ꙮ Some time ago, a bright pillar of Radiant light rose from the sea, some ways, but not too far, out from the Academy. It deposited a shimmering crystal, large enough to be seen from the ground, in the sky; the crystal’s stayed put there since. Other than that? There’s a nice breeze on the air, the clouds are growing a bit darker as the day goes on, the sea is cool and pleasant, and the waves aren’t too high.
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- The Dragon
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← Active ScenesThe Sea's Edge, II
#wolf
#caion
sits on a dock–a ledge, almost–dangling bare feet into the sea, letting the soft swell of water wash up and down his calves. He can’t help eyeing that crystal from time to time…it might not be the fault of one of his companions, but that’s hardly likely. ⁂
: “I suppose that leaves me to be the responsible one,” he says to himself, with a snort and a faint smile. He does not, perhaps, sound entirely like he means it. After all, as he dangles his feet in the water, he’s letting little tendrils of flourishing gnosis spill from him, like little streamers, or…lures. Looking out into the depths with hooded eyes, he carries the air of a man teetering on the edge of a bad decision. Or, at the least, a risky one.
ꙮ Nothing irresponsible about fishing in the sea, although there is a crescent, for that, and most of the time people don’t use their toes as lures. At least, on Samudra, anyways. No bites, though. Some interesting flickers of light, in the water, though- the strands briefly making, then dropping, connections to the gnosis of the Sea itself.
sees those flickers and…looks, very much, like a child not sure if he should reach for a forbidden cookie or not. Tentatively, he seeks the connection, eyes going heavy-lidded, breathing starting to sync with the slow wash of waves.
ꙮ Flourishing, please? DC 2/8.
- The Wolf-Priest invoked their 🟢flourishing gnosis [d6] -> 6! It ✨explodes!
- The Wolf-Priest invoked their 🟢flourishing gnosis [d6] -> 5.
- The Wolf-Priest spent 1 Arete and now has 6 remaining.
ꙮ Ascension!
- The Wolf-Priest‘s 🟢flourishing gnosis has ascended unto the 8ᵗʰ rank.
- The Wolf-Priest invoked their 🟢flourishing gnosis [d8] -> 1.
ꙮ The thing is that there is so very much within the Sea to connect to, it’s almost overwhelming. You wouldn’t think, to look at it- but there ARE forests (kelp forests! but still) beneath the waves, there’s coral - the living sort, alive of its own, inspiration for the Academy’s gnosis-work - impossibly small motes of life in every handful of water in the Sea, too small to see. Schools of fish, odd tentacled things, horrible solitary fish with light-lures that don’t bear mentioning, but still exist and thrive in the waters. And then, neither above or beyond but still somehow supervening that, presences, scattered through the ocean. One of them is rather close, actually, albeit lurking in the depths.
lets his eyes go nearly closed, his vision now reduced to cloudy, slow-swelling blue. That deep-yet-near presence tempts him…yet… ⁂
instead reaches in a different direction–letting the strands of his gnosis go thin and diffuse, like a slowly-extending net–and then even more finely, like a sieve. Searching for something small yet omnipresent, his seeking-self spreading wide. 🙧
: “Hallo, Wolf!” Caion’s voice, unfortunately, cheerful as it is, rather buggers up your concentration.
jolts, and nearly falls into the water, gripping the ledge rather tightly to keep from going over. He bites back an curse, and then an oath, and tries to shove his face into a configuration that looks like something other than ‘annoyed.’ “Ah…Caion.” He tries very hard not to growl. “Greetings.”
: “(Oh, fuck-)” -he hurries towards Wolf briefly until it’s apparent that he’s not about to go arse-over-tip into the water. “I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise you were in the middle of working.”
lifts a hand and forces a small smile. “It’s nothing so important, truly.” He laughs a little, the smile becoming more genuine. “Sometimes I am a bit dismayed at how Samudra seems to be having an effect on me. One indulges…curiosity…more than is usual.”
covers the rest of the distance to Wolf rather less urgently, sitting down next to him on the coral platform, laughing a little. “Well, you’re surrounded by people who’ve spent their life learning about the Virtues. And…” He gets a funny look on his face. “I get the feeling that you’d rather not be led around the kelp-forest. We were talking, and Aurelius and Salme mentioned that you could… -hear- the Song. Maybe that’s part of why? Although I feel like you’ve -all- been rather insatiably curious, lately.” He grins wryly at the radiant crystal.
