Closed Looking For Evidence (Clyde)

[Gybe]

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It was hard to say how the salt water was changed around. He hadn’t really thought about it and it took him a moment, and finally with a shrug he said, “I think that when it first touches my lips there is a salty flavor, but as it’s in my mouth there is none.” His problem in explaining it stemmed from the fact he was very young or had just been borne when he got his mark, not like how he often claimed by receiving it while fishing. Not really wanting to discuss it further he nodded to the man and then waited for him to get along with all his gear.

“Okay. Lets do this. Hall of Robes first, and lets see where that takes us.”

In a way it was a bit of an adventure, and he would actually not mind his traveling companion if he were not here for the purposes that he was. Perhaps if they ever met at another point in time he would have been much more enjoyable. Clyde’s ability to see through his lies however really kind of pissed Gybe off and he didn’t know how the man could do so. He after all was really actually just a Svefra fisherman, not a Nykan anything.

As they traversed across the eastern district, they crossed through Herring Square once more. As the people danced and played music Gybe would dance with various people in like fashion as he went, all the while heading in the direction of the Hall of Robes with Clyde. He seemed like a guy who liked to have fun and enjoy himself, but once the job was on, he was all for it.

Ahead, in the celestial district was the hall of robes, open for all people to go and check out. The smell of linen could be detected wafting out the door and it was fairly quiet there this early in the morning. “Ok, so the scrolls are in the first room on the left, and further down the hall are the relic cases. I’ll show you where the scrolls were. There is likely a librarian in there though. A monk, and just to say again..they are covering this up for some reason. So lets please not get our heads caved in by butting in too harshly.” He hoped the man understood. He was brash and rude, and a monk would likely beat the crap out of you if you talked to him like Clyde had bothered to talk to Gybe.



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Other's Words -- My Words -- My Thoughts

[Clyde Sullins]

Clyde had seen quite a few gnosis holders. He'd met konti with healing gnosis, and another with the ability to see the past and future. He'd met Chaon, and was now one himself. Plus he'd met a few other gnosis, though he couldn't currently bring to mind what they'd been or what they could do.

He did however understand gnosis. All magic used djed, in this case divine djed channeled directly from a god. Unlike personal magic or world magic though, its abilities tended to vary quite a bit, depending upon the domain of the god in question.

Turning salt water as it was drank into pure drinkable water wasn't so odd then. He hadn't done it yet, but he'd been considering combining various gnosis powers into making various artifacts of Magecrafting. He wasn't sure if the full ability of the gnosis would be carried, or part, but he was fairly certain it was possible.

Perhaps then he could make some kind of device, a cup or something, that turned salt water into drinking water. That could be quite the useful item on Sahova, where pure water was rare, while salt water surrounded the entire island.

Of course in order to do that he'd need the gnosis bearer to be there in person, which meant he'd if nothing else need the man to visit for a bit so he could attempt to make the item. If he could get that gnosis to work, perhaps then he could also get others to do likewise.

At the moment other things needed to be done, but it was something he'd need to bring up later.

Once they finally arrived at the hall of robes Clyde listened attentively as he explained what was where.

“Sure. I'd also like to look at any other information they have on monsters. I mentioned that mouth-less one, but I'd also like to see what else they've got, such as any info on aperture monsters. I am considering a future expedition, and knowing about what lives there could increase my chances by quite a bit.”

Clyde would quietly follow along with Gybe inside, letting him lead the way.

[Gybe]

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Nodding to Clyde, Gybe moved into the Hall of Robes with him. He was himself interested in the scrolls that detailed monsters that lay beyond. Having little interest in fighting them however, if he knew their weaknesses, like the ooze, then he could perhaps get around them rather than have to go one on one with them. He could not conjure giant clouds that swallowed things whole, nor could he physically fight well.

Whatever brawling rowdy youthfulness that was in his youth was gone from him now, lost to depression and sorrow over the loss of his family. Wrath replaced it and even though he was looking, nothing ever seemed to fill that void. Only them knowing his pain would do it he felt, then escaping on the winds of change.

As they entered the building his eyes drew to the first room on the left, smelling greatly like old books, parchment, and mostly scrolls. As he walked into the room during the early morning hours, he could notice the light shining through a window to the back of the room where the librarian monk on staff was sitting. He tried to silently move into the room, not sneaking, but trying not to draw attention to themselves by moving as quietly and quickly as possible to the relic monster section.

