Closed [Shane's Auristic Services] Curiosity?

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel chuckled quietly as he listened to the explanation - and he had to admit to himself, as he looked around the place, that he envied the man for what he had, in some ways. It was a nice little shop to stay in.. he was certain that such things didn't come easily, and that they'd take quite a bit of hard work to take control of. He'd done pretty well for himself. Although the squirrel would never own such a thing.. his job was set in his life, and so was his lifestyle. He wasn't a human.. he was a Pycon, and he would travel and explore the world by going there himself rather than interrogating those that did the adventuring. He would experience it for himself, as he'd already done, and would continue to do over the course of the coming seasons and years in the future. Books would probably be somewhat useful to the future adventurers even though the squirrel had never written one, nor read from one. It promoted a question of his own, pushing between the maelstrom coming from the man.

"You're a scholar that wants to explore the world.. but you have a shop that you spend all of your time in. Why don't you just go outside and see the world for yourself?" A way that humans had always piqued the Pycons curiosity: why they seemed so avid about the world and all the life in it, and yet they always remained in their cities and their businesses, sitting down and writing stories from their minds and not their experiences, or just talking with people that had traveled the world. Never going out there for themselves, when they might find something that nobody else had ever seen before. One couldn't live their entire life based on the findings of other people.. there had to be some point where they distinguished themselves. Where they became individuals and not just the products of everyone else. He knew he probably should have just accepted it for what it was, as far as he could guess - human customs, that he'd most likely never really come to understand because he'd never really understand humans. But it was a small part that kept pushing and pushing at his mind until he had to answer it. Or ask it, at least.

Shortly after Shane snapped back to the matter at hand, Arch followed. "Well.. I don't really know how to explain it." There would always be awkwardness explaining the perfectly normal, understandable parts of his life to someone that obviously never even thought about them. "If you've traveled.. experienced things, then people will look at you with more respect. It's not just knowing how to swing a sword.. it's doing something. Seeing things, experiencing things.. not just sitting in one city, never leaving, never experiencing something new. Humans.. you just judge people by their ability in something, as far as I've seen. But that doesn't matter, if you don't see the trouble, the adventure they've gone through to become as good as they are."

[Shane Wallsly]

Day Season, Year

Shane smiled. “I will see the world.” He told the squirrel. There was a confident ease to that statement. An ease that had been in none of Shane's words before. It was if of all of the things in the world it was this he was most sure about. “I will sail on a Sverfa's casinor, I will witness the villainy of sunberth and the heat of the Sea of Grass. I'll see it all, Archailist but Not today.” At first he spoke with wonder and glassy eye but finally with a resigned sigh he finished with his solemn 'no today'. It was not yet his time. He didn't know exactly what he was waiting on but he just knew he was waiting on something. It was something he didn't often think about either. Just some sort of sign. He'd know it when he saw it.

He listened to Archailist as he spoke about gaining respect and living his life. He didn't really get how this was meant to relate to Pycon Society as he had asked the creature to explain just that but he took a shot in the dark and asked “So, experience? Is it the experience of life? Is that what pycon society is all about. Not where you end up but rather how you get there?” This seemed to be the only way of interpreting the squirrel's words. At least if he was talking about the Pycon Society rather than just sort of fallowing on from his previous comment.

OOCI am so sorry for the shortness of this post.

[Archailist]

Sometimes, it took him a while to register the true meaning behind what humans said. Because they always had this.. thing, where they held something back behind the words that they spoke. He had to really listen carefully to the tone of the mans voice.. but even then, he couldn't really 'sense' anything. Just a bit of melancholy that the squirrel swiftly pushed aside. "Guess you could. You've got all the time in the world to do it. Hundreds of years..." Yes, he had a bit of a different grasp on the lifespans that they worked with. It came when one barely had twenty or thirty years in the world before turning to stone. "I've not got as long. Hah, I'm already five." That was pretty old. Though he'd used his time well so far, traveling around the entire region and exploring the cities inside. He wanted to go farther but he didn't want to lose sight of the reason he was doing it either. He wanted to prove to the world that he was capable of becoming a Syliran Knight.. and once he felt like he'd done that, his time was up and he returned home again. The human didn't need to do any of that.. he was respected more than the Pycon just because he was alive.

