networkinthenight | [audio] @kingofwei here we go again

Good...day, my fellow citizens. If it is day, who knows anymore?

According to the Librarian's report, we are running out of time, but there are several things happening on multiple fronts which give me hope that it is not entirely impossible to handle this World Eater which is on its way. Allow me to report what I know, and then we may discuss what we can do to hasten our various tasks and come together in order to succeed.

First, Weaver would like our collective assistance cleaning the Helix Station so that she may return to live in it. It is...a daunting task, if one is not yet accustomed to the level of violence and gore that seems to be commonplace here. A number of people died there, and while their remains are not an issue, there is still a fair amount of evidence of the violence that must be safely cleaned up. If anyone would like to put together a group to do so, I would appreciate it and so would Weaver - so much so that she has agreed to find us the information we would need to learn how to reverse the portal and potentially send the World Eater through it. Time is extremely of the essence, there. But, seeing as it is winter, or very nearly so, some may appreciate time in a warm, indoor station that is as safe as any, even if the bargain means washing and cleaning.

What we learned while down there was considerable, and Doctor Trafalgar has a sample of World Eater [ahem] viscera on which to experiment. We know that there may be one limited means of fighting the green-eyed spirits, using a potion, but work will need to be done to verify and then manufacture it. Pluto and her people were working on ways to fight back against them as well as the World Eaters, and while most of that was a bit over my own head, I expect the doctors - medical and technological both - have all of that information and can share it with any who can help them work on other routes of defense and attack. There is also more information out there to be retrieved, it seems.

We also learned more about the bomb that was used, and I would like to remind my fellow living dead that I have the location of a bunker containing an important mineral component of it. I should like to undertake an expedition to retrieve it once the proper containment protocols can be arranged. I defer to Doctor Ingram on that front, but I will be going along to guide and to fight if needed.

Now, with all of that said... [deep breath. Yeah, he talks a lot and this time is no different]

...the Librarian's message also suggested that some of the green-eyes are amenable to talking with us, perhaps we can arrange a truce or at least a mutual cease-fire. It seems there is a massive and dangerous 'boss' spirit, the Seven-Eyes, which will not listen to reason, and I will echo the plea: do take care, and do not go out alone. Not even to search for lanterns. There are a dwindling number of us left, and if too many take foolhardy risks, we may not be able to repair their lanterns. Any and all efforts of ours to stop the World Eaters and look ahead to a peaceful afterlife will end permanently if we lose the ones capable of repairing lanterns and working the portal. Of course, I do not plan to strike diplomacy with this creature, but if the Librarian is correct, there are others, and I want to speak with them. Sooner rather than later.

Winter is coming, and there is no knowing how harsh it may be. Our efforts to explore and travel may be severely hindered. I suggest we plan to move as quickly as we can to secure all of our advantages. I would propose one more thing...the Bonfire. It does serve as our light and heat but it is also what draws the World Eater here. I would like to hear any suggestions of how to best spread out the torches, move them so that they do not act as a beacon of their own. We need the light, but we also need to protect ourselves.

Thank you for listening. Please, tell me what you think.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That humans of different worlds may share more than they find ways they differ, yes, that's also been my experience.

[Huh, a name that's impolite to use? For close friends and family only, perhaps? An interesting concept. Merwen tilts her head at him, considering.]

I hope that we don't forget poetry entirely, Cao Pi, but I am more than willing to learnshare with you. What questions did you have?"

[at least he's casual about it, not rude]

Tell me of your people, what your world is like. In my experiences before death the only beings I've encountered who would not call themselves human are gods and demons. I should hardly expect you to be either, I am not so backwards and full of myself as some of my colleagues.

Oh, but I am human, as human as you are.

[Honestly, she's had that question far more rudely put, with people because far more aggressive about her perceived humanity, so she'll take this quite peaceably.]

I am a Sharer, from Shora. The people of Valedon, our sister world, are similar to yourself and many here, but we are still very close kin. Shora is a world that is all sea, and my distant grandmothers lifeshaped themselves to better fit into it, rather than destroy a world to reshape it to fit them.

Oh? My apologies.

