|
Post by Stage on Apr 25, 2018 4:36:54 GMT
"That's okay." Alex's voice was hollow and, unlike Molly, his eyes were stark dry. They tinted pink around the edges rather than ringed by moisture. "It's... not your question to answer. U... Um... find anything interesting?"
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 25, 2018 4:46:24 GMT
Molly tried to speak up. She wanted to say something, anything to help Alex out, any words of comfort she could give to him. Just something, anything that could uplift his spirits...
But there were no words to speak, nothing that she felt could help Alex out. Just... a void. A void of words that had been robbed from her. And that hurt her almost as much as what Alex was going through.
The only words she could say were those away from the subject. "A book on the history... of Mival." She quietly muttered, but it was clear her voice was choking up from the tears in her throat. "And one on... ancient races that lived here..."
She couldn't keep going on. She slammed her hands down, and focused herself on Alex. Finally, her tied tongue was loosened. "No, it's not alright. It just isn't! You've known her for how long? How much have you two been through together, through thick and thin? You're made for each other, you deserve each other! I don't know everything you two went through, but both of you do, and... to just deny your request out of your well being... I understand it but, it's still wrong!"
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 25, 2018 5:32:29 GMT
Alex had jumped at Molly's outburst. He had seen her display such energy for Demmy, but never imagined he could rouse it from her.
His body went limp with defeat as he relaxed from his shocked rigidity though and what she had actually said sunk in. "I... I think so too, but... but..."
"Sam is just so... s- so... so stubborn!" He was suddenly matching Molly's volume, and his hands were balled into fists. "It drives me insane! She... she just...!"
The tension left him, and his hands hands unfurled and cupped his face as it fell. "She drives me insane," he admitted. "And she's the only one who can. I just... I don't know anymore. Yesterday I was afraid I lost her forever and it was... it was the most unimaginable thing, but... but now I'm not sure if I want to see her again. That... that's why I'm here. To get away. I'm sorry. But... I'm afraid that, next time I see her, she'll just feel so... so far away. Farther than she is now, wherever she is. And now that seems almost as bad as actually losing her."
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 25, 2018 5:56:29 GMT
"Alex...You two care for each other greatly, dearly at that. You both have different ways of showing it, and... You need to lay everything out for her!"
Molly took a deep breath, and managed to calm herself down, if only a bit. "It's frustrating to be rejected and... it is wrong to just be denied straight up front, but... Try to look at this from Sam's perspective, and have her try to look at this through yours. Make your point, where you come from in all of this, why you feel the way you do, lay it all out for her, and don't give up on her. Sooner or later, you will break through, especially if she sees where you are coming from, from your perspective. But, don't try to push it. Give it time, give it space, and learn as you go on. If neither of you can see eye to eye, and see what the other has seen and why you see it that way... perhaps..."
She planted her head in the table. " Again, you both care for each other in your own special ways and... Don't loose faith, Alex. Because what else is there to have, besides Faith, when there's no facts or hard science to fall back on?"
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 25, 2018 6:16:39 GMT
Alex lifted his head from his hands. Wiping his eyes, which had finally grown damp, he said, with a hollow sort of humor, "Nauyaca would throw you out for saying that."
Straightening up, Alex fixed his stack of texts, knocked askew by his wild gesturing when he tried to articulate his feelings. When he finished, he looked Molly in the eyes.
"Molly? Thank you. I... It feel good to have someone on my side. I needed it. And you're right. If she's important to me, I can hold out. Maybe not right away, but... I will."
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 25, 2018 6:24:37 GMT
Molly let her sweet, serene smile reach across her face, and she wiped away the tears in her eyes. " I'm... I'm just glad to be of help. If a friend of mine is troubled, I can't just sit back and watch. And Alex, I really do hope for the best for you."
THUNK!
