2019-10-16: Falling Into Blue
- Log: Falling Into Blue
- Cast: Gwen Whitlock, Kalve (as Maekir), Ida Everstead-Rey, Zed
- Where: Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial
- Date: 10/16/2019
- Summary: Down, down, down, the Drifters fall into Macalania Lake, where an ancient temple awaits. Even if their bodies are still drained from the events that happened up above, there's no choice but to move forward, in this final trial before the way to Filgaia is open.
======================<* CHALLENGE - Bubbled From Harm *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You fall.
Fall, fall, fall... into the shadowy, sapphire depths of Macalania Lake.
Perhaps it was the unending numbers of Odessa's rank and file, filtrating
through portals in endless waves. Perhaps it was the tidal wave you scarce
outran at the apex of the battle between Lombardia, Queen of the Metal
Dragons, and Sin itself. Perhaps the fierce fighting in Macalania Temple has
sent you plummeting down to the depths below.
Whatever the case may be--
You do not meet a frigid, wet end in this abyss.
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKOJbeymd4M )
There is a blue light from below.
Slowly, but comfortably, a round sphere of water cloaks itself around you.
You find yourself dry and with air to breathe, as you descend to the
structure of an ancient shrine hidden underneath the frozen surface of
Macalania Lake.
The bubbles are pliant and sturdy, but impede your movements a little. Try
to coax yourself to float down towards the shrine... and keep tabs of who
you're with--
So that you do not risk losing each other again.
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Gwen didn't have much sense of what was happening around her once the tidal wave hit her. Expelling all her energy in one final shot was all that was needed to 'end' the accelerated state her ARM placed her in, but it also left her feeling spent and weak, barely aware of the world and what was happening around her.
Everything felt like she was percieving it through layers of wet wool, subdued and distant, separate.
She was spent.
She was falling, her body limp against the pull of gravity, until she met the blue light's embrace, as everyone else had around her.
And that's the state others may find her in, unconscious but alive, her curly hair flat against her scalp.
Slowly, her eyelids open, her irises now returned to their original blue grey state, but other than that, she doesn't move.
She is still spent.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
When Maekir sleeps, he dreams.
War always comes to the forefront. It is never times of peace or prosperity by the reckoning of humans; it is always times of strife and conflict. *The* War is often but not always the subject of these unconscious imaginings and terrific remembrances, and the grimy, beaten armor of his foes is always a feature that sticks out to him.
Like skin, he always thinks. Like *his* skin. They wear an imitation of his skin, and steal away the skin of his people. Should he then be cloaked in the flesh of the humans? Would this balance the scales of stolen body and broken mind? Would they hesitate, as he had, to strike through the bodies of their comrades to defeat the demon beneath?
Maekir does not suffer from night terrors. The crash of terrible violence and churning conflict are a staple. There is no longer anything that holds terror for him within these scenes. Too familiar are the scars that time will never heal.
The substance of the water into which he has been cast changes. The shift is jarring, and the mass of tangled metal sinking quickly in the depths of the stirring seas moves with a pelagic lethargy. It bends in on itself, contorting in a way that might be mistaken for stretching. A quiver passes through it, and the gleam of blue light on an eye nestled within finds it at the dead center of an expression of uncomfortable awakening.
Several of the twisted tines straighten, curling into something like a tubular appendage. It moves slowly, curling around Gwen's shoulders and guiding her downward as it, too, sinks towards the temple.
Blessedly, the shape of a humanoid head and a dish-shaped hat has emerged from the cloud of bent grey shapes. Maekir is recognizable, if only just.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida falls. Debris trails after her like a comet's tail--bits of tile and masonry, crumbling rock, splinters of wood that not a half an hour ago were fine furniture. She hits the surface of the water, and streams of crimson and quicksilver slick off her body, wisp-like. Bubbles well up around her. A spark of light flashes from below. The bubbles merge, growing into something more substantial as sorcery takes hold--within a few heartbeats, Ida lies within a glimmering, pearl-like sphere.
She drifts into the deep. The slow rocking of the bubble is soothing. She almost wants to forget where she is, but part of her brain reminds the rest of her that there's something important.
Lydia, Ida realizes. It's enough of a jolt to shock her back to a semblance of wakefulness. She tries to recall the last thing she remembers: part of the temple collapsed, with her and the others in it. "...Zed?" Ida croaks. The sound of her own voice is alien. It's a miracle she can even speak at all, after Grigori punched her hard enough to crack her trachea.
In the distance, Ida sees more bubbles. She furrows her brow, scraping together what precious focus she can. A fresh breeze rises in the bubble, gently pushing against the wall, guiding it towards the others.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
A FEW SECONDS AGO
...The universe decides that Zed's had it too good lately.
The ground suddenly cracks underfoot. "What?" Zed asks, as he begins desperately hopping up a cascade of falling boulders, even as he sees his foe slip away from him. "WHAT!?" Zed yells, scrambling from temple chunk to temple chunk as he tries to escape the perilous depths below. "WHAAAAAAAAAT!?"
He slips!
He falls!!!
He flails as he tumbles into the dark, screaming defiantly at the angels up above his sworn ultimatum...!
"I'LL KILL YOU BASTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrr--"
RIGHT NOW
"I have been called," a voice roars from somewhere high above where Ida's bubble hovers in the deep. "And so I shall answer!"
It's a voice she recognizes. A voice that would be impossible not to recognize. After all, she had heard it not too recently. It's a voice that belongs to a certain metal demon, one who seemed to have given all that he had to give to put a dent into that Solarian monster. But...!
No, that's definitely him! That silhouette shooting through the water, twin-tailed scarf twisting boldly behind him like some kind of nautical screw, is definitely none other than... Zed 'the Doombringer' of Hyades...!
"Ida! Gwen!" Zed calls, his voice coming through inexplicably through the water. He comes to an abrupt stop, but gestures forth! His scarf races out, going to wrap around both women in an attempt to drag them to safety!
Safety, like that conspicuous bubble-enclosed structure over there...!
DG: Zed has used his Tool Grapple Scarf toward his party's challenge, Bubbled From Harm.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Bubbled From Harm *>=======================
|Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
You fall.
Fall, fall, fall... into the shadowy, sapphire depths of Macalania Lake.
Perhaps it was the unending numbers of Odessa's rank and file, filtrating
through portals in endless waves. Perhaps it was the tidal wave you scarce
outran at the apex of the battle between Lombardia, Queen of the Metal
Dragons, and Sin itself. Perhaps the fierce fighting in Macalania Temple has
sent you plummeting down to the depths below.
Whatever the case may be--
You do not meet a frigid, wet end in this abyss.
(BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKOJbeymd4M )
There is a blue light from below.
Slowly, but comfortably, a round sphere of water cloaks itself around you.
You find yourself dry and with air to breathe, as you descend to the
structure of an ancient shrine hidden underneath the frozen surface of
Macalania Lake.
The bubbles are pliant and sturdy, but impede your movements a little. Try
to coax yourself to float down towards the shrine... and keep tabs of who
you're with--
So that you do not risk losing each other again.
=Dungeon Conditions: Hesitate=================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 1 *>================ ========================< Results - Bubbled From Harm >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 0 --(0)--> 0 Pass Grapple Scarf 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 0 --(5)--> 5 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's the Hyadeans that come to the rescue of Ida and Gwen, with Zed lending the charge as they all deposit in the safety of the bubble-enclosed temple structure, inexplicably located in a spot no air or any sense of 'dryness' should logically be.
Deposited on the landing, Gwen groans and grumbles, curling in on herself like a surly child not wanting to wake up from their nap. "... Ngh... too loud..."
LIke a piece of debris (with a humanoid head and a dish-shaped hat), something comes attached with the limp Gwen, connected by an appendage wrapped securely around her shoulders.
The party has found 1x Maekir!
DG: Zed has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - The Aquaphant in the Room *>==================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
In the myriad hallways and twists of the Shrine of the Water Trial, you
encounter an unusually sorry sight.
One of the Fiends that patrol this temple, the Aquaphant, has fallen into a
large break on the floor. It doesn't appear able to escape its fate. On the
one hand, that is quite advantageous -- you could sneak around the creature
and save yourself an unnecessary fight...
But the glint of treasure underneath the floor offers a different scenario.
Perhaps support and kindness can help the Fiend free. But what awaits at the
end of this? A random encounter, or the first step to being best friends
with a mythical water creature?
What will you do?
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The bubble carrying Ida merges seamlessly with the sphere around the whatever-it-is, depositing her gently on the stone. She sits there a moment, feels the cool, clean air as it flows through her injured throat, and into her lungs. Once she's gathered her wits, Ida rises. "That was some timing," she says, to Zed, a small, grateful smile on her lips. "Thank you. Who else did you--?" Ida turns towards the others, answering her own question. Gwen she expected, but Maekir--
"Old Man?" Ida croaks. Her voice still sounds awful. Just looking at her, Maekir can tell why--there's horrible bruising all across her neck, like someone punched her square in the throat. That isn't even the full extent of her injuries. Living Metal dots her skin, sealing burn marks, abrasions, and even blade wounds.
"...Do you have any idea where we are?" Ida says. The architecture is distinctly Althenan. It makes no sense.
