ꙮ There was science to do, wasn’t there, the next time you made it to the Obsidian Road? And this time around, Caion’s there, and he wouldn’t miss it for the world, and has put down his frantic work with his tomestone for the time being.
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rushes to meet him in the middle of the town square beginning to take shape on the Road, his white-and-blue Academy robe billowing behind him as he joyously sprints the whole way from the ziggurat, laughing. “Ready to clear your mind with a little experiment for old times’ sake? Potentially for current times’ sake, too, if we learn of productive ways to apply our results.”
is easy to see, just a ways off. They have several jars of mud, that they keep filling, attempting to prime, and emptying, as if something’s just not quite right.
grins, laughs, braces his staff in his crystallized arm in a careful way he’s gotten quite good at in order to hug Archie with the other arm, and gives a smiling nod to Luĉja. “That I certainly am, love.” And then, pitched louder and in the Endjinn’s direction: “Something the matter?”
turns to wave to Luĉja and notices the concern in his body language.
tosses a jar over their shoulder. “I cannot prime these with liminal gnosis. I do not know if I am not familiar enough, or if my process is flawed.”
catches it defly, examining the jar. “We’ve been calling this substance, other than reality-mud, quintessence. Perhaps liminal, being the sixth gnosis to quintessence’s five, doesn’t fit? I’ll take a try at it just to confirm your findings, but it might end up being that liminal gnosis can only be added under other conditions.”
: “Given everything we know about it, it would not surprise me if it refused to play by the rules.”
turns to Caion. “You mentioned studying liminal gnosis on Samudra in our absence. Would you like to try working with me for the infusion? Maybe liminal gnosis, existing as it does between in the space between points, would be easier to work with if perceived from multiple perspectives simultaneously.”
: “Not going to say no to attempting to develop a new experimental protocol with you, my love. Oh, hello.”
is dangling off of something in midair, face and front paws visible, some distance away, observing.
: “The things one rapidly learns to accept as normal.”
laughs. “You spent enough time as Emissary that you should be well-practiced at that particular form of eidesis. Imagine what it was like for me to exit the Archives and enter all this! But I don’t think I mind our extra observer, I think it means to give us some luck. Shall we?” He extends his hands outward, both clasped around the base of the jar.
reaches out his good hand to touch the jar with Archie, and keeps his gaze fixed on it…
ꙮ …and it’s not that it doesn’t work, exactly, but it immediately flickers back into Quintessence the moment you channel liminality into it, it’s impossible to keep it in its liminal state. But, you think, you -could- probably still use this for infusion experiments.
: “Fascinating. The good news is, there’s so much liminality here, that we should be able to test adding it to radiant and tenebrous gnosis easily. We just might not be able to take this experiment on the road.”
nods thoughtfully. “Nothing wrong with your approach at all, then, Scholar-Luĉja. I wonder if the resistance to liminality is unique to quintessence. One way to find out!”
: “Indeed. Shall we repeat as last time? I’ll take one starting gnosis, and you the other?”
takes a step back, and watches, avidly, with as much gnosis-sense as he can summon.
flicks his spectacles on, with a tap and a wink to their maker. “You seem well-attuned to radiant gnosis. I don’t have any particular talent with tenebrous, but I can give it a shot if you’re ready to begin?”
: “No time like the present.” Luĉja channels radiance into a single point, coalescing it into another one of their stones.
focuses his attention towards the contents of his jar. His first attempts to work with tenebrous gnosis came with his effort to add features to his robe on Mu, but tenebrous gnosis felt strange to him then, surrounded by such oppressive light. Here, working with a substance much more readily willing to accept the tenebrous influence, he focuses on the sensation of it, how it feels to channel it into the quintessence. “Good practice for Valaïs, I suppose,” he mutters to himself, inspecting the result.
ꙮ Radiant 4 for Luĉja and Tenebrous 4 for Archie, if you please?
- Archie invoked their ⚫tenebrous gnosis [d4] -> 2.
- Archie spent 2 Arete and now has 4 remaining.
- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight invoked their 🟡radiant gnosis [d12] -> 10.
- Archie invoked their ⚫tenebrous gnosis [d4] -> 3.
- Archie spent 1 Arete and now has 3 remaining.
ꙮ Ascension!
- Archie‘s ⚫tenebrous gnosis has ascended unto the 6ᵗʰ rank.
- Archie invoked their ⚫tenebrous gnosis [d6] -> 4.
