Scene #7015: Neo Blue Planet Aquarium

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	Lilian had put it to a vote before. Gallery, museum, or aquarium. Tamamo's interest had been mostly in the latter, citing that she'd need to know the local art scene and history to appreciate the former the most, and history in general to a lesser degree in the middle. The beauty of nature is the beauty of nature; even in a glass tank. Being that the only major urban center that's physically close to the manor is on the coast, an aquarium is a pretty sure bet. Transporting the animals by sea is always way easier, and leads to better exhibits and more money. Given that this particular one, at the very edge of the inner city First Ring, bordering the 'middle class' Second Ring, is also a 'conservation facility' as well, it's drastically bigger and better equipped than the usual kind. That is to say, Tamamo can easily gather from even the most basic context that 'something bad happened' to 'most coastal areas', which is 'where most ocean life lives by a huge margin'. The aquarium itself, oddly titled 'Neo Blue Planet Aquarium', is multiple city blocks in size, has huge glass fronts and open parks, is a little bit big for its level of activity, and has walls of breathtaking nature photo spreads and little memorial plaques in the entry, followed immediately by a huge circular lobby going down two floors with a complete whale skeleton strung up 'swimming' through the air in the middle, and an gigantic gift shop inevitably visible to the right through a patterned screen that one must go through to reach the exits. The visitors are all either pretty well off, or regular joes who saved up as a sort of 'yearly outing' event. There are enormous video screens and frequently large cubical holographic displays, including an interactive map, indicating how to get to the theatre areas for the usual performances from intelligent (rescued) sea mammals, an entire indoor artificial reef, a section for partially aquatic terrariums and good old rainforest facts, a long walkthrough labyrinth on conveyor footpaths past, under, and over various tanks, a specific 'tidepool' tank twenty meters deep that people can go diving in and muck about feeding fish, octopi, and small sharks, a dark room wing for deep sea critters, a huge circular area boasting millions of cubic meters for the rare specimens that live in the open ocean, an archeological section for extinct sea creatures (unfortunately, many of them from the 20th century), and a limited wing for conservation facts and viewing of the more harmless varieties of native 'mythical' critters, shown off to the public. Also, obligatorily an overpriced (if supposedly decent) cafeteria, a theatre, a kids area, tours, and the aforementioned (also overpriced) gift shop. Also, a huge wall spread thanking thousands of donors for expanding the original aquarium into this gigantic conservation project. By the looks of it, millions of credits came from the government, and many more from CEOs of private companies, and probably several extremely wealthy 'Enlightened' wildlife enthusiasts. Obviously, Lilian has the VIP passes arranged ahead of time, put on something 'casual enough' to have a skirt and blouse, and cleared several hours off her schedule (by getting way ahead of it in 0.00 seconds).
Tamamo	Winter is passing, but it has not entirely passed, and Tamamo's expertly tailored coat remains part of her apparently best-suited attire for excursions about the city. She can, at least, leave it unzipped, whic does provide a somewhat less formal appearance. There's still far too much control in the way she moves, smoothly like a model, or perhaps like the empress some models which to portray. 'Casual' remains a descriptor of uncertain suitability. Lilian is, necessarily, Tamamo's escort, as a necessary condition of her presence. The fox-like woman insists on this point, only likely to let go of her arm should something close by catch her eye. This place being designed to absorb attention, that may be a frequent occurrence, after all, from the exhibits themselves to their plaques and informational signs and photos. "There cannot be space upon land for whales, surely?" Tamamo asks, eyeing the enormous skeleton. "Oh, and is that a... ah, I see, I see. They are not fishing, but treating the little octopi the same as one would a pond's koi, no? They may not be very cute pets, I might say, but one cannot guess as to another's taste." Looking this way and that as they move, there's yet no apparent need for specific direction, let alone a tour, the immediate environs and the distant sights enough to continue catching the warm goddess's attentions. She reacts with slight tugs on Lilian's arm, urging her forth, to see whatever is ahead. Placing so many sights in one place has Tamamo innocently delighted. "And can they care for creatures of the depths, here? I have never had much opportunity to peer deep beneath the water's surfaces."
