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Reply Deep Space: Homeworld Exploration
[R] Whispers in the Sand (Basi, Strom, Pen, Abzu)

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Amasis

Everyday Blob

PostPosted: Wed Apr 17, 2024 9:04 pm


"My wonder should be easy enough to get into, at least," Basiluzzo mused, looking at the shimmering shield that kept the blowing sands at bay. At least, he'd never had any trouble since he first activated it. "Right this way, I guess." Sure enough, the shields were just a warm buzzing feeling on his skin as he passed under them, like they always were. He'd been a bit wary that the new changes would have caused the shield to be impassable for him, but it didn't seem to be the case.

He glanced behind himself to make sure the others could also pass under the shield. "I've only brought Encke so far, but he was able to get in easily enough." Granted, Basiluzzo had had to do some finagling in a side room he hadn't known was there until then, but the important part was that Encke had been able to cross the shield without harm. So, theoretically, the people with him now should be able to, too.

Turning his attention ahead of him, he considered where they were. Unlike with Pendour's wonder, they'd been dropped about where he'd expected to arrive. So what was that supposed to mean? Was his Code piece nearby? How had he never noticed it before, then? He'd been this way dozens of times. "I've been everywhere I can reach on my wonder, including the official, like," a vague handwave gesture, "diplomatic rooms. I haven't seen anything that looks like a Code piece. So that might mean we're in for a bit of a scavenger hunt."

Unless--

"Let me go ahead and cut some searching out of our day, yeah?" Basiluzzo paused, reaching out mentally toward his connection with the wonder, toward his connection with the Code itself. It was a silent entreaty, a polite request to please show him the way forward. He didn't want to go running off without any idea and risk getting himself and the others lost. It'd be one thing if he was the only one to go wandering around, but--

Before him came alive a shimmering light blue line. "Ah, this way." Down the stairs into the wonder itself, which he knew would bring them to the main hall, a main hall he'd painstakingly swept clean to reveal the polished sandstone floor. "Best I can tell is this was a big housing area with courtyards and halls, or something, so hopefully we won't have to be here too long."

On the one hand, he'd love to escort them around and show them the sights of what he'd uncovered and cleaned so far, but there was probably not enough time for a full tour.

Stromboli was prompt in following his son through the shield--that felt weird, but he'd ignore it--into the wonder itself. The courtyard stretched out in front of them, with dried out trees here and there at regular intervals. Well, not all of the trees were dried out. Some of them seemed quite alive and green, something that surprised Stromboli given the aridity of the area. In the distance, he thought he could even see rows of something growing. "What's over there?"

"Oh, uh, I think they're palm trees, or something like that. I found the seeds at some point and planted them just to see what would happen. Those happened." Basiluzzo paused to glanced in the direction Stromboli was looking. "Once I got the water flowing, anyway. I think there's an underground spring somewhere, because I see Neptune symbols around my wonder on occasion. I managed to get some small channels flowing?"

But that wasn't why they were there, as cool as trees were.

Stromboli followed Basiluzzo down the stairs, through a large door carved with an ornate coat of arms. Stromboli glanced at it as he passed. "What's that?"

"Oh, I have no idea. It wasn't even there when I first started coming here. I noticed it appear after I transcended." Basiluzzo sounded distracted, and Stromboli didn't blame him. He wanted to explore the wonder, but knew he probably shouldn't stray too far. There was something nagging about it, something in the back of his mind that poked and prodded at him as he reached the hall and heard his footsteps echo on the stone. It wasn't familiarity. But it still felt right, somehow. Something pulled him down those stairs, and it wasn't just curiosity.

He wondered if he should say something, but didn't want to interrupt what Basiluzzo was trying to do.

seiana_ZI
stari_maga
PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 4:33 pm


Pendour had to admit that she was curious about Basiluzzo's Wonder.

On her many trips to space with Encke, when they'd been talking over broken bread, or maybe a gardening project or other manual labor, he'd brought up Basiluzzo several times. She knew that for a long time, he hadn't let any visitors in, not thinking that it was ready for them.

Pendour always liked to know about Wonders, and that secrecy had piqued her interest even more, but she hadn't she hadn't been pushy about it. Eventually Basiluzzo had changed his mind, and had let Encke up, but Pendour had still never ended up seeing it.

