destinystrings | Fourth Machine: IT'S TIME TO R-R-R-R-RRRREAD

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Fourth Machine: IT'S TIME TO R-R-R-R-RRRREAD

Who: Ferrus and YOU! (Open!)
Where: Aquila Library, in Aquarius.
Summary: Ferrus got tired of working on machines, after fiddling with them for a month or so - he's used to missions breaking up the tedium. So he gave himself a mission: learn more about Personas! Thus, reading up on them.
Warnings: N-N/A?

To tell the truth, Ferrus hadn't found machines interesting enough to work on them day after day after he became a teenager. He'd already spent most of his life in the vicinity of machines, sure, and his bitty years were spent enjoying technology (in spite of the machine cult). Even when the accident happened and he was shipped off to the machine cult, he still maintained his interest in machines. But...

Inevitably, he would find his work tedious instead of fun.

Normally, he spent a month doing tech work and then a month was set aside for missions. It broke tedium better then normal, and honestly what was Ferrus supposed to do with his time? It normally wasn't his own in the first place. He would either hunt with Garviel (which had sort of become tedious as well, in its own way, since Kais was introduced to the team) or work.

That was why he was currently sitting in a comfy chair, fully decked out in his robe - mask included - and reading through books on the subject of Personas. Whether they were government-made, psychology textbooks, or general books on the subject written by residents, Ferrus didn't seem to care: there was a small pile on the table in front of him, neatly organized as 'read' and 'unread'.

...Of course, if you need one of the books he's reading, or are just worrying about his eyesight through that mask's darkly clouded frames, you could come up and ask, but...

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Avitus would be sitting there for the better part of... well, a while, at any rate, his big thick tome of a sketchbook in his lap. He'd found a perch in a wide, deep windowsill, and made himself comfy there, his cloak-thing gathered up under him, nest-like, his legs and feet hidden, between it and his robe and his wings curled around himself.

He glanced up now and then, and then went back to sketching... another peek up, then back to sketching. Ferrus might get the feeling he was being watched. ~~Or in this case, being drawn.~~

It took Ferrus a little over an hour - that is to say, how long it took him to finish a thick book on something detailing how to make Persona-themed crafts with diatribes on Personas in the margins - to notice Avitus. Dude was peeking up at him suspiciously! He... had to wonder what was going on, there.

When he set the tome down, he paused for a moment - before promptly standing up right when Avitus was peeking at him and walking over. C'mon, Ferrus, force yourself to be interrogative!

"What are you doing?" Yes, that was good.

"I--"

Well, the other's body language and tone didn't seem all that happy. And that getup was, to him, rather ominous-looking. Avitus's shoulders and ears drooped a bit as he shrank back, toward the window. He wasn't good with confrontations. He really wasn't. ~~He was easily intimidated, honestly.~~

But he hadn't done anything wrong, he reminded himself. Not that it helped; he wasn't any braver for simply not having been up to anything mischievous. But he opened his mouth, and couldn't think of anything to say.

What was he doing? Sitting there. Watching people, sketching, thinking...

...

Well, actually, he could think of one way to explain it all, and simply. He fumbled to put his pencil down, and held up his sketchbook, so that Ferrus could see the drawing of himself sitting there at the table, surrounded by books.

He looked back at Ferrus. Did that answer him well enough? He hoped so....

Edited 2013-01-07 10:38 (UTC)

Don't be a pussy, Avitus. Being a pussy is bad.

Of course, the other not speaking but rather showing doesn't go missed - however, it's forgotten when the other presents his artwork to be seen.

Gears clicked together inside his head - this was art of him. Art of him.

Art of him.

Maybe those gears weren't quite clicking, after all. "You... drew me?" Wow, not processing. "...Why?" He didn't sound mad. Just... befuddled. Why would someone draw him? He was uninteresting. Bland. Sort of boring. Under his clothing, ugly. The only good part of him was the machine, and what it let him do.

So why would someone draw him?

