Return The Stars

Shiruba chats with Jazuhanzu and returns her borrowed equipment.

Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

Shiruba made her way through the Tsushima exploration camp, sticking her head. in tents and the remains of huts as she looked for a certain Undine colleague. "Hello? Jazu? You here somewhere?" She pauses, then scrunches her nose in mild embarrassment at herself. "Of course you are, where else would you be? But -where- here?"
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

In truth, it is not so much a camp.

Jazz can frequently be found with her back against one of the old stone huts that she takes shelter in when the weather demands. Otherwise, she is either gazing out at the sea or the stars in one of her more typically lugubrious ways.

Great Dismal, thy name is Jazz.

When Shiruba finds her, of course, is observing the temple complex. The one that hasn't really been explorted in depth yet, and with the shrine near to it. "Over here, Shiruba," she calls, gently.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

"Ah, there you are." At least with her good ears Shiruba doesn't have much trouble once Jazu speaks up, even if not very loudly. "Quite a sight up here." The lupin cait sith pauses to gaze up at the Temple as well. "Surely it will be just as interesting inside."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"Once I'm sure it's safe for us to go in," agrees Jazz. "There's a lot more to the rest of the island, but we haven't even scratched the surface of what's here."

There's a tone of impatience to her, like she wants to get started already, but it doesn't quite match the somewhat unfocused, placid and relaxed state of her observation.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

"Most certainly." Shiruba can understand the impatience, which is why she reaches over to rest a hand on Jazu's shoulder in equal parts reassurance and caution. "But we don't want to upset the guardian that could party wipe use even in her lackluster state before we properly befriend her."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

The only response to the hand on her shoulder is the tentacles twitching slightly.

"Oh, yes. Waiting for her to recharge. Watching the pot boil," she replies. She heaves a sigh.

"Soon enough. It's not like I've much else to do here."
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

It's Jazu, that is about the kind of response Shiruba expected. "Right. The one time I went to check on her, she gave me a scanner she 'no longer required the utility of'." The hand withdraws from the Undine's shoulder as Shiruba shrugs. "She's not that good at expressing things, but I imagine it was meant as a 'thank you' for giving her the previous one I had."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"It was a ... favorable coincidence, but the results were still strange. I'm still trying to parse what it all meant." She side-eyes Shiruba.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

Shiruba laughs softly. "I try not to think too hard about it, that's the sort of thing that'll keep you up at night if you do."

"Anyways." Shiruba took the Astrolabe out of her inventory and handed it towards Jazu. "I wanted to make sure you got this back before I need to return to the mainland again. It's still unique enough I didn't feel right leaving it just sitting in the camp."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"Oh," says Jazz.

"Right." She holds her hand out to take the astrolabe from her, then shrugs. "I don't sleep much anyway. What do you know about the Scrapped Princess stuff? People seemed sort of alarmed by what she said about them not being gone."
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

"I know lore wise it was a terribly ferocious war, both in combat and in deception." Shiruba turned to gesture a hand in the vague direction of the craters on the shoreline. "Just look at what we see here, from -one- fighting with a Leviathan. Imagine an army of them, with only the Great Heroes to really oppose them."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"Right, but if they're *still existant*..." Jazz lets out a sigh. Her cheeks puff. It looks cute.

"Ah well. Not much point in dwelling," says the girl who never does anything but.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

Shiruba nods. "If they are out there. Only time will tell." She sighs a little. "Until then, we best focus on more immeadiate needs."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"Yeah..."

Jazz trails off in thought.

"Estelle is here. She's looking for an observatory site. I thought it might be a good locale for one. Far enough away that it's unlikely to be disturbed, and there's one on the real Tsushima anyway."
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

"That is true." Shiruba replied with a nod. "That is why I came out here to use the astrolabe to double-check my calculations. Better view even if the sky isn't entirely clear."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"What were you really looking for, anyhow?" asks Jazz, casually, still staring off into the temple complex.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

The Cait Sith's expression lights up with that explorer's excitement when asked about her own project. "You know how I've been tracking the movements and encounters with the Undead horde?"

Shiruba pulls her own map out from the scroll tube strapped to her quiver. "When we went to rescue that kidnapped Lander there was an ancient map in the cabin. It was too fragile to try and move in the little time we had, so I had to memorized it and as much notes as I could. But on that old map..."

Shiruba pointed at the northwestern corner of the Dominion landmass. Not far from the island they were on now, in relative terms since the map is less to scale at the far edges. There was a few small islands there. But an outline has been drawn around them to make one solid land formation, that is connected to the main continent. "On that map this was a proper peninsula rather than islands. I believe the it may of been the seat of the Lethe Kingdom, and at some point since then either the water levels rose or part of the land sunk, creating those islands."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"...interesting," says Jazz.

"What do we actually know about this so-called 'Lethe' kingdom, anyway?" She glances towards Shiruba now. She's been absent from the fight against the undead, but this is hardly surprising. Where people are, Jazz frequently is not.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

"We don't know a lot of the lore yet," Shiruba admits. "But that is why I was doggedly pursuing locating the actual kingdom... it now being broken islands does explain how we originally got there by a mysterious portal, and why the undead travel via magic."

