voice- un: brightness_kholin

[veristitalian]

People have been vanishing. Not many, not often, not at a volume where we've noticed quickly, but a small number of the ones who initially arrived here have simply disappeared. They've been vanishing since before the doors into space opened, and at enough of a rate that we'd notice the diminishing number of suits if they were all falling off the station into the black.

Initially I had assumed it must be because this place is dangerous. If that were the case we should be tripping over the corpses by now. We clearly aren't.

Comments

[aequoreal]

Yes.

( he wishes it was otherwise. he wishes he could believe wally has simply returned home. that he's with nightwing and the others, figuring out a way to get kaldur home as well. )

[veristitalian]

Dead and walking?

[No, they're going to stay with this one for a little.]

[aequoreal]

He was alive here. At home, he is neither alive nor walking.

[veristitalian]

Well, he's probably dead now.

[Says Jasnah, with all the tact and kindness of a charging rhinocerous.]

And we can't ask him details about how the experience played out.

[aequoreal]

( kaldur barely had time to grieve wally before arriving here and finding him alive. now, he has to start the process anew. )

Most likely, yes. ( the time he has spent undercover, lying to everyone but a very select few has honed kaldur's ability to hide his emotion well. his horror. his grief. his tone remains even now. )

[veristitalian]

So what brings us here can literally raise the dead.

[She still needs to absorb this.]

[oddbod]

Oh, that would be great.

[She can close her eyes and imagine the ocean breeze, if she really tries.]

I was raised by the ocean. It would get so windy in winter, you'd about get knocked off your feet.

[veristitalian]

Alethkar is the same. The stormfront lifts debris, shakes the walls of shelts with boulders carried by the winds.

[And she misses it terribly.]

[oddbod]

[Well, that certainly sounds like a bit more wind than she's used to. If the sea breeze in Blackpool ever started lifting boulders, everyone on Earth would probably panic.]

What planet is Alethkar on?

[why_me]

And what would we have to make sure they aren't lying?

[veristitalian]

Everyone has an agenda, but it's still possible to discern a great deal, even from someone who's being deliberately deceptive.

[veristitalian]

Roshar.

I haven't met another person here yet who recognizes it.

[oddbod]

I can't say I have either, sorry.

What's it like, aside from the wind?

[why_me]

If I had to, I could definitely take a deeper look than most, but there's always the chance that even if we found someone, they might not know what they'd done or how to undo it or how to fix what they broke.

The message I heard when I got here seemed as if genuinely well meaning people had their work go awry.

[oorah]

There's an explanation for everything, you just have to look hard enough, and be patient enough to keep looking. [ he almost hadn't been ]

[veristitalian]

Well, I miss the spren. Does your world have those?

[The most alienating difference by far.]

[veristitalian]

I believe that too.

[She agrees, quietly. What she doesn't say, though it's clear in her tone, is that at a certain point you just get tired.]

[veristitalian]

I don't hold out a great deal of hope that we'll be able to speak to the initial station crew. When we hear screaming, I'm sure it's the memory of them dying, badly.

[why_me]

Sometimes, the dead can speak as clearly as the living. If they're willing to.

VIDEO

[oorah]

[ way to be, crazy neighbor lady. frank knows all about being tired. in fact, he switches on the video for a second to hold up an OK with his fingers, max's boulder of a head taking up half the shot anyway. they're gonna get through this. he has to believe that. ]

Castiglione over and out, ma'am. You know where to find me. [ if you need anything ]

[oddbod]

Never heard the word before, so I'm going to say no.

[aequoreal]

So it would seem. Or take those who have died from a different point in time.

[onlydoubts]

[ he shrugs, and then remembers this is not a visual conversation. ]

Honestly, not much. Beyond what's seemingly been figured out by others. That people disappear, and something probably happened to the last ones that were here.

I wouldn't mind if they would just tell us what we need to know.

[veristitalian]

Are you speaking of medical examination, or a specific power?

[veristitalian]

[Jasnah's eyebrows lift in surprise as the video connects. She hears the unspoken support, and for the first time in the time they've known each other, smiles. A very slight nod of acknowledgement, and she cuts the feed.

She'll see him for knife throwing.]