Session 117: Sparkling Conversation

The Alternan Empire’s destruction left no survivors, but it did leave witnesses.
The central university building holds specters from the long and distant past.
These specters can communicate with the brave adventurers, though it has limitations.
An as yet unknown trigger causes them to blink out of existence.
They return after a set time, while retaining the knowledge from before.
Their actions and motions follow all of the same patterns as before.

While our brave adventurers have acquired some answers, many questions yet remain.
Linnet spreads her conversational wings while Bast eyes a precariously positioned box.
Orrey sketches out possible solutions as Yves descends into long forgotten passages.
Isa considers Alterna’s past and Ducorde’s future with the Frost Fair Blade.
We join our brave adventurers as the mysteries stretch out before them…

**

The ghosts of Alterna's past continue to move around in the same paths as before, interacting with memories that exist only when the ghosts come into contact with them. They watch the party, though there is little they can do to interfere if they so desired.
"I could tie a rope around your waist, and you have those rockets," Isa notes to Bast, eyeing the precarious box.
"...that seems more complicated than it needs to be. Unless whatever's in it is going to mess with a solid jump." Bast eyes the box suspiciously. "Might be a good idea, at that."
"It just feels like it hates everything, not like it can necessarily get proactive about the evil or whatever," Yves says absently as he flips through the book.
"Thing about jumping," Isa says with some level of expertise, "is you need a solid point to jump from. Not worried about you getting there."
"Think it could be related to our engine goddess?" Orrey asks.
"No idea," Yves says, nose still in the book, "though it'll be hard to find out more without grabbing it and, I don't know, maybe cracking it open. That last part should probably wait until we're in an appropriate environment."
Bast looks over at the assembled academics. "Did you have an odd box in your collection here? About this big, black, shiny, hates everything around it?"
The third distant researcher swivels her head to peer at Orrey. Her cobalt braids dance along her shoulders. She is silent.  The fourth sneers at Bast and tells him nothing.

Yves finally looks up from the book, and says, "In case you were wondering, we didn't put anyone in an engine. She was there when we arrived, and we're trying to fix the, uh, ethical engineering problem?"
"Cervello?" the fifth (and final one currently present) asks Bast.
Bast shrugs in response. "Told you all I know, never heard that word before."
The fifth person huffs, her age betraying her patience. "Cervello! Help them!" she insists.
"Cervello's dead, Kira," the fourth researcher, the man with the finely-maintained mustache, says without breaking stride.
"I've never heard of Cervello and I've studied Alternan history extensively...at least, whatever history is left after all this time." Orrey says.
There is a small grinding noise in the eastern part of the room, somewhere in the rubble.
"Person?" Yves asks, attention drifting back to the book. "Settlement? Vehicle? Building? Give us a bit of a hint, and... oh that's very interesting." He attempts to hold the book he's reading, a notebook, and a pen all at once so that he can take notes without putting anything down.
The fifth, Kira, stares up at the ceiling, eyes flicking side to side as she silently mutters to herself. "Box?" she tries.
Bast peers at the source of the noise and, with a glance at Yves' overflowing hands, goes over to investigate the pile of rubble.

A box twitches in the eastern detritus. A dusty gray trapezoid sixteen inches wide and eleven inches tall, with dark brown fins on either side, rumbles weakly amidst the crumbled masonry.
"...and what is your deal..." Bast mutters to himself as he sets about clearing away enough of the rubble to pull out the box.
The box does not electrocute Bast when he picks it up, which is nice. The surface of the box is a once-smooth ceramic, though now it is badly dented and misshapen.
There's a solid thunk as Bast sets the box down on one of the less damaged desks near the assembled company and tries to see what's making it twitch.
This small automaton is trying to respond to Kira's command, though there is so much grit inside of it and damage to its exterior that it cannot. Any serious repairs would have to wait until there are tools at hand, but Bast might be able to thump it into a slightly less broken shape.
Looking closely, Bast frowns at the dirt and damage on the box - then lifts it up and gives one corner a sharp tap on the half-burned surface of the desk.
"What kind of creation is that? Orrey asks, intrigued.
"Does this one hate us too?" Isa asks.
Sand, gravel, and mechanical parts that are now sand (which is probably bad) pour out.
Yves is busy mouthing words slowly to himself in silence, taking notes, and flipping between pages in the book.
Orrey stops wondering long enough to continue reading through the Phoenix book.

