When: 7 Dyo 81380 Where: Machina Ruins Who : Sidarta (male pendragon quadruped) All right, admitted Sidarta's Inner Eye, it wasn't the most romantic place to meet Vea again after so much time, but it could prove interesting. Sidarta always had this knack of finding interesting things, but the way he saw it was that theyfound him, not the other way round. Of course, they had met many times before in Fronima, but it wasn't the same... Sidarta had the patience of a slug, also the activity of a slug, and the quick-mind of ... guess what? a small furry animal. He could therefore wait many hours in the same position before becoming bored, and then he could escape to Fronima, he didn't that much imagination to get his fill of things to do in Fronima. Anyway, back to the point, Sidarta was waiting. For Vea, or anyone else to turn up, he wasn't feeling picky right now. Sidarta was also waiting by a ruin, it was a normal sort of ruin, ruiny and all that, with the traditional broken-off pipes, and crumbling walls. In short, it was a respectable ruin. However, it's neighbour was not. It had somehow been shaped by some strange force into the exact shape of a rubber duck. Curious though this was, Sidarta was not interested in it. In fact, he was much more interested in the various shapes of clouds flying past, rabbit-shaped, ruin-shaped and also stone shaped, those were the easiest to tell. Sidarta was therefore waiting patiently...
Vea, on the other hand was not waiting patiently. A prerequisite to waiting patiently would have been to arrive early, or at the very least on time. But time, as far as Vea was concerned, was rather flexible. Punctuality was an interesting concept, in the same way that tidiness or cooking were interesting, in theory. Vea was decidedly not the most practical of 'dragons. What she was, however, was decidedly late, and by the dreamy head-in-the-clouds gaze on her face, destined to be even later than she was at present. She was at present staring with the aforementioned awestruck expression at a series of clouds that zoomed pass her at surprising speed, a rabbit, a ruin and a stone. It was quite lovely really. And fascinating. It almost made her wonder whether... But her reflection was cut short, for standing not so far away from her was none other than the very 'dragon she was looking for. "Sidarta! Hiya, it's me, Vea", she called out gently, obviously feeling the need to state the obvious. "Errr... Is that a rubber duck?"
Sidarta heard Vea's voice and got up, with some difficulty owing to the fact that he had managed to entangle himself in some string while lying on the ground. He was finally able to extract himself, although it continued to trail after him, caught up in his tail, when Vea said : "Is that a rubber duck?". He turned round to look more closely at the ruin in question, and said vaguely "I suppose so." After a few minutes of staring at this ruin, his Inner Eye suggested that he turn round to face her again and start some sort conversation, or at least make sure she was still there... Sidarta flumped around and stared intently at Vea's face, trying to remember if she had always looked this beautiful, admittedly, the last and only time he had seen her in reality had been in the dark. Undecided, but tired alread of so much effort, Sidarta sat down and wondered what he should do now that they were both here. Several more minutes passed.
Vea was very proud of herself. She hadn't looked at her feet yet. Not once. But what should they do now? Why wasn't Sidarta saying anything? Should she, gods forbid, be the one to start the conversation? Or would that be imposing herself too much. Perhaps Sidarta enjoyed the silence, and she had no reason to break it with her trivial conversation... Or maybe she shouldn't be thinking so much and she really should be speaking to him. But why wasn't he talking, in the first place? He had as much of a voice as she did so why should she be the one to begin? "Have you ever heard of entropy?" she blurted suddenly, staring at the clouds. She'd never ever told anyone about her entropic theories before, but that was partly because she never really spoke to people all that much and so had very little opportunity to tell them anything, let alone about her philosophical ideas. Somehow, though, she thought Sidarta might be able to feed her reflection.
If Vea thought Sidarta would be able to feed her reflections, she was very much deceived. In fact, if Sidarta had not had his Inner Eye around to help him, his single brain cell would have been very lonely. In any case, he had no idea what entropy was , and so voiced his thoughts in the very delicate manner of a "What?". It was a very vague what?, having no real substance and voiced sofly. However, when it reached Vea's ear, it had become somewhat bolder, prepared to voice it's voice in a way it felt appropriate. He continued to watch her in his calm tranquil way, unperturbed by anything happering in his surroundings.
"Entropy, Silly!" she declared airily, looking at him with wide disbelieving eyes. "Entopy. Chaos. Surely you must know?" When she didn't see him nod furiously as she felt he should have, Vea gave in to a sudden impulse. With surprising agility she sprung from her place and easily snaked her arm around his, entwining her tiny delicate paw with his. "I'll show you, come on," she called, dragging him to his feet and pulling him in the direction she had come from, "Follow me."
