subnautica | monolith revisited

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monolith revisited | mingle

One fine morning, a boyish voice broadcasts to everyone around base:

There's a lot left to explore inside the Monolith, so I'll be visiting it today. If anyone else wants to come along, feel free.

Once all interested parties are assembled and traveling arrangements sorted out, they're off to the Monolith! Given the length of the journey, this will be a real time investment. A one-way trip takes nearly two hours by flight. Traveling in silence? Boring. How should they occupy their time? Travel games? Joy rides in the Seamoth? Maybe even some old-fashioned chit chat??

Once they arrive, there's plenty to explore. With some sniffing around, they'll find a map revealing that the Monolith contains a cafe and common area, crew quarters, lab, med bay, and "special alien containment" room. However, it'll take some ingenuity to actually reach each area. And by ingenuity I mean bombs.

Which is why the group will need a demolition crew! Get to blasting those walls in logical places. Or illogical places. No one ever said it had to be a good demolition crew. With enough willful destruction, surely all of the the Monolith's secrets will be laid bare in no time.

(( Here are the full details on what can be found in the Monolith! Create your own topics and go nuts. ))

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Yeah, my friend Mikleo is a seraph.

[Looking Loki up and down.

Giant, huh.]

Are you not a giant anymore? I didn't know people could, uh, change species like that.

[ Mikleo is a seraph............??????

Actually he isn't that surprised. If any one of them had to be a seraph, it would be Mikleo. ]

Don't give me that look. [ That look of disbelief! ] It's a complication of etymology. More traditionally, they're called jötnar, or "devourers". Some are actually gigantic, but not all.

[ He waves a hand. ]

I still am one, technically, but I don't remember living among them. The giants dwell in Jötunheim, but for most of my life I've lived in a place called Asgard.

[Because Mikleo is beautiful and perfect and makes them food, of course he'd be the seraph.]

Oh, that makes more sense. But whether you lived in Jötunheim or Asgard wouldn't change whether or not you're a giant, would it? You just didn't happen to live with giants for most of your life. It doesn't change who you are, just how you're raised.

Quite so. But who knows? I might become tall someday. I think I have a lot of potential.

[ Now that the dust has settled, he starts heading into the hole they created. Onward! ]

Of course, giants are also known to be a somewhat antagonistic race, so if you believe in nature over nurture... heh. Actually, I'll stop there. You and Mikleo seem too pure to have any prejudicial tendencies.

[Following after him, on the lookout for any traps or Suspicious Items that may be around.]

We try not to judge a book by its cover. It's hard to know how someone's going to act until you talk to them for yourself. For what it's worth you haven't seemed antagonistic so far!

Why, thank you.

[ Most people here don't seem to appreciate his decent side?? Though to be fair, he has been a tiny bit antagonistic to the more outrageous members of the crew. They just beg to be picked on...

They quickly come upon an elevator. Weird, but okay. Loki pushes the call button and the doors slide open. ]

So what did you do before Iniidae, Sorey? Your style of clothing is unfamiliar, so it's hard for me to guess.

[why is there an elevator behind a wall that needed to be blown up...

sorey watches loki push the button with a little confused frown until the doors slide open and he recognizes it as an elevator. those things look different where he's from.]

Well, for most of my life I explored ruins! But when I left Elysia I made a pact with a friend of mine and became the Shepherd. So now we're working to rid my world of malevolence.

The Shepherd, hm? [ Sounds special. ] I never thought you might be someone important.

[ His expression is perfectly civil as he says this. He really doesn't mean any insult, he's just being honest... ]

[Not taking it personally since he doesn't think he looks like anyone important either. YOU'RE LUCKY HE'S SO GENERALLY UNOFFENDED, LOKI]

Pretty surprising, right? But I don't think it's that important here since there isn't a lot of malevolence.

[ Perhaps Sorey is the lucky one. If he were easily offended, Loki might just go about trying to offend him more... ]

Mm. Tell me a little more about this malevolence of yours. Is it something generated by people?

[ From speaking with Mikleo, Loki has the vague idea that it's analogous to the evil spirits Loki is in the business of exorcising himself. The particulars are still beyond him, though.

