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 Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:15 am
Prologue I: Shock Theory
Week of DecayIt had all happened so fast; a quick succession of images undershot with adrenaline. They'd had to evacuate the station, piling everyone into whatever ships could move, desperately trying to escape the oncoming wave. The battle fleets spewing out of the Terminus Systems weren't interested in diplomacy, preferring instead to simply destroy everything in their way. Icarus Station didn't stand a chance. It was a desperate move, trying to move that many disparate ships so quickly; they'd formed an impromptu convoy, fleeing as fast as they could, what few fighters they had patrolling the perimeters. But a possible escape was better than certain death, surely... Surely.Shiana T'Kora sighed and leaned back against a cargo crate, staring through the tiny porthole at the strangely shifted starscape outside. The convoy was fleeing under FTL drive, making for the nearest mass relay. The asari had been lucky enough to make it into the MSV Redshift, a small human-owned freighter that had been unloading when the evacuation call came. "Think we'll make it?" she said, dully, turning her head to one side, where her elcor companion sat. "Genuine concern, I do not know," Menkoli replied, his voice monotone to Shiana's ears, but she could tell both from his clarification and the way he shifted from time to time that he was feeling just as off-balance as she was. Another elcor would probably perceive waves of anxiety rolling from her friend. "This wasn't supposed to happen," came an acerbic voice from the other side of the crates. "We were supposed to get our ship, set off for Ceres, diagnose the problem, and fix it - not end up running to the other side of the damn galaxy!" "Calming statement, Arli," the elcor droned, sitting up a bit straighter. "Survival is paramount at this time." "Wasn't supposed to happen," the quarian insisted. After a moment, he sighed and sat down. The three fell into uneasy silence once more. They were only a third of a scientific research team being deployed to the granary world Ceres, in hopes of figuring out what had caused the entire harvest to catastrophically fail. Only three of the original team had made it on board the MSV Redshift. Shiana hoped the others had found space in one of the other vessels in the convoy. I don't think any of this was supposed to happen, she thought, but did not say. None of it - the strange wave of immeasurable energy that had flashed through Citadel space (and, as far as they could tell, the entity of the known universe), and all the catastrophes that had followed. The Terminus War, the Second Rebellions, the Outbreak, and now this horrific famine that was threatened thanks to the simultaneous failure of multiple Citadel-controlled granary worlds. It had to be bioterrorism, like the Outbreak was suspected to be, and they had to fix it. If they could get there. Arli noticed it first; quarians were all exceptionally sensitive to changes in a ship's environment, and he was no exception. "Something's wrong," he said, abruptly, scrambling to his feet. "Can't you hear it? The sound of the engines..." "Arli?" Shiana asked, giving him a worried look. "What..." "Serious concern, I hear it as well. The modulation is incorrect," Menkoli said, rising to his feet as well. "Listen." Shiana closed her eyes and focused on the sound of the engines; after a few moments, she was able to identify the change. There was now a dull grinding sound interweaving through the engines' hum. And something more... Arli swore under his breath, reaching out one long finger towards the nearest bulkhead; a sudden spark leapt from it to his hand, and he jerked backwards. "The charge - the static charge from the drive core's building up too fast! They have to dump or we're all going to fry!" A shiver ran down Shiana's spine. She could feel it too, now, the energy flickering in the air. The drapery that hung over Arli's head was starting to lift up slightly, crackling faintly with static every time the quarian moved. "I have to tell the captain," Arli continued, but was stopped mid-stride by the sudden sound of the ship's PA system. "Attention - this is the captain speaking. Our drive core is malfunctioning. We are dropping out of FTL and diverting to Pertica to dump charge. Sit tight, folks... this will be a bumpy ride." "Genuine concern," Menkoli began, backing up a little, "the convoy will pass out of range..." "It's better than frying," Arli said, firmly, shoving a crate against the wall and wincing as another spark snapped from wall to crate. "Get in the middle, kids-" Shiana's stomach flipped over as the ship dropped back to subspace velocity, and she had a brief, dizzying view of a planet's atmosphere visible through the porthole before she forced her eyes closed. Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't panic- Menkoli pressed up against her, whether for comfort or something else she didn't know, but she curled into the elcor's reassuring bulk, vaguely aware of Arli's continued cursing on the other side. The ship vibrated hugely, jolting them all and throwing crates; Menkoli made a pained sound as one landed on his great gray back. "Hang on-" the PA system barked, then cut out sharply. And then there was nothing but sound - rending metal, crates falling, and above all a flare and crack like lightning as the drive charge grounded itself into the planet's surface. (( Codex))
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:18 am
Prologue II: Dreams and Decay
Week of Decay
The sky swam above them all, infinite space reaching out, beyond the known galaxy, beyond the reaches of the most distant mass relays, stretching onward to the event horizon- and yet, over all of it, was pain. Deep, writhing, a knot of sickness at the heart of things. Black holes, supernovae, planets - all plagued, all contracting inward in agony around the stone set deep within-
Chrysalis, dark, echoing. Bone spurs and stretched flesh, encasing-
Containing-
Shiana shuddered and jerked awake, her heart pounding in her chest, her skin clammy with cold sweat. Her hands twisted tightly around the stiff fibers of her blanket.
It was a dream. Only a dream.
Goddess...
The asari took a deep breath. Normally, she would close her eyes and calm herself, but even blinking seemed to bring back the nightmare, the feeling of a diamond-hard clot of wrong set into a wound-
Shiana got to her feet quickly, shoving the blanket away, abandoning the foam pad she'd been issued as a bed until they got the Redshift away once more. The civilians had been put to bed in the main cargo hold once the scattered cargo had been reorganized, and the asari had to pick her way through the small maze of slumbering forms until she reached the loading bay door.
The air outside was just on the comfortable side of hot, and thickly humid - helpful, as the damp warmth helped to chase away the lingering deep-space chill of her dream. It was nighttime still, but the area around the downed ship was brightly lit by floodlamps protruding from the ship's exterior. She could hear talking around the back of the ship, one voice occasionally rising above the others in argumentative tones.
Arli, she thought, with a wry smile. The quarian was an excellent engineer, like most of his people, but he wasn't very easy to work with.
"I'm telling you, the damn thing's rotted away-" she heard Arli snap as she came around the side of the ship; there was a small, angry group of people gathered around the rear thruster array. "I don't care if you don't think it's possible, go look at the damn thing! And once you've confirmed it, you can shove it up your asses!"
"Arli-" she began, reaching out as the quarian stalked stiffly past her; the others stared at her for a moment before she swallowed, turned, and followed him. "Arli, what's going on?"
He walked ahead in silence for several minutes, only stopping when he reached the edge of the clearing that the Redshift's descent had carved out of the dense forest. "The engine's fried. The metal is corroded, like it's made out of iron and it just rusted away for years. There's no way this ship's getting off the ground."
"Arli..." Shiana took a deep breath.
"But do they believe me? No, of course not. 'It's an alloy, it can't possibly be corroded! It doesn't rust!' Pah! Let them crawl in and mess with the rusted remnants. I'm done." The quarian shook his head sharply. "Of course, now we're trapped on this damn wet rock with them..."
She reached out one hand and touched his shoulder; he flinched but did not pull away. "They'll find us. We'll be rescued - the ship is in good shape otherwise. We have plenty of food and water."
"Oh, yes, plenty of water." He wiped irritably at the faceplate of his enviro-suit; the surface was slick with moisture. "And who, exactly, will they spare to rescue us? With every ship of the line involved in tactical maneuvers? Maybe - maybe - when the War's over. If the hanar decide they want this puddle again."
Shiana sighed, shaking her head - she liked Arli, but he could be extraordinarily difficult to deal with sometimes. "You haven't slept yet, have you?"
"Of course not. Everyone with engineering experience had to come work on the damn engines."
"Then sleep," she ordered; he looked at her for a moment, but she held his gaze, even through the visor. "Before you make the entire crew throw you into the sea. Menkoli would be sad."
"Heh. And would you?" he asked, with a snort, though the edge that had been in his tone was gone.
"Of course. Now, come on. You can bed down next to me." She reached out and grabbed his hand; he did not resist as she tugged lightly. "Let's go."
Even if it was only Arli, having another presence there, close by... was comforting.
No more dreaming of wounds in planets' cores...
... please...
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:19 am
Prologue III: Homesick
Week of HellQuote: New Entry:We have been stuck planetside for a little over a week by Citadel reckoning. As Arli said, the Redshift's engines are corroded and damaged beyond repair. It cannot possibly fly, and we cannot possibly fix it. We have no choice but to wait for rescue - which probably will not happen for several weeks more. According to the comm broadcasts we're relieving, the Redshift was not the only ship to suffer a strange breakdown. A vast number of vessels, stations, and other structures have suffered system and structural failure in ways previously thought impossible, as supposedly incorruptible alloys corroded and warped. Most of those failures were catastrophic, and according to the comm there was great loss of life across Citadel Space - the Citadel itself actually lost a ward arm. Even as I write that, I can't conceive of it being true, but the comm was abuzz about it. We were fortunate that we were able to ground on Pertica. Fortunately, the Redshift is fully functional in all other respects. We have food, shelter, and water - the last we would have had regardless, as Pertica is an exceedingly damp world. I am not sure how well we function as a 'colony', given that the fourteen of us were thrown together in extenuating circumstances, but so far there have been no major issues, other than Arli being... himself. The new news on the comm is troubling, however... Shiana looked up from her datapad, and frowned in the direction of the Redshift's bridge; about a third of their little group seemed to be camped out by the comm at all times, tuned into the galactic news link. She could faintly hear the drone of the thing even from here, tucked up in the little sleeping nook she'd made for herself in the cargo bay. "-believed to be a new species or conglomeration of such, engaging in psychological shapeshifting to assume forms reminiscent of 'infernal' beings from the mythologies of individual races. It appears that the number and variety of invaders is proportional to the amount of time a settlement has existed; homeworlds such as Earth have been particularly badly-hit while newly-established colonies report only vague hallucinations with no physical presence...""One more reason why we're not getting off this mudball any time soon." The unexpected voice made Shiana jump and nearly drop the datapad. Arli was standing off to the side, arms akimbo; Menkoli shuffled awkwardly behind him. "Genuine apology, we did not mean to startle you," the elcor offered. "Speak for yourself," Arli said, but there was no real malice in his tone; in fact, he seemed edgier than usual. "They're just sitting there, filling their minds with things we can't do anything about. Useless." Shiana put the datapad aside. "It does seem a bit repetitive, doesn't it? And I know we haven't spotted any of those... ah... entities here. Otherwise the Captain would be raising a stink about it." "Concerned hypothesis: the Council does not truly know the reason behind the recent phenomena," Menkoli said, shifting to the side a little. Arli snorted. "Got that right, big guy. Hey, Shiana... let's get out of here for a while, huh? Sick of listening to that damned thing drone on and on." "Very well." Shiana got to her feet, glanced at the crowded bridge once more, and followed the quarian outside, Menkoli lumbering behind. It was drizzling outside, and she wrinkled her nose at the stink of rotting plants. "Better that than the stink of despair," Arli said sourly, catching her expression. Menkoli stepped out into the rain and tilted upwards as best he could. "Wistful statement: I would like to return home." "You and me both," Shiana said with a sigh, leaning against the elcor's large frame. "You and me both." It seemed so very far away. . . . . . . . . Quote: New Entry:I dreamed again last night. The same thing as before - hard and twisted wrongness set into wounds. Poison and pain. They had an asari matriarch on the comm broadcast, a leader of the Siarists - she said their current belief is that there is something deeply wrong with the heart of life-energy. Something wrong with a thing we can't measure, see, touch, or experience at all until we die. More worrying, a splinter sect is proclaiming that life is calling us all back to the center. There have been suicides. I'm grateful for this 'mudball', but I can't explain or understand what I've been feeling, or what's happening to the world. The world has to operate in certain ways; that's science. This is... not. I think I might be scared.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:21 am
Prologue IV: Recorded Data