A solid thud interrupts Ida's train of thought. She glances over towards the edge of the platform, where she can just barely make out the head of an elephantine creature. "What is that?" Ida says.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has contributed a Brute Basic Action toward her party's challenge, The Aquaphant in the Room.
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Maekir settles on the platform. The coiling of the metal twists and tines that make up his body causes a hissing, scraping sound to issue from him. He's knitting himself back together in real time, reassembling his body from the broken-up pieces that were drifting through the sea. He stands, for a given value of stands, over Gwen's curled-up form.
"So I am sometimes called," he says. His voice is a metallic rasp. It slowly clears up as he speaks, becoming less grating on the ears. "Arise, Gwen Whitlock! You are not yet slain, though the weight of the sea would wish otherwise." He puts a foot-shaped appendage down, and flat metal snakes across the ground.
Maekir promptly flips Gwen over like an unruly pancake.
Without further preamble or anything like an apology, he turns, and starts idly meandering towards the edge of the platform. "A challenge," he says. "It is a challenge. Push on to the end of this place. It will have the answers you seek."
Stupid cryptic kung fu mentors.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
They're safe. They're safe. The air might smell vaguely of fish and old salt, but they're safe. The Hyadean physiology might be able to survive being underwater for prolonged periods, but even Zed's somewhat infamous resilience has its limits. He can only conveniently forget that he needs to breathe for so long, you know? Zed sighs and sags with relief as his fleshier companions reveal themselves to be quite alive and well. "Oh, good. I was worried. I'm sure glad Dva taught me how to swim, otherwise I'd be an anchor on the bottom of the lake right now and--" Beat. Zed tilts his head at Ida. "Old-huh-what-now?"
There's a sound. It sounds remarkably like *FLIP* which is itself obviously the onomatopoeia of a pancake getting flopped. Zed stares! That vaguely humanoid form of liquid metal. It can only be...!
Well, no, it could be Kalve too. But this isn't Kalve!! This is... "Maekir...!? Were you trying to get payback for the Photosphere too??"
Truly, the ancient of mercury's patriotism knows no bounds.
But first!
There... appears to be an elephant over there.
"Uh. I don't know. It looks like..." Zed. Zed has never seen an elephant before. Zed can only describe what it is he's seeing by sort of melding a bunch of animal bits together. "It looks like some kind of snakenose, tree-legged tank-creature! I bet if we can get it out of there, we'll be able to ride it through wherever this is!"
Yes.
Truly a brilliant plan.
"Come on! Help me lift it out of there!" With what? Zed is, evidently, going to try to hop down and hoist it up with nothing but PURE MUSCLE, because honestly how are you even going to use Berserk's ball and chain to help here?
...
...
Oh, of course.
After a minute or so of trying and failing to move an elephant-sized fiend out of an elephant-sized-fiend-sized hole, Zed instead plucks that spiked ball from its hiding place on his person and smashes a much easier to traverse ramp into one side of the pit.
"That should help! I think!!" If it didn't collapse their only apparent way forward, at least!
DG: Zed has used his Tool Berserk Hammer toward his party's challenge, The Aquaphant in the Room.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Like the world's most non-photogenic pancake, Gwen is flipped over, causing her to awaken with a confused sputter.
"Whhuh?"
Gwen squints, staggering forward until she's inches from just slumping on Zed for support. "... whassit."
Something in Zed's words seems to appeal to Gwen, especially the aspect of hitching a ride on this creature, who certainly looks big enough to sleep on, or possibly eat. Right now, her body would be fine with either.
In a move that is pure Gwen, she moves forward, half-asleep, depositing herself with a disorderly crunch of gravel behind Zed.
"Siitight. I'm gonna-..." She stifles a yawn, positioning herself to the other side of Zed. "Gongit y'out..."
When Zed finds a better, more cost-efficient way to free the Aquaphage, Gwen's not there.
Like a worn battery, powered up for one last burst of juice, she's flagged once more, having fallen asleep standing up, the side of her face smushed against the potentially dangerous fiend.
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool ARM-ored Fist toward her party's challenge, The Aquaphant in the Room.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
==================<* CHALLENGE - The Aquaphant in the Room *>===================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Brute |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
In the myriad hallways and twists of the Shrine of the Water Trial, you
encounter an unusually sorry sight.
One of the Fiends that patrol this temple, the Aquaphant, has fallen into a
large break on the floor. It doesn't appear able to escape its fate. On the
one hand, that is quite advantageous -- you could sneak around the creature
and save yourself an unnecessary fight...
But the glint of treasure underneath the floor offers a different scenario.
Perhaps support and kindness can help the Fiend free. But what awaits at the
end of this? A random encounter, or the first step to being best friends
with a mythical water creature?
What will you do?
=Dungeon Conditions: Weaken===================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 2 *>================ ====================< Results - The Aquaphant in the Room >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 0 --(15)--> 15 Fail Force 0 Brute Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 0 --(10)--> 10 Pass Berserk Hammer 3 Brute Effects: Strengthen and Sacrif -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 5 --(10)--> 15 Pass ARM-ored Fist 2 Brute Effects: Strengthen -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Hesitate(1)|Weaken(2) Effects: Strengthen(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Let it never be said that Zed doesn't have a kind, generous heart beneath his nerdy exterior. With the late Berserk's weapon at his disposal, it's a simple matter to start smashing through the stone walls of the pit. Ida stays well away, her thoughtful look slowly turning into a frown as she regains focus and alertness. "Zed," she says, her voice low and urgent. "I think that's a Fiend--!" If it is, it's shown little interest in murdering him, though--or in murdering Gwen, who decides to join in. Ida glances at Maekir, mismatched eyes wide with worry, before stepping closer to the edge of the pit. "Easy," she says, looking down at the aquaphant. She tries not to think about how easily it could crush someone in the confines of the pit. "Just a little more--"
The impromptu ramp is finished. The aquaphant clambers up out of the pit, and walks off without so much as trying to gore someone. Ida lets out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding. At the bottom of the pit, where the Fiend once stood, is a glimmer of metal--a sword, snapped in half partway up the blade. Ida looks down at it. A dull, sinking sensation settles in the pit of her stomach.
"Odd," she says.
DG: Zed has drawn a new Challenge.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Hundredpede *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The unpleasant noise of a hundred chitinous legs clicking against stone
heralds the coming of this enormous centipede Fiend, the Hundredpede. Though
as Armengard would be hasty to point out, centi- means hundred regardless,
so it's essentially just a Centipede.
Whichever pede it is, it's impeding your way. Unpede it.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
"Eh?" Zed ehs as Gwen summarily flops over against the Aquaphant's abundant backside. "Gwen! You're acting strangely again! Do I have to carry you the rest of the way myself!?" He might. He might just have to do that. Especially since the Aquaphant apparently feels little urge to help shoulder the party's burden today-- though it might just have good reason to be getting out of dodge.
Something else is in the pit. Something about the size of the Aquaphant, but somehow so much more terrifying. It's a chitinous, multilimbed beast that, accounting for its full length, is easily the size of a small apartment. "What...!?" Zed asks of the universe, "How did this thing even get here!?"
ELSEWHERE IN THE TEMPLE - MOMENTS EARLIER
It seems a little unfair, outright blipping a major threat right back to the start of the dungeon like that. And maybe just a bit... concerning. If someone else arrives down here like they did, they'd find a giant, hungry silverfish waiting for them.
Did they just put a bunch of strangers in danger for their own sakes? Could they have defeated that thing here and now and spared some other party the risk of encountering such a thing? Ashley stares for a long while at the space that the Hundredpede had occupied only moments before-- he could have killed it. Then and there. If he drew on that <<Power>> within himself, it would have been a trivial matter.
HERE - NOW
Instead, it has become someone else's problem. Specifically, it has become Zed's and Gwen's and Ida's and Maekir's problem. "Whatever..." Zed growls as the massive insect clashes its predatory limbs against his dreadfully cursed blade. "Whatever...! It's just an insect! Some kind of wannabe metal beast! Well I'll show it what a real metal beast looks like! COME!" Zed yells, "GOLDIE!"
...
Goldie doesn't in fact come right then and there. Zed has to actually blow through a little whistle before something seems to happen. From high up above, a little golden comet shoots through the water like a torpedo. And, just as Zed goes to block another multilimbed onslaught, it arrives.
That beautiful, golden abomination arrives.
"Bark," Goldie says, as it promptly begins spinning like some kind of buzzsaw into the Hundredpede's chitinous armor. "Haha! Take that, monster! We'll be the end of you yet!!"
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Maekir... does not do anything about the potential Fiend. He just stops at the edge of the platform, and watches as the trio of actual adventurers go to handle it. When they just sort of let it go, he steps back, turning his head to watch it trundle off.
"Hmm. Usually," the Old Man remarks, tapping his chin with a newly-reconstituted finger, "things that size demand to be beaten, not simply released from their pit." He turns his eyes to Ida, staring for a couple seconds, and then to the object in the pit... and the other creature.
"Ah." He seems more pleased now. "There you are: a proper monster to engage. Let's get a closer look at that weapon, shall we?" He turns to face the pit, apparently at the ready.
And does nothing but stand there and watch some more.
Did you miss a party recruitment trigger somewhere??
