middleofsomewhere | Adventure On: Finale and Conclusion

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Adventure On: Finale and Conclusion

Blue

The Mountain

Once they get close enough everything is storm, ice swirls around them, stabbing them like knives. Winds seem to be actively pushing them away, no matter what direction they approach from. Still the crystal wolves walk on, heads down, paws silent, climbing upwards.

The higher they climb the colder it becomes. So cold that ice forms on eyelashes, that air seems to freeze as it leaves their mouths. So cold their chests hurt. They would not be wrong to assume that the only reason they can withstand this at all is because of the SCA around their wrist.

Ice tumbles down around them often, shaking the ground. The crystal wolves know the way and they keep going, steady on the path. They have spaced themselves out, to be in sight of all those who follow.

The Summit

As they finally reach the top of the mountain they reach a calm space, outside of the swirling storm. Domed across the summit is a fire cage, larger by far than any they have seen before. In the middle of the giant fire cage sits a dragon. White and blue, scales that look as if they were made of ice themselves. Their head was bowed, eyes closed but they are breathing, breath escaping in clouds of freezing mist that evaporated in the heat of the cage.

Around the cage itself are ice elementals, outside the storm these can be seen by the snow they whirl around inside them, each is about three feet tall but fly in a whirlwind as they attack. Like those in the storm they try and push people around and attack with shards of ice. These corrupted spirits seem to have no reason to their attacks, they are just as likely to push a combatant closer to the cage then they are towards the raging storm.

They can be fought, fire works well against them just as ice and cold magic works well against the fire cage itself.

A Sovereign Freed

Eventually the cage stops fighting, fading away into the snow before them. The crystal wolves spring forth, nuzzling at the dragon until they raise their head. Piercing blue eyes look over the group and the dragon bows their head once. They take a deep breath and breathe out over those assembled, cold fire washes over them, healing any hurts that they have, easing their fatigue som

The crystal wolves bow their heads too, a thank you. Aerlie flaps their wings, rising high into the air. Another breath of cold fire flies out around the area, clashing with the storm for a moment before overtaking it. Around the mountain the storm calms, the ice elementals stop and seem to sink into the snow or fade into the air. The mountain descends into a calmness.

The crystal wolves will approach all those who helped free them, nuzzling into their hands, a personal thank you before a shimmering gate opens for the adventurers to step through.

Red

Final Siege

It’s been a tiring three days of protecting the crystals from the creatures that sought their power. But now, as their power is fully recharged it is time to return them to the border. That is going to be a tougher job than getting them to the volcano’s heart in the first place!

They thrum with power and that power is a siren call to the creatures of the area, fire dogs, lizards, fire sprites. Just as the mountain attacked inside the heart, here the spirtes join with the rivers of lava to flood pathways, block routes, making it harder to cross already treacherous territory, or even driving them into traps of waiting fire dogs.

The heat is oppressive, heat from around them, heat from the crystals seems to sap the energy from those carrying them and so the duty is best shared.

Eventually though they arrive at the border, a mess of melted ice and frozen lava. Each of the crystals need to be replaced.

Restoring the Border

Replacing the crystals is a little more complicated than taking them was. Each one needs to fuse with the holder it sits in. It doesn’t take any skill, just someone to hold it in place for a moment whilst the two fuse together and the magic is channelled into the ground.

Holding a crystal in place is a little more difficult when being attacked by the creatures. The fire creatures keep up the attack until all of the crystals have been replaced.

The Land Repaired

When the last crystal is in place there is a ripple across the land. An invisible line, an ancient magic, connects the crystals, seperating the two lands. Ice recedes from lava and the melted snow refreezes. The borderlands of slush undergo transformation as the two elements separate from each other once more. A land of fire and a land of ice, with a pulsing magic separating the two.

The firedogs and lizards retreat, fire elementals calm and join with the lava streams once more. A shimmering gate opens.

Orange

An Important Message

The Huma birds have been carrying crystals and helping the harvesters, protecting them from the blighted birds and encouraging them to work hard.

But those returning to the floating islands on the afternoon of the eleventh day of Horseshoe come bearing black cloth bags in their talons, each has a scroll attached. The Huma birds will make it very clear they are to read the scroll first.

DO NOT OPEN THE BAG UNTIL NIGHT FALLS

Inside this bag are rare crystals. When they are exposed to the light of the sun they will cause the islands to sink back to the ground. After the sun has set tonight please distribute these evenly around the islands and then depart back down to the land below before sunrise. The lands natural magic will do the rest but we do not recommend being on the islands when they fall.

Thank you for your hard work.

The Adventurers Guild

With a long night ahead they may wish to rest for the remainder of the day.