[he basically forgets his wine, this is just too fascinating]

A world that's all sea...I can hardly imagine. Commander Rosinante has suggested his world is like that and I still have trouble picturing it. And your people could choose the adaptation...fascinating...

Rosinante's world still has places of stone, I believe. I think "island" is the word. The only stone on Shora is at the bottom of the sea, and out of our reach, even if we wanted it. We Sharers make our homes on the floating raft-trees, though between our webbed fingers and toes and our breathmicrobes, we're as at home in the water as out of it. Living here has been... an adjustment.

[Putting it mildly. Merwen takes a sip of her tea, pausing to inhale the aroma of it. It's not really like anything from home, but it's nice.]

I'm told that on some planets, there is no sea at all. That sounds... terrible to me. Forgive me if your world is like that.

Not even islands...

[if he sounds mystified, he totally is. Talk about hard to imagine...]

Ah. No, mine is similar to most here - in fact, I am led to believe that I come from a time far in the past but the same world as many here. Which is why I was quite intrigued to learn that otherworlders are represented here; most of the philosophers and religious types of my world have thought up elaborate afterlives but none of them managed to consider that we might share it with other worlds entirely.

But no...there is plenty of sea, but the lands are large as well. My own nation stretches from the mountains to the sea, it is quite vast.

Mountains?

[She doesn't know that word, not in either of the languages she speaks. Merwen is quiet for a moment, thinking hard about the implications of different times as well as worlds. This is actually the first time someone's mentioned that to her.]

It's written in our history that many of the worlds that now bear human life, Shora included, were settled by the ancients. The ancients are long since gone, having shared fear and hatred and violence with each other and leaving entire worlds poisoned even now, but Sharers and Valans and the ancients and the people of every world humanity still lives on all descended from one world, once. If you are from that world's past, perhaps I am from that world's future?

[He would be absolutely prehistoric by her standards. Neat. It's more just a passing thought than anything, though, and she shakes her head mildly.]

I'm not sure what, if anything, that implies about the fate of our souls.

[give him a moment, he's never had to explain mountains before]

Have you seen the rocky cliff on which the lighthouse once stood? Even in the darkness it still has a looming quality, part of it may have crumbled away but most of it still endures. Now imagine that quantity of rock...bigger. Reaching to the sky, so high that you could travel away from it for days and still see it rising above the horizon no matter how far away you go. Its feet are so deeply rooted in the earth, its bulk so massive that you can almost sense its age, its permanence, its durability and eternity.

[he pauses as if to let her grasp a hold of that much before he goes on. The poet in him is already out to shine]

And then imagine a chain of them stretching as far as the eye can see, horizon to horizon, the peaks maybe not all the same size but clearly massive, jagged, so tall that their tops are wreathed in the clouds and wrapped in cloaks of snow. [there's enough snow outside, anyone can understand snow] That is what I mean by mountains. They are hardly impenetrable but the journey to try to cross them is arduous and can lead many unprepared venturers straight into death. Thus, they make a fine border for my kingdom.

[now that he's rhapsodized about mountains, he can address her own tale, which is rather interesting to be sure. Prehistoric is right.]

Hm. I'm not sure either, but there is something appealing about a common thread that binds us, even if it only shows after we die. Something to connect us across both time and space...it is warm and wistful, if it's true. We are not all so unalike after all.

[She listens to him, rapt. Honestly there's something uncomfortable about the idea, but his phrasing gives it a beauty, even to someone like her, who is uncomfortable with stone at the best of times.]

Stone that rises taller than the waves in a storm. Is that what it's like? As though the stone rose up in a wave, up into the clouds, making a wall?

[She smiles, despite herself.]

It's difficult to imagine. It sounds as though it shares much beauty, but also much fear.

[it's exactly the kind of poetry he's going to unabashedly unleash when he's another glass of wine in]

Indeed. I have not ever actually been on the sea but I have stood watching it and I find that the awe of its vastness is very comparable to gazing up at the line of the mountains. It's better to have a healthy respect for what nature, in any sense, is capable of doing. At least it does so without remorse, or deliberation. It simply is, which can be terrifying but also wonderful.

[then again, his wife is a ballbuster so maybe loving the things you fear is just par for the course with him]

[audio] @kingofwei here we go again

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