2021-09-24: Inheritance
- Log: Inheritance
- Cast: Leon Albus, Lily Keil, Citan Uzuki, Xantia, Fei Fong Wong, Emeralda Kasim, Riesenlied, Elhaym van Houten, Noeline
- Where: Wec Stann
- Date: September 25, 2021
- Summary: Leon and the Black Wolves venture into the mysterious site he has found, Wec Stann. But what rests within its walls is something that perhaps none of them could have anticipated.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Earlier in the week, Leon Albus announced a recent realization. It came in two parts. The first was that he found another of the installations of Heoh Rott, this one known as Wec Stann. The second was that it was a cold-sleep facility; within might be several thousand citizens of the Zeboim Federation. The Wolves reached an agreement.
They would go, see what awaited them, and perhaps only awaken one or two to glean information. Then, from there, they would make a decision about their next steps.
The dungeon is on a small island, south of the Celesti mainland. It has a small mountain on it; however, it isn't even cold, this time of year. As they approach, they see two large doors. Leon stops before them, then nods. "All right -- two teams," he says. "I'll lead in Lily, Fei, Xantia, and Doctor Uzuki. Riesenlied, you and Noeline go with Elly and Emeralda. When we find the center of the place, we do our best to wait. Is everyone all right with that?"
And then, they went onward...
DC: Lily Keil switches forms to Etheric Witch Lily!
DG: A party led by Leon Albus is now entering Wec Stann (First Entry). DG: Party formation is now over. An Entry Challenge will now be drawn and displayed to the party.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - A Blast of Frigid Air *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The entrance to Wec Stann is deceptively simple. A large, sliding steel door that is built into a rocky cliff face -- and with a single control next to it. A flashing green light indicates that it has power. Sometimes, it is simple: press a button, and the door opens. But when it does, a tremendously cold blast of air (5 Fahrenheit, -15 Celsisus) shoots out. Inside, you see a glimpse of what awaits: a long hallway, which is covered in tremendously thick ice. Steel plates bulge where pipes burst, and strange flows of frozen ice poke out. There are flurries of ice dust, which swirl like snow. Before you enter, you will need to prepare -- because the cold will sap your strength with each step. As you look, though, you also see something else: strange footprints in the ice, which look to have been melted in and then refrozen. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Overwhelm==========================================
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
The door that Leon's team chooses has a control in front of it. Leon looks down at the control and considers for a second. Then, he presses the button -- and a gout of absolutely frigid air blasts out. It is enough to send him shivering, ambient moisture in his beard and hair crystallizing into ice. He blinks his eyes against the cold.
The hallway inside is frozen over. Thick sheets of ice coat the floor; parts are broken, plates bulging out where pipes burst and froze, and ice dust swirls like snow flurries.
Leon opens his mouth. Then, he closes it.
"We need to speak with Argus and Hammer," he says. "And arrange for winter gear to be brought. This looks positively frightful. Does anyone have suggestions?"
DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Blast of Frigid Air.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily is moving carefully--they can't predict what will be in here... except by looking at the last places, which suggests 'mostly violent robots'. Some of which she made. But when the teams split, Lily nods to the others, and follows, and--
The cold doesn't bother her much; instinctively she wraps herself in invisible fire Ether, burning off the cold before it can stick to her in turn. But she looks inside...
"Right," Lily says. "That's a good thought. And..."
She kneels down, and pulls her knife. "...Footsteps. Footsteps that were melted in and refrozen." Lily points it out with her knife--and might just cut out a sample to examine more closely.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, A Blast of Frigid Air.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
It remained to be seen what, if anything, awaits them within the ruins of Wec Stann. Zeboim ruins are already hardly a common thing to encounter on Filgaia (or on Lunar, for that matter), and it's a far rarer one to encounter indeed that has the sort of... discovery this might contain in its depths.
They had hashed out a plan of sorts. The doctor might have expressed his misgivings about what they would be able to do for the survivors, if there were any, but...
"Understood, captain," he replies now as they regard the twin entrances to the cave. "Splitting up may be the wisest course of action. We cannot be certain which of these passages may uncover what we are searching for."
Leon then opens the door their team stands closest to.
"..."
It's absolutely frigid inside.
"Hm... it would seem that perhaps the temperature controls have malfunctioned...?" Citan muses, fidgeting a moment with his spectacles. It does not, potentially, bode all that well for whoever may still be sleeping here. He pauses a moment, though, spotting something in the ice.
"Lily, did you also...?" he says, noticing her attention has been drawn towards the same spot. "Hold, just one moment, if you please." Pulling out his repaired camera, the doctor carefully takes a picture. Taking the photograph it produces, he hands it over to Leon. "Please keep this somewhere safe, captain. Unless I am mistaken someone has not only been here before we have, but as you can see, the prints have refrozen. That would suggest there was a thaw at some point."
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Strauss Camera toward his party's challenge, A Blast of Frigid Air.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has been having a bit of a rough time sorting things out for herself mentally, as well as needing to deal with hearing about her 'sister' showing up to badger people lately. Some of the Wolves will be more aware of this than others. But for today, it doesn't appear to be as if there's anything on Xantia's mind at all. Just her usual cheerful self, always ready to help out where she can with a smile.
It's probably also obvious by now that this is hardly a complete indicator of her feelings of any given time. She's just trying her best to focus on other things for the time being, that's all. As the group approaches the entrance, she observes it leisurely, with her hands behind her head.
"Hmmm, so this is it, huh? Looks familiar. Is there gonna be another train behind the door?" That was fun, but also not. At least they got a ship out of it. She's not sure what to expect this time. Actual people in cold sleep... that could get awkward.
And then that door opens. Xantia is at least at a respectable distance from the blast of coldness, but she still recoils from it. Not a fan, not a fan at all.
"Nope! Nope nope nope, not dealing with this!" So saying, a burst of fire surrounds her momentarily, before the flames are drawn towards, and into her. She breaths deeply, the temperature control of her body more appropriate for the situation. She doesn't exactly radiate warmth outward however, prompting her to look at Leon apologetically.
"That'll work for only me, sorry. I, uh... don't really know other good ways to stay warm in there, I kinda just always do this."
Ha ha, cheating with Ether.
DG: Xantia has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, A Blast of Frigid Air. DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, A Blast of Frigid Air. DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, A Blast of Frigid Air.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Does anyone have suggestions?
"Uh." Fei says. "Stay...warm?" He is ALREADY dressed warm. "Honestly this doesn't really make sense for the climate though."
He draws out his FEDERATION TRICORDER and holds it out to SCAN THE COLDNESS. It tells him, respectfully, that this is HELLA COLD and, frankly, TOO COLD for HUMANS. "We...shouldn't push ourselves too hard if it's too cold, I don't think this kind of place is really made for us so--let's not go farther than we can manage. If need be we can come back later."
Ice dungeons are almost as bad as water dungeons after all. Especially if there's sliding puzzles.
Fei Fong Wong can ignite fire from his body but it's going to protect him from the cold a lot less than it'd seem since the fire is coming from his own chi and ether. So instead, Fei elects to conserve his strength, glancing at Xantia occassionally.
"I hope Elly and the others will be okay."
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows How To Use toward his party's challenge, A Blast of Frigid Air.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== ====================<* CHALLENGE - A Blast of Frigid Air *>===================== |Type: Entry |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The entrance to Wec Stann is deceptively simple. A large, sliding steel door that is built into a rocky cliff face -- and with a single control next to it. A flashing green light indicates that it has power. Sometimes, it is simple: press a button, and the door opens. But when it does, a tremendously cold blast of air (5 Fahrenheit, -15 Celsisus) shoots out. Inside, you see a glimpse of what awaits: a long hallway, which is covered in tremendously thick ice. Steel plates bulge where pipes burst, and strange flows of frozen ice poke out. There are flurries of ice dust, which swirl like snow. Before you enter, you will need to prepare -- because the cold will sap your strength with each step. As you look, though, you also see something else: strange footprints in the ice, which look to have been melted in and then refrozen. =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Overwhelm==========================================
====================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) - Round 1 *>===================== ======================< Results - A Blast of Frigid Air >======================= Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Lily's Knife 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xantia 0 --(17)--> 17 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 0 --(5)--> 5 Pass Strauss Camera 3 Wits Effects: Fanfare -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 0 --(20)--> 20 Pass Conditions: Overwhelm|Slow(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus 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> Leon Albus has posed.
"Something else is here, then..." Leon glances at Lily, and there is a slight frown. "But how was it melted? The ice here looks... thick."
He looks to Citan, then nods. The temperature controls must have malfunctioned. He shivers, and then he takes the photograph -- and he nods, tucking it into his coat. "I'll do so," he says. "We'll have to see why. What caused the thaw. Or... if it was something else."
He can't begin to imagine what. He looks over at Xantia -- blinks with a mild amount of alarm at the flames -- then smiles. He shakes his head. "Quite all right. Seems like an effective way."
His eyes turn towards Fei, and then he nods. "I hope so, too. All right, then..." He pulls some further layers out -- another coat, a hat over it, and he pulls on gloves. He has a makeshift scarf, made from a spare shirt. Leon takes a deep breath. Then, he starts in, plodding step after plodding step.
"...Let's go."
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Frozen Power Cables *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The frozen hallway that you have entered ends in a large metal door. Like the one outside, there is a control panel next to it; unlike that one, there is no light flashing. Ice encases the control panel -- and the electrical cables running from it to a locked box on the walls. A small light shines on that box. It seems that the cold is interfering with the power cables that control the door's lock. If you can find a way to thaw out those cables, then you should be able to open the door. the alternative is blasting through it, but this would take a long time; the steel door is heavily reinforced. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Exhaust=========================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"I wonder," Citan remarks when Leon asks how it had gotten melted.
Perhaps... it is even possible that someone had entered before when the temperature was far more stable and then caused in some way the situation they see before them now? But this would only be speculation until they can venture further within.
Some of the Wolves will be more aware of Xantia's state of mind than others, indeed. The way that Leon has split up the group has ended up being quite fortunate for the doctor, as he can easily observe her in action. ...Though the problem with this is that it can be at times difficult to discern what is running under the hood with her, so to speak.
Perhaps there's reason to suspect that this is also true from Xantia's perspective, as well.
"Hmm, that is quite the trick, Xantia," Citan observes. "If only the rest of us could attempt the same! Ah, well, present company excepted," he adds, glancing Lily's way. He's going to have to make do with warmer outerwear. And possibly some 'circulation of chi'.
"More than likely, it is a result of the temperature control systems catastrophically malfunctioning," he remarks to Fei. "But this does tell us one thing. Despite the conditions outside, the system is still active in such a way that it can create... this. But you are correct. We must take care not to overexert ourselves. These conditions could prove quite dangerous."
And they venture in.
They're really just inside the door, some sort of antechamber leading further into the complex. The problem is that there's a closed door.
The other problem is that the closed door is controlled by a panel... encased in ice. It's on. Based on what they met at the door outside, it should open.
The real problem, then, is the electrical wires running from the panel that are also encased in ice.
Palming his chin as he regards this problem, Citan nods after a time.
"We must see if we can remove the ice from these wires," he says, kneeling by a section of them. "Heat would be ideal, if we could apply it with enough care, but in its absence..."
He's pulled out a hammer and chisel from his toolkit. There's always the manual option, as long as he's careful not to nick something.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Just The Right Tool toward his party's challenge, Frozen Power Cables.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Sure," Lily says when Citan asks her to wait. She examines the prints and how it's refrozen thoughtfully, but when their gear comes, she likewise puts on more layers. It's true that she doesn't strictly need to, for reasons not dissimilar to Xantia... but the layers might serve as armoring against what's inside, too, if only a little.
Lily doesn't have an explanation for the melting--not one she likes, anyway. "Either the temperature controls turned off... or something that can handle fire came in," she suggests. But then she grins to Citan. "It's fine."
"Hmm," she says, as they venture inside and find the panel. "If we're careful, we can melt this," she agrees. "I can probably focus through the knife, and apply it that way. That way we don't blast the whole thing."
Lily pulls her knife again and, rather than cutting, just applies it to the ice, and begins to channel heat into it. It glows red...
"The others... We'll have to trust them. To know their limits, and to get through."
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Lily's Knife toward her party's challenge, Frozen Power Cables.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon can speculate -- but it is nothing other than speculation. He keeps walking ahead, and then he slows as they come to another closed door. This one covered in ice -- and a button on a console, also encased in ice. He frowns as he looks over it -- and then he looks at Citan, his expression thoughtful, before he looks down at the wires. He watches as Citan gets to work.
He watches as Lily gets to work, and decides that too many hands could interfere. So Leon, instead, pulls out his electric lamp and lights it. It shines off the ice here, reflecting in odd ways.
But it does light up the wires, so they can better see what they're doing.
"Just so," he agrees with Lily. "I have faith in them. But... I admit, I'm concerned about this ice. This place is... definitely out of the ordinary. I don't know what we'll find. And those footsteps concerned me, too."
He can only imagine. His breath fogs in front of his mouth.
DG: Leon Albus has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward his party's challenge, Frozen Power Cables.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia pokes Fei in the side when he suggests coming back later if need be. "C'mon Fei, where's your sense of adventure?" Says the cheater who is going to be perfectly comfortable in there. Sure, keeping up this passive Ether use all the way through is going to be a constant drain, but what are you gonna do? Be cold? Heck no. Totally worth it. See, Citan agrees.
"Aw, I'm sure you could manage it too, doc!" she says, without any real evidence for it. She just feels that much more confident in her belief that Citan is able to do more than he claims. For some reason.
Sure, she could still wear more than she does. But she chooses not to. She just goes right on in there with large sections of her legs and arms exposed. It's fine. For as long as she can keep this Ether-based solution of hers going, anyway.
Even so, one can't quite relax when needing to traverse ice. Focusing on not losing her footing, Xantia can't quite manage to keep up the same level of unconcerned cheer. But at least there aren't accidents so far. That's the only immediate concern, she's not too worried about what else might be in there. Fighting helps with staying warm, too. No, the actual immediate obstacle is far more annoying than that would be.
"Did they really need another door? Oh no, don't tell me it's even colder behind this one." She can adjust, but it's not like she isn't aware that needing to put more of her energy into just staying warm wouldn't be exactly ideal.
She steps closer when it's indicated that heat is needed. "I can help! Just show me what you need melted, I'll be careful!" She's not about to do anything she isn't told to, as she's not the one who's going to work out what makes the door actually open. That is, unless they go with Option B.
"If this doesn't work I can just try punching the door, too." Of course she would suggest the Use Fist action. She's pretty sure that would work. Though even she realizes, "Could take a little while though."
DG: Xantia has contributed a Wits Basic Action toward her party's challenge, Frozen Power Cables.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei now looks like he's been dressed by an overprotective mom and is wearing like 3 sweaters and a scarf and a knitted cap. He looks closer to ball than advanced level martial artist with innate violence talents.
He sort of...
...Waddles forward. He looks around this new area and then looks down to the ice. "Well... I can try to speed it up a bit--"
He crouches down and extends his hand over the ice, using KAKEI (blow torch mode) to try and melt the ice ot make it easier to chop at.
In order to do this he has to awkwardly take off his adorable mittens first but he tucks them under his chin so he can get at them more easily later.
"Well, I--did I ever really have much of a sense of adventure?" He asks Xantia with a laugh.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows How To Use toward his party's challenge, Frozen Power Cables.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - Frozen Power Cables *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Wits |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The frozen hallway that you have entered ends in a large metal door. Like the one outside, there is a control panel next to it; unlike that one, there is no light flashing. Ice encases the control panel -- and the electrical cables running from it to a locked box on the walls. A small light shines on that box. It seems that the cold is interfering with the power cables that control the door's lock. If you can find a way to thaw out those cables, then you should be able to open the door. the alternative is blasting through it, but this would take a long time; the steel door is heavily reinforced. =Dungeon Conditions: Stupify, Exhaust=========================================
====================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) - Round 2 *>===================== =======================< Results - Frozen Power Cables >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Medical Tricorder Fei Somehow Knows 1 Wits Effects: Cleanse -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Lily's Knife 2 Wits Effects: Enlighten -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xantia 17 --(20)--> 37 Fail Investigate 0 Wits Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 5 --(0)--> 5 Pass Just The Right Tool 2 Wits Effects: Stalwart -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 20 --(20)--> 40 Pass Conditions: Exhaust(1)|Stupify(2) Effects: Cleanse|Enlighten(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus 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> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Citan doesn't respond directly to that remark from Xantia and, instead, just smiles and shakes his head.
A man must keep his secrets.
"...That is true," Citan remarks, glancing at Lily as she suggests it could have just been melted by someone with prodigious control over fire. "Though, that would not necessarily explain the thickness of the ice. Still, we shall see."
His gaze tracks towards the door. "If this was intended as a shelter for the 'sleeping', then there may well be many more doors to come," Citan remarks to Xantia. "...I should hope it does not prove necessary. It does not seem as if it would fall easily even to your hands."