Now she smiled, before they even arrived.

It was warm. Hot. That was the first thing they noticed. With the sun on their skin and sand and stone on their bare feet, it was certainly a change of scenery, but Pendour decided that they liked it.

The magical barrier immediately caught her interest, and she held her breath as she passed through it, but it seemed to part easily.

"I like the trees," she told him as they walked, her gaze following Stromboli's. Like him, she could easily ended up off track, especially if there were gardens, but she stayed in step behind Basiluzzo, not wanting to forget the mission.

Instead, she asked, "Can you show me around this place sometime? It's beautiful."


Amasis
seiana_ZI

staripop


Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist

PostPosted: Thu Apr 18, 2024 5:34 pm


The Uranian environment was a completely different vibe than the Neptunian one, for sure.

His wonder was arguably cold. Alarmingly dark, in a lot of ways. Pendour was more peaceful and felt idyllic in the right circumstances. Bright, but not alarmingly so. Warm, but not sweat-inducing. Now, Abzu didn't mind being sweaty! In the right circumstances!

This was not the right circumstance. This suit was too much.

Abzu started idly removing his suitcoat as he followed Basiluzzo into the wonder. The sensation going through the shield was odd, but not unmanageable. Just a bit uncomfortable. Nothing he couldn't handle. Handy, though, that he had a way to block off anyone coming in. Not as handy as having a whole ocean blocking the way for most people except for those who knew how to get there or those who were genetically built in such a way they could just dive that deep, but. Still handy.

"Probably Neptune. Water stuff is our specialty." He shot Basiluzzo a grin. "I'd love to see the whole thing too, for what it's worth."

Was Stromboli good? He seemed to be staring down something. He'd probably ask about that later-- "Do you know where your quarters were? Might be an indicator of what direction we should be going in, at least, if you know a shortcut at this point."

Basiluzzo probably knew this place better than he had known the shadow realm that was his wonder.

stari_maga
Amasis
PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 6:21 pm


Basiluzzo visibly brightened at being asked to show people around his wonder. "Sure, now that it's halfway passable for visitors." He'd gone through a lot of brooms and mops getting the sand and dust out of every corner, to say nothing of the number of rags that were now permanently stained various shades of grey, brown, and orange. "I don't have much food up here right now, so it'd be a picnic."

"A picnic is fine," Stromboli replied easily, craning his neck further to look around doorways as they passed them. "It's so bright and sunny down here, but it's not hot. How'd you manage that? I don't suppose it's air conditioning." Even still, he checked the ceiling and floor for vents.

"It's not air conditioning, no," Basiluzzo laughed, following the streak of light on the ground in front of him and trusting the others to keep up. "A lot of the living space that I've seen so far has a lot of air flow. A lot of windows and gaps near the ceiling." He gestured upward accordingly to indicate. Plus the breezes coming off the desert weren't as hot as one might initially think, so that helped a lot. "My cloak's come in handy here and there when I've been here at night." At night, it got downright chilly, but he supposed that wasn't unusual for deserts if Earth deserts were anything to go by.

The streak of light led them up a flight of stairs Basiluzzo had explored before, but not extensively. Once he had transcended, he'd devoted more time to exploring rather than cleaning, but he still had to devote a considerable amount of time to cleaning. The wind when he'd transcended had cleared a lot of the worst of the sand out of his wonder, but not all of it. So it was with a curious eye that he looked around as he climbed the stairs. "There's some rooms up here, but nothing official that I've ever noticed."

A short walk down the hallway at the top of the stairs led them to another set of stairs.

"Now, these, I haven't been up yet. Watch your step, be careful, all that fun stuff." Basiluzzo ducked through the doorway at the top of the stairs, then up yet another set of stairs.

How many stairs was this going to be--

At the top of these stairs, though, it flattened out, and the glass windows told Basiluzzo they were at the highest level. He did pause to look out of one of the windows, admiring the way his wonder stretched out below into the sand dunes. The sandstone was painted bright colours, colours that he realised formed a mural of sorts when viewed from this height and this angle. It looked like a sunset over the desert, anyway.