"I'll show you" said Vea, leading Sidarta away. He let himself go willingly, it was best not to argue. Not that he had ever argued with her, of course, his brain cell was far more intelligent than it let off. Sidarta loped at an easy pace alongside Vea, enjoying her company. He had got quite lean since his university days, travelling round the world had helped a lot. However, he still knew that Dream Weaving was for him, his father had tried to convince him to re-take his exam in Con Artistry but he was so clumsy that Sidarta knew he would never pass it. He didn't really like the subject anyway. Vea was still runnning/loping through the ruins as his memories came to an end, they were approaching something large, he couldn't immediatly tell what it was though.
Standing proudly at the edge of a cliff, the large 'something' was in fact a delapidated column, which, apart from being slightly taller than average, did not stand out in the landscape of similarly dilapidated columns. Had it been in any other field of delapidated columns however, one of its features might have struck one as being odd. And this feature would have been its shape. For this delapidated column had a very peculiar shape. Like any broken column, its length had been marred by chips and fractures, but these were no ordinary fractures and no ordinary chips. As Fate, Time, Luck, or some such force would have it, the column had been fractured, chipped and broken at such precise and unlikely angles as to give it the appearance of a rubber duck. But Vea was not interested in delapidated columns, not this one, nor in the dozen of others which were also, interestingly enough, rubber-duck-shaped. Vea stopped abruptly. Beyond, was valley as far as eye could see, and beyond that, cloudy sky. Panting heavily, she regained her breath and turned to speak to her companion. Her light cheeks were pink from the running and her eyes glistened excitedly. "Look at the sky Sidarta. Look at the clouds. Look at their shape. Do they not strike you as odd? Entropy is a measure of disorder. If given a choice, vapour particles choose freedom and randomly disperse. They diffuse as far away as possible. What is the likelihood, then, that they should join together in such a way as to form clouds like those? What is the probability of those vapour particles colliding at such angles as to together form a rabbit-shaped, a stone shaped or a ruin shaped cloud? I have a theory about Entropy... Let's say that Entropy is at work most of the time. Clouds are cloud-shaped and coincidences are few and far between. Right? That's what is normal, right. But what if sometimes, or in some areas, Entropy is less strong, and things are a little less chaotic? Then you get rubber-duck shaped columns and rabbit shaped clouds. I think that's what happening now. An Entropy 'hole'. And well... If I'm right, this means that we're in for a treat. Because the least likely chain of events awaits us. Anything could happen. For instance, in normal times if I was to jump off this cliff I would probably fall to a certain death, right? But if Entropy exists, and if we're in an Entropy 'hole', if I were to drop myself off that cliff right now, it might just so happen that an Aktrieor would be flying directly perpendicular to the course of my fall, and that it would miraculously spread its wings in time for me to land on its back, and in this way avoid death."
Sidarta followed Vea obidiently as they approached a load of old-looking columns. Like everything in the Machina Ruin area, they had acquiered rather strange angles, resulting in rather strange shapes. He listened patiently as Vea explained Entropy, which was Chaos or something. 'Why have two names for the same thing?' reflected Sidarta. If he ruled the world, everything would make sense and mean what they were meant to mean. However, through his musings his Inner Eye was still listening to Vea, and it found what she was saying very interesting, to say the least. Faithfully, it processed what she was saying and passed the knowledge on to Sidara's lonely brain cell. "So, if entropy has less of an effect here, then there is more chance that a coincidence will happen? There is more chance that we will suddenly find the end of a rainbow and a pot of gold? Then why did all these people suddenly die out? Why were they stupid enough to kill themselves?" He looked around thoughtfully. It was strange that so many people sitting essentially on a gold mine would suddenly decide to blow themselves up. For once, Sidarta's brain cell and his Inner Eye were working together.
