Discord
04-20-2020, 05:25 AM
‘Have you ever been to that ghost town? What is it like?
If you haven't, could you? I feel like that'd be a fun little adventure to have’
“<There was a reason they built a town beyond it being a company town. It’s a hell of a lot closer to the mine then Blackwater is.>” I said, tracking a claw over the tracks on the map leading south southeast. “<It’s miles away, nothing I can reliably walk. We went to the mine for a field trip once, what’s left of the town has a high chain link fence surrounding it. So In addition to walking several hours to get there along the tracks, I’d have to avoid anyone seeing me, either on the way or at the town, since it’s right next to the mine. It just doesn’t seem worth the time, effort, or risk to pull off.>”
‘go find ghosts in the ghost town, ask them what being a ghost is like’
“<Honestly if the ghost town was literally a town for ghosts I wouldn’t even be surprised at this point.>”
I absentmindedly clicked the red pen as I waited for someone else to chime in. I had questions too, about these people. Why were there delays? It’s actualy a lot like a forum, the message hits me all at once, but why? Are these people really from earth? If so, how are they connected to me? And why aren’t they freaking out as much as I am?
‘What are the trains like?
What does the plaque say?
Do you go to the temple often? What is your religion about anyway, we know some very basic details but ntohing in depth.
Also, with regards to figuring out how this whole situation happened, what's the general consensus when it comes to cosmology and aliens and Kaz'Rao's place in the universe and all that?’
“<Hoo boy,>” I said, taking a breath. “<Ok that’s a lot, let me think… alright. The trains are some kind of maglev mainly. Big bullet trains that can get up to hundreds of miles an hour, or the Kaz’Rao equivalent.>
“<No Idea what the plaque says. It’s a plaque, for like historical facts and shit. Why would I care enough to read it?>
“<I go to the temple for services every… er. Sunday? There are eight days in a week here so… yeah, first day of the week, considered holy, that kind of thing. The basic gist of Spirit...ism, ok it sounds better in the common tongue, anyway the gist is we worship spirits of nature.>
“<A spirit can be as small as a rock or as big as the night sky. Give a spirit a name and that gives it power, and the ability to meddle in mortal affairs. You have to be careful though, as spirits can be benevolent or malevolent.>
“<Specific spirit worship is extremely regional, every temple has its own host of spirits and their shrines, mainly local ones. The big spirits worshiped by pretty much everyone are the spirit of the earth, lowercase ‘e’, and the spirit of the cosmos. Praying is pretty simple, just be in their realm of influence or near their shrine and recite a prayer, or free style it if that’s not your jam. Just make sure you pray to the kind of spirit that can actually do what you want. Praying to a rock spirit for rain is not going to net you any results.>
“<Lastly, our place in the universe. We live on a planet, in an eleven planet system, in a galaxy, somewhere in a universe. So pretty much the same way Earth understands its place in the universe, but with less detail, because we don’t have orbital telescopes.>”
I sat back in my chair and took a breath. That was a lot of exposition. But I can hardly expect people to know everything about an alien world. I don’t know everything about this place either. I thought I was hot shit. Too cool for school. It makes sense now, after remembering dying alone, never willing to take a goddamn risk.
So I went the opposite direction. I became the kind of kid I wished I was. And it suits me. I like the kid these cats have raised. I guess that’s why I want to keep it going. My introspection was cut short by the plot progressing.
Hmm… am I going to commit to the genre savvy iseki bit? What do the folks at home think? A bird chirped outside my window. Right, that was important.
I opened it to let in a messenger bird. This was so cool. As Scud I had handled bird mail before, what with the domestication of bird here(I’m not going to exposit on this guys, they’re like dogs, but birds). But the human me never got to unravel a message from a bird’s leg. It was from silversong. Nothing fancy, just asking me to come visit once I’ve had time to recover a bit.
I wasn’t allowed out of the house for the rest of today, so I wrote back I’d meet her after services tomorrow. I let the bird have a cracker from my secret snack stash and let him go on his merry way. God messenger birds were cool.
