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Lights at Dusk

Scene details

Setting: En route to at last return to Rosia from Hidden Hearth, the Star Chasers encounter a flock of fire elementals as darkness descends.

Log


 The tiller of the SaGa feels solid and familiar in Ivo's grasp. The journey down the slopes to the jungle basin had been arduous but successful and our heroes' magitech vessel had lingered intact where they had left it, not far from the mysterious ziggurat where the ancient serpent cult and Ankhialeans had long ago clashed. With their path charted and their pilot patient, their venture back to Rosia has so far been smooth sailing through Oradia's river tributaries. The sun now sets.
 With an amiable smile playing about his lips, Ivo allows himself a lingering look at their surroundings, dyed in orange and gold by the sunset. The vibrant colors of the jungle flora blooming upon draping vines are deepened as shadows lengthen, a sliver of the moon visible in the dusk upon a faint speckled backdrop of emerging stars. Broad leaves rustle in the canopy, indicating nesting birds or curious monkeys, but for all the Star Chasers' questionable luck with wildlife, none deign to approach and interrupt their gentle passage. With the aether-fueled engines tuned low, their quiet hum blurs into the surrounding soundscape of insects and fluttering bats.
 Just normal bats... probably.
 "Hmm."
 Ivo's roving gaze settles upon a peculiar gauge by the tiller. It looks a bit low, but not threateningly so.
 "We'll have no trouble reaching Rosia," he remarks, "but I do wish I needn't have diverted our supplies of fire aether concentrate into our fuel. There's so much I'd like to explore about Atl's relationship with her wisps and how that might interact with my elespheres and what else I know of magitech."
 Hypothetically, Ivo probably could have bargained with the Ankhialeans for some of their supply. But given their complex ritual relationship with fire, his status as an outsider, and Atl's only precarious social circumstances, he elected to play it safe. Maybe upon their return, once the matters with their more militant faction is settled, he can allow himself to be more openly curious and, perhaps, acquisitive.
 "But as we saw, commerce in fire elementals is not uncommon in Rosia." Hopefully no more elephants have stampeded and upended any more enchanted wagons in their absence. "I'll just have to restrain myself until then."
 Hopefully everyone else is restraining themselves, too. After all, returning to the SaGa likely means reuniting with Ruidosa's tempestuous sister Madonna and her ghoul, the erstwhile Monkey King (RIP). This adventure is going to involve a lot of firsts for Atl, no doubt.
 "The pace alright with everyone?"
 Ivo glances over his shoulder, his smile broadening, having more or less been chattering to himself. Maybe even Reize can handle this sort of cruising without the assistance of sketchy herbs. As he does, motes of light brighten on the horizon, standing out against the encroaching darkness, perhaps blending among the stars, if a little low for that...

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Do the bats leave Reize alone?
Roll(s): 12. Total result is 12. This is a success (by 2).

  • Character: Atl
  • 1 week, 4 days ago

Negotiations with the Ankhialeans may seem a tense and uncertain proposition, but 'acquiring' their goddess' caretaker and seeming scion was almost too easy; while a few of the women fussed over her, only old Chimalli really raised objection or demanded terms for the adventurers to whisk away the wild-roaming girl, a twinkle in his one eye as he forced the scholar-knight to pledge that she'd return, stronger and more capable.

During the exchange, there was a twinkle in the eyes of the retired warrior-hulk - the same that practically defines Reize Seatlan. He knew what this pledge meant, and knew how fluid such terms were. Many things happen out in the wild, and beyond it, in the greater wilds men dare to call 'civilization', stranger delights still.

'Stronger'. 'More capable'. These are synonyms only for great change and personal growth.

A burden of expectation Atl had already placed upon herself, following their journey into those slumbering ruins. Her first adventure, in truth, her first time away from the homely overgrowthe that feels like it belongs to her, and she to it. She watched these exchanges in silence, but not in fear; smiling.

It's good to have a purpose.