Week of Hell - Week of ParadiseQuote: New Entry:According to the comm, things are only getting worse - the 'invaders' seem to be genuine beings from archaic myth, legend, and religious writ. Part of me is filled with curiosity and a desire to investigate, to study their physiologies. The rest of me feels a bit ill at the very thought. The universe does not work this way. Or it has not, until this point. It seems clear now that the Council was incorrect in assigning blame to the Terminus Fleet or, indeed, to any agency or group that we are currently aware of. All combatants have suffered similar deprivations. I am told that various religious groups have been whipped into a frenzy; I do not care to know the details. I am grateful that we are far away from this particular aspect of the recent chaos. It seems they struck in areas with high concentrations of those who believed in the existence of 'infernal' planes, netherworlds, or Hells. It could so easily be fascinating if it wasn't horrifying. We are all a bit jumpy now. Captain Jenkins blew a hole in the side of the ship the other night after dreaming he saw a 'demon'. At least, the general consensus is that it was a dream. I hope it was. Quote: New Entry:Up until now, roughly seven days (by Citadel reckoning) have passed between events. The significance has not escaped us - most of us were glued to the comm today, waiting in dread for news of a new calamity, but none came. It seems the earlier pattern has been broken. Nothing new has presented itself, although none of the old grievances have repaired themselves. There is no estimated time of rescue for us. We must resign ourselves to a long wait. As we have sufficient resources here, it is not a terrible hardship to remain on Pertica; indeed, we are perhaps better-off here than we would be in a more populated area, at least in terms of basic necessities. The comm is constantly on. I almost never listen to it any more; it never brings any good news. I refuse to have a breakdown. Several people have, at least among the humans. No surprise, perhaps - Earth was particularly badly hit by the 'infernal invasion'. Thus far, the Captain has not had any more dreams of demons. We all hope this state of affairs continues. Quote: New Entry:Our small camp is as fortified and well-built as we can make it, and we have begun to explore our surroundings. We are all looking for busy-work to occupy our minds and keep tensions low. There have been a dozen loud shouting matches already, only four of which were Arli's fault. Today, I traveled with Menkoli and Kharrin, one of the three turians in our group, on a small expedition to the coastline. Pertica is a water planet, with only one continent and a few small archipelagos. We are on the main continent, which has not been named. Perhaps they will name it after us, if anyone ever comes to investigate our impromptu colony. The forest surrounding the Redshift's landing site is extraordinarily dense. Kharrin wielded the blade that cut our path for us, while I kept Menkoli from wandering off to examine various specimens of flora. He says the biomass was quite rich at some point, though he estimates now a good forty percent of it is actually dead, with dead trees still standing only by leaning on their living neighbors. The smell of rot and decay is intense, but one does get used to it after a time. We reached the coastline after an hour and a half - most of that time spent carving our trail. There is no beach, only a steep cliff. Strangely, the cliff seems much newer than the surrounding land, as if it is the remains of a spit of land that has been cut away in a single stroke. There are some odd protrusions in the forest along the cliff a distance down the coastline; according to the old survey data, they are Prothean ruins. Perhaps we will explore them if we are left to our own devices long enough. Quote: New Entry:With Menkoli's encouragement, I have begun a preliminary survey of the local fauna. Arli follows us around, grumbling; biological processes are not his forte. He says it is better than being stuck inside. It has been nearly four weeks since the last 'event'. We are no closer to rescue. We have ceased asking for updates. It will come, or it will not, and that is the end of it. Arli says it is not like me to be so pessimistic. I say I am being logical, and reasonable. Menkoli talks almost exclusively about the forest. If he is afraid, or concerned, he is expressing it in ways only detectable by other elcor. Perhaps I should follow his example, and dive into my work to the exclusion of all else. If nothing else, there is no shortage of dead creatures to dissect. Quote: New Entry:I refuse to hover around the comm like a worshiper before an idol. There was another fight today - Eric refused to leave the comm despite the Captain's orders. He'd been there for days, refusing to eat or talk, or do anything but stare blankly and listen. When the Captain attempted to remove him by force, he fought back with astonishing fury. The turians had to restrain him, in the end. There is no new news. Oh, certainly, new things have occurred, new shifts in various conflicts, new planets dying, new tragedies. I do not wish to hear about them. They do not concern me. Perhaps it is disrespectful of me to care so little about the rest of the galaxy. I understand this, even as I continue in apathy. They do not care about us, I think, so why should I care about them? I will put it down as a coping mechanism, and move on. Quote: New Entry:Something new has happened today - I can feel it in the air. It is not a physical phenomenon, but a mental one. The air has cleared, somewhat; there is a sense of intense pressure, now slightly relieved. Events seem to have calmed themselves across the galaxy, though of course not to the extent that we can be rescued. Of course not. The phrase 'calm before the storm' comes to mind. Arli says I am being pessimistic again. Quote: New Entry:I dreamed again last night. The dream was filled with peace, a soft and gentle lull, but beneath it was an undercurrent of increasing tension. Tension, building towards a breaking point. There was more, I think, but I cannot remember it clearly. I am more and more convinced that the uneasy calm that has settled is unnatural, and very much temporary. But I will not share that assertion with the colony at large. Perhaps I am just pessimistic. Perhaps this is the end of everything, and life will return to a semblance of normalcy. Perhaps.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:22 am
Prologue V: Emptiness
Week of ParadiseShiana awoke to raised voices - not exactly uncommon as of late, but there was an urgency about the distant conversation that roused her from her bed. If it's Arli causing 'friction' again...It wasn't. Most of the colony was gathered in or around the bridge; Shiana had to weave her way through the group to get anywhere near the front. Menkoli was nowhere to be seen, but Arli was standing close to the comm. Jenna, the navigator, was giving the console a deeply worried look. "What's going on?" she asked, quietly. "The comm cut out, all of a sudden," Captain Jenkins muttered, looking ill at ease. A murmur went through those gathered there - the comm was their lifeline, their one connection to the galaxy outside Pertica. "There's - captain, no matter what I do, I can't find any active signals. All bands are completely empty, look-" With a helpless expression, Jenna flicked the comm to transmit through the overhead speakers before scanning once more. The comm skipped from band to band, each filled with nothing but hissing static. "There are no transmissions coming through on any known wavelength." "It's broken," Arli said immediately, reaching out one hand towards the comm console; Jenna immediately intercepted him, scowling. "It is not broken. It was working fine until a few minutes ago!" Arli leaned forward, bristling, but whatever he was going to say was interrupted by a familiar droning voice. "Serious concern. Serious concern. Serious concern." They all whirled, as one, to see Menkoli standing in the doorway. To Shiana's astonishment, the elcor was trembling visibly; given the usual subtlety of elcor speech, that had to be analogous to convulsive fear. "What is it, Menkoli?" She pushed past the group and hurried to his side, placing one hand on his shoulder. He paused for a long moment. "Serious concern," he repeated, finally, "the sky..." "What about the sky?" Arli snapped. A shudder ran through the elcor's large frame. "Serious concern." "We'd better go see," Shiana said, quietly. They filed slowly past Menkoli, who made no effort to follow them or to move out of their way. The people that hadn't been woken up by the concern over the comm were stirring now, blinking at their procession with bleary expressions. "I don't know what could possibly be wrong with the sky," Arli muttered as he walked alongside Shiana. "The comm's just busted, any fool could see that, and why... they... they..." "Goddess..." The heat and humidity hit Shiana like a furnace; she did not care. Hands shaking, she stepped out into the clearing, head tilted upwards, searching the skies. This is impossible.The sky above them was empty. Not clouded over, not obscured, empty of stars, suns, and moons. It was like looking at the curve of a black bowl inverted over their heads, silent, solid, and limited. "What. What is... what is going on?" Arli managed, all the usual brittle self-confidence gone from his voice. "I don't... I don't know..." No matter how she stared upwards, she could not make her mind comprehend what her eyes were seeing. "I don't know..." "Serious concern," Menkoli repeated, his voice echoing through the open door, before stunned silence claimed them all. . . . . . . . Quote: New Entry:This is insane. Absolutely impossible. Even as I write this, I can't make myself understand this. The sky - space - all of it appears to be gone. Vanished, empty. There are no visible celestial bodies in the sky. The sun has not risen since the event. It remains dark, yet the temperature has been fluctuating in a pattern consistent with the normal daily cycle of sunrise and sunset. We activated an emergency beacon and removed some components from the auxiliary thrusters, along with part of the escape pod launch assembly. Arli fashioned a simple rocket from that, one capable of carrying its payload into orbit. It launched as expected, yet just before leaving atmosphere it exploded. As if it had hit a wall. Which is, again, impossible. Jenna can't raise anything on the comm no matter how hard she tries. But it isn't broken - she finally let Arli fiddle with it, and nothing he did produced any results. I don't think he knows what to make of it, or how to handle it. He swears up and down that all the components are in perfect order - and then, the next minute, turns around cursing that it's broken. The Captain thinks it could be caused by a massive planetary barrier blocking everything. I've never heard of such a thing, and deep inside I know he's wrong. Serious concern is a vast understatement.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:23 am
Prologue VI: Renewal
The Day of RebirthQuote: New Entry:It's morning, according to the ship's clocks, even if we can't see the sunrise. Morning, and... nothing has changed. The sky is still empty, the comm is still silent. Yet at the same time, everything has changed. There's a sense of peace, real peace, blanketing everything. Peace, and joy, and I can't explain it, but we can't stop smiling even though we've no logical reason behind it. I had one more dream last night. The ache deep in the heart of the world shifted and blossomed into a bright red flower - and when I woke up, I could almost smell it in the air here. I would put it down to a good mood except... I can hardly remember the last time I was in a good mood. Even Arli is in a good mood, and that alone proves something... ... I want to say 'unnatural', and yet I can't. It feels like the most natural thing in the world. But all the tension and pain is gone, utterly, and there is only an astonishing gentleness left behind. If I concentrate, I can almost smell that red blossom... "Eager greeting: Good morning, Shiana," came a familiar droning voice; Shiana smiled and put down the datapad as Menkoli approached. "Sincere request: will you accompany me? There is a phenomenon I wish to show you." "Of course." Shiana tucked the datapad under her pillow and stood up, stretching as she did so. She felt wonderful - even her body seemed revitalized, filled with life and energy. That sense of peace and hope seemed to fill the air, and - judging by the smiles that greeted her as she followed Menkoli out of the ship - everyone else felt it too. Maybe it really is over...The elcor led her across the clearing to the small 'laboratory' he'd set up under one of the ship's nacelles. "With curiosity: Observe, Shiana. The samples have sprouted." "Goodness..." Shiana blinked as Menkoli moved to one side, revealing the small line of impromptu pots that the elcor had set up for his botanical observations some time ago. The seeds had utterly refused to sprout - but now they had, and with vigor. Some of the seedlings were already over a foot high. "These weren't here yesterday!" "Delighted: No, they were not. There is new growth on the forest as well." The elcor shuffled to one side, nudging a fresh green tendril. "It is the first new growth of any kind that I have observed since we arrived. Before now, there was only decay." Shiana glanced back at the forest; sure enough, she could see new shoots pushing through the now-familiar decayed leaves that blanketed the ground. Their colors seemed startlingly bright against the rot. "This is amazing, Menkoli - it has to be connected to what we're feeling, don't you think? A new sense of life and growth?" "With respect: Such things are not scientifically possible," the elcor said, ponderously. Shiana shook her head. "Very little that has happened to us has been scientifically possible. I'm just glad something's going right for a change." "Yes, it's going right - until the forest starts overtaking the ship and drowning the colony," came an acerbic voice from behind her - but even Arli's sarcasm seemed a little half-hearted, as if he'd really had to dig deep to find a reason to be cranky. The quarian stood behind them, arms folded. "Who's going to cut through this lot?" "Bemused: Arli, you are one of the most ill-natured specimens I have ever studied," Menkoli informed him. The quarian snorted, though he actually looked more ashamed than disdainful for once. "I'll believe it when the sun shows up again. And the stars. And a rescue ship. I'll even take a ping on the comm." Shiana bit her lip. It was true that the sky still looked the same as it always had, and that the only light sources they had were either from the Redshift or from a few bio-luminescent plants. "It's a start?" she offered. "I suppose," Arli grumbled. Shiana grinned and leaned in to examine Menkoli's samples.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:24 am
