2023.03.17 Spaaace Lynx!
| 03.17.23 Spaaaace Lynx! | |
|---|---|
| Mercy’s Messenger invites Trey to Umbral space, and outer space, where he sees The Boat and gets some lessons in totems, and Umbral travel, and string. | |
| IC Date | 03.17.23 |
| Players | Mercy’s-Messenger, Trey |
| Location | Sept of the Enduring Spirit |
| Spheres | Bastet, Garou |
It starts with a bit of yarn. Somewhere in the world there's a cat named Trey, and at some point in the day that cat is bound to notice a technocolor bit of yarn. On its own, that's not super interesting, but what IS interesting is how the yarn wiggles. Maybe it's the wind, maybe not, it wiggles and dances around on the ground a lot more than other world litter around it does. This wiggle yarn flop-dances across the ground until it's right in Trey's way, just in case its pretty colors and jiggles didn't immediately attract him. He IS a cat after all, and it IS yarn, so like... 50-50, really.
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Trey is cool. Too cool to pick up something off the ground, really. I mean, cat, right? So he looks around, places his toe on the yarn, and then checks again to make sure nobody's watching. Then he reaches down and snatches for it, grinning despite himself. Moving stringy thingy. PREY!
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Theoretically it's the wind that catches the yarn and causes one end to just flip right up and swing around Trey's hand. Five or six times in rapid successes. Okay maybe it's not the wind. And there shouldn't be enough yarn for it to do that, but there it is, provably enough yarn, cause it done did it. Now attached to the Bastet that it found standing unattended out in the open, its free end levitates up just a little bit, and does an up and down movement with its tip. It's waving. Then it pulls a little bit. It likes this spare cat it found, and attempts to take it home with it.
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Wait, wait... he thought this was prey, but it turns out, it's... leading the chase? But he's got to chase it to have that work, and it's wrapped around his hand. So Trey considers the yarn, and says, "Sure, where are we going?" Ah, decision made. He completely intended it that way the whole time! Sure he did! He tilts his head, looking upward -- just in case. I mean, a helicopter could have just burst from the Umbra or something. Or there could be a flying carpet. Or a really, really big frisbee. Who knows? But he's game to follow!
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The leading end of the yarn shapes itself into a small arrow. We're going that way! Obviously. Tug tug. This might be a longass walk depending on where exactly it picked Trey up at. But the path isn't dangerous, just walkin' to the beach. People in the area don't even really seem to notice, it's just a dude with some yarn on his hand, no biggie. The area is probably familiar, Jack and Mike's bungalow is just over there, and there's the ferry that takes Gaians to the island, and here is a large house with impressive garden walls and stuff. The yarn tugs to lead the way towards the gates, then its tip end forms into a little hand and pushes. Unsuccessfully, yarn is far too weak to open a door.
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Trey chuckles and follows. He's game for a wander -- there's always things to be seen and places to explore, and besides, this is familiar terrain. He doesn't really mind long walks. Ah, the ferry! And a house... an unfamiliar one, but he's seen its outside before at least a few times, even if he hadn't explored. He pushes the gate when he spots the fact that string is not able to do so on its own. "Here y'go, dude," he says, apparently getting used to the California Thing, opening the door and calling out, "Hey, it's Trey, don't shoot me!" Like I said, California Thing.
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Reeves Manor - Garden(#7735RL)
Your eyes are greeted by a very large beautiful garden. A large and wide stone path leads from the gate to the front door of the estate home. There are gardens with paths through them, a small pond with fish in it, and trees between the gardens and the home, giving the feeling of true privacy. The grass area is well trimmed and the gardens are filled with numerous different colored roses and other flowers such as lily's, bluebells, and butterfly bushes. In the gardens are stone benches, with lovely carvings on the sides. As you look into the trees, you see carved boulders made into seats and hanging from one very large tree a lovely bench swing. Lovely naturally colored stones raise somewhat above ground level around the pond to give dry places to sit and watch the fish swim about. There seems to be large gold fish and what appears to be Chinese fish. They are white with red marks upon them. The scent of flowers fills the air.