Had she said all of that? Vea didn't think she had ever strung as many words together in her life. With a contented sigh and would-be grace, the delicate 'dragon plopped herself onto the ground. She watched on as her friend digested the concept of entropy. Shamelessly, her eyes explored his pensive face, taking in the oddity that were his eyes. (They were a calm soothing blue sometimes, sometimes a golden yellow. Someday she'd ask him about them, but for now it was more fun to guess what the colours meant.) Vea had never really studied her friend's appearance before, partly because the last time they had seen each other in real life they had met in the dark. Not to mention the fact that she had been too occupied pushing him off a school bench to take a proper look at him... Still, the few months since their first meeting had, she felt, changed him a little, and for the better, if she could think so herself. (Here her Inner Eye would have rolled its eyes had it had eyes and pointed out to her that sadly no one could stop her from thinking what she wanted. Vea ignored it.) He seemed leaner somehow, and more adult, too. But now was not the time to ponder such things since, as her Inner Eye kindly informed her, Sidarta was at present speaking to her. "Hmmm... I hadn't thought about that! The city though, when it was still around, was one of the wealthiest and most successful cities on Ramath, yea? Entropy must have worked for them, well for a while at least... Until their luck ran dry. I don't know Sidarta... D'you think that would be possible? That entropy holes, if they exist, may only be temporary?"
OOC: nice avatar... :D "... D'you think that would be possible?" replied Vea. Sidarta was getting doubtful, this was going beyond his reach here and he had absolutly no idea what to answer Vea. He suddenly hit upon the idea that if entropy luck had run out, maybe it was bad luck now (hence the rubber ducks) and it would therefore not be wise to linger here. His eyes turned an ucustomary shade of emerauld green (OOC too much HP ;)) as his gaze suddenly sharpened on Vea, aware that she was in danger here. He was surprised to catch her looking at him closely, so he stared down at himself, wondering what was so fascinating. He had never really thought about his body before, but it was true that he had gained a bit of podge over the summer, at least from his point of view. Sidarta stop up, hoping that the bit of podge in question would go away if he forgot about it for long enough. He looked away fast, embaressed by her gaze. He still couldn't think of anything to say, so he sighed.
<span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>"When I went to the gents There was a <span style='font-size:10pt;line-height:100%'>skewered heart</span> And a legend of love." -S. Heaney</td></tr></table> There it was, startling, yes, but mesmerising too. Like day gently fading into eve, only slightly quicker. His eyes had changed into keen emerald daggers that tore her gaze from him, and infused into her burning cheeks a timid blush. She started at his sigh, and turned to face him once again, hesitantly searching for any clues as to what the colour change might mean. "Is everthing alright Sidarta? You eyes...", Vea whispered, "They've changed again." Vea was suddenly very aware of a sudden coolness, as though the scorching sun had impulsively decided not to waste its rays of warmth on her. It was nice, like a summer day's cool retreat under the shadow of a tree. In fact, and while she was no physicist, the sudden decrease in luminosity made the shadow-like effect almost complete. Not that this made any sense to her, of course, since the last time she had perused the surroundings, (and granted that was quite a while ago seeing as she had be, em, distracted by more handsome concerns), there had not been any shade to be had. As she pondered silently about this oddity of life, her Inner Eye abruptly took it upon itself to shake her out of her musings. It told her, or rather screamed at her, to look at the sky. With the reflexes of a dead Rheyant, Vea very slowly tilted her head upwards. What she saw made her eyes go wide and her mouth dilate into a perplexed and awe-struck 'o'. Directly above her, a dot-shaped black thing was getting bigger and bigger, and by the looks of it, closer and closer. While Vea had somewhat complied with her Inner Eye when it had told her to look up at the sky, she was now faced with a major inconvenience: her muscles refused to obey her frantic orders to move the hell out of the dot-shaped thing.
Sidarta watched Vea intently. She seemed to be looking vaguely at something up in the sky, but he couldn't tell what it was. Maybe it was that rubber duck looking cloud up there. Or that thing other there, the big black dot falling towards them. He couldn't believe his eyes as he saw the dot growing into a huge concrete donkey, Vea seemed transfixed by it and didn't out of the obvious danger. Sidarta's Inner Eye urged him to get on with saving her. He remember his Mother's stories about brave and daring spies successfully saving the world from his youth and instantly knew what to do. He jumped, yelling 'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO', grabbing Vea on his way past. "Crash" The donkey embedded itself in the ground and dust flew up around Sidarta and Vea. Wondering whether Vea was alright, Sidarta turned her over, her beautiful white fur coat was now spotted with dust and dirt, as his was.