Prologue VII: City by the SeaQuote: New Entry:No new disasters have befallen us. It seems, at last, that the changes have ended... and while the cost seems immense, we are all feeling more at ease. As much as we can, at any rate. In the absence of any news or off-planet contact, we have decided to diversify our interests - while one person remains by the comm at all times, in case something should come through, the rest of us have been expanding our exploration of the land around the Redshift. Menkoli and I, along with the turian Kharrin, are assigned to the Prothean ruins near the ocean, not far from here. While initial exploratory scans of the area were made back when Pertica was fist surveyed, nothing of especial interest was detected within the ruins. Still, it should provide several days' diversion at the very least... The forest was hot, sticky, and filled with life. The surge of well-being that had followed the emptying of the sky had not faded, and Pertica's forests had responded with an explosion of new growth. The path they had forged near the Prothean ruins a scant two weeks prior was already nearly overgrown - though, fortunately, the new growth was soft, and parted easily before the blade. Shiana ducked behind Menkoli's gray bulk as Kharrin surged forward once more, the turian expertly wielding the machete as if he'd been born to it. With a few final whacks of the blade, the last bit of the vines covering the entrance to the ruins fell away. Menkoli blinked as one of the leaves landed on his head with a wet plop. "Cheerful exclamation: do I look good in this hat?" Shiana shook her head. "Charming." She plucked the leaf off of the elcor's head and tossed it to one side of the path with a smile, then turned to survey the now-exposed ruins. "It's a beautiful facility..." "I suppose," Kharrin said, noncommittally; the turian wasn't unkind, but he wasn't given to emotional displays. "It appears to be in relatively good condition, at least." "So it does." Shiana activated her omni-tool and lifted it towards the ruins, directing it to run a deep scan. "No power signatures detected inside - heavy metals below ground, though. Could be support structures, could be machinery... the building penetrates the solid rock in a honeycombed lattice, straight down through the cliff edge..." "Observation: it might have been a marine research station," Menkoli offered, shuffling forward and heaving the last of the vines off the path and into the surrounding trees. "The biomass of the oceans must be vast." "Must be, given the amount of fish the marine team has hauled." Kharrin's expression turned as wistful as a turian could manage; given their differing biological requirements, both the two turians and Arli had to subsist on rather tasteless dextro-protein mush. "What I wouldn't give for a real damn dinner..." "No life signs other than plant mass inside." Shiana lowered her arm. "We should be safe to enter." ..... There was a sizeable crack in one of the walls - not large enough to make the structure unstable, but it was enough to let in the jungle. the vines had pulled at the crack enough to admit even Menkoli through into the building's interior. Within, the plant life was less overwhelming than in the jungle, but moss coated almost every wall as vines twined through the ceiling tiles. "Fascinated observation: some of these plants appear to have adapted to the wall surfaces," Menkoli declared, padding over to a liana and tugging at it with one forepaw. "Enjoy... I'm going to take a look here," Shiana called, wandering over to a gap in the side wall. A burst of light from her omni-tool revealed it as a staircase leading down, only partially blocked with vines. "Does the comm work?" "Person to person? Yes. I have the base connection as well," Kharrin reported, with the turian equivalent of a frown. "You're not going down alone?" "Come with me, then. I'd like to explore." Shiana stared down into the vine-laced stairwell. There was an odd feeling spreading through her mind - as if there was something calling her down there, urging her to walk down and see. Yet it didn't feel hostile... I should be on my guard. Some alien species could affect the mind, though Asari were usually more aware of such influences due to their own mental abilities. "Menkoli - we're going down. You staying?" Kharrin called back. "Resolute statement: I am staying here and taking samples," the elcor replied, apparently deep in thought as he swiped his own omni-tool over a liana. "As you wish. Stay in touch," Kharrin said, then nodded to Shiana. The two of them navigated down the stairs - despite the vines, the structure of the staircase was completely intact, though the humidity and occasional incursions of water had worn the edges some. As they descended, Shiana made notes on her omni-tool. "We're into the cliff now - it seems to descend a good five or six stories down. We'll be below sea level when we hit the next story, if the story height is consistent..." "Would you look at that," Kharrin breathed as the staircase opened up into the next story. A massive window looked out directly into the ocean, dim light ripping through the room. Shiana could see fish flicking through the sea, and the long wispy leaves of seaweed swaying with the waves. "Oh - Menkoli will love this." Shiana hurried to the window - here, she could easily study the fish in their natural habitat, rather than relying on pre-dinner post-mortems - and yet... And yet, even as she stared out into the sea, she could feel her heart urging her onward. Downward. Reluctantly, she turned and looked back at the staircase. "Kharrin, could we..." A burst of static from the comm made them both jump. "That'll be the recall," the turian muttered. "Alright, alright, we're coming - calm down," he barked into the comm, ambling towards the staircase and gesturing for Shiana to follow him. As the asari set foot on the stairs, the urge to descend rather than ascend hit so hard that, for a moment, Shiana could barely breathe. It was an effort of will to lift her feet... "Concerned query?" Shiana jumped, and the moment was gone. "Menkoli - I'm fine. Wait until we come back tomorrow - there's an observation area below that's absolutely amazing!" Tomorrow. Yes. I'll be back tomorrow, she told the urge sizzling through her mind. Tomorrow.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:25 am
Prologue VIII: Secrets Shared
Shiana did not include anything on the strange compulsion in the official logs, nor did she note it in her datapad as she sat back in her bunk, drumming her fingers on the side of the bed. Too dangerous. If anyone saw it, they might think I'm losing my grip on sanity.
I'm not losing my grip. And if it is some sort of being that's down there... Well. They'd find out soon enough. She wanted to find it first, to study it... surely it was okay to not warn them. They might kill it before she had a chance...
Shiana shook her head. Don't panic about what a hypothetical being might do-
"Shiana?"
The asari jumped, banging her head into the bunk above; wincing, she leaned out of the bunk to glare at the surprise visitor. "What? ... oh, Arli." She relaxed, one hand going up to pat her head, gingerly. "You scared me half to death."
The quarian snorted, the sound oddly distorted through his enviro-suit. "Funny, considering all I did was come into the shared room. I must be very talented."
"I was... thinking, that's all." Shiana got to her feet; while her head stung, she didn't seem to have done any real damage to herself.
"Thinking. Right. That's also why you haven't said so much as a word to anyone since coming back from the ruins." She couldn't see Arli's face clearly through the mask, but the skeptical bite to his words conveyed his emotions with pinpoint clarity. "What happened?"
"Nothing happened - you can ask Kharrin. He was with me the entire time. We barely got to look around before the recall-"
Arli cut her off with a sharp gesture. "That's a load of vorcha s**t - you know it, I know it. Tell me the truth." Oddly enough, he didn't seem angry - sarcastic and snappish, yes, but that was his default.
Shiana let out a long, slow breath. "Promise not to tell."
"If you insist." He padded over to her and sat down on the bunk; she joined him after a moment.
"There's... I think there's something there, in the ruins," Shiana said slowly, keeping her voice low. "Something that wants me to come to it. Me, specifically - if Kharrin and Menkoli felt it, they're not telling anyone." Though the turian was disciplined and the elcor was... well, an elcor, so if they were hiding something she'd never know... "I don't think it's dangerous..."
Arli snorted. "I'll be the judge of that. I'm coming with you tomorrow."
"But you're on the building team," Shiana said, blinking in surprise.
"Don't care. We were on the same team before they started assigning us these damn petty tasks. Busy-work, all of it. I'm done." Arli waved one hand. "You and Menkoli are all I've got left from before this mudhole, anyway. Gotta make sure nothing's gonna take you out and leave me with nothing."
"... that's uncharacteristically sweet of you, Arli. Are you sure you're feeling okay?"
"Don't get too cuddly," Arli grumbled. "I hate that crap."
"Okay. So. Ah... tomorrow, then? I suppose?"
"Tomorrow," the quarian agreed, standing up.
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Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 11:26 am
Prologue IX: What Lies at the Heart
There was a lot of shouting the next morning, but the end result was Arli joining Shiana and Menkoli on their trek out to the Prothean ruins. Menkoli had strapped nearly his entire portable laboratory to his back, and the elcor hummed tunelessly to himself as they slogged through the jungle. Despite Kharrin's best efforts the day before, the jungle vines were already beginning to encroach on the path.
Still, Shiana barely felt the oppressive humidity that had Arli wiping off his face mask every minute (usually followed by swearing). The closer they got to the ruins, the more nervous she got. Or was it excited? She wasn't sure at all - it seemed to change minute by minute.
When they finally arrived, Menkoli happily set up his equipment on the top floor, proclaiming that he had plenty of work in that one room and would be quite comfortable. Satisfied, Shiana started for the staircase, her heart pounding - only to stop as Arli grabbed her shoulders.
"If it's dangerous, I'm calling it in," he said, his voice low, tone leaving no room for argument. "But I don't feel anything..."
"I do." Shiana swallowed. The urge to keep descending the stairs was strong. She pushed the vines over the staircase aside, carefully twining her way through the debris as she began to move downwards. She barely gave the 'observation room' a glance as she passed through it, ignoring the wide window and the spectacular undersea view it offered. Down, down... more...
Arli muttered something behind her, but she couldn't really hear it. The walls of the stairs reflected back the light of her omni-tool; they were slick, faintly damp with water, but there was no evidence of structural instability. Vines still crawled down the ceilings and floors even here, following the stairway down and only venturing into the outer rooms at the very edges of each landing.
Down... down... down...
"-ana, stop!!"
Shiana blinked, suddenly aware of Arli's hands grabbing her upper arms from behind, his fingers digging into her skin hard enough to leave bruises. He was shaking her-
And then, like that, the compulsion was gone. Its sudden absence made her feel breathless, as if she'd been smothered underwater without realizing it. "Arli! Stop- ow! Let me go! I'm fine!"
Arli loosened his grip, though he didn't release her; instead, he turned her to face him. She couldn't see his expression through the glare of light on his faceplate. "You haven't responded to a damn thing I've done for ten minutes. I'm calling-"
"Wait... Arli, please. It's gone now." Shiana took a shaky breath. It hadn't really been ten minutes... had it? She'd just gone down the stairs...
... and gone down, down, down. Shiana stared at the floor they'd stopped at; beyond this landing the stairwell was so thickly choked with vines, some of them practically woody trees in their own right, that they couldn't possibly have gone further. The way back up was obscured by another tangle, though this one was made of pliable green vines, and Shiana could dimly see the path they'd taken to get down here.
Could see it, but not remember it...
Shiana shivered. "It's gone now," she repeated. "Arli..."
He released her at last. "Sorry about the bruises," he muttered. "I was-"
"It's okay," she murmured, taking another deep breath. "Let's just... see what's down here." Her light flashed against damp walls, moss-covered ceilings and- "What was that light?"
"I saw it too..." Arli advanced into the room, his footsteps sounding on packed earth. "The floor's not wet here. Just dirt... and roots... and-" A sharply indrawn breath interrupted his words. "Shiana. There's... something..."
Shiana joined him, hurdling a few woody roots as thick as her waist. As she moved, her light glinted against metal - metal entwined in tree roots, cradled in an almost affectionate fashion. Which was ridiculous, plants couldn't express affection...
"Shiana, this is..." Arli knelt, wiping away leaves and dirt; the brightness and sheen of the now-cleaned metal below seemed almost blinding. As he tugged away a mat of vines, a very familiar shape asserted itself in the shadows. - though Shiana was used to seeing it through the windows of spaceships, on a scale hundreds, thousands of times larger than this.
"It looks like the Relay Monument on the Citadel. Almost exactly," she breathed. "It's beautiful..."
Her omni-tool's chime warned them both; Arli took a step back, pulling Shiana with him, as a hum began to emanate from the object. A moment later, bright blue light flared at the object's heart.
Arli stared at his own omni-tool. "The readings... Shiana, this isn't just a pretty toy."
"It... it is a relay," Shiana breathed, staring at the now-rotating rings orbiting the blue relay core. The miniature relay's base was cupped in a delicate array of roots, but it didn't seem bothered at all by the intrusion. "But without a ship..."