ꙮ One jar glows bright, and one jar grows shadowy, and leading edge points of bright light and cold black smoke shoot up out of the jars, and towards the two stones– one of them glows, softly, with a golden light, seems to get heavier as you look at it, and the other– almost translucent, and cold to the touch. They’re both prepared for a liminal infusion!
appreciates the work so far and notes the qualities of each material before refocusing, knowing this will be the challenging part. He feels for the wrinkles in the fabric of reality like what the Prince described in the kitchen all-too-long-and-yet-not-so-long ago.
looks very carefully at their stone, and attempts to channel liminal gnosis into the weave, attempting to focus on weaving a mystery into structure. Breaking the rules without breaking the material.
watches with a distinctly entertained expression on her face; you can’t see it, but you have the feeling she’s lashing her tail from side to side.
ꙮ And you can’t hold the liminality in one place, for very long, but it’s so easy to coax out of the quintessence, here…
: “…I have a silly idea. What if you… rolled the stones in a little bit of the gunk, so then you could just transmute it and immediately fuse it with the stone?”
: “Silly ideas are only silly if they don’t work. Except for my idea of starting our food-stealing bit. Even when that one works, it’s still silly.” He delicately grabs the tenebrous stone, feeling as though it might turn to smoke in his hands, and gently rolls it in the quintessence.
: “I didn’t say it was a bad idea, I said it was a silly idea.” He grins.
nods and coats their rock in void-mud, and tries to pin the transmutation down this time.
ꙮ And this time, it works perfectly - the quintessence shimmers, and instantly sinks into the rocks– and you’re left with two very shiny, freshly-alchemized chunks of obsidian.
: “I suppose this could have been predicted. The entire…everything here is thick with obsidian.”
: “Yes, but we had to run the experiment!”
chuff-snorts approvingly at Caion.
: “I agree, it helps to confirm. And the results do seem to lend some credence to the theory that the Road is itself the plane associated with liminal gnosis. And we know that when we add the third of the triad, it becomes the same strange substance Salme found and collected samples of. Shall we see what happens if we try to add an irrica gnosis to it?”
: “Couldn’t hurt to try.”
: “That sounds interesting. I shall attempt to add burning to mine, if you have no objections.”
: “None at all. I’ll try with pellucid. And if they produce different results, we’ll know to check flourishing, too.”
ꙮ You both prepare your gnosis jars with not much difficulty - and as you try to funnel pellucid and flourishing gnosis into the obsidian, you immediately encounter a kind of resistance. Do you push onward with it regardless?
turns away from the two Samudrans. Just in case it explodes. It’ll have to go through the aurichalcum first. Luĉja continues.
pauses. “I think it’s worth seeing what happens when we press the issue, but we should do so with some extra precautions in case of… unexpected complications.” He eyes Caion, at the last phrase. “Can you help us prepare some protective circles, just in case?” He turns towards his synomote, seemingly entirely unaware that Luĉja is continuing the experiment.
on hearing Archie’s concerns, Luĉja pulls back a bit, holding steady.
was, as is traditional, one step ahead of Archie, weaving complex rings of tightly-woven gnosis, balancing them against each other in the fingers of his good hand like a figure-eight he’s finger-juggling, sticking his tongue out of the corner of his mouth in fervent concentration, before nodding. “There you go, you little– got it. Here.” And he flicks his wrist, and the two rings settle around each of the little obsidian chunks.
: “Go nuts.”
grins. “You won’t have to tell me twice, love.” He refocuses on infusing pellucid into the stone, pushing gently but firmly, insistently, relentlessly, never letting up the pressure.
lets go his hold and pours burning gnosis into the stone.
ꙮ And the resistance increases, and increases, for both of you, up to a certain point– and without Circling at all the two of you are synchronised enough that both obsidian stones both loudly and abruptly go POP! in almost perfect unison! Archie’s erupts in a wash of Pellucid gnosis that seems stronger, by far, than what got put in in the first place, which cascades against Caion’s shield to no avail; Luĉja is a little bit less lucky, and a fireball of Burning gnosis tries to shoot out in every direction, gets a LITTLE ways in two directions, and then the bright line of fire finally breaks through the last of Caion’s shield! …luckily, by that point it doesn’t do much of anything other than comedically cover Luĉja in soot.
: “…First Principles! Are you all right?” To both of them, but– he could see that Archie was fine, and until Luĉja turns around his voice has a strain of intense concern that gives way to a helpless giggle at the sooty Endjinn.