"Here is where I started," he whispered to Clyde, "Right here was where they were taken from I'm sure. These are the other scrolls". He hoped his voice wasn't loud enough for the monk to hear, though it helped that he was opening and closing various scrolls and himself making a bit of noise. He then pointed to the two scrolls located nearby, "Rozacapotl, Qamur" and tapped them both in succession. "We should take a look."

They were just encounter lists, very basic in description and didn't really give much in content to them as far as lore, though perhaps there was a bit of understanding of the creatures that could be gleaned through the various accounts.

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Other's Words -- My Words -- My Thoughts

[Clyde Sullins]

Having been fighting for his life for years, Clyde had learned many things. Such as that most things burned no matter how twisted by djed they were into mutant abominations. He didn't doubt most of the creatures in the Aperture would be so different.

Then again, there was always the chance to run into the one exception, or the one monster with fire retardant fur.

Of course, Clyde wasn't limited to just fire, so surely even if fire didn't work one of his other elements would.

As he picked up the first of the scrolls Gybe mentioned and read its name, Rozacapotl, Clyde smiled to himself and showed it to Gybe.

“Ah, I didn't notice that before. Its name, it means something in the ancient tongue... Death color? Death colored... Ah, Colored By Death. Well that doesn't sound nice.”

Clyde wasn't completely fluent in the ancient tongue, though he did have a decent understanding of it. But then since it was a more or less dead language, and wasn't really spoken by anyone except perhaps the occasional nuit, his limited fluency was understandable. It usually served him well enough to read a tome or scroll in the archaic form, even if he had to re-read a tricky bit occasionally.

Turning to the other scroll, Clyde noticed the other one was also a term in the ancient tongue. Names often meant something, and it surely meant something that of all the monsters Clyde had met, only these were named in the ancient tongue. It made him wonder if this other lost relic scroll contained a name worded in the ancient tongue.

“This one, Qamur, in the ancient tongue means... To Stay... That's certainly less scary than the other one, but still... Weird. I'd assume the names mean something.”

[Balderdash]

As Clyde went through the scrolls, he noticed a pattern emerging: every monster in the Relic section had Nader-Canoch names. They bore lovely titles like Sun-eater, many-flames, face-stealer, and something that went only by the name Teeth. His exceptionally keen eyes also noticed that the dust on Rozacapotl's scroll wasn't as thick as other, and the pile of scrolls inside the little nook containing everything starting with "R" was both smaller than the rest and had the tell-tale signs of being shifted recently. If he decided to examine further, he'd notice a particularly thin one that had slipped lengthwise behind the rest of the paperwork. This one seemed relatively recent, the paper not as yellowed as the other scrolls, and the dust on it was disturbed in the pattern of knuckle prints. Presumably when the nook was rifled through, this scroll fell through a crack and escaped the riflers' notice. Gybe suddenly became aware of heavy approaching footsteps. If they wanted to make any shady-looking moves, now was the time.

[Gybe]

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While Clyde made mention of the scroll’s unique nature, “Colored by death”, Gybe remained silent. He knew the librarian was likely to be in here still. He couldn’t see much different from what he saw before, but he did hear approaching footsteps. With a slight tap on the shoulder he gave Clyde a symbol that essentially meant “1 second” and moved out into the hallway where the approaching footsteps were coming from. He rubbed his beard with a confused look on his face.

“I don’t know what the hell that is but that’s not what I’m looking for” he said to himself slightly louder so the approaching monk librarian could hear. He then went down into another aisle and looked at a random scroll. If he managed to see the librarian as he had walked through the hall, he would now call out to him.

“Oh librarian...um..I’m looking a few things today. The first one, they said it was old. Likely not too old though, but it’s a recipe, one for an old fish stew that was famous at one point?” He chuckled, “I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of such a thing, but where would one likely be able to find it if it does exist? You know how we pride ourselves on our fish. I’d like to try to take a crack at it, you know?”

His objective was to keep the librarian busy long enough for Clyde to investigate freely what he could. Gybe already had a whole slew of questions for this librarian if he took the bait. He would dread to come bother Gybe again by the time he was done if he hated his job, or be his best friend if he loved history. Each of Gybe's questions were purely true interests that he had and therefore had a kernel of truth to them.

