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

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!!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My life's work is this kind of thing. What's the name of your elusive friend?

But a portal sounds correct. I suppose it could be one-way . . . I don't doubt you, mind, I'm simply thinking this through. It would take a great deal of engineering to ensure it was only one way, though. Do you know if it was naturally occurring or assuredly man-made?

What do you mean by dead world?

Whoa. You've gotta be like SUPER smart then. That's awesome. Maybe you'll be able to help us get out of here.

I don't know where it came from, sorry. Aaaaand I would give you her name, but like, that won't really do you any good... She gets grumpy if I give out her personal info. :/ I guess names are "personal info" now.

Uhh, well, that's why there's no light. Nothing LIVES here. All the living stuff down there? The forest spirits and the plants and stuff? None of it's actually alive, apparently. The only reason we kinda look like we are is because we've got lanterns.

An alias, then. Something I can refer to her by, so I don't simply keep saying that one woman we spoke of that one time, which will get tiring quickly.

[But hmm . . .]

What would happen if our lanterns dimmed? Let's say I extinguish mine to the point of nearly, but not quite snuffing it.

LOL I mean, sure, but you're not gonna like it. Before I knew her name, I called her Mom.

She's not MY mom, that's just sort of a role she plays. Sort of. Not really. It made sense in my head, back in the day.

Uhhh, can you do that? I can't do that, but it's been a long time since I had a traditional lantern. I guess you'd probably feel pretty crummy, like you had the flu or something. I've heard that's what dying is like if you get too far away from your lantern. You get tired and weak.

What do you have if not a traditional lantern?

[A pause, and then:]

Oh.

LOL did you figure it out? :)

Part of becoming the Lighthouse Keeper is surrendering your lantern to the lighthouse so that it's got a beam. Also means I can't leave, even if the forest spirits would let me! Kinda sucks.

Did you choose the position? Or were you the only one left who could fulfill the obligations?

I chose it. The old Keeper was fed up and didn't wnat to do it anymore, so I offered to relieve them. They were gonna reset us all, anyway.

So it wasn't a free choice so much as one prompted by necessity, which is far more of a burden to bear. I think you'll find there's a marked difference, especially when the alternative is a very final death.

Exactly. Like, if I could choose ANYTHING for myself, I wouldn't choose this! But it was the best option I had.

/shrugs!

If I could go back and redo what happened between ending up here and becoming the Lighthouse Keeper, I would just find a way for my group to succeed in fixing this place or moving us all "on" or something. That would've been the best outcome, I think.

What was your world like, before you came here? Surely different from this, I imagine.

Add to the fact . . . I know your body is seventeen. Is your mind still that age as well?

Different in that we had light, yeah, LOL. I'm from Earth! A place called Colorado. IDK if you're familiar.

Uhh... I guess not? I'm not sure what you mean.

Well, think of it this way: your body and your mind ordinarily age at the same rate, yes? You're born and you age, so both mentally and physically you're seventeen.

But. Here, I doubt very much we age, so your body stays the same. Eternally seventeen, if you will. But your mind doesn't. If you've lived here for a cumulative period of years, surely you must mentally be in your twenties by now, even if your physical body doesn't show it.

Think of it like the reverse of a coma victim. Their bodies age, but their minds remain how they were when they first fell into a coma. For you, it's the opposite.

Does that make sense?

Oh, yeah, it does! And you're right - we don't age here, lol. I get to be young and hot foreverrrr. :)

But like, mentally? If time is what we've got to go by, I'm like, in my 40s!! Or close to it! I'm way old! For real, though, I do think I'm not a kid anymore. Not after all this.

You realize I'm in my thirties, yes? "Way old" indeed.

Where would you estimate your mental age?

I didn't mean it as a bad thing! Jeez. :P

Hmmm. That's tough? Why does it matter?

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

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