Difference between revisions of "Bumping in to Judges"

Sunday, September 2, 2018

Alma is walking around the market looking for someone who sells cold brew coffee

Charles is seated near the outer edge of the market, back pressed against the wall of a building and a filthy baseball cap infront of him. The dirty ratty item has a few coins in it: a dime, a nickel, and a handful of pennies. He isn't having all that much luck in getting folks to part with their change, but the rare patron of the market seems willing to do so and the Gnawer offers up a warm smile when one does, before going back to reading the book in his hands.

Jim flies on out to the CYC, hoping to catch Hina around again, to learn that dang rite. But then he sees Alma again in the neighborhood, and Charles, so the large bird lands on top of the umbrella on a cart of a cold brew coffee seller.

Alma sees Charles first. Ever since those kids tore the book from his hands she's been wondering how he's doing. and also the book. Sure, people are important. but so are books. Don't ask her to rank them. Also don't ask her where corvids go in this ordering. Alma walks over to Charles with a questioning look on her face combined with a smile. She tilts her head to see the title of the book.

Charles lifts a hand in greeting, then holds up the book to display the tittle: Great battles of World War II. "Hello Ms. Alma," he greets. "How are you today?" He looks less ill-kept today, having made a point of showering and laundering his clothing after the incident a few days ago.

Jim sees that Alma has bypassed the coffee for now, and is going to Charles, so he flies over their way. Perching on a trash can, he looks to the others, and flaps.

And when you think about it plants are pretty important too. and so many beetles. Hey look at that book. Look at his goggles. Alma grins along with her thoughts. "Are there dog fights or were those more in World War I?" Jims magestic wings yanks her attention, and she grins even more. "Oh hey there."

Charles closes the book and puts it away in his bag, before resting his hands on his knees. "Both, although the technology was different. Sorry if I spooked you on Friday, my anger nearly got the better of me." Charles looks in Jim's direction for a moment and offers up a faint nod.

"Yeah," Alma admits. "I got really freaked out when that guy bashed your head in. I've only ever seen someone heal a little cut on their hand--by themselves." She nods over towards Jim. "I didn't know what would happen to you until I saw your head start to knit itself back. But then Jim told me to get the hell out of there. And my mentor, you know? Told me to stay away from wolves. You got seriously--I don't know what to call it. I decided to trust Jim. You okay? Any side effects from the head injury?" She looks at the book, "Did you ever find your book? I went to a bookstore but they didn't have it."

Jim gets nodded at by both, and looks around to make sure he won't get overheard before he speaks quietly. "Howdy. Hopefully no trouble today."

"I have the book," Charles says and gives his ever present backpack a pat. "And I'm fine. It's hard to kill someone like me. I heal. As for leaving, that was for the best. If I had lost my temper, I'd likely have killed you." It's not a threat, at least it doesn't sound like one.

Jim flaps again, his voice remaining quiet in case somebody does come in this direction. "If I took a hit like that, I'd need to get into this form and I could also heal, miss Alma."

"I'm glad, Jim." She looks at both of them seriously, "If I'm ever close to death, try and find my friends. they can fix almost anything. If they can't, will you take me outside of Detroit? The white zone? I don't know what happens to ghosts here. Something takes them all. Maybe to fuel that thing--I wish I knew." She pats one of her field notebooks. "And give this to..." She thinks about this for a while. "Zach. I'd say my mentor but I need to have a serious talk with them."

Charles lifts his chin and scratches at his throat. "Maya mentioned a white zone last night. Could you elaborate on that for me? Also, there was mention that you have a habit of collecting injuries. I would hope that you are not being mistreated by someone?"

Jim trills quietly. "That was a nice touch the other day, Miss Alma. Death Cult. That should have scared them good." He's trying not to talk about what might happen if Alma is seiruosly hurt, but he will add "As long as I can do what these bears need me to do, I can handle such an injury, ma'am." Then to Charles, in the voice of the PA Man in airplane. "The White Zone is for the immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the red zone."

Alma looks over at the vendor stalls. Sundays are less crowded, admitedly, but there are too many people walking around. She doesn't want to talk about all this near just anyone. She wants to clear something up with Charles right away, so she looks at him. "I'm not sure what you've heard exactly. I was in a car wreck the other day. Almost died. My friends helped with that. I had to hurt myself so that we could save Maya. That type of injury just takes longer to heal. Is that what you heard about? The arm injury?"

To Jim, "The best lies are variations on the truth. Some poeple over-react to my tradition. Call them death cultists or worse. And, it's not that, but I'm leaving them. I just don't agree with," she pauses to consider this, "their moral code. They're judges," She nods over to Charles, "but, do /they/ have judges?"

To both, "I don't know everything about the white zone. I can tell you what little I've found. Some of it seems to involve the Stargate in Hart Plaza." She lifts her eyebrows a little, in a dorky way, "Ok, the real name is [User:Alma/Transcending Transcending], but everyone calls it a Stargate."

Charles lifts up his hands, palms up. "Was only told that you have a habit of getting yourself hurt, nothing more. As for being a Judge, I do my best to strive for balance in the end."

Jim trills as he takes in Alma going off. "But seriuosly, the White Zone is basically under the control of Shaw and his allies. Best to stay out."

"I think my judges need judges. and they don't exactly acknowledge that? I want to stand outside of them." She sighs. "I don't know how much that place overlaps with what I'm looking at. In reality, everything is connected, but I have to follow all the paths that are tangled. So... get me out farther than that, if I die. I have a map of where I tried to find ghosts. all gone. I think they end up going through that gate."

