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The Lost City



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Sat Apr 14, 2018 8:14 am
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RaidenCheese says...



Raiden was very confused as he saw Aegeas falling past the railing. He had gone to check, but as he saw him hanging off the other railing below, he decided Aegeas was fine. At the very least he was alive. Raiden watched as Aegeas got back up and called to them. He nodded and stepped away from the railing.
"Now to find a set of stairs..." he mumbled, before Oliver told them about where he woke up.
"Control room? Where?" Raiden asked, surprising himself at his eagerness to find this control panel. For a moment, finding the Otter-man was a later problem.
I'm cool as a cucumber
Even if I'm in a pickle


Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.





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Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:02 am
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Mageheart says...



He pointed in direction he, Lola and Aegeas had all come from. "It's down that way - we'd have to make a left at some point, but it's not that hard to find. I remember where it is." Oliver glanced at the others, waiting for other people to voice their opinions. Lucy unsurprisingly remained silent. He had known she wouldn't have any qualms with the plan, and would surely want to get as close to this place's technology as she could.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Sat Apr 14, 2018 10:33 am
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soundofmind says...



"Alright then," Bo said with a gesture to Oliver. "Then lead the way. We wanna find Aegeas as soon as possible, and answers too."
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Sat Apr 14, 2018 5:40 pm
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RaidenCheese says...



"Well what are we waiting for? Mr. Otter is waiting for us!" he said, striding over to where Oliver was pointing. He glanced down the passage, and looked back at the others, waiting for them to follow.
I'm cool as a cucumber
Even if I'm in a pickle


Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not. Both are equally terrifying.





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Sat Apr 14, 2018 8:26 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



As he waited, Aegeas eventually decided to walk around. He pressed some of the buttons and flicked some of the switches to see if they would react. Some continued blinking without the slightest change, while others made words and numbers flash onto the panels. Now, he wasn't illiterate - he could read slowly, but was fine at it. Except what he saw didn't fit any script he'd ever seen before. As far as he could tell, it was indecipherable nonsense. How convenient. Maybe it would look different to the others?

With little other choice or desire, he stayed in the room, calling out every now and then. Still no response.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.





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Sun Apr 15, 2018 12:05 am
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ellasnotebook says...



Lola bit her lip. The boy who had started down the hall was turned expectantly, but Lola couldn't bring herself to move. Even looking down the hallway made her feel claustrophobic. She took a deep breath and turned to Oliver.

"As long as you can find your way to the room and it will help us find Aegeas, I think it's a great idea. If it is a control room, it might also help us figure out what's going on." She smiled at everyone, hoping it would make her seem (and feel) less nervous.





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Mon Apr 16, 2018 11:19 am
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Mageheart says...



Oliver nodded, casting a brief glance in Lucy's direction. Even if the others hadn't agreed to follow him, she would have - they both needed the information, and she was the only way they were going to get it.

He started to lead them down the hallways. He hoped that they were following, but he didn't look back to check. His mind was focused solely on determining why they were in this place. Were they abducted? He doubted someone would have abducted him of all the people living on Earth, but he had a tendency the overestimate the intelligence of others.

He eventually came to a stop in front of the control room.

"Aegeas?" he tentatively called out.
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Mon Apr 16, 2018 1:52 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Aegeas had, to his immense relief, heard their approaching footsteps for some time. Not wanting to surprise anyone, he'd waited silently. If they'd passed by or turned away, he would've shouted for them. Fortunately, he didn't have to. When Oliver called into the room, Aegeas walked out from behind a couple of panels. Hopefully that wouldn't surprise them either, but it was less creepy than, say, standing in the middle of the room.

"Anyone know what this is?" said Aegeas, gesturing to the room around him.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.





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Mon Apr 16, 2018 5:14 pm
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Mageheart says...



Lucy wandered over to the nearest panel, joy glittering in her eyes. She ran her fingers across the surface. It was smooth and cool to the touch, but she could imagine the little bolts of electricity dancing within - powerful surges that could be enough to kill a man or bring him back to life.

"It's the control room," Oliver piped up from nearby. She briefly looked over in the direction of her best friend before returning to her investigation. "At least, I think it is."

She came to a stop in front of one of the panels. After studying the strange language written on it for what felt like an eternity, she became certain that it matched nothing of what she had in her data banks. She tilted her head ever so slightly. Odd. She had a multitude of languages cataloged from a multitude of worlds. Even if she couldn't recognize this particular one, it should have been akin to at least one.

Oliver joined her by her side. "Recognize it?" he whispered, only giving the panel a look for a quick second before staring at her.

She shook her head.

Spoiler! :
I do have a plot for this roleplay in mind, but I'll wait for a few more posts before I really start to introduce it - but, until then, none of the characters should be able to understand what the heck it says on those controls.

(They can try guessing, though!)
mage

[ she/her, but in a boy kinda way ]

roleplaying is my platonic love language.

queer and here.