The former contents of the box get a disappointed frown from Bast. He prods at one gear in the pile of small rocks that has all but rusted away, judging the detail on the teeth, then lifts up the lid to see if there's anything of note left inside.
There are still plenty of materials inside. Lots of little gears and sparkling crystal facets and some rust and ash mixed in for flavor.  But enough of it is trying to move that it seems salvageable... if its purpose can be identified.
Yves looks up. Looks down at the book. Scratches out a few notes. Flips pages, and keeps reading.
The remaining specters' heads swivel to look to the core of the city, just as they did some time earlier. A moment later the chaos and panic strikes, and then they are gone, and the adventurers are alone.
Linnet finally rises from a kneeling position and an extended prayer - for the souls of the departed, for the sanity of her comrades, for the speed to run if Yves or Bast blow up something crucial - and makes a sign of blessing over the vanished specters. "Is there much to be gained from watching this play out over and over?"
"They can talk to us. But other than that, I don't think so. I did get an answer from Thalatte: we can help them...somehow." Orrey says.
"Are they hers? Thalatte didn't have anything to say about the box, did she?" Linnet peeks over Bast's shoulder.
The grinding noise in Bast's new broken box stops.
Bast immediately starts examining the box to try and figure out why it stopped, never mind not knowing what was making the noise in the first place.
Orrey shakes his head. "Yes and no are all I can receive from the Twelve so far. Soon I should be able to Commune with them more extensively."
"And you...want to?" Isa queries, with a trace of disbelief.
Orrey almost responds immediately, then thinks about it for a minute. "Yes. We need all the help we can get. And not just this 'we'," Orrey waves his hand in a circle that includes his friends, "but everyone."

"There isn't a green moon in the sky that I've generally not noticed because I don't look up very often, is there?" Yves asks absently, frowning into the book.
Linnet frowns at Yves. "A green moon? Pretty sure we'd have noticed that. The heck are you reading?"
"Oh, you know, just about the life force of the planet and things like that," Yves says vaguely. He is taking a lot of a notes. "I haven't gotten to the dark matter yet."
Orrey looks up from his book. "Did you know that the original Phoenix Down was actual Phoenix Down? As in, from a bird called a Phoenix? Not the nasty liquid vials they use these days. Same effect, though, restoring someone recently, well, you know'ed."  ("Oh, that's terrible. The poor phoenixes!")
Bast shakes his head, leaving the new box alone for the moment, and looks over to where the other one is (apparently maliciously?) waiting over an odoriferous pit. "Well. Let's get your friend and see what sort of stuffing it's got."
"Rope?" Isa prompts her captain.
"I think this author is very defensive about the green moon that hangs out near the regular moon," Yves says, and glances up briefly from the book. "Oh, yes, let's get the malicious one."
"Sure." Bast raises his arms to leave room for a rope to be tied around him, gauging the best approach to the Hate Box.
Orrey grimaces, reading further. "They did worse...examined the blood and the eggs. They used to keep one at the Grand Menagerie."
Isa ties a quick airman's knot, taking advantage of Bast's predilection for straps and buckles on his adventuring gear. Satisfied, she nods.
Bast gives the rope a quick tug and nods, satisfied. "Leave me a bit of slack in case I need to scramble."  He walks up to the edge of the pit, takes several paces back and gets a running start, jets flaring as he pushes off for the leap.
"Green moon?" Orrey asks. "Didn't Perilune mention an 'old moon'?" Orrey asks Linnet.
"...I guess she did?" Linnet flicks through memories of old conversations with Perilune, her facial expression changing several times as the subject varies.
"Little green moon in front of or right next to the regular moon, and honestly I'm starting to think it might actually be Tacitmare, whatever this book says, but right now I'm on--" Yves breaks off to watch the leaping moogle.
Isa has set the Frost-Fair Blade aside for the moment, and has the rope wrapped around her waist, her feet braced for the worst.
Bast lands in a roll and then a heap on the other side of the pit, swearing vilely. Finally, he sits up and pries his fingers off the box with his free hand - and immediately tries to open it to see what's inside.
Inside the box is a delicate and ornate model of a spider, with intricately-designed gold plating and thin legs.
"Well, at least something is in one piece around here." Bast unties the rope, stopping for a moment to shake out the fingers of one hand, then lifts up the box to carry it back to the other one.

