The Mountain and Mohammed

[Existentially Odd]

"Have anything?" Kerr interrupted, before Jack could answer.  Maybe his fledgling - or the being inhabiting his fledgling, technically - might know what she meant, but he didn\'t and he was confused (and wary) enough to want clarification on the spot.  "What do you mean did they have anything there?  Do you mean some sort of celebration or... a bomb that might have triggered a volcanic eruption or... ?" his voice trailed off.  He honestly had no clue what she was getting at.

[Harlequin]

Sabrina\'s attention diverted onto Kerr, when he spoke, and she smiled, "Ah, not quite," she said, "Sorry. I meant to ask if they weren\'t possibly onto something, with the Vesuvius angle. It\'s not uncommon for summonings to coincide with freak occurrences – earthquakes, mudslides – even rains of blood, or frogs. The eruption would certainly fit into that category. Which isn\'t to say Jack actually caused it, by any means," she added quickly.

[Existentially Odd]

"But that... his summoning might have?  Or, more accurately, that the completion of the ritual might have caused a catastrophic natural event?" Kerr surmised, turning his attention back to Jack.

That would certainly be handy to know; if they were going to complete a bigger, better ritual in February - which, according to Jack, had never been attempted before - and natural disasters went hand-in-hand with such things, it would be pretty handy to know.  To, say, check there were no dormant volcanoes nearby, or tectonic plates that might shift... oceans that would then tsunami... forests that could burn... that sort of thing.

[Trillian]

Jack had stared blankly at Sabrina until Kerr\'s interruption, then listened as the conversation moved to and fro between them until there was a pause and he could interject some information that would clear the issue up.

"Vesuvius exploded twenty three years after I\'d been summoned.  If the summoning caused it, it was a reaction delayed by much time," he said, then smiled.  He\'d made a joke and was rather pleased with himself for doing so.  His gaze was dancing with interest to see their reactions.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr blinked at the smile that curled Ben\'s (Jack\'s) beautiful lips, responding automatically before he burst out laughing.  There was an element of surprise in the chuckle, as if he couldn\'t quite believe the other had made him laugh, but it was genuine amusement regardless.

"Okay.  So we shouldn\'t have to worry about a random volcano erupting in February or needing to wear a dress disguised as a robe," Kerr summarised with a final chuckle sent Jack\'s way, before he turned a more serious expression towards Sabrina.  "But we do have to get all the artifacts right.  You don\'t... know of any way we can avoid this whole... ritual thing, do you?  I mean... the necklace was my only thought - that we could use it to pass Jack onto another body so he and Ben wouldn\'t look exactly the same when it was concluded, but that seems to be the way it\'ll go, now," he pointed out, giving a slight shrug.

"I\'m getting used to the idea, and knowing what to expect is fine and all, but I just... wanted to reassert that if it\'s possible to avoid us having two of Ben\'s body at the completion of the ritual, that would be greatly appreciated, as will any information you come up with that will help, Sabrina," he assured her gratefully.  Only after the words were out of his mouth did he realise how much it sounded like he was wrapping things up.

He wasn\'t sure that their business here was concluded, but his assertion that he wanted alternate ritual outcomes to be considered made it sound that way.  He still wanted to hear Jack openly state what he knew about the riddle clues, though - in front of the witch, preferably - so Kerr looked at the other male expectantly.  "I was wondering, though; with regard to the ritual... what are the artifacts, in your opinion?  Is Sabrina correct?"

[Trillian]

Jack had kept his expression carefully blanked as Kerr spoke about what to expect from the ritual.  Nobody knew what to expect from the ritual, it was different this time around what with his participation in his own summoning.  There\'d never been two versions of himself running around before so he failed to see why it would start now.  Telling Kerr that it was possible Ben\'s body would be destroyed in order to make Jack a new one was not on the cards however, and in this fact his deception would continue.  Kerr would be upset either way, it was lose/lose to him.  Either Jack would remain in Ben\'s body or Jack would be reinvented with Ben\'s body.  Only if there was a third, unknown outcome, was there hope for anything different.