And now, she temporarily has none again, left to marvel at the techno-bestial frame of the SaGa before finding herself a comfortable position on its threshold. To whit, she's hanging off the prow, her wiry legs knotted through the guardrail, outrageous, decorated mane blowing loose in the breeze and one set of fingers extended to trail through the muggy warmth of the treachorous river. She's not stopped smiling, occasionally even laughing - not another first, but close - with pure delight at her circumstance.

It's not the first time she's felt free, but it's the first time she's felt so *among others*.

To Ivo there's even an actual, verbal reply - she's becoming more loquacious by the day, but nothing like this.

"Faster!"

For the first time in a long time, she sounds like the child she ought to be. The wisps buzz around her, echoing the sentiment... perhaps even a broken god remembers what it means to feel joy.

Ruidosa La Crima is chatting, amicably in a rare moment with Madonna, as the two catch up. Ruidosa has spent the moments recounting everything that's happened in her life since the two last met. The last year has been... a thing.

Madonna, still lounging in her chair and skimpy swimsuit that is begging to make Ivo crash into the riverbank in distraction, being fanned by a giant undead gorilla is listening, you can tell because she has her sunglasses raised! Madonna recounts everything that's been happening in her life which is more boring and mundane Rosia Social Life stuff.

The bats make Ruidosa sigh, she misses home. Not... here. Not Rosia. Granse! The Swamp! Which is kind of like a wet jungle. Which explains a lot why she lives in one.

"It's fine." says the two in unison to Ivo as he asks, and go back to talking.

Madonna finally ends the discussion with a "Wow, your finance sure is a 'catch'." before finally putting her sunglasses down.

Ruidosa looks over to what Reize is doing...



  This time, Reize is able to deal with the gentle cruising of the ship. He had gotten used to the area enough that his stomach had been able to adapt. Reize is standing near the edge of the railings, looking out along the surroundings.

  "...You know, it is actually nicer like this. We have a chance to just enjoy the sightings with the cruise." His eyes widen at the orange sky marked by sunset. "I am looking forward to our return to Rosia. We'll have to get some new supplies." More importantly, Reize looks over to his satchel. There are a few things he found from the old temple that he has to present. ...Rosia is the most appropriate place to do that.

  Normally, the bats would be attacking Reize with full discrimination. However, they have been keeping back from him. Maybe he gained their favor? Or maybe he wasn't worth their time?

  He sits on the railing, looking up at the sky. "... It's actually nice this time." Then he hears Atl call for the ship to move faster. ... Maybe he should take that herbal medicine just to prepare his stomach.

 

Ruidosa gives the bats the evil eye. They know better. :I


 Ivo laughs freely. The combination of the sisters, so often at odds, answering as one mingling with Atl's cheerful contrasting demand is amusing enough that he abandons all pretense of ironic detachment. Grinning, he looks to the happy girl, his eyes affectionate.
 "Just wait until we're on the open ocean," he says. "We'll leap from wave to wave. Why, when we saved Aurita Meloda, we launched ourselves from a wave so high it sent us over the lip of a cliff! What an entrance that was, huh, Reize?"
 Yeah, Reize loves that sort of thing. Where *are* those herbs?
 "The Vanguards there will be excited to learn of the ruins we found," Ivo continues, turning his grin to Reize as their leader contentedly muses on their return. "They could really catch a break... the Royal Palace seemed to work them hard. No doubt they're all-in on security for the rescheduled Ball."
 Though relaxed, the Cosmopolitan feels a flicker of tension at the thought of Atl's sister attempting another disruptive assault on the capital. But his intuition is that she won't strike twice in the same place and in the same way. The question is what she'll do instead.
 "Our resident beauties will be attending, I'm sure," he then says, flattering Ruidosa and Madonna in a light tone. He's been trying to pick up some of Madonna's gossip about Rosia, which, of course, genuinely interests him. Ivo's not *just* interested in how she looks in her adventuring bikini. "If I might be so bold as to volunteer myself as an escort, I would-- hm?"
 The motes on the horizon are getting closer and brighter as the streaks of sunset turn from orange to violet: they are not stars but wisps, sizable ones. This far from their plateau origins, only the most mature have endured, and they burn fiercely, some like lamps, others miniature fireballs. Ivo falls silent as the SaGa approaches, soon to pass underneath the gathered flock.
 The effect is akin to some sublime festival, as if hanging lanterns were suspended above a river cruise, but into which one has been eeriely and involuntarily inducted. The helmsman eyes them warily, making a steady pace, making no further small talk or sudden movements. Will the Star Chasers simply admire them and pass under them in silence?
 Or will the wisps, or some among the party, have a different idea?

