Mind in a Can [Dragonsong]

[Daglobster]

Lynn's sudden, daunting gaze caused Dawaski's heart to pick up, sending blood up the thick veins in his squat neck and made his naturally red dwarven face even redder. It was anger and shame, of being both victoriously right and so horrifyingly wrong.

Dav and Serina looked on as well, watching as Dawaski seemed to compose himself slightly once Lynn had taken her eyes off of him. Something about those eyes was familiar to Dawaski, reminding him of the all-consuming thing they'd evaded back in the station.

They... had evaded it, right?

Memories of the briefing back on Aedolis, the chattering of some of the workers on the excavation sight, rushed back to him, piercing through the dark fog surrounding his mind.

"Our expedition was organized and funded by an outside client. I myself was selected for my work in the field of xenopaleontology," Dawaski started, stating his own position like a soldier being interrogated.

"The client had a preserved tome. A primitive bestiary dated back to the feudal eras on Aedolis. They had an... honestly, they had an obsession with this thing the book called a Mind-Shifter. A creature composed entirely of... thought patterns, brain waves. A-a consciousness freed from a body via ascended thinking and sustained by eating the minds of others!"

Once he started speaking, the words tumbled out easily. Like a madman on a tangent.

"Rare, almost unique creatures. A-anybody could become one, it's one horrible twist of logic away," he continued, voice lowered, but he shook his head and forced his breathing to slow. He didn't want to think about what he saw as he thumbed through that bizarre, iridescent tome. How the images of looming black shapes and leering red eyes seemed to burn into his mind even now.

"Extinct. None have been sighted in over a thousand years now, but were were sent to Aedolis in a modified vessel to seek out if we could find any fossils, for the client's... "collection" so to speak. And we did," he said as he tapped a thick finger on the table, a breathless smile appearing on his face.

He took a swig of the brew and sighed.

"Nevermind the ruins," he said, pausing as a shudder went through him. "But we actually found one of them. a crystallized remnant intact enough to be considered a fossil. Black as night, gave off no readings of any sort. Like the purest obsidian you've ever seen, nothing else could have been that dark. We put it in a Class Ten containment pod as soon as we could break the earth beneath it and got out of there."

"So, it was just hibernating, then?" Serina pondered aloud, and Dawaski's expression darkened.

"Waiting." he murmured, fingers tightening on his cup.

[DragonSong]

Well.

That was just fucking fantastic.

Lynn sighed and braced her hands against the counter for a moment, leaning forward slightly over the tiny stovetop. The stew was boiling cheerily now, and she moved it from the heat absently--not bothering to grab a pot holder, though she only touched the heated metal for a moment or two and didn't seem to notice.

"Mind-Shifter," she repeated softly, brows drawn together as she straightened up and started moving around the small island counter where her passengers sat.

Okay. Okay, she could handle this. The name of the creature wasn't familiar, but if Dawaski's information was accurate--which she figured was slightly more than a fifty-fifty shot--she could at least ward against the type of entity that it was. She already knew it had ridiculously powerful psychic attacks, so that was certainly a place to start.

"Let that cool for a few minutes, but it should help," she said softly to Serina with a vague wave toward the pot. "I'm going to set some wards."

She paused in the kitchen doorway, looking over the three of them with her head cocked slightly. "I don't suppose any of you have any talent with magic?"

[Daglobster]

Dawaski shook his head and crossed his arms, lips going tight as if there was something else he wanted to say but knew he shouldn't. and Dav merely looked away at the question, eyes focused on the stew. He was hungry, or at least... he felt hungry. How did he know that he wasn't just being manipulated again. His stomach turned in silence and he stayed quiet.

Serina was quiet for a few moments, brow knit with concern over Dav, before she took her hand off of Dav's shoulder to raise it briefly.

"I do. I worked with the magical equipment on the expedition. Not a formal spellcaster but I can channel, and we also used wards on the dig-site," she said, a smile teasing at the corners of her smile, seemingly pleased with the chance to be useful and not scared for once.

Furthermore, Serina stood and served Dav a bowl of the jovially bubbling stew, offering it to him with a smile. He met her eyes with a look of surprise.

