paces the common room, waiting for the knock at the door. Getting in touch with Academy catering was oddly complex, but she filed the appropriate paperwork yesterday and slid notes under everyone’s doors. They really need a better way to communicate with each other when they aren’t standing face-to-face.
No song playing
Up next: 0 songs
1 listening
- The Dragon
Scene Archives
← Active ScenesThe 36th Tower, X
#saint
#hunter
#awoken
#caion
whirls and answers the door when the knock does come, and she looks at the carts of food the caterers have brought. “Oh. That’s. That’s too much,” she tries to tell the harried naiad who’s brought them, but they just give a smile that’s kind of like a grimace and almost flees into the vertical train. Hm. Well.
wheels the carts in. She’s rearranged the common room, and borrowed two long coral tables to hold the spread. The couches are huddled comfortably next to each other, with smaller tables between them and comfortable footstools. It’s a little more like home that way. Sue her.
grabs a long, green feather out of her pouch, and flicks it into the air, her Heli unfolding in a glory of sleek-sheened green feathers. The field flaps once, twice, and finds a comfortable perch. “What if no one comes?” she asks it.
: “Fucking Aurelius and his asshole bird,” Heli replies with her voice.
: “Oh shit. You still have that stored? Uh—please. Forget? Delete?”
: “What’d I do?”
yelps and jumps. “Nothing! It’s a holdover from when we had our fight in the Courtyard Inn. I just.”
: “Fucking Aurelius and his asshole bird. Why do I want to kiss him so badly, Heli?” Heli replies again with her voice.
: “Hmm. I see.”
: “… Or maybe it was after the whole. Gate thing with Jorule. What matters is that it was not recent.“ She stares, exasperated, at the fiend. “Okay. I was really focused on it remembering things, but how do I make it forget unimportant things?”
starts loading the items from the card onto the table. There’s a rainbow spread of raw fish and cooked fish, various steaming bowls of rice, some stews, and two overly-complex plates of sweets.
: “Don’t look at me you’re the one that used a three Unua’s tall mirror.”
gives him a look. Heli, still in her voice, “he makes my heart sing with his hazel eyes and gentle hands and kind words and stupid jokes and I—“
: “That’s enough.” She calls the field back into it’s feather form and tucks it away. “Well. I hope you’re hungry,” she tells Aurelius.
: “Okay,”
: “But did you ever figure out why?”
: “Why what?” she says, pulling out a sheaf of papers and sets a stack of them next to the spread of food, and finally unloads the beverages and—yes, there’s more of that sweet tea, but also water and … several types of alcohol.
: “Why do you want to kiss him so bad?”
looks at him. Flatly. “Not in the slightest.”
: “So enigmatic.”
chooses this moment to wander in through the door, every single pocket of his coat filled with little silver-rimmed, polished black stone rectangles, a truly comical number of the things. “Oh, hallo, Salme, Aurelius.”
: “Why do you say it like that by the way?”
: “I don’t… think anyone else around here does.”
perks up. “Caion!” She moves forward and grabs him into a tight hug, maybe not as mindful of his pockets full of … whatever … as she should be.*
: “Half of my mannerisms come from one specific professor or another who said a particular phrase or a specific word a certain way and trying to untangle which half that is would be a Scholar project on its own and I’ve, literally, got my pockets full as things are.” He grins, gives Salme a big hug right back! The objects seem inert, at least, they just make hugging awkward, and Caion untangles himself and hangs the -entire- coat up on a hook or the back of a chair or Literally Anything he can use, honestly. “Alright, that’s better.”
: “Fair enough. THOUGH. I had also meant to ask, and this one should be easier:”
: “…Is his name really ‘Arcs-Through-The-Depths-Towards-Truth’s-Light’?”
laughs.
also laughs, and smiles fondly as he goes on. “I mean, everyone calls him Archie now. Everyone started calling him Archie almost as soon as I started calling him Archie, and he’s said he definitely thinks of it as his name.”
: “It is a bit of a mouthful, but I do think it suits him.” She goes over to the spread she just set up, grabs some crackers and a couple spoonfuls of various small, round orbs of different colors—deep black and translucent orange and some strange, indescribable blue.
: “Yeah checks out, that’s what it displays at.” Makes another mental note about someone along side that. “…Are all Kushtaka names like that?”
tries one of the orange orbs, and it pops in her mouth strangely and saltily. The black has a richer texture, still salty. The blue is—also salty, but indescribably odd. She frowns, and offers a cracker with some of the blue stuff to Aurelius. “Try this?”
hopes this isn’t pay back for the sweet tea before shoving it into his mouth with a shrug.
: “People here- particularly Kushtaka, but the Academy too, if I think about it- tend to just pick up names, or have new names as time goes on, or circumstances change. Sometimes I’m just the Scholar-Emissary, you know? Kushtaka names given at birth tend to describe hoped-for traits. Sometimes people keep them, sometimes they don’t. I’m not sure anyone even knows what Silver-Throat’s first name was. Probably not even her.” He sits down, near the spread, and also loads up a cracker with the Blue Orbs.
: “Do you have a Kushtaka name?”
: “Huh.”
- Salme, The Sword-Saint‘s 🔴burning gnosis has ascended unto the 8ᵗʰ rank.
munches slowly and joyfully, shakes his head. “I remembered my name when I came to. And it was all I had that was mine, so I definitely wanted to keep it.”
tilts his head.
- Salme, The Sword-Saint‘s 🔴burning primary gnosis has been corrected to d6.
tilts his head to the other side.
: “You good, Aury?”
: “That makes sense. Hm? Yeah I’m fine.” He rolls a shrug before reaching over to get a large bowl of rice and then pile a bunch of… everything on top of it.
