[Chuubo's] Fortitude: The Glass-Maker's Dragon IC

[Sanguine]

Leonardo shrugged. "That's more or less right. There a few details and possibilities you neglected. But at the root of the matter the fact is that the very nature of the Outside makes it incredibly unlikely that the people of Earth would be aware of their world drowning."

[Tengu_temp]

"Oh? Then how exactly am I wrong? You can't call someone ignorant and don't explain why are they ignorant. 'That's just how the Outside works' is not enough for an explanation."
Natalia stares at Leonardo. It doesn't look like she's offended, though with people this stoic it's hard to tell, but it seems to be a challenge. An intellectual one.
"I lived all my life on Earth. It was not always sunshine and roses - it rarely was, as a matter of fact - but it was at least there. And then I come here, and everyone keeps telling me that Earth is a part of the Outside. That all this time I wasn't fully alive, not the way people are here. If someone told that to you, how would you feel?"
The tension in the air breaks when she registers what Jasper said, though, and blinks in surprise. "Mom?"

[Sanguine]

Leonardo sighed, he had just explained this exact point before she arrived, and he hated repeating himself. "The Outside is not a physical phenomena, it is a psychological one. A state of mind as Jasper put it. If you are familiar with a place, it is not part of the Outside, at least not for you. But for someone else, it would be. You, and all of the people of Earth, spent your entire lives there before the world drowned, so to you it wouldn't be part of the Outside. And that is why you saying people would notice betrayed your own ignorance of the subject." After taking a breath Leonardo looks at Natalia and with his voice full of empathy says. "I was a student of the Bleak Academy, if only briefly. I made the trip through the Outside to that terrible place. I know what it is like to not exist."

[Tengu_temp]

"That... actually makes sense, as much as anything in this place can make sense. But..."
Natalia looks to the side and stares at the clouds floating lazily in the sky, her long hair fluttering slightly in the light wind.
"The Town is the only place in the world that's not covered by the Outside, right? Are you sure this is all true, and not just some kind of local pride taken to the extreme? 'We're the only place where you are really alive' and all that? Thinking that everyone who lives on Earth never fully existed..."
Her voice gets more melancholic.
"Thinking that Sergey never fully existed... It's just too cruel."

[Geostationary]

"Oh, we didn't mention? The sun...is?...Was? Jasper's mom. She's the child of the sun! And it's not like Earth didn't exist- if it didn't exist, how could it drown?! There needs to be an existent world first if you're going to drown it! Though if you listen to the folks at the Methodology Building, they claim that nothing ever existed in the first place, but you can imagine that theirs is not the most popular interpretation."
Rinley stops for a moment.
"...Who's Sergey? Was he a friend of yours?"

[Terraoblivion]

"Yes. Jade Irinka, the angel of the sun. She's my mother...Or was. I don't know what happened after dad shot her, just that she's alive somewhere...If she's still herself enough to really be her." For once Jasper isn't bright or happy or smiling, but looks rather downcast. She still managed to look up at Natalia and give her a weak smile. At least she could do that much for the Russian girl, even if she wasn't quite sure what the problem was. "And it's was. She's not the sun anymore."

[The_Snark]

The Archive is not a tidy place. Even though it's bigger on the inside than the outside, even though she suspects it has no actual outer limit on its size, there are still too many books and binders and old files to fit neatly on the shelves. They spill outward onto the flat surfaces, collecting on tables and desks and the tops of shelves, arranging themselves in haphazard piles. It should feel like an awful mess, it is an awful mess, but Miramie has always secretly liked that about it. There's a sort of cozy claustrophobia about the place: the gentle sounds of paper rustling in the distance, the smell of old dry ink, the warmth of sunlight on dusty shelves.

But today they have visitors, and in a fit of anxiety she's done her best to neaten up the first floor a little, so that they don't come in and think, "What a mess! How will we ever find what we're looking for? Who let it get into this state, anyway?" The piles have been straightened, the floor swept. Miramie is still working when she hears voices outside. She pauses, waits to see if they're coming in. They aren't. She bites her lip, wavering, and finally decides to venture outside.

"Hi," she starts, and noticing Jasper's expression changes what she was about to say. "Is everything okay?"