Shiruba rolled her map back up. "I need to talk to the Lander that was kidnapped, see if she learned or even just overheard anything... but I don't want to put more pressure on her while she's recovering from the experience." These Landers aren't NPC programs without feelings after all. Shiruba is already certain they are more developed than that now.
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"They sure seem that way, don't they? I wonder how just how evolved their intelligence actually are, though. I've wondered if the reason why some of them have more 'advancement' than others can be tracked back to simple experience. Life experience. Memroies to influence how they behave and give character. The Landers who were just 'there' don't seem so ... advanced as someone like Queen Mifa of the Zorah Clan does. She had a specific identity and place in the lore, with a specific history tied to her."

She tilts her head to the side.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

"I've met one of the Were Fang guardians of the mountain region, who was definitely more than there to give quests to protect the area." Shiruba nodded. "They are most certainly 'people' regardless of how developed or not some are."

Her tail flicked a few times as she tilted her head to look to the sky. "I'm still uncertain about this Guild Leader role, to be honest... but if it is a means to protect these people and this world as well as ourselves, I shall continue to pursue it. Not the time for unassurrd doubts."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"Good," answers Jazz, distantly.

"Someone needs to do it. There are lot of people who won't care about protecting an UnReal world from the consequences of their actions... but then, we were never good at protecting our own from the consequences of us, either, now were we?"
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

Shiruba mmmhmms solemnly. "Sad but true." With that said she shifts the conversation back towards the exploration topics. "I'll be heading back to mainland soon. Is there anything else we need before meeting with your soon to be new friend?"
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"New friend?" says Jazz, briefly lost a moment. "Oh! You mean Spatjahr. No, I don't think so. Just be here with your questions. We still need to get our hands on that crystal. I'm going to beheading back to Shibuya to help with the catacombs after we've talked to her."
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

Shiruba nods, managing to contain her own excitement at the mention of the catacombs. Though the perk of her ears and wag of her tail are too self-expressive to truly hide. "That is next on the agenda yes. If we are going to make home there we need to know more about what lies beneath."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"...I've been down there once before with Shiroe to meet with Li Gan. He was the one who passed me the diagram that let us make the astrolabe. It existed in the world before us, but I guess was lost? Or maybe it was a blank filled in by the collective brain-maps of the adventurers." She shrugs her shoulders, casually, seeming to find the concept interestiung.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

"A lost technology would not be unbelievable," Shiruba muses. "This world does have its own lost civilization after all, and remnant of ancient technology like the Elemental Machine monsters. Or look at our old world with lost knowledge like Greek Fire and Damascus Steel."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"Sure, lost technologies are perfectly believable," agrees Jazz.

"But did it exist before I went looking for it? This isn't solipsism talking. I'm wondering, more openly, how much draws on us for being trapped here, and what's innate ot the world itself. What's generated *from* us versus designer intent. They fully mapped our brains. If any *one* player knew what an astrolabe looked like, who's to say that it didn't draw on that? Eh..."
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

Shiruba can only shrug. "That's a question we may never know for certain... and really, does it matter?" A somewhat vague, confused gesture follows. "I mean yeah it does, but at the same time, does it? It really only matters that it exists here, right?" Gives her head a quick shake. "Another rabbit hole it's better to not stare down for too long, I guess."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"You might have noticed but I seem to like rabbit holes," remarks Jazz, dryness entering her tone.

"Of course it matters. Ever since days long ago, people have wondered and strived to undertand the nature of reality. Here we are in a whole *new* kind of reality, even if its a virtual one, that's got its own fundamental constants, rules, and mechanics. The way we discovered 'crafting', the essence of the 'NPCs', the applications of physics, astronomy and more. It's all different and yet the same, in peculiar ways. It absolutely matters as much to us as it did to the first of the ancients."
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

Shiruba chuckles and reachs over to pat Jazu on the shoulder again. "Spoken like a true explorer~" It's quite possible she phrased those the way she did more to see what kind of answer her friend gave. Apparently a good one. "And I don't know. Maybe they'd be more whirlpools in your case? Or..." she rubs her chin as she tries to remember. "... Do we have something akin to the Mariana Trench? That's the only other deep dark underwater place I can think of."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"I don't know enough about the geography of Japan's oceans to say," admits Jazz, thoughtfull6

"...though I can safely promise we're unlikely to be saved by back to back typhoons."
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

Shiruba laughs softly. "That would be really weird... but no, I hope not. What happened with two Boss defeats being close together was enough of a hassle. We don't need double tropical storms."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"Hey, don't blame us. Blamee Kaminari," replies Jazz with a shrug of her shoulders and a glance to the sky.
Shiruba
Tsushima Shrine

"Yes, I know." Shiruba brushed a hand back through her hair. "I should go pack up the rest of my gear before the ship sails back for mainland. Need to make sure my information on the undead horde gets to the united operations dealing with the matter."
Jazuhanzu
Tsushima Shrine

"Yeah, sure. Okay. I'll see you again... "She gestures nebulously. "You know. Whenever."

She nods towards the shrine.