A large pile of books slammed down on the table between the two of them, nearly catching Molly by surprise. "You were right Molly. There was some good stuff in the basement. Some ancient texts that I'm surprised I can understand, and maybe a clue in here..." Demmy looked over at Alex, and for the smallest of moments, it was as if there was a smirk in the corner of her mouth, not where Molly could see, but where Alex could. "Any progress on your guys's ends?"
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 25, 2018 6:43:58 GMT
Quickly looking away from her, Alex answered Demmy slowly. "Uh... w- well... I did find one tidbit in... um... this one."
Cautiously, he tapped a finger to the lebran religious text.
"I... If you care to hear it."
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 25, 2018 6:48:31 GMT
The sight of the religious text caused the skin around Demmy's right eye to tense yet again, and she opened her mouth to speak.
Instead, she was cut off by Molly. "Of course she'd be fine hearing it. some reading never killed anyone, RIGHT?" She glared at the taller woman, who, taken aback by the sudden tone, laxed her face and sighed.
"Sure, I'm down to know what juicy information might be in there."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 25, 2018 7:32:18 GMT
"W... Well, the author was interested in the same things as us," Alex began, feinting a reexamination of his notes to lean away from Demmy. "T- They wanted to know... why. Why they were here, why Lemuria exists. Though they looked at it through a... different lens. They used their myths and gods as context, and... there's something interesting towards the end. I've managed to squeeze a bit about their religion from Yaca before, so a lot of it was familiar, but they describe a god, or something like a god, that I've never heard of. They called it..."
This time he actually did check his notes.
"Llotx. They call it... uh, I'm not exactly sure, but something like... like, 'Stranger.' Or, 'Outsider.' It... they never specified a gender... was either a dog with a lizard face or a lizard with a dog face. And apparently there's obscure canon that suggests that it didn't originate from the same place as the other gods or myth figures. That it was... w- well, an alien. And that... actually sounded familiar to me. So I checked and, sure enough..."
Flipping to a much earlier page in his pocket book, Alex began to read. "'Luccev. A man with a dog face or dog with a man face.' That's a god with no... uh... o- owner, so to speak. It's not associated with any group that lives on Lemuria, so... it gets passed to Lemuria itself. As far as we know, it's a native god. And Llotx is an alien god to the Pientans. And they're both supposed to look like dogs. That... could just be a coincidence, but it's strange, right? Two doglike gods associated with a mixing of worlds? Maybe there's something there."
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 25, 2018 17:10:04 GMT
Demmy's eyes narrowed, but there wasn't any clear sign of anger or annoyance in them. If there was, she was keeping it veiled far better than before, though the tone of her voice was still cold and distant. " So, a dog-like god... Perhaps it is the reason for why all this stuff is being dropped into this world? For its own amusement?"
"Well, that could be it... A foreign being that's causing all of this. So not a machine like you thought, but an actual higher power.." Molly said.
"Well, it's better than what I found, now that I think of it. I got a bunch of notes on various monsters that have appeared, some journalist logs on flora and fauna, some weird temple far up north, a big black tower even farther up north..."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 25, 2018 21:49:34 GMT
"Maybe not a higher power," Alex shook his head. "Maybe just a... a bigger one. We have a monster back home... or h- had... it came here with us... that was worshiped as a god, even though it wasn't. Maybe this is the same."
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 26, 2018 1:33:34 GMT
"That makes a bit more sense." Molly said. "Just, hopefully whatever it is that's caused everything to be brought here can be undone, though if there is such a process..."
She momentarily paused, only to look over at Demmy. The taller woman was now oddly silent, with a vacant stare in her eyes similar to when she went off on Alex. Yet, her gaze was at the floor, and her mouth was only slightly moving. Molly wanted to ask, to see what was up, but in that moment, realized that probably wouldn't be the best thing to do, especially if she didn't want to scare or frighten Alex any further.
"If a monster is possibly causing this... well, I know you want fair treatment for life both small and large, but if subduing it or... dare I say, even killing it means we might have a chance back home, that might we all we can do, but we'd need to know more before we can try anything, or even know where to start looking for this dog-like creature."
