solnet | [Voice]

You too? I didn't have one but my...my roommate did.

Did you...did you wake up with anything? Like markings on yourself or something?

Marks? ... No, no marks.

I just dreamed that the darkness was trying to swallow me. So I would take it with me by blowing myself up.

... Don't ask, death is cheap to me most of the time.

Nothing? Huh.

Wait...you were going to take it out with you...what if it wasn't going to kill you?

[ Like you're one to talk Keith...you'd probably do the same thing.

Think of the Shadow event kiddo. ]

I mean...I get it...I guess.

[ There ya go. ]

That would depend on how big the pool was. I'd probably drop a charge in the darkness, or seal the room if it was too big to deal with.

Yeah....I guess I can get that.

As for cleaning supplies I'm sure there's a supply closet or something around?

You had a vivid dream, too?

[Bad enough he was screaming. Minato barely ever even raises his voice, doesn't even speak most of the time, but he'd been screaming.]

It felt just as real as whatever the hell it was happened just before...

Wake up with anything weird?

[He has a key. He didn't have a key like this one before. ...The dream still haunts him, too, but he's focusing on the key. The key is real.]

Terror, mostly.

The grenade I made on my own.

What about you?

A key.

[She made her own grenade. That's a thing.]

One I didn't have before.

Definitely not something we should dismiss, then....

Can you remember anything else?

....I was buried alive. [There wasn't much else to the dream, just the thing that really got to him.] I couldn't scream.

Ah. I was swallowed by the Darkness, myself. Probably one of the few things that could actually kill me and make it stick. Not a fate I'm particularly eager to meet.

You say you got a key out of it, though... did you see anything that might tell you what the key is for?

Not that death sticks here anyway. [Ken had said as much. Minato still doesn't know how to feel about that.]

All I saw was the inside of the stone...box, I guess, and a skeleton. No keyholes.

...

Stone box?

We should check the altar room. I woke up in a sarcophagus in there when I first arrived.

If the dream was a mental projection, there may be someone trapped in one of those things. The fact that you woke up with a key means this isn't a normal dream.

Yeah. [Buried alive. Not a good time. Even with company.]

Are there skeletons in those? ...Do they take keys?

[He's still kind of stuck on the dream. These things don't normally stick with him this long. Lingering terror is new, but dread pooling in his gut is like an old friend.]

They're chambers of sacrifice. I imagine there have been many skeletons in them over the years.

I have no idea about the use of the key, but having been trapped in one of those things before... We need to check.

[Sacrifice, huh. Definitely not something to delay, then.]

Meet you there?

All right. That sounds like a plan. I'll head there now. Cleaning up a scorch mark can wait.

[He pauses only long enough to strap on his Evoker holster. Just in case something is in the sarcophagus, but isn't so grateful. One quick elevator ride and he's practically there.

If he gets there first, he'll lean against a wall and wait. Otherwise...it's pretty clear who he's looking for.]

Hey.

[He actually does arrive first. She tends to travel heavy. She's armed to the teeth on arrival, a hand cannon of considerable size strapped to her thigh, her sniper rifle across her back as is typical. She is, of course, decked out head to toe in armor, and she looks ready for a fight.]

[And once again, Link the Honedge is resting on her back under the sniper rifle, while Koffee is hovering behind her her.]

[Katherine gives Minato a quick nod of acknowledgement.]

Sorry for the delay, had to wrangle up the kid.

[She gestures back to Koffee with her thumb.]

[More of those creatures he's been seeing all over the castle. Pokemon or something? Cool. He nods to acknowledge the apology - unnecessary, but who's counting?

Compared to Katherine, Minato is amusingly underprepared. A tee shirt, jeans, sneakers, and his holstered Evoker. MP3 player and headphones hanging from his neck more by habit than anything else.

He glances about the room.]

Guess we don't need to check the smashed ones. [How many are smashed? There's like...fifty or so of the things.]

Yes, I had a suspicion like that myself. My dream was far more peaceful, but I don't usually wake up with spots like I stared into the light too long in my eyes, you know?

Maybe I'm wrong, but I'd like to see if the dreams might be connected. It's worth a try, right?

I was at a cliff face, inside a room. The ground itself turned to darkness and tried to swallow me up.

I'd like to say it was like nothing I've ever experienced before, but it felt like I was in Crota's realm again. The darkness was all encompassing, all-swallowing.

I see, I see.

[There's a short silence as he ponders the information so far.]

Volga dreamed of a cliff too, so that's one connection. I dreamed of a door, and the young man you were talking to has a key he didn't before. My door was open and filled with light, your room filled with darkness...

Yep, yep. I think there's something to this. Enough to meet and form an investigation team, don't you think?

I think that's probably a good idea. I can't imagine this being a coincidence any more.

Should we meet up in the mess hall? Or maybe we should see if anyone else had dreams like this?