"Eat, Dav. None of us have had breakfast yet," she said, and he blinked up into her eyes and nodded after a couple seconds.

"I'll go help our host with the wards and I'll be right back," she said, and approached Lynn, unsure of where to go but sure that she wanted to help.

[DragonSong]

"Right, come on then." Lynn gave her a distracted sort of smile and led her back out of the kitchen and down the hall to a door near the end--last one on the left-hand wall--which opened on her bunk.

Well..."cabin" might have been a better word. It was certainly the largest of the sleeping quarters on the ship. And why not? It wasn't like she had passengers often enough for it to really matter. Still, it wasn't a large space, nearly a third of the floor taken up by the bed, even where it was bolted into the wall.

But it wasn't so much the size of the room, it was what was in it. Three of the four walls were covered in a variety of positively ancient weaponry--blades and bows and even some sort of long, coiled spiked chain--none of which would have been used in centuries. Maybe longer. "Antique" didn't quite cover it, these pieces were museum-worthy. A smallish desk bolted to the wall near the foot of the bed had a collection of haphazardly stacked tomes that most would probably have assumed were collector's replicas of some sort, because surely they had to be, or they would have been as old or older than the weapons.

There was also a frankly eccentric number of odd little knick-knacks strewn about, some on the floor, some on shelves, a few even tossed carelessly onto the bed. Crystal carvings, something that looked like a more modern adaptation of a very old embroidery stitching ring, and quite a few whose purpose was simply indiscernible.

"So." Lynn crossed briskly to grab up a small vial of silvery, viscous liquid from where it lay carelessly on the edge of the desk, lifting it and squinting as she shook it slightly. "You said you've worked with magical equipment--how much experience do you have with rune work?" It was an art that had declined sadly in recent centuries, she had discovered to her chagrin.

[Daglobster]

Serina followed close to Lynn's side, hands tucked ahead of her as she followed the captain of her refuge through the tight hallways.

"It's freezing in here," she aired, knowing that her host likely already knew and didn't care, as this seemed to be her own ship. It changed little for Serina, who shivered and crossed her arms. Any further complaints about the cold fell silent as she saw the inside of Lynn's bunk, eyes going wide as she stepped into what could have been an exhibition chamber in a museum.

"And I thought I was a nerd for this kind of stuff..." she said to herself as she peered over one of her walls, easily able to distract herself while Lynn rooted about for whatever she was looking for.

The books and more conventional knick-knacks were easily absorbed in a sweep of Serina's dark crimson eyes, wide and saucer-like in her curiosity. When Lynn would turn to face her again, she'd find the young woman looking at some of the more "indescribable" of her knick-knacks, with a look almost approaching a befuddled recognition, before she noticed the captain's eyes on her and quickly set it down with a sheepish smile and a blush.

"Sorry, I-- Oh, runes?" she asked, with a tilt of her head, and then her sheepish smile faltered with some embarrasment.

"I took a course on runes as part of my archeology major, but I don't remember much. It was a morning class and I took it for the credits," she added, but just as quickly set herself into a more confident stance.

"Never too late for a refresher, I guess."

[DragonSong]

Lynn chuckled quietly and gave her a little nod as she started back out down the hall. "That'll do, I suppose." She didn't really need help setting wards, but it would certainly go quicker with two of them, and there was always the chance a second caster--or channel, as the case may be--would strengthen the barriers.

She suddenly paused, then ducked back into her cabin. "Here," she said when she reemerged, tossing a jacket that could politely be called "vintage" around Serina's shoulders. She did feel a little bad that her own inability to judge temperature may be making her passengers uncomfortable. It wasn't that she couldn't feel how cold it was in the ship, or even the heat of the metal she'd touched earlier, it just...didn't bother her. And when you lived centuries like that, well...it started to become difficult to judge what might be "acceptable" to a properly living body.

Starting to head for the ladder to the upper deck again, she explained as she walked, "We can do a basic protection sigil at each of the cardinal points with this--" she shook the little vial she held, making the liquid in it roil slightly--"and then just have to do a fairly simple incantation to activate them. 'Course, "cardinal points" are always more of a feeling than a fact out here in the void, but that's really what ninety percent of magic is anyway, just will made manifest. Don't suppose you took any dead languages in those archeology courses? Ancient Serenian? Maybe Essyrni?"

