Scene Archives

Tucked away on a loose sheet of paper between two other scenes, the [redacted] will find an entry they do not remember writing down themselves. How curious, though it at least seems to have stuck to standard naming conventions for its header.

The light is just becoming bright enough to crack through the curtains in a certain room on the 36th Tower, early in the morning.

Aurelius groans as the light hits his defenseless eyes, new sunglass having been set upon the dresser before going to sleep last night, and he tosses and turns a few times before realizing this probably isn’t a battle he’s going to claim victory over.

slips into the room, carrying a tray. Her hair is still wet–unbraided and neatly combed–and she’s only wearing her light blue top and skirt in order to keep the more delicate elements of her new outfit from getting soggy. She notes the crack in the curtains, pulls them closed, and turns on a couple soft lamps instead. “I brought breakfast,” she announces.

: “…I guess I’m up. They big on stews here too or…?”

: “There seems to be a lot of fish?” She frowns down at the tray, which seems pretty nondescript and culturally unspecific. They might have to wait for a more narratively convenient time to find out anything more about academy food culture. She sits down on the bed. “You slept in.”

: “I was more tired than normal.” He yawns, then rolls up into a normal sitting position.

: “Whyever could that have been?” She takes a bite of some sort of carbohydrate, and misses the bread from home.

: “Yeah, totally mystery there, Ms. Had Nothing To Do With It At All.” He takes one of the plates of salmon, even daring to call attention to the specific type of fish it is, before producing a pair of chopsticks and eating.

gives him a satisfied smile, before selecting some salmon herself. Actually, there’s–a lot of salmon on this tray. She probably tried some and really liked it and loaded up. “I wanted to return this before I forget,” she says, handing the Traveler’s Guide pamphlet to him.

nods towards it, and it’s gone, before pointing the pair of chopsticks in Salme’s direction. A moment later a copy of “Concerning the Structure of the Inquiring Mind” appears, perfectly balanced upon her head.

: “Easy to mix up, I’m sure.”

laughs, and grabs the pamphlet off her head. “Absolutely. You’re not going to ask me why I borrowed it?”

: “I have looked at your pen-pal correspondence once or twice,” He says lazily while shoving more food into his mouth. “Tho if not that, then, honestly not really. Assume you wanted to look something up or show someone something? And that’s what it’s there for.”

: “I did. I thought Wolf might want a look. I talked to him about his Spicy Sun Adventures.” She enjoys a particularly exquisite bite of salmon, and then keeps talking. “I also maybe. Pushed him to talk to you about your miscommunications. So I wanted to give you fair warning too.”

: “…Miscommunications?”

: “All seems fairly deliberate to me, but alright.”

: “It was a euphemism,” she says, a little defensive and a little tired. “I know I wasn’t going to get involved but. I couldn’t help myself. Shocking, I’m sure.”

laughs a little.

: “You thought you weren’t…?”

: “I just wanted to tell him you made me happy. The rest came out by accident, more or less.” She’s blushing now, and she fails to pick up her next bite of food with her chopsticks, dropping it back onto the plate with an undignified plop.

scoops it up and tosses it into his mouth, chewing a few times before pointing the chopsticks back at her. “With all the love in my heart, ma’am, you are the most nosy person I have ever met in my life and there was no way you weren’t going to try and negotiate a sit down between us.”

frowns at the food theft. “And it sucks that it needs to be negotiated! And it seems to … violate what we talked about. About being accepted for who you are.” She considers stealing some of his food, but decides quickly she’d lose that battle. “And I didn’t even really negotiate it. I just told him to tell you half the things he told me.”

: “Well, fair enough.”

: “Though, also, part of me liking you for the lovely little ball of everything you are is the nosiness so it’s not like I need you to stay out of my business entirely.”

looks up at him and blushes, again. You’d think after everything this would be happening less, not more! After a moment, she says, “well, that’s good. Since I’m incapable of staying out of your business and don’t particularly intend to.”