"Yes," he said when an answer was expected of him.  "I believe all of those things would work."  All of those things hadn\'t been mentioned, however.  His gaze flicked back to Sabrina as he assessed her reaction.

[Harlequin]

Sabrina laughed right along with Kerr, happy for the lightening of the mood – but her thoughts turned to business again as Kerr asked his very pertinent question. She hadn\'t forgotten about the riddle, just...set it aside, and let some other, subconscious corner of her mind work on it "The locked stone," she said, to Jack\'s querying look, knowing it was the one thing she hadn\'t mentioned "Do you think there could have been an error in translation, somewhere, or something to that effect?" she asked, "And that it\'s referring to a lodestone, possibly, or a loch-stone?"

[Trillian]

He nodded, knowing of the word loch instead of lock, though he had the opinion that this part of the riddle was changing on him.  The locked stone had used to be something to do with locking devices and he was fairly sure a padlock had been used last time when he\'d looked around at the items, though there was no way a padlock suited the \'locked stone\' description.

He wondered now, how did the ritual change without someone to change it?  It was a powerful, potent, almost living thing.  Himself, he\'d thought of two variations in the dark - a stone locked away in a box, and also the way Sabrina was going.  Locked stone.  Stone in a lock.  Stone in a loch.  He often turned the phrases around to see if something would click.

"You\'re clever," he told her.

[Harlequin]

More pleased with herself than she was willing to admit, Sabrina grinned like a shark, "This is what I do, darling," she told Jack, "Among other things." An afterthought; of course she did other things -- this was simply one of the things she liked doing best (helping people, that is; especially when it came to matters of the Otherworldly).

[Existentially Odd]

"I thought perhaps it might be a raw precious gem or even just a ring - a gem locked in a claw setting, for instance," Kerr asserted, thinking that everything else sounded rather complicated and he wanted something simpler.

He\'d always wanted to buy Ben a ring - preferably as a commitment - but he\'d settled for tattoos instead.  It was a random thought and one which brought a sharp pang of sadness to him; his good humour died and the congratulatory nature of the most recent comments between Sabrina and Jack suddenly left a sour taste in his mouth.

Where was Ben being thought of, in all this?  Trapped in the dark, alone and neglected, he felt it was his role to keep his love\'s best interests at the fore here, and to remember that Jack was both the cause and the solution... even if he\'d agreed to treat him lovingly.  That brought a pang, too.

He looked at Jack, wondering if his ring idea had merit, in the other\'s opinion.

[Trillian]

Jack had initially thought of the same thing Sabrina had, in the dark, and was astounded by Kerr\'s simple approach to the locked stone artefact.  Yes, a precious gem was considered a \'stone\' in this modern language, and in a setting held in place it would be considered locked.

"That will possibly do, as well," he said with a thoughtful nod, gazing at Kerr and seeing the mourning in his eyes but unsure what it meant at this stage of the conversation.  Perhaps Kerr was unhappy about being bested by the riddle and needing help in the form of this witch?  It was difficult to know.

[Existentially Odd]

Kerr frowned, succumbing a little to the tetchiness he was feeling.  "So... which is it?" he demanded of Jack in a tone which suggested impatience rather than outright rudeness.  "Or is it both?  Can we stack up each arrow point with, say, three choices to meet every part of the riddle and just presume that one of them will work?  I\'d thought that we would need to have a correct answer and one option but you\'re making it sound like one or all will do!"

He looked sternly at Jack, suddenly wanting to see Ben, even though he\'d been lulled into the concept that this was not his lover.  It made his head spin and only caused the frown to deepen, however, for Ben this was not.  It was Jack looking astutely back at him.  He needed to accept that, partition off his love and dam it up for when Ben was back, mete out only what was necessary to appease Jack in the meantime... unless letting it all out might actually mean some seeped through to his love, deep inside... he couldn\'t be thinking about these things right now.  Impatiently, he mentally thrust them aside.