"We don't need a ship." Arli was already tearing away more vines; Shiana realized that there were three piles right by the mini-relay, suspiciously even in their spacing. "I think... yes. Shiana, help me-"
Together, they dragged the vines away, revealing three speckled, dust-caked, egg-shaped metal pods twice Shiana's height. More slicing through the undergrowth revealed a cradle to one side of the relay. "I think there's an array on the ceiling - yes, see the track?" Arli pointed up. "If we can get it working... Shiana, this could be our ticket out of here!"
"Our ticket? Whose ticket? There's only three pods." Shiana's heart sank as she looked at them. Three pods and a dozen 'colonists', and none of them had any rank to pull. "We won't get to ride these. The human crew will, and we'll be stuck here!"
"No, they won't," Arli said, his voice low, possessive. "I'm not telling anyone about this, and neither are you. Whatever your little feeling was, it found this - so it's fine by me. Anywhere that isn't here... is fine by me."
Shina looked at the relay, at the rotating rings and the bright core. So small, so perfect... it could have been a set of escape pods, some kind of system to fling the researchers here to safety. Which means we might be thrown to some Prothean world... but a lot of those are settled now by the Citadel races... She swallowed, reaching out one hand to touch the cool side of one of the pods.
The temptation was strong. Very strong.
"We need to think about this," she said, quietly. "Arli... we have to think."
Arli turned, then nodded slowly. "But don't tell anyone. Anyone. These are big enough for Menkoli, I think, depending on what's inside. But he's a horrible liar." He patted the side of the pod too, a pleased tone in his voice. "These little eggs are our tickets home. Home, Shiana!"
"Yeah," Shiana said, her throat suddenly dry. "Home."
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 2:57 pm
Prologue X: Inevitabilis
...Awaken-
Shiana woke with a jolt, her eyes opening wide even as her brain scrambled to catch up with her body's reaction. Her heart was pounding, yet as she found her focus, she couldn't figure out why. There were no sounds, no signs of movement around her at all, just bunks filled with the same familiar, sleeping refugees. There was no memory of a dream clinging to the edges of her mind - and yet her pulse was racing, every sense on alert.
With a sigh, the Asari got up, moving carefully so as not to wake up anyone else. She padded quietly outside, breathing in the warm, humid green scents filling the air. The forest was filled with life now, even if the sky was shrunken and blank.
I have to go.
The thought seemed almost as if someone else had spoken right into her brain, and yet it was her own. She stood motionless, hardly daring to breathe. I have a way, and it called me... just me... She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered despite the heat. By rights, the strange Prothean pods they'd found should be shared among the crew, but the idea of not being in one herself felt as wrong as the empty sky overhead. And she had no logical reason why.
And that bothered her. There was always logic, or at least a reason. There was always some sort of why... and yet all she had to do was look up to behold a vast unanswered question. Was there a why big enough for the failing of the sky?
She let out a low sigh of frustration.
Well. Now that she was up - because she wasn't getting back to sleep after an adrenaline spike like that, that was for sure - she might as well go take a look. Just a little peek at the pods, just to make sure everything was in working order... that was all she was doing, right? And yet, as she opened her locker and pulled out her pack, she couldn't fight the feeling that she was about to step off the edge of a cliff. Worse, she couldn't tell if it was exciting or horribly wrong.
The path to the ruins was still mostly clear; the forest hadn't had quite enough time to reclaim it. She hesitated on the edge of the clearing, just for a moment, looking back at the downed ship they'd all been forced to call home.
Come along.
She pivoted on one foot and vanished into the forest.
.......
The ruins were mostly silent; after the sounds of the forest, which wasn't quiet no matter what time it was, that silence was almost deafening. Only the background hush of waves against the shore fought with the sound of her own footsteps as she descended the stairs, her omnitool glowing brightly to chase away the shadows. If there really was something in here, drawing her mind, she'd be easy pickings for it now. She kept alert, one hand on the wall to steady herself, the other ready to defend herself with biotic power if need be.
But there was nothing. All the way down... nothing. The light of the active relay greeted her as she descended the final flight. The mechanism looked so strange, so small compared to the vast mass relays that transported whole fleets at once, especially with the tangle of roots around the base of its structure.
The pods were waiting. Would they really take her home, as Arli had said? Surely not - the odds were literally astronomical. It could sling her right into a nova, assuming there were still stars somewhere, or just accelerate her into the uncaring, rock-hard sky above. It would be right and sensible to be afraid.
And yet, as she touched the side of a pod and it woke under her fingertips, she wasn't. Not quite.
The pod opened up, its hydraulics sounding crisp and perfect, the metal smooth and untarnished. Within was a single reclining seat, clearly designed to support a Prothean form but certainly usable by asari, human, turian, quarian... and probably elcor, if Menkoli didn't mind a tight squeeze. The relay system was humming now, a deep, nearly subaural thrum that resonated through the floor. It was activating, coming up to a ready state - ready to send the little pod somewhere.
Shiana swallowed. She could go back. They could discuss this together, her and Arli and Menkoli, and return together if that seemed an appropriate course of action. That would be sensible and logical - and yet, as she looked into the pod, she knew with a sick certainty that there was only one way she would be leaving this room. And it wasn't via the stairs.
"Sorry, Arli, Menkoli," she whispered, climbing into the pod. The door closed of its own volition as soon as she settled herself into the seat, lights coming to life all around her. Prothean symbols flickered on a screen as Shiana forced herself to relax, settling into the restraints that curled out of the seat and around her body. Part of her brain was screaming at her, pounding on the walls and shouting what are you doing as loud as she possibly could-
And yet.
The pod lurched forward, gently, bobbing along the track Shiana and Arli had seen the day before. From within the pod, there was no way to see what was happening outside, but she could hear the resonance of the relay as the system powered up. Her fingers dug into the restraints as the hum got louder, and louder, and-
Forgive me-
Sound, force, and acceleration combined into one overwhelming sensation. Shiana made a sound like a little sigh and blacked out.
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 3:44 pm
Shiana & Alcyone: Good Morning, SunshineSosiqui Silence, stillness, no sound except the faintest hum of the life support system and Shiana's own breathing. How long had it been since she'd left Arli and Menkoli on Pertica? Too long for a usual relay transit, by several orders of magnitude. She knew that in her head, though she couldn't seem to grasp what it meant. Time seemed soft, malleable, easy to lose hold of. She couldn't quite count how many times she'd eaten, either, or how many times she'd slept. There was nothing but half-light, the vaguest sense of forward motion, and the beating of her heart... BANG!Even within the pod's controlled interior, the sudden deceleration very nearly made Shiana black out. She closed her eyes tightly and hung on, fingers digging into the armrests of her seat. Gravity asserted itself abruptly, making her stomach flip over, and the riotous sound of the pod's... arrival... was almost painful to her ears after all that silence. And then it all stopped, leaving Shiana alone again; the pod's systems were shutting down, that ever-present soft hum spinning down into a whine. The airlock popped open with a hiss and faint inward rush of air as the pressure equalized itself. Silence reasserted itself once more, only this time there was the faint sound of rustling foliage coming in from the outside. Shiana took a deep breath and willed herself to calm down. She was here, wherever 'here' was... Please, please be somewhere... alive... At least the exterior environment wasn't harmful; she could smell fresh, cool air blowing in through the open airlock. The asari took another deep breath and stood up, pushing at the airlock door with one hand as she steadied herself with the other. Her legs were trembling. And yet she could feel the faint tug in her heart calling her upwards, onwards into the night... No, not night. The sky above her gaped as empty as on Pertica, utterly devoid of suns, moons, and stars. Shiana swallowed, then carefully pulled herself up, feeling for the footholds in the pod's walls. A forest, she realized, as her eyes got used to the darkness; the pod's sides glowed faintly, enough to reveal tree trunks around her. As she stepped downwards, her feet hit something she wasn't expecting - roots, still curled tightly around the pod's curved form. ... no. Not still curved, but curved anew. As Shiana slid to the ground, she could clearly see that the pod was, once again, encased in roots - as if a great sylvan hand had reached up from the ground and caught the pod out of the air. The thought was abruptly disturbing. Shiana shuddered, then lifted her arm and brought up her omni-tool's interface. Just as before, it scanned endlessly for open communication channels, finding none. The asari slumped against the pod. What was she supposed to do now? She could still feel that strange tug deep inside her heart, a faint urging to stumble to the northwest - but she was just too tired. Frigoris A loud crash boomed through the forest, jolting Alcyone awake and instinctively scrabbling off her perch with awkward wing flaps before her sleep hazed mind could catch up. Shaking her head she peered about and quickly adjusted her flight to a glide. Off slightly in the distance there was a metal... thing? There soil was furrowed behind it and all around were broken tree trunks and branches. Alcyone flew to a nearby branch to get a better view. Was it a plane? It didn't look like any plane she'd ever seen, granted she'd only ever seen her first plane last month and that was a mismatch of old parts and pieces some of the survivors at the last village had cobbled together. The plane could barely even glide, let alone fly, though the villagers assured her it would, once they fixed it up more. This new plane looked nothing like that, it was ovoid in shape, and sleek. Judging from the destruction of the impact zone it must've been going really fast too. Alcyone bit her lip and considered. Well, if it was a plane, there'd be a pilot, right? Perhaps she should check to see if anyone survived that crash. And if not, well, at least there might be something worthwhile to scavenge? The harpy grinned to herself and spread her wings once again, already plotting what she would buy with the scavenged materials from the plane. Her smile faltered a little and she drew up short when she spied a figure slumped up next to the metal pod. A survivor? Alcyone circled the crash site and landed, peering at the figure. It looked like a human female but her skin was blue and her head was oddly shaped like no other human Alcyone had ever seen. Though the slumped figure's eyes were closed, it was breathing and whole and uninjured. Alcyone sighed in relief. Though the harpy had stubby clawed fingers on her wings as all of her kind did, she wasn't anywhere near as dexterous as humans. Administering first aid would have been awkward. Shuffling closer a couple steps, Alcyone peered curiously at the figure's face. "Hello?" She called, nudging the figure's arm. "Are you okay?" Sosiqui Shiana jolted upright, her eyes wide as one hand came up in front of her instinctively, a faint glowing haze shimmering into being around her body as her biotic amp kicked in. "Who-" But there was no hostility in the pale face of the being that had approached her, and the asari relaxed - just a little - and let her arms fall to her sides again, the glow vanishing as rapidly as it had appeared. "Y-yes," she managed, after a moment. "I'm... I'm fine." Once panic ebbed, she was able to focus on the being; it wasn't of any species she knew. Her brow furrowed slightly in confusion. Where in the galaxy had the relay thrown her? It looked like a human - no, she, if it's part human than... definitely female - only combined with distinctly avian features. Like something out of human mythology..."I'm fine," she repeated, shaking her head slightly and focusing. "Where am I? What is this place? Ah... I'm sorry, I didn't know where that pod would take me..." Frigoris Alcyone tensed a little when the figure suddenly jolted awake and started glowing slightly. "Whoa!" She backed up a couple steps. Trying to look as harmless as possible, she watched as the figure shook her head and looked around. She must be disorientated from the crash. Alcyone realized. Though what was with that glow thing? Magic? What a weird human, she's not like any I've ever seen."Is your pod a type of plane?" Alcyone said, peering past the figure to study the metal egg thing. "Don't you know how to fly? Why were you in it if you didn't know where it'd take you? That's so stu-- ah!" Alcyone covered her mouth with a wing, and looked slightly abashed. Really, she needed to learn not to be so blunt. Humans tended not to like that. "Er, you're in the forest just north of Avenoa village, about a day's flight from here. The Pantheon -- that's where I'm headed -- is about five day's travel in that direction." Alcyone pointed. "At least that's what they told me at the village. Don't most of you humans judge distances from the Pantheon nowadays?" "I'm Alcyone, by the way." She fumbled at her belt for a small flask and offered it to the figure. "Want some water? What's your name? Why are you blue?" Sosiqui Shiana gave the fluttery being - Alcyone - an amused look. "Pure