Aberrant: Children of Quantum Fire - [Interlude] Yellow Mountains [FIN]

[Ling]

"Pleasure to meet you Kamiko, are all introductions done around, I apologize I can be forgetful sometimes."

He smiled and looked toward Star. "Oh?" he mused as he finished his bowl, he wasn't the type that needed much, if at all. "What would keep a group of Nova's so busy, you're young, and since you crossed such a dangerous border, I'm going to rule out anything safe and without conflict."

[Sailor OOC]

"Well..." Kamiko says back in her New England style English accent. "We actually expected trouble when we showed up... Star literally has a way of appearing where she wants and when. We just came along, so we avoided trouble. At least I hope we did. So that would count as safe and without conflict. And sorry... in advance with the slightly paranoid entrance."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan ate silently and nodded. "Planned for but optimistically hoped for. This wasn't a trip with any sinister intent, simply a way for friends to relax is all."

[Sailor OOC]

"If this is how we prepare to relax, Dan, I'd hate to see it if we actually intended action." She says with a chuckle. While still sitting on her stone she looks around. "So Star, what brings us to this specific location?"

[Adrian Moss]

"Okay. I admit it. I did have ulterior motives. I came to talk to the different kinds of flora and fauna in the region so that I can enjoin them into my memories of all living things ... just in case something ever goes wrong."

He looks around to see the reactions on the faces around him.

"I'm not saying I'm bringing back the Giant Panda tomorrow, but if I ever get a chance in the future, I might bring it into existence on some other world, along with its environment of course."

Now he looks like he feels a little foolish,

"You know, it's something I might be able to do some day."

'First there are rivulets of water upon the ground. Rivulets become streams and streams flow into creeks and ponds. Ponds and creeks flow into the rivers and lakes as the water moves ever downward to the sea. Without the rivulets, the River is nothing. Without the River, the rivulets have no purpose. That purpose the binds your rivulets to the greater course is you will and your dreams. Your goals is to become a River. You know what must be done.'

[Sailor OOC]

"You make it sound like that particular ulterior motive was a bad thing, Shaman."

Kamiko smiles, admiring his honesty and humble nature. "If that is your extent of selfishness, more power to you. Could use you to populate worlds once their terraformed. Just got to know the right mixture of animals and you're set. But... I'm sure you knew that already."

[Adrian Moss]

He looks over and gives her a shy smile. Praise has been pretty scarce in his life so far.

'Besides, I may just figure out to terraform without the need for equipment. It's just the building blocks of creation after all.'

'Yep ... just Creation.'

'I shouldn't close my mind to the possibility.'

'Someday.'

'Maybe sooner than I'd like.'

'Or am ready for.'

'Cope.'

'It's easy when you don't have a choice.'

'That's the spirit!'

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko blushes bashfully, then attends to her meal.

"Wow Kamiko... you're actually... interested... C'mon girl... keep your cool."

She scratches her head and giggles a little. Seeming a bit distracted.

Uhoh

Spent a willpower on that. You guys know why.

[Doctor Varroxxian]

Star shrugged in response to Kami "This specific location ... the hot water is nice? It seemed lucky? I came here as a kid...all like I said before. Not sure what else you are looking for in an answer?"

"I expected it to be more or less the same though. That is a weird little mystery. Also never ran into Mr. Wong, nor ever seen evidence of a fire pit being used. We used a hibatchi. All a little strange. More than a little if the scene here doesn't end up matching my family photos back home. I'm not talking stuff that can just change either - like some of the stone cliff face over there. It should be carved, like the temple stones with some iconography. Its not though, and stone doesn't un-carve itself."

"Not really important though ... I think the most interesting thing is meeting you, Mr. Wong."

"As to busy with what, there are hard times coming for people like us. Conflict, maybe on a large scale. Governments are going to react, Novas are going to have to stick together. In many ways, the details of which I am not at liberty to divulge, many of us are preparing for the tough times ahead."

She looked directly at Wong "I can offer some advice though ... Prepare now, because things are changing sooner than later."

...

"If you all don't mind though, I am going to meditate for about fifteen minutes or so. Going to explore the scenes of my memories. Please do not disturb me unless its vital."

[Sailor OOC]

"Before you go... what was on the stone you mentioned? Maybe I can take a look see and see if anything remains. It could be a hint as to who the vandal was."

She straightens her suit. "Such a thing would have been a beauty to see. Losing that opportunity is tragic."

[Doctor Varroxxian]

"I don't think you understand Kami, I was unclear perhaps. Nothing has been taken away, the stone there is pristine. I checked. That is the issue. To carve something, you have to remove stone. That is a virgin cliff face, matching strata, natural cleaves, normal weathering, normal mineral distribution. It has not been carved ... when it should be. With iconography just like the temple stones over there. Pictograms in a few ancient dialects, some deific Daoist symbology. Plus the stairs into the water, now they seem to run up to the left. Before, I was sure they ran up to the right."