Ruidosa and Madonna depart one another's company as Ruidosa passes Atl and smiles. "Yes, wait until we're in a more open area to go faster. It'll be fun then." she says. Fun for everyone except Reize.

She looks at the specks in the distance and as they get closer... Fire Wisps, this far out? Huh.

"You said you wanted to study more fire elementals and something about aether right, Ivo?" she says.

Reize seems not-sick so she's happy to divert all her attention.

"I wonder if I could trap one for study..." she says idly...

"What do you think Reize?" she asks. "Wanna help me catch a wisp?"

  • Character: Atl
  • 1 week, 4 days ago

Thrilled. It's the only way to describe Atl's expression at the promise of oceanic stunts, her gemstone eyes huge and mouth agape, lips curling into a grin as she straightens from her hung position with simian agility.

Of course, a nominally-normal child would react this way for the promise of a cream cake, or some other frippery. Atl isn't thrilled by things - she's thrilled by experiences, by the broadening of horizons she's only glimpsed from so very far away, ensconced within the vines and mushrooms that remain beautiful, but have become positively mundane. Even the most stunning biome becomes routine, even fatigue, given enough time...

And that look Ivo gives her - she's seen it in Daiby, too. That's not just new. It's unprecedented. She knows the world is dangerous, knows just how fearsome the powers beneath and through every surface are, but if there's a world out there where this much LOVE is the mundane routine - she wants it, all of it.

The wisps buzz more ferociously. A little too ferociously. Perhaps... they don't simply share her joy?

Ivo calls it with his silence, and the grin momentarily directed at Ruidosa pulls flat. Onto the guardrail pounces the jungle-dweller, hair brushing her cheeks as her gaze grows more intense. Ankhiale's remnants pulse at her frantically, by whatever means they commune, and a moment later she's tumbling across the deck to crouch beside Reize, peering up at him with something amounting to reassurance.

"I can help," she murmurs, drawing the wisps to her skinny breast, seeming momentarily to pulse like they do. Her carnelians glow, catching ancient flame. Which is probably why she's beside *Reize*, and not Rui. Fire bad.



 Searching for the herbs becomes more fervent!!!

 Reize is quickly looking over for the medicine to help him prepare for the upcoming trip through the open waters. However, his attention is diverted from that when the visual ahead. It's motes along the horizon that thange colors. "...Oh wow, large wisps...?"

 Reize looks over towards Ruidosa and he offers a smile towards his parner, "Sure, I can help you with that. ... We'll just have to keep you from getting too close to it, since well..." Reize trails off concerning Ruidosa's relation with fire.

 With Atl crouching besides him, he grins to the young girl. "Great! I could use the assistance!"

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Initiative: does the party get the drop on the agitated wisps?
Roll(s): 4. Total result is 4. This is a failure (by 6).


