ECA 79-82

Slightly belated: Merry Christmas!
Slightly ahead: Happy New Year!

1. Sorry for the delay in this week's post! I was a little caught up in the festivities XD
2. I'll need to write more so I have something to post after ECA is posted! XD
3. I also had comments on a few things I watched/ read over the holidays but it gets a bit ranty and long so I'll save that for a separate post!
4. ECA returns!

PREVIOUS SET (75-78)

79. Illogical

Elysia knew there was something wrong when they ran into Rhys’s group lurking around corner of the valley barricaded by a stone golem.

“Golems’re typically security.” Aldis offered. “Thing is, what’s it guarding? Whatever’s being held there—it’s illogical to tell everyone they’re guarding it with a golem.”

“The Somnia rift?” Anuna suspected immediately. “If they could keep us from getting to it…”

“What’s really illogical is why we didn’t get a professor to deal with this,” Elysia muttered.

But Arlin looked stumped about something else: “Why would they hinder us? Why did Rhys steal the scrolls? What’s her logic?”

80. A Place to Belong

“Got it.” Elysia had graphed elemental energy readings radiating from the area, and built a 3D model from her calculations. “It’s not the rift. It’s the portal Rhys made from the scrolls; a gateway to Somnia. We’ll close the rift from the other side.”

“But could we face them and the golem and still have energy for the other side?” Anuna pointed out. The group shifted uncertainly.

“No…we don’t have to!” Arlin’s eyes danced excitedly. “We can reach the portal from another direction: the cliffscape”

“Reach it how?” They followed Arlin, knowing she had throughly explored campus.

“From above.”

81. Only Human

Behind the group, Vesper apologized for being rude to Celestine. Instead of shooing him away or ignoring him this time though, Celestine replied, “No, I-I should apologize. I’m sorry for being overly sensitive and emotional. I’m taking things the wrong way.”

They would have gone on apologizing, but Celestine admitted, “I don’t like losing my temper, breaking down, raging,..” Anything but calm and polite. “It feels…like an arrow flying wide.”

“A miss. Imperfect score.”

Celestine nodded. 

“Imperfections are only human. Think of it as hitting the face instead of the bullseye. Not the best option, but sometimes unavoidable."

82. Advantage

Elysia, who was scouting ahead, ran into Rhys lurking around. 

“I have the advantage, you know.” Rhys told her seriously. “I know what your enemy is planning. Who he is.”

“Advantage isn’t a definite win,” Elysia pointed out. They circled each other once, before deciding not to fight…yet. “Why do this?”

“Because the inherent power some people have…it’s abnormal. Not every soul goes to Somnia. Without the Land of Dreams, everyone would have the same amount of conscious time. No extra study time or extra training while this body is resting. 

“I want to restore equality. No advantages.”

Comment Blurbs

79. Illogical

ECAAAV (lol referring to groups by their initials T_T)  runs into Rhys and her followers lurking around a corner of the valley with unusually high security. As the crew ponders thy this could be, Elysia lampshades the fact that they haven’t gone to a professor about this. Arlin wonders why Rhys is here and whether Rhys is really opposing them or also facing the golems.

This took forever to write and edit and I was stuck around here for most of the summer. I finally got it to more or less work. Had the group decided to face the golem head-on they would have realized that this was the fourth elemental monster/ attack on the campus. 

80. A Place to Belong

Using complicated math that I don’t actually understand (though I think this makes more or less some literary sense) Elysia figures out that the weird energy coming from the corner of the valley is a portal: the portal Rhys unlocked with the help of the scrolls she stole. This means that while ECA and crew could waste the energy and materials building another portal, they could also just use Rhys’s. Now all the exploration that Arlin loves to do comes up: she knows another way to reach the portal, and a fast way to it. 

81. Only Human

While their friends figure out what they’re doing and how to do it, Vesper and Celestine resolve their relationship problems: both apologize, acknowledging that they’ve both been idiotic, but they don’t turn it into an apologizing contest. Celestine brings up her obsession with seeming perfect all the time and Vesper helps her change her perspective on this obsession. 

The idea of hitting the face and not the bullseye comes from a situation I thought of a long time ago: life is like a giant multiple-choice test, except we don’t always see all the options offered for the question we’re working on. So in Celestine’s case, when she gets overly sensitive and grudging, she’s picked an answer, it just wasn’t the best one. Making those mistakes is sad, but it’s just part of what it means to be human and to struggle. 

82. Advantage

Elysia and Rhys run into each other. They decide to put off the fight and just talk a little. Rhys also reveals her ultimate mission: to even the playing field on people who are born with an exceptional amount of power and can train while they sleep. To this end she has recruited the help of someone on the dream-side of the portal. 

This is why in part 25 (Breaking Away) I said I wouldn’t defend Rhys: because her reasoning (however twisted) comes up now: Rhys’s pedestal is normality: she doesn’t like Fiana or Anuna because they admitted they were weird aside from their coloring: Fiana in her talking to moon rabbits and Anuna being an ancilla. 

NEXT SET (83-86)