Forums » Fantasy Roleplay » In The Moongarden(Closed)

He could flirt with Chiara later, however superficially. The man in gold seemed to mean business, and regardless of his free spirit, he was capable of it now and then. He wouldn't have lived this long without it. Daddy would have to make due without an escort. Maybe he'd get hit by a cosmic truck and make everything easier. "Alright. If it came from here, and -if- we have it," Luci wasn't very sure about the crystal he was handed. He held it up to look for natural flaws, cloudiness, or discoloration as he spoke to try to identify the type. Pocketing as many as he has with time, and his eye for design, he often could identify type. "I'd check the Hermes-Athena temple. I... May have to break into Popul's lab to check if it isn't at the surface, but there's a hopeful--if not concerning--amount of dangerous boxes there. ...Should I make a run, or are we all going?"

Chiara would bite her lip, "Er...the Ragnarok things aren't...at that temple..." She's quite confused, she had assumed Luci knew about the other place. Gabriel hadn't told him, but maybe Ferous had. "Everything is set up at the place I prganized for Populus." If he even knew where that was.

She'd turn her attention to tMiG, "It would likely be much faster if we let Luci go look at the books. He can go there and come back quickly, while we could continue to search here." It was a rather large library, so it would take some time to look through it anyway.

The Man in Gold is not a bit too happy about leaving the crystal in the care of someone else, but it wasn't as though the bomb would just go off with the crystal in the near vicinity.

"Very well, but keep that crystal close. If so much as a single component of this bomb is left here, I can't guarantee that you will be safe from any other individuals coming here to look for it. Now then, if you will be so kind as to lead the way...human...woman...er, yes."

He didn't like when he got flustered, and he liked sharing names even less, but it was becoming tiresome to have to search for the bomb without knowing the woman's name. Had he been a little less anxious to get his item, and had his memory been a little less prone to slippage, he might have remembered that the newcomer had said the woman's name earlier.

Luci made... a punctuating popping sound with his lips at the idea of someone pursuing him for the gem. Whatever that translated to. "Indeed." he gripped it firmly, but found himself staring at Chiara, "Populus... Has another place? How long has this been? Why did nobody tell me?" well, beyond Ferous needing personal space, the whole... grudge against her husband being tributed there thing may be part of why. "I'll... Just bring the catalogue back when I find it." and with that, ignore the breeze and rainbow streak left in his wake, because all at once he was gone, and the door thrown open. Apparently, he wasn't going to need directions, but they could figure out that mystery later while they searched.

Chiara was worried herself, naturally she assumed Ferous told Luci everything. She hoped that she wouldn't be in trouble for this. "It's in the main room, when you first walk in. In binders!!" Hopefully he heard that, because he was poofing off. "Could have at least closed the door." She'd grumble to herself. She'll move to do that, "As I said before, we can begin with this room." It was a decently sized room, and she hadn't searched all the shelves yet.

She'll move back to her side, "If you take that side, and I take this one, we could move a bit faster." She's going to go back to looking, this item seemed pretty important, and the sooner they found it the better. She didn't even mind being called 'human woman', she didn't exactly know tMiG's name either.

The Man in Gold is more than ready to start the search; he is only too happy to get the box away from here.
Still, he can't but wonder how all of this stuff was collected here. He has trouble keeping the books in his personal library from decaying over thousands of years. As he begins to follow Chiara, he begins to speak.

"You know, I never intended to use the box. Much too unstable, and there are much more precise weapons. A supernova, even a small one, tends to create more problems than it solves; a black hole is worse than whatever is destroyed by the supernova. But I have to retrieve it otherwise others will come, those who are like me. Players in the great game. They'll be far less accommodating than I've been, and you can rest assured that they will use the box. It's much better that the box stays with me, the ruler of the race which created the box, rather than in the hands of someone else."

Luci will be out for a few turns; swift or not, he has to find his way there the first time, locate the book and return. So go ahead and post without him for a few turns.

Chiara wasn't expecting him to follow her, but she doesn't say anything. Two pairs of eyes were better than one she supposed. He's telling her a bit more about the box, "I can tell it's really important to you to find this box. We're doing the best we can." It's not like Chiara had ever even heard of it before he had shown up in her garden asking about a cave. She's searching high and low on shelves, and behind books.

It's going to take a bit before she even gets halfway around the room, but she'll pull some old books away from a shelf and she'll find a box behind them. "Is this it?" She'd move out of the way so he could inspect it, to her it just looked like an old box, she figured he would know what to look for. She's still holding the books she'd pulled off the shelves, and she began passively reading the titles. Might be something she wanted to read later!

He had been patient and on his best behavior so far, but as soon as the Man in Gold saw the box, he stormed over and tried to pull it out. Wedged in tight, it would seem. He turned to her, and groaned.

"This might get a bit messy," he warned.

