Quest: Wharrgarbl! Part 3
The only thing those entering through the doorway can hear is... water.

The small passage is dark, and its entry is illuminated by a dim green glow.

The glow becomes steadily brighter, and the sound of sloshing water is louder.

The passage reaches its end.

It is Totum who first steps out of the passage into the room. The shadowy mass emits an audible gasp - this is a room they have not known for a long time. The only passage into the room was the doorway and the small access tunnel, and they hadn't reason to enter it until... now. Tilting their head back, they absorbed the ancient sight.

Water surrounded the small patch of land where the tunnel entered the room. Water everywhere - and a nearby island, and above them, a bleak, obsidian dome where distant lights twinkled. The lights. Totum rumbled something inaudible; the sound was like a quick exchange of voices, unable to be picked apart from one another, a whirlwind of whispering. It seemed like one body was aching to reach for the walls, to separate from the mass, while the other remained firmly rooted - until finally they had come to a decision.

Refocusing back into a single form, Totum extended a limb, gesturing to the entirety of the watery room to the Gembounds alongside it. "Fornax." They hummed. "The great furnace."

Join This Quest

If you would like to participate in this quest, post with your character in this thread. Completing this quest will require some teamwork, so don't be afraid to roleplay it out! Feel free to request a GM when you feel you may be ready to proceed.

Participants:
Part One: Carrie, Booker, Ghanyarah, Makyna, Arkrael, Diot, Eve, Kerberos, Cadence
Part Two: [wip]

Kicking sand with his back feet, Rohan buried the jagged, dried wood hastily before he flipped around, scooping it out with a strong flick of his right paw. It was thrown a short distance, and he pounced toward it, repeating the process. He switched from flicking it with his paw and tossing it with his nose each time he arrived at it. This went on for nearly ten minutes before he stopped to take a breather, tail wagging as he lifted his head toward the direction of the door.

He couldn't get that good of a look at it from his island, but he could hear it was still doing some strange things. Panting still, he stood over the driftwood to catch his breath a little more before picking the precious stick up and carrying it back across the island to the rest of his things. As Rohan carefully placed it in his bundle, he gave it a soft smile. "There. Played with you today, too. I need to take a break for a little while, though. If you'll excuse me," he gave a curt bow and turned halfway, glancing toward the doorway.

Its activity had been bothering him. It hadn't ever done anything quite like that his whole time living here. The water surging through it was more alarming. Where was it coming from? Was something going to happen to the water in here? He turned back to his possessions and frowned. There was only so much land. He couldn't carry all of his things in his mouth. If worst came to worst, he knew which one he would choose. His sharp blue eye locked onto the chunk of obsidian that sat atop of a large leaf so it would stay clean of sand and other debris. There was a time where it was just a piece of chrysalis. Now it fed his disillusion.

Bending down, he lifted it gently with his jaws and moved to the edge of the water, laying just at the shore. He put his front paws together and placed the obsidian there, then looked toward the doorway to watch it as he took his break to relax before going to spend time with the others. Rohan's favorite time of the day was his time with Leon.

"I don't know why," he said quietly, regarding the water that came surging through the door again. While he kept a playful and light attitude with his other companions, it comforted him knowing he could confide in Leon. Rohan had nearly all but forgotten what he had been looking for in the first place when he'd come to this room. The door had been open for him, originally. However, the buzzing that lured him there wasn't present now. It hadn't been since the day he'd gotten locked in. "No," he laughed, patting his tail against the sand, "I'm far too chicken to go over and check it out. I don't want to race against the surges."

There was a moment of silence as they watched in the direction of the doorway. Rohan let out a snort seemingly randomly, though truly it was in response to whatever conversation he was listening to. Leon was convincing him to face his fears and go check the door out. (His subconscious was trying to get him try and escape.) He snorted again and thrust his nose upward. "Man, no, I'll probably drown," he complained, his voice growing frustrated. Little angered him, but the doorway was his biggest fear and he didn't even know it. Rohan didn't even know it was why he was angry every time he thought about it. It trapped him. He never wanted to go near it, even if it was his only way out. It had become a symbol of loss, detachment, and pain. Rohan hated nothing - he was a paragon, a monk, a lighthearted and loving individual even despite his hardships; but he hated the door and he didn't even know it.

"Whhhyyy?" Groaning, he threw his head into the sand as he flopped onto his side, acting like a child while being careful to keep his forepaws straight and the obsidian neatly atop them. "You probably could," he retorted with a laugh, rolling his eye and stone. Heaving a great sigh, he stared eye-level with the water's surface and glowered. He... very rarely pouted. The room was incredibly large and there was so much to do, there was absolutely nothing to pout about! But Leon was always his weak spot.

