Several days ago, a young man name Glonath had noticed one of the smaller boulders that hangs suspended alongside the Beanstalk has begun to descend. It is by no means plummeting to the earth, but it is in fact getting lower and lower.

At first this seemed to be a fascinating development in an otherwise sleepy town of farmers that attracts the occasional ambitious sole that boasts of climbing the Beanstalk. Several enterprising individuals spoke excitedly of getting their hands on the fungus on the underside of the boulder once it came within reach, having heard of what it can produce when mixed with the soil.

The initial enthusiasm around this strange development began to wane when the residents of the Beanstalk became aware of the trajectory of the boulder. The large floating rock, measuring easily 30 to 40 meters across and weighing several thousand kilograms, appears to be dropping toward the primary water source of the aldeia and the surrounding farms. The small community's water is primarily provided by a collector with a tap that runs deep into the ground, wicking the water up through a multitude of ultra fine filaments that deposit the water into large bulbs for drinking and through spongy tubes that run the water to the fields.

The small population of the aldeia are gathered in front of the Beanstalk. The  two Aeon Priests of the tiny clave and the two elders that help council the community are discussing the situation.

"It's not as if we can just move the water collector," Etra, the female elder says. "You realize the tap runs deep into the ground... who knows how deep down the source of water is."

"Yes, but the source is likely an underground stream or a lake even," Kullan the young Aeon Priest replies. "That's not the only spot in the area we can drill into."

The other male elder, Scytain, responds. "Even so, it will take us how long to dig or drill down to water, if we are even able to? The collector was here long before any of us. Who knows what means were employed to drill so far down?"

"So we do nothing, let the boulder crush the collector and any other structures nearby?" Kullan says.

"You've been trying to figure out the Beanstalk, why don't you apply whatever magic you learned toward stopping the boulder from coming down?" Scytain replies.

The middle aged Aeon Priest, Detlun, places a hand on Kullan's shoulder. "We have time, though not much. I calculate at the rate of its current descent it will come in contact with the collector within 3 to 4 weeks, a month at the outside. Unless its rate of speed changes, which of course there's no way to predict."

The wind from the surrounding plains softly billowed the plas-fabric of Fraksel's temporary workshop.

The bald, white-bearded nano continued shaping the flexgel into a lens-shape, his dark, metal hands attentive: wouldn't do to ruin the thing now! They where square-shaped, those hands - from the fingers to the over-sized forearms - clumsy, a bit, but strong, and sufficient for the present task, where others might have needed tools.

Limen had gathered with the many townsfolk at the forefront of the beanstalk. While not a resident herself - not a permanent one, as extended as this stay was becoming - the matters of the small town had grown to be of interest and means of passing the time. A good several of the daylight hours every day she spent out in the town, doing odd jobs to make enough coin for dinner and conversation enough to keep the hours from feeling like they were dragging. It was mechanical work and idle gossip, mostly - recently, rumors of the slowly falling boulder Glonath had spotted especially.

This gathering seemed like the next chapter in this whole boulder ordeal, and so she'd seen about pushing her way up towards the front. With two Aeon Priests and two of the people designated in charge, it had to be something important. She'd spread the word about the meeting on to the other three as soon as she'd gotten it, if they hadn't already, and had waited in the back to meet them before pushing forwards.

Presently, she was listening with crossed arms and a curious look, but soon felt the need to add her own voice to the conversation.

"Has anyone tried knocking it off course or breaking chunks off of it to make it several smaller, less destructive rocks? Might make slowing it down easier if nothing else."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:35, Thu 18 Oct 2018.

 Lym will be standing next to his sister, standing out in the crowd as he moves to follow her leaving behind a light trail afterimage of himself as he moves as if it takes the world a moment to catch up with the young man. As he bumps into people they can feel the afterimage like a static filled unreal form, a brief sensation of a limb falling sleep that fades a moment after it begins. The trail stops when he stops moving through the crowd.

"Damnit Spooky, are we really gonna get involved with this too? This sounds soo boring, water and rocks?" He says rolling his eyes even as he stands at his sister's side looking up toward the Aeon priest and others.

