Scene #870: Pestering Burden

Owner	Pose
Abstractum.Net	Dr. Burden's home is as chaotic as ever. When you walk through the innocent-looking door, you come out in a place that seems to be bits and pieces of other places, a floating amalgam of other times. Office spaces, parking lots, school rooms, sections of people's houses, all sorts of things like that are drifting around. The door is some form of spatial warp that links to Dr. Burden's home high above the Homeworld, where he wanders around these drifting pieces of reality. Burden's camped out today in the roof of a garage, mostly because it's missing the floor. He's stolen and moved computer workstations from an office building that was drifting nearby, and continues his apparently telekinetic interface with them; he's got three in a semicircle, keys all clicking while he kneels in front of all of them. He's remembered to wear his human appearance today: A heavily-tanned, aging man with graying silver hair, wearing a practical outfit that seems like a mix between the uniform of a scientist and the uniform of a blacksmith, themed with blue colors.
Ainsley	Ainsley soon arrived to where Burden was working, but didn't try disturbing him. However, he may note that she has undergone a significant change in nature, and may also note her concept has been changed, if he's aware of that sort of thing. But she seems to be more concerned with the computers, which she watches with a silent wonder, like a student watching a professor work on incomprehensible equations. She murmurs to herself, though, as if the action he's performing is more what she is interested in, and not the result. "Projection of the concept of typing...?" she wonders, barely within hearing. She has Nom de Plume resting on her nose. As usual, the glasses Abstractum seems to balance with supernatural ease, something that may wholly be caused by the connection of the two. Finally, she would speak up, "I have some questions to ask you, Doctor," her voice as mellow and polite toward him as it had been when they worked on the software upgrade. "And I was wondering if you had time to indulge my curiosity."
Abstractum.Net	"That's the thing about this war I'm wagin'." Dr. Burden says, with a weary tone. "Not a lot of situations where you're at a loss for time. I've got plenty to spare, ma'am, if you've got questions this old man can help out with." He remains kneeled on both knees, his head slightly down, but he does turn and tilt his head curiously in a rather conversational way to Ainsley. "His movements are abstracted. The conceptual refinement that he underwent manifests as a reduction in action to its most basic parts." Nom de Plume is the one who responds to Ainsley's curiosity. "He is doing his best to emulate humanity, but not that much, it would seem."
Ainsley	Ainsley smiles at Nom's explanation of Burden's actions, the general idea pretty close to what she believed she was seeing. She clasps her hands behind her back, giving some silence to the air so that he has some time to acclimate before she starts grilling him about this and that. "The story of the blacksmith and the King who wanted armor that could protect him from Death itself. Are you familiar with it?" She doesn't want to try rambling about the story. Her photographic memory is imperfect, so she doesn't want to mince the story on accident if he already knows what it is.
Abstractum.Net	Dr. Burden makes a soft, tense noise as breath escapes him momentarily. It's soft, and has a sad sort of tone to it. The typing ceases all at once. "I'm... aware of it." He says, simply. "Why's someone like you know about somethin' like that, miss?" One can tel that there's an emotional reaction under the surface being restrained, but not what, precisely, that reaction is...
Ainsley	Ainsley doesn't budge, emotionally. She doesn't seem to realize it might be a poor subject to push onto Burden. She does pause to think of how to word it, looking away from Burden and to the computers, but it's more an indication of trying to pick a good way to explain before she continues her line of questioning. "There are figures in the Nodes called the Architects. They have crafted structures that contained conceptual tomes, that, when entered into a bookcase, manifest one of the Operators, who recite the passage associated with the book. The first lesson that Death taught the blacksmith was what I was told. The dying wolf." She looks over to Burden again. "I get the distinct impression this is an account related to events that you experienced. Perhaps more metaphorical than an exact historical record, if that." "Are you the blacksmith?"
Abstractum.Net	"It's a story." Burden says, staring down for a moment before he properly stands up. "It's one that was supposed to stay heard by one person and I'm not sure how you extracted it from the Network of all things." He makes another stressed noise before putting both hands on his face in a somewhat strained motion, then sighing. "It's a fable. It's supposed to teach you something. But learning it's going to be redundant for you. Way things are now, Miss, using what it teaches you isn't much a choice any more. We're all stuck using it now."