Alma clears some things up, "This is all speculation. You all should listen to me like agnostics. speculation is good but prune the tree when you learn more. Right now, I'm sending thoughts out along possibilities. One is, I think that gate powers some huge working. Maybe it consumes the souls of the dead for it. Things move around in the city. Things get replaced. There's a lot of different--I don't know all what. I get the feeling that some deranged person could come along and be like the zebra mussels in the lake. or maybe some parasites on yuor Shaw guy. It's all an ecosystem, and I could spend years talking about insular biogeographies and we are kind of like an island here--in reverse."

Charles sighs and shakes his head. "I'm afraid some of that went right over my head, Ms. Alma. In talking about ghosts, do you mean spirits?"

Jim tries to take all that in from alma, but is a little lost. He flaps, and bobs, and doesnt' really say much at all. Since well, what Charles said goes for him.

Alma nods, but a little hesitantly. "I think so, but I don't know all the languages. I'm trying to learn everything." She starts counting off trying to enumerate things, "Sanskrit, Japanese, Classical Greek--wait no! Ancient Greek first, Pali, um... and I want to be able to read before Classical Chinese poetry, even earlier... and translations! I want to compare all the translations. People learn things in doing these transforms?"

"Spirit, ghosts, souls... There's something there. fundamental. I think I mean spirits. I don't know how much I mean like, exact? maybe? or maybe more like building blocks. I wish I knew more. and I don't know what happens exactly."

"Jim explained some of this Shaw guy--and someone who works for him who killed someone Jim knew. What do they have? Their spirit getting knotted up in some sickness... I don't want that to happen. I want to be able to heal that out of people one day."

"There is a way to heal it out of them," Charles says, rather deadpan. "But it is not something that is done lightly and when it is done, they don't return in the span of a lifetime. Or a hundred lifetimes, if at all. Once the corruption is set too deep, there is not much that can be done. If the corruption isn't too deeply entwined with the victim's spirit, there are ways to cast it out." A pause. "No, that is not completely true. There is a Gift that can be used to rip the Bame from a famori, but the chances of the victim surviving are highly unlikely. A powerful healer would have to attend to them, while it was being done."

Jim flaps and bobs. "I reckon that's a very powerful gift not many can learn."

"That's close to how my tradi--former tradition sees it. They judge that someone is hopeless in this life and then kill them to let them go through more lifetimes. Sometimes they even decide that the person will never change. Then they wipe them from existence." Alma starts to get a little agitated. distressed. "I hate it. I hate thinking of killing someone. It hurts. I want to be able to pull things out. I can help send things away. I helped Maya that way. I had a lot of help in all that chaos. Wednesday caught me, and took me to safety. Zach helped break the connection from that place to Maya. A dark spirit came out when the connection snapped, and I told it to go where it should go. 'Go on your way! get out!' like that. I got a lot of clarity then. I was still all confused and tangled--not dark tangle. insight tangle. It didn't smooth out until I looked at these cards." She goes to her pockets until she pulls out a deck of cards wrapped in a silk cloth. "the Rider-Waite deck. I'm going to use other decks too. This one seemed right for the first."

Charles rises to his feet, picks up his bag, and slings it over his shoulder. Almost as an afterthought, he bends down and picks up the cap with is meager amount of change in it. "Not all can be cleansed. But only the most heinous of offenders are removed from the cycle of rebirth. I need to patrol. I will see you two later." And with that, the Gnawer takes his leave.

Jim flaps and trills a good bye to the leaving Charles, then looks at Alma. "Why would you be looking to kill anyone?"

Alma watches Charles leave. She answers Jim with a question, "Why would Charles kill someone?"

Jim flaps. "Charles would kill someone who was threatening Gaia, or the Caern, or something else he's sworn to protect. What are you sworn to protect, ma'am?"

"We--They...No, me. I feel a calling that is part of my being to guard the world and all people in it. I feel a calling to witness the world and all people in it because if I don't see things as they are then I cannot understand them. Worse, I won't be able to understand consequences. Ultimately, I feel a calling to make those in authority /understand/ consequences. truly understand. Mistakes at this scale--Mistakes would be horrible. Horror. They would lead to Horror. All of this goes beyond any oath. If this calling ever changes then you should consider destroying whatever thing is walking around in this shell because it won't be me." She soften a moment, "Or, at least talk to them first, see if they are a person. and they don't have to be saints or anything. No one does." She looks at him, in all earnest. Perhaps even more earnest than Jim.

Jim rolls his head as he talks about this. "Vengeance is mine," he very quietly says. "The more authority you claim, ma'am, the more your own flaws will ruin you."

"Jim, I don't understand why there has to be vengeance. Wouldn't God be above vengeance? I know I don't believe in God but there is something. I feel divine love and this... hey like it says man in his image? I've been reading a lot of books, Bible too--to help you out. If I can feel this divine love for people--even people who want to hurt me--and my feeling is to hug them and heal them--doesn't that mean God feels the same way?"

Jim looks up at her. "There is vengeance, becuase without it there can't be mercy, ma'am. I reckon if you never punish those who do wrong, then how can you show love to those who do right? If you never swat your kids, they'll never learn."

"Jim, I can't swat kids." She is silent for a while. "I'm going to go shopping. Want to help me find coffee? I have this idea for a drink."