Player Plot: The Mysidian Tower!

[jadethenecromancer]

Who: Everyone who signed up for the plot!
What: Jade is taking a team to explore the Mysidian Tower before it'd swallowed by the Calamity.
When: February 8th-12th
Where: The Mysidian Tower on the Continent of Ruin.
Warning: Everything that can be expected of surprise monster encounters. Beyond that, whatever people bring with them.

The Enterprise brings everyone involved to the tower on the afternoon of February 8th. Thankfully the early floors have already been cleared by previous explorers, making the initial entry easy and relatively safe. Once the Heroes start reaching the upper floors, however... Who knows?

All threads will be linked here for easy access:
OOC info post
Ground Floor - Campsite
Friendly Monster
Floors 30-39
Floors 40-49
Floors 50-59
Floors 60-69
Floors 70-79
Floors 80-89
Floors 90-99
Floors 100-101 will be open at a later date.

Comments

[not_most_days]

[Kidd's eyebrow goes up at the crystal that Ramza has found. She missed it when he located it, or else she wasn't present, but the fact that such a thing was laying around reminds her somewhat of the artifacts they saw in the Heran Research Facility. She fingers her own crystal as she thinks about that artifact she handed over to Palitutu and at the same time eyes the error message that popped up for Sephiroth's crystal. If the one Ramza has found doesn't work then she'll try her own. Perhaps it would react differently to one that has been drained of the Calamity.]

If it's going to tell us anything more I expect Ramza is on the right track. We should try to find more of those crystals.

[She moves to go search the room for any that may have wound up hidden, fallen under or behind other things in the chamber. She never turns her back on the machine though, keeping an eye on it just in case things take a turn.]

[shinrasfinest]

Hm.

[He's thinking alongside Albel now, apparently.]

And every cycle previous, by extension. Why else would it still be here considering Crystallis has been reset each time? It lends itself more and more towards Ancient origins.

[Unless...whomever put this here, during whichever past cycle, figured out a way to root it's presence into the very fabric of Crystallis when it -and arguably the rest of the Tower- was built.

In the meantime, Sephiroth stays by the machine but watches as others go looking for similar crystals to what Ramza found. There were other slots, after all.]

[jadethenecromancer]

[Unfortunately, there are no other crystals to be found in the room. Looks like the Sapphire Crystal was the only one left. Moreover, the Sapphire Crystal doesn't seem to be doing anything yet.

Well, time to experiment a bit. Jade reaches out again and picks a location at random, touching the spot where Esdham should be. The map reacts to his touch and a blue circle appears over the location. Tapping it again turns the circle green, then red, then makes it vanish again. Should any of the other Heroes touch the map, they'll find it reacts the same way to them.

Curiously enough, while circling a location in green or red gives no other prompts besides the initial "Begin simulation", circling one in blue presents an additional one -- "Activate barrier?"]

Activate barrier? I wonder if... [Jade trails off, glancing down at the Sapphire Crystal in its slot.]

[they_call_me_sonic]

[Yeah, Sonic sees the connection, too. He's not smart, but he knows when he sees two and two together...!]

Woah... time out there! I know I was acting hasty earlier, but that's just bad news right there! If I didn't know better, I'd say that this place was a major failed experiment. Who wants to bet this entire place was one big barrier system?

[zodiac_brave]

[Ramza studied the machine, frowning.]

Should we try it? It seems safer to activate a barrier than deactivate one.

[Who knew what the old barrier was keeping out, after all?]

[ninjainviolet]

[ Sheena shook her head and looked at Ramza. ]

And what if we can't deactivate it? Just because it gave us the option to do so doesn't mean we can. Besides, those barriers may be meant to keep things in, not out.

[ Then she turned to Sonic. ]

A failed experiment by the Ancients? Or something that became one when other Heroes came by and tried to use the information they had discovered.

But maybe someone can answer this question for me: If blue is a barrier on this thing, why are there two different colors that say "begin simulation"? Is one a good simulation and the other bad? Or is one what will happen and the other what might happen?

[ You know, green versus red? ]

[fearlessherosheart]

Do the colors mean anything to you? Certainly our Crystals have some manner of different color.

