RP:Temporal Affairs
Blut traversed the desert riding on a large sand wyvern that he befriended a while back. The creature created waves of sand as Blut held onto it's hair to keep himself steady as he approached the temple. The creature stopped and reared it's head out of the sand giving off a large roar when blt pulled the hair slightly indicating he reached his destination. Blut got off patting the beat on the head before chucking it some meat. The creature returned to the sands as blut continued the rest of the journey by foot. He draped his hood over his head to shield it from the sands rage and to hide his identity. He got to the tempel looking for the old man in the temple unsure of which age his mind is in now. "Hey old man wolfs come to pay." The man yelled out. Over his left shoulder slung a bag with the skulls of the assassins and a few family members. He needed to know who he was giveing the skulls to.
Algernon, looking as old as ever, jumped to his feet from the floor where he was drawing with chalk. “Who are you!” he calls out in an old man’s voice that moves in a young boy’s cadence. “Hey, my pops isn’t here, so if you want him, you’ll have to come back later.” He cants his head to the side and tries to peer around Blut’s body at the bag. “Whatchya got in there?” On the floor behind Algernon is a set of colorful chalk, worn playing cards, and marbles.
Blut looks at the man and was perplexed by the mans wordings. Pops means father and he could imagine any of the two personalities talking about their dad as such. "That depends kid whats your name" Blut said trying to confirm his theory. Someone like this would be of little use to him and he probably doesn't want to give him a heart attack cause even if he thinks he's a kid he's still a old man. And old people aren't known for handeling shocks well.
“Algernon,” the old man says in a bright childish tone. “You a friend of pops? What’s in the bag?” he asks again as he circles Blut with every intention of opening the bag and looking inside. “Anything for me?”
Blut slung the bag over to keep it out of his reach. "You could say that" Blut claimed reaching into his bag and using his slight of hand pulled a deck of cards from his sleeves as he pulled it out and handing it to the kid. Hoping that would appease his curiosity. "Here go nuts kid." Blut said as he turned to try and leave the area and maybe wait a day or two to see if his other personalities come out. Maybe even make a route of which Algernon comes at which time.
Algernon gasps excitedly as he accepts the new deck of cards. “Gee, thanks! Hey, do you like magic tricks? I know the best card tricks. Check this out.” He fans the cards. “Pick one.”
Blut sighed as he takes the card from the furthest right. Maybe he can get a leason in for free no matter how primative. He thought as he looked outside to see the state of the sun before looking back at the kid. "Alright now what" Blut asked in a calm and steady voice.
“Okay, memorize your card and put it back into the deck wherever you want.” Algernon waits for Blut to do so. “Okay, now, Oh shoot!” He loses his grip on the deck and cards go flying everywhere. “Hold on.” He flips closes his eyes and focuses. He chants a small prayer to Q’na but nothing happens. “Hold on, hold on, I promise I can…” He picks up one of the brand new cards and holds it up before his own nose. He studies it intensely and very slowly and deliberately rips the card, observing every tear and bend carefully. As her rips the card, he chants again, and suddenly the card begins to repair slowly, then faster and faster, until the fallen cards fly back into his hands, and suddenly he’s jogging backwards away from Blut, sitting back on the floor, Chalk flies back into his hand, defying gravity as time continues to wind backwards for Algernon and everything he has touched. However, the chapel remains fixed in Blut’s time period. Blut remains in the temple under his own free will. But Algernon continues to move backwards in time. The drawing of a dinosaur slowly dwindles line by line until it is just an eye on the ground. Algernon gets up and walks backwards to the back room of the temple, to the bathroom, has a wee, back to his bedroom, on his cot, sleeps, wakes up, stretches his back like an old man, mixes potions like an old man, everything backwards. Time flies faster and faster in the wrong direction for poor Algernon. Sunlight sweeps over his face in phases of dark and light, dark and light, dark and light until the days pass over Algernon (and only Algernon) in a blur. Days pass into weeks, pass into months, always moving backwards and Algernon flips between old and young and spry and bent over in arthritic pain. Suddenly he’s back in the main altar room wearing a cocksure grin. He recognizes Blut and quips, “Oy, you deaf? I said go find and kill the Porches Family of Assassins, ya dimwit!”
Blut could only look at the man is aww and annoyance. He's not sure what the hell just happened and he's not sure that he wants to know but he knows that this is going to be annoying. He sighed and shook his head as he threw the card from his hand over his shoulder before reaching into a bag and grabbing a skull. "You mean these assassins?" Blut asked as he threw the skull in a underhand throw so the old man can catch the thing. Even if it shatters both of them can repair the skulls with but a thought.
Algernon’s eyes peel open in horrified surprise. Young Adult Algernon (in his mind only, his body is old) catches the skull with ease. “Holy sh**! How did you do that? I -just- told you to kill this family, and you didn’t even leave. You just had these skulls all along? How can I trust these are the right skulls, man?”
Blut chuckled at the sight of the old man before grimmising. "So you really don't know?" Blut asked judging the mans reaction. "I've been gone for a couple of weeks it seems that your time keeps switching between your past and future so I'd advise you inspect these skulls quickly before you relapse and I lose my teacher." Blut scowled handing the man the bag filled with skulls wondering if this affects anything. Anything at all. He crossed his arms and waited as he observed the old man.
