Stanifly

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Lost in Translation

@Tlazolteotl@silver21@Auragreedia

It seemed the cyber-cowboy had found much of the same from his time at this mindscape’s bar: unintelligible nonsense. It was more evidence for the budding suspicion Teresa had about this man’s dilemma. Behind her mask, she squinted at him. She opened her mouth–

Clink. A glass – and a second, and a third, and a fourth – set neatly down onto the table between them. Teresa’s gaze lingered on the silver drink shimmering innocently in front of her, then whipped up to the waitress, who spoke in polite, perfect sense. She sounded nothing like the server or the employee with the dyed hair, but something in Teresa’s gut just knew that she was connected to this catharsis business the same way the rest of them were.

‘Wait,’ started Teresa, but then the waitress was gone, like she was never there. Teresa lowered her hand to the table. Her gaze flicked to her drink. It shimmered mockingly back.

Her attention was brought back to the group when Morgan introduced himself. Teresa took his proffered hand, and thought nothing of the feel of metal against skin. Cybernetic implants weren’t uncommon in her city, especially for Unnaturals.

‘Silver Blade,’ she responded in kind. ‘I was... in the middle of something when I was sent here.’

It was a reminder she hadn’t known she'd needed until she said it. She had a mission here. She needed to figure this out, so she could figure her own “catharsis” out and get back. It seemed as though the waitress’ intervention and Sirpa’s questioning had gotten them somewhere with the man, but it didn’t take long at all to devolve. The more he wrote, the more his messages fell back into incoherence, and Teresa could swear her glass was winking at her from her peripheral vision. This place was mocking her. Caden–Eri–they were in trouble elsewhere and here she was, wasting time!

‘Answer this, if you can,’ she said, right on the heels of Morgan’s attempt at good humour. Her voice was steel, with none of the earlier gentleness she’d offered earlier. ‘Do you know what happens if the music stops?’ The white lens of her mask creased with her frown. ‘Are you capable of stopping the music?’

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

sirna's basically a mood lamp... it'll be fun seeing how their colours will get interpreted

Very excited to have my guy ask Sarhush what's the deal with this "civilization" thing and have him try to explain why it's so great lol

@Rekkuza

yes come and get your free name too LOL

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

ᦓ꠸᥅ꪀꪖ

Certainly, Sarhush was a god with initiative. Within the span of his long-winded response, Sarhush had gifted these ur-humans with yet another two blessings. A part of it felt wrong – and yet it was that wrongness that filled Sirna with intrigue.

Pink tinted their moon-head when Sarhush offered to give them a name.

‘I accept your kind generosity,’ they say, in a perfectly level tone. ‘What name would you bestow upon me, whom you have met only moments ago?’

Whatever Sarhush’s response may be – if it was offered at all – Sirna had no time to reply to, for shortly after, the sky darkened and emptied out a great rain. It soaked the soil and the ur-humans, who scurried to their homes in search of cover. It drenched the critters, huddling in their pens or stranded in the burnt lands that had once offered homes in the trees that were no longer there. It stirred the shadows of Sirna’s form and wet the surface of their moon-head, stray droplets catching in faintly visible craters.

Pink faded to a dim blue, streaked with gold. Sirna formed a shadowy hand, let the rain drops pool within their palm.

‘If I may offer my thoughts,’ they said. ‘You have a vision for this world. A clear one. A great one, perhaps. But you seem in a rush to shape it to your will.’

They knelt to the ground and tipped their hand. The pooled rainwater, now shimmering, twinkling, different, drizzled into the soil.

At first, nothing. Then several somethings popped out of the soil. Not plants, no. They sported dimly glowing golden caps, with stems as black as midnight. They wobbled in the pounding rain, some of them tilting sideways to flash rich, shimmering, dark blue gills. Only a small amount of them grew where Sirna and Sarhush stood – the rest would sprout elsewhere throughout Ashuru. In the dung heaps of animal pens; in the moist corners of crude ur-human homes; in the undersides of fallen logs and the nooks of thick tree roots; where fungi would grow, these mushrooms would follow. Mortals who ate them would find a greater inclination to recall their dreams. Perhaps they might find themselves navigating the realm of dreams to greater depths, used wisely.

