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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Jul 30, 2010 1:18:32 GMT -5
"If I know you half as well as I think I do, we're probably going to have this conversation many more times before it's all over." Hitoshi placed a soft kiss on Alex's temple.
He could feel it, too, the way his magic seemed to bounce back and forth over itself. It was a bit like trying to borrow someone else's glasses and expecting to see out of his own; it would probably give him a headache after too long, and it was mildly disorienting, but he could manage.
"Alex, it's going to be fine. Don't worry so much about it." Hitoshi pushed Alex's hair out of his face and smirked slightly. "I certainly don't remember you being this worried the first time we came back."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Jul 30, 2010 5:10:38 GMT -5
Alex sighed and cuddled into Hitoshi's arms. "I don't know. I feel like something absolutely terrible is going to happen. Maybe I'm just paranoid, or having trouble coping- well, that one's definitely true, but I have to wonder if there's some basis behind it."
He then realized something, and looked up. "Though... I wonder what we could find looking around here, and I wonder... if cell phone cameras can take pictures of this sort of thing."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Jul 30, 2010 5:21:11 GMT -5
"In my experience, something absolutely terrible is always about to happen," Hitoshi said dryly. "Though if you mean something worse than the headmaster's creepy vampire friends crashing prom..."
Hitoshi thought for a minute. "That's as likely to work as anything, I suppose, though I really can't say I have the slightest idea. This is just a little out of my range of expertise." He licked his lips slightly. "I really would like to see what it says for Achilles and Patroclus themselves. That might gives us a better indication of what's going on than a few cryptic words from my mother."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Jul 30, 2010 5:24:02 GMT -5
Alex nodded, then leaned back a little and kissed Hitoshi softly.
He smiled. "Always the optimist. Let's see if we can figure out what's going on- and whether we want to tell anyone about it."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Jul 30, 2010 5:33:33 GMT -5
"Strange, me being the optimist here." Hitoshi smirked and pushed himself to his feet.
He stared forward at the next column, pursing his lips. "You know," he said idly, "you'd think we would remember more of this one, given it was the next most recent. I can't remember much, but it seems like anything specific I can recall is of Alexander and Hephaestion. I can remember a bit of Achilles and Patroclus... and that's it."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Jul 30, 2010 5:46:28 GMT -5
"I was referring to your first statement." Alex smirked back and examined a few near the one Hitoshi was looking at.
"I don't know. I guess it depends on why we're remembering, but you know more about magic than I do." He slid his phone out of his pocket; there was no signal whatsoever, but it seemed to be functioning, so he tried snapping a few pictures. "I wish... I really wish that I could at least remember what I did. We did. Whichever."
His head still rang. Who the hell am I? Am I someone else who keeps rising from the dead? Or was that someone else, and I've just got bits of them in me?
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Jul 30, 2010 22:35:53 GMT -5
"Wish I could be of help, but most of what I can actually recall -- which isn't much -- seems to be of Alexander and Hephaestion, and what I can remember of that seems mostly inconsequential."
What he could remember, it seemed, could be filed into two roughly equal-sized categories: Alexander the Great, and Alexander the Great without clothes. Hitoshi wondered whether that spoke to his own priorities or Hephaestion's, or if there was any real difference between them. He would have preferred to actually know something about what the hell was going on, give the choice. Probably.
"I'm guessing that the story of Achilles and Patroclus is at the center." Hitoshi peered back at Alex. "If nothing else...being here seems to be triggering memories. Maybe if we keep looking, we'll unlock something helpful?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Jul 30, 2010 23:15:58 GMT -5
"I guess. At least we both seem to agree that that was probably the first one."
Alex, for his part, was mostly cycling through political secrets that would have been juicy hundreds of years ago, and the occasional more tender moment that made him want to hug Hitoshi and/or decide that it was not as important to explore this place as he had thought.