looks up at the crystal and gets a very wry look on his face. “Hmm. One of ours, eh? Which one this time?”
grins out of the corner of his mouth. “Ah. Your friend ‘Unua’. Who apparently rediscovered their memories in the process, including their name.”
takes a firm grip on the ledge as the words sink in, his eyebrows climbing high on his forehead. “…I could have sworn you just said ‘Unua’.”
cannot, absolutely cannot, help grinning at the expression on Wolf’s face. Oh, that’s. That’s more satisfying than it ought to be. Oh no. “I did, in fact! I just got done -thoroughly- interrogating them about their experiences. It was -quite- enlightening.” He sounds, brightly and cheerfully but in a mildly terrifyingly driven way, like he’s going to have to rewrite several papers in light of the conversation.
scrubs his palms over his face, taking a deep breath and exhaling slowly. “Do I dare ask what happened?”
is still grinning slightly deliriously. “They apparently befriended a Polite Visitor. Or, well. Spoke to it. It didn’t speak back. First Principles, I wish I’d been there. And in the process, somehow… made that, and got their memories back.”
blinks once…twice…thrice. His mouth works silently–opening and closing wordlessly a couple of times, before he just gives up and buries his face in his hands. “Sometimes,” he says, in a despairing and somewhat muffled voice, “I wonder why I restrain my own impulses at all.”
does finally crack at that, and he laughs, a little bit more wildly than would perhaps be his own preference. “If it’s any consolation, I feel that one. And I do appreciate that you’ve taken care with my world. That you all have.” He glances up. “There’s nothing… -dangerous- about that crystal, I’m already confident of that. Just… terribly, terribly curious. But it’s…” Quietly. “It never takes much to set off a thoughtstorm. It’s so very hard not to worry.”
rubs his face again, then straightens up a little. “I think it is…easy, for us, to forget that fact. In our time here, Samudra has felt very little different than our own world. It is one thing to know the danger, it is another to have experienced it.”
nods, a bit. “…yeah. I wound up explaining to Salme, Aurelius, and the Awoken, what they were, and are like, and caused by. I didn’t realise I’d never properly /explained/ them to you in my own words, and I’m sorry about that.”
waves that off, gently. “It is not as if we were not sternly warned by Archie before we even stepped through the gate, my friend. Though I admit he did not go into much detail about the…exact nature…of the danger.” He smiles wryly. “But it is difficult, even for me. The Ancient Ones…I cannot help but feel that to understand them would be to understand Samudra. And…” He trails off, looking a bit chagrined.
frowns, slightly. “Well… knowing the -nature- of the danger is important, I think, not simply that the danger exists.” He glances at Wolf, considering the precise phrasing, and smiles. “Ancient Ones. I like that. Quite a bit, actually. Did you know Archie named them Polite Visitors for me, because all the names for them at the time made me sad?”
laughs quietly. “Did he? A sweet gesture, to do such a thing.” He sighs and looks out at the Sea. “I felt the need, myself, to call them something less…inaccurate.” He glances sidelong at Caion. “It troubles me. That things cannot be spoken freely here. It seems to run counter to the Virtues held to by so many.”
smiles to himself, and looks out to the sea. “Well, they -are- visitors from the depths. And I do think they… can’t help how people perceive them. I just don’t think it’s something they’re doing on purpose, I never have. They couldn’t… want to hurt us. They saved -me-.” He leans back, a little. Looks out over the Sea. “This is going to sound out of the blue, but has anyone talked about how… the Sea stops making sense, if you go far enough out?”
quirks an eyebrow up at Caion. “Yes, Silver-Throat mentioned as much. Showed me her talisman, found in those realms.”