Did not compute.

He can't help it. He's never been good at trying to have a backbone.

"I... felt like it."

He peeked back to his drawing again, trying again to gather words to explain. "I guess I just thought that... with the lines and angles and... and the cloth... and... shadows... and how it felt...." Well, at least he'd tried?

He peeked to Ferrus's mask, not that he could see inside very well. "....you don't like it?"

Edited 2013-01-13 01:54 (UTC)

Wow, unsatisfactory answer. But then, he probably wouldn't have a staisfactory answer. He just seems to stare at the art for a moment, biting his lip. He liked the art. Just not what it was of.

"It... is nice." He offered, lamely. It was an honest sentiment, but he wasn't quite sure what to do about the subject matter, there.

Art, man.

Why did you art him. You strange blue person.

He watched Ferrus for a moment; even if he couldn't see him well, he was still plenty able to catch his tone and hesitation. And his body language, well....

"....you don't like it." He was quiet, looking back to the drawing again, wings sinking a bit, smile disappearing. Goodness knows he'd tried passing off such statements as opinions himself, when he actually wasn't happy with whatever it was. If Ferrus really liked it, he reasoned, he'd seem happier about it, less... awkward. No, there was something in his tone, and....

Why was this complicated? It was merely a drawing....

"Machine worshiper..."

Maybe Ferrus was deep enough in his books to not notice Kais approach. Or he was just more silent than he though, keeping his hooves from making noises on the floor.

Either way, Kais saw him and decided to give him a greeting. Besides, he was sure Ferrus hadn't seen him outside of his armor yet so his greeting had to be unique, if rude. Though he didn't care if Ferrus was insulted or not.

Ironically, it actually took Kais a while to notice he was there. His distance vision had always been poor...poor for his entire race. They needed their armor or optics to help bring images right up to their face to they could 'see' better.

It was probably a bit of both. Ferrus was bearing down on a Jungian psychology for dummies book when the xeno appeared, and his head snapped up at the greeting. Oh, hey, it was a blue xeno.

(And that greeting would probably be insulting, if Ferrus saw a direct intro like that as rude. He did not.)

It didn't take him more then two seconds to connect the dots on whois, and he takes a moment before responding. "Shas'la T'au Kais. Right?" Yes, he remembered your name. BLUE MAN.

He'd noticed blue people here for a little while, but he'd usually paid them little mind. ~~And then they both decided to do things involving him. So.~~

"Call me 'La Kais."

It certainly beat out using his entire name. Even he tired of hearing that litany of words. Not to mention that most humans have never been to T'au so even hearing a human say his home planet's name felt...uncomfortable. As if they were planning on invading and destroying it.

His eyes shot over briefly to look at the books laying around.

"Does this type of thing interest you? Wouldn't your compatriots say that learning about these kinds of subjects was 'heresy'?

"...Right." Nicknames. How did he nicknames. 'La Kais sounded fine, though, although he'd thought Kais was against the nickname at first. Still, he got the person right!

He... probably wouldn't destroy your planet, Kais. He thought you were able to take whomever came at you down, anyway.

Aw, shit. Caught by a xeno. His stance shifts, guiltily. "It's... investigation into the Personae we've recieved." He was, perhaps, interested. But he didn't want to admit that. "It... may be heretical. But it's not as though I intend to use Personae by looking up this information. Only to have data on them." It was like investigation before a strike attack.

Don't threaten to tell Garvi or you're going on his 'filter from' list, when he puts that post up. >:I

"...Why do you ask?" He is shifting guiltily in his seat. The techpriest is not quite okay with what he's doing being possibly heretical, but then he'd never really considered it such: it was just gathering info, after all...

(that and he'd already quietly unlocked his persona in direct disobedience of Garviel but shhhh)

"Because I have seen these daemons." He has to take a breath because this part always brings up bad memories. "I have fought what you gue'la call a Greater Daemon. I do not wish to see another suddenly explode out of a person's body."