Algernon scoffs at this preposterous explanation. He examines the skulls and shakes his head. “Did you grab anything else from the coffins that proves this is the Porches?”
Blut shook his head before sighing. He reached into his pocket pulling out a golden band. it's a little rusted but after some refinement it should still be worthwhile to sellers. Blut threw the ring at the man with the engraveing of Porch on it. Clearly it was a family ring and what not. Blut tapped his foot on the ground clearly growing inpatient with the man.
Algernon stutters as he examines the ring. “I don’t understand. You say you’ve been gone for weeks? Are you a time manipulator?” He holds up a silver pocket watch the way priests hold the symbols of their gods. “Unauthorized time tampering is a punishable offense, sir! You can unravel the fabric of the universe!”
Blut shook his head as he sighed takeing out a world map which he motioned for Algernon to take. "You told me to go to Tritan yes. Things have changed alot it's not the year you think it is. Your under a delusion and you need help. You stuck in a temporal laps so keep that pocket watch in your pocket it's not me in the wrong here." Blut explained bluntly with no patience for this man if he would not take his word for value then he will just have to see for himself.
Algernon squints at the map and finds the city of Tritan is labeled as ‘Larket.’ “Larket…. What’s….” Suddenly his mind skips forward in time wildly. To Blut, it looks as though the man is seizing. Suddenly the man goes still, then stiffly bends over and massages his lower back. “Q’na above,” the old man gasps, “I’ve had a senior moment. What was I saying?” He blinks at Blut. “Who are yo—- Blut? It’s been ages. What have you…” He blinks down at the skulls, the same skulls he remembers Blut delivering the very same day he asked him to kill the assassins. “How’d you get those again? I thought I kept them. You sly thief…” The old man hobbles over to a pew and rests his weary legs. “Why are you back here, Blut?”
Blut sighed before putting his right hand into his pocket over his pocket watch. He's unsure of what the hell to say and what period he's in and turns around. "Look old man I haven't moved a step it's you darting back and forward in time. So until you get this little phase over with one of three things are happening. Your going to listen to me, your gonna give me a leason or I'm leaveing until this all brushes off" Blut ordered turning his back to the man to make it crystal clear he was not kidding about leaveing "So what's it gonna be" The man asked in a clear and calm way.
Algernon laughs dryly. “If you leave how are you going to get a lesson? I hold all the cards here, son. And time magic is a dangerous thing. What do you want to know, and why?”
Blut turned and sighed shakeing his head. Walking towards the man "Then lets get this leason over with shall we?" Blut asked politely reaching into his cloak and takeing out a age old book. "There is a concept where the caster can accelerate and decelerate their own time teach me that. Besides I'm one of the few people in the world who can handel the intensity of this magic so I learn this magic and I get better at my job. It also means the art doesn't disappear." Blut explained almost nonchalantly taking out his pocket watch ready to learn. "You don't have a objection to that do you?" Blut asked in his usual tone.
Algernon leans back in the pew as he releases a long sigh. He mulls over the decision before him and is attracted to the idea that this young man may continue the tradition, but is scared of what terrible things may befall the universe if Blut uses his powers improperly. “You want to learn how to manipulate your own place in time… it’s dangerous. You may become permanently unstuck… as you say I have become. In fact, you may be right. I have been ignoring the signs that I am temporally displaced. It’s hard to see it when it happens to you…. You run the risk of becoming like me. You still want this….?” When Blut confirms, the old man sighs again. “In order to move yourself through time you must understand your place in time. You must meditate every day until you achieve astral projection, as which point you must observe yourself from the astral plane. Pray to Q’na for guidance in the astral plane so you are not lost. You must also study yourself in a mirror. Watch your arm move through the air, watch yourself chew, learn your speed, all of your speeds. You will then try to watch yourself move from an astral form, and in this way you will learn how your form moves through the fabric of time. Once you can observe how you move through time, you may then start to ask Q’na for alterations in space-time that allow you to move through it in preternatural ways.”
Blut's closed in eyes of the terrible memories that flooded his mind. He suffered through the consequences of temporal distortion before. The reliance on reaping time from others. The unending pain that he was in and the desperation to stay alive. "I've been through worse I'll take the risks." Blut listened to the man taking out a ink pot and a quill so he can write down the instructions in his journal. "Is that all" Blut asked looking up from his book at the elder man.
Algernon laughs at Blut’s question. “That alone will take a long time to master! There are tools that help. Here…” Algernon hobbles towards the alter and opens a secret compartment. From within a secret nook hr pulls put a pocket watch that doesn’t show time as we know it, but instead contains the constellations. “This will guide you in the astral plane and help you track and set your time manipulations.”
16:22:39You reaches out and takes the watch. He inspects the watch. He observes the craftsmanship and design of the watch. The material it's made of and the clear skill that it took to make it. He opened the device as it showed him the stars. Where they are and where they will be. He looked back at the man "Thank you now how about you answer me this question. Why are you teaching me after all didn't you say that you held all the cards?" Blut asked inquisitively."