The Fe'gan Mountains are the highest, coldest mountains Lambastia has to offer, with the highest peak recorded at 8589 m (28,179 ft). Only the toughest creatures survive here, and the trek to get to the Basantha Shrine lays through these harsh conditions. (+3 Endurance)

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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/14/2017 9:24 PM

Let us take a step back from the absurdity of this situation and consider how much time Chi has spent with her face in the ground thus far. On second thought, let's not. There's only so much embarrassment a girl can take.

Here is what happens - she picks herself off the ground; the feather has, as many fluffy things do, attached itself to her shirt. She debates with incredible sincerity whether the tradeoff of having a distinctly aromatic feather in a direct vector from her nose is worth the struggle of physical contact with it, and eventually comes to a utilitarian conclusion - the ends justify the means. The beleaguered feather puts up a heroic resistance before being inelegantly removed and banished from her line of sight. As it flutters quietly to the ground, it lets out a silent cry at its cruel mistreatment.

Chi, preening as though she'd just won a confrontation with the final boss, distinctly ignores it. She also distinctly ignores the lingering voice in the back of her mind that is making fun of her for essentially bullying an inanimate object and taking pride in it. Sometimes, you have to take your victories where you can.

(i lost track of where i was going with all of this ;w;)
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/18/2017 9:52 PM

It's not surprising for a cave passage to be slightly different the second time around - or so she told herself. Certainly, she's done enough falling over, crawling around on the ground, and shattering age-old relics of years of water seepage to irrevocably change the contours of this place.

Hopefully that sketchy professor wouldn't notice. Honestly, he hadn't seem particularly interested in the geological value of the caves - more into the remote possibility of treasure and that lab coat he'd apparently misplaced. She could respect that - grant money was always hard to come by, after all.

So of course, a wet, frustrated, and rather unashamed graduate student would end up wreaking untold devastation on a pristine cave. Destruction to the scale that of course, one particular corner - which she recalled to be previously empty - was now inhabited by a particularly shiny, distinctly defined chunk of rock. Damage so serious and immediate that said chunk of rock was in fact still wobbling slightly, from side to side, and seemed to be waddling its way towards her.

On second thought, maybe she wasn't the cause of this.
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/19/2017 6:18 PM

'Hello,' she said hesitantly - there is a certain amount of embarrassment inherent in trying to start a conversation with a rock, even if you suspect it might be a vengeful spirit attempting slow retribution on you for destroying its home. 'Um. Nice to meet you.'

Silence hung in the air like the stench from a certain ragged tailfeather, or like the atmosphere after a particularly bad metaphor.

Now that the chunk of rock had separated itself from the wall, Chi could make out certain shapes - batlike wings, tiny clawed feet, star-like head protrusions. 'Oh, you're a Stargoyle, aren't you?'

The silence only continued as Chi desperately combed her mind for any Stargoyle-related lore she could remember. Not particularly aggressive; no known cases of eating people that she'd heard of, at least. Not that she could really fit in its mouth, or if she could even be digested - okay, this was not the time to be thinking about such things.

'Look, I'm sorry about the cave, okay?' Reasoning with it - even if it were an intelligent lifeform - seemed like a silly idea, but it was either that or attempt escape through the forest of rock formations. Experience strongly suggested that a slow-moving Stargoyle could beat her at the latter task.
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/19/2017 7:01 PM

A word of advice: do not hold a staring contest with a rock. Even if it were no ordinary rock - even if it actually had eyes to blink and the brain stem capabilities to do so - you will lose.

Chi, luckily, was fully cognizant of this fact and did not engage in minutes of painstaking, painful-to-describe nothingness to prolong her inevitable defeat. 'I really am very sorry,' she said in her best missed-my-last-thesis-appointment voice. 'Unfortunately, what's done is done. Is there anything I can do to make it back for you?'

Silence. She was getting awfully sick and tired of talking to a literal stone wall.