Every so often as he works on chipping away the ice, the doctor pauses to brush away fragments. If the ice is that much softer for the working afterwards, well, that's surely just coincidence.
Every so often he glances up to see how the others are getting on, and if that means that his gaze lingers a little longer on Fei and Xantia, well... that is also just coincidence.
"Xantia, are you feeling alright?" he does ask, though. Using Ether like that must be draining.
"Yes, but I am not worried. Noeline is with them," he replies to Lily, which might be his way of suggesting who among that group is capable of 'restraint'...
Bit by careful bit, they get the work done. Once the cables are free of ice, the door slides open!
"...But I wonder," Citan says, pausing there as he regards the open door. "Why was it open to begin with?"
DG: Lily Keil has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - ADS-97 Jotunn Automaton *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Wec Stann is not without its guardians. Occasionally, moving through the halls, they can be heard -- the clank of machinery, the crack of ice. Those are very different than hisses of steam and the eerie, mechanical wailing of whatever monstrosity stalks these halls. As you move into an open area -- a former storage place, with huge shipping crates coated in ice and bound to the floor -- you come face to face with one. This one is made for cold weather combat. A four-legged walker, this monstrosity is the size of a large car, with a gatling cannon on a turret. The legs end in wicked spikes -- to punch through the ice and down to the floor itself -- and allow it dexterity. When you enter, a large camera on a turret swivels. A moment later, the gatling cannon does -- and opens fire, rounds shredding through the floor before coming towards you. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Suffer============================================
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Noeline is with them. That's a good point.
Lily looks over Xantia now and then, able to feel how much Ether is being used in the moment as easily as breathing. "...Yeah," Lily answers Leon. "It's out of the ordinary, that's true. And whoever that was..." Citan has a point. But they can only speculate for now.
But with everyone's help, they do it, and Lily laughs a little at Fei's question. "True. We had to drag you out of prison."
But the door opens, and... hmm. "Yeah, I wonder..."
But they move onward, through cold hallways, until they come into a large, open chamber--huge shipping crates coated in ice. ...And the four-legged walker with spiked legs and a gatling turret faces them down. "--Shit."
The turret swivels, and Lily throws up a golden barrier of nuclear fire just in time to avoid the first rounds shredding the floor shredding them, too. "Move fast!"
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon looks between Xantia and Citan. He doesn't quite seem to register it, before he looks down at the door. He seems pleased when the power comes back on and the door slides open. He looks over the door for a moment, and then he looks at Fei. "Honestly, I find we all have a way of developing one. It might be a side effect of this business of ours. A shared delusion, perhaps."
He laughs once, and then he looks back at the opened door -- and into the large open area. A storage facility, if the shipping containers frozen to the floor are any indication. Leon stares at them for a second.
'--Shit.'
Leon's eyes snap forward -- and he sees the rounds from the huge, four-legged walker slam into a barrier of Lily's flame, causing it to roil. He hisses, tapping a button at his waist; four drones drop off, triangles unfolding, and a produce a barrier. The next blast of the gatling cannon slams into it, causing it to shimmer.
Leon runs in. He snaps Argent Divider II as he draws it; the shotgun barrels unfold, and the sword telescopes out. Leon runs in, zig-zagging, and then leaps. A blade of energy explodes along the length of the narrow sword, before he cleaves down with the energy blade.
"Bring it down!" he shouts. "Quickly!"
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Raid Funnel toward his party's challenge, ADS-97 Jotunn Automaton.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
"Nope!" Xantia answers Fei's question cheerfully. "That's why I'm here, to push you into doing things!"
...She means well, honestly. And she'd never push Fei into anything unless she thought it good for him. There might be a difference of opinion in that regard at times, but let's not worry about that right now.
As the work on the door mechanism gets underway, Xantia quickly starts looking bored. Sure, she can melt tiny bits of ice very precisely when so intructed, but that doesn't mean it's very interesting. She'd enjoy punching that door down a lot more, even if it would take a while. At one point, she actually looks like she might doze off, prompting Citan to ask if she's feeling alright.
"Huh? Oh, yeah... I'm fine. Is it done yet?"
It's almost automatic for Xantia to reply 'I'm fine' if someone asks how she's doing. It's usually easy to tell how fine she actually is doing from looking at her. Though notably less energetic than usual, she doesn't look particularly strained just yet. Keeping watch for any change in that seems wise.
At least what's behind door number two will be more to Xantia's liking. Xantia realizes that as soon as she hears Lily say a single word. By now she knows well enough that level of alarm doesn't happen for anything small. Gunfire erupts, barriers are struck, and Xantia... Xantia's just scrambling to get to the source of the problem as quick as she can, dashing forward as soon as she hears there's something that needs to be brought down. It's not all that reckless, given that she directly follows Leon, knowing he has a protective barrier.
All she needs to do once the gap is closed is leap up and over the Black Wolves' leader. The ARM built into her bracer arm springs to life, then is aimed downward, seeking to slam the energy blade into the top of the machine. And if that isn't enough, she won't think twice to pull not only her weapon free, but anything else that she can get her hands on up there.
DG: Xantia has used her Tool ARM Blade toward her party's challenge, ADS-97 Jotunn Automaton.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"We are just about done, in fact," Citan remarks to Xantia. "Still, please do pace yourself, Xantia. We cannot be certain what lies ahead."
Without any actual facts, speculation is all they have. But it's important to remember that none of this is grounded in reality until they discover the evidence for it.
Citan grimaces as Lily recounts the time they had to rescue Fei from prison and shakes his head. "I cannot thank you enough for your assistance with that, Lily," he remarks, and not for the first time. It really had been a problem...
"A shared delusion, is it? Well, perhaps you had ought to count me in, as well. ...It is not such a terrible way of seeing the world, is it, Fei?"
But such lighter matters might soon be left by the wayside.
"--Not good!" Citan shouts, scattering once he catches sight of the obstacle that awaits them all. "Spread out! That looks to be an anti-tank weapon!"
For his part, he tries to keep just out of reach of its fire. And that's when he sees it.
"--There! It's slow to turn, use that to your advantage!"
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, ADS-97 Jotunn Automaton.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong's secrets are so secret that even Fei doesn't know most of them. By the time he figures them out, in fact, most everybody else has already figured them out too.
He seems to be holding up okay. not great, but okay. The excess number of sweaters might be helping as is the fact that he isn't unleashing his ether like an endless faucet. It'd have to run out eventually, right?
Fei slides his mittens back on and rubs his hands together to get some warmth abck int htem.
"Right, Lily!" Fei shouts as he throws himself into the air and aims to slam his fist down, channeling the ice around him into a jutting eruption of ICEBERG that erupts out of the ground underneath the turret!
"Thanks sis," He murmurs. "By the way I--well this isn't the time really."
He looks on Lily. "Hey um. How're you holding up?"
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, ADS-97 Jotunn Automaton. DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, ADS-97 Jotunn Automaton.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - ADS-97 Jotunn Automaton *>==================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 3 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- Wec Stann is not without its guardians. Occasionally, moving through the halls, they can be heard -- the clank of machinery, the crack of ice. Those are very different than hisses of steam and the eerie, mechanical wailing of whatever monstrosity stalks these halls. As you move into an open area -- a former storage place, with huge shipping crates coated in ice and bound to the floor -- you come face to face with one. This one is made for cold weather combat. A four-legged walker, this monstrosity is the size of a large car, with a gatling cannon on a turret. The legs end in wicked spikes -- to punch through the ice and down to the floor itself -- and allow it dexterity. When you enter, a large camera on a turret swivels. A moment later, the gatling cannon does -- and opens fire, rounds shredding through the floor before coming towards you. =Dungeon Conditions: Wound, Suffer============================================
====================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) - Round 3 *>===================== =====================< Results - ADS-97 Jotunn Automaton >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 5 --(13)--> 18 Pass Raid Funnel 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 5 --(13)--> 18 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 5 --(13)--> 18 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xantia 37 --(13)--> 50 Pass ARM Blade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 5 --(25)--> 30 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 40 --(20)--> 60 Pass Conditions: Suffer(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus 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> Lily Keil has posed.
A shared delusion... Lily smiles faintly at that. She appreciates Leon's sense of humor more than most. And she knows Citan appreciates her help back then--she answers him, "Sure. I'm glad we did it." Since now she has Fei for a friend, and all.
But battle calls; Lily is able to block off the first attack, but there are more shortly after, and they slam into Leon's barriers... and in the space between attacks, Xantia dashes forward.
Citan stays out of the way of fire--mostly. He sees the advantage, and points it out--which gives Fei a chance to swing in with a huge eruption of ICE that goes from below where Xantia goes from above and Leon goes head-on. Between the three of them, the machine is taken down in short order, before Lily can even fully recover.
Staying out of the way was kind of hard, though.
Lily, once she's sure the machine is taken down, kneels down beside it thoughtfully. "...Was this one of mine?" she wonders. Then she looks to Fei, and smiles faintly, distantly. "I'm... fine. I got my eyes back to normal anyway," she says, and it's true--she no longer has the half-transformed state she was in for a while.
"These places just get me thinking, is all. But I'd rather keep going than dwell on it."
DG: Xantia has drawn a new Challenge.
========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Frozen Pipes *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The next door that you open leads into an elevator shaft. There is no sign of the elevator car itself; the shaft is empty and goes straight up and straight down. One door above is already open, though. If you can reach it, you might be able to reach the next level. However, this could be difficult. The salvation comes from the pipes running up the wall. They have burst in many places -- and thick flows of ice have frozen into place. These offer handholds, if precarious ones, that could allow you to scale those pipes and reach the next door. =Dungeon Conditions: Cripple, Injure, Exhaust=================================
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia literally doesn't know her limits, which makes pacing herself difficult. She tends to only notice she should've taken it easier once she's overdone it. "...I'll try," is thus all she can promise Citan.
She's curious about what Fei was going to say, but then of course some big war machine happens and Xantia is immediately back to giving it all she's got. Taking down a threat like that as fast as possible is just the only thing that makes sense. Fei attacks from below just after she landed on top of the machine, but she's able to keep her balance and hop off to safety when it comes crashing down. She looks mighty pleased with the outcome.
"Alright! Now that's the fun kind of teamwork!" So she says to the group at large, though she asides to Citan afterwards as she passes him, "Advice only? Boring." She smiles at him knowingly.
She hadn't considered that this situation might cause Lily to wonder about things relating to her past, and once aware of this, all she can really do is offer a sympathetic glance. Things would be a lot simpler if she had a better idea of how to deal with that sort of thing. As long as Lily says she's okay, then that'll have to be good enough.
Small mercies: at least the next door mechanism at the far end of the room isn't frozen over and functions normally as Xantia tests it. If it looks suspiciously like an elevator call button, that's because it is. Except the doors just slide open, revealing no actual elevator, and no movement to suggest that one will be coming. Xantia sticks her head in without hesitation, looking around to make sure.
"Nothing," she tells the others. "There's an opening up a little ways though." She pauses for a moment, then slips the blue claw weapon onto her right hand. "Looks like the only way forward, sooo... up we go!"
Though the claw she uses has ice powers, there's quite enough ice here already. Instead, she uses it as a climbing aid, firmly lodging it in the ice accumulated around the burst pipes for a bit more grip on the situation. It looks possible to scale it unaided, but some extra insurance does seem wise. It's a long way down, presumably - the shaft is too poorly lit to see the bottom.
DG: Xantia has used her Tool Blizzaga Claw toward her party's challenge, The Frozen Pipes.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Perhaps," Leon says to Citan. "I can't say this shared delusion has steered me all wrong."
Maybe a little wrong, sometimes.
He looks down at the machine -- considering for a moment -- and his eyes narrow at Lily's question. He wonders about that for a moment. He looks at her, his head tilted. "I can't blame you. There is something about them. I don't know how to put it, exactly."
Something dangerous. Something familiar, too.
He follows after Xantia -- and grimaces, as the doors slide open to reveal an elevator shaft. He nods to her, looking up. "Seems likely--hm, well..." He unspools some of his climbing rope -- and throws it up, getting it on some of the ice.
He tugs -- and then starts to climb up, using it. "Take it slow," he advises everyone. "We don't want to fall here."
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Climbing Rope toward his party's challenge, The Frozen Pipes.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"In a world such as this..." Citan muses, shaking his head.
Being a little wrong sometimes is fine. Just as long as it never becomes 'being a lot wrong'.
"I am glad to hear it," he tells her. "After all, should you stumble here... I would likely be the one to carry you." He smiles when he says it, as if to suggest he's just teasing her.
Fighting against a war machine, on foot at that, is not the sort of situation which he would prefer to be in. A shell explodes too close to him; the blast sends him flying. He's in the process of picking himself up (he looks at worst a little scuffed, as if he'd barely been hurt at all) when the rest of them down the machine.
"A shame," he remarks, looking on the wreckage, then over at Xantia when she remarks that his choice of (in)action had been 'boring'.
His response is to shake his head and smile. They had it well enough in hand.
There's an elevator shaft ahead.
"Xantia, do you see anything? ...Hmm. But there is no means by which we could coax the elevator into working. Oh, but there are the pipes..."
It just seems a little bit too precarious. Luckily, he has just the thing.
"Allow me," Citan says, drawing out the Macalania Sphere. Rather than use it to generate ice directly, he uses it to stabilize the handholds the pipes have provided.
It will still be a cold climb, though.
"Indeed. A fall is best avoided."
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Macalania Sphere toward his party's challenge, The Frozen Pipes.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Well that's something," Fei smiles. "I know it's been a uh wild ride lately. But I've missed you. I guess as the world's been expanding, there's just been so much to do... If you ever needed, ah..."
He sort of trails off as he looks down towars where the turret, uh, was.
"I'm guessing it feels like these mysteries just keep getting deeper. But we'll find out the truth. And whatever it is, we'll be there for you through it. No matter how many times we findi t."
Fei unfortunately doesn't bring it up again. Maybe he's just too cold. He is kind of rubbing his hands together again.
Citan asked about the shared dleusion but Fei only now thinks to answer it. "Nah, I... I mean... Everything that's important is really a shared delusion really, right? That doesn't mean that it's not important, though. You have to make the lies real. That's what life is about, really. And in the end, the delusion's the reality too. Because that's...what culture is. A bunch of delusions."
Fei is...going to try and climb these pipes.
With mittens on.
Yep!!!
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, The Frozen Pipes.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Xantia's habit of overdoing it is the main reason Lily keeps looking at her on this trip--she's trying to gauge her energy, how much she can do. And so far, at least, she's held up. Maybe Citan would do the carrying...
But Lily speaks not of adventure, but of darker thoughts, and she nods to Leon. "...It's hard to say," she says, not having many words for it herself.
But she looks at Fei. "...They do," she admits. "But I appreciate it. It's nice, to know. And I don't plan on goinganywhere, either."
Lily looks to the wall, and the pipes they can climb. She reaches up to her neck, and pulls free from some of the layers a necklace--the same strange, gimbaled shape inscribed with ancient Zeboim text that she always wears.
"...That's an interesting way to look at it," she says then to Fei, and looks to Citan. he makes handholds; Leon has a rope. But she just sort of shimmers, and a blue sphere bursts into being around her, making it difficult to look at her without becoming uncomfortable--not quite real in the same way. A delusion, maybe. And she starts up. She splits, as she does; some Lilies fall, but at least one keeps moving up as the others blink out.
Her blurred outline is also using ice magic.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Impure Pendant toward her party's challenge, The Frozen Pipes.
========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================= ======================<* CHALLENGE - The Frozen Pipes *>====================== |Type: Exploration |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 3 | --------------------------< Challenge Information: >-------------------------- The next door that you open leads into an elevator shaft. There is no sign of the elevator car itself; the shaft is empty and goes straight up and straight down. One door above is already open, though. If you can reach it, you might be able to reach the next level. However, this could be difficult. The salvation comes from the pipes running up the wall. They have burst in many places -- and thick flows of ice have frozen into place. These offer handholds, if precarious ones, that could allow you to scale those pipes and reach the next door. =Dungeon Conditions: Cripple, Injure, Exhaust=================================
===================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) - Round 4 *>==================== ========================< Results - The Frozen Pipes >======================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Leon Albus 18 --(5)--> 23 Pass Climbing Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Fei Fong Wong 18 --(30)--> 48 Fail Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Lily Keil 18 --(5)--> 23 Pass Impure Pendant 3 Agility Effects: Rally ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Xantia 50 --(5)--> 55 Pass Blizzaga Claw 2 Agility Effects: Quicken ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Citan Uzuki 30 --(30)--> 60 Fail Macalania Sphere 3 Agility Effects: Rally ----------------------------------< Party >----------------------------------- Leader: Leon Albus 60 --(20)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Exhaust(1)|Injure(2)|Wound(1) Effects: Quicken(1) ==============================< Dream Chasers >===============================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus 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> Xantia has posed.
