Aerophobia And Alcoholism

Log Info

• Title: Aerophobia And Alcoholism
  
• GM: Aftershock
• Characters: Thoth, Gramarye
  
• Location: Alexandria - Guild Hall
  
• Summary: Gramarye accompanies Thoth to the Guild Hall to pick up a second memory Orb - revealing a past it remembers differently. The conversation then moves on to bettering itself as a War Golem and leaning on Gramarye.

The sun is setting spectacularly, shades of purple, orange, and rich gold that splay across the entrance to the Guild. It's particularly busy today, which is an inauspicious start to the effort to which brings Thoth and Gramarye to it today. There's actually a line to talk to the personage at the front desk. A fairly long one.

"No ma'am. Rescuing cats from trees is a job for the watch." A moment of hesitation. "Unless the cat is a tiger? Next?"

The line jostles forward.

Back at the Artificer's guild, a Gobbo, a fake gobbo, and two fake Warforged managed to tell Thoth that there was an Orb out there belonging to it. The problem was that the details they gave at the time were... a bit conflicting with its own memories. Or rather, a part of memories it still possessed fragments of.

It took some time to get around to receiving the rest of the message, and where to find it. And by that time, Thoth had gotten itself into trouble during a recent Adventure. So it's a bit... frustrated as it steps through the Artificer's guild trying to find someone who can recognize it and declare Thoth is who it is.

Gramarye ended up becoming that person. In a very short exchange of 'This one requires your aid' along with details to follow.

---

It feels strange. To come to someone while having your existance questioned. Of course, administratively it makes sense. But existentially... it's that much more potent of a question when one is missing so much of one's memories.

It steps forward, broken wings and all, and puts its small hands onto the counter. At four feet tall, it's definitely a bit of a shorty. In fact, other than its hands, its beak sticks out over the counter more than anything else. Opening and closing at it speaks; "This one has arrived for its possessions." As if that was enough to declare intent.

Gramarye is a dutiful assistant. Recruited for a cause and by a person she knows through polite means (albeit unconventional ones), she's dressed nicely (as always) in the lovely dress that her first Father made for her. A cloak drapes over her head, secured by a headband, and gives her the impression of having hair even though she does not.

Her obsidian eyes realize that Thoth is... short compared to the counter. Being quite a good deal taller than her fellow construct-compatriot, Gramarye steps up to the counter. "I am accompanying Thoth in its stated objective: retrieval of belongings." Her eyes blink with each syllable. "To satisfy this objective: please hand over the belongings."

The person behind the counter blinks. Then _leans_ forward to try and get a look at Thoth only for Gramarye to step forward. The man frowns in mild irritation but only blinks again. "Belongings of 'Thoth'?" He inquires then turns around and fiddles with a few baskets behind the counter and then nods. "Here we are."

A large round orb is upheld with piece of paper attached to it by adhesive of some kind. "Mmmm seems I'm supposed to verify your identity." The man peers down at Thoth.

"Are you sure you're Thoth?" Good question.

Thoth watches the man shift to lean forward and look over the counter. It clacks its beak in response and then listens to that basket being rooted around in. It then looks up at Gramarye as she states the purpose of the visit far more adequately. More details! He'll mentally take note of this. So much more direct. Less chance for unnecessary questions.

And then that question.

"This one is Designated Thoth." It answers with a neutral tone, before tilting its head back and in frustration, preening at its wings for a good few seconds, before looking up again. "This one is uncertain how to calculate the certainty of the statement. How certain are you that you are you?"

GAME: Thoth rolls Diplomacy: (14)+0: 14

There's a long moment where Gramarye's obsidian eyes blink with light, but no words are coming out. Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink.

Blink.

"Initiating philosophy module." Gramarye intones, before the light in her eyes turns... blue. "Error: philosophy module incomplete. Switching to backup method: negotiation protocol."

Gramarye's hands suddenly lift up and pivot to her hips, making her look more... aggressive, at least in a pantomime of a woman making a point. "Thoth is designated Thoth. Thoth has not provided alternative identification that I am aware of. I am also aware of no aliases, nicknames, terms of endearment, or affection registered for Thoth in my memory. Thoth is Thoth."

