now with 100% fewer homicidal robots

[kingincognito]

Who: Joshua + anyone involved in the portal project!
What: The portal is finally ready!
When: Mid-May
Where: The center of the Grove
Warnings: idk it's portal shenanigans, I'll add warnings if we need them!

[ It's taken a couple of months, but with the combined effort of a few good brains, the portal is finally as ready as it's going to be. Calculations have been made, plans have been formed, and now all they have to do is put the sun and moon stones in place, and pray.

Literally, because it's been in his notes that faith could have some power in helping them get where they need to go. Hopefully.

Midway through the month, Joshua puts out a message through the netbooks. ]

To everyone that has helped with the portal:

Our efforts are ready to bear fruit. I would like to try activating it tomorrow. Let us meet in the center of the Grove at noon, when the sun is at its brightest.

We know not what awaits us should the portal be successful, so I would prefer to err on the side of caution. If you can fight, please come prepared to do so. Also, we will certainly need hands to relay anything we might want to bring back. If you are Corrupted, however, I am afraid I must ask you not to be involved as a matter of safety and security. My apologies.

[ And, come late morning the following day, Joshua is there, umbrella in hand to protect himself from the sunlight. He has gathered boxes and crates for any potential recovery of items, should the portal work properly, as well as basic medical supplies just in case. Small bouquets of flowers are placed around the base of the portal, in what might be a startling abundance. Better to have more than needed than not enough. ]

Comments

3, 15

[jesterlies]

Books books books bOOOK SBOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!!!

Shadow Milk knows his way around a magical library, so he passes by most. What he is interested in is anything that looks forbidden. Anything that is carefully tucked away, in shadowy corners. A little toooo high up. Or perhaps obvious fake shelves hiding secret rooms.

[sticksandbonesmods]

... Well. Uh.

He hits the fucking jackpot, because he finds a door marked in an ornate writing, "THE HALL OF PRESENT WRITING" that's just... endless desks. And atop each desk is a tome, with golden quills writing upon them automatically. He'll find that each one is a different thing, and even the handwriting is different.

All knowledge, all fiction, all thoughts and feelings as they are being written in the mortal realm are being recorded here, raw and free, for safekeeping.




But that's small potatoes, probably.

[jesterlies]

This is literally what the inside of his head looked like when he was the Fount of Knowledge. BORING. He wants nothing to do with this.

Well, except maybe he will poke one of the quills and see if it responds to him. Can he lift one?

[sticksandbonesmods]

It feels like someone slaps his hand.

But like.

Literally no one is there. Not even in hiding. No spirits, no invisible beings. Nothing. Just him and White Lily Cookie.

[jesterlies]

Tch. He was going to swap the quills from two other books because that would be hilarious, but fine. WHATEVER. ruin his fun.

Maybe he will peak at the writing in one before he moves on. Just for curiosities sake.

[sticksandbonesmods]

... It looks like the recording of an experiment involving a mysterious fog wall that's sheltered the fae woods of Ostorn for centuries now. It's impassable, but no longer carries that black color or it's malevolent effect- there is a feeling of dread when touched, but team members still can't get further than two feet in before something bodily tosses them out.

It's. It's probably fine, the team's fine, but they still can't figure out how to penetrate it...

Is anyone within? Anything?

What happened in this forest, all those years ago?

... And then there is a coffee spill. The quill sets itself down for now.

[jesterlies]

That's pretty interesting, actually. Is this from the outside world? He's been trapped in this bubble for so long it's hard to reconcile how big the world might be on the outside. Even after being freed of the tree, they all stayed within Beast-Yeast. How vast is it out there...?

Hn! Not the time. He has some nosing around to do.

Being in this room unsettles him, reminds him of things. Lily might pick up on that for a moment before he brushes past. Time to see if there's another door here somewhere. Show him something interesting, Library. if this place is anything like the Spire, there's bound to be some hidden goodies.

[sticksandbonesmods]

Something interesting? Well. As Shadow Milk explores, he'll find himself in a hallway between wings, large windows letting a magical light filter in. It's warm, and gentle. Nothing like Suri was.

And if he looks out the window, he'll see a silvery-blue stone carved to look like multiple slabs of varying height bundled together, a blue crescent moon floating above it.

He doesn't need the Light of Knowledge to tell him it's a grave.

[jesterlies]

It is striking him, the vibes of this place. Of how he knows the Forest, of how he fought that wraith of hate and anger, and how this place screams of a gentleness. It reminds him a lot of-

Of himself. He hates that. Hates that these similarities go beyond the initial comparisons of his cruel and hateful nature. Hates that they may have started off very similar, too. That he may have once been something kind and benevolent who was warped and twisted by something else.

He pauses by the window a moment, thoughts churning as he looks out.

"...Guardian, do you see that?"

[lilyberation]

White Lily Cookie shifts from where she clings, looking out the window as well, expression impassive- but he knows her well enough to know that that is a lie, that something swirls heavily inside her.

"... I do."

[jesterlies]

Can he get a closer look? Is there- actually a way to pop these windows open? Or are they set in place. Any writing he can see from here? On the stones?

He frowns, pouring through the information he has about this place.

"I wasn't aware our moon goddess was dead."

She obviously isn't, he's spoken to her, but that sure looks like the grave for a moon goddess.

[sticksandbonesmods]

There's no way to get to it, and the windows are sealed- you can only get to the Pale Mourning through one way, and the door seems to vanish after a few moments, leaving the grave in peace in it's garden.

[lilyberation]

"... Something happened. Something we don't know yet."

[jesterlies]

He scoffs softly and keeps walking down the hall. Where is this leading them-

"It seems to me there's quite a lot shrouded in mystery here. I wonder how much we can trust our patron Goddesses really. How much has been omitted from the Truth to serve their needs."

Ever the paranoid one.

"Deceit doesn't have to come from lies, after all."

[sticksandbonesmods]

The hallway seems to warp a little, like the rooms its leading to keeps hopping in and out of place, constantly reshaping itself.

Eventually the wall opposite the windows become murals.

The first is two dark children with halos of gold and crimson light, hand in hand as they wander the clouds, an endless ocean swirling beneath them.

[lilyberation]

"We can only trust what we verify with our own hands. ... I trust that they are kind. but kind... doesn't always mean trustworthy, does it?"

After a moment though, she swings around from clinging to his chest to hug him around the neck, soothing and light. He's tense, she can tell.