Xantia pffts, scoffing at the notion of needing to be carried, but doesn't comment on that in any other way. She'd like to think she wouldn't overdo it that badly... no guarantees though. Emergencies do happen.
She's evidently still in a good enough condition to think nothing about clambering up some dubiously safe naturally-formed icy handholds with her bare hands, with only a single claw to aid her. The cold may not bother her, but it does get slippery. At least Citan makes it a bit easier on all of them by solidifying the handholds further, though he still needs to make the climb. At least Leon has his rope firmly anchored, which can also be used by others who so choose. Lily is up there before anyone knows it, or exactly how she did it. ...it takes a little more effort with mittens.
Though while it may take some a bit more time than others, the party makes it up to the open doorway to the floor above. Putting her claw away, Xantia lets out a sigh as she looks over the others. "Not the best circumstances for a climb, but hey, we did it!" She then looks to Fei in particular, noting, "...You said some complicated things back there, but delusions or not, I'm at least glad I get to share it with you all. I won't regret anything that led to me being here with you right now."
She looks a little uncomfortable for a moment, then laughs it off. "Just... wanted to say that! Anyway, let's go!"
DG: Leon Albus has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - FREAWARU - The Overgrowth *>=================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The next hallway stretches on and on. An icy path, slippery in the extreme. But as you follow it, into a cavernous chamber, you find something strange... but welcome. It grows warmer and warmer. The ice begins to grow slicker and softer, as you came to an enormous wall -- stretching so high that it vanishes into the darkness -- and it melts entirely, into puddles, at the edge. The wall is scarred. Half-melted in places, like some fiery creature tried to burn its way through a bulkhead but failed. There, you also find a door. It opens for you when you approach. And then you enter a sweltering environment. A vast hydroponics chamber, with plants of all stripes growing. Stacked rows of corn, tomatoes, and other plants are growing -- many far larger than would happen in nature. Huge vines track downward. You soon enter a strange jungle. And something moves. Huge vines slither across the floor -- and mixed among the plant vines are /mechanical/ ones. They are almost camouflaged -- and then they're on you. They whip and strike; they crash down, trying to squash you. They move in a coordinated way -- and the only path forward is to cut your way through them! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I would prefer we all stay put, really," Leon says. "Better we get through whatever awaits together."
His expression darkens for a moment -- he can't help but think of Josie. She came into some of these places with them. Now, it is quite different. His expression is a grimace, as he makes the it the rest of the way up. He slips through the open door, and glances about for a moment. Then, Leon rolls his shoulder once.
"A long walk," he says.
And it is -- long and cold, an icy hallway that opens up into a cavernous chamber. Leon notices it get warmer. Ice begins to crunch under his boots; melt drips down on their heads, dribbling down. Leon's eyes narrow, as he walks, and finds a door.
It opens.
Once, it was likely an inspiring sight -- but now all of the food is a huge, overgrown thing. Corn and tomatoes, plump and huge, are sticking out. Leon grimaces, as it starts to heat up. He starts pulling off the coats and gloves, and looks back at the others.
"I'm not sure if this is promising or a problem," he says. "Maybe both. Maybe--"
Something moves across the floor., Then, a vine crashes down between him and Lily. Another whips out, striking at them. Leon throws his rope, catching one with a loop, and yanks to throw it to the side. Then, he shouts: "Run! We better hurry and get through here!"
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Climbing Rope toward his party's challenge, FREAWARU - The Overgrowth.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"A 'shared delusion', is it?" Citan remarks, as if considering what Fei has to say, fleetingly folding his arms across his chest. "Well, I would argue some things are very real! Such a cup of tea in the mid-afternoon," he adds, a smile on his lips as he moves on ahead.
Expanding the 'handholds' of ice helps somewhat, but it doesn't solve the other part of the problem:
Which is keeping one's grip. Citan's hand slips, but fortunately there's a rope at the ready.
"...Goodness..." the doctor remarks, a comment that could be made at the Lilies that pass him as much as his near-miss, before shaking his head and ascending the rest of the way.
It's not as if this is the first time he's seen this particular trick of the former soldier's, after all.
What awaits them above is just a long walk.
"...The ice," Citan remarks after a distance is crossed.
The ice is melting.
"Was something or someone else here?" There's certainly the marks of some presence here. Perhaps Lily was right--
"...These plants!"
It's sweltering in here, enough that the doctor is forced to shed the extra garments he'd donned against the cold. Even normal attire feels as if it's too much amidst the heat and humidity. Still, even such circumstances can't prevent him from regarding the space around them with wonder. "Could these... truly be plants from the Zeboim era? My word, that would mean..." He's truly astonished, pausing to touch the leaf of one strange plant. "...I do not think I have seen this before--"
Something's moving in the jungle they have found themselves within. One vine lashes down towards them, followed by another that Leon catches with his rope. "As Leon says! Let us hurry!" Citan calls out, drawing upon the power of the Sphere again -- this time to freeze over the vines that whip closest to them. It seems the best way to buy enough time.
DG: Citan Uzuki has used his Tool Macalania Sphere toward his party's challenge, FREAWARU - The Overgrowth.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei blushes like an Undertale character at Xantia's words. He isn't furry enough to really pull it off but he does sort of wiggle his fingers against one another and mumbles awkwardly. He seems to appreciate it though. He's just a little shy about this sort of thing when it's directed at him. When he's doing the DIRECTING thouhg by god he really hams it up but well, that's Fei for ya.
"I... I mean, like, a lot of those big concepts out there. They're all made up. But it doesn't mean they're ...nothing, you know? I guess...ahh I'm putting it badly but everything is more complicated and simpler than we know it to be, I'm sure of it."
Does that even make basic levels of sense Fei? Regardless, Fei smiles at Xantia. Or the back of her head anyway.
Vines start slamming down. Fei is nearly bowled over as he performs the chrono trigger SHOCKED animation. "Aw geeze, might be easier to just try and push through before they crush us--"
Fei throws a BURNING FIST at the vines and starts running.
He doesn't argue that tea isn't real though. He's not that philosophical.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has contributed a Agility Basic Action toward his party's challenge, FREAWARU - The Overgrowth.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily smiles at Xantia for a moment. And to Fei she says, "...It makes sense. The things we create have value." A beat, "...And so does a nice cup of tea."
But... Together. "...Right," Lily answers, and she knows he's thinking about Josie. She thinks about Josie often. They will never reach 'whatever awaits' completely together, will they? No matter what happens, there is something lost, something broken. ...And it's not just her; the ones they lost in other ways...
Lily finds herself melancholy as she contemplates it, and pushes that aside to focus on her strange magic instead. She makes it to the top.
At least there is something else to focus on. In short order, Lily notices--
"What?" The wall is scarred. Lily knows it well. That kind of fire. It is familiar to her--and there, the plants growing... How old are they?
A strange jungle--and vines. Lily finds a vine whip down next to her, crashing between her and Leon. She hesitates--and takes a lash along the side for it, for her refusal to let fire loose here in this weird jungle of greenery. She won't make the same mistake twice.
Lily reaches for her amulet again and channels magic through it. She starts forward, splitting into many from the central blue aura, stutter-stepping her way across the gap, cutting her way through with blades of dark energy that spring from her many hands.
DG: Lily Keil has used her Tool Impure Pendant toward her party's challenge, FREAWARU - The Overgrowth.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Though not exactly happy with a long walk filled with nothing - her boredom is plain to see - Xantia doesn't complain about the change of pace. Could be worse. Could be having to do more climbing, or some dumb puzzle or another. She really doesn't have any complaints any more once she notices the signs that it's warmer around here. That means she no longer has to artificially manipulate her temperature. Upon that realization, she lets out a deep breath, finally letting go of the focus she was putting towards that.
"...Much better. I hope there's another way out on this side. Or at least some food." Xantia talking about food is never completely unexpected, but it probably stands to reason why she would feel particularly hungry right about now.
But Xantia getting her wish immediately granted? Even she wasn't expecting that. She can only just kind of stare at the overgrown sources of nutrition, wondering, "...Is this one of those delusions you were talking about? You know what, never mind, I'll know soon enough."
Naturally, Xantia immediately approaches the closest source of food, grabbing hold of a giant tomato and wrenching it free. She is just about to bite down on it... when a mechanical vine snakes out and slaps her snack out of her hands.
Her expression darkens dangerously. You do NOT get between Xantia and her food. Instantly, her claw is brought back into action, but this time its magic is invoked. With a swing of her arm, a swath of vines in front of her is frozen over. But that was hardly all of them. Not really having anything concrete to vent her wrath on, she leaves it at that for now, following the instruction to run. As much as she hates to leave good food behind, this is a problem that will need to be solved first. Hopefully the source of the problem is ahead, so she can give it a piece of her mind. And then go back for that food.
DG: Xantia has used her Tool Blizzaga Claw toward her party's challenge, FREAWARU - The Overgrowth.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== ==================<* CHALLENGE - FREAWARU - The Overgrowth *>=================== |Type: Climax |Dungeon Ability: Agility |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- The next hallway stretches on and on. An icy path, slippery in the extreme. But as you follow it, into a cavernous chamber, you find something strange... but welcome. It grows warmer and warmer. The ice begins to grow slicker and softer, as you came to an enormous wall -- stretching so high that it vanishes into the darkness -- and it melts entirely, into puddles, at the edge. The wall is scarred. Half-melted in places, like some fiery creature tried to burn its way through a bulkhead but failed. There, you also find a door. It opens for you when you approach. And then you enter a sweltering environment. A vast hydroponics chamber, with plants of all stripes growing. Stacked rows of corn, tomatoes, and other plants are growing -- many far larger than would happen in nature. Huge vines track downward. You soon enter a strange jungle. And something moves. Huge vines slither across the floor -- and mixed among the plant vines are /mechanical/ ones. They are almost camouflaged -- and then they're on you. They whip and strike; they crash down, trying to squash you. They move in a coordinated way -- and the only path forward is to cut your way through them! =Dungeon Conditions: Slow, Injure=============================================
====================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) - Round 5 *>===================== ====================< Results - FREAWARU - The Overgrowth >===================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 23 --(5)--> 28 Pass Climbing Rope 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 48 --(5)--> 53 Pass Rush 0 Agility Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 23 --(5)--> 28 Pass Impure Pendant 3 Agility Effects: Rally -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xantia 55 --(5)--> 60 Pass Blizzaga Claw 2 Agility Effects: Quicken -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 60 --(5)--> 65 Pass Macalania Sphere 3 Agility Effects: Rally -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 80 --(0)--> 80 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Injure(2)|Slow(2) Effects: Quicken(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: The party led by Leon Albus 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> Leon Albus has posed.
Leon doesn't really have time to admire -- or wonder -- about the fire-scarred walls. The fact that there are melted-then-refrozen footsteps and scorch marks suggests that whatever made those, it must command powerful fire. The vines, though, distract him. He swallows, before he glances at Citan. "It's possible. Their descendants, most likely!"
Fei punches the vines. It knocks one of them backward. Lily splits apart into different figures, as Leon bolts ahead. It's a more mundane sort of bolting. Leon looks ahead -- and then makes a face, as Xantia has her tomato batted away.
That, he decides, is a relief.
They run onward, out of the greenhouse, and to--
DG: Citan Uzuki has drawn a new Challenge.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - FREAWARU - Chamber Core *>==================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You hack, slash, and rip your way through the mechanical vines. No small amount of plant life is also scattered on the floor. A cut-down tomato is squashed under your foot. The mechanical vines pull back -- and then, in the center of the hydroponics room, the source of those vines appears. A cone-shaped, stacked pillar rises from the floor. A massive red lens is in the center of it -- and eight huge, vine-tentacles swing up. The ends split open -- this time revealing large, mechanical blades that whirl and grasp. The lens swings at you. And a fiery beam explodes forth, scorching a melted streak in the floor. The vines strike out at you. Like every Heoh Rott installation to date, Wec Stann has a guardian -- and it seeks to bar your passage! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Citan makes a noise that might be a barely-stifled laugh. But he shakes his head, smiling good-naturedly. "I know what it is that you mean, Fei. What is decided is important is not a natural consequence of the world's existence." It instead becomes important because...
"Nevertheless, I would not mind a cup of tea once we are finished here!"
They decide what has value, and in turn, that determines what is created. What a world they live in.
He glances in Leon's direction and nods. "Yes. There would have been some genetic drift, of course, if they have been growing all this time. Still, there are likely plants within here that no longer exist upon Filgaia's surface!" That alone would be a find most worthy--
But they have another, more immediate problem here.
They're mechanical, Citan realizes, as another slashes through the air close to him. Then they must be under control of something else--
Xantia's tomato, broken on the floor and squashed underfoot, is but one casualty of the destruction they're forced to wreak; before long the vines retreat, and there, from within the foliage looms one great red lens.
"This is... the machine controlling this space?!" Citan utters, just as the lens swings towards the lot of them. "Xantia!" he shouts, as sparkling red energy is drawn into that lens. There are only seconds to intervene.
He tackles her, pushing her out the way as the beam slices deep into the floor; what remains where she had been standing is so much melted slag.
"We must strike decisively, and quickly! Do not let it fire again!" he calls out as he helps her to her feet.
He's as good as his word this time, rushing one of the points where the 'vines' attach to the 'body', delivering a sharp-edged blow to the spot. If he can help incapacitate it, they stand a chance of disabling it altogether.
Maybe Xantia will be happy: he's not holding back (as much) this time.
DG: Citan Uzuki has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward his party's challenge, FREAWARU - Chamber Core.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I have no complaints about a cup of tea," Leon answers Citan, as they start to slow. Then he draws in a gasp -- he sees Citan dive,t ackling Xantia away, as a heat beam scorches across the floor. He looks up at that red lens and his eyes narrow. He hears what Citan says.
Strike quickly.
He presses a button -- and the quartet of drones drop off, unfolding into triangles. A beam shield appears between them -- and the next blast of the heat ray slams into it. Sparks explode and fly where it strikes, shooting up into the air. Leon grits his teeth.
Then, he draws out Argent Divider II. This time, he keeps it as a shotgun, and hefts the weapon. He takes aim.
There are a pair of thunderous cracks, as he fires two rounds towards that lens, trying to crack it.
Then, he shouts: "Lily! NOW!"
DG: Leon Albus has used his Tool Raid Funnel toward his party's challenge, FREAWARU - Chamber Core.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Nobody should have been expecting Xantia to be at all intimidated when the source of the vines reveals itself. That's exactly what she was looking for, something that can pay for messing up her much-needed food break. When the pillar rises, her ARM activates, and she approaches purposefully, to make good on her obvious intentions.
However, she is distracted by the horrible sounds of food being destroyed. She looks about in dismay at the carnage among the edibles, caused by not only the actions of the machine, but also their own actions. Is there anything more tragic to behold than wasted food?
There could in fact have been a larger tragedy taking place today, had Citan not intervened to tackle Xantia out of the way of a sudden massive beam fired by the mechanical monster. She doesn't manage much more than a "Wh-" in confusion, having apparently failed to notice the threat entirely, until she sees the damage where she used to be standing. Looks like it paid off to keep a constant watch on her. She may be more worn out than she looks, at the very least mentally.
"S-Sorry," is her first impulse rather than 'thank you', realizing she spaced out at the worst time. After being helped to her feet, she nods in understanding. Don't let it fire again, got it.
She wastes no time in rushing the pillar, though her approach is more calculated than before. This isn't a frontal assault, she's baiting the machine into attacking her. Staying in close, she focuses on dodging and striking back against the vines sent her way, in hopes of creating an opening for the others. As melee combat is her forte, this may be the wiser course of action, rather than trying to get in close enough to attack the lens. After all, she's clearly seen that, in the event that it does manage to get off another shot, being directly in front of it would be... bad.
DG: Xantia has used her Tool ARM Blade toward her party's challenge, FREAWARU - Chamber Core.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei Fong Wong thinks about Josie too much. He tries not to think about her so much because it hurts. It flies in the face of his understanding of the universeb ut, at the same time, feels terribly familiar. It claws at his very essence and the only thing, he thinks, that has kept him from falling apart about it is stubborness. A fervent perhaps delusional belief that Josie has something she hasn't told them, told anyone, and that one day they can fight togehter as friends once more.
Even if it means Odessa has to be destroyed first. Either way, the cycle never ends. Best to not let it get to you, Fei.
"I was thinking more in terms of like 'justice' and 'kindness' rather than physical matter but--yeah. That's a better way of putting it I guess."
What is this before them. More metal vines. A red lens. A red lens. Is that a weak--
-OH NO IT'S A HEAT RAY. Fei is caught dead on but it's honestly for a moment ab bit of a relief. He feels WAY less cold BUT UNFORTUNATELY his sweater...
...INCINERATES.
Fei pushes through the flames, punching forward another wave of ice towards the mechanical beast!
"THAT WAS A GIFT!" Fei shouts, tears in his eyes.
DG: Fei Fong Wong has used his Tool RPS Badge toward his party's challenge, FREAWARU - Chamber Core.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Justice and kindness...