"Well.. yeah. It's not that different from yours, is it. What makes the man is the journey he's traveled. Although.. I don't think you understand the true volume it holds. A person that's spent their entire life living one life, doing one thing in one place... is a nobody. Not when they're compared with someone that has spent their life running around the entire world. Don't you agree?" He was trying to do more than just explain the society.. he was trying to make the man agree with it. Because in truth, it was very similar to humans. But they didn't really.. focus as much on it as they thought they did. "And a person that's spent their life living in one hole, is nothing compared to someone that's gone out of their hole and traveled all over the world. Obviously, the one that is more traveled is the one that's going to be the more respected within the hole." His arms were beginning to get involved - waving a little and pointing down beneath him, trying to mimic what he was saying.

"It's not complicated.. there's no need for argument or dispute over it. You know which one is the more experienced. It's right there. And if they've seen more of the world than you have.. if they know more things then you do.. then who are you to judge?" He liked to think that he was putting on a strong point.

[Shane Wallsly]

Day Season, Year

Hundreds of years? Clearly the little Chap knew as much about humans as Shane knew about Pycons. He did let slip a vital clue in saying five like it meant something. They must have shorter lifespans. He guessed that Archailist was probably an adult pycon which also meant they matured rapidly which one would expect of a species with a short lifespan. He wondered how short... ten, twenty, thirty years? Of course he was ignoring the fact that the Pycon had overestimated his age and technically this could mean that a typical Pycon's lifetime could be anything under a hundred years.

The little clay squirrel spoke like it was clearly obvious. He spoke like his conclusions were self evident and that caused something of a crease in Shane's brow. They weren't or, at least, that's what he believed. In fact it had caused more than a crease in Shane's brow but a rising level of stress. The more the pycon said the more Shane felt as if the little thing was calling him stupid simply for having never left his home. He even felt a twang of loalty when it seemed to him that it inferred Syliras was a hole. His home was not a hole. Sunberth was a hole; not the mighty Stormhold Citadel.

“Interesting.” He replied with some amount of restraint. “However that is not so much the case in human society. We tend to value action over travelling experience. We do respect the experience but experience is believed to come from living no matter how it is you live your life. A man who has spent his entire life working hard in the field and providing for his family should be respected as much as those who abandon their families to run off all over the world and rarely come back. Ours is a society of commitment.” His voice was level but his tone was restrained trying to make some sense without giving over to anger.

“So, anyway, I take it this is how you pick your leaders? By how vastly they have travelled?” Shane asked still trying to ascertain if there was any kind of physical society of pycons. He was starting to doubt it. It seemed as if they spring out of whatever the hell they came from and just started adventuring. “And tell me after that how is it new pycons are created?”

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He sighed quietly and shook his head. The idea of spending ones entire life caring for their family was.. absurd. At least to the squirrels mind, because it would be so utterly boring. Once maturity is reached, it's time to break away from the parents and gain a little independence - begin exploring, and learning for themselves. Humans didn't have to worry about that stuff, they didn't have a true form to work towards. They didn't have anything to work towards. For all the shyke they cared, every human could sit on their arse for the rest of their lives and it wouldn't make that much of a difference to the memory left behind on their tombstone. "No, look. That... just doesn't happen. Not for us. For you humans, jeez.. you spend your entire life with your parents and relatives up until they die. I haven't seen my parents in.. years. Five years at least. It's important.. to all of us.. that we see what we need to see in our lifetimes." Perhaps he was just wasting his breath in the entire endeavour. "We need to know what we are."

"Well yes. The more experienced are more worthy as leaders. The rest of us settle into what we do best. Everything else pretty much sorts itself out. Those that are more experienced get better places, and those that aren't.. well, they will soon learn enough to take the same place. Humans have elders, don't they? Elders that are respected, because of their experience?" He knew they did, because the knights were pretty much standing facts. Older knights with more influence than the younger ones.. knights and squires coming from far and wide knowing more than those growing up in Syliras, often trumping the others. It was right there, everything he'd already talked about. Perhaps humans just didn't understand how close they were to the Pycons.. and perhaps they didn't want to understand. Well, he'd find a way through at least one thick skull to make them know!

"How we're born?" Well, that was pretty easy. "Mother eats clay, clay grows into child, mother and child split, end." What, child birth was supposed to be difficult? Who said anything about that?

[Shane Wallsly]

Day Season, Year

Shane let the anger go as he realised that Archailist seemed kind of sad that Shane wasn't agreeing with him. He had wanted Shane to agree with him so badly that perhaps that is why he had spoken in such haste and, perhaps, just accidentally offending Shane.

“Yes and no.” Shane replied. “The reason our Elders tend to find themselves in higher positions is because they have had a longer time to work up the hierarchy rather than simply accruing experience but I see your point. Our societies are similar but I do detect some notable differences. So, you are saying that there are Pycon societies? Places where multiple Pycons live together ad work as a community? How does that work if everybody is always wanting to leave and explore the world?”

