Back On Track (Ryan, 8/12/14)

Between the recent identity crisis and and the various attacks from multiple sources, it had taken the Doctor some time to focus on his goals and Scientific interests. Sitting in the office of his beautiful home, he had been drawing up plans for some interesting new weapons when he started to doodle. He hadn't been a known doodler when he still thought of himself as Reinhard. Ninety-eight year geniuses did not doodle. But a flexibility of thought he hadn't opened himself up to as long as he could remember had worked it's way in. Ah, but his ship! Lost to the reaches of space, as far as he understood. It was the fault of those damned willworkers in Rhode Island. He slammed a fist on the desk in frustration and began pacing, wondering whether or not it would be truly worth it to start over from scratch.

"You know, if you wish hard enough, rreeaaaalllllyyyy hard... it gives the person you're thinking about a chubby. Which can be really, really fucking awkward when you're trying to have a press meeting about a missing girl."

Knocking on doors was for amateurs Now, being summoned by a thought? That was his level of style. The unlit cigarette dangled from between his lips before he plucked it away, smirking behind his mirror shades.

A blade akin to the metal arm of a T-1000 forms from the left hand of the Construct, and a shotgun befitting a Son of Ether is picked off the desk in the right. Annoyance and anger mixed together on his silver face. "Ah, just one of the snollygosters I'd been thinking about. And the one I have under certain authority is connected to the Damnable Technocrats. Any reason I shouldn't stick you through the neck and pop your top with the other arm?"

He rolled his eyes behind his mirror shades, not seeming bothered or threatened. "Oh, zombie baby Christ, really? Threats? Kid, if I can just appear behind you, knowing your thoughts, do you really think that's gonna stop me? Or better yet, you think I'm a Technocrat. And you just threatened one. Without checking for links or ties. Sloppy. Very, very fucking sloppy." he tapped off the lack of ash, tilting his head slightly. "But if you want to do this song and dance, get it out of your system. Come on.. threaten me away. You can do better."

The eerily silent Sun Cheng arrived from behind, locking Ryan in a grip of fear, which the Doctor used as an opportunity to scoop up the unwelcome guest and deposit him outside bodily. "I don't take that sort of crap from Guy, I'm most certainly not taking it from you." Sun Cheng went back in while the Doctor followed him outside, cloaking his body to look human and slamming the door behind him.

"Now, regardless of the truth of your rumored affiliations, that's a very rude way to enter a man's house, and I should like an apology. And then you can apologize on behalf of your Chantry for spearheading the adventure with the wolves that left the Gernsbach Continuum careening off into space."

There was just an amused look on his face as he dusted himself off. Somehow his unlit cigarette seemed to survive just fine. "If you want apologizes, well... not so good at that. And considering your thoughts, eh... that one is a wash.

Though, I am reallllllyyyy interested in this spear headed Wolves in Space thing. And how, given the parts that were saved, we're somehow to blame when the World was saved due to the action." he took a seat on the front of the loaner car that just happened to be parked there. Maybe he had driven. Maybe it was all just fate. Maybe he just liked messing with people. Only She knew. In his free hand, he had a set of what looked like metal balls, just rolling all three of them in circles.

"Is it some unwritten rule that every community needs a reprehensible cur like yourself, or are Rhode Island and Defiance simply lucky? 'The world was saved' is all well and good, but you could have flung the animal sanctuary, or such and such pleasuredome it was off into the Ether. I was conducting research in the Gernsback, and now the time, effort and resources will have to be applied all over again. It's an invaluable resource for my Tradition, and I had a steady portal available to it's location. I think I have a right to be a bit miffed. Have you considered there may have been some researchers there at the time in need of rescuing, who have probably lost all bodily cohesion?"

He looks down, inspecting himself for any filth he may have contracted, and patted himself down for good measure. "So, how much of the rumor is true? Are you indeed an Agent? Former Agent? I work alongside a former agent at times, so I'm not entirely unsympathetic to detractors, but I just dealt with a giant walking mini-gun, and would rather not repeat that event so soon."