Yes, that scene was horrifying to him. That governor having that thing erupt out of his flesh and causing havok everywhere. It left a gigantic scar on his mind that he probably would never recover from again.

He notes that breath and um. Wow. This xeno took down a greater daemon. Or at least fought one. Respect points up!

However, that wasn't what... Personae are.

"Personae... are not daemons. Not in the sense of things like a daemonic possession, as far as I can tell..." He raised his hands, "I haven't finished fully reading up, but... they aren't daemons. Not like the daemons we hunt are. They are just..." He seemed to struggle for words. "... facets of our personality made real? I think that's the best way to put it." He seemed to think for a second- "So it's... not about to explode out of someone's body, or hurt them. Maybe hurt others, but... personas don't hurt the person who summons them. I think."

Strega didn't count, and for the purposes of Ferrus's research, don't exist.

Sorry, Shinjiro. Existence ignored.

It wasn't like he was learned in this area so this was all new to him.

But...not dangerous?

"Are you completely sure?"

It was hard to trust the information coming from a man who thought that machines were living things that had to be appeased.

"If I use mine, I would prefer not to be in danger."

'scuse you they were both his Persona and let him fly for a little while. If that wasn't a valid reason to believe that machine spirits may actually exist, he didn't want to be right.

He nodded, "Completely. ...Cerberus seems to think of them as ghosts, more then daemons, as well." He meant Garviel, of course, but what the fuck was knowing the guy's real name?

Excuse you, Kais! They were a machine cult, sure, but they were information gatherers first and foremost. Mostly machine knowledge, sure, but somewhere along that road Ferrus had decided most any knowledge was cool. (...and it wasn't like Ferrus 100% held that belief about machine spirits, anyway...)

"They won't hurt you if you use them at all." He was half-tempted to tell the other Garviel was derping up a storm about Ferrus using his persona, but declined. The xeno could deal with it, if Garviel took the same stance towards him.

Kais had no idea who Cerberus was. Then again, he never referred to Garviel as anything but Space Marine. He would have done the same for Captain Ardias but that Ultramarine captain was very insistent on a few things. Call it a lack of respect, something that Garviel still needed to foster. Being good at fighting was expected.

"Perhaps I can give it a try, at least."

If it wasn't a daemon, it could be a help, right? More efficient killing of the enemy was always better.

"Tell me how it goes. ...If you don't mind." Efficient murder, aw yis. He wasn't aware the other had no idea who Cerberus was. Hell he wasn't even aware about anything about the other. He did, however, move to redirect his attention to the book.

Sure, it wouldn't hurt Kais. But he wanted to know how effective they were in combat - his was support, he'd found, and also machine spirits. He's interested to know how useful they are!

"While I know they won't hurt you... I'm not sure exactly how useful they are, so..." AWKWARD CLARIFICATIONS AW YEAH!!!

"Is this a sideways way of asking me to test this?"

Might as well get down to the point. As long as his safety is assured and he might get more powerful from it, he isn't hesitant. But he feels that humans enjoy lying or telling half-truths so he wants to hear it clearly.

Well, he doesn't enjoy lying or telling half-truths. So he'll just be up front about it - "...Yes." Time for foot in mouth action.

"I-I'm not able to test it myself," -- (Garviel) -- "so if you'd tell me how effective they are in combat in your opinion once you've used them, it'd help my research..."

He was a curious techpriest, after all. He wasn't about to push the issue if Kais decided not to use his persona, though; the techpriest wasn't a pushy kind of guy. He just... wanted information, really.

"Fine. I will try it."

No sense in trying to haggle something out of it or risking angering someone who could potentially be an ally, no matter how much Kais disliked humans.

"...Thank you." Sure, Garviel had shoved them together into a team, but Ferrus could still be POLITE. He had some concept of dignity and politeness to superiors drilled into him.

(Of course, by now, that'd sort of extended to everyone. Even strange xenos.)