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida blinks. In that brief heartbeat, one Fiend is replaced with another, and this one is both larger and angrier. "What--" Ida croaks. She stumbles back, fumbling for her Crest Cap as Doom Bringer meets the Fiend's multitudinous limbs. Her fingers close around the chip of metal. A wave of blue-green light surges outwards, engulfing Ida, and then the others. Time--or at least their perception of it--starts to slow.
"That wasn't there a second ago!" Ida protests, as she whips Devil's Due from its holster. She takes aim as best as she can, and snaps off a shot at the Fiend's flailing head. Goldie blurs past her a moment later, the wind of the Metal Beast's passage stirring her sodden hair. Ida glances back at Maekir, frustration welling up in her--as well as an odd sort of acceptance.
...just like him...
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Haste Cap toward her party's challenge, Hundredpede.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
At the 'offer' of being carried, Gwen's eyes light up. Momentairely. Possibly because if she was able to sustain a charge like that for more than a moment, she'd probably be in the right mindframe to refuse Zed's offer. "I did th'thing Doc told me not t'do." She puts a finger to her lips, which looks odd because she's not puckering her lips, as would be expected in a 'shush' gesture.
Seeing Zed react to something over her shoulder, as well as the exclamations of Ida and Maekir's more subdued observations, Gwen turns around.
"Huh. Is it... a millipede, or a centipede? Milli means... somethin', centi means... pede, aw hell, it's comin'." The courier looks up, languidly holds up her right ARM, and- ".... Wait, that's Goldie." She turns her ARM over towards the Hundredpede, fingers splayed wide.
"... Y'think," she ponders aloud, "if we kill it, n' cook it... it'd be edible, right? Like, it'd taste like lobster, or crab..." Her stomach complains at the memories she begins to unearth. "... S'well, gotta cook it, s'no bullets."
The beams that fire from Gwen's hand are noticably dimmer, the space of time between each beam growing noticably longer. She wobbles. If they cook it, surely they'd need butter. Zed and Maekir wouldn't have butter, they're Hyadean. So that leaves... "... Iddaaaa. Ida."
She pauses, squints.
".... when'd you getta green eye?" She smiles. "Oh, right. Didja overuse too?"
THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR THIS
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, Hundredpede. DG: Zed has used his Tool Goldie Whistle toward his party's challenge, Hundredpede.
===================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Hundredpede *>=========================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
--------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------
The unpleasant noise of a hundred chitinous legs clicking against stone
heralds the coming of this enormous centipede Fiend, the Hundredpede. Though
as Armengard would be hasty to point out, centi- means hundred regardless,
so it's essentially just a Centipede.
Whichever pede it is, it's impeding your way. Unpede it.
=Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
==============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 3 *>=============== ==========================< Results - Hundredpede >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ida Everstead-Rey 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Haste Cap 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Zed 10 --(0)--> 10 Pass Goldie Whistle 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Gwen Whitlock 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Weaken(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw. DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Make Haste Slowly *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Right down this hallway, up the next, twist around towards this next room
and...
Ah. Back where you started.
The Shrine of the Water Trial, for all its advanced and mystical origin, is
quite the excruciating building to navigate. Perhaps it is the watery
reflections that confound the senses. Perhaps the way the passages twist and
turn and lead to one another, bereft of landmarks.
You'd best act fast with your backtracking, while the temple's corridors are
fresh in your mind. This is not just a physical trial, but one of mental
acuity too.
Make haste slowly.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
</poem>
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
It's probably for the best that this particular Hundredpede was teleported halfway across the ruin. It seems to be about as bewildered as anyone could reasonably expect to be, and that's to the party's distinct advantage. Whether by bullet or by beam, or by Zed and Goldie's increasingly rapid application of blade-based violence, the multi-armed menace is quickly overwhelmed and turns as if it's trying to retreat, but...!
"NOT SO FAST!" Zed yells, immediately diagnosing one of Gwen's present and most pressing problems. "YOU CAN'T RUN AWAY WITHOUT PAYING THE TOLL!" The Hundredpede, inexplicably, looks both aghast and terrified at this strange green-haired man charging it at impossible speeds. It tries to scuttle away faster but it can't hammer the run-away button fast enough. Zed catches up. Zed raises his blade! Zed...
Turns the Hundredpede into a merely Nonagintasextupede.
"Hrmph," he declares as the beam-raked, bullet-ridden beast clatters away. "Come on!" Zed hoists the four severed legs over his shoulder. They look like they... might... have edible meat on them. "Let's find somewhere to cook these! It sounds like Gwen's pretty hungry...!"
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
"Well, now it is. The past is in the past. Let go of your preconceived notions of where a monster 'was', and look to where it 'will be,'" the Old Man lectures, in an obnoxiously wisdom-laden tone. "Or at the very least protest less and fire more. The others have the right idea."
Sometimes superior firepower is a form of wisdom. Right?
Once the centimillidecilotsapede is dealt with, Maekir looks down into the pit off the platform again. He turns away from it, starting to walk along the edge, his body having pulled itself into something humanoid again. He looks like he's wearing a knit robe with a few missing stitches, the individual strands bunched up like steel cables that are very slowly blending back together. It reflects oddly in the watery walls and the ethereal nature of the place.
And it is ethereal. As he walks, slowly but steadily progressing down corridors ahead of the trio, the nature of the place becomes more of a concern. Mystical workings mixed with advanced technology, maybe? The possibilities are numerous, but there's plenty of time to contemplate it while he leads a looping, twisting path through the interior of the shrine, past passages and portals.
And comes back to the room you started in, with the platform overlooking the pit, from the opposite side.
Maekir looks back. "Was there some reason you were following me?"
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
<poem>Zed has run into a teleporter maze once before.
Ida might remember. She might have been there at the time. Claude definitely was, but he's not here right now. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa---" Zed is heard, echoing through the halls. His voice dopplers up and down an octave as the distance between him and the party grows and shrinks seemingly at random.
It's the teleporters.
Occasionally he just runs past only to get sent back a few dozen meters, only to race by again.
Eventually though, he runs by with his scarf summarily tangled up around his face in a way that very clearly makes it impossible for him to see. And yet... And yet his yell echoes far into the distance. Farther than ever before, even. Is blinding yourself actually how you're supposed to make it through here...!?
(No, you're supposed to be blinding the eyes on the walls, but it has already been established that Zed functions on cartoon logic.)
(...)
(...Or his scarf is just conveniently flapping in such a way that obscures problematic sensors. One of the two.)
DG: Zed has used his Tool Grapple Scarf toward his party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Hundredpede makes a getaway. Ida doesn't chase it--instead, she slides her last clip into Devil's Due, and walks over to the edge of the pit where it appeared. Just a broken blade, she reminds herself. And yet, she can't escape the nagging sensation that there's something to that blade. "I--" Ida says, as Gwen looks at her and asks a somewhat indelicate question. "Now is not the time." Her voice still sounds awful. "We need to get out of here before Sin brings the rest of the mountain down on us." She pauses a beat, and looks at Maekir--at Maekir's back, really, since he's already walking off. "And if this is an Althenan temple," she rasps, "why is it here?"
Ida hurries after Maekir, her footsteps echoing through the corridors. The odd geometry of this place reflects the sound a dozen different ways, adding to the confusion. About the only landmark Ida spots on her way is another chunk of metal poking out of the wall--
No. It's another blade, broken off just above the hilt. Ida stares at it a moment as the uneasy feeling wells up inside her, redoubling itself. "Something feels wrong," Ida says. "Quickly, this way--"
Ida takes two steps, turns, and almost runs smack into Maekir's back. She stares at him for a long moment. "I thought you might've known the way," Ida says, somehow managing a dry tone despite the fact that she sounds like hell. "And leaving an old man to the mercies of ancient sorcery would be cruel." Zed blunders off. Ida looks at him for a moment, and then hurries off after. Green motes of light emanate from the soles of her boots, rising up around her as the wind picks up. It provides a favorable tailwind as the group makes its way onwards...
Past another of those wrecked blades.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Zephyr Boots toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"Ahhh." Gwen takes Ida's reaction in stride, nodding readily. "... S'right."
If there is a good party member to have when you're potentially lost in a maze, it's a courier who prides herself on her ability to find her way to her destination.
However, this courier is currently A. fried, B. doesn't have the added initiative of a package and a deadline, C. just following random party members.
And she's still managing to, somehow. "Yeah, don't *look* Spiran at all." Pause. "... Maybe that's why it feels wrong? 'Cause it's not supposed t'be here." Case closed.
".... Oh." Gwen sleepily looks to either side, her left hand straying up to itch unceremoniously at the back of her head. ".... I forgot."
A lightbulb of inspiration appears over the dazed courier's head just then, and she grins. "..... when did you join us?"
...... didn't Zed have some food on him?
DG: Gwen Whitlock has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Make Haste Slowly.
<Pose Tracker> Shalune Amira has posed.
From somewhere within the resulting destruction comes the cry. It may be their salvation. But it may portend further destruction. It is the Sulk of Ages: "Oh, like dried parsley's any worse. It's all parsley!"
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
======================<* CHALLENGE - Make Haste Slowly *>=======================
|Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Right down this hallway, up the next, twist around towards this next room
and...
Ah. Back where you started.
