Descent.

[shimmermods]

CHAMBERS.

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You've been down here for such a long time.

It's difficult to tell, perhaps, exactly how long it's been; the lack of need to sleep or eat has become more and more prevalent as time goes by, and it's made it difficult to keep to any sort of schedule - and while the darkness remains unyielding and unchanging, the same can't be said for yourself, now, can it? The further you go, the more it feels like maybe you could belong here; the longer you're within this place, the less it seems to want to let go of you.

It begs the question, really: Is it the mine that's making you feel that way, or is it the Shimmer itself?

Something is different today.

There's a sudden feeling that you've found a chamber, that the shaft you've been wandering down has opened up in a way that's more noticeable than the occasional offshoot leading to an eventual dead end - this feels massive, open in a way that clears the air and spreads out far enough in front of you that it's difficult to tell how far out it actually goes. There are a few promising signs here, however, even if you can't see them very well - the sudden clearing of the air's stagnation is one, but the sound of running water trickling through here somewhere is also promising.

There's also a feeling that should be familiar by now; namely, it's the general sensation that you aren't alone, wherever you are.

You've found something, but perhaps more importantly, you get the feeling that you're coming far closer to your goal than you were on the outside; don't get too excited, though, as you still want to be careful - after all, this chamber opens downward as well as outward.

You can get down to the lower level if you pick your way down; it shouldn't be too challenging, and you'll probably have an easier time seeing once you're down there. Just don't fall.

code by vuvuzela

Comments

[abysstery]

[I kind of love the image of it being hers though.]

We came here in search of others. None of us expected this tree of yours.

Is it particularly important to you?

[shimmermods]

No more and no less than anything else.

[abysstery]

Then why chastise us over discovering it?

[...she has no doubt heard them, so:]

Unless you are displeased with our conclusions?

[shimmermods]

What you do to it is your decision. I don't feel anything toward you for making it.

[So at least she's not here to remove faces or anything.]

[abysstery]

[Small mercies.]

I would still like to know why you believe we shouldn't have come. It implies that you care about what we're doing in some capacity.

[shimmermods]

There is nothing here for you. There's no point in it.

[notjustawriter]

I help people in need. There's always a point to helping others.

[abysstery]

[Heinwald nods in Gabriel's direction.]

It is true that what we found was not what we were looking for, but it is not pointless to follow a solid lead. I refuse to leave a stone unturned.

[shimmermods]

I'm not stopping you from doing as you want. But trying to assign value to something doesn't make it so.

Where will you go, after this?

[abysstery]

I disagree wholeheartedly. Value is subjective. While you may not find something valuable, it does not invalidate my perception of it.

[Of course, it can definitely cause some sore feelings for people, though. Thankfully Heinwald isn't that miffed.

As for the question...]

Out of here, then onward.

[As to where "onward" is, well...that's a bit more up in the air.]

[shimmermods]

If all of you find what happens here to be so distasteful, you should leave. No one has forced you to be here, and no one is making you stay.

If you hate it, then go. If you're here solely to destroy it, this isn't your world, and it isn't your fight. Either way, there isn't anything for you here.

[instrumentalized]

Can you genuinely say that returning to our old lives is still an option for us? This changed us.

[ He glances down at his palms for a moment, though that is the least noteworthy of changes in the grand scheme of things. ]

[shimmermods]

Did you expect that coming here wouldn't change you at all? Even without any sort of physical change, you wouldn't leave here the same person that you were when you arrived.

[notjustawriter]

If you're being pedantic about it, sure.

If I'm bein' honest, my last case changed me a lot more than this one has.

[instrumentalized]

Of course not. I came here because I thought it'd make a difference to do so.

[shimmermods]

Then you have nothing to complain about.

[instrumentalized]

I was not complaining. I asked you a question.

Do you think we still have anything we can return to, with how we are now? Yes or no.

[abysstery]

[He gives her a hard stare. He's honestly kind of offended by the audacity of the Shimmer telling him to give up if he doesn't like what he has seen or experienced.]

I am not going to walk away from you now. Not until what is happening here can be properly resolved. I would not have accepted this task in the first place if I thought otherwise.

[shimmermods]

[There's something in the air that changes then; a sudden shift in pressure, a change in the way the area around you feels. It doesn't feel dangerous, just heavy. The way the outdoors changes before a storm.]

And yet the lot of you blame me for things not going the way you want. You choose to be here. You choose to subject yourself to this. And yet you expect that I should simply die for your benefit?

[abysstery]

[The shift does not go unnoticed, but Heinwald holds his ground. He exhales to keep his head clear, but his hard expression does not falter.]

I am still willing to leave assistance on the table, because I am not convinced that the piece of you outside of here is a lost cause. But I will admit, you are testing my patience today. You say you cannot control yourself, but do you even care to try? You certainly have a distinct lack of willingness to see anything through any other lens but your own.

[shimmermods]

"Assistance."

[She generally isn't one for voice inflection, but maybe she's picking sarcasm up from Rideaux or something. Either way, that sounds like bullshit?]

I have my purpose, and I intend to fulfill it. I have no need of your assistance - I've never had any need for it, nor do I care what you claim you can offer me. You're here for the same reason the others were here, in the end.

Destroy that, if you're going to. I'm not stopping you.

[blunders]

[...You know what, Felicia does need to ask. She's been a little quiet, but she can't imagine how the treeple are feeling at this being dragged out for so long.]

...Are you going to stop us from fulfilling what they want?

[Felicia gestures with her head over to the tree.]

[shimmermods]

Why would I? Do what you want with them.

[blunders]

[...]

You had the people in that circle arranged around you for a reason, and I had thought to ask if this was a similar circumstance. No more, no less.

[Since you tend to go on about things not asking to be a certain way, and all that.

Either way, maybe...we can at least get on that, oh god the poor tree people.]

[atrueheroine]

[Speaking of the poor tree people....Page has been busy glaring at that bizarre white-haired woman and trying not to shiver too much, in this water, but she's still got her grenade ready and leaving those people...as they are, for much longer, is starting to weigh on her. If they don't finish this off soon, there's a special kind of cruelty in forcing them to exist for so long in both pain and false hope.]

I'm ending this.

[So she'll move to rip the pin free from that grenade - will there be any reaction from the Shimmer if she does so?]