Vexen - No.IV (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thechillyacademic) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
spira_rp2015-06-11 02:49 pm
thechillyacademic) wrote in spira_rp2015-06-11 02:49 pm
Entry tags:
Forgetting what it was I came to find...
Even, after his discussion with Szayel early in the morning, had stepped out into the garden to experience it properly.
It was a curious place. The sky, be it projected or a magical window to somewhere far away, felt real. The temperature had risen as time progressed, but it hadn't got too hot. The height of Summer was long gone and things were cooling down. The breeze was like a breath of cool air, not the stagnant atmosphere that ordinarily lingered and loitered in caves. The grass smelled pleasant, but there was another scent there, the subtle odour of dull decay mixed with the sweet smell of fallen fruit, as though Autumn was on the horizon.
He found that he wasn't sure whether those particular notes were borne on the light wind blowing in from who knows where, or whether they came from the garden itself, the tangible expanse he could see before him. Almost everything seemed so ... normal. There was grass, both mown short and left long, there were cultivated flowerbeds close to the kitchen door, not far from the little slab-covered patio that the doors opened out directly onto. Once upon a time there must have been a canopy or veranda, he noted, for there were pillars at the corners of the brickwork that stood freely and supported nothing. Further away from the palace he could see the heads of the season's last wildflowers bobbing back and forth in the wind.
Flowers hadn't surprised him much. He was used to them, given his original home. Their beauty wasn't lost on him, but it wasn't something he cared for. Flowers carried memories best forgotten, and not all of them were of Radiant Garden.
It was the trees that had shocked him. According to what he'd heard, the garden had been discovered late, and yet trees grew tall and thick trunked. Not immense, old trees, but ones large enough to be too big to have been grown naturally in the time that was reputed to have passed between the garden's discovery and the present. He didn't doubt that Marluxia had a hand in encouraging their growth. The ivy that climbed up old ruined buildings dotted out further afield appeared, at least, to be natural.
The low hum of an insect caught his attention and made him wonder whether the miles and miles between the location he stood in and the place where the weather came from was able to be crossed by creatures coming in from the air. Perhaps they had been imported in from somewhere manually, in little boxes with tiny air-holes and kept in hives. He wouldn't put that past Marluxia -- he, of all people, would know that insects were important for pollination. Insects and birds, he had thought, and listened, in a pause between steps, to the musical posturing competition that was birdsong.
More than the garden, Even was paying attention to the palace itself. He had walked some distance, but not far enough to arouse the Malboros' ire. They were larger close up, but not the biggest he'd had the misfortune of meeting. The palace extended up to and beyond the position of the greenhouse, he'd seen. The windows were black and lightless and a layer of dust was visible on the insides thanks to the light of a faraway sun. Nothing past a peculiar glass sunhouse positioned near where a deep ditch dropped away from the palace seemed to be inhabited.
Upon returning to the building itself, he worked out that the area of the Palace that those ground-level windows corresponded to were not occupied, but he hadn't yet worked out how to reach them. It was entirely possible that they were blocked off entirely. It would make sense that the palace might not be entirely whole after sinking beneath the ground, but it would take further investigation to confirm that. He had a brief look in the general area, but found nothing of use.
Since he would need help to try and work out the route, he decided to explore already charted areas of the palace instead.
Even's first port of call was, of course, the library. He pushed open the doors and looked around from the doorway. It was ... large. Probably not as big as the one in Radiant Garden, but it spanned two floors and extended some distance under the mezzanine layer. Heavy curtains covered the windows, but the room was already lit despite the fact that it appeared to be quite unoccupied.
It was a curious place. The sky, be it projected or a magical window to somewhere far away, felt real. The temperature had risen as time progressed, but it hadn't got too hot. The height of Summer was long gone and things were cooling down. The breeze was like a breath of cool air, not the stagnant atmosphere that ordinarily lingered and loitered in caves. The grass smelled pleasant, but there was another scent there, the subtle odour of dull decay mixed with the sweet smell of fallen fruit, as though Autumn was on the horizon.
He found that he wasn't sure whether those particular notes were borne on the light wind blowing in from who knows where, or whether they came from the garden itself, the tangible expanse he could see before him. Almost everything seemed so ... normal. There was grass, both mown short and left long, there were cultivated flowerbeds close to the kitchen door, not far from the little slab-covered patio that the doors opened out directly onto. Once upon a time there must have been a canopy or veranda, he noted, for there were pillars at the corners of the brickwork that stood freely and supported nothing. Further away from the palace he could see the heads of the season's last wildflowers bobbing back and forth in the wind.
Flowers hadn't surprised him much. He was used to them, given his original home. Their beauty wasn't lost on him, but it wasn't something he cared for. Flowers carried memories best forgotten, and not all of them were of Radiant Garden.
