Raiders of the Lost Arts Log Exploration Log for Jan-15 to Feb-22

[yuezun]

Who: The Raiders of the Lost Arts + friends they might bring to the ship
Status: Closed
Where: Exploration on the High Seas! + An island stop
What: With the Leviathans leaving Avaleci on the 15(ish), the Phantom Moon also undertakes it's first long voyage of exploration and discovery.
When: Jan 15 through Feb 22
Warnings: Include any content warnings


First Week: Ship Life
The first week of travel didn't see them stop at any islands. Everything they passed was already labeled on the map with a name, a small description, and sometimes a settlement. It seemed the path they were taking was one taken often enough by the leviathans that it saw quite a bit of traffic. While these islands might be worth stopping at another time, the crew had expressed an interest in islands less traveled and known. So that meant it was mostly just ship life being ship life.

Second Week: Land ho!
The second week was also mostly ship life, but about halfway through they had left the common shipping lanes the Leviathans dictated and entered an area where fewer and fewer islands on the maps were given names. Mostly just descriptions and more than a few marked as 'last expedition not heard from again' with a date. Those were examined through spy glasses at a distance for the various things the crew had expressed wanting to explore or encounter on their first expedition. Space to continue live testing outside of the ship without causing harm to the scenery was also taken into consideration.

And near the very end of the second week an island was finally selected. This one had a name: Leasknom Reef. But otherwise there was no settlement noted and the only exploration notes that could be found was 'fucking seals'.

Third - Fourth Week: Leasknom Reef
Well... 'fucking seals' was accurate. It seems Leasknom Reef was a seal mating ground and was (probably) largely left alone because of that. There was, however an expanse of the island's shore that was mostly left alone by the seals. It lay outside the protected bay that the seals definitely called their own and was deep enough for larger predators (sharks) to get too close to the shore for the seals' comfort. Which made it a perfect mooring ground for the Phantom Moon.

Otherwise the island boasted a wide variety of plant life, much of which was as unfamiliar to the hired sailors as it was to the riftfares. There was space for testing experiments. And the island was close enough to a few others that the longboats could be rowed (or pushed with magic) to them for smaller groups to explore and make notes.

Fifth Week: Return Sail to Nogard
While the Phantom Moon could realistically stay out from it's main port for much longer, the first sail was not intended to be a very long one. They had only packed enough supplies for a couple months of travel and communication with the port authority on Nogard said the Leviathan would be passing close enough to their waters (assuming travel trajectory didn't change) for them to meet up near the end of the week and follow the leviathan to it's next place of rest. Which would make resupplying and deciding on their next destination (or return to Leasknom Reef if they chose) much easier.


OOC
Treat this as you would your own logs. Top level for your characters with prompts and tag around. We have 10 people on the crew and friends are welcome to be brought along for a few days or a week or two via teleports with the ring of returning tuned to the ship.

Comments

[emet_sulk]

'Twas a rhetorical question as I'm sure you knew.

[ He half-turns back, levelling an impassive gaze at the other man ]

Unless you think there is some merit to us growing familiar with one another?

[ It could have sounded sarcastic...but it doesn't. The Ascian waits with an inscrutable expression to see how G'raha responds. ]

[afflatusexarch]

I'll have you know that no, I didn't realize it was rhetorical in the least.

[ His tail doesn't stop moving. In fact, the fur has bristled a little. Red gaze meets gold as the other question soon follows. ]

Is it really a surprise that I might not desire to be constantly antagonistic towards one another?

[emet_sulk]

I was your enemy before and I could be again. 'Tis better to not take the chance, isn't it?

[ He holds their gaze a few moments longer then turns away again. When he thinks about it - really thinks about it - he doesn't hate the Exarch all that much. It's just...easier to maintain a status quo. A distance. Because then it doesn't feel like more of a betrayal of his people than failing them already does.

He rubs at his eyes, suddenly feeling very tired. Living is difficult and he's done enough of it for one lifetime. ]

I'm not Azem. I don't take joy in wandering.

[afflatusexarch]

[ It is easier, yes. However, there are times when maintaining it when one's heart isn't actually in it becomes just as tiring. Exhausting. It's also not as though their bickering needs cease either.

Instead it could simply just take another shape. Another form.

For a moment, G'raha shakes his head. He doesn't answer, if only because the look he gives Emet-Selch speaks volumes. G'raha doesn't believe it for a moment. Not any longer. That's why he's surprised when this little bit of information is given to him. ]

Yet you wandered the star all the same. I suppose we're different in that sense. There were many places I wanted to go but could not.

