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 Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2025 6:48 pm
As Carterhaugh stepped into the secret room he had discovered, he was struck for a moment by sheer awe.
It was small, yes, but lovely, with trellises built into the walls, with arches overhead, on which he could still see the remains of long-dead climbing roses. They formed what had undoubtedly once been quite the promenade, and in the center was a black wrought-iron table, topped with glass. Hanging above it, attached to the trellis, was what looked like a wrought iron basket, and sitting in that basket was a glowing, golden orb.
Oh. Carterhaugh had heard other Knights speak of such a thing. A secret room, prominently arranged around a particular feature--was this...
"Are you the Code?" He asked.
He would feel very silly if the orb didn't answer, but even sillier if he didn't ask and it spoke up, annoyed at him for ignoring it, or something.
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2025 8:42 am
“None other,” the light answered. The orb swirled lazily, made up of a fine mist that continuously churned. With no face, no eyes, its gaze still landed upon Carterhaugh. The attention lingered as such for a moment before it asked in a clear, curious voice, “What do you want?”
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Posted: Thu Jan 01, 2026 3:13 pm
This really was it. The Code, the thing that gave all Knights their power. Carterhaugh had never really thought to find it, or speak to it--others did, obviously, but something in him had simply decided (stupidly, he realized now, looking at it in front of him) that he just didn't get to do that.
"...I admit, if I'd expected to find you, I think I'd have had a better speech prepared," he confessed, a little sheepishly. "But I..."
Was it worth it to try to beat around the bush with an ancient and powerful entity? Surely if it thought he was insufficient to be guarding this place, it would make it known, and might get especially annoyed if he avoided.
"A few years ago, I..." He hadn't really spoken of this with anyone, not in depth. "I almost joined the Negaverse. It was a foolish decision. I thought I could save someone, but almost gave up myself to do it. And I....I suppose I can't help but feeling I'm not really a worthy Knight, doing something so stupid and then running away for years."
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Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2026 8:32 am
“You are fortunate that I dislike speeches. You don’t need to prepare something to come speak to me. I’d rather it come raw and unfiltered.”
Which Carterhaugh managed well.
“...But that in mind, why are you telling me this?” the Code asked, not unkindly, but blunt in its inquisitiveness. “Why is that weighing on you? You did not join the Negaverse. Am I to reprimand you for a thought you did not act on? You came to your senses. When you ran away, where did you go? What did you do?”
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Posted: Fri Mar 20, 2026 8:29 pm
Ah, well, that was something of a relief. Carterhaugh would remember that, if he ever returned here to speak with the Code again. He couldn't dump every burden on an ancient and powerful source of magic, but he could at least know that it wouldn't mind him being a little messy and unpolished.
Probably for the best, given that he well knew he was sort of a disaster.
It was strange, to have the Code so bluntly dismiss so much built up fear and anxiety.
"When you put it like that," Carterhaugh acknowledged, "it seems much less terrible than I've built it up to be." He exhaled. "I left Destiny City, for a while. Went back to England, laid low. I'd--foolishly, I know--let someone on the other side find out who I was, so I lost who I used to be, but I'm still alive. Still myself, even if I have to go by a different name and my old friends don't recognize me anymore. So it could be significantly worse."
But he was alive. He was still Carterhaugh, not whatever Chaos would have made of him. And it seemed that this thing he had seen as so terrible a stain was far less bad than he'd thought.
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Posted: Sun Mar 22, 2026 12:59 pm
“It could be worse, yes. You lost a lot from the experience, it seems. But you’ve overcome so much already. Why waste time and energy to tear yourself down?” The pause between sentences was only long enough to make sure Caterhaugh heard, and understood, before the the Code continued. “You are far from the first to be tempted by Chaos. You will not be the last. I am proud of you for resisting its pull. I know it isn't easy. Chaos speaks to your heart. Feeds on your passions, your insecurities. It corrupts, indiscriminately. Where there are cracks, Chaos will creep in. You should give yourself more credit for being able to reject it. Tell me…” Without moving, the Code seemed to lean in. Its voice was softer, but closer. “What made you stop before you gave yourself over to it?”
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Posted: Sat May 02, 2026 8:56 pm
Perhaps, Carterhaugh thought, what he had really needed was to hear all these things that he did sort of know to be true form an outside source. It helped that this particular outside source was probably one of the few things he could trust at the outset; any skepticism of the Code could be met, he supposed, with the knowledge that he continued to be Carterhaugh and had not had those powers stripped from him.
(Was that sometihng that could happen? If it could, probably the magical thing that made a Knight a Knight was the thing that could do it.)
He was quiet, for a moment, pondering the question the Code asked of him.
"....In the moment, it was fear," he confessed, finally. "But the kind that makes things very clear, I suppose. I thought I'd worked it all out, that I was alright with what I'd be losing, but...I wasn't. I was so afraid, that Chaos would kill everything I was, and that fear made me run, but it saved me, too."
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Posted: Tue May 19, 2026 6:15 pm
"Smart," the Code said, without any bite. Honest. "You should be afraid of Chaos. All that it promises comes with a cost too great to pay. Fear can be very sobering. When everything is on the line, it is easier to see what really matters, isn't it?" The Code did not speak from its own experience. It hardly seemed to feel such human things, and if it did feel, truly, it was so dulled through the ages that drawing pure, raw emotion was not unlike hitting a gold vein in a depleted mine. A rarity, but not an impossibility. "Do you think that fear makes you weak?" it asked. "You don't seem to trust yourself. I don't care if you run when you're afraid, not if it keeps you alive. Fight the battles you can win. Escape the ones you can't." It was a simple truth. There was value in a Knight that knew when to abandon pride if it meant keeping his life.
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