Lily wonders at these vegetables. Plants that Filgaia hasn't seen in millenia... Is it possible that those are among these? If nothing else they're huge. To take and transplant them elsewhere would indeed be a find of its own. And yet, it's only an afterthought. Something small.
She appreciates Xantia. Even if she doesn't get to eat the tomato.
In the battle, though--Fei gets hit. "Fei--are you all right!?"
But the shout--That's Lily's cue. As Leon calls out to her, Lily floats from behind him and his barriers, eyes already turning black as she extends her hands. "-Limiters released.-" The ancient words clip out easily--and Lily rushes, prismatic wings outstretched. Her hand lifts to the sky, and a terrible golden light burns into being around her--and then around the mechanical form of their adversary. Crackling between the both of them, power starts to flow, until a blinding light blots out all vision.
Something explodes all right. Hopefully it's the enemy.
DG: Lily Keil has contributed a Combat Basic Action toward her party's challenge, FREAWARU - Chamber Core.
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== ===================<* CHALLENGE - FREAWARU - Chamber Core *>==================== |Type: Final |Dungeon Ability: Combat |Challenge Rating: 2 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You hack, slash, and rip your way through the mechanical vines. No small amount of plant life is also scattered on the floor. A cut-down tomato is squashed under your foot. The mechanical vines pull back -- and then, in the center of the hydroponics room, the source of those vines appears. A cone-shaped, stacked pillar rises from the floor. A massive red lens is in the center of it -- and eight huge, vine-tentacles swing up. The ends split open -- this time revealing large, mechanical blades that whirl and grasp. The lens swings at you. And a fiery beam explodes forth, scorching a melted streak in the floor. The vines strike out at you. Like every Heoh Rott installation to date, Wec Stann has a guardian -- and it seeks to bar your passage! =Dungeon Conditions: Wound====================================================
====================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) - Round 6 *>===================== =====================< Results - FREAWARU - Chamber Core >====================== Player Exhaustion Pass/Fail -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leon Albus 28 --(5)--> 33 Pass Raid Funnel 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fei Fong Wong 53 --(5)--> 58 Pass RPS Badge 3 Combat Effects: Fanfare -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lily Keil 28 --(5)--> 33 Pass Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Xantia 60 --(5)--> 65 Pass ARM Blade 2 Combat Effects: Embolden -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Citan Uzuki 65 --(22)--> 87 Fail Fight 0 Combat Effects: BASIC -----------------------------------< Party >------------------------------------ Leader: Leon Albus 80 --(35)--> 115 Pass Conditions: Cripple|Injure(1)|Slow(1)|Wound(2) Effects: Embolden(1) ===============================< Dream Chasers >================================
DG: You have overcome the dungeon's trials! This run is a success! DG: The party led by Leon Albus has successfully explored Wec Stann (First Entry)!
=========================<* Wec Stann (First Entry) *>========================== =====================<* CHALLENGE - The Cryogenic Fields *>===================== |Type: Discovery |Dungeon Ability: Conclusion|Challenge Rating: 1 | ---------------------------< Challenge Information: >--------------------------- You cut your way past FREAWARU. The core is broken and shattered, sparks flying, until it falls still and silent. Beyond its husk is another large door. When you open it, you enter a massive amphitheater-shaped room. You stand at the top of it, and it slopes downward, with numerous stairs leading downward. The temperature, after recent experiences, is simply comfortable. But an eerie sight awaits you. Thousands -- perhaps tens of thousands -- of pods are lined up, in great rows. They stretch as far as the eye can see. Writing in Zeboim -- or the ancient tongue (or Zanarkandian) -- notes each as a "CRYOGENIC STASIS POD," with a number. The pods have a milky white glass across the top. Each and every last one is open, with millennia of dust accumulating inside... and not a soul to be seen. =Dungeon Conditions: Secret===================================================
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Xantia apologizes. His response is to shake his head and urge her onwards. Now isn't the time. They need to prevent it from firing again.
Strike quickly.
That was the advice Citan had given, and it's the advice that's heeded: they all lay into the machine in their own way, some with more initial success than others.
The joint Citan targets turns out to be more heavily protected than he'd thought. Never mind it -- he redoubles his efforts and is eventually rewarded with sparks and smoke. He directs his attention on one of the other points of contact, as the others focus their attention on the main body.
Well. Mostly on the main body. Lily, all her limiters released, unleashes golden fire upon other 'limbs' of the machine, scorching the middle portion with her fury.
Xantia, directing more pinpointed strikes than before, finds that her prudence rewards her: not only does she successfully excise plating, wiring, and components from the side of the machine, she avoids the beam that fires out when it does get off another shot!
...Fei's sweater makes a noble sacrifice even as the rest of it rebounds off of Leon's shield.
And Fei has his revenge in the a rising glacial wave that slams right into that red lens, cracking it.
Into this, the Argent Divider II cracks off a single shot... and is answered by golden flame.
After this, all is silent and still. A single large door awaits them.
The temperature inside is... comfortable. It's a large room, like an amphitheatre. Were they looking for the place where their ancestors slept?
Because it's here.
This large chamber is filled with cold-sleep pods. The information Leon had obtained had been correct.
...But they're empty. They've been empty long enough to collect quite a layer of dust.
"...What in the world...?" Citan wonders aloud, gazing from empty cradle to empty cradle.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
The Black Wolves entered Wec Stann, finding that it had frozen over due to a damaged climate control system. Despite finding evidence of some intruder, leaving burn scars in its wake, they made their way through the worst of the ruin's remains. Finally, they found their way -- in two groups -- to a hydroponics facility, and then defeated a mechanized guardian there.
They entered the rooms after. Two doors open -- shortly after each other -- and lead into a large, ampitheater like room. There are terraces here, each with cylindrical pods. Each pod has a milky white glass canopy -- and each is opened. Inside, there are complex pieces of machinery -- tubes and monitors, with cushioning like a bed. Each, though, is coated in a thick layer of dust.
The ampitheater-like room extends downward, with rows of thousands and thousands of pods. Each is empty.
The bottom of the room has a large platform and crystalline structure, there. Both are dark, save for some lights glowing -- maintenance lights along each wall.
Leon stands at the top of the stairwells. he stares down, his silver eyes wide, as he looks around. "This is..."
He falls silent as he looks all of it over.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Lily Keil is one of those who has entered Wec Stann, and she walks into the room after Leon, stepping into the huge chamber. Th large room with its terraces, with its pods... all open. All dusty.
Lily looks around, noticing the lights in the distance, stopping by Leon. Her eyes are still black and prismatic, from her fading transformation, but the Ether around her is slowly dissipating.
She closes her eyes, and focuses--tries to feel for something here...
And her eyes open again, turning their ordinary gold after a few moments.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
"This has been empty for ages!"
That was Emeralda, who is pretty loud. The group of Wolves she was with have just made it past the mechanical guardian, and Emeralda - who has no fear - immediately just walked in and poked at the closest pod. There was enough dust there that she was sure it hadn't been touched in a long time.
Just touching the pods still feels kind of weird, though. It's like what she slept the years away in, except not. It's familiar, and yet different. It makes her a little uncomfortable for reasons she cannot explain.
Another moment, and then: "Hey!" Emeralda has seen the other group, and is trying to attract their attention by bouncing on her feet and waving. "We both found the middle! ...Did you see anything weird on the way in?"
Because she sure did!
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks more than a little frazzled by the end of all this, not to mention exhausted; the journey has been perilous, with the cold temperature that's ever been her bane as well as dangerously slick icy terrain that threatens to send her wheelchair careening heavens know where. Fortunately, by the end, thanks to Elly's solution and Strife mounting itself underneath the chair, she's mobile enough...
"... I ..." Riesenlied whispers quietly, biting her lip as she murmurs, "... this--" A pause, as she shifts a little closer with a wince.
"... yes," she nods as Emeralda points out what happened. "We did see many signs of an intruder before us -- someone who definitely was here after the place had frozen over. Footsteps, burn marks, and... these strange Reaverbot-like machines with violet energy blades..."
She looks around and asks, "Is... there a computer terminal, perhaps? Somewhere we can find the logs to these... pods?"
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly van Houten emerges from Door #2.
Elly turned back to put on her winter coat almost instantly after the two groups had parted ways, and she has been slightly dishevelled by conflict. In particular there is a nasty red mark around her throat, mostly visible because she's loosened the collar of the jacket.
"What...?" Elly says, gazing at the pods.
"Are we too late? ... No, this..." Elly reaches forwards to curl fingers in the pod, feeling the dirt inside of it, leaning in to examine it. "This isn't recent at all. For a moment I thought perhaps it had been someone getting here ahead of us, like in..." Zanarkand, but that's just the most recent example.
Emeralda is speaking at someone. Elly's head snaps up -- "Hello!" she calls to the others, moving in that direction, staying more or less with Riesenlied in case of sudden ice slips or other disastrous occurences.
"That's good thinking," Elly echoes Riesenlied, before reporting to Leon: "We found a medical facility which is where we encountered the artificial soldiers Riesenlied mentioned. Most of the rest of our trip was through service areas... a refectory and what I think was a ballroom, or at least some sort of event space. And a hydroponics garden, of all things." Elly's eyebrows lift. "It was still functional! Ish. The plants were alright, at least."
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Emeralda Kasim is in fact walking proof that the plants were all right, because she ended up landing on a tomato.
She has wiped most of it off her leg, though, so it's okay.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"...What in the world...?" Citan had wondered, the moment the contents of that room had come into focus. He'd gazed from pod to pod, but as far as he could see... they were all open.
The ones closest to him, at least, seem as if they've been open for some time.
He slowly starts to head towards the nearest cryogenic bed, as if uncertain whether this is something that he should touch. Then, the others enter into this space, prompting him to stop in his tracks.
"Elly! I am glad that all of you have arrived safely." He pauses. "Though... not without difficulty?"
Emeralda names the problem more plainly.
"...Yes," he answers that shouted remark. "For hundreds of years, to collect that much dust... perhaps even longer."
Riesenlied speaks.
"As had we. I suspect the conditions we faced as we entered were due to the intruder, though I cannot say for certain. Or, for that matter, whether the apparent intruder had come from within or without..."
Or if it was even a person.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline is staring up at the rows upon rows of pods, her lips pursed as she mulls over the sight. She's stuck close to Riesenlied since entering this chamber, but doesn't really dare move any further out of some bizarre feeling that if she does, the vista will somehow pop like a soap bubble and resolve into something much less ordinary.
"I cannot imagine that anyone could have taken so many people at once for any kind of nefarious purpose," Noeline notes towards Elly's fears. "But, that in turn opens up a great many questions. Did they simply integrate into the local population? If so, how many generations ago? Why leave behind such a promising facility, even if it did occasionally threaten to kill us? Does it actually change terribly much about anything?" she adds with a faint smirk.
After all, it's not like there's a bump to the status quo waiting for them here, as far as she can see.
She considers that a moment longer, then puffs out a breath. "And the thought behind all of that is that, well... out of all the possibilities, perhaps this might be the best of them." It's certainly far beyond some of her fears about what they might have otherwise found here.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia... really needs some food, after overdoing it a little with using Ether to keep warm throughout most of the trek through the facility. It's painful to leave behind all those delicious giant edibles (that are still in one piece after the fight, anyway), but she's prioritizing sticking with the rest of the group for now. Curiosity as to what they'll find at the end of this has won out, it seems.
Plus she got just a little bit too close to the business end of a giant laser. Still a little bit shaken up by that, which may explain why she's on the quiet side as she enters. When she sees the other party though, she's quick to wave and cheer up a bit.
"Hi! Looks like everything went okay? We had to get past some big machines with big guns, and the elevator was missing so we had to climb up here... not too bad otherwise."
She's had worse experiences, anyway. Being able to cheat her way through the coldness removed her biggest issue with the place.
She quiets down again as she looks about at all the empty pods. The longer she's looking at these, the more she feels... something. Is this a memory trying to surface? Or something else? She can't be quite certain. Frowning deeply, her pensive expression betrays that she's in thought about all this.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Well..."
Fei scratches at his cheek. "...I guess...it makes sense if Lily was found here or something." He frowns faintly, tapping his chin gently. "And if she had been frozen for a very long time, it could explain memory loss, especially if the process wasn't perfect..."
He cups his chin thoughtfully and starts pacing around in deep thought. He stops speaking for a bit and then he adds...
"I don't know, maybe I shouldn't be speculating just off what we found here," He admits, looking back to Emeralda and then to Riesenlied. "...Yeah, maybe there's a computer terminal or ... or something that can give us a better idea of what happened here."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"All of you made it!" Leon says, his eyes turning towards Elly, Riesenlied, Noeline, and Emeralda. He nods once to them. But, his expression turns more grave, after that.
Everyone expresses shock. It mirrors his own.
Leon runs a finger on the inside of one of these pods. Meant to preserve life -- to keep people alive for millennia, perhaps. It comes away coated in a thick layer of dust. He looks down at his finger, and then he looks downward, and shakes his head. "...The machinery here is all intact. Look--there's still a shiny finish. Plastic coatings, over some of these console screens..."
He swallows. "I..." He wipes his finger on his jacket. "...I wonder if anyone ever used them."
Not in ages, if so, as Noeline and Citan said. He looks at Fei, his brow furrowing. Was Lily found here? He doesn't know where she was found. He knew her when they were little, but it wasn't until he was six or seven that they really became friends. The day he learned her secret. "I don't know, Fei... speculating is all we can do."
Riesenlied asks if there is a terminal. He looks at her, then nods. He looks ahead -- down the long ramps, to the recessed platform at the center. There is a crystalline structure there -- and several consoles around it. "Down there, perhaps?"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Artificial soldiers?" Lily asks Elly and Riesenlied. "Like, robots? We encountered one of those."
Did anyone ever use them...? It's hard to say. Lily looks to Leon again, and then starts walking down the way. Citan and Noeline....
"Is it?" she wonders at Noeline, and then when Fei makes a suggestion, Lily looks at him, a little startled. "You think?" she wonders. "I..."
"That's right. It's just speculating."
"...Elly," she says. "Do you need some healing?"
Maybe there will be a terminal. Lily eyes it, and says, "...I guess I should check it out..."
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Good news, Fei: Emeralda doesn't seem too badly hurt (she's a little beat up just like anyone who's been through a ruin might be, and would be tired if she wasn't Emeralda and thus made of too much energy, but nothing grevious).
Except the squashed tomato anyway, which would definitely stain if she'd gotten it on actual fabric and not whatever nanomachine construct it actually hit. Her backpack managed to avoid getting splattered, at least. Scorched yes, splattered no.
"They looked frozen," Emeralda says to Lily. "Like..." She shakes her head. "Frozen! But they woke up anyway, even with the ice. And the pods - I bet someone used them," Emeralda says, "because they're finished. But all of them..." Her brows furrow for a moment in thought. She doesn't know why they thought Lily would have come from one, aside from the circuitry, but anyone could have circuitry. Right?
Riese suggests they look at a console. In Zeboim ruins, Emeralda is usually very helpful with the machinery because she can both read the labels and has good instincts, but in this particular case they have more than one expert who can read Zeboim, so...
"I'm going to go check!" she declares, and begins walking along the pods. All the ones she can see are open, but she's going to pass by all of them and make sure there's not one secret closed one hidden in the middle, where it's easy to overlook. Or anything else in there, for that matter. If this ruin has the first pod mimic instead of a chest mimic, she's going to be the first explorer to see it.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied cups her mouth gently, and then smiles quietly as the others fill in; she's glad to see that everyone made it safely. There's a gentle nod to Elly as she says, "The garden really was something else, was it not? The food produce was of a higher quality than Filgaia could sustain..."
Except now, oh no, Emeralda's stepped on a tomato...!
She hands her a kerchief, perhaps bigger than a hand-kerchief, because sometimes you need a body-kerchief to wick off excess moisture and pulp from a tomato. The word doesn't work that way? Why?
Noeline says she can't imagine anyone opening so many people at once for any kind of nefarious purpose, and--
The Hyadean bites her lip, perhaps, because she realises she's being more cynical than her partner again. She breathes gently and leans back against her, wringing her hands softly to try to calm her anxiety.
There's a quiet smile as well to Xantia, with a nod as she says, "Ah... it is a good thing we did not have to climb..."
Fei speculates about perhaps Lily being found here... would that make sense? It would make sense. Both Lily and Leon have mysterious ties to the Zeboim... ...
"Yes," Riesenlied answers Lily, as she follows at a much slower pace -- relying on both Strife and Noeline to control her descent down the ramps. "They... they also had circuits on their bodies," she explains, hesitantly.
Leon wonders if anyone ever used them, and... that's honestly also a possibility she hadn't considered. "... if they were all wiped out before they could even make it here ... ... yes, we should definitely inspect what we can before theorising further."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly scratches her neck. A Heal Berry means that there is no injury as such, but it was still, in essence, a sunburn. She blinks at Fei, and then seems to catch up with his train of thought with a little visible effort (you can all but see the little diagrams floating around her line of sight).
