[OPEN] A Tale Told By an Idiot

[therevanchist]

Who: Revan and Whoever
What: Misled by the badass title, Revan attempts to read The Sound and the Fury
Where: Philly library
When: Towards the end of the Philly stay
Warnings/Notes: The Sound and the Fury is basically a nonstop parade of awful, so if you want, we can just stick to Revan not knowing what golf is or whatever to avoid dealing with early/mid-20th century race and gender issues and horrid people being horrid to each other.

[Anyone less stubborn would have given up days ago. Revan, on the other hand, is seated at a table in the reference section, surrounded by books pulled from all over the library, none of which seem to have any relationship to each other. A copy of the Concise Oxford, still large enough to brain livestock. A single-volume history of Germany and another one about the state of Mississippi. The official rules of golf. A biography of Thomas Jefferson and a history of Cambridge, England, both pushed off to one side. Harvard Observed: An Illustrated History of the University in the Twentieth Century, published of course by Harvard University Press. Several slim books about Easter, all obviously for children. And so forth.

Directly in front of her, stuffed full of flimsy paper bookmarks printed with the library's hours pilfered from the circulation desk, lies the cause of all the trouble: an unassuming paperback copy of The Sound and the Fury, with all the terrible stock photo cover design a cheap reprint of a classic entails. Revan herself is scribbling something in a spiral-bound notebook with a ballpoint, her surprise at the sheer amount of paper in the city long subsumed by irritation over this maddeningly incomprehensible book she's found.]

Why does it even matter?

Comments

[therevanchist]

[Revan taps her fingers on the table.]

If we're serious about this, I want to bring in Arturia and Brainiac.

[Arturia's an experienced general. Brainy's a prickly jerk, but he's smart.]

[greyerrant]

Agreed on Arturia. I haven't met Brainiac.

[ He looks at Revan expectantly. Damn PC charisma. ]

[therevanchist]

[Having someone instantly defer to her just seems normal. and Revan falls into the commander role without noticing.]

If we need to improvise weapons, he's our man. Touchy, but a genius.

[greyerrant]

I'm familiar with the type. I'll step lightly around him and let him do his work.

That still leaves the question of basic equipment and weapons, though. I think Arturia has the only sword I've seen on our side, thus far.

[therevanchist]

Sariatu and Shuichi both have swords, and there might be others I don't know about. Dixon's shield works as a weapon, but he's in terrible shape. [Does she mean the injury or the fact he's a heavy smoker who doesn't exercise? Yes.] Shuichi is...barely more than a child, really, and not willing to use his.

[So, she's agreeing with Loken.]

My own weapons don't work.

[Still pissed about the lightsabers? Still pissed about the lightsabers.]

I don't know how long we'll be able to hold an enemy we can't hurt. I'm not willing to spend lives to achieve nothing.

[Don't mind her, just instinctively assuming it's her call to make.]

[greyerrant]

Even a moment's more time is worth a life, as long as we can gain it. and it isn't like I have long anyway, I suspect.

[ He frowns more deeply when she mentions her weapons doesn't work and says. [

What sort of weapons did you use?

[therevanchist]

Lightsabers, but hang on.

[Revan holds up a hand to forestall the shop talk that she really would like to do, because lightsabers, but this is important.]

You don't know what influence they'll be able to exert over you. Maybe you wouldn't be going to your death.

[The implication being he'd be going to something worse. The dark side is tricky like that, bro.]

[greyerrant]

You think they could bend me to their will?

[ Loken isn't sure if he's worried or insulted. He's always remained loyal to humanity's cause. ]

[therevanchist]

[He doesn't get to arrange a mercy kill with someone and then be insulted when she starts talking worst-case scenarios.]

Just touching one of the blades knocked me out. Back home, I'd have been able to shrug it off. Something about this place is weakening people.

[A tactful way of driving home her point, just ignore all the people who gained powers, please.]

So yes, I think it's possible.

[greyerrant]

A good point. If I had my abilities from home I'd have made that entire hilltop a charnel house.

Or even just my boltgun, really. That would have been enough, let alone my war plate or chainsword.

[therevanchist]

[She snorts. It's almost a laugh, but too tired for that.]

I'd have made short work of that mess, too. Even a working saber would have changed the odds.

[Revan shifts around in her seat to let her reach under her robe to the small of her back where she's moved her useless sabers. If they were still on her hips, she might try to draw them by accident.

Emitter safely pointed away from Loken, she flicks the power switch, and once again nothing happens.

Sigh.]

We're not really ranged fighters.

[Except for all those times you throw your saber or deflect a blaster bolt into the person who fired it or sweep people ten meters away off their feet with the Force, Revan.]

[greyerrant]

What is that? Looks like a lasweapon, or a digital laser? Maybe a torch of some sort?

