VIgil: Return of the Geneva

[Purple Eagle]

[Battle Clinic]

Svetlana continues to weep as Wenomir speaks, shaking her head at certain points but remaining silent until he's done, so she can respond to the entirety of his words. By the time he's done, she's gazing at him with a smile. "Such a good, honourable man you are, sensei..." She shakes her head at him. "... but you mustn't blame yourself on my account. Had we known each other longer, perhaps, you would have seen just how troubled I was."

Was, not is. Her vision has changed that.

Help even he can't give her? Could he mean... she looks into his eyes, pursing her lips a little, and nods in understanding. "You think I require psychiatric help?" Her husband alluded to that, too.

She chuckles and wipes her eyes. "I must seem even more troubled to you, then... you have no way of confirming my vision, so my change in outlook must be a little jarring." Only a little, she says! Hah! "If it will ease your mind, sensei, then I will do it." She says, nodding to herself. "Thank you for still having me as a student, regardless."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Wenomir's Villa]

"Overcoming a curse and coming back to your true self does require a lot of strength." He knows a thing or two about it. "Either way, your form looks like it'll be an asset to us. What about your elementals? Can you summon one to show how it works?"

[Wenomir's Villa]

"How mysterious. I think the curse was caused by werewolves being brought into my world by some crazy mage. But I dunno how those werewolves were cursed in the first place though. Maybe they were brought in from your world? How crazy wouldn't that be?" Anika ponders out loud.

[Wenomir's Villa

"Well, I suppose anythin' is possible. And my world's had its fair share of troubles from folks going to places they oughta stay out of. I dare say it ain't the first time someone's gone a'wandering without meaning to like I've done." The question of how exactly he did end up here is sadly likely to go unaddressed. Perhaps some foolish individual had been playing around with things they shouldn't have been. "Ah, as fer the elementals, well lessee shall we..."

Atreyu takes a few steps back and starts muttering quietly, his hands moving in slow, steady motions. Though the particular spell in question might be unfamiliar to Anika, the tone, the motions, the feeling of druidic magic being cast will no doubt be familiar to her.

Over the course of about a minute, air currents slowly swirl around and gather in front of Atreyu, forming a small vortex that shifts and whirls, made visible by little bits of dust and leaves and the like being caught within it. As Atreyu finishes his incantation, the vortex shimmers and reforms into a small, barely visible, floating ball of air. "Huh, well how about that? Works just the same as back home, it seems."

[Morty]

[Battle Clinic]

Wenomir is not a man who puts much stock in visions. But it would be indelicate to say now. Svetlana seems to understand his doubts, anyway.

"I do not, so you can see why I'm still troubled. I must take Obsidian's date and the recording now, to show to Cessie and Jezebel. We'll let you know once we've reached our judgement of this situation."

[Wenomir's Villa]

Wenomir peers at the elemental. Not that he knows a whole lot about such magic. Or any magic. So he focuses on practical implementations.

"What are its exact capabilities?"

[Purple Eagle]

[Battle Clinic]

Svetlana nods and begins the process of copying the data to a mass storage device, speaking while she works. "Hai, sensei. I suppose I shall remain here. Could you tell Cessie-sama something for me? Tell her I am sorry, and I hope we can get to know one another when this is over. Perhaps, over tea?" She smiles, wiping any tears left. "She carries herself like a noble, so elegantly. We have that in common, though in my case, it is from my mother's side."

And then it's done! She hands over a USB drive to Wenomir. "It is all there. I shall remain here and meditate, like you taught me." She doesn't say "bye, handsome" out loud, but her eyes do.

[Shadowcaller]

[Wenomir's Villa]

Anika carefully observes the elemental, not even providing her usual "ohh" or "ahh"'s.
No, all she does is make a comment once he's fully summoned the elemental. "See, Wenomir? Atreyu is like a combination of C-command and me and we're two of the most powerful people around here."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Wenomir's Villa]

Atreyu went for a nice, simple little elemental. Nothing fancy.

Still, their reactions are...a little underwhelming, maybe? Maybe he should've gone bigger.

"Ah, sorry, I figured it'd be best not to be summoning somethin' too large out in the open like this. Ain't somethin' that happens often, mind, but it's possible to lose control of yer elemental. So for a lotta the fancy stuff done back home with 'em, it's under controlled circumstances where y'can get them restrained before the summoner loses control. Ah, like this thing." Atreyu takes a moment to grab his discarded jacket and take out the lighter, flicking it back to demonstrate the small flame produced.

