Scene Archives

brings the sample of quintessence he kept for himself to the laboratory in the 36th. He checks to be sure it’s Bubbled out of a force of habit, though he quickly realizes it would be silly for it to not be - here, in the heart of discovery, invention, and truth-seeking, where outcomes large and small can upheave all that one believed they knew of the world. He carefully sets the jar down on the laboratory table, arranging a complex set of instruments around it, preparing to begin a formal inspection of the sample’s qualities. “Now to see if he shows up,” he mutters to himself, thinking of the note he slid under a particular door on his way down to the partially-submerged research space.

: “Aurelius - come to the lab in 2S. I want your insight on something. -Archie,” the note had said.

arrives… more or less on time? A Cartogrix (the same he had summoned on Almachadta? A different one? It’s hard to tell) is floating behind him as the door opens - you catch a brief glance at one of the more detailed maps of the Tower’s you’ve ever seen, before it and the fiend are both dismissed as Aurelius steps through the door and peers around the lab curiously.

waves to Aurelius amiably. “Over here!,” he says, gesturing to the laboratory work table. “I’m about to study our little souvenir from the Obsidian Road and I wanted you to be here for it. It seemed like you knew something about this?”

: “Oh the void mud?”

: “Void mud, reality-mud, around these parts you might hear people call it quintessence. Though I should warn you, it’s only been theorized to exist here, nobody’s actually seen it before. Might be a good idea to not mention that we’re carrying it around in our pockets.” He smiles, and there’s real warmth in it despite the warning.

flicks his eyes upward, directing his smile at Nothing In Particular.

: “Quintessence… Oh. Okay I get it.”

: “That’s kinda funny.”

: “Arguably, the only thing people like more on Samudra than good research is an even better pun.” He starts fiddling more with the instruments, calibrating the sensitivity of various scopes and measurements.

: “Have been starting to get the sense of that, yeah.”

lets his smile fade slightly into a more pensive expression. “Seriously, though, how are you adjusting to your time here so far?”

: “Hmm…” He tilts his head from side to side. “Better than some of the others, I think? Suddenly not being able to say secrets feels like it’s making them burn a hole in my pocket, but otherwise.” He rolls a shrug. “Fairly use to compartmentalizing so it’s not as big of an adjustment as it could be. Seeing the ocean with my own eyes finally is nice too.”

nods. “The ocean is indeed nice! I didn’t realize I missed it so much. And I mean, you can still say secrets, it’s just a question of where and to who. But I get it. It’s strange to navigate, I think. Anything that can be destroyed by the Truth should be, the Academy says, but reality isn’t that simple. Truth can destroy a great many things, and many of them are worth preserving. I found out that Solei’s home was destroyed by a thought-storm caused in part by me going missing and Thesis, who you now know as Synthesis, shattering. Those things were true, but if you asked Solei if that means it was right for his home to be destroyed, he’d probably at least have to try really hard to not think about slapping you across the face.” He sighs a little. “Big questions and the people who ask them only get rewarded so long as they don’t destroy the world in the process, and everyone’s so scared to blow up the world that the truths they go in search of become smaller and smaller. Knowledge still gets produced, but not about the things that matter most.”

: “Oh, yeah. That’s… specifically what I meant. I have more than one of those rolling around… and didn’t particularly feel the need to mention any of them… until we got here, and people kept poking at the edges of some of them. Which kind of… makes me want to scream about it? But. Well, we’re not.” He glances over to the side, then up, then focuses on the instruments surrounding the jar of mana-mud.

lets a rueful smile play across his lips. “I mean, if you need to scream about it, nobody’s down to hear you but me. And given that I’m the most practiced at eidesis out of any of us, I’m comfortable saying I can handle it, whatever it is.”

: “It’s probably better to bring up with everyone once we leave, I think? Just get it all out there in the open.” He considered for a moment. “Though I will say acknowledging an undefined presence that may follow certain people around when the potential danger of a thought storm exists seems... dangerous.“

looks curious. “Follow certain people around? If you’re talking about bird guy, I thought he was more or less permanently attached to you at this point?”

: “I don't think you've ever acknowledged my presence beyond the one time I made it abundantly clear, either.“

nods. “It was surprising. I didn’t know what to make of it. Honestly, I still don’t. But the fact that you’re sensitive to the risk of thought-storms makes me feel a little bit more at ease, I think. I was worried that you’d consider such concerns beneath you.”

