Scene #9296: The Lost Art?

Owner	Pose
Meresankh	Audrey arrives through the Oryx artificial warpgate at one end of a long, rectangular hall. Black stone walls, shot through with green lines like a circuit-board, rise into darkness above. To Audrey's perception the lines are in fact ley lines, strong and bright. It's a strange thing to see, a natural flow of power recreated in purely artificial form. Whoever built this place had an astonishing mastery of magic, or of sufficiently advanced technology to harness even the supernatural. The only real illumination present beyond the glow of the crackling green warpgate is a series of white string-lights wrapped around and stretched between the square stone pillars lining the hall. "Enter," a voice booms from the far end of the hall. A different voice begins to speak, but quietly enough as to be mostly inaudible from this distance. As Audrey approaches its words become clearer halfway through a sentence. "--do think you should be gentler with guests. We don't want to frighten them away from our Queen." "You don't." "I understand it is your sacred duty to regard her and only her as superior to you in status, but--" "Without exception." As Audrey crosses the hall the two bickering figures come into clearer view, standing on either side of a large, ornate throne of the same material and design as the surrounding room.. Both are Necrons, imposing mechanical skeletons over six feet in height. One wears decorated gold armor with a matching cape of heavy gold chains, and carries a two-barreled energy rifle with a wicked bayonet, clearly some kind of warrior or guard. The other is clad in blue robes and holds a decorative cane, like some kind of undead robot courtier. Neither of them are Meresankh. "Her Ingenuity is busy," says the warrior. "In her workshop, and only for the moment," adds the courtier. "She will be with us shortly. In the meantime..." He looks around at the relative lack of furnishings, and finally settles his gaze on the throne itself. "Why don't you have a seat?" The warrior almost jumps in shock at the notion, but only grumbles and (apparently) capitulates to permit the courtier's offer. "I am Iseptah, first herald of Her Omnipotence, and this is Henutep, Her Magnanimousness's chief warden." They keep changing her epithet!
Meresankh	Iseptah departs through a door behind the throne, and Henutep isn't very good conversation. Four or five minutes pass before Iseptah returns and says, "Her Inquisitiveness has chosen to see you in her workshop. Follow me, please." Before Audrey can stand, the throne starts to follow Iseptah. It raises itself up on six insectile legs and scuttles, with Audrey on board, down the hall after Iseptah. The walk (the ride?) to the workshop isn't long, as might be expected for an inventor-queen. But what Audrey arrives to may exceed her wildest expectations... The workshop is another enormous chamber, with a large 'shop' area full of tool emplacements in front and row after row of rolling stack shelves beyond. Meresankh herself stands at a center console, eyes dark, hands plugged directly into a control terminal. Controlled by direct mental interface, dozens of mechanical arms rove around the ceiling and the shelves rearrange themselves without Meresankh more than lifting a finger. The whirr and buzz of exotic machinery is constant, until Iseptah waves and shouts a greeting to catch Meresankh's attention and her eyes light up, her posture straightening as if she were emerging from a trance. "Miss Basque, yes?" She looks to Iseptah for confirmation, and he nods. "I believe we have not been properly introduced. I am Queen Meresankh of Oryx, master of making and ruler of all you see on this world. It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance outside of battle. I have been overseeing the repairs and retrofits in the wake of the other day's... altercation, at which you performed with aplomb. I see you've already made yourself comfortable," she says with a gesture at her own throne. "Do you desire refreshments? Iseptah can fetch you whatever you need."
Audrey Basque	Today is a terrible day! Audrey still has a big bandage on her cheek from that bruise, which has been the frustrating talk of the school for days now. She was then emotionally skewered several times, and only escaped further skewers by having to come here in the first place. If she took time to think about that, the fact she'd rather be in an ancient, dark, technological palace surrounded by terrifying (and tall) robotic skeletons than be dealing with her, right this moment, is a sign of certain change. And doom. Probably, mostly, doom. But an invitation is an invitation and Meresankh had at least established herself as not being some kind of murderous psychopath (presumably) on sole account of helping save people a few times. Well, no one ever said Audrey was a good judge of character. The bright red, black and white of her school uniform contrasts the halls quite a bit, as poorly lit as they are. And Audrey might be good at concealing her thoughts, but not her moods particularly. She's intimidated, but also lost in thoughts that go far beyond this place. "It is nice to meet you," she manages formally, "Iseptah, Henutep." It's probably notable she pronounces those correctly. Fluently, even, or at least by Earth standards. When instructed to seat herself, her eyes fall on the throne, with a bit of a glimmer. She'd kind of... Wanted for, for a while. She was being offered. Surely, it's okay. She seats herself, as comfortably as she can in a throne meant for someone much larger, and much more physically sturdy, than she is. Since Henutep barely talks, she kind of loses herself in the moment until Iseptah speaks up, and she almost yelps in surprise. "Oh! Oh, I see. Of course." It was okay, right? Of course the workshop is a different atmosphere entirely. The loud noises don't suit Audrey very much, and the amount of machinery makes her concerned she's a second from stepping into oil at any moment, even though nothing here seems quite that crude as to need any. With the queen finally in sight, Audrey bows politely, lifting her skirt just a tad in a cute curtsy. "The pleasure is all mine, queen. Your majesty? I apologize, each royal I have met so far had different terms of address. If you prefer one, I will be happy to adjust." Comfortable... she tries not to get too flustered. "I-It seemed to be the only seating, ah... it was comfortable. Um. Water is alright." She hopes they have water. "So this is... your homeworld, then? Or simply one of many locations you rule over?"