: “Would you believe I was good at secrets, once upon a time?”

: “Glad we’ve reached an agreement, and also no, never.”

laughs and then she does try to steal a bite of fish off his plate, but she’s laughing too hard to be successful. “I kept the secret of Almachadta’s cycles for so long, and then. And then! Some bird-fox-lion man and some amnesiac poet come into my life and I’m not just telling them, I’m trying to show them.”

: “Honestly can’t phantom what come over you.” He tosses his non-existent flowing hair over his shoulder, before quickly relocating the rest of the fish into his mouth.

: “Complete, deranged stupidity, I think,” she says, finishing her portion of fish. “Divine madness, if you’re being poetic about it.”

: “And to think it got us all started off on such a good foot forward, too.”

pauses, then more seriously; “I imagine it must have been a bit of a relief though, no longer having to hold all of that in.”

thinks for a moment, and then says, carefully, “it was and it also … wasn’t. The Mask has always been so certain telling anyone was a mistake, and so I was afraid of–that sounds stupid, right? Being afraid of the Mask? But I was. It’s more of a relief now.”

: “Nothing stupid about being concerned about breaking a taboo given to you by a who-knows-how-many centuries old eldritch being.”

frowns. “Eldritch?”

: “Uhh.”

scrunches up his face, himself unsure of how to unpack that one.

: “…Strange, alien and vaguely incomprehensible…? I think that more or less works.”

: “Kinda vaguely spooky and a hint of menacing…?”

: “…Never really thought about the definition of the word before, huh.”

: “Birded yourself well and good there, huh?” she says, wry.

: “T’would appear so.”

: “Is it menacing? Spooky? I never thought that way before.”

: “Also just as weird when you say things like ‘t’would’. Does that come from Annarr or somewhere else?”

: “Well sure but you’ve lived with it for what, eight or ten years? Getting pretty used to anything in that amount of time -“

: “Probably? … Don’t tend to spend a lot of time thinking about where the parts of me exactly pull from. I might NOW that you’ve pointed it out so deliberately, but.”

winces. “See this is. Another thing I wanted to ask you about. Because you’re doing a lot better at this eidesis thing than I am, and–“ she sighs. “We should probably go to the library, as it involves your avian occupier.”

: “Oh, yeah, my eidesis is fucking master level.”

grabs a cup and washes down whatever’s left of breakfast before giving a nod. “Initially thought you were a bit silly for putting the couches in there if we’re being honest by the by, but am glad for them now.”

: “Oh. I guess the couches were me, weren’t they? I had for some reason credited you with them, but that doesn’t make any sense.”

: “Hahaha. I’ve been trying my best to leave the internals to you and not completely take over the project since it was your idea, after all, yes.”

she finishes a final bite of breakfast, then picks up the tray and moves it over to the desk before coming back to the bed, but that catches her off guard. “Oh. But it’s our project, really.” She flops down next to him. “The child comment was maybe a bit much, but … it’s ours. And the fact that you crafted it and continue to craft it with such care is–well. You know.”

: “Well, sure. Though. You must realize I cannot be held accountable for what happens if you just give me the go-ahead to start patching up your code and do whatever, of course.”

: “Mmm. I can still hold you to account, even if it isn’t technically fair.”

: “Damn, girlfriend privileges are powerful.”

: “They are,” she agrees. “Also, you should probably produce the tablet unless you want me to get distracted.”

: “Mmm, you’re the one that wanted to ask questions not me, so it’s not like I’d be entirely opposed…” And he says this, of course, but he’s also placing the tablet down on the night stand with the same breath.

: “See, this is how you make my heart race. ‘It’s not like I’d be entirely opposed.’ The sheer desire and charisma behind such a statement,” she does note the tablet but doesn’t reach for it yet, instead resting her chin on his shoulder.

