Tower Expedition - Day 2

[lord_wizard]

Who: Felix's tower expedition team
What: Testing begins
When: Wednesday, May 30th
Where: The ruined tower
Rating: PG
Note: PLEASE TAG IN

SECTIONS BELOW: TESTING - PART 1 | CAMP & ELSEWHERE | CAMPING

Things are fairly quiet on the second morning. Felix doesn't seem to be in a hurry to get moving at the break of dawn at any rate. It's nice to work at his own pace rather than one set by the Curia or anyone else for that matter.

Don't let that fool you, however. Once breakfast is out of the way, it's back to the task at hand.

Comments

durp ima switch to past tense if thats ok....

[psych0p0mps]

Aradia sat down nearby, plucking the drink out of the air after a couple seconds. "Really good! I'm just putting the finishing touches on it, actually. The main bunker's pretty much done. It's practically unoccupied, though, except for Huey's workshop. He's building some robots to guard the place," she explained. "Other than that, it's just me out there."

fine by me!

[ruin_mania]

Raine nodded, finally noticing the telekinesis. How very interesting.

"Mmm, robots can be a very good first line of defense, though if they're at all predictable in their patterns a skilled infiltrator will have little trouble in passing them by. Still, it's always good to have a little physical backup if the magical wards fail."

[psych0p0mps]

"My thoughts exactly. Well, my thoughts in retrospect," said Aradia. "Actually, he started on the robots before anybody was talking about wards, if I remember right. But it's good to have both magic and technology out there, either way."

She took a sip of her wine, then pulled a face at the taste. "Wow, this stuff is sour."

[ruin_mania]

"Precisely. The more complete one's arsenal, the better defended one is."

Raine laughed at that, though. "What are you drinking?"

[psych0p0mps]

Aradia squinted critically at her drink. "I don't know. It looked like some kind of grape juice. Or there were grapes on the label, at least. Do you think it's spoiled?" She held the glass toward Raine, in hopes of a second opinion.

[ruin_mania]

Raine took the glass and sniffed it carefully. She frowned a bit at the smell and then sipped it, but that just made her smile and laugh.

"It's wine, dear. The taste you're unfamiliar with is alcohol. Would you prefer some spring water?"

[psych0p0mps]

Oh, alcohol. She'd heard of that. Aradia wrinkled her nose. "Yes, please," she said. Raine could keep the wine if she wanted. "That's kind of sneaky, serving intoxicants with food."

[ruin_mania]

"No doubt it seemed polite to our host. It's considered a sign of wealth or prestige in many cultures to serve wine with a meal, though I can understand how it would be disappointing if you were expecting a sweet juice."

Raine dug around in her pack a little until she found a bottle of fresh water. She'd become rather fond of the stuff in Unova, and so it was marked with a label familiar to anyone who had spent time in that land.

[psych0p0mps]

Aradia happily accepted the trade, though she sniffed the water briefly before taking a drink from it. "I guess that makes sense," she said, after a moment's pondering. "It'd mean that you don't feel threatened by your company, and could afford to dim your faculties around them. Right?"

[ruin_mania]

"That's a part of it, I'm sure. Though, depending on the culture, wine can be so broadly used that water itself can be considered rude to serve."

Mostly in areas where the water was unsafe to drink, of course, but it was one of the interesting aspects to study about a culture. She didn't know enough about Felix's to say for sure.

[psych0p0mps]

"Hm," said Aradia. "Human cuisine seems unnecessarily complicated. I mean most trolls won't complain as long as the food's edible and not poisoned." Having to find your own food for most of your wigglerhood had a way of broadening your palate, something the dubious origins of grub sauce sort of attested to. Anyway, Aradia took a big bite out of her bread. Honey from Earth bees had a different taste for sure, but at least you could eat it without frying your synapses.

[ruin_mania]

"Oh, that depends largely on the culture, you see. There are certainly places I've visited that won't complain about any food at all, as long as they have enough to keep themselves alive. Yet in others, you have such an abundance of food that one can pick and choose precisely what to eat out of a broad selection."

She followed up the speech with a bite of her own lemon-and-turkey sandwich. Raine's cooking was a little special in and of itself.

[psych0p0mps]

Aradia nodded and finished her bread quietly. Fortunately, she'd never had the misfortune of being exposed to Raine's culinary exploits.

"How do you think the testing went today?" she asked after a while.

[ruin_mania]

Raine thought about it for a bit.

"Mostly positively, I'd say. A large amount will depend on if a normal outpost reacts magically similarly to this tower, of course, but provided they do I think we've made a significant amount of progress."

[psych0p0mps]

Aradia paused thoughtfully, poking at the fruit with her fork. "Wasn't this tower part of another castle or something?" she asked. "That was what I heard, anyway."

[ruin_mania]

She nodded, gesturing over to where the tower was located.

"That's the prevailing theory, and there are remnants in the area that support there was a large structure here once cut from the same stone. Beyond that we've little proof, however."

[psych0p0mps]

"But was it magical like ours, or built? Do we know?" Aradia asked.

[ruin_mania]

Raine shook her head.

"It's impossible to tell. Our castle is, to the architect's eye, one built in the normal fashion, despite its non-Euclidian properties."

[psych0p0mps]

"You think? I thought it was more organic, given how it changes all the time. Like it was grown instead of built." She popped a strawberry in her mouth. "I mean, look at the Insolitus. Maybe that's what a castle looks like before it becomes a castle."

[ruin_mania]

"Hmm." Raine thought about it for a few moments.

"It's certainly possible, but in that case why does the Insolitus remain at all? It's a newer addition, or at least the entrance to it is. It's also entirely possible it's the creation of some other consciousness, but for simplicity's sake we all still refer to it as simply 'the castle'."

[psych0p0mps]

"It could be vestigial, who knows." She shrugged. "I guess somebody could have made it, too. There's really no way of knowing right now."

Okay time to try this cheese chicken or whatever. She munched on that for a little bit.

"I can't believe nobody's tried to excavate this location before," she said after a few bites. "It seems like we should at least have a better idea whether it was a magical castle or not. If I just had more time..."

[ruin_mania]

"Indeed, though it shouldn't stop us from looking for answers."

Raine ate a bit more in silence as well until Aradia spoke again. "Oh, it's been explored before. Excavation would require more people with an interest in this world's history, I think, or at the very least someone willing to spend time away from the castle. I've taken several samples to keep in the library."

[psych0p0mps]

Aradia perked up at that. "Really? What kind of samples?"

[ruin_mania]

"Oh, all kinds of samples." Raine pulled out a copy of the old journal with her name on it and flipped to an entry she'd made some time ago.

"You see, I've placed dirt samples on the page here, and I've set samples of the vegetation in the library so anyone can access them. And here, see, I've made sketches of the wildlife - what little we can find."

She smiled a little, proudly. "And I believe there are still saplings of the trees we found in the marshlands in the castle gardens that I brought back. So far, it's the only tree with edible fruit we've found out there."

[psych0p0mps]

Aradia leaned over to have a glance. Oh man, she would have to check that out soon. "Oh, cool! Do the other trees just not bear fruit, or...?"