"Small flame elemental sealed in tight. Good to produce a small flame as long as y'like, uh, for quite a while." If Wenomir knew how much Atreyu smokes, it'd probably be apparent that it must be good for a loooong time. "S'why it's important that the elementals we use for this ain't sapient. Wouldn't be right to keep somethin' self-aware cooped up like that. Ah, as for what the little ball of air over there will do, it'll do whatever I say as best it can, which...ain't much. Otherwise after about an hour I'll lose control, and if it ain't cooped up by then, it'd just kinda disperse. I can summon bigger ones though and, ah they fight pretty good."

As for Anika's comment, "I, ah, don't know about that. I ain't met, uh, C-command yet, and I think it's doin' me too much credit to suggest I'm comparable to herself or yourself, Anika." Let's not go overpromising what the wolfman can do, eh?

[Morty]

[Battle Clinic]

"I will tell her. Thank you, Svetlana." Wenomir nods and leaves to find Cessie again.

[Wenomir's Villa]

Wenomir is, sadly, difficult to impress. He has been a friend with someone who summons elementals for years, in addition to all the other feats of magic he witnesses on a regular basis.

"I see, yes. It's sensible not to do something more serious just for the same of a demonstration." Wenomir nods. "Cessie Mithar, my co-commander, also summons elementals. Though as far as I know, none of them are sentient. But that's certainly a very versatile skillset you have. You'll do just fine in our ranks."

[Purple Eagle]

[Battle Clinic]

Svetlana gives him a happy little wave, and closes her eyes to begin meditating as he leaves.

She can't wait for the life of science that awaits her!

[Hattish Thing]

[Dharmic Emissary]

It has recently rained over the Skybase.

The storm had lasted several hours, drowning the dry earth in water.

The rain has quenched the soil from sandy hues to rich, strong browns, the kind that brings an inner smile. There's a shine when sun-rays bounce back, as seeds of brilliance among the grass. This is that time, when the newly warmed soil breathes life, when together the sun and rain bring a new exuberance to nature.

It is said that water speaks in a language of its own, carried upon the rain which falls. It is one of many truths, albeit obscured to all but the most open to it.

One such individual has arrived at VIGIL, in pursuit of a name spoken of by the fallen water.

An enormous man knocks at Cessie's Office.

[Shadowcaller]

[Dharmic Emissary]

An elemental opens the door for whoever is knocking as Cessie looks up. She appears to have been doing some paperwork when she was interrupted. "Er, excuse me. I don't think I've been notified of your presence, sir. Is there anything I can help you with?" She gestures at the papers. "I was in the middle of something just now."

[Wenomir's Villa]

"I'm just good at beating people up and patch them back up, you got other skills, dude." Anika points out with a wide smile as she leans her arm on Wenomir's desk. "I just meant that you got that utility thing going. I don't know anyone else who can do animal transformations and elementals so that's awesome to me at least."

As Wenomir seems to seal the deal she jumps up from her leaning position and holds out her hand as if waiting for Atreyu to give her a give-me-five. "Awesome! We should go and celebrate at our inn!"

[Battle Clinic==> Cessie's Office]

Cessie is in her office, an elemental opening the door for Wenomir as he approaches.
"So what did you learn?" She asks as she looks up at him from behind her desk.

[Hattish Thing]

[Dharmic Emissary]

There is a man at the other side of the door. No, not a man - a monolith of muscle and bone.

His body is massive, with broad shoulders which seem to stretch on eternally in either direction. Great swathes of dark green fabric are worn over a shoulder.

Great, round japamala beads decorate his wrists and bare ankles, with a far larger garland worn around his neck. The beads are crafted of the finest imperial jade. Geometric symbols of power have been carved into each bead. Much of his body is bare to the elements, revealing extraordinary musculature. Although his hairline recedes, a great white beard growths forth upon his chin. Its sides are dark, with a similar patch at its center. His eyes are sunken in, small green dots beneath large black brows.

A symbol is tattooed onto his forehead, the sign of the universal sound: Om, that which has brought forth all life that is, was, and will be.

There's a weapon upon his back, an enormous crescent moon spade. It's handle is crafted of jade.

"Yes," says the monk, "there is." The barest hint of a smile forms upon his face.

"I am weary, and have traveled far. I shall sit."

[Shadowcaller]

[Dharmic Emissary]

The sorceress blinks. Was this a new member? She was going to assume he was as she had no idea why else would be here unless he was from HALO or...

She better find out.

Ever since Anika and other even larger members had made their presence known Cessie had made sure to have an especially large armchair in her office which her elemental is now lifting. It carries it over to the large man and places it next to him.