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Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:33 pm
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soundofmind says...



Bo was in denial. He felt like he was walking in on some elaborate television set for a sci-fi T.V. show. The writing was foreign. The glowing lights were foreign. The polished metallic look of everything was foreign. But it was alright. It was going to be alright. There had to be a reason for this.

He began to walk around the room, observing the different displays of the strange, foreign text that he couldn't even recognize as a human language.

"Well, all these letters mean nothing to me," he said to no one in particular.
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Mon Apr 16, 2018 10:34 pm
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SirenCymbaline says...



I would have said this machinery was reminiscent of H.G Wells, but these metal panels were far too wan and minimalistic to match the style. And yet I had no closer frame of reference. There was a desk, and it had some mechanical panels that reminded me of typewriters, and yet the buttons were of a different shape entirely.

I turned my eyes instead to the characters displayed on the bright window. (Again, the closest thing I could compare it to, that was not close enough to be satisfactory. I decided I would ask about it later, as it seemed my companions were familiar with it.)

I had studied, in my time, a multitude of ciphers and runes. Where I came from, secrets were practically an alternative form of currency, and any knowledge on the measures used to hide them can be invaluable. And yet- and yet this was very alien, as I suppose was to be expected.
I was used to ciphers and runes with curling shapes, but these patterns were starkly geometric.

'I have studied other languages and forms of writing, but this is all very alien. However, I will see if I can find some sort of pattern in them. That is always the best place to start. In the meantime-'
I inclined my head toward the bright window the characters were displayed on-
'you seem familiar with this style of technology. Could you explain it to me, a little?'
Bad souls have born better sons, better souls born worse ones -St Vincent





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Tue Apr 17, 2018 1:53 pm
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TheSilverFox says...



Oh, this was the control room? Wasn't that where they were supposed to go? Aegeas watched the others as they walked around and inspected the panels. Based on the few conversations taking place, they were all about as confused as he was, which was a relief. He hated being more oblivious than everyone else.

Standing in front of one of the panels, he tapped it. Nothing happened. Part of him wondered what would happen if he broke the glass, but he decided it probably wasn't a good idea, given that he knew nothing about how this place worked. "Should someone write this down?" he said, pointing to the symbols. "If anyone can. If we have to leave, or these symbols change, we need to remember them to figure them out."
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.





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Wed Apr 18, 2018 6:26 pm
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soundofmind says...



Bo pulled out his phone. There was no service, and he didn't have his charger on him. He considered how much it would be worth it to pull up the notes app and draw some of the characters and symbols down, if his phone was just going to die eventually, even if he turned it off to save it for a time when it was really needed. He pursed his lips.

"I don't have anything to uh, write with." He said to Aegeas, before turning to Boris. "But uh, do you mean the screens? Like, I can't say I know exactly what this tech is, but I dunno what time you came from. Do you know what a T.V. is? It's like... a glowing screen that uh, it's like a digital uh..."

Bo trailed off, finding himself at a loss for words. Biting his lip, he patted himself before pulling his phone out of his pocket again, and showed it to Boris.

"Like uh," he poked at the phone, as it responded to his touch, opening his notes app. He started typing 'I'm writing on the screen, wow, words,' as he explained poorly. "Kind of like this? I figure the stuff in here works somewhat similarly. But that's just an assumption."
Pants are an illusion. And so is death.






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Wed Apr 18, 2018 11:20 pm
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SirenCymbaline says...



I found Bo's explanation to be wanting. I admit it was discouraging that he was so accustomed to using this future technology that he found the concept of explaining it to be difficult.
The majority of what he said escaped me, but he did show me a small rectangular device from his pocket.

''You fit a...fit a typewriter into such a small device? And it lights up too.. you call this a screen? Marvelous, simply marvelous. But how is it powered? Why doesn't it need buttons? And what are those little yellow pictographs?''
Bad souls have born better sons, better souls born worse ones -St Vincent





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Thu Apr 19, 2018 1:14 am
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TheSilverFox says...



Nevermind. Even Boris had some inkling of how this technology was supposed to work, and the others (assuming they were like Bo, which they looked like they were) had a reasonably good understanding. It was all nonsense to Aegeas. T.V.? Digital? He knew one person who would probably take an interest in this kind of stuff, but that person would also steal it and take it apart to understand how it worked. Aegeas had no interest in being that obsessive.

Squinting at the words on the rectangle Bo pulled out of his pocket, Aegeas frowned. The script was completely unfamiliar. "What does it say?" he said.
S'io credesse che mia risposta fosse
a persona che mai tornasse al mondo,
questa fiamma staria senza piu scosse.
Ma per ciò che giammai di questo fondo
non tornò vivo alcun, s'i' odo il vero,
senza tema d'infamia ti rispondo.

Inferno, Canto 27, l 61-66.








Besides, if you want perfection, write a haiku. Anything longer is bound to have some passages that don't work as well as they might.
— Philip Pullman