He would wait a few minutes for Kais to say something, if anything, and if he didn't Ferrus was fine with just returning to his book. Persona books, Kais. Persona books. They are interesting.

Rune was always a big fan of reading material, especially if it was banned, restricted, or otherwise taboo. She was actually kind of disappointed that the library here didn't seem to have much qualms about restricting whatever material they had. It was interesting and liberating, but also kind of boring, but at least the library had something more interesting at the moment.

"Hey, Ferrus!" she exclaimed softly, peering at the book he was reading. "Ooh... reading up on Personas?"

Oh, hey, it was Rune! He head raised at her arrival, although his mind silently wondered if she had to move in close enough to peer at his book? It was a Jungian book, of course, with some references to their Personas thrown in - it was apparently trying to relate the two.

"...Yeah." He sounded slightly happy to see you again, Rune. "I'm... trying to figure out what they are, exactly..." Because Garviel kept telling him stuff like THEY'RE VENGEFUL GHOSTS and stuff

and to be honest?

Ferrus didn't exactly care so he wanted to prove Garviel wrong. So he could live with a persona without fear!

Of course she had to move in so close to read the cover of the book. She also had to plop herself on the arm of his chair to look over the page he was on too. That's just how she rolls, Ferrus.

"Didn't that long nosed guy in the Velvet Room say they're extensions of ourselves, or something like that?" she asked, not sure if Ferrus had been there or not. "The one I got from him is pretty cool."

And the same as that woman from her world... she wanted to bring that up next time the Room was open. After all, if Undine was answering her summons, wasn't that a bad thing? She shrugged to herself, before peering at the page he was on again.

"So, what'cha find out so far?"

Ferrus is going to just mildly scoot away from her seat on the chair's arm - not enough to be noticeable, but he's not quite good at interpersonal closeness yet. (In a psychological or physical way. >:Tc Jeez, Rune! More like RuDe!)

"That's what the books are saying, too." He hadn't visited the Velvet Room yet, and he wasn't about to let that on to Rune. (He was probably going to soon, though. It sounded interesting...)

"...Mostly that the idea of persona are concepts about the workings of the mind, too. Like... they're the way you present yourself." To be honest, Ferrus didn't quite like this. He was used to viewing people on their external level, not the underneath - the idea of personas was sort of surprising, in a way he couldn't identify.

"...way we present ourselves, hunh..." Rune muttered, leaning away, a bit of a distracted look on her face. "I... I don't think it's that simple. Y-you know... seems like there should be more to it than that."

His face turned towards the book before him before settling it down on the space that'd opened up beside him, page number memorized - "...I don't know if that's what a Persona means in terms of the powers we have. It's just what I've read about Personas. There's only a few books on the powers, it seems... and most of them are either theories or childrens' books." He'd reach over into the already read pile (which was thankfully not the side Rune was taking up) and snatch up a thick theories book, as well as what appeared to be a children's book. He opened up both for her, although they'd probably be incomprehensible if she hadn't tried to read books here before: they were translated, but they still read from right to left.

"It's... still mostly related to the concept I told you about, though, so..."

Her distraction wasn't entirely unnoticed, but he assumed she was thinking about past experiences. He didn't... quite notice she might be uncomfortable for some other reason.

"...that's not right!"

She shot up from her seat along with her sudden outburst, fists clenched tightly at her sides. Rune struggled to get a hold of herself, but it was near impossible. She... she wasn't like that... she wasn't a monster that just killed everything... she wasn't engineered to kill...!

"...that can't be right..." she murmured, sinking to the ground by his chair instead.

What the fuck just happened.

Ferrus sat in his chair, startled entirely for a moment - his surprise had rendered him cowering from her outburst, for a moment, before he reigned himself in and forced himself to scoot back towards her.

What was he supposed to do??? He'd had this sort of outburst before.

How had Frak handled it?

Oh, right.

He's gonna just reach over, cautiously, and lightly pat her on the back. He's staying up in his chair, yes, but he's trying.