"I didn't make the choice. I don't believe in one person leading the whole thing. You actually can yell at the Hermetics as they did the math. I just made sure that the plan was smart and went off with no loss of life amongst the awakened. That the world keeps turning. That is why there are 'curs' like me exist - so douche nozzles like you can try to talk down to us, even while we do what no one else wants too." he 'ashed' nothing again.

"You want to start with loss of life? Do you really want to play that card with a Death Mage? Or the fact that my Tradition's shard wasn't there... so it's still lost. Or it's completely gone. But no, no... we'll just focus on your Tradition, right? Because that's what matters. Tradition. So you know what?

Fuck that.

Life matters. People matter. That is why we have the Codes we do, which were in place while your Tradition was still a dream within the Technocrats eyes. If you really cared about people, you'd be in an Ethership, trying to find the fucking Millions that were in Space as part of the Void Engineers, trying to protect the Earth from the Fucking Aliens of the Deep. The unmentionable creatures that want nothing more than to end everything because they think it's just a dream and their dear 'dreamer' has to wake up. You may know them as Nephandi." he closed his eyes behind his mirror shades, sucking on the cigarette for no more reason than nostalgia.

"So, check your damn ego Tinman, and realize that I didn't make the call. I put it out to all the Enlightened people there, and the Fuzzy Angry Creatures who were helping us so it was possible. I didn't play God. I don't want to play God. I did all I could to save all possible life. To give a little bit of Hope back, in the best way I could." the weight of centuries was there, when he opened his eyes to look at the Son of Ether - even from behind the shades.

"And I'm upfront of what I was. This life, and only this incarnation, I was taken by the Union. And I won't even say all their ideas are wrong. But they aren't all right. And neither are the Traditions. Both have their merits and flaws. And we have a chance, with all the shit that has been going on, to try to make something balanced. So, rather than making assumptions - ask."

"If I really cared about people I'd be in an Ethership trying to find people, eh? That is PRECISELY what I was building there! I care more than humanity has ever given me reason to, I'll tell you that. Consider being just a smidge more original than 'Tinman', please. The oil can bit has been done to death, I'm afraid."

"Personally, I wouldn't associate with Fuzzy Angry Creatures if you paid me my weight in platinum. Which is considerable, mind you. I'm incredibly dense at the core."

Sun Cheng came out the back door with a tray with tea, milk, and sugar. He offered it to Ryan first. "Ah, it is that time. It seems there is some Assam and Oolong today. There's a few other inside, if you'd prefer. I'm sure Sun Cheng could brew some coffee if you really preferred. Taken by the Union, hm? At least you didn't walk over there yourself to see how the other half lives, like someone I know. Please, tell me the faults you see with the Traditions." He seemed a bit dismissive about the prospect of coffee in his vicinity.

"I'm not trying to be original. Everything has been done by now, in one language, planet or another." his right hand shifted, stacking the three balls for a moment, then going back to spinning them in his palm. "And I do agree to the dense comment." the joke was there, so he made it.

"Hate it if you want, Coffee still works best for me." he sucked on the cigarette pointlessly, pensive for a moment, "The Traditions. Aside from our obsession with the Nine or Ten major Traditions, and linking them to Spheres, they're too disparate. Horizon was a fucking clusterfuck because everything thinks they are right, rather than just realizing everyone is. You, me, the crazy Cultist masturbating into a can, we all have awakened Avatars. We all bend and warp reality because we will it to fucking work. Yet we have people who are so blind they can't see beyond their own Paradigm. And don't even get me started on you all's god damn journals. Seriously. Doctors this and bullshit that... you're all Technomancers. Nothing wrong with it. But it's what you are. And the fact that certain Traditions, like the Brotherhood, look down on it? Well, that's why we can't get our shit together. Why we forgot that our mission, our reason, is knowledge - and to share that fucking knowledge with the rest of the World. We were supposed to help Mankind, help them grow. Help them learn. Lead them to Ascension. Now we're just scrounging and hating, feeling that we are apart because we have some deep 'truth'." he shook his head.

"Egos."