"I don't know if that's necessarily going to be the case... the automatic soldiers I mentioned, they did have some visual resemblance, but it was not very close. They resembled the Reaver-type automatons; they had swords, sort of a skeleton appearance... we can collect them on the way out, if we need to."
"We encountered four, around some kind of burnt bed in the infirmary," Elly reports. Her lips purse. "Of course, they may not have been 'the same kind'." She answers Lily a little more abashedly. "We encountered some kind of caretakers who were shining what I suppose was ultraviolet light on the frozen sectors. I suppose it was just my luck; I don't think Riesenlied, Noeline or Emeralda can get sunburned."
Something occurs to Elly, which makes her glance at the medical doctor (albeit simple and/or country) present with them. "... but ultraviolet light can also work as a sterilizing agent, can't it?" As she says this, she moves towards the convenient ramps, looking ahead.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Is this where Lily might have come from, Fei wonders. In silence, Citan glances between her and him, as if considering this very statement.
After all, she did not have a Limiter. And what's more...
"..."
Leon wonders then if anyone even used the pods.
"It is... not something we can determine, right now," Citan says, shaking his head. "What little can be determined about the end of the Zeboim civilization is that when the end came, it came swiftly. Perhaps there had been no time..."
How much dust does a hundred years leave? A thousand? Five thousand? He approaches one of the pods, as if he could determine as much from the layer of dust that coats the inside, that layers even the inside of the glass that would have kept its potential occupant sleeping safely.
"...Frozen?" Emeralda has just said something odd. "Do you mean the machines, Emeralda?" But there's something about the phrasing that Riesenlied uses. Circuits... on their bodies...?
Elly may only amplify this growing suspicion of his.
"We should investigate further. Below, you say?" Citan turns towards one of the consoles. "Lily, are you at all able to access these machines? The power appears to be flowing to them."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has gone quiet again. She does look over when others start to move down towards a structure that might be a terminal, and follows without a word, still looking as if she's thinking really hard about something.
But she's listening. She's snapped out of her thoughts by Fei's theory, directing her gaze to Lily when the possibility of having come from here comes up. That, combined with Riesenlied's remark, about the circuits... could it be?
Wordlessly, she changes her pace and direction to be closer to Lily, giving her a faint smile. "Hey. If this is all a little much, then you shouldn't rush it. Just, you know. Take your time. We're all here."
It's all too obvious that she's hoping for this to answer the questions that Lily still has. She's not just concerned about her own past. She very much wants to see other people who have lost their past recover theirs as well.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Sharon definitely had forewarning. Just by watching Kim.
"Great," Fei murmurs under his breath before he turns to look to Emeralda again. He seems grateful that she's alright and gives her another look over just to be sure.
"Okay," He says, "I'll go wit hyou, Em."
He starts walking along, though it's mostly just to keep her company. He's not sure what they'd be looking for. Maybe he's just jealous MOM got extra time with her.
Well he isn't. But he still wants some Teen Emmy time.
"Below...? There's even more to check out?" He asks.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Fei mentions the possibility that Lily might have woken up here, and that does finally activate Noeline's tact, as she clamps her mouth shut and furrows her brow in thought around that. All she can come up with is a solid 'maybe', given some of the elements they've seen and how they might relate to the Black Wolf. But the thought does at least turn her a little more sedate and polite with an apologetic shrug to Lily's uncertainty.
Leon's suggestion is the other side of the coin, and she has to admit that it's a good point. Could the machinery have failed before it was ever put to use? "... that is rather a sad thought, if that's the case. So much preparation, so much care, and for it all to never get used. Honestly, were it not for the ice, this might be one of the most livable bunkers I've ever seen, and I've seen a remarkable number. Perhaps on the way out we should see if we can salvage the greenhouse and keep it running."
She helps Riesenlied navigate her way down the ramp, making sure to keep one hand on the handlebars and the other in direct contact with her partner. Her own nerves aren't doing all that great herself, if she's honest, and the hope is that a little touch might help ease both their fears, and serve as a reminder that - whatever else might be true here - they are both alright. There is a little relief there, too: whatever mysteries might await them, it feels less daunting than trying to manage a few thousand newly awakened people.
"I can-- but it does take some, ah, very concerted effort," Noeline snickers softly to Elly. "I still feel a little guilty that I didn't think to warn you; my apologies. I suppose I've been a little blaze about environmental hazards after that damned mountain."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
Emeralda finds none of the pods closed. In fact, she finds signs of disuse -- of plastic coverings over the consoles inside, of decals that say "REMOVE BEFORE USE," and dust lining all of them. It is chill, but not cold, and a sterile environment. Like a facility ready for a grand opening that never came. A place meant to protect from the apocalypse, but the apocalypse came too early.
Leon looks at Riesenlied. His eyes blink. "You mean... like Lily's," he says, with a touch more bluntness. "It's... a disarming idea. But whatever happens... well. We are who we are, aren't we?"
He runs his hand through his short beard. He looks at Elly -- and then nods his head, before he starts walking down the ramp. His eyes look down, as he considers the way that Citan asks that question. He seems to have the same thought he has. He can't quite blame him, either. He glances at Fei -- then nods.
"This way," he says. He starts walking, leading the way down ramps that head towards that platform recessed deeper in the ampitheater-like chamber. "Down here."
And then it hits Fei.
FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO
"Doctor Kasim," a middle-aged man says. He stands before a ramp, leading deeper into an ampitheather-like chamber. There are bright lights on, illuminating countless stasis pods. All open, of course; this facility had only finished production recently. The blonde-haired man, wearing a lab coat turns, and smiles. "Down here."
He turns and starts walking. "Doctor Wyatt spoke highly of you. I'm curious what you'll think. Ah, and I should introduce you and your wife to--"
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Frozen?" Lily wonders of Emeralda, and her attention shifts to Riesenlied's hesitant explanation, and Elly's statements to Fei... She opens her mouth and closes it again, quiet. "....Yes," she says. "We should look at them on the way out." 'Like Lily's', Leon had responded, and Lily nods. "We... are who we are," she repeats, distantly.
When Xantia steps closer and smiles at her, Lily looks back at her--unaware of a certain helpful Other's advice to Fei. "...All right," she answers, and that does seem to relax her a little. She looks to Elly again. "Right. On the way out... But in the meantime, all right--if you're sure. But I can probably do something about the pain if it gets too bad."
Ultraviolet light... And Citan has a question--can she access them?
As Lily moves towrds the temrinals she notes Noeline's apology and shakes her head. "...It is pretty livable, isn't it? Aside from the ice, and the..." Guardians?
Maybe they can keep the greenhouse running. That's a nice thought.
"Over here?" she confirms with Leon, thinking she sees something.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied softly flushes as she says, "... I am not certain about sunburning specifically, but I definitely do have troubles staying underneath the strong sun of Ignas." But that probably doesn't apply to ultraviolet rays... does it? Hmm... she doesn't want to stay around to find out.
Citan also suggests investigating below, and Xantia encourages Lily to not rush it. She does feel worried -- Lily's voice feels a bit distant, and she an sense... her hesitation. And as such, there's a quiet nod from Riesenlied as well. "Yes... no matter what we discover -- we will be with you." She nods in turn to Leon's encouragement -- we are who we are, no matter what.
"Just like you all have been, after what we have been through in the Photosphere."
There's a moment that she squeezes her hand to Noeline, looking a bit guilty. She doesn't voice it, and tries to tamp it down, but she's already imagining with ease how a thousand sleeping people can be abused -- something as easy as Solaris indoctrinating them to camps or experiments, or Mother, or...
They stop in front of the platform, recessed deeper in the amplitheatre. "The... timeline is a little unclear, on when the facility failed and froze over, and when the pods were evacuated, if at all... but yes, in its prime, it would have been a worthy place to live and sustain life."
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
"Frozen!" Emeralda confirms. "I thought they were, uh..."
She shoots a look at Elly for a moment. "I thought they were frozen explorers," she admits. "I mean, when we saw them from the doorway. They were covered in ice this thick." She holds her fingers - well, honestly not very far apart, but far enough that it's clear she means more than just a tiny dusting of frost; she remembers it cracking off when they moved. "But then they got up, and you could see purple lines on them, like the circuit. They had glowing swords, and one eye, like - mechanical, in the middle."
Emeralda keeps walking through the pods. There's a lot of them; it will take her a few minutes. She is perfectly happy to walk with Fei, and the looping path they're taking means that they can at least see down into the area Leon and the others have gone into, even if she's a bit above it now.
She reaches in and removes one of the stickers that says REMOVE BEFORE USE in clear Zeboim characters despite the years. It seems right. She proceeds to stick it on her backpack.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"I don't think you could have expected me to get a sunburn underneath a mountain!" Elly says to Noeline, with a smile. Then a passing, soft look towards Fei, which segues with a smidge of worry, the way it often does when he seems to be deep in... thought. (She hates it, but she knows what may lurk behind that.)
"I suspect the people who came in and left the footprints may have been explorers, but I don't know about the original residents," Elly says, even as she makes a small exclamation of surprise at -- protective plastic being peeled away?
"I still don't understand the ice," Elly comments. "We passed some damage cryogenics tubes, or something, but that should have exhausted itself long ago... is the insulation in here that powerful? But the hydroponics were working, and..."
She trails off, in thought.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"That is a thought, Noeline. I am no botanist, but I saw several plants I did not recognize," he says. Nodding, he continues to talk, gesturing with his right hand. "In any event, it may represent the only descendants from Zeboim genelines before the catastrophe. If nothing else, that would be valuable. In fact, I believe it may be more valuable than any ancient technology we might uncover down here. Shevat's researchers may be able to assist us here."
Citan is silent for a long moment when Emeralda explains further.
"Emeralda, were they... humans? Or were they machines?" Purple circuits, Emeralda tells them all. Mechanical eyes. Citan appears to mull over these facts, frowning faintly, before turning towards the sleep chamber he had been close to. The hinges. The joints. He cannot be certain about it, but it doesn't seem as if it had ever been closed. He does not remark on this just yet. Turning back towards the consoles as Lily regards them, he's in time to see Emeralda peel a sticker off of one of the screens. It does... not sway him from his existing hypothesis at present, no.
"As for the ice, Elly... I cannot be certain about the proximate cause, but it is possible that the temperature control system has been damaged and is either 'overcompensating' or is experiencing some sort of error. With the site still largely sealed, it is possible that the generator was not affected by this increased demand upon its resources and, indeed, the insulation prevented any rise in temperature." Citan shakes his head. "...Whatever is providing power to this site must be fearful indeed..."
He turns away from the bed he had been investigating and moves to follow after Leon.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
F...Five Thousand Years Ago? That's like... 10 Day of Collapses ago!
Regardless...
He smiles back at the middle aged man and says, "Highly of me, huh... I wonder what I did. Sharon's esteem isn't easy to get." He starts to say 'Lead the Way' when...
Fei snaps out of it. He is instantly annoyed. The vision was JUST getting to the good stuff! Something that might ACTUALLY be helpful! Is Id just being a DICK to him this time or is he actually starting to get some of the memories on his own without his input? He can't be sure. He can't exactly keep his thoughts to himself, but he doesn't push the matter so any other Feis inside his head leave it be.
Fei straightens up, looking to Leon for a long moment, quirking his head as if trying to ... get a feel for something, but he doesn't comment to Leon. It'd just be speculation, he thinks.
Even if ...
Fei heads down the wheelchair accessable ramp before adding, "It...actually makes sense for there to be a ramp here for reasons beyond just good engineering. Sharon was wheelchair bound herself for a time."
He brings his hands behind his back and adds, "Emerlada... I should tell you though..."
He focuses on Emeralda.
"Emeralda. Kim Kasim. I. He. He was here."
"He knew about this place."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
As one might imagine, it's easy for Xantia to put herself in Lily's shoes. If this had been her, and all these various what-ifs regarding her past came at her all at once, she'd be feeling a touch overwhelmed, to put it mildly. She'd be more overt about it, but this is how Lily is. Just because you can't see something as much doesn't mean it's there any less.
After what she said, she's obviously not going to stray far from Lily, in case more support is needed. That's her only concern right now.
...Well, almost her only concern. There was the matter of what she was thinking about before. The problem when she feel like something's familiar is that often she can't be sure if she actually knows it or not. Dejá vu is a thing she's read about, it could just be that. Either that, or she's just missing the relevant pieces of the puzzle.
When Citan approaches, she quickly decides that he'd be the best person to ask about what's on her mind.
"...Hey, doc. Does anybody else have this technology? Like Solaris? Shevat? And if so... do their pods look like these at all?"
She doesn't outright say that she's asking this because something about them feels familiar, but that's probably easy enough to guess. Asking about this is a bit of a shot in the dark, but sometimes, wild guesses are all you have. You never know when knowing certain things might turn out to relevant.
Then she looks to Fei as he speaks up, and her brain short-circuits a little. No way that could be the reason why something about this seems familiar. Could it...? Gah, why does she need to doubt absolutely everything?
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"If you'd like," is Noeline's first opener, glancing towards Lily with a sympathetic sigh. "We could also try to shut some parts of it down for good. I would hardly blame you for being tempted on that front. It would just be a terrible shame to lose all of it."
She offers that sympathetic smile to Riesenlied, as well, paired with a squeeze of her hand. She can feel the worry and concern rolling off of the other Hyadean in waves, but meets it with a light nod of reassurance. Something in her gut tells her - well, hopes - from all the other sign here that that didn't happen. And even if it did, all they can do is accept that it must have been so long ago, it would have been entirely beyond them. It is comfort, of a sort, even if it's rather cold.
"I don't know that the footprints were explorers," she counters Elly's suggestion. "Or, if they were, they were explorers who were very prepared for what they'd find. The sheer amount of flame that would be needed to cut through so much ice and then scorch the place on top - indelibly - suggests to me that they at least knew to some extent what they were in for. But, of course, like so much else here... we have no way of knowing when. Which rather throws everything off," she grumbles.
She had to admit that geneology is not exactly her strong point, but as a historian she can at least understand Citan's point of view. Sometimes, she has a much more practical side that rears its head, and she can feel it itching at the back of her brain. A cryogenics system, running even now - stronger than it ever should have, to boot. "Let's extract one of the machines and put it in Wayside," she hears herself say. "Val will love it. Cold moonshine and snacks for everyone."
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Mm. Ahead," Leon says. He motions at the platform. There are several consoles on it, around the crystalline structure.
"It would have. In its current state... it needs quite a bit of work. But some day, maybe," Leon says. "At the very least, we could grow food here." Had there been people, the question of how to feed them might not be a question at all.
He looks at Elly, then shakes his head. "A damaged system, perhaps? I wish I knew. You may be onto something, Doctor Uzuki. Terrifying to think this place still seems to work."
He glances sideways at Noeline. "Careful," he says. "We might have a hell of a time getting it out of here."
Leon slows his walk and glances over his shoulder at Fei. It's a little awkward, standing here, where he does. Fei is higher up than him. "You're... having a memory of this place, Fei?"
After all, Fei has had memories of Sharon Wyatt. It isn't such a great shock.
Leon looks back ahead. His eyebrows furrow again -- and he keeps walking, until they come to the platform. Lily leads the way -- and Leon steps up behind her, as ever. There is a flash from the crystalline structure.
A holographic screen appears. A flickering black screen, but with bright red text at the center of it.
CRITICAL FAULT IN ENVIRONMENTAL SYSTEMS...
AUTOMATED REPAIR SYSTEMS FAILED...
UNKNOWN INTRUDER PRESENT...
Leon frowns. "Well... let's see what we can find, hm?" he says. "It seems the system is aware is a problem. I wonder what else it can tell us."
FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO
The memory resumes -- though it seems to be a few moments later. Kim and the other man stand on the same platform, now.
"Wec Stann offers us a unique opportunity," the man in the lab coat says. He has blonde hair and blue eyes; bags under his eyes and glasses, which make him look older than he is. "To preserve humanity. It's different than your research... but I think it compliments it."
He looks ahead. "...But I think it's more cynical, too," he says. "You plan for the future. I plan for the future to end -- for civilization's fall. This will keep humanity alive..."
He frowns. "But at what cost? After we've lost everything?--after--"
He is interrupted by footsteps. The scientist turns towards their source.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Citan asks a question. Emeralda has to think about it. "I thought they were humans when they were frozen," she says, "but when they started to move I don't know. Maybe they were cyborgs? The heads were mechanical though!" One central eye belongs to no human at all, so unless they'd found a cyclops...
How does Emeralda know the word 'cyborg' anyway? Maybe it was in one of the books she read.
She finally comes to the end of a row and circles back. Or she did, until Fei tells her - "Kim knew it...? Kim..." Emeralda abandons her search of the other pods - they are all empty, she can see that the rest are all open from here even if she didn't look inside every one.