: “It is good that you are well prepared, Friend-Caion.”
: “I have thoughts on what might occur with flourishing gnosis. When I attempted to deconstruct irrica in the Library, it exploded into a cloud of pollen.”
nods to Caion. “Safe, thanks to you. Hardly for the first time, of course.” He turns to Luĉja. “That does indeed seem to track given what we’re seeing so far. But the relationship between input and output seems interesting, there. Could this explain why Mu’s sun radiates so intensely? The main part of it was irrica, and with Mu being the radiant plane… This may be worth testing the inverse of, once we strengthen our shields a bit now that we know what to expect. Caion, may I help with that? On the road, I’ve been studying the runes for each gnosis used on the other planes, and we’ve found that they not only interlock perfectly, but they seem to offer more protection when layered.”
tilts his head to the side. “What do you have in mind?” He’s already at work weaving a careful, sturdy pellucid structure, bigger and denser than the rings he wove earlier.
: “I have my doubts that Mu is entirely a radiant plane. But no way to test them for now. It is very strange that upon our return, the Ziggurat is accented with Ra’kaznar.”
: “Yeah, Salme had some thoughts about that.” He grins, while he works.
nods. “The one before the many could potentially explain it. It is still strange to me.”
approaches. “Something like this,” he says, remembering the flourishing runes of Almachadta where he, Salme, and Wolf first overlaid circles before being introduced to Jorule, remembering the runes inscribed in the Rite-arenas of Beast, the structures of radiant and tenebrous gnosis woven into each leaf of Mu’s gardens. He lets his hand wander, inscribing each in their proper color, filling in the gaps, elaborating on the parameters.
holds the ring steady, as Archie adds to it, elaborates on it, weaves gnosis through it like embroidery on cloth in a frame- grinning almost indecently at him, at a certain specific deft weave. “Oh. Oh, that’s -brilliant-, my goodness–“
ꙮ …and then you’ve got a fairly sturdy shield for another experimental protocol. What have you got in mind?
: “The reasonable thing to do would be to test adding flourishing into obsidian. The second most reasonable thing to do would be adding radiant or tenebrous into crystal or aurichalcum. The least reasonable thing to do would be to attempt adding a fourth to a three-composite. Or even a fifth or sixth.”
: “I do want to try adding radiant to irrica to see if we can test my hypothesis. We’ve done as much as we can to ensure the safety of the experiment.”
: “I would be happy to attempt it if you are both comfortable holding the wards.” Luĉja produces a piece of irrica from their last set of experiments.
grins dangerously, and holds out a hand. “The wards will hold.”
takes Caion’s hand. “We’ll see to that.”
Is there any room in the weave for radiant gnosis? The simple attempt first, adding another thread of radiant gnosis into the irrica’s pattern, to see if it will take.
ꙮ You try it, tentatively reaching out towards it - and you get an answer remarkably fast; while you think you could probably weave other gnosis around the irrica armature at this point, unlike pushing more gnosis into a chunk of obsidian, it’s smoothly impossible to infuse a fourth gnosis into the irrica.
nods to themselves. Then we try a different way. Instead of a thread alongside the other three, wound round. Using radiance’s tendencies to support, to harmonize. To hold together, instead of to suffuse. Luĉja’s eyes glow slightly brighter.
keeps his attention on the wards, giving Luĉja space to run through his methods and the other discussed experiments, transfixed on the quiet elation of working with Caion for the safety of his friends and respected scholars.
ꙮ As Luĉja works, you can see a thin bright solid-looking line- like a wire, as thin as a wire, but conveying a weight and a heaviness that wire could not- wind itself around the irrica rock, and they don’t repel each other or negatively interact at all.
: “It appears to be stable. Shall we attempt adding tenebrous?”
: “Wards aren’t… having any sorta trouble at all, so…” He gives Archie a quick grin.
returns it before nodding to Luĉja. “We’ve got you covered, Scholar-Luĉja.”
Luckily, there appears to be plenty of tenebrous gnosis about. Luĉja is less familiar with it. They prefer to outlast their problems, rather than put others at risk. But there’s no better time to become familiar with it. They remember Salme’s wind in the caves. They think of The Awoken Prince, who routinely flaunts incredible power, just to try new things. They are glad to have had Clan to learn from. Spiraled around, opposite the radiance. One arm of the spiral holding itself up, the other holding the universe out.
