songerein | closed ⚡🌠 where the pulse of the land offers no respite

[Eustace can only walk forward with his usual pensive frown, but feeling Tifa's hand he glances at her before he casts out another orb of lightning to further illuminate their path. At least the nightmare energy is not as thick anymore... But there are still traces, as if the atmosphere from above and around continued to permeate even thus far into the depths of the world. Or perhaps there is more generated from the world's core itself? Who knows...

For now Eustace has one of the orbs fly upward and finds some of those gashes there.]

Like those?

[He actually never had much of a chance to investigate down here, his focus primarily on the reactor. So this is his first time through.]

[She doesn't like the combination of those words and that little lightning orbs drifting over their heads, but she follows anyway, her stomach turning when she sees those same marks further up.]

Yeah. Like those. [A pause.] I didn't even see the ones up there before...

[She'd been too preoccupied with the missing crystals and the marks on the ground to even think about looking up, honestly.]

You don't think whatever it was... is... can fly?

[From below he can't get a good luck at the marks, but...]

I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility. However it's just as possible they are able to crawl on the walls and hang upside down.

[And then a heavier pause.]

Given the size of the marks, however... It's just as likely it was large enough to reach up there from where we stand.

[He'll be able to feel that change to Tifa's nerves, the air around her growing suffocatingly hot.

This wouldn't be the first time that they've had to deal with something on that scale, but she hoped that every time before this would have been the last...]

Have you ever seen marks like this before? When you and Alastor were looking around?

No... Not leading up to the city at least. And unfortunately I never had a chance to really go into these caves. Only as far as the entrance to talk to the personnel before focusing on the reactor.

[He stares up at the marks a moment longer before lowering the orb.]

Let's keep going. Where did you go before?

Further down... Alisaie and I managed to go pretty deep.

[Though, she's a little turned around now without any of the people here to guide them, so she just motions forward to where the cavern winds in a downward path through the rocks.]

We thought that maybe if we went deeper, we'd be able to find more, but it just got worse the further we went. Less and less crystals... and what we did find were just broken pieces.

Hm... That would make sense.

[Glancing around, he starts walking in that direction.]

If we assuming something was destroying or taking these crystals, they would have had to start from deeper within before heading towards the outer exits. This would explain why they had gone on undetected for so long.

[He's also going to cast a small bolt of lightning into the wall, like a small marker to indicate where they've been.]

Wait...

[Tifa glances up at the lightning, then at him.]

So the people that live here didn't even know about it for a while? How long has this thing been living here, eating up all the crystals...?

From what I understand, everything was fine until recent about a month or so before the thefts. They use machinery to harvest the crystals in the deeper portions of the caves, and they were producing less. It was only then did they do a survey to discover the caves had a sharp decrease in supply.

The damage you see here is recent.

[Despite their rocky start with these people... she can see why they would be terrified, and now, she can only feel sorry for them. Everything about their livelihood had been threatened in some way or another, whether it was the crystals or the reactor. It's no wonder they were asked to come down here, rather than coming themselves...]

Recent or no... if whatever it is has been eating up crystals, that can't be good, can it?

Presumably. Dreamotion energy can be just as potent and dangerous as nightmare energy in high, concentrated amounts.

The only alternative is that there are other population stealing the crystals, though that still leaves the question as to why.

I don't know...

[Tifa cants her head in thought.]

If it were someone, I'd imagine they'd have to be pretty strong to crush the crystals up the way they were. Some were just completely shattered... Besides, who else would even want them? The dragons don't need them, and Reverein doesn't, either.

We didn't know the Orkili existed. It wouldn't be so surprising if there are other pockets of populations hidden somewhere.

Or, if it's not a group of people, we still have to consider it just some creature or group of creatures taking or destroying them.

[She makes a nervous sound at that, half a laugh, half a sigh.]

You know, I remember when this world felt so much smaller...

[Not that it's a bad thing that it's grown, or that they have discovered other populations and ways of life, but if it were people that had done all this damage to the crystals, she's not sure she wants to meet them.]

...Mm, agreed. A lot simpler then.

[But as if sensing her unease, he gives her hand a gentle squeeze.]

It was...

[And she hasn't forgotten what he said. If anything, she can't stop thinking about it, but... maybe talking about something else will help to ease some of that tension and heat that's been following them... lest her worries and her anxiety draw out whatever it is that's hiding down here.]

Though, I guess it came with its own problems.

[Another nervous laugh, and she returns the squeeze of his hand as they walk around the bend of crystal-less rocks.]

[He just glances at her before he tries asking more of what she saw.]

Did you run into anything while you were with Alisae?

[Did that sigh of hers echo through the cavern? She hopes not...

But he is probably right that they should be focusing more on the mission, and not... something else. She has plenty of protection against all those feelings, after all, and his hand in hers helps.]

Just some bats on the way back up. Wish I could say that they were easy to fend off, but it made me wonder... if maybe they were impacted by the nightmares too? They attacked the cart more than they did us.

[A little, but it's better to bring her back into focus with what's around them.]

The cart... It had crystals in them?

Yeah. Filled with them. Mostly small pieces, but...

[A frown settles in between her brows.]

I thought it was a little strange... Bats aren't usually so aggressive, and I expected them to go after us more, if anything.

How big were they? And were they trying to destroy the crystals or take them?

Bigger than normal bats... Some bigger than others.

[She'll slip her hand out of his only long enough to show him with both, making up the size of a small cat or dog before taking his hand again.]

They were pretty intent on destroying the crystals, or what was left of them. A few tried to take some... my guess to move them someplace else to destroy them... away from us and the dreamotion we were using.

... Definitely some nightmare energy around them.

But you don't think they were noctaere.

They could have been...?

[Her lips press into a frown at the realization. ]

I don't know what they look like normally, but it's possible... I thought that they might have just been in the caves for too long but now that I think about it...

They were really aggressive. For bats, especially.

[...Hm...]

It's not impossible that they could be influenced by the nightmare energy, but not noctaere. Similar to the other creatures inhabiting the Wasteland, like the worms, sand sharks, scorpions.

[Another thoughtful frown.]

If we encounter one, let's try to take it down so I can inspect it.

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