She didn't even seem to pause for breath, which was downright impressive when she kept chattering as she climbed the ladder easily one-handed and then reached down to pull Serina up after her.

[Daglobster]

Serina made a little surprised sound when the jacket came over her shoulders, and her hands rose up to stroke along the smooth leather. It was the kind of jacket one would see in artistic depictions of the pre-stellar past.

Her smile turned a little screwy and she tried to hide the color on her cheeks by pulling the coat more fully onto her shoulders. "Thanks, this is... surprisingly soft," Serina mumbled, as she was vaguely aware of the jacket's possible age.

In another context, this thing would've been sealed up and sent for dating at the lab, but here she was, wearing it!

Either way, she had no time to contemplate it further, because her host was talking a mile a minute without even stopping for breath! She did her best to nod along, eyebrows rising at the concept of having to find the cardinal points... in space, and then blinking when asked about dead languages.

At the mention of Serenian, she nodded her head.

"I did my thesis on Serendipity," she said with a proud smirk and a tilt of her head. "Honestly, I just wanted a topic nobody else picked. Glad it turned out to be the right one," she said, talking as she watched Lynn climb the ladder.

She took Lynn's offered hand, gasping a little when she touched her hand and found that Lynn basically matched the temperature of the air around them, but didn't comment on it.

"Can't hold a conversation, but I can read it aloud," she said as Lynn pulled her up, then looked up to meet the vampire's eyes.

"I suppose that's what counts when it comes to this, right?"

[DragonSong]

"That'll certainly do!" Lynn laughed lightly, honestly a little impressed. In the years since she'd woken, she could count on one hand the number of people she'd met who could even do that much.

Although that might say more about the types of people she usually met than it did about the state of historical documentation or modern interest.

"I'll write the incantation out for you, just gimme a minute," she added over her shoulder as she started pacing a pentagram over the open upper deck. She couldn't physically ward the entire ship properly--that would have required dragging Serina around the outside of the hull, and, well...she didn't usually have passengers, and honestly wasn't sure her spare suit was up for the task. Not to mention it might be off-putting for the archeologist to see her walking about without one.

Not that she'd made a habit of that. Just tried it once or twice, to see if she could.

So that meant she was really focusing on intent to get the protections in place in this single room, then sort of pushing them outward. She'd done more complicated spells in her time, but they were never easy. Hopefully Serina was a competent enough channel to make things go a little smoother.

"What was your thesis?" Lynn asked as she walked over the shape of the pentagram again, then came to a stop in the center of the invisible pattern and started rifling through her pockets for pen and paper--archaic maybe, but she couldn't help having the preference. As she did, she surreptitiously slipped on a pair of thin leather gloves; she should have been wearing them this whole time, really, but she'd been a bit...distracted. Hopefully none of her guests would think her low temperature and penchant for covering extremities anything more than poor circulation and mild eccentricity.

Starting to write out the incantation she'd had memorized since she was a girl, she glanced up at Serina and added with a small smile, "I have a...particular interest in ancient Serendipity. I'm curious."

[Daglobster]

Serina nodded when Lynn affirmed her usefulness, and the young woman couldn't help but smile and cross her arms as she watched Lynn work. It had been a long time since she'd seen a ritual pentagram put up, and so she watched Lynn with an analyzing eye, committing the lines and words to memory.

When asked about her thesis, Serina blinked and started in place, before clearing her throat.

"I did my thesis on the genealogical fate of the Serenian people. Even in the records from that time, that was a mysterious topic," she started, eyes tracing the ritual circle as it got more and more complex. She settled on a safe place to stand, and continued.

"There's still folks with Serenian "blood" in the population today. They're rare but their hair color's always off a shade or not one of the usual colors. Anyhow, I decided to do an ancestral survey on all the Serenians I could find."

She smiled as she got to her favorite part.

"It sounds so hard to believe unless you see the data for yourself. Each and every single one has geneaology that stretches back to the Feudal Era, one-hundred percent! And a portion of their DNA isn't even human! My theory was that the Serenians are partially mixed with Fey. Sadly, with no more Fey on Aedolis, it's a trait that's destined to go extinct in the next dozen generations or so."

