2020-04-12: To Return to that Place
- Log: To Return to that Place
- Cast: Citan Uzuki, Leon Albus, Fei Fong Wong, Lily Keil
- Where: Sielje Icy Sea
- Date: April 12, 2020
- Summary: Fei and Citan, having returned from Shae Ving along with Elly, speak to Lily and Leon regarding what they found in its depths.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
After parting ways with Eleanor, the three of them -- which is to say, Fei, Elly, and Citan -- had discussed among themselves and decided to return to the Karlsefni, rather than the Thames or other port of call.
One of them had likely radioed in before arrival, the better to both ID themselves and confirm the ship's current location.
Leon, after all, has been taking steps to ensure that it goes undetected by Solaris.
It's been a several hours since they arrived -- time enough to put in word that they had found something the other day in the ruins of Shae Ving, something that they think Leon and Lily need to see.
What that is becomes plain the moment anyone enters the space on the Karlsefni that is being used to manager Gears:
At a glance, it looks like a broken and heavily damaged half of Gryndille's head.
"My apologies for the short notice. We came back here as soon as we were able," Citan explains.
"But I thought that you might wish to see this..."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
There is a long, deep silence from Leon Albus as he stares at the head of Gryndille. The head, he corrects himself, of a Gryndille. It brings back memories of Krosse; memories of when they finally brought the thing down, and its head lay at his feet. He felt an emptiness, then, and it's one that has remained. An emptiness that stems from a question that still goes unanswered:
'What, now?'
Citan's words are a dull echo in his mind. He looks at the shattered, broken piece of machinery, with narrowed silver eyes. He nods, once, to what the country doctor says, finally.
"It's quite all right, Doctor Uzuki," he says. "You're right." He glances sideways at Lily, to judge her reaction. Then, his eyes are back on the remains of the automaton.
"I do wish to see this," he says. "Where did you find it?"
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Shae Ving." Fei says, striding on in a moment after. "It was uh--I mean, I guess it shouldn't have been a big surprise considering, but it still was quite the shock." He glances towards Leon for a bit and gives him a smile. It's a bit tired, but wholly genuine.
"I appreciate you giving us time to rest after that too. I'm feeling a lot better from that initial trip in." He adds. "I think it was some kind of prototype--it didn't look as finished and it, uh, it wasn't as hard to stop as the real deal was."
R
Darn pallette swapped enemies! What's next? Some kind of alternate-form Siegfried? That's a bit terrifying to think about, especially if he wasn't really the same guy? It's tough to imagine, but he can imagine enough that he worries for Leon--that battle against Gryndille seemed to really take a toll on the guy and--here is Gryndille's ghost, once again, in Citan's hands.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil spends more time on the Karlsefni by the day, it might seem; not quite the same as when she practically moved onto the Yggdrasil, she's been busy with her books and her workshop frequently all the same. Or looking through the memory banks of the ship, for that matter.
Now, though, she's staring at Gryndille's head with Leon. No, a head like it, maybe the same...
"You were right to come," Lily answers.
What has she felt, since seeing it? What has she felt then, and now? She can't identify it--it's...
Lily's reaction externally is kind of stricken, actually--she looks in surprise, opening her mouth as if to say something, and not quite managing it. "Is it..."
It started everything, but it didn't; it started what they were able to see. Either way, she can't shake the association of a life changed.
"A prototype," she answers Fei then. "No, that makes sense... There would have to be precursor versions, or we'd..."
Lily steps closer, staring at it but doesn't quite put her hands on it. "Unfinished..."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It was a long trip out of the ruin and back to Sielje alone, nevermind the low flight out the next day to the Karlsefni's whereabouts. A rest first -- which Elly is likely still taking advantage of -- had been practically mandated.
Citan nods. "Yes. A prototype, to look at it. It was vastly more unfinished than the Gryndille the rest of you encountered, if I am to judge by the description Fei and Elly provided."
A pause, wherein he glances at Fei, then nods. "Yes. We found it at the bottom of the ruin known as Shae Ving. I am afraid that the, ah, prototype detonated in the course of our attempts to neutralizing it, thereby preventing us from exploring further," he continues, reaching up to readjust his glasses, "However, this section survived relatively intact."
Relatively is the correct word -- it looks like a thing that has been sat too close to a blast furnace.
"As to what it was doing there... I cannot say. I am to guess that you encountered nothing of the sort on your previous expedition, correct?"
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"That's a relief, at least. If Gryndille was one of hundreds like it, I'd be rightly terrified," Leon says with a glance at Fei, then a nod. He does smile; it's an effort to be reassuring, but the way his jaw clenches and his back is tense is evidence of just how concerned Leon is.
"A prototype, though. Still concerning it," Leon says, with a shake of his head. "Ah, we did not, no." He looks at Citan, considering.
