those systems are on some level the same. Perhaps all 'people', in a way. Some less complicated, some more, but all willful. That is, of course, what they call 'magical thinking'. But what if it lets you interact with systems in more direct ways, achieving effects that the normal methods do not?"
Nikolai ponders. "All...on the same level. I...can see, I think."
Induction-Coil's voice has a different tone to it, and a rhythmic cadence. "It's not always something as specific as talking to things, asking directly, 'please, lamp, light up', but it's communing on another level, through dancing or singing or making.. Or science. Understanding that there's more to your interactions and thoughts and works than the surface level is the first step."
You say, "I...often don't know own methods, why they work. This...does explain much. Knowing science doesn't explain results. Things...blow up lots, but sometimes work...shouldn't work but do. "
Induction-Coil says, "What is it that you do, or.. have done?"
Nikolai spreads his hands out. "Ah...many things. Invented...DreamThief--walk around in memories and own head. Failed attempt at Strangecure made Charmvirus. Time travel, looked into a dimension or two, not touched...installed Trilogee a backup memory source...
Induction-Coil says, "ANd how do you figure out how to do it?"
You say, "Have...ah, hm, died innumerous times, always come back from backup. Once escaped Strangevirus, once caught, buried oldself, once infected and took over lab also....more recent. Experiments and data-gathering..."
Induction-Coil chuckles. "How do you THINK UP how to do it?"
Nikolai glances to Indi. "Have...not known. Ideas flow in head and out paws to work. Not question where they arrive from, nor quite destination..."
Induction-Coil nods. "You were... connected to something..."
Nikolai taps the back of his skullcap. "Hm yes, upstream backup system. I...assume I set up for instant backup and rebirth, Mess infrasystem inadequate mostly, tooslow. But...lost it is when I even did this to mind." He tugs at the antenna-hair still embedded there.
Induction-Coil considers this for a moment, looking at your skullcap, eyes still glowing softly. "There wasn't more to it than that...?"
Nikolai raises a paw. "But! Had always assumed stream one-way. Refresh from source when die, but not receive from backup source. Until...mid-cure by SMC I found my lost oldclone, this body...uplink was two ways then...I abandoned Mother-infested body through backstream."
Nikolai looks thoughtful. "Ah, and once when mind-stream was damaged, was found by friend and repaired. My mindbackup source was in crystal...factory, I think. "
Induction-Coil nods, and listens....
Induction-Coil blinks, the glow fading a bit. "Crystal..?" he murmurs, before the different tone reasserts itself. "Might this crystal have had will of its own...? Consider what we have said here tonight..."
Nikolai frowns, blinking a bit at this. "Ah...hmm....erm. Entirely possible, this. Mother said with my own mouth, when I Strangeinfected...claimed backupsource streamed my data and mindinfo back to Strange Library. Think it must be lie...but have not entirely remembered in madness that crystal was even source of backup stream. It...mayhaps too late to tell, crystal smashed to foil reboot of Lab prior to assault on Mother."
Induction-Coil stands again, link to the spark stretching. "Can you lead the way there?"
Nikolai looks surprised. "Ah...hm, certainly. Something mustseen?
Induction-Coil says, "Seems likely."
Nikolai glances back at the Spark tree. He lifts one paw up to just barely skirt the surface of the trunk, the fur on his arm standing on end. Then he turns back and pads towards the tunnel. "Back towards DarkUnder, then..."
Approaching it feels.. not dangerous, as it perhaps should but enticing and, if not entirely safe, then at least benignly invigorating. There's a presence, there, too.. A few sparks leap to your paw, wreathing it almost gently.
Induction-Coil pulls away then, the extra glow once more fading. He blinks, looking at you, the spire.. "I was.. different, wasn't I?"
Nikolai gives a small grin. "I know not enough to tell. This tree...I know it is not dangerous now...but I have died in it."
Induction-Coil grins. "Everyone does, sooner or later." He thinks, for a moment, as if honestly trying to remember. "You were going to.. show me something..."
Nikolai stops himself from glancing back up at the tree. "Ah, yes yes. Hm."