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 26, 2018 4:18:26 GMT
Alex nodded sadly. "If... if it did this maliciously, I think that... that is fair then. Even I know that some... t- things and some people just don't want everyone to get their happy ending. They only want their own."
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 26, 2018 4:41:19 GMT
"Unfortunately, that's definitely the case in the world. I want to believe the best out of people, out of everyone but... whatever caused the apocalypse of my world clearly did it only for its own gain, or its own amusement. It wasn't a natural occurrence, but someone's fault."
Molly flipped through one of the books she had pulled out. " But if it is this creature... then where do we find it? Any ideas?"
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 26, 2018 5:11:39 GMT
Alex tapped his foot rather frantically as he thought. "Well... we should keep at it here for now, but... while this library has gathered as much information as it can, it's still mostly local knowledge aside from what some travelers have shared. So maybe the next step is to expand the net? I'm sure there have to be some places in Migma that have kept similar records. Maybe London."
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 26, 2018 5:37:52 GMT
"Maybe..." Molly began to muse. Would London really have additional information?
"Molly." Demmy's voice caused the girl to look over at her friend. She hadn't realized Demmy had opened up one of the books Molly had picked out, and had a finger planted on a picture of what seemed to be an old medieval style village. " It's not a way out, but... it's Mival's origins. Apparently, this city was founded hundreds of years ago from settlers from far off lands, yet it seems there's always been a monster issue, for some reason. Giant monsters would always be drawn toward the city for one reason or another, and while sometimes they just hung around and then left, a few have been more violent, but repelled by other large creatures. This book was written just five years ago, yet it's quite the exhaustive history."
Molly took the book to look at it. Sure enough, there was a detailed list of some of the original founders of Mival. A farmer named Forrest Pmug, a native american looking person named C'val Ritm, a young woman who Molly thought looked a little like a younger Sulis except shorter and pink hair and a cheerful disposition, and a young man just by the name of Q, with very short black hair, a white T-shirt, and black and red striped shorts. "Well, this is quite the strange assortment of founders..." Molly said.
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 26, 2018 5:49:28 GMT
An intrigued Alex leaned across the table. "Does it describe any of the monsters? I've always wondered how long this place's Arias and Guan and Pless have been here. The ones back home are only a few years old. Or active, at least."
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 26, 2018 17:31:13 GMT
Molly look down at the book and gave a quizzical look. "Well I think there is... One of these paragraphs sort of describes a large lizard with a strange kind of crest on it, bright yellow eyes and a very big tail. Apparently, it was here two hundred years ago. Does that does that sound familiar to you? Also there's description of a large three-headed molten like snake Dragon thing, and there is also a white spiked bear present. Lastly there's also the description of a very big bipedal carnosaur with one eye one horn and a pair of wings on it. Does any of that sound familiar to you?"
Demmy her shoulders and just shrugged. "Honestly I don't really know how many monsters are could have been here this probably doesn't even mention all of them. Who knows what else might of been around the city?"
|
|
|
Post by Stage on Apr 26, 2018 18:15:25 GMT
Alex excitedly stood up, and only just stopped himself from shouting. "Th- That first one! That's Pless! She's been here centuries before we arrived! Maybe that's why she's so much bigger than the one back one! He was still growing! I mean... we knew aberrations are long-lived, our Guan is at least eighty years old, but hundreds of years? That's incredible!"
|
|
|
Post by Executus Gira on Apr 26, 2018 18:38:13 GMT
"Is that really the case?" Molly asked. "That's... That's amazing! I had no idea where monsters could live that long I I'd assume that if it was the case maybe it was an offspring or something but maybe it is the original Pless. If that's really the original, what else could still be alive after so long?"
Demi looked around. "Well I guess it is true then. This place... You never really can trust anything in it. All sorts of unique situations and predicaments, and surprises."
|
|