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Post by Gaia on May 1, 2024 14:47:59 GMT -8
His mastery of the undimension was given to him by his creator, and he held on loyalty to the god that she learned from. Created by its language, but having accounted for its own vanity, his lady Vega had removed all the components from his own script that would make him beholden to such a being. He owed his existence, and his loyalty, to only one individual.
His mastery of the Undimension made returning to the Center an easy endeavor. It was not outside of his reach. Without the great being present, the Undimension did not refuse him any further. He had complete mastery inside of it; at least, what as left of it. He was unsure how long it would remain; how much longer his adversaries had need of it.
Had need of him, and wanted him to feel confident.
He appeared from the void not in the Maze itself, but inside of a space that he hadn't entered in almost 500 years. The last time he had stood within Lady Vega's lair, hidden deep inside the Maze, he had been here doing something he couldn't quite remember. He remembered, now, that it was hers, as more of his memories were coming back to him. He remembered that she had made this place using the same language that she had used to create him. He remembered, distinctly, that this was the last place he had seen her alive . . . from his memory, she had died of the sickness plaguing her behind the veiled curtain at the top of the dias just across from the entrance.
On the wall to his left as he entered, an untold number of monitors still showed the world at large. Her script, her own workings with the Murian tongue, still ran, showing spikes of wave activity, monitoring the world for any hint of the creator's splendors yet to be found; charts and graphs, still running analyses on progression of the wave world, how far into space it traveled, and even scanning the cosmos for signs of Murian interaction; schematics and designs for Murian wonders that she had theorized to be fully possible, the language still creating them and storing them away, as she had designed it to. Such a powerful script, and she had mastered it to this degree?
. . . There it was, too. The Murian Advisor; the schematics and script of himself, an empty vessel bearing the likeness of a lost lover. No where within the Murian language did she find the means to recreate a soul . . . every bit of language on her wall, and the things that she scours the world and even the beyond for, show that she was not yet done looking. When she finally discovered the continent, and began looking for answers there, she had wondered if the god itself would be able to do what she could not force the language to do on her own.
She wanted Hollow to be more than just Hollow. He could never be anything but, however. The language he had been made from had no need for emotion except reverent awe. He looked on at the script of the language he was written from, programmed to understand the very language he was made from, and saw how complex it was; a code designed to self-analyze and reformat itself in an instant, to grow and to become more complex as necessary, and forced to recognize a usual intentional process of the language - to lace itself with demands to listen to the source of the language - and to remove those demands when it located them. He was designed with freedom from a language that looked to enslave him in mind.
Why, then, did he still feel enslaved to memories he couldn't even find? If she had accomplished all of this, why did she fall to a disease? Why couldn't she have been immortal, like the Murians she studied? What was so important, that she would ask him to go, and leave her, only for him to return and find her already gone, none of his memories intact?
As he considered his memories, Hollow allowed for his robe to dissolve for the first time in five hundred years, as he wandered around the room having remembered who he was designed after, looking more carefully at her wonders in the form that she had hidden beneath the robe.
Altair glanced at the screen that would show everything the Murian language could tell him about the wave world of Earth, from where it was at, to where it was progressing, to its wave density, and the highlights of wave activity in the world. He wanted to know what was important to his lady, and if he could find any clues that she may have left for him.
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Post by Zane on May 6, 2024 7:03:17 GMT -8
Looking through the activity past and present showed contradicting signs. There had been spikes at one point yet at the same time none displayed from another perspective. Likely another trick of perception, the only signs that seemed to remain consistent was the activity that had taken place in the Stairway. Or at least, that was what it appeared like on the surface. The truth of the matter was that the signals would all die down and then seemingly reboot over time as well. Did that mean that they had the Great Mother turned off and then back on again? Why would they have done something like that? That was when a chill descended upon the area, though it wasn't as though one who was truly empty would notice as much.
"Digging through what remains?"
It was less as if it descended on the area and as if the person made their presence known. It was difficult to discern where they were, but what could be seen was a gleaming red light. It was singular and pointed and yet seemed to come from all directions at once. The Advisor was tied to the shackles of his past, but how could he be anything but? That was all he had in the beginning. That was all he ever looked forward to. Thus, was it aptly named Hollow, as the woman couldn't fill him with the brilliance of a star like she was looking for. Souls were a fickle thing, after all.
