Post by Talon Windwaltz on Jul 13, 2009 2:10:23 GMT -5
A portrait of a robed wizard straddling a horse in the style of Napoleon Crossing the Alps was guardian to the quarters where the Staff went about their personal business and, of course, slept at night. The Headmaster had his own office, and he often stayed out of the business of his fellow staff if he could avoid it, so this would mark the first time he'd been anywhere near the portrait since the War of the Shadows.
Ironic, considering he hadn't seen the person he was bringing to stay there since around then either.
"Alright, year's almost done, no reason for you to stick around," Talon said to the noble wizard, and the horse in the painting let out a mighty whinny and galloped off and away. The empty portrait swung forward, revealing a pleasant little 'lounge' of sorts, with pleasant green couches, a table with flowers, and a tea kettle on a stove with cups stacked nearby. On the far end of the room and to the left of the entrance, a long hallway went off into seeming oblivion, with doors across the hall from one another.
The Headmaster turned back to Meriel, who had followed him to this point. "You can take any room except for the first two. All of the other Professors have their own houses in Drakborough. Some had apartments in Triangle Tunnel, but as of recently that isn't the safest decision."
Post by Meriel Magdaline on Jul 13, 2009 2:31:29 GMT -5
Mer quirked a brow at Talon's last statement. Wasn't the safest decision? She wondered to herself why that might be, and made a mental note to inquire later in the day. At the moment all she was really interested in was dropping off her heavy luggage and getting some food in her stomach, which was now growling intermittently in protest of her neglect. She strolled down the hall several meters and stopped at the fifth door. It was far enough away from the other two occupied rooms to give her a measure of privacy, yet close enough to the dorm entrance not to be too long a walk when she was carrying large stacks of books or crawling back to bed after an all-nighter in the library.
Yes, room number five would be perfect.
She swung the door open to find a small but comfortably furnished room not unlike many motels she'd been to before. A double-wide bed adorned the wall near a small bathroom, and across from that a sturdy-looking desk took up space next to a thin strip of counter making the space above a tiny bar fridge somewhat useful. The walls were scattered with various shelves and a very modest closet containing several hangers looked like a welcoming place for her to hang her clothes.
Yes, this room would be perfect. Just wonderful. Why would she need to get a room in the village? The school contained everything she would ever need.
She dropped her luggage case on the bed with a loud thud, unzipping it in one quick motion. From its shallow depth she procured a surprisingly large quantity of belongings. First out was a large collection of reference texts, about a half a dozen in total, hard-bound and heavy like dictionaries. She set them on the shelf above the desk. Then she pulled an unremarkable assortment of clothing, maybe four changes, including the long maroon-coloured duster Cole had given her after their engagement. Rather than putting these away she just sat them on the pillow at the head of her bed. They could be dealt with later on.
After that came a smattering of nick-nacks like quills and diagrams, a few notebooks, and some unnamed research instruments she'd brought along for the sake of posterity. Anything else she would need Mer figured she could pick up in the neighbouring village. All these things in order, she patted her hands against her thighs with satisfaction as she surveyed her new space. Then she turned to Talon.
"Master Windwaltz," she began with a formal authority, her eyes sparkling with barely contained excitement. "I may have developed a way to create life."
There was no way she could gauge the impact her words would have on her once pupil. She held her breath, spell-bound with the moment, and waited anxiously for his response.
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Jul 13, 2009 2:44:36 GMT -5
Talon followed his former master casually as she chose Room Number Five for her suite for her stay at Firefox. As she entered and put down her things, the Headmaster stayed out in the hallway for a moment and stared into the oblivion that was the nearly endless set of rooms that continued to trail down the hallway into infinity. He sighed, knowing deep down that the powerful enchantment Salazar Slytherin had put on this room (and Talon had modified) had been for absolute naught when used as a staff quarters.
He could've used it for something else. Anything else. But then again, what good would a million bedrooms be good for other than sleeping quarters? Talon followed Meriel into the room after she'd mostly put everything away, feeling rather strange just standing out in the hallway. She then turned around and made the announcement that she claimed would blow his mind.
And it blew his mind.
Talon whipped out his wand at almost record speeds, as if he were quick drawing a pistol from its holster to take down an outlaw. Instead, however, a platter appeared with two plates. One had a well-cooked steak with some vegetables set next to it, and the other had a nice looking dessert. The spell had been a way to summon food from the kitchens directly to his office in the event that his work was too important, but he had done it so many times it was easy to call it to basically any room in the castle. With another quick twist of his wand, a chair came to settle right behind him, and he sat down almost immediately.