"I'm not going anywhere either, still staying in the water. But if I do not meditate, I can't tell you anymore certain detail about what I remember."

"I will not be long, but you will know when I am 'back' from the past" Said Star, entering into a deep meditative trance while still soaking in the wonderful hot water.

Aside from someone raising alarms, or an actual threat Star will be unresponsive as she meditates. Much like a luminous, alien-esque statue herself.

OOC Hint ...

So, an OOC hint for those of you who wish to have a little fun and investigate.

The place has been this way for hundreds of years. There has never been carving in the cliff face, and everything is original. Or so it seems to even intensive investigation - should you choose to do so.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko blinks...

"So it's the nature of the change... not what was changed... like someone wanted to return this place to it's natural state..." She deduces to herself, whispering her internal monologue.

"Sir..." She turns to Ling. "Was this place in this state when you arrived? Seems someone has been regressing the area here back to a more natural state. Shows that whoever it is has good skill."

[Ling]

"Everything has been like this since as long as I can remember, perhaps this is the wrong temple of her youth." He sighs, "as for conflict coming, I don't understand why they can't have any peace, but I suppose with megalomaniacs out there it makes it easy for there to be war soon, let me know if you might need me, I could expand my guardianship if need be." He stretched and popped his neck, "I have to say, as a dragon I am ready for anything this world has to offer, as well as anywhere else, I've only been onto the moon, it's quite the trip to go farther, and I got bored of the expanse quickly."

[Sailor OOC]

"Space can be boring..." Kamiko smiles. "...or fun. Just gotta find the interesting stuff. You'd be suprised what beautiful things are on mars."

She wonders why someone who could easily enjoy space would rather stay on Earth. "Ever been to the bottom of the ocean?"

[Adrian Moss]

"I can claim to understand how boring the Great Expanse is, but I find other planets fascinating. Such the unrealized potential for life. It reminds me of how lucky we are here, on the third planet around a rather average star. I find it somewhat strange to imagine that one day this will be just another planet inhabited by us, or things descended from us. Earth will not be unique."

He looks around the group.

"Funny, huh?"

A bird flies up to his shoulder and starts chirping. Shaman nods in response.

"We seem to be alone for now. Man, and his ways, are not overly familiar to these creatures. I would guess this place has been ignored for at least a decade. That's the time sense of most birds. I would hazard a guess that this place has slipped out of human memory for some time."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan shook his head. "Earth will always be unique. It is our home. It will always be the world we came from."

[Ling]

"I never felt a need to go that deep I'm afraid, perhaps I will check it out sometime." He listened intently to Shaman, "Now now, what makes the great expanse of mars so wrong that without life it is not perfect on it's own, one problem with humanity it seems, we always think to adapt the world, and now the universe to suit us." He looked to the sky, "man has long since forgotten how to live along side the universe, only seeking to master it."

He smiled at Dan, "yes always unique, it is noble to want to restore what life was lost here, elsewhere, perhaps to preserve, but, I think that using some other world as the seed for this, might be still in the same thought that destroyed it here."

"We must find a balance once more."

[Doctor Varroxxian]

Star was deep in her memories, and instead of settling the matter of this place being different than it had been ... the differences multiplied

Her memory of many events was accurate. Though her training in memory techniques wasn't yet so advanced, she had an inhumanly keen mind.

Each trip here she chose to recall had slightly different scenery. It was like movie sequels where the studios of yesteryear used physical sets. Without a digital template, the set builders usually had to recreate the same locales for each production. There were always slight errors, of a very similar type to the ones she was running into.

Yet it was impossible that someone had been continually tampering with the location. The environment didn't show the signs. It was unlikely that her memories had been altered, even at an early age she'd been very resistant to any sort of telepathy - let alone the long and delicate sort of intrusion required to alter huge swaths of her recollection.

It could have been some sort of intricate and all encompassing illusion ... but with a power like that, the family would still be together.

Could it have been Father? He had powers that were ... spooky. Manipulating energy and shaping bio-forms was quantifiable, usually. It had verifiable results ... most of the time. With Mother's help, and their shared abilities, it had been easy to learn much of what she knew. Father's powers, on the other hand, had been like magic. The most Mother or her could learn, after years of trying, was the most basic of his powers.

Could this be somehow, dimensional? She'd considered everything else she knew of ... but there were mentions that some Novas could affect high order dimensional fabric. Certainly, she wasn't very far from it ... her gates likely affected lower-order dimensions, only partially affecting those theorized to be in the Calabi–Yau manifold. Mothers best guess had been she was expanding one or two of the tiny dimensions usually curled up into tiny 'loops' of quantized spacetime. Given enough energy, string theory and various quantum topology models indicated that those dimensions would expand - and the altered laws of physics allowed all sorts of anomalous events. All sort of alternate holonomies might become possible too. Warp gates, teleportation, or ...