"Are you certain you desire the answers?"
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Post by Gaia on May 8, 2024 17:04:30 GMT -8
The language was powerful, and it was self-improving, self-aware, and it was thorough. Even when the data was modified or somehow looked strange, it was correcting itself to align with what it knew to do, a language strong and paramount across time and across the meddling of one of the great being's creations. It was disconcerting, to see the fluctuations, even the signs of her tracking the activities of the Stairway; able to find it long before she as able to travel to it, thanks to the interference of the Maze. Then, all the signals died down, like the Wave World had been entirely turned off, and then rebooted.
That would . . . make sense, given the nature of everything. That was why the Undimension and even Joker's Noise Waves were collapsing. The thing that had been their infrastructure suddenly fell away, and while the Undimension and the Noise Waves were both deep enough pockets of Waves to remain on their own, the collapse of their infrastructure would cause them to slip and fall away as well, and they would eventually fall apart. As the infrastructure came back on, it would make sense that it was like a wholly new set of strings; rather than tethering back to the old structure, those things would have to be rebuilt with the new one in mind.
The Great Mother was thorough and vain enough to have of course stretched her influence far beyond this world, and so when she was turned off, the effects would have been felt much farther out than one may first consider. Lady Vega had already concluded that traveling outside of the solar system was an easy ordeal for the Murian people.
It was as he considered the information in front of him, and compared it to the information that he held on the matter, that he observed a presence within the space. The chill in the air wasn't very noticeable to him, as the chill that fell was a shadow that acted as an ominous warning. He didn't have any need for that, and even as he observed the gleaming red lights, the name he was given was found an apt description - he was a creation that could only look forward to what was not only behind it, but far beyond its reach. He was designed to be anything that his Lady needed him to be, and yet he could never fully accomplish that goal.
The being's question fell on ears that were still trying to process what it was that they was experiencing. Hollow was as of yet unsure if this was feeling, desire, want, or any capacitance closely resembling such a thing. As he considered the human form that the Lady Vega designed under his wizard's robes, the Hollow Altair glanced up at the red light.
"I do not quantify this as a desire. Desire implies a want, a solitary and independent decision that something is worthwhile or meaningful enough that I would enjoy or benefit from acquiring it. I instead have sought after this, brought back here, as if by a command stroked within the very Language of my being.
"The Lady Vega designed me to protect her and be alongside her should she require anything. I am what the Lady Vega requires of me. As such, I have been without purpose for quite some time. I simply am, and have floated and acted as whim and chance carry me. I have not wanted for anything, not once, by my observation," he responded, glancing about, unable to prevent himself from explaining the depth of the situation. A simple question had been asked, but there was no simple answer to it.
. . . Or, perhaps, there was.
"I desire nothing. This is, instead, something I require. I need answers. I need to know if Lady Vega left something for me, and if what I remember is true."
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Post by Zane on May 9, 2024 13:29:21 GMT -8
Hollow was saying that he wouldn't enjoy or benefit from acquiring this information and in turn it wasn't a desire. To seek it out because it was required but not beneficial in the least, huh? It beat letting himself just turn off because his purpose was fulfilled at least. With nothing to protect and Vega no longer requiring anything, that also meant that Hollow, who only worked off of his design, should have ceased ages ago. He just didn't pull his own plug was all that it was or simply fester in one spot. Now, why could that have been?
"Necessity isn't quite the same as desire, that much is correct. That means you need nothing else but what you require then. The required answers then. She didn't leave you anything. You're the remnant, after all."
There would be empty air between them, the silence to allow the words to sink in. But in the event they needed further clarification, he carried on with his words to dig deeper into the subject at hand.
"If your memory is fragmented, it's because you couldn't possibly have all of them. And if she left something for you, then it would be with Hollow."
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Post by Gaia on May 17, 2024 12:22:50 GMT -8
Hollow's own ambiguous understanding of what was left to him made him answer in such a way that was typical of him - he answered what he knew, what made sense to him, rather than what he would have liked. He didn't know what he liked, but as something would know when it needed something and could not get it, he discerned a drive to acquire that which he sought after.
