the sickness ends.the temple.The Temple, shortly after Astoria's burst of energy, is in a constant state of growth. Trees are bursting into existence from seeds in mere seconds, flowers are growing wherever magic lands . . . and the Temple is abruptly a-buzz with energy, magic crackling throughout the air. You may find a tree in your house, or flowers suddenly growing along the walls, or plants wiggling their way through the stone walls of the buildings of the Temple. All of a sudden, the place looks very overgrown.
The Forest of the Fey seems to be responding in kind, too. Sprites are exceptionally active, darting out of the Forest and into the Temple with increasingly regularity, playing basic little tricks on the members of the Circle they can find. Flower crowns are made at an alarming rate, and there might be a few fruit-food fights that break out with the sudden abundance of peaches and apples that appear on the grounds. Learn how to duck!
With the magic comes the sudden fluctuation of energy: canon powers flicker on and off, as do the powers granted by Astoria. You feel more like yourself, you suddenly have access to energies you did not have previously in the Temple However, it's a double-edged sword -- it is not constant, and it may be more trouble than its worth.
And, remember: the Sickness is not fading immediately. If you make it to Stage 3, then you're stuck with sensory deprivation for at least another week or two. Sorry, friends.  lake dona.Lake Dona is a massive body of water, stretching outward for so far that it almost seems like an ocean until you see that the water is fresh. It is surrounded by long, leafy trees that dip into the water and has a variety of ancient ruins scattered around it -- weathered stones set into circles at seemingly even intervals, old buildings that seem to mirror the Temple in construct.
In addition to the ruins, there are a network of caverns tucked along the water’s edge, just underneath the surface on the western side of Lake Dona, that appear to go underground into murky darkness. The actual entrance to these caverns seem to be underwater, seemingly guarded by merfolk, but poking around may seem to be more trouble than its worth.
There is plenty of wildlife to be found within the lake itself, ranging from freshwater mermaids who would rather you stay the hell out of their backyard to a rather large and suspiciously friendly plesiosaurus-like creature (some would say that she prefers to be called Nessie) that seems intent on checking out who you are. The lake teems with odd-looking fish, most of which seem to be okay to eat, and plenty of plant life! But who knows what lurks in the depths below . . . that giant sea-monster looking thing has to be eating something.PROMPT IDEAS: Here are some prompt ideas for this new area! However, don't feel limited to such ideas! Feel free to fish, to explore, to swim, to poke around . . . it's always possible Astoria may check in on your character, too, once she is feeling better! ;)
1.) The Great Pumpkin The overgrowth of plants have caused a massive growth spurt in a lot of the trees, including the fruit trees that sprinkle themselves throughout the Temple. However, the fruit themselves seems to be growing at a rather . . . alarming rate, resulting in a few pumpkin-looking squash growing to the size of small boulders in the fields. Hope you have a lot of spare time on your hands to make a hell of a lot of Temple-pie, because these squash aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
2.) Food Fight!: Those damn sprites are at it again, and are collecting fruit off the ground and throwing it at people. Fight back, organize, and conquer! Or not. It's probably better to just not.
3.) Part Of Your World: The mermaids within Lake Dona are a suspicious lot, and they don't take kindly to strangers stomping through their territory. However, they are receptive to music, so if you are so musically inclined, they will definitely be more inclined to be a little more playful than territorial. If you aren't? Have fun getting tossed into the lake head-first by a bunch of pissed off mermaids who want you to get the hell of their lawn. They don't take kindly to your type around here.
4.) Nessie: Within Lake Dona is a massive plesiosaurus-type creature which seems to be . . . oddly friendly? It seems to pop up at the most inconvenient of times. Are you sitting on the edge of the lake enjoying the water? Enjoy a massive ass dinosaur sticking its impressively long neck out of the lake to check you out and also scare the bejesus out of you. That being said, Nessie is an extraordinarily friendly being, and will even give you laps around the lake if you ask nicely!