"We found a different guardian. Larger than Gryndille -- large enough for a Gear to walk on," he says. "But... the place seemed to be a manufacturing facility. And an armory."
His jaw clenches tighter. "It's concerning."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei wasn't really talkingn about it before--he really would've preferred to talk to Lily first about it--but with Leon openly worrying about its purpose...well, "I... don't know if it's been changed but..." He admits, a bit awkwardly. "But I think I know why it was that way? Maybe? I mean, a lot could've changed since back then but.."
He glances to Lily for a long moment nd then he exhales out a faint sigh and says, "Um. I think---I mean, I think that place was sort of meant to be ... some kind of...shelter? No, I'm not sure if that's..."
He takes in another deep breath and exhales it again, slower this time.
"'A place to ride out the end of the world'..." He looks back to Leon. "I think that's what that place was meant to be. Maybe the ship---or both. I'm not sure. I don't know if uh..."
He trails off awkwardly there. It's still weird to talk about his visions but he glances to Lily one more time.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"That explains..." Lily looks to Leon thoughtfully, and nods. "Right," she answers. "We can't deal with too many of those. Or the world can't. If--" She pauses, and sours slightly. "If the Colonel gets his hands on another..."
"RIght. We found another, and..." She pauses. "Still, relatively intact? That's interesting."
"...A shelter?" Lily wonders. "Did you see something?" Lily wonders. She doesn't ask for a moment alone; instead she watches Fei thoughtfully.
"...Tell me what you know," Lily requests. "Whatever it is. There's so much I don't know already."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"A different one? Now that you mention it, we encountered several automatons on our entrance. That is rather unusual for a facility of that apparent age."
'The place seemed to be a manufacturing facility,' says Leon.
As if troubled, Citan raises a hand to his chin, his forehead creasing in thought.
"No... not a 'prototype' as such, perhaps..." he says, after a few moments of silence.
"...it was unfinished. No, I am certain of that now. Why did I not recognize that...?"
He shakes his head, turning towards the others. "...If you are correct, then perhaps... it was creating more of 'Gryndille' as well. When we encountered it, it had burst out of a crate just prior to attacking us. Perhaps..."
Then he can only shake his head again. "I cannot know for certain without returning there, I fear. If I had known prior... but there is no helping that now."
And then, his gaze turns to Fei, and to the glance that passes between him and Lily.
The doctor doesn't say anything. He watches, in silence.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"It could have been both. A similar model," Leon says to Citan, "and a prototype of it. Of course... I don't know if -- or how much -- they're still producing there. It was hard to tell, from what I saw. But... the facility did not seem inactive, either."
He gets a chill, as he thinks of it. His eyes shift, back to Fei, and he seems to consider what he said. What Lily asks about, too; he realizes, then, that it must be a memory of the past.
Those have grown stranger and stranger.
"A place to ride out the end of the world," Leon repeats, his voice soft. "It makes sense, Fei. I think that Doctor Uzuki is right."
He runs a hand through his hair. "We need to go back."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"It's a little hazy," Fei admits. "I was kind of freaking out at the time, but the strange thing I remember was that they were saying 'Sharon' thought the project was a waste of resources... But that's what's been confusing me, because if she thought that--well, why does it respond to her commands and everything? Why'd she involve herself?" He pinches the bridge of his nose for a moment and admits, "I suppose, even if she wasn't too invested in it, she probably was the sort of person to leave her mark on what she made even so. She uh--what I've seen of her, which isn't much---she seems like a very spirited person so I could see her doing that, but I guess it's also possible that she changed her mind, or circumstances changed. If that's the case, though, I don't know how it went down."
He considers why someone would want to make MORE Gryndilles. "It did seem to respond to Krosse--with its malevolence and all--maybe there used to be a lot of it on Filgaia and these machines were used to destroy it? Or some other kind of contaminent it mistook malevolence for?"
He considers Leon's words and frowns a bit. It's not exactly a relaxing trip but he nods. "If you think that's best, then--yeah, I'll help out however I can. Maybe there's someting we overlooked."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"A waste of resources?" Lily wonders. "A place to ride out the end of the world, a waste of resources..." Lily looks mostly at Fei; she doesn't notice any particular looks from Citan in the moment, instead... "She might've been sked. Or things changed, or..."
Lily looks thoughtful. "No," she says. "It was because... she had another plan. I'm sure of it. I had another plan." She sounds sure, then, except for a thoughtful look at Leon, before she turns to look at the others again. "Unfinished. That tells us it was making at least one more; how many more might have been in those crates...?" Lily nods, after a moment. "Most ancient facilities wouldn't have so much intact, to say the least. Is it just that out of isolation it was better-preserved?"
