melodiesoflife | Player Plot: The Crystal Caves

Cue Jack's confusion. "I thought Heroes were supposed to get summoned to all the Crystals. Thus why some appeared at the Crystal of Earth, which I thought was where Kalki was getting her test subjects. And then after we disabled the Crystal of Earth," that's one way of putting it, Jack, "we had a group appear at the Crystal of Wind?"

"Not saying that Kalki didn't know where this was. Because clearly she did. But there's more going on here."

Jack eyes Sparks for his decision, he'll stick close to the Marshal. His current Job combo works better with something that Jack has equipped right now.

[Dylas nonchalantly lifts a hand, looking in Levy's direction before speaking up from, again, the back of the group. He doesn't have a lot to add, he's just here because he didn't have anything better to do. At least no one's complaining about his presence yet.]

If we're talking about our own world experiences, I'm from somewhere that drew people from other worlds and...found a powerful way to use them. It's pretty different, though.

[Sounds like most worlds are a pain in the ass.

But that's it. He's not going to compare the monsters from his world to heroes. It just seems a little relevant, if they're going to talk about how common these kinds of situations are. So he pipes back down after sharing his peace. He doesn't know which way he'll go.]

What if this were where we are brought into this world, via the soul divider? The cardinal crystals draw us from the planet core, where we then awaken from crystal stasis--

[His eyes widen at his next thought.]

That time two years ago. We had a large number of crystallized Heroes show up around the Crystal of Fire, and as suddenly as they showed up, they disappeared. Could they be in here?

It might be too late to search now, but Ales walks up to the nearest occupied hole to inspect the resident. It's no Betilla. Not the friend with whom he toyed her trust he shouldn't be surprised. The cavern is gigantic with hundreds, no, thousands of holes, and he can't possibly find one person.

That doesn't mean he won't try. Progress is on the path that veers right, while the left might hold more holes. Maybe he can recognize someone there. They won't acknowledge him nor be friendly, but curiously gets the better of him.]

[Rukia's PKE meter shows nothing unusual about the crystallized Heroes. They seem to be just like the ones in Aqures Ixen hospital.

The cavern to the left is a dead-end, but not quite an empty one. More than that, it'll be a familiar sight to certain Heroes in the party.

Upon entering the chamber, the first person in is at a risk of tripping over the handle of a knife, dropped there by Vlad two millennia ago. The weapon is so old, it easily breaks from impact. Croach's broken bow, or what's left of it, is lying a little further in. The parts of the wood that haven't crystallized have long since rotten away. Misshapen metal bits, coated in crystal, have melded in with the floor. On a closer look, they may have once been gauntlets. Ishtar's sword is almost completely buried in the crystal floor as well.

Near the middle of the chamber, the severed blade of the Buster Sword is sticking out of the ground, rusted and coated in crystalline matter. The blades of the First Tsurugi lie scattered further ahead. And at the very end, likewise rusted and crystallized, the Masamune protrudes from the wall.

The small dagger lying next to the sword is easy to miss.]

What in the...? WHULF!

[And everyone gets to watch as Twilight trips over the knife, faceplanting onto the ground.

This is where you laugh, Ales.]

Jack blanches at Ales' suggestion, and he looks at the Teensie seriously. "I can hope that they ended up here. The other option, the one that Kalki wanted us to believe, is that they were drawn to her. That those were the ones she was experimenting on."

His thoughts on the Researcher, the Avatar, the threat that they (he?) created are still so complicated. Guilt tinges his words.

Jack hesitates at the threshold of the room. While it isn't a grisly sight, there is a sanctity to the room, something left behind. Whatever happened here was bad, hints of a fight? It's the Buster Sword that catches Jack's eye, and he cannot stop himself from cautiously looking at Cloud.

Are you alright?

[ Mikleo speaks up from behind Rukia and Selphie when he saw the poor talking creature trip over a knife. In short, it reminded him of someone but he dismissed that thought for collecting the information that has been stated.

He offers to help the fallen creature up as he notices the dagger at the corner of his eyes. ]

That's...strange.

[ Mikleo's not much of a talker right now but he's been intently jotting down notes and looking at his surroundings as everyone talks about the incidents and other things that had happened in Crystallis before he came here. The mention of Kalki always made him tense.

