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Inertia
Jul 31, 2023 0:34:11 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Jul 31, 2023 0:34:11 GMT -6
Sine had no such trouble navigating sand. Her species was originally designed for desert habitats, after all. Though she was personally better suited to dark hidden corners or deep water, her scales glided across the sand easily. Now if only she could get out of the hot, dry sun. She hated everything about it from how bright it was to how dry everything felt. Ironically, as a cold blooded creature, she also desperately needed the sun’s warmth to survive.
“There, that’s better isn’t it?” Silver said as they stepped into a shadow cast by the driftwood structure. It was incredible how the sand was so much cooler in the shade than it was in the light of the sun. Sine quickly curled against their side, pulling herself fully into the relative darkness.
“Are you feeling alright?” Silver asked, resting their hand on Sine’s head just above her first spike. She looked up at them, her bright blue eyes almost glowing against her black scales.
5 [149.65 1]
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Inertia
Jul 31, 2023 0:34:45 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Jul 31, 2023 0:34:45 GMT -6
She flicked her tongue and continued to slowly observe their surroundings. Silver considered this to be a good sign and smiled softly at her.
“Let’s find our way inside, shall we?” they said. They decided to talk to her a bit as they knew she had the capability to learn their language. She was a bit shy and hadn’t started talking yet, but they had faith that she would figure it out in due time.
Unlike the usual mansion with its huge double doors, this version of it was difficult to parse. The chunky spikes of driftwood seemed to blend together into one amorphous mass. Silver found it difficult to identify which crack between bits of wood were a window or a door and what were simply odd construction choices.
They always wondered if someone designed this place or if it had merely sprung up on its own. Clearly there was a massive amount of magic at play, but there was so little to know about the mysteries of the mansion.
6 [149.7 1.2]
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Inertia
Jul 31, 2023 0:35:14 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Jul 31, 2023 0:35:14 GMT -6
Was it once a regular building, built over a wealth of magic? Was the owner still around somewhere? Were they watching all the hapless adventurers as they wandered around? If not, where had they gone? For that matter, it wasn’t even clear that someone owned it at all.
Some people suggested that the Gods themselves built the mansion as an expression of their power. Somewhere for their worshipers to gather and consider the nature of the divine. Silver didn’t really believe that, though. They thought there must be a more earthly explanation for the phenomenon. Even if the gods had long ago seeded the earth with magic, they were long gone now. At least that’s what they believed.
Sine had wandered away from them a bit and had started to explore for herself. Silver kept an eye on her while still letting her do what she wanted. It was better for her to explore on her own terms than to feel like they were constantly hovering over her, but they also couldn’t let her go off on her own entirely. That would just be irresponsible.
7 [149.75 1.4]
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Inertia
Jul 31, 2023 0:35:38 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Jul 31, 2023 0:35:38 GMT -6
To their surprise, Sine squeezed her head into one of the cracks between panels. Just as Silver was about to go rescue her, she wiggled her body a bit and the front door slowly creaked open. She found the entrance and opened the door with her nose! Incredible.
“Wow good job,” Silver said with a grin.
They stepped inside after her, careful not to catch her tail in the door. Just as they had expected, the inside of the building was not well indicated by its outside. The foyer area was decorated up like a fishing lodge with many bits and bobs hanging from every spare section of wall. There were elaborate fishing lures, intricate nets, fish and other sea creatures hung on plaques, the works.
It made Silver a little uneasy to look at all of these tools meant for killing. They knew that people had to eat and all, but they rarely found it so confronting as staring at the replica of a dead sea creature.
8 [149.8 1.6]
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Inertia
Jul 31, 2023 0:49:37 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Jul 31, 2023 0:49:37 GMT -6
Did people really enjoy this stuff? Was it all for bragging rights? Some kind of strange art project? They couldn’t really tell. All they knew was that they wanted to leave.
Sine didn’t look very happy, either. She stayed low to the floor with her fins spiked up defensively. Silver quickly noted that she might as well be a sea serpent like one of the ones tacked to the wall. No wonder she didn’t fancy the decor. They decided that they were going to get out of that room as soon as possible.