Through the gates is a great garden. It's big. Like big big. A lot bigger than it looked like it should be from the sidewalk. Oh if only Trey knew about TARDISs. There's a freakin horse way off to one side, a white mare, just chowing down on some flowers that its probably not supposed to be eating. When it looks up at the call and sees Trey, it bolts in the opposite direction to put the house between itself and the predator. "HIIIII!" comes the familiar voice of Iris, who's standing on something waaaaay over there in the garden and waving like a lunatic at the newly arrived cat. "Over here!"
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Trey blinks at the horse taking off, and then realizes well yeah, of course. But it seemed okay with--
"MERCY!" He grins and trots on over double-time, holding up his bestringed hand in a greeting and approaching, looking happy to see her. "How are you? Wow, this is a gorgeous place."
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The String mimics Trey's wave with its little bitty hand shaped tip end. Over where Iris is, there's a broken bigass pot and dirt everywhere, but she's done what she can to replant its flowers, although they're a bit cockeyed. "Oh good, it found you! I was hoping it wouldn't bring some rando over, I'm not in the mood to be a cryptid today. This is Branton's place, it's got some kinda weird Mage voodoo on it, I genuinely have no idea how the grass gets cut each week." She makes a come hither motion off her hand at the string wrapped around Trey's, but it squeezes the cat tightly and folds itself securely. "Oh, well... Fine then!" she tells it. "Trey, meet String, that's my familiar. Or possibly yours for a bit. Whatever, it's a String. Hey! So I got super bored and Irsa's busy and Branton's working and I'm going to go insane. You wanna come up to my place for a bit?"
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Trey ohs and says, "I'll probably want to check that out later, just because... y'know..." Because he's a nosy, er, *curious* cat, of course! "Oh, well, hello, String -- good to meet you." Yes, he treats it like a person. "Sure, love to see it... you mean..." He breathes. "The BOAT?"
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"The Boat." Iris agrees with a nod, then gestures at the broken pot. "I've been here for like an hour and I've already managed to clumsy this poor pot to death. I've gotta tether you to me first, is that okay? Full disclosure: you cant get more than like five feet away from me while tethered, so you're basically my hostage."
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Trey considers this for about half a second. "It'll keep me from dying a horrible death, I'm sure," he says amiably, "So sure, I'm good with that. As long as it's not around my neck, tether away." He holds up the hand with String attached, chuckling, and waits for her to work the magic, watching intently as he always does when encountering something new and unknown.
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"Hooray!" Iris cheers, and reaches out to poke herself in the chest, and as she reaches to poke Trey, she drags a silvery, hair-thin thread from herself to stick to Trey. Thus tethered, Trey hasn't got much choice but to follow where Iris leads, which is into the umbra. It's done at the speed of thought, like a greased cannonball blowing right through the gaps in the Gauntlet web like it weren't even there. The garden, in the umbra, is vibrant as fuck, the house made of steely webs and well manicured, and populated by all sorts of your basic naturae, a few pattern spiders, birds, stuff like that. But she doesn't go on a zoological tour of it, instead heading towards a row boat that's parked on the lawn. She does the safety speech while stepping in. "Remain seated at all times, keep yourself inside the boat at all times, and definitely do not look over the edge of the boat while it's in motion. It's okay to fall over, but don't you dare throw up or I'm gonna make you clean it up."
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Trey steps carefully as they move through the Gauntlet with ease beyond his imagining. Was it that easy for all Garou, or was it because Mercy was so experienced? Probably the latter. He looks around him, eyes taking in the differences in the garden, the beauty of the greenery, and the fascinating workings of the pattern spiders. "Rahjah's children," he murmurs, smiling at the sight of the house, the wonders of the collected spirits. "Right. No outside the boat, keep my ass in the seat, don't look over the side. Got it." The last one, he may have problems with, but he's pretty sure puking won't be an issue. Oh, silly cat.
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Iris waits until Trey looks settled in and more or less ready before she starts pulling on a short rope to drag the anchor up into the boat. As soon as it is, the craft begins moving straight upwards, not unlike an elevator. Slowly, gently at first, but it begins to rapidly pick up speed, not unlike an over excited express elevator. Umbral winds whip through one's hair, the landscape broadens and widens as it slips away below, the clouds in the sky might not seem like they're getting closer, but they definitely are, and the blue of the sky is slowly thinning in color. String, meanwhile, just clings so that it doesn't get whipped out of the boat.