ꙮ Sometimes, the world ripples mysteriously.
absolutely isn’t thinking about the new message for correcting accidents, it’s true.
: “Also, I think any name they would have given me at -that- point would have reflected that I got coughed up out of the ocean, which was something I was trying pretty hard to forget at the time, so.” He loads up a plate with a bunch of little pieces of fish.
: “Hmm.”
: “Walks-The-Edge-of-Knowing-and-Hope. Or something like that. Is what I’d choose for you, I think.”
loads up her own plate with … mostly salmon. She has a good eye for it now. She also gets more of the little black round things.
: “We naming things again??“ remarks Awoken, coming through the door to the main common area. Slung over one shoulder is a strapped messenger bag with the sigil of the Academy emblazoned on it, while the other has a long coral pole, azure on one end, fading and streaking into white towards the other, with a metal hook at the end, from which hangs an oddly ornate, deceptively black (you can tell there’s violet coursing through it if you inspect it closely enough) lantern, its internals covered by thirteen darkmetal plates.
: “Sininen!” considers going in for a hug, but his arms seem pretty full. “And not really. Though we could, if you’ve a mind to choose a name.”
smiles widely at Salme, looking like he’s committing that one to memory, and then he waves to the Awoken cheerfully as he enters with what looks like the results of a successful experiment!
moves in to kiss her on the cheek anyway with an added tap on the hip, and moves to one side of the room to gently lay the lantern down, unhooking it from the pole, and standing the pole up next to it.
: “Hmm. Well. It seems like you’ve a lot to show and tell,” she tells the Awoken. “I have something too. And I was thinking we could finally show Caion the ‘Traveler’s Guide’.”
stares at Awoken. Not just a fishing pole, but an HQ, magical one. “Not a hobby I would have guessed for you.”
: “You can only show him if those things in his pockets are done.”
: “The things in his—oh.” She looks at Caion’s coat, hanging heavily on the coral coatrack of the common room. “Huh.”
: “Hey there Aury, Caion! What’s being done?” He moves to Caion’s seat, and sets down the messenger bag. It’s quite full.
: “Here’s all the documents back, thanks for the reading material!”
gives Aurelius a dramatic sad look. “Those are just the raw materials. I’m making something useful out of an abandoned project, you’d think it’d have been easier to track down where the storeroom full of unused tomestones was but noooOOoooooOOoo.” He gives the Awoken a thumbs up and pats the messenger bag. “Just glad my research was useful to -someone- other than me, finally.”
: “Imagine losing track of a pile of tomestones.”
: “Tomestones? You carrying around a graveyard in that coat?” The smell of baked salmon compels him to the catering tray.
gives the Awoken a weird look of confusion. “A what?”
: “Tome, not tomb.”
laughs a little bit though, before finally starting to eat.
: “Tome stones? You carrying around a library in that coat?” It’s like Caion’s question flew right by him.
: “Also -all- tomestones are unused tomestones, the Scholar who was working on the project got distracted and then ran off to join a splinter Tower and then the next person who took up the project realised they were a terrible idea when memory crystals already existed, so there was just… a storeroom full of them. And now there is a coat full of them instead.” Time for more caviar.
: “Stands to reason.”
: “Because I can do something interesting and cool with them. And will, now that I’ve got enough that I can burn a bunch out doing experiments.”
is being very polite and not asking a bunch of questions, so as not to ruin any surprises anymore than she already has.
is also NOT asking about seven or eight distinct questions right now, and is instead pouring himself a lil’ bit of very peppery gin and a glass of water.
piles baked salmon onto a cross-woven bed of leafy greens, adds on some of those Blue Orbs (they’ve got to be for eating, right?), gives it a little drizzle of an orange sauce. He spies the tea, and then the liquors, and there’s a moment of processing involved.
: “Actually, Caion, can you explain the alcohol? I just asked catering for their best spread, at the request of the Scholar-Emissary. And they brought me … all of this.”
: “You need an explanation for alcohol…?”
: “Mostly I kind of wanted to know what the different kinds were?”
: “I don’t know about where you’re from, but in Samudra, yes–“ -he rootches over to the selection and starts picking up bottles and peering at them.
politely does not mention the amount of ‘The Scholar-Emissary requires this’ she’s been throwing around to get her requests granted. Caion probably knows anyway.
then fills a glass with ice, and then half-fills it with the legendarily sweet tea. He inspects the bottles as Caion does, following his lead.
: “Okay, so… First Principles, I don’t know what context I’m working with or what kinds of alcohol they have where you’re from. But -these- are all distilled from something made from mashed potatoes that’s not exceptionally palatable on its own, and then treated with different herbs and processing techniques,” -he gestures at a couple of bottles including the one he poured from. “And -these- are made from sugarcane, and distilled, processed, and aged,” -and then a larger, ceramic-looking bottle. “And this is a drink made from rice. Different splinter Towers end up specialising in their own recipes and techniques, it’s a whole thing.”
selects the one made from rice and pours herself a small cup of it.
takes a sip, nods, satisfied, and pours herself a little more.
: “Eat the rice… drink the rice… sure, why not.” He simply takes one of the ceramic bottles and takes an experimental sip from in.
laughs. “Horrible table manners, Aury.”
: “I got a processing technique for ya’.” He chooses one of the potatocohols, and fills a fourth of his glass, and then takes one of the darker, sugarcane liquors, and finishes topping off the top fourth.
: “If it wanted to be in a bottle or mug it would have been served that way???”
drops a spoon into the glass and stirs.
laughs again, brightly. “That’s one thing I wanted to tell you. Well. Wanted to tell everyone, but I can’t wait.”
