OOCS, Into A Wider Galaxy, Part 630

First

Tread Softy Around Sorcerers

“Are you sure?” Torn’Satha the Larger asks.

“Go for it.” Torn’Satha the smaller says as his larger counterpart looks at the mushroom he has growing off a wall. It’s a normal capped mushroom, just growing where it shouldn’t and in the wrong direction. Making the rusty red capped fungus look closer to a target than anything else. The Larger shrugs and then throws a light punch into the cap.

The mushroom is unmoved and Torn’Satha the Larger raises an eyebrow. Then he takes a wide stance, reels back and then throws a MASSIVE punch directly into the mushroom. His fist stops and the mushroom is not damaged. He blinks at that.

“That’s as hard as I can punch without Axiom and it’s easily hard enough to shatter my own unaugmented bones if I strike something unyielding. But this thing does wield, and completely absorbed the impact.” He says in a deeply interested tone.

“And?” Torn’Satha the Smaller asks.

“... I’m going to stress test this thing.”

“Do it!” The Smaller cheers and Torn’Satha the Larger hauls back and throws a massive telegraphed punch right into the mushroom as Axiom dances through his form.

It doesn’t even make a sound. So he throws another with even more Axiom. Then another. Then he gets into a rhythm as he punches faster and faster and faster, drawing in more and more Axiom as the Mushroom in unfazed by the barrage even as Torn’Satha the Larger’s punches grow to have so much force behind them that he’s kicking up a small windstorm with his swings.

Then there is a roaring final swing with a massive rush of Axiom and a huge rush of air in all directions that actually rattles the exercise equipment and he pauses. Turns and looks around. “I thought it was all bolted down better than that.”

“Why do you know how to punch that hard?” The Smaller asks.

“It really, really helps when venting frustration.” The Larger says before chuckling. “Also for making a point.”

“What happened?”

“A local star-ship manufacturer was being inspected by mother and I was with her at the time. There had been some safety concerns and it’s a bit of a tradition to show up in person at random businesses for inspections to keep people on their game. The manufacturer insisted that a model of ship was sturdy enough to resist slamming into the planet and I disagreed before denting one of the ship’s side in with a bare fist and sending it skidding into another, which continued on with it to crash into a third. Mother used it as an excuse to call up everything she could for a full inspection and lo and behold, they were lying about the full thickness of the outer hull plating.”

“By how much?”

“Her ships were insured to last at least a century barring combat or pilot error. But not a minute longer. She was effectively shaving down on the hull integrity to save on materials and force repeat customers.”

“Over a century? Isn’t that still a long time?”

“It can be, but it’s also why it needed a proper inspection to really find. I was just making a point and being a brat. Giving mother a perfectly acceptable in without it looking like she was overstepping power.”

“But... don’t we rule?”

“Rulership is a balance between the ruled and the ruler. If you can keep the people well entertained, feeling purposeful and well provided for then generally there are few problems. But little things can build up if you insist on things too much. Granted it can fade away, but it’s best to be ahead on those kinds of things. That way you have some extra social and authoritative capital to get things done if there’s an emergency or something you want to push through.”

“So...”

“Nobility only remains nobility if they can avoid convincing their people that the price of deposing them is less than the price of suffering them further.” Torn’Satha the Larger says.

“That sounded like a quote.”

“It was. Our great, great grandmother was a pretentious sort and made her ‘words of wisdom’ as part of a few educational programs.” Torn’Satha the Larger says. “Right, well, I’ve vented, we’ve talked and it’s clear that neither of us are a dribbling maniac or programmed to go wild the moment we see another us, so we need to talk about more important things.”

“Such as?” Torn’Satha the Smaller says.

“Names. You’re Torn’Satha and so am I. And unfortunately there are enough idiots running around where something like that is going to legitimately get in the way of things.” Torn’Satha the Larger says as he heads to a nearby rack and quickly shakes himself before starting to layer on more clothing and goes from a man rippling in muscle to a man with simply broad shoulders and expensive silks.

“Okay, well I can be Awesome Torn’Satha and you can be Torn’Satha.” Torn’Satha the smaller says and The Larger snorts in amusement.

“Maybe something else. The real question is, do you want the old name? Regardless of which one of us is the original, I’ve been wearing it and stretching it out for a while now. If people use it, they’re going to think of me.” Torn’Satha the Larger says and The Smaller considers. There is a sudden twist of Axiom and his broad left shoulder now has The Smaller sitting on it.

“Kinda makes me want to take it to see if I can’t make it fit me.” Torn’Satha the Smaller says. “But... well... hmm... the name isn’t for our sake. Is it?”

“No.”

“Hmm... then if it’s for the dummies then... hmm... what should my name be then?” The Smaller asks.

“So you want me to hold the old name?”

“You make a good point. It makes sense and I’ll go with it. Not like I haven’t had all sorts of changes.” Torn’Satha the Smaller says. “Dare is a good name.”

“Kind of common though.” Torn’Satha the Larger says as they reach the door out of the gym and he opens it.

“What made you think that was ANYTHING related to a good idea!?” A furious voice echoes through the building and Torn’Satha the Larger lets out a whistle.