Distributing the Crystals

If they do as they are asked then it will be a long night, there are many chunks of islands and a lot of crystals to distribute. The darkness makes it harder and the blighted birds seem even grumpier in the cover of darkness.

The wind sprites also are not resting and indeed seem delighted that playtime has been extended into the hours of night. Placing crystals is difficult when the Voidtreckers find themselves swept up into the air to dance around the trees.

Getting down by sunrise may be a little trickier than placing the crystals, especially if they have used up their flight potions, but hopefully there are enough people to help everyone get to safety.

Islands Fall

The sun rises, as the first rays of light hit the island they begin to vibrate, shudder. Then one by one they begin to fall, rapidly and chaotically. It is perhaps wise to not be anywhere near the crater as they do so.

They land in a crash of dust, which obscures the area. When the dust clears however they will see a perfect undamaged land. The pieces have fit back together, exactly where they should be, despite the chaos. The land is repaired and whole once more. Huma birds call excitedly as they dart through the air, their land restored.

A gate opens, for them to step through if they wish.

Purple

A Cure

It is day ten of Horseshoe when the first Huma birds fly into the village, they carry crystals either in bags in their talons or in their beaks.

The villagers clearly know what is going on for they welcome the birds and take the crystals thankfully. Anyone not currently fighting or purifying crystals is brought in to help distribute cures.

Actually curing someone is easy, it just requires the crystal to be touch an affected person or creature. The crystals are only good for one cure so those curing the blighted will be required to carry a few and run them to the villages.

Others can take crystals out into the woodland, looking for blighted animals to help.

A Final Fight

All but one of the golems have been found, defeated and restored. The final one has been elusive, not approaching the village or even the nearby woodlands.

The restored golems are back to standing vigil in each village, ready to deal with any attack that may occur.

But when an attack comes, it is not on a village, but on the shrine in the centre. A golem, three trolls and a host of animals, some blighted, some just angry. They attack in the early morning, the villages awoken by shouts and sounds of battle.

Luckily the blighted creatures can be healed, angry animals can perhaps be soothed. The trolls cannot be soothed though and will indeed try to rile up the animals again, to cause as much chaos as they can.

Peace Once More

Once the final golem is taken down, the crystal restored and the trolls defeated there is a quiet comes across the villages. Those who were blighted are cured, the golems are back in their place as guardians of the village and thanks to the adventurers the villages have gotten through this time with minimal damage.

The villagers thank the adventurers, tell them to come and visit whenever they are in the area. A gate opens, for any voidtreckers who wish to return to Royal Lake Hill.

Royal Lake Hill: All Teams!

They return to the tavern, each to the inn that they set off from. The town is a little busier now, more areas have recovered from the blight and it has brought more trade into the town. Everyone is still relatively elderly or young, non fighters. But the market is bustling, there is even a puppet show going on in the square.

Around midday a beeping of their SCA will show a dot on their map where the Voidtrecker Express has landed, not far out of town, and a message. You may remain here until sunset.

It is up to them whether they wish to return to the train or spend the rest of the day in the town. For those staying in town they will find word of their deeds have preceded them and they will find no end of young, wide eyed, budding adventurers ready to buy them a drink or two in exchange for stories.

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"Yeah, well, we have to pick and choose based on how much we can carry but you can just make yours vanish." Senku chuckled and shrugged. He would've collected more, maybe.

"We picked up a lot of fresh mint, chamomile, some garlic." Senku explained. "A plant I'm not really familiar with, I want to see if it serves any purpose at all, and some of the sap from the trees that they use in the healing potions here. It seems to work on small cuts." Senku reported dutifully.

"Aside from that, we earned enough gold to buy a bunch of things. Not necessarily for study, but they'll be useful for making things. I wanted one of the lilies we were working with but that bird was not cooperating with me."

Not for the first time, Roland visibly shows he's impressed with the amount of detail Senku lends to collecting and scavenging for void-related materials. Granted, the president's never actually seen the boy do anything with the things he takes, but there is a strange, latent trust he's come to recognize. Especially when he remembers what Gen told him; that it was Senku who first woke in a world that literally, stood still for millennia.

"Wow. A lot of that is definitely going to come in handy on the train. How much of that is for your research on the void?" He sets his tankard back down on the table for now, more interested in talking than drinking.

"Hm. That's too bad. But maybe it's for the best. Weren't those lilies important to Orange's main task this mission?" Roland quirks an eyebrow up at Senku.