[DragonSong]

Lynn paused for a moment, something behind her eyes going dark. Then she gave her head a little shake and shot Serina another quick smile.

“Yeah, I’d heard that. About the Fey blood, I mean. Fascinating. There!”

She turned to the dwarf with the written incantation in her hand, holding it out. “Go over that a few times, and when you feel like you’ve got it down, we can get started. I can help with some pronunciation, if you need it.”

She glanced around at her little makeshift pentagram and nodded to herself. “It should do…”

It would have to.

[Daglobster]

[[Serina's not a dwarf ;P]]

With a curious widening of her eyes, Serina took the written incantation gently in one hand, eyebrows rising even further when she realized that this Serenian was, in fact, some of the best she'd ever seen. If the paper had looked old and dusty, she could have mistaken this for one of the old preserved scriptures she'd studied while preparing her thesis.

Still, she got over the nostalgic look on her face and focused on actually reading them. She mouthed the words, knowing better than to practice an incantation by reading it aloud, even at a whisper. At some point, she seemed to descend fully into her words, bracing her shoulders as she mouthed on.

After a moment, however, she paused, an analysis clicking to life in her mind, then a slow smile grew on her face. She could work with this.

"This... this could work, but..."

She kept thinking, and her smile slowly faded. She looked over to Lynn with something like dawning apprehension on her expression.

"What are we going to do if it works? Wards turn on, we know there's a Mind...thing, and... then what?"

[DragonSong]

[[Whoops! Sorry lol ]]


"Well." Lynn sighed, running a hand back through her hair in a way that mussed the dyed streaks into a muddle mess for a few moments before she shook her head and they settled back into place. "Good news: we know that there's something on the ship besides us. Bad news: we probably have to hide in the panic room and hope autopilot can get us to real help."

It was the kind of flippant comment that one might initial assume was a joke, but she said it so seriously that it left no doubt her ship did in fact have some sort of panic room.

[Daglobster]

“Oh.” came Serina’s short reply, her eyebrows momentarily creeping upwards. A pensive moment passed, and she nodded. “Ok, cool. Great. We auto-pilot to the next stop, and then hopefully this… ancient predator thing will hop off,” she said, unaware of the irony of her present company. Serina stepped over to Lynn and joined her in the pentagram’s center. Carefully, as if Lynn was made of glass, Serina gently put her hand on her forearm and offered a comforting smile.

“Well, we have all these weapons, too,” she added, half-joking and half serious. “You look strong so maybe you can just… give it a good clonk over the head,” she said with a faint dusting of warmth on her face.

Then, she stepped back and cleared her throat lightly.

“Ready to begin when you are.”

[DragonSong]

“…I don’t think that creature is the kind of thing you can just “give a good clonk on the head”,” Lynn murmured. She didn’t want to scare her passenger, but she also didn’t want her to potentially face whatever that thing was unprepared.

Attempting to lighten the mood just a bit, she added with a chuckle, “But I could certainly give it my best. Here.” She held her hands out, palms up. “Place your hands over mine, and repeat what I chant, okay?”

[Daglobster]

"Well, I knew that, but a girl can hope, right?" Serina said. Still, it seemed she understood Lynn's words for what they were, and smiled with her when she tried to lighten the mood.

"Well, you wouldn't be the only one, if it came to that," Serina said with more determination than one would expect from a reedy looking grad student such as herself. With a steeling breath and one last look down towards the written runes, she slid her hands into Lynn's, fingers spread. She took another breath and relaxed.

"I'm ready," she said. Her crimson eyes met Lynn's.

[DragonSong]

“Alright. This may feel…strange. It’s an old spell, old magic. Try not to let it bother you too much,” Lynn warned, before she let her eyes slide closed and began chanting—first in ancient Serenian, then in something like traditional Adelan. The chant was fairly basic: protection, warning, safety. But she’d found that repetition in multiple languages often helped to solidify a spell’s intent.

At least it did for her. She wasn’t a natural-born mage, all her magical talent had been picked up through centuries of study. She honestly had no idea if that was how it was supposed to work, but that had always been what worked for her.

Hopefully it would work in this strange new world she’d woken in.