You offer to let Induction-Coil walk along with you.
Induction-Coil decides to walk along with you.
You scramble into the tunnel.
It's a perfect fit for him, at least. For what he is and has been.
I had to consciously keep myself from letting his grammar get too perfect. *grin* He's not all that mad anymore, but his diction was just so distinctive and more importantly, fun!
You head towards the main square.
DownWarp
Induction-Coil sits up. "Oh.. Hello."
You say, "Hm, hm, ho there."
Induction-Coil smiles. "How're you tonight?"
Nikolai glances up at the sky. "Ah...been overthought. Watching the frozen lightning again..."
Induction-Coil grins. "From.. when you..." He stands up. "Can I come see? I couldn't quite tell where it is.."
Nikolai nods. "Ah, hm yes! Saw it from the Freeway, but is harder from here. Off towards steam, here..."
Induction-Coil grins wide. "Okay!"
Induction-Coil wanders towards the billow of steam.
Induction-Coil has left.
You wander across the plain towards the cloud of steam...
Upper Shaft
The asphalt here is broken in spiderweb patterns that stretch up the sides of nearby buildings. Following one particularly large crack to where they all converge, you see a frozen vortex of metal spiraling from a pit in the ground. Steel rebar and pipelines that seem grown in place grasp hold of crumbling walls, slowly pulling inward towards the round hole in the middle of the street. An old steel powerline tower's framework nearby is distorted downward by the weight of a rusted machine reaching up towards the sky with lightning-flicker needle rods. Spindly 'trees' sprout from the concrete thickly all around, with clawlike branches holding remnants of partly shattered mirror-finish solar panes. Draped loosely over everything nearby are cables and hoses swaying gently in a breeze.
The pit's edge is round but irregular, eroded away by the fingers of metal from below. A guardrail along the circumference twists and its inner surface is lined with overlapping plating, like a centipede's segmentation. Squeezed around the edge of the pit is a rusted spiral staircase leading [down], and an electromagnetic field provides verticle travel in the center. Steam suffused with orange light billows up from below as you peer over the brim. A deep rhythmic bass thumping can be felt more than heard somewhere beneath the ground.
Downwarp's main [square] can been seen off beyond the pit, with the signature towers of Big Active visible beyond rows of half-collapsed apartment buildings.
Nikolai points toward the alleyway.
Concrete Jungle
The close-leaning walls in the alleyway are all but buried under chaotic masses of black wirestrands. Wires cross and recross fractal-coiling up the walls and rubble of fallen buildings like mechanistic ivy. Bulbs along the wires sprout television flowers all tuned to different stations, squawking at each other for attention with ancient hypnomercials and dramaverts. More than a quarter of the tubes are smashed into bits, shards still bursting audiovisual static in swept-together heaps.
The end of the alley runs into a thicket of trees, wooden trunks jammed together in a wall covered in tiny sparkling leaves. Chinks in the trunk of one tree ooze pale gray ironsap, wound into whorls and loops apparently by magnetic fields. The trees themselves stretch high into the air, then seem to turn and dive back into the ground beyond. There is an overall deep background hum, cycling soft and loud, barely heard over the screen chatter. Something high and bright rises half-resolved just beyond the trees, flickering flourescent against the halogen-lit undersky.
In the nearby rubble, a basement entrance provides a [tunnel] underneath the outer forest wall. The other end of the alley is lit orange-white by a column of [steam] rising from a rift in the ground.
Induction-Coil arrives, silhouetted by the underlit cloud of steam at the end of the alley.
Induction-Coil has arrived.
Induction-Coil looks around. "This is pretty extraordinary itself... Why haven't I seen this before..?"
Nikolai shrugs a little. "I've passed this sideway many times as well, perhaps...it was not manifest as a way through until it was needed. That..." He points to a collapsed part of the ground at the far end neat the treewall. "...collapsed when I came here..."
Induction-Coil nods, stepping closer. "That's where we should go...?"