: “Ahaha. No... no. When anything can happen... there's nothing more dangerous than a stray thought that becomes a meme.“

raises an eyebrow.

releases a bit of tension in his shoulders he didn’t notice was there. “Well, we can agree on that, at least. And we seem to be largely aligned in purpose, considering that you haven’t tried to sabotage anything we’ve done. I want to know more about you, but I also want to know about this,” he says, gesturing back towards the jar. “Do you have any insights of your own on that front?”

considers for a moment. “Well… to my eyes at least, it looks like… stale mana? I think we’ve heard of places where it’s naturally inclined to congeal as mud, but it’s not something I’m familiar with.”

nods. “I’m not sure if I’d consider it stale, considering how readily it reshapes itself into anything other than what it is. You know, there’s an idea I’ve heard from more philosophically-inclined parts of the Academy. It suggests that there’s no singular way for a person to be - no one universal way to be an academic, or an Irós, or even a man or a woman - but that things and people exist on an infinite plane which gestures towards an end point without ever getting there. Becoming-academic, becoming-Irós, becoming-man, becoming-woman… it seems to me like quintessence is becoming-gnosis. Which makes me wonder how it might respond to attempts to singularly define and know it.”

: “Hmm… I… think that makes sense? Maybe stale wasn’t the right word, more…” He scratches at his chin. “Stagnant? I am… not positive, but pretty sure it’s actually defusing into gnosis, rather than transforming into it? Back on Almachadta we… weaved a bunch of gnosis back into mana, which seems to restore it’s, uh… potential… potential…? And the mud feels like that, but inert? Stable as itself. No clue why it can’t hold its form outside of the void, though.”

nods. “Well, I think we might hopefully get some answers here.” Satisfied with his calibrations, he peers through the crystal lenses of the scopes one at a time, furiously scribbling down measurements and readings.

.

quickly pulls away from the lenses as he senses the pull reaching a tipping point. “Okay, that was about as weird and difficult as I expected.” He sighs slightly, but there’s a smile to it. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy, and it would be disappointing if it had.

: “What exactly are you trying to do, anyway?”

: “Figure out the properties of this stuff. We already had an idea of what it is, though the results from that experiment confirmed it, so that’s nice. But I want to understand the how and why of its function. If it’s true that this is becoming-gnosis and may be the fundamental building block, not just of all five worlds, but of Sanctuary itself, it seems like there’s a lot we could do with it if we knew how.”

: “Oh. Yeah.”

: “For what it’s worth, I am… fairly certain that if you open the jar with something very specific, held in your mind with intent, it’ll also… attempt to become that instead of the ambient gnosis in the air, as well?”

: “Worth a try, and it might confirm another theory. If I’m able to form it into a solid, tangible thing just by focusing on it, it’ll go a long way to confirming that all matter may be derived from at least quintessence, if not gnosis itself. Besides, I’ve got one more jar of the sample. I packed one for Caion, one for Solei, one for myself, and one for emergencies.” Heeding Aurelius’s words, he retrieves the jar from the table, holding it in his hands. “Do me a favor and tell me what happens from your perspective? Having a second set of eyes on this will be helpful later, I think.”

: “Of course.”

closes his eyes and focuses hard on a simple material and form. Familiar. Best to keep it simple, for now. A single pebble, perfectly round, formed from sediment and polished to smoothness from the erosion of the tides. He thinks about how it would look and feel, and with all of his senses attuned to the idea of a pebble, he unscrews the jar, bringing it close to his face.

flickers for a moment, then concentrates as time slows down around him for a fraction of a second.

: “… Hahaha.”

opens his eyes at the sensation and nearly accidentally flings the pebble as he launches into excited celebration at the experiment’s success before hastily putting it down on the table and then resuming to do something halfway between a jump and a prance around the lab. “We did it! We did it! First Fucking Principles, We Did It!”

: “Oh man, it would have been… embarrassing if that only worked for me.”

stops mid-victory prance. “What.”

: “That’s… basically what we did when Jorule made the statue, and just a step below from when he turned it into an Artifact. You take raw mana, and you weave it into something… else, something more solid, more real.”

nods. “And you only thought to mention that now because…?”

: “I could almost see you exerting your own…” He tilts his head in one direction. “…Not quite KP, but I guess the nearest thing…? There was an aura of what you call quintessence flowing out of you, during the process, for a fraction of a second.”

: “Well. It wouldn’t have been very important it if was something only I could do.”

: “Or… hm.”