[emet_sulk]

Yes, and I spent every moment of my travels wishing that they were there with me! [ he snaps irritably. ]

[ He can't really claim to have enjoyed the journey when it was missing the core part of what made travelling a joy. ]

Even here, now, it should be them on this ship. They would fit right in with this motley crew. They would have befriended everyone here already.

[afflatusexarch]

[ Why is he trying again? It feels like the man is just dead set against everything. Which he supposes makes sense. It's not as though G'raha himself cannot relate a little. ]

Your point? Mayhap your companion would have. I do not know them as you do nor will I make assumptions.

[ He stays silent about his own experiences feeling much the same. Thinking about the Students, his second family, and after the Isle of Val disappeared - the moment where he had thought himself essentially alone. And then traveling to the First. Leaving the First. Sometimes it feels like he begins to find himself settled with something new before he has to leave it behind.

not that he'll say it. Emet-Selch won't take too kindly to it. ]

You are the one that chose to be a part of this crew. From what I've come to understand, you've fostered some semblance of friendships for yourself and are just as much a part of this ship as anyone else is. I think you are where you should be.

[emet_sulk]

[ He voices some kind of unwilling grumble. He has made a few connections, it's true, but it's difficult to avoid when you share a ship with them for weeks at a time. Or so he tells himself.

Rather than answer directly, he decides to return to an earlier point. ]

...Where did you plan to go on our star?

[afflatusexarch]

[ Whatever he expected to come next in the conversation, it isn't that. His ears wiggle a little while he debates on his own response.

And then G'raha decides to not push. ]

Ishgard first, truthfully. 'Tis a place I have not been and after spending some time in Garlemald, doubtful that the cold would put me out too much.

[emet_sulk]

[ A scoff. ]

Ishgard is not nearly as harsh as the north Ilsabard mountains, despite what its people would have you think. You'll be fine.

[ A calamity of Darkness means great upheaval and change. So much of the land around Eorzea's three continents is unrecognisable... ]

It used to resemble Il Mheg, somewhat. With less fey mischief of course.

[afflatusexarch]

There were moments where I felt as though the very air in my chest would freeze.

[ He doesn't know how it is that they could so readily survive in such a clime. Garleans are a hardy bunch, to be sure. There is an aspect that is admirable, G'raha will admit.

Instead he tilts his head towards Emet-Slech. ]

I had heard that, yes. Though, personally, I always enjoyed the company of Feo Ul and their people.

[emet_sulk]

Aye. In Garlemald, not a few men and women grew sick from working in the cold air for too long.

[ He sighs. He never liked the cold, and somehow he had found himself emperor over a people exiled to the coldest region on the three great continents. ]

Where else besides Ishgard?

[afflatusexarch]

In truth, I admire their resilience and adaptability. While I know you had something to do with it in recent years, Garleans are truly a skilled people.

[ Yes, Solus might have set things in motion, but it's not like the man can create sharp and creative minds. G'raha thinks of Nero and Cid. About the numerous scientists and creatives. People capable of doing great things.

But where else... ]

Y'shtola has it in her mind to make traversing the shards possible. I would like to revisit the First, of course. The others are in the process of going back and forth between the Source and the Thirteenth. Naturally, I think of Corvos as well.

[emet_sulk]

They are.

[ He says it simply and with no ego. Part of the reason he had chosen them for his next empire is that very resilience. ]

If you do manage to find a way to traverse the shards...

[ He trails off. It would be more than what the Ascians have managed. Although to be fair, they did have other priorities. ]

I wonder if there really was another way.

[afflatusexarch]

I would like to think so. By now what is done, is done. There is nothing that is powerful enough or has the resources to open up time now. Not to where we would have need of it anyway. Sending our friend back to Elpis consumed the remaining portion of Elidibus' strength.

[ But perhaps it is moot to think about the what ifs. The maybes. What could have beens. The reality is that working with the Ascians, the Ancients, isn't an option anymore. So they have to do what they can to preserve the future of the start. ]

Do you think we might have been able to get along?

[emet_sulk]

You mean, do I think we could have been friends in different circumstances?

[ He crosses his arms. It's not a question that can be easily answered. He knows what kind of person he is. ]

I think you would have found me disagreeable regardless of whether I had a personal agenda or not. But we would, at least, have not been trying to kill one another. Historians and researchers such as yourself are people to be admired. You try your best to preserve the lives and cultures of those long gone.

[ A sidelong glance. ]

Which is why I find it so egregious that you would erase a history that was not to your liking. Even I never dared trifle with time's flow in such a manner.