She nods to Leon. "Yes. I should go, too. I might..."
She shakes her head. "But I can think of reasons to make more of that machine. It mentioned 'world eater' taint too, back at the Kaiser's palace. That, and then Krosse and its malevolence... I'm not sure about the Malevolence but I think you're onto something."
"Maybe some of this one's memory banks are intact. I've been learning to interface with other technology from there; I might be able to get it hooked up to something."
"But I'm certain there's more to learn there than is contained in this," LIly says, picking up the head to look it in the 'eye'.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
'Why not both,' Leon essentially suggests.
Citan appears to take this into consideration. "Perhaps so. If it were involved in the test series... Now, the larger question is whether the constructs were created when the facility was still actively generating automata, or whether it is still active." He pauses a moment. "If I had to hazard a guess, I would say that it was the latter. Based on what you have told me, as well..."
After all, it appears to have been a place to ride out the end of the world.
Or, perhaps, what had ended the Zeboim civilization.
Ended 'that world'.
"...When did you have this recollection, Fei?"
His gaze turns from the young man briefly to rest on Lily, then returns to Fei once more. The doctor folds his arms across his chest.
"...I see. So it was able to identify what would have constituted a threat to the planet in both cases. The Metal Demons -- or, to be precise, Mother herself -- and Malevolence. Now, I wonder what Gryndille's mission had been."
Though perhaps it can be gleaned, as such.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"There is a lot we don't know," Leon admits to Fei. "About this Sharon Wyatt -- or the rest, really. I assume... there must be a number of people who were involved with Heoh Rott, and the rest of the installations associated with it."
He nods, though; it seemed something about Krosse, perhaps the presence of Malevolence, had set Gryndille off at the end. "It might be," he says to Lily. "It is in remote, very cold mountains. The sort of place I'd hide my armory, if I were so inclined to."
He wrinkles his nose. "I wish I knew what Gryndille intended. It changed, at the end -- after it'd broken the controls placed on it by Colonel Keil."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"When we first visited." Fei says, looking back to Citan. "Uh... I mean, I was hoping to just talk to Lily about it privately first, but well the day of I kind of needed to unwind first, then a bunch off stuff and well.... You said to not sweat the past so much so..." That last bit is to Leon but he lets his hand drop after rubbing the back of his neck, feeling kind of bashful all of a sudden but he remembers hearing world eater more than once. Maybe it's a particular classification for anything that can be dangerous to Filgaia itself. It doesn't neccessarily mean any sort of connection.
Or at least, that's what he'd say but--
"Mother called herself a World Eater." Fei says. "But...she's only been on Filgaia for a thousand years, right?" She looks to Lily. "So if Gryndille saw things as 'world eaters' too...that means the term didn't originate from her, right? But she still heard about it..." He pauses and admits, "Or Gryndille was updated with the terminology later. I guess that's a simpler explanation but...it didn't feel like its attack in Krosse was part of your father's plan. And I don't think he was really uh...concerning himself with 'world eaters' in Kislev either."
He nods a little at Lily's own contribution. "Yeah. I think she had her own plan too."
That plan might have been Lily Keil. Or at least, what became Lily Keil.
He looks back to Citan and says, "I uh. The other--Id. Id showed the vision to me. I think I..." He frowns. "He. He was some kind of peer of Sharon Wyatt's. At least at one point. And I think that ... version of him is who, uh, made Emeralda. I think that's why he hasn't been causing too much trouble lately. Because of her. Her and Elly."
"Maybe that's why he offered to let you help, when he manifested at the Photosphere--and then changed his mind. Because you're one of the people he still has, um, attachments to..."
He lowers his head. "I'm sorry about that." He still feels really bad about trying to murder all his friends!
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily finds herself agreeing with one supposition--"We should keep in mind the possibility that it is still active. Better to be prepared than not."
"There must have been," Lily agrees then with Leon. "Other people, I mean; who else would she... I? have argued with about whether an endeavor was a waste of time?"
Leon's note about the armory gets a nod. "Yes..."
But Fei mentions when. "Oh--Yeah, I've been kind of busy with... a lot of things," Lily admits, "So it'd have been hard to talk to me." A lot of things. Lily does think about the past a lot; she's not exactly not worrying about it, though she's not exactly worrying about it either.
"No, I don't think the matter of Krosse was part of my... of the Colonel's plans at all. And, well, 'world eater'... I guess yeah."
Too much they don't know. But--Fei agrees with her, and Lily nods. "I'm certain of it--I think you can imagine why."
"The one who made Emeralda--I've heard names, about colleagues of hers. Apparently people who knew someone who knew her."
She presses her lips together, though. SHe thinks... "He said... that I wasn't 'like him yet'. I guess that may be it. I..."