"Alright... wherever might that be?" She gets up and cautiously offers him her hand to shake, all too aware of how incredibly strong he must be. "I am Cessie Mithar, one of VIGIL's two commanders." She assumed he already knew that but introductions had to be done either way and she was curious of the man's purpose now.

[Morty]

[Cessie's Office]

Where to begin? Wenomir found out a great deal by talking to Svetlana.

"I've learned a lot and I'm not sure what to think about some of it. I do have Svetlana's recording of the incident and Obsidian's medical readings." He places the drive on Cessie's desk. "Svetlana doesn't deny anything she did. She accepts responsibility and the likelihood of our having to discharge her. It seems that she and Valiance were at each other's throats for a while." He will give Cessie a summary of what Svetlana said. "It seems like a mess, but a need for better oversight of the science lab seems clear. Svetlana isn't sure if Dr. Valiance purposely goaded her into aggression... but it's likely enough to concern me."

[Gnrlshrimp]

[Wenomir's Villa]

"Well if that's good enough fer you then I'd be happy to-" Atreyu pauses at the latest outburst from Anika.

It takes him a moment or two to parse what the raised hand means, but assuming Anika's willing to wait a few seconds, he'll figure it out and high-five her. "Yer too damn exciteable, Missy." He remarks with a chuckle, "Still, if that's good enough for the commander to accept me-" He glances back across at Wenomir, looking for confirmation, "Then after signing whatever papers are required, I reckon I'd be of the mind to join you fer a drink, Anika."

[Rebonack]

[The Trees Have Eyes (or this one tree does anyway)]

Pff.

Trees don't have brains you dumb bird.

Why would this one?

Looking closer, the tree appears almost crystalline.

Fractal.

Every piece like every other piece on a smaller scale.

There is no psychic or spiritual activity in it. At all. It merely is. A brute fact of reality. For any being attuned to more esoteric sides of existence this is no doubt jarring. Normally everything has some mystical aspect to it in such cosmologies. But this tree does not. This is no doubt very strange.

A knot on the tree's surface, up in the branches where it is mostly obscured, opens.

An eye watches the bird.

Come on you dumb bird, the tree seems to say, come closer.

[Morty]

[Wenomir's Villa]

Wenomir waves his hand in an "it's nothing" gesture.

"There are some formalities, like a background check and paperwork to properly add you to our roster, but if everything checks out with that, you're one of us. I'm a man of action and what I've seen here is enough."

[Hattish Thing]

[Dharmic Emissary]

Guru Mandhati steps inside and bows his head.

It was customary to show respect when entering another's place of residence.

The room was pleasant, if relatively nondescript. It did not stand out in particular to him, but then, offices rarely did. His green eyes dart towards shelves at either end of the office, burdened with old books. Had they ever been read, he wonders. He clasps his enormous hands together in gratitude once the chair is presented.

He will lower his bulky body onto it, sitting with his hands on his hairy knees. Once a hand is presented, he grasps it. Surprisingly, his touch is quite gentle.

This was a man with extraordinary knowledge and control over his own body, and that is a thing rightly feared.

"Namaskaram," he says, calmly. "May all auspicious signs come to this environment."

Now he rests within the chair, raising a massive finger up into the air.

"I have heard much of you," he smiles, "of your name."

"Whisperings of water, carried on the wind."

[Shadowcaller]

[Dharmic Emissary]

"Ah." Well, that didn't tell her anything except the winds and the water were apparently talking to this man. In the nexus she honestly couldn't tell if it was a metaphor or not.
"I'm afraid I can't say the same. It's the first time I've heard your name mentioned, mister Namaskaram. But if you wanted to talk to me you have my undivided attention now. So how can I and VIGIL help you exactly?" She folds her hands and leans forward. Hopefully it wouldn't take that much longer to get some answers besides his name.

[Hattish Thing]

[Dharmic Emissary]

Guru Mandhati laughs at this, clearly amused.

His is a loud and hearty guffaw, it practically shakes the room.

"Ho ho," he exclaims. "Namaskaram is to greet, my lady." He touches his palms together now, resting his thumbs against his barrel chest, fingers pointed upwards to the heavens. "It is a sacred saying, twin of anjali mudra." He nods his head at this. "To greet, to pray, to unify." He allows his gesture to fall, now pressing two fingers against his chin. "I am called Mandhati. To some I am teacher, or guru."

"For most, I am but a traveler. " He'll glance downwards now, his spirit aura widening to include her. What is she feeling? What is the texture of her soul?

The taste of it, the sound when spoken aloud? "VIGIL?" he asks. "I am unfamiliar with this term."