The Shrine of the Water Trial, for all its advanced and mystical origin, is
quite the excruciating building to navigate. Perhaps it is the watery
reflections that confound the senses. Perhaps the way the passages twist and
turn and lead to one another, bereft of landmarks.
You'd best act fast with your backtracking, while the temple's corridors are
fresh in your mind. This is not just a physical trial, but one of mental
acuity too.
Make haste slowly.
=Dungeon Conditions: Slow=====================================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 4 *>================ ========================< Results - Make Haste Slowly >========================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Zephyr Boots 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 10 --(5)--> 15 Fail Grapple Scarf 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 15 --(5)--> 20 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Slow(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 20 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Maekir pretty much entirely ignores Zed's charging back and forth as they move through the mazelike interior of the shrine. He doesn't step out of his way, but he's always a half-step or more from Zed's zipping path, either by coincidence or machination. Similarly, Zed's scarf seems to just barely cover the right eyes as they pass, again and again... but never before he jumps into a teleporter, making him have to run the maze over and over.
"That is an excellent question," Maekir says to Ida. "You should ponder it. What do you see that might give you a reason?" His robes drag with metallic scrapes against the floor. His eyes, peeking out from under his wide-brimmed hat, flick to her and then to Gwen as Ida picks up speed. He lets her take the lead, the tailwind rippling along with them as they make use of Zed's accidental usefulness.
The Old Man turns his head to Gwen, stops for about two and a half seconds, then starts to laugh. He keeps walking. Incidentally, his stride is now matched to Ida's quickened one, and they all just barely manage to avoid getting pulled into a totally different part of the dungeon. Sometimes being quick on your feet is more important than being slow and steady.
"Survive this place in your current state, and ask again another day, eh? I have not seen someone so exhausted carry on so doggedly in..." He spots another blade. His eyes track it, voice trailing off slightly. "...some time."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Your Very Own Tales of Skit *>==================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Your party arrives at an antechamber anchored by a mystical point of power.
It provides protection from nearby wandering Fiends. It is also mysteriously
designed for camping equipment like Tents to be pitched and set up with
ease, just as the light-warriors of old once did.
...
So much has happened.
Odessa. The last-minute miracle of the Guts-Dozer. Lombardia. Sin. Maester
Seymour. Jyscal's sphere. And his once-assistant, Krelian.
...
There is time.
Time for you all to mentally digest everything that has happened.
Time for you to start to pick yourselves up and rebuild what has been
broken.
Time to you to affirm what you must take back. What you can't lose again.
There is time now. Take it.
Because you are all /worth/ this time.
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
Laughter may be the only proper reaction, in the face of such obliviousness.
"Zed n' I, we fought Sin, with Yue," Gwen answers, as if that answered Maekir's implied question. "... Lombardia was there. She was..."
Something clenches in her gut, bittersweet and warm, but alien. Her lips part in a smile.
"... I want to see her, again. I suppose that's... natural? To see someone like that and feel like that." She tips her head towards Zed. "I 'spose it'd be silly to expect any different, with her bein' practically your Grandma n' all. If just in spirit n' all."
It slowly behinds to weigh on her, the weight of all the past events.
Her face turns towards Ida, concern beginning to register as somehow, in this quiet space, her wits briefly return, along with the exhaustion that was held at bay. "... How are you holdin' up, Ida? Let's rest, just for a sec. I know we're limited on time, but, I think we're okay for at least a little bit. A lot has happened."
She hopes Hiro and all of her friends will be okay.
Digging into her tunic, she takes out a small kit. "Here. Lemme see if I can patch you up a bit. If anything, maybe you'll feel a little better. You too, Zed. You took a bit of a beating too, right? N' you, Maekir?"
.... "Well maybe you can help me."
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Courier Kit toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
It's perhaps a testament to Zed's endurance, or maybe just the relatively high concentrations of oxygen found under so many fathoms of water, that he's only mildly out of breath by the time he finally loops back around to catch up to the rest of the party. But by then... By then, things have gotten a little bit... Introspective.
"..." Zed un-says, instead taking advantage of the relative safety of this undersea sanctuary to exploit what looks to be a recently used firepit. A few strikes of stone against alien steel is all he needs to light a spark, and for kindling, he extends a hand toward his horrible monster of a dog, who... Produces a few sticks from what looks to be a Fetch Stick Storage. There's a silent promise between the two. Don't worry, Zed's gaze seems to say. I'll double what you give me now.
He gets a fire going in short order. And from there, it's just a matter of roasting the crustacean-limbs he's carrying around.
It'll be a bit before they're ready, but at least there's something to eat.
"I didn't know Lombardia was even still among the living," Zed says, warming his hands against the crackling flames. "I guess if she wanted to hide anywhere, the moon is as good a place as any. I just wish we knew a little more about why she came up here to begin with."
"Maybe she knew about Mother before any of us had any idea of her true nature. Maybe she was just tired of the fighting." Zed shrugs. It could be any number of things. But. "I'm glad she's okay, though. Sin... Sin's no joke. But if Lombardia can hurt it, then maybe we can too...?"
'We' here meaning 'those of Planet Hyades.'
He apparently considers the two ladies here among that number. Or at least, the two of them add up to a single Hyadean, if you average it out and round up.
"I should be okay," he says to Gwen before tapping at his own noggin. "Worst I got was a solid blow to the head, and there's nobody on Filgaia or Lunar who has a thicker skull than yours truly! I'm more worried 'bout... Solaris. Just. In general, I guess? That knight kept going on and on and on about her god, and it just... Reminded me, I guess, of how so many of us were, back when we still hadn't figured out about Mom."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida steps forwards, following Gwen as she approaches the strange column of light. Soft pressure--not unlike the sensation of the bubbles that carried them there--builds against her skin, and fades just as quickly. It's as if they've passed through some unseen barrier, a mystical field keeping the Fiends at bay. Just being near the column feels restful, rejuvenating. Ley energies at work, perhaps?
Ida sits next to Gwen in front of an indentation in the floor--a fire pit, perhaps. "Lombardia lives," Ida says, looking Maekir in the eye. Her voice is a dry creak, but there's hope in it. "I--I couldn't help her. Odessa was too hellbent on ensuring none of ARMS made it out alive." Ida curls up a little, pulling her knees close to her chest. Her damp Arctican mantle drapes about her. "You, too?" Ida says. "I... I don't know if she would deign to so much as look at me, though."
That hope, though. Maekir might find it fitting in more ways than one. He always looked up to her, admired her, even idolized her.
"Good girl," Ida says, reaching up to scratch Goldie behind whatever she has for ears. She takes one of the sticks, and with a few minutes' work, cuts it down to kindling. Ida puts some on the fire.
"She killed Siegfried," Ida says. Her voice hitches, and the damage makes it sound worse. "If she--if she hadn't, then maybe..." Ida shakes her head. "And what they did to Lydia--" Oh God, Ida realizes, a moment later. "Lydia was--she was a Solarian experiment. They did something to her. She's a prisoner in her own body now."
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Multitool toward her party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit. DG: Zed has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Your Very Own Tales of Skit.
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Maekir settles himself near the firepit like he was meant to be there. Given he's temporarily part of their party, even tangentially, maybe he is.
"Lunar was never on the Quarter Knights' priority list for exploration or subjugation." He holds one hand out, palm up, staring at it. He's still knitting himself back together, metallic biology reforming like a slow-motion healing spell was being cast. There's nothing squishy about him, it seems; he's just... whatever he is. Strange, mostly. "I'm pleased Lombardia is -- was? -- still alive. The elderly among us are few indeed."
Technically Zed counts. Maekir does not point that out.
He turns his head to Gwen. He stares for a long, silent moment. Then, he takes off his hat, his face the creased and worn visage of the Old Man beneath rather than the smooth, multi-eyed thing that terrorized the Thunder Plains. "I was struck by a tremendous amount of water and rubble, but I will recover. You..." He cocks his head. "This is work for my student. He did not learn the majority of his professed trade from me. Still!" He produces a little hexagonal package of his own, a metal case of alien origin. "I am no stranger to battlefield injuries."
He gets to work soon enough. His gaze trails over to Ida, meeting hers. His lips twitch, a look of distant memory briefly crossing his face. "That arm is more fitting for you than I first surmised."
Maekir sighs, then. "Siegfried was an exceptional leader, when he was not blinded by dogma. A better fighter. If it was not treachery, then this individual is powerful indeed. Fortunate, then, that what remains of our people have a clear and present target for them, should they wish to continue to decapitate what structure we have left." It's difficult to tell if he's being bitterly sarcastic or totally serious. His voice betrays neither.
"In how many battles must the warrior fight; on how many campaigns must the soldier march; and, how many duels must the Master accept," Maekir asks, in a strangely hollow intonation, "before they may lay down their arms and rest?"
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
=================<* CHALLENGE - Your Very Own Tales of Skit *>==================
|Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
Your party arrives at an antechamber anchored by a mystical point of power.
It provides protection from nearby wandering Fiends. It is also mysteriously
designed for camping equipment like Tents to be pitched and set up with
ease, just as the light-warriors of old once did.
...
So much has happened.
Odessa. The last-minute miracle of the Guts-Dozer. Lombardia. Sin. Maester
Seymour. Jyscal's sphere. And his once-assistant, Krelian.