"There are a lot of these; do they all represent a whole lifetime?" He made a worried little noise. "And the last few icons on all of them are worryingly repetitive."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Jul 31, 2010 0:32:17 GMT -5
"Disturbingly so," Hitoshi agreed gravely. Death was too be expected, but many of these were brutal, and some of them looked disturbingly young. Some of them did not even fill the entire column. It was both comforting and chilling to think that, if his assumptions were correct, it was he that seemed to die first -- though Alex didn't seem to last long after that.
It was a strange thing, and it really should have bothered him more than it did. It was unnerving, at the least, but Hitoshi got the impression this was something he had made his peace with long ago. Not that Hitoshi liked this, of course; he had no delusions that it was meant to be anything other than a punishment.
It was a selfish thought, but Hitoshi was rather glad he was going first.
Hitoshi pulled Alex deeper through the labyrinth, the murals growing older as they went -- Colonial America, Imperial China, medieval Europe, and Hitoshi was fairly certain he saw one that looked quite like India.
"I think we're getting close," he murmured.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Jul 31, 2010 0:51:43 GMT -5
After a certain number Alex stopped looking at the columns. It probably would've been much more interesting if they hadn't all been about him. He kind of wondered how it worked if he just didn't get together with P- Hitoshi- whatever- or remembered enough to decide against trying to gain power, but he had a feeling the answer would depress him even more than he was already.
He wrapped one arm around Hitoshi's waist and hugged him briefly, feeling selfish and kind of stupid for taking some respite in his presence.
This was going to be the stupidest Spring Break ever.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 4, 2010 0:52:20 GMT -5
The spiral winded inward, moving toward the center, pillar after pillar. The center pillar was the smallest and simplest, yet somehow the most impressive. The depictions were large and simplistic, and most of them were reminiscent of the story of the Iliad, though it was clear that there was far more to the story than the Homeric version mentioned.
But it wasn't the pillar of Achilles and Patroclus that caught his attention. The one just before it, of Alexander and Hephaestion... Most of the events were familiar from either history or the fuzzy memories he seemed to recall here -- Alexander's childhood and the death of Hephaestion, the conquest of Persia and the tender moments that Hephaestion had cherished so much.
Hitoshi pulled Alex close and wrapped his arms around the other boy's waist. "You do look a lot like him," he murmured. "You've got the same hair, mostly, at least apart from the color." He smirked slightly, peering sidelong at Alex. "Same nose, too."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 4, 2010 1:33:55 GMT -5
"I... do, don't I." Alex squeezed Hitoshi close and smiled. "I look like someone. You... I don't know, you look similar too, but I can't put my finger on it."
"I can hardly believe this is real. It seems so... bizarre, even compared to all this stuff about magic I've been getting used to. People don't normally find evidence they're the reincarnation of mythical figures, do they?"
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 4, 2010 23:57:25 GMT -5
"Not typically, at least to my knowledge," Hitoshi said dryly. He leaned in to Alex and nuzzled his neck. "Who knows, though. After this, I think I could believe nearly anything."
Hitoshi pulled Alex's dreadlocks back off of his neck and kissed him as he peered over the depictions again. About halfway down the pillar there was a very familiar scene -- Alexander and Hephaestion, at the very place they were. The tomb of Achilles and Patroclus.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 9, 2010 16:47:04 GMT -5
"Mmf." Alex pulled back from Hitoshi, blushing. "I think we just stopped ourselves from technically desecrating our own graves, I-"
He sighed and looked up at the other boy with a slight smile, dropping his hands and tugging nervously on a shirtcuff. "I mean... that's nice, but I'd like to just get some information and get out of here. After this, I'm not sure I could believe anything."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 9, 2010 18:11:47 GMT -5
"Would you believe me if I said this wasn't the craziest thing that had ever happened?" Hitoshi asked, glancing back at Alex. "I'm...honestly more disturbed about the implications this has regarding the existence of the gods. Particularly given the circumstances. I'm not sure how much of that I believe, though. Given the background of the Hellenic gods, I have a hard time believing they've existed for centuries without drawing attention. They aren't exactly known for subtlety."
Hitoshi frowned slightly, wandering toward the pillar at the center. Believing the rest of what his mother said to him without believing the tidbit about the gods was going to be a difficult task, particularly given that most of what he knew about the mess was conditional to the existence of the gods as a whole, but Hitoshi couldn't help but be skeptical about it all.
