[F20-PP] Three Bird

[Freyd 0]

"Did you forget what down means?"  barely a moment passed before white queen took black queen and upended the board to a very soaked checkmate.  What never crossed his mind, in a million years, was the idea of these two providing him a bird's-eye view to their spontaneous wet t-shirt contest.  "Uh..."  Repeating Nisa's finger gun maneuver from earlier, he gave them both a double barrel salute, mid torso.  "That water must be really cold."

One's a goddess.  One's a friend. One's a goddess.  One's a friend...

Deadpan, yet wide-eyed, Freyd's saucers swiveled freely in search of something - anything - to draw them somewhere else.  Old Freyd... Young Freyd?  The Freyd from long ago wouldn't have known he was supposed to be embarrassed, but his mantra wasn't going to hold.  Marriage to a fiery Irish lass had taught him some amazing lessons, including the penultimate peaks of the concept of temper.  She'd probably laugh if he retold this story, yet would somehow inevitably be in trouble for just having existed in this moment.

"How's it going fuzz ball? Land on your feet?"

About to turn and point at the descending staircase, his brain boggled again as Nisa winked blew him a kiss. All he could do was gaze at a re-drenched Sam cradling her busted instrument, his own eyes agog once more, asking... "Is she high or something?!  What's with all the flirt... oh.  Oh-ho-ho...boy." Proverbial pennies were dropping. "I can't decide if that's good or terrifying..."

helping Sam back out of the silvery pond, his curiosity got the better of him, despite knowing he really shouldn't leap down such rabbit holes.

"Which 'Shee'?!" Leaving him convinced Nisa was now playing for the Sam-Katoka club, and somehow digging shiny chicks.

[Nisahime 0]

The woman would fire those guns straight back at Freyd, as Sam turned her boots over and allowed a small lake to pour out of them. "I am way too old for you or modesty." Which was about the oddest damn thing to hear from a 5'6 woman wearing a pair of goggles and a cap. "Not so fast guys. They stole this, clearly they have zero idea what they have." The woman would continue to perk her lips and whistle. It wouldn't be until they all were out of the pond that ripples would start to wiggle along its surface without anyone inside. "Hah, I fucking knew it." Her eyes jerk to the pair and she gestures with a flamboyant point toward the water, right foot held up near her backside and all.

Rings bleed out from a space somewhere near the center, but slightly off to the northwestern side. Each time a tone is held, the ripples start to pop out from that point but stop the moment the sound does.

"What? Cold?" Looking down she was sporting flagpoles. "Oh that. Really?" she'd raise an eyebrow. Completely unbothered by the fact She'd turn herself to lean over the side of the pool of liquid, looking out to the source of the ripples. "Your turn metal man, an eye for an eye. Get in the bird bath unless you want more peep shows." She'd look to the dude with a very twisted smugness. A cut of Sam into view, holding an instrument. "Fine, gimme it you dweeb." Putting out a black fingerless glove with a flick of her fingers, palm up to accept her pile of wooden shrapnel.

[Sam 0]

Excitement ran through her system as she watches Nisa repair her bass. "That's so cool," watching the water ripples practically dance to the woman's whistle. Sam strums a note but nothing happens. "Hmm," listen to Nisa tell him to get into the water. Biting her bottom lip with a grin thinking. "If you get into the water then Nisa here will play us a song." Handing the fixed instrument toward the woman. "Besides I'm sorta wondering if you play this, if a tsunami will appear or something." Glancing to Freyd, "You can take the armor off if you feel like your gonna drown in 5 foot water." Sam knew that there was many things that Nisa could do, everything reacted differently to the woman too.

Sam started looking more carefully at the corner of this room. It truly was empty besides the pond that reacted to the fate. After a moment Sam finds a lever that was the same color as the walls, making it blend well together. "What does this do?" pulling it, the minute she does the entire floor vanishes from their feet. Falling about 20 feet down into a huge pool of water. This was deep but clear, a tunnel could be seen on the wall underneath. Gasping for air, looking up. "Crap," as she starts moving her arms to keep her afloat.

Edited Monday at 12:49 AM by Sam

[Freyd 0]

Something in the water.  The spot marked by sonar waves delivered by the shrilling cry of pursed lips as an unusual source of revelation.  Their guide's added taunts were overlooked as Whisper instincts kicked in.  Another puzzle to solve.  Anything to get away from the trajectory of their earlier conversation seemed a blessing.  Nisa's shamelessness would win out over all, he was certain.

"Huh... would you look at that." Freyd thought it wise to avoid disturbing the water any more than necessary. The ladies had already done their share with their playfighting, yet Nisa somehow still sensed whatever might lurk within. Mostly, he felt like she was baiting him, seeing if he'd bite and play along, but exploring the white haired witch's view of the world often proved enticing beyond practical reason.  It was so against his nature, and yet Freyd found himself wading in as slowly as he could manage.  Even through Sam's teasing and re-tuning of her damaged musical treasure, he dismissed his armor in favor of a dark blue haori and charcoal pants soon soaked through.  At least it made fewer waves.

"Who stole what?  The bird people?  From who?" Keen eyes scouring the surface and mirror world below, the constant ripples hindered as much as they helped.  Knowing where to go was one thing, but also made it impossible to see beneath the miniscule waves.  And then the bottom gave out on everything, dunking him a good twenty feet below.  Thank goodness he'd actually doffed the armor.

Emerging like the proverbial wet cat, Freyd's blazing blue eyes glared daggers as the bassist while seriously considering consigning her newly repaired guitar to the void.

