improvking | IC Inbox (ryslig)

[ After retrieving the Millennium Puzzle and arranging it in his family's butsudan he'd set up in his museum exhibit, the Ring-Spirit went back to Gregory House, a large mansion outside of Bavan. It was once full of people, as suits a house of its size, but now... well, every one eventually went back into the Sea of Stars, so... at least he can keep Kul Elna here with him now without it bothering anyone.

So the first response Saint-Germain gets is a hideous shriek coming from somewhere inside the house, like a hundred damned souls all screaming at once for someone to get the phone.

Shortly after, the Ring-Spirit opens the door as if nothing blood-curdling just happened,, ]

Saint-Germain?

[ He cocks an eyebrow, puzzled, though mostly he looks... tired. He's very tired today. ]

[ She is not surprised to see tiredness. Her own ache is, she knows, lesser, but it has worn on her all the same. ]

Solitude breeds suffering. May I enter?

H-heh... [ He quirks a crooked half-smile, lightly amused. ] Right, your "suffering mechanism" theory.

[ His smile widens somewhat as he steps aside to allow her entry. ]

Sure, come on in. What's in the box?

[ A ghostly wisp drifts out into view through a nearby wall, their skeletal expression curious as they bob along midair. A visitor!! With gifts!! Goodness! ]

Beverages.

[ And sure enough, when she reaches the first table that seems appropriate for such an activity, Saint-Germain begins to unload....beverages.

A carafe of coffee. A pot of tea. Cream, sugar, milk, all in a small cooler. Some flavoring mixes left over from Cagliostro, who'd had a tendency to...embellish....everything on or in her body. Sparkling water. Wine. Appropriate receptacles for all of the above. ]

I didn't know your preference, so I brought a variety.

[ A half-used bottle of blue Gatorade that, to those with keen olfactory senses, will smell faintly of Cat. ]

[ The Ring-Spirit briefly raises his eyebrows, impressed by the array. ]

You went all-out.

Hm... well, I don't usually drink liquor, but I suppose now would be the time for it if I'm ever going to...

[ He moves one long finger between the various containers as he considers which to go for. ]

...Might as well start with the tea for now though.

You have any preference yourself? I'm assuming you plan to stick around for a cup or two.

[ He looks around and locates a nearby ottoman to drag over to her chosen table, thinking it might be easier for Saint-Germain to sit on then a regular-style chair.

Kul Elna meanwhile weaves around the room, wailing softly to themselves. ]

Tea is fine.

[ She straddles the ottoman, indeed preferring it, and begins setting out the necessary equipment for drinking and preparing tea....Saint-Germain, did you even bring saucers. Saint-Germain.

Kul Elna's presence causes her to quirk an eyebrow when they get somewhat close. ]

Does your companion drink?

[ Why yes, she WILL serve a cup of tea to the wailing souls of the unjustly murdered damned if necessary. If you're having refreshments, you ask everyone present. ]

[ The Ring-Spirit considers the question for a moment before turning to Kul Elna as if to pass it along. They wail slightly louder and he turns back to Saint-Germain. ]

Well, they don't drink, but they'd like a cup anyway. It should probably be empty, so I don't have to worry about them spilling it everywhere - they most likely just literally want a cup itself, to hold. They like to be included.

[ Kul Elna circles them, their wails undulating in tone and volume. ]

Understood.

[ This is presumably the result of that ancient Egyptian spell he had been working on.....Perhaps Saint-Germain should have brought beer, as well.

But if what they most desire is the cup itself, she can offer that. She holds one up. ] Here.

[ And, when she has their attention: ]

My name is Saint-Germain. Apologies for intruding.

[ There, now she has discharged her obligations to her new acquaintance(s?). ]

[ The conglomeration of spirits shrieks agreeably in response. Then they abruptly thworp into the cup, disappearing from sight as they possess its form instead. It levitates up out of her grip and begins to float around the general vicinity of the table, bopping about from side to side erratically.

The Ring-Spirit watches this with some bemusement. ]

Yep, good thing it's empty. H-heheh.

[ With that, he perches on the edge of the table, relying on his hollow bones to not endanger the thing's structural integrity, and sets about pouring himself a cup that's looking like it'll end up about half cream. ]

...Did you know Atem very well? He always seemed to make a lot of friends.

[ Ah. So that's how they plan on "holding" the cup.

Saint-Germain's own cup, once the Ring-Spirit has finished with the pot, is black. ]

When I arrived in Ryslig, his experience was invaluable. I've built on his research.