She comes over to Fei, who she proceeds to grab the hand of and tug toward Elly and, by extension, the console where the others are. Not that he wasn't going that way, anyway, and she lets go of his hand after a while, though she remains at his side.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied watches Emeralda play with the sticker for a moment, which helps break out of her more negative reverie. There's another breath, and she smiles at Elly as she says, "I do remember when you gave us some sunscreen. It really helped, I do believe."
Elly suspects that the people who came and left were explorers... that makes sense. But the ice? Is the insulation that powerful? But the hydroponics were working...
"... I suppose if this was a bunker created to prevent a calamity, it would need some exceptional insulation, but... to the degree that we see is..." Riesenlied muses. Citan brings a rather valid points -- just what is powering this place? It must be a truly powerful reactor, indeed, to be able to still be going even today.
She notices Fei looking a little out of it, but he snaps out of it before long and speaks something that -- well, in truth, perhaps is not as surprising as it would be months ago; the name 'Kasim' has seen fit to be in various ancient places of the Zeboim, after all.
Kim Kasim...
"Sharon..." Riesenlied whispers, remembering the time she, uh, forgot Lily's name and remembered Sharon's. Noeline suggests bringing one of the machines to put in Wayside. "... I do admit, if we can glean information from these, it would benefit our Outreach work quite significantly."
She stops to think of it better, as Noeline's own thoughts mesh in with hers; if it were Solaris, there would've been a heck of a lot of gunfire and blood. That's just their MO. The fact that there isn't...
She has to be positive.
A holographic screen appears.
"Ah-- um," Riesenlied blinks at the text. "... do you think... the critical fault is us beating up that automaton in the hydroponics chamber and... the unknown intruders... are us?"
... that would seem to be the Occam's Razor of it, after all, rather than a Mysterious Person X hiding somewhere in here. There isn't, right...?
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
"Cyborgs," Lily repeats Emeralda. "You thought they were human..." Hm.
Lily leads ahead. She looks about the platform, and turns for a moment to look at the others. "...That's true. Something that grows food shouldn't be underestimated on Filgaia..." How valuable could that be? Nevertheless she is distant, and it's hard to think in detail of it. She is not so sure about tking a cryopod.
"...Looks like there's some kind of error," she provides for Citan as she looks over the screen.
"...Letting Shevat into this place.."
Maybe it's for the best. But they've all said they're there--Riesenlied gets a look, and she remembers the Photosphere. The timeline...
"That's a good point," she says to Fei of the wheelchair. "But let's see..."
Lily tries to interact with the system, touching the black screen and looking to the structure. "Fei--do you have anything? If he knew about this place..."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Dr. Uzuki has no answers about the cold either. Well, Elly thinks, with a certain passing stomach-churn of neurosis, if it is some kind of disease, it's completely frozen in most of the place... and the plants seemed fine.
Then Fei mentions "Sharon?" Elly asks, though it is not a question of 'who do you mean,' somehow. She puts her hands in the coat pockets, huddling a little. Her face tenses up, even as they keep moving.
She doesn't speak up for a while.
Her eyes gaze on the screen, and she answers Riesenlied, "That's... possible... I suppose that would be the easy explanation. We did damage a lot of those machines coming in, and those might have been the 'repair system'..."
Elly doesn't sound very convinced.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
Emeralda had thought they were frozen people. But.
"...I see," Citan says, frowning as he appears to think this one over. "Perhaps... Will you be able to show me one of them, once we leave this place?" Show him their remains, he means, certain of their fate. But there is much that can be gleaned from a body.
"I suppose it could be that they may have entered before the malfunction we faced," he says, sharing the thought he'd had at the start with Noeline. "But there are still signs that someone had forced their way through the ice. The questions are who, and what they were able to learn... But agree. They were no mere explorers. We would look outside the Drifter community for our 'culprit'." Still, extract one of those machines? "If we are able," he allows. It may not be such a bad thing for them to repurpose the equipment where they can, safely.
"Sharon...?" Citan has time to wonder, before Xantia approaches him with a very important question. Does anyone else have this technology?
"For... suspended animation, do you mean? Or are you referring to the pods themselves?" he asks after a moment's hesitation. "There has been research into suspended animation among both, I believe, though it has not been realized. But..."
He had gained some insight about Xantia, recently.
"...there are also medical stasis pods, used for the treatment of severe injuries and other ailments." He pauses. "Have you... recalled something, Xantia?"
As he glances towards Fei, perhaps she's not the only one having an apparent recollection of things past. "..."
"It is only a hypothesis for now, Leon. Until we learn more, we cannot be certain. Still... while it seems that no one may have occupied these beds, how is it that this facility had come online? Had there been some sort of failsafe activated?" It's not likely to be an easily answered question.
"Some sort of error? I see," he answers Lily. To Riesenlied, as she comments similarly, he says, "...That may be so. But if it is not, then without question we have a problem awaiting us."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Sharon Wyatt. There was someone he wanted to introduce to us." Fei says, hoping that the answer here isn't Gryndille because that will make him feel very sad.
He is grateful for Emeralda's hand. Emeralda can feel his heart pumping through that hand. Whenever Fei gets visions, he gets on edge because when he gets visions, it very very rarely ends happily. He lets his--Kim's daughter take her along though in truth, Fei himself has long since grown to see Emeralda as family too.
Even before they met.
Ever since that music box...
Fei looks to Leon and nods to him. "Yeah...It was pretty brief but. Yeah. Someone we were supposed to meet?"
He walks forward but then...
The memory hits him again and he stumbles, only avoiding a fall thanks to holding onto Emeralda's hand. But she does let go after a while and he remains stable after.
Five thousand Years Ago
Kim recalls his own sleepless nights and self consciously rubs at his eyes. "I... I never had much a strong attachment to humanity as we call it,"
He is quiet for a moment before adding, "But life is worth preserving. Even if you can't see it, even if you lose everything... ... ... ... It's a gift. This was always about a gift. I just hope she grows up to be brave and strong...and kinder than anyone. And most importantly--is happy."
He again has more to say that he never gets to. Footsteps are approaching. He turns to look, tensing.
NOW
"..." Fei says. "It's ... happened again. They mentioned a cost...? That this was a plan for the future to end." Fei says. "I don't understand."
He looks to Emeralda. "He wanted you to be happy. To be kind and brave. I think ... he'd be happy seeing you right now."
He rubs at his forehead but elects to steady himself in case he gets hit with another one. Those footsteps...
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"Again, provided we can deal with the security systems attempting to kill us repeatedly every time we come to make a harvest," Noeline grumbles a second time, this time towards Leon. Perhaps they've already taken care of that issue, but part of the Hyadean wonders if they might have significantly damaged some critical system in the process, and fervently hopes that isn't the case.
Noeline watches the words on the screen as well, picking out what she can. Some of the text still eludes her, but she's definitely made some headway on Zeboim on the whole. For reasons mostly related to prior digging, the sentence 'Unknown Intruders Present' is definitely one she's familiar with, not to mention 'Repair System' and 'Failed'. It isn't exactly a surprise.
"I would think so," she nods to Riesenlied, offering her another grin to help her flagging spirit. "The seals were intact, after all, and if this much ice and cold were seeping out anywhere else nearby it's likely there'd be evidence of it. Perhaps our mystery intruder could be hiding somewhere, but I'm much more inclined to believe that it's us. ... let us take some vegetables, at least. We can pack them with a little ice to help them keep."
She watches Lily and Fei work in their varying ways - Lily by scanning across the console, Fei by scanning across his memory. Uncertain of how much focus it might take them, she glances over at the doctor instead, furrowing her brow. "I am not sure. Some of the footprints we saw - they had started to freeze back over, so it isn't as if I can say this with certainty, but they did at least appear to be on top of the ice."
She shrugs with a lopsided smile. "Still, it hardly helps us. We could say it was Solaris, but it certainly doesn't look like their sort of work. Shevat? I can't imagine either group coming to the surface in enough numbers for an expedition like this, and things are not blown up enough," she adds glumly, picking up on Riesenlied's thought along the same lines.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Listening to Emmy relate the details of the mechanical enemies that were encountered by the other party, Xantia muses, "Hmmm... different than what we fought. That was more like a big animal with guns all over it." A bit of variety going on with the sentries, it seems. She's not sure whether that means anything.
She looks as if she's about to speak up again when Shevat is mentioned, seeming a little alarmed about the prospect of letting them in here. Glancing at Lily, it feels as if she's not alone in that. But she decides to stay quiet on it, in the end. It's not her decision to make, anyway.
Regarding the question she asks Citan, she remains quiet when asked to clarify what exactly she's asking about. She doesn't know, that's plain to see. She's not even entirely sure why she's asking the question. But when Citan mentions the existence of medical stasis pods, her eyes widen briefly, then her brows furrow. Another possibility. Could that be it?
"Not... recalled, exactly," she responds, not able to fully explain this herself. "There's just... something familiar. As if I've seen something that looks like these before. But I'm not sure if it's the same thing. If a medical stasis pod kind of looks like these, then maybe..."
She trails off there. Even if it is that, that still wouldn't really tell her where she's seen it. There should be limited possibilities, but it feels like there's way too many at this point. ...Including having somehow seen this facility before, as unlikely as that is she can't eliminate it as a possibility with complete certainty at this point.
As uncomfortable as Fei looks right now, she can't help but envy him a little. He's remembering concrete things. All she's got is wild guesses, and the hope something more will come to her as a result of voicing them. ...But no. She should be happy for the people who are remembering things. One day, it will be her turn.
"...Well, at least part of the memories are happy, right Fei?" she points out after hearing Kim's wishes for Emeralda. Focus on the positive. Just... focus on the positive, like you always do. She has to tell herself this a bit more forcefully than usual.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"It must have been shielding against some frightful force," Leon admits, quietly, in the wake of Riesenlied's speculation. Then, he nods. "We can see what we can do with this."
He wrinkles his nose, and doesn't answer their speculation, at first. Then, he ventures, but hesitantly: "...I would venture the way the place was frozen... there was already a critical fault here."
He shakes his head again.
"I can't imagine, Doctor Uzuki," Leon says. "Has it always been this way? Or..." Or did something recent cause this facility to come online? He doesn't ask aloud.
"We can get them on the way out," Leon says to Noeline. He cracks a smile, and then looks back at the console. He approaches, as they discuss Shevat and Solaris. "If it seems important... remember it, Xantia. Better we not pretend something isn't the case."
FIVE THOUSAND YEARS AGO
"It is," the scientist says. "Life must be preserved. At any cost. And preservation means protection. It's a great burden, that we place on the next generation."
A door slides open at the far end of the wall. It opens automatically; the facility may be online, but this hasn't registered. The scientist looks at Kim Kasim -- and perhaps he sees the confusion on Kim's face.
"Ah, you see, I made it so this facility responds to my immediate family's biometrics," the scientist says. His name comes to Kim's mind -- and to Fei's -- in an instand.
Dr. Barton Klaeber.
"This is my son," he says. "Tell Doctor Kasim hello."
The boy looks up -- a head of blonde hair, wearing a button-up shirt, shorts, and a tie. He looks like he couldn't be a day older than four. And he looks at Kim Kasim with silver eyes. Silver eyes that, somehow, are familiar.
"...Hello."
NOW
Leon looks back at Fei, as he speaks. "A cost?" he asks. And his eyes meet Fei's. Silver eyes. It isn't so rare for the Contact to find eyes familiar; eyes have a way of looking like ancestors. Eyes have a way of showing their lineage, in the thousands of microexpressions that communicate the emotional genealogy of a family.
But this is different. It is not a similar pair of silver eyes -- it is the same pair, older and larger, with more lines around them. But the same.
Leon looks away. He steps forward, to the console, and presses it.
The room comes alive -- with huge overhead lights shining down. The thousands of pods are illuminated; they all hum, lines of blue and green light across them. Multiple holographic screens flash into view; diagnostics and readouts, sensor displays, command prompts, and more across all of them. Five millennia of stored queues and questions, asked all at once.
"What happened--" Leon starts to ask, stepping backward. His hand leaving the console does nothing about the screens. They linger for a few seconds.
Then, they wink out. They are replaced by a holograph that rises from the crystalline object -- a powerful holograph emitter, it seems -- that flickers, and takes the form of a man in a labcoat. He has tired eyes; his expression is ragged, his blonde hair is unkempt. He is an enigma to all here -- all except Fei Fong Wong.
"My name is Doctor Barton Klaeber," he says in the Zeboim language. "And if you have found this, then my precautions... are successful. Welcome, my son."
He smiles. "I created this to preserve humanity. Heorot, the Great Hall, and its satellite installations. These exist to marshal strength after the fall. Automated systems, to make the armies and weapons, the food and sustenance, the knowledge and living space... so that we can reclaim Filgaia. I could not come with you, my boy."
He shakes his head. "And I could not give you the world I grew up in. It is necessary, in these times, to be sure the world stay safe... to make the hard choices. These weapons are yours to command. They will respond to you."
He throws his arms out -- motioning to the pods. "And you will have a people to lead. To reclaim our Filgaia. Look upon them!"
The pods stretch out -- thousands and thousands of them. Each open; each with five millennia of dust; each with safety stickers and plastic wrapping attached; each never occupied.
"Know they are yours. Lead them well. And claim your destiny."
The holographic flickers -- the man freezes in place, smiling and with a manic look in his eyes, and his arms outstretched. Then, he vanishes.
Leon stares up at the empty space. He stays utterly silent.
DC: Leon Albus switches forms to The Forgotten King!
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
"Sure!" Emeralda doesn't mind pointing Citan at them. Maybe he can make more sense than she can. She knows they weren't normal people, but the difference between 'cyborg' and 'robot'... well, it's kind of a sliding scale, and touches on some things she's still been thinking about.
Is she human? Or is she...
She leaves it alone for now. That wasn't the question at all. She can worry about it another time... or she would, if it wasn't for the revelations of Kim.
"..."
Emeralda got a little withdrawn several times before she stopped being quite a child, and what Fei says does it again. Not entirely, but she doesn't seem to know what to say. She stands uncomfortably for a few moments. She remembers, too.
"He said, this child holds our futures and possibilities..." Emeralda smiles. "I'm glad, but... now I want to know about this place more!" That this was a plan for the 'future to end', that they expected everything they knew to go away - it's like it was in New Kasim City. Nobody remembers them anymore.
Nobody remembers.
Nobody...
Except, apparently, that console, as it activates. "I didn't do it," Emeralda says, immediately, which is this time 100% true; she wasn't even near it and she was not doing what she sometimes does with ancient machines she is only sort of clued in as to how they operate (fiddle with them until something happens).
Her eyes widen as she looks at the man. She doesn't know him. She doesn't - but Kim must have, and she wants to remember the face and the name and the voice. It's useless reaching into the past but she can't stop herself from doing it.
"...he wanted to attack? After the - the end of Zeboim?" Emeralda is as confused as anything else. "But..." He didn't. There are no soldiers, or weapons, or anything in the pods at all. Nothing went in in the first place.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied looks towards Lily for a moment longer, as she muses over whether they should let Shevat into the place. Perhaps it is for the best, but... she senses her reticience. Still... they're trying to work together past a sordid past to a brighter future together...
Elly and Citan say it's both possible that they're the intruders, but if not... well...
"... it would be troublesome, to be thrown into another battle right now," Riesenlied does admit. That's perhaps why she wants the simplest and most likely explanation to be true.
"Medical stasis pods..." Riesenlied's tone curves downwards for a moment, perhaps thinking of a not-so-distant future if her condition were to further deteriorate. ... would she need something like this? If she were to pass out again, would it be her turn...?
How lonely an existence that would be.
She bites her lip at Noeline, looking up towards her. "... imagine the joy Janey and Mikaia will have, when we show them that enormous cob of corn," she smiles quietly, squeezing her hand.
She pauses, as Leon approaches the console and presses it and... the room comes alive. The thousands of pods come to life; holographic screens pass by them. Diagnostics, readouts, in a dizzying array...
And... a mysterious man introduces himself. Doctor Barton Klaeber... and... he also speaks of -- a son. And what comes next is--
... in a way... bitterly, disappointingly, familiar. That the first thing out of his mouth is to marshal strength -- to make armies and weapons, before even food and sustance and...
"Thousands of people here... preserved through the ages... all for the sake of... being subjects..." Riesenlied finds her anger seeping through her voice. "We wondered once with Yulie why it is only the grief and hurt that always comes from the age of Zeboim..."
Her face is gloomy as she casts her glare down at the hologram.
"It is because of people like you. Was it worth it, you lingering apparition...? This empty throne of yours... this hollow kingdom of ice and loneliness..."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Sharon. Lily knows the name well, of course. It's 'her' name. The name that Gryndille recognized, upon spotting her. But the repair system, this place--none of it sparks memory. This could be where she's from, and none of it is familiar.
It's frustrating.