Post by Meriel Magdaline on Jul 13, 2009 14:47:10 GMT -5
Though she knew it was rude to do so, Mer had forced Talon to wait while she unpacked her bag. In her defense, its contents were essential to communicating her theories, and the action gave her time to think about just how she would deliver this information. Thinking had failed her, though, and in her eagerness she had simply blurted it out. For all her tone's measured weight, it was simply the result of her being unable to contain herself.
Her sandy-haired counterpart was duly shocked, but he recovered quickly and plunged forward with the same kind of eager fervor. Always mindful of the needs of others, the Headmaster was quick to provide Mer's angry stomach with a hearty meal, but she eyed it hesitantly. Could she really be rude enough to eat in front of her friend so shortly after forcing him to wait awkwardly in the hall while she unpacked?
More pressing matters.
The woman pulled several journals from from her collection and lay them on the table before Talon. "It's fundamental knowledge that elemental magic is the foundation of life as we know it," Mer began, flipping through the journals in front of him as she spoke. Now and again she would point to a particularly important diagram or line of notes. "Ancient alchemists believe that by combining base elements in the right order and quantity you could produce anything, though most focused on the trashy and irrelevant conversion of worthless metals to gold. Man powered by their greed. They entirely missed the point."
One of the journals was labeled 'Tibet, 2008', and she opened it to two pages near the middle of the book. On one side an eight-pointed lotus diagram depicted the primary and secondary elements around a central element, an ohm, that was representative of the essence of life itself. The opposing page showed a diagram that documented the flow of life energy through the human body, the planet and interchangeably through other life forms. "I stayed in a monastery for several months learning about eastern energy philosophy and found that it was startlingly similar to my theories on elemental energies. The fundamental difference seemed to be that I liked to break things down and simplify into different schools of energy where the monks recognized things as a pure whole. Life, by their definition, was comprised of the whole.
"This here is the documentation of my trial attempts. So far I've attempted plants, fruit, large insects and small mammals. Mice and the like. The trick seems to be combining all four primary elements in the right quantities, but as you know combining opposing forces like fire and water is absolutely no easy task. They resist like oil and water and can be quite volatile if mishandled. It's the same for air and earth. You have to make a container for the energies, like a clay jar to borrow christian biblical terminology, and then hold it all together. The method I've developed right now requires extensive ritual and great force of will, and since I have no control over the first element required to set the ritual into motion, earth, it's tricky. I need outside sources." She gestured vaguely with her left hand before pressing onwards. "I can use a magical artifact to bring the energy into the circle, which has proven much more effective than big bowls of dirt like western pagans suggest. I can make the container, now. Bodies. Like sculpting clay. You make the external with earth and water, put in the breath with air, light the blood with fire... but I always run into a problem."
Meriel looked up at Talon, genuinely perplexed. The matter had been the source of months of agony for her. Mer's stomach gave one loud, punctuated grumble and she reached towards her dinner plate. There was no avoiding it, hunger had won out over manners. "My last trial I made a field mouse," she pressed onwards between mouthfuls. "It took about a week, and I really thought I had it. Its little heart was beating, its body quivered with air. But it didn't stir. It was alive, but lacked life. Consciousness, if you will. I thought I had provided everything, but I'm clearly missing one important building block. I think its the central element. The 'ohm' in the middle of this lotus diagram. I had the exact same problem with plants and fruits, but in a different fashion. The plants didn't grow past what I'd shaped them to be, and the fruit was seedless. I'm at a loss. I was hoping you could lend me a hand, or let me use your library and research materials.
"Being able to create life... do you have any idea what this would mean, Talon?" Her eyes glimmered with wonder, with hope. "Think of the applications. With the ability to manipulate living flesh we could regenerate functional limbs for war hereos, completely heal deformities. Death would lose its sting. It would open a whole new world for us." She paused. "It would be the single most important discovery of our lifetimes."
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Jul 13, 2009 15:55:25 GMT -5
The Elixir of Life, now popularly known to wizards as the Philosopher's Stone, was a alchemical creation that was said to extend the life indefinitely. The more popular legend of its uses were that it could turn lead to gold. Though on the surface this may have seemed greedy, it only showed Talon that man cherished a happy, short life more than a long and poor one.
Regardless, Talon was still incredibly interested in what Meriel had to say. After all, she hadn't just created extensions to life, she'd created new life entirely. A field mouse wasn't much, but Cicero did write "all great things start small." But when it came to the mystical domination over the elements that Talon possessed, it had been many years since he'd tried to stretch the limits of his power. Indeed, elementalism had, at the core, become a terrible thing to him. If it had not existed, neither would the Zodiac Books.
And all of the elementalists he'd ever met - Meriel included - always suffered cold, monastic lives, constantly working towards a greater power and sacrificing their normal lives. Firefox, whom Talon idolized, died at only eighteen. Meriel, who stood before him, had only ever found peace with a vampire, who then in turn abandoned her. And Talon...
