lostcarnival | ⇨ GREYSOL

Entry tags:

⇨ GREYSOL

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 155 - Day 169
Where: Greysol
What: The carnival resumes its tour, this time heading to Greysol, a city tied deeply into the fabric of the multiverse. Here, everyone has an animal companion from birth that is the second half of their soul - and thanks to the Ringmaster, so do you. (Remember,

joysweeper is our guest event runner for this location, and location specific questions should go to them.)
Warnings: Individually marked!

THE CITY OF GREYSOL↴

The carnival arrives in a manicured park in the center of a big city that sprawls out along where the river reaches the ocean. It’s spring, early enough that nights are chilly, warm enough in the days that people and their souls savor the weather, and sometimes shelter together from the rain. Greysol was designed from the bottom up to accommodate the human-dæmon bond. Go out and see!

► THE SHAPE OF YOUR SOUL: The dæmon-forming spell kicks in at about four in the morning. Most characters will wake up with their souls in some small form, curled against them. Even if they were awake, they became dazed and unfocused while their souls were being drawn out of their bodies and have little memory of how it happened.

Until that evening every character's dæmon is able to change shapes, and children and some teens will continue to do so. Most will settle on their permanent forms by evening. Characters without dæmons will just look on, and the few who are thousand-pound bears have to handle being really big.

► IT’S GOOD TO SETTLE: Elaine Tavis Aracari, sixteen-year-old daughter of two actors and a moving pictures sensation herself, just ‘settled’ - her dæmon Tavis stopped changing shape - as a stunning blue peacock. Settling is a major coming of age milestone and celebrated as such in different ways all over the world. She and her family are throwing a massive party in the central park and inviting the public to join in! Enjoy easy access to free catering, live music and showings of moving pictures, and displays of mostly trivial magic. There are also form readers from across the country setting up booths, happy to accept a small fee to inspect your dæmon’s settled or most favored forms and tell you what they mean. Is there anything to these analyses? Eh, maybe, but they’re flattering and fun.

► WITCHING HOURS: Characters who are clearly witches for this event will often be assumed to be in town for a lover, and people, witches and not, may want to know who that is. Humans usually regard them with wary respect and interest. Real witches living with their human families or on business quickly suspect that something’s up, but without clear and present danger take a relaxed wait-and-see attitude. Wait for long enough and any possible decision will come around again, they believe.

There isn’t time to learn much witch magic, but witches, real and carnival-made, have an inherent power: the ability to fly using branches of “cloudpine”, an attractive soft-needled tree common in the park. Witches usually ride large branches as if they’re steeds but can use even short sprays, and you’ll probably see the few witches in the city coming to the park to do so. Why not try?

► BEAR PUN: Human-panserbjørn relations have historically been troubled, but have warmed in the past century. It’s the 65th anniversary of the breaking of the Siege of Bertin, a much-mythologized time when Spectres flooded Greysol and a company of panserbjørn arrived and directed efforts to get the survivors out of the city. A statue is being erected and many florid accounts of the story are being told. If you’re in a panserbjørn shape for the duration of the visit you will probably get thanked and celebrated by people trying to hide their nervousness of you. Expect someone to ask if your dæmon would be a human - it’s a common supposition.

► KERNER ISLAND: From the harbor you can see a wooded island. Although there are no rocks to speak of it sports a tall lighthouse, and nearly all boat traffic avoids it carefully. On a clear day someone with binoculars or a particularly sharp-eyed soul can see loads of trash, birds and various other animals that don’t seem local, and… children? Adults and settled teenagers will see tall vague shapes moving about too.

When asked about it the most important thing adults will tell other adults is don’t go there. They’ll hold their dæmons close and tell you that on that island are things that eat souls. They may also admit with mixed pride and shame that it’s been a source of wealth and innovation for the city. There’s a facility there that can open windows into other worlds, and the children who can reach it can cross through and bring things back. Many of the children are recruited by research and development teams on the lookout for items they can use, but there are also kids out to have adventures or who’ve run away. More on this later.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Right. Being an android isn't the normal state for people here.