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Trey is a happy kitty as soon as the wind picks up; he feels its coldness like home once more. His gaze stays level and occasionally upward as well; true to his word, he doesn't look down. No matter how much he wants to do so. He curls his fingers around String and says, "Don't worry, little guy, I gotcha." He's just... smiling broadly, loving the feeling, the experience, everything about how the sky looks and feels different, to how the land around them is completely different to Umbral eyes. "We're going pretty fast," he observes, not sounding scared so much as excited, like an oversized kid.
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The clouds never really look like you're moving towards them till you take your eyes off it for a minute, and then oh my god how'd they get that close? The gentle curve of the earth can be seen way out at sea. "Yeah, I think it just sorta *likes* going fast, that's the only thing I can come up with. I hope it never gets depressed or something, then it'd probably go soooooo sloooooow! Or maybe it's concerned with our health and wants to make sure we get all the fresh air at once!" BLAM! Clouds. Like a misty, wet full body hug, the boat is shrouded in a pea thick layer of fog for a minute until suddenly and without warning bursting through the other side.
An endless sea of white clouds, an infinite sky blacker than any black Trey's ever seen and covered in a glitter of stars, so many that it puts the clearest night on earth to shame. The moon is massive and silvery white, the sun seems distant and smoldering. And there she is right up above them, parked a couple hundred yards up above the clouds, Space Boat. The dinghy slows as it approaches the back of the ship.
Space Boat - Low Earth Orbit
Space. The final frontier.
Hanging in low earth orbit within the Aetherial realm is this patchwork ship. It looks like a gigantic child smashed several kinds of earthly ships together and forced them to be a single object. Many floored and wrapped in balconies like a paddle boat, spiked with massive masts like a galley, it could hold a small village worth of folk aboard it comfortably.
The ship is outfitted for long voyages away from home, and crewed almost entirely by spirits. There's a glass enclosed garden to produce food that's overseen by Sun and Water and tended by plant Naturae. A Lounge is available for drinks and food, with tables, beanbag chairs, and of course a karaoke machine that is jealously guarded and powered by an Electricity elemental. A section of the lounge has been built entirely of glass, so that one can sing and dance amongst the stars without getting lost in them.
The bridge is dominated by bizarre devices of umbral exploration, from a bejeweled armillary sphere for steering to consoles of mounted maps and strange navigational devices. There aren't intercoms on the ship, but there are large mouthed lizards that yell the captain's orders across the ship when needed. A pennon waves at the highest point of the ship, and it's sails are huge, marvelous things of red and gold, black and silver. A small row boat kept at the stern provides a quick and automated way to get to a planet's surface and back again.
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Coming through the clouds is a whole *experience*. Trey just laughs as they pass through the thick fog of the cloud cover and come out, above. The sky above feels infinite, and he draws in a long breath as he looks, observing, taking it all in with avid eyes. The Eyes of Gaia, indeed. And Seline, so close, almost as if he could touch her silver radiance.
He follows Mercy inside once he's finally captured his breath back, gaze moving around the hodgepodge ship, a dream of so many different engineers that it would be near-impossible to identify a style of design. It's wondrous and insane all at once. All of the devices catch his gaze, and he begins walking around each -- not touching, but ducking to look underneath, and alongside, chuckling softly in wonder.
"It's hard for me to imagine anything more fantastic than this, right now," he says with awe. "This is... amazing."
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"Yeah, it takes a real conscious effort to drag myself back down to earth half the time." Iris says, laughing and joking, but there's an edge in there that says she'd never land again if she didn't have to. She makes sure Trey gets aboard alright, and just kinda walks with him, letting him lead the way and see what he wants to see. Under the ship, like fish would be in the sea, are birds. Lots and lots of them winging joyously, with blue-white sparks from lightning elementals and red puffs from fire elementals, air elementals churning the clouds into fantastical shapes and impossible towers. Out in the space above and around them, sheets of glitter move and silver ladies dance.
"This whole thing is basically a big smashed together mound of fetishes. The boat's made of spiritual stuff, and those red sails and black sails, they're fetishes for Helios and Meros that affect movement. That loooongass flag way up there, that's camouflage so we don't get eaten. The row boat of course, and the bridge is full of them. Careful around the cannons, they're bastards and like to fire at random to startle people."