"Wish I'd been up here earlier. That's cool as hell." He was on a mission, though, so he pushed away from the window and resumed following the guide. Basiluzzo's step had more energy in it now. Surely they were at the end of the walk, right? It hadn't been that big of a deal, but time was of the essence, and to be almost to where his Code piece was hidden--

But then the light ended at a wall. Basiluzzo drew up short, taken aback. "Ah."

"Well, I'm going to guess the wall has to have a secret door or something," Stromboli mused. "There's no way that the path expects you to just teleport through a wall."

"Yeah, hopefully not." Basiluzzo set about poking and prodding around the wall, and Stromboli joined him. There was something about this place, Stromboli mused. Something that wasn't familiar, quite, but something that called to him regardless. Something that told him he could have been there before, himself, and not just Basiluzzo. But that didn't make sense, did it? This was Basiluzzo's wonder, not Stromboli's. Was it just because they were on Uranus? That had to be it. Stromboli's wonder must be similar.

He didn't know. He had never been to his own wonder. Even though Abzu and everyone else kept telling him he needed to visit, he had just never found the time. Besides, what if he got there and it was a wreck beyond repair? Basiluzzo had told him how much work it had taken just to get his wonder to the state it was currently in. Stromboli wasn't sure if he would have it in him to devote that amount of effort. Not at his age, not with the responsibilities he had back on Earth.

So the most Stromboli could do would be to pray that his wonder was in perfect condition.

But how likely was that?

seiana_ZI
stari_maga

Amasis

Everyday Blob


staripop

PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 7:20 pm


"I can see why you wanted to make some progress here before you had us come see it," said Pendour as she glanced around. Her Wonder had been awful, back at the beginning, but at least the isolated, bubble-like nature of it had kept things from getting too dirty. Of course things had deteriorated, but at least there had been a bit of protection.

Here? She couldn't imagine the sand.

She wasn't scared of sand, or dirt, or damage. She would have helped clean back then, if Basi had asked. He'd felt like it was his duty to deal with things at first, though, and she respected that. It was nice to be here now, though, following after him while she mused about what food she could bring up for a picnic.

"I like picnics," she told him, and also the others. There was nobody in this room who she wouldn't try to rope into a space picnic at some point. Everything just tasted better, when you were in beautiful places like this. "I can always pick some things up from my brother's bakery. It'll be lovely."

Pendour stayed mostly quiet after that, as they wound through the passages and up several flights of stairs. She admired the view of the painted desert as they paused at the window, and made sure that she could climb the steps and keep her footing without having to lean on anyone this time.

"It must be a door," she agreed, as they finally came to an expanse of blank wall. The Code had led Abzu and her true. It would do the same, here.

She couldn't see any hints of a passageway, though, and exploring the stones with her long fingers also did not reveal any secrets.

Amasis
seiana_ZI
PostPosted: Fri Apr 19, 2024 10:21 pm


Abzu was not the biggest fan of things like sand, considering how many places it could get stuck in and never leave -- it was a bit like glitter in that way -- but he also hadn't many rights to talk considering his wonder was literally six thousand leagues under the sea. Honestly, he was just happy he had never come back to it leaking and destroyed.

He was more afraid of these damn stairs.

Did he have more stamina because he was a squire? Yes. Was his breath control amazing due to his background and present life as a saxophonist? Naturally. Did he exercise all that often?

No.

The other three were trying to observe what the path might have been leading them too, but Abzu was a bit busy with the gasping for air concept to really contribute beyond a breathy agreement with the concept of a picnic. He liked picnics. Could he have a picnic up here without doing that walk again, because honestly, that sucked?

The view was pretty, he guessed--

Abzu let out a thin breath as he straightened his back out. "Uh. Maybe the entrance isn't straight in," a sigh, "right in front of us?" He looked for another wall and rested his back against it.

stari_maga
Amasis

Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist


Amasis

Everyday Blob

PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2024 2:44 am


"I'm going to guess not." Basiluzzo sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Thanks anyway, guys." He set about the edges of the wall that the light stubbornly continued to lead him to. Even though he knew the others had already also tried this, he hoped maybe he would see something they hadn't. But the seams of the wall seemed tight for the most part. There was only one part of the wall that had a gap. It was a gap about a fingernail's width on the left side, he could feel a breeze through it... and there was no way he could find anything that would give him purchase, much less enough for him to pry the door open. Which meant that couldn't be right.