Later, later--after they finish here. She can see those things. As Fei has visions. How did the system come online? When did it--
"I don't know," Lily mutters, staring at the screen as it fails to give her answers. But Xantia is asking something, and she's not sure, but... "Right. Remember it--"
It's just as well that Noeline asks Citan instead of Lily; Lily proves busy, mostly focused on the display until--
The room comes alive, then, as Leon presses the key. Fei mentioned a cost, but Lily doesn't understand it.
The name. Doctor Barton Klaeber... Lily speaks the language, and she understands what he says.
She translates it, distantly, for those who don't speak it, without even thinking. But when she finishes, she looks at Leon, opens her mouth, and closes it.
Heorot, the Great Hall. Its satellite installations. All the weapons she built. To reclaim Filgaia... She has a reason. She has a reason, for the things--
But where is--
"Leon...?" Lily asks, in a very quiet voice.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
Noeline catches that thought of Riesenlied's harder than any other. You can hear her suck in a breath - but she's quick to hold herself steady, and tightens her grip on Riesenlied's hand as much as she dares without hurting the other Hyadean. "That's enough of that," she chides gently, an unspoken promise that she won't let it come to that. The Riesenlied she knows... would always want to be surrounded by family and friends, even if it were not the 'right' choice by any scientific metric.
She relaxes her gaze instead, and offers an olive branch with a warm smile. "I'll make sure she doesn't start swinging it around like a club. There's playing with your food and outright murdering with it."
The sudden whirr of machinery powering up instantly sets Noeline on edge; she takes two quick steps back, then her hands are gripping the handlebars of Riesenlied's wheelchair tightly, ready to move in an instant should the facility decide to start coming down around them. "This is _far_ from a malfunction, if you ask me--" she manages to get out before the cacophony suddenly stops dead, as all the screens wink out at once.
Her lips are thin as the hologram speaks; she takes in every word, heeding Leon's advice to remember everything in the way only a spy - well, ex-spy - can. Ever so slowly, because suddenly everything feels once again like that soap bubble ready to burst, she turns her head to look towards the man. "Not to attack," she answers Emeralda. "Just-- to _have_. Not that that makes a great deal of difference," she agrees as roughly as she dares.
And it hardly seems to matter either way. The hologram spreads its arms to a melancholy sight. Were it not for the deafening, yawning silence afterwards, were it not for the connection to Leon, she could find a dark sort of humour in it. So much planning, so much self-assuredness, all leading to a man captured for eternity in the process of shoving his foot squarely into his mouth.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"I hope that it is not so," he says to Riesenlied. "But we must take caution." If there is someone in here awaiting them...
"Thank you, Emeralda." He has some tools that will help with that. He is always prepared.
"No, I cannot say for certain," Citan says, when Noeline wonders who might have come into here before them, "but I do not think that Solaris or Shevat know of this place. It may be another." Odessa? But there would be more sign of their presence yet, Citan speculates.
He makes a suggestion to Xantia, regarding what it is that the pods may have reminded her of. But in truth, it was not merely a shot in the dark, where he's concerned. He watches her, watches her when she says there's just something familiar about them. "Perhaps... you have encountered something similar before," he says.
He thinks he may have a good idea of what, if not where.
Has it always been this way? Has it been waiting, here, for someone else to discover what lies within? Or...
Citan can only shake his head. "Perhaps we may find answers within. Or, it is possible it may be lost to history. Not all mysteries have solutions, anymore." Time devours all things.
But Leon turns towards the console.
And activates it. Or, it may be more appropriate to say, responds to Leon.
'Welcome, my son.' So speaks the hologram.
Citan doesn't make a sound, watching, listening; he may as well be a statue, so stilled is he. Satellite installations? ...Armies?
Reclaiming Filgaia.
By force.
"So..." he says at last, once the recording is completed. His gaze has already tracked to settle upon Leon.
"His plan for salvation was 'conquest'. ...So even then, people were thinking such things..."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly squints into the sudden brightness of the light. She tenses, but relaxes, gradually, as it becomes clear that this is not a prelude to destruction. Looking round, she sucks in a breath at the visible scope of the installation.
And then the hologram speaks.
Elly blinks several times, her limited knowledge of some picked-up key words and relevant phrases insufficient-- but there's more to it, and Lily and Emeralda are artiuclating what the man is saying as well. She takes a deep breath and lets it out.
It's enormous. It's vast. And Elly is realizing--
"They never arrived. Did they? These pods were... I don't think they were ever used. There wasn't anyone here, or hardly anyone, but..."
...
She feels dizzy, but Elly does turn a little... towards Riesenlied. "I understand... but... if I understood that right... without that, we wouldn't have Leon. Without Leon, then... I don't know if any of us would be here now. We certainly wouldn't all be here together."
She takes in a deep breath and lets it out, in a cloud of vapor from the chill of the room. Her eyes close.
"... maybe I can't shake the blinders on my own eyes. And... that was a picture from so long ago... such a long-distant past. Long enough ago, that perhaps even how people carry themselves has changed."
"But... maybe he was a man who could only see things in terms of wars and campaigns, battles to be provisioned and won, even if he could tell that they would need... plants, and people, and --" Elly takes in a deep breath and lets it out.
"Maybe this place was to be a base," she says. "And maybe it would be military in its character. But... that ballroom. A place that was meant only for war... they wouldn't hang pictures in a room like that, I don't think."
"I suppose it's a moot point," Elly says, gazing out on the empty tubes.
She is silent then for seven seconds exactly, before turning around, blinking several times, and looking with concern towards Leon.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei isn't TRYING to scan his memory. He doesn't get a choice in the matter. It's just happening. He just isn't trying to resist it, is preparing himself for the inevitable followup. Is Id trying to insist, or are the familiar surroundings plucking it from him regardless of his intent. Maybe... the collective that is he just thinks it's time.
He laughs a bit at Xantia's words. "Well," He says. "If preparing for the end of the world is happy... I guess this is as happy as it can be. I'm sorry Xantia. Maybe--"
YEP IT HAPPENS AGAIN
Kim Kasim is silent on the matter of protection. The tension doesn't leave his shoulders. Seeing a child shouldn't create such tension and indeed its character has changed, but...
Kim looks at the boy. He crouches down and offers the boy his hand so he can shake it properly. It's important, Elly had told him, to engage with children on their own level. "It's very nice to meet you." Kim says, with a smile. Even he isn't misanthropic enough to be rude or cruel to a four year old child.
Kim straightens up and looks to Barton.
"...You know, Barton..." Kim smiles. "You could've just said you wanted to save your son."
NOW
Fei thinks that's what the memories wanted to show him. He straightens up.
Wake Up 50
He looks up for a long moment at the ceiling without saying anything. For a moment, he feels more like Kim than Fei as he places a hand on Emeralda's shoulder. Just for an instant.
Fei doesn't speak for a while because the room comes alive and Leon's father speaks to him. Barton speaks terrifying words outside of context, but in context...
...WEll they're still pretty terrifying. But he knows why Barton did it.
"Leon," Fei says. "The time I punched you in the face..."
He looks at Leon. "That wasn't the first time I met you. You were... a child back then. But your father. He was a little shy to admit it I guess but.."
"He risked the project, everything--he made sure you survived the end of the world. Instead of himself, he decided to save you."
He is quiet for a moment before adding, "And ... I guess he wanted you to rule too." He rubs at his neck. "Well, I'm pretty sure that was just out of a desire to keep you safe. I'm guessing the world ended before he could fill all these pods up. It took us by surprise. It came too quickly. Someone spilled our plans."
He doesn't say Yue's name. But he thinks it.
"He knew Sharon too." Fei continues. "And he introduced you to me. He couldn't have known we'd meet again..."
He looks to Citan and says, "I... don't think it was as simple as conquest. He wanted him to be safe. And, well, we had some kind of idea of the hell that would follow. But we all knew it'd probably be worse than even our worst imagininings."
"He wanted the best life. And, well, he had a higher opinion of the Zeboim Federation than I did, I think. He just ... wanted to save the future."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
"If it seems important, remember it." Story of Xantia's life. She'd be making a whole lot more noise if she always vocalized exactly how frustrated she feels at any given time. It's a bit sad how used she is to that feeling at this point. She can only shrug vaguely in response to Citan, once again uncertain about something that may relate to her past.
But, there's hope. There's hope in everything. Yes Fei, even if it's about the end of the world, there's hope somewhere in there too. You just have to hold onto that, for however long it takes, and everything will surely turn out for the best.
She doesn't actually say any of these things, too busy to convince herself of them. She doesn't speak again until a holographic image springs to life, saying... something. Xantia doesn't know Zeboim. In writing, she can make out a few words here and there - she has no trouble remembering words that were translated in her presence. But spoken language is another matter entirely, she can't make heads or tails of what the holographic man is talking about.
Lily is thankfully on-hand to translate, if seeming a bit absent in doing so, prompting Xantia to look on with concern. She's been concerned the entire time for this having an effect on Lily, so she's prepared for some kind of reaction to all of this.
...She hasn't the foggiest what this could have to do with Lily, though. For one thing, this Doctor Klaeber speaks of a son. With the comments that the others add, she can at least piece together, "...So, what, this whole place was for an army? So then, it was good nobody was here. Right?"
Still trying her very best to find some sort of positive note here, but she's grasping at straws. She's missing something here, she knows that much. She doesn't figure out what that is until Fei clarifies it for everybody.
"Wait wait wait... that was Leon's father?"
Seems like all along she was focused on the wrong person. Now she turns to Leon, concern self-evident as she hastily urges, "H-hey, if this is all a little much, then... then don't rush trying to process all this. Take your time, and... and we're all here. You know?"
She doesn't realize it, but that's pretty much exactly what she told Lily before. There isn't much else she can think of to say. She just has a very bad feeling about what a bombshell like this might do to somebody. She knows quite well that too many memories flooding back at once can be... overwhelming.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
'He wanted to attack?'
'This empty throne of yours...'
'Just-- to have.'
'...So even then, people were thinking such things...'
'There wasn't anyone here, or hardly anyone, but...'
'That wasn't the first time I met you.'
'Wait wait wait... that was Leon's father?'
'Leon...?'
Leon stays quiet for a very long moment. He stares at where the image was, but it's only a few crackles of green light that remain now. Even those fade.
"I don't remember any of this," Leon finally says. His voice is quiet -- he sounds exhausted. Emptied, perhaps. "I've wondered, at times. There were a few times that... some ARMs would respond to me. But I thought nothing of it. And..."
He trails off, falling quiet. "...Often, I denied it. When I went to Shevat, to remove my limiter... they said I didn't have one." Leon shakes his head once. "I wondered, at times, if I would find an answer here."
He shakes his head. "Maybe I did..." Take time to process it, Xantia says. "...But I find I have more questions. A mission that can't be completed--whether it was rooted in a desire to conquer or a desire to protect. Maybe desperate people don't know the difference."
He laughs, roughly and humorlessly. "I don't know. We know more. But what do I even do with this?"
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Riesenlied's eyes widen when Noeline tells her that's enough -- and she settles down, both from her dark thoughts of being lost in medical stasis and the roiling, dark anger of being faced against the apparition of a man who designed this all to claim conquest to a far future...
The scars of his legacy are clear to see, since the day she approached Lily and Leon regarding Gryndille. Everything they've pursued since that day...
She bites her lip, as Emeralda asks if he wanted to attack -- after the end of Zeboim... her eyes flit to Lily, as she asks Leon very very quietly.
Her rueful look is back on Noeline as she feels that squeeze of their hands tightening. There's a momentary look that asks if the world is cursed to ever repeat this, but she doesn't voice it. No, it's their responsibility to ensure this doesn't keep happening...
Citan says, 'even then', people were thinking of such things. "... ultimately, the ones that are hurt are those who live here, in the present," she murmurs. She thinks of Yulie again. She thinks of her people and their long grudge, she thinks of the Veruni -- and by extension, Kaguya -- and how they've all been intertwined in the tangles of the past.
It's Elly who has the soothing words, pointing out importantly -- if Leon weren't here... they would've never come together too. She wouldn't have met Lily, and Elly, and Fei, and...
...
Like Elly, Riesenlied takes a deep breath as well, grimacing as she draws herself deeper into her capelet. Elly points out the ballroom, again. She remembers her words just a scarce half an hour ago.
And Fei... Fei talks about how he -- 'he' -- has met Leon before, back then. As Kim Kasim, assumedly. About how he wanted to save his son... Fei offers a different view -- that he wanted his son to be safe... hence the weapons. From the hell that was to follow. He just wanted to save the future...
The Hyadean tries to push past how much she doesn't believe that, knowing how it isn't the place. The anxious tangles that tell her how fake her optimism is, evidenced in these moods, she tries to push past too.
Leon is quiet, and Riesenlied feels bad for pushing her reaction so much against, effectively, a figment. But then he speaks -- not remembering any of this, wondering at times...
What do I even do with this?
"... we are who we are," Riesenlied is quick to speak up gently, rallying herself. "Regardless of where we come from, what we have done... it is as Elly said -- we would not be here together... if we were not who we are."
A quiet pause. "... but it is as Xantia says as well ... please, take your time. It is a lot to absorb, all at once."
She quietly turns, to better face the pods around them. So much of it reminds her of the Photosphere, somehow... grand, glorious promises that all ended up so little but dust in the wind. Perhaps that's why Barton incited her so much. Perhaps he reminded her, in a way, of themselves. So, so taken in by words...
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Fathers can be very old. That part doesn't especially shock Emeralda.
But all her experience is with Kim, who she remembers - not everything about him, certainly, given that's part of what she's looking for. But she remembers the man. Leon apparently doesn't. She is unsure exactly what to say or do. Part of her thinks it is a good thing that he found out and another part of her, well...
Emeralda is not sure she likes this Barton as much as Kim. Well, no. She's sure she doesn't, because he's not Kim (she may be biased). But she's not sure she likes Barton at all. Kim never made machines of war, she's sure. Kim never did anything like this.
There are a lot of things Emeralda does not remember, or know, about Kim Kasim.
"But," she says, and then cuts herself off. She listens, instead.
And, a few moments later, she steps forward. Her body language is not so energetic as it often is; she is not rushing ahead. It's not quite shyness or embarrassment but it is deliberate.
"Leon," Emeralda says. "I got told this, too. The memories you make NOW are important. The things you do NOW are important. He did this and maybe you want to know. I know! I want to know more about Kim, too. I don't remember everything and neither do you."
"But..." And this time she trails off rather than cutting herself off so sharply. "You can find out. And then you can do something. Or not, if you don't want to, because you didn't decide, he did. But maybe please don't try to take over the world with Zeboim soldiers, I don't think that part's a good idea any more."
"...but, um... yeah." She gets it.
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"That potential list of other organizations is quite a small one," Noeline offers back to Citan, but-- it isn't as if she has the answers either. She leaves it at that, a shrug of her shoulders all she can add on top. There are more urgent things to consider, such as the message they've just seen.
Noeline isn't sure that 'conquest' was on the cards, exactly. It sounds more like the expectation was that the land would be inhabitable - and the mind of the man speaking to them from the past is one that considers an army and a military simply to be part of a succesful country. Still - as Riese has pointed out, the order in which he lists priorities does speak volumes about the governance. Somehow, the fact that hubris rides hand in hand with it is not surprising.
(She's pretty sure a war general would still have a ballroom, though. The way she sees it, you just need to be jingoistic and confident enough to pull it off.)
Fei's way of putting the events of the past is careful, but also remarkably blunt - it's not his fault, just the sheer time difference involved, and Noeline can't help but raise her eyebrows up high as she takes in the explanation, letting out a slow breath as she works to process it. She glances at Citan, because suddenly she has an inkling that 'whoever burnt through the ice' might also be 'whoever got Leon out of here' - assuming he was here. Were there other facilities after all?
"You are who you are," she echoes the others when Leon asks, and gives Riesenlied a soft chuckle - that was not from any link. Looking back, she bolsters her partner's encouragement with her own outlook. "What exactly does this change? What would you have done differently? You are still you." She pauses, and chuckles quietly. "And you are alive, here and now. In that sense, the mission is already complete, I feel."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"Whatever you want, Leon." Fei says. "Maybe there's nothing to do with this."
He smiles gently. "But... he loved you. In his strange imperfect way. As difficult as it is..."
"...I'm glad I met you," Fei says. "I'm sure he'd be proud, knowing that you didn't need any of this. You were able to survive and thrive in this world without...needing to be a king."
"...Or an emperor." Fei adds softly.
Kim certainly wasn't trying to give Emeralda weapons or armies or a people to lord over and certainly Kim might've frowned a little if he knew just how deep Leon's father's plan was.
But he's a dead man. whatever he planned iether failed or was long since released from this place. More importantly, he kept his son alive.
And Fei loves that son of his like a brother. And he can't be mad about that, regardless of his desperation.
He doesn't interrupt Emeralda, but he does say, "...And I'm glad she didn't come here alone."
Not in the end anyway.
Fei just had three headache causing flashbacks in a row. He is being as kind as he can be.
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
Conquest. War. An empty throne.
