[PP-F22] A Memory of Light <<What we fight for>> (Baldur, Teion)

[Baldur 0]

The sound of the forest.

<<Floor 22>>
<<Summer of the second year>>

An ancient Chinese emperor once said: The flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all. Perhaps it had to do with the strength of the flower triumphing over all odds, everything that would kill, destroy, or hold it back fails, and so only the most strong and beautiful flower reaches through towards the life giving light of the sun. Another perspective would be that in the midst of so much death, darkness, and gloom, that little bit of beauty seems all the more brilliant because of its situation. Whatever the actual truth the emperor meant, Baldur couldn't help but see the later. Perhaps it was because Aincrad was a castle and a prison. It was life and death, and there were some says when there was just so much death, but then there were perfect moments like these.

The gaijin wanna-be Samurai was tall compared to most people, but he was taller when specifically compared to the Japanese. There were always people taller than him, but he rarely had to crane his neck to look up at anyone as he did the trees that comprised the Forest of Memories. He didn't know why it was called the forest of memories, but for him it was true. The forest, the lake, there was something about this entire floor that reminded him of his childhood summers. Packing his camping stuff into the car, with his best friend and his parents, and they would leave to go deep into the mountains. There, they would find a spot on the side of the road where the trees were just barely wide enough to get the truck through, and then they would go until they found a lake. Set up their tent and campfire, and they would not see another living person for the next two weeks save for supply runs to the town an hour away with less people than his high school class.

The lake was all snow melt, and the trees were all giant evergreens. They were so remote out there, that the forest service actually stocked the lakes with fish by plane. They created salt-glass bottles, and filled them with water and baby fish, and would release them from the air. The salt bottles would dissolve, and the fish would escape and survive in the ponds for them to fish.

He put one large hand on such a tree, and his steel blue eyes slowly pulled back from the far away memories he was reliving. This entire floor, and forest, reminded him of home that strongly. Home. It was never home, but for some reason, being here in Aincrad, home became the memories that would draw him into the other world it was the feelings, that reminded him of the peace he had known before this world. Giving a little extra tug on the blue sleeves of his formal montsuki haori, he pulled it free of the branches where it was caught, causing the fight flames on the hem to ripple slightly, making them look as if they were living flames. The red silk wrapping the handle of his sword was guided by his hand like a rudder, helping the dark lacquered wood of the saya not hit any trees or get caught, but the haori was only held closed loosely by a burnished orange cord, so it spread out behind him, catching in branches until the full heron-wading-in-the-rushes symbol on his back was splayed out behind him.

He had been holding the emerald teardrop shaped Matagama in his hand idly while he reminisced about home, as if it were a magical talisman against the past... or perhaps against the present. He could never be certain here. The days were he felt more like Jason were fewer and fewer these days, and the ones where he was Baldur became more firm and more... real. Baldur was who lived here in the castle of Aincrad, and Jason was someone he fought to save. Jason belonged to the other world. The world that remembered a forest like this as home.

How long have I been wandering here?

He couldn't quite see the light of the sun here, but the floor above could be blocking it, or the trees. The crepuscular rays that filtered down through the branches of the trees were not enough to give him the time of day, and it didn't feel right to open up his UI and look for the clock. Not here. Instead, he guessed it to be somewhere around mid afternoon, based on how long he had remembered walking. He often was lost in his thoughts, but not for that long.

Purple?

He didn't remember seeing any purple flowers before, but that was definitely a shock of purple just beyond those trees, in what appeared to be a small clearing. Slowly, the large gaijin samurai wanna-be pushed through the foliage until he reached the purple flower. A young woman, standing over what appeared to be a stone staircase leading deep into the earth.

@Teion 

[Teion 0]

It was less and less rare nowadays that Teion found herself leaving her smithy on the fifth floor, which would have been considered a miracle about a month ago, and very much the norm a year ago. Since her participation in the boss fight on this very floor, and even before then, she'd started dragging herself away from the silence, pulling herself out of her thoughts, and pushing herself back out into the world of Aincrad. It was a scary place that had already left her with more than a few scars, but she had started trying to tell herself that she could learn from them, and it wasn't all that bad. For now, that line of affirmation seemed to work more often than not.