But he didn't wait for a reply; instead, he grasped the exposed side of the box and pulled on it quite hard, taking a chunk of the bookshelf out with it. Someone had sealed the box into a specially-cut partition on the shelf with cement, so no amount of poking or prodding would have freed the box. He ripped the box out of its cement casing and threw the part of the shelf to the floor unceremoniously. After placing the box under an arm, he looked at the now gaping hole in the shelf and the dust and rubble on the floor, then at Chiara.

"I apologize," he sighed, and then held up his hand.

The pieces on the floor flew back to the shelf, and soon the hole had reconstructed itself into the solid wall of the bookshelf; the partition for the box had been removed. Not a trace of the former violence remained, although the box was still snug under the Man in Gold's arm.

The figure perching in a cross-legged sitting pose atop a nearby reading table appeared in tandem with the tossed open door, and almost before the enery streamer marked his path before materialising into the former figure--who was flipping through the catalogue. "Well, that seems... Impetuous." he murmered at the display of the repaired shelf. "...Do you often build shrines to murderers, love?" his address to Chiara had less play and more sharp-edged tip to it. A brief look around the new domicile for his peer hadn't made him happy. He didn't carry many grudges, but the one he did... was pretty serious. The rest of the family may have moved on, but the smiling faced trickster remained the most hateful. Ironic, really. His eyes remained on the pages while observing her organizational skills. Nothing to criticize there.

Chiara would have moved out of the way, and when he made a big hole in her bookshelf, she seemed pretty displeased. "Is that the right box?" She would have started gathering up the pieces, but The Man in Gold seemed to have taken care of it himself. "Thanks." She liked her library in the condition it had been in. Once the shelf is restored, she would put the books she'd pulled off back into place.

It's around then that Luci is speaking, and he should be able to tell by the look of confusion and anger on her face that she's got no idea what he's talking about. "...why are you talking about Populus like that?" Well, at least he knew where the anger came from now. "We found the box, it was here. I'm sorry you wasted the trip." She didn't sound like she was trying to be mean either, she meant it. He can continue to flip through the books if he wants though, as long as he gave them back to her so she could put them away later.

Her attention would drift back to tMiG, "Well, at least now the wrong people won't get their hands on it." Provided she had trusted the right person to begin with, though he didn't really seem like the world blowing up type to her.

The Man in Gold was used to disappointments in his life, so he ventured a quick look inside the box before he celebrated. Incredible. Other than the missing crystal, everything was still there, and it looked like the box had even benefited from whatever magic was keeping the books preserved, because the wire wasn't even particularly rusted. However, there was one thing left to do; he closed the lid and replaced the box under his arm, and then stretched out an armored hand.

"I don't want to break up any personal moment you two are having," he mumbled with a deadpan tone, "but if I may have my crystal back?"

He was almost done, three hundred years of searching and he would be done; well, with this assignment anyway. There were still other artifacts out there, still greater bombs and more people trying to get to them. The great game.

Chiara's confusion was mirrored by Luci. "It wasn't you?" he blinked, closing the book. "Who else worked on the place?" but... tMiG was onto business. He had reason to be concerned when he didnt see it on a man wearing nothing but sandals and an earring, even if the latter was a new addition. "...So, like... If I give you the crystal, you can make a world destroying thing out of it. If I keep it, someone comes after me." he pinched his chin, eyes lulling in thought. "You know, I'm quite used to being chased and I know that the machine isn't in one piece." he teetered his head back and forth as if weighing thoughts between his shoulders. "And I'm yet to be told who you are, where you come from, or why you want this. That's just bad business." well, to be fair only Chiara had heard it. Questionable as he may seem, handing over a key to a bomb that could erase his favorite galactic rock to someone he didn't know anything about didn't suit his style. "Forgive me, but I like credentials."

Chiara bristled, "I don't have personal moments with Luci." She was already annoyed with him, and he'd not even been there that long. This might be a new record, even for Luci. "I set up a place for Populus' things, that's all I did. The temple used to belong to Dio, I thought it might be nice if she had a place she could call her own." Not that Luci even knew or cared who Dio was. "All I know is that Populus came to me and asked if Gabriel could add some things. I don't know anything else about it."

Luci wants credentials for the bomb key, and Chiara just walked away from them both for a moment, before she said something to Luci that would get her into trouble. She's going to settle into an armchair, and unless tMiG made some sort of threatening move towards Luci, she was going to stay out of their disagreement.

He continued to have his hand extended, although his fingers clenched into a fist and shook now. But he didn't act out, or even raise his voice. Rather, he laughed; it was a rasping, gravelly, almost guttural noise, and it was not a laugh at something humorous, but the sort of laugh that a man might have if the only other alternative was to weep or scream out.

"You want credentials. Fine, I'll give you credentials, the best damn credentials you've ever heard of, in fact."

He lowered his hand and assumed a relaxed stance.

"I am the king of an extinct alien race who fled to other planets many thousands of years ago. Among the planets the refugees settled on was this planet, in fact, the cave which they went into is only...well, it's around here somewhere. In any case, I have been on the search for the artifacts which those refugees took with them when they fled, and among those artifacts are items of great, sometimes terrible, power.