For the most part, the pillar didn't seem to contain any information Hitoshi wasn't already familiar with -- brief mention of Achilles' birth, and the River Styx, and his legendary immortality. The end contained the tale from the Iliad, through Achilles' eventual demise. Toward the middle, however, large chunks seemed to be missing, carved out of the pillar. In fact, nearly everything between Achilles' childhood and the Trojan War seemed to be either missing or unreadable.
"I get the feeling that someone doesn't actually want us to know what the hell is going on," Hitoshi muttered. He glowered at the hole in the pillar and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. He should have known it wasn't going to be so easy.
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 9, 2010 18:30:27 GMT -5
"That depends. Ever to anyone? To us? Today?" Alex said drily.
"Maybe I slept through that part of orientation, but I would say the same thing for most of our classmates. There are legends and such, but there are legends about gods, too."
He snapped a picture of the pillar, then smirked at Hitoshi. "You're cute when you glower imperiously."
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 9, 2010 19:42:21 GMT -5
Hitoshi blinked back at Alex and went slightly red, then turned back to the remarkably unhelpful pillar. It would be the one bit of useful information that probably no longer exists outside of whatever magic held up the tomb that got erased from the pillar. He got the rather distinct feeling that whoever was withholding information from them was probably just doing it to spite them.
"So now what do we do?" he asked quietly. "Do we keep looking around? Do we go back now? Do we just keep going on with our lives and ignore any of this until it actually becomes relevant? I mean, what the hell is any of this even supposed to mean for us?"
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 9, 2010 20:34:31 GMT -5
"I think we've officially gotten to the 'existential crisis' phase of life. Rather more dramatic than I expected, but then so were the hormones." Alex rubbed the side of his face. "I want to go take pictures of the crabs to send to my parents, and then maybe get some ice cream. Later, we probably ought to decide whether to mention this to some figure of authority or other."
"I'd prefer to go to your aunt, or maybe Professor Smoke, but neither of them are here. We could wait, or... I suppose maybe mention it to Professor Yogo or Dr. Evans-Barros. Or, well, your uncle, but I think his brain might shut down at the implication that this is vaguely related to boys kissing." He half-smirked again, trying not to be insulting. He wasn't really offended over Professor Gilespi's... whatever it was, but it did make him feel awkward and not want to spend much time around the man, which at least was very easy to do.
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 9, 2010 20:39:06 GMT -5
"Hm. Yeah, that might be a problem with Tristan," he replied absently. "Given how involved Professor Smoke already is in everything, it would probably help him to hear what we've found. And as for Rivienne..." Hitoshi trailed off slightly. "I'd really like to talk to her about this, but I really don't want to bother her. She's already got a lot to deal with. I don't want to stress her out any more than she already is."
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Post by Alex Meriweather on Aug 9, 2010 20:57:38 GMT -5
Alex brushed a hand through Hitoshi's hair. "It does sound like the sort of thing we'd need to tell her in person. I'm sure it'll wait a week, and this thing has been here long enough that it will, too."
Which brought to mind other things. "You know, I haven't said this in what seems like ages, but I need more friends. Something tells me neither you nor your sister would be a good emotion-sponge right now, and you..."
He sighed again. "Anything else you want to do here?"
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Post by Hitoshi Gilespi on Aug 9, 2010 21:54:53 GMT -5
Hitoshi sighed. "No, not particularly. We should probably get back before someone comes looking for us."
There were still so many questions left unanswered -- what exactly was going on, what was the prophecy about, what was the missing chunk in the story of Achilles and Patroclus, what exactly this place was meant to be and if they'd ever get back...
Hitoshi could feel the memories ebbing away the further they went from the center. He could recall what they were, but it was more a memory of the memories than anything. The crispness was gone, and it was getting harder to picture what Alexander the Great had looked like, except that he looked vaguely like Alex. It felt like he was losing something, and a part of him was sorely tempted to turn around and go back.
Then suddenly, they were in front of the ferry.
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