The door was.. trying to open. He could hear it. That's what it had been doing. The noise shifted each time and he could tell it was the siphon. His eye snapped to the obsidian and he lifted his brow curiously. "Do you think so?" he asked sincerely, voice straining to break through the throat that wanted to hold all his sound away from the world. He rose gently and collected the obsidian within his jaws, staring out across the ocean. "Yeah, I think so. I mean, think about it. Why wouldn't they? Come on, Rohan. Let's explore!"

So he stepped slowly into the water and swam. He trusted his brother more than anything. Their destination was the small island that sat just beyond the door, but its surface was washed over with each surge. Nothing Rohan couldn't just stand in, but he couldn't place Leon anywhere lest the obsidian be washed into the sea. It was really more of a sandbank, anyway, if one wanted to be technical. The water was warmer than one might expect, though Rohan never questioned why. He was trapped in the room before he knew much about anything, so he didn't know whether or not oceans were supposed to be warm or cold. He didn't even know the word ocean.

They reached the sandbank just before the next surge, but as the sea swelled with the intake, the sandbank was spared anything too terrible. Rohan steadied his legs against the push, having done so on the shores so many times before (though not technically to practice standing against... surges). He stood dumbly with the large chunk of obsidian in his mouth, watching the doorway carefully. It was dark, and he couldn't see anything through the entrance, not even the door. It sat away and the water that surged through came rushing around. He watched anxiously as the siphon's sounds grew more and more distinguishable; and then, the flow.

The steady flow. The door was open.

He was paralyzed. Some part of him wanted to turn back and swim quickly back to his island. He wanted to run, hide; what was going to come through? What opened the door? Surely it wasn't just the water. He could hear the efforts. He couldn't hear the voices - but he could hear that the siphon was being struggled with. It was the way the water came through on his end and the way the siphon and the door closed abruptly. He was shaking with anxiety. Who had been doing it? How did they succeed? The buzzing wasn't here, either, so it wasn't related at all to his own entry into the large room of water and small lands.

The shadow came first. The memory hit him like a freight train and he nearly collapsed into the sand. The armor. That's why he had come here. He'd found the chest piece and met the lioness who knew his brother, but all that had been taken away. He'd forgotten all of it until now. His jaw clenched and he accidentally held Leon too tight. The obsidian was a tough stone, though, and easily endured it. Rohan's body did him a great favor and breathed for him, where otherwise the wolf was frozen and void of all function. A black wolf came next. Others. He hadn't seen others... in so long.

The cultural shock made him nauseous. Why...? Why had they come.. now? Generally his mind was his temple and he was a being of great relief; but he was nothing at the moment. His personality had been completely stripped at the sight of others. Other... real Gembounds. Not his driftwood, or his obsidian, or his quartz, or his glass he accidentally made, or any other of his belongings—no, companions—but living flesh bodies.

He placed Leon at his paws, pushing the chunk of stone into the sand in an effort to give it a chance against the water. He wanted to share the moment with someone at least. His mouth opened but nothing came out. He stared stupidly at the group as his brain continued to register what it saw. "Look," he said after a large gulp, nudging the obsidian with his paw pad as his voice dropped to a whisper, "Look at them, they're real. It's the shadow, and another wolf, and.. is that Le—"

His world stopped.

This time his body even forgot to breathe.

His paw slowly slid off of the obsidian next to him and numbly touched down into the sand. His legs were jello and it was quite the miracle he remained standing as everything else around him vanished. The shadow was gone. The water was gone. The Gembounds were gone.

The obsidian jutting out of the brown fur was the only thing in view. The tunnel vision had him entranced as his mind struggled terribly to piece together what was happening. Leon was here, at his side. He had been for many cycles. He taught Rohan to swim. He taught Rohan to fish. He taught Rohan not to drink the salted water. He kept Rohan alive.

But his subconscious pulled the obsidian away and jammed it into the shoulder of the Gembound he was staring at. It was certainly a bear. It was a really, really large bear. It had eyes of fire. Warm, warm eyes of fire. Matching eyes. It had two eyes that were the same. Rohan didn't. He only had one eye. They confirmed that.. together. And the bear nearly lost an eye in the process.

He was shaking more than he realized.

He was in shock and still awfully nauseous. Without knowing what else to do, he twitched a stupid smile and said, "You got really big, Leon." His voiced cracked and he wasn't even sure if it reached across the small channel between them.

The bear followed close behind Totum, though there were a few others ahead of him. It was probably for the better, anyways. Just in case Totum was leading them to their death or something. Normally, bold Leon would have run headfirst into potential danger, but with his daughter on his back he didn't want to run any unnecessary risks. At least with Totum and a few other Gembounds ahead, Leon would have some warning if something was up. It was a small warning, but a warning none the less.