So he kept looking. Around, down, to the other side, around again, across the top, back around...

Nothing.

"Well, s**t," he breathed, taking a step or five back. Now what? Then there was a glint that threw light across the wall. Surprised, Basiluzzo looked back over his shoulder to see Abzu leaned against another wall. When he'd leaned on it, though, the vibrations had bumped something, something glass. Nothing fell or broke, but whatever it was--a broken mirror, maybe, unless it was supposed to look like that--now reflected the ambient light in the room into a shower of little rainbows. It was really quite pretty, but Basiluzzo didn't stop to admire it. Something else had glinted high up on the wall that the path of light insisted he had to pass through.

He couldn't quite see it up close, though, so he was forced to take a step back again. Problem was, the mirror had stopped moving. It was hard to see what he had spotted-- "Hey, can someone make that mirror do the sparkly thing again?"

"The spark-- sure, I'm on it." Stromboli patted the mirror, causing it to resume moving and casting light around. He would have left it for Abzu, who was closest, but he was also the shortest by a wide margin. The mirror was high up on the wall, and likely out of Abzu's reach. Even still, Stromboli offered Abzu an apologetic smile for reaching nearly over his head. "Fancy meeting you here?"

"Gross, dad." Basiluzzo threw his father a reproachful look over his shoulder, but then went back to inspecting the wall in front of him. Stromboli just chuckled and left him to it, throwing a wink to Abzu once Basiluzzo's back was turned. Basiluzzo could see that shiny spot, but it was very high up on the wall. Even as tall as Basiluzzo was, he couldn't quite reach it, even on the tips of his toes. Slapping uselessly at the rock, he let out a sigh of frustration and settled back onto the flats of his feet. "Alright, I need a chair or something to stand on."

There were no chairs.

There were no boxes, rocks, or anything of the sort up here. Not even a single dilapidated crate on the edge of collapse from a thousand years of dry rot.

Well, now what? Basiluzzo grumbled, "if our weapons weren't on the fritz, I could probably just poke it with my staff from here, you know?" Stromboli was quiet for a moment, then pushed off of the wall that he'd been leaning on with Michelangelo. He strode over, standing next to Basiluzzo to inspect it himself, hands on his hips and teeth worrying his lower lip thoughtfully. Basiluzzo stared up at Stromboli with a quizzical look, but he didn't get a chance to ask before Stromboli spoke, his tone casual and genial.

"You know, I bet I could reach that."

"Great." Basiluzzo pinched the bridge of his nose, squinting his eyes tightly. He was getting a headache. "Do you mind giving it a shot?"

"I don't know. Am I too gross?" Mischief sparkled in Stromboli's eyes and in the quirk of his lips as he looked down his nose at his son.

"Dad--"

Stromboli laughed, a booming laugh from his stomach, and took the steps forward to put himself at the wall in front of them. He reached up, fingers grazing the surprisingly smooth surface of the stone wall. He moved his hand back and forth, searching for anything that felt different from the surrounding rock surface. "I don't feel it. How close am I?"

"If you reach just a bit more, you've got it," Basiluzzo replied promptly, squinting. "You're honestly almost right there as it is." Which told Basiluzzo how close he'd been when on his tiptoes. How infuriatingly, maddeningly close. It was almost just as maddening watching Stromboli get up on his tiptoes and slap his hand around, missing the spot by millimeters once, twice, three times. "You're going to give me an aneurysm if you miss it one more time."

"Now now," replied Stromboli, cheek pressed against the stone, "no aneurysms. Your mother would kill me." He held his hand still, as far up as it would stretch. "Where do I go from here?"

"Uh... two inches to the right," Stromboli's hand moved accordingly, "no no, that was a bit too far. Move back just a bit, then down." Stromboli obliged, shifting his hand back the way it'd come just a hair, then dragging his hand slowly, oh so slowly, down the rock face until the fingertip of his ring finger brushed something that felt glassy and smooth.

"Is this it?"

"I think so--your hand's in the way. Give it a press and see what happens?"

"If it's booby-trapped, kid, I swear to god--"

"It's not gonna be booby-trapped!"