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"I can see why," he says with seriousness. "I could spend a very long time just enjoying this view and studying the skies, and..." He laughs gently, but his gaze comes to rest on Iris' face, his expression quizzical. He doesn't ask the questions that come to mind, though -- her secrets are hers to keep until she chooses otherwise.
Trey spots the birds winging under the ship like so many flying fish out of water, and the elementals... for someone like him, a student, the wonder never ceases, and he can't seem to find an end to things to look at, to marvel at.
"Noted." He gives a cannon a broad berth, noting each of the fetishes as she points them out, and the camouflage flag gives him reason to make a mental note or two. "This is... okay, I'm running out of synonyms for 'fucking incredible,' so..." He laughs brightly, and asks, "How many spirits does it take to run this? Which bodies have you seen in this? It's probably taken a good long time to make, hasn't it?"
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"Yeah, it took months to put together, and a couple years to get ready for and go to some of these planets." Iris agrees, and explains, "We've gone to Mars, Jupiter, Rorg's belt, I went to Venus, Phobos and Demos on my own, and the moon and the earth of course. Sounds like so few... But they were great journies! As for the crew, a it's all skeleton crew right now, while we're parked at home. But usually there's a couple keeping the garden in shape, there's about a dozen that handle a lot of the day to day stuff on deck, somewhere around here are some lizards with enormous mouths that do the work of an intercom. So I guess all and all... Like two dozen? Give or take? We have some rat stow aways, they live in the pantry, so I just gave them their own isle." She points out the glass housing of the physical plants kept in there, being danced around by a little bitty sun gaffling and a small water spirit that keeps everyone watered. "And in here is where we do dining and disco." she says, pointing into a neighboring place where there's chairs, beanbags, a possessed karaoke machine, and so on.
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Trey says, “That's..." He's out of words for the moment, and he just... smiles easily, taking in the thin Umbral air and the wonder of her words of her travels. "Doesn't sound few to me," he agrees, one hand on the rail as he gazes out, eyes toward Luna's shining face and the stars that form her raiment. "I have to ask... how did you get the idea? Did you just want to travel the heavens and decide to make all of the parts of the ship?" He pauses to look into the ship's version of a nightclub, and laughs. "I can yowl tunelessly for everyone, I'm sure that'll be a big hit." He lets out a series of off-key meows just to be ridiculous, because he likes giving her reasons to smile... and because the lynx is, at the heart, a trickster with an intellectual bent. "Even the plants. Everything's so carefully thought out here. You could go for a long time, I would think. Except for meat, unless there's a freezer." He wrinkles his nose at the idea, but hey, meat is meat. "I'm not an obligate carnivore in manshape, but I'm not sure how long I'd go without. Could bring some though..."”
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"Oh, basic run of the mill insanity, really." Iris says, and starts them towards the very front of the ship. "And laziness. I came up with the idea for the orrery first, and then when the full gravitas of what I'd decided to do really hit me, I realized I couldn't possibly accomplish my goal on foot. Well what if I made this little helpful thing, or that little helpful thing? What if I made a bunch of helpful things, well crap, how would I carry them all? Do I really want to sleep right ON a solar road? What if I get cold? For that matter, I'd absolutely run out of food before I got to some of these places. The only thing for it is an RV, really. But RVs aren't fun. What's fun is a *boat*! Then, I can be a space pirate! So I got Branton's help to start out with, we went and scavenged a whole bunch of fallen umbral trees before they could dissipate into gnosis, and started the work of getting them stable, getting them all the way up here, and shaped and attached, and then, as you can see, the design just sorta went all over the place. I mean, who the hell likes straight lines anyways? The plants are tricky, I transplant them between trips, otherwise they'd go full spirit, and that doesn't help with hunger. You need real food for that. So we keep some stuff on rotation at Branton's place." She snirks at the yowling though and says, "There's a dandelion that sings... so bad, just so, so bad, but it's so enthusiastic about it you can’t help but cheer." She ah ha's and leads the way through the club, around the bar, and into a nice little kitchen. In here, she opens the pantry. It looks like it should be closet sized, but is in fact Costco sized. Or larger. It's super hard to tell. "Yeah, we got freezers. I prefer vegetarian myself, but you can’t just NOT have bacon."