(A certain group of ur-humans with questionable diets may recognise the taste of these mushrooms to resemble ur-human flesh. They kept this knowledge to themselves, for obvious reasons.)

These mushrooms would come to earn the name of Lullaby Shrooms. For if left unchecked, nearby mortals were prone to falling into a deep, restful slumber that was difficult to wake from. As opposed to what their name suggested, these mushrooms did not produce any song of their own, only a rhythmic gentle shushing – the sound of spores being released into the air, reproductive and soporific alike.

In the rain, they did not make a sound.

‘The mortals may do well with some breathing room,’ continued Sirna. ‘Are you not interested in seeing what they will bring to fruition on their own, given time?’

~

ACTION LOG

• SURREAL: Sirna creates the Lullaby Shrooms. With golden caps, midnight black stems and shimmering blue gills, these mushrooms are a fast-growing fungi that release sleep-inducing reproductive spores on a daily basis.

• If inhaled, these spores cause mortals (ur-humans and creatures alike) to fall into deep sleep that can be woken from via an external party (rough shaking) or an internal epiphany.

• If consumed raw, Lullaby Shrooms will cause mortals to experience vivid hallucinations, ranging from 1 to 6 hours. While non-lethal, overconsumption can be fatal – these hallucinations are less conjurations of the mind and more dragging mortal visions out from the realm of dreams into reality. Abusing the Lullaby Shrooms to smudge the line between realms for mere mortal indulgence displeases Sirna. Dreaming isn’t as much fun if the mortal isn’t doing anything to make it real!

• If consumed cooked, Lullaby Shrooms will cause mortals to experience a light, restful sleep, where dream remembrance and lucidity is boosted. Useful for exploration of the inner self and, if the mortal so wishes, a ticket to calling out for Sirna’s guidance within the realm of dreams.

• If used as an ingredient in Alchemy, Lullaby Shrooms may have properties that allow mortals to break the walls between the realms of dream and reality. :)

• Yes, they taste like human flesh. A little salty, a little umami, a sprinkle of iron. Yum!

• -2 Conviction

Conviction Balance: 3

Interactions: @Cyclone

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Please rest up, don't forget to take your fluids.

@Tlazolteotl

Thank you, I probably do need to drink more water 💀 too obsessed w Pokka green tea.

On another note, are any effects from drinking the served drinks open to our interpretation? I'm assuming that just bc they're in glasses guys' catharsis, that their own catharsis isn't immune from being worked on in the meantime.

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Hint: @Stanifly Teresa's on to something about the music

@Tlazolteotl

HA! Knew it. (I did not, in fact, know it.) I'll catch up on everything tomorrow, having a killer headache rn 🐝

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

ᦓ꠸᥅ꪀꪖ

It was fleeting. There and gone in a single moment. Sirna stood by the water’s edge, their shadows shifting with uncertainty.

What is this feeling?

They knew that, seconds ago, they had witnessed something tremendous. Perfection, in ways that their new mind had yet to consider. Perfection, shaped in a mould that spoke only to Sirna. Perfection, dangled tantalisingly close and cruelly ripped away. Sirna stared at the wavering shadows reflected in the water.

Loss. It wriggled around in the depths of Sirna’s being like an unwanted parasite. Unwanted and out of place, for what had been lost, truly, in this barely forged world? If anything, Sirna should be disappointed. Here they had been summoned and presented with the paltry leftovers of a barren world. Was Sirna expected to simply pick up the pieces of an unfinished game someone else had decided to give up on?

Insult, decided Sirna. That was the feeling pervading their being. Still, as maddening as the realisation should be, stronger was the spite that chased the heels of their short temper. Let these mysterious beings dangle truths and hide around corners like infantile creatures. Sirna would take this world and make it their own. They would be inevitable. Inescapable.