: “Did you know, right here and now, in this moment, I’m the happiest I have ever been in my entire life?” She grins, and holds up her cup. “And I intend to be even happier. No matter how dark these strange paths may tread.”
glances over at the Awoken for a second, before turning back. “Weird moment to pick but I’m not gunna question it.”
looks up at Salme, and grins, and clinks his little glass against hers, if that’s a thing they also do on Almachadta.
holds aloft his wicked concoction, before moving to give Salme a more extended kiss on the cheek. “Hear hear!”
gestures with his bottle.
clinks her glass back. She thinks toasts are universal? Probably?
kisses Awoken on the cheek, and then dances over to Aurelius to kiss him on the cheek too. “I’ve been working up to it,” she grins at him.
: “Aha.”
: “Never a bad moment to say you’re happy. And dinner and drinks with friends, that’s a time-honored moment for it, I’d say.”
finally moves to sit at the table with the rest of them.
and then she gestures to the papers on the table. “My project is probably the simplest, so I’ll start first, but I’ve been working on a running glossary and I wanted to see if we should add anything? Doesn’t have to happen now, but I figured I could have you all look.”
: “Hmm…”
: “Oh hey, the mask talks?”
: “Wait we didn’t all know that?”
: “Emitting emotion and recalling memory isn’t quite the same thing…”
: “The mask does what now?” He looks up in immediate activation of the Samudran virtues.
: “Oh. The Mask … doesn’t … really talk. It kind of narrates. But the constellation can talk through the Mask.”
: “…Guess it’s been a couple days and everyone’s been working on their own projects…”
: “It’s a good thing we’re hungry and together, then!”
: “I guess I forgot to tell anyone other than Aurelius, but he didn’t really seem to think it was that notable? But yeah. The Duelist’s Mask constellation can talk through the physical Mask. Because it’s an Entelecheia?”
glances over the papers with intense curiosity. “…weird that they use Ancient words for things. Maybe not weird at all, actually. Hunh.” Squints, puts the glass down so he can grab papers with both hands.
: “I didn’t say that.”
: “So…” He takes a big bite of salmon-lettuce sandwich. Chews, chews, chews, leans back in his chair and gives a contented sigh before swallowing.
: “Oh? Maybe you were just tired. Didn’t seem worth running around yelling about it either way.” She shrugs. She doesn’t seem upset, just a little confused. “I have no idea what’s critically new information and what’s not.”
: “Hence the desire to create the document. No yeah, that makes sense.”
: “What’s the difference between Entelecheia and Anthropos? One a potential subsect of the other?”
nods. “Oh. I’m an Anthropos. The Mask is an Entelecheia. I think they’re just completely different? I don’t emit starlight, at least I don’t think.”
: “You sparkle, though.” He smiles and winks.
: “I shine, actually,” she grins back.
: “Excellent work on the translations.” He puts the papers down. “I’ve run into ‘entelecheia’ before, sometimes ‘entelechy’. The Ancients were awful at defining terms usefully, but from context it… always felt to me a -little- like the way we talk about fiends? Tools, made for a purpose, but ones that could act independently of their makers. Just… capable of much, much more than any fiends we know how to craft?”
: “…Like a fiend! Yes, that. Makes a lot more sense than most other explanations would.”
: “Next level fiendcraft, then. Interesting.” He swirls his drink about before taking an exploratory sip. (It’s RIOTOUSLY alcoholic, but mostly he was wondering if it’d cut the sweetness at all.)
: “That makes sense. I’ll add that in.” She frowns. “Do you think that could have … something to do with whatever is happening with the fiends on the Beast?”
: “And, are there any other words or concepts we should add?”
ꙮ It’s pretty tasty! Caion pointed out one specific bottle that he thought would mix well with the tea, and Caion wasn’t wrong.
: “(OooooOOoOOOOooo, that’s dangerous,)” he whispers, smirking slightly.
: “Nothing that comes to mind- well, no. Concepts from your worlds that you had to explain to me, like what a yeresh is, maybe. Or words from here that Archie or I had to explain to you, for good measure.”
: “Unua mentioned them becoming… smarter? Better able to use tactics and planning? More like people? Maybe, but they’re really more of a ‘many’ sort of thing so… who knows, find out in a week I guess?”
: “Hmm terms for our individual worlds probably should go in a different crystal. I’m still not sure any of us are using eidesis correctly, and I’m not certain on what a thoughtstorm actually is, but I can work on that?”
: “Eidesis is something like … the ability to not do an acrobatic fucking pirouette off into the void in light of new or upsetting information, right?”
laughs at the definition, clapping a hand on his thigh. “Yeah, yeah that’s a good one! I’m pretty sure that’s how I’ve been using it too.”
laughs! “That’s… definitely part of it, yeah. It’s… well, I would describe it as a discipline, of knowing what you know, knowing what you don’t, and not letting the two blend in to each other uninspected. A trained clarity about the contents of one’s own mind. But it’s also- definitely what you said.”
: “I would have said ‘take things in stride’ myself, but.”
: “Yes, well, Aury, there’s a reason why I’m the wordsmith and you aren’t.” Her smile at him is sweet and fond, though.
: “Damn.” Takes another swing before returning to his bowl.
: “You’re absolutely poetic when it really counts, though,” she adds firmly. And then flicks a dried grain of rice at his ear.
: “I mean, it makes sense. If you have conflicting ideas and concepts and wants in your brain, you could start being real out-of-character about things right in front of you.”
flicks his ear towards the Awoken.
blows a no-handed kiss to the flicked ear.
snorts and shakes his head, and picks up his glass again and takes a sip.
: “Also!” as though he’s picking up a line that went unanswered. “I like fishing. I think. It feels natural. It feels like a good ebbed story beat, yeah?”