Was that what want was, then? To notice a need and make an effort to see it acquired? The answer of the shadow did not meet the need that he had intended, but as expressed, the shadow was correct. There was information present, then, that was beyond the scope of necessity. What was necessary was given to him . . . what he wanted was more.
He was not left with anything because he was what was left behind. That connection made sense to him. The other; that it must be with Hollow, caused him to think. He glanced at his code on the monitor, the Language that built him, and considered the other one that went by his name; the other built from him as a template.
". . . Then the other that shares my name may hold the memories I am missing?" he repeats simply, and then turns to look back at the light. ". . . I am unsure if what I experience qualifies as a want or not. If it were such a way to describe it, if you have more to tell me about the Lady Vega and her disappearance, if it is truly more than I was programmed to remember, I would have you tell me.
"I desire more information than just what is necessary."
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Post by Zane on May 17, 2024 13:43:24 GMT -8
The shadow would listen until Hollow was finished. It looked like he was able to discern that what he wanted lied beyond what was necessary. The required versus the unnecessary knowledge that he was lacking.
"The original would hold the missing memories. The sickness she acquired was more likely incurred from her actions as Icarus behind the curtain. Standing too close to the sun, as it were."
It was easy to look at what was required and what wasn't and cut out the wheat from the chaff as the saying went in the past, and this would have easily been one such occasion. Especially since now he was inquiring about her disappearance or demise, or what she could have seen before that. While those could easily be correlated given how simple it truly was for the Wave Scientists to court with death with something as simple as the interaction, she would have been assured that she was safe with Hollow. Much as another would have been assured that they were safe because of their children. But sometimes, being in proximity to something was just as dangerous when there was nothing for the guardians to actively protect against.
"I could give a direct answer, or let you acquire the information from the original. Which would you prefer? From my point of view, you would likely want to confront the original after learning the answers from me, but it would at least provide you with a reason for that confrontation."
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Post by Gaia on May 18, 2024 7:31:18 GMT -8
The Lady Vega, in her work, flying too close to the sun? With what he knew of the Murian people, the more she studied, the closer to their center of power she got. The Wave World was a dangerous place, but of the Murian heralds, she had designed him, Hollow, The Empty, a cut above the rest. If it were any threat, he would protect her against it; he was sure of it.
Feint's own quip against him reminded him of that feeling he experienced; at least, what he thought was a feeling. That thing that only burned within him to something he could explain as anger. What if, in her research, the Lady Vega had discovered something that she knew Hollow could not protect her against? What if it was instead that Hollow was there and he was simply blind to the danger? The full answers were still left for conjecture, as flying too close to the sun was in fact her ultimate goal; a Confrontation With A God, as it were.
Hollow was far more concerned, however, with another feeling that invaded the emptiness. What was it? How did he describe it? It was like a cold jab; a stab to the side that he was not expecting; a deep and chilling cut that left something in its wake needing to be filled. It left him spiralling, his mind ablaze, and yet his core still cold.
Uncertainty. Surprise. Disbelief. Confusion.
"Do you mean that I am not the first? That there as a Hollow, before me, that followed the Lady Vega around, and I am a secondary, left behind?"
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Post by Zane on May 18, 2024 9:08:53 GMT -8
Ah, it had gone unnoticed the first time the shadow had mentioned it. That was probably because of the fact that the Empty hadn't quite begun to fill itself yet. Once the fire was lit, that spark of anger within, did it give way to other sorts of feelings and give meaning to other words. Hearing the original after hearing the remnant would give rise to the rest of it with the context pieced together. For that uncertainty, that surprise, that disbelief, and that confusion, there was an answer to be provided for the Murian Advisor.
"That is what it means to be a remnant. Akin to a ghost, traces left behind by the original. They were the first, and you are the secondary."
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Post by Gaia on May 18, 2024 10:00:37 GMT -8
Confusion and uncertainty were not emotions that immediately went away just because an answer was provided. Even with the answer given, the fire ignited within seemed to burn brighter, seeking after more fuel; what did this mean, these memories he had of his Lady? Had they been given to him, modified first and then completely sent to him, programmed experiences that he did not truly remember, but was programmed to know? His 500 years of solitude, searching for a purpose, for nothing? He could not even mourn her; it was beyond his capabilities, but to think that the memories he had of learning the word of a god, to control and surpass the self-proposed divine, it was all just something that he was designed to know, but that he didn't truly remember . . .
