I'm migrating my web sites from one server to another so there are somethings that might break with the wiki and hosted images. But it's only temporary.

I messed something up on the old server and I want to hit the latest OS and the latest software so I'm going to do this migration to clean up my stuff.

Henrik and Stephan heeded the high alert. There was a god in their ranks. One who had confessed to murder. One who had signed the registry after his confession. They hadn't recovered yet from their foolhardy adventure chasing foreigners and professionals. No they were to hunt gods. It was their calling. Their only calling.

This kid knew how they operated. He'd been in HQ. He was American but he came from generations of cowboy Atharim. Men and women just like him - hunting creatures and gods. And he was a god! How could they not have known? Had they seen him walking through the halls?

They signed their names to the mission slip. They would hunt him. Their greatest achievement yet!

Marcus DuBois' foray with Vellas had yielded some fruit, he supposed. EM weapons were a bane and learning to detect their use, let alone guard against it, was hard coming. Still, the connection with Vellas was there now, however faint. There was no love lost between the men.

Then again, Marcus believed he was not capable of love, not anymore, that emotion having been burned away through all the years in the cauldron that was his childhood. He refused to think of his brother Andre in Chicago. Ascendancy had asked him to make contact but that had been futile. Andre was and would forever remain lost in the backwater that was America, clinging to the belief that they were still relevant.

At Marcus' accession to Consul over the Consulate on Channeler Oversight, he had reached out, offered him a place in Moscow as well as a connection to get onto the CCDPD there. Restructuring was going on, though slowly, of that department and already research was being done by hundreds of lawyers and legislators over how the laws would have to be rewritten to cover the Ascendants now that they were out of the closet.

And that was only the half of it. The revelation of the Atharim and the things they hunted added the need for still more laws. Was it legal to kill a creature such as the one that had nearly killed the Ascendancy merely for existing? Did they have rights?

Marcus had his own opinions about things like that, but at least for now, he had enough on his plate.

More than enough. As Consul, it was primarily up to him and his newly formed team to begin set up the Consulate, setting the parameters of oversight, the organizational structure, and so on. The Ascendancy had been clear. Vellas would oversee the military aspect of channeling, taking those whose abilities lay in that direction into training.

The United States had done the same, though intelligence hinted that their program had already begun earlier. That only served to light a fire among the top brass of the CCD. A new arms race had begun, every bit as dangerous as in the previous century.

Marcus hungered for control of that. Part of him did. But rulership could never be based purely on military might. Not any kind that lasted anyway. No, the real path lay in control over all aspects of the empire.

And that was where Marcus' sat, because his Consulate, per the orders of the Ascendancy, would touch the lives of everyone. His Consulate (and he did think of it as his) oversaw channeler registration. All channeler's not in military services were in his purview. They would identify those who a posed real danger to the empire and put them down. (Theo Andalain being the impetus for that.) Whether that involved Vellas' strike team remained to be seen. Marcus would push to have their own autonomy in that regard.

People with talents like Jensen James and even himself would also be identified and nurtured, with the CDD (and his Consulate first) being the recipients of those gifts. While Marcus might have discovered the way to craft metallic parts that used the Force to resist any breakdown, he would never become a factory unto himself. But others could. If he chose to share, that is. More and more, he was considering it. At least the manufacture. It was tiring but not overly so, nor was the method too dificult.

What would that do to manufacturing in the CCD? Machinery and parts that never wore down. Vehicles and weapons that would not break. He could almost see it, see the flow of products and wealth and power.

The cold war was not just going to be fought with channelers. While the US had a probable jump on channelers, conventional weapons would never become obsolete. The registration was already giving an idea of what percentage of the population was Ascendant and while they were many in number, the percentage was quite low- not even in the single digits. No, the need for conventional weapons would not disappear.

And who knew. Given Ascendancy's age and health, it was a simple projection to believe that all of them would live a long time. With long life came a new way of looking at things. Projects that took decades could be planned and carefully husbanded. Knowledge could grow in a mind that was sharp and vibrant, work of decades continually expanded upon.

The Consulate would plug these Ascendants into the CCD to make what was already the world's only superpower more advanced than what could be imagined.

And Marcus would sit at the center of that, overseeing it all. With long life came a long game. Vellas might be head of the military wing of the channelers now, but would that be the case in 50 years? Especially if Marcus continued to apply the same scientific principles that had already helped him.