Nikolai nods. "Da. "
Cyclotron Forest
Here the overgrown reaches of quasiorganic technology have choked the towers to dust. A clearing free of buildings except for a few wallnubs visible in regular rows, the heaps of rubble appear to have been torn down by the encroaching vines, while the middle of the clearing bursts with a remnant of a well-forested city park.
A wall of twisted trees arch impossibly high with spiraling trunks, then plunge back into the broken asphalt like a solar prominence following magnetic lines. The packed-together tree trunks seem to be wooden, but breaks in the bark reveal a dull grey ferrometallic sap oozing out. Branches covering the highest arch-points wave agreen with leaves that, on closer inspection, are veined with tiny photovoltaic cells. The looping trees seem to be lined up radiating from a central point, swirling magflux in tight vortices. A huge label-covered metallic container has been pushed into place in the locus of electromagnetic fields, skid marks still visible on the AluminoTurf. Small [totems] form a rough circle around the container, and neon-glowing symbolistic [graffiti] covers its sides.
From a gaping hole in the top of the container spikes a massive lightning bolt ten, twelve stories into the air. Intensely blue-white at its thick base, it grows spiraling upward frozen in place, sending out smaller and smaller spikes until attenuating at its peak. The whole column of captured energy quivers and flickers in the storm of fields holding it in place.
A slender line of concrete spirals down from the [Freeway] to land at one end of the park. Opposite the sleek lines of the megaroad, a cluster of buildings remain free from entropic pull of the vines. A curiously rebuilt [skyscraper] rises into the gloom next to a dilapidated old parking [garage]. A few meters away across the plain, there's a big, battered cargo container that seems to have been converted into a bar. Loud music and multicolored light spills from its open [hatch]. In the rubble of a nearby building, a [tunnel] leads underneath the outer ring of trees.
Induction-Coil has arrived.
Nikolai stops just after the tunnel's end to take in the view again.
Induction-Coil looks around, eyes wide. He cranes his neck up, gazing at the lightning for a long moment. "Spark..." He says, reverently.
Nikolai nods slowly, also looking upward. "Grand magnificent spark, yes, hm. You...should explain this more. Public records sparse on the, ah, gridshaman.
Induction-Coil doesn't quite even hear, just stepping forward to look more closely at the totems, and the graffiti. He pauses, looking at the nearby building. "I LIVE there..."
Induction-Coil says, "I haven't been back in days, actually... but.. I never really noticed this square before..."
Induction-Coil reaches out toward the pillar of lightning, his markings glowing more and more as he gets closer, like a flourescent light near a Tesla Coil.
Nikolai says softly, stepping up behind Indi, "This of course where I leaped..."
Induction-Coil nods rapidly. "This... must be new here... the trees, the power.. What's going on...?" he murmurs, eyes bright.
Nikolai points at the markings on the container. "I...think your brothers have been here before..."
Induction-Coil kneels and nods. "It'd certainly be a place they'd gather.." he murmurs. Finally he dips a hand closer to the lightning, a smaller (though still huge) spark arcing to his hand, wreathing his body in radiant blue light.
Nikolai's eyes widen. "May be consuming, is safe?"
Induction-Coil knows what he's doing. It's hard to tell his markings from the sparks so covering him now, and his eyes are glowing, but he seems not to be in pain.. He leaves left arm raised to draw power from the tree of lightning, and kneels, drawing his right hand across the container, a focussed spark now arcing, cutting through it like an industrial tool. The coyote concentrates, adding another symbol to those ringing the container.
Nikolai whistles softly. "Hm.....ah."
Induction-Coil arc-cuts a stylized canine head into the metal itself, the edges of it glowing for now, the new opened area continuing to flicker with the electric light from inside the container. He lets go then, and the electricity over him seems to harmlessly dissipate after a few moments, leaving him just breathing hard.
Nikolai gives a clap. "You...the lightning passed through..."
Induction-Coil sits at the base, and nods, tired, but quite happy and satisfied. "Spark likes me." He grins. "You should see what happens when I dance."