Limen raises an eyebrow at Lym. "You mean to tell me a giant rock from all the way up there," she makes a large gesture upwards, flicking her hand open over her head, "is plummeting towards the town and you don't want to get involved? Is it interrupting your bird watching or something?" She teases.

 He sighs as he looks up toward where she is pointing "Well I might as well get some bird watching in while waiting for it to fall, at it's current speed I could us a hobby to fill up the time before it lands." He says with a sneer before lightly shoving Limen "Plus why do you care? Hoping to spend your day moving some water purifiers, or maybe we'll get really lucky and they'll put us on hole digging duty"

Her form gives a little under her clothes where he pushes, not unlike he was pressing into foam. She takes a small step to the side to regain her balance and puts on a laughing grin. At this point she was talking more quietly as an aside, not to the four but to Lym. "Mostly 'cause I don't want to be off picking up a new bird watching hobby. If we're putting shovels in the ground with our own two hands, we've been bested by this rock. Worried you can't come up with a clever solution for this one?" She prepares herself for the possible odd prickling feeling in her elbow and jabs him back a little in the side.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:36, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

A young woman holding a toddler by the hand addresses Limen. "I wish we did have something that could simply bust it up or knock it away. I'm not sure how we would do that. Look at the size of that thing. I reckon ain't no arrow gonna do much to it."

A man puts his arm around the woman, one who in no way resembles the toddler. "Maybe we could launch her at it, yeh?" The guy sniggers while the woman elbows him in the side, doing her best not to laugh at his rude comment.

Zijan watches the antics of Lym and Limen with tolerant amusement.  She's gotten used to their friendly bickering over the past couple of months, and was even starting to anticipate which ones would lead to them eventually settling down again, and which ones would lead to escalating shenanigans that might require intervention, medical care, or at least a hot meal and a lot of rest.

What was less amusing was this impending boulder of destruction.  Zijan spoke up to calm any rising stress.

"There are many things we could do to solve this.  We have some time to try many solutions if need be.  As Limen and Lym said, we could try to fragment the boulder.  We could attempt to find an alternate to the collector, or break down the current collector and reassemble it in a safer place.  We could attempt to find some way to arrest the falling rock with scavenged numenera.  We could attempt to find the reason it is falling in the first place and fix whatever has changed.  That will likely involve going into the Beanstalk itself, but it is certainly something worth trying," she says, gesturing at everyone, inviting more ideas.

"Limen or Lym, would one of you be so kind as to pry Fraksel out of his workshop?  This is a discussion I would certainly like his opinion on," she asks them.

Fraksel peered through his work-in-progress lens, gazing - not too coincidentally - up at the Beanstalk.

The gel still wasn't quite right, but he could still see it through the translucent material as he panned up- up the impossibly thick, and then impossibly slender building, stretching up - and up! - past its circling flock of levitating mountains, up a mile high into the blue, windy sky. More... Just then the sun hit the thread-thin "stalk" at the top just right, and from this angle it lit up like a line of thinnest fire...

A goddess letting down a single hair so they could climb up to her... Beautiful!

"The promised land," he mumbled, his voice rough with wonder. "The promised *tools*... To banish all our fears."

He stretched out his other hand, as if he could possibly just reach out and touch it...
This message was last edited by the player at 20:28, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

Limen nods. "I suggest we launch Fraksel at it."

Her attempt at a straight face breaks just a few beats after saying it, but even with her hardly suppressed chuckle she wasn't completely unserious about the idea. She nods again, more casually, to Zijan. "Yeah, I'll go grab him." In parting, she pokes Lym in a place she knew he was ticklish and grins. "Looks like you're outvoted. I'm sure we can figure out a way to make this not dull."

She turns and trots off into the crowd, ducking and moving her narrow shoulders easily between people. Those who didn't immediately get out of her way might quickly have reason to as what brushed against them under her clothes feels almost unnatural, like it was giving way far more easily than it should.

Finding Fraksel was just a matter of looking in the most obvious place. His workshop, as Zijan had said, where else would he be? Her footsteps are light and purposefully quiet so as to not interrupt the man at work so soon as she makes her way around and behind. She slows as she approaches, hands behind her back, she leans up on her toes and forward to look a over his shoulder at what he was gazing at.