'If that's the case, I'll just stop bothering you, then,' Chi said, making her move to escape. Once again, no response - not even a shuffle. She was beginning to worry if between appearing in her sight and now, this Stargoyle had suffered a heart attack and died. Did these things even have hearts or functional circulatory systems?

Well, if it was letting her go without a fight, she'd gladly take that opportunity. Whoever came down here next could deal with whatever was going on - she was pretty damn done with putting in any more effort than necessary.
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/19/2017 8:09 PM

And so she made it back to the main cavern decidedly uneventfully.

There were still two passages she hadn't entered yet, but at the moment she wasn't feeling particularly inclined to explore either of them; it was still only late morning, and she had plenty of time to do so if the passages were as short as the ones she'd been through. So with a snack in hand, she settled down to check in on the latest happenings in the world outside.

cat mafia wrote:[CLAN] Chi Squared: '[^2] Anyone here know anything about Stargoyles?'
[CLAN] Aureyn: '[au] Hm?'
[CLAN] Chi Squared: '[^2] What do you know about wild Stargoyles? Like, where do they live, what do they usually do, do they eat people - that kind of stuff.'
[CLAN] Aureyn: '[au] They're not that common nowadays. Pretty harmless creatures, but shy.'
[CLAN] Aureyn: '[au] Did you see one? What did it look like?'
[CLAN] Chi Squared: '[^2] Black, kind of shiny? It had a kind of rainbow shine to it.'
[CLAN] Aureyn: '[au] Oh.'
[CLAN] Aureyn: '[au] Those are worth a fortune.'
[CLAN] Aureyn: '[au] People used to harvest their bodies for precious stones. They're really rare now because of that.'
[CLAN] Chi Squared: '[^2] wtf.'
[CLAN] Chi Squared: '[^2] Aren't they, y'know, sentient?'
[CLAN] Aureyn: '[au] Has that stopped people before?'

She wondered, vaguely, what might happen to the Stargoyle living here if people started coming into and exploring the caves after her. It wasn't a particularly pretty thought, but it wasn't one she particularly cared about, either. Rock creatures were rock creatures. If it hadn't wanted to pay attention to her, she wasn't going to pay attention to it, either.
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/20/2017 4:40 AM

Satisfied with the information she'd gathered, she brushed the crumbs off her leggings, stood up, and observed, helpfully, that the landscape of this cavern had changed as well.

'Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao will come,' she grumbled, eying the chunk of rock - no, precious stone - who was currently perched several feet from her. 'Did you come for a rematch? Because I'm not playing another round of the staring game.'

Silence. Not that that was much of a surprise at this point.

'Well, if you want to follow me around, knock yourself out,' she said. 'I'm not going to stop you.' Then, as an afterthought, she added, 'Other people might not be so nice.'

Nothing. Shrugging, Chi picked one of the passages at random - still no heuristic - and walked towards it. Behind her, she heard a faint shuffling.

She looked behind her - there was the Stargoyle, standing as perfectly still as the moment she'd seen it first, but clearly in a different location from where she'd seen it last.

She walked another step; another scuffling noise. She looked back - the same situation again.

'Same, I guess.'
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/20/2017 8:31 PM

'I don't have a nose.'

Chi startled at that, for several reasons - first, because it was a complete non sequiter to her pre-planned conversation of snippily grumbling about rock formations and nosy stargoyles; second, because she was fairly sure the sense of smell was integral to most advanced lifeforms; and third, because it had come from a chunk of rock that she was starting to worry would haunt her (silently) for the rest of her life. She had, in fact, been reminiscing about how this scenario had a vague resemblance to the plot of the critically acclaimed and truly seminal work of narrative fiction, The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon.

Before she could collect herself and give a witty response worth of her standards, though, the stargoyle continued, 'I don't have a nose, and even I can smell that - whatever it is - you brought in here.'

'Oh, um,' Chi said, with a certain realization of just how lame she sounded right now. 'Yeah, about that. It's ... uh, it's not really mine ... ?'

Honestly, she didn't feel too convinced about that either.
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/23/2017 6:43 AM

She was thankful, honestly, for the silence that followed. There was only so much being sassed by a rock a girl could take, after all.