"I've wandered blindly into worse, I'm sure." It wasn't clear whether the lone blacksmith was muttering to herself, for the sake of reassurance and maybe the building of some foolish bravery, or perhaps there was another set of ears nearby that her words were meant for. Her own level didn't quite justify Teion wandering alone on one of the highest available floors of the floating castle, but the mild nature of many, if not all, of the creatures that populated the tranquil area outweighed the need for such precautions, she would argue. Her presence seemed to be the only one in sight, which was both surprising and not to the violet-haired woman. Just from what little exploring she'd managed to do on her own, the forests of this floor seemed to be so massive and sprawling that she assumed at least a handful of even the highest-leveled players had gotten lost among the tall trees in the first few days after the floor had been unlocked. Even so, she would have expected to find another soul or two around the mysterious staircase she'd happened to stumble across. Sticking out so sorely in the middle of nature, the clean stone structure was both ominous, curious, and without explanation--just the right combination of elements to leave the violette entranced by the possibilities that lay at the bottom of those steps.

Yet she still hesitated from marching fearlessly down the unknown passageway. The fear of danger was one that never completely faded, even before she had started her new life in the virtual world, and the fact that Teion seemed to attract it like some kind of magnet as of late was doing little to reassure her that anything at the bottom of these stairs was as beautiful and harmless as the scenery around her in that moment. Before she had reached the breaking point of her internal debate that would have had her either venturing onward or abandoning the peculiar entrance, the sound of rustling leaves and disturbed branches reached her ears to catch her attention and pull her out of the depths of her imagination. Teion turned around in a hurry, startled by the presence of whatever could have made a sound as it moved through the forest. She didn't have to wonder as to the cause of the noise for more than a second when her cobalt eyes landed on those of an unfamiliar face--a player she had never seen before, which wasn't strange in itself.

Still, strangers had been less than kind to her on one too many occasions. Her shoulders went rigid, and although she didn't move to draw her weapon immediately, her fingers twitched at the thought. With her right palm still resting on the sturdy trunk of the impressive evergreen that stood beside her, Teion's opposite arm naturally rose in front of her abdomen, her body language speaking to her wariness as she eyed the stranger with an expression that mixed an impassiveness with curiosity. "...Hello," She greeted cautiously, the most basic of manners still not yet lost on the woman.

[Baldur 0]

The scene that opened before him as he pushed his way into the clearing was surprising on a couple of levels. First, there was no purple flower. Or at least, not the kind he had assumed. Secondly, there was a staircase, leading down, in complete dissonance with everything around them. The woman, unlike the stone stair case, appeared to be surprised to see him. He had the brief impression of a deer, startled from its peace and quiet as something... or in this case someone unexpected came crashing through the forest into its path. The stone stairwell took in his presence with a remarkable yet expected calmness. Therefore, it it was the shocked bit of color that stole his attention for the moment.

The girl was pretty; taller than most, and she appeared of western decent, rather than eastern which would account for that height. Her most striking feature was the bright, beautiful purple hair and those eyes... the game digitally generated them, and you got to pick the color, but he had found you could still read a lot about a person in a digital game, with digital avatars... or at least he had fooled himself into thinking you could. He realized his deer impression might have been more right than he thought. She was stuck between fight or flight. Her eyes spoke flee, and her posture was tense and rigid, waiting for him to respond, and her hand seemed ready to spring to action. He immediately tensed up as well, not wanting to do anything to startle her, when finally she said what he should have long ago.

"...Hello"

Her voice confirmed his suspicion, and he slowly finished walking fully into the clearing so he could give her a friendly bow. They were both western, and he could have given her a wave, or a fist bump, or a 'hello' but that was Jason, and this was Baldur. Baldur spoke Japanese just like everyone else here, but there were some people who were more comfortable in their native English, so Baldur pushed aside the words that were on his lips and chewed on the English words as he got them out.

"Hey. Sorry if I surprised you. I was just out for a walk, and thought I saw something." He then realized he was standing next to an extremely fascinating stairwell, and awkwardly gestured to it, trying to pretend he hadn't forgotten about it completely.

"As I'm sure you noticed." He gave her an awkward smile. "Oh, I'm Baldur by the way. It's nice to meet you, miss...?" He left it open for her to respond, if she chose... and assuming she didn't just run away.

[Teion 0]

She breathed out a steady breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding, the air slowly seeping past her barely-parted lips. His greeting was friendly, and casual, and one she would have hoped for that quickly led her to believe that his intentions were not vile. At least, her trust hadn't been tried so many times as to have her permanently shutting out the rest of the world just yet. She relaxed a bit, left arm falling slowly back to her side, and her expression naturally shifted as she grew calmer the less of a stranger he grew by the offer of a name. "Oh, Teion." She finished his trailing sentence, giving a tiny nod of her head while she felt just as awkward an air around them in their meeting. "Uhm, nice to meet you." She mirrored his greeting.

