[003] - Voice: Excuse Me.

[mysicksadlife]

[She's been putting this off. Actually, she's managed to put it off for a very long time now. But as slow as she may be, she knows when there's something she needs to say.]

Look, this probably isn't how you're supposed to do this sort of thing, but I'd rather get it out there up front and over with. I'm sorry for any... strange things I may have said or done while I wasn't quite feeling like myself.

That goes for Valentine's Day, and more recently. Though I have to admit recently wasn't that bad. In fact, if it was always like that here, I could probably get used to it. Eventually. Enough to hold my complaining down to a dull roar, anyway.

So I was wondering, too, about these filial spirits. If magic is really something here, it probably behooves me to try to see it at work. Anyone willing to volunteer to let me? I'm not saying I'm going to try it out myself, or anything like that. I just want to see it.

Comments

[mysicksadlife]

That's actually worth considering. Do you suppose I could finagle access to some of theirs in the process? Since I'm being a good little prisoner and all.

[wise_maiden]

It would depend on what you were looking up, I suppose. I would imagine their data would cover the worlds of everyone brought here, not just those in our enclosure.

[mysicksadlife]

Think it'd have much on how they got out? [Despite the question, she's pretty sure the answer is a no already. After all, if it were that easy, no way all these people would be here.]

[wise_maiden]

I doubt it, considering that would fall into the category of shifts and experiments.

[mysicksadlife]

Right. And conveniently, that sort of information doesn't seem to be available.

Doesn't it strike you that if these Malnosso really thought we were here by chance, they'd want us to have that information?

[wise_maiden]

They've had a long time to set up their system. From what it seems, they don't even consider having people join their ranks unless they've been stuck in the world for a long enough time.

[mysicksadlife]

And how long is 'a long enough time'? I'm not really attached to this place, but if they've got the power here, it might be worth thinking about, right?

[wise_maiden]

No one in here has been there for that long yet. It seems that being stuck in this world for at least ten years and up are what they look for before considering that route, though there's no telling what may happen.

[mysicksadlife]

Ten years. [Forgive her if she actually sounds a bit surprised at that - a remarkable feat, with her normally bland and toneless voice.]

Are you sure about that? [Wait. He'd said no one had been here that long... that was something, at least.]

How long have people been here for, then?

[wise_maiden]

It's only what I've heard offhand from less-senior Malnosso members as well as murmurs from people in other enclosures.

You should already be aware that Luceti is in it's sixth cycle year. The most anyone has been here for is just over five and a half years. And you'll find that less people have been around for that long - most here seem to average about two years. Closer to three in some cases, and even that's a more recent consideration.

[mysicksadlife]

And me here only for almost half a year so far.

[Which suggests if she's 'average', she has quite a long time ahead of her. For that matter, so does her sister.]

You sound like you keep pretty informed, though. They'd be lucky to have you if you wanted to try working for them later. [And if it could get her home sooner somehow, she'd be the first to sign up, personally, she thinks.]

[wise_maiden]

You have a lot to learn about them.

[She guesses that was meant to be a complement.]

and NOW i see my fail html. sorry about the tinyfont.

[mysicksadlife]

I have a feeling so do all of us. Even what people 'know' about them has a pretty low chance of being true. Or confirmed, whether it's true or not.

[wise_maiden]

That is correct. Everything we do know about them now is a continuous work in progress.

[mysicksadlife]

[That's a slightly more optimistic way of looking at it.]

So you think we'll buy our vowels, solve the puzzle, and go home? [Put in the effort to learn, find the truth or at least the way out, and goodbye?]

[wise_maiden]

I never said it was that simple. [Though to be fair, she doesn't quite understand the reference either.]

[mysicksadlife]

Then there comes a time when learning about them isn't enough. [The flat voice keeps this from being insulting - for once she's only being practical.]

[wise_maiden]

Trying to keep the bigger picture in mind when we can only see a fragment of it isn't exactly an easy thing to do.

[mysicksadlife]

No. It isn't. But 'easy' stopped being the operative word here a few years ago, from what I've heard.

[wise_maiden]

Honestly, that word never really was in the picture to begin with.

[mysicksadlife]

You've been here pretty long, right? What was it like then? Was it much different than now?

[wise_maiden]

For one thing, the barrier was much smaller in it's circumference. We weren't even aware of the desert until later, and eventually the ocean took that over.

Those with abilities found that they were very suppressed. It's part of how the filial spirits were discovered in the first place, really. People were drawn to learning their power in absence of their own. Eventually that had changed as well.

The way the Malnosso deal with us - there weren't any missions, or drafts; we were pretty much only for experiments, and we've seen their leadership change hands several times.

[mysicksadlife]

A desert turned into ocean? Isn't that carrying terraforming a bit far?

[Wouldn't it damage the ecology of the area? Unless... Yeah. No matter how she looks at it, the place doesn't make sense unless it's artificial or fake somehow.]

[wise_maiden]

It's detailed in the guide. There was a draft to an underwater city, though the damages there resulted in the ocean shifting. The floodwaters raced all the way here; the desert sands were shifted downward to be able to hold and support all of that water. It's absolutely ridiculous. [No, she's still not happy about it.]

[mysicksadlife]

A project like that would take a lot of time and manpower. Doesn't that suggest it's a bit naive to just accept 'it's a shift'?