Meet the Landers: Li Gan

It is, presumably, not so ill advised for Jazz to go into the catacombs alone anymore. With charcoal, quill, ink, chalk and more, she's already ensuring she can update her personal map of the place while she hunts for Li Gan.

She has questions, after all, and he might have an answer or two.

A lot of the catacomb traps are either mapped of removed at this point. Largely mapped. As such, making her way down into its shallowest of depths, she eventually finds Li Gan's chambers. Right before her hand touches the stone door that might be opened, it opens for her!

In front of her, the Spriggan known as Li Gan stands with a pleased look, rubbing his hands together. "Please, please, step in. Come in." He motions for her to enter. "I am Li Gan." Introducing himself. "You are Jazuhanzu, correct?" He asks, backing away from the entrance so she can step in. "Please, this way."

Updating her maps is more personal habit than necessary in this case anyway. The door opening briefly startles the wee Undine but she recovers smoothly enough.

"Unfortunately," she affirms in response to his question about her identity. She does reach into her bag, aiming to produce the astrolabe that was built. While it isn't why she's here this time, it seems fair to show him what came of their last meeting. She passes through the doorway.

"I had hoped you'd still be lingering here." She turns the astrolabe over in her hands to hold it up for him. "First, so I could say thank you."

"It's a good place to be." Li Gan answers her, stepping around the table and starting to roll up some scrolls that are out on the table. "Adventurers keep this place safe. And they're a fascinating bunch to observe." He answers Jazuhanzu, as he makes room for her to set the astrolabe down.

"Here." He taps the table, allowing her to place it down, before taking it from her and taking some time to turn it about and get a better look. "So how do you use this?" He inquires.

"It makes sense," she agrees with his assessment even as she leans in to help with the astrolabe, "Here, I'll show you, though really it's best to be beneath the open sky to do so." She'll take a moment to instruct him, of course. It's only fair. Even share with him that it lead to the discovery of Tsushima island. "... and that's how I almost got disintegrated by the mechanical lady on the island. Some pretty interesting stuff but also not entirely why I'm here. I have a question or two about something I've seen a time or two and I was hoping maybe you could help me. About 'Oracles'."

The man listens to her with rapt attention while checking out the device. Touching the various bips and bops that are attached to it and make it function. Aiming it up at the ceiling sometimes, imagining a sky and getting an idea for it while she talks about the Machina she'd met.

When she finishes, he nods his head. "Quite interesting. I did not think there'd be a Machina out there that would not simply annihilate an Adventurer or Lander upon meeting." Li Gan mentions, a little devilish look appearing in his expression.

"Oracles." He then adds, tilting his head a bit to the side. "What do you know about Oracles?" He counters.

"Next to nothing, at least in this context. Legends where I come from tend to speak of them as divining people's fates or what have you, telling of the future written in the stars. My friend, Estelle, got me thinking about some of the things I'd seen that had an 'oracle' tag on them. I'd never seen it before. Makes me curious."

Jazz is always very curious, after all. "If there are 'Oracles', even amongst the monsters -- especially amongst the monsters -- I'd be curious to know just who's doing the talking." She rests her hip against the table, tentacles twitching as she mills these things over.

"Hrrrm, there are Oracles amongst the monsters. Amongst the Landers. And no doubt, also amongst the Adventurers." Li Gan answers her. "People who seek to direct the future against eachother, those who are informed by the past, and those who know all by gazing from afar." He expresses to her.

"But when it comes to who is talking... I suppose that would be one of the world's songs." Li Gan answers her. "The question is, why do you wish to know? Are you seeing to step in their foosteps?"

She listens to Li Gan's words.

"I want to know who's writing the future," she tells him, after a moment, "Just like with the Gods, it implies a higher form of thought overseeing some of what happens. There are things I want to ask these would be masters of the game."

She delivers that light with the straight face she's known for, but on the inside, it absolutely tickles her. "If that means walking in their foot steps, so be it."

"The future is already written." Li Gan answers her. "There are those who wish to break the future that is written. And with the coming of the Adventurers, no doubt much of it is in flux. But I cannot tell you who is trying to _rewrite_ it." Li Gan answers her.

