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 Posted: Thu May 21, 2026 7:10 pm
There was the slightest sliver of dread that slipped past her defenses as they boarded the elevator. It was, in part, because she wasn't entirely sure what they would find.
Well. She was but she also wasn't.
She had an idea, at least, but each encounter had so far been a same-but-different situation. There was still one more room they could try. With any luck maybe there would be a way into the center room from there. Every door so far had been locked, which was both expected and irritating. Locked doors had been a recurring theme on her Wonder from the very beginning. They were actually kind of the point of the place—security, privacy, etc.
"So do you remember any, like, space octopus things from way back when?" she asked, glancing over to Solaris after completing the security scans. The numbers on the buttons changed, and she gently tapped on the one she wanted before fully turning to her friend.
"I've been trying to figure out what this thing is ever since I found it, but so far I've got nothing. I keep thinking 'icky inky space arthropod' but there's not an exact Mercurian translation for that. At least not that I can find in any of the things I've looked through."
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Posted: Fri May 22, 2026 12:01 pm
Cold didn't really bother her all that often. Side effect of her people evolving up in the upper lands of Solaris meant a certain degree of tolerance. Or she just ran warm.
But Mercury was cold cold.
A fact that nagged something fierce in her head, but she couldn't put a finger on it. Nor did she particularly feel compelled to try, given the fact the facility was not an absolute ice box, and her friend had a far more pressing concern to help with. Something that prioritized over whatever Mercury and cold set rattling about in the back of her skull. They were synonymous, after all.
Solaris leaned back against the wall of the elevator once the door shut, crossing her arms loosely as her rear and fabric butt bow pressed to the metal. She watched the security process with interest before the question was tossed her way. A wince and shrug were all she could really offer in response.
"I mean… there were always stories of weird things out in space. There'd been stories about the storms in deep space and a monster that ate worlds," she said with a slight tilt of her head. "But icky inky space arthropod doesn't match the Callamitus Hollow's description." Even her recollection of those stories were sparse, old wives tales sort of things. Her brow furrowed as she tried to sift back to the days she'd spent along the aetherports. Surely she'd heard wild tales from travelers and pilots there…
"Probably stories out there akin to Earth's old stories about the Kraken and sea monsters, but I can't remember anything specific." Part of her wondered if this was such an example--a Mercurian Kraken. That'd be both kickass and terrifying.
"You hit it yet? Do you want me to test out what the heat from my magic does to it, if we find one of the tentacles? Or we can try throwing food at it, see if it'll take it." They were legitimate questions--she hadn't a clue what they were dealing with, but a creature causing havoc in a wonder wasn't exactly good.
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Posted: Sun May 24, 2026 11:38 pm
Ekstrom followed suit and leaned against the wall of the elevator, crossing her arms thoughtfully as she listened to her friend's response. In truth she'd been hoping for more—a specific story or legend or something—but she'd been grasping at straws when she asked, so what she got was about what she expected. The chances of her actually knowing someone that had information about some random creature from somewhere in the vastness of the universe were slim, so that was fine.
"Mercurian kraken, huh?" she said, brows knitting lightly together as she tried to marry the movie-version of what she knew of the creature with something kind of like the symbiote from Spider-Man. It got a little shudder out of her, and she shook her head as if that would help get rid of the disturbing possibilities that had come to her.
"Well, hopefully it isn't anything that...huge," she went on, and then nodded her head. "Yeah. It's as solid as anything else, just it moves kinda funny. Like it lags or glitches or something. Super weird, but not impossible to hit." And then she smiled a little, because the idea of feeding it had never actually occurred to her.
Food was something of a love language for her, and she had no amount of love or fondness for this thing, so maybe that was why.
It also creeped her the hell out.
"I'd rather we save that food for us to celebrate with," she said, her expression somewhat brighter as she considered the option. "I am kinda curious what your magic would do to it. So far the things have retreated after a little beating, so what would happen if one gets completely destroyed or blown off? Would it grow back like a lizard tail? Or stay destroyed? Could it survive apart from the source? Maybe if it can we can get a closer look at what exactly we're dealing with."
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Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2026 11:14 am
Solaris could only shrug, aware the information was painfully lacking but unable to offer anything else. Even if she could check with ENOCH, she doubted the AI had access to any database old and expansive enough to contain folklore or tales that might connect here. Now, maybe if they could check that library on the moon, maybe… But, she tilted her head, taking into consideration the rough description. "Fair enough on food, but never forget it might be a suitable option if a creature is trying to kill you--could just be for food, and offering an alternative might work. Might. I'm not suggestion this for youma," she clarified with a wrinkle of her nose. She eyed the elevator door. "We can test out my magic, then. Just be ready with shields--for all we know, burning some of it off could just result in more taking its place. Or not. I'm hoping not, I'd like it to just be something I can help you blast apart and then just…. I dunno, burn the remains or whatever to just get it out of here."
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Posted: Sat Jun 20, 2026 1:28 am
"Please," she said as she let her head fall back against the wall just as the elevator came to a stop. The doors slowly slid open. "I really hope it isn't that. But I'll be ready with my shields, no problem."
Ekstrom led the way out to the now semi-usable waiting room. There were still portions of it that were damaged and obviously unusable, there was still black "tar" all over the place, and it was noticeably colder here than even the elevator. All of it combined to give the space a less than homey feeling, but all the furniture was upright and organized in a way that made it possible to use if needed, which...
Well, they didn't really need it right now.
"This floor seems like an observation deck of some kind. There's a central room I've been trying to get to but so far no luck. This waiting room was a thousand times worse when I first found it. I had a lot of help cleaning it up. There's another open, kinda mixed purpose area on the other end of these hallways," she indicated to the open doorways on either side of them, "and four other closed rooms, two per hallway. And some other small rooms—bathroom, maintenance closet—that kinda thing."
Ekstrom turned and pointed to a hallway to their right. "There were tentacle things in three of those four rooms, so I'm expecting more of the same in the last room. Other than figuring out what it is, I'm also hoping this last room has an open door into that central room. The two other doors I've found have all been sealed from the inside, so."
She sounded a bit frustrated as she said this, and had to take a deep, slow breath to keep it from going any further than that.
"Anyway. Maybe explosions are exactly what we need to get one to open, yeah?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 22, 2026 12:37 pm
Her smile was sympathetic, and she held up a hand briefly with her fingers crossed in agreement. As the elevator opened up, she straightened, following Ekstrom out and immediately felt the muscles along her back and through her wings constrict. Feathers and hair at her neck stood on end, her eyes focused on the strange 'tar'-like substance all about. And the cold. Why was even worse here? Was something open to the outside..? Solaris nodded vaguely to the summary of the floor, following the ways Ekstrom indicated and forming her own sort of mental map. "And I'm guessing any information about what was being observed is likely within the central room." And thus, they didn't get any info on what this stuff was until they got it out of the way. Useful. Note the sarcasm on that word. She leaned slightly to bump her shoulder against the Knight's, understanding of the frustration if nothing else, before loosely linking her arm through the other's to begin walking them towards the hall to the right. "Let's get to it, then! Only one way to find out, and I've got plenty of magic to spare for this." Not that she had any idea on what to expect from such encounters--she really was just hoping her magic would be more than enough firepower to help destroy whatever the stuff was and get them access... But she also wasn't against trying her magic on the actual structure of the wonder, if that's what it took to get them through. The windows, mainly, if needed, or the doors themselves. "Let's put some heat on this thing~"
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