Lily shakes her head. "Fei..."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Yes, I agree, Lily. If we venture into the ruin again, we must take care to prepare accordingly. ...Particularly, we must assume that there may be others like that machine we faced in the depths of that place." Gryndille's predecessor -- or sibling, perhaps.
"I see," is his reply to Fei, coupled with a nod. "So it was in response to your journey through that ruin the last time. ...I am certain that it was disorienting," he continues, as if to brush aside Fei's apologies. "Then, afterwards, you are indeed correct that much happened. Regardless..." and here he turns his attention in full to the younger man, "if something does occur to you that you would wish to speak to someone else about, I am willing to listen, Fei."
Though, perhaps no one could fault Fei in wanting to talk to Lily about this, first.
But there is more.
"Hmm... yes, I had been wondering about that. Perhaps Mother is not the first to reach Filgaia. Or perhaps, as you say, it was updated at a later date. Or... hmm..." Citan folds his arms across his chest, as if in silent contemplation of a possible third answer.
One that he does not share -- at least, not unless someone asks him.
Particularly not when the discussion moves towards Fei's other self.
"..." He seems to regard Fei in silence for a few moments, his expression thoughtful if anything.
"...I see. To tell the truth, I had wondered if that may have been the reason. Perhaps it is best if this time of peace continues..."
Though, as he had expressed to Gwen prior, he strongly suspects it will not. Odessa, perhaps. Or maybe it will be Solaris that shatters the peace. And then, at that time...
God only knows.
He remains silent after, as if to digest the lot of that information that has been laid out before them all--
Id's connection to the past, and his connection to Lily's past both included. "A part of oneself that lived long ago... I wonder if this might explain your own circumstances, Lily. ...I admit, I have heard a similar belief spoken by certain smaller religions in Ignas. We are born, then die, then live again..."
But even he knows that the theory won't entirely stick when applied to Lily. There are things he has learned about the young woman for which 'a past life' does not fill in the gaps.
Not entirely.
"Then, it appears that we have consensus. We should plan an expedition to return to that site."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
There is a worried glance at Lily, before Leon glances downward. The Captain's brow furroweed, and then he nods his head. "I don't think Krosse was part of Keil's plan. Gryndille changed--it spoke, at least to the extent it did, differently."
He glances at Fei, then, and his eyes widen a fraction. Id created Emeralda? Or--
"It explains why the girl is so attached to you," he admits. Then, he is quiet for a moment. Worry upon worry.
He looks at Citan, then, and his brow furrows for a moment. "Yes," he says. "I don't know about past lives, or past secrets, but... maybe there's answers there we've not found yet. I think it well worth a look."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei looks to Lily for a long moment. She wasn't 'like him yet'. Fei, unfortunately, has an idea of what he meant. "I'm sorry, Doc. I would've told you first thing, if it didn't also involve Lily." He must have felt that he'd be intruding on her privacy. Sometimes the farming village boy in Fei overpowers everything else in him. Not always, but usually in some unexpected ways. It's probably prettty aggravating, even Fei can see that, but he figures well--Citan was basically the first person he told anyway. He just waited until Lily and Leon were also around.
He does kind of tilt his head as Citan seems to enter the state of mind Fei has seen him enter countless times before. He doesn't really have a name for it, but he knows it when he sees it--when Doc has seen a possibility and is caught up in exploring that possibility.
He finds himself smiling a little. Always thinking, always one step ahead. That's Doc for ya. Ffor some it might be aggravating, but for Fei it fills him with a kind of peace--for so long as Citan can see possibilities, then possibilities must remain.
Born...to die...then to live again. Yet somehow...this other side of him...he can remember.
Why? Why can he? And Elly too seems to remember from time to time.
He is distracted from such thoughts. Not like him yet...
Not like him... yet.
"Leon's still alive." Fei says quietly, almost like he's frightened to say it out loud but too frightened not to. "That must be what he meant."
She still has an attachment to this world.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"I believe the same. Its... 'energy' was different," Lily says to Leon, once the matter of their preparation is set with Citan. But Fei is watching her, and she catches that. "...I appreciate that you thought of me," Lily says about the matter of privacy. Citan's sounding like he knows so much doesn't bother her, either. She seems to appreciate it, if anything. Like in this...
"I wonder," Lily admits to Citan. "I wonder what it means, when you bring back more than memories, too."
She knows; it doesn't all fill in. But... She doesn't mean to worry Leon. Nevertheless what Fei says gives her some pause. Fei's quiet words...
"Let's keep him that way," Lily says. "...Don't worry, Leon. I'm all right. But I think I am a little tired. I should... go and get some rest."
She has a lot to think about... and to talk about.
Not 'yet'. "We'll go as soon as we're ready."