Scene Archives

After some quiet contemplation, Unua decides to go looking for Aurelius. Something is still nagging at them from earlier.

is probably easy to find, all things considered. He’s probably the only fox eared meta-human relaxing in the hotsprings, all the while wearing dark welding glasses and slowly nursing ale from a comically small cup. (There’s a small, personal keg behind him he periodically refills the tiny cup from)

eventually remembers that the humans often enjoy sitting and exercising in large quantities of water for rest and relaxation, and goes to the spring. They walk up to Aurelius….and awkwardly stand for a minute, before sitting down near him, outside the spring. “The music played earlier?”

: “That was us yeah.”

nods. “I had assumed as much. Not in a rite this time, I hope. I…would like to talk about the Beast, if that is not troubling to you or your memory.”

: “Naw, in both cases. Go right ahead.”

: “There are currently many holes, but many details. I would like to know what you remember about the fiends on the Beast. I suspect that our world is subject to a similar…overflow? or hoarding? of red mana, in the way that Archie and the King told us that this world is eating itself with green mana.”

: “Hmm… hard to say? I don’t think I ever really noticed any particular uptick in their spawn rates, but I’m not nearly as old as you are either.”

: “Pretty easy to find in the wilderness, occasionally pulling themselves out of the fiend engine to cause problems for Queenstown, not so easy to find we can’t build farms and smaller towns and outposts…?”

: “This is true. The fiends have always been ever-present, coming forth from the Beast. But in the time of my life, they have…grown. Sometimes physically, but they have also grown mentally. When I was young, I noticed that the fiends that had previously acted with an animal type of intelligence and instinct, would occasionally exhibit human-like behavior. As I continued to observe them, I saw that they began to lay in ambush, instead of charge haphazardly. Eventually, even the hunters noticed that the fiends were more dangerous. Though many of them disagreed with my assessment. I worry that the volatility and violence of our red mana is growing into fiends more and more violent. (a moment) I am worried.”

: “Hmm. Yeah, that stands to reason.” Sip from the cup, refill. He then offers what’s left of the keg itself to Unua. “I figure all five of the known worlds are probably facing some kind of existential crisis in one form or another. Couldn’t tell you why the Architect said the worlds were already dead and not ‘doomed’ or whatever, but, there’s gotta be a kernel of truth there.”

upends some of the keg into their mouth. “Ale continues to be a strange taste to me, even here. The Architect seems the type to throw away something good and salvageable in search of something new and perfect. Enjoys the creation, but not the maintaining.” Unua gently places the keg back down. “The worry is also, selfishly, not just for the world, but also for me. I am have always understood my role to be a protector. A Peacekeeper. Both for Queenstown, but also for the Endjinn, and even the fiends. They live, perhaps not as we live, but they live all the same. It is difficult to know who to protect. It is unclear if I am a peacekeeper….or a warning.”

: “Here it seems simpler. We must fight the infection in the forest. Home…will be much more difficult for me.”

: “I mean… Hmm. All you can really do is face whichever way your heart tells you to and believe in cases like that. Or turn your mind off completely and listen to someone else.” He rolls a shrug. “Seems like there’s a lot of going around though. Would you believe I just watched someone have a near break down because they weren’t actually sure saving the forest from itself was the ”right“,” and he lifts both hands up here to danger quote the word, “thing to do? I guess it’s pretty easy for anything you’re close to feel more complicated than it might to an outside, but. Personally, I think at the end of the day what matters most is what you yourself wanna do, how your actions will make you feels, and what actions you can and cannot live with yourself taking or not taking as they come.”

: “I do not understand how it could not be, but it is, as you say, less close to me, here. If I chose to attempt to stop fighting fiends, unless all choices had been exhausted, would you allow me to do so? I know many of us enjoy the hunt.”

: “Not like we couldn’t fight each other, or focus primarily on the monsters. If you think you got a good shot at making peace with the fiends and bringing them into the fold? By all means take it, and I’ll back you up to the best of my ability.”

nods. “Many thanks then, friend Aurelius. I know not my chances. Only what I must do. And eventually, where I must go. I will not allow anyone else to be harmed for my cause. But I appreciate that I will not have to fight two battles at once.”

: “Of course. We’re all in this together.” He nods in return, before taking another sip. “Unconventional solutions to problems from time to time to spice things up are always fun, anyway.”

: “After jumping through a hole in the universe…I suppose embracing the unconventional is now our M.O. Shall I fetch you another keg?”

: “If’n ya don’t mind.”

: “Not at all. I understand that removing oneself from the water is unpleasant.” Unua goes off to procure another keg, and also, another glass.