5.) Caverns: The caverns within the lake are dark, deep, and menacing The merfolk inform you that you cannot go there -- no one can, but the merfolk sure seem to be keeping a careful eye out on it. Testing the boundaries indicates a weird magical field around the entrance of the cave, that works like a bit of a forcefield. Weird, right? |
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acatalepsy_logs2018-09-19 08:25 pm
iii
He's sitting up, so he must be at least kind of okay... ]
... What just happened?
[ He may also notice that Pod 042 is with her today! Together again at last. Apparently, 2B also told it to run diagnostics on Simon, because when she gets closer, it briefly scans him before announcing: ]
Report: Vital signals detected. Unidentified machine "Simon" is online. Alert: Significant amounts of organic material have been detected inside the subject's system. Immediate internal maintenance is suggested.
[ sorry, imogen ]
no subject
[ he starts to answer 2B’s question, but then he hears Pod chime in, and he goes still, cold with sudden horror. There’s really only one thing it could be referring to, but Simon wasn’t privy to what prompted it, nor why it scanned him, or whatever, in the first place. Why just now? Why ever? He can’t predict 2B’s reaction, were he to explain, as well as he might a human’s, but it doesn’t make him any more eager to try. ]
Uh, nothing- [ and nothing lends that credence quite like scrambling to his feet and backing away with darting eyes, obviously. ]
I’m fine- it’s nothing.
[ he can’t see any way to make this be nothing, unless 2B drops the subject. WHICH WOULD BE GREAT. ]
no subject
... That doesn't sound like nothing, [ she remarks dryly, although her posture is still a little tense. ] You're not hurt?
no subject
No- no- I’m not, it just— [ he tries to keep his voice even; it’s a bit strained, but he does a relatively decent job, which is a shame when his tone of voice is the least of his fuckups here. ] —that sea monster just dropped me, like nothing here wants me getting to the bottom of the lake. It’s nothing.
no subject
Hm. Maybe it lives there. Animals can be defensive of their nests.
[ a pause. Then, almost offhandedly: ]
... Buildup of material inside your system can cause serious joint malfunctions and clogging. 9S could probably run maintenance on you, if you asked him.
no subject
...I’ll keep it in mind.
[ spoiler: no he won’t. He walks around her in an anxious semicircle, closing the distance he created, fingers curled and tensed at his sides. There’s no real substitute for jumping out of your skin. Pacing is the only alternative, though he meets her eyes (well, you know, kinda) then. ]
Good to see you found Pod. [ and when he says that, he remembers what 9S said when he mentioned 2B’s Pod’s absence, the cryptic answer that it’s already been here. It’s like a jigsaw puzzle that Simon totally doesn’t want to put together because he can see what it looks like when it’s done. ]
no subject
So she lets him direct the topic back to Pod. 2B looks up at the little floating robot, then back to Simon, nodding after a second. Her expression is a bit difficult. ]
I did, but it's missing all of its data on Hathaway. [ in other words, it doesn't remember any of it. ] It's like it was never there.
[ ... as if it had been with A2 the whole time, just like she'd planned. She realizes as she speaks she hadn't actually asked him about A2. It's impossible that Simon hasn't seen her, isn't it? This place isn't half as big as the guild had been. But she has an uncomfortable feeling that Simon probably wouldn't react well to her. Maybe he hasn't mentioned her on purpose. ]
... Anyway, I'm only borrowing it.
no subject
How can you tell a Pod’s really yours?
[ A2 showed up here with a 2B’s Pod, 2B showed up without one, and A2 doesn’t exactly seem fond of the little guy, or at least she doesn’t act like it. Plus, they’re not exactly floating around the Temple in droves. It’s not hard to guess where she borrowed it from, so she knows A2. She must, now. ]
no subject
[ more for identification than for referring to a certain personality template - Pods don't have any personality to speak of. Or they aren't supposed to, at least. 2B continues: ]
And each one can only be partnered with a single unit at a time.
[ she can guess where he's going with this line of questioning. She just doesn't know what he already knows. Her voice remains even and calm; remembering the circumstances under which this transfer of ownership occurred isn't easy, exactly. But it's not hard, either. Deep down, she'd felt some kind of happiness, knowing she'd be free. ]
... I transferred Pod 042's assignment to A2 back on Earth. It was still with her here.
no subject
And it was easy to keep thinking it, because now she was here, and now she’s tugging at the end of the thread to unravel it all. ]
A2 told me—
She said she killed you. On Earth. But you came here from Hathaway, and you’re... alive.
