Exile on Main Street

[Bjorn]

Bjorn frowns.  "Ceran... wait.  I got a phone call from someone named Ceran, telling me to get in touch with Pax Arcana.  That was right before the Workshop picked me up.

"And I hate to be insensitive, but how do you know the Oracle is gone?"

[Rezantis]

"I don't know.  Since there's no body to find, I'll never know.  She had a timed 'If you're reading this, I'm already dead' email that I received, though.  She was in the dream world, holed up somewhere, trying to buy herself time and waiting.  I know we got Manos, and I'd hoped we'd been in time but . . . but it's been some time, and she said there was more than one.  She could still be out there, and just sent the email off to confuse people but . . . I don't really believe that."

Rez trails off.

"Ceran's the Pax Arcana AI, just like Manos was the Seventh Cabal one.  Manos is gone, I think; from what I was told you can't just back up one of these entities."

[Bjorn]

"Well, that's not quite true, is it?" Bjorn says thoughtfully.  "After all, somebody managed to upload a copy of the Oracle onto your server, and you downloaded it.  Any number of copies could have theoretically been made along the way.

"As for the email -- how would something in a 'dream world' be able to trigger an email being sent?"

[Rezantis]

"I'd guess the same way she got herself there in the first place.  I mean, I know when I was in that dream, I was still aware of what was going on around me . . . since she managed to get herself there unaided, I'd just guess she can do stuff.  Besides, you never saw how good she was at the computer stuff, being an AI and all . . ."

"I don't know if it works like that, though.  I mean, I've got no idea how the metaphysics of something like this could even begin to be possible, but from some of the things she said when she wouldn't let me into her core directory, I'd guess that it's not.  Although . . ."

Rez brings up Ayame's last email on his laptop, and turns the screen to show Bjorn.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn reads the email, twice, and then leans back.  "Well.  Fairly clear, in most regards.  But it's worth pointing out that 'fallen' isn't dead.  A lot of people have been hunting the Oracle, it seems like, and she's got to be worth more alive and imprisoned than dead."

[Rezantis]

"Mm.  Maybe.  But I know Manos wanted to destroy her, and I also know that she'd been left in storage for some time before this incident . . . thanks, though."

[Bjorn]

Bjorn shrugs.  "Giving up on people before you've seen their body seems like a good way to make sure they become bodies.  Anyways, step one is to take care of her... daughter, right?"

[Rezantis]

"If I see anything, or hear anything, I'll jump, you have no idea . . . and yeah, pretty much.  I sent an email, now I'm just waiting, and in the meantime hacking at our wonderful stolen hard drives to see if I can dig anything useful out.  If nothing else, it should be interesting reading if I can get through."

[Bjorn]

"Well, don't drive yourself blind," Bjorn says, rising and stretching.  "I think I'm going to go meditate for a bit... unless there's any good books lying around."

And with a parting nod at Rez, Bjorn goes to explore the upstairs library.

[Rezantis]

"We've got lego, if you want."

Rez goes back to his hackery (again).

[Brian]

The upstairs library is actually pretty big, considering it's part of what appears all-around to be a lower-middle-class country house in California.

Most of the bookshelves contain a random assortment of sci-fi, fantasy, and a collection of fantasy art books.  There's a Boris Valejo collection book right next to the Atlas of the Land of Thomas Covenant.  Looking up, the entire Xanth series (up to date as of '95) is sharing shelf space with the Illearth War and the Mirror of Her Dreams.  To the left, hardcovers abound, center stage showing the Belgariad (two anthologies) and the Mallorean (individual hard-bound books), and beyond that, every single book ever writen by Harlan Ellison and Steven King combined.  Back against the 'shop' area of the upstairs is a reference section, filled with a sad and outdated looking Atlas of the World, a dusty but pristine Encyclopedia Britanica, and dozens of books on the occult.  And one book on oragami.

[Bjorn]

Bjorn sighs, and grabs the occult books.  After all, he thinks sourly, I'm practically living in one of these.

Going back to sit on the futon (Shinmyouken carefully placed within reach, and where he won't forget he put it), he starts to read.

[Dracos]

Dracos, out of idle whimsy, investigates the house.  Goal being to try and figure out who's house it is.

Dracos

[Brian]

Bjorn:  The exercise is about as exciting as reading most text books.  It takes you a good sixteen pages of the first book you grabbed to realize it was actually thinly veiled Scientologist propganda.  The second is better, offering insight into 'dealing with the fay' (sounds a bit fanciful, still) and 'new age versus old age: Magic and Psyhic Powers'.  Some few bits resonate with what you've experienced with telepathy so far.

But nothing about beings like Ashnod....

[Brian]

Dracos: Investigating the house yields spooky results.  Judging by the clues lying around, a family of five people lived there.

A huge stack of paperwork next to the recliner closest to the door (labeled 'billing') seems to belong to one 'G. Morgana Llewelyn'.  This name is familiar to you, because she is the woman who sold you your claymore.  Judging by the reciepts stashed in the dusty manilla folder you're digging through, her husband (who in her story had recently passed away) was named David Randall.