lifeaftr | July Event: Riding the Wave

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July Event: Riding the Wave

JULY EVENT: RIDING THE WAVE

Who: Everyone!
What: The Jormun reappear to allow some transformative fun...and potentially some underwater exploration as well
When: July 10th and onward
Where: Ensō and the ocean floor around it
Warnings: Potential (and fully optional) body/transformation horror may arise when undergoing shifts from land-based to sea-based shapes, and vice versa. Otherwise, tag as you go!

I'll See You on the Other Side
The Jormun resurfaced to greet their old allies on July 8th, bringing with them the offer to explore the ocean floor alongside them. They're not the only old friend that's made a return, however. The kaleidoshells, placid, rainbow-tinted creatures reminiscent of sea turtles, have also made their way to Ensō's shores for their nesting season. For much of the month of July, you'll have to tread carefully around mounds of sand hiding delicate heaps of kaleidoshell eggs.

Those of you uninterested in sea exploration can remain on the surface, if you like - the kaleidoshells can make for a stunning sight if you're glimpsing them for the first time as their shells throw off vibrant rainbow swirls of light reflected into the ocean waters.

Predators are always keen to feast on easy prey, and kaleidoshell eggs are no exception. If you feel like protecting them from any hungry slypers or pterax, you'll find that some of the Jormun are happy to stick on the surface with you and assist. They'll even lend you a schlacknorkcvic, which is the Jormun equivalent of a simple driftwood training staff, to help keep any thieving creatures away from the nests of kaleidoshell eggs - though they recommend that you do so peacefully, if possible.

Get Carried Away
Or you can brave the sea waters with the Jormun, instead. With the help of the sne'akleriad pendant, your new, aquatic shape will allow you to navigate the waters just as easily as they. Whether you intend to make use of this new skill to go roaming about and explore some of Ensō's uncharted ocean squares, take a look at that underwater structure that's been sighted before, or just have a joyous time beneath the waves with your new scaly, tentacled, flippered, or be-gilled form, the choice is yours.

In the meantime, the following links may prove handy:

[ ♆ ] OOC Event Info and Plotting Post
[ ♆ ] Underwater City Exploration Page
[ ♆ ] Jormun NPC Information
[ ♆ ] Ensō's Locations Page

Event Timeline

[ ♆ ] July 8th: The Jormun and the kaleidoshells return to Ensō's shores
[ ♆ ] July 10th: Underwater exploration begins
[ ♆ ] July 17th: Part Two of our second year anniversary Test Drive Meme goes up
[ ♆ ] July 20th: Monthly Storytelling occurs
[ ♆ ] July 22nd: The final island in this voting round appears
[ ♆ ] July 25th: The Jormun return to their home beneath the waves

LOGS ● OOC ● STORIES ● MAIN NAVIGATION

( CODED BY BOOTYCALL )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, that would answer that question. And thus justify the Drifter's decision to retain their sprite, on at least one level; without it, how else would they communicate? Their lower half might resemble some sort of fish or eel, but the magic of the Jormun does not rid their lungs of the illness that pollutes their blood.

speech with hands
can learn

They've been offering more and more, now that they've discovered that others are amenable to learning it.

useful when without voice

Like the Drifter is, constantly.

"Seems like it would be," he says, thoughtful. "Or when there's someone who couldn't hear a voice anyway."

If there'd been a real, widespread language like that in use among the machines back home it might have saved some time, that's for certain. Not that he'd actually resented putting in the work to speak to Gimbal, but...well, there was no denying that speech had been painfully slow on his end, and had required as much of her patience as his.

He doubts he'll ever see her again, but he likes to think that he could manage a decent way to communicate if he ever does.

"Well, I'd be willing to learn whatever you'd be willing to show me. If the sprite ends up having a problem, I'd like to be able to - uh, I guess 'listen' isn't really the word. But I've worked to make communication possible before, and I don't mind doing it again."

can teach

They're happy to teach, really. It's a welcome shift from the refusal to so much as meet in the middle that was so common in Buried Time. Not everyone is so eager as Horatio to learn.

In the meantime, however -

wish to go deeper
you?

Sign language can be taught anytime. But plumbing the depths of the ocean floor? Their time here might be limited, so they might as well make the most of it.

"I do. And I think I've practiced enough to keep from driving myself into anything along the way." He swims in a narrow experimental spiral, segmented body flexing carefully; yes, he decides, he's had about as much practice as these shallow waters can offer him.