grins, lets out a chuckle. “Oh, she really wanted to show off. And she knew you’d appreciate what it was.” He grins. “–anyways. In Samudra, our beliefs about what’s real -create- what’s real. As long as we believe in each others’ version of the real, then we’re safe. A thoughtstorm happens when you can’t take that for granted, any more. If enough people in one place feel fear - even if that starts with just one person manifesting that fear in a bad way, and it spreads, like a cough - even just profound uncertainty - those fears are made manifest. The seas get rough, the skies rain scouring light. Waves rise against a Tower that’s stood for centuries, and when the wave passes, there’s just no Tower there any more. And that’d be the -merciful- kind of thoughtstorm.” He leans back, a bit more, and sighs. ⁂
: “So you’re right, that there are things we can’t talk about. And you’re also right, that this world -demands- of us that we abrogate our own Virtues, again and again.” 🙧
listens intently, and nods quietly. “I find it…sorrowful, in a way.” He gives a twisted little smile. “I do not dishonor you or your people with pity, mind, but…it seems to me that the world itself deprives you of one of the greatest bulwarks that I have found against fear–the comfort and reassurance of others.” Wolf sighs. “To me, it is…a fundament. To hold fast to those close to you, when the winds of fear and despair blow and rage. A fear that cannot be spoken…festers.”
closes his eyes, and lets the words wash over him, and nods. “That we can only speak to those we trust the most, those whose eidesis is unimpeachable, and that in a bubble. I love this world. I love the Sea. I love the Polite Visitors, who brought me to shore, and put me where Silver-Throat and Archie would find me. But it can be so very cruel, can’t it? Sometimes I think about… being able to just go somewhere, anywhere else. The world you’re from sounds nice. I saw it, in the Mask’s memories, briefly. I’d like to visit sometime. But I don’t think I could stay. It’d be running away, and I think… I don’t know. I don’t know how, but I want to find a way to help us, here, if I can.”
ꙮ Something nudges, at Wolf’s foot, where it’s dangling in the water.
stifles a yelp, and goes very still, eyes slowly….panning…down.
ꙮ There’s a noöplankton in the process of playfully glomming on to his pinky toe.
nudges Caion with an elbow and points subtly down, with an expression that is very clearly “should I be alarmed?”
peers into the water and goes “(Oh, hello,)”, and rootches forward to get a better look. He doesn’t seem alarmed, at any rate.
shoots Caion a Look. “What is it?” he whispers, trying not to move his mouth too much.
grins. “That’s a noöplankton. They’re- remember the thing I mentioned I’d managed to figure out the age of? They live in the ocean, and they’re very-“
ꙮ The odd little jellyfish-like creature stops focusing intently on Wolf’s toe and instead wiggles in his general direction, and asks, “What’s your name?”
blinks in mild surprise–though not too surprised, now that he’s heard the name. “Ah! Greetings, small one. I am called Wolf.”
ꙮ ”Ohhhhh. Maybe I’m a wolf.” Slightly less than a second passes. “Nah, I don’t think I’m a wolf.”
: “(They’re… all like this.)”
barks a laugh, grinning. “No, little one, you certainly do not look like a wolf. Not enough fur.” He gives a suddenly delighted glance to Caion. “I am very pleased to make your acquaintance–a friend of mine met several beings like you recently.”
ꙮ ”Oh! That must have been nice.” It idly curls up around Wolf’s foot, and then visibly goes “!” and fluffs itself up, suddenly. “Are you the one who made the ocean smell like the grove?”
goes very still for a moment. “Like the grove, little one?”
ꙮ ”It was nice! I haven’t smelled the grove today. I don’t think. It was nice.” A breathless beat. “Anyways, I have a letter for you, if you are.”
leans forward, eyes wide, observing.
: “I think…” His voice catches, a little. “I think, little one, that I must be. A letter, you say?”
ꙮ ”It was nice. Thank you.” It looks distracted, and then a ripple of colour flickers through it, again. That happened before, a few moments ago, now that you think about it. And then:
ꙮ A tower rises out of the noöplankton in miniature, a white marble ring-structure sheathed in pale, luminous stone, bone-white but golden where the light catches right, utterly seamless, unmarred by age. It tapers up, and flares out near its summit into an ornate crown of buttressed spires and flourishes wrought in gold-tinged stone, around a pinnacle that bears a huge, faceted black crystal, glowing from the inside. It’s anchored by a diorama of a sprawling palace complex, a blossoming of flying buttresses and gracefully-arched support structures, at the bullseye center of an even more sprawling city.