The man looked older than her, if she had to guess. At the very least, his facial features, how tall he stood, the way he carried himself, and the way he spoke didn't point to him being as young as the majority of the game's population. She saw teenagers running around everywhere. A fair amount of others, she guessed, were around her age in their early- or mid-twenties. And a few, Shield being the only player she could think of off-hand, were older. Still, it was rude to make too many assumptions, so she fell back on the impression that he wasn't any worse of a person to run into than if their roles had been reversed, and she had been the one stumbling upon a player out exploring by themselves.

His gesture to the oddly-placed structure beside her pulled Teion back to reality, and she pulled her eyes away from the Eastern-styled man in order to peer down the entrance to the unknown once again. "Oh, yeah. I was just wandering, too." She felt the unprompted need to explain her presence. "I, have no idea what this is or where it leads." She admitted with a shrug. "Thought about checking it out, but..." Her voice faded out, unable to bring herself to admit that the fear of danger was proving too great for her curiosity to push her down the foreboding entrance alone.

Her brain naturally started putting the pieces of a puzzle together, and as her gaze picked back up she began to wonder more about the person standing in the clearing across from her. What level was he? Was he experienced with combat, or was he just another of the gathering and crafting-focused players that seemed to flock to this floor for its abundance of natural materials? He seemed friendly--or at least polite--enough, but did that mean he was the type to party up with anyone, or would he just be on his way? Perhaps she was just a random player who now stood between him and whatever lay at the bottom of that staircase, and he would have ventured down it alone if it weren't for her practically blocking his path. She was curious, but shy. Her mind working on its own to come to half-conclusions and think of different possibilities, but her tongue too hesitant to suggest any of them as reality, or offer a prompt to try and receive a confirmation one way or the other.

[Baldur 0]

"It's nice to meet you, Miss Teion." Baldur gave her a warm, friendly smile, and then gestured to her indicating that he was going to come closer to investigate the staircase leading down. It was a curious site, but not out of the ordinary.

"I usually see something like this for a sub-dungeon." He spoke out loud, hoping that his idle chatter would familiarize him to her, and help to take off the edge of suspicion. His introduction seemed to relax her quite a bit, but he could still tell she was holding back. Baldur had never been a people person growing up... or perhaps he should say Jason had never been a people person growing up, but being a shy kid meant he was more empathic towards those who felt reserved and awkward in front of strangers.

Kneeling down beside the staircase, Baldur looked around the clearing. "Normally they're better hidden than this, but on this floor, even with the more docile mobs, I'd be cautious of a sub dungeon on this floor. The higher end ones can have really nasty bosses, and even I wouldn't want to face one without a healer and a tank."

He stood up once more to his full height. There was something about wearing the katana that improved his posture and made him unconsciously stand straight. It was ironic, since posture had been one of the things he had struggled with when he studied the sword in the real world. He had had several sensei throughout the years, but they were all kind an lenient in comparison to his Japanese tutors. They had barely accepted him, though he had had his blackbelt and been ranked before moving there, he basically started over and had to work twice as hard to get through the basics. But that was one of the things he loved about Iai. It was about perfection.

"I wouldn't want to explore this thing alone, but if you're handy with that axe, I think we'd be okay to poke our head in and take a look."

Baldur reached into the kimono he wore beneath the haori and pulled out a <<glow stone>>.

"What do you say?" He gave her another small, friendly smile.

[Teion 0]

The more Baldur spoke, the more comfortable Teion grew with his presence, and so his manner of approach seemed to work as he intended. She shifted her weight, and when his eyes moved from her to the stone staircase she followed suit. His mention of sub-dungeons brought about the only memory she had of them: caverns and tunnels on the eleventh floor. It felt like ages ago that she had stumbled upon such a place alongside Beat, Shield, and Soredell, but having a full group of rounded players ensured that they cleared the place out and hadn't left empty-handed. Still, he continued to express some hesitance, and Teion was reminded of their position in the floating castle. Despite the floor seemingly existing as a crafter's paradise and a respite from the death and dismay several floors beneath them, it certainly wouldn't be the first time that the game would try to kill them with something that looked harmless.