The man blinks at them. "Um. Sure." He clearly ran out of care about his job probably six years ago after dealing with the sixteenth request for a cat to be rescued from a tree. "Whatever." He hands the orb over to Gramarye, mostly because Thoth is too short to easily hand it to, and then slides a piece of paper to the edge of the desk. "Just sign this with your name. So I don't lose my job."

As the paper is slid to the edge, it is still listening to Gramarye. Considering that indeed, it has no other titles. No terms of endearment. Even its master always just called it Thoth, it believes. Perhaps something else, when it was still in its first bird shape. But its memories from then are simplistic at best.

At the request to put its name on the paper, it takes the man's pen in its beak, and signs its name with some bobs of its head, and then releases the pen onto the desk, before looking up at Gramarye, whose head it now can't see because of the Orb.

It steps aside and then lifts its hands up towards Gramarye.

"This is sufficient." Gramarye takes the orb in her hands and holds it there for a moment. "Unless there are other factors not accounted for, this transaction is concluded."

Her head pivots to Thoth. And then she turns to offer Thoth the orb. "Are you satisfied with the customer service experience given to you today?" she asks. Whether she means her assistance or the overall transaction of getting the orb just now is unclear.

The man watches the step aside and motions the next person forward with an irritated expression. "Not _again_ ma'am. No. There is nothing untoward about your neighbor trying to rebuild his house. Please, it it is _not_ a sign that the world is coming to an end, or that the Charnish are infiltrating the noble quarter. Go home." He's got his hand on his forehead as the woman ignores his pleading and proceeds to present her case.

GAME: Thoth rolls Knowledge/The Planes: (2)+11: 13

Being handed the orb, it holds them between both hands for a bit. Staring at the orb, knowing how to hold it - but not turning it yet. Instead, it just looks at it for a while. Pensive. Uncertain.

"This one requests an analysis as this one activates this orb." It remarks. "The one named Rune seemed suspicious of the one named Ilenzi due to the scent on him. And this one recalls her giving him an alternative name for some reason."

It clicks its beak a few times.

"This one doesn't know what this means."

Gramarye's eyes blink for a few moments as Thoth explains what it knows of the orb and what it knows of the person associated with the orb.

"Proposal: shifty characters of unscrupulous morals are known to use multiple aliases," Gramarye intones at last. "However, aliases are also used by people to protect themselves from people who would seek to do them harm. The only way to know the truth for certain is by magical means."

She looks at Thoth for a long moment. Another eye blink. Then she says, "I will analyze the orb's activation. Initiating magical analysis protocol." Her hands go up for the purpose of her own spellcasting as she intones a single word, her eyes glowing blow with the magic to, well, detect magic.

The woman behind Thoth has launched into a decades-long argument claiming that she's seen her neighbor dancing with devils by the light of the moon at _least_ once a year. Furthermore it seems that this neighbor is growing suspicious foreign plants in his garden. He cut his hair suddenly and without warning! And there's the _highly_ suspect fact that the house burned down in the first place! She doesn't let the poor man behind the desk get a word in edgewise. Surely someone will look into this strange behavior!

"Understood." Thoth answers Gramarye in that typical short-winded kind off manner it tends to speak. "Alias, or Unscrupulous. This one understands this binary." It remarks, before looking at the orb itself...

Turning it, and then putting it to its head, closing its eyes. Its wings kind of hitching, broken as they are, in preparation for what it has been told it may see. Wings that, if Gramarye is detail oriented, are missing a few feathers since recent meetings.

Gramarye assesses the orb and, after a moment, makes a firm declaration: "Thoth. The orb is emitting a strong aura of divination magic. However..."

Then something odd happens. She tilts her head. Which is a very human gesture of confusion. "The magic is draining quickly from the orb as I analyze it. If you are to activate it, use it quickly."

Of course, Thoth has already activated it, and the memory is infusing the construct.

The memory of being... very small. The size of a little bird, and about the same shape. It's very much as though the memory is... actually Mikilos's own memory. The little bird-body looks down at itself uncertainly and then to the side, at someone beside it. A smiling person with pale skin and elf-like ears. A person with pale white hair and... There's feelings there. Feelings of trust and uncertainty. "You can do it."

The voice is gentle and the uncertainty fades. The little bird body gives a hop forward and then! FALLING! There's a moment of pure terror and thrilling excitement as the ground suddenly fades away and then the wings spread and falling becomes flying. The world laid out before it - beautiful and unimportant - so small beside the feeling of flying. Banking to the right and then flying BACK! Returning! To embracing hands and a joyful smile. Home.

