[Y'shtola is asking for similar, and he would rather both hear. If Sorawo interjects, all the better. rip nala So he waits until he has both their attentions properly, before he starts.]
Mm. A trial, is what I was told.
It must have been sometime this morning we were snatched up. Stuck in a room of nothing but white as far as one could see, looping in on itself no matter what way one walked. Only three doors stood there, with plaques like that at the museum.
Three doors, and the six of us. Two to a door was the only way to open them, and we had no other way forward.
Entering gave no problem. Progressing, however? It required a price.
Call it a gut feeling of sorts, whenever we tried to leave our close quarters. Any further door entered, we either had to leave something behind, bring something with us, or take something from someone else.
"Something", we learned, had to be a part of ourselves. Our body. Our memories. Our wishes. We had none of our items, and in the case of Anaxagoras and I, we came across very little to take of material value in our surroundings.
We also knew, inherently, that each price offered would compound. And that, no matter what, there was no turning back.
Please, it's not as though I offered it in full. I'm not that daft. I'd meant it only for my left eye. I managed reconnaissance for Ishgard and Ala Mhigo well enough with it impaired, so it was a gamble I knew I could recover from at worst.
[Still, he gives a nod at Urianger's correct assumption.]
Aye, they did. Given whispers around the room, we thought they might be a homunculus, like that which Vytra used in Thavnair. Not very expressive -I could only manage to get their name.
They panicked in the second room. Most of that time I had to spend restraining them. It was, ah...
It looked... very similar to that room of tanks to our west. [The room they eventually burst out from.] But all they contained were malformed attempts at the very same child.
[ Don't mind her, she's over here listening right now, content to think while Urianger asks questions. She'll have a laundry list of her own when Thancred is done. ]
...Aye. That was no issue, though Anaxagoras mentioned they could not open the second door and use the child as payment twice.
The final room was where we reconvened with the rest. Every inch was made of iridescent strips like ribbons. The very same iridescence we keep running across, yes. And all that was in its midst was a woman.
Magi, was what she called herself. Something made for the sole purpose to listen to desires and regrets and grant them, with no limit to what she can do.
As best as we could glean out of her, though she was about as obtuse as it was trying to speak with Hydaelyn at times.
She no longer knows if she was creates or if she has simply existed. Only that she has been as she is for as long as she can remember, and that wishes are her sole purpose. There is nothing needed for her wishes, by her claim. No price or punishment. She will simply grant them. But we observed that while that was the case for a couple things tested by the others, it was... variable on how she would grant them.
[A glance given, very carefully, to Y'shtola.]
For instance. This entire situation was one such variable of an answer.
The wish giver heard cries from many demanding a way to find cure for an illness. And, in her generosity-- [He is trying to keep the sarcasm light in that word but its noticeable] --she granted it.
Not the cure itself. Only the means to find it. Our presence was only a tool to increase the success.
[...ah. Urianger's expression also turns quite serious.]
That doth reflect what we have come to know of this wish giver. Whilst wishes are granted without a price, the interpretation of the results...may not be as expected or desired.
[He looks at Thancred as he says it, reflecting on the nightmares that Thancred and Lynne experienced. Not to mention Henrietta van Zieks escaping her fatal illness only to become a monster...
He exhales and shakes his head.]
At the very least, we now know our reason for arriving here...strange though it may seem. Did she have further insight as to how we are meant to discover the cure? And...didst thou have a confrontation with her?
...One at a time, I suppose. If you'd bear with me a moment.
Initially, she didn't. All she confirmed was that what she had provided to us was all we needed to find the cure. That included our patchwork surroundings - so, places that were desired by those who had made the wish, as well as places closer to "her". But it also included our own presence... as well as the presence of infection, and our ability to be infected. She said without the risk of infection, we would not believe it to be true, and thus would not look for a cure at all.
[A very frustrating and stupid way to set that up, in his opinion.]
But she has no issues with wishes contradicting. She has no issues with what happens to us, or others, as a result of her wish granting. It isn't her purpose to understand. It is only to grant.
[A sigh, as he glances down at his arm, before continuing.]
Eventually? Something in her cracked. I don't know whether it was the hostility and doubt we showed. But she suddenly changed.
She demanded that a wish many had, one she could not ignore, was the need for a monster. Something to be the villian. Something responsible for taking, just as much as granting.
So that is what she turned to. Something hungry. Something that now craved souls.
[...]
That is when she confirmed she was the original source of the infection. The first. And that, if we wanted our cure, we would need to find the second. Someone here in town, among our own.
[A beat, and his voice goes tense.]
And while we tried to ask more, she started devouring. Starting with Finis. Falling apart under her hands, just like how the guilty have been picked apart.
[ Yeah, that glance seems to mean something to her, because she closes her eyes for a moment and lets out a slow breath. ]
...
[ This isn't the sigh of someone who has had their secrets been unwillingly uncovered, however. It's the breath that comes with a full confirmation of a theory, an inkling. ]
I would hold out on assumptions, however. Most of what we did travel through seemed to be reflections of Victor and his homeland, up until we reached our end. Whether they were connected or not to Magi, we could not tell.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
What...led to all of this loss? I recall hearing of you all paying a price. What happened?
no subject
rip nalaSo he waits until he has both their attentions properly, before he starts.]Mm. A trial, is what I was told.
It must have been sometime this morning we were snatched up. Stuck in a room of nothing but white as far as one could see, looping in on itself no matter what way one walked. Only three doors stood there, with plaques like that at the museum.
Three doors, and the six of us. Two to a door was the only way to open them, and we had no other way forward.