The man puts down the Astrolabe, and finally looks her in the eyes again. "What is it you wish to do. Truly. Of those three I described?"

"...yeah," muses Jazz.

"That checks out from the timey-wimey stuff that Spatjahr talked about. You know, you two should meet sometime. I imagine it'd be enlightening."

She brings a hand up and flicks an annoyed tentacle back over her shoulder. She reaches for the astrolabe to pick it back up and place in her satchel.

"You say it's already written. I don't know about that, even if I think I understand. Those who don't know the past, doomed to repeat it. And so on. I always *was* a history nerd. Why should that change now?"

The man smiles. "The future is already written. But it can be rewriten. There are those who would ensure it remains as planned. The law of the world. And then there are those who would wish the writing to be undone and to forge their own path. Either is just as valid." He answers her.

"Uff," says Jazz.

The sound from her is, of course, adorable. It goes aloingside the high-anime-voice-actress schtick she has going. "Uff," She repeats a moment later. "I'm sure some people find comfort in that notion, that everything is going according to The Plan. Not sure I do. The plan seems kind of ... messy, at best." She glances down at her small, pale hands. Turns them over. Looks at them again.

"I shouldn't even be here, honestly, but then maybe I always was?" She glances up to him. Her tone is wry, even as her lambent eyes remain focused on him. "Back where I came from, I studied history. I was going to do a thesis on complex systems collapse of set of civilizations. That is to say that there were too many dependent systems and that when one plank was removed from them, the rest inevitably span out of control and couldn't be replicated or repaired."

She looks down again, in thought. Her brow furrows.

It just makes her look stupidly cute.

Li Gan is unaffected by the cute!

He's more interested in the words she is saying. "If you wish to rewrite the future, there's a few ways to do it. Knowing the future so you know to circumvent it seems like it would fit you. But the future is written by the acts in the past." The man rubs his chin. "As a Historian, I am sure you understand this. And as you say, remove the right plank, and everything falls apart."

He considers her for a moment longer.

"The Blind Goddess would no doubt love to see you take that path. She's a hard one to track down. But I think you could find a way to uncover what you need... if this is the path you wish to take."

"Something something widening gyre, the center can not hold, the worst are all of conviction." She mutters, more to herselkf than to Li Gan. Then she looks back up.

"It wasn't what I planned on when I came down here but ... sure. Why not?" She spreads her hands in a dismissive gesture. "No, it makes sense. If someone has to look backwards, it might as well be me." She closes her eyes a moment. "Yeah, I get it."
% She lets out a breath. "I mean, I'm about to walk into a fallen city to fight the minions of a leviathin anyway for a stone that's going to go in a shrine called the 'Waystone', and maybe, just maybe, it would be nice to know a little more about what I'm sticking my nose into when I find it."

The man raises his brow at the dismissive gesture. "If you wish to draw the Blind Goddess to you, you are going to want to find an Enigma piece." He pauses for a moment, before he adds; "The Goblins here in Eastal seem to be getting some supplies of them. They've been bothering a town up north. And clearing out their caves has been hard because of the foresight I think they possess."

He motions to her. "You'll want to try and find their cave, and clear them out if you can manage to get there in time. You're on a timer the moment you decide to go after them." Li Gan explains.

"I've seen them being used by monsters before, " says Jazz, thinking back to the Icon of Enigma she saw some time ago. She still has it somewhere amongst her things in her inventory. She's a pack rat. A pack undine. Who can say.

"That's interesting. And good to know. ALl right. I'll start to get to work on that. How'd *you* hear about it?" she asks, leaning forward to squint at him. It's like he's always here, after alL!

"I listen." He answers her, touching his ear. "That's how I heard about it." He speaks of it so matter-of-factly as if anyone could have done this. But the man is someone who is rediculously observant. He's a researcher after all.

"Mhmm," says Jazz. She squints at him a moment, then nods approvingly. Respect is something she rarely gives so openly but it's clearly held here.

"All right, then. I should be going -- but if you decide you want to meet that Machina sometime, let me know. I owe you that much, at least."