: “It’s hard to imagine you quietly sitting still for long stretches of time, honestly.”
chuckles, knowingly. “Heheheheh, yeah that’s fair. And bein’ honest, sometimes the action around fishing isn’t the fishing, but maybe something you’re (rotating) in the meantime.” Pause. “I think (rotating) could be added to the list, even though most people seem to Get It pretty easily.”
: “That internal struggle, that battle… sometimes, that’s where the real action is.”
: “Hmm… I see.”
: “It’s a really, really good word.” And he nods at the Awoken. “It’s a good way to just… stare at the sea for a while. Sometimes that helps turn a thought into what it needs to be, for me.”
nods, “I’ll put (rotation) onto the list.”
: “Did you catch anything while fishing?”
starts snickering at that. “Yeah. A fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiish! As said by a noöplankton.”
: “(Had to throw it back- too small, too dumb.)”
snorts.
giggles.
: “Oh.”
: “I’d kind of like to have a noöplankton? Do you think we could manage that?”
: “Like, in the library?”
mulls it over and takes another sip of Powerful Tea. This influences his decision making. “I don’t see why not!”
: “I had to build an entire lab just to get one to stay in the same place long enough for me to analyse it properly. If you get one in a tank it just… stops being in the tank? It’s genuinely infuriating.”
: “Oh, that’d be a pretty good reason why not.”
: “If anyone could talk a noöplankton into being a traveling companion, though, it’d be you guys.”
: “Huh. Well. Sininen is pretty good at getting the impossible to be possible. And if not, Aurelius is pretty good at making the impossible possible in an entirely different way.”
blinks. “Though if I just have to talk one into it … hm.”
: “Noted. Thank you.”
: “The other problem is that they forget anything that didn’t -just- happen, so you’d need to keep having the same conversation over and over again.”
: “Yeah. No. I think. We’re good on the amount of nooplankton we have floating around in the sealed space. As is.”
: “You haven’t even met one,” she pouts.
: “And yet.”
flicks one, two, three grains of rice at his ear. Do any make it in?
: “You’d think the land of plenty would instill upon you a sense of respect for your meals and food, but noooo….”
giggles, again.
: “Sorry, what’s ‘respect’? I don’t know that word.”
: “It’s readily apparent.”
: “That one’s going in the glossary too, eh?”
laughs.
laughs. “How could it? I don’t know what it means.”
: “Fortunately you got a lot of hands and minds to do it for you! You will learn, Scholar-Salme, one way or another!” He haughtily waves a pointer finger at her.
mock-bites at his finger. “No,” she says, before adding more fish to her plate, and sitting down. “Anyway, that’s my show-and-tell, more or less.”
: “I got another word if nobody else has anything.”
: “Oh?”
: “Tell us?”
: “Rakaznar. It’s what that lantern-“ he gestures with a wave of his hand. “-is made of.”
takes a bite of salmon sandwich like that explains everything.
: “What’s special or cool about rakaznar?”
raises an eyebrow. “Academy’s learning all -sorts- of new materials this week.” He rootches back over closer to the Awoken and the lantern. Or just the lantern, if they’re not in the same place.
thinks. Swallows. Takes a drink of Powerful Tea.
sighs. “Does this go under the valais entry on the world glossary, or the pan-conceptual glossary?”
: “I guess this’ll be one of those ‘to be continued’ entries in the list.”
: “It’s a special thing, I can tell you that much. Knew it the second I held it in my hands.”
eyes the tea and the amount of tea the Awoken has been drinking. Should someone cut him off?
: “On that note, add aurichalcum if it’s not there already.”
: “Go ahead, take a look,” he encourages Caion.
starts giggling at the mention of aurichalcum.
: “It’s made of a few things, but I think it’s way more than the sum of its parts.”
: “Tin, nickel, brass, silver, specks of gold. And a little bit of sunshine.”
notes both names, feels a bit of … fond but exhausted frustration tugging at her, and says, “anyone volunteering to explain what the fuck either of those are or am I on my own?”
: “He’s still in the middle of it, patience my dear.”
raises an eyebrow at Aurelius. “Do we have a volunteer? Because I just know the word itself, and that apparently it’s involved with Unua and people like them. They’ve got some of it in their core.” And then he dives headfirst into curiousity, looking at the lantern from every angle, feeling the texture of the material.
goes over and fetches the crystal with her glossary, closes her eyes, and writes the revisions with a flick of gnosis. The printouts update too, because she wills it.
: “No, it’s just a really stupid, and therefore funny, word.”
: “Can just imagine some asshole going ‘it’s glowing orichalcum. … aurichalcum!’ and. Heh.” He shakes his head.
: “Animal, vegetable, mineral?” she tries to prompt.
: “Uh.”
tilts his head. Endjinn, Pearl, Constellation. “…Yes?”
: “Rakaznar’s definitely a mineral.”
: “Well, probably not a vegetable.”
: “…Don’t think anyone’s tried to eat it before though.”
: “For Unua…would that be cannibalism?” he says, in hushed tones.
: “We should ask Unua. Maybe they have?” She slides her finger across the crystal again, updating it with a bit of gnosis. “Thank you for teaching me how to use these, Caion. There’s so much bullshit to remember, even I would fuck up at this rate.”
makes a horrified face. “I hope not.”
laughs. “Glad to help. They’re awfully convenient!”
slides his glass towards Salme in offering.
takes the glass, frowns at the tea, takes a sip, and frowns at the—all of it. “Are you sure you should be drinking this?”
: “I was trying to see if it took the edge off of the tea. It did!”
: “I’m privately convinced that tea was only intended to be used as a mixer in the first place and then someone in logistics got their wires crossed and made way too much of it.”