"Hmmm." He seemed to be giving Roland's question a good amount of consideration. "It helps with cataloguing the worlds we've been to, and gives me materials I can recycle for other purposes." He admitted. "I'm not sure it helps with the void directly, since there isn't anything to take samples from the void itself, unless I could get samples of the train." He mused, but that would mean breaking something on the train. Roland could always ask what he'd done with the things from the last place they visited.

"Honestly, most of what we bought are for our own comfort." He admitted with a bit of a wry smile. "The pantry is lacking a lot of spices and even I'm craving something with a bit of heat." He complained slightly. He was still human after all.

"Yes, but I've never seen a plant that grows a crystal before."

Roland expresses some form of appreciation for Senku's thoroughness about documenting the journey, humming with a small smile on his face. He definitely needed to remember to ask him for that audit on his current findings.

He returns to nursing the ale in his tankard. He briefly remembers Gen's words, not for the first time since he approached Senku at the tavern, and how he was responsible for reinventing most of the luxuries Roland's world has commercialized and taken for granted already. He swallows a hefty gulp before he speaks again.

"What are you thinking of making then? To curb your craving?" Roland throws him a casual side glance.

"Ramen. That won't do much in terms of heat, but honestly, it's the thing I used to love the most in the modern world and a good bowl of ramen would be amazing. I'm planning on grabbing what I can to help out with that. A soy sauce broth is probably the best bet." Senku mused thoughtfully. He seemed a bit wistful, as though there was more meaning there unsaid.

"It's one of the first things I made for the villagers, after all, nothing like a hot meal to curry favour." He grinned, as though that wasn't a devious thought, it kind of was - but that wasn't what caused the softer expression in his eyes.

Not only does he recognize that playful but fond look in Senku's expression, but he also confirms how close their two worlds were - the Earth that Roland comes from, where he ruled, and the world Senku was entombed in for thousands of years. What Gen told him before; about Senku being the first one out, how it fell to him to reinvent the world from scratch.

He doesn't want to think about that right now. But he's always remembered.

"Well, you're not wrong. Food is integral in the hierarchy of needs." Though there's something to be said about currying favor versus just doing it because it was right. But Roland doesn't take it too seriously - he knows Senku is far from malicious. Just mischievous. "I guess that makes it your specialty?"

"Hmmm." He considered that. "Maybe, although I wouldn't call that my specialty, what I wouldn't give to have the right ingredients and make it properly. It's just chemistry you know, cooking." Senku mused.

"Although probably my true specialty is bread making because Francois really worked me hard in learning how to do that properly, especially the stollen. They were pretty appalled by my first efforts."

Cooking wasn't really his strongest asset, although he understood the science behind it, it would still take some serious practice. "I've also made cotton candy as of late, and we also made some chocolate...I don't know, I've made a few things in the realm of food and drink."

"Bread, huh?"

He's had the offer to learn it from Glorfindel, vis-a-vis Tidus and Inigo. He's also grown fond of it from his time in Evermore, where Floyd bakes every morning; so fresh were their rolls that Evan won't even touch any other bread roll unless it was his head chef's. The meticulous taste for good bread rubbed off on the Chief Consul, at least to that extent.

"I'd be a happy taste tester, if you needed an extra tongue." Roland shrugs, a half-smile on his lips. "And Gen tells me you're making cola too, right? A real wunderkind."

"Ha, I don't actually spend much time baking. Just means when it's our kitchen time, I'll be somewhat competent. Since we got Francois, they do all the baking." He grinned and shrugged. "And cooking, but I get called on usually to get ingredients. You know a lot of ingredients can be synthesized through chemical reactions right?"

He snorted at that. "Cola. That's what makes me a wunderkind?" He snickered. "I don't know, hundreds of inventions and that's the best one?"

He was all too amused. "Of course he would think that."

"Isn't cooking itself considered a chemical reaction all on its own?" He offers amusedly, if only because of the subject that follows the conversation thereafter. Gen was incredibly excited at the idea of cola being made for the train, disappointed at the fact that none of the sodas had it as a flavor.

"Heh. Maybe he just has his preferences? Can't blame him. Cola is pretty good."

Roland makes a mental note to ask about what else Senku has made - he jumped on the gun project pretty quickly, and that was already a good indicator of his talent if anyone were to ask Roland.

"It is! Sometimes though, you want something like vanilla, which we can't get naturally, however I can use chemistry to make vanillin, which tastes a lot like vanilla, it's just synthetic. We used in the chocolate making, because we also don't have cocoa beans in Japan." Senku explained. "We're limited to natural resources after all."

He hummed thoughtfully. "Cola is great if you like sugar, sure." Senku shrugged. "Most people seem to like that kind of thing, including the Mentalist. After all, I won his favour with a bottle of cola, it would be his favourite." He grinned.