He applied a dash of milk to his cup, and filled it with tea, thanking his associate and sending him back to the house. He turned to look at Ryan and took a sip before continuing. "You sound like a damned Hollow One, do you realize that? You're trying to tell me our problem is that we're a varied assortment of individuals and we don't simply accept each other's view of reality as true and equally as valid? I can tell you right now, no amount of drug snorting or fornicating is going to make any lick of sense to me as a method of changing the undercurrents of reality anywhere but in the mind of the druggie Cultist ingesting such substances. And no amount of self flagellation or wishing by a Chorister is going to unlock a deeper understanding of the cosmos. That's what Etherships are for. Expeditions to the Hollow Earth. Science! is our key to understanding."

"I don't bleed emo darkness, so no, I don't sound like a fucking Hollow One. I sound like someone who is really sick of stupid shit. And your obsession of thinking there is no other way than your own is just bullshit. You and your soul," he pointed the cigarette at Reinhart, "were not always the way they were. You were once a Mystic, tried and true, because there wasn't a fucking other way. Once we were all Mystics, simple as you please. Then we started defining shit. Then we started separating. But it's all in our heads, our hearts and souls. The reason why there are so many defections on either side is because people are lost. There is no giant scary monster to fight in the woods anymore - it's everywhere. It's in people. The Darkness is growing. The weight on the Wheel is growing. It creeks under the weight of all the Sins of the World. And that includes us. That includes us not helping out the Humanity we came from. Because out of all these supernatural reality deviant psychopaths, we are still human. And we can't forget our roots. Because as Humans, we come from Humans, and without Humans, we don't exist."

"I can't say I ascribe to the notion of reincarnation, but that's an interesting thought. Though I'm pretty certain humanity has been defining things since it's inception, and that's probably no different for those with an Awakened awareness. If there were two such mystics exactly alike, I'd be astounded. It's human nature, tribalism, to separate you and yours from the 'other'. Even so, I find it just a bit odd that you speak of the monsters within men as if this is some new development. They pranced through the woods when everyone lived in the woods. They certainly existed a hundred years ago, and I'm sure a thousand years before that. It's true, perhaps, that we've learned to hide our darkness a bit better. But helping humans? That's what most of us believe we're doing. Still, there is a part of me that wonders if humanity deserves a chance to develop without us." *sip*

"It doesn't matter if you believe in reincarnation - it happens. Just like the Earth always revolved around the Sun. Avatars don't die with these flesh bodies, they just come back, trying to search out what they were meant to do.

And yes, there are Monsters. But there were no Werewolves before there were humans. There were no Vampires before there were humans. They are all based on us.

But that last bit of you, that question, that lingering bit in your head? That's where the bullshit starts. When we start to think we are better than Humankind. You've just hit on the head why all Awakened, Empowered, Enlightened, or whatever the fucking hell word you want to use people fail. Hubris."

"Don't want me to show up, don't think so much hatred towards me and mine. That simple. You're the one who ticked off Fate enough to push me here, Nine.

And, Avatar's are part of our Souls... that's why a Soulless construct can't awaken. So, you do then believe in reincarnation. You're just using the laymen's version versus the awakened version. Which is really fine, the whole vernacular of any language gets kinda fucked when you mix and match mindsets.

And I'll try to explain it again. We are a part of Humanity. There shouldn't be an us or them. We have a gift. Just like Einstein... though technically not the best example for certain reasons, we have a duty to give back. Same if someone is a talent poet, artist, peacemaker, watchmaker, it doesn't matter. We are part of Humanity. We are still human. So, as long as you don't get lost zooming about in your Ethermobile, and remember to come back to the Mudball, then so be it. But it's not just about you, or me, or any singular Mage. It's about the whole of us. Which is kinda what I've been angling towards.

You got all roughshod over 'your' Traditions Horizon Realm getting lost. We need to focus more on getting unified and collected and together as a Mage Society, so we can have a fleet of ships going out to look for people or places or things, rather than just a lone voyager."

"You grow tired..." he chuckled, shaking his head. "And this is why we lost. This is why we continue to lose. Fine. Good luck." another one too stubborn. Oh well. Such was the way of things.