Lilian Rook	"Unfortunately not." Lilian replies to Tamamo, glancing herself up at the whale skeleton. She's seen it a few times now, but it still captures her gaze for several seconds, lost in the act of imagining the living thing. "Well, in a couple of places, but you need literal miles of water for it. I think they have something like that around the Great Lakes in North America. They aren't too bad off in the wild though. Tiny population, or so I hear, but nobody is fishing them anymore, of course." Allowing Tamamo her insistence on arm holding the entire time ends up with her being tugged in a lot of directions; something Lilian bears with practised patience and quick and graceful sidesteps. "They have a whale shark here, if you've never seen one." She suppresses a giggle at the comparison to koi though. "Well, they're kind of fascinating aren't they? Not cute, but it turns out they're extremely clever. We've studied them over time. They can solve puzzles, use tools, and learn basic language, on top of other things. The problem is that they don't tend to live long enough to accumulate the experience of things like monkeys and dolphins. People like seeing it though." Pretty much anywhere there would be blank wall space in the whole opening few rooms is a backlit collage of aquatic habitats and environs around the world, in their pristine state. A great deal of visitors are, after all, too young to have ever seen them that way. Lilian is. Lovely shots of jumping whales, high contrast photos of colourful coral communities, animated panoramas of traveling shimmering shoals, and the twinkling bioluminescence of the deep sea. Indeed, the space is all quite blue. "Then let's head there first~" Lilian decides the minute Tamamo gets that excited. Descending several flights of spiral stairs, past patrons who give the couple respectfully wide berths, and skipping checkpoints with the VIP tickets, Lilian directs Tamamo to a level of wavy corridors and smooth walkways in dark, matte blues that are almost black, lit only by faint exhibition lights around and within the tanks themselves. Long, horizontal strips of 'deep coast' have some things she'd be familiars, like some rather enormous spider crabs and eels, while tall vertical cylinders are filled with shoals of beautiful jellyfish. Pressurized tanks of rather barren scenery contain all kinds of bottom-feeding sharks and strange-looking flat and asymmetrical fish, as well as large varities of oddly colourful worms, and things that look like starfish and sea anenomes. Bigger tanks, tall enough to have steps around them, are completely vacant of anything but water, and have no lighting whatsoever, to allow one to see the myriad lights the stranger critters generate themselves. One has to really stare to get a good glimpse every so often, depending on their eyesight, but Lilian insists it's worth it, and waits around to see an unnerving shade of a hanging gulper eel, the sight of an anglerfish or vampire squid snap up pray, and the dancer of surreal translucent things with many legs, pulsing bodies, myriad eyes, or trailing tendrils. Miniscule things fill these up with glittering blue lights, like tiny alien crustaceans and larval squid, which she says (even though it's on the infographics) that they use to communicate, and goes through a whole thing about how red light and blue light work differently at that depth, apparently enthusiastic about the games of deception some creatures play with the visibility/invisibility of either or. She's definitely been here as a kid.
Lilian Rook	There is a conventional limit to how much water pressure any tank can safely produce, though, and so the truly bizarre things discovered by deep sea probes are rendered in realistic model and hologram, including life sized projections of giant squid and rainbow fish found in deep sea trenches, with commentary at the press of a button by the late national treasure that is David Attenborough. There are an unfortunate number of people basically just moving through to take selfies with everything, which Lilian eventually gets sick of and scares off a group with one word. It doesn't take a genius to vamoose when someone escorting Tamamo no Mae looks displeased with you. Otherwise, she seems especially enthusiastic about the really unusual creatures, and insists on a go-around of what looks like a mirror-like underwater lake, due to some complicated physics interaction of heavier salt-saturated water. A heating vent and recycled chemical stew supports a colony of a score of different polykete varities, with ghost white crabs with flowery appendages in place of pincers, and slugs that glide about like eels. Eventually though, she does ask, "Is this really that exciting, though, for someone like you? Surely you've seen lots of weird sea apparitions and 'mythical' creatures back in the day, yes?"