Where there were five, there are now eleven. The Alternan researchers have returned. None are positioned to immediately see the newly-acquired box.
Yves blinks repeatedly at the book. Looks up. Looks back at the book. Frowns. Starts flipping a bit faster.
"Did you get to see the Phoenix at the Grand Menagerie?" Orrey asks.
"Professionally? Not our division," the second researcher with the long red hair says. "Personally? Once. Sad."
"How did you feel about being assigned your Job?" Orrey asks. "Instead of being free to choose."
"They. Wait. They what," Yves says, staring at the book. He looks up, and blinks over at the researchers. "What in the world did you do to--to other worlds? Really? Really?"
"Yves, coherent sentences would help us here," Linnet warns through her teeth.
"What?" Abby's tone makes it clear she doesn't understand the entire premise of Orrey's question.
Isa's visor locks onto Orrey at his question. Her expression, obviously, is unreadable.
"It's our understanding that until the Crystal shattered, people didn't get to choose their Jobs. That they were assigned to you somehow. Is that not correct?" Orrey adds.
"What was the little green moon called, and what were you looking to learn from it?" asks Linnet, quietly, of the blue-braided researcher.

Yves frowns at the book, though it's a more disapproving frown now, rather than a thoughtful one. "Unless I'm misunderstanding this, Alterna raided--conquered? destroyed? I honestly can't tell!--other worlds for their dark matter. To, uh, fuel things. Basically. 'Eidolons' are what people like Asura were called over there, but they weren't able to resist Alterna's... whatever kind of attack or invasion, ugh, I don't know, the author assumes you know the gist in that area. This book's a lot more heated about the nature of the green moon than about any of this."
"See if you can take the book with you, then, for future research. I'm not sure you can get a useful answer to an outraged half-question in twelve words."  Linnet glances uneasily between the researcher crowd and Yves' book.
"They keep coming back. Twelve words every time, eventually we can get the whole picture." Orrey muses.
"It's not like it's the fault of anyone in here," Yves says, and sighs, flipping to another page. "I mean, it's not like we haven't done a little piracy, but we had standards."
Linnet remains concentrating on the blue-braided ghost, ignoring Orrey for the moment.
"Don't tell them anything," the fourth person says again, sharper than before.
"Why not? What have you got to lose?" Linnet asks the fourth person, moving to take a ghostly hand (or at least attempt it).
"Viridis," the second researcher says. "Did anyone live there."
Abby looks through the space the second researcher occupied, her eyebrows raised.
"Thank you. Now we know what to look for." Linnet still focuses on the angry fourth ghost. "Why not talk to us, really?"
Bast, listening with one ear, pulls a small screwdriver out of one pocket and carefully moves the small spider with it to check on the details and articulation.
The fourth researcher would fold his arms in front of his chest if he was able. Since he must instead continue writing on a clipboard, he merely scowls and glares.
Isa circulates. At first she appears bored, her spear balanced on one shoulder. Anyone paying close attention (in this field of distractions) would notice that she never strays far from Bast's tinkering and Yves's study.
The spider bears none of the same signs of decay or damage as the Cervello, or anywhere else in this room. Even the books that survived bear scars and marks. The spider is pristine.

"What are you using all the dark matter for?" Linnet asks Abby, over her shoulder.
She tries to shrug, but her arms continue shuffling papers. "Everything. It's the blood of our work. It's... everything."
"Fuel source?" Isa asks, pacing.
"Blood? Were you making living beings?" Orrey asks. "Or is that poetic?"
"Were there supplies on Ducorde that you exhausted? Yes/no. Did all your supplies come from off-planet?"
Bast reaches out for the spider, then freezes for a moment and pulls his hand back. Leaving it where it is, he picks up the damaged box and carries it closer to the ghostly researchers.  "Is this - Cervello?"
To Linnet, the third person says, "Why do you care?"
To Bast, Abby says, "Cervello!"
To Abby, Cervello says, [cervellodialogue.img].
Linnet closes her eyes. "We seek to understand. We're not here to steal your secrets, just to record your history."
"...and we're also trying to de-imprison an Eidolon from our ship's engine, but we're short on leads for that one."