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Trey asks, "So... the orrery. I was wondering about it. Just... in general. But I figure the explanation for this all makes sense. You have a big project, you wind up doing a bunch of stuff to prep for it, and that means making a whole bunch of littler projects, and so forth, and so on. Like, I had some hides I'd gotten back in Denver when I was there, and I traded some of them for faerie silver, because I thought it might help me slip into an Umbral Dream and pass through the Gauntlet." He exhales. "I have some faerie blood in my heritage, so I can see and interact with the Dreaming, so... I was figuring I could somehow apply that to the Umbra. Didn't quite work; after I started working out the formulas and notes I realized it was... well, pretty far beyond me, and I've kind of realized that it may be simpler to do the item I was talking about as a fetish. But I feel like I have a lot to learn before I'm ready to start a whole nother type of crafting that involves sentient beings, so..." He exhales. "But dandelions are cute, so you'd have to enjoy their song," he concludes, realizing he's just completely switched tracks. "And bacon is one of the best reasons for manshape."
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"Yeah it's a bit like apples and oranges, they're both fruit, but only one of them can squirt you in the eye when you least expect it." Iris agrees, and when Trey's had a gander at the pantry, starts dragging him along towards the bridge. This helps when she starts to explain things, as the bridge is filled with weird, complicated fetish devices, physical scrolls, and all sorts of stuff, dominated by a delicately jeweled and etched golden armillary sphere. She uses this as an example when speaking. "Everything's connected, see. Like all these planets, comets, moons, meteors and so on, they all seem like scattered random things, but they move together in a dance that spans creation. They move and flow with each other. One thing affects something, and something else affects that, and so on."
She moves one ring and the ship begins rolling, moves another and it begins sliding backwards, each ring managing all parts of the 360 degree movement that space provides. "An orrery tracks things like that, like a model that shows the planets. But this is an everything-orrery, it's made of planets and comets, but also realms. If you could track realms, you can understand what's happening around them much better. A war may attract the Battleground realm to it, and it may touch down and thin the walls, trapping men inside, or releasing horrors. Or it may move close and inspire a war to start. Say you wanted to get to a place in Eastern Ukraine right now where there's currently a war happening. The orrery could help provide you with a route to avoid or to find that realm, or tell you if things have deteriorated to the point that the Atrocity realm is also touching. What if you wanted to find the Abyss? It migrates, after all, so locating it on the orrery would help. What if you have a big important thing to do? The orrery can tell you that making a sacrifice to Helios will grant you boons, while the enemy may have secrets from Shantar in their mystics minds."
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Predictably, Trey is fascinated by all of the gadgets, especially the orrery. When he realizes exactly how wide the scope of its ability is, his mouth falls open for a moment in a very uncatlike moment of lack of dignity. It's probably hilarious to watch. Finally, he says, "That... is *fascinating*," he says, clearly lost for better words to explain the places his bright, active mind is going with all of the explanation. "Is it... one big fetish, or a group of them? I feel like I could study *this* for years."
The cat just takes it all in, wonder in his dark gaze, and he says, "Perhaps... someday, I will be able to guide other Bastet to see more of the Umbral realms and worlds. Our people don't much focus on it because it's usually forbidden to us until we're higher rank. We can look, we can call spirits, but we can't cross for a while."
He hrms and says, "I have a crescent-moon question, for advice. When I was a kitten in training, my Kuasha negotiated a deal with a Jamak -- a totem -- for me. I agreed to it then, and it felt like a good agreement, as she is a wondrous creature, Butterfly, a creature of hope. But.... I think now that I know more, I would like to potentially find a Jamak who could aid me in Umbral matters. But I would not dishonor Butterfly; I would like to make an agreement with her to create a fetish with Her to raise spirits and give joy. Something beautiful, something worthy of her. But... I don't know how to go about this honorably, yet, since it's kind of an edge case."