"Yes, please," Talon waved, though his eyes lacked any vigor, "the library's all yours. I'm sure I have all sorts of books on the writings of eastern monks in there...I find the wisdom accumulated by those in solitude fascinating." But despite his clear confirmation of Meriel's wishes, the idea still troubled the Headmaster. It wasn't the experiments that bothered him...it was the idea of delving even deeper. There was always another level to achieve, a way to grow even more powerful than before.
When you grow so powerful, when you slowly make playthings of the rules that govern existence, are you even human anymore?
And if that's the case, is that why all of the elementalists ended up suffering such lives?
Post by Meriel Magdaline on Jul 14, 2009 11:15:35 GMT -5
Meriel stared at Talon in wonderment. Sure, he'd consented to letting her continue her studies in his library, but he didn't really seem to have any interest in what she was working on. How was that even possible? She was standing in front of him, telling him that she could create life, and he looked about as interested as a ninth grader in math class. He said nothing to indicate how absolutely amazing that fact was, nothing that might encourage her, nothing that suggested he'd like to assist. Even the least educated layman would have been crawling out of his skin! Certainly someone as established in the arts as he was would understand..?
For all intents and purposes, he seemed totally indifferent.
Mer carefully set her fork down on her plate, the eager excitement that had bubbled through her only moments earlier dulling down to solemn concern. "Talon," she started hesitantly, unsure how to proceed, "you don't seem very excited, or even happy for me. I thought that you of all people would be ecstatic!" It was true that in the past Talon had been one of her most eager students, quickly lapping up any opportunity for growth or knowledge she could offer. This strange disinterest baffled her, and she wanted to know what had caused such a dramatic shift in his attitude towards study.
"Is something wrong?" She asked, her brows furrowed with worry. "How are things here, really?" Something had put him off magic, and she was certain in her bones that it had to have been something big. Such a huge change wasn't just stumbled upon.
"I would have thought you'd be my eager accomplice."
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Jul 14, 2009 16:11:12 GMT -5
"How much longer can we go fooling ourselves, Meriel?" Talon said almost immediately, as if his previous tentative statement had been begging for a response. "This whole thing...this elementalism...are we even human anymore? Sure it gives us incredible amounts of power - the ability to control the air we breathe, to ride lightning - even, as you say, create life! And we can do many great things to help people...but sometimes...sometimes I feel that in doing so, we are the lamb that must be sacrificed so everyone else can be saved."
This was such an intense issue that Talon almost lost it, losing all form of tact and outright mentioning their mutual idol without any any attempts at covering it, "I mean, Agiel died when he was eighteen! He was so strong, he should've survived, but he didn't...and he died saving you! And you, alive, you...you lose everyone you love...and me...I can't...I can't be like normal people. I appear, I save the day, and I retreat back to my office...and if I try to be normal, try to act like all the people do...it just doesn't...it doesn't happen Meriel, it doesn't happen!"
He rambled on, "...and, and when we die...I found out when an elementalist dies, they can change their soul into raw elemental power. Even in death we can't die like normal people!" He wasn't crying, not yet, but he was so angry at all this...and Meriel, Meriel was the only person to whom he could finally get all this out. "There's always another level, Meriel...always another power that we can achieve...but what are the costs we pay for this kind of ability?"
Post by Meriel Magdaline on Jul 16, 2009 22:34:50 GMT -5
"Great people always pay the price of greatness, Talon. No matter their field." The words had a sort of finality to them that left no space for argument. Heroes, pioneers, great politicians and religious figures... they all suffered to overcome and earn the titles they held. Their great successes were testament to humanity, and a guiding light for people experiencing hardships. The strong few were obligated, she felt, to protect and inspire the weak. It was her responsibility to blaze a path where others could more easily follow, to help guide people to higher levels of self awareness and greater personal strength.
To be honest, Talon's attitude towards all of her efforts, and especially Agiel's noble death... it appauled her. It spat in the face of everything he had given, everything he had suffered. It rubbed mud in the face of all that she had suffered, all the blood sweat and tears she'd invested in her work. He was suggesting she just 'give up' and be normal.
"I can't just 'be normal'," she tried to explain, her voice steadily raising in volume as she continued, "and have tea pretending I couldn't be out there doing more to impact the world we live in. It would be a gross misuse of my talents. Shameful, even. We're the guidance and protection for the weak and the powerless. I aspire to inspire. Agiel died believing in these truths. If you ever speak of his sacrifice in a negative light again," something dark and vengeful flashed behind her eyes, "I'll give you a good scar to remember him by."