[afflatusexarch]

I would say that it remains to be seen if we could be so even now.

[ G'raha himself can be... Something of a difficult person himself. He is aware of that for himself. Headstrong and stubborn. A certain disregard for rules and the like.

But the comment about finding Emet-Selch disagreeable makes him chuckle. Perhaps that is true. And yet he looks at the other when he mentioned that researchers and historians are to be admired. Right up until that last one. ]

Would you not have tried, had I given you the secrets of how to do so?

[emet_sulk]

The thought crossed my mind at the time.

[ But, ultimately, crossing an expanse of time that vast would likely have been beyond even one of his vaunted strength. He has no idea, of course, that Elidibus would be the one to expend the last of his aether to send the Warrior of Light into the distant past but he knows someone did. If the result had been a shadow of a shadow then what hope does he have? ]

But no - without a clear solution for the hows and whys of what triggered our end, returning to the start of everything would not have made much difference. Fandaniel made sure of that. Your ability to drag souls across the rift would be far more valuable knowledge.

[afflatusexarch]

Given everything that we know now, there can be an argument made that the timeline of the Eighth Calamity had always been a doomed one. Coming to the First as I did was always meant to happen and thus a part of the natural progression of events.

[ Alternate timelines and such. It really is the only way that G'raha can think that it would have all worked out like it had. Which also means that part of his soul had come from a time that still might yet exist.

Time travel is a complicated matter. ]

Dragging souls across the rift... How might you have found such a thing useful? Can you not already do so?

[emet_sulk]

[ He waves his hand flippantly. ]

I know we are never going to agree on this, but your insistence that the eighth calamity is 'doomed' is a product of your short-sighted mortal life. The star would have survived. Men would have survived as well.

[ In lesser numbers of course, but society has always clawed its way back somehow. Everyone thought the world was ending the previous seven times as well. ]

And yes, souls can travel across the rift but they do not possess a body. You managed to bring the Warrior of Light over body and soul.

[afflatusexarch]

I do not mean in the sense that the people of that age would perish or that the star would wither and die in that era.

[ G'raha hadn't meant that. He realizes that the cycle would just continue as it always had. ]

Yet the threat of the Final Days would still exist. That matter would never be resolved.

[ His eyes shift, move to look back at Emet-Selch as he speaks of moving not just a soul, but a body. He had been successful twice: first with himself and then the Warrior of Light, yes. ]

To be fair, it is... Not especially an easy process. At least, not the way I was required to do so. Y'shtola's proposed method is a touch riskier, but the preciseness I needed is removed from the equation.

[emet_sulk]

[ He has no rejoinder about the matter of the Final Days. Perhaps Zodiark would have indefinitely held Meteion's despair at bay. Perhaps they would have continued to live on Etheirys, oblivious to the deaths of other stars and the universe. But isn't that how mortals already live? Most of them hardly care about lives outside their own and when they do care it's only when it threatens their own.

But as he said: they're never going to agree on this so he drops the topic. ]

Yes, well - whichever way you go about it, bringing the people of the shards into the Source would have eliminated the need for the mass death you all so thoroughly disapproved of.

[afflatusexarch]

How so?

[ Because wouldn't the shards of the star itself need to be brought together through violent means? Or is there another way that they had thought of that wasn't feasible due to the fact that souls had ben scattered as well?

Truthfully, if there is a more peaceful means then why not entertain it when it became clear that one might find a way eventually? ]

[emet_sulk]

When the shards are eventually collapsed into the Source, there wouldn't be any deaths on them, aye?

[ He shrugs. ]

The calamities are unavoidable with the immense amounts of aether being worked but the population does need culling every now and then. I don't think you mortals realise how much more prolific you are than us. But I suppose you'll do that naturally by yourselves once resources grow scarce.

[afflatusexarch]

"The population does need culling..."

[ Well... They never will agree on the matter. Not entirely. Yes, overpopulation can be a concern, but G'raha doesn't think that is an issue at the present moment. ]

Well, I suppose when one can live an age or more, the need to conceive and pass things onto the next generation isn't so dire.

[emet_sulk]

[ G'raha, have you considered that overpopulation is not a concern because of the Seventh Calamity-- ]

We still make records of history - and preserve them in ways far superior to paper. The amount of times you mortals have burned libraries over the course of your history, good grief...

[ He shakes his head, lips twisted down. ]

Nevermind that. The scale of time may be different but there are things even we have forgotten. Ancestral histories which are irrelevant now.