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Post by Èdan on Apr 30, 2020 18:00:30 GMT -6
A sudden sound catches his ear, soft and distant, but distinctly something in motion. Something organic, which strictly speaking didn’t seem to be a prerequisite to living when it came to the manor’s inhabitants (As aptly evidenced by the bear made out of stars), though is a welcome reprieve from tar, stars and still metal sculptures. Sometimes the only thing worse than something is actually nothing.
He turns and follows the sound, winding his way through the different bigger and smaller alcoves of this strange garden. There’s a moment where he wonders if the noise is merely an echo, to be chased and never caught.. Just as he’s about to give up, a splash of colour catches his attention behind a twisted palm tree.
And when one says a ‘splash’ of colour, it is quite literal in this instance. He does not see the creature first, but rather the multi-coloured hues of swirls and twists it leaves in its wake.
. 51 .
April: 51 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 30, 2020 18:00:58 GMT -6
Now, colours of various kinds (and a few instances of completely lacking them, such as the king’s pawn board) seem to be a running theme at this time. In that sense, the sight of the creature could hardly be seen as a surprise. All the same, this is the first time he’s seen something living exhibiting those same qualities. The creature has the appearance of a dragonfly, though the size and colours make it an entire class of its own (Collectors of bug specimens would certainly be willing to pay a hefty price for this manner of specimen. Assuming it doesn’t simply disappear once crossing the threshold).
On his approach, the dragonfly flutters a few more circles, before diverting to hover in lazy loops around the man. He has become much too tired to try and defend himself from as small an insect as this, though much more tiredly comes the realization he has no accrued himself a third spectator and cohort.
. 52 .
April: 52 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 30, 2020 18:01:35 GMT -6
Would that these creatures have some use (or at the very least include some measure of protective natures towards his person), but no. They merely tag along, with the only endearing quality being that they at the very least don’t get in the way (Much).
The insect’s looping paths twist and turn around before it suddenly flutters to an entirely new direction. Some distance off, near a metallic bush shaped like spikes (some he suspects is intended to come off as ‘desert-like’) it remains hovering over some shapes, swirls of colours still spewing from thin air around it.
He decides to follow, mostly out of hope this creature has some solution towards finding an escape from the manor, but likewise drawn to the shapes on the stacked rock wall (Also made of carpet). There’s another one of those dream vials and what appears to be a.. hand mirror? He pockets the vial, much like the others, but regards the mirror with some scrutiny.
. 53 .
April: 53 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 30, 2020 18:02:03 GMT -6
And with good reason, in his mind. After all, the house has been seeking to poke and prod into his head for the better part of.. Well, he hasn’t exactly been able to tell the passage of time ever since running into the leopard, all in all it feels as though everything has been somewhat pushed together into a much shorter frame than it actually is. But for a better part of, let’s say, a day.
For better part of a day he has had to guard his thoughts, secure his mask and be mindful of it constantly seeking to find a way behind and within, whether directly or indirectly. What few kinds of mirrors he had seen in the library-then-not were rather twisted forms of visuals, intending to mess with one rather than truly reflect anything.
So a hand mirror could hardly be faulted for being much the same. And yet.. Here it is, presented to him, as if an offering (As if a trick).
. 54 .
April: 54 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Èdan on Apr 30, 2020 18:02:42 GMT -6
Easiest would be to leave it where it is. But that’s not how the rules work here. So, he picks it up and looks into the blank, polished surface of the mirror. For a time it seems nothing happens, before suddenly lines appear on the mirror’s surface, overlapping the reflected features and a rather crude face appears.
Around him a child’s laughter echoes and rings, source-less and yet rushing from one side of the room to the next. He gives a rueful smirk beneath the helmet, tucking the mirror in-between the belt, “Amusing, was it?” The question is addressed to the room, as more laughter sounds, this time from the opposite direction (And no direction at all). “Quite,” he grumbles, falling into the more morose and serious nature of the knight (Not that it makes much difference in this case).
Whatever puckish force holds sway over the house seems to delight in tricking and testing him. It seems almost unfair that he could not return the favour.