"Let them die with us," the fifth, the youngest, Kira, says. "Forget we ever existed. I want to--"  She is gone.
Linnet is visibly horrified. "Forget you ever existed? Why? Why in all the worlds - what are you so desperate to have forgotten?" She turns to one of the other researchers. "Are you all of one mind on this?"
Yves looks down to his feet, and says something extremely rude under his breath before flipping to another page in the book.  "So, uh," he says, "there might be a sealed eternally self-sufficient experimental facility running still down below us right now. FYI."
"I don't care," Isa snaps, low and growling and not directed at any of the other crew. "There are things we need here and so we're here."
"We don't all agree," the sixth one says. "But Kira deserves to die. Please let her." The sadness in his voice remains in his absence.
"You're not already dead? You're not ghosts?" Orrey asks.
Linnet pauses in the warmup to a full-fledged tirade. "...do you need our help to die?" she asks of any of the remaining researchers.
"Go," the third says. "Whatever is left is better than this."  She is gone.
"We take our secrets to our empty graves," the fourth one darkly promises before he, too, is gone.
"Beginning to think they're not going to be helpful," Isa grumbles.
"Who are you guarding them for?" Bast inquires mildly, still holding Cervello.

Abby's path between tables pauses, as her hundreds-year-old memory waits for a response to a question posed to an absent thought. She looks Linnet dead in the eyes with weary regret and says, "It hurts."
The researchers are once again gone, this time before the fall.
Linnet bites back a sob and begins rapidly scanning the shelves for anything having to do with dark matter.  Anyone nearby might hear her muttering "I can't put them through this again...how do we end it?"
Yves closes the book he's been reading, and holds it out to Linnet. "I took notes. I'll share them with you."
Linnet nods in appreciation but is still shelf-reading, like she never left Bresha.  ...it takes her a minute to realize that she's shelf-reading ashen corpses of books.
(Setting Cervello back on the desk, Bast asks "So do you only answer to them, or will you talk to us too?")
When she finally processes that she's not going to get anything from these shelves, she turns back to Yves and presses the volume back into his hands. "Keep it, we'll go over it later. Unless it has anything about exorcising ghosts."
"Not... explicitly, unless they're Dark Matter ghosts, in which case, maybe? But probably not," Yves says. He tucks the book into his satchel.
"Yves, you said something about a facility below us? Can we get past the seal?" Orrey asks.
(Cervello offers up no reply to Bast. "Bast, why are you talking to a robot spider?" inquires Linnet.)
"I don't know," Yves says. "The test facility is six hundred feet down, 'secure and protected', and apparently tough enough to survive a meteor strike. It didn't give any passcodes or the like."
"Do you know what they were testing?" asks Isa.
"Well, should we look for it and try to poke it until it yields something useful?" In the absence of an actual conclusion, Linnet charges ahead.
Orrey glances at the Cervello. "Maybe we have someone who could help us open it with us."
"...right, if Cervello isn't the spider, it needs a name so I forget it's a spider. How about 'Sparkle.'"  Linnet can handle "Sparkle."

"Oh, yes! They were apparently testing the conversion of anima, which is the spirit side of dark matter, into other things. And possibly other stuff too; the book is more interested in dark matter than everything that was necessarily going on in that place." Yves waves vaguely towards his feet. You know. That place. Down there. Somewhere. Testing. Forever.
Bast, apparently done experimenting for now, ties the helpful box and the hateful box together into a bundle.
Isa nods. "Chances that it'll give us what we need?"
"...mo.....derate?"  Yves looks lost.
Isa's sigh resonates. "Relative to the risk?"
"Oh! No idea on that one. Could be just like up here except safer because it's less damaged. Could have terrible security systems. Could be downright helpful. Couldn't really say!" Yves is brighter now that he can be more certain about his own lack of knowledge.
"Is it likely to be more worthwhile than watching these poor people succumb to catastrophe again and again? Then let's go." Linnet begins the hunt for wherever the hell "down" might be.
Orrey sends a quick prayer to the Twelve for guidance on how to save these souls marooned in time.