“... Well that kicked open an old memory! Maybe I am the original!” Torn’Satha the Smaller exclaims. “Why was she sent anyways?”

“I said sent, but Warli’Satha volunteered the moment she heard about some important and private family business.”

“Yeah but... with The Rival thing you’d think you’d only let her out at controlled times or something, try to keep a lid on things.”

“Doesn’t work and that’s cruel. She hasn’t actually committed any crime. It’s not illegal to dislike someone. And... well the question of just how much in the way of control she has over it is in question. We don’t know if she’s some kind of a puppet on a string or if something else is going on. Is she a victim? Is she the perpetrator? Is something else happening? For all we know some sort of rancour spirit is inhabiting the empty vessel of her body and the rivalry dying is the spirit taking up the next generation and freeing her. But she’s been like that the whole time and so she wouldn’t know the difference between it being there and not except she doesn’t just mindlessly hate anymore.”

“Uh...”

“Sorry, Vero’Satha, a cousin of ours, he’s a creative type and for a gag put together the most outlandish theories on The Rivals imaginable. It was funny stuff.”

“How big is the family?”

“You and I are the main line. We’re sixty eight strong, eggs from both mother and her sister wives are incubating. The family likes to space out births between children so that they don’t have a small army of screaming infants all at once. It’s fairly traditional among noble families. The branches however are well off business women and the occasional men. Many of them are trained as knights, courtiers, house guards and the like. The main family may hold the power, but we reciprocate the loyalty of our cousins.”

“Does that include the other cousins?”

“If not for The Rivals it would.”

“The more I hear about them the more it sounds like...”

“A really weird conspiracy? Yes. That’s also been looked into. The whole situation is supernaturally weird. We even tried to get around it for a few generations by not allowing any Rivals to have children to see if it was blood based but no. If the line of The Rivals doesn’t reproduce then it shows up in another line. And if they do have children then only half of the time does the next generation appear there.”

“I can’t imagine a woman who’s got an endless hate-on for someone else would be someone who could... you know, get into a state to be able to lay eggs.”

“Yeah... but if you can compliment The Rivals for anything it’s that they’re really, really dutiful. If they are told it is their duty to do something then it is done. Maybe with a few fights in the way, because no matter what happens their synced up to the other. But it does work out.”

“So... has no one tried to like separate them? Like have one of them sent out on a long task in one place and the other in a distant one, so they have no chance of running into each other?”

“Often. They run into each other anyways. Just last month Warli was sent out as an attache and observer to some of the sector defence fleets while Bruna was doing the same with allied house guards planetside to find holes in the defences so they could be sealed up. Both serious jobs that were also so seriously far away from each other it could be measured in lightyears. They ended up in direct communication with each other while the emergency channels and reinforcement beacons were being checked. It resulted in a six hour screaming fit at each other that no one with any sense of self preservation wanted to be anywhere near.”

“And no one interrupted?”

“The interruptions made it worse. Whenever one happened they’d get right back into contact with each other and accuse the other of base cowardice, duplicity and then it would just keep going all over again, but somehow harder.”

“... This is so stupid.”

“Yes.”

“And there’s no way around it?”

“None anyone has found. And we have called on Sorcerers before. Made a full on pilgrimage to the homeworld and outright kneeled under the boughs of The Dark Forest for help. The Sorcerer that showed up was just as confused about everything as we were.”

“Yes, that was... that was odd.” A new figure says and Torn’Satha the Larger steps away before pausing.

“Please don’t do that.” He says and Barraz’Xor The Bladebreaker shrugs.

“Why did you do that?”

“I was paying attention, seeing how much I could see through from Serbow. I heard part of the conversation and decided to help a touch.”

“Have you learned anything else?”

“Only that the humans have found out some new oddities. The Rivals are an inexplicable oddity, like Matriarch Syndrome. It simply occurs with unknown mechanisms and sources but predictable results. The humans have found some among their own ranks, and two of them have pushed it so far they’ve gained a greater understanding of it.” Barraz’Xor explains and Torn’Satha the Smaller considers and closes his eyes as he sends a question to Jacob.

Jacob sends a question elsewhere and then relays the strange answer.

“They have three types. One is stealth related, but they found a way to toy with it. The other two are awareness, one always knows what he has even if has no way to. And the other always knows if and from where they’re being watched. If you can sense them, they can sense you.”

“I hope they’re not on Centris, that whole world is a crawling sprawl of cameras and stupid conspiracy.”

“They are apparently. And apparently if there’s something sufficiently weird we can call them in to investigate, but they’re going to be recording and documenting everything.”

“Right now?” Torn’Satha the Larger asks.

“... apparently not. Both of the specialists that can help and actually take in some information are apparently overworked and have been forced onto medically mandated breaks.”

“Does that happen often with the humans?” Torn’Satha the Smaller asks.

“Apparently yes, but the ones we have out here are exceptional ones. And I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing. They’re making the rest of us look listless and lazy.”

“We are listless and lazy, we have all the time to do whatever we want. So why not? By the way what does listless mean?” Torn’Satha the Smaller asks and the laughter of his larger brother quickly follows.

First Last