"Understood." Thoth remarks, before going quiet.

There. Small. A small little bird. Uncertain. With its black body and delicate golden bits of wing. Hip-hip-hop. Looking up at the pale white haired man with the elf-ears.

You can do it. The voice of someone it knows it can trust.

There's a tremble there.

Beyond the memory, that fear begins to reflect at first. A confusion that plays out over its expression. But its wings begin to shift. Broken as they are. Trying to pull on itself. Feathers threatening to rip off of the various small pipes they are attached to as the messy wireframe bends at the stress. Too crushed to be functional. But still, it pulls!

In the memory, it takes flight. Emboldened by those words.Voice, gentle. Falling. Falling. Fear! Then the wings spread, and if flies. Moving towards the hand waiting for it. Into the elfin male's arms...

But... Thoth is confused. Why does it remember Ilenzi, and not its master?

The moment it drops back into reality, it encounters a moment of failure in its body. It suddenly squawks loudly and falls to the floor, its wings rapidly trying to flap, trying to catch it from a fall it isn't truly experiencing. Metal tearing. Ripping. Feathers dropping as it turns its beak and rubs it across the ground, then tears at its wings in frustration and stress...

As even that moment of memory, that sensation of falling again, brings on extreme anxiety - especially so soon after it recently got caged.

Gramarye watches as the orb in Thoth's grasp falls away into dust as the magic of it is spent. She knows not of what Thoth has endured, only that the construct that she has accompanied is falling to the floor, the wings flapping, the distress...

She is a construct. Some would dismiss a war golem such as herself of being incapable of empathy. That is not the case.

"Thoth," she intones. Her voice is soft as she holds her arms out. "You are okay. You are alright. Take my hands. I will help." The words are filled with... traces of emotion, her eyes glowing blue still from the magic of detection.

She'd learned this from her first father. Watching him comfort children who'd fallen down and scraped their knees on the floor in their shop. Thoth isn't a child. But First Father always told her that people are just grown-up children. Sometimes it helps.

People are moving away from Thoth, from his obvious distress. The woman at the desk makes a distressed and disgusted noise of her own before turning and marching out the door while the man behind the desk seems torn between being actually helpful in some way and not wanting to get involved. "Did... Did that thing I gave you do this?" He asks, mostly Gramarye really, Thoth doesn't seem in a position to listen.

At first, there's an aggressive - but clearly confused - peck towards the War Golem's hand. It's not a hard bite, were it to make contact. But it's clearly not coming from a place of anger.

Thoth.

It hears its name. Its designation. It's enough, in that moment, to break out of that moment. Trembling. Wings in a bad way. Adjusting its position. It remains still for a moment, gathering itself for a moment...

A query. It can grab onto that more-so than the offer of a hand at first.

"False." Thoth then replies. "This... frustration comes from a different memory." It answers. Its body frozen for a while, before it finally manages to pull a hand free and reach for Gramarye's.

"The Orb. The memory. It was a wonderful memory. But it... conflicts with one of my own." It remarks, its mind trying to now discern between two moments being both 'true'. And the War Golem is having trouble with this. A small twitch of one of its eyes.

It tries to rise, but its legs are trembling still. Its head tilts back, preening at its wings again. Stopping itself, barely, from ripping off more metalic feathers. Looking down, seeing a small pile of them on the ground. Gleaming. A reminder that maybe, it is in fact not okay.

"This one does not... dare to fly anymore. This memory is from before..."

Gramarye doesn't express pain when the peck comes for her hand. Only a blink in her eyes suggests there's any reaction whatsoever. The hand remains still for Thoth to take when it does reach out for her hand. The bronze doll-like war golem is resolute, enhanced by the fact her face cannot move, that she cannot emote like a flesh and blood person can.

"You are here," she intones, finally. "It is Tariday, 31st of Rhaltaas. We are in the Adventurer's Guild of Alexandria." Her head still tilted, she adds, "It is easier to reconcile two conflicts in memory when you have a solid foundation of the current day."

Her head pivots to the small pile of metallic feathers, but for the moment, she does not pick them up. Her head instead goes to the man behind the desk. "Do not be alarmed. You did not know what it would do."