Brute force was no match for science, technology and ruthless cunning. History taught that lesson clearly. Cortez and Moctezuma. The British and India or among the Aborigines. The game would be very long. Vellas and any others who stood in his way. And then, one day, the Ascendancy. One day.

And so Marcus sat in his room, clouded in what considered justified arrogance, surfing the net, in a rare moment of quiet. Very rare- and too short. There was not enough time to do any real research or study in his own projects. He'd have to find the time, though. Hopefully.

Malik squirmed. Time...he needed time for Malik too. The hunger was beginning to become noticeable. Almaz was out of the question now. And going off hunting would be difficult since his face was becoming more well known. Of course, the trick he'd learned from Oakland might be the answer there. Indeed, it was obvious.

Sated he would hunt soon, Malik quieted. And Marcus read news reports- The nation; World. He skipped Entertainment and went on to Tech, noting where his discovery might be useful. Then Science.

It was there that he stopped. Read the article, clicked the link to the Abstract, and from there went to the full paper. He had to slog through it. His knowledge of physics, while not cursory, was certainly not at this level. Not by a long shot. He reread sections multiple times, trying to understand what had been discovered.

After some time, he thought he had a good idea of the bigger picture. The details, though, simply were beyond his ken, at least at the moment. He had no doubt with enough time and study, he could get it. But it would take too long and he simply didn't have the time right now.

He was well aware that there were people who were experts in things he knew nothing of. That was the way of the universe. He was quite comfortable with that fact. A Sith would not feel diminished by it. As long as they could be trusted to do their work and were loyal, they could be useful.

This Danika Zayed was worth meeting. Because there was something in her work that seemed familiar. The equations she used in to describe the newly discovered dark matter fermion that behaved as Bose-Einstein condensates had a form that seemed related to the eigenvector of the "twistiness" term in his Tau algebra. Not the same. But the structure of the matrix, the.....he searched for the right term....the flavor seemed similar.

It was something he couldn't pass up. He would make the time.

He composed an email to Dr. Zayed, asking her to meet. The signature at the bottom made it clear who was asking. He hoped she didn't take long to answer.

He couldn't help the slight excitement that he felt. He even allowed himself to smile. Not the excitement of the hunt. Not the pleasure he took in manipulating a person.

This was a different excitement, though he couldn't exactly place it.


Edited by Marcus DuBois, Aug 11 2017, 07:12 PM.

It hadn't gone as Nox expected. The needle, the questioning, they believed him. The fact that he was Atharim should have made him sit in jail for the immediate future but here Ivan was walking him out of the building. Coffee. Nox wasn't sure why he wanted to be away from the other cops to discuss whatever it was he wanted. But Nox went with it.

It was a good distraction from his personal life. Sleeping with Jay, breaking up with Elyse, Sage's advances. It was all too much. And he hadn't been sleeping well to begin with now he had this shit to think about too. Not to mention the fact that Dane and Aria were back together and it was his fault. This was a cluster fuck if he'd ever seen one.

There was a coffee shop near them. While it was busy it might hide the fact that they were discussing extraordinary things. Monsters and magic and all things Atharim. Why he didn't tap Dorian for the information was beyond him. Nox wasn't going to be much help. And the fact that he had just confessed to murdering a thing and being Atharim. And being a god. He was fucked. There was only one thing he could think of doing that might protect him and that was letting the world know he Nox Durante was Atharim AND a god. And the best way to do that - was to tell the government. Sure Ascendancy already knew. But his underlings - they didn't. That stupid form might just save his life. Because Nox knew that the Atharim already had him on most wanted. If not for Aria, he just did it himself all to help out Dorian. Which also meant Dorian was fucked.

Nox ordered a coffee and sat down at a table and waited for Ivan to finish up his order. Just fuck!

Ivan sat down and Nox gave him his best smile. "I assume you have questions you don't want your fellow cops to hear so let's get this over with."
Nox pulled out his wallet and pulled up that website for the form and stared at it while he waited for Ivan to ask his questions.


Edited by Nox, Aug 9 2017, 07:11 AM.

Just testing something

Is anyone else having problems with Active topics Link and the Viewing who was online in the past 24 hours?

It's not acting up on my phone so curious if it's a browser thing or something else...

Continued from:
here

Jared chuckled at Jay's comment regarding his knowledge of underground cities. "I was a member of the Roswell SWAT team - we've dealt with our share of weirdos for sure."