Nikolai sits near Indi, looking up at the tree again. "Need to get the Forge back, hm yes. Was full of sparks and lightning. My...hm, my lab also, had Tesla coils, frigidspark and flailing arclight..."
Nikolai sighs briefly at remembering his lab. His fingers waggle themselves as if remembering old procedures.
Induction-Coil nodnods. "I can't wait to go to the Forge again.." He smiles, and relaxes. "Was there more stuff you wanted to ask me about...?
You say, "Hm, ah...yes. Uncertain about this step taken....not so much knowledge on your, ah, practice, hm, as I thought."
Induction-Coil mms,and nods. "Yeah, lots of it ends up.. not written down, unfortunately. Well.. What do you want to know?"
Nikolai rests his arms on his knees. "So much...I have to, hm, keep myself from overhoarding information..." He glances up at Indi. "Want to know...who I am. But that not as prevalent as...what do gridshaman do? "
Induction-Coil grins. "Don't worry about overhoarding.. I'd be happy to tell you all I can, really." He pauses, then, thinking. "What do we do..? Well.. really.. what does anyone do here.. Change our part of the world in the ways we desire, find like-minded people to be with..."
Nikolai hmms. "I think I've been initiated, you said...am trying to discover how and what I capable of. Always surprise myself.
Nikolai gives a small chuckle. "As of course affinity toward Spark already shows itself.."
Induction-Coil laughs. "You can say that again. Maybe it always did. You said you've been inventing stuff for.. how long?"
Nikolai glances off and up somewhere, counting something on his paws. "Ahhh....that simple fact eludes me. Longtime, Wheels, seasons...I cannot identify beginning. "
Induction-Coil nods. "Long enough, then." He considers. "You'd consider yourself a gridshaman now? So you're wanting.. super secret shaman knowledge...?" He smiles.
Nikolai shrugs. "Is there much needed to know? How to live? What makes one different? How to...ah, recognize magic when it comes?"
Induction-Coil grins and nods. "That's it, yeah. There's no spell book, no secret levels of initiation.. You'd be surprised how many people think it's something like that. It's just... kinda a way of looking at the world."
Nikolai leans back up against the cargo container. "I would know that way, then. Outlook perspective of mine been quite narrow cone work-focused...not to mention mindsieve addled madthoughts unless applying self towards one idea or other. Have not had time for philosophy..."
Induction-Coil nods, leaning back next to you. "Aaaand now you're left wondering who you are, what you should be doing, all that stuff you said..? Pretty philosophical..."
Nikolai nods slowly. "Da. Had no inkling much effort sanity is."
Nikolai fiddles with his hands. "Still need to work...to create, to assimilate and coalesce knowledge...is it the best to try and cure Strange? Who am I to try? Have taken too much, I think...wish to start again, slowly and small."
Induction-Coil nods. "Start with what, then...?"
Nikolai raises a finger. "Question, hm yes, that is it." He shrugs. "What...do you see as magic? "
Induction-Coil chuckles. "Around here? Hard to say. What's magic for me is psionics for someone else, and is just an implant for someone else..." he muses. "Someone once called magic 'an act of will that causes changes in the physical world', and he meant just what it sounds like, that anything could be that, opening a door, walking down a street...
Induction-Coil says, "He'd be doubly right around here."
Nikolai nods. "I often assume that...I have not woken up, and this world is a dream. Mayhaps. But nobody wants to wake up...no difference, then.
Induction-Coil chuckles. "Then we're all in the same dream, and our dreams inside it are doubly interesting... But, I think I'm stalling. Tou asked what _I_ see as magic, right?"
Nikolai grins a bit. "Ah, hm yes."
Induction-Coil says, "Well, I almost had already say it." He dips a finger just gently into the pillar of lightning, his markings and eyes suddenly glowing a bit more. "Looking at the world from an abstract view, everything that happens can be seen as an interaction of systems. People are systems, but so are buildings and technology, and even ideas. Now consider acting as if all of those systems are on some level the same. Perhaps all 'people', in a way. Some less complicated, some more, but all willful. That is, of course, what they call 'magical thinking'. But what if it lets you interact with systems in more direct ways, achieving effects that the normal methods do not?"