. 55 .
April: 55 Tiken Tekai
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Post by Renathan on Apr 30, 2020 22:55:39 GMT -6
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Post by Èdan on Jul 16, 2020 8:57:53 GMT -6
As the sounds disappear into the depths of the man-made garden, something 'thumps' into the grass nearby. The thump made all the more resonate due to the fact the object has some weight behind it and it happened to land among the metallic of the foliage. There it glints - a golden temptation - waiting to be plucked. Sane men would leave it where it is. He would have as well, but instead picks it up and inspects it (If he was to follow the wisdom of sane men in a place imagined by the insane, he wouldn't last very long). It's golden in hue, but not necessarily in material.. Curious, to be sure, and with a certain.. allure.
Time spent inspecting it could have eventually lead to a much more drastic outcome, but the scrutiny is interrupted by a different kind of sensation - that familiar slight turn of the gut as reality was about to shift. The first thing he senses is a scent of salt, then moisture as the garden around seems to turn into a water painting caught in a rain. The ground below changes from flagstones to something coarse and uneven, as the walls dissipate into muddy tones of pale blue and bone white.
Ah, another shift.
. 56 . July: 1 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 16, 2020 9:04:30 GMT -6
For a time the surroundings are too abstract to comprehend (or simply too arcane for him to understand), but then, as if the world had been taking an extended exhale, everything settles into place with a sudden and swift inhale. The sensation in the gut passes, he finds his balance (and sense of reality) as soft blue light filters into the new room from an unseen source - around him are walls of wood, not quite the typical material for housing for they are heavy timber with dark stains and strong weathering. It takes him a moment to recognize it, but once he does, there's another inward groan - ship's timber. He's inside a room made to look like a ship's hold.. Or near enough (The dimensions are all off, even if the structure is correct).
So.. No more glass roses, no more puckish laughter. Instead he's made to face the sea (or worse, the ocean) in some form or fashion now. He glances down, seeing the sand-filled floor from under which he can spot the dark ship's timber below. Sand in a ship.. Well, this goddess-forsaken place was nothing if not consistent in it's nonsense, at least.
. 57 . July: 2 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 16, 2020 9:12:58 GMT -6
The room isn't vast, but it is long, not unlike a corridor running through the middle of the ship (Though normally such corridors were quite short and only found at the end of the ship where the rare sight of a private cabin was). Much like those corridors there are likewise doors to either side - unmarked and plain, though a few seem to be made from a mix of driftwood and oak. The man stows the apple into a pouch, as there's much more pressing matters than a golden temptation at foot. Namely, where to proceed from here.
The light seems to filter in from a thin grate above, suggesting there's a deck to the ship (If it even is a ship), but much too small to climb through and most certainly far too stuck to push aside (Despite his attempts). So, that just leaves the doors. Without too much distinction between them, the man walks up to the closest once and tries the handle. It opens easily enough, swinging inward and he glances inside.
A lazily swimming fish meets his gaze from behind the glistening wall of water, suspended within the doorway. He stares at it for a moment. Then, slowly closes the door and steps back.
. 58 . July: 3 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 16, 2020 9:21:26 GMT -6
Right. The set of rules have been changed and new ones added. That is good to know.. Concerning, but good (Better to find out this way than with a door the water wouldn't remain suspended by some arcane ward). The prospect of making it out of the manor still dry seems to take a drastic nose-dive towards the 'Unlikely' spectrum. That was just one door, however, and five more remain in the room. He approaches the next one and reaches for the handle, pausing. A tension sits in the air as all manner of probabilities and possibilities jumble around the threads of fate, any one of them able to come true as soon as he presses the handle down (But nothing coming of it if he doesn't, including being able to leave). Brave fear not the dead.. or water, in this case.. He presses the handle.
The door creaks open and while humidity presses into the room, it fortunately doesn't come with a wall of water. Behind the door is a dim room with a stone floor, shallow pools scattered around the smooth flat stones that make up the ground. From each comes a faint glow, as if there's light shimmering upward from somewhere deeper below.
