[au | light the wave]

[oneandmikleonly]

[you plunge, without warning, into water. it's pure and clear and refreshingly cold, a flurry of bubbles rising around you; you can breathe it, somehow, and move with ease. there's a distant beat at the edge of your hearing, a tidal pulse keeping time in this place.

it's hard to get your bearings. but if you look up towards the surface where the bubbles rise, it's dark, and if you look down, there's a faint bluish luminescence far below you.

which way do you choose to go?]

Comments

[imsorey]

[it takes a few extra heartbeats to decide on a direction, taking the time to let the bubbles disperse and try to orient himself. he looks up and around before taking a breath and swimming further down, towards the faint hint of blue.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[some feeling creeps into the water around you: familiarity, comfort, support. it gets even easier to move down, like it's helping you along.

it's still a bit of a swim, but the luminescent glow turns out to come from a sprawl of weathered ruins on the ocean floor (is it really an ocean, though...? the water's fresh.) the light comes from seraphic glyphs that skitter and sputter over the stone like live things; you might be able to read them if you approached and followed a section in particular.

there's something kind of off about the shape of the ruins from above, but you can't quite put your finger on it right away.]

[imsorey]

[he can't help but smile at the feelings drifting through the water; those, if nothing else, make him feel more at ease swimming down into the ocean(?).

when he reaches the ruins, though, he's held up staring at them for far too long, determined to figure out what is so off about them before getting any closer. it'll be a good few minutes before he lets it go and swims closer to get a better look at the glyphs sliding across the surface.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[when he finally looks away from them, the oddness clicks into place; out of the corner of his eye he sees, just for a moment, that there's something about the layout and shape of the ruins that makes them look like a human figure, tightly curled up.

the ruin is not from a specifically identifiable era, as far as he can tell from an outside observation, though it bears some similar architectural hallmarks to Mabinogio. if he tracks various sections of the moving glyphs high up on the ruins' walls and towers, they have...some weirdly mundane translations? gather more sea grass, reads one. make larger waves, says another.

there are clusters that move more slowly and are clumped more thickly at the stone foundations near the ground; these are more basic concepts, repeated over and over. protect, is all one such gathering of glyphs says. be of use, says another...]

[imsorey]

[his expression is fond as he tracks the glyphs at the base of the ruins, and on impulse he reaches out to brush his fingers over the protect ones, seeing if they'll shine brighter.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[they light up almost blindingly, several of them running out from the stone up your arm. fragments of memory flash through your mind from Mikleo's point of view: a hand on your own shoulder; sighing and picking you up from a stone floor to carry you home; his back pressed against yours as he blocks a soldier's sword with his staff; the same cool exhilarating rush you feel when the water armatus settles on you...

when it fades, most of the glyphs settle back into the stone, but a single gleaming protect remains on the back of your hand, like a promise or a brand.]

[imsorey]

[rubbing his thumb over it for a moment with a stupid lopsided smile on his face, truly touched. he takes another look at the glyphs, tempted to start touching them all, but he knows he'd be at it for hours if he did that. so with an air of reluctance he swims back a little to look around for an entrance instead.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[on the one hand, there's a big main entrance archway. on the other, it definitely looks like the type of ruin to have secret ways in. do you want to be STRAIGHTFORWARD SOREY or SNEAKY SOREY?]

[imsorey]

[SNEAKING SOUNDS MORE FUN and there's no way he can back down from this challenge. Who will find the secret entrances to the ruins first???

(Just him, because there's no one else there, but it's the principle of the matter.)

He does take his time to go around the ruins and search for alternative entrances; since it's underwater there are a lot more options for gaining access.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[some things he could try:

- there aren't windows, but there are grilles lower down near the base of the building, if he wanted to try and come in from underneath.

- they're a bit obscured by the moving clusters of glyphs, but he can find three mosaics inset into the walls of the ruin; they're in tucked away or high up areas, and would probably be quite hard to get to if the whole place wasn't underwater and easy to swim around at any level. the one on the north wall is just a blurry cluster of colours; the one of the south wall is a crisscross of hard straight lines in the same shade of blue; and the one on the west wall is a stylized blue dragon.]

[imsorey]

[After taking the time to explore and find one of the grilles and at least two of the mosaics, eventually he picks the one mosaic along the south wall to inspect further, feeling along the edges to see if it will push or pull open.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[he can't pull the entire mosaic aside, but some of the lighter blue tiles give a little under his fingers, playing faint notes as they do so...

oh no, it's a music puzzle]

[imsorey]

[omg

underwater music!!!

tapping at the lighter blue tiles to hear the range of sound as he tries to ponder what the right key could be]

[oneandmikleonly]

[with enough tapping, you discern that they play a distinct full musical scale! maybe you've got to play a tune?]

[imsorey]

[he cannot just play "part of your world" this isn't fair

no you know what even if he doesn't know it he still accidentally finds the tune, let me live]

[oneandmikleonly]

[oh my god sorey

INCREDIBLY...WHILE THE LINED MOSAIC DOES NOT RESPOND TO PART OF YOUR WORLD...there's a distinct rumbling from the north wall, where the blurry mosaic was]

[imsorey]

[...PARTIAL SUCCESS

With great reluctance he abandons his current mosaic, curiosity overcoming his desire to stare at the music puzzle until it's been solved. He swims back over to the blurry mosaic to see if anything has changed on it, or if a very obvious opening has appeared.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[THE WHOLE PANEL WITH THE MOSAIC ON IT HAS SLID ASIDE, REVEALING A PASSAGEWAY IN.

the water around it rings with amusement and a tiny hint of disbelief.]

[imsorey]

[Use the wrong music on the wrong opening and still getting in? He shakes his head a little in a "I feel like this is cheating" way before going with his stroke of luck and swimming through.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[the water remains around you, but the feelings in it diffuse; more intense but also hazier, more mixed up and hard to pick individual emotions apart. for the most part it feels various shades of happy, though.

you emerge into--the inside of a house in Elysia. your house, actually; the hearth inexplicably lit underwater, two bedrolls laid out side by side near it, a scatter of books and bowls nearby. sun is shining through the windows. it's sparser than when you left it behind to chase Alisha, but that's not necessarily weird; it kind of looks like the more basic setup you had when you two were children.]

[imsorey]

[pausing in surprise at the abrupt change in scenery, but only long enough to marvel at it before making his way further in to scoop up the bowls and books and move them out of the way. there's a small, nostalgic smile on his face; even without the happiness ripping through the water, home is a nice place to be.]

[oneandmikleonly]

[there's a voice behind you, from the doorway]

Hey! Why are you moving our things?!

[imsorey]

[startling and turning around to see who it is]

I was just cleaning up a little. I didn't mess with anything.

[oneandmikleonly]

[it's like, eight year old Mikleo

wow he looks a lot more tiny and fat when you're seventeen. his frown of disapproval hasn't changed much though]

You didn't need to! That's why I'm here!

[imsorey]

[oh no it's tiny Mikleo he's so small what is this when did he shrink

he bends down into a crouch so that he's closer to Mikleo's height]

You don't have to clean it up all by yourself though. It'd go faster if I help out.