He steps into the elevator and peruses the floor selection panel, which has a grand total of one (1) floor to move to. Hm. He will select it once Sorey is safely inside. ]

[Raising an eyebrow at the one floor to move to; shouldn't there be more than that given the size of the monolith? But he doesn't bother mentioning that aloud and does his best to answer the question on malevolence.]

It's something that's generated by sentient beings, yeah. I guess it's a...spiritual impurity in the world caused by the negative actions and thoughts of people. Wars and battlefields generate a huge amount of malevolence, for instance.

Then I imagine your job will always be important. If more and more people are going to gather here, it's only a matter of time.

[ It's a fatalistic view, but also... just plain practical where people are involved... ]

I recall Mikleo saying that the sea dragon we met was full of malevolence too.

[Shaking his head at the first sentence; half a year has made him far less concerned about anyone on the crew turning into a hellion.]

No one here has shown enough malevolence for that to really be a concern. Even if there's a little, I doubt it would be enough for someone to turn into a hellion. But...

[He does have to hesitate when Loki mentions the sea dragon.]

That sea dragon did have more malevolence than anything we've encountered here before, that's for sure. It was easily as bad or worse than the dragons from home. I'd be worried if we got too close to it.

What could happen if we did?

[ Though Mikleo seemed to struggle under the presence of the sea dragon, Loki and Korosensei weren't affected nearly as much. ]

Mikleo and I can't handle the malevolence, so mostly we'd be useless in a fight. And the dragon would probably try to kill everyone.

[the qualifier "probably" is because he doesn't actually know what a dragon here would try to do, just what a dragon back home would do.]

... Eh?

[ What. As the elevator dings, he absently steps out to what appears to be a common room and cafe. ]

Aren't you supposed to be some kind of malevolence-banishing champion?

[ That's how he was putting the story together, anyway... ]

[Distracted momentarily by the common room and cafe area, stepping further into the common room space to see what's there.]

Some malevolence is stronger than others and it's not as easy to get rid of. Dragons are supposedly impossible to purify. They're too far gone to revert back.

[The "supposedly" has a little more emphasis on it than he meant to put. He's still determined to try.]

I don't want to be too optimistic and say I think I can beat it if I don't think I can. We already know the malevolence is probably more than I can handle right now. I'd rather be cautious until we have a solid plan.

[ He follows Sorey, content to subject himself to Sorey's whims for now. It looks like there's a cafe, as well as a convenience store creatively called Save N' Shop. ]

If you and Mikleo ever need assistance with your malevolence work, I can lend you a hand. I used to be an exorcist back home.

[He's rummaging for food and comfortable furniture that they should somehow ship back to the base. It's Important.]

Really? Is that the same as purifying something, or a little different?

Something like it. Anger, enmity, despair -- whenever people are consumed by such things and a different face begins to take hold of them, my job was to exterminate that evil.

[ He examines a bottle of chocolate syrup with a small amount of fascination. Sugar... sugar...... ]

[The sugar substances are going into Sorey's bag if Loki doesn't get to them first. Sugar is important!!!]

That sounds a lot like purification. Maybe it's not that different, then. We certainly wouldn't say no to more help if you're up to it.

[ Loki has no bag to speak of, so he'll wordlessly deposit anything he deems of value into Sorey's bag. Congratulations, he's Loki's mule now?? ]

Good. Another thing: I can always make use of the evil afterward, so if you can hold off on destroying them, I'd like to keep them. Circumstances allowing, of course.

[Loki has +1 Protagonist Pack Mule who is only too happy to help.]

Make use of it how? I don't mind, but it seems kind of dangerous.

I can store it in my staff. If I ever need a power boost, I'll be able to absorb what's there and level up. It's only temporary, but it helps a lot.

[ Vague much?? That said, Loki seems genuinely happy at the prospect of a "level up". ]

[A level up is fine in Sorey's book as long as it gets rid of the malevolence and doesn't turn Loki or anyone else into a hellion or a dragon.]

If you're sure it doesn't hurt you at all, then it should be okay. Just test it out before you decide to store all of it.

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monolith revisited | mingle

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