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"A great fetish, yes." Iris agrees, "One that's infused with many spirits, not just one, and carries with it living pieces of the realms. Hence the boat. I have to go to each of these celestial bodies and ask the god of the realm to grant me willingly a piece of its realm that I can plug directly into the machine. The pieces, still a part of the realm itself, will move as the realm moves, but in miniature, mirroring its parent. A less mystically minded sort doesn't always see the usefulness in this thing, I've found, but anyone that's been around the block a few times will know full well that entire packs have been lost to the Deep Umbra, the Aetherial Realm and more. Mmaybe this wont erase the ability to get lost, but I think it can definitely give an advantage to remaining found."
Iris nods sagely to the question and says, "Butterfly is magnificent, she's from the same family tree-branch that String is from. My advice is to just be open and honest. I'm available to be your middle woman if you need, but... Butterfly is discovery and wonder at every color and texture. Her representation is birth and rebirth, *change*. She would never begrudge someone for pupating and wanting to spread their own wings. But to cage her, a creature of every color and every size... I would suggest a series of talens rather than a fetish, purely for the sake of releasing the butterfly back into the world rather than keeping her contained. And then you get to chit chat with butterflies a whole lot ‘cause you'd doubtless make talens for it like all the flippin time. That, I think she and her kin would agree to readily."
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Trey Ohhhs and his teeth show in a smile that is eager, easy, and enthusiastic. "That actually makes all the sense. Ask for a little piece, and you have this. And... I don't know, I have a hard time imagining why it *wouldn't* be useful. Like you said, even just helping find lost Umbral travelers, that alone... or rescuing people caught in some of the nastier realms out there. Or... just... possibilities." Because of course he sees them. It's wondrous, what else can it be called?
He listens closely, then, and nods slowly at the explanation. "She has been a comfort to me from the time I was young," he agrees, "And I would prefer to keep her kind regard. Even if not bound. A series of talens is perfect! She will be free to change as she does and still bring wonder. I could even promise to make one every so often to...hrm. I'll think about the specifics. But I think having talens that could help someone lost in sorrow find the joy again... I think there's something to be said for that, in this world."
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"Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of fetishes she'd be happy to be in." Iris says, "I'm not saying she never would like it, I have a hearthstone on board that's bound with a butterfly. I just try and make sure to break it down and release it every year or so, and rebuild it. That way I don't feel like I'm keeping wonder trapped. But being on a ship OF wonder, that was a bonus to my asking. Make the housing something colorful and wonderful, something that would usually bring a smile when it's seen or used even when it's just a mundane thing. Like a prism that splits light into colors, or a little firework, or something like that. As for a new guide, um... Hm. What *kind* of guidance do you want? Like do you just want someone that's going to babble everything at you, or someone mysterious that'll just lead you TO the puzzle and let you figure it out, someone wild and crazy that'll urge you to figure out how to get lost in a sea of umbral jello, or someone more grounded that just enjoys exploration?"
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Trey takes in the advice and nods, thoughts rushing through his mind judging from the look on his face. "I can understand that, yes. And... hrm. I have an item I want to make, one of those rotating lanterns that makes a story in the shadows it casts? Zoetrope, I think it's called? Something like that, perhaps, would work too..."
He chuckles. "As for the new guide -- I'm not entirely sure, but I'd like one who can teach me to come across on my own. I'd like to have a good exchange -- secrets for secrets, teaching for teaching. I like exchanges that feel more even. And sometimes spirits like things that we don't even consider much. Books, for example -- I knew of a cat whose Jamak insisted that it be read a new book every moon cycle. I'd like to be able to learn about mysteries, with some challenge, of course, but also... I'd want it to be a reasonably friendly, or cordial, sort of interaction, but it can be more formal if that's what fits."
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"That's a great idea!" Iris says about the zoetrope, and beams at Trey's creative thinking. She ponders and moves to hop up and sit on the gunwale, swinging her legs around to dangle her feet over the earth far below and stares off into space. "Hmmmmm..... Well, my first obvious suggestion is Meros, my own totem. Above all his other duties and titles, his main passion is exploration and experience. Learning stuff by going there and looking directly at it, maybe poking it lightly with a stick to see what happens. He grants a deep understanding of mysteries and riddles, but he also demands his followers get out and do, not sit around. So for like what amounts to a quarter of the year should be spent getting around and checking stuff out. You can pack with me if you want, if you don't mind that I literally do not do pack normalities like alphas and pack dens and shit.