Shane smiled at the simplicity of it. Archailist made it sound obvious. A talent Shane was starting to recognise in the little fellow. He had to admit for creatures such as them it made more sense than traditional childbirth.

“How were the first pycons created then?” He asked wondering if they were the contribution of Gods or merely mutants from some random cloud of djed. He'd heard of such things before. Strange creatures created by raw magic left upon the earth by powerful battles fought long ago. It was mostly in folk tales but Shane had a habit of believing that all tales started somewhere.

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

He nodded quietly. At least that part had been pushed forth enough. Now if only he could push at the other parts with the same ferocity, to others. Then he could stop racism between the different creatures and the Pycons. They weren't so different, despite the obvious differences in their bodies. And their minds. And cultures. Oh well. "Of course there are Pycon cities! Zeltyne was a Pycon city." He'd already mentioned the city, although perhaps he'd forgotten to mention that it was entirely inhabited by Pycons and nothing else. "You can't adventure for your entire life, anyway.. sooner or later, we settle down, when there's nothing else for us. We can still raise children, live in a community. We just do what we work best with." It was very different from the cities of humans.. who always had these strange conflicts over who should be the ruler and what should be put where. In Pycon cities.. well, one only had to glance at another to see which one had the more authority over the two. Everything was so much simpler.

"We Pycons were the result of the intervention of the god, Harameus. He passed his knowledge down into a prophet, who was used to create us. Although the prophet was greedy, and so the first Pycons were liberated with his downfall and left to escape into the world - building the first Pyves and expanding our race across the whole world." At least, it was one of the stories he'd been told as a child. He never really believed in this idea of a prophet.. people always talked about him, and about how all Pycons were really just his inventions without any reference to Harameus. It was stupid.. and he didn't really want to hear about it. He just slapped a label onto the past, saying it was in the past, and nothing more. Humans had done some pretty horrible things in the past that he was sure they didn't want to bring back up.. and so he wouldn't as long as they didn't bring up Pycon past. He thought it was a pretty good deal they had running.

At least, until that day. "Anyway, yeah. Don't know what the guys name was, or anything. Just that he was controlled by Harameus - the god was the true purpose that we were put on this world." He nodded several times to affirm it, more to himself than the man, before turning away again. "And how were the humans created? Which god made you?"

[Shane Wallsly]

Day Season, Year

“Harameus? He's the God of... Ummm,” He really needed to brush up on his Gods. It was embarrassing. “Transformation, I think? Well I suppose that makes sense. I gather you were 'transformed' from simple clay. Given life by this prophet. It's a good tale.”

“These 'Pyves', is that what you call a Pycon City? Are they smalled in size than the cities of other races or do you stillt ake up the same amount of space?” Shane had never quite heard of a Pycon city before. He had never heard the word 'Pyve' before either. He guessed the cities were either secret or very, very small. For some reason he was envisioning a nest burrowed deep into the ground like an ants nest.

Then Archailist hit him with a very odd question. It was a complete surprise. Shane hadn't been expecting it and only when the question was spoken did Shane find he had not an answer for it. In all of the books he had read, in all of the tales he had heard not one had ever mentioned the birth of humanity. He knew that mankind pre-dated the Valterrian and that they had been around roughly since history itself was invented as a concept but he didn't know of their origins.

“I don't know.” He admitted ponderously. “We have been around as long as recorded history began I think but I don't know from where or what. That's very strange.” Shane was more than a little perturbed to be stumped by a question most races could answer easily. “Was this pre-Valterrian or post?”

[Archailist]

My Words | Your Words | My Thoughts

The squirrel nodded through it all, while frowning faintly. Indeed, it seemed that there were very few who knew of Harameus. Which was quite funny, considerng the amount of influence he had over the world and all of its changes.. not that anyone would really see much of it, no no no. "Our cities are called Pyves, yes.. and it depends. A lot of the cities are different.. Zeltyve was made out of a single house." Yes, he knew that it was a house.. he'd asked and probed until he found why the place bore a striking similarity to a simple farmer house, and his hunch had been right all along. "We don't take up that much space, you see.. but we can build houses and cities. All we need is clay.. from a pile or a healthy source, that's it. Because, you know, clay doesn't grow on trees." He chuckled quietly at his own joke before swiftly pushing forwards.. because, in truth, he wanted to get to his reading. Perhaps through all the conversation and the questions, they'd both managed to completely forget about what it was that the Pycon had come to the building in the first place for.