Jared kept his voice down, but didn't whisper. That tended to draw more attention. "So what have you done to try to learn control. I'm new at this teaching thing, so it might help to know what has worked and what hasn't."

It had been a tough few weeks. All the help from the channeling doctor was only so good when he still had withdrawal symptoms. He'd gotten in a small fix the other night - watching Nox and Jay. That had been a night. A stressful anxiety ridden night that almost ended the same way if it hadn't been for a bottle of very expensive whiskey. At least that's what Sage thought it was. The following morning was interesting too. He got to see Nox naked and Sage hadn't hidden the lustful glances he gave Aurora's little brother. Hell he had wanted to kiss him, he should have instead of just teasing him. But Nox admitted to being confused. He'd waited this long, Sage could wait a little longer. Though Nox knew he had feelings for the channeler.

But now Sage had to man up and go back to the University and meet with the real doctor, the one who was going to open up his head and look around. While he was fucking awake. Sage wished Nox was there, but he'd have to do this alone. He was used it, but having a friend had been good, but Nox was busy. Sage didn't know where he was, he hadn't seem in since that morning. Which made him regret not kissing the other man.

Sage was admitted and was waiting for his lovely doctors to join him. He was wearing one of those stupid gowns that revealed everything and his thoughts would betray his arousal so he thought about other things... though nothing compared at the moment since he couldn't see any information. Sage sighed and leaned back and stared at the ceiling trying to remember the feeling of information flowing through his mind. He so wanted to jack back in... but Nox had the hardware, though he could wire in... It was a thought. Inconvenient, but a thought...

Does anyone else here love Robin Hobb as much as I do?

My local bookshop made the most glorious mistake on Saturday and allowed me to collect a copy of Assassin's Fate five days before it's supposed to be published.

I'm torn between devouring it as quickly as possible and not daring to read it because it's finally the end. Agh!

Nox had stood in the study for a while after Elyse left. He hadn't felt Dorian touch his arm and when he looked at the other man he saw concern. Nox shook it away and put on a happy smile. "Let's go.
The smile covered the confusion on the inside. He'd lied to himself for so any years. Was he lying to himself now to make things look right with what happened with Jay.

His memories conflicted with the modified ones he'd always told himself. He did remember his sister though, her smile when he told her about his night after the concert. That smile was real. He knew it because he rarely saw it. They didn't have a happy life after their mother had died.

Dorian drove to the precinct. He was oddly quiet. He didn't say anything, Nox didn't say anything. It was a good thing. Inside the passenger seat Nox knew his smile had faded to reflect his dour mood. But once it stopped he put on his smile and stepped out. "Let's get this over with."


Dorian looked at him and frowned. "This isn't some joke Nox."


Nox laughed. "Sure it is, Dorian. I'm about to turn myself in to the human police for killing a monster they will undoubtedly tell me was human. And if I'm right, others are dead too and I'm going to get the blame for it. Which is why you just paled right now. Cause I'm right. I'm taking the fall for the Atharim. Best fucking joke in the world."
Nox grinned at Dorian but there was heat in his eyes. Not only was he Atharim, he was a god. And now the whole world was going to know. Teach him right for saving people. Nox sighed and lead Dorian into the building.

Once inside Nox had every intention of stepping up to the front desk and saying 'I need to confess a murder.' but Dorian took his arm and tugged him away from that desk and down into a different hall.

Somewhere in the back/basement somewhere in the bowels of the precinct building Dorian put him in a small room with a metal table, two chairs, all of which were bolted to the floor. There was a two way mirror against the wall facing Nox, when he sat down farthest from the door. There was a camera in the corner opposite the door. "I'm going to go get someone else, since I know you."
Dorian said as he slipped out the door and closed it behind him.

Nox sighed. Dorian didn't want to be the one to question him. He didn't blame him, but Nox had seen enough television to know how this went. Dorian hadn't cuffed him to the table, which was obviously something they could do. Not that their piddly handcuffs would stop Nox if he truly wanted to make a mess of things. Which he didn't. Nox waited patiently for someone to join him in his own private hell. It's not like he didn't have plenty of things to think about with his jumbled memories, the nights activities with Jay, Sage's come on, his utter failure as a boyfriend. There was plenty to think about.


Edited by Nox, Apr 27 2017, 04:14 PM.