[Tengu_temp]

"The sun..." Natalia is not sure how to respond to this, and it shows. It's not that she finds the idea any more weirder than anything else in this place, it's just that she can feel sadness coming from Jasped as well - and while that's more managable than burning optimism, it's hard for her to cheer people up.
"I'm... sure you will find her one day... She couldn't just forget like that, right...?"
She sighs quietly. Well, that was harder than expected.
"And Sergey... was my brother. He was only 2 years old when he died. And it was all my fault." Natalia stares at the building of the archive. "I hope to find something that will help me with my penance here, in this building. This is why I came here."

Miramie's arrival interrupts this melodramatic scene. Natalia looks at her but doesn't say anything.

[Terraoblivion]

"Ah, yeah...I was just reminded of, well, the death of the sun and all..." She gave Miramie a weak smile, however she couldn't really push the feelings aside. What was her place, really? Her mother was gone. Her dad too, but that was probably a good thing but at least he was someone. Heaven was gone too...

She looked away from the others, her gaze turning to the new sun to see if it could give her any comfort or answers, but of course it stayed as quiet as always. It suddenly felt very lonely, abandoned even by the sun.

Hearing Natalia, she tried pushing her feelings away, to focus on the girl. "I'm sorry to hear that...But it was just an accident, right? Nobody can blame you for that." Her smile wasn't as beaming as before, but maybe, just maybe there was a sense of understanding in that more subdued smile.

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And taking an XP for wrestling with feelings of loss.

[Geostationary]

Rinley, seeing her heart, feels for Jasper.
"Jasper, I want you tell you something. I'm... I'm here for you. I know what it's like to be without a mother, and I wouldn't wish it upon anyone. Just, if you ever need help or something... I'm here."
She awkwardly reaches out, putting her hand on Jasper's shoulder and smiles.

"Oh, hi Miramie. We're just... feeling. And Natalia, I'm sure we'd all be glad to help you."

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I'll be claiming a 'Growing Up!" xp for being all supportive and whatnot, and I'd like to use my Heart-Speaker power to speak to both Jasper and her heart at the same time.

[The_Snark]

"... oh," Miramie says, at a loss for words. She never had a mother either, but that's different. Piecing yourself back together from dreams and shards of glass isn't the same as growing up… is it?

After a moment she remembers her manners. "I'm very sorry to hear about your loss. And yours too, miss Natalia." She bows formally, hands folded in front of her.

[Tengu_temp]

"Well..." Natalia hesitates. Accident or not, she still feels it was her fault. What use is all her talent if she couldn't even use it to save her own brother? But there's no point in making all those people feel bad needlessly. Thia burden is her own to carry.
"Don't worry about it, it was a long time ago. But if you want to help, I won't say no. It's appreciated."
She smiles slightly in a (rather transparent) attempt to cover her feelings of grief on the matter.

[Crinias]

A slight breeze blows in the air, and a cloud rolls lazily under the sun for a moment, shadowing the Archive. It's a sunny day in Fortitude, but as Jasper speaks, you can't help but feel that for an instant it's less warm.

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Sometimes things just happen... Jasper being the incarnation of the sun probably results in an empathic environment, on a subconscious level.

[Geostationary]

Rinley claps her hands together excitedly once, transparently trying to diffuse the emotions building up around her.
"So! The Archive! Why don't you show us around! Is it big? Small? Dusty? Clean? Labyrinthine? Orderly? Full of secrets? Transparent? I don't think any of us have been here before."
Her enthusiasm, while genuine, is not entirely convincing.

[Tengu_temp]

"Yes. Please show us." Natalia nods seriously. "I like books in general, but right now, I'm looking for very specific ones. Books about legends, about monsters and weapons to slay them."
Well, she's surely not telegraphing her intentions or anything.

[The_Snark]

"All of those things." Miramie pauses. "Well, most of those things. Come and see." To Natalia, she adds, "I don't know of any books like that offhand, but you might find something useful in the town records - kaiju and monster attacks are the sort of thing that gets mentioned. I'm sure we've got other books with monsters in them, children's stories and travelogues from the Outside and things like that, but I don't know how true any of those are. We just take what people give us."

She turns to open the door, then stops. "Oh! There are a few rules I should tell you about before we go in." She counts them off on her fingers.

"One: no open flames. Period."

"Two, please don't take food or drinks inside unless you're in the kitchen or dining area. If you're planning a long expedition into the stacks and need to pack provisions, ask permission, and make sure you clean up after yourself: don't spill anything, don't leave scraps or crumbs behind. We don't have any rats or cats living in the Archive, so there's nobody to keep the vermin down, and we really don't want to have ants or roaches in here."