water? Yes, thank you - I am Shiana..." At the 'blue' comment, Shiana shuddered inwardly; she quickly gulped down some water from the flask in an attempt to hide her reaction. She must be well out of Council space to not be recognized. "I am an Asari. This is my natural skin color. And I took the pod out... because going somewhere unknown was better than staying where I was." She glanced quickly up at the sky, then back down again. "Is, ah. Is the sky always... so empty?" The water was good, at least - fresh and clean and clear of any recycling compounds. But oh, how she missed Arli and Menkoli and the rest... Maybe going somewhere unknown wasn't better. Frigoris "Asari? Never heard of them. You must be from far away, I've never seen your kind before." Alcyone took back the flask and screwed the cap back on, stashing it back on her belt. "But then most humans nowadays aren't used to seeing harpies either." She grinned at Shiana. "So I guess we're both weird." Alcyone tipped back her head and looked up at the dark expanse above them. "I don't know what happened to the sky," she said softly, "it was like that when I woke up." She then shrugged and looked over at the Asari. "The people I've talked to said it was a great cataclysm, as if the world was ending. A lot of people died. The survivors just kind of wander about, trying to pick up the pieces and survive." Alcyone tilted her head, questioning. "You mean the sky's like where you're from too? All over the place? s**t..." "Well, I know what you mean, wandering about is better than staying where I was too. Staying put just reminded me of how much I've lost." Alcyone tugged on a couple of her wing feathers and cleared her throat awkwardly. "A-anyway. Do you think you can fix your pod? Can I look inside? I've never been inside a plane before." Sosiqui "Go ahead." Shiana waved one hand at the pod. "It isn't going anywhere. Not without a relay." A cataclysm. That sounded... about right. The sudden eruption of war in previously peaceful sectors, the sudden utter crop failure of several 'granary' worlds, the Pestilence... Shiana shook her head. So it hadn't been confined only to Citadel space after all. It was, indeed, a truly cosmic event... Shiana focused again on her new companion's actions. "It's just an escape pod, of sorts. It's strange, though... it should have flung me to the next relay along. But I don't see one here." She bent down and laid one hand on the grassy floor, palm flat against the earth. "Terrible things happened to my people, too. So much death." She shook her head. "Our ship was driven to ground on Pertica in the Ho Librae system. I was... curious. Stubborn, maybe. But I felt that I had to take the route open to me..." The asari sighed, staring at the ground. "Activating a relay when you don't know where it's going... it's the height of stupidity at best, a galactic incident at worst. But this place doesn't seem too bad... considering the options." Frigoris Alcyone scrabbled up along the side of the pod and peered into the cramped cockpit, only half listening to what Shiana was saying. A bewildering console panel of buttons and lights lay out in front of the seat. Neat. She resisted the urge to poke at the panel; an experience with a decrepit light fixture taught her quite painfully that pressing shiny buttons wasn't always a good idea. Beyond the seat and the console though there didn't seem to be much else. Too bad Shiana didn't seem to have any food. She popped her head back out of the pod in time to hear Shiana say something about planets and relays. What is she talking about? Alcyone hopped back down beside Shiana. Relays? Supernova? The Asari seemed to be talking nonsense. Then again it could be her usual ignorance of these strange times. Yet again. Alcyone sighed, feeling the familiar pang of bleakness. But no, Alcyone shook herself slightly to throw off her dark mood and looked closer at her companion. She must be exhausted. Alcyone realized with a guilty start. She had been so curious she hadn't really been paying attention to the other woman. Of course she's exhausted, stupid. Look at all she's been through. Perhaps after Shiana had rested she could tell her what exactly these relays she kept talking about were. "You look terrible. Do you want to rest? I can keep watch if you'd like?" Alcyone gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry I didn't ask sooner. I tend to get a bit..." she gestured vaguely with her wing, "all over the place; peppering you with questions. We harpies are an inquisitive lot." Sosiqui Shiana had to smile wearily at that. "I will be fine, but thank you - I'm not entirely sure how long I was cooped up in there. Fresh air, clean water, space to stretch..." She punctuated the sentence by doing exactly that. When she looked down again, she had a quizzical expression on her face. "Harpy, you said? As in the mythological creatures from ancient human mythology?" Ancient by human reckoning, anyway, when a thousand years meant at least ten generations instead of one. "And you mentioned a Pantheon earlier... Greco-Roman mythology, wasn't it?" And Arli had teased her about her love for alien mythology! She felt ever so slightly smug as she re-assessed Alcyone's appearance. "Do Zeus and Hera live there, perhaps? Or would it be Jupiter and Juno? I confess I don't know a great deal about Earth's folklore, but I do have the basics of the major cultures..." Frigoris "Well, if you're sure..." Alcyone said, not entirely convinced of her companion's assertion. "Don't push yourself though." She gave her companion a wry smile. "I'd feel bad if I left you passed out in the middle of the forest." Alcyone partially spread her wings, "I don't know about 'mythological creature', but yes, I am a harpy, as you can see. Our numbers were never as plentiful as the humans, but in my time, we were common enough. I... don't know what happened to the others now. Oh, but we're not nearly as vile and vicious as some humans say we are if that's what you're worried about. Okay, some of the clan mothers have no shame but-- " Alcyone shrugged. "I don't know about the gods. The only ones I've seen were in temples; gold and gem statues, silent and uncaring. But the humans I've talked to claim that the gods walk the earth again. That's they're being reborn and they all live at the Pantheon. They talk as if the Pantheon is lone beacon of hope in the world." Alcyone shrugged again, looked away. "So I thought I would go see this place for myself." She turned back to Shiana. "In a way, you might know more than me. But if you're really from another world, how do you know so much? And what are these relays you keep talking about? That's how you got here, right?" Sosiqui "Esoteric folklore is my hobby, I suppose. The asari are allied with the humans - though, of course, not all of us care to study the obscure mythology of other species, especially such newly-encountered ones-" Shiana broke off, realizing that the harpy wouldn't understand; she was so used to the Citadel history being known that she had very little frame of reference when speaking to someone who didn't know it. "I read a lot of stories," she summarized, a wry smile on her face. "As for the mass relays..." Best to summarize that, too, she decided. "They are... a way of getting from one place to another very quickly indeed. Not quite magic, but they might appear so to you." A gamble, that, but hadn't a human once said that sufficiently advanced technology was indistinguishable from magic? And if there were harpies, mightn't there also be...? Gods. Shiana glanced up, feeling that odd tug again, that urge to move forward. "Which direction is this Pantheon, Alcyone?" Frigoris "Odd hobby." Alcyone sniffed. "Why spend all your time cramped up inside, reading myths and folklore about other people? Talk about bor-- er, not that it's a bad hobby." Alcyone corrected herself quickly, looking furtively at Shiana. "But wouldn't it be more fun to go out and explore for yourself?" "I do know how to read though. A little." Alcyone preened. "I used to be a message courier, for the priests at the temples and the scholars at the university. They taught me some. I also flew messages between villages. At some of the more remote villages everyone would drop what they were doing and rush to gather around, just to hear the latest news from the cities." Alcyone's smile turned wistful. "That was fun." "Those 'mass relays' of yours sound like they would have put me out of my job. It'd be interesting to travel everywhere so quickly though. Zip! You're there." Alycone's eyes brightened and she eagerly turned to Shiana. "Hey, do you think there might be another one around here somewhere? A relay that we could use, I mean." Alcyone's smile slipped a little when she noticed her companion's distracted expression. "Oh, uh, the Pantheon's east of here, about five days' travel. Are you sure you're okay?" She reached out to pat the Asari's arm in what she hoped was a reassuring manner. Sosiqui Shiana smiled faintly. "It would be nice if there were another relay - truthfully, I've never seen one like the one I used to get here. They're generally massive structures in space, used to move entire fleets." Nevermind that there should have been a relay here, if only to 'catch' her pod, but there was no sign of anything inorganic here except for said pod. She grew still at Alcyone's next words. To the east... The same direction as that 'pull', then. As if confirming that, the urge to move seemed to grow just a little stronger, enough so that the asari took a hesitant step in that direction before stopping. Shiana shook her head slightly, trying to dispel the strange feeling, then refocused on the harpy. "Yes, I'm fine. Just a bit tired from everything that's happened." She hesitated for a moment. "If this 'Pantheon' is the center of civilization here, I might have a better chance of contacting my people from there. I have a... a hunch, of sorts." But there was no way she could manage a five-day journey - not without rest, food, and directions more specific than 'east'. "Alcyone - I hate to impose, but... I have no knowledge of this area and hardly any supplies. If you are going to this 'Pantheon' already, perhaps I could accompany you?" Frigoris Alcyone turned and looked quizzically in the direction Shiana was facing, trying to see whatever it was that the Asari was so distracted by. The Pantheon was that direction, true, but Alcyone noticed nothing out of the usual; only dark forest and the soft chitterlings of the forest inhabitants. The harpy quickly lost interest and turned back to her companion. "A hunch? What kind of hunch? Do you know something, or have some kind of sixth sense or magic?" Actually, Alcyone realized, that would explain a lot on how distracted and weird Shiana was acting, as if she was listening to something only she could hear. Maybe Asari were magic. Alcyone suddenly recalled the aura that hazed around Shiana when she awoke. It would explain a lot. The other woman was odd but if she could do magic she'd be useful to have along. Besides, her last traveling companions, Lares and Ana, a widowed man and his daughter, had finally reached their surviving relatives at Avenoa village and remained there. Having someone to talk to far outweighed the slower pace of a traveling companion who couldn't fly. And Shiana seems nice. And so lost and alone; I know that feeling.Alcyone quickly shook her head and then grinned, "Sure, I'd love the company." Sosiqui "I... I don't know. Maybe I'm just over-tired." Indeed, as the adrenaline of her arrival began to ebb, Shiana was realizing that she really was exhausted. And hungry. She quickly gave Alcyone a weary, grateful smile. "Thank you. I don't have much to contribute, but I can - hopefully - keep us safe. I'm a biotic - well, I suppose it might be 'magic'." May as well frame it in familiar cultural terms. "I'll pull what I can out of the pod for tonight... tomorrow? Is it nighttime now?" She gave the blank sky a vaguely irritated look. ... I must be tired, if I'm frustrated with the sky for being empty. The asari pulled herself together again. "I hate to be a burden so soon into our partnership, but... ah... do you have any food?" She gave the harpy a sheepish look. Frigoris "See? I told you. Sit down and rest." Alcyone fussed. "It's still night. Dawn is, well, what passes for dawn anyway -- it never really gets light -- is still a couple hours away, I think." Alcyone cocked her head and looked up at the inky blackness of the sky. She had an instinctual sense of time but with the unrelenting darkness still disconcerted her sometimes. "I left my travel pack on the branch I was roosting on. I have some food in there." She spread her wings and lifted off, calling over her shoulder. "I'll go get it, hang on." Alcyone flew through the forest, expertly twisting her wings to avoid any branches or trees in her way. Figures she doesn't have any food, she groused slightly to herself. Good thing I restocked at Avenoa. Lares was so kind to give me all those supplies. If we're careful, maybe it'll last until we reach the Pantheon. Up ahead was the tree she had stopped for the night and Alcyone landed, grabbing her pack that was carefully hooked over the branch. Oh well, the pack was hard to fly with anyway.Flying back, Alcyone hesitated, watching her new companion from a distance. Shiana looks so lost. She noticed with a pang. Suddenly, Alcyone felt guilty for her uncharitable thoughts. She of all people knew how it felt to be suddenly in a strange place, lost and alone. "I'm back." She called, purposely trying to keep her tone bright. "I don't have much; some dried fish and fruits, and some hard loaves -- careful with those, they'll break your teeth if you don't soak 'em water first, but they're near indestructible and decent enough once you soften them. Here. Eat up." Alcyone rooted through her pack and handed some of her rations to the Asari before settling herself down next to the pod to eat. "So... what's it like, where you're from?" Alcyone asked between munching on an apple. "Are all Asari biotics? What sorts of magic can biotics do?" If she was going to be traveling with the other woman, she may as well learn all she could about her new companion, Alcyone reasoned. Besides, she was curious. Sosiqui When the harpy flew off, Shiana had climbed back into the pod and dug out her pack. For a moment, she thought wistfully of the bounty of supplies left on Pertica. Other than her simple pack, the clothes on her back, and her