"I'm still not much for fighting, but I have some tools I can work with and I won't slow you down if you want to go together. I do need to be back on land before this thing needs to be recharged, though."

armed

The Drifter indicates that their blade can still function beneath the water, igniting it with a bluish glow. It's hard light and neon, reflecting the patterns of the light through the water, and the viscosity slows the range of the weapon, as well as the speed. It will require practice, naturally.

Practice may have to wait.

His movements slow as he watches the blue blade flare to life, with eyes that are not unlike that light. There is something like an irrational unease that lingers between the lines of his code in the open presence of weaponry, and not because he has any cause to think that Drifter might turn it against him. It is his own self that he would not trust to ever take up a weapon again.

He looks away from the sword.

"All right, then I'll leave that part to you if it happens. Are you heading to the city? Someone said there was one down there."

yes
sunken buildings
unexplored

may be useful

Their blade dispels with a soft hum, warped by the water, and they hide it somewhere beneath the folds of their cloak - some hidden pocket or compartment that seems to have come along with them.

you?

"The same. There's never any guarantees, of course, but I like the chances better than scavenging in the wilderness. Besides," he adds then, with a moment's self-deprecating wryness, "I probably wouldn't know something useful from an organic wilderness like this if it fell on my head."

Horatio swims in one more spiral, taking one more look around at the surroundings - even without a proper mapping function of his own, he can manage to double check the position of the island and the distant sun overhead, in case of emergency - and then he's ready. The small propellers stay running. All set, Drifter.

perhaps useful
perhaps answers
buildings have been sighted before

And it's somewhere to go - something to do with themself. So when Horatio looks about ready to set off, the Drifter interprets that as consent. They open their sprite's map, note their position, and without further fanfare, begin their descent.

They won't move too far ahead; Horatio can illuminate the way better than the Drifter can.

And illuminate he does. Besides the twin beams his changed eyes cast into the water ahead of him, there are small additional lights set into the sides of some of his other segments. He doesn't bother with any extras until darkness demands it though - this body is useful, but it's his power everything has to run on - and he'll be mindful of where not to aim any lights lest he blind his travel companion.

Which probably also means reading the sprite's conveyed messages somewhat more frequently out of his peripheral vision, but given the need to watch for obstacles he'd need to do that anyway.

"Before...? Have people from up on land been able to come down here before?"

not down below

The words might take some time to see, but the Drifter leaves them up for a minute longer than they would, in case Horatio needs to shine a light on the text down here in the dark.

islands float above ensō
traveled to them many months ago
could see buildings beneath the water
could not access

And now that they can, it's time to satiate that characteristic drifter's curiosity that drives all wanderers of their occupation onward. If there is something of note to be picked through, some technology to be reclaimed, some history to be discovered - they want to know what it is.

The longer message time does help. There's a trick to it, turning his head just enough to catch the words with the slightly dimmer edge of the lights' radius as the waters darken around them. And if his eyes could have widened at that next series of notes, they might have.

"That must have really been something, looking down from up there. Like flying, almost." He says it quietly, though he does not add something like I'm a little sorry I missed it. Because, of course, he had been living his life in peace many months ago.

"I'm guessing people can't still get up to that place now, though."

only briefly
malfunctioning mana pools
storyteller did not like intrusion

The Drifter is not one to deliberately do what a god has warned them not to do. Upon given an order from a deity, they do their utmost to follow it. It's simply that they hadn't known that the area was off-limits until after the fact.

strange lands
strange effects

"Full of bugs and glitches, huh? Figures." It is a little disappointing, sure, and the gods of these islands were never his, but if he is to be brutally honest with himself the possibility of dealing with likely malfunctions in 'magic' he doesn't understand to begin with probably makes trying to sneak in a firmly unjustifiable risk.

Especially for something so self-indulgent as the primal urge to be up there. It never goes away, but he's lived with it. More importantly:

"Though if the mana pools can glitch too...does that happen a lot?" Because that's. Concerning.

only once

And it was after the clouds were burned away entirely, exposing the islands above. There were reasons for it, even if it is unlikely that those reasons will happen again anytime soon. The mana pool functions do, on occasion, change - but those alterations are at the behest of and the implementation of a god.

old constructs prone to flaws

Only once is the kind of answer one might consider reasonably comforting in some situations, especially in a world where things breaking down far more frequently than that is a fact of life. But when it comes to power sources, well. Only once can be all it takes.

