Glimpse Into What Once Was

[fractales]

Type: Video
Sender ID: fractales(Professor Turo)
To: General
Subject: Nilatast Finding
Warnings: TBA

Hello everyone- pardon the bit of a mess.

[Papers strewn about, along with a few tools in view, as Turo picked up his shellphone with excitement there in his voice. Setting it down on somethin out of view as he was moving and turning out lights in an office after pushing his desk out of the way.]

As others may have been, perhaps still are, working on various pieces of technology recovered from down so deep, there was an item I discovered in Nilatast that I have finally gotten working! To a small degree, at least— I have only been able to recover one thing on it, but...

[There was an item that was the size of a jewelry box, covered in stars and constellations formed in colored enamel and shined up jewels, that Turo had picked up and was sitting down in the middle of the space he had cleared. Pressing a 'button' at the top.

It sparked to life as suddenly a still image was projected above the box; full of living color and capturing a moment of laughter and fun. The light having warmth and even those creatures outside of such large windows seemed to sparkle. Looking as if everything could be touched—]

Look at this! [Almost looked as if Turo was there, moving to sort of sit by the picture box.] I was able to retrieve the data for this image, I might have found what worked as a photo album, but the item itself came from within one of the ruined buildings down there.

They lived there, played in that city.

[Of course there weren't just human children there, smiling faces all. This was something either a parent or some child that had also been there in the moment wanted to treasure even after the day was over.]

Just a small view into what once was, I suppose.

Comments

Video; un: beshackled

[beshackled]

'Tis a fine image.

[Although it is still very alien to him. Children playing together... Did they have fun? They seem to have been happy...]

Did you chance to get a glimpse of any of the murals down there?

Video

[fractales]

I have some hopes I may be able to retrieve others, but if not it is quite the example of a peaceful life.

[A few lights back on after, but the image still there with just a few flickerings.]

I did, and if not for certain conditions I could have spent quite a bit of time studying them.

[beshackled]

'Tis difficult, between pressurization concerns, the miasma, and those already affected by it. I also understand there are traps of a sort there...

[He'd been more focused on observing rather than storming and prizing objects from the place. Thus the dangers he had personally encountered had more to do with the denizens of that place rather than thr systems put in place to safeguard the city.]

I mean to go back down there soon. Did anything in particular spark your interest?

[telepathicignorance]

(...Does he know? A part of them really hopes not.)

Think they had riftfarers back then, too?

Voice

[fractales]

No, especially given that it is a much more recent phenomenon. Five years.

This was from before the flood, I imagine.

[telepathicignorance]

Wait, what? I thought it was longer. Haven't riftfarers been a huge influence on things?

video; un: baymaxing

[baymaxing]

That's so cool, though. I mean. I'm more into technology. Robots. The future. But I dunno, there's something pretty awesome about finding something like that.

[Makes him wonder. What others might find of his home eventually. The closest he can think of was the earthquakes, and even then, that was so long ago before he was born. Hiro does grin, though, seeing the huge windows and the sea creatures swimming by like that. Like living in an aquarium.]

Almost reminds me of the aquariums back home. Except this is like, way bigger, obviously. Where they actually lived...

Video

[fractales]

This is a hint that this worlds past was something most could see of an advanced future here. Once, before the floods that left this world to what we have seen, had far more when it comes to technology.

[A small gesture as he was standing there within the picture, the size of the figures in it compared to him the only reason he could be picked out instantly.]

Right? Perhaps this was a family den, room enough for all sorts of gatherings. They even had robots—would you like to see the one I brought back up along with this device? I managed to repair it as well.

video

[baymaxing]

W-wait, seriously?! You have to ask? Yeah, I wanna see!

[Turo, plz. Hiro's specialty is robotics. As if he wouldn't want to come and see! He all but beams, bouncing on his feet at that, seeming excited as Baymax turns to see what had gotten the teen so hyped.]

video;

[activatingcombatmode]

[Now Zack isn't the smartest guy around the block but something about that little picture box has him staring for a little while. Holographic technology is a pretty basic and well-used thing in his home world. So to see something like that, used as a simple picture light box photo album thing, is a pretty big deal.]

You seriously found that down below?

[That looks pretty advanced for something to be found down in the water. But what could this mean? People used to live down there... So what happened?]

Re: video;

[fractales]

Indeed, the design of it caught my eye despite how exposure at that depth had treated it. There is more data for other images, but this is the only one I have been able to recover so far.