"My next thought jumps straight to the Sphinx, lady of knowledge and mystery. She wants secrets and lore, so something like reading a book to her every month would not be unheard of. She's not the tell you everything right away sort, but she will make sure you're not bored and get pointed straight at a puzzle. Hecate, Branton's totem, she's the lady of wisdom and witchcraft, she grants an understanding of mysteries as well, and she wants her followers to go rescue knowledge from the enemy. Um..." She keeps thinkin.
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Trey follows, but keeps on the deck. He's not yet the seasoned Umbral traveler, plus... it's a long way down. He stretches, and then sits on the deck, looking up-up-up as he listens. "Well, I'm not much for sitting around -- I've been traveling for years, since I was old enough to be considered an adult. I mean, as long as you want a student-slash-cabin-boy to help keep things going, I'll probably want to tag along. I would be honored. And if nothing else, I can go all lynx and do things to be silly and amusing. I mean, we may be *intellectual* tricksters, but we're still tricksters." Wow, don't threaten HIM with a good time! "He sounds like a potentially great choice." He hears out the others, though, and nods, biting his lower lip in concentration. "I had thought about the Sphinx too, being as she's part cat. Rescuing knowledge... hmmm... sounds like *adventure* there..." He's spoiled for choices here, and he looks happy about it. "I'm not particular about gender or lack of same, though. Just someone who'd be pleased to deal with a curious and often too talkative cat who loves to learn."
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"In terms of a pack, or pride," Iris says, "I wouldn't ask if you were Garou, we have too many customs related to packs that would make my rank and position... smothering. An elder shouldn't pack with a Cliath, it too broad a power gap and takes away the ability for the Cliath to properly grow and stretch into the customs. As a cat though, you're already independent and don't have the instinct to fight for power or position or to HAVE to move in with me or else you'd feel super weird, or whatever, you're already very independent and capable, so I'd be far less a boss to you than just a wise friend you're able to call on any time. Unless you screw up, then I'm your boss and I get blamed for it. Plus you'd have a built in gateway to adventures, cause of the boat. And our dedication combined creates a stronger and more expansive connection to the totem. That's not me pressuring you to join me, just laying out the facts of the matter if you were considering it. And there's a LOT of other great totems out there, I'd have to go rifle through some notebooks to find a stack of names for you, but guaranteed there's something out there that clicks with you perfectly and you're definitely going to find them at some point. Hell, I didn't even discover Meros until pretty recently, after... like three packs and a change of Camps and acknowledging my change from Mother to Crone."
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Trey takes it all in, and he nods sagely, honestly getting it. "Qualmi are such a pain in the ass that even we can't stand one another for long, mostly. I mean, two Riddlers gets all kinds of fucking annoying to most people. Our firsting year tends to only go like six months because of that. Well, and my Kuasha told me it's because we're smarter than most, but... yeah, that sounds like an attempt at wish fulfillment on his part, maybe mine too." He grins again, toothily. "I assure you, I can be really irritating, but I'm okay with being told to shut up and go read a book or something. Cats... we have to carry our confidence inside us, or we won't do well. Because like you said, we're pretty independent, and without a lot of support, someone with no confidence is gonna have a hard time of it."
He taps a finger to his lower lip, and then says, "I do think of you as both a wise friend and... akin to an elder-sister. But Bastet have a different relationship with rank than Garou do. We listen to those with experience, but in the end, every cat answers to himself. It's good in some ways, but it can get lonely, too. And I like people. More than most Bastet do, I think."
He shakes away a thought, and shifts to flat on his back, looking up at both her and the sky. "I like the idea. All of it. And I think maybe you sometimes could use another person to make you laugh. Not that others don't, but... it's different with every person."