[ Loken blinks a few times at the lightsaber then says. ]

No. You're holding it like a hilt. Is that a power sword without any actual metal on the blade?

[therevanchist]

Plasma blade in a magnetic sheath.

[Revan holds her hand out to indicate the length of the blade when switched on.]

It'll deflect ranged weapons and cut through just about anything.

[She locks down the power switch in the off position and flips the hilt around in her hand, offering it to Loken if he wants to take a closer look. Normally she wouldn't be so cavalier, but the weapon's pretty much decorative at this point.]

[greyerrant]

Ah, makes sense. Fairly deadly, in the right hands. [ He takes the blade and gives it an appraising look. ]

I prefer things with a bit more heft, but I can see the artistry of it. This wasn't mass-produced, was it?

[therevanchist]

A Jedi crafts their own at the end of their apprenticeship. The focusing crystals alone are rare enough to kill over.

[Another snort.]

Very artistic, very valuable deadweight.

[Still, telling Revan her lightsaber is awesome (she knows, thank you) is an excellent way to get into her good graces.]

[greyerrant]

Well, a thing still has value, even if it doesn't serve the purpose it once did. I kept a length of wire I used to slay an opponent I fought over the course of a week in my quarters, simply because it was the best and hardest fight I ever fought. I wouldn't use it as a wire, or a garrotte anymore, but it was a reminder of a well-earned victory.

[ Aren't all of his tales just lovely? ]

But what is a Jedi?

[therevanchist]

[Revan, always good at picking up a cue, reacts with the same degree of casualness with which he tells the story. That's...charming, Loken.]

We're a monastic order, mediators and peacekeepers. Warriors when we have to be.

[Which is basically always, if she's being honest.]

We take in children who're...I'd say Force-sensitive, but you called me a "psyker" when you saw me use telekinesis.

[And he didn't seem happy about it.

She holds out a hand, levitating The Sound and the Fury above her upturned palm.]

[greyerrant]

I am familiar with such things. They are not unknown to the Imperium of man, though they were strictly regulated and forbidden amongst the rank and file of the Adeptus Astartes. In fact, there was a large trial of sorts and those that manifested such abilities within our ranks were ordered to experiment no further with it. It was enforced. For a time.

[ He sighs, still uncertain of the wisdom of the judgement of Nikea. ]


Which was also a monastic order of a sort, though a far more militant one. We were warriors first and foremost, the tip of the Emperor's spear as he carried the light of enlightenment into a benighted galaxy that had nearly destroyed humanity.

I shall be honest, such things stand close to sorcery to me, and it was sorcery that has set my galaxy afire. So I am... upset by it. Forgive me.

[therevanchist]

[This Emperor guy doesn't sound all that nice, sorry to say.

Revan lets the book drop into her hand and then sets it back down on the table, shaking her head.]

Nothing to forgive. When one of us goes bad, it's ugly. I don't blame you for being wary, especially if you've seen something similar firsthand.

[Loken's going to look back on this conversation in a few months when she comes clean and be very annoyed, isn't he.]

[greyerrant]

[ So annoyed. Also, how dare! Big E is clearly the best and certain not an overly ambitious jerkass who made a lot of foolish mistakes that ended up biting him in the ass. }

It turned sons against fathers, and fathers against sons. I still bear the scars of that war. And once my time is done here, I hope to return and finish it.

[therevanchist]

I left in the middle of a war, too. This...whatever it is has bad timing.

[She slouches down in her chair, not really wanting to think about home and her own fate, but unable to avoid it given the direction the conversation has taken.]

[greyerrant]

[ Loken actually touches Revan. Putting a hand on her shoulder in a gesture of peculiarly human solidarity. ]

It rankles to leave things half done. To know that the people you are defending and who depend on you are.. without you for the moment. It weighs on me as well. If you wish to unburden yourself, I will listen.

[therevanchist]

[Revan doesn't realize how unusual that is, and just smiles up at him tiredly.]

Civil war. If my mission fails, the fallen members of my Order are going to take over the galaxy.

[So, no pressure or anything.

Loken seems decent enough, but there's no way she's discussing Darth Revan with him.]

[greyerrant]

So the same as me, only it's my father leading the Traitors.

I understand.

[ He looks incredibly sad, when he says that. ]

And for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I know what a wrench it is to war with those who you trusted and held close.

[therevanchist]

[Exactly the same except for the part where she's Horus. I'm sure this will not be at all awkward later.]

It started with the best of intentions. A faction of Jedi led the Republic fleets to repel an invasion by the Mandalorian clans and won. They chased the stragglers into the Unknown Regions at the edge of the galaxy, and when they came back they'd turned to the dark side, every last one of them. I wish I knew what happened out there.

[She wishes she knew what happened to her. Revan sighs and looks up at Loken again.]

Do you know why your father made his choice?

[Asking for a friend.]