...
There is time.
Time for you all to mentally digest everything that has happened.
Time for you to start to pick yourselves up and rebuild what has been
broken.
Time to you to affirm what you must take back. What you can't lose again.
There is time now. Take it.
Because you are all /worth/ this time.
=Dungeon Conditions: Save Point===============================================
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 5 *>================ ===================< Results - Your Very Own Tales of Skit >==================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 15 --(0)--> 15 Pass Multitool 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 15 --(5)--> 20 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 20 --(5)--> 25 Fail Courier Kit 1 Wits Effects: Resilient and Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Save Point(1)|Slow(1) Effects: Enlighten(1)|Resilient(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has passed this challenge! The party gained 0 exploration! If anyone needs to use party management commands, do so now. Otherwise, the next round's GM may begin the next round with +dungeon/draw.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Ida swallows. It's hard not to hear the hollow tone in Maekir's voice, and she's too worn-down to care about things like 'decorum'. She turns to him, reaches up, and places her right hand on his shoulder. "I cannot begin to imagine what a thousand years of this must feel like," Ida says. "But, please, if nothing else--"
"I'm with you."
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
"Thank you, young lady," the Old Man sighs. "It is a question that I fear only has one answer. Perhaps I will find a different one, given enough time."
He smiles a little. It seems genuine. That's really all you can ask for.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
"It's okay, Ida. ARMS needed everyone on deck defendin' themselves against Odessa. There's no tellin' what would've happened if they decided that Lombardia was more interestin' a target than ARMS. We're Drifters, so we look out for one another." If Ida allows for it, Gwen begins applying first aid, mindful of the fellow literal ARM user's condition, but not shrinking away from it, either. "I feel like Lombardia'd take to someone as tough n' smart as you are like butter on toast." Her stomach growls again, the smell of Zed's 'cooking' becoming increasingly distracting.
At some point, when those limbs are done, Gwen is just There, tearing into one like her life depended on it.
And maybe, to some degree, it did, judging by how the subtle shakiness seems to roll away from Gwen for good.
"......... uh, sorry to abandon ya there, Ida." She raises another centipede 'arm'. "You should try this! It's eatable!"
Topics shift to darker subjects, and Gwen is left, sorting her thoughts. Solaris, and Odessa: two powers that are rapidly proving to be far more dangerous than she gave them credit for. Not only that, the Veruni are becoming far more complex in scope. "The way I see it, Hyadeans now share the same sky as alla us now. But there's still people who still suffer, and people who'd want to take the sky from us all. A friend of mine's had some choice things t'say about those folks all this time, n' I wonder if he's been holdin' back on account of not wantin' to drag us all in."
Well, more like Fei probably didn't want Solaris to just involve itself into their lives just because they were mentioned too many times in the span of a conversation.
But as their rest is done and the fire is put out, a tension begins to rise in the air; they need to move on, or be forced to.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has drawn a new Challenge.
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
========================<* CHALLENGE - Asura's Wrath *>=========================
|Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
An enormous Hellion awaits you at the end of Lefay, the Shrine of the Water
Trial.
This is Asura.
Asura, shelled in armour and bearing three pairs of weapons -- paired battle
forks, twinned gear-like warhammers, and matched glimmering greatswords of
water. He wields each of these enormous weapons one-handed, seemingly
unencumbered.
His howl shatters the very chamber you engage him in, and combat soon
follows--
--and after several rounds at it, it's clear his six-armed guard is
impeccable.
You'll need the brilliant in your team to stop his movements.
You'll need the powerful in your team to breach his defence.
You'll need the adroit in your team slip through and deal lasting damage.
You'll need the soothing in your team to tie this plan together long enough
to work.
But that is why you are all here together now.
Past all the horrifying hardships you've survived together.
Overcome this Water Trial together.
Because you all can /do/ this.
=Dungeon Conditions: Suffer===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The small party moves on. It isn't long before they run across yet another broken blade--this one decidely not like the others. Ida stoops to examine it, and frowns. "The metalwork looks different," she says. "Spiran? It's not like the others." And something snapped it like a dry twig. Another blade, a longsword bearing a distinctly non-Spiran crest on the pommel, juts out from the wall further on. It's been bent into a U-shape. This would be ominous enough. As Ida, Gwen, and Zed approach the heart of the Trial, they catch wind of a very familiar scent.
"Malevolence," Ida breathes. She's only sensed it in Spira twice before, and each time, it marked the presence of Hellions. Spira, for all its myriad woes, does not have ambient Malevolence in the same way that Glenwood and Meribus do. If it's this thick, then...
"No. It's not enough. It's NEVER ENOUGH!" The voice comes from everywhere and nowhere, ringing off the walls. Ida stops in her tracks, standing ramrod-straight. She stares ahead, her eyes like saucers. "WHERE IS MY BLADE, ALTUL?! WHERE IS MY LIFE'S WORK?!"
Whatever--whomever--is screaming lies behind a pair of massive stone doors, engraved with a script Ida cannot read--the Ancient Tongue. She does recognize a symbol: the element of Water.
"Wrong. Wrong. WRONG! ALL WRONG!"
Ida sets her jaw. She reaches out, and the door sinks down into the floor before she can so much as touch it. Beyond lies a room that in any other structure might be the central atrium, a circular chamber that at one point was lined with intricate carvings. Most have been smashed to rubble, as have several supporting pillars. A barrier similar to the one protecting the shelter hums in the air. It feels much, much weaker.
Within that oh-so-fragile barrier is the source of the Malevolence--the Hellion locked in the bowels of the Temple. The blood drains from Ida's face at the sight of him--she scented oh-so-familiar notes of emotion in his Domain, but this close, she can't help but feel like she's looking in a mirror. Like she's looking into that Mirror, the ragged, bleeding wound she tore in this world's lifeforce. So much looks familiar: the twisted face, the massive build, the aura of rage underscored by despair and obsession. He clutches a strange blade in his hands--a Solarian sword, bent into a horseshoe through raw strength alone. "Not it. Where is--where is my sword, Altul? What have you DONE?!"
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99DEjXDrB1k
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
"HUMANS!" the Hellion bellows. He drives his hands forwards, gripping the barrier, grappling with it. There's barely any resistance. The sharp scent of ozone fills the room as the barrier strains, and then pops like a soap bubble. "You DARE bring your TAINT here?! The Hellion steps forwards. He raises all six arms, weapons condensing out of his Malevolent Domain--curved, crystalline blades, gear-shaped warhammers, flanged maces."I AM THE SHEPHERD! I AM SWORN TO CLEANSE THIS WORLD OF MALEVOLENCE!"
Asura
The Fallen Shepherd
Asura turns into a tornado of fury. The massive Hellion plants a foot on the floor, and swings at Zed with both warhammers. One sword-arm sweeps wide in a cleaving arc, trying to relieve Gwen of her head. The other surges forwards, jabbing at Maekir. Both mace-arms swing at Ida from the above--
Ida digs in her heels. raises both arms. Hyadean armor flows into place, sheathing both arms in gleaming biometal. The Hellion's weapons connect with a piercing clang, and an impact that rattles Ida's teeth in her jaw. Were she any less synchronized with the graft, the impact would've dislocated both arms, at minimum. She skids back across the floor, dust billowing at her feet.
"I WILL HAVE MY PERFECT BLADE!" Asura bellows. He swings for Ida again, the air screaming as it makes way for one of his warhammers. The martial artist blurs out of the way. The weapon slams into the ground, crushing stone beneath it. "WITH ITS POWER, I WILL CLEANSE THIS WORLD!"
Ida uses a precious second to reach into her pocket and activate her final Crest Cap. As the Haste spell settles into place, her thoughts clear. Her mind becomes focused on the task at hand. "SUBDUE HIM!" Ida roars. A moment later, she surges forwards, fiery chi billowing out from her right arm.
No. That's not just chi. That's power that's not entirely hers. It's not his, either. It's a tiny spark from the flame that sustains the world.
DG: Ida Everstead-Rey has used her Tool Haste Cap toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Maekir stands, and leaves the fire's embers behind. He sweeps his hat back onto his head, hand disappearing beneath the wire-like robes again. They clink and rattle as he walks, now, instead of scraping and hissing. It's a different sound, and less... unsettling, perhaps? Maybe just different.
The Hellion shows itself as they move into the central chamber. Maekir stands back, looking up at the creature. Can he even see it as it is? He's a Hyadean; they're not often known for their spiritual-
"My, you are an ugly example of your kind, aren't you?"
Oh. Yeah. Okay.
Ida, notably, does not die immediately. The Old Man makes a little 'huhn' noise of mildly surprised, equally-mild approval. He steps forward and to the side, out of the way. "I am no human," he tells Asura. "If you wish, I will leave you to-"
The Hellion stabs at him. A blade cleaves the wall next to him. He steps about a foot and a half to the right, and it misses him by less than an inch. He keeps talking as if nothing had happened. "-fail to create this 'perfect blade' of yours. Have you considered that it is not your skill that is lacking," Maekir continues, "but the pursuit of perfection that is ultimately flawed?"
Asura's bellowing makes it fairly clear that he has no interest in speaking. Maekir sighs inwardly.