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"Weirdly, I think that's more of a draw for me." Iris says after a minute's thought. "I'm a trickster by nature as well, and an architect of strange things. See that String on your hand? That's a spirit called a Color String, and we're total soul mates, the same kinda way I feel about Meros, I feel about String. It's said to be the very first spirit ever created, brought forth by reality's wonder over making the very first rock in space. The essence of 'holy shit, lookit THAT!'. It's delight. Butterfly is joy, String is delight, similar but totally different, delight is fleeting and weird. It teaches no gifts, it gives allegiance to no incarna, it has no correspondence of any kind. It's all colors and is infinite in length, effectively immortal and indestructible. And you know what it does with all that? Antagonizes people. Just for fun. The more rage a shifter has, the more likely it is to mess with them, because what's a rampaging werewolf going to do to it? It's indestructible yarn that can just *decide* to phase out of synch where you cant even touch it. The whole point isn't for rage though, it's to exhaust its 'prey' and then teach that grumpy fucker to chillax and just have fun for like five god damned minutes, maybe pull the stick out of your ass so you can better engage in a little tag or something. So, if I've got psychotic delight hanging out with me literally all the time, you're not likely to be all that upsetting."
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By the end of this explanation, Trey is laughing hard, a genuine, warm belly laugh as he regards the colorful string on his hand. "You, dude, are probably awesome to watch when the Ahrouns are having a bad day," he notes with utter delight -- see what he did there? "I have to admit, it takes a lot to offend me, and a lot to piss me off. I tend to try and take a cue from our Coyote cousins. Better to laugh at the joke than be the butt of it, and hell, if you're the butt of it, laugh anyway, because next time it's someone else's turn."
He plays a bit with the string, almost like a snake charmer trying to get it to rise above his hand. He's fine with playing with an immortal, endless bit of string just for shiggles, why not? "Why do I have the feeling you weren't real happy in the usual pack setup? Even if you really loved your packmates, it seems kinda... alien?"
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"I'm... damaged." Iris says, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "I already was, but coming here to Prospect I followed Pegasus on my own, she's my tribe's totem and she was what I was aspiring to be. I was talked into joining a pack under Merlin - the bird, not the wizard - and the alpha turned out to be gross and molesty, and later on was busted back to cub and shipped off to be trained up again by his ex wife's really pissed off father. I joined another pack under Weasel and that was great, just... I dunno, people drifted apart, and then I woke up one day and there was silence in my head and the connection was severed, there was the stuff I gave them left behind and they were gone. So I wandered a bit and ran into Meros, quite on accident, and we had some long talks like this. We just clicked, it's like Meros was the embodiment of exactly what I was becoming after this weird twisty turny life path. I hope it lasts forever, but maybe it doesn't. Maybe later when I get old lady hips and my hands ache when it rains we'll have to part ways and I'll find a totem that does a lot of sitting around and lecturing or something."
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Trey says, quietly, looking at her in earnest, "I won't insult your pain by telling you to celebrate your scars or any of that crap. But I'll say this. You know that the Japanese make art out of the damaged with molten gold? I don't look at you and see damage. I see art. If that means much."
He smiles at her warmly. "Even if packs didn't work, people have. And your totem has, too. You may evolve again... but like you said to me, you change, things come your way. I think living in the now is one of the lessons I've gotten from the fae -- because their lives as what they are tend to be short, and they burn out young, but they burn so brightly. I don't know if I'm making any damn sense at all, but..." He chuckles ruefully. "Even if it's incoherent, I mean every word."
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"Huh, I did not know that. Thanks, Trey, you're a sweet kitty." Iris says, and smiles right back, meaning that sincerely. She spins around on her butt and thunks her feet onto the deck before rushing over to the ringed contraption that handles the steering on this bad boy. "Let's take this whole idea out for a test drive, and we'll see if you still feel the same way afterwards. JUST in case. Gotta test it, you know?" She gets the ship moving and rotating a bit, but fortunately there's not a ton of shit to look at in space so it's really hard to get car sick.
While the ship is repositioning, she finds a sleeping lizard and picks it up, asking, "How many aboard?" before setting it on the floor. It goes scurrying off and stands up atop a cabin where it can YELL across the ship in a very Gilbert Godfry-like voice, "HOW MANY ABOARD?!" the question can be heard being re-yelled throughout the ship... and a minute later an answer comes back. "FOURTEEN!" Iris nods and says, "Good enough. Drop the sails, cast off!" And that order is also shouted across the ship. The massive crimson and gold sales unfurl, followed by the black and silver sails, just as Iris gets the bow pointed towards the moon, and the ship begins moving forward. "Wanna learn how to steer?"
But then the screen goes black and the words TO BE CONTINUED... come up in white, bold print. So cliche!