Nikolai ponders. "All...on the same level. I...can see, I think."
Induction-Coil's voice has a different tone to it, and a rhythmic cadence. "It's not always something as specific as talking to things, asking directly, 'please, lamp, light up', but it's communing on another level, through dancing or singing or making.. Or science. Understanding that there's more to your interactions and thoughts and works than the surface level is the first step."
You say, "I...often don't know own methods, why they work. This...does explain much. Knowing science doesn't explain results. Things...blow up lots, but sometimes work...shouldn't work but do. "
Induction-Coil says, "What is it that you do, or.. have done?"
Nikolai spreads his hands out. "Ah...many things. Invented...DreamThief--walk around in memories and own head. Failed attempt at Strangecure made Charmvirus. Time travel, looked into a dimension or two, not touched...installed Trilogee a backup memory source...
Induction-Coil says, "ANd how do you figure out how to do it?"
You say, "Have...ah, hm, died innumerous times, always come back from backup. Once escaped Strangevirus, once caught, buried oldself, once infected and took over lab also....more recent. Experiments and data-gathering..."
Induction-Coil chuckles. "How do you THINK UP how to do it?"
Nikolai glances to Indi. "Have...not known. Ideas flow in head and out paws to work. Not question where they arrive from, nor quite destination..."
Induction-Coil nods. "You were... connected to something..."
Nikolai taps the back of his skullcap. "Hm yes, upstream backup system. I...assume I set up for instant backup and rebirth, Mess infrasystem inadequate mostly, tooslow. But...lost it is when I even did this to mind." He tugs at the antenna-hair still embedded there.
Induction-Coil considers this for a moment, looking at your skullcap, eyes still glowing softly. "There wasn't more to it than that...?"
Nikolai raises a paw. "But! Had always assumed stream one-way. Refresh from source when die, but not receive from backup source. Until...mid-cure by SMC I found my lost oldclone, this body...uplink was two ways then...I abandoned Mother-infested body through backstream."
Nikolai looks thoughtful. "Ah, and once when mind-stream was damaged, was found by friend and repaired. My mindbackup source was in crystal...factory, I think. "
Induction-Coil nods, and listens....
Induction-Coil blinks, the glow fading a bit. "Crystal..?" he murmurs, before the different tone reasserts itself. "Might this crystal have had will of its own...? Consider what we have said here tonight..."
Nikolai frowns, blinking a bit at this. "Ah...hmm....erm. Entirely possible, this. Mother said with my own mouth, when I Strangeinfected...claimed backupsource streamed my data and mindinfo back to Strange Library. Think it must be lie...but have not entirely remembered in madness that crystal was even source of backup stream. It...mayhaps too late to tell, crystal smashed to foil reboot of Lab prior to assault on Mother."
Induction-Coil stands again, link to the spark stretching. "Can you lead the way there?"
Nikolai looks surprised. "Ah...hm, certainly. Something mustseen?
Induction-Coil says, "Seems likely."
Nikolai glances back at the Spark tree. He lifts one paw up to just barely skirt the surface of the trunk, the fur on his arm standing on end. Then he turns back and pads towards the tunnel. "Back towards DarkUnder, then..."
Approaching it feels.. not dangerous, as it perhaps should but enticing and, if not entirely safe, then at least benignly invigorating. There's a presence, there, too.. A few sparks leap to your paw, wreathing it almost gently.
Induction-Coil pulls away then, the extra glow once more fading. He blinks, looking at you, the spire.. "I was.. different, wasn't I?"
Nikolai gives a small grin. "I know not enough to tell. This tree...I know it is not dangerous now...but I have died in it."
Induction-Coil grins. "Everyone does, sooner or later." He thinks, for a moment, as if honestly trying to remember. "You were going to.. show me something..."
Nikolai stops himself from glancing back up at the tree. "Ah, yes yes. Hm."
You offer to let Induction-Coil walk along with you.
Induction-Coil decides to walk along with you.
You scramble into the tunnel.