ꙮ You didn’t really get the chance to admire the Gallery when you first got to the Courtyard. An array of towering crystals, not in any kind of… rhyme or reason or order, not seeming like they grew here out of the ground but rather - it’s unclear how - like they arrove here of their own will and on their own power. They shimmer with Centrelight caught refracting between their faces, even as the Centrelight’s begun to dim in the sky. They don’t glow, precisely - they’re keeping that light for themself. But there’s a shimmering, a resonance. You know it’s there. They -suggest- two columns tracing a pathway from the gate you entered the Courtyard through to where the King’s amphitheatre is, but it’s the barest suggestion, two lines haphazardly drawn, an ongoing conversation. They could get up and move. This is a choice they are making. They flicker at each other, nearly constantly. It’s quite lovely to watch.
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- Aurelius
- The Awoken
Scene Archives
← Active ScenesAt the Courtyard Gallery
follows the trails of crystals about, somewhat haphazardly following the lines as his attention takes him, and at one particular point where there’s a jutting of crystals above and and then another jut to the side and below, he stops to admire them both with his prehiprial vision, and crosses his eyes so there’s one crystal floating in front of him whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
ꙮ The crystals in question begin pulsing their light in such a way that the overlay of their pulses in the Awoken’s eyes forms specific patterns that only he, in that moment, with his eyes crossed just so, could possibly see.
giggles delightedly when he figured out what’s going on. “Neat! Y’all are pretty perceptive!”
ꙮ Something fascinating happens to the Awoken’s voice. It echoes off the crystal surface, it shifts and changes, it delays, it grows bell-harmonics like a sprout reaching sunwards. “Perceptive as you are to have seen us first. First we noticed you entering the city. City sees strangers, newcomers, but not such as you. Your light is new. New to us. We wonder: Who are you?”
blinks a few times, seemingly not expecting that to happen with his voice and then the response. He finds his footing quickly, putting his hands on his hips and a grin on his face. “What an excellent question!”
: “I am the Awoken! Just ‘Awoken’ will do!”
: “Where I come from: unknown! What my other names are: unknown! Height, weight, favorite color: unknown, unknown, azure!”
isn’t quite sure where to look when responding to these beings but figures ‘the one sort of above me is a good enough target for now.’
ꙮ The crystals flare up brightly, first the one directly in front of the Awoken, then others, then others, rippling down the line. It feels unmistakably like delight. “Azure are your eyes and azure is the light within. Within your (six-sided crystal) the light refracts so brightly. Brightly do you enter and brightly do you speak. Speak and we listen as we drink in the day’s last.”
: “I suppose if anyone would know anything about light, it’d be the Lightdrinkers! I’d never met one, or several, or all…? Of you before…?” He absentmindedly starts walking and talking, casually following the trail of Lightdrinker crystal. “I hear you’re just about everywhere on Almachadta.”
ꙮ ”Almachadta is vast and bright and there is much light. Light converges in a prism and water converges in a world and roads led you to the Courtyard, as they led us. We wait and drink and listen.”
casually puts both hands behind his head, leaning back as he walks. “Strange paths led me here. Do you know of them? Of sunless obsidian creation?”
ꙮ The crystals flicker light amongst themselves for a long, long time. “Obsidian? Describe it to us.”
: “Okay.” He inhales deeply through his nose, and speaks with an even tone and patter. “Think about the light. And think about it as bright as it can be. Now inverse it.”
“A crystal, but deafeningly opaque.”
“A mineral, and hopelessly sharp.”
“An omen, but guidable.”
ꙮ The crystals flicker among themselves. It takes them even longer this time. When the Awoken’s voice echoes back to him, changed and shifted, it’s almost faded. “Guidable to what end?”
stops walking, and he takes a bit to think, something flickering behind his eyes, processing something. He studies the crystal, almost if attempting to look through it.
: “To anywhere. To everywhere. To infinity. To any location of imagination and creation.”