“Where could I find history of the Eastern district? Where could I find history on Laat and the various influences he has played part of in the Eastern districts..buildings built for him and such? If I wanted to learn martial arts, but wasn’t sure which monk school to join, is there a record of challenges people have made that would show me who has won the most in their fights? Are there record of historical changes that the Alvina have made since they started Nyka in regards to how things are dealt with such as food distribution and pregnancies? Are there records of old Nykan Songs that are kept here?”

He would continue on too, as long as he could keep the monk’s attentions and not reach a point of getting his head caved in. He actually wanted to invest in a friendship with this monk, even if for selfish purposes and to distract him. A friend in the library could be helpful, particularly if it was a monk. Each different subject he would seemingly be very interested in an would try to include the monk in his research if he was the type who liked to study history and various old accounts.


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Other's Words -- My Words -- My Thoughts

[Clyde Sullins]

One comparison Clyde couldn't help but make was the storage of written knowledge here in Nyka, versus how it was in the great library of Sahova.

Dust seemed to be a rampant problem. Then again, in Sahova they had golems to fetch and handle books, doing most of the work, and much less human interaction. Perhaps that played a factor.

As he went through scroll after scroll, scanning over them quickly, he found some interesting names when translated from the Ancient Tongue.

Perhaps he was wrong, but with names that seemed to mean things so literally, surely that had to mean something.

Or perhaps the people of old simply weren't very inventive with naming, and just named them as they were... Then again Yukmen wasn't an overly inventive name.

Sun eater, many flames, face stealer... That one made Clyde think of morphing, but did it perhaps literally mean stealing of the face?

Teeth seemed odd in that it wasn't named for an action, but an object, a specific thing.

As he went through the scrolls, Clyde did note that some seemed to have been perused more recently than others. He wasn't completely sure what that meant... But the one on "Colored by Death" seemed to be the most recently handled.

As he was making a final pass, going through the last one that his hand hadn't touched, he pushed one aside to find another bit of paper, hidden unnoticed behind the others due to its smaller size.

As he took it out he felt and saw the difference. Where the other scrolls had been older, yellowed by time and in need of replacing perhaps, this one seemed much fresher. He could see where a part of a finger or hand had touched it, disturbing the dust, but unlike the disturbed bits on the other scrolls. Perhaps a glancing contact as the others were handled, and not a direct handling?

As he began to open the scroll, he heard footsteps approaching, someone walking with a heavy gait. Certainly not someone trying to hide or who felt they were visiting. Perhaps a monk who worked there? Clyde quickly unrolled the scroll, hoping he could read it quickly and commit it to memory as best as possible on short notice before the person neared.

Clyde would stand sideways, with his right side facing toward the approaching footsteps, and his left side facing towards the scrolls in their niche. He felt this would be less obvious than if he stood facing away from the approaching steps, as this might look like he was trying to hide something with his body.

Since he was doing just that, holding the scroll on his left side and reading it from this position, he didn't want to appear as if he was doing what he was doing.

Hopefully he could read the scroll before the footsteps drew close, but it depended upon how long it was, how much writing it contained. He'd do his best to read it quickly, and then return the scroll to its hiding place behind the others, before turning to meet the one approaching.

Luckily Gybe moved out into the hallway, trying to head the person off Clyde assumed, which might give Clyde a bit of extra time.

If he managed to finish reading the scroll and putting it away he would head out after Gybe, and approach the monk. If the monk arrived before Clyde finished he'd do his best to appear casual, not hiding he scroll as he knew he was not nearly stealthy enough for that, but attempting to appear as if he was casually holding it and not deeply interested, perhaps as if he'd picked up the scroll by random.

Either way, once he began speaking to the monk, he'd speak in his most reserved tone, asking the monk a question or two of his own.

Like with Gybe, his questions were true ones he'd like answered, but not the direct reason he'd come there.

“Ah, sir monk. If you have the time, I could use some assistance. I am considering an endeavor into the Aperture, and was hoping to find any pertinent information on the creatures that live within. Would you happen to know where any such information would be held? Would that be under monsters? Aperture? Aperture monsters? Or perhaps any other information known about the Aperture itself, what is within and such. Forewarned is forearmed, and I'd like any information I can get before going in.”