ꙮ Invoke Tenebrous for me, please, difficulty 2?
- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight invoked their ⚫tenebrous gnosis [d4] -> 1.
ꙮ You may [Take Half].
TAKE HALF YOU CURSED DICE
- Luĉja, The Clockwork Knight has gained 1 Arete, and now has 5.
ꙮ It’s funny - you have the remarkably distinct sense that it would be harder for you, were the radiant gnosis not already present, but once you -start- drawing tenebrous gnosis out of the air it’s almost hard to stop, and it weaves into the extant radiance, forming elaborate fractal filigrees - Archie, you’re distinctly reminded of the patterns you noticed, growing on the leaf of the plant back in Mu. You think that you could push it – to become ra’kaznar or to become pearl, if you wished it to - but wound and counterwound around the irrica fragment, they just dance around and interweave with one other in intricate forms.
: “Fascinating.”
: “I believe that I could join the radiant and tenebrous gnosis at this juncture. A tempting next step. Though, we could add the final piece, and see what we come up with. Your expertise and insight would be a great help, Friends-Scholars.”
leans forward. “Brilliant to be able to put visuals to phenomena which Salme described to me in words. Look at the way the two gnoses contextualise each other– with the irrica almost as the terrain, the environment they’re responding to. I feel like I could just watch this for hours.” A soft, delighted laugh. “I think we should try to add liminal and see what happens. What do you think?” He looks at Archie.
: “I agree. It would be interesting to see if we’re able to reconstitute quintessence from its composite gnoses, but even more interesting if we get another result entirely.”
: “I will try without rolling it in the mud first.” Another strand, wound round, started in the center. In and out and in every direction, depending on how you look at it. Liminality confuses Luĉja if they stare too hard, so their focus moves quickly, and they attempt their weaving with haste. By adding the unknown, they hope to discover the secrets it holds.
peers, intently, at Luĉja, while they work, eyes half-closed in pleasant study.
ꙮ You weave the liminal gnosis up and down, and from side to side, and through and back; you take the longest, on this, such that some of the weave-work is then and some is now, and there is a moment when it is impossible to get the gnosis from where it is, to where it needs to be to complete the pattern; it is impossible and you thread it through a weird angle, a direction you can not describe but are increasingly capable of perceiving, and it loops, it touches its own end – ⁂
ꙮ The irrica fragment twists as you watch it, folding strangely around the liminal weave- and the three stray strands braid together and tighten and knot and bend, translating themselves impossibly, expanding outward to one side and then inward on the other, passing through an unseen plane, and then what you are left with is two snakes, one opalescent irrica, one a translucent glassy grey, intertwined with one another, biting on to one anothers’ tail.
: “Together, but separate.”
: “Interconnected. Strange that the gnosis took such a specific form of its own accord.”
: “Fascinating. The non-irrica snake appears to be made of the same glass we saw in the visions at The Heart.”
: “Fascinating indeed.”
holds it up and looks at the Crepuscular Cat through it, as if it were a window.
: “…huh.” He peers at it, committing the moment, and the shape, to memory.
lets out a murble of amused shock, and abruptly vanishes.
stumbles, and catches themselves and the serpents-stone before completely falling.
yelps, and reaches out an arm to steady them, although he really wouldn’t be too much help. “Are you okay?”
: “That was likely better left to someone wiser. Or perhaps to no one.” They look down at the serpents-stone. “None of that made any sense.”
drops the wards, knowing their work is done, and joins Caion at Luĉja’s side. “What do you mean?”
: “It was as if I could see the folds in a fabric of another world. And in front of it, the cat’s smile.”
blinks, repeatedly, and glances at the stone amulet. “I… what -is- that cat?” He shakes his head, incredulously.
: “A good question. And what is this amulet, a good one to follow it.”
tosses it to Archie. “I am unsure, exactly. It appears similar to Salme’s gift to The Scorpion Queen.”
: “Yeah, Salme’s described it to me, and… that’s… strange, that it would form that same pattern.”
: “Perhaps there is some fundamental truth to our world that makes it so.”
catches it, much more harrowingly this time, puffing out a sigh with the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding once his paws find secure purchase on the amulet. “We’ll have to find out more about its significance and where else it may have appeared.”
nods. “I will leave it to the two of you for now. I am in need of a polish, after our reckless infusions.”
attempts to clear some of the soot from their faceplate.