Get on the Down With Fish bus

[arrowace]

WHO: Lilybells, House Wardens, Azdaja, others??
WHERE: Lily War Room
WHEN: Day 71 morning

[ After a few different discussion, Lily and Bluebell have invited some allies to discuss a problem and make some plans. They've probably put out like. Berries and water. Mute and Ananke stand at the front of the room, them speaking and him providing large illusions of the presentation. ]

Lights please. Ananke.






This is Eph'meris. It is not my home but . . . where I was most recently before . . . arriving in the Meadow. Next.








This is Meris. Meris was once the primordial . . . sea goddess that formed Eph'meris and its people. Now she is a . . . festering mass of malice, squatting in the astral sea and longing only . . . to drag all life she encounters with her into the abyss. Next.








This is the Merisian Pillar Array, which turns one or several individuals into the "Pillar" of Eph'meris. It allows the bulk of Meris's hatred, necrotic power, and general "evil bullshit" to be visited on . . . that one or several persons rather than . . . reality itself. It also fortifies those individuals' . . . bodies to bear this malice without being destroyed. It also . . . kills them. Next.









This is a small piece of the Merisian Pillar Array, that we are . . . currently calling the "Gate". It's purpose is to . . . ensure that the energy exerted by Meris upon reality is directed at the selected Pillar, but also that . . . some of this energy may be siphoned off to the Merisian power grid. I am told . . . this is "like electricity but worse" but I don't . . . actually know what electricity is. Next.









I believe these diagrams speak for themselves. Next.









Next.








This concludes the . . . background briefing. Everything should be clear now.

Comments

[arrowace]

Mm. The "death" is . . . biological and metaphysical, but not . .
. practical.

[ if that doesn't quite make sense, welcome to the club ]

[arrowace]

Mm. He's been able to . . . interface with it previously. If he can be allowed to work then . . . perhaps it's possible.

[audacity]

Are you kidding? We take care of each other, just like you said. No debts necessary.

[arrowace]

No. They aren't a plan.

But . . . perhaps one is possible, or perhaps one is not. This is . . . well outside my own knowledge.

It may not be possible at all, or . . . the risk may be too great. But . . . I . . . want to know if . . . it is possible that I may truly live.

[ KINDA STILL PRETTY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THE IDEA OF ANYONE RISKING ANYTHING FOR THEIR SAKE, TBH ]

[arrowace]

Take what you want. They're not my . . . state secrets.

[ STATES THAT WANT THEIR SECRETS NOT SPILLED SHOULDN'T INSCRIBE THEM ON RANDOM ORPHANS' SOULS, THAT'S WHAT MUTE THINKS ]

[arrowace]

We should . . . put some ink in there.

[finalbows]

...But they are someone's, hn?
Now I'm actually going to have fun.

[endsjustified]

Yes.

I don't have the luxury of hoping another mage will be born in my world, in my circle of influence, with the requirements for what I need to progress on this front. If you have the means to crack it, I'm not too proud to ask.

[arrowace]

[ you know what? they are mad enough in specifically this moment to allow a Sicko Faces to slide ]

For a millennium it was the carefully . . . guarded secret of the Solesian Academy. But then they . . . put it on me.

[arrowace]

Then . . . I would appreciate it, deeply.

[noarchitact]

If I understand what we're setting out to do, then I think that's unfortunately inevitable.

[noarchitact]

[ love you too, snookums. ]

[noarchitact]

...no, not really, but it's not the most unusual thing I've heard.

[mykidisthebest]

[seems completely unbothered with that part tbh]

Mm...you're already living, aren't you? We just want to make sure that you can live with less death and agonies. And grow up a bit more. We've got enough smart people here to make that happen.

[audacity]

Happy to help, seriously. I know Kevin feels the same way.

[heavyliesthecrown]

How do you mean?

[secondbornsun]

Blood ain't enough?

[ huffs but like, straight up breaks the other pen the ink can magically flow out and start stabbing into the spot like it's its own tattoo gun ]

[arrowace]

Biologically . . . I am an animated corpse. In . . . some regards, it's hidden well but . . . in other ways . . .

That is the purpose of the Pillar. To . . . bear death and pain that the land might be spared. And . . . I am . . . very good at bearing pain, but-

[arrowace]

[ JESUS CHRIST OW BUT ALSO FUCK YEAH ]

[abandon_hope]

[ meat grinders 🤝 demigods ]

Course. I admit I'm curious too.

[finalbows]

[ look at both y'all icons and tell him you are not making the SAME sicko face, he asks you ]

So we're looking at the result of prolonged academic collaboration. That means... Hn.

Do you have references of any other arrays they produced? I don't care what they do, I care about trying to see if some of these quirks are stylistic, or the result of some dependency somewhere I haven't noticed yet.

Or both.

[secondbornsun]

[ huff . . . ]

. . . If ya wanna clean this up to a neater spell, ya might as well just do the whole thing over again.

[ picking out one of the five starred sections to tap on it ]

Whole thing ain't even activated, they ain't got the right bits for it.

[arrowace]

[ DID YOU NOT LISTEN TO ME!!! SCRESCENDOGHDFKJ!!! peers directly into his soul ]

[poisonista]

[ Huff. ]


More than confident.

[ In a very "who do you think you're talking to" way. ]

It's old magic, but nothing I'm unfamiliar with. Does Minuet need something like it?

1/2

[finalbows]

[ under his breath, ]

_{..."the right bits"...}

[ very goddamn specific ]