: “I can, indeed, feel the blush on your cheek as you feign flippancy, yes.”

he can certainly feel her jaw clench as well. “You’re a bad influence. I used to want enthusiastic expressions of interest, but now ‘Goddess, I wouldn’t hate it if you touched me’ passes for a come-on.”

: “I really don’t think I can be held accountable for you being much more of a predator than prey.”

laughs with mixed exasperation and delight (this is starting to become the very specific way Aurelius makes her laugh) and says, “fine. I’ll let myself get distracted and then we can talk,” she says, shifting so she’s in Aurelius’ lap.

: “Okay. But. I am kind of curious now.”

: “(Goddess Aurelius, you’re so annoying.)”

wraps his arms around her waist while making an expression that’s somewhere between apologetic and very much unapologetic.

freezes where she is, in his lap, and stares at him. “Okay. Well. Thank you for letting me embarrass myself first, but what bits of you are doing what here, right now?” waving her hand between them.

: “Honestly I just think you’re cute when you’re bewildered.”

: “That’s me with you a solid half the time, considering the consistently mixed signals.”

lets her forehead thunk against his shoulder gracelessly.

: “It’s Good To Be Aurelius.” Long pause, before he kisses the side of her head and begins to laugh.

holds out a few moments before she also begins to laugh.

: “Sorry, sorry, hahahah.”

: “You’re not sorry at all,” she says, poking him in the side.

: “Well, okay, not really…. so… sorry for that…?”

: “Sorry for not being sorry?” She reaches up and tweaks one of his ears. “Insufferable man.”

: “Aaah, what are you going to do if you pull it off?!” He winces and makes a show of distress while the ear wiggle helplessly in protest.

: “They’re attached! Everything’s attached! I am now very certain of that.” But she loosens her grip and strokes the ear more gently.

: “Hmm, right, you would be.”

: “And to think I ever doubted.”

: “So glad to be working on these trust issues with you.”

: “Me too,” she says, and she’s gone a bit more serious.

does not follow that up with a smart ass comment, and instead leans his head into her hand.

runs her hand through his hair then, thoughtfully, and yes, they do [get distracted]

…Not that you need to see that, of course…

…Anyway.

…Anyway.

, after some time has passed, looks at the tablet still on the nightstand. “Are you still curious?”

: “Even if I wasn’t, (thought really what am I not curious about), I assume you still want to ask, and I’m not about to stop you from indulging.”

raises a thoughtful eyebrow at him, but doesn’t say anything. Instead, she reaches for the tablet and steps into the liminal library, fully clothed with hair braided back into the bun she had worn yesterday. “Oh. Good to know,” she says, looking down at her clothes.

steps through a moment later, looking around. “Mmhmm.”

: “I wonder … if we could change our appearance here, as we desired?”

: “Hmm…”

: “…A couple different avatars? Probably.”

: “Freely… maybe…? Feels like that’d be way harder.”

snorts. “I was mostly thinking clothes, but yes if you’d like to try out waist-length lavender locks, I suppose that’s an option too.”

: “…I was also only thinking about clothes for the record.”

: “Oh.” And then she laughs, chagrined. “Sorry.”

: “Ahaha it’s fine, I mean, hairstyle does kinda factor into outfits…? But more like. Straight vs braids than long vs short.”

: “Snapshots of the various ways you’ve ever entered before would probably be the easiest, hmm….”

makes her way over to one of the central couches and sits, watching him think.

: “Oh, Awa was right. You really do do it.”

: “Huh? Do what?”

: “Immediately try to refine an idea for someone you love, adding and inventing and transforming. Even when it’s something silly, or … it’s just cute.”

: “Oh. I -“ He looks like he’s about to get defensive for a moment, then fully processes all the words and… shrugs it off. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

: “You’re also working on trust issues too, aren’t you?” she says, crossing her legs and then propping her chin up on her hand. “You’re short-circuiting the defensiveness more and more often and letting the sincerity just … exist. I appreciate that.”