Meresankh	Thankfully the loud noises have mostly come to a stop as Meresankh turns her attention away from directing her workshop's machines. Many of them halt mid-process, and only those which cannot (presumably on account of needing materials at specific temperatures or other conditions) continue humming in the background. Your majesty? I apologize, each royal I have met so far had different terms of address. "'Your Majesty' suffices," says Iseptah. "Her full pedigree is of course impossible to recount aloud in decent time, such are her many and grandiose accomplishments! I think it best represented in cartouche anyway, but Her Majesty sometimes--" "Thank you, Iseptah. Fetch the lady some water." "At once, your Hospitality!" Iseptah swaggers out of the room, humming and swinging his cane. "So this is... your homeworld, then? Or simply one of many locations you rule over?" "The Necrontyr homeworld is lost to us, in memory and in time. But Oryx is my chosen world, my tomb, my home." Her voice, briefly wistful at the mention of her species' origins, swells with pride. "Oryx was a jewel of the empire, once, and I made it so. Now it is the first of what I hope to be many worlds to turn from our old ways and embrace the new. I would not stoop to subjugate my kin, but I aspire to lead by example into a new era for Necronkind." "Ah, but I did not invite you here to gloat over my creations, delightful though they may be. Instead, I wished to ask something of you. During each of the two battles I have seen you fight in, you have demonstrated the most curious techniques. I am surprised to know that a species so - forgive me, there is no better word - technologically primitive as humanity has produced such talented astramancers. Are you the only of your kind? Who taught you such mastery of the spatial arts?" Meresankh doesn't wait long enough for an answer before elaborating. "You see, there is nothing, nothing in this world - space, time, energy, thought - that the Necrons did not master. Even the supernatural, the ability to create effect without cause, is not beyond us. Many techniques are lost to the depths of the Great Sleep, however I and others persist in our efforts to reassert that pinnacle of development. But you." A menacing pause later, she continues. "You demonstrate capacity for some of these arts, the technomantic disciplines of space and gravity, without any visible tools whatsoever! Are there augmentations within your body that effect such feats, and which are concealed from my detection? Is your genetic code modified to grant you deep biological insight into the folds of spacetime? I wish to know." There's a peculiar emphasis put on 'know'. Never mind the implication that Audrey's already been X-rayed (or equivalent) for cybernetics. This lady is Interested, capital I.
Audrey Basque	She did notice the address keeps changing! So was, at first, making an effort to remember each one, but this confirms she doesn't have to. Or at least isn't expected to. For imposing skeletal... robots? Cyborgs? These people certainly had a flair for the dramatic. Heh, just like home. But colder. Much colder. "A shame, about your homeworld. But, if I may ask... your tomb?" They're skeletons, maybe it's a... term thing? Not literal? Or maybe it's very literal, the way she suddenly talks of subjugating and the loss of her homeworld. But straight to business, then. "Astramancer?" The word isn't used often home, but its etymology is obvious even if it isn't. "Oh, I see. I typically go by astrologer, or astrologian, but obsessing over nomenclature never got us anywhere." Primitive, though? Maybe if the queen saw the Phantom Circle, she'd change her mind. ... but the thought of inviting anyone there, let alone the Necrons, and what that would entail for her reputation... oof. "I am not alone, but I stand at the peak of my craft. We Enlightened pass our magics, our Traditions, through generations and generations, solely to ensure the next is even stronger. I should note, we live much longer lifespans than humans; but it is not a feat of technology. There are many theories and debates regarding the origins of magic, though few that agree with one another. It's a philosophical debate, as much as a physical one." That's oversimplifying it, but all the scans would definitely confirm Audrey's as human as they come. The only thing weird about her is her eyes, starry and dual-toned as they are, but there's nothing to them beyond looks. "Though... I wouldn't say without any tools, or rather, some tools can make it easier. I don't require machinery or a wizard's staff, if that's your meaning, but a star chart is never unwelcome." She takes in the disciplines the queen brags about; so temporal, spatial, even creation? The idea of magic just being lost, like that, is horrifying. "It would be complicated to explain in full. Magical Traditions can take thousands of years to take shape. Mine, astrology, dates back to so long ago that humans did not even fully record their history yet, and it has been refined since through dozens of different cultures and peoples all bringing their own unique spin on it. My family's is a more unified approach, independent of cultural touches. I have a fair few years to go before I fully master it, but... I was born lucky and with great potential." And she worked. So hard. For it too.