He made mention of the axe whose head was clearly visible over her shoulder, going so far as to encourage her a bit with the suggestion of checking the place out on their own. Her silent curiosity spiked once more, and she wondered just how strong the man beside her was--or believed himself to be--and why he was so friendly to invite her along for the exploration. No, that wasn't fair, she told herself. Surely she'd just had too many bad run-ins with strangers as of late, and that was putting it lightly when she thought back to her excursions with Spencer and Ryo, or questing with the Holy Dragon Alliance in recent memory. She watched his expression as Baldur flashed her another small smile, and finally the corner of Teion's mouth picked up into a slight, crooked smirk. She nodded, "Sure, why not?"

The blacksmith followed behind the samurai as they made their descent. The sunlight that had peeked through the cover of tall trees eventually covered less and less of the path ahead of them, and Teion gave a glance over Baldur's shoulder at the illuminated crystal in his hands, suddenly grateful for its presence. A few seconds later, and she let her eyes begin to wander over what scenery the light touched. Unlike the eleventh-floor dungeon she had encountered, the whole area was incredibly unnatural--the stone walls, floor, and ceiling were smooth and constructed compared to the sprawling forests above them. "I don't even hear any monsters..." Despite a lowered voice, it carried easily through the silent corridor. "Makes me think it's full of traps, or something, instead." She guessed, thinking out loud primarily to fill the eerie silence.

[Baldur 0]

The first thought when Baldur looked down the stairs into the darkness was that it didn't look to bad. He had seen worse. The second thought Baldur had once they had gone down a few meters into the earth was: spookiest starecase ever. He had gone deep into the firmament of the floors before. He remembered finding an extensive dungeon which required entrance from the outside edge of a floor. He had never been so terrified as he had been when he had to drop down to the ledge sticking out from the side. This, however, frightened him for entirely different reasons.

What had started out as perfectly normal stone steps had degraded with the light. The first few meters, they had what left of sunlight falling down the corridor, however as they moved, and they descended deeper, no new lights came to replace the diminishing digital star. And as the light faded, so too did the quality of the steps. What were once cleanly chiseled stone, was now uneven and rough hewn. Where once, they had been able to see the pinprick of light at the top of the stair, they had turned a corner, and then another, and now they couldn't even see the reflections of light. In fact, the only light they had came from Baldur's <<glow stone>>.

Such was the darkness, and the nature of the light, that they could only see what was a directly around them. The light lit approximately twenty feet in front of them, and less behind them where their silhouettes blocked it. The inky black of absolute darkness surrounded their little bubble of light, and if the stairwell didn't exist just outside of the light, or just behind them, he would have never known. At first, Baldur was at least thankful for the presence of walls. He had a thing about heights, even in a digital game where he could roughly guess at his falling damage, but that, too had been used against him. While the walls didn't quite touch both of his shoulders, it did not give enough room for he and Teion to walk side by side.

So subtle had the changes been, that there was never one moment where Baldur noticed the change to such a degree that he would have turned to Teion and said, 'You know what, this is creepy, let's go back.' Instead, it had been subtle, a simple measure of a degree here, and an inch there. Before he knew it, he had lost track of time, and found himself in this strange, bizarre situation. And just when Baldur had had enough, the stairs gave way under both him and Teion.

It had not been a trap, like they had originally been concerned about, but rather what appeared to just be natural erosion eating away at the stairs. They had literally crumbled and given away under the two of them, causing them to tumble down the last few feet into what they could only assume was a chamber of some sort, since there was enough room for them to collide and sprawl out onto the floor of the room without being entirely on top of each other.

And unfortunately, Baldur lost his grip on the <<glow stone>> which caused it to tumble away into the darkness, revealing a room filled with giant columns, carved with intricate designs... and then, no longer being held by a player, the light went out.

There was a stunned moment of silence from the Samurai as he tried to figure out what happened, and gain his bearing in the absolute, pitch blackness of the chamber. The only thing he could see... The only thing he could see, was his health bar, and Teion's, in the corner of his UI.

The only thing.

"Give me a second... I think if I use my inventory command, I can get the stone back."

Baldur tried to move to get up, but found some part of a person he assumed was Teion on top of him.

"Sorry." He tried to disengage himself, and then find a wall or something to help him get to his feet, but there were no walls within groping distance. Pushing himself up onto his knees, Baldur just went ahead and started opening his menu. The effect cause a slight light to appear and illuminate the upper half of his body and his face, but only in an extremely dim way that lit up nothing else.

"Are you okay?"

@Teion

[Teion 0]

Teion was uneasy. Irritated, even. Why did every godforsaken dungeon or secret passageway in this castle insist on leaving them in the dark? Over Baldur's shoulder, light spilled from the glow stone that he held onto, illuminating the walls of the tunnel and giving her some sense of space to cling onto that kept her from speaking up against the exploration. Her right hand glided across the surface that gradually shifted from perfect and smooth, to uneven and rugged. And with each step they took, Teion grew more impatient as to how long this decaying old staircase would tug them along before Cardinal decided to show them what it was they were blindly chasing after.

