networkinthenight | [audio] @msolis; [open]

[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!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ "what were you doing with it?" earns a snort of a laugh. the answer "I was busy being a national disgrace" is on the tip of his tongue, but—. ] It hasn't been my main career. I taught high school chemistry for a while, had a tech company for a little while after that, but I'm actually a photographer by trade. I've been thinking about returning to teaching — or had been.

[ sort of, anyway. ]

So, Doc, is it your work with the lanterns that have allowed you to survive here for so long?

Quite the eclectic set of skills. I can relate.

[She sounds impressed!]

Yes, mostly. I'm sure I would've been dead about ten times over, but I've been able to make a number of alterations to my lantern to keep me going. Unfortunately, these alterations have been quite difficult to engineer, so I'm afraid there's little hope for mass production.

[ there's a slight pause at that — whatever peter had been expecting, it wasn't the 'I can relate'. or for her to sound impressed. ] What's your background, Doc?

[ punctuated by a breath of pause — because what's waiting for an answer, really? — and a sharp inhale of breath, then— ]

Can I ask you a couple of questions? The lanterns represent our — essence, I guess. Some might call it our soul, others might call it our life force. So when the lantern is damaged, we die here. There's the obvious question of how, but the other thing that's been bugging me is — what are these bodies?

I mean, I figure there are a couple of possible answers: one, the most simplistic — we get transported through the portal our — being gets separated into a lantern and the body itself remains a vessel, albeit one capable of thought and feeling. That makes sense until we die, or until the lantern gets damaged. So when you talk about bringing back this keeper, you talk about it in terms of repairing his lantern. Which kinda puts a dampener on the idea that these are — or remain — the bodies we had on Earth.

Which — boy, that's an existential crisis waiting to happen.

Then there's two and three. Magic's not really my bag, but I've seen people with the ability to construct and shape entire realities from thought alone. So, maybe it's a variation on that, right? But I'm not convinced. Because die enough times, and you come back different — unless it's kind of like, your lantern getting damaged enough times is like getting hit on the head. Fine once or twice, but do it enough and things don't quite connect in the way that they should.

Third option is — the bodies are a fabrication, but more scientific in nature. Clones, for example. [ a pause, longer this time. ] When half the town was sleeping, I ended up in the basement of the church. Under the trapdoor.

Doc, what happened to those people?

My field is theoretical physics and mathematics. Well, that's where it began, anyway.

[But onto the more important questions.]

These bodies... I suppose the simplest answer is that these bodies are clones, in a sense. Let me explain how the lanterns work.

Three components are needed to create a "living" person in this world such as you or I. The first component is a "soul" by whichever name you wish to call it. This is the piece of you that has been pulled in through the portal. My sensors scan the souls that come through the portal and the 3D printers at my lab download the information to print a unique lantern to house each soul.

The lanterns are not enough to sustain life, though. Have you seen the candles in the church? Each of these represents a "life force" that may be borrowed. Think of them as batteries; life energy and light are one in the same here, and they are both finite resources. Your soul must be housed in a lantern and combined with a candle from the church in order for you to remain animated.

I understand that this will likely... yes, I suppose it's an existential crisis waiting to happen. Most don't take this news well, but I can assure you that you are truly you, even if the body you inhabit has been manufactured.

...What did you see under the trapdoor, exactly?

Uuugh, I knew you were going to use the 'c' word.

Don't worry, Doc, I've done the 'am I really me' song and dance, like— okay, not more times than I can count, but I've done it. I've even got the t-shirt this time.

[ THIS IS LIKE A PLAY-BY-PLAY of all of peter's worst experiences. it's grand. ]

Soo, you figured out the lanterns: how'd the candles come into the equation? I get the concept of light being equitable to life — it's a bizarrely literal taking of most life needing light to survive, but are they something that coincided with the, uh, loss of the sun, or were they always part of the plan? [ beat. ] What I guess I'm asking is — why are they separate to the lanterns?

Edited 2020-03-10 20:10 (UTC)

—Some guys in sheets.

They kind of deflated into goo. I'm not going to go into why I've experienced this, but on a scale of 1 to crawling through Manhattan's sewage systems: they lose out to crawling through Manhattan's sewage systems.

Hm.

[She seems to consider all of this for a long moment.]

I'm not sure what the, er, goo people in sheets could be referencing. Beneath the trapdoor is a passageway that I use to move between the church and my lab. There's nothing much exciting down there, I'm afraid. It's little better than a sewer.

As to the candles, they were created as a result of failed attempts to transfer life essence into lanterns. After the world went dark, we few remaining survivors could not continue to live without the use of my lantern technology. Unfortunately, all I had were prototypes and early models at that time, and not every transfer was successful. The candles are what remain, and with their sacrifice, we are able to make something new for ourselves.

Artistic license? It was a dream and boy, I know I've had some weird dreams. [ a pause. ] But, uh, did you move bodies between the church and the lab, Doc? And the people that died here — I'm sorry, I know this is going to sound like a callous question, and at this point, I can't even say how relevant it really is, but... How did they die?

[ another pause, longer this time. ] ...And that keeper you mentioned: how close did his groups get to fixing this mess?

[audio] @msolis; [open]

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