He still had to find her. ]

[Ales holds back at the sight of what seems to have been a battle from long ago. His doppelganger dream took him to a crystallized cave containing a Black Crystal, so he doesn't immediately link the remains to the events of the previous cycle. Someone was here earlier. Heroes, judging from the crystals, but who? No one here had a bow like that. Cloud's sword exists in two places at once: one for the real Cloud and that doppelganger sword in the ground--

Doppelganger. His hands tense into balled fists.

His eyes drift to the sword lodged into the farthest wall. How could that have gotten there? It's too far to tell what it looks like. He takes a stiff step into the cave when the sound of a pony dropping onto the floor grabs his attention back to Earth. He shoots a surprised look at Twilight, then at where her hoof is, and grins to hold back a snorting laugh. It ends up as a loud breath from his snout.

Well, that made him feel a bit better.

There's no need to be concerned with her. Ales relaxes and lets the others worry about such matters. There's investigative work to be done. He steps into the room, all apprehension and thoughts about finding Betilla's statue gone. Though he does take care to avoid tripping over knives.

As he approaches the sword, its shape becomes more distinct, but the rust and crystals make it difficult to identify. Yet the length of that thing...it's reminiscent of something...]

[The gravity of the scene is well not lost on Cloud. He stops in his tracks, looking around. His eyes flit around as his memory replays the fight. He wasn't actually here but he saw it through his counterpart's eyes. He felt everything both inside and out. This was a dark scene indeed.]

This...this is what happened at the end of that other Cycle. The one we saw last year...

[After a second longer he shakes his head and looks over his shoulder to see if Sephiroth is following. He'd like the other Hero to avoid seeing this if at all possible.]

We should probably go the other way.

[This doesn't mean the room is devoid of interest for the others, but his priorities in this moment have shifted..]

Edited 2016-10-14 22:13 (UTC)

[Maybe it's a tiny mercy that Twilight's stacking it into the ground ahead of him provides enough of a distraction that keeps Sephiroth's attention from the rest of this chamber as he follows the others into it. His hand forever only inches away from the handle of his sword where it protrudes down and sideways on his left, latched safely in the reverse/slanted harness he's always had since coming to Crystallis; but can be drawn at less than a seconds notice.

He takes a wider berth around the pony and Mikleo before finally turning his attention to-

The rusted and crystallized Buster Sword in the near-enough middle of the room meets him like a wall to the face. Like Cloud, Sephiroth near enough jump-stops in his tracks; only managing to catch the startle just on the cusp of when it might have become obvious even to a casual onlooker. It's been over a year but, perhaps testament to the monument it is, all too quickly he recalls that moment he'd been nothing but a piggy-back to...along with that uncomfortable twist to his nerves. For an instant there, he forgets how to breathe and sought out Cloud's eye contact immediately afterwards-

Silently trying to communicate, but exactly for what escapes him. Cloud knew. Others have seen the stained glass window representing this scene as well. Sephiroth doesn't recall ever clearing it with anyone, the fact he'd been nothing but a ride-along-pest of a voice in the back of his doppelgangers mind.]

...

[Just as suddenly as he looks for Cloud, Sephiroth finally takes a breath and pulls on a more casual-seeming facade but inside priorities are quickly changing-]

Cloud is right. This is nothing but a dying memory.

[Ales seems to have found another weapon protruding out of the wall though; it couldn't be, right? It seems the silver haired warrior is rooted to the spot, torn between a growing knot of dread and that all too curious need-to-know. He's trying not to stare at that weapon though...]

[Levy's never heard the story of what happened here, but she did see that stained glass depiction of the fight, and she's more than familiar with what Cloud's sword looks like by now. She's also capable of reading the atmosphere. Her head is full of questions, but she resolves to leave them unvoiced for the moment. Some things are better left buried.]

Y-yeah. There's clearly nothing to see here. Let's check out the other passage.

Ow... yeah, I'm fine. One time I decide not to fly...

[Twilight takes Mikleo's offer of help to get back on her hooves, only to notice the growing uncomfortableness within the gathered group. Whatever this place is, it's not settling right with everyone.]

...I can teleport everyone back to the fork.

[Like Levy, Selphie wasn't familiar with the events that had transpired in this room in the past. There's something about the place though that has Selphie feeling more than a touch uncomfortable. She swallows the lump in her throat but she ultimately refuses to enter the room, preferring to remain outside at the fork in the road. She heard the conversation of the party from the fork in the road and that was enough for her.]

Should someone scout ahead on the other path?

[Someone was clearly looking for a diversion.]