[ And.....Yes, there is no shame in this fact. In fact, it admitting it would "keep her heart open", as advised by Cagliostro. As the methods of combating Ryslig dictate. ]

And his advice changed my life.

[ Which, for someone who remained the same for centuries, is saying something. ]

[ The Ring-Spirit nods along thoughtfully, nursing his tea. ]

Mn... s'good the research proved useful...

[ The Ring-Spirit has to weigh how he wants to respond to that last bit though, so it's more the part that's on his mind. He supposes he doesn't have to say anything... even if she's choosing to be open with him, he doesn't have to reciprocate.

... ]

Knowing him changed me too. Actually knowing him, as a person...

[ He stares into his cup, lost in thought. ]

I think... he had to get to know himself as a person, too. Thinking of what he as a person wanted didn't come naturally to him. Spent too much time thinking about everyone else.

[ He presses his lips into a mildly disapproving line, continuing to stare into his cup for a while. Eventually he takes a sip, still making a face over Atem's selfless qualities. ]

Noblesse oblige.

[ Even if the man's reign predates that term.....He did, at least, feel a king had responsibilities. And he did take those responsibilities seriously. Saint-Germain cannot consider that a flaw, though she also suspects Richard is talking about the kind of "selfishness" espoused by Tachibana Hibiki. The kind born of a personal code of justice.

The kind where the presence of a "king" hurt everyone, even the king.

She raises her cup. ]

To triumph over subjugation. Even that imposed by oneself.

[ Regarding "selfishness", the Ring-Spirit really did mean a little of column A as well as column B, but... yeah, close enough. His lips twitch into a smirk as he raises his own cup in solidarity, feeling the irony of his agreement given what at least half of him is. ]

Here's to true freedom.

[ Kul Elna's teacup lets out a chorus of wails that sound vaguely approving, and then proceeds to dance in the air a bit more energetically.

The Ring-Spirit snickers at them as he takes a drink. ]

Ahh.

[ Saint-Germain too watches the spirits concur with this toast, then sips. His ritual truly did succeed, then.

It would make a fascinating study, on a day with a different aim. ]

[ After their toast, the Ring-Spirit lets his mind drift briefly. Was there something he'd wanted to... oh right. ]

I spoke with the Fog after I saw the stars and moon were gone. She seemed... frightened. I've heard her sound worried before, but never frightened. I think there's something up there our crash woke up. Whatever it is might be connected to the weird door shit that happened after.

...Bit off-topic, I guess, but Atem wouldn't want us to stop researching just because we're ~sad~.

[ He most certainly would not, and she is grateful for the information. In fact, Saint-Germain can think of no better way to honor their absent ally (comrade...? No, he had never quite been a full comrade, their ideals differed too severely, she the liberator and he the monarch, but....but he had occupied a third position which hadn't, in its own way, been bad).

As for what they'd awoken - there's a pattern here, isn't there? The groundhogs. The sea-woman. Time and time again, this year in particular, after Felfri, powers hitherto unknown have exerted themselves....Powers tied not to a god, but to the land and sea and sky of Ryslig itself....Genius locii? Not quite. But, the same general conceit, which implies - ]

Ryslig's instability is freeing other powers.

Hm, perhaps.

[ The Ring-Spirit considers matters, also thinking of the assorted new "outside parties" that have been interfering with their lives. He's also put in mind of the situation with the Pearl, something he suspects may predate Saint-German's arrival - though he can't be certain of that, he's not sure when she got here. He sips his tea a bit before he speaks again. ]

I know you've worked with the Bavan Historical Society to some extent - did they ever give you a recounting of the locals' origin story for this world's original gods? The three - Day, Night, Fog - were said to have been created by a greater entity, one always represented in texts by a blue squiggle. I have no idea how - or even if - it's actually pronounced when speaking aloud.

I wonder sometimes how that being fits into things.

As do I.

[ So yes, she knows the story. ]

Does this world operate as intended, or was the dissonance introduced later....? Many theories posit Ryslig went awry as a result of the god war. Yet the war itself could have been a symptom of metaphysical corruption.

[ The Ring-Spirit frowns as his considers this angle. ]

Huh... never thought to question that before... It's true everyone seems to take the Day and Night's war for granted, if they even know about it: the two had a rivalry, it got out of hand. But there hasn't been much research into why they were rivals to begin with... We know very little about those two. If the imbalance didn't start because of them, but rather the other way around...