omni-tool... Well, the pod was small. Still, she wished she'd tried a little harder to fit things inside. The asari climbed back down just as Alcyone returned; she greeted her new-found companion with another grateful smile and slid down into a sitting position, the pack at her side. "Thank you very much - hopefully I'll be able to scavenge." A quick scan with the omni-tool revealed that the food was suitable for her consumption. Thank goodness."Ah, yes - most asari are biotics. It's... not really magic, just refined neuroscience and manipulation of mass effect fields. Technology and natural skill." She paused to take a few bites of the dried fish while pondering how best to explain. "I suppose the closest... ah, traditional 'magic' to biotics would be telekinetics...?" Frigoris "Telekinetics?" Alcyone echoed with her mouth full of apple. "Like, throwing things with your mind? Neat!" "All I can do is harpy magic, which isn't really magic at all. We can sense the winds' moods and ask the lesser ones for their aid -- if they're willing. The lesser breezes tend to be capricious and fickle and the great winds answer to no one but themselves." She took a sip of water from her flask and then offered it to Shiana. "That's about it though." "But I get by well enough." Alcyone grinned. "So, you read about harpies in human myths and legends? I didn't realize we were mythical. Huh... the humans I've met never seemed that startled by my appearance." She sobered a little. "But then, these days, you see all manner and sort of strange creatures and beasts wandering around. Some demons too, and not all of them friendly either. Oh, don't worry, there's not so many now. The humans say that the gods quieted the rages of the monsters -- like how they stopped the world from ending." Alcyone shrugged carelessly. "I dunno about that though." "Say, you read a lot, right? Have you read anything about the gods? Were you a scholar, like the great philosophers at the university? Tell me about yourself, do you have any other hobbies?" Alcyone smiled at Shiana, pleased to have such an interesting companion to talk to. Lares and Ana were nice but they were so grief-stricken from losing the rest of their family that it really put a damper on any sort of conversation. She hoped Shiana would be more willing to talk, it'd be nice to have a friend. Sosiqui Shiana did her best to listen as Alcyone spoke, though the harpy's cheerfully rapid-fire method of questioning was a little hard to follow, especially in her tired state. She had to pause and process for a moment before answering. "I'm a biologist, actually - I was between assignments when everything started to go wrong. I've never seen any creature quite like you, though... not outside of old illustrations from Earth. Folklore and myths were always interesting to me, especially the strange creatures, so I suppose it was a natural progression for me to become a biologist." Still, even in all the worlds her people had explored, she'd never seen any race that was such a direct analogue to truly mythological beasts. And Alcyone had mentioned humans.... "So this world is a human one, then?" The harpy had also been right about the bread; Shiana made a face and carefully trickled water onto the hard substance, trying to make it slightly more edible. Frigoris Alcyone nodded. "Yep, for the most part. A lot of them died and their great cities were destroyed in that cataclysm but there's still tons of humans scattered about. I've seen a lot of them wandering around or scavenging amongst the ruins. Most of the settlements and villages I've traveled through were human too. They're nice. Most of them are willing to give you a meal in exchange for news from the other settlements. Or at least trade for supplies." She paused and snickered as she watched Shiana attempt to eat the hard bread. "See? I told you it could break teeth. At least it never goes bad if you keep the loaves dry. Hell, even the weevils don't get into them. Probably too hard, they can't gnaw into it." As Alcyone watched, she realized how slumped the Asari's shoulders were, how tired the other woman looked. She sighed. When will I learn to shut up and pay attention?"Get some sleep after you're done eating, okay? And don't tell me you're not tired, you look like you're about to fall over." Alcyone got up and stretched before jumping up into the air and flapping up to a branch overhead. "I'll keep watch." she called down to Shiana. Sosiqui "I... yes, of course," Shiana said, with a wry grin. All her poise couldn't hide that simple fact, it seemed - but why should she hide it? She had found a friend here, it seemed. The asari finished the loaf of bread slowly, taking each bite with gulps of water; it was filling, at least, if nothing else, and she supposed it might be considered 'rustically charming' by some. She was really too tired to appreciate it properly, if indeed it had such virtues. When she was finished, she glanced up at the harpy perched above the pod (or roughly so, anyway; the pod's trajectory had torn through branches and leaves of the trees directly overhead). "Thank you - I appreciate your kindness. In the morning, then." She offered the harpy a grateful smile before climbing back into the pod, not bothering to close the door behind her. She had barely curled up in the seat before sleep claimed her.
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 3:47 pm
Shiana & Alcyone: Road Trip!Sosiqui The road hadn't been too difficult thus far; while it was obvious the thoroughfare had seen better days, it had also seen much worse. The evidence of patching and repair was visible everywhere, and here and there working crews were improving conditions still more. Shiana was utterly bemused by the odd mix of technology in evidence - everything from pounded cobblestones to advanced asphalt-layers. This whole world seemed like a mishmash of fantasy and fiction; her omni-tool's database teemed with subtly-obtained scans of everything from normal humanoids to centaurs. It was fantastic, in every sense of the word. According to Alcyone and to those they passed, the next town was named Beyora; from what Shiana had gathered, this route stretched from the Pantheon to the city of Koiso. The harpy had a map, fortunately. What was unfortunate was Shiana's utter lack of preparedness for long walks. Well-engineered as her boots were, she simply was not used to long treks, and the gravity on this world was a bit heavier than she was used to. They had to at least rest in Beyora, and maybe purchase some boots more suited for distance-walking. She'd think about how to pay for it later. Shiana tilted her head back, searching the sky for Alcyone; the harpy had been taking the air more often, apparently to see how close the town was. "Alcyone?" she called, shading her eyes with one hand. "What does the map say? Are we nearly there?" She was certain there was a blister developing on her right heel. Frigoris Alcyone rode the wind, delighting as it blew through her hair and feathers, pushing her up higher into the sky. Below, the road they were following curved along the forest before straightening out through fields and a small town in the distance. That must be Beyora. She hovered a couple moments longer, looking around, before cocking her head. Faintly, she could hear her companion calling her name and when she looked she could see the Asari waving to her. Alcyone sighed and banked her wings, swinging around to descend. She liked Shiana but it was always a little frustrating traveling with a companion who couldn't fly. Alcyone's bird legs weren't designed for extended periods of walking, yet trying to fly slowly enough for her friend to keep up was difficult and usually involved a lot of circling back and forth. Still, it's worth it to have someone to talk to -- even if Shiana's distracted half the time."It's not too far." Alcyone said as she landed, folding her wings and hopping over to Shiana. "Once we round this curve in the road you should be able to see it." The harpy picked up her travel pack that she had left with Shiana and rooted through its contents, pulling out the map. "We're right here." She indicated with a stubbly, claw tipped finger. "Probably get there by mid-afternoon. Think you'll be okay? How's the foot?" Sosiqui "I think so. It's not gotten worse, at any rate." Shiana stepped out of the main roadway into the grassy verge, then bent down and prodded at the foot in question experimentally; it ached a bit, but was not yet stinging or raw. "Mid-afternoon... yes, I can do that. Thank you for being so patient with me," she said, with a sigh. The harpy's looping movements had not gone unnoticed. She was well aware that she was slowing Alcyone down... and yet the gregarious harpy didn't seem to mind. "Do you always fly to get where you're going? It seems like you'd have more fun down here," Shiana said, gesturing at the road. It wasn't incredibly crowded, but they certainly weren't alone, and every so often noisy, multi-vehicle caravans would move by - caravans consisting of everything from wagons to rickshaws to steam-powered or gas-burning vehicles. "There's more gossip to be learned," she added, with a teasing grin. The harpy's love of such things hadn't escaped her notice either. Frigoris "Well, I am a harpy." Alcyone said distractedly as she attempted to fold the map. She huffed in frustration as the paper refused to fold smooth and she had to open it up again to try the crease in the other direction. "Flying's easier than walking. Besides, if I see something interesting I can always land and investigate. Argh, you wanna try this? I give up." She offered the map to Shiana before rooting through her pack once again and pulling out her water flask. "Hey speaking of gossip, did you catch all of what Rimoli said? You know, that livestock trader that passed by us on the road this morning? The one with the two dogs? Arie and... Itin? Was that its name? Anyway." Alcyone waved her wing as she unscrewed the water flask and took a sip. "While you were readjusting your boot, I talked to him for a bit. He said that Beyora's got a big market going on this week. Traders from everywhere, selling everything - food, supplies, scandal, anything we need! Plenty of brains to pick for information on the Pantheon." Alcyone finished drinking and offered the flask to the Asari. "Want some?" Sosiqui Shiana had to hide her grin as Alcyone started up again; fortunately, the map provided excellent cover. The harpy seemed to have a real talent for ferreting out every bit of information possible. "Thank you - let me just get this folded up," she agreed, flipping the map closed before taking the water bottle. "Though," she added, with a sigh, "Information is a valuable commodity, to say nothing of the supplies... and I still don't have any money." What did they use for currency here, anyway? She couldn't access her credits from here, and even if she could, this place certainly wasn't on the galactic standard. "I could work for it, perhaps?" Frigoris "I thought so." Alcyone said happily. She took back the folded map and shoved it into her travel pack, hoisting it onto her back. "I'm curious about the Pantheon too; Rimoli was really evasive when I asked for more details." She skittered down the road a couple paces, before eagerly turning back to face Shiana. "Let's go find out!" The pair resumed walking and Alcyone frowned slighly, echoing her friend's words. "Currency? Well, mostly I just trade for things. Salvaged stuff, odds and ends I find on the road - you won't believe how much you can get for a box of sewing needles!" She tucked her wings behind her head in a childish fashion as she hopped along, trying to keep pace with the Asari's longer strides. "Most townfolk are starving for information too. You let slip that you've passed through some towns back West and they're all over you, asking about their relatives and friends; what's going on over in those places. I can usually get a free meal or four just by that. Or we could just steal whatever we need." She shrugged and grinned. "Don't worry so much, we'll figure something out." Sosiqui Alcyone's almost as good as the Shadow Broker... if a bit less mysterious and a bit more loud. "Steal things? If we're going to the home of the gods, wouldn't that be a bad idea? I'd hate for us to get there only for you to fall to a stroke of divine justice," Shiana said with a teasing grin, though it was partially to hide her discomfiture at the idea. As they continued walking, the road rose over a small hill just ahead. Shiana winced a little as the grade made her shoe dig just so into her sore heel, but she kept going, focusing on the harpy as distraction. "How long have you been traveling, anyway? It's so lively here..." Another caravan clattered past them; while it was crowded, the overall mood of the road was one of cheerful chaos. At the crest of the hill, the town below was clearly visible. Shiana was taken aback - much of the town was either in ruins or very clearly freshly rebuilt. A small swarm of colorful tents surrounded it, and nearly every erect wall had a tarp slung off of it to create shelter. Still, she could tell from the metal girders protruding here and there that this had not been a poor, ill-built facility. What exactly happened here? Frigoris "Divine justice? Like, getting smote from above by a lightning bolt?" Alcyone snorted in amusement. "Even if the gods are being reborn -- which, I'm not wholly sure I believe, considering everyone I've talked seems to have heard about it from their sister's cousin's friend who heard it from the random scrap metal trader on the heading back from the Pantheon -- I highly doubt they care about a peon like me. I mean, there has to be something going on at the Pantheon, I won't deny that, but you hear all sorts of weird things on the road, you can't believe every rumor that comes your way." Alcyone continued walking, focusing for a moment on getting up the hill. Her travel pack was a heavy weight on her back and her legs were already starting to ache a little. Not that she would admit that to Shiana; she had her pride, after all. Judging from the way Shiana was moving, the Asari's foot must be bothering her more than she let on anyway. Alcyone didn't want to add to their troubles. "Hm?" She said in reply to Shiana's question. "A little less than a year? I've kind of been wandering around for a while now." She shrugged, moving out of the way of the caravan, idly noting how the vehicles were piled ramshackle with bits of furniture, camping supplies, and small children. Settlers probably. Moving east towards the Pantheon like most everyone else. She breathed a sigh of relief as they crested the hill and the town of Beyora spread out before them. Built in the ruins of a destroyed city, the town looked much like any other human settlement Alcyone had seen along the road. Perhaps a little larger actually? That made sense considering they were closer to the Pantheon; the center of everything it seemed. She eagerly looked around for an inn. There were usually one or two in a town like this, so close to the road. Alcyone was used to roughing it on the road but she certainly wasn't going to pass up the prospect of a warm meal. She turned eagerly to Shiana, though her smile faltered at the expression on the Asari's face. "Shiana? What's wrong?" Sosiqui Shiana shook her head and focused on the harpy. "Ah... nothing, really. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that whatever happened in Citadel space happened here, too... considering." Yet here she was, apparently out of range of every bit of equipment she had. She would have almost thought it to be another universe entirely had she not been thrown here by a mass relay, even if it had been an odd one. Nothing here is anything like home.It was a truth she'd been forced to acknowledge once the novelty of travel and Alcyone's companionship began to wore off, leaving space for fear and insecurity. Reflexively, she activated her omni-tool - still no open channels in range across any band. Absolutely nothing. "Just a little... homesickness, I guess," she said, quietly, following after the harpy. She was more than willing to let Alcyone lead the way for now. "Planning on staying long?" Frigoris Alcyone bit her lip but didn't comment on Shiana's pensive mood. Sometimes, she could sympathize with the Asari more than she cared to. Shiana made her recall all too vividly how she felt, the first couple of weeks after she awoke and found herself alone in a world dramatically changed from what she knew. Alcyone shivered and pushed back her own dark thoughts. I hated that! I hated that feeling! She discreetly looked at her friend. I wish I could help you, she thought plaintively. No one should feel that way. Alcyone jog-hopped a couple steps ahead and turned to Shiana, smiling and forcing her voice to stay bright. "It depends. We're not on a schedule, right?" She turned and spread a wing, gesturing towards Beyora. "Look! Civilization! Warm food -- and not travel bread either! A chance to take a bath in water that's not snow melt! Blankets!" She grinned at Shiana, her natural enthusiasm returning. "And then we can keep going to the Pantheon. Perhaps your hunch will be right and you'll be able to reach your people there." She jumped into the air and flapped her wings, flying to circle around Shiana. "Don't worry so much. It'll be okay. Now c'mon, let's go!" Sosiqui And no money for any of that, Shiana thought, a bit cynically, then promptly chided herself as Alcyone flew circles around her. Any lack of funds was hardly their fault, and perhaps Alcyone's knowledge would prove as valuable as any credits or coin. Stop being so gloomy all of a sudden..."You're right," she admitted, giving the harpy a sheepish smile. "I suppose I shouldn't worry so much - nobody we've seen has been anything but kind. You especially," she added. "I'll do my best to keep the two of us well-fed, at the very least!" She did want to get to the Pantheon fairly quickly; gods or no gods, that place was very clearly the nexus of civilization on this world. And if there were 'gods'... we'll, she'd deal with that then. And with the odd 'tug' in her heart... Shiana moved forward finally, allowing a smile to tug at her lips. .... Beyora was a hive of activity; an inn was indeed easy to find, run by a man as canny and suspicious as a volus. Shiana wondered again at the sheer variety of creatures everywhere, and moreso that they all seemed to be drawn from Earth's mythology - not a single being seemed to have spawned from the legends of any other Citadel race. Perhaps it was because this was a human world? Still, even after they'd secured a small room thanks to Alcyone's fast talking, Shiana didn't feel like settling down. She was still faintly on edge. "My foot feels a little better," she said, feeling a little silly after having worried about it all day. "Do you want to go downstairs, or something?" She doubted the harpy would mind going out, at any rate. Frigoris "Sure!" Alcyone said, carelessly tossing her travel pack to the floor near foot of the bed, grateful to be rid of its heavy weight. "I was planning on going out myself, anyway." "I heard from Bree, the barmaid downstairs, that the market is in the old city park near the southern edge of town. It goes on at all hours. We can find it by the obelisk monument near it." Alcyone went over to the inn's small and grimy window and with a couple grunts, managed to pull the sash up. "There. See it?" She pointed with her wing. She grinned at Shiana. "Ready to go investigate?" Sosiqui "Are you quite sure you've never been here before? We've only been here five minutes and you already know people's names, places, everything." Shiana shook her head and grinned at the harpy, bemused. "Is that magic, too?" The asari made sure her emergency kit was safely stowed under the bed - such as it was, it was more like an old army cot - and gave the door a skeptical look. It was thick, but the lock on it was a little rusty and the key an ancient and tarnished thing. That, combined with the roof being little more than tarp... ... well. Everything was ruined, and she already wasn't sure how they were going to pay for their stay here, let alone somewhere with four solid walls and a roof! Stop worrying... Alcyone certainly isn't, she chided herself. Frigoris "I talk to people, that's all. There's no magic to it." Alcyone shrugged, still looking out the window. Alcyone shrugged, still looking out the window. Night was beginning to fall, such as it was in the ever-present gloom. Like most towns, the inhabitants switched off their electrical lights and all but the most vital of power generators during the night in an effort to save fuel. Workers walked along the streets, lighting lanterns and candles; the switch from bright floodlights to the soft glow of numerous strung lanterns nowadays marked the passage of time in the absence of the sun and moon and stars. Alcyone gazed a moment longer before popping her head back inside. Turning back to Shiana, she continued, "I never understood you humans -- er, humanoids? But I mean, how you all can just go about your business so single-mindedly; without really talking to each other; without seeing what's going on around you. Don't you get curious?" "Look, I know it's been hard for you lately, believe me, I know, but..." Alcyone shrugged again, for once looking at a loss for words, "worrying about things, it just... well, you miss so much that way. Life's so much more interesting when you're willing to look around beyond your own troubles." She reached out to pat her friend's arm. "Things will be okay." Alcyone took a couple steps away and scratched the side of her cheek, looking a bit sheepish. "Lately, you've just been so broody that-- Uh! I mean." She winced. "Sorry," she sighed. "I just want to help you cheer up." "So!" She said brightly, changing the subject and heading out the door. "Shall we head out to the market and see what we can find?" Sosiqui Shiana gave Alcyone a wry smile. "It's all right, Alcyone - I'll be fine. It's just a bit of culture shock, I suppose. This world is very, very different from the ones I'm used to." It was true, too - the galactic community had no lack of strangeness, but it was a different kind of strange. It was still somehow familiar, or at least possessed some kind of logical progression. At least Alcyone didn't seem offended - just blunt, and she'd become accustomed to that particular facet of her companion's nature. She followed the harpy without saying much more. The inn's common area below had become much more boisterous as 'night' fell, inasmuch as it could with no visible sky, suns, or stars. Some things are the same no matter where you are, the asari reflected as they wound their way through the crowd. It was a comforting thought, somehow. ..... The park wasn't difficult to find; most of the traffic in Beyora was heading towards it, and the market area blazed with light against the empty sky. Even without that, the obelisk was a good landmark, standing tall when not much else did. It seemed almost untouched by the once-ruins around it, at least from a distance. The park was filled with tents, wagons, and stalls arranged in haphazard rows, creating snarls and tangled alleys that seemed to go on forever. Combined with the sounds of animals, conversations in languages Shiana's translator had no reference for, and all manner of clanging and banging, the whole thing seemed incredibly overwhelming. Shiana hung back for a moment at the last corner before the road vanished into the profusion of tents. "Are... are you sure this is a good idea?" she said, reluctantly. Frigoris Beyora's night market was in full swing by time Alcyone and Shiana reached the park. Alcyone paused for a moment on the outskirts and eagerly took it all in. The people, the animals, the loud merchant calls, the barely controlled chaos, confusion, and energy -- oh how she missed it! This is why she was traveling to the Pantheon! Forget rumors of gods and great deeds; the Pantheon was the center, where everyone headed and wanted to be, to regroup and rebuild. Civilization! If Beyora was like this, imagine what the markets at the Pantheon would be like! "Don't worry, we'll be fine!" Alcyone replied somewhat impatiently to Shiana's question. "Now come on, let's go!" She reached out her wing to steer Shiana towards the closest tent, where a cheesemonger was loudly proclaiming his wares to all passerby. "I haven't had cheese in ages! Let's see if we can talk him into giving us a taste..." ----- Alcyone perched on a crumbling stone step and watched the market crowd pass by as she nibbled at her remaining bit of cheese rind. The cheesemonger had been a friendly sort, willing enough to give her and Shiana a good sized hunk of more than slightly moldy cheese that he was unlikely to sell -- especially after she dramatically pleaded with an embellished tale of woe about how she and Shiana just got into town and were footsore and starving. Add the cheese to the bit of roasted pork Bree had given her; their remaining piece of travel bread; and the bottle of ale Alcyone managed to snitch from the tap room before heading out; and that was a comfortable meal. Alcyone offered the remaining bit of ale in the bottle to Shiana before comfortably preening her feathers clean. "Oof, I'm full." Alcyone patted her stomach, "I don't think I'll be able to fly for a while." she joked. "But see? Nothing to worry about." She grinned at Shiana. "People aren't bad. I mean, you can't be stupid but most folk know they need to help each other to survive." Alcyone sobered a little bit and looked up at the empty, starless sky. "Especially nowadays." "Anyway!" Alcyone hopped up from the step and turned to look at Shiana. "Mikael, that cheesemonger, mentioned something about a transport-delivery-wagon-car-thing-something-or-other, that runs between here and the Pantheon. Shall we go check it out? Maybe we can save your poor foot and hitch a ride?" Sosiqui Shiana nibbled tentatively at her cheese, picking around the bits of rind that were molded over and hoping it wasn't toxic to asari. No doubt she looked ridiculous to Alcyone, but she'd never been in a position to scrounge for scraps before. But at least the harpy was at ease here - otherwise, Shiana herself would have been completely lost. It was all so loud, so busy, so colorful- She shook her head when she realized Alcyone was talking to her. "Yes - yes, you're right. I'm glad you're here, though," she said, quietly. After all, it hadn't really been a lie. Shiana's foot was sore... and the extra walking hadn't helped. Which made the harpy's next suggestion a very good one. "That would be wonderful," Shiana said enthusiastically. Any mode of transport would be better than walking four more days! "The Pantheon must be an amazing place... how much do you know about it? What's it like?" She could imagine up temples, columns, places of worship... but such places hadn't been at the very core of a planet's civilization for many generations now. Important, yes, but not as important to most as other things. Frigoris "Oh you hear all sorts of stuff about the Pantheon." Alcyone replied distractedly as they browsed through the market. "Like how the temple and the city surrounding it were blessed by the gods and totally unscathed from all the disasters; that the city still has electricity and something called the internet -- whatever that is." Alcyone fluttered out of the way of a giggling toddler running down the street followed by its harried mother. Still chattering on, she continued, "I've heard the gods will heal the sick, raise the dead, find your cat; that the gods are flesh and blood and you can see them walking down the street just like any other person; that if you go there, you yourself could transform into a god and ascend to the Pantheon if you're chosen and lucky." "Uh, I don't know how much of all that I would believe, though; a lot of the stuff about the gods I heard from this batty old religious lady and her caravan that I met on the road. Said she was on a pilgrimage to 'spread the news of the gods and bring love and peace to the people' or some nonsense. She was a bit too well funded and organized to be a crazy though -- you see people like that sometimes, all broken on the inside from all the disasters and stuff -- but I don't think she was quite right in the head." "In any case, you don't see many people heading from the Pantheon; most everyone you see on the road wants to go there, not away from it. I don't get much first-hand news-- oh! But I did talk to this one minotaur, Frienza was her name, she was a blacksmith that lived near the Pantheon; she was heading back to get her husband and kids and..." Alcyone paused as they turned a corner. The booth-lined marketplace road they were following opened up into a small plaza and gathered near the lower end was a mismatched string of wagons and old converted trucks. Alcyone pointed with her wing, "That must be the delivery transport