Stromboli pressed it, reservations aside, and Basiluzzo wasn't the only one gratified when the button moved without issue. Not even an ounce of stiffness, which Stromboli thought was pretty impressive given the age and amount of grit in the place. But as soon as he pressed it, Stromboli stepped away from it. He rejoined Basiluzzo and the others, looking at the wall expectantly.

At first, nothing. Basiluzzo grumbled in frustration, dragging a hand down his face, and Stromboli offered a conciliatory pat to his shoulder. Then, there was a faint click and a whirring noise.

A disembodied voice rang through the room. "Identify yourself."

"Uh," Basiluzzo cleared his throat, shooting the others an alarmed look, before he spoke. "Basiluzzo. Of Uranus." There was a long pause full of more clicking and whirring.

"Identify companions, Basiluzzo. Of Uranus."

"Oh. Uh." Basiluzzo gave them another look of concern, but obliged. "Pendour of Neptune. Abzu of Neptune. Stromboli of Uranus."

Even more clicking and whirring. "Stromboli of Uranus. State your name and purpose."

"Stromboli of Uranus." Hadn't Basiluzzo literally just given his name? Why'd he have to repeat it? Isn't that how the disembodied voice knew he was even there-- What was he supposed to say was his purpose, anyway? "Helping Basiluzzo find his Code piece." Maybe if he said it with confidence, it would work out. More clicking. More whirring. A high-pitched whine. Where was the voice even coming from? Stromboli didn't see any speakers or anything of the sort in the room.

"Access restricted. Entry requested by Stromboli of Uranus. Access denied. Voice mismatch."

"Oh for ********-- Is it because you pressed the button for me?" Basiluzzo rubbed his temples, giving an aggravated grumble. Of course the voices didn't match! It was probably keyed to some guy hundreds of years ago! "Look, I can't reach that button. He just pushed it. It's Basiluzzo of Uranus requesting access. Please."

Yet more whirring. Then, silence.

The silence stretched on enough that Basiluzzo was starting to lose hope. Then, "access restricted. Entry requested by Basiluzzo of Uranus. Access granted. Voice match."

Wait--

But Basiluzzo didn't have much time to think about the fact that it recognized his voice before a horrible grinding noise filled the little room they were in. Basiluzzo and Stromboli hurried to cover their ears, and Stromboli looked quickly to Pendour and Abzu to make sure they were alright. Then, the grinding noise stopped.

"Motor error."

"s**t." Basiluzzo uncovered his ears. "What's the error?"

"Motor error."

"I bet it's all the sand." Stromboli winced, rubbing his own ears and again looking to Pendour and Abzu to check on them. "Now what do we do?"

"Motor error."

"Yes, you said that," Basiluzzo retorted, beginning to lose patience. "What do I do about it? I can't get to the motor to clean it. I don't even have anything to clean it with." He had yet to figure out how to get a vacuum cleaner to work on his wonder without electricity and without having to lug a heavy gas-powered generator with him to run it.

"Motor error."

"Is there an override or something?" Basiluzzo went over and inspected the gap he'd noticed before. Nothing. At least, nothing he could see that would be of any help. "Computer, manual override?"

"This isn't Star Tr--" Stromboli began, but he was cut off by more whirring and clicking, and then a new sound. This time it sounded like things were sliding across the rock inside the wall, followed by distinctly metallic pinging noises.

"Manual override activated. Emergency access protocol initiated. Locks disengaged." A pause. "Warning. Stand clear of the entry. Warning. Stand clear of the entry." Basiluzzo jumped back from the door in alarm, just in time for there to be the distinct sound of a pneumatic press degassing. The smell of old compressed air was next to fill the space they all stood in, and Stromboli coughed at the dust it stirred up.

Just then, the section of wall blocking their entry dropped about a hand's breadth with a boom loud enough to vibrate the walls and make the mirror shake in warning. However, it did also end up exposing a section of roughly equivalent size above it. But before anyone could start to celebrate, the section of stone wall started to tilt in toward them. Swearing profusely, Basiluzzo jumped forward to try to hold it up. It was no use, even as Stromboli moved to join him, and so Stromboli and Basiluzzo jumped clear with a, "watch out!" to the other two.

Fortunately the door was short enough and the room large enough that there was clearance enough to prevent anyone from being crushed as it fell in. Even still, Basiluzzo turned the air black as the dust settled, coughing and pulling the side of his hood over his mouth to try to breathe. "That is the worst ******** manual override I have ever," he was interrupted by more coughing, "ever seen."

