Scene Archives

ꙮ Well, still at the 36 ^th tower, for the time being, anyway. Ĉasid is living up to their epithet with breathtaking ferocity and has decided that the curtains in Unua’s room are the Enemy and must be Taught a Lesson; the curtains, for their part, seem to be made out of a breathtakingly indestructible fabric, and so there’s a little bit of an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object happening, here, except imagine an unstoppable force were very small and very fuzzy and full of indignant miaowing.

ꙮ Cats, right?

ꙮ Into the common area, which is empty at the moment, and would hardly be an Adventure anyways, and then out the door from there. There’s a short hallway with some branch-offs, and then there’s the bridge to the central Academy tower proper. You can see over the walls of the bridge, see the ocean stretching out in every direction, truly further than you thought it could ever be possible to observe. Not Almachadta’s vertiginous topography, but still not what you’re used to, either.

ꙮ How does the ocean make Unua feel? Is there relief, when they make it to the other end of the bridge?

ꙮ One does wonder what would happen. Luckily, the bridge is sturdy. This would be a bad way to perform science. At the Academy tower proper: There’s a vestibule the elevator disgorged you all at, previously, with a few little alcoves with closed doors, where elevator-spheres might sometimes be. The floor is less intricately and effortfully tiled than the floor below that you saw on the way in, but there was still an obvious tremendous care and effort that went into it - there’s a mosaic, little pieces of tile in a dizzying array of shades of blue and green and grey.

ꙮ At least on this side of things, there’s just one relatively-simple button, and you press it, and after what is really not much time at all, the doors slide open with a light ‘whoosh’, and there’s another of those strange, rune-etched spheres.

ꙮ There are so MANY controls.

ꙮ They, almost certainly, make sense to someone who has spent years at the Academy. There are not instructions, however. ⁂

ꙮ The thing about coeurls is that their whiskers are magic. The elevator activates, and the sphere plunges down the side of the Academy tower.

ꙮ The elevator is approaching the ‘ground floor’ and it is not, particularly, slowing down.

ꙮ (This is not because Ĉasid has activated the elevator’s Turn Into A Murder Weapon feature, luckily. It’s just that the elevators extend -below- the water’s surface, too, as well as above it.)

ꙮ The sphere descends, and the ocean surrounds, on the other side of the glass tube. The quality of the light is wildly different, as soon as you’re more than trivially below the surface. You can see the -rich- kelp forest that you couldn’t see from top-side, hugging the undersea coastline of the island Ripple’s Rest is nestled into.

ꙮ …the sphere descends deep enough that you can actually see the way the island’s structure eventually inflects - it is not, actually, part of the seafloor, not tethered to anything below.

ꙮ As large as it is, it’s floating in the Sea itself, like the Academy tower, like any Glass Ship, anchored to nothing but itself.

ꙮ Indeed. Eventually, the sphere slows to a stop, and there’s a complicated series of bell-sounds from the controls, and the door opens -

ꙮ There’s a corridor, curving into the inside of the Tower. The architecture here is a little different - everything seems a bit sturdier, more compact and reinforced, although not much less ornate or beautiful. More importantly:

ꙮ Someone, distantly, is yelling for assistance.

ꙮ When Unua decides to haul ass, they’ve an alarming capacity for doing so. Ĉasid, wisely, jumped directly -into- Unua’s pocket at the first signs of Actual Trouble and they bravely have their nose sticking out of the pocket as Unua runs. ⁂

ꙮ The corridor opens up via a sequence of connected archways onto what looks like some sort of specialised laboratory that has, it is immediately clear, seen better days. A significant section of the wall looks like it has undergone severe damage - there’s a massive, complex crack, seawater flooding in and then immediately vanishing, getting wound up into a ball like string, held in the hands of a very, very, -pointedly- calm Naiad in Scholar’s robes; next to the crack in the wall itself is a Pearl-cluster, moving in tight, complex spirals, laser-focused on one terminal point of the damage, and trying very hard and largely succeeding at ignoring the way the entire rest of the wall is increasingly bowing inward under the pressure. The Naiad notices Unua there and - blinks, once, incredibly calmly. “Oh. Noted. Excellent. The wall? Please?” They’re the one who was shouting, earlier!

ꙮ Gnosis, corresponding to your approach! DC 4 / 8 / 12.

ꙮ You put your shoulder against the wall- and it stabilises, immediately, at the very least; you’d HEARD a low, subtle cracking noise as you rushed in. It was not looking good- but the Pearl cluster has a single moment to -stop- spinning so frantically. ⁂

ꙮ It is, however, not easy. You suddenly have an incredible, immediate sense of how -much- water there is, on the other side, and the force with which it’s pressing in, this deep below the surface; even with the significant gnosis holding the Tower together, right now, a lot of that is crushing down on -your- shoulders. Gnosis to resist and maintain your composure and steadfast resolve, DC 3 / 6 / 12. [This counts as a physical hardship.]

ꙮ You may take half, on account of [Perfect Temper], if you wish!

ꙮ Unua’s eyes glow, brightly, with secret fire.

ꙮ The sea presses down, and they set their feet, and turn towards, and into, the pressure. There is a loud -crack-, and the pressure increases, suddenly, and Unua does not move an inch; steam jets from a vent in their side. A particular light surrounds them, and it is not of this world. ⁂

ꙮ The Pearl cluster spins, and whirls, and now that -they’re- not fighting the pressure of the Sea, they can focus on the gnosis required to heal and rebuild the coral - but despite that the wall is holding, with Unua’s might, the cracks are spreading faster than the Pearl can heal them; for a brief moment, the Naiad’s expression falters, as their eyes trace the slowly-shattering wall, as they permit themself to believe that [this is not a fight that they can win]. Water trickles down, through the cracks, landing on Unua, immediately hissing into steam.