between Beyora and the Pantheon!" she said excitedly. "Let's go see if we can hitch a ride." --- Easier said than done. Alcyone huffed in frustration. The first couple of porters near the wagons were spectacularly unhelpful, shouting at the harpy to get out of their way or rudely shoving her aside. Finally, one of them impatiently jerked her head towards the front of the wagon line, curtly responding 'Go talk to the chief.' Alcyone stomped down to the front truck, calling out to the bulky man bent over the engine. "Excuse me! Are you the chief?" "I am." The man looked up from under the hood, revealing a raccoon's head, his yellow eyes narrowed in impatience at the harpy and Asari. "What the hell do you want?" Alcyone plowed on, "My friend and I would like to hitch a ride with your caravan." "You and everyone else." The chief twitched his whiskers in annoyance and bent to continue working on the engine. "The line leaves in exactly three hours." He called out from under the hood. "We don't wait and we're not a charity. Ten gold coins. Apiece. Or equivalent trade." Alcyone opened her mouth to protest, "T-ten?! Are you crazy?! But--" "Fifteen for you." The chief grimaced at Alcyone. "Your squawking is pissing me off." " WHAT?! WHY YOU!" Alcyone flapped her wings in outrage, her agitated movements actually causing her to unintentionally lift off from the ground. "Oh, and don't even think about trying to sneak on one of the wagons." The chief grinned unpleasantly, showing needle sharp teeth, more promise than warning. "We don't take kindly to stowaways." --- "So much for most folk helping each other out!" Alcyone spat and ruffled her feathers in indignation, shedding a couple in the process. "There must be some way we can con that a*****e into giving us a ride." Alcyone paced and chewed on her lip as she pondered. "I don't suppose you have any ideas?" Sosiqui Shiana could only watch as the odd humanoid thoroughly rejected Alcyone's overtures - despite herself, she had to bite her lip to keep from laughing at the harpy's outraged fluttering. But it wasn't funny, not really... "There has to be another way to get there?" she offered, trying to soothe Alcyone's quite literal ruffled feathers. "It's a free road, isn't it? We could hitch a ride with someone else... or we could keep walking..." She was fairly successful at hiding the involuntary wince, spawned by the very thought of walking yet another day. "I don't have anything... except the pod, and that's way back there. He seemed suspicious, so he probably won't trade for something sight unseen, right?" Still, as Shiana looked at the vehicles of the caravan, that tug in her gut increased. That strange compulsion to move forward that she'd first felt... In the Prothean ruins, last... last week. It feels like so much longer."However we get there, we need to get there," she said, with a vague sense of unease. If this odd feeling was in fact spawned by some force outside of herself, it had to be terrifically powerful to reach through barriers that their technology - the relay pod notwithstanding - was unable to penetrate. "Could we beg for the money...?" It was demeaning, but it might work. Frigoris Alcyone paced, grumbling to herself. "There's always people headed to the Pantheon but most aren't as well outfitted as this group. If we hitched a ride with someone else, more than likely we'd still be walking-- which defeats the whole point in the first place. Argh!" She fluttered up to perch at the top of a low wall and looked gloomily across the plaza. "That b*****d wouldn't accept our word about your pod. Don't trade it to him anyway; that pod's worth a whole lot more than ten gold coins apiece or equivalent trade." Alcyone made a face and then slumped. She took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. "Okay." She turned and looked over at her friend. Shiana had that distant look on her face again, as if she was listening to something no one else could hear. Alcyone sighed and hopped down from the wall. "We'll get to the Pantheon somehow, don't worry." she said, patting the Asari on the arm and giving her a wry smile. Alcyone hesitated, Oh, ******** it, the damn thing's been nothing but bad luck ever since I laid eyes on it anyway. She turned to Shiana, "I... uh, actually, I do have something we could trade --" she said reluctantly. "I'd really rather not pay that a*****e but... uh, if we can't think of anything else..." she trailed off. Maybe it'll curse the jerk too. Ha, I could only hope. Alcyone bit her lip and frowned. If we broke off one of the jewels, that should more than pay our fare. Meals too. Hm. Maybe even extra? I'd like a warmer tunic, She glanced over at her friend. and Shiana could use better shoes... "I still don't want to, but paying might be our only option." Alcyone said. "Unless we can con that p***k or one of his crew into helping us. Doubt it though." Alcyone sighed yet again, "I wonder why they're being such hard-asses anyway? Maybe they're transporting something dangerous? Or hm, valuable...?" She looked at the line of wagons thoughtfully. Sosiqui "Maybe they're just capitalizing on people's desperation." Shiana scowled in the convoy's direction. Making a living was all well and good, but... "If this place is so special, and religious... it seems wrong to profit off of that, don't you think?" Then again, what passed for volus religion was all about profit. Perhaps it just depended on the species. "What do you have?" she asked, quietly, though she stepped back a ways so as not to attract attention. Best not to draw eyes if there were other greedy folk about. Frigoris "People do what they have to do to get by." Alcyone said sourly. "I can understand that. What they're doing though -- they're just being a*****e jerks because they can." She turned to Shiana and gave her a humorless smile. "We're not that far from the Pantheon, after all. People can find other ways -- especially if they're desperate." Alcyone turned back to look at the wagon line. "No, that b*****d either gets off on having power over people or they're hiding something. Maybe both. Actually, that wouldn't surprise me." Alcyone followed Shiana off the road and dug through through her travel pack. Pulling up a small leather bag she glanced cautiously around before quickly handing it over to her friend. Sosiqui The bag was heavier than Shiana would have guessed given its size; the contents clinked quietly against each other as Shiana opened the drawstrings. When she tilted the bag to one side, a cascade of jewels tumbled out into her hands. At first, Shiana thought they were unconnected, but a delicate web of impossibly thin wire linked gem to gem. The jewels weren't flawless, but they were beautiful and very high quality indeed. Set in the center of the necklace was a metal medallion with an abstract eye etched into it. The swirl of metal at the center of the eye's pupil made Shiana feel oddly dizzy when she looked at it. "This... what is this?" A quick scan with her omni-tool confirmed her suspicions - while the jewels were normal, there was a strange energy reading in the medallion. "Does all jewelry here do that?" she murmured, staring at the odd spike in the readings. Sourceless power of an undetermined nature... Magic? Or close enough...Frigoris "I don't know." Alcyone said, quietly. She watched as her friend analyzed the jewelry with the orange scany thing that appeared on the Asari's arm. "No." Alcyone bit her lip, looking from Shiana's orange scanner tool and Shiana herself. "But I'm pretty sure those jewels are cursed though -- oh!" She quickly waved her wings to reassure the Asari, "I don't think it still is. I've had other people examine it before and nothing's happened to them. Most can't even sense anything wrong with it." She paused, tilting her head at Shiana's odd expression. "Did you find something?" She eagerly reached out to gasp Shiana's arm, to try and look at the scanner thing herself. Sosiqui "Cursed? Maybe you should give it to him, then." Shiana sighed and let her arm fall to her side, the omni-tool blinking out as she did so. "There's some odd energy readings that aren't something known to my... uh, world's science. Curses... magic..." It was all just science, wasn't it? And yet the things that had happened, the terrible weeks of destruction... those had been something beyond science. She abruptly bundled the necklace back into its bag and held it out to Alcyone, as if it was a creature that might bite her. "And the Pantheon is the center of all this?" Surely it couldn't be the center of everything, even if the odd 'pull' she felt had first manifested an untold distance away. Because that implied... ... No. Gods don't do... what Alcyone said. They don't. That's not how things work. They're myths, or else they're impersonal forces or things like turian spirits...Shiana blinked, realizing that she'd been quiet for a good minute. "Ah. I... sorry..." Frigoris "You think so, huh?" Alcyone asked, deflating a little. "It pisses me off to pay bullies like them but--" She accepted the leather pouch that Shiana hastily returned to her. She stared at the jewels before sighing deeply and pulling out a small knife to set to work sawing the thin wire holding one of the jewels in place. It was harder to sever the wire than Alcyone expected but eventually it snapped and she pulled a small sapphire free. Handing the jewel to Shiana to hold, Alcyone then returned the necklace to the pouch and knotted the drawstring cords securely closed. "I don't know if the Pantheon is the center of all this. I'm hoping though, yeah." Alcyone finally said. She knelt to place the pouch back in her travel pack, "Maybe then I can figure out what happened." she added quietly. "It's okay, don't worry about it." Alcyone forced herself to smile at the Asari. Sosiqui "Wait-" Shiana said, belatedly - the wires had already been snapped before she broke out of her reverie. Ah, well - that's that, then. In a way it was a relief, but Alcyone wasn't the only one vaguely annoyed by giving the crass caravan leader what he wanted. "Maybe we can tell some of the, ah, gods about what he's doing? They might not like it?" she offered, feeling bad. She hadn't meant to force Alcyone to give up some of her treasure. "Let's give it to him and get it over with, I guess," Shiana said, smiling back at her companion. "If he does get cursed, ah... what'll happen to him? We could watch and see...?" Frigoris "Tattle to the gods?" Alcyone asked, amused by the idea. "I doubt they'd care but oh, what I would give to watch that jerk get smited by one of them." She chuckled, and reached out to pat Shiana reassuringly on the arm. "Don't feel bad, okay? It's fine. I've been lugging around that necklace for ages; may as well use it." Alcyone laughed at her companion's question as she walked towards the wagon line. "Hm... a good cursing is just as good as a smiting. Maybe one of those horses will step on his foot and break it. Or ooh! Maybe all his fur will fall out?! Or maybe..." Sosiqui "Is that what it does? This... curse? That sounds like it could just be chance." Shiana frowned at Alcyone's bag. "Have you seen it in action? What did it do?" She paused. "How did you know?" Frigoris Alcyone's smile faltered, "How did...? I, uh, I mean," she drooped a little. "It cursed me." She said shrugging, her smile turning wry. "And no," she added, "the curse isn't chance bad luck. Unless you classify being turned to stone for thousands of years after touching that necklace as 'bad luck'." Alcyone's bitterness surprised even herself. She'd told her story countless times to countless people since she'd awoke but somehow, looking at Shiana's sympathetic face, it still managed to hurt. Perhaps because we're so much the same; strangers trying to get by in a strange land."I don't know why or how or if I can even return to my own time." She said. "The temple where I found that necklace was in ruins during my time, and when I awoke it was even less than that." "I used to ask people, when I woke up, what was that place, did they know what that necklace was. No one knew." Alcyone shifted her bag and continued. "After a while I realized flashing that necklace around wasn't accomplishing anything aside from making me a choice target for every thief in the area; so I stopped asking." "Maybe someone at the Pantheon will know, I don't know. Hell, maybe if the gods really do exist one of them will know. They're immortal, right?" Alcyone turned and continued walking. "But I'm not going to bet on it." "Life's too short to dwell on the things we can't change. Besides, this time isn't so bad, relatively speaking" She nodded her head towards the wagon line chief who was very loudly cussing out one of his porters, "Aside from that a*****e, anyway." Sosiqui "Oh..." Shiana stopped walking and stared at Alcyone's back for a long moment. Turned to stone? For millennia? That was impossible- Well, it could be stasis. A primitive people might easily think stasis was being turned to stone, and even I can induce a short-term stasis with my biotics... Surely it was something like that - but she wasn't going to interrogate the harpy further. Not when it was obvious that whatever had happened to her had hurt her. Seeing that flicker of vulnerability in her companion, though... Shiana hurried to catch up with Alcyone, and as she did she reached out and put one hand on the harpy's shoulder. "I'm sorry for making you remember unpleasant things," she said, quietly. "I hope we can both find what we're looking for." Frigoris Alcyone smiled slightly and briefly squeezed Shiana's hand before continuing on. "Its okay. I've mostly made peace with it. All I hope for is a nice place to roost, interesting people to talk to, and new places to see. The Pantheon should do fine for that." She paused, "I do really hope you find what you're looking for at the Pantheon though. I really do. I'll help however I can." Alcyone smiled, her cheerful demeanor returning. She looked over at the wagon line. "But for now we better get going before that jerkass decides to screw us over one last time and leave early. C'mon!"
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:48 pm
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Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 9:55 pm
Shiana, Alcyone, & Echo: Shifting Times
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Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 11:19 pm
Shiana & Akakios: The Lament of Stones
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