: “Hold on that’s not the best way to describe it.”

: “This is kind of weird since I’m not, uh, a classically trained scientist and a lot of Shade work is really intuition based.”

: “But. There was a not exactly tangible, but perceivable type of energy that surrounded you and helped you exert your will upon the quintessence as it took shape. Which kind of reminds me of a different kind of magic that you don’t have here, either, which is interesting and is making me fairly certain that gnosis is defused mana, like I thought.”

: “Does the word Dryad mean anything to you…? Probably not but eh.”

shakes his head. “I can’t say it does. You must be used to a different system of ontologizing categories than I am.”

: “Yeah, the one I’m used to… mana is the basic building block that everything is made out of, and you can use it to generate eight different flavors of magic.”

: “The one I was kind-of-but-not-really sensing from you would be like… the magic of Old things. Old by way of tradition.”

: “…Which makes a sort of sense, as it was following the procedures of an old ritual.”

: “And it was. Really, really interesting seeing willpower in that form.”

tries to reclaim some of his initial excitement and almost succeeds before letting himself slump a little. “Well, I’m glad that there are still some things which you find interesting and edifying, at least,” he says, barely containing the sullen attitude creeping into his tone.

tilts his head to one side. “…Was mentioning that you played some part in shaping it bad…?”

makes eye contact with Aurelius for the first time since they entered the lab. “No, I appreciated that. What I appreciate less is your apparent instinct to withhold potentially relevant information, only to come in with a blasé, seen-it-all-before attitude. I’m not sure if you intend to do it, but I don’t appreciate being patronized or having my accomplishments diminished, and it comes at the expense of the sense of curiosity and exploration that will allow us to give our worlds their needed changes.” He takes a deep breath. “I invited you down here as some kind of… peace offering, I guess? I wanted you to see and know that I care about you. The things you say, the ideas you contribute. I wanted you to see that I trust you, too, enough to be here with me as I’m doing significant and potentially worlds-altering experiments. I know you feel like I’ve been hard on you lately. Maybe I have. And I know that we’re in this together and on the same side. I don’t want to make it any harder than it has to be. But I need you to be willing to meet me halfway, here. And sometimes it feels like you’re so caught up in wanting to seem special that you’re not willing to make that effort.”

closes one eye and tilts his head back towards the ceiling as Archie talks. When he’s finished Aurelius takes a look around the room once, finds a chair, then pulls it out and takes a seat in it after turning it to face in Archie’s direction. “Okay. Um. Where to even start.”

finds another chair and sits across from him, leaning in, listening attentively.

: “Probably with the blase thing. I don’t…” He scratches at the back of his head. “I don’t really mean anything by that. I think flippancy is just kind of my natural default state…? I think I am beginning to see that this is… perhaps, less normal and acceptable than it was back home? The worlds can be… very different in ways that aren’t always so obvious. So. I don’t necessarily want to apologize for the way I talk, but I do want to apologize if it is causing misunderstandings.”

nods thoughtfully.

: “Secondly. I think all of us are a bit guilty of having a natural instinct to withhold information. Which may be something we collectively need to work on as a group. But I do think we’re getting there, and… things like this are probably helpful in that regard. Sometimes it is intentional, but often it’s just - not even knowing something is a revelation to someone else? If that makes sense.”

: “Thirdly, I do appreciate you making an attempt to reach out to me. I have been informed this is… something I am not so good at doing myself. And is maybe something I should put a bit more active effort into doing. So. Thank you for that.”

: “As for being patronizing… That was not ever my intent, for what it’s worth. I was happy to see your experiment was a success, actually, and was curious about parts of the process I hadn’t even thought to guess at before. Maybe it’s a tone thing? Awa tells me I spend a lot of time in my own head which is…. probably true.”

: “And the final thing… uh.”

: “… From my, admittedly highly skewed perspective … I … am a bit of an outliner in terms of … normalcy….? But then again, so are all of us, really. Quite frankly, I think I would probably be quite content to be a bit less special, but that train seems to have well and truly passed. If it feels like I’m deliberately playing it up, please know that it’s not. I do not wish to step on anyone’s toes.”

takes a moment to let the words sink in. “I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve misjudged you. Flippancy isn’t really a thing on Samudra. We keep conversations light and flowing out of necessity, but I’d say ‘guarded sincerity’ is more of the vibe here, so it’s not something I’m used to. I’m glad you’re not apologizing for that, you shouldn’t, and I promise to make more of an effort to understand that about you from here on. Though when we’re talking to people outside of our group, just so long as we’re on Samudra, it might be wise to keep it in check ever so slightly. But you’ve been good about that, at least for the most part, and I want to give you credit where it’s due. “ ⁂

nods slightly.