: “…Makes sense.”
: “Yes, but.” She looks and Aurelius and Caion. “I need you both to understand that I found him up until early morning in the Library, doing Light knows what, finally got him to come to bed, woke up to find him drinking a truly horrendous amount of coffee, and then he disappeared back into the Library for the rest of the day. I just need both of you to know that.”
: “Not sure what in the world you’d mix it with on purpose, but.”
: “And now he’s drinking lots of alcohol on top of it.”
does not give the glass back.
turns his head towards Salme.
: “Wow it sure is concerning when people just Keep Doing Things Without Break At All, huh?”
: “I’ll have you know that countless academics follow that exact regimen and absolutely nothing bad has ever happened to them ever,” he says, with all the confidence of not knowing a dang thing.
glances at Salme and just laughs. “And I’m used to Archie when he gets focused on a project, so that just seems normal to me.” He fiddles around with the… flaps? The mechanism? of the lantern, curiously. “It -is- more normal here than is… maybe healthy. Don’t make a habit of it. And make sure Archie gets some rest too, while you’re at it. Maybe I can get the two of you to keep each other honest.”
did not expect the flanking attack, but doesn’t know why she didn’t. “Okay,” she points her finger at Aurelius. “First. I took a nap with you and I slept through the night, mostly. And second,” she turns her finger on the Awoken. “We’ve seen Archie after an a science all-nighter. Don’t lie to me, asshole.”
laughs.
: “Ah yes, Salme the honest.”
: “When, after Almachadta, have I lied to you?”
: “Was it just when I was on the other side of the door, or did he do it in Almachadta too?”
: “You told me yourself you’re a prolific liar!”
: “Which is either true or a lie, so…”
: “Ahhh, the classic paradox.”
: “And yeah just the one time with the Gate that I’m aware of.”
: “Not to you, my sweet Aavikkokettu. Never you,” she says, fluttering her eyelashes with guile.
: “Well sure but we weren’t talking about me.”
: “Hm. No. I think … when we were in Sanctuary, the second day. Remember how he scrambled into breakfast? That was him having stayed up way too late.”
: “Hmm.”
: “Anyway, Awa, if you’re going to tell me to be kinder to myself, perhaps take some care?”
’s eyes wander about, somewhat confused.
pushes a button, or adjusts a slat, perhaps.
takes the glass from Salme’s hand and heroically drinks the rest of it himself.
reaches for the Awoken’s hand. “Are you okay?”
ꙮ The joyous light of the True Sun pours out from a slat of the rakaznar lantern, kind and gentle.
: “!!!”
pauses. Slowly turns his head. “Did you steal a sun?”
: “I mean, yeah, I just. Hadn’t thought I’d done anything weird or anything.” He looks over at Caion. “Oh yeah, sun’s inside.”
: “But… Why…”
splutters, utterly lost for words for once, laughing in delight. “How in the-“ He adjusts rapidly to crouch on the floor to be on eye level with it.
squeezes his hand. “You hadn’t done anything weird, by Academic standards. Just fretting.” And then she too turns to the lantern. “Oh.”
: “I didn’t steal it, it’s still there, it’s just also here.”
: “No Salme’s right on this one, you’re suppose to sleep part of each day or you get fucked up. Anyway.” Another pause, and turning to the lantern. “Hmm.”
mouths ‘Salme’s right,’ feeling pretty pleased with that, but is mostly focused on Caion and the lantern.
: “Okay but the question of ‘why’ still remains.”
turns the lantern in a slow circle so everyone gets the light in turn, and then gives the lantern a little pat on impulse. Felt like the right thing to do.
: “Going to catch a Polite Visitor.”
: “He’s putting together a team, you see,” she adds.
: “…That’s cheating, but I’m not going to stop you.”
: “Right. Want to help?” He grins.
: “Feels like the sort of thing you might wanna turn into a supervised group activity so as to not, uh, completely set off our hosts, at least.”
: “Well………………….. it’s only cheating if you get caught. Which-“ He gives a thumbs up to Caion.
: “Oh, the project’s been authorized by a Circle Academic.” He grins smugly.
: “Scholar-Enabler Caion,” she adds.
: “I see.”
: “I’ll add that to my formal titles.”
frowns at Aurelius. “This seems like the kind of thing you’d normally be all over.”
: “Yeah, what’s with this ‘cheating’ talk?”
: “Oh no I’m just trying to work out the logistics of trapping sunlight in a lantern -“
: “Okay so me and Wolf we kind of talking about this earlier, about how having to overcome the fear and the terror or whatever is probably supposed to be some kind of trial -“
: “- And you’re just gunna skip past that part with the Sun that Loves!”
: “Though I must reiterate I am not opposed. But. It’s definitely cheating.” He grins at Awoken.
: “Sometimes, you’re in the right place, at the right time.” He winks. “Providence.”
pulls up a handpuppet and mouths, ‘though I must reiterate I am not opposed.’
: “Oh my Goddess what do you want from me? Do I need to get up and kiss him on the mouth and proclaim he’s an unparalleled genius?”
: “Don’t answer that.”
: “OR do it yourself.”
: “Hmm. A trial, huh? But maybe not a fair one.” He sips at his gin. “Anyways, I’m curious what’ll happen. And happy to see someone using my research.”
: “Wasn’t a criticism. I just think it’s cute and a little funny when you go formal like that,” she shrugs, then slides off the couch to look at the lantern. “Is this … supposed to be the library made small? Is that why thirteen sides?”