Their shadows flashed a decided mauve pink. Caught on the water’s surface, his form seemed far too scattered for any meaningful interaction with Ashuru or its wandering inhabitants. Part of the shadows congealed into a small, spiralling twister, evening out into a pale, grey orb – one that strangely resembled a full moon – backlit by the same mauve pink that had coloured their shadows moments prior. The rest of their form remained a hazy mass of shadows, converging into the moon that now served as their head. Midnight blue bled across its surface, washing out the mauve.

This will do, for now.

Their musings were interrupted by a passing squabble between two of their god-siblings – seemingly borne out of little reason – and the admittedly entertaining commentary provided by the one watching from the sky. And then – creation. Critters. Animals. Little two-legged creatures that seemed to resemble the one who’d been holding an egg of some sort before he’d fallen into the water.

None of this fascinated Sirna as much as the resounding spike of chatter that bloomed from the freshly spawned realm they had created not so long ago. Their moon head began to spin, sucking in the shadows that drifted around its form until their head was enshrouded in shadow. With a pop, Sirna vanished from the physical realm.

They emerged in a place of nothingness. Not mere darkness, it was more a lack of existence than a lack of light. Yes, that familiar noise – which Sirna had come to realise, in the wake of their forgotten epiphany, was simply potential – was simmering away, but nothing was being done with it. At least, that had been the case before. Now there were spots of colour dotting the empty space. Little pockets of fields, forests, islands, deserts – most of which were unfamiliar to Sirna. Their moon-head glowed a mild orange, shadows lashing agitatedly. This felt incomplete, like Ashuru in the snatch of time when the newborn gods had it all to themselves. With a sweep of a shadowy arm, Sirna summoned a landscape of soft blues and purples to carpet the void between the spots of already-present colour. It was a mirror of Ashuru in a way, in that it presented a malleable world that defied the rules that governed reality – all easily shaped wishes and undefined details.

This was a serviceable welcome mat, Sirna decided. The mortals and gods who wandered here would not be greeted by the unseemly sight of a blank void, at the very least. Perish the thought! They set their self down in a downy, purple meadow and squeezed two shadowy palms together.

Out between their unshaped fingers popped several critters. They came in a myriad of colours – some static, some swirling across their translucent forms. If compared to one of the new creatures of Ashuru, one may think them to be a species of winged hares. Their wide pupil-less eyes glowed softly up to Sirna.

‘Go on now.’ Sirna’s voice was a wisp of a sound, echoed in a tone so gentle that it almost seemed as if they hadn’t spoken at all. ‘You have your task.’

They scattered. Some flew. Some scampered. All of them ran towards those spots of colour, where someone, somewhere, dreamed.

It was through one of those dreams that, upon closer inspection, Sirna realised that something interesting was happening in the realm of the real. And so they re-emerged in reality, where they found a fellow god-sibling bestowing gifts upon gifts onto the mortals that resembled his form. It was the same one that had fought their four-legged god-sibling, the one who had had clutched that mysterious egg so tightly in the ocean.

‘Greetings,’ they said, politely. ‘Do I have you to thank for this influx of mortals on Ashuru’s surface?’

~

ACTION LOG

• LUCID: Sirna fills the realm of dreams with a default landscape, so everyone has something to land in when they're asleep, even if their subconscious has nothing to contribute (basically everybody dreams by default, they just don't always remember it). This does not mean all void spots have been rid of (sweet oblivion).
• HAZY: Sirna creates Dream Guides, translucent, winged critters that strangely resemble hares. They come with unnerving glowing eyes and a myriad of coloured coats - some of which seem to shift in hue - and they typically appear in the dreams of mortals as a guide to the mortal's innermost desires, feelings, or needs.

• -1 Conviction

Conviction Balance: 3

Interactions: @Cyclone

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

@Cmmelody btw, sorry if this is an obvious question, but does the corrupt ocean affect gods too? or just mortal creatures?

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Lost in Translation

@Tlazolteotl@Auragreedia@silver21

In response to the cyber cowboy’s explanation, Teresa nodded.

‘That fits. I’m not sure if all this–’ She waves a hand at the space around them. ‘–is anything more than a distraction from what troubles him. The only thing that’s consistent here is the music.’