"I'm an android." It's said without much fanfare. "Specifically, a YoRHa number 9 type S model. We're made in the image of humans, but we aren't biological."

Well, that makes two of them in the image of humans. 'Android' is completely new terminology to Syrlya, however, and it shows on his face. The closest thing he can think of is a golem, but 9S seems... particularly sapient for that.

"I see. Are you magic or machine?"

9S immediately shoots Syrlya an annoyed look at the mention of the word machine.

"I'm mechanical, not a machine."

As far as he's concerned, they ate worlds apart.

Syrlya doesn't know the difference, but he does understand that corrective tone. All right, touching subject--he did say he was at war with machines, after all, so that must be a term that means a specific group of... mechanical creatures.

"My apologies." He waves a hand. "I am not well versed in anything mechanical at all. My specialty lies in magic."

Apology accepted, leafy man. "It's fine."

But 9S perks up a little at the mention of magic. Magic is something of a lost art, and there's very little remaining of the maso particles used for magic.

Which is good; maso particles are deadly to humans.

"Magic, huh? What sort of magic? Can you show me?"

Syrlya smiles wryly. Last time someone asked to see his magic they wanted a bigger demonstration.

"I am a Mesmer, which is a mage that specializes in illusions and reality bending." His tone sounds a little robotic only because he's getting used to repeating this. He's run into a lot of people in the carnival who are particularly interested in magic. "How grand of an example is it that you want?"

Reality bending!?

9S doesn't really have a way to gauge the scale of magic, being completely inexperienced in both using it and witnessing it.

"Um... It doesn't have to be big. Show me your reality bending magic."

9S turns his head to tell his hovering tactical support unit, "Pod, make sure you record the demonstration."

It responds in its usual emotionless and robotic voice.

< Affirmative. Recording will begin in 10 seconds >

"Ah, well..." Syrlya puts a hand to his chin and looks aside. It's not that he wasn't used to people watching them, but making a recording does fit him with a nervous feeling. He's not sure how deeply 9S can really interpret magical spells. So what's the most explicit glamour he has that doesn't require someone to be attacking him first?

His gaze drifts back to 9S, and when he's aware that it's already recording he takes a step back and hold his hand down, palm towards the ground. Under his own feet, a sparkling, bright light forms in the ground, a wide circle of magic.

He takes a few more steps back, putting a couple feet between himself and the circle before forming another one. Both circle suddenly spark with light and life, swirling with white and purple light. Syrlya steps aside and gestures to the first circle.

"Go on and step on it, and think of traveling through it."

A portal under his control needs only the slightest intent from 9S to be able to rend him between planes of reality to drop him off at the second portal, still standing as he was.

9S' eyes widen in fascination, gaze taking in the swirling portal before him. This doesn't seem to be using particles from the Old World; his Pod would've alerted him to that fact. So... magic that doesn't use particles deadly to humans.

At the instruction, 9S steps up to the portal, but doesn't step into it immediately, crouching down to inspect it more closely. But there isn't much more that can be learnt from just looking, so without any further hesitation, he says, "Alright. Here goes!" and steps into the portal and thinks...

...and jumps back in surprise when the world around him shifts into that a few feet away.

"Whoa! What just--" 9S looks rapidly between the two portals, the pieces of the puzzle rapidly falling into place. "Wow."

And just as quickly, he steps onto the portal he just came from in order to try and activate it to return to where he started.

9S will have no problems bouncing back and forth through the portal as much as he wants, feeling that tug as he's warped through space each time. Of course, the portal itself doesn't last for longer than a minute, and it fades out quite quickly when the spell comes to its end.

Syrlya gestures out with his hands. "It's a portal, able to transplant anything I allow to the other point instantaneously."

9S might have played with the portal a little too enthusiastically, almost like a kid who's received a new and shiny toy. It's a wonder he doesn't get sick from all the portalling, but it's a lot easier when you don't have a stomach to heave with.

"That's amazing!"