Then the next note appears, and he lets out a long-suffering groan. "Yeah, isn't that always the way. And there's no other b'sodding way to recharge here if there's a second glitch and it's worse, either. All the more reason to go scavenging, I guess."

He really, really misses the junkpile.

"Recharge." This, in conjunction with his underwater form, is confirmation that Horatio is, indeed, mechanical. This had not been as obvious from the outset as first anticipated - not everyone who is mechanical looks it, and vice versa. The Drifter does not comment on this, but they do note it silently.

have found automatons before
may find them again

...they were all dead, but that's beside the point.

Horatio would be quite taken aback to know that anyone had thought him even a possible organic - not that he hasn't confused the species of others left and right, because he absolutely has, and still does. But for himself, if only out of habit, it would feel rather more like blasphemy.

"Oh? Now that could definitely be something to watch for, yeah," he says, and then: "Ah, hang on a minute, though-"

And in the ever-dimming sea he switches on one of the lights set into his side, opposite Drifter. "There. Don't need anything sneaking up. Let me know if you need more, I don't know how good your vision is."

A single blink of their dark eyes is their sole indication of surprise. It's useful that he can light himself up like that, and they weren't expecting it.

thank you
very useful

That sort of function would have saved them many headaches, and even more deaths, back in Buried Time. A thought not worth considering once it has crossed their mind; they focus on the now. Not the then.

Without further hesitation, they begin a calculated descent.

Between the twin beams of his eyes and the additional light to the side, they now have something closer to the sphere of a proper lantern's glow. Horatio normally prefers not to go out in the dark at all, but if one must go, and without the aid of moonlight, then a wider field of vision is definitely preferred.

"No problem. Of course it might attract attention too, but there's no avoiding that sometimes."

His long frame follows along, snake-like, and ever watchful.

They have no way of knowing, yet, that the creatures scuttling on the seafloor are the same as those that were encountered when the sun died, all those months ago. Those were beings that avoided light and heat, and would likely not want to confront a creature that radiated so much of the former.

They have no way of knowing that this may very well be why their descent is undisturbed. The lower down they go, the more the Drifter requires Horatio's presence to pick out the silhouettes of whatever exists below.

Eventually, the dark bulk of silhouettes start to loom out from the watery dark.

The Drifter draws their blade with a hum of hard light energy, and uses it to point. There are shapes ahead. Perhaps buildings.

It would be a relief to him to know that some dangers might be driven back without violence - he had once protested even the slaying of a mindless shell that hadn't attacked yet - but of course, for now at least, he proceeds in ignorance. In fact, when Drifter draws their sword again, he tenses with the thought that something must be upon them...but wait, no.

"Oh, yes, that might be it," he murmurs, slowing a little as they approach so he can get a better-lit look at them for details. The outlines do seem increasingly artificial the closer they get, though worn and broken in places like any other ruined city, and once the closest is fully in view:

"Huh. Looks like it's built entirely out of stone. Or mostly, anyway."

age unknown

They can't say how long it's been here, is what they mean - in their clipped, laconic fashion. Still, once there's a destination in mind, the Drifter starts moving forward with much more interest, clearly keen on investigating the buildings as much as possible. Perhaps, if they're lucky, there's still a way inside.

Sunken as the place is, it probably wasn't meant to be down here.

looks like surface building
sunk now

"I'll be crashed if I know how something like that gets down this far, though...think maybe one of those sky islands broke down and dropped?" Or some other unfathomable act of this 'magic' he can't make sense of, he supposes.

He peers closely at the ancient stone-block structures, as much on the lookout for promising ways in as for anything that looks particularly likely to topple over on them as they pass. Though some of the structures seem to have done that already; cracked surfaces, parts of roofs fallen in and left where they landed. It doesn't seem likely, to him, that there have ever even been any submersible people along to try and patch this place up.

With any luck, there won't have been other scavengers either.

The Drifter pauses. It may or may not be clear from the amount of time it takes to respond, but they turn to him with the realization that this hadn't occurred to them.

possible

One of the islands had crashed on Ensō once before. It's possible that the same could have done so here...though in that case, it may very well prove dangerous. Those islands were prone to glitching, after all.

stay alert
landscape may behave strangely

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