[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

private

[candlemom]

What do you mean?

private

[reigniter]

Most of the things you have mentioned- the lanterns and crafting, checks out. I was part of the group that saw the old Solis research facility. Pardon my manners, I'm Ignis Scientia.

But as I mentioned, everything that you said matches. We found the traces of it on the computers. However, there was also a program called "Sun.exe" that you didn't mention, which now has me worried.

So it was either an attempt to recreate the sun through programs and science or it was a defensive mechanism of the memory. I have been unsettled by this thought ever since I witnessed it as it had ended my memory (I assume my "life" in the memory). I couldn't go back to inspect it again, so I have been stuck with this dread for a while.

It is one of the reasons why this message is private, I do not wish to spread panic.

If it is a real thing, however, others must be alerted not to touch the program should they come across it.

private

[candlemom]

Oh, dear. I am not familiar with any sun.exe program, and this leads me to believe that the green-eyed spirits installed it as a defensive mechanism, as you said. I'm not sure why they would do such a thing, but I can promise you that I've never had a program like the one you've described on the computers in my lab.

I suppose, however, that there is a third option. What did this program do, exactly? Perhaps its inclusion in the dream was meant as a metaphor or a stand-in for some other thing. I doubt the green-eyed spirits have a precise understanding of what I do here, after all.

[reigniter]

There was a static as I ran the program before a flash
And then everything went dark for me. I do not know how it looked like to those with me in the room, but from what I heard they were unharmed, perhaps dazed a bit.

If this is a metaphor I do not understand it. Spirits say they will die from the Sun, but anyone in such proximity to the Sun would perish, not just spirits.

I was aware that green-eyed spirits could induce hallucinations but memories... Or was that one massive hallucination? If so, how trustworthy are the things we saw?

[candlemom]

Hm, odd. I don't know of any program like that, especially not one that kills you, which leaves us with the spirits.

I must admit that I still don't understand how the World Eaters were able to disappear our sun without upsetting the solar system, nor do I understand how the planet remains somehow hospitable despite the lack of a sun. However, these facts lead me to believe that our earthly definition of light is muddled together with the concept of life when viewed through the lens of the spirits and the World Eaters.

Should we restore this world enough for it to bear life—true life—then we would also render it unfit to support the forest spirits' existence. Whether this restoration would give us the literal return of the sun, I cannot say, but it could indeed be metaphor.

The return of life (and thus, the sun, in concept or otherwise) would result in the death of the forest spirits. Perhaps the green-eyed spirits meant to convey this message, or some message related to it.

As far as the dreams themselves: I believe it was indeed a mass hallucination, but I have no idea where they would've gotten the information necessary to create it. Some of you have written to me with details of the dreams, and aside from the odd detail lie this sun program, they are accurate to history, or at least my knowledge of it.

I cannot speak to the trustworthiness of every experience, but somehow, the green-eyed spirits seem to have conveyed relatively factual accounts. We would be remiss to ignore that information, even if we can't trust it entirely.

[reigniter]

Unfortunatelly, from the information we have about World Eaters, we cannot get close to them to inspect them. If they leave pieces of themselves behind it would be easy for scientists, like yourself, to study it.

If there is a chance that we can retrieve something like that, tell me. I might not be scientifically oriented, but I am good at fighting and strategy. And I know a lot of people who would try to get this, regardless of the consequences.

You speak of restoring /true life/ here. What does that mean? Aren't we supposed to be dead? What is this place, Beacon, exactly?

[candlemom]

It would be much easier for me to study the creatures if I had some evidence of them to go on, this is true. Attempting to collect evidence of them, be it a body part or corpse or what have you, has proven quite difficult... I appreciate your willingness to commit yourself to the cause, but I must warn you that any endeavors to hunt down the World Eaters for this kind of lead would likely result in a very permanent death, or at the very least, there would be an incredible risk of that happening.

Should you or anyone else attempt to track down a World Eater and die in the process, I would not be able to revive you, as you would need to travel far beyond the boundaries of our town to find one. I suppose the endeavor may still be worthwhile if any among you are truly willing to take that gamble, though we would need to spend time perfecting the plan. I will not send anyone to their deaths without a guarantee that the sacrifice will be worthwhile.

In any case, this is something we can discuss in the long-term. It may be best for us to wait until a World Eater appears on the radar. At least then we will know where to position ourselves.

Your questions are somewhat difficult to answer, I'm afraid. My own understanding is limited due to the fact that our World Eater plague is functionally an isolated incident. Other worlds have been invaded and destroyed by them, but it's not as if I can compare notes with other researchers on this matter. Though other worlds have been destroyed by them, there are no survivors to write the history. Thus, my knowledge is limited to what I can determine from this world, which is not much. You've already pointed out the reasons as to why.

I believe that Beacon and the rest of this world has been made into a limbo of sorts, where its inhabitants are neither fully dead nor fully alive. My lantern technology allows us to remain "functional" despite the fact that we are deceased. The lanterns, in a sense, are life support. We would not be able to survive without them.

The criteria for "true life", then, would include our ability to live without the need for an external vessel that keeps our life force from... moving on, I suppose you could say. In order to accomplish this, we would first need to revive the world itself. I am not sure if this is possible, though a total eradication of the World Eaters from this planet may be enough to reverse its demise.

[reigniter]

Are there really no other habitable areas? When Dr. Ingram first told us that World Eaters will come after our life force, the thought that crossed my mind was that we should make groups of people and spread around all over the place. Of course, there is a huge risk with green-eyed ones, and other spirits in general, but if we could make some means of transportation it could be a good diversion. In my world, the Niflheim empire had the technology to build flying fortresses- base-like ships that serve both as a defense hub and vehicle.

If nothing else, it would buy a bit of time.

I do not intend to go after them, and I plan to stop whoever I know from such a foolish notion. Also, thank you for clarifying the 'life'. I believe that there are still people around fully convinced that they are not, in fact, dead. So it is good to have something more concrete to use to explain and clarify 'this' life here.

What do you mean by an 'isolated incident'? Has something happened here before they have arrived? Aside from portals opening and going out of control. They are the ones that brought them in, correct?

And, apologies for so many questions, but I have a question regarding the spirits. Do you know anything about the masks they are wearing? And why are they intent on us to wear them as well? I went to ask them (the hospitable ones at least), but all I could gather is that they are a part of them. As in, a part of their body. And yet, one of the spirits handed me hats? Is there anywhere you can point me to look for an answer?

[Too much conflicting information and he has no clue how to string it all together.]

[candlemom]

It may buy time, but I fear that the risks greatly outweigh the rewards when it comes to splitting up our populace. We would have no way to stay in contact with one another, for starters, and anyone who dies outside of the town's boundaries would be permanently killed. There are a great number of dangers beyond the town's borders, not to mention a lack of food and supplies. In short, I believe our best chance of survival is to stay in Beacon. We have strength in numbers here.

By "isolated incident" I simply mean that we have no comparisons for our current situation. While I know that other worlds have fallen to the World Eaters, I have no way to study those occurrences.

As far as the forest spirits, they are an odd bunch. The masks, as far as I can tell, are just a part of their anatomy. I don't know why they invite us to partake in the mask-wearing tradition specifically, but I imagine it is their attempt to share their culture with us. A show of good faith, if you will.