voidtreckernet | Day 6 of Egret [Video]

[There's a young brunette wizard on your ICPs today ~~assuming you have them on at all~~, who should be at least a little familiar to everyone on the train by now.]

Hello, everyone. This is Nita Callahan.

[She's not quite smiling, but from the look of how she's holding a purple stereoscope in her hands, she's clearly got something on her mind.]

And this is one of the souvenirs we can get from the shop - Eva's got the one I ordered if anyone wants a look at that one, but it does reflect light similarly to the void, so I wouldn't recommend staring at it for too long.

[Nita sighs, shakes her head a little, and makes herself get back on topic.]

Anyway, I ran a scan on the images here and the device itself. The device isn't made of plastic, but it's similar in nature. The pictures - and if anyone's got a better sense for those please get in touch with me, maybe you'll get more out of them than I did - are of various worlds the Voidtreckers have visited. Most of the landscapes are pretty generic, honestly, but they're not places I've ever been, and that's saying a lot.

As far as I can tell, they were taken digitally and then printed, and they don't seem to have been photoshopped or made into something they're not... it's just that there's no people in them.

[Nita squeezes the stereoscope in one hand - then jerks her head up, remembering something.]

Oh! So, the other purpose of this message was - what other scans have you been running? Dairine, I know you've been up to something, but if you don't mind sharing with the rest of us sometime, that'd be great.

[The sarcasm only surfaces for part of a line, but it's very tangible. Then she goes back to professionalism:]

And, this is for everyone, what other scans can we run, on the train, the SCAs, or anything else we've got? I promise you, there are no stupid or silly answers!

[With that, Nita ends her message.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That sounds like my aetherial essence. [Soul, as some people might say, but the exact words count for a lot when the cycle of life on Hydaelyn is so well-known.] Hm.

[Will the Echo interfere with his Name? That's a question worth investigating.]

[That remark makes Nita's eyebrows go up - aether, lifeforce and wizardry may have more in common than Nita first thought.]

It's not like it's something you put into words, though, is it? Or like those cards - you mentioned how those have specific limits, before.

No. It's the essence of us that encapsulates our -- energy, for lack of a better word. When we die, our aether returns to the Lifestream, all as part of the cycle.

That makes at least two worlds that recycle souls, then.

[Yup; souls exist in Nita's neck of the multiverse too.

Her expression quickly turns puzzled, though, as the Manual keeps trying to fill the spell out.]

There's one character that keeps coming up over all the rest, here - do you see it?

[Even if Dread doesn't know the Speech, while Nita tilts her Manual up so he can see, the fact that there's one prominent character in the Speech on most of the page should speak for itself.]

Ah. That'd be the Echo, I suspect. If not Hydaelyn's Blessing, but that's far less bound to me.

[Dread shakes his head.] I worried about this.

Echo?

[Nita snorts, because she almost sounded like one there herself.

Still, her next words are serious.]

Is something wrong about it being there, or...?

[Not that it's necessarily hard to explain why having one character so thoroughly ingrained in you could be a bad thing, but if it's not actually supposed to be there-!]

No. It doesn't surprise me at all. The Echo is a gift from Hydaelyn Herself, and it protects the soul. [Primal tempering might be abit much to explain at the moment...]

[Dread places a hand on his chest.] Sarai would show the same results, too. We both have it.

[Nita can't help but nod in approval. Even without the explanation, Nita can imagine what sorts of things a soul would need protection from...]

Good to know for the future, then.

[Nita speaks the word to 'pause' the spell's analysis.]

So, it's just blocking data from being read, right? It's not replacing anything?

I don't know that it's 'blocking' like a deliberate shield. [She sounded like that to him, anyway.] It's just strong and presumably fairly pure. Unlike the messiness of the souls...

[Nita grins wryly at that.]

Someone I know would probably take issue with that - considers all matters of the spirit 'purer' than those of flesh.

[Though, then again, this is the Lone Power she's thinking of - probably not the best reference for this conversation.]

The spell's not going to... damage you, or the Echo, or anything if we keep running it, is it? I can just stop it now if you'd rather.

[That question prompts a little chuckle out of Dread, much like a mountain shaking slightly.] No. I'll be fine. Can you account for the interference?

I should be able to recalibrate the spell around it, now.

[Flagging it as 'relevant but separate', Nita restarts the spell.]

There; we'll see what that does.

[If it doesn't work, they may need to rework the spell, find a way to scan the Echo and Hydaelyn's blessing as separate 'beings' altogether.]

[Aether. Such a fascinating concept. The identity of a person. It can dissolve in the Lifestream save for the protection of aetherite crystals; those who had passed through it without those still bore the scars. Ascians could maintain themselves through what most would call 'death', and inject their aether into another to overwhelm them.]

[And then there's the Warriors of Light. Unbelievable potential hidden until the time of need. More than just Hydaelyn's blessing as well, for even before fully awakening it or after it was suppressed by Nidhogg, it burned fierce and strong.]

[Dread watches the symbols, curious to see what this spell makes of him.]

[Nita's eyebrows just keep rising and rising as the spell runs, much more smoothly now that the Echo has been accounted for.

Once the spell indicates it's done, Nita just plain whistles, long and low.]

I'd say you're off-the-charts, but that'd be untrue if only in the literal sense.

I'm surprised this train can hold its own against even you.

[Because, uh. Those are some high strength values - not even adding in the force aether can be used to impart on top of that.]

Some things take time. Zenos, for example. Couldn't hurt him till I'd developed quite a bit more than when I first fought him.

[Dread still wonders how that's even possible. What, precisely, gave Zenos such strength.]

The train, though... it doesn't threaten us. It hasn't done right by us, but right now I can't muster up the will to succeed when I have no reason to. I think Sarai feels the same, and you'd get the same results from her. If not more so. [She's probably the stronger of the two of them -- in overall terms, not strictly physical.]

[Nita briefly remembers their shared dream - but, no, that was a woman.]

Was he a... primal, as well?

[Nita sobers at the next observation, nodding quietly.]

True enough. This is the sort of work many of us would jump to do, if we'd actually been asked, it feels like.

[Having a say in the matter makes a lot of difference.]

No. [That isn't exactly true, but explaining the artificial Echo and Shinryu is more of an adventure than he wants to embark on at the moment. Instead, brushing off memories of Zenos with a slight motion of one hand, he moves on.]

But not all of us, which makes me wonder.

[In all honesty, that's probably for the best. Short of a primal appearing on the train, it's more efficient not to bring them up any more than necessary.]

We do an awful lot of people who haven't ventured much beyond their own homes before...

As ironic as it sounds, being here might be good for them.

[Dread tips his head to the side slightly, not sure if he agrees and not certain he can deny it.]

It offers a path for new growth.

[Nita's own expression is hard to read; ambivalent...]

Change is change, some people would say. Whether it's good or bad...

[She sighs.]

The rest is up to us.

Day 6 of Egret [Video]

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Should we roll dice or summat to determine interference?

S'up to you, I'm winging it :D

\o/ Wheee!

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Yangshi are a canonical thing for Nita; they tear the soul-body matrix open and eat souls.

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Actual Tag Edition!

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Thread wrap, maybe?