[Sparks was mostly following along, not sure of what to make of the scene, and didn't have much to say about it... until he almost steps on part of a very familiar-looking bow. A laser-powered one, much like his own pistols from Mars. He kneels down to take a closer look at it, looking incredibly confused.]

Wait, what?

[Oh no. We're not going anywhere. Sparks isn't the best at reading the room, but it's obvious someone knows something here, and it's not good from all these reactions. He looks between all of the people around him.]

I know that bow. I know whose it is. So how 'bout before we go anywhere else, someone tell me why its here?

[K'pandolu frowns at Jack's words, bringing a hand up to her chin to think.]

She had… one of the Crystals there, didn't she? So engineering a pull might not have been so difficult.

[She pauses at the entrance to the chamber, but steps inside for a better look, moving cautiously. She's vaguely familiar with the stained glass window, though not the details.]

It might be history, but I'm still surprised these parts have remained here…

[She turns towards Sparks, ears flicking up.]

A friend of yours…? They must have been in the last cycle, then, and lost the bow when they fell in an attempt to end it.

[ For a long moment, Sheena's quiet as she walks along, unaware of the others around her talking until Sparks repeats her words, snapping her to attention.

Not stopping, she turns to him and nods. ]

Yes. [ She hesitates. ] It's a very long story, and I'll tell it to you some time if you want, but whenever the world's mana was declining, those known as "The Chosen One" would go on a pilgrimage to the Tower of Salvation to bring mana back to the world. If they failed, they didn't come back.

They remained in the Tower of Salvation...entombed.

[ Hundreds...thousands...of Chosens who had failed swirling about them in the Tower. Not exactly an image you forget. ]

The shape and what it may mean reminded me of that.

[ Giving him a wan smile, she continues on, keeping her eyes fixed straight ahead on Jade, this time paying attention to what's being said around her. After Sephiroth's comment about the way they arrived, Sheena tilts her head in thought, wondering what had happened before her arrival that she had appeared at the Crystal of Water. She's going to have to look into that. Maybe it's a clue to...something.

Like a lack of power in the other Crystals? Or it's a shared powered that moves from Crystal to Crystal? She shakes her head. She's really going to have to start paying attention more to things.

But oh, how familiar and similar to what she knows all of this is.

Except for the room they're in--although that one sword looks awfully familiar. Especially in light of Sephiroth's reaction to it. And Sparks' reaction to another.

It's like the Lunar gate...only this place feels more like a tomb than a salvation, leaving her to wonder what this is doing to her friend. Stepping over to the silver-haired man, she places a hand on his arm. If anyone needs a diversion now, it's him and Cloud. ]

Sephiroth? How about we grab Cloud and go with Selphie to scout ahead on the other path?

[ While more conversation goes on, he helps the pony up and smiles at her. ]

You're welcome. Please be careful. If there are any injuries, let me know. I can heal.

[ He added as an offer just in case she got hurt in any way. He turns back to Selphie she starts to speak. ]

It's truly saddening to see such things.

[ Seeing he hasn't been around nearly as long as everyone. There is a lot he has to learn. There's definitely an even more perplexed look at Sheena's reply. ]

[Rukia has no idea what happened here. She can obviously see that it's starting to shake and unnerve some of them, so she's hesitant to ask. Perhaps later, the next time they set up camp. In any case, the PKE meter isn't picking up anything unusual, so she lowers the device and nods in agreement. None of these weapons look to be in good enough condition to be moved or used.]

I agree. Let's keep going. We may always return to this spot later if we deem it necessary, now that we've been here once.

[As Sephiroth's eyes look for contact, Cloud's aren't there to respond in kind. The blonde is pointedly looking away from the other Hero. In all honesty he doesn't know what his own expression will show in this moment, and he doesn't want Sephiroth getting the wrong read even if this doesn't help much either.

But while this scene is shocking for the both of them it strikes their foundations in different ways. For Sephiroth this is a soul shaking moment, a confirmation of his future. For Cloud it's a reassurance, physical proof that the Other Cloud was indeed someone else.

But now isn't the time to talk about this. Not here in this chamber, not here in these caves.]

This was from the last cycle.

[Cloud's confirmation of K'pandolu's guess comes full of the heavy sureness of someone who saw what happened here. He glances at Sparks and gives him a serious look that would rest more often on his older self than his current self. For a brief second it's like that Cloud is the one running shotgun here.]