He glances around the room with a smile, humming quietly to himself.

An unexpectantly pleasant disposition, perhaps.

[Earl of Purple]

Brainless Lapis

Yep, that certainly confirms what the hoopoe thought originally. This isn't a tree, but that dragon-thing that wants to eat the hoopoe. Well, so long as it's stuck as a tree, there's nothing it can do about the bird, but it might be informative to know how long it takes for the dragon-thing to get bored. Although she's a tree, and trees aren't known for their ability to get bored. It might take a while. In the mean time, the hoopoe's senses probe Lapis, trying to find out as much as it can about her. It doesn't expect the opportunity to learn about its enemy will come so easily again.

It wants to know her size, weight, and density, and if the three are related properly- does she weigh what an object of her size and density should? It also wants to know her internal biology- what organs she has, though the hoopoe's senses can't go small enough to look at her cellular make up- if she has cells. It would also look in other realities and dimensions, to see if there's anything she's hiding in a non-physical space, but I'm not sure if that would work to peek into Lapis' inventory.

[Rebonack]

[Tricky Tree]

There are no cells.

When it comes to being other things Lapis isn't quite adept as Zee is. She can be shaped like something but that's largely it.

Her mass is inconsistent, shifting. She's made of matter or, at least, something like it. But the forms it takes are alien. More like the idea of matter rather than any terrestrial element. There is a star burning inside her, a tiny fusion plant where matter is fed in and energy comes out. Probably the closest thing such a creature has to a stomach. She is in fact absorbing sunlight, like any tree should, and drawing in nutrients through her roots. But all those things are undergoing transmutation quite unlike what any normal plant would. Rather than simply rearranging atoms it is being altered into the same celestial matter the tree is made of.

The tree extends into no spiritual dimensions.

All of her is right there.

Though some of her is folding in on itself.

Also?

Her roots are growing through the earth toward the bird.

She is attempting to be sneaky.

Come on, almost there...

[Shadowcaller]

[Dharmic Emissary]

Guru Mandhati laughs at this, clearly amused.

His is a loud and hearty guffaw, it practically shakes the room.

"Ho ho," he exclaims. "Namaskaram is to greet, my lady." He touches his palms together now, resting his thumbs against his barrel chest, fingers pointed upwards to the heavens. "It is a sacred saying, twin of anjali mudra." He nods his head at this. "To greet, to pray, to unify." He allows his gesture to fall, now pressing two fingers against his chin. "I am called Mandhati. To some I am teacher, or guru."

"For most, I am but a traveler. " He'll glance downwards now, his spirit aura widening to include her. What is she feeling? What is the texture of her soul?

The taste of it, the sound when spoken aloud? "VIGIL?" he asks. "I am unfamiliar with this term."

He glances around the room with a smile, humming quietly to himself.

An unexpectantly pleasant disposition, perhaps.

[Dharmic Emissary]

Oh.

...

Cessie clears her voice loudly.

"My apologies." Moving on.

Right now she mostly feel awkwardness and confusion over the whole situation if he's checking her soul. She has no idea who he is or what he's doing here and would rather want to get back to her job at this point.

She had felt curiosity before but now it was almost gone.

"Vigil doesn't actually mean anything. It's not an acronym like with the other organizations. It's simply a name we've adopted. We're an organization that ideally shouldn't exist but have to due to practical reasons. Our goal is to stop dangerous forces from attacking the nexus and its people, and by extension all the worlds that its connected to." The sorceress explains. "It's simply a job someone have to do and we have made it ours."

[Hattish Thing]

[Dharmic Emissary]

Her energies were remarkably organized.

This was an individual who believed that everything had its place.

Guru Mandhati was not particularly surprised, her office was fairly representative of her mental state. "Our goal, you say?" He nods slowly, taking her phrasing into account. "You speak as a collective would," he muses. "It is admirable, as is your purpose." He looks around at her office now, taking in its extraordinary size.

"Your quarters are quite large," he points out. "Are all of your order so fortunate, then?"

[Shadowcaller]

[Dharmic Emissary]

Cessie looks around the office as he points out its size and nods. "It's larger than the average office, that's true. But as you came to me rather than the other members then perhaps you can discern the purpose of its size?" The sorceress smiles earnestly. "It's simple functionality really as it doubles as a meeting room a lot. My duties include interviewing new members and holding more private meetings with existing members regarding complaints they might have or reviewing their performance within it so it's more to their benefit than my own." She gestures around the office as she talks.
"Why do you ask? Are you simply curious or is there an agenda behind these questions? Since I could be more specific if there's something special you need." Her eyebrows raise as she looks at him.