: “I don’t know if I’d really call it a trust issue in so much as I’d call it a ‘realizing i dont want to have a stupid argument about something that’s true and doesn’t need explaining further’ thing, but I mean.”

: “…Your welcome in either case, I think?”

: “Yeah, I’ll take it.”

takes a deep breath then, and says, “I wanted to ask about … the song Synthesis composed for us. Your take on it, specifically.”

: “Seemed pretty depressing and fatalistic?”

: “The last part wasn’t? Maybe? But everything that came before was. Certainly something.”

shrugs a little. “I’m sure this comes as a shock but I’m not really one for deeper meanings in looser configurations of words like songs of poems but… Well, that was how it parsed to me, at least. Music did not feel like it was making any effort to be uplifting, either.”

laughs a little, but there’s no humor in it. “No. I was. Struggling to keep it together when I heard it. I thought for sure that would be–I would lose control, and there’d be a storm, and we’d all get hurt. And some of the things were things that bother me, but a lot of them were–Jorule told me. What you saw, when you saw the Polite Visitor. And he told me a bit about Winter, and ‘The universe winds down; that’s how it’s made’ … all of that made me. Concerned. For him and for you.”

takes a seat next to Salme, before taking both her hands into his as well. “I suppose I can see why one might evoke the other but… why worry for us specifically and not… everyone, generally?”

squeezes his hands. “The direct experience element?” she laughs again, that laugh without humor. “‘do not believe you’ll get the chance to choose,’ made me worry about everyone, sure, but that line about the universe winding down …” she shrugs.

: “Well… sure. It definitely spiked a bit of angst and melancholy but… I’m sure it was the same for you too, no?”

that laugh again. “When is it not angst and melancholy with me?” She shakes her head. “But I’m trying to ask about you. You didn’t even–you stayed centered in yourself. How?”

tilts his head to the side in consideration, then after a moment, his tone inflection is exact the same as it was earlier: “Oh, yeah, my eidesis is fucking master level.”

smiles slightly and squeezes her hands. “…But, probably more importantly, didn’t have first hand experience with it myself so it’s easier to just file other memories and experiences away where they need to be.”

: “Your eidesis is fucking master level,” she says appreciatively.

: “Any hints on getting there for a neophyte?”

has several ideas that are immediately discarded in sequence, before raising one of their pair of hands up to his chin. “…I’m not sure I have good advice if we’re being quite honest?”

: “I had at least three fully thought out explanations there, but none of them really seem to fit.*

: “To say nothing of all the more immediately obvious bad advice thoughts.”

: “Like, should I really tell you to go back to pretending that things aren’t happening to you, but the Sword Saint, and to resume simply not feeling things…? It might give you good eidesis, but it’s probably not healthy for you either.”

: “Well,” she drawls. “I think the fact that eidesis is so critical to keeping the world functioning that thoughts are actively harmful is maybe an indicator of what Samudra is missing that Almachadta and the Beast might give it. But point taken.”

: “Living here seems like hell, honestly.”

: “And I don’t think I’m even one of the people that feels things particularly intensively.”

hums in agreement. “I feel like I’m drowning. I do–if we had come here first, maybe, when I was still in the mindset of the Sword-Saint of Almachadta, it might have been fine. But now? I feel like I’m drowning.”

: “I think… maybe thought storms aren’t as common as the wording on the pamphlet might imply? Surely there’s no way people can live normal lives if any strong impulse could cause wide spread ruin. Everything was even fine after we got sucker punched by that song, yeah?”

nods. “It was. Even though–it was fine. But still.”

: “(Hey quick aside while I got you here and we're talking about it - maybe don't ask Wolf more questions about the busybody while we're still here yeah?)“

blinks. “Why? What’s the concern there?”

: “Playing with fire is generally concerning.“

: “But particularly in an oxygen rich environment.“

: “Is Wolf the concern, the busybody, Samudra itself, or something else?”