Both. I can easily make a call to see if anyone else has any information on the way.

Thank you, that's a great idea. I'd have done it myself, but I haven't made many connections here.

So that's what that noise was.

{ He never sleeps. He almost went out to investigate, but decided against it. Ever since these nightmares started Mithos hasn't left his room. }

If you cant find any, take some citrus from the from the kitchen and use the acid. It might work depending on what you mix it with.

That's actually not a bad idea. Never tried making cleaning agents myself. Never had much need to clean out in the cosmo... Thank you, that's good advice.

{ Mithos isn't even sure why he's offering the advice; he's probably speaking with a human. Though, granted, just about every single human he's spoken here has been oddly kind to him, and almost none of them even knew what a half-elf was, much less that the humans in his world treated half-elves like dirt (and full-blooded elves weren't much better).

But then again, who wants to see scorch marks on the walls, anyway? }

Yeah... What in the world did you even see that made you throw a grenade in a hallway, anyway?

{ Must have been one hell of a dream. }

Edited 2017-05-25 12:51 (UTC)

The Darkness consuming me.

I won't take anything trying to consume my light without fighting back. If I can't escape, I'm sure as hell going to do damage before I'm snuffed out.

I thought the shadows couldn't come in the safe areas.

Or... are you talking about something else?

Shadows can absolutely come into the safe areas. They just can't lair in them any longer, and it's not so easy for them to breach deeper into our areas. Every piece of territory we hold, we must watch. The shadows have attacked our territory on more than one occasion.

But no, it was in the dream that I was being consumed. It is something I am familiar with. I've fought it many times. And blown myself up to take some minion of the darkness with me many times.

'Many times?' In the dream you mean?

{ Because blowing yourself up 'many times' can't be good for your health. }

No. In combat situations.

... Ah, let me rephrase. I carry the essence of an all powerful being within me. So long as I have it, I can't be permanently killed. Blowing myself up is just a valid combat tactic for me, and a momentary inconvenience.

So, basically, you're immortal too, then.

{ Yes; he said 'too.' }

I can't be killed, either. But being blown up would be a little more inconvenient than that, for me.

Functionally, yes. I can't die of old age, and normal poisons and illness mean nothing to me.

I can still die in combat, but I get right back up a few moments later, good as new. The enemy hates that.

So what happens to your soul?

{ This person... does have one, right? }

Don't know. I'm not a thanatonaut, they creep me out.

I'm pretty sure it goes into torpor, shielded by the light of the traveler. That's how Ghost revives me. Just reconstitutes my body from the light.

I was dead for a couple of centuries before my ghost found me for the first time. I don't remember any of it.

I have no idea what any of that means.

{ His body is inorganic and his soul is outside of his body, and he thought that was complicated. Every time he thinks he has this place figured out, it throws him another curveball. }

So... you do have a body underneath all that armor, right?

{ And it's not... y'know... just light? }

Edited 2017-05-29 20:53 (UTC)

I do, yes.

[She reaches up to take off her helmet and show her face.]

From the top, then. Thanatonauts are guardians who explore death. Some pick the most lopsided fights they can find, and die that way. Others sit in labs and shoot themselves in the head repeatedly. Their goal is to explore death and what it means.

As for the Traveler, it is... well, it's the guardian of humanity in a way. A "Divine Being" that brought knowledge and prosperity to our world. Until the darkness chased it to us, struck it down, and destroyed our world. Guardians like me are its agents, we carry its essence in us. We fight the darkness.

And the ghost is the Traveler's literal child. It's my link to the Traveler. It's a guide, a teacher, and a deus ex machina all in one.

{ Wow. He listens to her, genuinely fascinated by what she's saying. They... explore death? Where were one of those when he needed them? He really could have used their help with Martel.

He's fought demons, too, but thankfully, the Ginnungagap mostly kept them out of the two worlds after he split them up. Well, this rules her out as being human, at least to him. Congratulations! In his mind, that's very much a good thing. }

So what's it like, then? Dying?

{ He thought he was going to die. He... well... didn't. He ended up here instead, and he's been thoroughly assured that this isn't the afterlife. }

Usually? A few moments of intense, lingering pain, followed by silence and light. When I come back, it's like waking up from a vivid dream and the pain is gone.

Many Thanatonauts say differently. Which is what makes the field so strange. Very few of them actually agree on what they've seen. I personally am not a fan of dying, but I'm even less of a fan of letting the darkness win. So if I have take a quick dirt-nap for a few minutes to get the job done, I'm willing to do it.

{ He honestly didn't remember much about it; when he strains his memory, he can remember pain, certainly, but he wasn't sure if that was because he had just been defeated by Lloyd, or if it was indeed the process of dying. If the fatal blow did land, he didn't remember it. All he remembered was waking up in this world, alive and well. And the Cruxis Crystal was intact. }

Do you think it has something to do with how you die?

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sorry this took so long

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