"Three, don't go wandering off by yourself. The Archive is a lot bigger than it looks, and it's easy to get lost. I get lost sometimes, if I'm not careful, and I've lived here for a year. So be careful. Take a friend along - it helps, and if you do lose your way it's better to be lost together than alone. If you need to, you can ask me or one of the others who lives here to go with you."

"Four, and this isn't actually a rule but please don't break it anyway... don't bother Professor Hayashi unless you really need to? He's very busy with his research, and he's got enough else on his plate without us adding to it."

It's not really dishonest to make up her own rules, Miramie tells herself. Rules have to come from somewhere, don't they? They don't just spring out of nowhere. And these are good rules.

"That's it, so..." She opens the door.

Inside are books. And boxes. Filing cabinets. Sheaves of paper in almost-but-not-quite-tidy heaps on top of the boxes. Shelves. Folders. More books, piled on their sides in front of the properly shelved books. Old photo albums. Rolled-up posters. Scrapbooks. Even a couple of quilts. The sound of gently rustling paper wafts through the air every few moments, giving the impression that people are browsing the shelves just out of sight; but maybe that's just the breeze. Miramie leads the way through the first few layers of bookcases into the Archive's center, where the narrow crowded shelves give way to crowded desks and tables. The ceiling here is open, revealing higher stories arranged in concentric circles overhead. In the middle of it all stands a massive wooden crankshaft, slowly revolving, rising up and up until it intersects the ceiling far above.

"So... here we are. The Archive." She clasps her hands, watching the four newcomers to see what they think. "I did a little looking before you arrived, and I think I know where to find old storm records. If I'm wrong, or if you want anything else, we might have to consult... the filing system."

[Terraoblivion]

Natalia's blatant attempt at pushing the issue aside got her another attempt at a small, comforting smile from Jasper and there was a clear sense that if the two had been closer together she'd have gotten a hug forced on her too. However, the conversation soon drifted to the archive itself and what Natalia was looking for. "Why do you need to slay a monster?" She hadn't quite recovered yet, but it seemed clear that the distraction helped her feel better. "And is there anything we can help with?"

Seeing the inside of the Archive, Jasper not only ignored listening to all the rules, her eyes lit up brightly as she looked around the giant, strange room. "This place is incredible...What is the big crankshaft for?...And what's so special about the filling system?"

[Tengu_temp]

Natalia looks around the inside of the fairy tale-like library with a stoic expression. A few years ago, she would be amazed - but in her current state, the most she can muster is a deep, approving sensation.
"Where does Professor Hayashi reside? I'm asking so I won't bother him, of course." She nods slightly to confirm her own words. Jasper's words make her hesitate, though. As if the girl's burning radiant aura wasn't enough!
"...It's a part of my penance. Besides, the monster is dangerous. I'm looking for info about the great serpent Typhon, and holy and magical spears which could kill her. If you really want to help... Help me find the books, please."

[Geostationary]

Rinley is mildly awed at the Archive. I could have a real adventure in this place!
"Oooo, what's the filing system?! Do you have to fight it until it gives in and gives you its secrets? Does it run on Outside dust and catalog items by dreams? Maybe it's a card catalog so big it's grown sentient in its size and age?"
Rinley pauses for a moment, letting what Natalia just said sink in.
"Wait, you're looking for Typhon? I've met her! Well, met is a strong word. More like 'fended her off while saving Prince Eduard from her assaults'. Why do you need to kill her? What are you serving penance for?"

[Sanguine]

Leonardo was deeply uncomfortable with all of the talk of losing loved ones. He had never known his own family. So he didn't really know what it was like to lose a loved one. But still the whole thing reminded him of those terrible days at the orphanage where he had desperately hoped it was all a mistake his parents, whoever they were, would come to get him. They never did.

One look inside the Archive however was all it took to once more bury those painful memories. There were just so many books, and a crankshaft! Crankshafts make everything better. It was perfect. Pumping his fist into the air Leonardo exclaimed. "Onwards brave companions, to the Storm Records! The fate of Town is in our hands!" After a moment something Miramie said sinks in and Leonardo turns to her. "Would the storm records be near the other historical records? Because we will likely need to do some cross-referencing."

[Tengu_temp]

"You two were attacked Typhon? Where?" Natalia stares at Rinley in disbelief. "Please, I have to know! Will you show me later? Typhon is... It's my fault that she's free. Therefore, it's my duty to defeat her." She raises a clenched fist in a determined way.