[Tazendra had her own one out. As one of those awoken on Old Hera Island by Kalki, hers was transparent and almost clear instead of blue.]

I do not believe this world holds the same associations my own does, or the Black Crystals would behave rather differently.

[not_most_days]

[Mulling things over, it is Sheena and Tazendra asking about different colors that reminds the Assassin of a note that she found on a lower floor. She'd shared it with Sephiroth when she found it but only now remembered to bring it up to the others as it began to make sense.

Unfolding the paper she gives it another look over before holding it out to the group.]

I found this tucked away in one of the smaller rooms lower in the tower. I cannot say for certain but it seems that their blue and green crystals were intended for defense. T'would seem that the gold and diamond crystals would be of use to us all, if we can find any.

[shinrasfinest]

[Kidd isn't the only one that the mentions of crystals with different colors snap his recollection back to that note as well and almost as if he were expecting Kidd to have kept a hold of it, he's fishing immediately into his inside pocket to draw out his own hardback notebook.

Flicking through page after page he finally holds the book out alongside Kidd's note, so that those who can't read the Ancient writing can read his translation.]

Sapphire is for 'total defense'. [The quotation marks in his tone of voice were as obvious as if they might be written]

I might suggest that ruby crystals are for the red circle - to attract the Calamity towards a certain location.

[Sephiroth isn't letting go of his notebook but everyone is welcome to come and look.]

Perhaps this location really is already 'protected' from the Calamity, already.

[ninjainviolet]

[ Sheena listens to both Kidd and Sephiroth, coming over to peer at the man's notebook. She points to the map but doesn't touch. ]

If what you're saying is true, then a deactivated barrier is blue and an active one what we saw back there? But what are they in different rooms? One for the tower and one for the rest of the world?

[ A question that brings up images of isolation for those trapped in the tower and anywhere else a barrier is activated. Then she looks at the view. ]

Maybe we should run the simulations of the other colors. See if Red equals danger by luring the bull.

[wickedone]

[Albel pursed his lips, looking between the simulation projection and the crystal.]

Just as long as it's just another simulation. Don't accidentally send the Calamity somewhere.

[silencesfate]

... I think that type of oversight would be pretty hastily corrected.

Or well, we should hope so.

[ It was always long lost civilizations, wasn't it? No people you could direct your questions to face-to-face. Minato sighed, but that they got information was better than having gone up all this way to arrive at nothing at all. He was still mulling over Kidd's words. ]

Assuming that info's correct, it might be a good idea to try "make" some too, instead of just hoping we find them. [ Though it still sounds like a steep challenge, he'd rather not leave it to luck. ]

[jadethenecromancer]

Let's give it a try, then.

[Jade leaves the blue circle around Esdham and picks two other locations to test the simulation on -- a green circle around Trano Golsaucia, a red circle around Downapolis. Then he restarts the simulation.

The first thing they'll notice is the Calamity going much faster in the direction of Downapolis. Next, the crystallization starts to slow down when it reaches the green circle around Trano Golsaucia, leaving the town inside a safe zone that slowly shrinks as the Calamity goes around it. Once again, the blue circle around Esdham stops the Calamity completely until the last three days of the simulation, after which the entire map is finally covered.

And again, the simulation resets.]

Looks like the simulation can be run as many times as we like, but making the effects reality requires specific crystals.

[zodiac_brave]

[Ramza looks to Kidd and Sephiroth.]

Do the notes you have found mention the location of any of these Crystals? If there are more Sapphire Crystals we can find to protect our cities, recovering them should be our top priority.

[thegreatninja]

I guess it depends on how many we can find...

[She's trying to remember if she's seen crystals like that before.]

[shinrasfinest]

[He looks up and over in Ramza's direction, keeping only half an eye on who else is looking at the translation.]

It was written on a conspicuous slip of paper slipped onto the end a shelf. In a room behind a hidden door which required some fluency in Ancient and Hero crystal to open; it's clear --in my opinion at least-- it was put there for us to find.