"Yeah, but at least it's open now," Stromboli's voice was muffled behind the collar of his shirt. "You two okay?" That was directed toward Abzu and Pendour, Stromboli turning to where he'd last seen them before the door had tried to crush them all. He was certain they'd gotten out of the way, but still--

Basiluzzo trusted his father to look after them and moved back for the wall-turned-door that now lay on the ground. It was a stone slab over a foot thick by his estimation. No wonder it had made so much noise. He looked toward the side where the gap had been, inspecting it closely. There was machinery there with a Mercurian symbol etched onto it, including seven contacts that, if he looked back to the slab, lined up with seven grooves.

So that was how it'd been holding the door in place. The precision required to make the wall look solid must have been insane--

He'd admire the architecture later. The disembodied voice saying, "security room open for ninety seconds," reminded him what they were there for. Basiluzzo stepped into the doorway, craning his neck to check that it was not, in fact, booby-trapped. But nothing came out to get him, so that was a plus. So he kept going, stepping through the entryway entirely until he stood in the room.

There was no furniture of any kind in it. No adornments on the walls. In fact, the walls--and the floor--were all made of thick glass. Realizing this, he almost jumped back into the hallway and counted them all lucky that the door-wall hadn't fallen the other way. It would have been a disaster if the door had fallen into all the glass and shattered it. Not only would that have ruined a part of his Wonder that Basiluzzo had only just learned existed, his attention was taken by the sight of what they were all there for.

In the center of a room made of glass except for a ceiling made of mirrors, on a thin glass pedestal, sat his Wonder's piece of the Code. It spun gently under a shield of matte metal, glowing brightly but not so brightly that he had trouble approaching it. No, what gave him trouble approaching it was realising he was standing in a giant glass ball. Through the waviness of the ancient glass, he could tell that there was nothing under it. At least, for enough distance that the light petered out into the abyss. Basiluzzo took a deep breath, finding a new fear of heights he had not previously possessed. It was rational, he told himself. He had no idea how thick the glass was, really. How much weight it could support.

So he moved slowly, carefully, toward the pedestal in the middle of the room where the Code piece sat. He reached for it, only to realize the shield quite effectively kept his hand away, too. The gap between the pedestal and the shield was only enough for his fingers to reach in, but the Code piece was too big to fit back out. He tried to pry at the shield, but it wouldn't budge. What was its purpose, anyway? What could possibly get at it in here?

But when he was feeling around, his fingers found another button.

"It is not yet night. Engage anyway?" Ah, the disembodied voice was back. Again, from nowhere, no speakers that he could see.

"Uh, sure."

"Error. Input not recognized." A pause. "It is not yet night. Engage anyway?"

"Sure." Wait. "Yes." It did not occur to him until then to ask what, exactly, he was engaging, but it was too late.

That question was answered anyway as the shield popped back from the Code piece, letting its light unfettered into the room. Its very bright light. Its very bright light now reflected off of a ceiling full of mirrors into a room of glass walls and a glass floor. Basiluzzo shouted, throwing his arms up to shield his watering, burning eyes. Then he jumped forward, one of his arms outstretched and hand grasping for the piece of the Code. First one hand covered it, then the second, and that blocked enough of the light that he was able to open his eyes.

"Jesus Christ." He swallowed, throwing a, "sorry about that!" back to the others, as they had probably also been blinded. Okay, now what? He needed to get this over with as soon as possible so he could tell his Wonder to put the shield back over the code piece. Taking a deep, shaky breath, he closed his smarting eyes and tried to focus past the spots in his vision.

--------------------------------------------------

"Sir! The people are all evacuated! It's time for us to go! The last ship is waiting!"

He looked up from his desk. They weren't the type of people to keep a standing fighting force of any sort, having always been content to send their battle-minded off to Mars. Disputes on Uranus were better solved through less direct, less bloody means. And so when things first started going wrong, and they'd realised it wasn't just a rival trading clan, he'd decided to start scattering his people to the stars. Something else was at fault, something more insidious that he couldn't recognize, and he had known once the mysterious murders started that staying was a suicidal thing to do. So he'd begun to evacuate his people.