: “And I appreciate you being excited about the experiment and helping me compare it to things you’ve seen before. That’s really helpful, actually. I want to know more about how mana is thought about where you’re from, though that might be a conversation for another time. As for withholding information… it’s true, there have been times I’ve snuck around a bit on my own here and there. I’ve done my best to share anything big that comes up, I just figure nobody probably wants to wait around for me to do the boring bits. And honestly, when I’m really focused on a task and doing my work, I’ve been told my demeanor shifts quite a lot. It can be a little… off-putting, for people who aren’t used to it. And I like you all, and I want you to like me, so I’ve been a little hesitant to let you all see that side of myself. But maybe that’s something I can work on, too. And if there’s ever anything you want to know, just ask. Like you said, sometimes it’s hard to know what’s a revelation and what’s not. But I’m glad I brought you down here and that we got to talk about all this. Is there anything else we want to talk about so long as we’re here? I’m starting to get hungry, I may head to the food development labs and see what they’ve been cooking up.” He smiles a little. “I did warn you, we like a good pun here.” 🙧

: “Ahaha. They can’t be any worse than mine or Salme’s” Aurelius smiles, just a bit. “In the grand scheme of things we haven’t really known each other all that long, really so… Well. I think it’s understandable some the feelers are still a bit tangled, but they should be able to sort themselves out. But yes, it’s… always hard to know what exactly a person themself might find boring that could be utterly fascinating to someone else, especially. I can definitely related to you on that point, at least.” There’s a pause where he seems like he’s about to get up, especially after the mention of a late lunch, but while they’re still in the bubbled lab: “Actually there is. One thing. That’s been eating me up. … What’s the deal with the d20?”

sighs. “That’s a really good question, and one I’m still figuring out myself. What we know so far is that the geode we came out of seems to have been built to protect it, that the fact it was missing from the geode is why there was all the static in the portal to Samudra that I had to find a way around, that it seems to be imbued with some great power of a nature not fully understood, that its name in Ancient texts - ‘kleis’ - can be alternatingly translated as a literal key or a metaphorical symbol of authority, that it’s probably not the only one (though we don’t know if the others will be the same shape or type of object), and that the Architect or whatever took me to Sanctuary either didn’t want to or couldn’t take it away from me.”

: “kleis… key… in the geode… portal static… … You think it might be a tuning device?”

: “It’s possible. The portal static seemed more like active interference than a lack of tuning, though. If it just wasn’t tuned properly I would expect a single but relatively stable fault, while the portal static seemed to actively resist attempts at being identified and quieted. My current best theory is that it was created by the Ancients, though for what purpose is still unclear. Part of me wonders if having just the one will be enough or if we’ll need to get them all, eventually. But if it’s related to the Ancients, all should become clear enough once we get to a point where we’re ready to head north.”

: “Hmm. Interesting, I wonder if we’ll have time to go back to the geode and fuck with it a bit or not.” He mumbles, mostly to himself, “why twenty sides though, it’s not like that aligns with any of the cosmological shit here… hmm…”

: “Wait, one? There’s more than one?”

: “Platonic solid, maybe? I’m not clear on the reason for the shape or material, either. As for the number, I’m not sure, it’s hard to say. The gnosis on Samudra flows on currents, and the geode is where the most of them converged. It’s possible there are more on other convergence points or it’s possible that this is the only one. If we want to be sure, I can track down the second-biggest confluence of currents, since if there’s nothing there it’s unlikely they’ll be anywhere else. What I’ve been able to translate of the Ancient texts have been remarkably unhelpful on this question.”

: “Ahh, okay I think I see that could be worth looking into…” Aurelius tilts his head. “…Did you feel different just now?”

That was an error. A moment, if you would.

looks up at Nothing In Particular. “They giveth and they taketh away.”

: “…Ah. Okay.”

: “…On THAT note because I’m not addressing it, I could go for some lunch.” Another pause. “And, also. I… do intend on letting everyone know about… all my stuff, for what it’s worth. Once we’re back in the void.”

nods. “I’ll look forward to it. And hey, seriously? Thanks.” He puts the instruments back away carefully and makes his way to the elevator-sphere to go to the food development facilities.

nods seriously, and follows behind.