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pluviosa2024-06-02 03:36 am
pluviosamods) wrote in pluviosa2024-06-02 03:36 am
Entry tags:
SO BELOW - EVENT LOG
SO BELOW
Not that you'd know it, looking out the windows. A foreign ocean stands outside, on the other side of the glass - the ghost of an ocean, long gone from the truth of this world.
Just like so many other things, which have become visible to those who are willing to pay attention.
This is the event log for SO BELOW. Information for the first part of the Event (days 15 and 16) can be found here, along with sign-up options for the second part of the event.
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Surely there was something he could have done to help reconcile Neuvillette to the fact that they were breaking the law. The Iudex knew how important what they were doing was? Beyond the still-curdling feeling of betrayal, he feels guilty himself. He can't imagine this was a decision that Neuvillette would have arrived at without a great deal of thought. There must have been something Wriothesley could do to persuade him away from this course of action. And now... now it's almost certainly too late.
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"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, Neuvillette." But part of him still doesn't think Neuvillette would ever pretend in the first place. It's the only thing that makes sense, but it makes no sense at all.
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"Wriothesley, I genuinely do not know what you are talking about," he says. There's agitation in the air around the man, but emotions alone do nothing to explain his thoughts. "Are you feeling well?"
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He shakes his head, gritting his teeth. "Something's... wrong. I know you didn't... didn't do anything." Even though every other part of his brain is screaming that Neuvillette did, that he's been betrayed again, that everything they've been working toward is going to be destroyed and it's Neuvillette's fault. "It's not your fault."
He rests his forehead against the cool glass of the window, resisting the urge to smack his head against it - it wouldn't make the intruding thoughts and emotions go away, he knows that. He remembers something Neuvillette told him during their first conversation on the ship. "Hallucinating... I think I'm hallucinating." He's not sure if hallucinations can just be thoughts and feelings. But it's the only thing he can think of.
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He takes a breath and says, "Is it possible that it is the influence of some spirit? I'm sure you've seen them as well, since we dipped below the former sea level." They're now deep enough that it's nearly impossible to see the light outside through the windows here - only by looking directly up beneath the glass ceiling of the lounge. And the ship continues to go deeper. "Given the composition of native Fontainians, you may be more susceptible to 'catching' an emotion from them than average."
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Another wave of emotion hits him - this will all have been for nothing we will have been for nothing everything we've done everything we're trying to do he betrayed you he betrayed everyone he betrayed the world - and his fists clench as a bead of sweat trickles down his temple. It's not true. That isn't Neuvillette, it's not him, whatever happened must have happened 300 years ago or more. "Well. This has been new and fun, but I think I'm ready to get off this particular aquabus now. Do you think we can make it stop?"
He tries to shift his voice back to being light and unbothered, he doesn't want Neuvillette to worry about him... but he's pretty sure the strain is still showing.
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Neuvillette folds his arms and brings a hand to his chin. "In the longer term, if there's a particular fixation you've noticed, that might be related to the spirit, and it would be best it avoid it if you can," he notes. "In the more immediate term... I have no particular skill at purification, but if you consent, I can make my best attempt."
Wriothesley has known Sigewinne - and her healing-focused Hydro Vision - long enough to have some idea about those properties of Hydro, so he doesn't explain with as long a ramble as he might to someone else on the ship. It is ultimately true, however, that Neuvillette's development of his own ability to control Hydro has been focused on the emotional and the literal, physical manipulation of water.
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Wriothesley is fairly familiar with the healing powers of Hydro, though Sigewinne doesn't rely on them often in the Fortress. She reserves them for the most serious illnesses and injuries (like the time he had a "bad fall" from the dormitories to the administration level and broke... too many bones. She still won't tell him how many and he definitely doesn't remember most of the next week) and he knows she can use it to clear out the deleterious effects of drugs or poisons, but he isn't sure she'd be able to clear out some kind of... spiritual contamination. She'd probably do her best, though.
"Hey, sounds like it's worth a shot." Anything is better than the alien feeling of cold he gets when he looks at Neuvillette right now. "What do you want to try?"
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"Water is the easiest way to administer any application of Hydro energy," Neuvillette says simply. "Let's get a drink - if that isn't sufficient, then perhaps a more liberal application to your person, but that's not exactly appropriate for the cafeteria at any rate."
He'll wait for Wriothesley to make some kind of nod or comment of agreement before he turns towards the drink carts and starts pouring a very plain glass of water.
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About seven thousand possible responses to the idea of 'a more liberal application' to his person flew through his head and he ruthlessly shot down every one of them. Neuvillette doesn't need to hear them and honestly probably wouldn't understand half of them. Didn't stop them from popping up in his brain but at least he's got his mouth under control and it serves as a semi-welcome distraction from the constant drumming of those other thoughts murmuring they're here, any minute now, they've breached the door, they're coming for us -
He accepts the water and knocks it back without wasting any time. If Neuvillette can do something about this, he wants it done as soon as possible.
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Despite still having the literal metallic undertone that the ship's water always does, it also somehow tastes cleaner and purer, bringing to mind fresh springwater.
While they're at it, Neuvillette pours himself a glass and sips at it, because even with the relative humidity of the heavy air and the gathering storm, it never hurts to keep himself hydrated. Internally, he's swirling the fact that Wriothesley simply took the cup from him without any further questions - the Duke of Meropide is, in fact, well known to be untrusting and suspicious, though less so of food and drink specifically than some of his charges.
The trust he's showing may go unremarked, but only because Neuvillette isn't sure how to call attention to it politely. It does not go unnoticed. "Any better?" he asks, once Wriothesley has had enough of a drink that Neuvillette can feel the Hydro power he imbued the glass with start to settle and disappear in the man's natural energy.
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His thoughts do seem to clear and settle slowly, the alien emotions draining away and the ringing in his ears quieting. "Yeah, yeah, I think so." He lets himself relax, taking a few deep breaths. "Thank you. I don't feel like I'm losing my mind anymore."
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Such accumulated emotions remaining in his system wouldn't be good for Wriothesley in the long term.
"Can you tell me anything more about what you thought was going on?"
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Okay, moving right along from that topic, Wriothesley frowns. The feelings and emotions already feel so much less real and solid that it's not easy to examine them, but he does his best. "The feeling I had was that I was part of the ship's crew, and for some reason... what we were doing - don't ask me what that was - was illegal, but important. Incredibly important. It felt like... like my plans for Vingalet." Like they were saving lives from some kind of apocalypse. "And I think that you - or the person I was remembering - had called law enforcement for some reason, and they were going to raid the ship. That's all I remember, I'm sorry."
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He steps slightly to the side so that Wriothesley can get himself a more preferred drink if he so desires. "From the progression of the ghosts as we descended, I would hypothesize that it was a passenger pleasure vessel before being acquired by the university, but after that is quite unclear."
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Wriothesley will move to start making himself a cup of tea on automatic. "So it's possible that it was commandeered - possibly by the researchers at the university, since we haven't had a third wave of pirate ghosts. Which would make sense, if they were aware some kind of disaster was coming for their world, of course they'd try to stop it." He knows more than a few academics, he knows what they can be like. Granted, they're all the type of academics willing to commit crimes and end up in Meropide, but there's still quite a few of them. "But why would that be illegal?"
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"It could also be that the ship was simply abandoned by the researchers, and it was adopted for use in illicit activity after that," Neuvillette says. "It's difficult to render a timeline from a single new point of information, especially one so vague as the strongest emotions of a spirit."