She needn't wonder long, for as soon as the thought crossed her mind the ground that they stood on simply gave up. Unwilling to support them any longer, the rough staircase fell apart beneath their feet and the shock of the sudden movement, combined with the new sensation of falling, caused Teion to let out a short, involuntary scream as she was startled. Her right side slammed into the tunnel wall as her footing gave out, and she failed to fully catch herself to keep upright. With no new footholds to support her, the blacksmith fell, and the momentum left her crashing and tumbling over her shoulder before skidding to a stop in the wide-open chamber. The blade of her axe let out a muffled clang as the metal at her back collided with the worn stone floor before the motion shifted her to a stop on her side.

Groaning softly, she propped herself up with an arm just in time to see their only light source--the small glow stone roll a couple of times as it fell away from its owner. The light was carried with it, dancing off of the ground and bouncing off of different structures that populated the room they had landed in until it suddenly went out. And then, everything was gone. Teion froze up. Her eyes widened, then blinked. Once, and then several more times as if that might help her vision to return. But as her eyes strained against what looked like a dark abyss all around her, dread began to wash over her. Her whole body grew tense, and she stared blindly ahead of her as her gloved hands pressed against the ground to assure herself it was really there.

The sounds that reached her ears only terrified her further. Shuffling, several feet to her left, It wasn't until she registered and recognized Baldur's voice that she remembered about his presence at all, and the smallest bit of fear managed to drain away from her. If nothing else, she wasn't alone. Then came a question. One that she was both thankful for, and wished he hadn't asked. Talking, keeping her head busy, was an incredibly helpful distraction for her distressed, anxious, and fear-laden mind. But forcing the words out like a normal person in her current state was asking too much of her. "Y--" Her voice got caught in her throat, as if just the sound piercing the still darkness had caused her to falter. "Yeah. I'm, fine." She lied, even more terrible at it than she normally was.

[Baldur 0]

"You sure? Ow!"

"Sorry, I hit my head on something."

"..."

"No, that's not what I hoped it was... can you see anything?"

Shuffling noises came from Baldur's.... direction, the sound of bits of boots and cloth scraping on the flood.

"Damn... I really can't see anything this is crazy."

Shuffle. Shuffle.

"Well, I now see the upside to torches... heh..."

Shuffle. Shuffle.

"At least there doesn't seem to be anything down here."

"Hold on, I think I found something."

Suddenly, there was a woosh as several torches seemed to light at once. The chamber was... not filled with light as Baldur had hoped, but their immediate area suddenly held the orange glow of fire. Four wall sconces had suddenly lit as Baldur had scrambled on hands and knees, apparently grasping at every hand sized rock he could find. When the light came back on, he picked up his glowstone once again, but the soft white light was outshone by the orange and so he put it away.

"Seems like the lights come on as he continue down our path...."

But there was no path. Obviously they couldn't go back up the destroyed stairwell, but the columns seemed to stretch off into the darkness.

"As random as this all seems, it had to have been made by a person, designed with an intent. So there must be a clue around here somewhere. Something to tell us which way to go, or how to solve whatever puzzle is here. Can you see anything that jumps out to you?"

Turning, he looked at each of the pillars that held the glowing light and tried to see if he could make anything of the symbols and carvings that were etched into them. He wasn't sure what he was looking at, but this was ultimately still a game someone had designed, and that meant that there were clues. The developers always wanted their puzzles to be appreciated, so there was something here to help them.

@Teion

Edited November 1, 2018 by Baldur

[Teion 0]

Teion's lips were tightly pursed, holding her breath in for several seconds after she had pushed herself up to her knees. 'Ihatethis.' The words ran through her mind so quickly they practically melded into one. She stayed, frozen in place in the stuffy underground chamber until the roar of torches coming to life sounded around them. She felt like she could finally breath again with the dim light they provided, though she felt silly and hurried to pick herself the rest of the way up once their vision was restored.

Doing her best to shake off the nerves, she reached behind her to pull her weapon to the front: the large charcoal-black battleaxe that once belonged to the girl named Zandra. The orange tendrils that dug through the surface pulsed with the faintest glow while her fingers tightened over the long handle. "An underground dungeon, I guess?" That's what she had chalked the place up to the whole time. What else would it be? She started to branch off, exploring one side of the room while Baldur surely inspected the other. Taking a hand away from her weapon, she ran the tips of her fingers over the stone, making a face and rubbing them together as dust and erosion dragged along off the sides of the carved surface. She searched, cautiously poking and prodding at things she might have guessed would be a lever or switch, to no avail. "Ugh, nothing over here."