“<Did you guys catch that? Tomorrow I’ve got to go to services at the temple, then I’m meeting Silversong again. I actually don’t know how much you perceive. Since I’m thinking about it, how accurate was the forum metaphor my brain cooked up? I know you can read my mind when you’re around, but what are the limits?>”
[I know I'm testing limits here, since y'all don't actually know what you are yet, and thus can't play the role, but answer honestly, just don't give personal details or any indication that you believe this is a work of fiction]
If you haven't, could you? I feel like that'd be a fun little adventure to have’
“<There was a reason they built a town beyond it being a company town. It’s a hell of a lot closer to the mine then Blackwater is.>” I said, tracking a claw over the tracks on the map leading south southeast. “<It’s miles away, nothing I can reliably walk. We went to the mine for a field trip once, what’s left of the town has a high chain link fence surrounding it. So In addition to walking several hours to get there along the tracks, I’d have to avoid anyone seeing me, either on the way or at the town, since it’s right next to the mine. It just doesn’t seem worth the time, effort, or risk to pull off.>”
‘go find ghosts in the ghost town, ask them what being a ghost is like’
“<Honestly if the ghost town was literally a town for ghosts I wouldn’t even be surprised at this point.>”
I absentmindedly clicked the red pen as I waited for someone else to chime in. I had questions too, about these people. Why were there delays? It’s actualy a lot like a forum, the message hits me all at once, but why? Are these people really from earth? If so, how are they connected to me? And why aren’t they freaking out as much as I am?
‘What are the trains like?
What does the plaque say?
Do you go to the temple often? What is your religion about anyway, we know some very basic details but ntohing in depth.
Also, with regards to figuring out how this whole situation happened, what's the general consensus when it comes to cosmology and aliens and Kaz'Rao's place in the universe and all that?’
“<Hoo boy,>” I said, taking a breath. “<Ok that’s a lot, let me think… alright. The trains are some kind of maglev mainly. Big bullet trains that can get up to hundreds of miles an hour, or the Kaz’Rao equivalent.>
“<No Idea what the plaque says. It’s a plaque, for like historical facts and shit. Why would I care enough to read it?>
“<I go to the temple for services every… er. Sunday? There are eight days in a week here so… yeah, first day of the week, considered holy, that kind of thing. The basic gist of Spirit...ism, ok it sounds better in the common tongue, anyway the gist is we worship spirits of nature.>
“<A spirit can be as small as a rock or as big as the night sky. Give a spirit a name and that gives it power, and the ability to meddle in mortal affairs. You have to be careful though, as spirits can be benevolent or malevolent.>
“<Specific spirit worship is extremely regional, every temple has its own host of spirits and their shrines, mainly local ones. The big spirits worshiped by pretty much everyone are the spirit of the earth, lowercase ‘e’, and the spirit of the cosmos. Praying is pretty simple, just be in their realm of influence or near their shrine and recite a prayer, or free style it if that’s not your jam. Just make sure you pray to the kind of spirit that can actually do what you want. Praying to a rock spirit for rain is not going to net you any results.>
“<Lastly, our place in the universe. We live on a planet, in an eleven planet system, in a galaxy, somewhere in a universe. So pretty much the same way Earth understands its place in the universe, but with less detail, because we don’t have orbital telescopes.>”
I sat back in my chair and took a breath. That was a lot of exposition. But I can hardly expect people to know everything about an alien world. I don’t know everything about this place either. I thought I was hot shit. Too cool for school. It makes sense now, after remembering dying alone, never willing to take a goddamn risk.
So I went the opposite direction. I became the kind of kid I wished I was. And it suits me. I like the kid these cats have raised. I guess that’s why I want to keep it going. My introspection was cut short by the plot progressing.
Hmm… am I going to commit to the genre savvy iseki bit? What do the folks at home think? A bird chirped outside my window. Right, that was important.
I opened it to let in a messenger bird. This was so cool. As Scud I had handled bird mail before, what with the domestication of bird here(I’m not going to exposit on this guys, they’re like dogs, but birds). But the human me never got to unravel a message from a bird’s leg. It was from silversong. Nothing fancy, just asking me to come visit once I’ve had time to recover a bit.
I wasn’t allowed out of the house for the rest of today, so I wrote back I’d meet her after services tomorrow. I let the bird have a cracker from my secret snack stash and let him go on his merry way. God messenger birds were cool.
“<Did you guys catch that? Tomorrow I’ve got to go to services at the temple, then I’m meeting Silversong again. I actually don’t know how much you perceive. Since I’m thinking about it, how accurate was the forum metaphor my brain cooked up? I know you can read my mind when you’re around, but what are the limits?>”
[I know I'm testing limits here, since y'all don't actually know what you are yet, and thus can't play the role, but answer honestly, just don't give personal details or any indication that you believe this is a work of fiction]
