[audio] @msolis; [open]

[candlemom]

[The voice in the audio clip is quiet, weary, and a little bit nervous. She gets right to the point, though—small talk isn't really Dr. Solis' thing.]

Hello, everyone. My name is Dr. Maridel Solis. I... apologize, as I am never sure how to best introduce myself. I am the last surviving native of this world, and I am the scientist responsible for the portal. I created the lighthouse, the lanterns, and I repair the lanterns of the dead. I think it's about time we began working together.

I'm sure you all have many questions for me. I will do my best to answer as best I can, but first, allow me to explain a few things.

I imagine some among you will be cross with me for lurking behind the scenes for so long. During the first few resets, I made my presence known right from the start. Problems arose rather immediately—it's quite a shock, as I'm sure you all will understand, to find yourself in a place such as this. Too much, too soon... This is an impossible situation we've found ourselves in, and the full scope of it is too likely to turn fear into panic. I do my best not to shout fire! in a crowded theater these days, for everyone's safety.

In any case, please know that I am truly sorry that you have found yourselves in this place, and I'm grateful for your help.

The second reason for my seclusion is that, frankly, I've been quite busy. Busy with research, with lantern crafting and repair... It's easier for me to continue my work while separated from the rest of the town until I am ready to present my findings to the townspeople for help.

During the attack on the town this past November, Robin was given a lantern by the green-eyed spirits. The thing was in pieces, barely recognizable as a lantern, and as such, it's taken me until recently to identify its owner, but—this lantern belonged to a lighthouse keeper from many years ago. One of the best we've had, in fact. What's more is, I believe I may be able to revive him.

The revival will take time, as I still have many preparations to make before we can begin the process. In the meantime, I would very much like to hear from anyone with a background in the sciences, magical or otherwise. Your skills and knowledge sets may be of use, as I will have need for materials I believe can be found in Beacon, although I'm at an impasse as to what, precisely, those materials might be. For now, I would simply like to get a scope of what other capable minds we have among us so that I may best understand how to utilize our strengths.

Regarding the incident on the ferry: frightening as though the forest spirit prank was, I assure you, it's nothing to be alarmed by. The portal is unstable, and occasionally its schedule fluctuates. I believe that is all that happened in this case; the forest spirit, ahem, corpses are... unrelated. Pranksters getting carried away with themselves.

When the next batch of new arrivals will show, I can't be certain. We'll simply have to wait and see what the next ferry brings, though I doubt the portal will keep us waiting for too long. It never does.

As I've said, I imagine you have questions for me, and I am happy to answer as best I can. I will... set up an inbox for myself, I suppose. I'll be sure to make that information available on the network directory.

Stay safe.

[The audio feed clicks off. Attached to the message is a written transcript of the whole broadcast.

ooc: More information about the lantern revival plot will be available in the future! Right now, she's just collecting data... Dr. Solis will need assistance from many different skillsets, so there's room for everyone to get involved at some stage! No worries if your character isn't a huge nerd.

Also, the game history page has been updated!]

Comments

[candlemom]

Thank you, Castiel. Do you mean that you saw my lab in a dream last November?

[She heard that was a thing.]

Of course, I'll do my best to answer your questions. What would you like to know?

[freetobe]

I did, yes. I've since been trying to find it.

[ He's not sure if there's much to be gained, but it's personal at this point. Castiel knows Ignis did not die there, and yet... And yet. Besides, the lanterns... ]

The lanterns are your invention, as I understand it. Mine appears to be a death trap, in which the light dims whenever I use my powers, because my grace is the light inside the lantern. Is this per your design?

[candlemom]

[She lets out a small laugh.]

I suppose I'll see you here should you manage to track me down. Good luck. We'll call it a game.

Hm. The lanterns are my invention, yes, but they're simply a mechanism to harness the forces of life and death that none of us truly have any control over. I did not design your lantern to incorporate your grace specifically. I imagine your grace is tied up with your soul, which is likely why it's been stored inside your lantern. I have no control over that, I'm afraid.

[freetobe]

I'm not very good at games.

[ The admission comes after a beat of silence on the message. He sounds almost sheepish, and clearly misunderstood what she meant.

Not very good at games, indeed. ]

I take it the radioactivity is not a concern in the state we find ourselves in, to those among us who'd be affected to begin with?

[ He wouldn't be - not under normal circumstances anyway. ]

As for the soul... I don't have one. Though it would then follow that perhaps it was the... required equivalent. [ There's a sound of a breath almost like a sigh. Castiel isn't pleased, but his irritation isn't levelled at her - not in this. ] It does bring me to another query. In the dream I had, after your computer killed one of my companions, we discovered a mechanism to reproduce the lanterns. Given that we've come from a variety of time lines and multiple universes, and given that some of us do go on living in alternate time lines I've found myself wondering about our existence here. In your lab, a machine printed a copy of my lantern. Are we ourselves copied off a blue print to exist here and be brought back by you, a blue print taken at the moment of a potential or true death, or was the dream not quite so literal as that?

[candlemom]

Correct. Radioactivity has no bearing on the dead—or whichever label you'd like to apply to our current state of existence. I would be dead many times over if radiation was a concern.

[She takes a long moment to consider the rest of his thoughts, though.]

Truthfully, I'm not sure if the life force contained within the lanterns could be genuinely classified as "souls", though I believe them to be, yes, the "required equivalent".

As for the mechanism you witnessed... There is some truth to it, yes. Allow me to explain.

The portal is responsible for bringing you and the others here. I have no control over this, unfortunately, but if newcomers were left to enter this world without a lantern, they would simply continue to be dead. My lantern technology is what allows us to continue on and work toward a better end for ourselves.

The system that prints and links lanterns to new arrivals on the ferry is automated these days. While I can technically print duplicates of individual lanterns, I lack the ability to navigate the life energy inside of the original lantern into a new copy. This is what prevents me from simply printing lanterns anew when they are damaged in death. I sometimes do print duplicates if only for my own reference as I make repairs to damaged lanterns, but attempting to insert life energy into it only results in a blank copy of that person. I have only attempted this a handful of times in my studies, in an effort to learn and perfect the technology... but I find this experimentation to be rather inhumane. I prefer to only engage in this meddling when absolutely necessary.

All this to say: you are truly yourself, as far as I can tell, and the body that you exist in is quite real, and should be accurate to your body in life... However, that body is generated through a marriage of your own "soul" and my lantern technology.

Does this make sense to you?

[freetobe]

It does.

You create vessels for us then. Or... your system does.

[ From scratch, which is impressive. Castiel once had to remake Dean Winchester's body, having nothing but his soul to work with. He wonders if the process is at all similar. ]


I assume this isn't common knowledge - otherwise I'd imagine many of those who've had their bodies since coming into existence might be somewhat unsettled by the knowledge that you had to create a new version of it for them. I find humans tend to be squeamish about such things.

I have to wonder... for my kind I find myself in an unusual situation. This body belonged to a human man, who granted me use of it for a mission. Due to circumstances, when I originally died, so did he, and his soul passed on into heaven, leaving me the sole owner of this vessel. This was long before the death that led me here. I wonder if your systems would still have recreated this vessel for my use here had I not become its owner. Have you ever had to deal with a body housing more than one soul?

[ Castiel entertains the notion for a moment, wonders if under different circumstances he could have arrived here in his true form, or wearing Claire's body, or any of the other vessels he'd taken before Jimmy Novak.

Interesting. ]

When you say a blank copy, do you mean the bodies remained empty and non-functional, or does it animate?

[ Inhumane? Maybe. But Castiel isn't human, and his interest in this conversation is absolutely piqued. ]