ꙮ It holds the pose, for a few moments, and then the diorama evaporates into shimmering light.
: “(What the fuck?)”
feels his breath catch in his throat, eyes going wide, still as the tower’s stone in shock and…something like a hesitant joy. “Little one,” he says, his voice low and rough, “Who sends this letter?”
ꙮ ”The ocean heard you.” It wiggles contentedly, at the profound helpfulness of this answer.
blinks, then laughs a little. “I see. You have given me a great gift, little one–may I try to give you a gift in return?”
ꙮ ”Am I… a gift?!” It swims around Wolf’s foot in a tight circle. “Nah, I don’t think I’m a gift…”
: “You bring delight, which is a gift,” Wolf retorts, with a grin.
ꙮ It wiggles contentedly a second time, and latches on to his foot, again.
: “Here, little one,” Wolf says. “Let me show you the groves I come from.” And he gently sweeps his hand up in an arc, fingers gracefully curling into a fist that presses against his chest as he reaches deep inside himself for a memory… ⁂
…breathes deep, and exhales, and as he exhales, he breathes out a soft, deep hum, and with the hum comes gnosis, green and flourishing, washing out from him in a gentle wave. For just a moment…he is surrounded by the emerald echo of a deep forest grove; ancient trunks rooted in rolling waves that now seem like moss-carpeted earth; reaching up to shade Samudra’s grey light through a wind-rustled canopy of sun-dappled leaves. The sea breeze, ever tinged with salt, for just a breath, is redolent with leaf mold and loam, the rich-clean scent of forest air in spring. A memory of Almachadta swirls out from him, hangs in the air–Wolf at the center, realer than real, like a serene stone anchoring it all–and then it fades away in a scattering of jade mist, and he is just a man again, and the ocean rolls on beneath them. 🙧
I'll roll for that if you want, but...no mechanical effect, just a higher-end version of a little mental trick I like to do sometimes.
’s breath catches in his throat, and then he catches himself, and breathes in, and for a second he can -feel- the Centrelight on his face, he could swear it, filtering through the leaves.
ꙮ The noöplankton, just as rapt, ceases wiggling, ceases doing anything other than observing from a convenient just-big-enough puddle-pond, until it is once again the Sea and the vision fades. The noöplankton is now leaf-lit greens, tip to tendrils, in imitation.
ꙮ ”Waow.”
blushes, and laughs a little, rubbing the back of his head. “Just…a memory. But I hope you liked it, Little One.”
ꙮ ”That was really, really nice. I hadn’t seen the grove today.” It swims around in a little tight circle. “Maybe I’m a tree?” Swim, swim. “Nah, I don’t think I’m a tree…”
: “I think you’re just you, Little One,” Wolf says, kindly. “Perfect as you are.”
ꙮ ”A yew is a kind of tree!!! Though!!!” It sounds incredibly proud of its joke, but then very sincerely latches on to Wolf’s foot, one more time. “…thank you, wolf that smells like the grove.”
: “Thank you, Little One. Your letter has given me much to think on.”
ꙮ ”Yay. I’m glad.” It unlatches, swims around a little bit. “I’m going to go tell everyone about what you showed me.”
: “Indeed,” Wolf says with a smile. “Fare thee well on your journeys, then, little sprout.”
ꙮ It darts off. “Maybe I’m a sprouuuuuut!” If it contradicts this, it’s already who knows how far off, and you can’t hear it, any more.
is going to go a day without being utterly flabbergasted, and it already wasn’t going to be today, but he’s just kind of… trying not to stare at Wolf.
watches it go, and as it leaves sight, his expression slowly changes to a mingling of delight, thoughtfulness…and troublement. “Now that is…most curious indeed,” he says, almost to himself, after a long silence.“*
lets out a slow breath. “…add that to the list of things I didn’t- nobody knew they could even do.”
blushes, just a little. “Er, the seeming? Admittedly, I did not intend for it to be that…intense. I may have failed to account for the more-fluid nature of…nature…here.”