"I don't know about pre, or post, but I know that none of you humans know about where you were made, and from what." Well, in truth he didn't. He couldn't speak on the behalf of an entire race of people, of which he wasn't even a member. "It's something you need to learn.. and you certainly won't learn it tending to wheat fields." That last remark was a final jab at the human who thought it would be more worthwhile to sit in the dark of a simple building, regardless of whether he'd paid for it, reading books and trying to piece together unimportant fragments of history instead of going outside and seeing the world for himself. He still felt like he could hopefully persuade the human to take off into the world as he'd already confessed his wish to do so. Just a lack of spirit, it seemed.

"Now, anyway, are those all the questions you had for me? Or do I have to answer any more before I can get my auristics reading?" He had to admit.. he was feeling a little excited. It wasn't often that he really got much contact with magics such as these - at least, outside a battlefield with a mage. Magics weren't really the squirrels strong-point anway, and although he could see its obvious benefits, he could also hear in whispers of its pitfalls. The damage it did to the body and to the mind, over long amounts of use and over long amounts of time. Flux users who were left with broken, useless bodies and hypnotists who emerged blind.. he struggled to stop shaking his head. However, it was always nice to see magics done.. when he wasn't the one at stake. If there would be anyone receiving damage for performing the magic, it was going to be Shane and not the squirrel.

[Shane Wallsly]

Day Season, Year

Shane was a little surprised that it was an above ground structure but it was more or less as he had thought. A whole settlement in one house. He wondered if even Pycons had much breathing space in such a small area. He wondered if they had miniature parks or if they just wondered off into nature when they felt like a walk. Being as small, and not so much made of meat, as they were Shane reckoned they weren't on the to-do list of many predators.

“Hmm, you make your buildings out of clay or do you use it for other things?” He asked as the Pycon mentioned that they would need a good deal of clay for their settlements. “I know you mentioned that it was used for reproduction but do you use it for any other reason? Do you eat it, for instance?”

“I meant Pycons.” Shane sighed as the pycon mistook his question. “Were you made pre or post valterrian? As a race I mean?”

Shane sighed as the Pycon asked for his reading. “Hmm, okay then. You have answered a lot of questions so you deserve your reading now.” Shane sat back in his chair and took himself a deep breath. “Okay I want you to relax now.” Shane's voice was low and a little more rhythmic. He did not use hypnotism however for he simply had no idea if it would work against a Pycon. “Make yourself as comfortable as possible.”

Shane took a deep breath and shut his eyes. He called forth the power within and when he opened his eyes again the world was bathed in that technicolor extravaganza that was the world's truest form. Quickly he sifted through the myriad auras to come to Archilist's own. It was a very strange aura. He'd never felt one like this before. It was just covered in clay. It was so unavoidable and strange. When Shane read the auras of humans he never felt like he was overcome by the fleshiness of it but the pycons aura had this heavy stink of clay to it. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before.

The longer he focussed the more a certain sensation dawned on him. It was hard to grasp. Perhaps it was even out of his reach but he had to reach for it. He took a deeper breath and drew more of his power to look even deeper. There was something there. It was a trace... A trace of... of magic. It didn't seem new as if the pycon had been using magic but permanent almost as if it were a part of the pycon. This was strange. Archailist had said a prophet had been granted the power to create them via a God. Was it a magical power? A magical discipline that could breathe life into clay? This was incredible. Shane had to find out what this was. He had to research the Pycons. He had to find out as much as possible about their creator but - oh and this was a heavy but – he needed to finish this reading first.

Shane closed his eyes hard and let the power return to it's place. He took a deep shaky breath. That had been hard. The trace had been very, very deep in the aura. He'd stretched his limits somewhat. He opened his eyes and looked at the pycon normally again. He had to give the Pycon a reading. All he'd done so far was exploit the little fellow for information and then exploit his aura for even more information. Right he needed to get this show on the road.

“Okay,” He said in a dramatic voice “I have summoned the power of Auristics unto my eyes.” He told the Pycon in a loud and dramatic voice. He closed his eyes ad waved his hands mystically in front of his face covering up the fact that he was really actually sdumoning the power again just now. When he opened his eyes he really did have the power and he mock gasped as if the power was great to behold. He focussed again on the clay aura trying to get past that clay to the sentient creature beneath.

“Now I want you to picture home and your family wherever and whoever that might be. I want you to close your eyes and imagine them now.” He told the squirrel in his best mystic voice. Most of the reading was really just for show but he wanted people to feel as if they'd felt great power here not simple run of the mill auristics.