"Can you imagine we were enemies when we met? Sent to spy on me." Senku huffed. "Like I can't be more impressive than a guy with big muscles." He liked Tsukasa fine, but that was his selling point, his strength.

Heh. And there he goes. Roland listens intently, of course. Even if a lot of what Senku explains might not be information he'll recall off the bat. Still, it speaks volumes of his passion, and now Roland knows it makes sense given the role that he had to play after reviving the world. The first out.

Some of the things Senku tells him poke at his interest. His tankard all but forgotten by now. "You had enemies? How? Who?" Weren't...they all turned to stone?

"I didn't have enemies back then. I was mostly left alone because when I got picked on, Taiju just got in their way and he's like a big defense shield. Doesn't help that I used to get my revenge later. Sweet, cold revenge." It wasn't exactly wise to piss Senku off when he was a child and had no chill.

That was the kind of story that amused him, but he seemed to sober a little bit to take Roland's question seriously. "Ah, well, it was mostly a disagreement in philosophy that escalated into war. Tsukasa was my enemy first. We've sorted that out though, now he's at the top of my battle team. Gen was revived by Tsukasa, so he was technically my enemy too, but he knows to back the winner." He smirked.

"Let's see, at the end of that battle, we had Homura and Hyouga left, and when faced with a new conflict, they wound up joining our side then." He hummed. "Ibara was the man on treasure island who was our enemy there. The Mentalist is from my future and from what he's said, we're facing another one now. Humans can't just get along, as you might know."

Edited 2020-10-04 18:02 (UTC)

So as he had expected, even when Gen told him the truth. Of all the horrors that could span space and time, no matter what universe he exists in, humans not getting along, and the chaos that follows that root cause, is always present. It hits a nerve only for a moment, before Roland suddenly returns to his drink, taking a deep gulp.

"What kind of philosophical war was it? What did the two sides believe in that it couldn't be resolved at all?" He offers Senku a side glance, curious and altogether invested.

He was considering his thoughts a moment while Roland was and when he asked he hummed thoughtfully. He would present both sides neutrally to see what Roland would say, or maybe choose.

"One of us wanted to be selective and only revive those with an express purpose and who were too young to be corrupted by the modern world and the other found that boring and wanted to save everyone."

If this was a sort of test that Senku was throwing his way, Roland's pretty sure he's got an answer for him. But he takes his time to reply, mulling over his thoughts and making sure he remembers all their interactions well. Senku wasn't exactly an easy person to read, a testament to the multilayered persona he seems to present even as he comes across as the genius boy with a penchant for mischief.

But that's exactly the spark Roland follows to find the smoke, the fire. He takes another long gulp of his drink before he wipes the corner of his mouth and smirks, answering without looking up at Senku.

"...I'm glad you chose to save everyone, then. That's a cause I can get behind any day." Roland quirks a knowing eyebrow before turning back to his drink, half-empty.

He giggled a bit at Roland getting the right answer, because he was fooled into thinking that Roland had read him enough to know that.

"What can I say? I'm ambitious!" He grinned.

"It's so much more interesting, don't you think? Saving the entire planet, seven and a half billion people? Come on, that's a challenge I can really get into."

Power tripping wasn't something he was interested in. He didn't need power. It was convenient, but he was the kind of person who could walk away when it was time. He wasn't in love with the power.

If Roland were a lesser man, he would have read such a statement with a hint of offense. Saving lives shouldn't inherently be a challenge; it was a duty. A responsibility to uphold. He knows that to be more true than anything else in his life - having served for eight years as the head of a nation, then taking up a different mantle as chief consul to a budding, young king.

But Roland knows better, of course, and it occurs to him quite easily that Senku simply processed the world as if he was conquering challenges, one small step at a time. There was no malice to it; it was simply the process in which Senku knew how best to save the lives of his entombed citizens.

He holds back a chuckle, swirling the ale in his mug. "That's one way to put it. Sure." Another sip, before continuing. "You'd never be scared of modern science." And Roland pretty much sounds convinced, even if he'll never claim to know how that mind of his worked. "You'd embrace it. You'd hone it so others can live good lives...Wouldn't you?"

Whether Roland was doubting his assessment or not, he wasn't entirely wrong. Their situation was, in short, rather bleak from the outside, but he saw it as a challenge to be overcome. He had an excited, scientific energy that actually caught people's attention.

With enough time, he could win people over, through a lot of hard work. He was diligent and driven and maybe it wasn't so bad to look at the world like it was a series of puzzles. Someone had to.

"Yeah, I'm not afraid of it. Keeping up to date on the latest inventions was one of my favourite things to do in the modern world." He grinned. "Humans have created some amazing things, don't you think? All that progress and cooperation through each generation, isn't it amazing?"