The ritual.  How was it possible that a man who\'d endured centuries with infinite patience couldn\'t bear the thought of the next two months needing to pass before all this was sorted?

[Trillian]

Jack frowned back at Kerr when the other began using an exasperated tone.  Why was he upset that the riddle was easier to solve than he\'d thought.  Had he wanted this to be difficult?

"It is different things, to different ages, depending on the translation of the language and the interpretation of the one solving the riddle.  It transforms over time depending on what was used last."  He thought back to the questions that had been asked before realising he hadn\'t answered all of them yet.  "It seems to me that an arrow can only point at one thing."

He waited for Kerr to bring up another point, hopefully in a manner that didn\'t bely varying emotions.  Were they not discussing matters civilly?  Were they not making progress?  Why was Kerr upset over that?  He was a strange being.

[Existentially Odd]

"Alright," Kerr stated with a perfunctory nod, "so just one thing is best and there\'s not necessarily going to be a wrong answer to the riddle, as long as what we choose fits in with the parameters of our language.  It\'s just a matter of picking the one we\'re all most comfortable with," he summarised, nodding again once he was done as he cemented these thoughts.

He was a rigid being who enjoyed knowing his boundaries and the thought of infinite possibilities and potentially thousands more conversations and debate over what might work and what should be used frustrated the fuck out of him.  There was already too much unknown, it felt good to have some things sorted out... even if one of those things was the very disappointing fact that the necklace was not an avenue to altering or speeding up this process.

Kerr took a moment after his words died - if he\'d been mortal, he would have sighed - to allow everything to settle and arrange in his mind.  It occurred to him, in that moment, that Jack might be able to utilise his and Ben\'s bond - or even Ben\'s extraordinarily adept fledgling mental abilities - to inspect his thoughts and that startled him.  His facial expression smoothed as if a button somewhere had been pressed and he noticed that Jack was frowning back at him.

Great.  He was feeling too raw for any great amount of inspection right now and decided it was best he make a bold move.  "Well," he said as he looked at Sabrina, in the universally-recognised tone of someone who is definitely concluding a conversation because they had somewhere else to be, "I think that\'s most questions answered for now.  If you didn\'t have anything more to ask or to offer, I think it might just be time for us to thank you gratefully for your help and head upstairs to see if Digital\'s here before I take Jack home?"

He raised his eyebrows and summoned a polite little smile as he looked at the witch, genuinely feeling thankful for her aid thus far - also especially appreciative that this session had gone off without a hitch - but wanting to give her a chance to speak to Jack again if she needed to, before they departed.

It was a great relief Jack seemed to like her and, at the very least, approved of her helping them out.  Kerr was of the belief that, should he choose to include Sabrina on the night of the ritual (and he certainly would ask her), there wouldn\'t be any objections and that made him feel greatly relieved.  Like he would have someone there that he could rely on, if something went wrong... or he just needed someone to catch him if he fainted at the appearance of two Bens.  Both were as likely as each other.

[Harlequin]

Kept her face impassive as she listened to the pair of them, save for a tightening at the corners of her eyes when a ring was mentioned. Kerr\'s idea had merit, but she couldn\'t help but think of weddings; of deep, lasting commitments. She could only guess at the emotions such images sparked inside the elder vampire.

A raised brow, also, was caused by the irritated tone of voice he used with his companion -- though she could well understand it.

Nothing was said, however, until Kerr used the universal leaving-tone, "No, that\'s everything," she said, "But don\'t hesitate to come by, either of you. For anything." Though her eyes traveled between the two of them, they lingered a fraction of a second longer on Kerr as she spoke the last word; letting him know she was there if he simply needed to...get away, as well. At least, that was her intention. "Now, I trust you gentleman can find your way to Digital\'s on your own? I\'ve got some things to take care of down here."