[ He trails off, peering unseeing into his tea. He'd never thought to investigate the two "dead" gods, just assumed them to be off the playing field and thus irrelevant. ]

...A question was raised to me a while back as to whether those two are even really gone after all. Supposedly the Fourth and Fog rely on their priests for their own indestructability, and if the same held true for the Day and Night... well, all of their true priests, the ones invested with power, had been killed off at one time, or at least that's what we'd thought anyway. But within the past few years we had a time disruption and a number of Night and Day priests were rescued from their war - which could mean the Fog wouldn't have been able to kill either of her siblings, not fully.

I've pursued a version of that investigation.

[ I want to say "this is the most Saint-Germain's ever talked shop at a wake", but any other wakes she's attended had a high probability of being for, and attended by, alchemists. In which case metacosmological theory-shopping was TOTALLY THE NORM. ]

Steven Grant purchased a compass that detects Day and Night energy. We used it in the wastelands, when investigating the wild monsters. I hypothesized their remnants might have clustered in their signature animals, the black moose and the white bear.

[ She frowns. ] We tracked one down...but there was no response.

[ His point about the time travel having potentially influenced said Day and Night presence anywhere, though....that's compelling. She'll let him digest her experiment while she muses on his own thoughts. ]

Edited 2023-09-23 17:35 (UTC)

Really? That is strange.

[ He finishes his tea as he ponders this revelation, brows knit. ]

You know, the fog out there... it's not connected to the Fog god now either. I wonder if whatever severed it from her did something similar with the animals of the other two... or maybe all the powers just intermingled horribly and tainted each other...

[ He grimaces, then shakes his head a little to clear it. This is getting to be almost as troubling as Atem's loss is depressing, which makes it a poor distraction.

He sets his empty cup down, and picks up the bottle of wine, eyeing it contemplatively.

Behind him, Kul Elna's possessed cup begins to slowly make loops around the table as they wail softly. ]

[ She nods. There's myriad explanations, but only one conclusion to be drawn from all of them: ]

Something definitely conspires to limit our movements.

[ The whole planet, swathed as it had been in fog....The moon, intercepting vertical exploration with the tragic results Richard had witnessed firsthand.

...She looks over at Kul Elna when they start making noise again. ]

Apologies. I excluded you from conversation.

[ Or was the wailing their contribution...? Saint-Germain, being the sort of person who thinks always of tomorrow, never of yesterday, does not speak VENGEANCE!!. ]

[ Kul Elna wails again, and the Ring-Spirit glances back at their possessed cup as it continues to bob aloft. ]

Mm, they seem to feel included enough - it's hard to have much of a conversation, as such, with them. No words, extremely limited body language and facial clues - even when they're not being a teacup.

[ Kul Elna seems to take this as a cue, gently placing their cup down on the table before leaving it to more freely float around the room. Indeed, their "face" is essentially just a ghostly skull, and their body primarily a long trailing wisp without any defining features: neither exactly readable. They give a couple shrieks after having circled the room, as if adding some manner of commentary. ]

[ Saint-Germain watches Kul Elna's circuit of the room. Thinks about what she knows of their summoning, the sorts of translations and inscriptions she'd aided with. Questions he'd asked, long ago. ]

But you're glad they're here.

[ THAT is not a question. Richard was once an evil god, she understands - or at least partially. Yet this conglomerate of souls, the people it encompasses, were important to him. Summoning them here was not entirely an act of selfish loneliness, but an attempt at rescuing them from a fate worse than death after death. Was it not?

If so, these people make Richard human. ]

They're my family.

[ There's more he could say, about how they're also his responsibility and how he owes them; but he settles for declaring them family and watching them with a fond eye. They circle him, shrieking, and he cackles - sounding a bit unhinged but nonetheless happy. ]

This place has regenerative properties. They're not in pain, here; the ragged edges of their souls softened somehow. I thought they could never be this whole again...

[ He holds up a hand to them, and they nyoom through it a few times before returning to their circling the room. He continues to hold his hand up for a bit after, examining it. ]

...Not long after I arrived here, both my hands were turned into just this mess of scar tissue; then... [ he shudders involuntarily, reminded of something ] ...ah, s-something happened - anyway, point is, they later healed back to just the scar I'd arrived with.

[ Indeed, they currently boast a single scar, a starburst through one hand - the one that Saint-Germain might remember having seen run through by a pocket knife during the stages-event. He muses, half to himself: ] ...Probably something to do with its importance to the body...

IC Inbox (ryslig)

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i can't remember if she knows fully about kul elna but either way she's seen some shit so /shrug

I don't think he ever explained their deal, no! just got her help with some hieroglyphs

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do that in front of pokehaus and get them excited about POLTEAGEIST?!

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they have an icon. bless

and this is super late, oops,,

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