The passage was dark, but it was big enough that Leon still felt comfortable traveling through. Though once everybody else started to file in, he felt a little claustrophobic, especially with Aza'zel and Kerberos taking the rear. Every now and then he would pause and shoot a glance over his shoulder, tight-lipped and quiet - he didn't bother to engage them for the sake of keeping the peace in the group, and again, he didn't want to endanger Cadence. His attention was quick to return to the end of the passage, where the light was slowly returning, and then suddenly they had emerged.

The sound of the water gently lapping against rock, and distant waterfalls, filled his ears. His eyes widened as he took in the sight. This room was vast and filled with the gleaming surfaces of water, small cascades dropping from various openings in the walls, moss and stone and artificial lighting casting a warm glow across the expanse. The air was humid and wet, but not like Pisces - no, it was warm. It felt almost tropical, if he knew what tropical might have been. Blinking, he was almost too absorbed by the sight to have noticed the white wolf lingering on the opposite shore across from the channel.

His gaze fell down towards the island across the water. And, in turn, the canine that lingered at its edge, gawking at him with one clear blue eye and one gleaming stone. The poor guy was shaking. Leon wasn't any better.

His own breath had cut short once he spotted him, and Leon was stricken, his reeling mind unable to react. Was this a ghost, some illusion of the room? Was it just a memory? Maybe this was even a dream, after all the whole door deal was kind of strange. To the side, Totum had finally spoken, Fornax, but all he could think of was the wolf. And then he spoke, too. You got really big, Leon.

Blinking dumbly, he looked down at himself. It wasn't as if he could tell how big he'd gotten, but honestly he didn't even care. The bear snapped his gaze back up to the wolf. His friend. His brother. Lost after all this time... finally here. "Ro," He croaked in disbelief. His orange gaze lingered on the wolf for a moment longer as if fearful that he would suddenly vanish, but he seemed as real and alive as Leon, as real and alive as he had been in his memories, when they had hatched and traveled together and when Leon's heart was broken. He'd always been a source of comfort, and now a wave of relief was wrapping around him, submerging him in sudden, unexpected mirth. "I can't believe you're here."

Finally his lips curled and he couldn't fight the smile from taking his face. The bear broke out in a laugh and pushed forward, stopping just short of the edge of the rock, teetering just over the water. He hesitated for only a second, still gazing over at Rohan. He didn't care. He was gonna jump right into this damn water. He had to get to his brother. Another laugh, wildly elated, followed before he plunged into the water and began to cross the channel. "Hold on tight." He added to his daughter, paddling desperately towards the island. He did note that it was strangely warm, but not unpleasantly so - actually the temperature of the water was quite nice in comparison to Pisces. Huffing and puffing, he swam as fast as he could and crossed the channel in a little under a minute before resurfacing on the opposite side.

Rising up from the water, soaking wet and dripping, he continued to trudge forward despite panting in an effort to catch his breath. He all but bowled into the wolf, ignorant of the obsidian he had left in the sand; the bear wrapped an arm around Rohan's shoulder and drew him close, leaning onto his haunches as he did so, and engulfed his brother in a big, wet hug. "You're back. You're finally back."

Azazel had perched upon Kerberos for a while, almost sensing the uncertainty the hellhound had radiating off him within the dark tunnel. If he were honest to himself, the Bone King was worried and uneasy about it as well. Before, Canis had been cast in shadow. Once the faintest glow of light came into view, he felt the cerberos ease into an excited jog, and so too did Azazel. Well, he took off and flew at the guardian's side. The armored shadow stepped into the light, quickly regaining its form from the darkness of the aphotic tunnel. He screwed his eyes shut against the glimmering light, but he stopped and hovered in place. Before him, lay an open expanse of water, isles scattered all about.

Fornax. That was the name, as Totum had announced. The great furnance. The air was thick, heavy, and humid. There must be so much to explore. Quietly, he waited. His feathers crawled like they were full of millipedes and centipedes and all of those creepy crawlys. He felt like there was... more. More to this room than what met the eye.

"αριστερά" "κέντρο" "δεξιά"

Kerberos held his breath for the whole trip. Thankfully, he had lungs built like-- frankly, a polar bear-- and could afford to. He was glad for Aza'zel's closeness, quiet unease slipping through his whole being. The two were tighter than ever, a bond that had formed through their losses and gains, trials and tribulations.

Of course, the dog knew how quickly that could all end. Even when the light broke, and he started to surge forward, he found himself panic when Aza'zel's weight lifted off of his shoulder. He caught the flutter of feathers and chased with it, determined not to lose--

And then the world opened up before him and he found himself panting for air. The humidity was sweltering. His snaking tail swished behind him; thankfully he made up the rear of the group as far as he knew. His eyes found a white canine on the opposite shore and he perked up.

Dog?

It wasn't Ghost.