 It's not Ivo's fault. It's not anyone's fault, really. The intergroup dynamics of non-sapient elementals are a scholarly topic that is, as it were, hotly debated in academic departments from Fosanis to Cosmopolis. The mature wisps may seem almost sedate floating amongst one another, at least at first glance, and there is no reason to think otherwise than that the party has the advantage here.
 But like sea lions that one moment are cuddling up and another are baying and snapping, the wisps become agitated without provocation. As the SaGa floats calmly underneath, Ivo cutting the engines entirely to be safe, a smaller wisp glides by a larger one and, abruptly, the larger one darts to engulf the smaller, seemingly devouring it. As to if this was an act of aggression or merely some law of nature at work, maybe only Atl could be able to tell, but it seems to set all the surrounding wisps into a frenzy, jostling about and sputtering flame, sizable embers scattering.
 "Gah...!"
 Ivo is compelled to dive to the side as one such dangerous kindling falls upon the deck near the tiller. Thinking quickly, he reaches for some sailcloth, prudently bundled nearby for just such an event, and tosses it down before stamping out the fire. Looking up, sweat beading at his brow, he sees that his sudden burst of activity seems to have gotten the attention of the already agitated wisps. Points of light upon their blazing surfaces gather, focused in his general direction.
 "Uh oh."
 Well, at least the vampires aren't being targeted yet.

> BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAnd7s0KLmE

 Reaching for the hollow buckler at his belt, Ivo unholsters and activates its shimmering energy field just in time to deftly deflect the first two firebolts lobbed his way, backing up towards the railing to try to ensure that no stray fire hits either his companions or the tiller... and so that, if need be, he can dive into the water as a last resort.
 "The hunt begins!"
 Well, at least he can still make good-natured quips.

Ruidosa La Crima smiles and looks to Reize. "I'll be careful. I've been around fire wisps before, they're basically harmless circular teddy bears." says Ruidosa as one eats the other and causes a commotion amongst the wisps. "Oh nevermind this is dangerous." says Ruidosa as fire falls on the decks and Ivo handles it.

"Well I guess there's no other choice now." she says as she summons up her book and frowns a moment, "Falcata." she calls out, summoning up the dark energy blade as she prepares to fight, starting out by shooting an orb of energy from the book into the sky at one of the wisps. "I'll handle the small fry. Someone handle the bigger ones." she asks.

"Madonna...?" she says as she looks to Madonna who seems oddly cool with all this happening as she just sits there being fanned. "You guys seem to have it handled." she says.

"Ugh." goes Ruidosa.

  • Character: Atl
  • 1 week, 4 days ago

Bad goes to worse, quickly, and Atl slides her glance back to Ruidosa - who's the beacon of strength in this instant. 'No other choice,' she says, and the girl smiles wide, baring her own canines in a paltry echo of Reize's testy fiancee. Back to Reize she goes, peering up at him with newfound intensity.

"Trust," is all she says, before she straightens up, extends her arms in cruciform and falls backwards - against the guardrail. There's a small, but firm splash--

--in the same instant that her legs re-knot, and she catches herself, letting an arm free once more to slap now-tense, tightened fingertips into the flowing water. Fire bad. But there's power in more than just fire - there's power in everything. The current rips against her, and as she screws up her face, inscrutably concentrating, the current grows stronger. Fronds of cerulean power course up her arms, the Ankhialean wisps frantically buzzing several feet away from her, repelled by their equal opposite.

Embers cascade down from the deck, burning her slender body, but taking inspiration from Rui, Atl doesn't *care*. Or rather, she cares too much about what she's doing. Cares too much about the same person that Ruidosa does. There's power in everything, strength everywhere. Borrow it, channel it, use it.

The river roars, as Atl pulls power from *it* and hurls it upwards in spiralling bunches, maelstroming whorls of chaotic watery surge manifesting, whipping toward Reize - to surround him, shield him, and imbude him with their energy. Air carries water, doesn't it? Let the elements sing as one.

Ruidosa La Crima rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Trying to target smaller wisps!
Roll(s): 9. Total result is 9. This is a failure (by 1).



  "Oh! This looks like this could go well! The wisps are becoming fast frie---"

 Things go south as the larger set of the wisps consume the smaller ones. The agitated wisps become dangerous and Reize frowns as Ruidosa coincides with the 'nevermind'. Reize draws both of his boomerangs, readying himself for battle.

 "Alright, let's stop them!" He immediately runs ahead to get to the fight. As the bigger one is going to be the target! However, he needs to get past the smaller ones. Gathering the well of the inner aether, he draws the aether upon himself and his boomerangs are crossed together.