[Geostationary]

Rinley is momentarily taken aback by this outburst of emotion on the part of Natalia.
"Oh, uh, sure. It was back at Maple Hill, in the gardens. We can drop by later; it's actually where I met Prince Eduard. He was fighting and losing against her, so I had to do something, even if the rats are technically family enemies. So I saved him and nursed him back to health from his wounds and her poison. We can find him and go to the gardens later."

She looked back at the group, and mimicing Leonardo, shouted, "For now though, onwards to the Storm Records! Let no card catalog stand in our way, lest we stir up a tempest! None shall rain on our day!"

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Storytime XP for Eduard and I's story. Also, on the one hand I want to pry into your business now, but on the other hand there will be time for that later and there are Archives to explore! The eternal dilemmas of Rinley!

[Terraoblivion]

"You don't need penance!" Jasper met Natalia's melodramatic declaration with a firm expression of her own. "You should focus on moving forward and making the future better, not feel guilty for the past...But I guess slaying a dangerous monster is that too...Just don't feel guilty or bad about it." Her previously firm expression reverted to her usual, beaming smile and supremely optimistic attitude.

"...Are filing systems truly that amazing? I thought the lower world didn't hold wonders like that." She fell quiet for a second, lost in thoughts. "Or is it the system keeping the world organized? Something has to or it would be the chaos of the Outside, so maybe the archives were build around it as it would be a good source of information." Really, if Miramie was talking about it with that kind of reverence and Rinley thought it was sure to be something amazing, it seemed like a decent guess. Besides, if the filing system didn't, what did? Things couldn't just happen on their own, after all.

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And taking an XP for theorizing about the nature of the lower world.

[Crinias]

Leaving behind for the moment talk of giant snakes, penance, and the nature of chaos as controlled by order, the group was led through the Archive by Miramie, through twisting corridors and bookshelves that were practically overflowing with their contents. The immensity of the Archive makes itself more pronounced as they walk more and more.

For whatever reason it feels momentous.

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Ritual details!

This particular Ritual shall begin when Miramie does or says something related to the Filing System. It must be symbolic or meaningful in some sense - like posing dramatically, hand raised, while exclaiming: "Behold!" (although that wouldn't really be in-character for her, I suppose). It could simply be walking dramatically towards the Filing System, if it feels right to you. Dramatic music for mundane things such as stair-climbing is entirely optional here (and if the Filing System is on a higher floor of the Archive it'd be appropriate).

Then everyone else gets to do one of the following (or something similar):

*Offer a short description of the Archive's Filing System, in all its beauty and terror

*Offer a short description of yourself being overwhelmed by unruly cabinets

*State or emote your reaction to some recent event (e.g. being surprised at the discovery that filing cabinets hunt in packs, and that you're surrounded) (that's probably not a thing, by the way)

*(Posing doesn't work via PbP, but feel free to communicate that you're doing so if you want.)


Rituals are weird, so the reality of these events (how canon they are, really) or their reactions is a little questionable. Don't be afraid to write something weird and then dial it back as "my character didn't really say/do that, but perhaps s/he would have if the circumstances were right"; or be surprised if I ignore a description of something.

When everyone has posted once, or after some reasonable span of time if people are busy or something, I will post a final wrap up Ritual action and the Ritual will end.

Also, don't forget that you qualify for 'The Invocation' and 'Ritual Actions' XP Actions while in a Ritual, should you choose to take one such action.

[The_Snark]

"I don't know what the crankshaft is for, it's always been there," Miramie says, fielding questions amidst the torrent as best she can, "and Professor Hayashi's study is on the third floor, just past the Theoretical Geology shelves. But he's sometimes out and about. As for the filing system... you have to see that for yourself, I think."

And she leads them onwards through the stacks, up a staircase and into a narrow hallway lined with statues depicting the ten muses of the Dewey Decimal System. At the end of the hall is a door; beyond this door, the Filing System.

There is a hush as the doors open, as though the world is holding its breath, and then a high clear voice.

~

Sing, o Muse, of the records held within this Archive
and of the storm records which have been lawfully kept here since the days of Alexandrel Celdinar.
Tell us now of the Outside.
Tell us of its theoretical underpinnings -
of the nature of chaos and time -
of the wilderness that crashes upon the shore of That Which Is.
Sing through us, goddess, grant us data both complete and accurate -
That our statistical models may divine the truth -
These things we beseech you.