He can already think of a number of potential applications. ...Many of them being variations on increasing laziness.

"How far can you make it? Does it work for inanimate objects as well?"

"Ah, around fifty feet?" He looks a little uncertain, because he's never actually attempted to measure the distance before. "It works through any obstacle, and yes you can carry or lead and object through it. There is not a size limitation."

After all, those circles on the ground only mark the entrance and exit. Not the actual shape of the portal.

Fifty feet... so that's about 15 metres. A little bit more limited than he'd like, but still useful all the same. 9S looks down at his feet where the portal once was. Amazing.

Lifting his gaze to the boxy robot hovering by him, 9S says, "Hey Pod, did you get all of that?"

He's sure it did, but never hurts to make sure.

< Affirmative. Video footage of magic demonstration saved for future viewing >

"Good." He'll have to review the footage later. To Syrlya he says, "Sooo, are all your people magic? Or is this something just mesmer type sylvari can do?"

"My people are all magical, but this is not an ability inherent to us. Anyone in Tyria could be a Mesmer, and any Mesmer can make such a portal." Although after he says that, he pauses with sudden consideration.

"Of course some people are naturally better at it than others. What sort of magic is common for your... world."

That's what they are, aren't they? Different worlds. He'll get used to saying that.

Everyone's magical? That's mindboggling, since...

"Magic is something that came from another world way back. But magic from that world is deadly to humans, so they're living out on the moon instead of on Earth."

Just a small subset of the species, the last survivors of a race that had been billions strong. It's hard to imagine what it was like to have so many humans living together.

"Most of it's gone now though. Once we eradicate the machine lifeforms, humans will be able to return to their homeland. So yeah, magic isn't common in my world at all. We're more on the technological side of things, you know?"

Like yours truly, the blindfolded android with the floating sword.

... Can you live on the moon? Tyria isn't remotely close to space travel, Syrlya hadn't considered it anything other than some big rock far, far away. Syrlya's brows raise as he considers that.

Crossing from other worlds or planes of existence, though, that he's familiar if--even if he's envisioning it different from the actual experience. And it gives him something to think about in regards to what he might take back to Tyria... he'd really be the worst if he just brought something back that fucked up their world further.

"Magic is native to Tyria, so I have a hard time imagining a world without it. The Asura are renowned for their technological advancement, however." There's a lot of magitech in what they do, but they're also difficult to talk to about it so Syrlya doesn't really know much of the details aside from what he can get Taimi to simplify for him.

"What danger are the machines you are fighting? Do they come from the same place?"

Well, as long as Syr isn't bringing back a gigantic naked woman with him from another world, he should be fine.

9S shakes his head. Being a recent model of android, he only has Council of Humanity briefings and information he's learnt on his own for reference. But he can give an overview. "Nope. Our war with the machines started a lot later. Like, a couple of thousand years later, when the aliens invaded from space and created the machines to fight us."

And then the machines killed their creators. It's kinda crazy, thinking about it. 9S doesn't think he could possibly raise his hand against a human, much less kill one. Just goes to show what kind of unthinking nutjobs they are. But Command had told him to speak of the aliens' death to no one, so he won't, even though Syr isn't from his world at all.

"They're just mindless automatons that attacked us and took over Earth. Lots of androids have been killed by them. But they dont understand the pain we endure because of them. Heck, they can't even think! Their logic circuits aren't complex enough for that kind of thing."

He says that, but the crazy singing machine had coherent thought before she lost the plot. And then there's Pascal and his village... And the pair of machines that looked like huma-- no, like androids.

9S pushes aside those thoughts and continues on. "But they have numbers on us... a lot of numbers. And when it comes to fighting, they evolve crazy fast."

"They can't think?" That's... interesting, and familiar. Swarms of adaptable, mindless minions being controlled by a stronger, higher power. Except robots instead of magical constructs.

"So then the aliens control them, if they created them? Are there any records of what it is they want?"

He supposes reason doesn't really change the actual, bloodthirsty result of anything--whether it's calculated or instinctual destruction. Still, he's curious.