The man behind the counter seems to shake himself a bit then looks back at his line. Then back again. "Might be good to take... Thoth outside then? Just in case there are any other unfortunate... memories." He shakes his head like he doesn't believe what he's saying then motions the next person in line forward. "Next."

"Yesser." Says the next person, a man in his fifties who is clearly a farmer. "I've got this problem with pests you see."

"Of course you do."

It is Tariday, 31st of Rhaltaas.

"This one started a Timestamp when it was born. But it has lost its Count, and has been unable to synchronize." It answers Gramarye when she mentions the current day. "This one will start a second timestamp." It then adds. A second clock from this moment. One it can more easily navigate from, rather than living in uncertainty.

Separating its 'past' from its 'now'.

It then releases Gramarye's hand, and anxiously begins to collect its feathers. In the hope of 'repairing' its wings with them one day. Only when it is done, does it step outside with Gramarye as per request.

Gramarye is quiet as the collection of feathers happens. She helps Thoth with the feathers. Bronze fingers, with nails set delicately into her ball-jointed fingers like a porcelain doll's, collect metallic feathers and hold them out for Thoth to take. Then they depart the building.

Once outside, Gramarye replies, "We have a similarity." That statement hangs in the air for a long, long moment, before she adds, "My First Father rebuilt me from scrap he was given. He was unable to determine how old my mainframe is. Some parts of me are parts that he never taught nor installed. Such as my combat module. If I had a purpose before him, it was most likely a different one than what I have now. Which is to make beautiful things: as Father's daughter."

Gramarye's head pivots to Thoth. "It is the life you make now that is important. We are living in the current day at the present time. It is impossible to live in the past. A new timestamp is advisable for measuring the new metric of your life."

They are, in Gramarye's own unique way... comforting words.

Thoth clacks its beak a few times. Tilting its head a bit. "This one still has limited memories of its old life. This One's Master was an Artificer. This one was created to assist him in his work." It pauses for a moment.

"But... these orbs, they illuminate memory that has faded. Show me that Ilenzi - the man of pale hair you have met - was also there." It pauses. Considering. "This one wishes to learn more of your protocols and modules. This one has found itself lacking - and is without its... 'Father'."

Gramarye looks at Thoth for a good moment, eyes blinking with light as she seems to consider something.

"Do you wish to establish a friendship, an apprenticeship, or both?" she asks, finally. "I have a shop for enchanting services in the Market District. I am there most days, unless I am with my Father--he is typically in local drinking establishments, and I am tasked with retrieving him so that he is able to recover from intoxication."'

Another beat, and she adds, "It is possible to learn what you wish from friendship. I would advise that option."

"This one us unable to enchant items anymore - at this time. But this one can write scrolls." It answers Gramarye at the mention of the enchanting services. "And this one can assist in retrieving the intoxicated person."

Pause.

"Is it recommended to make friends and father-child relationships with regularly intoxicated people? Does the rote and routine heal the child? Or does it aid the father in a way that advances their life?"

Gramarye looks at Thoth for a long moment. There's not even a blinking in her eyes. Maybe... Thoth's offended her?

"I am Father's daughter," she finally answers. "A daughter cares for her father. And Father needs someone who cares for him. Someone who can help him. He is a good person who has said goodbye to too many people. The Halls have those who he loves. Just as the Halls have First Father."

There's a blink in her eyes. "Organic lifeforms change. And we war golems--are capable of it as well. Not just in the maintenance of our bodies and the manufacture of our parts. We possess life, just as organic lifeforms do. And all who live--change. Must change. That is why the past is not a set determinator of the future. It can inform but it cannot dictate unless the person in the current and present lets it dictate."

She regards Thoth a moment longer. "I must go find Father. He is likely intoxicated already. Will you accompany me this time?"

Thoth waits patiently. If it offended her, it hasn't a clue. It probably hasn't even considered this as an option.

When she finally answers, it listens. Patient. Sometimes nodding its head or clicking its beak. "Understood. So the routine and care of its child helps Father copy and change." It decides.

"This one..." It looks to itself for a moment. Its fingers still trembling a bit. "... will attempt to change. Do its Master proud." And figure out why its memories conflict now.

"Let us find Father and aid the intoxicated person. Has Other - Gramarye - considered purchasing a wand of Neutralize Poison?"