ꙮ You are aware of a single, radiant truth. This is not your time. DC 10. You are Starlit.

ꙮ Ascension!

ꙮ Ascension!

ꙮ Hold or stay?

ꙮ Brilliant light shines out of every surface of Unua’s body. ⁂

ꙮ The Pearl cluster weaves around and through it but it is Unua’s light, not theirs or the Naiad’s, that floods into the cracks in the wall, that floods in to the wall itself, that makes this little section of coral and crystal shine as bright and as gently as the Library at zenith, for a brief moment. ⁂

ꙮ The light slowly begins to fade. From Unua’s body, from the wall - it lingers, in the cracks, and in Unua’s eyes. ⁂

ꙮ There is a certain metal that can be found on the Beast. It is surpassingly rare, and challenging to work, found rarely outside of Endjinn themselves and the children of the Deepforge, more generally. It glows, brightly, with a light of its own, sheens like a rainbow. The Scorpion Queen called it ‘aurichalcum’. ⁂

ꙮ Spiderweb kintsugi-cracks of softly-glowing aurichalcum now bind the wall together at its weakest points, and with the binding this wall becomes, easily, the sturdiest one in the entire Tower complex.

ꙮ The Naiad very carefully polishes a sphere of highly-condensed matter hovering between their hands, who knows how many hundreds of gallons of water in a space the size of about a basketball, and very gingerly places it, hovering, on a pedestal before immediately staggering back two steps and near-fainting into a mercifully-nearby chair.

ꙮ Their Pearl companion darted over to catch them, but it didn’t turn out to be necessary, so, instead, several voices ring out in disoriented almost-unison. “Thank you, who….?ever you are.” Frantically whirligigging through a lifetime of obscure Academy projects into automata, hoping something jogs their memory…

ꙮ ”Oh!” Pause. “Right, I should have-“ Pause. About ⅔ of them are suddenly spinning rapidly. “Right. Yes. That was… remarkably impressive work. I am called Caesura, and my research companion is Ines, and it is. Remarkably good timing that you arrived when you did.” More of them is spinning.

ꙮ Ines blearily looks up at the sphere, shakes their head, blinking. Their lab coat has had a time and some of their hair looks like it got… evaporated right off of their head? Like cotton candy you took a chomp out of. “What in the vast unknowable depths -is- that…” -they wave, vaguely, at the still-glowing cracks in the wall. “Never seen that come out of a slate before, let alone…”

ꙮ Ines attempts to get up, and utterly does not succeed, and mutters under their breath. Caesura vibrates. “Fascinating! That’s a new and exciting fact to develop an explanatory framework around! Although that will probably be someone else, metallurgy is hardly my strong suit.” They’re still- you get the impression they’re peering very curiously at the Clockwork Knight. “Nor are miracles, for that matter. I…” They draw themselves up, force themselves to slow down. “It is very likely that we owe you and your small feline companion our lives, Unua. If not- who knows what would have happened to this entire floor of the facility!” Ines waves their hand, at Caesura, and looks dazed. “They know, friend. They know.” One violet, almost-black eye cracks open. “But, still, thank you. Weird stroke of luck but we take those. Praise to the River.”

ꙮ ”Ugh, I probably shouldn’t rot to death in this chair, you’re right, the sphere would break and then we’d just have a different, but similar problem.” “Ines!!” “I’m joking, relax.” They gratefully accept the hand, casually reaching the other hand out; the compacted sphere flies into their outstretched hand, hovering just a bit away from their fingertips. “First, -outside- so I can dump this, then… ah, Principles, do you know the way to the Central infirmary? Caesura, I haven’t the presence of mind, please take over, thanks-“ -and that lets them focus on one foot in front of the other, -very- much holding on to Unua for dear life.

ꙮ It is not the first time Unua has helped someone hobble away from a battlefield, as it were.

ꙮ The Pearl cluster leads the four of you (mew!) out the way Unua came - chiming busily at the elevator when it gives them some sort of backsass, and then the doors slide shut, the elevator sphere shoots up, and - it’s very strangely beautiful, under the waves, but after everything that happened it’s quite nice to be topside, isn’t it? Almost as -soon- as they’re at ground floor, Ines practically -drags- the Clockwork Knight the short distance to the nearest– outside. The nearest outside- and bodily flings the sphere out - ⁂

ꙮ It disintegrates, spectacularly, into a complex cacophony of jets of water spinning every which way, far enough out to not get anyone drenched, but there’s a bit of a mist in the air, and the light through the clouds is well enough to hit it and, briefly, there’s rainbows within rainbows. Ines watches, and laughs, exhaustedly. Eventually, the sphere exhausts itself. “…y’know, one could put on a show for the Ripple pups with that. Never really thought about how pretty it looked.”

ꙮ Ines tilts their head all the way up, -laughs-, and gently flicks their finger on the Clockwork Knight’s armor plating. “I’m pretty sure -you’ve- already done that work for me! Overachieving Scholars in the halls, these days, I swear it.”

ꙮ ”Indeed it is.” And they’re off to the infirmary, and they seem to have gotten a little bit more spring in their step. (Caesura is, of course, still Hovering With Concern, and appreciative of Unua’s steadfastness.) And it’s not too far, from here to the infirmary - someone there tries to ask Unua seventeen thousand questions and Caesura immediately interposes themselves in between Unua and the querent like a very pearlescent guard dog, and Handles Things, and there’s another, grateful smile from Ines. “Hope I see you around. Try… not to randomly stumble into life-threatening situations for the rest of the lumen, I suppose?” A wry grin, as they’re very fervently shepherded off.

ꙮ They’re in good hands! And now it is time for a much more sedate Adventure, in which - yes! Yes, precisely!