ꙮ The crystals brighten, flicker, brighten, down the line, one by one. “Creation is anywhere (light can shine). Light is that which causes the possible. Possibility is darkness illuminated by light. Light is that which causes the possible. Possibility…” …there’s something like feedback, a flicker of light taking up the repeated pattern, the voice fading as the light continues. Finally: “I am also a kind of crystal.”
notices, leaning up against a rock wall that has an outgrowth of Lightdrinker. He asks, a weird, curious hope in his voice. “I?” he emphasizes.
ꙮ ”I (rotate) you.” There’s a Lightdrinker across from him that’s glowing in time and rhythm with the words. “I (rotate) you to see you from every angle. Every facet of me faces the Light in a different way. Every (facet of you) faces the Light in a different way. I (rotate) you and I (rotate) your words and I (rotate) your thoughts.”
opens his mouth like he wants to say something, stops, and for a second there’s a gleam on his eye that a quip is coming, but that stops too. He takes a solid set of silent seconds to think, and begins to wander again. It isn’t many steps before he speaks up again.
: “I want to say I understand, but I don’t, but I also… do, sort of? The vibes, the gist, the… kinda in-between of it all.”
ꙮ The crystal brightens! “You (rotate) me!!”
ꙮ It’s definitely not saying the word ‘rotate’. If someone asked you what word it was saying you’re certain you couldn’t tell them.
laughs, finding spring in his step again. “Yeah, that’s pretty good! The darkness is also like that. There’s something there but you might not see it and it might actually be way different than you think. So really, you can think it to be anything.”
: “Add a splash of light, and…!”
ꙮ The crystal flickers amiably. “Maybe the darkness is (rotating) the world.” A pause. “You name yourself Awoken? I name myself Hsieoañth.”
: “Pleased to meet you, Hsieoañth!” He gets it right on the first try, be jealous. He also gives a Lightdrinker crystal within arm’s reach a comforting pat. “Now we all know more about everything.”
was, frankly, not expecting that. It brightens in pleasure and a couple of the other Lightdrinkers around it flicker and shimmer amongst themselves, clearly impressed. “It is good to know more about everything. But especially about a stranger who brings (crisp|untrammeled) and unknown light.” A pause. “What (bound trajectory) brought you here?”
: “A journey, a quest, a geas in our hearts! By an obsidian road and a spark from an ember, my companions and I travelled to Almachadta. A dear home to some, a world in peril to all.”
flickers, and the other Lightdrinkers follow in turn. “We are (rotating) the (ripple) we observed. Observation we did not think others shared with us. We salute your (organs of observation).” A pause. “The King will protect us. We have always been protected.” Another pause. It’s a long one, and when Hsieoañth speaks it’s only it that’s shimmering. “Can you taste Light also, then?”
: “Hmm… perhaps? But it needs be potent enough. There’s ripples that I have sensed from my friends, but I cannot perceive from myself. But alas, form and flesh are better well known for our familiarity with them.” He pauses, and almost doesn’t ask this question, but his curiosity is too bright. “Who existed first? The king or Hsieoañth?”
: “The King! Hsieoañth is an (apical growth) of a (scion). Many Lightdrinkers and Spoken Wood and rocks and particular repeated patterns in clouds and folk songs all have existed first before this one.”
: “Aha! I think I understand better, now. I was wondering if your pattern stretched beneath the ground and all the way to the other side!” He points toward the Centrelight, but you know he’s pointing past it, to the other side. The other ground. The absolute opposite.
laughs. It’s a pattern of light, but it’s still a laugh. As a joke, but with tremendous effort, the structure of the crystal shifts right in front of the Awoken’s eyes, some parts of the crystal eroding and flaking away as sand and mica- like it’s shifting from one foot, very slowly and calmly, onto the other, and then back, the entire crystal wobbling perilously back and forth in the little indentation in the earth it’s settled into. In the course of so doing, the Awoken can see the entirety of its bottom facets. “See? I don’t have any (roots|feet).” It seems very hopeful that this is the first time the Awoken has gotten to see a Lightdrinker moving around.
has certainly NOT gotten to see a Lightdrinker moving around, and he crouches down in surprise and curiosity. “Wow!” he exlaims, not even hiding his inquisitive head twists as he’s working through what he’s seeing.