First, to other friendly clans who didn't report problems. Then, when they, too, began to fall, to allies elsewhere in the solar system. Then to allies elsewhere in the cosmos. Whoever would take them. Whoever would keep his people safe. Everyone who lived in his wonder was encouraged--nay, ordered--to take only what they could carry and get themselves out.

He'd been trying to reach the comet Encke for weeks, trying not only to arrange safe passage for some of his people, but to make sure that whatever was happening had not also befallen their leader. At first, he'd received reassurances that everything was fine. And then, that everything was not fine, but it was easy to handle. Then, not so easy to handle.

And that everything was far from fine.

And now he stared down at a letter, received just the previous day by way of the last cargo shipment they were going to permit to land while they tried to evacuate the stragglers and most stubborn.

Ignatius' hand was normally a steady one, and the letter started that way. It was full of soaring prose, lofty and grandiose promises of what Ignatius would show him next they met. But just as soon as the promises came, they were taken back. The letter had started upbeat. It did not finish that way, full of sorries and regret that became impossible to read, already blotchy by the time he had received it. But he was able to understand enough of it. Enough to understand the sense of futility in the words written there. The bleakness. The apology, an apology that he wished he could tell the sender to take back, that--even now--it wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault. None of it was his fault.

It was a goodbye letter. A final missive from someone who knew that they were never going to see what came of its receipt. And, at the end of it, a plea for him to run, to save himself. He stared at this part longest of all.

"Ariska? Sir?"

"Go on. I'm coming." Ariska tucked the letter into his vest and got to his feet as the messenger, relieved to be sent off, broke into a run in his haste to go find that last ship. Ariska, for his part, followed at a walk. There were things that needed to be done before he could leave. Security measures to be put in place. Most of them already had, but there were the last couple to be taken care of, and he activated these on his way out.

The last found him standing at a glass podium outside the entrance to the main hall. He took a ring off of one of his fingers, turning it around and letting the dying light of the sunset glint off of it. He kissed it, then slotted it into a groove on the podium. "Keep it all safe." With any luck, this would all be over soon, and they could all come back. He twisted the ring in its slot, and a bar slid in place to hold the ring where it was. Shields, thick ones, began to slide over the halls of Basiluzzo. At the same time, the shield that kept the sand at bay flickered out as the power shifted to emergency only, and already the winds were chasing sand where it had been previously disallowed.

That wind pulled and tugged at his hair as he turned for the ship waiting. Other last-minute evacuees were on that ship, some from their sister territory Stromboli, some from other neighboring areas.

Speaking of Stromboli, "is Thabet on board?" He frowned, not seeing the familiar shock of grey hair. Best to distract himself. Best not to think about the letter tucked next to his heart--

"No sir. We haven't been able to find her. We think she left on the last transport to Earth. Most of the people on it were from Stromboli." Ariska frowned, turning his head toward the door, but it was too late. It was already shutting. He would have to hope they were right. There was nothing else he could do.

With a deep sigh, he found a place to sit and did so. He had already sent his belongings with other members of his household, so there was nothing with him.

Nothing except the letter.

He pulled it from his vest, staring at it and then opening it to read it once again. Searching for any clue in it that there was hope. That maybe once they reached safe harbor, he could go looking for Ignatius. The letter said specifically not to go looking for him, but Ignatius should know that Ariska was bad at being ordered around. Of course he was going to go looking for him. And, he resolved as he put the letter back in his vest, he wouldn't stop until he found him. Even if Ignatius didn't have anything left, Ariska would find him and take him home.

Alive.

--------------------------------------------------

With shaking fingers, Basiluzzo pulled his hands away from the piece of the Code and found again the button that had disengaged the shielding. With a whirr, the shield popped back into place, making the light level in the room tolerable again. He opened his eyes, staring for a moment into the near distance unseeingly. Then he shook himself out of it, swallowing hard and turning back to the others.

With a smile, he reported, "all done!" and headed toward the exit.

If asked, he'd blame the previous obscene light level for the moisture in his eyes and on his cheeks.

Seiana_ZI
PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2024 12:41 pm


Pendour mostly backed away out of politeness as the taller two worked on finding the switch and then pressing it. She let Basiluzzo speak to the ancient computer system, and she did have some thoughts about why it was rejecting Basiluzzo.

