Palace Game 6/5

[fujimaru]

The Dreamer In The Grand Temple
Humanity Foundation Value: ????

What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.

Comments

THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[fujimaru]

You have entered on the left end of a wide-open white-walled gallery, full of framed paintings of various sizes and shapes. Your footsteps echo, as does the door as it closes behind you. There is a sense of buzzing tension here, like you're holding your breath.

Immediately in front of you, a young woman kneels before a painting labeled as The Flame-Contaminated City. She is weeping, her face buried in her hands. The closer you get to her, the more you can see that while she appears mostly solid, there's something a bit of: a slight transparency, like she isn't entirely there.

Further down the hallway, you can see two other figures standing at certain points. One of them might be familiar to you, depending on how well you know the members of Sphinx. They have the same sort of odd near-transparency to them.

The gallery looks as-depicted, except there is one additional painting: that of a a young girl, bright-eyed and hopeful, her hands clasped as if in prayer.

[strikingchords]

[LAN WANGJI WILL IMMEDIATELY APPROACH THAT WEEPING WOMAN, CONCERNED, then stand statuesque and awkward next to her,,,]

Maiden.

[rootsforyou]

[reaches to touch one of her slightly transparent shoulders and offer her a handkerchief]

What's wrong, miss?

[fujimaru]

Unfortunately for Jiang Yanli, the moment she touches the woman, there is a shock, something that burns, and then--

You can see the exact moment she understands what is happening, the way her confusion and anger give way to a genuine terrified panic. She claws at the arm of the smiling man who is slowly pushing her into what appears to be a fiery self-contained globe, screaming. No, no, I can't die like this! Not here! I can't--

You want to run for her, your feet scrabbling at the ground for a second, but your arm is held in an inexorable grip; you are locked in place by someone far stronger than you are.

But then she disappears, and the sound of her screaming cuts off abruptly.

At the same time, the woman yanks away so hard she falls over, staring at the both of them in dumbfounded shock and horror. Possibly humiliation, too.

[strikingchords]

[LAN WANGJI WOULD HAVE MOVED TO CATCH HER WITH HIS GOOD REFLEXES; whether that gave him the same memory or not, she doesn't land on the ground, at least :|]

[rootsforyou]

[Jiang Yanli's reflexes are not that good, and she would have been too stunned from the memory to react, an instinctive panic welling up in her throat from it.]

--Oh. You're...

[fujimaru]

It's the contact with her that triggers the memory, so yes, he definitely also sees it. The woman is stunned for a couple more seconds, and then she shrieks, furious in only the way the truly humiliated can be, squirming furiously in Lan Wangji's arms like a scalded cat.

"You--you saw! You saw! How dare you--let go of me this instant! Unhand me!!"

[strikingchords]

[he takes a deep breath and politely sets her on her feet; all right]

[rootsforyou]

Please, miss. It isn't anything you need to be ashamed of.

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[unlimitedtimeoff]

... uwoh. Impressive.

[curry he has with him probably smells delicious.]

Y'know, if you're hungry, there's curry in the cafeteria.

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[fujimaru]

She completely ignores him. She appears to be at least coming DOWN from a crying jag, instead of working up to it or in the worst of it, but it's like she doesn't hear his voice at all.

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[unlimitedtimeoff]

Oooiiii...

[now he's looking between crying lady and sphinx lady. before going over to tap crying lady on the shoulder.]

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[fujimaru]

There is a burst of energy at the contact, a hot stabbing sort of pain, and he sees--

You can see the exact moment she understands what is happening, the way her confusion and anger give way to a genuine terrified panic. She claws at the arm of the smiling man who is slowly pushing her into what appears to be a fiery self-contained globe, screaming. No, no, I can't die like this! Not here! I can't--

You want to run for her, your feet scrabbling at the ground for a second, but your arm is held in an inexorable grip; you are locked in place by someone far stronger than you are.

But then she disappears, and the sound of her screaming cuts off abruptly.

The woman, however, whips around to stare at him, wide-eyed, horrified, and unhappy.

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[unlimitedtimeoff]

[........... it's probably lucky that he's seen a lot of bad things as a sorcerer--the strongest sorcerer but also that sucks so much]

... there's curry in the cafeteria. Want some?

[sounds so lame but also How Sorcerers Cope: Semblance Of Normalcy.]

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[fujimaru]

She just stares at him for a few seconds, shocked out of whatever rage she had...

...and then she shrieks and tries to slap him.

Her aim is not very good.

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[unlimitedtimeoff]

[it's fine. the hit doesn't even land because uh. No Touchy.]

... fair enough.

Who're you, then?

Re: THE GALLERY OF MEMORIES

[fujimaru]

If anything, she looks even angrier at this, but she does at least draw herself up.

"Olgamarie Animusphere! The proper Director of Chaldea! My father was one of the Lords of the Clock Tower, and this was his legacy--it was my duty to protect it."

She sounds like she's on the verge of tears again, forcing through: "And yet, I'm stuck here instead."

[survivaltricks]

[. . . honestly his instinct is to go for the crying woman BUT Yanli and Gojo seem to have that handled, so!! he meanders through the gallery, gaze sweeping across the paintings before he falls onto the one of the young girl with her hands clasped in prayer]

[he leans up next to it, and gently pokes the frame]

[fujimaru]

When he touches it, it ripples, as if he'd touched a water surface, and slowly fades into this image.

With the contact comes a flood of emotion: a sense of regret, deep and choking, a weight on your shoulders that could crush you to the ground. Looking at this painting, you know in your heart that the girl, at least, is real--once upon a time, she lived, as did the man in the painting--but you don't know if the rest of them were.

But you want to believe. You want so, so much to believe this truly happened at some point.

[survivaltricks]

[sucks in a sharp breath as those emotions flood into him, and for a moment, he just closes his eyes, letting the feelings settle]

. . .

[after a moment, he touches the painting itself, almost to see if he can dip his hand through it. if it ripples, is it like a portal???]

[fujimaru]

Unfortunately not; it seems to be that the more he touches it, the longer he's in contact, the heavier that feeling of regret becomes.

[survivaltricks]

[draws back then, hand lingering at his heart for a moment before he presses on]

[to the figure from Sphinx! is it da vinci]

[fujimaru]

It is, in fact, Da Vinci! Though as he approaches, he can see there are some differences between her and the one that he knows, even without the transparency thing, subtle things that are just faintly off. But when she sees him, she smiles and waves.

"Fancy seeing you here."

[survivaltricks]

[deeeefinitely noting that, and it puts him a little on edge, and is at least a clue that this da vinci isn't the one he knows from the village]

[still, he greets her with a smile and a wave]

Likewise. Do you come here often?

[fujimaru]

"This is where I'm supposed to be," she says, serene. "We're kind of locked in place, the three of us here, so this is the only place you'll find me. ...Well, this specific me, at any rate."