Tamamo	Though it would be accurate to say that Tamamo is also paying some attention to the movement of the humans in the area, she leaves dealing with them as Lilian's natural responsibility, for several reasons, politely pretending not to notice any disturbance they cause while her escort takes care of it. She's led along, eyeing things along the way, such as the allegedly clever octopi, and then on to the crabs and eels, in a series of sights that put aside the collages of pristine nature not all so different from things she's seen in past eras, to lead her to comment, "That aside, you do still give these to your chefs, yes? My, but some of them put in mind some small urge to practice my knifework. You would not be disappointed, I think." The jellyfish, flowing beautifully, at last moves the pair away from things Tamamo finds primary culinary interest in. They continue on to the progressively less familiar to most land-dwellers, animals necessarily differing for their deep-aquatic habitat. Adaptations to environments unlike that of forests or plains in terms of light, pressure, and oxygen. Finally, Lilian pauses long enough to ask. "Oh, would you expect so?" Tamamo's smile communicates ahead of time that sense of 'cute, but not quite right.' "Which answer shall I give? Perhaps, I should say that, as the Sun, goddess of the Day, the seas and all within it were outside my domain. This is true, and perhaps you have heard, but the god of the seas was not the friendliest acquaintance. Perhaps I should say that I had yet to ever step upon the deep seas, while posing as a human, nor was She fond of plunging herself into the ocean, much as some believed the Sun did this very thing each time it disappeared below the horizon. Perhaps I should say that the ghosts and demons I have in my time encountered still do little to make an iridescent annelid less fascinating, if grotesque. Perhaps I should say that I enjoy your company, and seeing what of your world brings such interest from you, as well, and was this not among your own suggestions?" She is very close. Very 'present.' "Which answer would you most prefer?"
Lilian Rook	"Well, not these ones specifically; they're for viewing and education. Octopi in general, sometimes. It's not tremendously popular here, but it still is in the east." Lilian says. "Crab though, yes. Shark, not really. Most open water fish, yes, but they aren't fished for." She starts going down her fingers about varities of seafood. At least that's nationally in common, even if she has a low opinion of her home country's cooking. Later into the dark zone, she laughs a little, in that slightly embarrased, but helpless to deny it way. "Grotesque? I suppose a little. They're not pretty to look at. But they're so different from everything, right? I always get caught up in thinking about how they live on the same planet as us. Where they came from. What their lives are like. It makes me sort of wish I could go down there myself, but that'd be way too difficult and probably extremely boring in reality.". "But . . ." Lilian barely continues, before faintly, barely, actually freezing up the slightest bit. Something tells her that this question is extremely crucial. Her danger senses tell her that she might get wrapped up in something answering it wrongly; enough that she goes stiff for a second. Still, all that comes to mind is . . . "The Sun not going deep sea diving makes perfect sense, I think; enough that it's a little boring. Sensible answers are good, but I kind of like a little mystery when it comes to things like this. Ghosts and demons not being in the same strata as nature makes sense to me. Just because I like it though? Well . . . it's a little embarrassing, but obviously I'd be proud and flattered that I'm regarded so highly, right? Being so engaging that Tamamo no Mae thinks whatever I want to do is interesting by default; hmm, I like that~"
Tamamo	She doesn't change anything in her posture. She's still connected to Lilian by, at most, their linked arms. Propriety is visually maintained. It's something else that's in motion, something that makes brushing contact with the back of the mind, or brings to attention those sensitive to spirits. The feeling is clear, wordless, and primitive. Here is a being that is not quite, at all moments, holding up that guise of being only the physical form and undescribed energy within it, but leaks out signs of the not just unexplained, but the inexplicable. A presence larger than life. The door to her room, her shrine at the mansion, was a forewarning of the same sort: Beyond here is another world, not your own, and herein is the supernatural, the mystery that defies sight and comprehension, to be treated with, but never reduced to mere knowledge. The bright, golden eyes of a deity. Tamamo smiles. She's still standing by Lilian's side, between the exhibits of segmented worms and angler fish. There's not a lot of lighting in this area. "They are all true, of course. I trust you not to rest upon the knowledge that I do enjoy your company, but to continue to put forth your best efforts. It is as you do in all things, no?" She hms, finger to chin, thoughtfully considering the earlier answer. "I shall need have access to such creatures as can be acquired, if I am to provide a suitable display. Perhaps you would be courageous in such measure to try some creatures less often thought of as food in this nation? You may trust me fully in all matters culinary, I assure you." It's probably not going to be annelids, at least.