Meresankh	"A shame, about your homeworld. But, if I may ask... your tomb?" "Yes. I died - all of us died - and many were interred here. It was a living death, but a death even so." Slowly, haltingly, Mersankh reaches to take Audrey's hand. She gives it a gentle squeeze - not so much a reassuring gesture as a reminder to herself of the texture of flesh. "We were like you, once, or near enough. That was taken from us, and not long after the end of our living bodies, we had to end our minds as well. That was the second time the Necrons died. The third was when the galaxy forgot us, moved forward, built and destroyed and built and destroyed and built again atop our graves. Now so, so much later, we rise again, but many of us do not live. The walking dead, shells without name or selfhood." Meresankh dips her head, as if avoiding eye contact. "My dream is to restore their minds, if not their bodies as well. But... do you know how long a million years is? Can you feel the depth, the weight of such time? What about ten million? Sixty? Such is my predicament." Meresankh releases Audrey's hand and turns, taking a half-step away. "To that end, our lost arts, scientific and cultural, must be rediscovered or remade. Thence my interest in your abilities." A long pause, a half-turn back to almost face Audrey. "To be an 'Enlightened' - are you born such, or chosen and made? You set yourself apart from humankind with your words." After waiting long enough for an answer this time, Meresankh continues. "Thousands of years to take shape... I pray it need not be so. How long do you think it would take you to rediscover the traditions of your discipline, from today, if you had all your tools but none of the generational knowledge? Thus is my lot - so much has been lost, to the great betrayal, that at times I feel not like I am rebuilding but that I am building anew altogether. My personal aptitude for technomancy is vast - but I have reached the limit of astramancy without the tutelage of an expert. Nothing but... parlor tricks. While my peers hoard their knowledge, guarding it jealously, I cannot bring myself to take from them by force."
Audrey Basque	Died? Audrey stares, not necessarily at the disbelief these Necrons have died, but at the casualness of it. The queen grabs her hand-- it's hesitant, on Audrey's part, and she has to suppress quite a bit of fight or flight, at the sudden metallic touch and how uneasy it feels for her. But she trusts the queen, at least enough not to yank her hand back. "I am twenty-three," she states, matter-of-factly. "I cannot imagine what ten years from now looks like. Let alone a hundred, or a thousand. So a million and more? Alien, I am afraid." It's not a statement meant to be cold, but maybe more a return on the 'primitive humans' idea. She can accept that the queen and her people operate on a scale so incomprehensible to her as to be incompatible even in empathy. "But, I need not be able to understand your plight at its core, as if I were one of you, to wish you nothing but success." The queen touches on something though, and Audrey nods to the separation. "Humankind is a whole, but to be Enlightened is to be above. We are born this way, I am afraid; if one can be made, after the fact, I could not say, but I am not aware of any such magic or science. Regular "humans" live the lives you likely expect. A hundred, if lucky, and with excellent medical care. Born without the gift of magic, or, if they are lucky, perhaps a small fraction of it." Well, she may sound meek, especially when fighting, but the rich, noble mage inside comes out sometimes, and there's a bit of pride in being 'above' regular humans. "We did live apart, though. Until the Onslaught forced the Enlightened to reveal themselves and work together with humans to push back a threat greater than them. There are those who argue we should go back to hiding, now, but those politics are a bit beyond someone my age." She thinks, for a long while, about the next question. Could she rediscover astrology, if all traces of it but her tools and skills were wiped out? That's such wild thought. The Enlightened fear death precisely because they take knowledge with them. "I... do not know. My pride wishes to answer yes, but my heart says no. I suppose even without my family's teachings I would still have been predisposed to this, but... to remake it anew? I don't know, truly." The idea of being a tutor, though... "I'm unsure I could teach it. It is a sixth sense of a sort. This space, for example... I must look, beyond its physical nature. I look at its thresholds, the boundaries it borders-- how it is fundamentally different to the other spaces around it. I look up, feel the currents in the--" She looks up; it's a ceiling, but for her the sky is past it. She grows pale a bit. "I look at... the stars, to hear their..." Why are so many stars dead. Why are so many stars missing. Why is there a WOUND in the sky? "I... what is this world?" Oh. Only regret. "It... was not only your people who suffered, was it?"
