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Mare Internum: An Exalted Quest

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For A Better World 141
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    • Broken25 said:
    [X] Dive down.
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    You dive down into the murky depths.

    It's shockingly quiet down here. You can only hear the murmur of your own blood and the soft thrum of the water's motion. After a time, they seem like only one sound.

    You feel a tightness in your chest, but not an uncomfortable one. There is a prickling across the scar tissue in your lungs.

    SAGACITY: You are feeling a phenomenon known as thoracic squeeze! It occurs when water pressure compresses your lungs, reducing their overall capacity.

    Thoracic just means "of the chest", right?

    SAGACITY: Of the thorax, yes.

    So it's chest squeeze? The name of the chest squeezing feeling is chest squeeze.

    SAGACITY: Well, if you want to be anti-intellectual about it, yes.

    Okay, good to know. Anyway, I'm not using my lungs. I guess I don't really need to breathe underwater.

    You continue to dive down.

    AWARENESS: It's dark.

    STEALTH: Good.

    It is dark. The light from the sun has quickly filtered away as you have descended, even more so than you would expect from the dim sunlight and the sediment in the water. You can barely see the light above to orient yourself.

    Instictively, you pull a flicker of Essence from the water and ignite your anima. Your skin is limmed in a rippling teal light, illuminating your surroundings like a lantern.

    AWARENESS: That's handy.

    By the shifting light you can see some kind of rocky outcropping further down. Maybe that's where the sea floor is. You could dive down to see.

    On the other hand, it's kind of nice to just be... suspended in space. Nothing around you, only the dimmest awarenesss of a world beyond your self. You could stay here a while.

    [ ] Meditate here.
    [ ] Dive further down and explore.
    [ ] Return to the surface.
     
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    • Stealth is one of the most underused Ability voices just because we tend to do things loud and so they don't tend to have a lot to say.

    If I were rewriting MI I would probably revise some parts of the Ability setup into something more useful.
     
    For A Better World 142
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    • EagerListener said:
    [X] Meditate here.
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    It is easier here. Pressed on all sides by the crushing pressure of the sea, cut off from sound and light, the connection is deeper, more profound.

    You simply float in the darkness for a while, heedless of anything outside yourself. Or anything within yourself, for that matter.

    Everything fades away. Your world is blessedly silent. You are nothing and nowhere.

    But if you were something, you would feel sure that you had one chance to do something miraculous in this place, wherever it would be.

    [ ] Focus on your body.
    [ ] Focus on a question.
    [ ] Focus on a memory.
    [ ] Focus on the sea.
     
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    • We were given a gift, I think.
    No pain. No past to regret. No obligations or oaths to bind us. We could have accepted that gift! We could have thrown that letter into the sea and then joined it in the waters. But we didn't. We are throwing that gift away piece by piece, and soon there will be nothing left of it.

    Of course we are. Who wouldn't?
     
    I imagine the question is the ol' "What is the nature of the five-part world"
     
    For A Better World 143
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    • zxzx24 said:
    [X] Focus on a question.
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    You focus your mind outwards. Focus is the wrong word, but there is no better one. You shepherd it, teasing it away from yourself, guiding it through the faint buffeting of the water until it is something external.

    You glimpse the reflection, hanging in the darkness, motionless.

    Then it fades, and only darkness follows for a timeless moment. You try to form your question.

    [0] THE STRANGER: Hello.

    Hi.

    [0] THE STRANGER: I heard you have a question. I like questions.

    Yeah, I have a few.

    [0] THE STRANGER: Well, that's too bad. You only get one. Better make it good.

    Okay.

    [ ] What did I do to Mei?
    [ ] What is the nature of the Five-Part World?
    [ ] Where is the necromancer?
    [ ] Why is everything grey here?
    [ ] Who is the Last Demiurge?
    [ ] Who changed the numbers?

    This is a consequential decision, please vote.
     
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    • [X] Who is the Last Demiurge?

    I don't remember precisely why this is important but it feels like it might lend Vesper a bit of a guiding purpose? Seems like it might be useful to the army? Can't remember.
     
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