"The costs of nobility are high, but I will continue like this until I die because, to me, giving up would be worse than being shot dead here where I'm standing." Meriel hadn't spoken about anything so passionately since Cole had made his proposal. Her features seemed to be etched in stone, and her tone was full of conviction. "Yes, there is always another 'level'. This isn't a source of despair for me, it's a source of joy and excitement. It makes me feel like an explorer, like I have no boundaries aside from what I would personally set, and yes, Talon, I feel that I am still human. I feel my passion and devotion to humanity and my work represents the very essence of what it is to be human."
Her speech complete, she simply stood there in silence, staring him down with her convictions. Perhaps she had been overly harsh, and the idea only suggested itself to her after she had finished her tirade, but every word she'd spoken rang absolutely true to her. What would happen now? Would he throw her out? Storm off? Get all moody and brood like he'd always been apt to? Or was it time for the two of them to begin a heated debate? In all honesty she felt she'd put several nails in the coffin of this argument already, and she hoped he wouldn't pursue it furthur.
Talon had gone too far, mentioning Agiel. He should have seen this coming.
Post by Talon Windwaltz on Jul 16, 2009 23:00:08 GMT -5
Perhaps it had been what Talon had wanted to hear for a long time. Ever since he'd came to Spain, he'd been constantly under siege by either real dark forces or his own students who lost their ability to believe in him. At first, he'd been devoted to Agiel, and the idea of becoming just like him. When at last he'd finally come somewhere close to achieving that kind of legacy, he turned his devotion to the people whom Agiel had died defending.
His students, and his people.
But they too turned on him in time, calling him 'weak' and 'unable to save them' because he alone was responsible for their well being. But one man, even a great man, against an entire army? He had called in Meriel then, too, but he took the full blame for it. He was ridiculed as not being worthy of such great heights.
So he stepped down from such lofty heights, dismissing politicians and wizarding knights alike, telling them 'I'm but a scholar, not a warrior.' But had that been the right decision? Meriel's words stung him far worse than his own had stung her. 'You forgot Agiel. You forgot what he did. You forgot his sacrifice.' It was that concept that rang though her words and into his mind.
"I was wrong, Meriel." This remark was flat and straightforward. "I've been wrong this whole time." He looked up at her. It wasn't a normal thing for an argument to cut such a thick wound into someone's resolve so much as to sever it entirely. "I had become so powerful, but I wasn't strong enough to save my people in the Shadow War. I was blamed, and...and I ran away. And I can't be happy claiming I'm nobody special, because that's not who I am."
His sapphire eyes delved into his master's brown ones. "The problem I'm having is not that I'm too powerful...is that I'm not powerful enough."
Post by Meriel Magdaline on Jul 27, 2009 21:19:00 GMT -5
Talon's surrender of his stance helped to salve Mer's injuries. She nodded solemnly and then listened as he continued to explain the reason behind his previously pessimistic outlook on her lifestyle. So the Shadow War had shaken his confidence? That was understandable. Meriel had weathered many conflicts, and loss had a way of stripping you down. You either became more resilient or got washed away in the tide.
"You can't save everyone," She murmured, a haunted expression passing over her features. "No matter how powerful you become, you will never be a god. There will be suffering, and loss." That was the truth of things, and no-one knew it better than Meriel. "What you need to do, Talon, is focus on what you did accomplish, who you did save, and learn so that you can do better the next time if, heaven forbid, there is a next time."
The slender-looking woman stretched out a hand, laying it comfortingly on her former pupil's shoulder. "For as long as I'm around I will help you, any way I can, to achieve your goals and protect those dear to you... But you need to understand that neither of us are perfect. We're going to make mistakes. The people we love know that, too, and our best will always be enough. It has to be. It's all we have."
The edge of her mouth twitched in the shadow of a smile. The pain they had experienced brought them together, she felt. Not many people had been in the same position they had, being responsible for the lives of so many others in such dire circumstances. There were few that understood, few that could relate. It was unique, and their friendship was stronger for it.
Teagan Offline: This board is full of nostalgia.
Aug 22, 2020 8:39:09 GMT -5
Missing the old MH: gotta say missing when MH and all that was around.
Nov 6, 2019 0:02:30 GMT -5
Willow_lazy: why tf are there 400 posts about adidas
Sept 6, 2018 17:35:57 GMT -5
Azrael: I'm not hard to find, since I'm the only one there who goes by "Azzy", I'm pretty sure. XD
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:41 GMT -5
Azrael: Dunno if anyone still pops by here from time to time, but if any of you mofos do and still feel like gettin' yo nerd on, I've been hanging around this here place a bunch recently: www.roleplayerguild.com/
Feb 10, 2018 16:44:10 GMT -5
Azrael: hold onto your pantaloons
Jul 25, 2016 5:16:43 GMT -5