Also outwardly.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed, too, has a leg to munch on. It's easy to forget how hungry you can get after a full day running high on... Whatever the Hyadean physiology uses instead of adrenaline. A single (extra large) Hundredpede limb isn't enough to fully recharge Zed's reserves, but it certainly goes a long way.
He leaves nothing behind. Both meat AND shell find their way into Zed's hungry gullet.
Soon, it's time to leave. Ominous words have been exchanged, Maekir's final question in particular rings at the back of Zed's head for far too long. But then, as they cross that flimsy threshold into the temple's heart, it suddenly seems so much less important.
According to Ida, the thing standing there is a Hellion. What that means for Zed is... uncertain. They operate on two completely different spiritual wavelengths, after all. Malevolence may be contrary to the 'usual' fare of essential energies that humanity is suffused with, but to a Hyadean...
It's something Zed recognizes, at the very least.
He knows what it is. He's fought it before. He knows. He knows.
"'Human?'" Zed asks, surging forward under the whirling warhammers. Thunder thrums in his eardrums and shockwaves shake his foundations, but the Hyadean sallies forth unperturbed. "You need to look more carefully, old one. Open your eyes, and carve this sight into your heart and etch it into your mind!"
Doombringer flashes in the malevolent haze. Emerald fire burns across its broad edge, shining like a baleful beacon in the swirling clouds of impurity. "I am Hyadean! Something else entirely!" He darts forward, raking his cursed blade across the wrathful Shepherd's midsection. A jagged line of golden lightning darts in from the opposite direction. Green and gold intersect-- then diverge, leaving a smoldering cross in their wake. "Forgemaster, blacksmith, whatever-else-you-are, the blade you seek doesn't exist! There is no perfect blade in this world, no perfect weapon. Just as power is nothing but a thing to wield, a sword is nothing but a tool to cut...!"
Zed rises, soaring up, up, up until he meets the fierce deity eye-to-eye. "It takes both sword and man to reach for the zenith of swordsmanship! I might not be anywhere near there yet, but..."
He lifts his blade-- and lets it fall, carving a final, vertical cut down the giant's central line. "If my technique can cut through delusion and madness, then it will be enough! Remember, whoever you are! Power is nothing without a soul to wield it!"
DG: Zed has used his Tool Goldie Whistle toward his party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It's like an old pain, from a scar that never really healed properly.
"Yeah, I'm feelin' it too, Ida." Gwen's nose wrinkles. "Probably the one feelin' I ain't been missin' all this time on Spira. Hey, Zed, Maekir, be on yer guard." Wait, Maekir's already preparing? Either this signal's that strong, or Maekir's abilities are far more impressive than she was already giving him credit for.
Probably both.
As Asura bellows his rage, the courier considers Ida's words, as well as the sense of dread the young woman seemed to have this entire time. Ida wasn't just tired, or processing the heavy events that preceeded their fall here. It was... "... So Sin's influence ain't a thing, this far down? How long has this guy been down here?"
Zed's makeshift cooking seems to have restored Gwen just a little, seeing as how she manages to barely move out of the way of those many arms, the sharp edge of his sword leaving short tips of pale red hair in its wake.
Crouched low to the ground, Gwen's breath seizes.
Shepherd.
Wait, shepherd? ".... Mister, either you're real confused, or we're the ones who're confused." She tenderly feels at the shorn spot along her hairline, frowning. ".... Maybe, like, a little bit of both?"
Maekir and Zed show their prowess as Hyadean warriors, Ida calls upon a power that is unlike any Gwen's seen before.
And Gwen-
"One perfect blade, comin' right straight towards ya!"
She's going to try to punch him.
Because that's the best thing she could deliver, at this point, and this is a courier's duty!
DG: Gwen Whitlock has used her Tool Full Metal Courier toward her party's challenge, Asura's Wrath.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
Maekir's suspicion is proven entirely correct. "LIES!" Asura howls. And then, Zed is upon him. His blade cuts deep into Asura's chest before the Hellion can counterattack, but counterattack Asura does. One enormous warhammer races for Zed's skull, as its owner lets loose with a roar that shakes the temple's foundations. Zed is, again, one step quicker--after all, how many times has he survived Berserk's 'hazing'? While Asura swings at the Dark Hero, Gwen strikes; her fist slams into the Hellion's gut, rocking him back on his heels.
Ida's open palm strikes Asura low in the stomach. Flame washes across the two of them, a dull roar echoing off the chamber walls. The massive Hellion takes a step back, staggered not just by the force of the blow, but by what's empowering it. Ida does not wield the same Flame, but some remnant of the Asura-that-was recognizes it.
"What is that?! No--NO! YOU ARE NO SHEPHERD, GIRL!"
Firelight glimmers in Ida's mismatched eyes. The green one is open a little further than the blue. "You're right," she says. "I'm not." She hasn't actually removed her hand--she's still touching the Hellion, flame roiling around her body. Nothing seems to be happening, and Ida knows why. He doesn't want this. And she doesn't know why--
Wait. She does. Yes, she does. Asura spoke the words himself. Oh God, Ida thinks, as the realization hits her full in the chest. He really expected to...
"Lord Shepherd," Ida says. There is authority in her voice, but beneath it, she is pleading. "Lay down your arms! I don't know who Altul is, but you've become the thing you swore to fight! Listen to me!"
Emotion flickers across Asura's face. As with all Hellions, he is a creature of contradictions laid bare. "He USED ME!" It's significantly more coherent than his previous rantings. "I gave EVERYTHING for this world, and he steals away my-- my--"
Malevolence surges out from the Hellion in great, purple-red waves as his emotional turmoil reaches a fever pitch. He straightens, knocking Ida away from him, and looks up at the ceiling--as if he could see the world far beyond. Malevolent haze drifts up from the wound Zed made in his flesh. "You're not strong enough. No one is strong enough to keep it at bay forever. But such suffering--"
WHY IS THIS WORLD SO WICKED
i feel so helpless
I HATE THEM ALL
Sensations--emotions--boil out from within the Hellion, rapid-fire. It takes everything Ida has to stand her ground. "I accept this trial," she says, through gritted teeth. As purifying energy pours off of her, Asura raises one of those sabers. She's going to need help if she's going to purify him, much less survive the next five minutes.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
'Shepherd!' Zed is familiar with the word. Perhaps not as familiar as he aught to be, but by and large he understands the gist. It is a person who either:
1) Wanders around with a whole bunch of fluffy-luffy snuggly sheep, or:
2) Does basically the first one, but the sheep are also elementally-aspected ghosts called Seraphs.
He also, more or less, knows that Shepherds are meant to fight against this force called 'Malevolence,' even though it is abundantly obvious that this one has long since succumbed to that which he was sworn to defeat. "No one is strong enough," Zed repeats as the Hyadean does as he does best. As his people have ever done best, since they were made into a weapon to slay worlds. A perfect weapon, one might have called them, except for those imperfections that blunted their edge and saved their race.
"Indeed. Indeed!" Zed laughs, his face an expression of jubilant exultation, the revelry of battle against a worthy foe makes a marimba of his ribs and thunders throbbing mercury currents in his veins. "Noone is! No one is! Where are your Seraphim then, Shepherd?! Where are the ones who were taken from you? Who was it who stole them away, and for what reason? What stokes the hate in your heart? The world is a place full of things to hate, but there is something isn't there? Something that stands out, towering above all else."
Another hammerblow falls. Zed brings his blade to meet it. The collision is a cataclysm, forcing the Hyadean to one knee. The force tears into the floor underfoot, sending cracks and fissures spiderwebbing through the tarnished marble.
But Zed does not collapse under that incredible weight. Inexorably, impossibly, he pushes up against it, steel muscles and quicksilver blood straining against the Hellion's supernatural might. Doombringer tilts, the Asura's blow falls into the earth, and Zed leaps to race up across its over-extended arm. "You do not hate them all. Noone has a heart big enough to love the whole world. Noone has a heart big enough to hate the whole world. So who is it!? Who is the one who deserves your ire most? You don't have to carry that weight in secret anymore! Roar it to the world you claim to hate so much! There is nothing but freedom in these last moments between warriors!"
The Hyadean shoots upward in a flash, carving his initials in three cuts across one of the Hellion's eyes. "That hatred has kept you prisoner for so long. I would never ask you to let it go, but share it! There are others here, now, who would hear you. So let us carry your story, burden us with some small amount of your hatred, and set yourself free!"
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
This is not Maekir's fight. This is the business of the ones who live on the dusty ground, ekeing out an existence against the backdrop of sand and ever-spreading ruin. Here he is, though. Is it better to stand aside and let them fight, or to throw one's lot in with the locals just this once?
Some kind of terrible emotion boils out of the Hellion. Maekir rocks gently on his feet, a reed in the wind. "This world is simply..." He speaks with a restrained sigh in his tone. "...imperfect. It cannot contain something so absolute as perfection. It cannot contain something so wicked as perfection. Why do you think you will make the exception?"
He drifts closer. The emotional storm does not seem to bother him in the least. "We are all used, child," the Old Man scolds. "By our makers. By our teachers. By our neighbors. By our innermost selves. We are all, without exception, the tools of another. Casting off that yoke is the work of a lifetime. It will always have power over you."