Sing, noble Philodoxa, of truth and thought,
of existence and the meaning of things;
Sing, pious Sophia, of wisdom and the realms above,
of the sacred and the mysterious;
Sing, fair Kimonikos, of the nature of man
of his follies and foibles
Sing, clever Semaris, of song and language
of the medium through which we all must speak;
Sing, wise Epithymie, of science
of logic and the discoveries of those who came before us
Sing, steadfast Sideone, of artifice wondrous and terrible
of its proper uses and its flaws
Sing, gentle Omhora, of beauty given shape
of the world as shown through art
Sing, proud Aresteia, of legend and fable
of stories which, while being lies, sprang from the seeds of truth
Sing, faithful Clio, of that-which-was
of wonders and horrors long since past
Sing, lady Vassilissa, Queen of Muses, of your sisters
Guide us to the knowledge we seek.

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This is a Ritual Invocation; XP action!

Miramie probably isn't actually singing an invocation to the Muses, but you never know. So this is also a break from reality, I think.

I don't have anything particularly good in mind for the actual description of the Filing System, so I'm passing that off to the next person who feels like posting. Who could also defer it, if they like.

[Geostationary]

Music
The room is cavernous, clouds of incense drifting between the columns and statues to the Muses. The room is dark, punctuated by shafts of light from the tall, sparse windows and intermittent bulbs. The room is cool, as you feel a strange breeze pushing outwards. In the center of it all, the filing system hangs suspended over a chasm, full of stars; from this originate the breeze and incense.

The filing system whirs. It clicks. It hums. It breathes deep the exhalations of the chasm, whirring and churning and, every so often, spitting out some new card and filing it away. It is both gold and silver, brass and wood, crystal and glass. It crackles with knowledge, with secrets, with the susurrus of its collective mind. A sharp ring and a single strip of paper slips from its bulk.

Written is a single phrase:

I Listen; Hear Now My Song

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I suppose I'll call for a Ritual Action XP then.

[Sanguine]

The filing system was awe-inspiring, even the great and wondrous Leonardo de Montreal was overwhelmed by it's awesome majesty. Leonardo may very well have been a God of Dream and Nightmare but this was a God of Knowledge and deserved even his respect. Standing before the chasm the young man prostrated himself before the filing system and spoke secret words of science, proving his nature as a seeker of knowledge.

Spoiler: OOC Stuff

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I'm totally posing here and so I'm going to say this is a Ritual Action.

[Tengu_temp]

The inner workings of the filing system cause all the nearby cabinets to move. Their drawers pop out and in, the shelves themselves seem to change places when nobody is looking, and papers fly out, spinning in the air, only to return back into other drawers. All of this forms hypnotic patterns, almost like a dance of paper and knowledge that's somehow necessary for the archive to work. And it invites the onlookers to watch, tempts them to join in...

Natalia stares, with a somewhat linefaced expression, but she doesn't join in, despite all the cabinet dance going on around her. A frozen heart can only be fascinated that much.

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Guess I'm joining in with a Ritual Action. If this is how it works - can you do that if you already participated in 2 scenes this week?

[Terraoblivion]

The wild dance of the filing cabinets was brought to order as Jasper joined them. Moving with the flowing grace of the ritual dance to the honor of her mother, she pacified the cabinets, bringing them to order and making them serve their purpose.

As the cabinets fell into order, the sparse lights flared up in brightness, the clear light of the truth bathing the seekers below, contrasting the starry depths beneath. Pushing the darkness back, it was like the sun pushing back the Riders and the Outside creating reality in the middle.

[The_Snark]

As the light grows and the frenetic whirl of paper and doors slows to a stately, deliberate procession, Miramie moves out onto the unseen floor. Her footsteps are quick, steady, graceful; like a comet passing through the constellations in their slow waltz through the heavens, she is neither a part of the dance nor an intrusion upon it. She knows the way; she's walked here before. This is her home.

A drawer opens before her, and she gently plucks a filing card from within. Without pausing she glides to another, takes a second card from the gaping mouth of a rosewood cabinet. A third is taken from a glass hook; a fourth from an elegant shelf of silver and bone; a fifth from a spot on the floor, where it fell astray. Then she turns, retreating with swift grace.

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Here I'm declaring an Intention to find the stuff that Leonardo and Natalia are looking for. Logically you'd think this would use her Connection to the Archive, but in this instance I think Grace applies just as well (if not better).

Spending 2 miraculous Will (this is Archive-related), for an Intention level of 4.