That's classified information, right there.

"Does it matter?" 9S moodily kicks at the ground. They're the enemy! Who cares about what the aliens or the machines want!? "They came and picked a fight with us first. No one's heard from the aliens in ages," that part isn't classified, "but their stupid machines keep attacking us."

9S huffs.

"If they want to take over Earth, we're not letting them have it. They should go back to their own planet and quit bothering us!"

Syrlya raises a brow. That is a moody response.

"I did not expect you to let them have it, but is the first part in understanding your enemy not grasping their motives?" He shrugs. When you don't, you fight blindly and ultimately fail to prevent their goal anyway--he learned that the hard way.

"What do you know about the aliens, then? Since they appear to the ones leading this conquest."

"Only what I told you. No one knows where they are, so we can't," 9S makes a face," talk with them. They may as well be dead and gone."

It's not revealing information if it's phrased like conjecture, right?

"So even if I wanted to understand them," he doesn't, "we can't. And before you ask, the machines don't know anything about the aliens either." 9S taps the side of his head. "I've poked inside their heads for info but there's nothing."

Edited 2017-09-25 05:52 (UTC)

Syrlya tilts his head, considering that. So the aliens were missing and weren't required for direct interference, but the machines were too mindless to... function to do anything except the order they were carried out to do?

"They sound like thralls," he muses. "It's likely they were designed with only enough autonomy to carry out the will of their creators without direct interference, but these--aliens would be the ones ultimately in control. I'm familiar with creatures like that, and... you have my condolences."

Because, yeah, swarms of violent mindless monsters of death that ravage the planet suck to deal with. Especially when they stick around after their leader is dead. "Perhaps if you are lucky, they really are gone. Then you only need to eliminate their minions."

Ouch. That sort of thing is happening in Tyria too? 9S winces in mutual sympathy.

"Yeah, I hope so." Well, he knows so. "I thought about asking the Ringmaster to eradicate the machines, but it's only a matter of time before they're gone."

Android supremacy, right there. Nevermind that the war has been going on for thousands of years. But YoRHa are much more advanced than the other androids, and sacrificing his life in the line of duty isn't a big deal; his data's backed up to the Bunker server, so if he dies on the field, he'll just be reuploaded to a new body. It's happened a few times already so it's no big deal.

While asking the Ringmaster to do the dirty work for them would save a lot of android life, if they're gonna win the war anyway, he might as well ask for something that he can't get back home. And that's bringing back data about humans and the Old World that has been lost to the ravages of time. Winning a war is something within their power, but restoring human society and culture... they can only make guesses from their limited scraps of records.

9S smiles, perking up noticeably. "But once that happens, we can enter a new age of peace! Then I won't have a job any more."

It'll be great! At least, for a while.

Syrlya cringes in sympathy at that last statement. It's crossed his mind that when everything's over he'll lose his purpose, but peace has felt so far away and hopeless lately that he hasn't been thinking about it lately.

Especially if 9S is created for it... "I'm sure you will find something new to pursue."

Yeah, positive thoughts. At least it sounds like 9S's war is going better than his. "What is it that you asked her for, if you don't mind me asking?"

He sure will! But not before enjoying being a jobless bum for a while. He's gonna get tips from Strange about it! This will be a great idea!

"The opportunity to study humans and learn about the Old World. Human civilisation was wiped out thousands of years ago, so we don't know much about what it was like back then." Remembering Rita's distraught reaction to the news that humans are gone, 9S is quick to add, "Oh, but there's still humans that escaped onto the moon! They're just waiting for us to eradicate the machines before they return to Earth."

Well, maybe Syrlya won't be as shocked as Rita had been, on account of not actually being a human. But humans did have a large influence on the growth of his plant people, so...

"We're hoping to restore Earth to be what it was like so the humans feel like they're coming home. But it's kinda tough when all our records are patchy and incomplete! Hence why I'm here."

⇨ GREYSOL

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tmw I belatedly realise 9S has already explained the moon thing earlier lmao

He's just making sure the plant got it.

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