[Wenomir's Villa]

"Hey, I just take any excuse to drink." Anika remarks with a wink as it's not really true.
She honestly just drank occasionally as she seemed to be able to get drunk on life itself most of the time.
"But I'll be waiting outside then if you need to sign stuff." She wasn't sure if Wenomir had actually meant he could skip the signing for now but he might as well do it right now if it all was just a signature, right?

[Hattish Thing]

[Dharmic Emissary]

"I go where I am guided," corrects the guru.

This talk of membership confused him, of interviews and performance reviews.

Each phrase tasted of the sword of samudaya. "You speak of interviews," he muses. "Are not all to be welcomed by the arms and eyes of righteousness?" He raises a massive, thick eyebrow. His eyes are a vibrant shade of green. "Are there values to be assigned? Measures to be made of those who wish well upon the world?"

"Surely not." He pauses, inhaling deeply of the chi which flows throughout the office. When he exhales, his tone is gentler. "Forgive me for my confusion. I have never been to this place, in this form."

"I find the state of things... disturbing, my lady."

[Shadowcaller]

[Dharmic Emissary]

If he looked confused by the talk of interviews, she looked just as confused, if not more, about how he dismissed the value of them. Did he honestly not understand this? It looked like she would have to get into details here.

If he's reading his aura he can tell that her patience is being put to a test here. She was now taking time from her own workday to explain all this to a complete stranger for no other reason than to satisfy his curiosity. But in a way, this was a part of her duties.

"It's really just our way to help people improve." She starts as she folds her hands together on her desk. "But... let me start with our screening process then. I will first point out that it's rare that we dismiss anyone that wish to join our organization and in those cases we deem it too dangerous for them to join for the sake of their own well-being or we have good reasons to believe they have malicious reasons to join our organization. In both cases it's about practicality. If we just anyone join we could put our own members and the world at large at risk so to us it's important that we have some kind of screening process. If a saboteur within our own ranks acted at the right moment or someone is unable to perform their duties at the wrong one, countless of lives could be lost. Thus we want to avoid that at all cost."

She takes a deep breath and closes an eye for a moment, formulating her thoughts. It wasn't every day you got asked questions like this so it was lucky she had considered all this before to some degree.

"As for the performance interviews, it's about, ah, teaching. We give them our perspective of the work they've been doing and they can tell us their perspective about how they're doing and how we could improve their work. So it's essentially it's a process of giving one another feedback so each of us can improve."

[Earl of Purple]

Sneaky Tree With No Brain

The hoopoe can't look at cells anyway, they're too small.

It does notice the roots edging its way, and is a little surprised- it thought trees were supposed to be patient. Well, no matter. It has learnt what it could, and now it's time to go. The hoopoe stops sunbathing, stands up and flies away. It's not flying fast, however, and it isn't headed for a blind spot. If Lapis can change shape quickly, she might be able to follow.

[Rebonack]

[Bird Pouncing]

Okay this is it onetwothreego!

The soil near the bird explodes as Lapis bursts out of the ground, claws held wide in a bid to pounce on it! She had shifted her mass around underground and now the tree is rapidly folding in on itself and out of existence as the little dragon swiftly grows.

She isn't sure if she managed to get close enough to catch it.

But she's sure going to try!

Though.

The only question is what to do with the bird if she DOES catch it?

It's super weird so maybe she should take it to commander Cessie?

[Earl of Purple]

Captured!

The hoopoe wasn't expecting Lapis to shift that quickly, and calls desperately as Lapis catches it. It doesn't struggle, but Lapis better keep her eye on it- the moment it's out of sight, it will try its disappearing trick. It feels unusually heavy, as though it's denser than it should be. As it is.

[Rebonack]

[A Bird in the Hand]

She did it.

SHE DID IT!

Lapis caught the weird bird!

It WORKED!

Thankfully Lapis is still in her unbound form since her wings are fulla eyes so she can keep watching the weird bird even when she's looking at other things, too. She knows the bird's tricks! If she stops looking at it then it disappears.

Rearing up on her hind-hooves Lapis begins half-running half-hopping off toward Anika's quarters because she has absolutely no idea what she's going to do with this weird bird now and Anika was the one who told her that she needed to scare birds so maybe Anika would know what to do with it?

"ANIKA!" Lapis hollers as she comes skidding around the corner, the hoopoe clutched in her funny hoofy-claws. "ANIKA I CAUGHT THE WEIRD BIRD!"

Surely Anika will know what they need to do next.