: “Cross section of the middle two.“

inclines her head in acknowledgment. “Fair enough. I’ll drop it.”

makes a face. “Or sink the thought, as they say.”

: “Awesome and I'll let you get back to whatever the hell you were doing.“

turns his head and coughs.

: “Do you … notice when he does that? Or rather … where are you when he does that?”

: “That specifically? Yeah. … It’s awkward for both of us.”

: “Yes, that, specifically.”

: “Still here but also,” He flails their linked arms a little bit, but without any force.

: “Oh. Weird.” Though she flails their linked arms a little bit in return, mostly just amused at the concept.

: “Yeah. Kinda like trying to shout through a bundle of cloth, while someone behind you is writing words on your back that you have to repeat…?” He tilts his head, not entirely sure if that made any sense at all.

laughs. “Oh that sounds like a stupid game someone has made up somewhere.”

: “It is easy to imagine when you say it like that, huh?”

: “Easy might be an overstatement, but I can imagine it.”

: “Well, close enough.”

squeezes his hands. “I think … that was mostly it. I wanted to make sure you were okay. To hear what you thought about the song and the visitor. And … I guess, to ask how you’re doing. Since you’re carrying a fairly hefty secret yourself.”

: “Aha. Depressing song, funny fish with an audience so specific it’s hard to be frazzled if you’re not them… and I’m doing fine.”

: “Honestly I think he’s more antsy about it the secret than I am, as… well, seems obvious, given the last few minutes.”

: “And you? You think you’ll be okay for a few more days here?”

: “I … think so? I have a lot to keep me grounded,” she says, looking at him seriously. “Which. Thanks for that.” She brings up his hands so she can kiss the back of each. “And as stressful as the thought-disipline is, it is a lovely world.”

looks amused as she pulls their hands up, “(I was just about to do that,)” then nods a few times. “You’re most welcome. And, that’s good. I suppose worst comes to worst we can always retreat back in here to vent anyway.”

: “Should’ve called it the bitching bookstore,” she says.

: “Deeply appreciate you remembered to alliterate it, but,” And his voice takes on that specific tone it does when he’s being particularly… himself. “How could it possibly have been called a ‘bookstore’ if the books will under no circumstance ever be up for sale???”

: “Oh? Did I not mention that part to you either?”

in his dryest, best Salme-esq delivery possible: “No.”

: “Oh, well, to keep us well-funded I was going to auction off the most salacious memories for an enormous amount of … whatever currency for whatever world we’re in.”

: “Right, of course. I think in this case it probably makes the most sense to use the Duelist Mask’s extensive catalogue to get a jump start on the market as fast as possible. Probably start with the most recent ones and work our way backwards? You’ll, of course, need to personally review and extract them.”

nods sincerely. “Of course. That is only practical, though there’s a lot of despair happening in the mask so I might need someone with a better-calibrated sense of what will sell and what won’t to come in and be a second set of eyes. That’s where you come in, of course.”

: “Just so we’re clear you are going to lose the game of Dog Dad Dong deChicken if it starts in earnest.”

: “The game of what?”

: “I -“

: “I really thought that was perfectly clear?”

: “We will hint the point where you have to watch a memory of your father doing something you very much do not want to witness LONG before I cave into embarrassment.”

: “Bold of you to assume I haven’t already seen it. Also, to think I’d back down from a challenge like that.” Her eyes a almost gleaming.

: “Ugh now I’m considering how much I want to waste time on proving you wrong versus how much it’s really just going to be a loss for us both in the long term.”

laughs and kisses him for real. “There really are better things we could be doing. Like a nap. Or more distractions. Or exploring the Academy.”

returns the kiss through his own laugh, somehow. “Or literally anything else at all, yes.”

: “Shall we then?”

nods in agreement.

stands and leads him out of the library and into a new, overcast, Samudran day.