Collecting her thoughts, she started into what sounded like a vaguely reasonable explanation. 'See, well - I met a professor recently looking for help mapping an unexplored cave system. So being a woman of science, I of course accepted his request and came here.'

This honestly sounded a lot better in her head. Well, she was no stranger to bullshit - she could continue regardless. 'The well-meaning professor, bless his heart, lent me a feather to map with, but unfortunately it was rather ... er, aromatic. But it would be disrespectful if I just discarded it, so I brought it into the cave with me.'

The stargoyle did not scoff; she wasn't sure if animate rock statues could even emote like that. But she could feel the action in the atmosphere regardless. 'You said it would be disrespectful if you just discarded the feather, but you threw it into the cave anyways.'

'Well, yes,' Chi started defensively, with the feeling of dread common to someone who had just realized they'd spoken themselves into a tight corner. 'It would be disrespectful if I threw it away in front of him, but not if I did it out of his sight.'

'I don't understand. What's the difference?'

There is none, Chi wanted to say, but suppressed the thought. 'He won't know if I don't do it in his sight. I can just say I lost the feather.'

'So you're a liar, then?'

(posts to next section: 5 (cave-in) + 2 (leave) + 2 (new zone) = 9. ahhhhh life.)
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/24/2017 2:45 AM

'No, of course I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, I wanted to - uh, I wanted to place the feather in a good location, as a means of respect.' Okay, that didn't make much sense to her either. Chi had a simple policy that had gotten her fairly far in life, though - don't admit fault and simply continue to rationalize. Most people gave in when she started bringing out the thesaurus.

At least, it worked wonders with getting customer support to give her better deals on her internet plan.

'So you're a liar, then.' Evidently, it didn't work so well with stargoyles.

'That's the exact opposite of my point,' Chi said, in the most convincing voice she could put on. 'I felt the feather might be more at home in its natural habitat, so I decided to place it in a location more appropriate for it.'

'So now you're a liar, and you're insulting my home.'

'I -' she started and then stuttered to a stop. Honestly, she wasn't really in the mood to be arguing this, especially when she'd talked herself into a corner to begin with and didn't have much room to bullshit from. 'Yes. I am insulting your home.'
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/24/2017 5:31 AM

Silence. What a wonderful tradition they seemed to have established.

The opportunity to abscond from the conversation presented itself - it seemed the stargoyle was content to accept the status quo and remain silent and - hopefully - unobstructive. In a moment of rare self-involvement, Chi chose not to take it. Maybe it was the soreness from sleeping on rocks all night; maybe it was the frustration from having gotten stuck between stone pillars so many times; maybe it was just insanity from prolonged exposure to a feather so smelly its existence could be considered a violation of the Geneva Convention.

'Look, I'm pretty serious about this,' she began. 'I have no idea how you live in a place like this. Or anyone, really. I mean, I get that stargoyles probably have different needs than the rest of us, but this place is just depression waiting to happen.' A pause, while she thought of some of the places she'd seen in the cave. 'Well, it's kind of pretty. Sometimes.'

The stargoyle remained silent to the vitriol currently being hoisted upon its chosen place of residence.
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/24/2017 8:36 AM

Facing no opposition and feeling intense relief at being able to verbalize her thoughts about the entire place to someone who was not herself, Chi continued on her tirade. 'How do you even put up with all this water? I feel like I'm getting moldy just standing around here. Do you not feel constantly sticky all the time?'

'I'm made of rock,' the stargoyle interjected.

'No shit. Well, I mean - rock erodes under contact with water, right? That's where all these stalag-whatevers came from. So is it not uncomfortable for you or anything? Do you not worry about slowly disappearing into a mineral stream?'

Evidently, this was indeed something the stargoyle had not thought about, and the conversation lapsed into a silence Chi wasted no time in filling. 'And that's not even all of it. How do you even get around? It's not like this place is a maze, but there's hazards everywhere and tight crawlspaces that I had to squish through. You sure as hell don't look as flexible as I am, so I have no idea how you made it through.'