Could Father be the reason she could work at the level she could? Could he have been able to actually cross into other ... realities?

Star considered the possibilities - deeper in thought than she had been for weeks. Her understanding of physics, while vast in comparison to any baseline, simply wasn't up to the task. She though, "I could really use a talk with Mom".

[Adrian Moss]

"Wong, what man adapted to do was to change their environment. It doesn't make man disruptive. It makes Man Man. The only difference between you and me is that you would chose to keep things in your imagined state of perfection - balance - where as I don't believe in balance. I can tell you, there is no such thing in nature as balance. Everything struggles back and forth. There are winners and losers. Winners advance to see another day. The Losers adapt or die off. The struggle continues. Different players on different days, but it is always in flux. Taken as a whole over time, perfection does not exist. Perfection only exists in the moment it happens and it is unnatural to keep things frozen that way."

Shaman shrugs.

"Man isn't going to make Mars into Earth. They are going to make Mars inhabitable for themselves and their evolution will diverge from that point, creating something new and unique."

He nods to Dan at the word 'unique'.

"It's great to love things a certain way, and human to seek security in the familiar. The problem is, things advance and change whether we want them to or not. I'm a fan of adaptation and evolution. Was Man wrong for going to Australia and wiping out things that had existed there for millions of years. I don't think so. Man adapted. The other creatures did not. Man supplanted them as sure as they supplanted the creatures that came before them. That is the advantage of our ancestors investing in intelligence as a survival tool, as apposed to strength, size, or speed."

"Don't get me wrong. I don't believe in killing a thing just because we can. We have the capacity to know better and the compassion to spare things. Hopefully we learn from our mistakes and try not to make new ones. It is the best we can do."

[Sailor OOC]

"So, Shaman... we would have true Martians then?" She snickers as she looks about. "And yes, if Metahumanity is to make it's way as a class 1 civilization, it must come to peace with it's surroundings, and adapt to them. While being the "ambassadors of life" instead of it's master. We will be seeding the cosmos. If Humanity is to see the future it must do so. Or it will die on Earth. Either through it's own hand or through the fire of the Sun it will perish. It is sad though that because of Humankind's short life span of 80 years it tends to forget important lessons."

"But why do I feel that Novakind can't be the shepard? Metahumanity must walk together or surely die in the trenches separately."

[Doctor Varroxxian]

Star was coming out of her trance rapidly, her findings only deepening the mystery - with potential conclusions requiring verification.

Having been in a trance she had overheard the conversation, and commented ... "Society will change. Humanity will change. Those who can't adapt will be consigned to history. That is the way of nature, that is the truth we can glean from the natural and historical record. Humanity is fairly good at adapting. Look at the meekest of creatures, they adapted and thrived. The early mammals, adapted where the dinosaurs could not. The common house cat, adapted to find a role in human society - in a very cunning fashion too. Many humans serve their cats before their cats comfort them. It will be the same with humanity, they will find an ecological and social niche despite being meek."

"Oh, and I will soon have to get going. I've uncovered some ... anomalies ... in my recollections that have to be verified with my records. The mystery isn't this place, as I first suspected. It seems that the mystery may have its roots in my past. Its the same thing that was bugging me on our river trip before, but now I have a handle on what it might be."

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko nods. Although puzzled by her friend's insights. "That is a understatement. If you must hurry I can warp everyone back to a safe location on my own if you wish, Star. And... if there is anything you need, let me know."

[Doctor Varroxxian]

"If you are sure Kami, its not too much trouble?" Star says as she gets out of the water.

"Oh, and Mr. Wong - sorry to rush off. Truly a pleasure to meet you ... by the way ... How should we contact you?"

[Sailor OOC]

"It's no trouble at all, Star. Terrestrial warps are my cup of tea, Star. You know that."

She smiles, scratching her head. "It was fun here actually..."

"Oh, Mr. Wong, would you like to come back with us for a visit? Just not sure where we are going."

[Adrian Moss]

Shaman gets out of the water and gathers his clothes.

"Star? You okay?" Shaman says with much concern. Something seems to have upset her, but it doesn't seem to be anything he can immediately counter, so he waits nervously - and powerless.

Then he remembers himself. He spins back to Wong and bows deeply.

"I apologize for the intrusion and thank you for your hospitality. If you are ever in the Congo, please don't hesitate to come by so that I may return the courtesy. Very good bat, by the way."

He nods again and moves to Starseed's side.

Then he starts getting dressed.

'Great move, NImrod. Sidle up to a confused young lady you like ...NAKED!'

'Hey man, I've been busy.'

'Hurry up damn it. We are hanging out here.'

'Okay ... done.'

'Now we have to find a way to help Star.'