Vea watched her paw intently, quite oblivious of Sidarta and to the fact that she had just survived another near-death experience (the first having been the mysterious fire at Janardan from which Sidarta had saved her, too). Holding her now spotty paw with what could almost be called pride, Vea turned to her companion. "Sidarta," she called, "Look." Defying all laws of probability, defying even the laws which light have applied to the ruins, the specks of dust had aggragated into a shape quite different from that of a rubber duck. In fact, the dust had aggragated into many shapes. Letter-shaped shapes, to be more precise. And these spelled out two words, which, had they not been strung together might have been less alarming: "RAHEMP IYO" <span style='width:100%;font-weight:bold; font-size:10px'>Out of Character</span> <table class='ooc'><tr><td>You'll have to use the translator, which is right beneath the header. Good luck with everything!</td></tr></table>
Sidarta looked behind him, and saw something that indeed WAS defying the laws of probrability as well as physics. He saw that the dust had formed another set of words, this time less alarming: E kum ota sha sjumtlusyj syy, dmah! 'Hmm', Sidarta thought. Entropy holes may defy all laws of probrability/physics, but that didn't mean that it had to make sense. A little disspointed that Vea had missed his heroic life-saving action to save her, Sidarta got up and brushed Vea off, doing the same to himself after. The rubber ducks had failed to appear this time, this was proof that something bad was going to happen, mused Sidarta's Inner Eye. It was well known that rubber ducks always fled sinking ships.
"Dmah?" wondered Vea, "What could that mean?" It sounded nice though, and she liked the way it rolled out of her mouth like an eruption of pointless noise. "Dmah." "Dmah." Vea decided that she would subconsiously (of course) include that little onomatopoeia in her everyday speech. Her Inner Eye congratulated her on this choice, and made the remark that 'dmah' would be very useful since it could signify anything from moderate joy, to indifference or anger. For once she and her Inner Eye were in sync. This could only mean on thing of course: That things were terribly wrong and that something was about to happen sooner or later. Vea trembled, leaning closer to Sidarta. "Something awful is going to happen Sidarta... I can feel it!"
"Something awful is going to happen Sidarta... I can feel it!" whispered Vea. Sidarta wasn't listening. He was gazing in awe at the perfect replica of Vea in the stone in front of him, which had been created by the concrete donkey. The letters were inscribed : "Gidnuleym aus iyoj haujs yos." "Dmah", it had been added as it seemed an afterthought. He wondered how anything so beautiful could ever be created by chance. 'This place is really weird' he reflected. He turned, wondering how Vea would take this.
Her fearful whispers muffled then faded, into nothingness, leaving in the air only the distant soothing rubber duck cries. Vea felt an acute pang of loss as their voices became less and less distinct. We should have left with them. Perhaps it is too late now... 'This place is really weird' said Sidarta's voice, somewhere to her left. "Dmah?" she asked absently, turning to see what the fuss was all about. What she saw made her gasp, choke, crumple, stumble and stare. "Gods above, is that *really* what my hair looks like from the back?", is what Vea might have said if she had been another 'dragon, but what she really did manage to say was, Well, nothing really. She just continued to stare fearfully. Eventually, the fear turned to panic and Vea did the only thing which seemed to make sense to her in her senseless state. She screamed and, tryign to escape, ran straight into Sidarta, causing them both to topple over each other and to fall into the ancient dust.
OOC: Sawyer's getting attacked by boars! whahahahaha! It was probably a good thing that Vea wasn't another dragon, in Sidarta's view. As he picked himself yet again off the floor, he wondered if he had perhaps missed something the last time he saw her. He looked down at Vea,who was still lying on the ground, wondering where she got the energy from. Then he heard the rubber ducks calling. This was bad. His father had always told him that hearing rubber duck cries was bad, especially because his father never seemed to hear them. Still, there were plenty of rubber ducks in this area, so why shouldn't they cry? Some time passed, as Sidarta stood stock still, waiting for the calls to end. He knew that he could do nothing until the rubber ducks calmed down. He looked at Vea and said:" We must leave, the rubber ducks are restless." in his gravest voice.
OOC: Isn't Sawyer just the bestest of them all? "Yes, we should go!" she agreed softly but fervently. Vea eyed the approaching rubber ducks fearfully, and slowly backed away. She was so absorbed in her panic that, reaching the ledge, she barely managed to catch herself in time. "But it does seem like we have a problem..." Indeed, the growing crowd of rabid rubber ducks separated the youths from their only escape route. Face the ducks, or face the cliff. Personally, Vea prefered neither. But as her Inner Eye pointed out, she didn't really have a choice. She choose the ducks. Mustering all her well hidden and severely lacking courage, Vea tentatively approached the mob of rubber ducks. "We come in peace..." She tried to explain, spreading her arms helplessly, before being interrupted by angry quacks of what sounded suspiciously like the Ramathian words for "eat heart" and "Pygmalion rules! Kill the intruders!".