Before she was responded to, she added one last complaint, 'And you don't even have Internet service most of the time.'
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/24/2017 9:26 PM

'...what's the internet?' A question of utmost importance.

'What do you mean? Do you live under a rock or something?'

'Yes. Yes, I do.'

'Oh,' Chi said. 'I'm sorry.' Upon further reflection, it did seem apparent that a rock creature, currently talking to her in a rock cave, might in fact live under a rock. 'I'm serious about that, by the way. I'm pretty sure I couldn't survive without the internet.'

'That doesn't answer the question.' True.

'It's an international network of connected computers that allows them to share data using a packet protocol. Hence, internet.'

'That still doesn't answer the question. I have no idea what any of those words mean.'

Chi sighed. 'You really live under a rock, don't you?'

'I don't understand why that's funny.'
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/25/2017 6:08 PM

'It's - ah, it's just a figure of speech. It's just funny because for you it's literal and not figurative, y'know?' she said. It didn't sound very convincing to her either; she followed it up with an awkward giggle she usually reserved for students hitting on her, as if trying to convince herself this was, in fact, a funny situation.

The stargoyle did not deign to contribute to her defense, so she returned to a topic she could actually speak on. 'But - well, about the internet.' Pausing again, she realized she might have a completely different worldview from someone who lived in a cave. 'What do you know about the outside world?'

'Outside world?' the stargoyle repeated.

This wasn't going to be one of those stories where the intrepid explorer meets some naive creature who doesn't even know there's a world outside their well, was it? Those only happened in movies, and Chi had no intention of becoming a teaching assistant for life on top of math courses. 'The world outside the cave?'

'That place,' the stargoyle said haltingly. 'Not much.'

'...have you ever been outside of the cave?'

'No.'
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/25/2017 7:37 PM

Helpful. She'd asked a few questions and gotten no useful information besides that typical explanations would probably be unsatisfactory. 'Well,' she tried. 'There's these little devices you can use to communicate with other people around the world in real time.'

'Sounds like some kind of magic,' the stargoyle contributed, helpfully.

'Somewhat, but not exactly the same.' Real-world applications of magic were not exactly Chi's specialty - as a distinctly normal individual who primarily worked with math, physics, and other systems magic seemed to directly ignore the rules of, she tended to avoid the subject; the feeling was mutual from most magic-users towards academia. But she'd picked up bits and pieces by osmosis from her friends, and she felt comfortable extrapolating an explanation from that knowledge. 'It's mostly technology - harnessing the power of electromagnetic waves and modifying them to send specific messages. But it's been reinforced with magic.'

She stopped briefly, since something had come into her mind at this. 'Actually, that's probably why I can still get signal down here. Hey, how about I show you what the internet's like?'
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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Adelie
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Re: Minimum Spanning Tree [Caving] [L?] [H by Z]

Postby Adelie » 09/25/2017 9:15 PM

The stargoyle made what Chi could only assume was a rock creature version of a shrug and continued its pact of silence. Well, silence was consent when it came to an argument, and she wasn't gracious enough to consider this a conversation just yet.

'Here, come over,' she said, sitting down and pulling out her phone. 'Sorry about the small screen, but I think you can still see what's going on.'

Shuffling over hesitantly, the stargoyle leaned over Chi's shoulder to get a look at the moving image on her phone screen. Within moments, it found itself entranced - the sheer emotional drama of the scene, the existential dread portrayed by the actions of the characters in the video, the symbolic juxtaposition of two contrary images to represent the coexistent of different, often conflicting, forms and perspectives on the world.

'This is amazing,' it said. 'This kind of thing can be found on the internet?'

'Er, yeah,' Chi said. 'That's just my favorite episode of Bananya. There's a bunch more.'

'...can we watch them too?'
and if you ask how i regret that parting:
it is like the flowers falling at spring's end
confused, whirled in a tangle.

what is the use of talking, and there is no end of talking,
there is no end of things in the heart.

ezra pound, exile's letter
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User avatar
Adelie
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