: “The… the tower, I mean. Although I’ve. We’ve made gnosis-images like that, but that was… comprehensive, Wolf. And utterly beautiful. I’m glad I got to be here to see it.”
smiles, almost shyly. “I am glad of it as well. Someday, I pray that you may experience the reality, of which that–despite its intensity–was merely a shadow.” His expression turns more sober, then. “The tower, on the other hand…I…would greatly desire to know how that was…known.”
raises an eyebrow.
looks at Caion with troubled eyes. Not frightened at all, but definitely thinking hard. “Caion, that tower exists in no place that I have ever walked.” He chews his lower lip a bit. “But I have…dreamed it. Dreamed of a tower just like that–less a construction and more of a…a spike, plunged into the land, surrounded by a city the likes of which I have never seen with waking eyes…”
: “Hunh.” He lets out a slow breath- peers at Wolf, again, curiously. “Do you dream like that often?” Looks at the sea for a moment, then back to Wolf. “Permission to flagrantly hypothesise?”
: “I…have often dreamed of that which is not seen in the world, of course. Who does not? And…I suspect my dreams are stranger than most, for even in my sleep I hear the Song, and with it the fragments of…well, what I thought were bits of…fancy, and fantasy. Like the Sea.” He frowns, then makes a permissive gesture at Caion. “You do not need my permission, I think, but if it helps, you have it.”
: “Well, two things. First, do you ever have dreams of places like that that… others share?” He leans forward, a bit. “Places you’ve never been, but keep coming back to in your dreams, that other people on your world have seen in their own?”
frowns thoughtfully, then grimaces. “To be honest, I do not know. I learned…” He sighs. “Even among yeresh my gift for the Song is unique. I have heard it clearly for as long as I can remember. One learns to…to assume, to some degree, that one’s experience is…singular.”
: “After the third or eighth or nineteenth time that someone looks at you like you have two heads for mentioning that which is clearly experienced by you–but not by them–you learn not to bother.” He tries to smile, but it’s more like a grimace.
frowns, in sympathy. Nods. “…yeah, no, I… can certainly understand that, actually.” He looks up at Wolf, and, softly: “Do you ever dream about… somewhere that’s like you showed me, I think, except… wet, and the plants are strange, and there are beasts you don’t have a name for- or, maybe you would have a name for them, I don’t know.”
looks sharply at Caion, eyes narrowing. “…yes. Yes I have. In Song-dreams. The name…I think is…a swamp.”
lets out a breath through his nose, leaning back on his heels a bit. “Alright. Okay. Because that’s a known thing, here, it’s not– not every Irós has shared dreams by any margin but. It’s not considered strange.” He gives Wolf another look. “And I’d love to hear you compare notes with one. There’s a tower, too, I’ve heard. Always far away. So, that’s… one thing. And the other… well. Who do you suppose that ‘letter’ was from?”
: “‘The ocean,’ it said, but… mm. When the little ones gave their messages to Salme…” He frowns deeply.
nods. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. You reached out, and ‘the ocean’ answered, and…” He frowns. “And for most people, they’re… your worst nightmare. A fear, the worst fear you can imagine, your worst day, the thing you can’t stop thinking about, that keeps you up, that wakes you from a dead sleep, heart pounding.” He looks up at Wolf.
: “But not for you. And not for Salme.” A bit of a wry smile. “And not, save for a brief moment, for me.”
scrubs a hand over his face, then back through his hair. “I have my own…hypothesis. Well, rather, wild speculation.”
: “I’m listening.”
: “What if their terrible seeming is…a test, of a kind? An…ordeal? Not out of any intent to harm, but…” He shakes his head. “I saw a terrible thing, at first. But I am well acquainted with fear. If one does not grip fear, if one can let it pass through them, then in its wake is often…clarity. They test to see who can cast out fear. I do not know why. But…” He trails off, fingers tangled in his own hair. “I do not know. I can see the shape of it, but it is difficult to put to words.”
frowns, and leans back. “If it’s a test, it’s an unfair one. That… of everyone I’ve ever known, through sheer… luck, seems like the wrong word, for being the sole survivor of a thoughtstorm wrought by their surfacing. I don’t blame them. I can’t know, but I -feel-, strongly, that they tried to salvage me, when I survived it.” He exhales. “But if it weren’t for that certainty that I know the world can’t possibly, properly, earn, I’d fear them too. Samudra wouldn’t have given me the chance to learn how not to, like your world gave you. Were they… waiting for you? And I was just… an outlier, an unexplained and unexplainable fact?” He shakes his head. “You might be right. It’s a lot to think about. Would you like to hear my own working theory, in exchange?”