[Nisahime 0]

A snort of liquid followed by a deeper belly laugh, the woman could hardly contain herself. Wiping her tears as she looked on two the pair, clutching her sides as they burned. "Oooh....ok, I'm done." But that was straight up a bold faced lie that Nisa did not know she was telling. One glance up at the lever sparked it up at twice or thrice the power. A few more minutes of laughter turned to physical agony. "Ugh, my sides hurt." She'd grab the bass that was floating around like its namesake atop the water. A glance straight up the little shaft they'd found themselves in, some sort of ancient carnival dunk tank that Sam just straight up pulled a 'HYUCK WHAT THIS BUTTON DO?' on. Rough walls of carved stone sheered this fall into what was essentially a well. "Well..." The woman would pay a snicker, containing the obvious pun.

"Pretty sure our bird platypus snagged an echostone, which means we are likely standing in the primordial juices of creation. Or in layman's terms, really really old water. They klepto'd it from Aer, clearly." A glance and a shimmy into the waves had her seeking around, splashing in the stuff that was now rocking waist deep. A lean down finds the little glowing lantern that flickers to life in her search, causing the water itself to glow in a cyan blue as if filled with incandescent moss. "Look for a hexagonal thing about the size of a dinner plate, going to be impossible to point it out when we are splashing around."

[Sam 0]

"Look, it's not like we died or whatever, beside its not that bad in here." Swimming with no other real thought, pulling her shirt down, stopping. Glancing around listening to what Nisa said, "If we find that and I mess with it what happens?" Glancing around seeing nothing of note. "Welp," taking a deep breath before she dives into the water. At first those eyes were closed, when hands hit the floor, they flashed open. Flipping herself right side up looking around. It was so weird to see the water so clear, usually there was like tiny floating bits but in here there was absolutely nothing. Swishing her hand around, it seemed a bit thicker than normal too. It had the texture of water but it felt really slow motion under here.

Sharply gazing the underbelly of these walls, Sam could feel her chest tighten. That was her loosing air, as she began to go up there was a the smallest glimmer of something on the wall at the very bottom of the 20 foot pool. Rushing up, gasping for breath, Sam started hacking. Pretty sure breathing of liquid happened. When Sam could finally rest normal again, "I thought I saw that thing that she described down there on the right wall. There is still that tunnel down there that leads god knows where at the very bottom too." Taking a deep breath, "Up to you this time bud, press the magical button or swim through the tunnel that leads to another crazy ass place." Eyes fixate on the man of the group.

[Freyd 0]

Having long since grown accustomed to Nisa's prankish sense of humour, Freyd chose to endure it in silence and focus on facts instead.  Anything more only encouraged her, and they'd done quite enough of that so far.

"Primordial water? Echostone?  Aer?"  None of these terms meant anything to him, though something withing felt like they should be familiar.  Too much haze got in the way, even his ample will and recounting failing to clear its obscurity.  "Is this some sort of ley line or something?"  Unbidden, the thought roused sensations from beyond the reaches of his soul, almost like they belonged to something... someone... other?

Sam's quips about chillaxing registered, but the sheer volume of chaos swirling in Nisa's - Morrighan's - wake kept any tension from bleeding out.  With azure eyes eerily matching the hue and vibrancy of the waters, Freyd listened as she recounted her findings. Pupils shifting back and forth, you could nearly here the hamster wheel within him head spinning up to ridiculous speed, heading for plaid. 

"A silver button... or a socket?"  Why did he ask that?  Orienting himself to Sam's bearings, Freyd spontaneously re-summoned his armor.  Its added wait causing him to skin like a stone.  A silver stone in a six-sided metal socket built into the pool wall, humming in a soft audible key that resonated within the viscous fluid. Reaching out, it felt like he'd become an observer in his own body, some solemn buried spirit within exercising unknown authority over subject matter beyond his comprehension.

You don't press it.  You tune it.  Like this...

[Nisahime 0]

As they'd all slosh about in that pond of fluids of ancient make, the woman would lift a lantern and keep her eyes locked to it. The incandescent glow seemed thick, unending and despite the diameter it felt vast. Mainly because they were actually looking for a needle in a haystack. Who knew where it could end up, and a thought even causes Nisa to look up again for a third time. "I don't really know...." The phrase fell of her lips as the thought of it being above them still roared through her head. Her gaze seems almost dead locked on the ceiling, a thousand yard stare in deep thought as she'd respond "A ley line? We don't really have those...". An abrupt splash sends her attention back to reality in a jerk back into her senses.

Glancing back to see only Sam standing there with like a wet rat, blinking in confusion. "What? where's the other one. I look away for two seconds... DID YOU EAT HIM?" tracing the girls gaze to the pool beneath her. A lift of that light confirms a deeper shadow as it would go deeper. "You found it!?" A twist of excitement and joy, locking much smaller arms around Sam's neck and ruffling her hair like a little tike. "By primordials, you found it!" A drop of her face into the water would allow for a muffled yell and a fired thumbs up, as she'd look to her submerged scuba diver albeit in a fuzzy blur.

The plate itself: An echostone, an old fragment of power designed by the fomor to combat their enemies. It harvested the very energy of that which was used against them: the soul, and for the players that would take the shape of something similar to the scathers they'd dealt with but nothing further. A lens of the soul, to magnify down their strengths to extraordinary levels and precision. There were countless of them of all manner of facets, but her honest response to Sam was true. If the echostone was inert it would do nothing, but if it wasn't. Well Freyd, would find that out...