Finally returning to the center of the chamber, Teion sighed and leaned up against one of the heavy stone columns. The sound of a small 'click' followed by the sudden depression of rock caused her to jump, spinning around in alarm. Barely able to catch the actual mechanism in motion, it looked like a clean, rectangular slab of stone had slid down within the column. Left behind it, resting beneath a torch, stood a mirror. "Hey, uhh. Baldur," She called to her acquaintance over her shoulder while her eyes locked on the odd sheet of glass. She took a step closer, bringing herself forward until she could properly see her reflection under the flickering light of the torch. At first, nothing was out of the ordinary. It just took her a moment. She suddenly realized the hair on her head was brown, rather than the unordinary purple she had maintained throughout her time in Aincrad. A nostalgic clip featuring a sparkling, light-blue butterfly was pinned near her temple, and what she could see of her shoulders and her upper torso sported a blouse and cardigan she didn't remember choosing to equip instead of her typical combat attire that day. She took a quick step back, tearing her eyes away from the reflection and down to her clothing, running her fingers through a section of long hair to pull it forward and inspect. A few seconds later, as it sunk in, she didn't know if it brought more relief or disappointment to realize that it was the figure in the mirror that was false. That her avatar still wore her violet hair, her gold-and-amethyst battle attire, and held onto the heavy battleaxe.

[Baldur 0]

Once the lights were on and Teion seemed to collect herself, Baldur kept an eye on her. She seemed more shaken than the situation warranted, but he wanted to make sure she was actually okay before he started to search the room they were in in ernest. Once she had distracted herself with the search, however, she seemed more at ease, and Baldur turned his attention to trying to make out what the purpose was of this maze like room. The symbols felt so familiar, as if he should be able to understand them, but they were just weathered and indistinct enough to not be legible.

"It does look like an underground dungeon, but it seems rather... quiet... doesn't it?"

Normally it didn't take long in a dungeon before you found yourself neck deep in mobs to fight.

"I haven't found anything useful yet either..."

Baldur lingered off as he found a section of wall that seemed to be a bit more legible. It was a fresco, or what was left of one, and it seemed to show a set of what looked like mirrors and fanciful scenes played out, but it didn't make any sense, and there wasn't enough detail for Baldur to even tell if he was right. Were they portals to other parts of the tower?

That was when he heard Teion call out for help, and Baldur immediately dropped what he was doing and ran over to her. When he caught up to her, she had found a niche in one of the columns that help something he couldn't quite make out, but she appeared fine. Just concerned and playing with her hair. He wasn't sure if that was something she did normally, but it seemed very girly for this great axe wielding warrior woman.

"What's up? What did you find?"

Baldur walked up next to her and glanced at the mirror, but from where he stood, he could not see his own reflection.

Search Roll: 110365 LD: 14

Edited December 11, 2018 by Baldur

[Teion 0]

A quick look over her shoulder, and Baldur seemed confused by her. She frowned, looking back to the mirror where she again saw a nostalgic-looking image of herself staring back at her. She glanced back to Baldur, realizing he was too far to the side to see either of their reflections, and so she stepped aside and gave a wave of her hand. "'Magic mirror'. See for yourself." She was a bit more dismissive than she had meant to come off, maybe in part to hoping that she wasn't crazy, or whatever strange effect the game had wasn't limited to her alone and just made her seem crazy.

She turned and wandered off, just a few slow steps forward while she left Baldur to inspect the mirror himself while she thought back on a not-so-distant memory. She had spent plenty of time here and there before leaving an inn room, at a friend's place were they wealthy enough to own a player house, or even in the still reflections of lakes on different floors to check her appearance. Each time she was met with the same purple locks and familiar blue eyes. What that mirror held, however, she had seen once before since logging into Aincrad.

She thought back to The Announcement. When every player was summoned to the main plaza of the Town of Beginnings and informed of their new fate. She had pulled out the Hand Mirror upon Kayaba's instruction, just like everyone else around her. That was one of the last, but certainly the most memorable, times she had seen her natural brunette hair, and the light spattering of freckles over her cheeks and nose. For a second, she thought her avatar's appearance had been reverted again. Why else would it show a reflection of her unaltered, real-world visage? But she was still Teion.