It's still not long before she quite suddenly speaks up. "Fraksel?" Her gaze was following his, up towards the beanstalk. "...Don't tell me you've cracked this case of a falling rock already, the puzzle solved long before any of our mortal brains had even begun to fathom it."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:01, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

"Eh?" The old man gave her his usual sharp look -- sharp eyes below extra-bushy white brows. As he was already leaning way back though...

Fraksel eyes went wide as he sloooowly tipped over; and then fell off the crate he was sitting on : *bump*!

A pause... "Falling rock? Oh the Glonath thing," with the slight frown of somebody who'se *maybe* heard something like that but can't quite recall the details.

Of course, it's a little hard to tell as he's upside down right now, chin (and long white beard) pressed on chest. As if getting up would be akin to admitting he's fallen -- and that would be ridiculous or something
This message was last edited by the player at 20:29, Fri 19 Oct 2018.

Limen takes a quick sideways step as the old investor topples over backwards and towards her, wearing a calm and neutral expression as though this were as normal as the sun rising every morning. She crouches down next to Fraksel, hands on her knees and her face hanging over him, her head dropping most of a shadow over his.

"Yeah, the townsfolk don't want it crashing into their water supply so we were trying to figure out how to shoo it away. Zijan says she wants your science brain around for this one. You coming?"

The old man, still upside-down, crossed his arms and arumph-ed something that sounded an awful lot like bloody woman... But there was little heat behind it.

His faded-brown, gold-flecked eyes looked up into Limen's own (blue?) ones: "You can tell Zijan that *I* am presently pursuing important, *holy* work -" he grandly upside-down-gestured to scattered parts that included folding arms, mysteriously graduated circles, not to mention the half-finished lens he was still clutching "- and haven't got the time to-" He frowned... "Shoo- 'Shoo it away', you say...?" He blinked. A smile she knew all too well started to spread across his weathered features, a familiar fire lighting in his eyes: "What a brilliant idea, Limen-pup! After all, if it's coming *down*... it might go back *up*!" Without further ceremony Fraksel rolled sideways, back onto his feet, surprisingly, casually-limber for a man of his apparent age.

"How fast is it descending, do you know? How high is it off the ground? How close to the nearest structure?" This he was rapid-firing into the air as he was already briskly walking towards the water station area, mechanical arms crossed behind his back, tight-fitting robes flapping in the wind from the surrounding plains.

He didn't seem to care one bit about the sand now clinging to him.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:02, Sat 20 Oct 2018.

Fraksel gazes at the descending boulder, realizing that while it doesn't look as big from roughly 220 meters above, it is much larger than it appears, considering the size of the five gargantuan boulders that neighbor it.

He stares at the boulder, marking its position relative to anything stationary near it. Based on its approximate size and change in position, he supposes it might be descending at a rate of just under 30 meters a day. At its current rate it looks like it will reach the water collector in four weeks, give or take a week. He also sees a maintenance building and a couple of homes that are also in the boulder's shadow that are at risk of being crushed.

She pops up with him as he gets to his feet, moving into step with him without missing a beat.

"Glad to be of assistance, Old Man M." She says cheerfully. "Guessing you've got some guesses of your own already, but... Give me a sec and an angle or two and we can see if our arithmetics line up..." She grunts as she reaches backwards to dig around in her bag. A notepad and a protractor find their way into her hands, and a couple of triangles on the page as she trots along after him, just barely managing not to drop anything as she tries to hold the paper and pen in her hands and the protractor up to her blue-green eye. Her mumbled numbers would confirm and assure his.

"So what's the plan behind the spark in your eye there, this time?" She glances back up at him and hurriedly trots to catch back up, her belongings closed and moved under her arm. "Head into the beanstalk and poke things until we hear something go 'click', get onto the boulder itself to see if there's anything there to make it go back up, call it rude names in the hopes that scares it off?" Gradually, she was also trying to lead him back towards the gathering of townsfolk at the beanstalk's front.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:30, Sun 21 Oct 2018.