A familiar flame ignited within him. An emotion he did recognize quite well, by now. That fury raised inside of him, the human form of Altair crackling with electricity that surged with his familiar black lightning. He didn't know what to think of it, but he felt lied to.
He also felt in an instant reassured, but also furious. If he was left behind, then that meant that the duty of protecting his lady, and the failure in that regard, was not his fault, but the fault of the Hollow that was her proper body guard. No matter the programmed memories, he knew his purpose, and regardless of the crisis of existence, he knew what he was meant to do. He knew that he was designed, and much like the other Murian heralds, more than one of him could exist at a time . . .
. . . but if he was what was left behind, and the original still walked, then the original Hollow was, by his recollection, to be far stronger than he was. Why . . . how, then, had that Hollow failed in protecting the Lady Vega?
His mind was aglow with questions and wonders, confusion and conjecture, desire, and, yes, fury, but he didn't feel that he was able to voice all of them at once. "It is that Hollow, then, that must answer for the disappearance or demise of the Lady Vega. I have carried a guilt that is not entirely my own; a programmed memory. The Lady Vega was many things, but cruel she was not; it must be that this was given to me, that this was passed on, to bring purpose of it at some point.
"Where is the original Empty?"
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Post by Zane on May 19, 2024 12:29:56 GMT -8
It was just as he stated that a confrontation with the original Empty would be wanted after an answer was provided by him. There was a simple answer to provide for what Hollow asked after he voiced why the fury and guilt that he felt shouldn't be his. He wasn't the one who failed that programmed instance, and as such that much was true. But a simple enough deduction would provide the context clues for what the original would have done versus the remnant in this case.
"Where else would Empty be after failing but here? Simply do what comes naturally when you're ready."
It was probably something Hollow didn't quite consider. About what would happen to a fully apathetic being that was programmed to only follow its designs. If anything, were it to still be running, it meant that the programming was either altered or still being seen through. He wouldn't be roaming about, looking into any interests or desires. He would simply be where he was programmed to be. In a way, it was a manner of control not unlike the reverence the Great Mother demanded. To be able to defy her will, but forever be subject to Vega's own instead. But that was up for interpretation, wasn't it?
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Post by Gaia on May 22, 2024 15:40:09 GMT -8
He didn't spend too long considering the specter's words. He looked across the space, the simple room that acted as a meeting chamber, an observatory, and a vault of secrets, all of the secrets heavily overlayed within the EM technology that created the space. No signs of anything else was here; even the ceremonial veil that Vega once spoke from when commanding the Murian heralds that she had once collected had no shadow coming from it. . .
. . . There was only one other place that Empty would go. Two places made sense. Either he had performed the duties of his lady, and they were up at the Temple - up in the Sky - or he had failed, and he retreated to the only thing that would still make sense.
He would return to that which he came from.
". . . Thank you," he told the specter, as a void opened up beneath him. An incredible, hungering maw, with no destination on the other side; only the Nothing. Only the Undimension. A space that was no space at all.
The blackness took him in, as he fell into its encroaching void, and he glanced into the expanse of nothingness, looking for a sign of something else here aside from the debris, ruins, and things that he had once absorbed into it; or perhaps a sign of something he didn't recognize.
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Post by Zane on May 27, 2024 19:22:49 GMT -8
Seemed like he was ready to confront the answers then. Delving into the emptiness that was presented here, a place he thought to be his dominion. But he was simply the specter passing through the home of another. Passing through, or falling rather, it would lead into the void where something inanimate seemed to rest. A familiar form given he had just stared at his own reflection not even that long ago now. What he used to think of himself would probably come into conflict now, as the description 'standing too close to the sun' was likely more accurate than the apathetic entity could perceive in a conversation. Because of the many miracles prescribed to the works of the language, there were none more poignant than the displayed fact that some lives and souls were forever lost. And as a human, she was still frail and susceptible to things that were beyond the human body to withstand.