[Baldur 0]

Baldur watched as she wandered off, leaving him to the strange compartment with a mirror in it. Baldur stepped up, unsure of what she had seen in the mirror. Perhaps a clue? But when his steel blue eyes glanced down at the mirror, blue green ones stared back at him. A man with less years on his face than Baldur had; short, sandy blond hair in lieu of Baldurs dark brown, almost black hair. It too him longer than he had expected, to recognize the face as his own. The face itself wasn't terribly different, but it was foreign. The duality and contradiction of that rattled Baldur's head more than he could realize.

"What... what is this thing?" He reached in, trying to pull the mirror from where it was held, and after a little bit of nudging, the mirror came free.

"What did you see in this?" Baldur asked as he tried to aim his view, and the mirror, towards Teion, wondering if it would show him what she looked like.

Instead, it revealed to him a completely different room surrounding them, but only in view of the mirror. Instead of faded stone, weathered carvings, and smoke filled darkness, Baldur saw a room aglow with light, wild fanciful paintings from floor to ceiling, and including the floor and ceiling. It was as if looking at the room in its prime, rather than thousands of years later.

"Woah... Teion.. did you see this?!"

Searching Roll: 110366 LD: 1

Edited December 11, 2018 by Baldur

[Teion 0]

She looked around what felt like a catacomb, with cobwebs dripping down every abandoned corner, and dust kicking up with every step she took over the cracked stone floor. "Uh..." She hesitated, still a bit confused and disoriented. And also a little too reserved given their predicament. She drew in a sharp breath through her nose, and let it out in a sigh. If they wanted to get out of here, she needed to be a goddamn team player, she told herself.

"I saw...myself? Like, when we first got kicked out of our avatars." She tried to explain, turning back and blinking in surprise when she saw Baldur had pulled the mirror free of the pillar it stood on. She looked over his shoulder, into the mirror as he angled it to include both of them in its frame. She made a face, her mouth twisting into a confused frown that her reflection shot back at her, and they both looked down at herself. Her old self wore casual clothing: a dark green knit sweater and a pair of jeans. Black socks on her feet, and brunette hair swept over her shoulder. Teion looked back up, her hand reaching for her collarbone. But instead of locks of hair and soft yarn meeting her touch, she felt the hard leather of her chestpiece under her fingers.

She looked up, then turned to look over her shoulder. In the mirror, she stood in a warm glow of flickering torchlight, sconces visible on the wall behind her. She spotted what little remained of a fading, mildewed banner hanging on the wall, then looked back to see it proudly showing its bright colors in the mirror. Finally, a larger figure caught her eye at the edge of the glass. Baldur--or who she assumed to be Baldur--looked back at her. His features looked different, but the man matched up to the one holding the mirror. Stranger still, he looked almost ghostly. Everything about his reflection seemed paler, like a spirit was looking in on the scene.

"That's... This thing is creepy." She mumbled, further unsettled. She looked away briefly, as if looking over more of the room. Her eyes flickered back, meeting Baldur's expectant gaze, and she shifted uncomfortably. "You look like a ghost or something." She said bluntly, tacking on, "But you look kinda different, too. I assume the same thing as me? I'm not sure what it means. Maybe this place is like a puzzle or something."

ID#: 135946 | LD: 4

Edited February 17, 2020 by Teion

[Baldur 0]

Baldur looked into the mirror and saw what must be Teion, but she was right, somehow she seemed faded like she wasn't really there... or perhaps like he was seeing someone else's' memory. The room behind and around her though, was completely different from what they saw now.

"I think you're right, that this is some kind of a puzzle. Here, I'll hold up the mirror, and you look into it, and tell me if you see anything." Baldur took a few steps back so that he was in as close to the center of the room as he could tell. He held the mirror up at chest height so that Teion could see as much as possible. In the mirror, the room seemed to be lavishly decorated. The damp, dark cataombs instead appeared to be a great hall, well loved, lived in, and treasured. Standing in the midst of this great hall instead, was the Teion who was, dressed as she had in the real world. The... dissonance between the two was almost comical.

But instead, the image of Teion began to move. The face that was her own, but somehow seemed... wrong smiled at her, then waved, and then beckoned her to follow it, as it began to move between the columns.

"There, does that help? Need me to hold it higher? Or lower? I'm not sure what you can see when I hold it like this, but I figure if I slowly spin in a circle where you can see, then maybe we'll reveal something."

Baldur tried to look over the top of the mirror, but couldn't see anything, so he looked back at Teion expectantly.