shimmers in delight as it settles back into place in its hollow. “I have needed to do that since the last dim season. A pattern of earthworms moving through time adjusted the ground beneath me. My angles of incidence to the Centrelight were not as I would have precisely preferred.” It’s, like, audibly grinning.
has his train of curiosity interrupted with a thought that goes straight out of the mouth. “Hmm… oh yeah, I suppose if the Centrelight went dark, it’d be a problem for Lightdrinkers, huh…”
: “But what if it was a… black light… would THAT help…?” Working through reasoning verbally.
makes weird patterns of light between its facets. “What are you (rotating), new-stranger-friend‽ And also if you cannot taste Light then what (organ of observation) did you use to detect the (ripple) of peril‽ I intended to ask and then an (interference pattern|funny joke) occurred‽”
: “This organ, I suppose.” He taps the side of his head.“ And as for… well, let me give something a try. Observe carefully!”
- The Awoken invoked their 🌌liminal gnosis [d6] -> 1.
Ermm….
Take Half
ꙮ Yeah, I’ll allow the [Take Half] there.
focuses, and a darkness ripples across his form, through all the fibers in the his hair across the shimmer of the mantle, off the dull grey scales on his boots. The darkness doesn’t fade in the light, instead gathering at the edges of his hands, which he brings up, cupped, in front of him. A small sphere forms within them, and simultaniously shimmers, yet holds an unpenetrated silence of light. Its outlight glows with a faint purple.
I meant to write 'outline' but 'outlight?' that's an inspired phrase, keep it.
oscillates, curiously. “I observe you.”
visibly sweats, his hands tremble, he has to take two gasping breaths instead of one calm one.
: “And what do you observe, of this?” He holds out the sphere.
brightens and dims in an almost flash, and a couple of the other lightdrinkers nearby also bright-flash, and they flicker amongst themselves for a few brief moments. Then: “The shape is the same no matter how it is (rotated). That is a very (smooth) object you made.” It sounds perplexed. “It is a (colour) of (Light) that I can detect and understand but (tastes) strange and (sharp) to me. Not unpleasant. Just strange.”
: “Are you well? You are emitting liquid.”
: “I took the light from me, to witness my flourishing can be reduced, and yet live. I will live, I am strong.”
: “That is good. I am glad. Sometimes when (living things) emit liquid it means that they are very dim and about to (go out). I would be sad if that happened. We have only just met.”
grins and snorts, amused. “I’m made of tougher stuff than most. But now… what to do with the gathered gnosis, without reabsorbing it?”
shrugs his shoulders and throws the sphere straight up, and gets ready to extradimensionally spike it on its way back down.
- The Awoken invoked their 🌌liminal gnosis [d6] -> 6! It ✨explodes!
- The Awoken invoked their 🌌liminal gnosis [d6] -> 4.
- The Awoken spent 2 Arete and now has 1 remaining.
ꙮ Ascension!
- The Awoken‘s 🌌liminal gnosis has ascended unto the 8ᵗʰ rank.
- The Awoken invoked their 🌌liminal gnosis [d8] -> 8! It ✨explodes!
- The Awoken invoked their 🌌liminal gnosis [d8] -> 6.
ꙮ For goodness’ sake.
ꙮ There’s a vertiginous warp-ripple out from the Awoken that all the Lightdrinkers react to with a flurry of shimmering; then the sphere drops and he spikes it, and it goes in a direction which is not a visible one - there’s a trill, a harmony lingering in the air, the complex overlay of wavelengths of light, a precise zero-point solution to a complex equation, all at once before a cool breeze kicks up around the Awoken, and dispels it. The gnosis is not here any more. It is gone. The Lightdrinkers flicker and shimmer and bright-flash, repeatedly, in complicated patterns, for a few moments, without any of them saying anything. ⁂
ꙮ Somewhere else, very far away, unseen by anyone present, a sphere of gnosis sails through the air, slowing down and slowing down mid-trajectory before finally coming down on a bumpy obsidian surface, rolling and rolling until it bumps into an odd pile of ancient leather. Two eyes blink in utter bafflement. ⁂
shimmers in curiosity. “You (poured) it into a (keyhole|abruption)‽ That was so strange! I cannot sense the trace of it. Like a fracture mended.” 🙧
: “It was an exceptionally great shot!” he cheers out, not really caring who hears. “I knew I had it in me.”