Lilian Rook	"Of course not!" Lilian replies, even a little indignantly, to a jab made purely in jest. "I can be happy about it though, can't I?" She sighs. "Now I'm just thinking about how rough it must be as an entertainer. I suppose if you're a Geisha or whatever, you're not going to have to entertain the same people multiple times very often, but still. Now I'm thinking about running out of things that are interesting." On the subject of Tamamo cooking, Lilian finally brightens up somewhat. "Imports? Sure. I'd hate to ask you to cook, but if you think you'll enjoy it, I'll see what I can do of course." She hesitates for just a second. "Ah, I'll have to adjust my diet plan a little I guess. But I guess I wouldn't mind exercising a little more to try out your cooking. Alas, we don't all get to be naturally automatically gorgeous." From there, the course leads through the section on extinct life, mostly better lit only in the form of great big exhibit spotlights, illuminating ancient seabed fossils from small shelled creatures and ancient turtles to the more impressive prehistoric reptiles and bony fish. A large room has a floor of perfectly transparent glass, giving the feeling of floating over the to-scale wall to wall diorama of a devonian seabed, with all its small, bizarre primitive organisms, only for one wall to be a window into a small section of it blown up to massive size, where the surreal critters are the size of seals and sharks. Later into the section, the theme is animals that still exist on most Earths, taken from preserved samples, simply mounted sometimes, but otherwise autoclaved into hundreds or thousands of thin slices and spread out to give a full view through the body. A shallow rock pool, like a plaza fountain, is set up with various small gliding rays, colourful sea slugs, spiny starfish, and miniscule crabs, with rocks for tiny turtles, frogs, and salamanders, that obviously don't actually live together. The creatures are eminently touchable (at one's own risk), but the exhibit is dedicated to explaining (and advertising) a recent cloning initiative from DNA samples to try and un-extinct many animals and eventually reintroduce wild populations. No explanation of cloning is provided; Lilian probably has to cover that if Tamamo asks.
Tamamo	"Geisha did sometimes acquire 'patrons,' moreso than 'regulars.'" Tamamo says, mildly. "To form a relationship is a type of skill, is it not? One that can be supplemented by more explicit Charms, but not supplanted by them. Oh, but I may belittle the schools of geisha by saying so. It is no mere skill they practice, but an art." To the notion of being asked to cook, "Why, of course, I would make no suggestion beyond my will. If you will enjoy my cooking, then I will enjoy providing a display of my skills domestic. Only provide to me this 'diet plan,' if I understand its meaning correctly, and I shall see to the taste, presentation, and nutrition in equal measure. I have said 'nurturing' to be within the Sun's domain, have I not?" The implied compliment she takes in stride, with only a small smile. The walk through the prehistoric period does get some looks from Tamamo, examining the blown-up reconstructions without needing to get too close, but her mind is partially elsewhere, even as they approach the locally-extinct section. The idea of local scarcity brings the reaction, "Ah, so they still exist on 'other Earths,' yes? Little is truly lost, though much is hidden." Peering down into the rock pool, watching the tiny crabs move about, she finally concludes that distracting, earlier thought, asking Lilian, "And have you become interested in that art? A knight geisha, I think not, but there are charms and there are Charms. You have gained some affinity for spirits since our first meeting, no?"