[ one could not be blamed for thinking Simon is having an amazingly hard time with this, for a dead guy who’s standing here holding a conversation. But she came here straight from Hathaway. And she’d had Pod, then, the entire time. ]
How- how is that possible? [ his voice is strained and confused. Somehow 2B’s placidity makes it.... worse? He can’t tell who it’s for, or if it’s even really fake. ]
no subject
... Hathaway found my body. Somehow, they were able to repair me.
[ unlike humans, any "dead" android can theoretically be brought back, provided there are enough materials and that critical memory and processing regions weren't destroyed. It's not impossible that they were somehow able to salvage her memory data and core components, purge them of the logic virus, and then repair the damage her hardware and body had taken. Maybe they even found another 2B model and inserted her personal data into it.
Not impossible. Just radically unlikely, with YoRHa gone and her data deeply corrupted. She'd been as confused as Simon is when she regained consciousness. What a dreadful cocktail of relief and despair she'd felt when she found herself dragged back to the land of the living to take up her sword again. ]
I don't know about Pod or the details. I just know what they told me when I came back online and they made their offer.
no subject
So all that stuff about... the logic virus. That was really you. Before we ever even met.
[ it comes back to him, she wanted to die as herself, and it feels like a weight is crushing his chest. To know that Simon had clung so hard to life and the vanishing hope of a cure, when even now he so feared death that he would rather live as something unrecognizable, an afterimage of a life that already began and ended. An existence he hates for its wrongness but cannot let go of, while someone who was told her identity did not matter accepted death so she could still know herself in her last moments.
he lowers his gaze, away and then back to her eyes, regardless of how little, obviously, he tends to glean from the...ir general area. ]
I’m sorry, 2B.
no subject
The apology is less expected, and she's not sure what to do with it. Her death wasn't something she talked about even with 9S until recently. 2B hasn't thought about it very much until coming back into contact with A2 here forced her to. Why should she? She'd seen her own death as an inevitability. The end she'd been given was messy, but it was a nobler one than she deserved. She'd cut down so many of her sisters in the throes of the virus like rabid animals - yet she was given the chance, the honor, to pass peacefully. The only regret she has is that her passing hurt 9S - and that guilt is fresh and raw, an emotion she wouldn't have felt so keenly a few months ago. ]
... You don't have to apologize. I asked her to. [ I wanted her to kill me, is what she almost says, but she gets the feeling that if she says that, she'd hurt Simon, too. ] I'm not someone you should be mourning.
[ in the end, she's only an android. ]
no subject
Not that Simon was disinclined to believe it all. Hiding their feelings was one thing, but making up new ones, feigning grief and remorse, didn’t seem like a thing androids did. Especially... twos? Whatever.
but the last thing she says... ]
2B—
[ he’s sure he knows what she means by that, and his voice is pleading, starting something, starting to follow the impulse to tell her that’s just not true. But obviously it feels like such an irrefutable fact to her that she wouldn’t consider it a painful thing to hear. Which it is.
so he changes tack, for now. ] Yeah, you’re right. You’re right here.
I’m glad you’re alive.
no subject
She's beginning to suspect that this might be the reason he'd reacted so oddly to her return. Why he'd embraced her like that. He says he's glad she's alive, and she has to wonder at it. She doubts that's a sentiment anyone other than 9S has ever held; her existence was always something meant to be thrown away, like that of every other android. Even now, 2B doesn't think she's particularly worthy of her life. But to have a human tell her this -- she's reminded of the conversation she had Minato a little while ago, how he said he was thankful for the work she'd done for humanity, and how she'd felt then. Like she's worth something - like she actually mattered.
It's a heavy feeling, receiving this acknowledgement she never even thought to wish for - she feels both immensely sad and deeply touched all at once, and she doesn't quite know what to do with it. Her lips part slightly in what's probably a muted expression of surprise. Then she closes them, and she smiles, faintly, sadly. ]
... Thank you, Simon.