(Untitled)

[chief_mendacity]

Who: (Veld, Rufus) / Page to Reeve / Page to Laylee
When: Day 69?
Location: Rufus' Office
Rating: PG/13
Summary: Veld has come up with some rather upsetting news with the lifestream. He brings this to Rufus, then discusses the findings with Reeve and Laylee.

Comments

[chief_mendacity]

Veld pulled up a chair and turned a page to Rufus. On it was a collection of writings, first in Cetrain, then in Ancient Soli, followed by Wutainese, and then, lastly Common. Veld had added Common for Rufus' benefit. It wasn't that he doubted the young man's intellect, but this was important and he wanted to make sure nothing was lost.

"The planet has three dead languages. Each of them share a very startling amount of similarities. Most of them, actually do pertain to the Lifestream, as you can see."

Veld crossed his arms and waited for Rufus to scan the documents. "As far as I can tell, they all talk about the dead returning when the Lifestream has slowed. Not enough souls going in for it to properly put them out. Meaning that the string that keeps the planet together is untangling.

"I called Doctor Laylee to doublecheck my translations of the Soli, but I doubt I'm too far off. What concerns me is the verse that states 'The Lifestream is so named because it is the river that keeps life flowing in our planet. If the flow of souls is disrupted, catastrophe will occur. We, as the Cetra, must remain true to our calling. We are the warriors of the planet. We are the gatekeepers. Keep the temples of the Aeons running, but do not allow the Lifestream to run dry.' I'm not sure how to stop that, because I don't have anything to check against.

"The only thing I do know is that they all speak of temples. So far, the only temples I know of are in Wutai, Icicle, and The Temple of the Ancients."

The fingers of his real hand drummed on the desk in front of Veld. "Maybe we should send someone or some ones, out to check the temples for clues, anything that looks like writing."

Veld leaned back then, and waited a beat. "Of course, it could all be for nothing, but you have to admit, it's eerily similar to what we see going on now."

[mydarknation]

The Common translation, of course, didn't go to waste. His studies had never focused too heavily on anything to do with the ancient languages, and he wouldn't have been able to make head nor tails of anything written in Cetrain or Soli, save for being able to identify which language the text was in. He had considerably more exposure to the Wutainese, largely thanks to Tseng being familiar with it, but he still would have suspected whatever translation he came up with to be less than 100% accurate.

He skimmed over the texts quickly, the expression on his facing growing more grim. It certainly did sound like what had been going on and if the translations were, indeed, all correct, then it seemed as if Veld was perfectly justified in being concerned.

"It does," he admitted once the other man had finished speaking, and continued to look over the documents for a moment in silence. When he decided he'd studied them enough for now, he set them back on the desk, and addressed Veld again.

"I had been discussing with Reeve the possibility of sending people to research areas that have shown unusual Lifestream activity. In light of this," He paused again briefly, glanced at the documents, and then back to Veld, "I wonder if we might be better served by focusing some attention on these temples as well." Another brief pause, before he gestured again to the documents.

"I assume I can keep these?"

[chief_mendacity]

Veld nodded. "I always have copies, and considering we seem to be mostly in agreement I can assure you I'm not keeping things to myself as I did with your predecessor."

He gave Rufus' comments a long thought. Then he blinked. "Wait a second."

Veld grabbed the page from Rufus' desk and walked to the map that the young president hung from his wall. He grabbed one of the tacks next to it and stuck it in the location of the temples he knew of.

"Is it just me, or ... do these have a pattern with the Lifestream disturbances?" It couldn't be this easy.

Though Iffy always said that the Planet liked to keep it simple.

[mydarknation]

Had he been in a different mood, he might have made some comment in response to Veld's statement about hiding things; as it was, he simply made mental note of it and went back to staring at the documents Veld had given him. When Veld moved to the map, he watched, his eyes growing wide at the observation.

There was no way it was that easy, was there? But when he looked at the map...

He grabbed another document from his desk--a copy of the compiled list of locations he had sent to Reeve not long before--and joined Veld by the map. He took out whatever pins that had been stuck in it previously, including a few that had been related, to produce a cleaner starting image, leaving only the three Veld had just put up.

"The areas showing disturbances, according to the most recent data I have," he identified, picking up some pins of a different color and marking the locations, consulting the list as he did. Sure enough new pins appeared next to each of the ones Veld had just put up. The rest were more scattered, but if one attempted to force them into some kind of pattern, they seemed to emanate outward from those locations, and most of the farther ones were locations of a single odd case, like Hojo having appeared in Reeve's apartment. Once he had finished going through the list, he took a step back, his hands dropping down to his sides.

"Hm." He simply looked at it for a second, analyzing. There were outliers, of course, but there was enough of a pattern present to push aside the thought that they were making it up. He shot a glance at Veld. "...I think we've found something."

[chief_mendacity]

With both of them standing side by side viewing the map, it was probably some strange throwback to kings and advisers past. Veld rubbed his close shaven beard and nodded. "It certainly seems as though we have."

He flicked three of the pins and motioned. "I suggest that we send some people out to these locations to scout the areas. The problem is, we have no idea what we are looking for. It could be obvious, it could be etchings... it could be a rock. We'd need some sort of command post to communicate with the teams directly, and a way to send images and texts back and forth. Working PDAs would be best, do we still have any of the old equipment from before the whole Jenova mess?"

Veld surveyed the map for a while longer. "I could take one team to the Temple of the Ancients, as I can read the writings. Doctor Laylee is fluent enough in Soli writings and I think Wutianese, we could use her as a command or point for the other two..." It was mostly thinking aloud. Veld figured that they would work best this way, voicing something that could become a course of action.

short post is short =o

[mydarknation]

Rufus nodded at Veld's words, starting to work out a plan in his head.

"Enough equipment to make this plan functional at least shouldn't be a problem," he replied. "And I'll be hearing from Reeve soon about who from his end might be available to undertake such an expedition."

Re: short post is short =o

[chief_mendacity]

"There was a temple of Leviathan in Wutai." He frowned. "Who all do we have available to let go for a team?"

He pulled out a pad and started writing. "Wutai, Ancients, and then off of Costa..." Veld tapped the pen and scribbled more.

"Rude, Reno and possibly Elena could go to Costa, they work well as a unit and are probably up for a challenging hunt. If they could contact base visually and audibly remotely then we could keep Laylee at base..."

"I would send Elfe, maybe get in touch with some of the AVLANCHE members to go to Wutai, I could go to the temple, considering the writings may be hard to make out and I'm the only one who can read them..."

Veld flopped down. "Any suggestions?"