ID#136888 LD: 11

Edited February 28, 2020 by Baldur

[Teion 0]

"Oh, uhm, yeah. Okay." She agreed with his plan, standing still while Baldur put a few more steps between them and stood fully behind the mirror. The reflection of herself shrank a little and she could see even more of the elaborate chamber on either side of her along with how pristine the stone floor looked right beside its current musty state.

She remained planted a bit longer, her eyes looking past herself and searching the room for some sort of clue. Was there something in the image that didn't match up with their surroundings? Suddenly the image of herself jumped out at her when it lifted a hand to wave. She almost felt a chill at the same time her stomach flipped. She stared, dumbstruck, as her reflection beckoned her along and walked calmly to one side and out of view. Teion tore her feet from the ground and made to follow, hurriedly motioning for Baldur to pivot the mirror so that she may follow her doppelganger. "Move it this way." She instructed plainly.

She had to quickly glance from the mirror to the path she forged ahead of her and then back again. Eventually, she'd moved a quarter-turn around the room when the reflection of herself stopped and waved again. She stood in the center of a single stone slab that looked just as normal and uninteresting as the rest of the walls, floors, and pillars surrounding them. But she pivoted, tapping a finger against the back wall and then bringing it to her lips in a drawn-out 'shush', as if she was sharing some kind of secret. She turned and walked forward, vanishing behind the wall like a ghost simply phasing through to the next room.

Teion stood, dumbfounded for a moment. Then it was suddenly unsettling looking into a mirror without a reflection. "Okay, uhh..." She started again, almost at a loss for how to describe the events to her new partner. "The reflection started moving on its own, and stopped at this wall." She turned to start inspecting the stone itself, first tapping gingerly on its surface and then pressing against it with her whole palm. If this was actually some kind of door, then they just needed to figure out how to open it.

"Here, switch me." She finally suggested, turning back and closing the gap between her a Baldur. She offered to take the mirror, holding it up in place for him in the hopes his reflection might offer them another clue.

ID#: 137257 | LD: 14

Edited March 17, 2020 by Teion

[Baldur 0]

Baldur watched Teion carefully as her eyes searched the mirror. He noticed her react to something that she saw, but he had no idea what. All he could do was guess based on her expressions, so he studied her face intently. She was pretty, though she still seemed to carry a perpetually reserved face, almost unreadable, until she reacted to something. Perhaps it was her eyebrows that were the most expressive. Her cobalt eyes had widened only slightly when she saw whatever it was she saw, but she beckoned him onwards, letting them spin about the room.

Then she began leading him somewhere, but for some reason she had to keep glancing back a the mirror like what she saw was changing over moving or something.

What could it be that she's seeing?I

When they came to a dead end she told him.

His first impulse was to disbelieve her. Was she loony I mean, he had just met here out here in the middle of nowhere. There was no telling what kind of a person she really was. He gut could just be mistaken.

But his guts did say to trust her. There was something about this vionette that told his guts to trust her. So he did.

Handing over the mirror, he went and stood where she stood. He had to crouch down a little to get fully into the mirror so he could look at himself, but that's all he saw. It was the real him, or at least how he remembered himself looking. And the room was all done up behind him. Instead of the faded stone, it was all clean and painted.

"I just.. I just see myself... You.. you said you saw yourself moving?"

ID#238747 LD: 2

@Teion

Edited March 26, 2020 by Baldur

[Teion 0]

Teion's brows dug inwards and then upwards and she was left confused by his confusion. "Wait, you don't--?" She didn't finish her sentence, instead trying to shift herself around behind the bulky mirror to crane her neck and attempt to see what Baldur saw in the glass. Though it was impossible, she frowned and tried to ignore the awkward feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She opted for setting the bottom of the mirror on the floor and having her hands rest on the top rim while she switched up her focus to thinking out loud. "Okay, so this room is one of two things: a puzzle, or an Easter egg," She reasoned. "It doesn't look like we can climb back out the way we got in, so there has to be some sort of passage from inside here that will eventually let us back out..."

While Teion went on trying to theorize about how the mysterious time-lost chamber should work, the image in the mirror began to move. The way she had set it on the ground, Baldur could still see his lower half. Then, he saw the alternate version of himself kneel down, as if the real-world Baldur was peering underneath a coffee table to see his counterpart. The sandy-blonde inside the mirror waved his hand, beckoning Baldur closer.

ID#: 156360 | LD: 14

Edited November 5, 2020 by Teion

[Baldur 0]

Rolling

ID#191318 LD: 8

Edited April 29, 2021 by Baldur