: “Okay, well, as thorough as the writings were regarding the Visitors, getting into their minds about the why’s is really hard! And we may not be here much longer, so… sometimes you make a kinder, gentler path and think that it’ll work out. Think of it like… a poultice.”
mouths ‘i just think it’s cute and a little funny’ at Salme, before nodding to Caion.
nods at Aurelius, making a kind of ‘what else do you want from me here’ gesture.
: “Suffering isn’t a virtue. A card game has rules. Life really… doesn’t.”
flicks some nothing at Salme. “I mean… on Samudra being able to bear suffering kind of is…? We kinda figured they might be like… guardians, or keepers of some terrible knowledge, kinda like the Mask?”
: “So specifically on Samudra, you’d have to be… a really specific kind of person to be able to take on that weight and not have it undo… uh, things in general?”
rocks back on her heels, considering.
points to himself with two thumbs. “And, you got ‘im!”
: “Yeah, no, but. Actually sure why not. We’re gunna figure it all out anyway.”
: “There are stories, warnings here about- the Polite Visitors rising to the surface, bringing a catastrophe with them that’d level the Academy and sink every island to the depths. I don’t think those stories are true. But maybe they’re part of why we’ve learned to bear the thoughtstorms. I don’t know. I just… want to understand them better, and I think this might take us a step closer to that.”
: “I wonder if that’s it,” she says, carefully. “About it being like the Mask in that particular way.” She stands.
: “There were 216 tallies in the shrine of the Sword-Saint. Assuming each cycle was as long as the ice-core here, that’s 1,400 years each, making Almachadta about 300,000 years old from its first sprouting to present moment. However, I know the current cycle of Almachadta is longer than most. That’s how I was so certain it was near its end. Accounting for that, I wonder if the exact count of years is closer to 250,000?”
starts to pace, not fast or irritated, but slow, intentional. “I wonder if it’s the same type of truth in a way. People have told the Mask’s secret before. It’s ended poorly. I don’t—remember the details, and it might be worth looking and seeing exactly how people reacted those times? It it’s anything like the Polite Visitors and what they inspire?”
shivers. “Though. I don’t want to look for that alone.”
nods along.
: “Wooooooooould it though?”
stops and tilts her head at the Awoken. “What do you mean?”
nods at Salme. “Your calculations line up with mine. And from what Archie said, it sounds like this cycle of Almachadta itself is almost exactly as old as the Septentrione ice, and as old as the Academy year count. And… hmm.”
: “I don’t think anyone knowing the Secret in that context would directly bring about the end of a cycle. That feels like it is just… ‘naturally occuring’, so to speak.”
: “She meant it ended poorly for the individual, not the world.”
: “Oh, well, yeah, absolutely.”
: “The worlds are, we’re assuming, all due to end poorly without any outside help as is.”
: “I bet they’d run off and get gored by a wild boar or fall into a pit or tear their eyes out.”
: “Oh. No. In Almachadta, it wouldn’t, because in Almachadta thought crimes aren’t real. But here—the kind of terror would inevitably lead to thoughtstorms. Knowing that the world has ended countless times before, and the dread that engenders, with the hope that this time it might be different.”
: “Anyway, yeah, that’s also part of the plan.”
: “It takes,” she laughs, a little humorlessly, “a special kind of person to hold both things in your head at—wait what?”
: “I mean, part of the plan is, ‘making sure that terror doesn’t happen.’”
: “Oh. Yes. That makes sense.” She frowns. “Do you think it could be instructive to look through the Mask for times when the secret did come out on Almachadta?” She looks at all of them in turn. “And. Could you clarify, Caion, precisely what a thoughtstorm is, why it happens, and what the results are?”
: “I mean… it’d be illuminating for sure, but I’m not sure it’d really be… helpful, and honestly you could probably do without the stress of looking it up.”
: “I’ll do my best. I was thinking Solei would show you all, there are ways to observe recorded memories of a thoughtstorm while safely in a strong bubble. But… at least a few of you have heard about how the Sea stops making sense if you go far enough out to the south, west, or east, right?”
laughs a little. “Because a world made almost entirely of water makes so much sense already,” but she nods, (rotating) Aurelius’ words.
: “I think it’ll be macabre more than anything, but…”
: “(I mean, again- boars, pits, eyes.)”
: “Yeah, the weird sea.”
: “In Samudra, your beliefs about reality -create- reality. It’s why we can… snap a slate, and an entire fully-formed outfit falls out, it’s what lets us build the towers we build. And as long as we all keep mutually believing in each others’ reality, that one moment follows another, that the sea will not turn to gnashing teeth, or a howling, murderous poison mist, then we’re safe.” ⁂
: “A thoughtstorm happens when you can’t take that for granted, any longer. When a critical number of people in a place all experience fear, terror, even just profound uncertainty, at the same time, those terrors and uncertainties manifest in the world. The seas go harsh; the clouds start to rain scouring light. Waves rise up, and sometimes, when they crash against a Tower that’s been standing strong for centuries…”
: “…the Tower’s just not there any more when the wave passes. And that’s a relatively -merciful- storm.”
: “So that’s why everyone fears something that inspires terror in almost anyone who sees one. And why I haven’t told anyone but you all about the age of the noöplankton, and…” He trails off. 🙧
: “Valid, valid.”
shifts, so she can wrap both of her arms around Caion. “What a truth you’ve borne alone,” she says softly. “Thank you for telling us.”
: “And now, it will no longer be walked alone!”
nods at the Awoken. “Yes. That too.”
: “And I think… I don’t know. Someone who sees the Visitors and feels terror might not have been able to ever leave a Bubble again after figuring out how old they are. How old the Sea must be. Maybe that’s why we only have 1,296 years of recorded history. Or… mmm. There’s no way -we- could be responsible for Almachadta’s doom, that I can imagine. And no way Almachadta’s doom could be responsible for ours, if Samudra also faces a doom. Right? I know I can’t be as certain about that as I feel, but it’s very hard to… imagine.”