[A glance in Kidds direction; he thinks nothing of the fact that it was hers that opened it. There are others present so Sephiroth dutifully continues with some more information; he's not had chance to share it with very many, after all, during the expedition itself.]

However, the ages haven't been kind to those other books. I'm hoping there might be yet some more answers in the journal I found but it will take time to translate all of it. They seem to be progress reports; these crystals were being tested at the time before that room was sealed off. Impossible to tell how long that might have been ago.

[not_most_days]

[Kidd glanced at Sephiroth, giving him a nod before looking at the others. She settled back on one heel and crossed her arms, looking at the tower itself with some apprehension.]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's been thinking this but I think it's clear by now that this tower has existed outside of the normal "cycles". This place has been lived in, but there's still the signs that someone has been here. There was food on one of the floors that, while beyond eating, was still fresh enough that it hasn't turned to dust entirely. In fact, if this whole world is set back to the beginning in each cycle then why would the food be there at all?

So the questions I have on my mind are how much time a cycle entails exactly, what precisely happens before the starting point, and how has this tower managed to be an exception to all else we've seen in this world.

[The crystals and their locations were indeed important, but there was something 'wrong' here and she isn't simply going to let that slide either.]

But perhaps this is better explored once we decide to do with everything else here. [Like the force field]

[ninjainviolet]

[ Sheena, still looking towards the simulation, has her head cocked to one side. ]

Why does it still complete the cycle during the last three days? And would using two different crystals in two places have an effect? [ Everyone had been talking about using just the sapphire ones. What if... ] What if we used two crystals that canceled each other out? You know like Fire and Ice are opposites?

[ Realizing she's speaking aloud, she clears her throat and looks away, hiding the blush on her cheeks.

At one point, she had thought her Time Mage skills wouldn't have been handy, but at Kidd's comment, she had an idea. ]

Look for a crystal that halts time? Or at least slows it? That would be my guess about this place. That it hasn't exactly been reset; it just hasn't moved through time like the rest of the planet.

[ Stupid idea, right? ]

[wickedone]

[Albel grit his teeth and shook his head. This was incredibly frustrating. No matter what, it seemed, the Calamity would still succeed -- just in varying speeds. Stopping it seemed impossible.]

How would stopping time help? It might stop the Calamity, but we would all be trapped in it as well! In the end, we would all still have the same problem.

[He wondered if those Time Loops had affected the Calamity at all.]

I wish we knew why the Calamity had stopped recently in the first place.

[ninjainviolet]

[ Sheena looked at Albel. She could understand his frustration. There had to be a way to stop the thing. Shaking her head, she pointed to the simulation. ]

We saw what happened to the Calamity when a different colored Crystal was used. Time either sped it up or slowed it down. And only the Calamity was affected. So, it isn't too farfetched to believe that there's one that will stop time for the Crystal itself.

[ Reverse it, then stop it, is what she's thinking. And obviously done from this tower. ]

Yeah. If we knew that, we'd have at least some idea what's going on. Does anyone know if there's anything special about where it stopped?

[shinrasfinest]

[For a long time again Sephiroth falls into silence, fixating his eyes downwards and canting his chin towards the translation he's been holding out for the others to see. As if it might have a hidden answer somewhere in the left-handed scrawl he's written already. About half way through the discussion between Sheena and Albel another thought strikes and he looks between them, patiently waiting for the right time that he could make another comment.]

I...get the feeling we're asking the wrong questions.

[It's followed by a frown, mostly at himself, given as he certainly doesn't know any better than they do. All he has in his favor is the extensive tenure he's spent on Crystallis so far in this cycle.]

What exactly does the reset of a cycle do, exactly? Does it affect physical locations, or only strip all life away from the world at once, and reset it? There are many locations, on Mysidia specifically which have to predate the last cycle.

[Blink. Slower blink. Sephiroth turns to Sheena directly; he's surprised she doesn't remember.]

Remember...the Calamity halted when we were thrown back in time. Given that we all contain a part of the Calamity itself, it doesn't take much to reason out why that might have been.

It had no reason to expand?

[Sephiroth folds his translation back up and then turns a little away from the group; he's clearly unconvinced of his own theories, as yet.]