Ainsley	The tired nature of Burden's answer gives Ainsley some pause. It's clear whatever it taught is more a fact than a lesson now, from what he's telling her. But she's not sure she knows what that means, exactly. She doesn't understand where the story can be placed within the story. She looks to the computers in quiet thought, letting him have a second to breathe. "The key to understanding is learning the history of the subject. If the story is in the Network, it is clear that something in the Network deemed it a necessary lesson for today... perhaps because it would help us to frame the situation we are in now." She looks back to him. "Gravity is a fact for many worlds but lessons are still taught about it. Whether or not we experience it everyday and are forced to utilize it does not mean we completely understand it. Although I am eager to forge ahead despite lacking information, as is nature of crises like these to be won even by those ignorant of the full nature of the problem... I do not believe it is redundant to hear a story explaining what part of this means." "... I'm sorry," she finally says, realizing she may be stressing him out a whole bunch. That he neglects to answer if he was the blacksmith is something she holds onto. It may be too close to the truth, or it may be entirely wrong. Time will tell, she figures.
Abstractum.Net	Burden rubs his temples, his eyes shut softly. "I know what you mean, Miss." He says, with understanding tones. "Listen. The story won't do you any good. You kind folks, I'm sure you've got more than enough of my nonsense. Seein' how I've gotta treat this situation to make progress, all it'll do is make you roll your eyes or make you a little sad." He shrugs in a plaintive, helpless way. "If there was some real useful insight that I wasn't already usin' for you plenty, I'd tell you the whole thing now. Hell, I'd have told you ages ago. But, there's not. Just a sad little story about how far you gotta go to do some things." Nom de Plume speaks, quietly, in soft whispers that only Ainsley can hear. "His refusal to answer, itself, provides information. This has something to do with those past actions he is always avoiding telling us."
Ainsley	Ainsley frowns at Doctor Burden for the first time. He is actively trying to shut down her curiosity, which makes her wonder what, exactly, would make him do that. She stares at him with a piercing gaze for a while. "That is very convenient... for you," she tells Doctor Burden, "But what do you want history to describe you as? A man who closed off his heart completely, just to keep a curious lizard girl from feeling a little sad? I dislike the notion that your feelings are irrelevant to us, that the meaning you derived from the story has no use in our battle or our own hearts, just because similar lessons exist." This next part, she downright seethes, "Your words and feelings are NOT nonsense."
Abstractum.Net	"I'd rather history not remember me much." Burden says, shaking his head. "I'm a footnote at best, and I'd prefer it that way. The Abstractum are the ones doing the real work, I'm a man who overstayed his Cycle more than a lil'." He visibly winces a little. "I know you mean well, and I really don't like bein' frustrating to you folks. But the fact is, everything that'll make folks happier or more effective to know, I've said. Some curiosity's better left just not bein' known. For you especially here. The lesson at the end of all that? It's something you knew, but... Knowin' how it was used, I don't think you'll like it."
Ainsley	Ainsley's eyes water as he speaks. It hurts her that someone could want to remain so hidden from history, and she stares at Doctor Burden with that look of hurt and unhappiness. "What a disgusting way to see it. 'I won't tell you because you might not like it.' Not all stories are happy ones, Doctor. Only choosing the stories that make people happy is only giving half of what people need to make their decisions." She sniffs, and then turns. "I'm leaving now. I'm still going to find the rest of those books, and then I'm going to come back and we /will/ talk about it, even if you don't say anything about it at all." She has complete confidence about it, a pushy kind of attitude.
Abstractum.Net	"Miss, we all have some things we don't like bringin' up. I know it's frustrating, but ain't nothing worth the trouble of knowing..." Dr. Burden says, trailing off with a slightly stressed tone but otherwise letting Ainsley do what she wants. "Gotta say, telling you wouldn't exactly be a barrel of fun for me too." He says, with exapserated, and yet vaguely sheepish, ones. "Having it get out would be... Welll, it'd get polarizing, I 'd guess."
Ainsley	Ainsley looks over at Burden for a second more. She steps over to pat him on the shoulder, just once, trying to show that she does care, whether or not he's some sort of monster or he did something people won't really forgive. And then she turns to leave, not feeling much better, and still bound and determined to find the rest of that story just so she can better understand why he wouldn't want her to know it.