It was the trees that had shocked him. According to what he'd heard, the garden had been discovered late, and yet trees grew tall and thick trunked. Not immense, old trees, but ones large enough to be too big to have been grown naturally in the time that was reputed to have passed between the garden's discovery and the present. He didn't doubt that Marluxia had a hand in encouraging their growth. The ivy that climbed up old ruined buildings dotted out further afield appeared, at least, to be natural.
The low hum of an insect caught his attention and made him wonder whether the miles and miles between the location he stood in and the place where the weather came from was able to be crossed by creatures coming in from the air. Perhaps they had been imported in from somewhere manually, in little boxes with tiny air-holes and kept in hives. He wouldn't put that past Marluxia -- he, of all people, would know that insects were important for pollination. Insects and birds, he had thought, and listened, in a pause between steps, to the musical posturing competition that was birdsong.
More than the garden, Even was paying attention to the palace itself. He had walked some distance, but not far enough to arouse the Malboros' ire. They were larger close up, but not the biggest he'd had the misfortune of meeting. The palace extended up to and beyond the position of the greenhouse, he'd seen. The windows were black and lightless and a layer of dust was visible on the insides thanks to the light of a faraway sun. Nothing past a peculiar glass sunhouse positioned near where a deep ditch dropped away from the palace seemed to be inhabited.
Upon returning to the building itself, he worked out that the area of the Palace that those ground-level windows corresponded to were not occupied, but he hadn't yet worked out how to reach them. It was entirely possible that they were blocked off entirely. It would make sense that the palace might not be entirely whole after sinking beneath the ground, but it would take further investigation to confirm that. He had a brief look in the general area, but found nothing of use.
Since he would need help to try and work out the route, he decided to explore already charted areas of the palace instead.
Even's first port of call was, of course, the library. He pushed open the doors and looked around from the doorway. It was ... large. Probably not as big as the one in Radiant Garden, but it spanned two floors and extended some distance under the mezzanine layer. Heavy curtains covered the windows, but the room was already lit despite the fact that it appeared to be quite unoccupied.
no subject
"I'll keep that in mind," he said, shrugging. "Szayel is probably going to be a low-level concern, for the time being. He attempted to convince me to set up a laboratory close to the servants quarters where the subordinates are housed. I can't imagine why that is."
no subject
"You're already looking for a laboratory location?" He asked, slightly curious and tilting his chin up with the question.
no subject
He knew that he should probably have rested for longer before setting himself to seeking out somewhere to set up a lab, but he wanted to take his mind off everything. Exploring helped with that, even if he hadn't got very far.
"I haven't discovered anywhere suitable yet, but I'm hoping to find out a way to get to the inside of the part of the palace over there," he pointed to the part of the Palace that lay adjacent to Marluxia's greenhouse. "I want something distant to everything else and as far as I can tell, that area is uninhabited."
Dust coated the insides of the windows and they were all black, save for the daylight streaming through from the outside. It wasn't definite, but on that floor, he knew only about some meeting rooms, the library, the sunhouse and the kitchen. Everything else seemed to lie on the floor above, or below.
"I'd have to look again when it's dark to see if any of the windows are lit, but I can't see any way to reach it from the inside." He pressed his lips into a line. "I'd sooner not break in from the outside and work backwards if I can help it."
no subject
Hearts hadn't changed either of them that much.
"I don't believe the full extent of the Palace has been explored," he admitted, "there are swathes of it without power, and some of it has been blocked off, either by Kuja, or by whoever was here before him." However long ago that might have been. The history was patchy as to when exactly the Palace fell into the ground, and maybe someone had tried to keep using it before giving up due to the nature of the Zertinan Caverns. Marluxia certainly wouldn't have walked away from somewhere that had remained largely intact despite its fall without retrieving some things, or shoring them up for later retrieval.
"The sunhouse off the sitting room was found by moving furniture; there may be other entrances that have been similarly concealed," he suggested, with a faint smile.
no subject
He hadn't had time to explore much of the palace, but at least a view of the outside gave a rough idea of what the inside might hold. It was always possible that collapsed areas block certain parts, but Even happened to know a rather accomplished Alchemist. If anybody could reinforce unstable areas, it was Ienzo.
"Was there anything else..?" Even asked, not impatiently.
no subject
"I don't believe so," he answered, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smirk. "Would you like me to escort you past the Malboros?" He asked, with a hint of amusement in his tone. "They shouldn't bother you on your way out," he said, with just a hint of emphasis on the 'shouldn't'.
no subject
"I'll be fine," he said, giving him a thin smile.
Even excused himself from the greenhouse in ... not an overly hasty fashion, but he didn't dawdle, either. The garden, warm compared to the Palace, felt cool and pleasant after his time in the greenhouse. How Marluxia coped with that, he didn't know.