 "Hunting Hawk!"

  With an explosion, he bullets his way past the smaller set. With the maelstrom of chaotic watery energy whipping around him, he becomes imbued as he blazes through them like a geyser. Through Atl's support, the two manage to unlock a Link Art.

 

Reize Seatlan rolls 1d20+3>=10.
Comment: Link Art: Tide Penguin
Roll(s): 20. Total result is 23. This is a success (by 13).

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Improvized follow-up: Falcata x Vanishing Blade
Roll(s): 19. Total result is 19. This is a success (by 9).


 Ivo is nothing if not an opportunist and, even under duress, he has a keen eye for his allies' prospects. After dextrously parrying the first volley of fireballs and carefully timing when to roll to the side (inelegantly but effectively) so that the second volley aimed his way sails harmlessly over the railing to fizzle against the river, he rises and unsheathes Hauteclare in a single motion, quickly taking stock. His eyes light up as he sees Atl's odd behavior. Only because of his revelation regarding her likely abilities on their last adventure does he immediately intuit what is likely to happen: given that her adoring wisps are pulling back from her, she must be channeling a competing element, and as far as he can tell, Reize has a perfect opportunity to capitalize. The only question is if the small fry can be cleared away to give him the best possible opening on their more formidable foes.
 "Rui-- allow me!"
 So he says as he swings his sword-- or what is left of it, merely a hilt with crackling aether at the end. Like a stage magician engaged in some preposterous slight of hand, Ivo has used his movements to obscure that, even as he seemed to draw his weapon, he had sent its blade askew and looping about to seek a target. Rui's blade of dark energy looks as if it is going to just *barely* miss a cluster of likely foes and, if it were to hit, Reize would be set up perfectly.
 "Now you see it..."
 Time to fix that. Hauteclare's detached blade whirls into view a split-second before Rui's magic is about to pass by the wisps, the weapon and falcata-shaped shadow fusing. The aether-infused steel pulses black, taking on an aura of Destruction akin to how it becomes suffused by the elements when Ivo loads an elesphere into his pommel, and then seems to vanish entirely. Another trick? No, something more impressive.
 "Now, you're done."
 Narrow slices appear across the full cluster of small wisps, all repeatedly cut by an invisible edge, before each disperse in puffs, intact little red crystalline cores falling to the deck like a shower of garnets before Hauteclare's blade reappears a mere moment before it clicks back into the hilt in Ivo's grasp.

> Link Art unlocked: Fatal Falchion!

 "A display worthy of an escort, wouldn't you say?"
 So he flirtatiously quips to Madonna as he, smooth as can be, lifts his reunited sword in a fencer's salute, concluding the technique by striking a pose as if it were natural to do so. An opportunist indeed.
 Even as he says this, Reize's way is cleared. With the peerless power of the unstoppable penguin, most dangerous of birds, he becomes a veritable geyser as he launches from the deck, engulfing the largest of the restive wisps in his wake. Their crystals too are intact, and significantly more sizable, leaving divots in the deck where they fall, quivering upright.
 Needless to say, the flock of will o' wisps is greatly reduced by this extraordinary combo of combo attacks, and they are on the figurative back foot, thinned out and scattering. The party has the opportunity to press the attack, and the wisps might try to fight back further still, but they've lost any semblance of unity and seem confused as to whether to lash out at the party or each other or simply flee. Now, the party *does* have the initiative.

Ruidosa La Crima doesn't have the opportunity for containment right now. Maybe if there was less of them still, but she doesn't need them attracting one another or coming to eat one another. She watches Ivo help her and she whews as she watches them thin out. "Thanks, Ivo." she says.

"My herrrroooo." says Madonna blandly. Madonna will totally be taking Ivo to the dance unless someone gets to him first. The Monkey King continues to fan Madonna in all their non-plussedness.

Aether crystals are useful. Ruidosa knows this much. But they're ruining the deck of the SeGa as they fall from the sky. One falls right next to her making her jump a moment.

