[text] @keeper; cw: character death [open]

[beaconkeeper]

Heyyy everybody. I'm the LH Keeper. I know you guys probably got some questions for me but like sit tight first OK? I promise I'll answer eeeeverything you wanna know in just a sec. There's a couple things I wanna say.

The first one being, hi! I'm Robin. It's SO good to finally get to chat with you all, like jeez I've been hella bored over here. That party you guys just put on looked really fun. :( I'm sad I missed it! But that's kinda how it goes when you're the Keeper. Rastus said there's been a lot of talk about like fulfilling our roles and stuff, and this is mine! I'm in the lighthouse because it let's me do a bunch of stuff to manage the town and help keep the world safe, but it means I'm stuck out here all by myself and I don't get to do the fun stuff I want to do sometimes. Which is why I'm so so SO happy that you guys and gals got me hooked up to the network again! Thank you so much!!! ❤❤❤

Oh right, and you guys have had a lot of questions about what I'm protecting the town from, haven't you? Me and Will talked and he's super sure it's best if HE gives you the skinny on all that since he said he would and he wants to make good on his promise, you feel? So he's gonna do that after the ferry gets here so all the new people can get the info too. Sound good? Sorry you gotta wait just a liiiittle bit longer but there's something else I think we should talk about first...

The forest spirits are still reporting the numbers so I don't know exactly how many we're up to yet but... A lot of people went missing and probably died from how things went down after the party. I'll put all the names in the next bulletin (sorry I didn't do one this week btw! things have been kinda crazy...) but if you want to ask about your friends and stuff in the meantime, I'll do my best to tell you what I know. Maybe some of them will come back? We just have to wait and see.

But... you guys probably saw this in that post Rosinante and Riku and Peter did, but just in case you didn't: Captain Winters died, and so did Five. I didn't see what happened exactly but I saw the spirits starting to come for them all and I tried to stop them but they didn't listen. They get really angry about people coming to the lighthouse or me trying to leave, even the ones that are usually really nice.

I hope they'll both come back but I don't know if they will, so, just in case... Winters would want you all to take care of the town for him and move on you know? He won't be around when the ferry comes so make sure you all fill the new people in on what's happened and how to survive here. All that really important stuff he's been telling people is up to you guys to spread around now.

*BIG SIGH* OK WELL I don't want to end on that super negative note but now I'm all sad sooo ask me questions and stuff, and Will will tell everyone about what I'm keeping the town safe from real soon. It really is nice to meet you all!!

Comments

[beaconkeeper]

LOL same here, honestly. I wasn't too happy about it.

But whatever. It's the cards we're playing with now.

Hey, I think it's good to question stuff that's just tossed around as common knowledge! New perspectives are important, and taking stuff at face value can be risky.

Part of what makes me think everyone is dead too is that this world is dead, hence the lack of light. Light = life, apparently. I remember hearing that the portal or whatever it is drags in dead people because that's the only thing a dead world can hold.

[catholicisms]

Might as well make the most of them. Makes sense, even if it can be difficult in execution.

Does that make whatever lights our lantern what is left of our lives? While I'm at it, can you explain to me how we get tied to the lanterns to begin with?

[beaconkeeper]

Yeah, I think that's how it works! It's one way to look at it, anyway.

Oh, woof, that's a hard question. I couldn't begin to explain how it's an automated thing these days, but I know that, like... The lanterns are man-made, I guess? Maybe not LITERALLY handcrafted, but they were designed to harness the life force of people coming into the world. That's why you die if your lantern goes out, and vice versa. If you DIDN'T have a lantern coming into this world, you'd just be, like, a corpse, I think.

Maybe that's why people have to be dead before coming here? Only dead stuff can come in, which means your life force is separated from your body and put into the lantern...? Maybe? Does that make any sense?

[catholicisms]

So the lanterns predated human presence here? Or they were made by whoever was here when all this started?

( either way, curious and creepy, that someone predicted this situation well enough to create lanterns capable of harnessing a soul (more or less) to maintain life even in the dark. )

I think so. It's a little hard to conceptualize, but I think that's more a matter of this afterlife being so different from what I was expecting.

[beaconkeeper]

They were made by the people here when this started! I'm not sure if they're human or not, actually. If they aren't, then I guess both of your theories are correct. :^)

What were you expecting?

[catholicisms]

( Robin, don't open this box of worms. or catholicism, as it were. )

For myself? I suppose I was expecting damnation or purgatory. If this is purgatory, it's not much like what the bible claimed it would be.

[beaconkeeper]

So is this better or worse than damnation or purgatory?

[catholicisms]

Anything would be better than hell, that's an easy answer.

Purgatory offers a chance of redemption, of one day moving on to something greater. If this isn't some odd form of purgatory, then I'm not sure I'd call it better.

( a bunch of people trapped in a dead and dark world until at some point they're reset into complete nonexistence for failing to accomplish a task that multiple groups had thus far failed at? pretty depressing... )

[beaconkeeper]

Hmmm... I don't know about a chance at redemption, exactly, but maybe! You could look at it like that if you wanted to I suppose!

Even if it's not purgatory in a literal sense, there's still stuff we can do here to make this world better. That's something!

[catholicisms]

It is something.

( not exactly as reassuring as the idea of purgatory, though. only matt would be reassured by purgatory... )

It was nice to meet you, Robin.

[beaconkeeper]

Hey, you too! :) Don't be a stranger, lol.