“This way,” they said, waving Sine over.
They pushed against a door that was practically hidden amongst the objects hanging on the walls. It quickly fell open to their efforts and they tumbled into a new room surprised. Sine was quick to follow them though she spent no time inspecting what was happening before doing so.
9 [149.85 1.8]
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Inertia
Jul 31, 2023 1:08:44 GMT -6
Post by Silver on Jul 31, 2023 1:08:44 GMT -6
Silver quickly found their footing and tried to look around. A cold wind whipped against their face, causing them to squint and cover themselves with their paws. The room was full of endless hills made of sand, each one sprinkled with huge chunks of ice. The wind carried with it a bitter chill, causing them to start shivering right away. They certainly hadn’t brought warm clothing with them for a season usually known for being uncomfortably hot.
Sine looked up at Silver as if to ask ‘what now?’ It was very strange to her that they walked out of a warm room and into a sea of cold, icy sand. This place was very strange, and it was making her feel uncertain about what to do next. She watched silver carefully, as she trusted them to make a good choice.
Silver looked over their shoulder for a door, only to find another pile of sand with a spike of ice jutting out the side. Of course. They would have to go forward. The way back wasn’t going to be an option.
10 [149.9 2]
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Post by Nadia on Aug 2, 2023 1:53:49 GMT -6
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Post by Silver on Aug 6, 2023 4:34:39 GMT -6
“Looks like we’re stuck here until we find a way out…” Silver mused aloud. They tried to remember to speak aloud as often as possible around Sine. She would eventually be able to learn to speak common, so they wanted to give her a chance to hear a lot of different words. Not that that was difficult for them; they often spoke to themselves when nobody was around to hear regardless.
Sine was listening, but she was also distracted by something nearby. Silver stepped carefully through the fine sand to see what she was looking at. They moved deliberately, since they didn’t want to slip or make too much of a fuss and startle her or whatever she was observing. Once they could see over her shoulder, they noticed a small pool full of tiny fish creatures.
“Ah, fish,” they said. Well, one of them was a squid or something. What did one call those tiny squids, again? They couldn’t remember, but they didn’t think it was important. Sine could always ask later if she wanted to know the word for it.
1 [150.1 2.2]
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Post by Silver on Aug 6, 2023 4:34:58 GMT -6
“Hffffff,” Sine made a noise with her mouth that almost sounded like humming.
“Oh?” Silver asked. They waited for her to finish whatever it was she wanted to communicate patiently. She looked frustrated, as if she couldn’t find the sound to express whatever she was feeling. Silver had a lot of sympathy for that feeling, as it was one they often felt themselves.
“Sss… seeeee,” Sine said, clearly constructing the syllables as they came to her.
“Do you want to … see the fish?” Silver asked. They squatted down next to the pool and reached in with their gloved hands. Thankfully they couldn’t feel the cold through the gloves. It was certainly freezing in there based on how cold it made the air around it.
They scooped up one of the little fish and held it closer to the surface for her to see. “We can collect them, I brought some containers…”
2 [150.15 2.4]
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Post by Silver on Aug 6, 2023 4:35:58 GMT -6
Sine looked frustrated again and let out a disgruntled hiss. No, she didn’t want the fish. How could she explain what she was looking at without knowing the words for it? She was clearly a bit frustrated by the task. Silver watched her carefully to see if there was any indication based on her body language as to what she wanted. Unfortunately, Salaves body language was not as natural to them as something like a Vulticus was.
Her neon blue eyes were fixated on the pool, but not moving around to track the wildlife within it. Was there something more to the pool? Did she want to see something inside? Her reflection? A secret?
Silver took the hint and reached into the pool stirring the water around again. Then it hit them. A pulse of magic. It was as if they had been punched in the chest by the suddenness of the feeling. They gasped aloud and instinctively clutched their hand around … something.
3 [150.2 2.6]
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Post by Silver on Aug 6, 2023 4:36:18 GMT -6
They yanked their hand out of the water, revealing that there had been a transparent crystal in the water this whole time. It disappeared into the cool clear water completely, but now that it was out they could see the way it glinted with a hint of non-elemental magic. That was right, they remembered now. The mansion was full of these odd crystals.