Lilian Rook	"Explicit Charms?" Lilian repeats after Tamamo, not entirely sure she understands. "I'll admit, there isn't really a parallel concept here; or wasn't, I suppose. It sounds nice. Not working as one; I think that'd be a bit too much for me. The idea of 'being an entertaining, multi-talented, interesting and hospitable personality' having economic value in of itself, though. Things like that are usually overlooked in favour of who can put out the highest numbers, or raw labour." "Ah, you probably have it right though. When your body is worth so much, it's extremely important not to treat it poorly." says Lilian on the topic of food, though her nonchalant tone would sem to mean that she doesn't expect problems from Tamamo's cooking. Oddly enough, she spares a small smile for the rock pool on the way past, quaint as it is, surrended by children wanting to pet small sea creatures with frequent pointy bits (which don't seem to mind, given the amount of feeding and human interaction they must receive). "I guess it's a little less special when they're still everywhere in so many other worlds, but I don't know. I think it's good for people to see. And good for people to care. It's not enough to just 'still be here'. Without some ambition for the future --that things can go back to the way they were-- I don't think people would get very far. It's sort of . . . the privilege of those who are left, I suppose. Maybe more 'their duty', that they can think about things like these." The subject of Geisha returns, which Lilian attempts to deflect with another breezy laugh. "Really, I'd prefer to think that I'm just naturally wonderful company~ But there's that word again." Pondering on 'affinity for spirits' for a moment, she hazards "The age of twenty has to do with 'the house of Aodhan' you heard the Sisters go on about. It's the day he committed the rest of his life to revenge against their kind, and formed what'd eventually become the Order we're still formally a part of." "The story goes that his first wife bore him only twelve sons before being unable to produce children any more, though she desperately wished for a daughter to pass down many things. In the ill-advised way that many men did back then, he sought the help of the Fair Folk in the forest, but long wise to their usual trickeries and half-truths, he bartered and argued with them long and hard for three days, and left with nothing in disgust. Their stab against him --their hook to bring him back-- was that they received his audience in the land of Faerie where time passed a year to the hour. Returning to find his entire family long gone, rather than returning to the table to trade back something no doubt dear for those years back, he was consumed with rage, and dedicated his life to revenge against them." "Without anything else left in his life to focus on, he focused all his time and attention into learning the habits, houses, and weaknesses of their kind. The territory that's ours now was a source of lodestone back in the day --'north iron', the real form of 'cold iron'-- and he set about hunting and slaying their court indiscriminately, starting from the bottom, and working his way up. With each of their number, he burned their flesh as coal and rendered their bones as gossamer steel, hammering their souls into the blade that took on his hate. By the time the most arrogant Faeries --the most powerful of them-- took notice, it was already too late."
Lilian Rook	"He took a second family again only near the end of his life, when he'd rid an entire notable portion of the British Isle of their kind, either dead or fled in fear, two dozen decades years later. As a bizarre twist, he ended up with six daughters and no sons the second time around, and so instead took on many male disciples to pass down his knowledge, his techniques, and his sword --the Dubh-Ceothan Marfach; the Killer in the Midnight Fog-- as a proto-knightly order, which married into the family. At the end of his life, he was so stained with the blood of the Fair Folk that each of the bloodline inevitably gains just a bit of their mein at the age of twenty. He was, even moreso, so steeped in the time disjoint of the Other Land that the bloodline was always unsteady in it; the most common of the gifts being the ability to see through time. It was traditional for a long time for the women to go on as prophets, seers, sages, and healers, and the men to go on as knights, hunters, scholars, and guardians of the greater spirits sealed since his passing." "The number of people who ever successfully picked up that sword, amongst the family relics, and used it without meeting tragedy, is slim enough that we have a full record." Lilian finishes off, vaguely fingering the sword-pendant around her neck. "There's a . . . character to it. A synchronicity. My brother picked it up for the last years of the Onslaught when he fought in the military, and gladly hung it up again after. Said it 'wanted too much' from him. Too 'intense'. That it felt like walking some kind of precipice over a place he didn't want to go." She blows a tiny little raspberry at something. "Said it suited me perfectly, though." "So, yes. I suppose I've 'grown into' some things just recently. My sister says 'magical second puberty', which I think is dumb."
Tamamo	"'To be a host' is, of itself, a fine art," Tamamo says, likely in support of Lilian becoming yet further multi-talented. She turns to watch the children for several moments, before adding, "Yes, it is good for the young to experience such a thing as this without traveling far, of course. 'To see what can be,' is it? You must forgive me; perhaps I was thinking of other matters. Things that become hidden, yet are never lost... even if all forget their existence, save themselves." She doesn't expand on that, and then Lilian tells her a story. Tamamo listens until the end, not silently, but nodding along, expressions displaying her sympathy at the theft of the man's time from his family, her concern at the thoroughly escalated revenge, her understanding of the 'cold iron' and the effects of this legacy. Finally, at its completion, she giggles. "Puberty? Oh, I suppose it is your coming-of-age, but... indeed, no, though perhaps 'baptism' would be appropriate. Less for its meaning of purification, than as a ceremony of devotion to cause, yes?" Lightly shaking away the question, she continues, "Yes, I see the cause, now. An affinity brought about through blood, spilled, stained, and inherited. Blood has ever been a potent carrier, whether for a blessing or for a curse, for strength and power or malady and affliction. It is a story without happiness, but the result remains, that you have stepped closer to the world of spirits than most could, or should. And for that, you might find an affinity for the crafts of spirits. 'Charms,' as I said." But then, she shakes her head. "Ah, but I meddle too swiftly. You are only newly come to such a position, as am I. You must forgive me once more."