: “…which implies, to me, that something -else- was ultimately responsible for both Almachadta’s last doom, and whatever happened here 13 centuries ago, and I’d like to try to figure out what.”
: “Maybe I’m wrong, maybe I’m seeing connections where there aren’t any, maybe it’s a coincidence.”
: “Oh yeah, naw, that’s the assumption we’re all working on too, I think. Something else shattered an original, much fuller world into five separate fragments for… some reason… and then those five fragments have been slowing dying ever since then.”
: “Yeah. I can’t be sure but I don’t think they cause each other? I just … think we destabilize on the same schedule? Which, if I think about it, makes less sense in some ways, but.”
is still hugging Caion as long as he allows it, though if he wishes to be released he need only twitch his shoulder.
: “Dying, over and over again. For 250,000 years.” He shifts, turns the lantern so it’s pointing at himself, and takes a slow breath, and he hugs Salme back. “It’s better than not being alive in the first place, though.”
: “It is better than not being alive in the first place,” Salme says firmly.
: “If looking at the Mask for … what has happened when the truth comes out is useful, I think it wouldn’t be too great a cost. It is, after all, the second story the Mask ever tells a new Sword-Saint. Its favorite didactic fable, if you will.” She reaches up to pet Caion’s hair. “I could look without too much pain. I’ve seen it before, many times. I just don’t remember. I don’t know if it would be useful for anyone else.”
: “Thank you for explaining the storms, Caion. I think I have a better handle on where the weaknesses and strengths in my eidesis lie now.”
: “Anyways, I think… for me, at least, anything that is a step closer to understanding the Visitors is a step I want to take. I don’t think it’s their will to cause harm.”
: “And such is the path we shall walk. And like, really… a lot of these theories are pretty good. Now’s a time to draw a solid throughline.”
does, then, wriggle out of the Ongoing Hug enough to get himself another plate of crackers and caviar and random fish, because that’s part of it being better than not being alive in the first place.
stands to get himself something more to drink… water, for now.
easily lets him go and then says, to the Awoken, “okay, so what is the plan with the lantern?”
: “Get one close and personal. Let the light shine in. And then, when the stars have aligned just so-“
: “A very specific application of Stillness.”
raises an eyebrow as she flops back onto a couch, hooking her legs over Aurelius’ lap. “Which is?”
is glad he’s done with the contents of his bowl and can seat it down, and that maneuvering an arm around her to drink from the ceramic bottle is so easy.
: “That would be telling. This will be a thrill for all.”
curls into Aurelius. “Of course.”
thinks for a moment.
: “On that note,”
: “Can I ask a maybe obvious question?”
drinks some of the water. “Don’t see why not!”
immediately pours himself another little thing of stakt and another cup of water in response to ‘that would be telling’, and laughs.
: “Okay so. What. Exactly. Is “The Stillness“ and I guess also “The Song“, and I swear to the Goddess if it’s a metaphor -“
: “This is gonna be difficult to explain if I can’t use metaphors, but I’m gonna try anyway.”
: “Oh. That’s something I was curious about too. Awoken had a fascinating thought experiment with Scholar-Professor Xie.”
grins at the Awoken and leans back in his chair. “It’s -not- an obvious question, for what it’s worth.”
: “Though pretty sure there are at least pages in the Traveler’s Guide, though how useful they are remains to be seen.”
: “In practical terms,”
: “(They’re written like Constellation entries. Decidedly unhelpful.)”
: “The Stillness is what you see, hear, smell, feel… it’s forms, more or less, using an incredibly simple comparison.”
: “You can take that as like, incredibly simple theory that blows over at the slightest bit of resistance, but stay with it for a second.”
: “The Song… is like a Spark. The essence of what is.”
: “At least, as I understand it. The Academy has a bit more precision to it.”
: “…So basically just the physical and the ethereal?”
nods his head to the side. “Yeah, you got it quickly.”
: “Hmm. Okay.”
: “We can drill down a bit more in any place, but at the simplest level, you can walk with that and likely are already (rotating) every concept you know around it.”
: “On Almachadta we understand it as more … the material of a thing, and then what actions can be done from the material. Which is sort of the same thing but.” She shrugs.
: “Actions that can be done…?”
: “I’d say the Song is also our cultures, our- well, our songs, our traditions. Our disagreements and our joys. To me, the Stillness is the Sea and the Islands, and the Song is the docks and Towers and the people who live in them. But, yeah, you’ve got the idea.”
: “Oh. The stillness is the wood you carve to make the lyre. The song is … well. The music you strum from it. Anything that moves or can be said to live, I think.”
: “Hmm…”
: “For a value of living? That might be more confusing actually. Ignore me.”
: “I think the more ‘alive’ something is, the more of the Song it has in it, so that made perfect sense to me honestly.”
tilts his head to the side. “So if Wolf hears the Song, what… does that mean, is he like, psychic? Some kind of geomancer, able to commune with the spirit of the land…?”
: “What’s a geomancer?”
: “Someone that communes with the spirits of the land.”
blinks, then snorts. “Okay. Fair. Deserved. Carry on.”
: “It means…” Awoken takes a drink. “…he has very good ears.”
snorts! And then hums thoughtfully. “I really need to talk to him soon, I’m… Virtues, I’m so curious what that’s -like-.”
: “Alright, guess that’s not too common then. Duly noted.”
: “I sure don’t hear anything like that.”