[He was keeping the lights off here, even as he had picked up the shellphone. Details so easy to pick out, and the starry creatures outside of those windows just as clear as the children at play.

The light of the hologram reflecting in Turo's own eyes—]

The helper robots are one thing, of course, as I have been working n a few of those, but... There is something that feels as if it carries so much in this image.

[activatingcombatmode]

It's great that you found anything at all. I thought that the bottom of the ocean would be the last place to find anything like holo-tech.

[Which sparks a hell of a lot of questions that Zack's big dumb muscle brain just can't string together. That will have to be for the smarter people.]

Pictures always say a lot, so if this is real then that means they had this tech. Before this city went dark.

[emet-sulk] text

[emet_sulk]

[ The image leaves Emet-Selch feeling out of sorts, to say the least. So he texts rather than responds in video. ]

Combined with the crystal record I found many moons ago, it seems this society leaned heavily into technological progression.

voice

[fractales]

I've had theories that this world was more technologically advanced before whatever flooding event left the world to come back to what we see it as now for quite a while. This is the first piece of evidence that certainly holds... quite a bit of weight in that being truth.

[He wondered if any of the metal punch cards should be brought for the next trip down. Would there be some terminal that they could be used with?]

[emet_sulk]

The curious thing about this is that they appear to be fully capable of shielding themselves from the water. Why should a flood have any effect on their lifestyle?

Text

[velocityraptor]

That's kind of an amazing find, it's nice to know that some things are universal like kids playing.

Voice

[fractales]

Quite, as there is something that can be telling—it is nice to see a group of children so at ease, and even the creatures outside seem to be playing along a little. There is a mer amongst those as well.

There was something wonderful for that city.

video | octoblot

[octoblot]

[Azul had ended up missing out on looking into Nilatest and the deep due to Leona's overblot last month being his main priority, but he's glad that someone is being useful in sharing something they apparently found down there?]

Oh my, how nice... judging by the recorded image, it reminds me a lot of the Octavinelle dorm at my school back home, actually.

Video

[fractales]

Does it? Sounds like quite the beautiful dorm, and I do know it is possible to have such structures under water given there is an Academy in my world where most of it is.

[Blueberry was a hell of a place, even if all Turo could re-call of it were pictures. All the same-

He had the shellphone in hand, and the glittering starry-patterned sea creatures outside of that window were more in view. There were even a few mer amongst them, even if shadowed a little from the larger bodies.]

This likely was someone's personal album, and this a fond memory kept to be viewed whenever.

video; id: ramuhs

[ramuhs]

That lines up with something similar Benedikta and I witnessed on one of the display screens a robot we encountered had.

However, the video had a clear, open sky.

video

[fractales]

It is possible that the city was not always under water—there is likely reason it has various spots where a system to let it and lock out water after all.

[Standing just where the shadowy but still glimmering figure of a mer was in the picture-]

The Leviathans dive underwater when it is not to be on the surface, there is a history of that. Why would this city not be capable when it has the systems for it? Or so I had already been pondering.

video | un: netherese

[netherese]

That is marvelous!

[Gale has seen its like, in a fashion; spells could be used to capture a memory, items enchanted to hold them so that they could be called upon at a moment's notice, but this is something different. Perhaps there was some magic to it, yes, but this device spoke volumes of the lost city beneath the waves despite its small size.]

A wonderful find, Professor. Though we know the city must have once been filled with life, this makes it that much easier to imagine— a single moment, preserved even as the city has been worn away by time.

video

[fractales]

The amount of weight a single image can carry...

[The emotional impact as well, knowing what was once there and was no more, but still that look into a world before whatever catastrophe befell the place however long—]

I know there is data for more images, and I hope that with time that I can retrieve them with some work in piecing it all together; just means time and patience. Still, this is such a window to see such happy children with even the sea life outside appearing to play along with them that can tell so much.

video; un: BlossomingTide

[withermarked]

It looks so... bright and alive. Shame to see the ruin it's come to now.

[ He could already tell people used to live there, some of the of the buildings looked like personal houses, but there's still something different about seeing it like this.

If he were entirely honest he might admit that current happy children make him feel a bit resentful at times. But this just makes him feel melancholy. ]

video

[fractales]

I do agree, a shame to see the now. What was lost yet left so many pieces that can create more questions than give answers.

A look through a window almost, at lives had before that great flood occurred. [He really was beginning to believe there had been a trigger for the Flood—something that perhaps a number of people caused, a retaliation.]