The crystals were like tiny shards of magic. It was as if the magic thick in the air of the mansion occasionally coalesced into a solid form that they could pick up and hold. Unlike many things in the mansion’s ethereal world, they retained their magic even if removed from the premises. It seemed like it was a gift, a reward for exploring some of the more dangerous areas, though Silver was always uncertain. Everything about this place was a mystery, and this was just another one of those things they would never know the answer about.
4 [150.25 2.8]
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Post by Silver on Aug 6, 2023 4:36:49 GMT -6
“You were right,” Silver said, holding out the crystal for Sine to inspect if she wished. “There was something else there. Thank you for showing me.”
Sine seemed pleased that they finally listened to her. It made her feel a little bit more confident about speaking up when she had something to say. She would have to consider doing it more often. Perhaps just a little bit. She was still quite nervous and had a very limited vocabulary, after all.
“This is a magic crystal,” Silver explained. Until now they had simply forgotten that she might know now what the strange object was, even if she felt drawn to it. “Do you know what magic is, Sine?”
What a strange question. Especially considering magic didn’t have a single, clear definition. Magic, by its nature, defied reality, and description. Somehow magic was both so rare that it was almost unheard of for people like them to wield large amounts of it, yet so common that it was instrumental in the very creation of creatures like Sine. It was an invisible thread that held the world they lived in together, weaving through all living things in an intricate web.
5 [150.3 3]
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Post by Silver on Aug 6, 2023 4:37:10 GMT -6
Would a creature like a Salaves really understand something so ethereal as magic? The same way a fish may never perceive the water in which it lived its entire life, creatures of the labs may understand their magical abilities as no different from breathing or seeing. Silver often wondered about such things, but rarely did they ask. For some reason, the time just felt right to do so in this circumstance.
“Hh…hmmm” Sine said, trying to make sense of the word Silver said to them. It wasn’t one she had ever heard, at least not one she had ever paid attention to.
“Magic,” Silver said, holding up the crystal. Then they remembered that they could wield magic themselves, so they used it to cause the crystal to hover into the air. “Magic,” they explained again.
“Maam… magic,” the Salaves tried for a bit making different sounds until she finally settled on the one she wanted. Magic. “No… no magic,” she explained to the best of her ability.
6 [150.35 3.2]
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Post by Silver on Aug 6, 2023 4:37:32 GMT -6
“That’s okay, good job,” Silver said. Even her admission that she didn’t understand was showing a great amount of progress in her learning to speak. They looked like they were about to say something else for a moment, but they were interrupted by a shudder.
“Ah, it’s pretty cold,” they said. They had nearly forgotten about the room full of dunes and ice. Speaking of magic…
“Are you cold, Sine?” they asked. She actually looked pretty comfortable. Unlike most Salaves, who would be freezing and sluggish under such conditions.
“Sss-old” Sine mimicked. This was yet another word she wasn’t too familiar with.
“Yea, how do I… oh!” Silver thought about how to describe the feeling of cold to her, then realized they could just show her. They climbed partway up one of the nearby dunes and knocked a chunk of ice loose. “Cold,” they said, holding out the chunk of ice.
7 [150.4 3.4]
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Post by Silver on Aug 6, 2023 4:37:55 GMT -6
“Cold,” Sine repeated, this time more closely to the way they had pronounced it.
“Yes, this ice is cold. The water, too, is cold,” they dropped a little piece of ice into the small pool, showing that the ice didn’t melt once it touched the water.
“Coooold,” Sine repeated, tilting her head and thinking on the concept for a moment.
This gave her an idea, and she flicked her fluked tail. She rattled her scale covers a bit. This was usually a sign of warning in a Salaves, but she didn’t appear threatened. Then, she grabbed Silver’s arm with her spindly legs and they could instantly feel that the air around her hood was intensely cold.
“Oh!” they squeaked in surprise. The sound they made was certainly undignified, but they didn’t think she would mind. “Yes, yes cold! No wonder it isn’t bothering you.”
Silver knew enough about Salaves to know that some actually preferred cold environments.
8 [150.45 3.6]
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