He stands out in the open, spreading his arms. He's presenting an obvious target for this Hellion's boundless ire. "Accept it or reject it -- it matters not! You must confront it in either case, and decide what it means!"
(Quietly, the Old Man marks Zed's words with a tiny mental bookmark. It probably means nothing.)
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The Asura roars, and Gwen is the one who wavers, temporarily struck mute.
Her brief burst of strength is waning. She can't quite summon the courage to throw her strength at the Shepherd(?) a second time. "I don't think I'm qualified t'say much on this. We found our way here because we were lookin' for a way back. Maybe, it's because you were here that we survived." Gwen makes a face. "... Well, er, that's a real grim way of puttin' it, but, the fact stands. I don't see a reason why we need t'fight if we don't *have* to."
Zed and Maekir say it better than she does, with Zed being fantastically thoughtful in his approach.
As Ida makes her own stand, uttering her acceptance of this trial, Gwen's lips set.
Ida is their ticket to winning in this fight.
"I've done this a few times before," Gwen says, in quiet assurance and as a warning, as she gently places her right hand on Ida's shoulder, upon the grafted part that has caused a myriad of complications in the young woman's life.
A living body is a different object than an ancient terminal, far more delicate and complex. A current of life could easily transform to one of death, and if Gwen wasn't so sure of herself, of Ida's strength, or of her own lagging strength...
It's just one breath, and a small push, from ARM to arm(?), a small, sparge current of life that, while it cannot strengthen the purifying power that Ida wields, it can, just maybe-
"... Whatever strength I've got- it's yours, Ida."
===============<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial - Round 6 *>================ ==========================< Results - Asura's Wrath >=========================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ida Everstead-Rey 15 --(10)--> 25 Pass Haste Cap 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Zed 20 --(10)--> 30 Pass Goldie Whistle 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gwen Whitlock 25 --(10)--> 35 Pass Full Metal Courier 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Ida Everstead-Rey 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Suffer(1) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Ida Everstead-Rey has successfully explored Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial!
====================<* Lefay - Shrine of the Water Trial *>=====================
=============<* CHALLENGE - The Proof of Spiritual Power - Lefay *>=============
|Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 |
---------------------------< Challenge Information: >---------------------------
It is a long and hard-fought battle, but in the end, your team has managed
to overcome Asura.
Dissipating into motes, the Hellion gives you an approving expression, as if
it has been lifted from a great burden. At long last, you can feel, a great
and ancient anger has finally found peace at your hands.
A great, bright blue light erupts from a nearby altar and suffuses the
entire room with a feeling of power -- a feeling not dissimilar from another
trial of spiritual power you may have visited before in your travels, Uzda
il-Jam. It envelops your person for but a brief moment, but you feel your
spiritual presence strengthening further...
Acquired
Proof of Spiritual Power -- Lefay!
When the light subsides, you discover that great stone tablets have taken
their place. Engraved upon them are the secrets of powerful water and ice
magics only known to some of the most powerful mages in Lunar. If you are so
inclined, reach out and absorb the knowledge the ancients in your travels...
or if you do not possess the Gift, reach out with an object or weapon -- and
suffuse it with the power of water!
(OOC: You have discovered the spells of Waterga and Blizzaga! A character
with the Gift of Althena's Black Magic may apply for these in their next
character advancement! Alternately, if you lack the Gift, you can opt for a
water or ice enchantment on your weapon or tool.)
---
A shimmering portal erupts from the ground once you've finished your
business with the tablet. It expands further and further, until it
overwhelms your senses...
And before you know it, the scent of salt and the noise of gentle waves has
replaced the ancient ambience of the Shrine. You and your companions are
standing on a large, rusted aircraft carrier inhabited by varied folk -- the
Thames.
You have arrived in Filgaia!
=Dungeon Conditions: Treasure=================================================
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The Hellion is flagging. Zed can feel it in the way he swings at him--less purposeful rage, more wild desperation. "He BETRAYED ME!" Asura roars. "All I WANTED was a world where none would SUFFER!" Except that meant that--
That--
'Something that stands out, towering above all the rest!'
Asura stops. He stares into nothingness for a moment, Malevolence seething from his wounds like smoke. "I--"
Ida pulls her hand back. The fiery aura still flickers around her, but Moor Gault's power is banked--she's holding back, waiting for an opening. Sweat beads on her brow. Her whole body is shaking. "You hate yourself," Ida says. It's a statement, not a question. "Don't you."
"I..."
'You must confront it in either case, and decide what it means!'
"No one has the strength to hold up the whole world," Ida says. "I know. I felt as though I had to, once, and then..." Flame flickers on Ida's outstretched hand, casting a shadow with a silhouette that Zed and Gwen would recognize. A figure not that dissimilar from Asura, in many ways. Ida, as a Hellion. "They're right. You don't have to bear this pain alone anymore."
Asura shudders. Ida can feel his Domain twisting, sense his fear and confusion and pain as they pour into it. Memories flow through her mind--memories that aren't hers.
Asura is a child. One day, he sees a masked man on the outskirts of the village. No one else can--and no one else believes him. One day, he works up the courage to try and speak with him. The man smiles at Asura, and tells him that he hoped he would introduce himself.
"I am one of Althena's holy Seraphim. By seeking me out, you have proven your purity--and your worth. You have passed your first test, Asura."
"Altul...!"
"...He chose you, didn't he...?" Ida whispers.
The memories continue. Asura, older now, sits atop a peak Ida knows all too well--Mt. Manfred. The air is crisp and pure, and as he meditates, he feels the pulse of the earth beneath him. Altul is pleased at his disciple's progress. The two make another pilgrimage, back to Glenwood, to the holy site where all Shepherds swear their oaths.
"You will bring true, lasting peace to this world... Shepherd Asura."
Memories flash past, rapid-fire. Asura as a young man, at the forge. His arms ache, but he hammers away regardless, shaping the metal into what it must become.
Asura on the battlefield, his white cape billowing out behind him as the blue flame of Purification washes from his blade. Anyone it touches is scoured clean of Malevolent taint--made pure.
Asura pleading with a Hellion as she cradles the body of her child. She wants to die. He wants her to live. Asura looks at Altul, but when he does, Altul simply looks away.
"It is human nature, Shepherd. So long as humanity exists, so too will turmoil. So too will Malevolence."
The same tableaus play out again and again and again. The images blur into one another. In the end, they're all meaningless. In the here and now, Asura-the-Hellion sinks to his knees, and lets out a heartrending howl. The weapons tumble from his hands in a cacophony of crashing steel.
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0KfieEkIJo
Ida steps forwards. Gwen places her hand on the Seer's shoulder, and she places her hand on Asura's. Energy flows into her. Ida straightens up, and looks the big Hellion in the eyes. "I accept these memories," she says, "and bear their weight." Her voice trembles, but her eyes burn with determination. "I accept these memories without shame, without anger, without judgment."
"...He saw," Asura says. His voice is tiny, a sharp contrast to the bellowing roar it was not five minutes ago. "He saw where the path led. He left me here because he knew. What have I become?"
"Asura," Ida says. "Shepherd."
Asura looks at her, and manages a tiny smile through his tears. "It is... good to know that there is yet hope," he says. He looks at the others, each in turn. "Shepherd."
"Seer," Ida says. "Seer Ida. My companions, Zed and Gwen and Maekir."
Asura sinks down as if bowing, but his eyes stay locked on Ida's. "I accept your deliverance, Seer Ida," he says. "Knowing full well what it means. Althena guide you and keep you."
Sparks flicker in Ida's eyes. Purifying Guardian-flame ignites around her hand, engulfing Asura in heartbeats. Malevolence burns away, leaving nothing but the lingering scent of wood smoke and incense. Asura stays where he is, even as his body burns, and burns, and burns--
For a split-second, there is the image of a man, impossibly old, wearing a tattered white cloak. Shepherd Asura smiles, tears streaming down his face.
And then he's gone. Ida collapses, gasping for breath.
And just beyond, something begins to glow. Brilliant blue light spreads through the room, streaming from a set of white marble tablets. Suspended in the air above them is something strange--a blade of purest ice, refracting the light like a prism.
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The current is there in the background, intentionally weak. Gwen breathes, nearly in a trance, in her mind's eye focusing on the thin line of energy that she pushes forward, like a thread of delicate gold from a slowly depleting skein.
When Gwen pulls away, she's ready to start making her excuses and assurances, her nervous chatter a beckoning call to a sort of comforting awkward normalcy.
'I accept these memories.' Ida's words are enough to silence it, the bewildered Gwen looking on at the solemn Ida in astonishment.
Gwen was right here, that entire time, and didn't even notice such an exchange was even happening. What did Ida see?
What exactly is a Seer?
As Ida introduces them all in turn, the courier resumes her carefree quietly flicks her left hand up, two fingers pointed up, as if to tilt upward the brim of a hat that isn't there. It's a gesture that may not hold the same friendly weight as Gwen might hold, but thankfully, former Shepherd's eyes are locked on Ida's.
Asura quietly accepts, and so, he burns.
"...." The radiating light reflects off Gwen's pale face, her eyes widening. "Was that..." That was him, or, perhaps, what was left of the man he used to be.