But Elly and Fei have alternatives. Lily finds herself hanging onto those words of theirs--of talk of the ballroom, of wanting to keep someone safe--hanging onto them as if they were a life preserver, and she at sea. "I--"
She stops, and breathes. Riesenlied can probably feel the spike of panic that briefly surges before Lily calms herself--and the calm at least is more genuine. She looks to everyone, in turn, but back to Leon.
"...You said we are who we are," Lily tells Leon. She nods to Riesenlied, who also said it. "...Elly's right. If not for you, Leon, we wouldn't be here. I know I wouldn't. I wouldn't have started on this path at all without you."
'Maybe don't try to take over the world with Zeboim soldiers.' Lily can't help but let out a small laugh at that, though it's a tense one--she looks tense, even if she is calmer.
"...Leon..."
Lily steps towards him, and sets a hand on his arm. "I don't know either, but..."
She stops, and looks to Emeralda. "I'm not sure the weapons part were all his work. We know he was working with someone capable of making advanced weaponry. Right?"
She turns away from the others, to look just to Leon. "...I..."
"...I suspected there was something," she says quietly. "Something about you. But I didn't know. I couldn't know. I just saw the way things reacted to you, the way you reacted to them sometimes..."
"...But I never imagined..."
She turns, to look at Fei for a moment. "...Did you see anything about..." She hesitates again, and stops, shaking her head. "Nevermind."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Then let me know if anything else seems familiar to you, Xantia," he tells her. "Perhaps we might be able to gain further insight." That's not quite true, even when he manages a slight smile as he expresses thus. But the more he knows, the more likely it is that he can...
It seems, at times, as if the story of Filgaia fated to repeat itself. Over and over again, the same old tragedies.
'It wasn't as simple as conquest', Fei says.
Citan's attention turns his way, and he regards the younger man for a long moment. It's almost as if, somehow...
He were taking Fei's measure.
"...I see. So these were the lengths to which he was prepared to commit himself. No, rather... 'to commit his son'..."
At times one must prepare themselves to commit an atrocity. So it has been said.
And there are no armies. Perhaps even the weapons that were meant to arm them are no longer in this facility. Just a message from long-ago, food and technology that might still help the present day.
Leon, meanwhile...
So he had not had a Limiter, either. ARMs had simply responded to him.
Of course.
He meets that glance from Noeline. They are, perhaps, thinking along the same lines. How old is Leon now? Could it have been twenty or so years ago? And how had fate taken him to Ignas? But questions like these are, perhaps, the less important ones at the moment.
What is he to do with all this? This inheritance of his.
"...This is not something with which you need commit yourself immediately, Leon. There is time to consider what has been bequeathed... and what might be done with it. As Xantia and Riesenlied have said, you have time," is Citan's recommendation to him. "But I must agree with Emeralda's recommendation," he adds, unable to completely stifle that slight smile.
He again takes in the scope of the amphitheatre before them, of all the empty pods. It is impossible to fully predict the future, he cannot help but reflect. And that thought alone is what gives him hope.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
Fei immediately flinches when Doc looks at him and says, "I ah.. .I mean. That's what it felt like I dunno."
You can almost see the word balloon text getting tinier.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly steps forwards. She dips her head a little. Her eyes are threatening to mist up from what Emeralda says. It's hard for her to put her finger on why that feeling makes her want to weep. It doesn't feel bad at all, but...
She takes a deep breath of the cold air. She then presses her wrist to her mouth after what Emeralda says in conclusion.
Then Elly focuses.
"... I don't think you need to decide right now... and it isn't fair, that the decision rests on you. But this place is your 'inheritance,' I suppose, whether you wanted it or not. And... I don't think that you should have to keep it, if you don't."
"I don't know what you should use it for -- though, I agree with Emeralda," she adds, with a faint smile, "but it's possible we could rehabilitate it ourselves. It's a large installation, I can tell." A moment passes. "There could be a town here. Or a city outside. They built Guild Galad from a place like this, and I know Nisan and Aveh were descendants of other countries, too."
"If it's too much... then I think that you have a responsibility to pass it to someone who will be able to use something like... like this..." Elly falters, before getting back on track, "this place, to make Filgaia better. I don't know who. Shevat, perhaps, or ARMS, or the people of the Thames... for all I know, the Al Bhed might want to leave Spira."
A second or two passes. "Or if you don't think anyone should have this sort of place... the 'power' it represents... then we should tear it down. But we have the good luck that we don't have to do it in a great hurry."
"Whatever you decide," Elly concludes with a firm nod, "I know we're all going to support you."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Well, here's something very familiar to Xantia. The words 'what do I even do with this'. Still, she is relieved to hear Leon speaking the way he does. Of course he sounds he just got punched in the brain, that's basically what happened. But to not lose himself to a crisis of identity in the face of something like this... that takes mental fortitude. As much as she doesn't like to admit it, she's pretty sure that she wouldn't have handled that as well, given how hard it's been to not get overwhelmed by powerful memories suddenly returning.
She can't help from adding an unamused chuckle of her own to Leon's laughter. "Right? I ask myself that all the time. You suddenly remember something about yourself and it's like, great, does that mean anything to me? Maybe it meant something in the past, but I'm not who I was in the past, so... should it still mean anything? If I had more pieces of the puzzle, would this make more sense, or less?"
She can only shrug helplessly. "I wish I had good answers I could give you. All I know is... you can't even begin to complete a puzzle without all the pieces. That's why I keep looking. If you want to keep looking too, then I'll do whatever I can to help you find those answers. I'm sure all of us are more than happy to help you put the puzzle together." She gives a nod to Lily. "That goes for you too, Lily."
She pauses, next giving a nod to Emeralda. "Unless you decide your puzzle has to look like that. Pretty sure taking over the world isn't something that'll make you or anybody else happy. But, as for right now..." She looks around at the assembled Wolves, having given voice to their own support in this difficult moment.
"I'd say you've been doing fine, wouldn't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"I suppose... I have him to thank for standing here," Leon says. He is quiet, as he responds to Riesenlied -- seemingly uncertain -- and his eyes are looking up for a moment. He blinks, then, and looks down at Emeralda.
Of course, he thinks. She would have a personal familiarity with this. After all, one of the differences between Leon and Emeralda is that he woke up before her.
"That... mm." He hesitates, his expression hesitant. "I've no intention of conquering the world. And I'm lacking Zeboim soldiers, even if I were so inclined. Thank you, Emeralda."
He looks back at where the hologram was. "He..." Leon hesitates, his brow furrowing for a second. But Fei speaks, and he looks at him.
He swallows, once. "Maybe so. I don't... know, though. I already had a father," he says. "Who... mm. I don't know, Fei."
But, as so many of them say, he doesn't need to decide what do with it right now. He looks up at the emptied space, where the hologram stood. Elly tells him that it could be used to make the world better. He looks up.
"...I wonder if I'm who should make that kind of decision, Elly," he says. "I'm not exactly perfect, in that regard."
His eyes turn to Xantia He listens for a moment -- and nods. He doesn't doubt they would help him figure out what to do. "Mm. That is about the sum of it... but yes. All of you... thank you."
Then Lily approaches him. Her hand rests over his arm. He rests a hand over hers. Then, after a moment and a sigh, he pulls her into an embrace. Both arms go around her, and he stops looking up at the empty air to look down at her.
"Something about me?" Leon says. "I... mm. I liked to think I was the one following in your footsteps. It was stubborn of me, wasn't it, love?"
He cracks a small smile. "Pretending that I was the ordinary soldier, caught up in all of this. Well... whatever it is, we're in it together."
<Pose Tracker> Lily Keil has posed.
It goes for her, too. Xantia's words catch Lily's attention, and while her smile is small, she does at least manage one at her. Then, she considers what the others have to say. He doesn't have to commit right away; a city could be built here. Elly's right, Lily realizes; this would have everything necessary for such a settlement's core, wouldn't it?
She's reluctant to tear it down, but...
But she finds herself relieved, when Leon pulls her closer, and the sorceress rests her head against his chest. "...I don't think you do so bad at decisions," she counters his statement to Elly, and then smiles faintly, nodding along. Her arms wrap about him, too.
"It was a little stubborn, but I like that you're stubborn. It means you don't give up so easy."
That he was following her, when... It really wasn't like that, was it?
"Looks like we'll both have to be unusual," she settles on, and smiles again, more easily this time. "Right. Together, we can handle anything."
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I don't know if you were doing a good job at ordinary." Fei quips with a cheeky grin. But it's true isn't it?
They're all weirdos here. Except for Doc who is completely normal and thank god for that. If Doc also had some kind of secret backstory, well, Fei might just lose it.
"Yeah. We're together, right?"
He beams goofily and immediately approaches Elly to give her a hug because it's been like ONE WHOLE DAY.
<Pose Tracker> Emeralda Kasim has posed.
Emeralda smiles. She's been helpful. And... more than that. That felt important.
But then she slowly frowns. "You can still be normal," she says, though she's not *really* trying to convince Leon of it.
<Pose Tracker> Riesenlied has posed.
Emeralda speaks earnestly, saying that Leon shouldn't take over the world with Zeboim soldiers. Indeed, that's not a bad idea, and... perhaps at least to Riesenlied, she takes it seriously -- perhaps thinking those mysterious Red-eyed soldiers were just waiting for his beck and call around the corner.
There's a quiet shiver back to Noeline, as distress and exhaustion both exude in waves around her. Is she really who people believe and expect her to be anymore? Sometimes she doesn't know. No... that's just the seams on the mask showing, all this time, isn't it?
The mission is already complete... but Fei and Elly both have gentle words for him -- that Leon was able to survive in this world without needing to be a king. ... just what world would it be, if one needed to be king? And Lily--
She feels that spike of panic, and hesitates further. Lily wouldn't be here. Wouldn't have started on this path... and she has a suspicion. Someone who was able to create advanced weaponry. Could that be... her? Sharon?
"... mm--" Riesenlied pauses. "Wait... Doctor, Noeline, of the list of suspects, however... we cannot rule out-- a certain Colonel of the Kislevi army." Leon ended up in Kislev, half a world away, after all... And... weren't the other Wolf companies particularly dogged around these sites? Or is that her paranoia speaking again?
Elly offers concrete plans -- perhaps a city could be here, or outside. Perhaps Shevat, or ARMS, or even the Al Bhed... these wonderful, blooming ideas of life for others... And it is Xantia that has the most association here -- since she's also trying to piece her memory together. And sometimes, something you remember has no meaning without all the pieces...
Is Leon the one who should make that kind of decision?
"... you two are wonderful together," Riesenlied does speak as Leon and Lily tease each other a little. "And -- perhaps it is a decision no one should make alone. We can all discuss and digest, given time..."
She leans back against Noeline, as she watches Fei and Elly hug as well; it seems the right time for it. But that intruder, what if...?
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"That... may be likely," he asides to Noeline and Riesenlied. "In fact, I would consider him to be the most likely one of all, given what we have encountered and gleaned." If someone were aiming for 'conquest'...
The era doesn't matter. In a sense, certain impulses repeat, echoed across time.
Fei trails off into silence for a moment there. "...Are you alright, Fei?" Citan asks. As if nothing at all is amiss in this moment...
Elly makes a proposal for one thing that could be done in for this place, should Leon choose to, and Citan's attention turns her way, regarding her in silence. Or perhaps a better word would be 'evaluating her'.
That Gear... it belonged to Sophia. Her previous incarnation, the last vessel of the 'Mother'...
So it was. So it shall be?
Leon wonders, though, if he is the one who should even make such a decision. "It is your 'inheritance', so to speak. There are no others who would possess the right. ...Someone shall certainly come to claim this place should it be abandoned, whether to strip what technology remains or take up residence. Perhaps some would do better than you. Others would certainly do far worse. In any case, I do not think that 'perfection' is... necessary, to make a decision like this." He shakes his head, then folds his arms across his chest.
And cracks a slight smile, himself. "Well... what a group we are. Never have I seen a gathering of more singular individuals!"
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Leon doubts his ability to make a decision like that. "Nobody is," Elly says. "We can only do the best we can, and trust..."
Elly blinks twice, and then her eyes focus again. "Now you have two fathers," Elly concludes. "I suppose that's not so rare, is it...? In a sense, I have two mothers... and some people don't have any."
Elly seems to be about to say something else - probably in this same slightly sermon-esque manner - when Fei comes up a little sneakily and embraces her. "Oh!" she says in astonishment, before turning towards him, looking upwards, wrapping her arms round his neck and lacing her fingers behind his head.
Gazing into his eyes, she smiles for long moments, before saying quietly, "It doesn't feel as cold in here, does it...?" She leans forwards then, forehead against Fei's. "... but we shouldn't stay too close. Are you chilly...? If you need to share the coat..."
This is when Elly hears Riesenlied's supposition. This seems to dampen Elly's gauzy-focus mood a little, although she smiles weakly to Fei as if in apology and does not seem exactly in a hurry to 'not be hugging'.
"Given everything... you could be right," Elly answers Riesenlied, with half of a sigh. "He certainly did seem like the sort of person to bring flamethrowers into a ruin..."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia pffts as Leon says he's not qualified to make a decision due to not being perfect. "If people had to be perfect to make decisions, then everybody would just be sitting around doing nothing. ...Actually, don't you kind of have to not be perfect to see more than one thing as a possible decision?" Really makes you think. Well, it's causing Xantia to think about it for a bit, at least.
But hey, even if this wasn't the conclusion anybody was expecting, it's a good one from where she's standing. People are laughing again, and showing support for one other... what's not good about this? She certainly feels justified in regarding her friends with her signature bright smile in this moment.
"'Singular'?" she questions Citan's phrasing. "Is that another word for 'awesome'? Because I think you meant to say 'awesome'."
<Pose Tracker> Noeline has posed.
"That's alright," Noeline tells Emeralda, full of puff and vigor. "If he tries to take over the world, I'll just beat him up." A shot of bravado and challenge might be what Leon needs right at the moment, she figures, and it doesn't hurt to try to lighten the air at least a little bit for both his and Lily's sake. "If Lily doesn't get to him first."
She lets out a faint breath afterwards. The one glance with Citan told her enough - that someone else is thinking behind the scenes as well - so she's content to leave it be for the time being, and simply busies herself with offering Riesenlied a light touch of support. She's worried; she's not the sort to think of Riesenlied as having any way she _has_ to be, but as far as she's concerned, it's been a very, very long couple of months for the both of them, and doesn't doubt that exhaustion must play a part.
"That is a good point," she admits to her partner's suggestion. "The most concrete one I can think of. Though, from everything, we can at least take heart that it seems likely that Leon was the only one that was found here. And that he has _decidedly_ travelled his own path in life rather than stick to the Colonel." She leaves the thought there, arm around Riese's shoulders.
"... I am all for figuring out a way to reuse this place, certainly. That is the Filgaia way - progress on the back of painstaking work, a little luck, and the age-old pieces of technology from other civilisations that are left strewn around the landscape. You can't go two feet without tripping over an ancient facility, sometimes," she continues to grouse regardless, letting out a faint chuckle as she watches Leon and Lily rib each other.
<Pose Tracker> Fei Fong Wong has posed.
"I'm okay!" Fei insists, a little too quickly. He didn't dissapoint Doc did he?? "I'm okay," He insists again. "Just ah... you know."
DOES HE?
Nevertheless, hugs.
Are you chilly...?'
"Not when I'm close to you," Fei says, because your parents are adorable and cheesy, Emeralda.
He starts to lean in when--
--MOOD... RUINED.
But he keeps hugging. "Yeah." He admits quietly.
<Pose Tracker> Leon Albus has posed.
"Mm. I've no doubt we can handle whatever the world throws at us," Leon says, looking down at Lily. "Whether we're both unusual or not."
He looks sideways at Fei -- then smiles, and nods his head. "True enough."
He gives Emeralda an apologetic smiles, at that. His eyes shift to Riesenlied, then. He blinks, once. Then, he nods. "Colonel Keil knows something about all of this. I'm sure of it... and I wouldn't be shocked if he had some knowledge of my role."
He cracks a small smile, then, at the compliment. He looks at Citan, then -- and nods his head. "We'll have to make a decision. At bare minimum, I think it best to leave the defenses in place for now," he says. "Until we can make a more long-term decision."
He looks at Elly, then blinks -- and nods, after a moment's thought. "I do," he agrees. "From what little I've seen... those fathers aren't so alike, either."
He looks back at Xantia. He laughs, then. "Fair enough... I suppose beggars can't be choosers," he says, and then he looks at Noeline. He nods to her idea. He opens his mouth, about to say something, when a voice crackles over the empathite radio.
"This is Hammer! We've got a problem! It's... the Weglaff, someone managed to launch in it, and it's headed for you!"
Leon blinks. "What in the--"
"I'm getting the Gears ready!" Hammer says. "Get to the surface, I don't think you want whoever it is breaking in!"
Leon's teeth grit together. He glances at the console -- taps out a couple of commands -- then nods. He starts towards a door, which opens. "This way. It'll take us to the surface. We better hurry!"