Entering gave no problem. Progressing, however? It required a price.
no subject
[So much for their lazy little morning.
But he goes on to listen from there, brow furrowed.]
And how was the price determined?
no subject
"Something", we learned, had to be a part of ourselves. Our body. Our memories. Our wishes. We had none of our items, and in the case of Anaxagoras and I, we came across very little to take of material value in our surroundings.
We also knew, inherently, that each price offered would compound. And that, no matter what, there was no turning back.
no subject
He lowers his gaze.]
I cannot begin to imagine how such inherent feelings must have felt in the moment.
How many doors didst thou encounter?
[Was it just Thancred's eye and arm lost...?]
no subject
My first I offered the sense of sight, hoping it would only blind me. But my eye was taken fully instead.
The second, I offered only a finger from my left hand. I lost three. [And yet that is the arm that is now fully missing.]
I know not what Anaxagoras offered for the second door. But the first...
[...]
We found a child, within the first room. Their name was Finis.
Anaxagoras wished to take them as equivalent for his price, and it was accepted.
no subject
[Like damn Thancred, what kind of offering?! Granted, he probably didn't expect permanent blindness, but still...
Two offerings, though, and yet none of it explains how Thancred lost his arm. But he'll wait as he's sure there's more yet to the story.]
Thou didst find a child in these rooms? Then they came along with thee, is that right?
no subject
[Still, he gives a nod at Urianger's correct assumption.]
Aye, they did. Given whispers around the room, we thought they might be a homunculus, like that which Vytra used in Thavnair. Not very expressive -I could only manage to get their name.
They panicked in the second room. Most of that time I had to spend restraining them. It was, ah...
It looked... very similar to that room of tanks to our west. [The room they eventually burst out from.] But all they contained were malformed attempts at the very same child.
no subject
no subject
no subject
Oh, this story is going places, huh...]
I can certainly imagine why they would panic in such a place. Twelve preserve...
Wert thou able to escape the room with them?
no subject
The final room was where we reconvened with the rest. Every inch was made of iridescent strips like ribbons. The very same iridescence we keep running across, yes. And all that was in its midst was a woman.
Magi, was what she called herself. Something made for the sole purpose to listen to desires and regrets and grant them, with no limit to what she can do.
Our wish giver.
no subject
[And put together several puzzle pieces in the process. So she is indeed the source of the iridescence, too. Hm.]
Did she go on to explain herself?
no subject
As best as we could glean out of her, though she was about as obtuse as it was trying to speak with Hydaelyn at times.
She no longer knows if she was creates or if she has simply existed. Only that she has been as she is for as long as she can remember, and that wishes are her sole purpose. There is nothing needed for her wishes, by her claim. No price or punishment. She will simply grant them. But we observed that while that was the case for a couple things tested by the others, it was... variable on how she would grant them.
[A glance given, very carefully, to Y'shtola.]
For instance. This entire situation was one such variable of an answer.
The wish giver heard cries from many demanding a way to find cure for an illness. And, in her generosity-- [He is trying to keep the sarcasm light in that word but its noticeable] --she granted it.
Not the cure itself. Only the means to find it. Our presence was only a tool to increase the success.
no subject
That doth reflect what we have come to know of this wish giver. Whilst wishes are granted without a price, the interpretation of the results...may not be as expected or desired.
[He looks at Thancred as he says it, reflecting on the nightmares that Thancred and Lynne experienced. Not to mention Henrietta van Zieks escaping her fatal illness only to become a monster...
He exhales and shakes his head.]
At the very least, we now know our reason for arriving here...strange though it may seem. Did she have further insight as to how we are meant to discover the cure? And...didst thou have a confrontation with her?
[Thancred, your arm.]
no subject
Are we in a Monkey's Paw kind of situation?
no subject
[He doesn't like it either.]
1/2
Initially, she didn't. All she confirmed was that what she had provided to us was all we needed to find the cure. That included our patchwork surroundings - so, places that were desired by those who had made the wish, as well as places closer to "her". But it also included our own presence... as well as the presence of infection, and our ability to be infected. She said without the risk of infection, we would not believe it to be true, and thus would not look for a cure at all.
[A very frustrating and stupid way to set that up, in his opinion.]
But she has no issues with wishes contradicting. She has no issues with what happens to us, or others, as a result of her wish granting. It isn't her purpose to understand. It is only to grant.
2/2
Eventually? Something in her cracked. I don't know whether it was the hostility and doubt we showed. But she suddenly changed.
She demanded that a wish many had, one she could not ignore, was the need for a monster. Something to be the villian. Something responsible for taking, just as much as granting.
So that is what she turned to. Something hungry. Something that now craved souls.
[...]
That is when she confirmed she was the original source of the infection. The first. And that, if we wanted our cure, we would need to find the second. Someone here in town, among our own.
[A beat, and his voice goes tense.]
And while we tried to ask more, she started devouring. Starting with Finis. Falling apart under her hands, just like how the guilty have been picked apart.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
...
[ This isn't the sigh of someone who has had their secrets been unwillingly uncovered, however. It's the breath that comes with a full confirmation of a theory, an inkling. ]
no subject
She was insistent she'd granted you all a wish in the past. All four of you. Though Victor's was the only one I heard her bother to explain.
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
no subject
...Like clones?
no subject
I would hold out on assumptions, however. Most of what we did travel through seemed to be reflections of Victor and his homeland, up until we reached our end. Whether they were connected or not to Magi, we could not tell.
no subject
Magi?
[Imagine knowing things. Couldn't be Sorawo.]
no subject
[aka he explains next tag in the main story thread]