I can tell you all about it later. Not now. But if you want to stay and look around I won't stop you. There might even be a black crystal here for all we know but...

[He shakes his head before turning away. Giving Sheena a solemn nod he then begins to make his way out of the room and back on the path.]

[Jade looks from the old weapons to Cloud and Sephiroth, then nods. He recognizes both swords and while he doesn't know exactly what went down, he can hazard a guess. Whether he's right or not, dragging it out in the open here and now would be a bad idea.]

It doesn't look like there's anything else here. Let's go back.

[He can't say anything with the others around, but when he passes Sephiroth on the way back he raises a hand and gives one of the SOLDIER's shoulder pads a friendly rap with his knuckles. Eyebrows briefly raised in a silent question. Good to go?

Assuming the rest of the group follows him out of the chamber, they can proceed to the right path, which slopes gently downward and takes them deeper underground. As they move further in, the crystallized ground gradually starts getting steeper. Better watch their step...]

[As others comment and move around him, Sephiroth doesn't seem to be hearing them. He's drawn easily into staring at what he's now identified as -that- version of Masamune sticking out the wall. The amount of innocent blood that weapon had spilled, the betrayal that it stood for, everything else it could have achieved, it's sickening to have another stir to the foundation of the man he's trying to be. Not that monster.

As Sheena touches his arm, she might feel the involuntary flinch as the contact brings him crashing back to the here-and-now but then he looks down and to the side to catch her eye contact. Curious first, but then within just a moment there is something of a silent understanding as he nods and turns to leave this room-]

Right.

[He keeps his attention squarely on the path before him as they make their way back to the fork, not looking for Sheena, nor anyone else on the way. The fact that Cloud hadn't caught his look earlier, and by the words he'd heard there was the confirmation that just as he'd been inside that version of himself he never wanted to become, Cloud had very much been that Other Cloud. Sephiroth isn't sure that they've ever really told each other that, either.

As Jade raps one of his pauldrons, he flicks only an acknowledging look back over his shoulder. Much like with Sheena though, at least he seems to be getting the right-end of their intentions. It'll be better when they have other things in front of them.

Like the way that the ground is starting to become steeper and steeper as they progress down that right-hand path. Being somewhere near the front, it's not long before Sephiroth has to angle his foot falls and shift his balance a little so he's less likely to slip.]

It's starting to get steeper here, watch it.

[He calls back to those who might be further behind...]

[Levy lets out a sigh as the tension from the previous room begins to defuse. For a moment there, it almost looked like there was another fight brewing among their ranks. That's the last thing they need to do right now when there's so much at stake and so much to discover in these passages.]

Geez, you weren't kidding! We should take it slo-whoa!

[She slips a bit as the passage begins to slope, sliding a few inches and briefly bumping into whoever went down in front of her. It's a good thing her frame is so slight, so she's able to catch herself instead of sending the whole group tumbling forward.]

S-sorry! I probably should have worn better shoes for this...

[Her usual sandals don't give much in the way of traction.]

[ The impact against his back catches him a little off guard, though he probably should have been more cautious himself in the first place - having been in a bit of a slump ever since entering the caves, Ace takes it for a wake-up call for his own alertness. What he's seen so far has raised plenty of questions in his head, but none of them justified spending any more time in the caves than it's necessary - and so he saw it fit to refrain from commenting.

He clumsily tries to dig his heels of his boots into the ground for balance, but given the crystal surface, it turns out to be much easier to just continue the descent. After a few more steps, he manages to shoot Levy a quick, but friendly glance over his shoulder. ]

It's okay. Just plant your feet sideways and you're gonna be fine.

[ Though if it continues, somebody is bound to make the same mistake. ]

... We could use the walls for support. How does the situation look down there?

[Rukia's shuffling steps are unsteady at first, one hand trailing against the crystal wall for extra support. But as the trail descends deeper and deeper, eventually she thinks, why not embrace it? ~~There are benefits to being short and close to the ground.~~ Angling herself to the side, she quickens her steps and half trots, half slides down the curving path, her palm occasionally twitching back behind her to keep her tentative balance. It seems like they're actually getting somewhere at long last, and her mood is beginning to pick up.]

Nothing on the meter yet...

[Twilight's learned her lesson from the last time and has opted to start flying. The wonders of being an Alicorn.]

Be careful. If things are this crystallized, the floor's really going to be slippery.

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[Sorry wall o' text]

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Sorry Sparks. This is what happens when I don't track a thread.

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