Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Bitemarks 1.10
Bitemarks 1.10
Ed followed Beauclair. He saw no reason not to. Every bit of information about what he faced was going to be useful.
"So why the cane?" he asked.
"Because I'm... ageing, Ed. My kind, we... require food to repair our bodies and... keep them functioning, much... like you do. I haven't fed... properly since the... cull. These days I... have to content myself with... livestock. So I have to... voluntarily forego... the luxuries of my body's... innate healing. But don't think me weak... If need be I could... muster enough energy to return my youth... temporarily."
"So you haven't fed on a human since the cull?"
"Well... there was one time. But I was given... special dispensation in return for my... assistance."
"What?"
"I did my part, Ed. I am not... averse to helping. Let us simply say... they never did find... Hitler's body."
"You killed Hitler? You don't expect me to believe that."
"You have an... alternative theory perhaps? One that makes... more sense?"
Ed said nothing. It was true he had no alternative theory and given what he knew of the Bureau's methods it wasn't completely unlikely after all. He changed the subject.
"So where are we going?"
"To see the artefacts. And here we are."
Beauclair stopped and Ed looked past him. The hallway they were in terminated ahead in a large steel vault door. There were two similar doors to the left and right. Beauclair punched in a code on a keypad beside the left door, offered up a fingerprint and retina scan and finally spoke a short sentence to confirm his voice pattern. Satisfied the technology unlocked the vault's door for him.
"My artefact room." Beauclair smiled.
Ed stepped through the doorway into a vast chamber. Each wall lined with tall bookshelves filled with books and sheaves of paper. In the centre, various cabinets and tables held all manner of curiosities.
"What's in the other two vaults?" asked Ed.
"One is my wealth." said Beauclair, "And the other... the other is just for me."
"What is all this stuff?"
"Vampiric relics. Literature written in our own tongue. Artefacts that were... once of importance to us. Some may even still be... significant, who knows. It's my last... link to my heritage."
"Where did it all come from?"
"Archaeological digs mostly. And now you see why... I have been funding such... excursions."
"You were treasure hunting?"
"In a... manner of speaking."
"And what did you send Keibler's team to unearth?"
Beauclair didn't answer him straight away. He motioned to one side, where a desk sat with one hefty tome atop it. The book was open and they both made their way over to it. Ed looked at the open pages. They were written in a strange language, strings of conjoined symbols not unlike Arabic.
"What language is that?"
"Ancient Karal."
"Karal?"
"It is what we... used to call ourselves. Before you humans named us yourselves. We were the... Karal, you dubbed us... vampires."
"What's it say?"
"That's difficult to say... It is... a complex tongue... long since unspoken. But it speaks of an artefact of great... significance. The... Holy Grail of the Karal... as it were. It tells of the buried... remains of the first of our kind. The body of the Mother."
There was merely silence as Ed stared at the indecipherable pages, letting this information sink in.
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Hello Charon. I've read your last twitter reply to CraigList a few secs ago and i am shocked. Really shocked.
ReplyDeleteCLimate Change a Lie? Have you lost your marbles Alan?
I cannot believe this... Mayhaps you get you ass moving and open your eyes what's going on around you. I am really frustrated about the ignorance of people. Especially those Brakers everywhere..... Go and ask that poor icebear that cannot find food or a iceberg to sit on.
Shame on you Charon. I am about to leave this blog cause i am really pissed of.
:(
C.
Oh and btw.. i have seen what the climate change has done on the other side of the planet... I've visited the philippines and those poor guys down there have to suffer big time of Typhoons, land slides... erosion and floods... Yeah now you can say this has nothing to do with climate change. But with pollution and the heck. We are polluting this f***** atmoshpere since the beginning of industrial revolution. What do you think is where this gases go to? The space? I could barely breath as i was in Manila or other crowded cities down ther in overcrowded phil. Man... USA, China and now you UK guys.. Great score! Lets talk about it in 20 or 30 years from now, when we all suffer well. May i beat you with a stick when it's too late? On the head preferably?
ReplyDeleteDammit! >.<
C.
You get pissed off before I even have a chance to open your eyes? Oh really Ches, come on. :)
ReplyDeleteLet's start with the infamous polar bear. Ah what an enduring image, poor chap sitting on a melting iceberg... (They can swim you know). Just so happens that polar bear is probably used to it, considering he does it each and every year. Yup, hate to break it to you but icebergs melting isn't that uncommon. Yearly cycle.
http://althouse.blogspot.com/2007/02/polar-bears-on-melting-ice-cap-photo.html
Seems his grandad was up tot he same trick in 1885.
http://www.squidoo.com/polarbeariceberg
The picture was chosen to emphasise the message just like pictures of babies dying in Africa are used to make you feel guilty for their problems. Those aren't random pictures, they pick the sickest, poorest babies they can find.
Oh but the iceberg melting will raise sea levels!!
Wrong.
http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/issue/column.php?date=August2009&departmentid=professional&columnid=professional!misconceptions
I mean, climate change is a big subject. I can dismiss it with the simple line "It's a lie" with Craig because we've discussed the concept in depth many a time, particularly after reading up on it in various media including popular science magazines Nexus and New Scientist (it was New Scientist's twitters on the matter that he was showing me).
But with you, we're starting from ground zero. What would you like first? The exaggerated CO2 levels? The 2 degree rise in temperature that will melt the glaciers? (It's been higher in the human lifetime, pre-industrialization!. No records to be broken there). The fact that the average person in the UK is responsible for 11 tons of CO2 per year? Yet the Prince who flew by private jet to the Copenhagen conference is responsible for 6250 tons per year? Reducing my carbon footprint even to zero does nothing to offset that. You should see the footprint of the conference itself. It's more co2 than I'll produce in a lifetime.
The statistics have all been manipulated, misinterpreted and misrepresented. Of course we're having some impact. You can't have billions and billions of humans without expecting that. But fannying about reducing the amount of plastic we produce will have a minimal effect. In fact the biggest, easiest way to reduce our impact is with birth limitation. A touchy subject at best.
And even then, ignoring the fact that it's all a load of political bullshit there's the very simple fact that I don't care. Humanity has outlived its usefulness. Let it kill itself off. Sure it's probably gonna be a hell of a lot longer than 30 or 40 years. There'll be far bigger problems to face than climate change by then. But ultimately humans are sitting on the brink of their demise. Who am I to stop them?
I could go on. But I won't. My intention is not to anger you, simply to make you aware of two very important things.
1. When I'm talking to someone else, you don't know for sure what you are seeing, what context it is in, etc. It's like eavesdropping. Never assume.
2. You are not in possession of all the facts about climate change. And neither am I! The best we can do is to make an informed decision based on the information available to us. As such, it is a good idea to make sure you aware of as much as that information as possible. Mmm'kay?
:) Now sit back down and read my awesome poems I'm about to post! If you want more climate change related discussion I'll be happy to debunk more myths in a future blog.