Meresankh	"So a million and more? Alien, I am afraid." "Imagine it like this, then. You fall asleep, and when you wake, every last ordinary human is a shell, walking and breathing but not living, not being. Perhaps... a tenth of the Enlightened retain their faculties, and they will not speak plainly with you for fear or jealousy. Then you may begin to understand the burden of ruling a tomb-world." "I... do not know. My pride wishes to answer yes, but my heart says no." "Then you are beginning to see. It is... a small comfort, but a comfort, to find someone who can sympathize with my position - to have such talent, but not enough. Not enough." She shakes her head, sadly. Then, before Meresankh can respond to Audrey's comments about whether her knowledge could be passed to someone other than an Enlightened, Audrey looks up, through what turns out to be miles and miles of black stone and solid earth and sand above, sand and bones. The sky is torn in two. Space itself seethes like an infected, aggravated wound. Something is very, very wrong here. Iseptah returns with a glass of water and tray of cookies, nearly running into Audrey as she staggers in shock. "It... was not only your people who suffered, was it?" "Indeed not. The works of our first enemy, the foe from without, wounded this galaxy just as the works of the enemy from within wounded our souls. Entire species, entire worlds born to die, and in their death throes spread misery to all. It is a horrible place, and I understand why my peers look to the stars in horror. The ruin that has come to what once was ours." A pause. "Are-- do you need anything?" Once she has furnished Audrey with anything she asks for - a bucket, perhaps? - Meresankh continues. "The last fifteen to twenty thousand years have seen damage beyond reckoning done to space and time alike. Gods birthed and slain. Stars torn from the sky. Some of my kind believe that we awoke simply because somehow, we sensed the end was near. Perhaps those who took our flesh would also deny us a quiet end."
Audrey Basque	It's not that the rest is lost on her; but she can't really process it right now. By the time she rips her eyes off the ceiling (not quite that literally), she looks sick. "Bucket. Please." Or anything that passes as one. After she's done throwing up, she takes the water to rinse her mouth and then her throat, get that horrid taste out. Her gaze remains firmly fixed on the floor, even though... Really, past the floor is the planet, and past it the sky all the same. Actually, at this point, the best thing she can do is just... Hurriedly, she unbuttons her blazer and takes it off. The stars inside are hard to miss, but she bundles it up and just kind of hangs on to it in a messy ball of fabric and stars. That's a bit better, now that she's not wearing the sky. "I am... a million apologies, that was... I see, why your peers feel that way about the stars. I should not have looked." Tales of gods birthed and stars ripped from the sky more or less confirm her suspicions, though the paleness of everything beyond the galaxy is still a mystery. "The end? So it is that severe?" She feels something up her throat, and pauses for a moment to recenter herself. "Ugh... you called me here for knowledge and I am the one extracting it from you now. I am a poor guest."
Meresankh	Iseptah raises a palm to his mouth as if covering a gasp, a strange gesture for someone without lungs. "Your Beneficence! Has she--" "Leave us at once," the queen snaps. Iseptah bows low, sets down the cookies (chocolate chip, but pretty stale), and practically scurries out of the room. Meresankh recognizes a vulnerable moment when she sees one, and the fewer eyes on Audrey in this state the better. "The end? So it is that severe?" "It may be, for some damage cannot be undone. Even if it is not, the Necrons are underprepared for the threats we face. We need to modernize, and quickly, and yet they refuse to stir from their long-set ways." When she says 'refuse' she bangs a fist against the side of that center console in evident frustration. "My apologies. I should not lose my temper, not when you are hurt so. Do you need medical aid? Do you need to leave?" "Ugh... you called me here for knowledge and I am the one extracting it from you now. I am a poor guest." Meresankh makes a fretful noise. "No, you are in my house as a guest and I have allowed you to come to harm. The burden of failure is mine to shoulder, and if explaining how this happened would aid you, then I am obliged to provide." A nervous little pause. "Perhaps we could continue our discussion of astramancy at someplace where I may call upon you..."
Audrey Basque	Those cookies deserved better. Truly, they are the casualty today, to be both stale and uneaten. The Chaos Gods always invent new ways to torture. "I am-- I am fine," Audrey lies through her teeth, though now that she's averted her eyes and taken her blazer off she breathes a lot easier. "This harm was not of your making, nor could you have stopped me from seeing it." She chuckles, a mix of nervously and a bit of strain. "I hope your people understand the severity of the situation before whatever is out there reaches its hand any further." Though if it's all the same... she's not sure she wants to be back here, ever. "Somewhere else would be... nice. Another world, not another planet here. I am... sensitive, to the stars. The messages in them, the omens they carry. There are no good ones here. No, there is..." One. One good one. But it's so faint, and yet burning so bright. She shakes her head and stops looking again. "Nevermind. Anywhere else, yes. I'd be happy to demonstrate my Tradition... anywhere else. My apologies if this feels like a flight against your current home. It really isn't."