Event | Landfall | Diving & Sinbrilee

[ironwood]

Characters: Any and every!
Date: August 10th - 31, 2013
Location: The sunken city of Sinbrilee
Situation: Tu Vishan comes upon the oceanfloor, holding his own memorial to the fall of his sister turtle while those upon his shell may explore the ruined city.
Warnings/Rating: Please place content warnings in subject headers!

Sinbrilee | Dreaming | Death


Art by Rica.

The city is lit by a warm orange glow, there are thousands of lanterns lit and burning brightly to ward off the gathering dark. It was once a grand, thriving place, and it's obvious by the quality of the Greco-Roman architecture, the high sweeping columns of white marble, the beautifully paved roads. There are aqueducts throughout the city that look as if they could be put to use today. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the city's spent the last few hundred years underwater, it looks quite liveable. This city is entirely open to exploration, so feel free to send your character out to their heart's content. Remember, certain doorways will lead your characters into either Death or the Dreaming and these markings won't always be visible to them, so they should take care and be vigilant at all times!

Note: A separate post will be made for the events of the Bacchanal later in the month.

Headers:
> Keeliai | The Dive
> Sinbrilee | The Athenaeum
> Sinbrilee | The Agora
> Sinbrilee | The Baths
> Sinbrilee | Elsewhere

Comments

[lineality]

Lin's never been one for the books. By all accounts an ancient, disused library shouldn't interest her this much. But by coincidence it's also the highest point in town, and she wants to get a feel for the city before she disappears into the streets once again.

She's not expecting the mural. Isn't expecting it to be so detailed. She'd heard vague stories about what all the foreigners were supposed to be doing here, of course, but this--

There's another woman at the end of the mural, and Lin glances at her, questioning.

"You think it's real?"

[una_persson]

Una looked up, mildly startled (having not heard the woman's approach), and then nods.

"I'm certain of it, actually. It fits in with certain things I've been told."

[lineality]

Lin frowns faintly as she turns to look at the half-finished brushstrokes again. "Care to fill me in? Vague messages on the network aside, I haven't heard much--only that we're here to fight something, and--" A broad gesture at the mural. "Apparently it's happened before."

[una_persson]

"Just so. There was another turtle, like the one we live on—" she gestures to the images in the mural as she speaks, "—and she died after being attacked by the creature we're meant to fight. I didn't know this part." She indicates the images portraying the sacrifice made by Eshai's sister. "That there was some desperate attempt to save this turtle, and it worked for a while. Our foe seems to be distressingly persistent." Una's tone is dry, ironic—a defence mechanism to keep deeper fears at bay.

[lineality]

"Evidently not long enough." Lin's frown deepens; she reaches out, carefully, and runs a careful hand over the painted images. "Hopefully they don't plan on sacrificing all of us to it like this. It reeks of treating the symptom instead of the cause."

[una_persson]

"'She wants grass.' Something I read, about the Emperor's approach to the creature." A wry half-smile. "I, for one, am not interested in being grass, any more than that anonymous author once was."

[lineality]

"It's hardly a viable plan of attack, if this--" another glance at the ruin of the library-- "is all it's going to net her in the end. I don't suppose she's open to any other options? I haven't had the honor of meeting her yet."

[una_persson]

"She's a bit of a prickly character. I've met her once, to ask permission to see the library; others have talked to her at greater length." She shrugged slightly. "I expect she might be glad to hear any new ideas—'new' being the important word. By now she probably thinks she's heard it all."

[lineality]

"I can't deny it's a stressful situation--not that it warrants abduction or worse." Still, prickly had been used to describe Lin herself more than a few times. It wasn't a deterrent, as far as she was concerned.

"Sorry, by the way--I should've introduced myself sooner. The name's Lin. Lately of Republic City." Which, considering the run of luck she'd been having lately, the woman wouldn't have heard of--but it was always worth a try.

[una_persson]

"Una. Lately of various points on Earth, twentieth century." The name of Lin's native city doesn't ring a bell, but that sort of thing hadn't fazed Una in a very long time. "My own manners are getting filed down something shameful," she adds, with a wry smile.

[lineality]

"I'm sure 'twentieth-century Earth' means something to someone, but it doesn't to me." Lin returns Una's smile with a slight twist of her own lips. "There are a lot of you from that time period, though, aren't there? I've been through the network archives. It's almost as if there's some kind of pattern."

[una_persson]

Una nods. "I've wondered at that. Admittedly there's quite a lot going on at that period in history—combined with a sharp spike in population, perhaps it's just a matter of statistics? No one's put forth a theory for it, as far as I know."

[lineality]

"And from different versions of the same countries, to boot." A questioning look--does she have that right? "I'm hearing a lot of the same cities repeated over and over again. New York, I think. Manhattan?"

She shakes her head. "It's like nothing I've ever heard of before. Everyone from my world remembers things more or less the same, points in time aside."

[una_persson]

"Manhattan's a neighbourhood of New York City—and it does seem to be a popular one," Una replies with a small laugh. "I'm from a different city, originally. London. But even my London is different from others'. The Multiverse is a very large place—not just entirely different worlds, but different versions of the same world. Hence the strangeness you've noticed."

[lineality]

Lin offers a faintly rueful quirk of her mouth as she files away that particular information for later.

"I'm familiar enough with the concept of two separate worlds, but versions of the same world is something I haven't had the chance to experience yet." A faintly questioning look. "You, though--you talk like you've had experience with it. That, or you've been here a longer time than most."

[una_persson]

"The former." Una smiles. "You could say it's what I do for a living when I'm not here."

[lineality]

"You...travel? Between worlds?"

It ought to sound improbable, but if the Avatar is capable of traveling between two, surely traveling between more ought to be possible elsewhere. All the same, she blinks, shaking her head briefly. "I'd ask whether or not you've managed to do anything with that kind of power here, but I figure I wouldn't be talking to you if you have."

[una_persson]

"Got it in one," Una says. "As far as being able to do so here? I wish I could, but no luck. found my gear in the last city before this one, but it's broken, and I've not been able to fix it."

[lineality]

She's heard of people finding their belongings dropped around the world, but this is the first she's heard of the salvage being potentially useful to their situation. "Do you think it can be fixed? Assuming we find someone used to the technology?"

[una_persson]

"I'd certainly like to try." She frowns. "I've had it looked at. The instruments aren't badly broken, but they can't be aligned with the megaflow at all from here. But I still think it's not impossible."

[lineality]

"I'm not surprised. Regardless of whatever force brought us here, the Emperor can't be eager to see us leave." Lin doesn't know what a megaflow is, but she can guess--or at least make an attempt at it, given the context. She grew up in a port city, after all, and the talk of ships and currents translates well enough.

She shrugs slightly, with a faint clank of armor. "I'm out of my depth as far as the technology is concerned, but I've done my fair share of metalworking, if you find yourself in need of spare parts."

[una_persson]

"Thank you—I'll be sure to remember that. I'm happy for any help." She smiles. "What is it you do back in your native world?"

[lineality]

"I'm--I was chief of police in Republic City." There's a touch of wistfulness about her eyes for the briefest of moments--then it's gone. "Resigned my commission shortly before I arrived. It's a long story."

[una_persson]

"Most stories involving resignations are," Una says, wryly sympathetic. "Are there others from your world here?"

[lineality]

A brisk nod. "There's six of us all told, as far as I can tell. All but one of us were taken roughly from the same time period, and the last was taken from almost seventy years prior." The last also happens to be her mother, but nobody needs to know that. "As for why the people who were taken were picked--we all knew each other, but aside from that I can't figure out any kind of pattern."