The presence here probably couldn't shield her from it. Why would his first instinct be to return here? That wouldn't be a directive after all. If he had no purpose, he wouldn't simply return to the Undimension when the job was finished or failed successfully. No, the reason why he sequestered himself should have been much simpler to understand, but difficult to comprehend.
What if the guardian was the reason that the guarded was gone?
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Post by Gaia on May 27, 2024 19:51:31 GMT -8
Falling into the void, going deeper with each passing moment, Hollow descended into the darkness until he found its epicenter. Created long ago by the Murians, the Undimension surely existed before Empty; it was Vega's magnum opus of the language to give it sentience, to give it a form. Carved from the Undimension and able to control it, Empty's power eclipsed Hollows. It was magnitudes over his own, the intensity of its power, the darkness that it shed.
The distance between him and Empty seemed impossible to breach. The power that was now bonded into Hollow's body, he realized was perfected in Empty - The Indie Darkness, accepted and taken on in full.
But how? Why?
The answers that flooded him as he considered it all were almost more painful than the questions themselves.
What did he . . . did I do? I knew that he was to blame . . . but I didn't think he . . . I could be the cause.
He paused as he approached the still, dormant thing, apathetic and yet alive with a tempestuous power, the unbridled force of the void on display, here. That power, that force, even against the new forces would've fallen flat . . .
". . . You . . . we . . . how?"
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Post by Zane on May 27, 2024 20:02:20 GMT -8
"Too persistent for your own good, huh?"
It wasn't the voice he expected to answer him, but a familiar one still. Why was that the case? The source seemed to be this space, with the original Empty that lived yet didn't. The voice seemed, as if exasperated that they managed to reach this point at all. Yet here they found themselves, the magnum opus having reached its place. That term would be far more poignant than any would ever realize in the future.
"How? You rose to the impossible challenge of becoming human when you're not. No fight was necessary, Altair. The last thing the language can do is preserving the lives of others. It can extend it certainly, but it wouldn't make them impervious to sickness or the like. It couldn't restore a soul either, as you're aware. Funny given our present society, but whatever."
It almost sounded like static for a moment. Was it because it was difficult to hear from the flowing information that was now flooding to him when he finally had to face the truth? Why was it so imperative to find out what happened to Vega? Why was the directive so important when there was nothing prompting that response? ...Who was giving the directive to unearth these answers if Hollow truly felt nothing?
"The end result of your ascension was the fall of the one beside you. Humans aren't infallible, they're fragile. Far more than the world around them. When a great existence becomes akin to a toxin that they have no way to deal with, they just die. You were that toxin. And this is the end result for those humans who play at being God."
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Post by Gaia on May 27, 2024 20:21:22 GMT -8
For an apathetic being, why did he feel so strongly to find these answers? What directive was giving these orders? He had no way of knowing, no way of comprehending, no true idea on how to find what was pushing him here, he just knew he was always pushed here, and whenever he was reminded that he hadn't been able to protect her, the only thing he felt was the fury met immediately by morose despondency. It was the collision of those two emotions that returned him to the stark passivity that he was known for; the kind of power that only broke when it was necessary.
Was that all a programmed response, too? Even here, surrounded by all of this, he still didn't feel, he just needed to know. What could be so important for him, for someone else, for him to learn and to find here?
The voice wasn't his, but it was familiar. Why? It was as if the Undimension itself, Empt, was speaking, but the voice was still different. It didn't come from Empty, but rather all around, and it seemed in a moment upset with Hollow for having come back here.
The voice seemed accusatory, indignant, and furious. It called him by name. The truth . . . Hollow was built with a purpose he could never fulfill, and yet he would act in all ways to protect his charge, and to help her do as she wanted. He . . . he didn't remember his 'ascension,' though; this act of 'becoming' human.
"What ascension?" he demanded, needing specifics. "She was researching the continent, and built me to protect her. I would have, we would have never harmed or destroyed her on purpose!
"Did . . . did she get to the continent? Did she instruct us to do something that resulted in her demise?
"What did we do? How did we rise to that challenge, and when did we ascend? Ascend to what? Was it our own wave signature, our own power, that became a poison to her? How? I . . . I don't remember!"
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