"Alongside me are others, sentient AIs, alien overlords, evil geniuses, and a whole assortment of powerful beings; it's all part of the great game, you see, and we're all trying to get our hands on the most destructive toys. The benefit to this box," he patted it, "is that it's so old, no detector in the galaxy could pick it up. If I don't get the box and all the components, someone else can use it to destroy an entire planet, or even a cluster of planets, without leaving a trace of what did it.

"So, obviously, you don't have to give me the crystal. You can hold onto it after all that I've said so far, and I'll have no choice but to take my leave. But others will come, and they won't have the same patience that I have. Part of the reason that I haven't been tearing this entire place apart is because firstly, my arthritis is bad today, and secondly, this place obviously holds many rare sources of information, perhaps even a few about my race. I would much prefer to be led around in a search and be denied what is, by all intents and purposes, rightfully mine by a small, naked man than to tear apart this place looking for the box.

"The others, they don't have interests in the knowledge stored here, and they don't have arthritis. They'll start by pinpointing the cave that we found, blasting out the area around it to expose any hidden chambers, and when they find nothing there, they'll move on to the nearby buildings, including her," he pointed at Chiara, "garden. They'll ransack anything in a radius of several miles, and once they find this place, they'll burn it to the ground. The box is made of stone, so there's no risk of it catching fire, and most of the things in this room are flammable, so really it's just a matter of picking through the ashes, and if they're determined to find this box, you can bet they'll search carefully.

"When they do find it, they'll probably bomb the entire area to remove traces of their identity. Other players will probably happen upon this place at a later time to search for the box, and if they see the destruction, they'll want to know who has it so they can turn their cannons on those people; having nothing left means that you don't leave a trail leading back to you. Finally, one of the players will probably take a look around this place and see the abundant natural resources; more than likely, the rest of your planet will either be mined out and turned into a drained husk of rock or else your people will be enslaved. So, how are those credentials?"

Chiara might notice a briefly hurt expression. Why would Gabriel--well, that was for later. "...check the temple some time, Chiara." he went quiet though for Mig's explanation. By the end of it sorrow had been replaced by amusement. "The King of No One had best be careful to not insult what he does not know." he chided, with serraded white teeth grinning in bold contrast between black lips. A finger raised, as if to scold. "Ah. So if they do not find the box, they raize the wood. Why then should I even let you take the box? If they can not track it to know you took it, and if anything you told me is true, letting you leave with it is more danger to my -dear- sister in law," his current mood laced that with some venom, "than leaving it here. Unless you intend to put out some sort of beacon to say that you, a lone warrior, has it when -so many- forces want it. If your people went extinct I have little reason to entrust something of such destructive capacity to you." his eyes hardened as he stood. "Or you --

--could be lying to me." a hand placed firmly at his side, and another near his mouth as if to hold in his laughter. "Neither was insulting me a good idea when I only asked in honest interest. Explain to me how you leaving with it is any different than my keeping the gem, minding your warning of catastrophe. I find your paltry excuses equalls insulting." oh, dear. Chiara finally gets to see Luci on real business.

*equally

Chiara had an extreme dislike to the term 'sister in law' and it just rubbed her wrong even more. She hadn't done anything to earn Luci's ire, and she felt as if he were being unfair. However, there was something far more important going on than their own petty family squabble.

She does look worried, "So no matter what someone is going to be coming here for that box?" She really didn't like the sound of that, especially since it was basically right to her doorstep where they would be led. She's sitting up, and gripping the edge of her arm chair so tightly that her knuckles have turned white. She was just one woman with a bunch of animals, what could she do to even stop something like that?

He turned to Chiara, due to her question being much simpler to answer than what Luci had said. He lowered the box a little in his grasp and responded.

"No, the box is merely the housing for the crystals, but its construction allows it to be passed by any detector. The crystals themselves are what the problem results from. If even one of them is allowed to be out of an unshielded environment, such as that room we came across earlier or the box, there is a faint, but detectable trace of radiation given off. That signal is what we're all looking for, all of us in the great game. I knew about the chamber thousands of years ago, but it was only recently, well recently for me anyway, that I purchased a map leading me here. Had I not found that map, the crystal would have sat in that chamber for thousands of years after today.

"Perhaps you noticed my urgency to find the box as soon as we recovered the crystal? As soon as that room was opened, we broadcast a signal to all the other players out there. The sooner I can get the crystal away from here and have the signal be broadcasted from some other planet, the sooner the others will follow me. I'm not promising you that I won't use this at some point, or even that I'm a decent person; I'm not, believe me. However, I am a patient, somewhat sentimental old man, and that's more than can be said for the rest. By keeping that crystal, you're only drawing in more trouble to yourself. By handing it over, you're both putting your trust in me and keeping that danger away from yourself.

"Either way, the box stays with me. Before you decide whether to give me the crystal, though, you might ask her," he again pointed to Chiara, "if she's comfortable with broadcasting a signal that can be picked up by the galaxy's most dangerous, ruthless people."