The oddest thing about this whole scene was how superficial it was. Their surroundings screamed of a flimsy facade. A generic dance venue, a crowd, blinding lights. Sure, there was music, but where was the DJ? The sound system? The only thing that seemed to be carrying the ever-pounding bass were those speakers on the walls. It was as if someone had put together just enough pieces to present a believable scenario, all the while drawing them away from the heart of the problem.

Sirpa seemed to have come to the same conclusion, for she asked the man for his input. Teresa said nothing, simply waiting for what he had – or didn’t have – to say.

◈ 𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐈𝐒 | Κάθαρσις ◈

Let's see... well there "Lost in Translation: An Illustrated Compendium of Untranslatable Words from Around the World," "A New Look at Old Words: Street Slang from the 1600s-1800s: A Writer's Categorized Guide," "The Little Book of Lost Words: Collywobbles, Snollygosters, and 86 Other Surprisingly Useful Terms Worth Resurrecting," "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows"... etc. etc. (I could quite literally keep going). I also like reading books on etymology and idioms. Do you have any books that you refer to often?

@Tlazolteotl

!!! thank you for the delightful selection. it's way more than what I read for fun - The Cambridge Grammar of The English Language. a lot less flavourful, I know, but there's just something so satisfying about reading grammars. now if I could just hunt down a good one for Malay...

Do you specialize in a specific language/region?

Nope! But when I get the opportunity, I'd probably pick Javanese or something. The Malay language family needs a lil' more love!

Forgotten Sands: A Divine Journey into the Unknown

ᦓ꠸᥅ꪀꪖ

Before the horizon-less beach of black sand, before the chatter of new-born gods, before they came into being–

There was noise. Distinct. Muddied. Present. Boundless. It was not a physical noise, not quite real, but it left impressions nonetheless. The murmur of being more than what it was now – not that they had a clue what it referred to – the wish to build anew upon half-formed foundations; the want to discover secrets long lost to an ill-defined concept of time; they all blended into noise.

Ah. This won’t do at all.

It was with this displeasure that this new-born god settled into being on that foggy, black beach. That, and a name.

Sirna. It was a hazy remnant of a past that lingered, the only thing that stuck in the gaping lack of knowledge present in their head – or what served as a head. Their body seemed to be incorporeal at the moment, a mass of indecisive shadows that blurred at the edges and chased away the fog around it. It was in this form that Sirna observed the setting they had found their self in, quietly taking in the sounds, the sights, the actions that seemed to be more real than the noise they had been lost in before.

There were others. A colourful spread of personalities, and forms, and capability. It was hardly any time at all before they gravitated towards their own groups. Some stayed on their own, pursuing separate goals. It was about the time when the one fascinated with rocks buried himself in the sand that Sirna realised that their displeasure had never quite gone away, and that it was because the noise had not gone away. It simmered somewhere beneath the surface – the surface of what, Sirna did not know – and it was cramped, restless. Noise was not the right term for it, now that Sirna had heard true sound from the voices of the other fledgling gods, but it was... intruding.

It needs space, they thought.

And so there was.

Nothing in the physical world changed. In another place, on another plane, however, something yawned. A space expanded, unseen and unfelt – but perhaps sensed by the other wandering gods – and Sirna felt the noise recede. It did not disappear, but the distant murmur it became was a far sight better than the dense, bubbling broil it had been. It was contained. Disorganised, perhaps, but contained all the same.

Away went Sirna’s displeasure. In its place was a buoying merriment. This was better! Much better! A hue of midnight blue tinted their blurry, shadow form. Satisfied, Sirna began to make their way over to the water’s edge. Idly watching everyone else had sparked curiosity, now that they were no longer bothered by the relentless noise in their nonexistent head.

What was so fascinating about drinking from this strange sea?

~

ACTIONS TAKEN

• SURREAL: Sirna creates the realm of dreams, an incorporeal, unseen plane of existence that can only be accessed through sleep, unconsciousness, or other godly means.

• -2 Conviction
• Minor Ripple
• 20% Turbulence

Conviction Balance: 3