. 59 . July: 4 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 16, 2020 9:27:54 GMT -6
There doesn't seem to be any immediate exit from the room itself, but experience has shown that wasn't necessarily quite so self-evident. Besides, between this and the aquarium, he'll rather take his chances.
Walking into the room there doesn't appear to be anything here in terms of furniture. A few shelves line the dark timber walls to the sides, but aside some driftwood, broken netting and other nautical paraphernalia, there doesn't appear to be anything of immediate interest. The pools on the floor, however, are a different story - the glow from below comes much deeper than he can see the source of, at least clearly, and it shines off all manner of rock types. Or, well, what he thinks to know as rock types, in any case. The sailors had told him about things called 'corals', but in so far as he had held and inspected pieces of it, it just seemed to be a mineral that happened to grow into strange formations and colours. (That and to call it a 'rock plant' wouldn't have been very sophisticated).
In any case.. this room seems to be an 'underwater garden' of these 'rock plants'.
. 60 .
(added) July: 5 Maredian
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Post by Nadia on Jul 16, 2020 10:17:18 GMT -6
The water glistens and ripples with its internal glow. There is nothing obvious to be seen yet... perhaps after further investigation...?
[Nothing happens.]
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Post by Èdan on Jul 24, 2020 7:00:07 GMT -6
Peering into the pools, nothing seems to be particularly evident about them at the time. In a sense this is good (The less things trying to eat him, scare him or mess with his brain, the better), but likewise there isn't exactly much in terms of 'treasure' to be gained here. Certainly, the rock plants are colourful and curiosities in their own right, but even in this city of curiosities embodied, he suspects to have a hard time passing of mere stones as something worthy of purchase. The right kind of words and approach could get you just about anything, but even acting had limits.
He reaches into the pool, feeling the water to be strangely warm (seas and oceans had always felt cold to him, even those that had bordered the desert). Shallow pools could be like that, but the briny smell betrayed the fact it was connected to a much larger (and much deeper) body of water somewhere. Perhaps something closer to the water of the jungles, then..
. 61 . July: 6 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 24, 2020 7:05:53 GMT -6
Well, if needs be, the aquarium could be a potential source of exit, in such case. While swimming in armour and fully clothed isn't enticing either way one looked at it, at least he doesn't need to be concerned about the cold as much. The hand searches the pool's walls, feeling around for anything around in nooks or corners, but finding nothing. Even as he plucks one of the rock plants from the bottom and brings it up out of the water, it cracks and crumbles as soon as it reaches air. "Hmm," he rumbles, not even bothering to hide the sense of disappointment as he dusts the rock pieces off the hand and pulls the glove back on.
Standing, he surveyes the room further, trying to see if something else has escaped his sight, but finding little else. The paraphernalia might entice some people, but for the most part it's closer to trash than anything of value. A suspicion forms that even if he were to find whatever casts the light in the pools (some form of contraption, plant or crystal) it's not likely to be easily removed from the water.
. 62 . July: 7 Maredian
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Post by Èdan on Jul 24, 2020 7:12:23 GMT -6
So this room is largely a dud. Aesthetically enticing dud, but a dud all the same. He exits back out into the hallway, searching up and down just in case the manor has decided to switch things up and give him an entryway that wasn't a door (Stranger things could occur), but finding no such luck. There's an extended sigh and the lowering of the head, before he composes himself. Two down, some to go (And each one could hold a similar wall of water as the first. Except for the 'hold' part).
With no particular option seeming better or worse than the other, he reaches for the third door along the corridor. A moment of hesitation lasts (and mental preparation), before he pushes the handle and swings it open. The door swings inward, unlike the others, and he's immediately met by a sudden blast of spray. Fortunately, not quite a wall of it, but the same spray of a windy seaside as the waves crash into rocks. Which.. is pretty much what the room is - the walls and ceiling is still a hold of the ship, but the back part and half of the floor has fallen away into darkness and storm.
. 63 . July: 8 Maredian
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