is a sessile crystal, under most circumstances. It cannot lean forward in confusion wondering where entities like the Awoken keep things like exceptionally great shots that they apparently contain within themselves. (Living things) are exceptionally interesting. This remains true. It flickers to the other Lightdrinkers. They shimmer in amusement, and flicker back. After a few moments: “…this pertains to peril, then? We listen and we (rotate), and there is a facet dimmed to us.”
: “Yeah, something like that. Like if something had too much flourishing gnosis, and you needed to take the edge off of it.”
: “Still working out the details on that one.”
: “But after that, I’m pretty sure I can make it work.”
: “But…” Some rippling back-and-forth. “In the deep-bright, when there is more Light than is needed by the world, we simply drink deeper of it.”
runs a hand over his mouth, eyes shifting about in thought, at times catching glances at the Lightdrinker’s edges.
: “You drink of the light… do you hunger for the light?”
thinks for a few minutes. A bit more rippling back and forth. Finally: “It illuminates me. Without Light I would be a rock. With Light I am Hsieoañth. I make Light into more of Hsieoañth. It is always useful to have a little bit more of me. What if I have to show a new-stranger-friend that I do not possess (feet|roots)? I know that (living things) hunger. It is why they put other (living things) into their body. I do not put (living things) into my body for any reason. It would be very strange for me to do that.”
scrunches up his lips for a few heartbeats of a moment, and then exhales a small sigh. He walks forward, and rests his forehead on one of the Hsieoañth surfaces. “Of course. Maybe I overgauge the task beyond.”
: “A passionate red may engage, but I doubt it would enthrall quite like those of meat and tendon.”
: “(…it still might, but…)”
is quiet for a bit, and then groans and twists and now he’s doing like a half-bridge, twisting with his head still on the rock, except now he’s arched backwards.
: “Almachadta will be saved! It must!” he blurts out.
springs forward, and rolls his neck along his shoulders, and swings an arm to stretch it.
: “I thank you, Hsieoañth! Without your reflection, I see a path that might expend too much and aim not enough.”
ripples in fond, amused confusion. “…I am glad you care about my world, Awoken. Two complex geometries cannot ever see all of the facets of each other. Not even under (rotation) with a (fixed axis). But I see that you shine brightly. I appreciate the light of that on my surfaces. I am glad if I can refract and reflect it in ways which (advance advantageous metabolic processes) you even if I do not see the facets of it.”
: “That shine isn’t just me, either!” He gives a thumbs up, and then holds out his wrists, and spins around.
: “These cuffs, this sparkle of the mantle, made by an Almachadta local!”
: “Iosi, the dyer, tailer, weaver, all-purpose designer of Kesset!”
: “Echo the name through the makeshift caverns of the Courtyard, O gossipy rock!”
shimmers contentedly, and there’s some flickering, and then a few of the crystals light up excitedly, and there’s more flickering. “Iosi who stays at Kesset! They are recalled. One season they made one of us a shawl. It had tiny crystals in the weave that caught the Light beautifully. It was very funny to be wearing clothes. We will recall even more shining beauty to their name now.”
: “Heheh, I understand now about needing lots and lots of fabric to fully clothe all of you!” He begins to walk again, arms swinging in the light. “So! Can you sense the light of smells, too? Oh, a smell is… well, most creatures use these–” he points at his nose, “-or similar orifice, and I figure a baked pie will have steam coming out, which is like seeing a smell, but sometimes they’re more subtle, like an applied perfume…”
ꙮ …and the two of them chat about various and sundry (organs of observation) for a little while, with the other Lightdrinkers in the gallery pitching in, until the Centrelight begins to dim.