She frowns a little. "We have some crystals now I guess. Do we want more, Ivo? Because I think now's a good time to pick up the pace out lest they regroup." she says. "IF they regroup that... attack sure was something." she says blinking.

  • Character: Atl
  • 1 week, 4 days ago

As the river feeds the ocean; like the cycle of life itself, they work.

This isn't a new phenomenon to Atl - her little existence defined by the inexorable chain of natural consequence, of which magic is only another part and portion. But it's new to find this with other people, to take THEIR energy and spirit, as they are a cog in that great, churning cycle too. To be responsible for even one stage of that, it has even more resonance than it does when it's she and the vines, and the mushrooms...

She wasn't the powerful one here. She didn't wield the solitary will.

Power begats power, will feeds will, she's quickly learning - for the first time - why people live in such groups. It's not just to torment each other, not to praise things greater than themselves, not to wish and hope and pray in conjoined desperation. People can make each other *stronger*.

She straightens from the water, hissing in pain, patting out smoldering patches of soft body hair, her skin twisted in places where the embers fell. Straight over the rail she goes, to the deck, where her carnelians whiplash around the rest of the crew before settling on those fallen crystals. Their bounty.

Her wisps settle about her shoulders, steam rising as the river moisture burns away.

"They will," she replies to Ruidosa, with a swift nod as she plucks up one of the crystals and holds it up toward Reize. "We'd be ready, but, perhaps we are ready to be somewhere else."

It's the longest sentence she's spoken. Maybe ever. In her readiness, she grins.

She's finally found her place, and that place *travels*.



 As the fallen wisps are slowly fleeing, Reize rises to his feet and he gives a defiant look. "And don't come back!" He raises a hand in annoyance, watching them retreat from the collective group.

 He looks over to the fallen crystals. "We have our victory... let's try to get back to Rosia! We have a good bounty to bring back! ... And probably should get ready for the ball soon." Reize looks thoughtful. He looks over towards Atl, "How does it feel to be exploring?" He cracks a grin.

 


 "My lady."
 Ivo, sheathing his sword as if in answer to Rui's query, offers Madonna a courtly bow, attempting to hide his smile. Her aloofness leaves him undaunted. Despite his low status by Cosmopolitan standards, he is well-versed in the manners of aristocrats and is convinced her bland tone hides her resolve to accept him as an escort. His instincts aren't always right, but he's pretty sure about this.
 "I think this is more than enough, Rui," he then says, straightening to smile at her. Some of the wisps are speedily withdrawing, and others are floating about seemingly at random as if just dazed and confused, but none pose a threat any longer. As suddenly as the attack came, it has ceased. "I'll get to work distilling them as soon as our dear Daiby is finished with the travel lab belowdecks." There's only so much distilling equipment, after all, and perfuming the Monkey King is a high priority, probably. Besides, the SaGa is a small vessel and there's not that much room down there-- not that Ivo has ever complained about close quarters with Daiby. "I'd like to see if Atl can channel the energies of aether in different states... crystallized, concentrated, and otherwise. Now I can start with fire as planned, but..."
 He glances at the girl, curiosity aglimmer in his eyes.
 "Her talents clearly range wider than that."
 Ivo does not necessarily expect to awaken some grand new power within Atl. It would not surprise him in the slightest if her particular form of channeling works best with nature untouched and fails to mesh with the extractive techniques on which contemporary magitech depends. Still, for a scholar like Ivo, "nature untouched" is merely a particular arrangement, one which might conceivably be duplicated in a laboratory setting and so better understood. The more that he and Atl understand one another, the better.
 "Ah-- you were singed! Atl, I'll get Daiby and some salve."
 Really, that's what matters. As much as Ivo loves learning, seeking knowledge is a means to an end to him: it takes him on one adventure after another with his precious friends.

Ivo Galvan rolls 1d20>=10.
Comment: Next time, on Star Chaser Story: will Reize's efforts to be romantic succeed?
Roll(s): 16. Total result is 16. This is a success (by 6).