It was someone, though. Another small pup. A dog like him. Perhaps a son, like Zariel. Yet as he stepped forward, he heard Leon acknowledge the canine. Perhaps a fellow Maji Walezi, or a friend to them. Quietly, he let the simmering reluctance and anxiety hit him. Awkwardness stretched between him and the other gembounds, and in a quick attempt to remedy things, the canine looked around.

He found endless water.

There was.

So much.

Water.

The hound of hell let loose a howl of joy, three pronged and all surprisingly high in pitch. His tail slapped the ground once and he lunged for the water. His body hit the surface like a rock, his paws shoving himself deeper and deeper.

The water was warm. His tail, usually revolting in the cold, instead squirmed and worked to help, his whole body relaxing. He didn't stay down too long, of course, and soon rose again, gasping. Grinning, he looked back at the group, as though inviting. This place was paradise.

Much like the rest of the group, Ghanyarah moved in anticipation of what they might find on the other side of the passage. It was dark, but he wasn't too worried; now that the water surges seemed to have subsided, he was confident that those riding on his back would be safe. He moved swiftly behind the rest of the Gembounds until he, too, was immersed in the subtle green glow of the room, and he held the strange new sight: a room filled entirely with water. He moved between the Gembounds until he was near the edge of the small landmass bordering the entrance, listening idly to Totum introduce the room to them, Fornax. The bear was greeting some wolf, and then there was a wild splash, and the three-headed dog had leaped right into the water.

Wide-eyed, Ghanyarah nearly followed his lead before remembering the Gembounds on his back. Grunting, Ghanyarah paused right at the edge, twisting his head back to peer at them. "I am going into the water." He announced and waited a few moments more. This would give them ample time, he hoped, to remove themselves from his back. Unless they wanted to go for a swim, Ghanyarah wasn't too keen on drowning them. He shifted impatiently and then, once it seemed enough time had elapsed for them to move, he turned to the water and slipped in.

It was surprisingly warm, though the air was already thick with humidity and had suggested the room was a higher temperature than usual, he still wasn't expecting the comfortable warmth of it. He held his breath and lingered near the surface, peeling his eyes open to search the crystal waters. All he could see, though, was clear blue and the occasional small fish swimming by.

table and code © chelsea of ORIGIN


@Booker @Diot

Gadanai wandered through the tunnel, eventually finding herself gazing into new lights. After staring upward, awestruck, for several long moments, she looked around, finding other gembounds coming into the area. She waded into the water to chest deep, then blew bubbles into the water via her trunk. It was a nice feeling. Not cold, but not hot. She filled up her elongated nose, then sprayed herself, then splashed water over her sides before going deeper, eventually swimming until she came upon a little nearby island. It was small. If she were an adult, she'd likely be the only to fit on it. As it was, she was still a babe, so there was plenty of space. Her curious red eyes stirred, body shifting so she could get better angles on things. It was vast. It was beautiful. The humidity eased her dry, leathery skin, bringing forth a comfort not even Cetus enticed. She inched back toward the water, filling her trunk again, but this time pushing it all into her mouth. It tasted... odd. The flavor wasn't pleasant, but it wasn't absolutely disgusting, either. She decided it would have to be a moment of desperation to beg her to drink from this water, again. "Speech" Thoughts OOC: ooc Tag: @

[Origin Cave]

With Fornax opened and the Caves freed from flooding, there isn't much more to do than to explore this vast paradise of water and warmth. Some Gembound may notice Totum staring at the high-up hole in the roof of the cavern, before seemingly melting into the shadows and disappearing.

Wharrgarbl has ended! All characters may leave the thread or continue exploring Fornax.

Ohmylord I forgot there was a part 3...don't mind me lol

The passage was dark and dimly lit by a peculiar green glow. The sound of water is all the young tamarin could pick up. Holding onto the dear S.S.WaterLizard he was ready to brace himself should their luck ironically run dry. Though luckily the passage reached its end. Totum was of course the first entity to emerge, gasping audibly which led Diot to practically vibrate with excitement!

'Fornax' Totum hummed. 'The great furnace.'

Green eyes wide with wonder Diot took in as much as he possibly could before turning to his father. Though before much could be said Ghanyarah simply announced that he would be going swimming. How thoughtful of the 'dragon' to give them a warning! Expentantly he nudged Booker, waiting for the numbat to take the lead. Should they stay and explore away from Ghanyarah and the rest of the group, or simply head home after a job well done? Either choice was fine with Diot.


"Speech"

@Booker

After kinda sorta almost drowning already, Kerberos quickly realized that now wasn't really the time to be playing about in foreign waters. With a big huff, he hauled himself back to shore and shook his soaking wet pelt off, giving a shy grin to the Maji Walezi members that were around.

They, uh, still were mad at him, weren't they? That was kind of unfortunate. Not wanting to cause any more trouble, the dog wandered off back the way he came, determined to get back home. He woofed at Aza'zel, hoping the bird would come with him when he went.

;; kerb exit