Before Gwen has a chance to comprehend what's happened, it's now Ida's turn to collapse. "W-whoah, Ida!" She kneels down beside the Seer, a wide grin on her face. "Hey, y'did it! You purified 'im! Well, Zed and Maekir did a lion's share of the work too, but, uh..."
The blue light filters into her vision as it fills the room. Gwen turns her head towards the source, and sees the tablets. "... Are those... mediums?"
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
Zed is, by some miracle of his own bizarre physiology and unique worldview, indeed in some respects 'resonant' enough to bare witness to the Seraphim without external assistance. But to see the memories of another play out in their own emotional radioactivity? No, that's something still that should by and rights be beyond him. But perhaps the circumstances here are different enough that his awareness is made more than it was. What Zed's eyes witnessed was a colossus being extinguished by the familiar light of Filgaia's Guardians, leaving naught but a withered old spirit in its place. What Zed's mind witnessed was...
A spirit telling a young man, still forming his sense of self, that his worthiness is tied to his purity.
That he should be the sword that would someday cleanse the world.
And then, finally, that the quest is ultimately futile. That there never will be lasting peace, as long as humanity exists.
But, regardless, through the haze of experience, he senses that the old one is at least at... peace. Peace at last, after a lifetime of trying and succeeding, but failing-- failing to come to terms with the grains of sand that inevitably slip through one's fingers. The perfection that the Asura sought was, ultimately, within all along. He, himself, was the blade which he sought to make flawless...
Zed contemplates the paradox of perfection and the lesson of finite reach.
...
"Well!" Zed chirps, the veneer of the Battle Philosopher stripped away like so much tissue paper. "All's well that ends well, I guess! Nyahahahaha, that was a pretty good fight, wasn't it? I wish I could have seen that guy in his prime, I'm sure it would have been even more fun!"
Zed looks to Gwen and the kneeling Seer-- and shrugs!! "Is that what happened? Huh. I almost wish you humans weren't so keen on calling all that <<Inner Darkness>> 'Malevolence,' and 'Impurity,' you know? It makes it sound like it's not normal to have at least some. And that spirit in the Shepherd's memories..."
Zed goes quiet for a moment... Then raps his knuckles against his palm. "If I see him again, I'm going to knock him out. Who builds a kid's hopes up like that and then is shameless and craven enough to turn their back when they were needed most? It makes my blood boil, is what it does. Fuck not judging! I'm gonna judge that guy all I like! Hrmph!"
Zed is feeling ENTIRELY JUSTIFIED ANGER. But he puts it aside for now. Because Zed has other things to address, and flashes Maekir a thumbs up! "Nice fighting though, Old Master of the Quicksilver Arts! You're even scarier to watch when you're not punching me in the face. Now..."
There are tablets.
They're radiating ~elemental energies.~
Zed tilts his head curiously at them, "...What are these, then?"
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
The current is there in the background, intentionally weak. Gwen breathes, nearly in a trance, in her mind's eye focusing on the thin line of energy that she pushes forward, like a thread of delicate gold from a slowly depleting skein.
When Gwen begins to slows that current to a stop, her hand still on Ida's shoulder, she's ready to start making her excuses and assurances, her nervous chatter a beckoning call to a sort of comforting awkward normalcy.
'I accept these memories.' Ida's words are enough to silence it, the bewildered Gwen looking on at the solemn Ida in astonishment.
And then, a scant moment later, Gwen is immersed in those very memories, sharing in the moments that symbolized Asura's ascent to Shepherdhood, from that one innocent meeting with the Seraph, to his triumph, to the steadily increasing doubt and guilt.
The failure to know how to deal with a world where nothing is black and white, regardless of whether he was on Lunar or Filgaia.
The current is resumed from Gwen's hand at that moment as the former Shepherd howls. It's time. As Ida introduces them all in turn, the courier manages to resume her carefree persona, quietly flicking her free left hand up, two fingers pointed up, as if to tilt upward the brim of a hat that isn't there. It's a gesture that may not hold the same friendly weight as Gwen might hold, but thankfully, former Shepherd's eyes are locked on Ida's.
Asura quietly accepts, and so, he burns.
"...." The radiating light reflects off Gwen's pale face, her eyes widening. "Was that..." That was him, or, perhaps, what was left of the boy, the man, the shepherd, the whole he used to be, before that weight consumed him.
Before Gwen has a chance to comprehend what's happened, it's now Ida's turn to collapse. "W-whoah, Ida!" She kneels down beside the Seer, a wide grin on her face. "Hey, y'did it! You purified 'im! Well, Zed and Maekir did a lion's share of the work too, but, uh..." She doesn't comment on Zed's feelings just yet- she'll want to rant and cry and ponder right with him later, but now, they need to get out of here.
The blue light filters into her vision as it fills the room. Gwen turns her head towards the source, and sees the tablets. "... Are those... mediums?"
<Pose Tracker> Kalve has posed.
Maekir stands a bare few strides from Asura. He stares, swaying gently in the pressure-borne breeze of Malevolence, waiting for something.
Ida turns out to be that something. His head twitches, eyes turning to watch her. The monster becomes a man, and fades away, burning like the last dregs at the bottom of the lantern. Maekir inclines his head slightly, and then subtly shifts his stance. His demeanor seems much more casual all of a sudden, like the tension had just left him completely. He was ready for whatever might come, before; now, he's perfectly relaxed. The impending violence levels drop significantly.
"I did very little," the Old Man says, stretching his back and then hunching forward. He takes his hat off, rotating it in his hand, and putting a steel-shafted cane against the floor. His head is smooth and hairless, though his face bears the myriad lines of age and wisdom. His eyes look nearly closed, but he strides forward confidently anyway. "Still, it was enjoyable to see what you are each capable of. For the most part."
Lookin' at you, Courier Sleep!!!
He starts towards the tablets and the blade, tilting his head upwards to look at it. His pace is slow and lazy, but he's clearly interested. "Perhaps..."
<Pose Tracker> Ida Everstead-Rey has posed.
The aura of Guardian-flame winks out like a snuffed candle. Tendrils of smoke curl off of Ida's body, and dissipate into nothingness. Tears glimmer on her cheeks. "He had no time left," Ida whispers. "He deserved better." She looks over at Gwen, and gives her a small, shaky smile. "Don't ask me to do it again. I... I'd try, if I had to, but..." Zed speaks up, in his special, blunt way. Ida's lips thin into a line. "I know," she says. "I'm angry. But I--I saw. They were dear friends. It doesn't excuse what Altul did."
"What he needed," Ida continues, "was acceptance. Forgiveness." She looks at Maekir, and then follows his gaze to the tablets across the room. Ida sees the blade, and her eyes go wide. "This is--" Gwen saw it, too. The blade carved from ice is a replica of the one Asura used in those memories--or at least close enough to be mistaken for it. Ida's knees shake as she crosses the distance, and she stops before the dais. "I am no Shepherd," Ida says. "But you have my word that I will do everything I can to preserve the world you loved." She reaches out. Armored fingers close around the hilt of the blade. A frisson of energy races up Ida's arm, and down her spine. The glow of the blade intensifies.
In a flash of light, it's gone.
Gained the Blessing of Water!
<Pose Tracker> Gwen Whitlock has posed.
It could be the way the blue light bathes the room in that blue hue, bringing out the cooler tones in Gwen's skin.
It could also be the fact that the combined stress and exhaustion of the recent events are rebounding right back on the courier, evidenced by the way that she manages to stumble as she straightens from her kneeling position.
"...."
She reaches out towards the tablet, touching two fingers to its surface.
The light that radiates from that tablet begins to brighten, Gwen suddenly filled with the urge to collapse her hand against its surface.
Gwen's ARM is glowing, now, the blue of the tablet's energy flowing up into the pulsating dimmer light that forms the 'veins' of her right ARM. As the blue reaches further up, it collapses into the yellow-gold that is characteristic of the Mockingbird's power, growing brither and brighter and-
of thed icesined gaing thed ce Ble of
Like crystal ivy, ice snakes up Gwen's ARM, doubling over on itself and enlargening, encasing Gwen's grip, her ARM, and parts of her shoulder, parts of the cool crystal touching Gwen's right cheek.
Gwen is screaming in pain, her back arcing back as much as her captive ARM will allow.
Something has clearly gone terribly, terribly wrong.
<Pose Tracker> Zed has posed.
It's maybe just by sheer luck that Zed is still looking at the tablets at that specific moment, still befuddled as he is about what exactly the things are, when...
Something has clearly gone terribly, terribly wrong.
Zed's body moves before his mouth does. A heat haze flickers in the air around him, before abrutply igniting in a brilliant flame that swathes his already scything blade. One of the forms of the Saint Arts style, Summer's Fervor, demands nothing less than absolute conviction from its user-- and in this moment, Zed has conviction in spades.
Because his friend is getting frozen solid and her connection with the tablet seems to be the most immediately responsible. If he knows anything, anything about Spira, it's that fire conquers ice.
And so Zed does to the frigid conduit what Zed does to all things that seem to be hurting a friend.
He hits it with his sword.
"Gwen!" Zed cries as his mouth finally catches up to the split-second motion of the rest of his body, "Just hold on! I'll smash this stupid rock myself if I need to!"
...Maybe today, speed and decisiveness will prove more vital than a well-thought-out plan.