nods, slowly, gravely. “You are not wrong. To learn to face one’s fears is a skill, like any other. This world does not allow such practice–the costs of failure are too high. It is one of the great sorrows of this world.” He turns a steady, but compassionate, gaze on Caion. “I wonder, perhaps, if they saved you to…atone. For a rending they did not wish to cause. In the hopes that, just a little, it might repair what was lost. Or forge a bond otherwise unattainable. But it seems to me that…if my companions and I have any great gift or specialness, it is simply…that we have a different perspective. As you do, in your own way.” He smiles a little. “Forgive me, I simply…mm. Please, go on.”
listens, and nods, and looks out to the sea. “No, I appreciate your Counsel. There’s nothing to forgive. I just hope I get an -answer- some day.” A smile, out of the corner of his mouth. “I think… when I think about how I feel, when I’m in the presence of one, before it’s rendered harmless by fixing it to a given mark. They make me feel like anything could happen. And I think that– sometimes, from day to day, even. A Circle meeting where I’m not sure what’s going to be discussed. ‘Anything can happen’ can turn into ‘a nightmare’, as fast as undertow, it’s how we’re made.”
: “So we look at them, and our eyes fill in a nightmare.”
: “Mmm. And perhaps that is the key difference. The true test.” He leans back, kicking his feet idly through the waves, lacing his fingers behind his head. “Such possibility can be a nightmare, this is true. If anything could happen, all manner of terrors could befall. But…” He smiles, just a little. “Such possibility can also be…hope. It can be freedom. What a wondrous world, that has such beings in it…such strange Others to take delight in. And…in a world that seems chained to an endless cycle…” Wolf’s smile softens, widens. “To know that, however the song has gone before, it can still yet be rewritten…”
laughs softly, to himself. “There are some things, I think, of which I would rather not be certain.”
grins at Wolf amiably, and leans back, and lets his feet dangle into the water, too. “We’re not very good at things we definitionally can’t be certain of.” He laughs, a little. “But I suppose there’s nothing to do for it but to try our best and learn. Because ‘anything can happen’ can turn into ‘a dream’, too. We literally just saw that happen.”
chuckles. “Nothing for it but to keep walking on into the unknown. The road leads ever onwards…”
: “Provided the rest of the Circle ever stops deliberating about the Expedition you have planned.” He gives Wolf a wry look. “Don’t worry, it’ll go through. I’ve got to have a Conversation with one of the holdouts later, but…” He splashes his feet, in the water, a little. “I’ve still got some time before then.”
snorts a little. “For what it’s worth, this group? They can give permission, or forgiveness after the fact. Permission might be easier.” Wolf glances up at that Radiant crystal, still hanging in the air. “Perhaps one could suggest that we would be better…supervised, but channeled…than, ah…attempting restraint.” He looks distinctly amused.
laughs! “Oh, it’s the argument I’ve made. I…” He scoots a tiny bit closer, and stage whispers. “(Between you and me, if the Circle said no, I think Silver-Throat would take you there anyways, if Archie and I asked. But it’ll be much easier for us all in the future this way…)”
grins, well…wolfishly. “So noted. If it comes to that. But…” He makes a show of drawing himself up with great dignity. “I’m sure their wisdom and insight will see a better path.” A cheeky grin ruins the effect. “Though a few prods in the arse might be needed to stir up the wisdom.”
snickers helplessly into his hand. “Somehow it’s not -as- contentious as a trade policy dispute between the Webfoot-Clan and an alliance of outlying Towers that have strong opinions about how much their stakt should cost to ship. It’ll work itself out.”
: “Aye, one way or another.” Wolf pushes himself to his feet, planting bare soles on the slightly-rough coral–pausing to clap Caion on the shoulder. “Take heart, my friend. You see true–and that is no small thing. Even if it can be a burden betimes.” And, with that, he pads off to go see about his Endjinn friend’s new-old name.
: “Good currents, Wolf.” He grins, and waves as Wolf leaves, and then he stays by the water’s edge for a while, peering up at the radiant crystal, head tilted to one side, wondering.