He was enamored by the idea.

"You can't stop progress, even if you wanted to. Even if he had eliminated me, someone else would take my place. That's just the way science is. They might not be able to do it as quickly as I can. They might not know what I do. But it would come back." He gushed a little bit. "You should see what kind of amazing things Chrome has accomplished."

He quirked another smile though. "Science does a lot of things, including the lives of the people around it. Every step in progress has led to more progress."

He nods along, allows himself to ride on Senku's vision of his new world. It's a different strain of idealism than Evan's, a child beyond his years despite his desire to unite a world under one banner of peace. A land where everybody can live happily ever after. Roland appreciates optimism; has always been drawn to kindness and to similar leaders who put the well-being of the nation first and foremost.

But at Senku's words, Roland must take some pause, the smile on his face dropping somewhat though he is no less engaged than he was when he sat down next to him. A much younger Roland would have answered Senku differently. Maybe even backed him up somehow, offered his support however it would have come in worlds separated by voids, time, and space.

But this was the Roland of now; a man who had no business or right being alive had magic not come to save him. He swallows the remnants of the acidic brew settling at the back of his throat, craning his head to stare forward instead.

"...Progress has a price." That's all he says for now, nods to the beat of his own answer, and the expression on his face a little dulled down. You can't stop progress, but if progress led to the end, then you wouldn't be able to stop that either. "Just...remember that, I suppose. But I don't have to preach to the choir, huh?" Roland adds lastly, wry and a little self-deprecating. Senku would have known science had its dangers too. He was turned to stone. All of them were.

A grim reminder, Roland thinks absentmindedly.

Edited 2020-10-08 05:12 (UTC)

"Yeah." Senku agreed. He'd studied his history, he knew all about it.

"I have no interest in introducing certain concepts back into the world, but I expect that me having control over the situation is going to eventually not be the case." Senku answered, completely realistically.

"If by some chance I did have some modicum of control as to what science path people follow or don't? I still can't stop progress. People get ideas, terrible ones at that."

He sighed. "The only solace someone can take, is that usually with the worst possible things that humanity has done, the worst science you can think of, it always leads to the progress of the good too."

Just because he was somewhat ethical, didn't mean everyone would be, and he knew that. He also recognized he may not have control over that forever.

Roland knows Senku's words have merit, have a strain of wisdom to it that in any other occasion, he would have agreed to in a heartbeat. It's true; good always comes out of the bad, even if it wasn't foreseen. He's learned that lesson well by now, right?

But...he remembers, still. The missiles that came, the nukes that ended the world. The president who failed. And even in the Second World, where Broadleaf's perpetual fission reactor drained the land around them of its natural resources. For good to come out of the bad, one had to pay the premium. The cost, always unforeseen until it's time to foot the bill.

"Hm."

He thinks about this often enough that it warrants just silence from Roland, thoughtful and deep. Drinks from his ale as he ponders on Senku's vision. Frightening but ambitious. When he's decided he's had enough of his drink, tankard now empty, he speaks at last. Tone still neutral, head bobbing slightly to the beat of his words.

"You care about your people. That much I can tell. Keep at that and...I doubt you'll go wrong."

He cared too. Cared more than anyone. But it still brought about the end. Ah, well. Musings from another life, another time.

He was fine with sitting in quiet while Roland thought it over and had his drink. He'd had food in front of him, that he mainly forgot while he was talking while the conversation was more spirited, and he focused on that, eating quickly as though that were a normal thing for him - it was.

He would have only his drink left in no time, by the time Roland was speaking again.

"I do." He confirmed. "I don't intend on forgetting that for a moment, but that's not to say I won't make the wrong choice. Let's hope I don't." He had people to collaborate with, but they could always take a wrong turn on the path, that was just realistic. He couldn't see the future.

"If you surround yourself with the right people, even if you do make the wrong choice...You won't fall far. Trust me on that." He offers genuinely, from one leader to another. "You're doing good. We don't hear that often enough."

And he says this knowing full well of how mad some of Senku's ideas can get. His heart is in the right place, and Roland knows that's the best start anyone can work with.

He just hopes the fate of his land - even that of his soulmate's - does not repeat itself in another universe.

"Heh, appreciate that. I do have a good council. We're doing what we can, and that's really all we can do." Senku admitted, because there were some limits in the world.

He finished his own drink and got up. "I'll get that stuff from you later, and I should probably go find the Mentalist, and a few more supplies, no point in keeping currency I can't use."

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adregem - 2020-10-11 18:12 (UTC) - Expand

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