"The better anything's reflective quality, the better the power will work with it," Lorelei emphasizes. "However, if it hasn't been crafted, or prepared, for use with the power, it will cloud over after a relatively short time and require a lengthy ritual cleaning to regain its reflective quality..."
"Even if I was advanced enough to try, I wouldn't want to use a shiny bold head as a portal; too small... If only they were reflective, some of the egos around here are certainly large enough," she replies matching his mischievousness, obviously not directed at him.... .
Cody laughs, "Where I come from the women shave their heads. Partly for fashion, but mostly for practical reasons.
Cody points out the Cyber-jacks on his temples and lifts his hair to show the one on the nape of his neck. "You have to be careful that you don't get your hair tangled up on a set of jacks. I can't imagine someone's scalp getting cloudy and having to polish it."
Lorelei asks, "How would I be viewed were I to visit that place? Clothing minimal to none... Long hair... Maybe some jewelry." She gestures thru the open doorway to her bedchamber. Cody can see some necklaces and a tiara on the nightstand. The value of the jewels that compose them is staggering... .
Post by Cody D'Avalon on Dec 17, 2022 17:48:05 GMT
"You would fit right in. Mostly it's g-strings and loincloths. Unless you're working and need to protect your skin. Just the long hair would mark you as a Green Sider. Plus, you don't have any ports.
Cody glances at the copious amount of jewelry. "Well as long as you didn't try to wear them all at once."
"Yes, I can breath air," answers Lorelei, "and suffer dry itchy skin for the first couple of days unless oiled when top-side. Having a strong blood-tie to the Tritons I am remarkably adaptive... dressed as I am now [which is to say in almost nothing], I've experienced over a hundred atmospheres of pressure in depths where it is cold enough that water would turn solid if it were at the same temperature on the surface... and could have gone deeper..."
"Someday, if the need is great enough, I may even learn to shape-shift as some of my people do..." Tilting her head slightly in curiosity, she asks, "Do your 'ports' give you trouble when you shift? I can see that some of them are damaged..." [or missing...] .
Post by Cody D'Avalon on Dec 19, 2022 18:13:14 GMT
Glancing at his left wrist, "On, yeah. I didn't know how to ShapeShift when I first got to the Courts. I got smashed up pretty bad when I first jumped into the Pit. Some other Divers pulled me out and brought me to the Sheltering Coils Temple.
[Collected, dumped and left for dead... Except that the Abyssal Father of the Temple took Cody in and sheltered him.]
"They nursed me back a few times. A couple of ports got ripped out back then. Thankfully, I have an above average ability to heal on my own. Which, I guess, is something we Amberites have."
"Anyway, I went out of the Temple and around the Courts to beg alms. To support myself and give back to the Temple. I met a girl who took pity on me and taught me how to ShapeShift to heal my wounds faster, and eventually how to change my form. I've had the ports so long that they have become a part of me. I can absorb them into me, or if I try, I can grow and replace the missing ones. Most of the time I forget that they are there."
"ShapeShifting is a survival thing for me. I let my Primal Instincts take over and Shift me to whatever form is best suited for survival. Practical, not pretty. Mostly concentrate on keeping my mind intact. Or else, I could change and lose my identity. Forget how to change back."
"So, from what I have been told, I'm different than what most ShapeShifters experience. They maintain a mostly Human form and an alternate Demon form. Plus an Avatar form which is something fancy. Sort of like daily wear, armour and formal wear. Then there are times when they lose control in extreme situations and become a Primal form. Truly Demonic where they enter a fugue state. They also learn to Shift into all sort of other things with a little more effort than their usual forms."
"Diving in the Abyss, I spend most of my ShapeShift in a sort of Primal fluid state. In the sort of stresses that would cause most other ShapeShifters into their Primal Fugue State. I sort of insulate my self identity inside of a mental bubble and imagine what's happening around me in a way that makes sense. I haven't really worked out an alternate Demon Form except for growing a pair of wings, which are very useful. I sprout claws, horns and such as needed and thicken my skin when I need armour but I haven't bothered to develop an Avatar."
"I have wondered from time to time whether my adaptability is the result of an extra-ordinary durability or very subtle subconscious shifting," Lorelei ponders. "I don't sprout claws or any other noticeable change, but I survive environments that would kill most others... often with little or no discomfort."
"I can't imagine what your Abyss dives are like. Surely they are nothing like the dive I sometimes take... Out beyond the enchantments on the city, in the truly lightless depths of the trenches... seemingly nothing but wet darkness and intense pressure... navigating by a combination of lateral line and electromagnetic senses - feeling the movement of things things around you... risking the occasional biological sonar as song..." Closing her eyes, Lorelei tries to briefly project the sensations she has described through the psychic contact facilitated by the BP tendril... seeing by sound/song, perceiving movement by the touch of its vibrations at a distance... and perhaps simply perceiving life [its electrical impulses/magnetic displacement] through the sheer power of her mind... .
Post by Cody D'Avalon on Dec 21, 2022 21:37:28 GMT
"All of creation can trace roots into the Abyss. Very few of us are tough enough to return to the Abyss. There are pockets of extreme pressure along with massive voids. The Primal Shifting matches you to your environment. Maybe I should try a deep dive with you and see how it compares."
Cody senses some of Lorelei's projected sensory. Like feeling the soft buzz of a purring kitten. The ultrasonic whalesong.
Last Edit: Dec 21, 2022 21:58:13 GMT by Cody D'Avalon
To Lorelei it is more like building an internal world based on overlapping sensory returns that surface-dwellers are not built to perceive - 'visually' not entirely unlike Neo in the Matrix when he finally becomes the One... Cody is catching some of the means but missing the meaning. She had hoped, but not expected him to embrace all of it based on a single exposure... not any more than she can grasp the Abyss based on a description. If only he were Rebman...
Lorelei's expression brightens at his suggestion of a shared deep dive. "I would need you to be here in the flesh to make that happen. It would be fun... and as long as you remained close I could mitigate most of the dangers... sharks, eels, and avalanches. Alas, close to home there aren't that many mysteries, unless you count the sunken ships." .
"We're both from very different places. It will be a blast to explore your deep sea canyons and I can take you for a ride through the Flux sometime too."
"That gives me an idea... I wonder if I can get a Flux Ship in and out of the Abyss?"
Last Edit: Dec 28, 2022 2:18:04 GMT by Cody D'Avalon
"The better question would be 'Will a flux Ship hold together in the Abyss?'," Lorelei says. "From what you have said, it seems a very hostile place... or is it mainly the inhabitants that are hostile?' .
Post by Cody D'Avalon on Dec 28, 2022 14:55:20 GMT
"Yes, that is the question: Will a Flux Ship hold together in the Abyss? On it's own, probably not. If I can enhance the Quantum Bubble surrounding the ship, then maybe. There are similarities. I need to study how analogous those similarities are."
"I'm just thinking out loud. I can encapsulate a load of salvage in my energy field to carry through the Abyss. Probably be able to pull a person through the same way. I just don't know how large of a bubble I can create and maintain, but a Flux Ship would be a lot more comfortable than being carried in a sack strapped over my shoulder."
Lorelei smiles as her imagination takes flight. "In a sack across your back or clinging like an octopus..."
Cody notices that the connection is starting to get a little glitchy around the edges, as if Lorelei is holding some negative aspect of her power away from him and it's gradually draining her...
She tries to caress his cheek, but they are still ethereal to each other... .