What if he was a descendant knight, like her? Then, whoever had come before might have had a different voice than he did.

That thought was cut off quite abruptly when everything started making noises. Just the awful grinding of stone on stone was enough for her to throw her hands over her ears, whimpering. Then there was the manual override, and the collapse.

Pendour had cleared out of the way at the warning, but she still had to bite back a scream at the crash that shook the dust, and the floor itself.

This was so much worse than watching Abzu's past life kill someone. Her head spun, and pounded. She didn't follow Abzu down the passageway, unsure of what the computer would think of her presence, but even from where she was, she saw the painful flash of light as the icing on the cake.

She hated this.

If she'd been alone, she might have ended up hurting herself as a way to stabilize. She glanced from Abzu to Stromboli. They would notice. She couldn't make a scene.

Instead, she found a cool wall to sit against, buried her head in her knees, and began to rock slightly. She didn't want to interrupt their flirting, or Basiluzzo's mission, so she tried to make herself as small as possible while she breathed, and then tried to relax herself.

She only uncurled as Basi emerged from the chamber.


Amasis
Seiana_ZI

staripop


Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist

PostPosted: Sat Apr 20, 2024 12:57 pm


Oh. He was standing in front of the entryway already.

Abzu's lips ticked up when Stromboli was the one chosen to handle the issue. His eyes narrowed then as Stromboli leaned over him and tried his hand at some rizz, as much as his son protested it. "A lovely chance meeting, truly!" shot Abzu back, unable to quite resist. "What should we do with this happenstance?"

When Basiluzzo shot back that Stromboli was being gross, Abzu wasn't able to quite help a cackle. It was the same reaction he intended to get from Ignacio, and it was funny either way.

Stromboli's booming laugh as he told Basiluzzo he could get it felt nice, honestly, in multiple ways that he wasn't going to share--but also, his banter with Basiluzzo was generally fun. Cute. It warmed him.

Abzu was brought out of all of it quite quickly by that terrible grinding noise. ********. That was definitely going to onset a migraine. Did he have any triptan on him? He found him scrambling to find if he had anything on him as Basiluzzo found himself lost in his own flashback.

One that left Basiluzzo seemingly emotional by the end.

Cautiously, an aching Abzu offered, "Seems like you knew Stromboli before, too."

Maybe if he centered the hopefully less painful portion...

stari_magax
Amasisx
PostPosted: Thu Apr 25, 2024 2:23 am


"Yeah, I guess I did." Basiluzzo rubbed the back of his neck and making his way toward Abzu and Pendour. "Sorry about all the," a vague gesture toward the stone that still lay on the floor, "everything." Basiluzzo took a deep breath and crouched down near the two of them. But before he could ask what was on his mind, Stromboli spoke up.

"Are you two okay?" Stromboli craned his neck to look around Basiluzzo. It was then that a low whine began to reverberate through the area. A whine that Basiluzzo realised was going to get steadily louder, and he had used all of his patience for loud noises already. A siren was not going to be on his list of things to handle right now.

"Yo, we should probably get out of here." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know how to close that, and I'm guessing that noise is because the door's been left open. What say y'all we bounce before it starts shrieking at us? I got what I came here for."

He'd deal with the alarm when he came back another time.

Seiana_ZI
stari_maga

Amasis

Everyday Blob


staripop

PostPosted: Fri Apr 26, 2024 6:08 pm


Pendour shot up stick straight as she heart the beginnings of a whining noise. Only, then it began to get louder.

A siren.

Oh, no. No, please. It was too much. It had already been too much.

She whimpered, and clapped her hands over her hands again, trotting after Basiluzzo without much thought other than to get away.


Amasis
Seiana_ZI
PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2024 5:18 am


Oh no.

Basiluzzo had lost his patience with the loud noises, but Abzu was beyond lost patience. The emergency medication dulled the throbbing but it was not a miracle worker, and he swore he felt the aura blooming behind his eyes.

Were they okay? He would tell by Pendour's reaction she wasn't, really.

To Stromboli, he managed a thin, "No," as he also followed out of there post haste.

stari_maga
Amasis

Seiana_ZI

Codebreaking Conversationalist

Reply
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