: “Reminds me of something the Irós say, when they’re leading a Circle sailing a Glass Ship and really going for it. That the waves have a music you can only hear in that moment, that that’s what they’re… channeling, when they conduct the ships, on some level. Silver-Throat talks about it like it’s the best feeling in the world. I’ve always wondered.”
shakes her head. “I didn’t even know there was a World-Song. I also don’t think it’s … a thing most yeresh can even do?”
: “Aha.”
: “Mmm?”
: “Anyways, that also probably explains why Silver-Throat was so taken with Wolf. I mean, also, she has eyes, but.”
: “Wolf really is … as far as Almachadtans go, I’ve never met anyone like him. Someone sort of like him once, a long time ago, when a yeresh came to our village and she was … magnificent. But aside from her, he’s. Something else.”
does not laugh at Caion while in the midst of a drink, somehow.
looks at Caion and laughs. “Light you’re all hopeless.”
laughs into his glass before downing the rest of the water.
laughs and shakes his head. “What?”
: “Wolf being the object of adoration on water world was not on my bingo card but I mean…”
: “I’ve never seen a person just absolutely fascinate so many people while thinking he’s just a regular guy. I’m half-worried Samudra will start worshipping a whole new Wolf-themed deity if we’re not careful.”
laughs!
grins at Aurelius. Yeah. He gets it.
: “There’s not a lot of trees about, and yet, she’d had that gleam in her eye like she knew how to climb one, ya’ know?”
absolutely helplessly laughs at the Awoken.
laughs louder and has to bury her face in Aury’s shoulder to keep from shaking apart.
: “He’d—he’d hate it if he knew we were saying this. He’d be so upset.”
: “But. Wolf too needs to be adored and mocked a little. At least, that’s what I think.”
: “I think he’d— he’d probably just do the thing with his eyebrows and say something incredibly polite—“
shakes his head against Salme’s.
calls out “Wooooooooooooooooooooolf, everyone thinks you’re sexyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy–!”
: “…Ah, wolf-calling…”
: “He’s amazing, though. You’re all amazing. It’s been–“ And then he’s helplessly laughing, again.
kicks her legs helplessly (but carefully enough she doesn’t catch Aury in the face).
listens for a response, but nothing. “We got lucky this time, the secret’s still under wraps.”
: “Oh, I let him know the effect he’s having on Samudra. I was worried I’d broken him.”
looks at Caion. “But. It is like that a little, isn’t it? Meeting everyone and just knowing these are your people.” She looks up at Aurelius, taking a moment to memorize him in this moment, and then over at Awoken, memorizing him too, then back to Caion.
: “Hah. You’re not always so careful about trying to break others.”
: “(Yeah that’s. NOT. What that’s for.)” He can’t decide if he needs to be pointedly staring at Awoken or Salme as he speaks.
was doing much the same thing as Salme, just then, looking from person to person - trying to capture the feeling of all of them, together in this moment. It’s nice.
looks back to the Awoken sharply. “I don’t recall you complaining in the slightest, Sinitöyhtönärhi. Though perhaps you were just so breathless from trying to keep up?”
looks to Caion, stage-whispering. “(She pulled out the Long Name, that’s how you know she’s seriously enraptured.)”
butts her head against Aurelius’ jaw. “(Life doesn’t have rules).”
glances between the three of them, (rotating) something at terrible speed and at war with his own curiosity. At great effort he decided to let that one pass by, aided by the Awoken’s comment making him just relatively-innocently giggle.
: “Ow. Brat.”
: “I’d have nipped but for the beard,” she says, running his hand along his jaw.
: “What?”
: “I’d have bit at your jaw instead of headbutted you, but your beard. It’s in the way?” She explains. Feeling. A little embarrassed at this one.
: “I see.”
: “Suppose you have always been this feral…”
: “Which is not me complaining. I just. Sometimes forget. And then there’s a lot of—“
laughs. “I did more or less raise myself.”
grins at the Awoken, and then a bit less … flirtily at Caion. “They both like it. I think. Though this is probably insufferable to be around for you.”
: “I am curious, though. Awa, when you proposed the idea of the Stillness and the Song being made manifest as people, was it really simply a thought experiment?”
: “I mean, it was that, in the moment. But yeah, I have other, more solid ideas about that.”
: “What? Not in the slightest, you’re all adorable. Also you seemed to take great joy in my reaction to what Archie was wearing yesterday, and don’t think for a moment I don’t know you were in some way responsible for that happening, so it only seems fair.” He grins back.
: “I can be really specific if you’d like, but I bet you already know what I’ll say.”
: “It’d ruin the mood though- be careful!”
: “Hmm. Well. You can always tell me later? I would hate to ruin the mood.”
: “Though,” she adds to Caion, “Archie himself was fully responsible for that outfit change. I just helped.”
nods at Salme. “But you did help, so that’s a hypothesis confirmed regardless. And I’m glad you had the chance to talk.”
shrugs a little awkwardly. “Me too. I hope—I hope it yields fruit, one day.”
: “I’m confident it will.” And then it’s time for a few more crackers and a bit more caviar, there’s enough that there’ll be enough for the others when they eventually get back to the common room.
thinks, ‘and even if there’s not, catering left some very nice gnosis-worked to-go boxes that keeps everything in perfect stasis. She did ask for the premium spread. All on the Scholar-Emissary’s good name.’
does need one more thing from Caion before he gets distracted by something else again too (hopefully hardware related this time) - the trick to identifying a person’s unique gnosis signature. That can’t take that long, right?
has been eyeing his coat pockets full of tomestones and is eager to get to work, but can work with Aurelius on that, for sure! It’s the kind of thing that you probably already KNOW how to do, you just don’t know you know it - there’s a few tips and tricks to it that make it easier and more reliable, and he’d share them with the Awoken and Salme, too.