Lilian Rook	"Mmm, I'm sure it's not quite what you mean, but there's a theory behind that. 'Out of everything in the universe, only information is completely indestructible'. That is, once something has existed, it's impossible to erase the proof of it's existence, ever. It can decay into nothing and be totally forgotten, but all that's doing is 'encrypting' that information --that pattern it originally held. Some arbitrarily, sufficiently super-powerful way of tracing all the tiny influences it had on the universe, working backwards, could reconstruct it. Everything leaves a permanent mark." She brightens up immediately at Tamamo's response to the summary of her family's founding legend, even that being substantially long. "Baptism! I like that! I like that a lot!" she says, giving up a smile straight away. "Whether or not 'should' factors into it, well, obviously I believe that I'm more than suited for it, even though a great deal of that comes down to the extreme care the Lineage has taken to preserve traditions and strengthen its line, but I suppose it doesn't matter either way whether it should be a thing or not. It just is, now, and letting it go would be an unbelievably foolish decision." "But you totally sound like you know something." she says, still not quite letting it go, despite clearly feeling satisfied and praised. "Come on, at least explain what you mean by 'charms' if you're going to keep using it!"
Tamamo	Tamamo doesn't say outright that Lilian is talking about something else in regards to information, nor does she confirm any similarity. Just another mystery with another mysterious smile. She adds only, to the end, "Ah, yes. To see through time, even 'forgetting' loses meaning." And there is some further questioning. "Is this not known?" Hm. "Allow me to provide a simple demonstration, then. We shall part just slightly, lightly, and momentarily." So saying, Tamamo disengages her arm from Lilian, and takes just one step away, off to the side. Smoothing her skirt and keeping her knees together, Tamamo crouches down. She looks toward the pool, or rather, to the children playing there, mostly under watchful eyes of their parental figures. Should Lilian watch Tamamo's eyes, she'll see that flash, that definite moment of light generated, rather than merely reflected, in golden rays. A boy and a girl, too young to be anywhere without supervision, look up from the tiny turtle that the boy carefully holds, look about for a moment, and then spy the watching fox. Tamamo smiles. The children walk toward her with the quick, irrepressible excitement of their age. A well-to-do man looks after them and almost takes a step, frowning, then notices their destination, regains his absent smile, and returns to only half paying attention. The boy reaches first, holding up the turtle in his cupped hands, careful with the understanding of fragile life. "Oh, yes? Is this for me?" Tamamo says, and accepts it in her own hands at a nod. She holds the animal up for a closer look, pronounces, "Very good. Thank you for showing it to me. You will be careful in returning it now, yes?" and returns it, to another nod. The girl is merely beaming, happy to be nearby. At the deity's nod, tails almost touching the floor as they swish behind her, both children return to the pool. Their guardian says nothing of their absence. Tamamo stands, as carefully as she lowered herself, and offers her arm again to Lilian. "Did you understand?"
Lilian Rook	It takes all of exactly two seconds for Lilian to understand what Tamamo means when she gets to demonstrating. Even as much as she evidently likes her a lot --perhaps even to an irrational degree-- she is visibly tense at the sight. Every angle and corner of her rigidly held posture speaks it out loud: this is magic that influences people's minds, and that in of itself is inherently dangerous. She watches Tamamo with an uncomfortable, unblinking stare, her weight shifting the slightest degrees, constrained so heavily that it always falls just short of changing her balance. Finally, that tension seems to release (mostly) all at once when the kids go wandering back, with nothing at all untoward about the whole thing. It's kind of wholesome, even. She gives Tamamo a weak smile, a little exhausted, a little embarrassed, a little nervous, but ultimately north of neutral. "I'm not sure what I expected. You're right." A beat. "And I suppose that answers one of my earlier questions too, from a while back." she says, contemplatively. "I'm sure we'll have plenty of time later. But for now . . ." Lilian holds out her arm for Tamamo to take. "There's still lots more to see, right?"