"Star, anything I can do?"

[Doctor Varroxxian]

"Oh, yeah ... its OK. Thanks. Its just, my memory has been developing exponentially in the last few months. So have my perceptions, and its only now that I think ... I think I have hit on one way my Father kept my family safe for so many years. He might, maybe have had an ability to cross dimensional barriers ... move between alternate worlds."

"Also makes sense why they attacked him when he wasn't with us. To the enemy, if I am correct in my hypothesis, he would have seemed like an untraceable or even unblock-able teleporter of some kind. Certainly, I always thought he was teleporting. They must have thought it better I didn't know about an ability like that. Maybe they were afraid I'd try it and get lost in some other-where."

"I don't have all the family records, but I have more than enough to at least test if my theory holds water."

While Star explained, she couldn't help but notice Shaman was naked. Pretty well endowed too. She tried to avert her gaze ... without him noticing that she noticed him but didn't want to acknowledge having noticed.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko... grabs a tissue for her nosebleed. Seeing Shaman... is probably illustrating something for her imagination tonight.

"Umm... uh... hehe. I..."

She blushes bright red, enough to be seen from geostationary orbit. "I..."

She giggles, twirling about her blond hair.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan sighed. He'd hoped they'd not really noticed, but then again, he knew who's son the boy was. He'd wanted to say something, but things happened so fast. He looked at Star. "You know you can can call upon us if you have need." he nodded to Kamiko. At least her parents had explained that aspect of nature. Though knowing Sakurako it was a very clinical description complete with charts and graphs.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko snaps out of it. "Right. Thank you Dan."

She straightens out her suit. "Where to, everyone?"

Kamiko remembers that her feelings were natural. And uses her logic to climb out of seeing Shaman.

"I would think returning to the same spot as the disembarking point would be unwise."

She eats one of her last bats, keeping the others in a free hand. "Damn, this is good stuff... Thank you, Mr. Wong." She says, in Chinese, bowing.

[Ling]

"Debate for another time then," he nodded at Shaman, "I am in tune with this place, I can watch from afar so your invitation Kamiko, would be accepted, provided your comrades are in tune to have one such as myself around." He grinned and his monkish style turned to his standard gothic type suit, slim and sexy, any sex appeal his previous outfit hid, appeared in a dazzling display of eufiber weaving. Or it was at least pretty good if anyone there had knowledge of weaving. "If that is everything, and we must part today, it was a pleasure, I have an old email account you could use to get a hold of me as necessary and I can give you that."

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko blinks... She thought she was good with Eufiber but Mr Wong... He was REALLY good.

"I for one don't mind the company. Any objections?"

[Doctor Varroxxian]

"Good then, we shall have to meet again sooner - rather than later Mr. Wong. ... and Kami-chan, Mr. Hawkins, Sonjia, and Shaman ... very soon I hope." Star said, as she boarded her shuttle and was then gone ...

... a trip to the Yellow Mountains, and an unexpected new friend ... a good end to a nice break from what was to be a darker reality.

[Adrian Moss]

Shaman made his call and said his good-byes. Like Starseed, he had a troubling reality to get back to. His Kingdom was most likely going to be in a war, and he had no idea what to do. What was worse, he was sure someone would find a use for him. It would most likely be something he didn't like.

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko nods. "There she goes again."

"The sooner we get out of here, the sooner we're safe."

She reads Shaman, Dan, Sonja, and the Newcomer.

"I think we should warp to Kinshasha first to let Shaman tend to Ein's Kingdom, then the rest of us can head to Tokyo. Your Japanese is up to date, isn't it, Mr. Wong?"

[Sailor OOC]

Kamiko decides to open her tesseract portal to a place on the palace grounds in Kinshasha she knows wouldn't attract attention.

"Well Shaman... here's you're ride."

[Adrian Moss]

"If I must," Shaman jokingly sighs. "Everyone's got something in the Real World to get back to. I'll give my guy a call once we arrive."

He steps up and steps through.

[Sailor OOC]

"Goodbye. And good luck." Kamiko says as Shaman moves through. Then she closes her eyes and changes the warp's location once Shaman is on the other side. The portal opens to a small play-yard, framed by highrises. It's empty right now, even though it's the afternoon. "Well... There's Tokyo. This looks liek a place to pop out without any onlookers."

She smiles. "You with the rest of us, Mr. Wong?"

[Ling]

"I don't see why not." He says shortly, a grin spread upon his face.

[Sailor OOC]

"Very well, after You, Mr. Wong."

She bows and gestures to the portal like a waiter showing everyone to their seat. Sonja is quite amused by Kamiko's gesture and giggles.

[Doctor Varroxxian]

Everyone left that tiny valley in Yellow Mountains on that fateful day ... but the rest, is another scene, in another place, for another story ...

-FIN-