Moon Palace Visit: 31st October 2020 (Backdate)
He landed with a 'bang' while his cohort happened to land much more delicately beside him. She hadn't warned him that it would be a bumpy ride and to be entirely honest, it probably should have been. He put it down to the fact that this was their first attempt to access the area, and it was also something they had tried to do mere moments after Namielle had upgraded his phone to a less 'brick-like' appearance. Now, they both found themselves in the depths of what he could only describe as another monolithic and very white building.
Largely devoid of life it seemed to offer up much the same environment as his and other homeworlds did, though it seemed to have been sufficiently preserved by something. Was this really the moon though? He began to walk towards the window to survey the ruins that lay beyond and sure enough, far beyond the realms of this monolithic building there did appear to be other regions. For want of a better word he was gazing out across a city of some description, though for the most part it didn't look like much of it was accessible.
Quite frankly, he doubted there would even be an atmosphere out there. Sure, nothing was floating, but given they had been deposited into this specific building and Namielle had essentially said they would be, it was clear to him that on this occasion his options might have been limited for a reason.
"I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that the reason NASA can't see this beast of a city is because of all the wonderful magic we tend to play with," he hazarded as he stepped away from the window and turned round to peer at the feline.
"Well yes, that's generally how these things work," Namielle replied. In a flourish of otherworldly magic and gadgetry the feline had soon vanished to be replaced by a human. Devoid of ears and a tail, it seemed she had taken the decision to explore in a bipedal form for the time being as opposed to her usual self. She had her reasons for it of course, after all, without apposable thumbs it would be difficult to assess anything they might find and if she wanted to tinker or toy with something she was generally more in favour of fingers until she was more accustomed to the nuances of the device.
"But this is the moon," she held out her arms, spreading them wide in greeting before she strode passed him and peered out the window herself towards the delapidated city. Her memory remained a blur and she remained doubtful that she would ever get it back, but her gut told her that at some stage she had been much more impressed and in awe of it. Her imagination could work wonders here though and she could picture how it should have looked even if it was far from its glorious self nowadays.
"It used to be so full of life and now we're uh... stuck here," she gave a wave of her hand and beckoned for him to follow. She didn't know the ins and outs of the Palace, she hadn't explored it nearly enough and with her memory as unreliable as it always was for this period in history, she only had vague instinct to go on.
"What are we looking for anyway?" she asked as she walked out of the first room they had been summoned in to and began to walk down the corridor, one lined with countless doors, none of which seemed inclined to open at her behest.
"Something that might help me fix something," he replied, ducking around the door frame to follow the Mauvian as she strode with purpose towards another corridor. Yet more doors were passed and on occasions he paused briefly to push at them. None gave way and he could do nothing more than shake his head. If there only options were to wander corridors aimlessly then he was doubtful he would find something here and the entire trip would be a dud.
"Specifics might be more helpful for that you know," she glanced over her shoulder towards him and raised an eyebrow in silent challenge.
"You've seen them before, one of the monoliths on Athalia. The runes are cracked, I thought that if there were ever going to be answers they might be here," he pointed out.
"In some sort of magical library?" She hadn't meant to drawl, but it came out this way and she immediately looked apologetic. "It might be possible to find something but I don't know many folks who've had much success out here for that sort of things. The Moon seems to keep a lot of its secrets well hidden and even if it did have something, it might have it locked away for safety," she placed her hands on her hips as she came to a halt at a door, one that didn't seem to appear locked.
"It's worth a try," he replied gently and observed the door for a moment. "Something useful?"
"Not sure," Namielle replied honestly as she pressed her palm against it, an action that caused it to slide open and bring them into a very, very small room with a single console on it. Entirely inactive, Namielle could tell from here that it was currently beyond repair. She'd have to take note of that and return later after she had browsed the Mauvian archives for details. "Inactive for now though and a little small for any sort of library, even a digital one," she left again and continued to wander down the corridor.
"Outside of guessing games my options are limited," He continued, closing the door quietly behind him as he followed after the Mauvian towards yet another window. There was something rather haunting, but peaceful, about this place. He had to wonder what it might have been like at the height of its power, or more importantly, what it might be like if they could find some means of reactivating some of the things that might be in here.
...A giant digital library could be a fascinating and very useful thing to have.
Yes, they had the one on their phone, but there were some things that had been lost to the ages and it might very well contain those secrets that some needed to go that extra mile towards restoring something they had lost.
"I can check the Mauvian archives for you, it's a little out of date nowadays and we may not have documented the artifacts on your planet but it's worth a look." She smiled warmly and kept her eyes fixed on the city outskirts. "Failing that I can just come and look at them again, bring some of my things with me and see if we can't just create a new fix."
He nodded.
"So was this place just another political stronghold or did they do anything else here?" he asked at last. She might not have known the answer but given what he had read of the available intel, it seemed like something a bit more significant had taken place here. Political strongholds always looked pretty, but an entire city indicated that it had to have included more than just that.
"Centre of the known solar system," she shrugged. "Sort of, in terms of the inner rim this was their hub," she cleared her throat. "I'm pretty sure they used to just have normal things here, it wasn't all official things like politics and tedium," she chuckled. "Just another 'planet', just...special," she finished and released a sigh.
"Then something happened and...gone."
"And no one has ever found out what happened?" It seemed odd that something so powerful could exist one moment, and then it was gone.
"Nope - same way everything else seemed to fall at the same time," Namielle murmured. "But to work out any of those answers we'd need to find a way to turn some of this stuff on," she clucked her tongue and sighed. "And that is a little more complicated than wangle jangling some keys about to get the lights to turn on."
In short, Namielle wasn't yet confident that she could even manage it.
"So for now we're out of luck." He'd say it.
"For now, but maybe not forever... If we can find more of doors that will open then maybe we can take stock of what's 'in' here and we can review our options later," she replied.
"How long do we get out here?"
"We can probably wander around for a few more hours before I need to get back for my raid."
Yep, she may have taken him to the Moon but she still had her own appointments to attend and given they weren't entirely sure of what they were looking for it seemed appropriate to proceed with caution. When they had a more concrete idea of what they could use then they could spend a little more time here.
"Then I guess I'll go and wiggle some doorknobs," he didn't seem particularly enthused, but he could appreciate that it was better to walk before they could run. She didn't have the time to turn around and reply as he had already disappeared down another corridor to explore, leaving her to wander down the other on her own.
On the plus side there were no deadly creatures on the Moon (that she knew of) and they would remain reasonably safe. Whether either of them found anything useful though still remained to be seen...
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