...A back part of his mind wondered if this was part of the principles he'd read. It was unfed, and unnurtured - but that small curiousity was there. People were sort of interesting.

Rune let out a faint noise, almost like a sob, at that awkward pat. No, she wasn't crying, what are you talking about? She just had something caught in her throat, that's all! After a moment, she reached up, rubbing at her face to try and keep it clean.

"This isn't fair," she muttered. "Why does this place have to throw stupid stuff in my face like that?"

Naoya was wandering past, and he blinked at both the reader and the reading material. He snorted softly, and approached him.

"Curious about the topic?"

Oh, hey. A white haired person. Ferrus might have appreciated the other's similar coloration to his own, although he also interrupted skimming a book about persona, so hey. He raised his head at the other's question, before giving an affirmative nod.

His voice was crisp and clear, in spite of the mask - "It's... all very interesting, really. I was trying to find information on what they are, exactly, and then it just sort of... turned into a general investigation." His posture seemed embarrassed, about that.

"Heh. There's no need to be ashamed for seeking knowledge. While the use of the term as it applies to the things we summon here is strange to me, I'm familiar with the general concept as it relates to psychological theory."

Not that he was entirely sure how well the concept would be applied here... on the surface, yes, but past that it didn't always quite line up.

Someone who's cool with him seeking knowledge about stuff that might be considered heresy?

Yes, good.

"...Right. There's a books about both of those, as well as... what appear to be children's books about them?" Not specifying the them, how does he grammar. "...If you don't mind me asking, what do you know about the psychological theory?" Pronounced perfectly, despite him not exactly having used psychological often before.

Oh, voxes. How he loved you.

"According to Carl Jung, a persona was 'a kind of mask, designed on the one hand to make a definite impression upon others, and on the other to conceal the true nature of the individual'. In other words, it was something you hid behind in order to make people think you were something you weren't. A businessman might, for example, have a powerful persona of someone who doesn't take failure as an option, but at home is kind and gentle. In theory, the object of Jungian therapy was to break down the persona in some ways and allow the subject to interface with the world more authentically. However, the complete absence of a persona is seen as a problem as well - because this person interfaces with the world too fully, and never takes on social roles. Such a person is often seen as blunt, tactless, and misunderstood."

He... could go on for a while. Jung is a topic for many, many books.

Wow, that was a lot of text. Ferrus took a moment to process it - did people really have that layer of depth? Did he?

Wow, this was kind of interesting! (...Ferrus mostly thought of it as just people wearing masks, though. Like he did, but nonliterally.)

"...I see." Said in an actually interested tone, of course. "So... everyone has those?" Otherwise they were blunt, tactless, or misunderstood. ...That reminded him of a person or two, thinking back.

(To Frak. He was blunt, tactless, and misunderstood. In Ferrus's opinion. )

...He might understand the concept of this theory a bit better then he expected, now.

"Generally, yes. Only severely damaged or seriously innocent people don't - and even among those it's rare."

He had far too many of them, himself. The side-effects of age and all.

"Was there anything else you wanted to know about?"

Perhaps that was too broad of a question, but whatever.

Severely damaged.

Sounded like Frak.

It really was too broad of a question. Ferrus seemed to consider that, for a moment, before - "Do you think that idea's related to the Persona power?" He's read it in the theory book - which there was only one or two of - and the children's book implied it a little but hey.

Couldn't hurt to ask this knowledgeable person about things.

"It's possible. Though it wouldn't make sense as to why we have it and the large majority of the residents here don't."

It's... a strange wrinkle in that thought.

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Fourth Machine: IT'S TIME TO R-R-R-R-RRRREAD

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sorry for the wait!

s'fine!

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throws up hands (sorry for the wait)

XD <3

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l8 l8 l8 i am sorry

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i am sorry for the wait!

'Scool broski. o/

\o/ also sorry for the unfinished comment ping

It's fine, it happens. :3

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