TYPE: Transcription
DESCRIPTION: Verbal notes from a person of interest, concerning a session of study about a recently acquired artifact
PARTIES: One [1] Guardian-type, Class Warlock, designate Wahei Ohr [WO] (POI #0247); One [1] Ghost-type, designate Vizier [viz]
ASSOCIATIONS: Black Fleet; Darkness; Dark Matter; Deepsight; Calus; Egregore; Ohr, Wahei (POI #0247); Pyramid; Relic (Mars); Throne World (Savathûn's); Witness
// AUDIO UNAVAILABLE //
// TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS... //
[click of recording]
[WO] Are you reading me clearly, Vizier?
[viz] Just fine.
[faint audio distortion, as of paracausal interference]
[WO] Okay. [clears throat] Wahei Ohr, Warlock of the Voidwalker Path, recording a... follow-up to my report concerning the recent incident aboard the H.E.L.M., see report number... something-or-other.
// TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: REP #321-HELM-0247-0816
[WO] Report is being provided in audio format owing to my current... handicap precluding me from providing written documentation. As ever, my gratitude to the transcription work done by our civilian assistants.
[pause]
[WO] This report concerns an ... artifact that was left behind following the incident. As noted in my report, as Calus finished his proclamation, I felt something being deposited into my grasp while bound by the egregore fungus. I dropped it in freeing myself, but felt it nearby and picked it up, put it away in my pocket. I was too busy helping free the legionaries who'd been trapped by the egregore, and dealing with the immediate aftermath to think about it at the time.
[pause]
[WO] I allowed the Praxics to document its existence, but I'm grateful to Ikora and Eris for their argument that I should be allowed to keep it for initial study. As Ikora pointed out, it had been given to me for a reason, it makes sense it may give me more data than a control subject. I am giving serious consideration to allowing the Praxics to store the artifact in their archives after my studies have concluded.
[viz] You kept saying you'd return the Umbranomicon when you were done with it, but you didn't.
[WO] Because I'm not done with it.
[pause]
[WO] At any rate. I obviously cannot catalog the artifact's physical appearance from a visual standpoint, given I am still suffering from a paracausal affliction which renders me blind. To that end, Vizier, my Ghost, will assist.
viz] Artifact is forty centimeters long, six centimeters wide, and thirteen millimeters thick. It is curved along the length, arching outward--
[WO] You could say it's arching 'upward,' if you place it so the ends are on a surface.
[viz] As you say. It appears to be comprised of the same kind of material as the Pyramids.
[WO] I believe the working name that I and other Warlocks have been using is 'Dark Matter.' To my touch, it feels slightly metallic, but not any metal that I've felt before.
[viz] It does periodically ... fluctuate? Ripple? It shivers in the same way other Dark Matter objects do, as documented from the 'Contact' events with Pyramid Scales two years ago, or from more recent events within the Pyramids on Luna, Europa, or Savathûn's Throne World. The anterior curve of the artifact occasionally exhibits a sort of fluctuation that looks similar to ferrofluid behavior.
[WO] Which is unusual, because Vizier describes seeing this happening, but when I attempt to feel the artifact during instances of this behavior, I feel nothing.
[viz] And to my observation, when you touch the artifact at those times, the ferrofluid behavior ceases in proximity to your contact.
[WO] I should addendum this by noting that every time I've touched the artifact, I have been wearing gloves, so there has been no direct contact.
[viz] My scans have also detected the same Resonant energy about the artifact as has been present with other Dark Matter objects in proximity to Pyramids. Such as the scales and fragments dropped by the Scorn near the Sunken Pyramid in the Throne World. It's not glowing, like they were, but it still has some of that Resonance inside it. And also, there's some other kind of energy I pick up around it, but it's hard to get a solid read on it with the Resonance present.
[WO] Well, I can probably give some insight there. I feel the Resonance, yes, but the other energy feels very similar to the nodes of energy I felt in the Throne World, near where I could use Deepsight to find hidden alcoves or platforms. Which itself feels very similar to when I would previously use tincture of queensfoil to interact with Ascendant architecture in the Dreaming City.
[pause]
[WO] Viz, make a note-- that's something to discourse on at length another time: the similarity between Dreaming City hidden architecture and Deepsight objects. Paracausality. As in Light, so in Dark, et cetera.
[viz] Noted.
[WO] I regret I didn't have time to delve further into how this Resonance works, studying things inside the Sunken Pyramid after one of the weekly expurgations of the Scorn. And I haven't used the Martian Relic as much as I should have, but Deepsight as the latest development of the abilities that the Darkness seems to be granting us... it's curious. The Light makes us forget, but the Dark helps us remember. Ikora expanded on this notion in a recent treatise, and we've seen how the Darkness can restore lost memories in the right circumstances. Just look at what Savathûn did for Crow.
[viz] You mean 'TO Crow?'
[WO] No, I meant what I said. It was a cruel thing she did, I'm not disputing that. To dump ages and ages of memories on the poor little bird without giving him the slightest inkling of what he was about to accept. And while it left him further traumatized, Crow has shown amazing resilience and adaptation for it. In a remarkably short time, he's come to accept who he used to be, and resolved to be better than him. I recall a conversation I had with Variks once, out on Europa. We were having a frank discussion about his actions-- his crimes, as some might put it-- and how so many people were struggling with how to process it all. And he replied, "We are more than our worst acts." Crow is young, and he has made some bad mistakes, ones which have cost lives, but he is actively trying to do better and be better than Uldren was. Stars know, there are other Lightbearers out there who have done far worse than accidentally kill an ally. The Light burns harshly, especially during the Dark Age.
[pause]
[WO] But back to Deepsight. I've submitted reports of my attempts at utilizing it outside of the Throne World or proximity to Pyramid tech like the Relic. For the sake of brevity, I'll state that attempts at using it away from those places have failed. My hypothesis is that Deepsight requires proximity to Pyramid tech or Dark Matter in order to function properly. And in the Throne World, it works because, as Savathûn reminded us, the Throne World is indistinguishable from her own mind. Deepsight works there, even away from the Pyramid within, because of that connection to her mind.
[pause]
[slight audio distortion, as of paracausal interference]
[WO] And this artifact that was left for me, it has Deepsight Resonance inside of it. And it's made of Dark Matter. To that end, I'm going to attempt to use Deepsight to see what I can do or see with this.
[viz] "See?"
[WO] You know what I mean.
[pause, sound of fabric and leather shifting]
[WO] I have removed my gloves and am about to make direct contact with the artifact.
[audio distortion spikes, sound of metallic slithering]
[viz] Ferrofluid activity on the anterior curve!
[WO] [strained] I can feel something... I can-- oh!
[metallic clattering, distortion fades]
[WO] [gasping] This-- this is--
[viz] What? What did you feel?
[sounds of chair scraping on floor, physical movement]
[WO] Viz, come on, help me change clothes and get my things!
[viz] What? Why?
[WO] I've got to get to the Relic!
[viz] The Relic?
[WO] This is definitely something that can be shaped further by the Relic, and I need to get it there immediately!
[viz] What did you feel?
[WO] It wasn't what I felt! It was what I saw!
[viz] What did you see?
[WO] That's just it-- I could see again!
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