kenoscomm | kenotebook post | ota

[ Yep, this is going to everyone–Matt couldn't think of a way to filter to "only folks who might be interested." Written out in full, it takes up multiple pages of the notebook, so he'll parcel it as needed. ]

Apologies for the long message.

This is twofold: I wanted to share the results of surveying native Kenosians re: which Faction's goal they support, and also share some less organized notes on issues that affect all of us.

[ First up, a section entitled SURVEY, with "special thanks to Gavial, Dimitri, and Ryouma for their contributions." The main points are:

Purpose of the survey, which is to see if residents of Kenos express a clear preference for one Faction's goal or the other.

Limitations, which include timespan (a week), number of respondents, and possible biases due to lack of cultural familiarity with Kenos and lack of trust.

A summary of the survey questions, which include things like I enjoy change in my life, the bigger the better and I often think about regrets I have or things/people I've lost.

Results: Answers track perfectly, with city of origin being the determining factor for alignment with Meridian or Zenith. This held true across Alenroux as well, in contrast to Matt's hypothesis that there might be more variance due to geographic dispersal from centers of Faction power. In a direct vote, Meridian would sweep through population of Springstar alone.

Final notes include the following: The divide in answers is so clean that it represents either serious methodological error or an unusually homogeneous population. On earth we referred to a phenomenon of "political polarization" to indicate deep divides. In this case, I would call the polarization more like that of protons and elections–two forces that repel each other on the level of cells and molecules. ]

SHADOWS/OBLIVION
The groundwork for my understanding is: 1) Our worlds were destroyed or eaten by a vast darkness. Forever? I don't know. 2) When Shards are destroyed, that's for good. My world has a concept of matter and energy converting back and forth, with nothing able to be created or permanently destroyed. But the type of death that comes from Shard destruction is fundamentally subtractive. For the sake of simplicity, I'm going to refer to this concept of subtractive death as oblivion (credit for this term to Set).

Portents:

Shard-Bearers have received at least one vision from the Tree of Life about being forcibly ejected from their bodies while something else walks around inside.

I had a dream recently about being hunted.

Maybe less a portent and more a rumor, but a longtime resident of Kenos has stated that these types of shadows (see below, "Phenomena") are a new occurrence.

Phenomena:

Disappearances across Kenos (not all necessarily attributable to shadows or oblivion)

Shadows (and star/moonlight) of unusual properties that include weird size, burning or slashing, mood changes

I was informed about an oracle trial in which dissipated Shard-Bearers were mimicked by shadow beings who utilized their Shards to do so

My own experience/thoughts:

I have memories of running or fleeing from things made out of darkness before Yima brought me here.

Was almost dragged by shadows into Yima's reflecting pool; subsequent conversation revealed people had died that way and the bodies were never recovered (see above, "Phenomena," bullet point 1).

I saw a facsimile of my older sister at the market in Highstorm. She looked, behaved, and sounded exactly like her. I am not the only one.

I've tried some preliminary attempts to scry into the shadows in Springstar, and wasn't able to find out anything before one of them got me pretty good in the chest. (I'm okay.) I'll update if a future attempt is successful.

There are creatures from my own world that mimic familiar voices/faces to lure prey. There are also creatures that require consent before they can pass certain thresholds, such as those of a home.

Tentative conclusions: Something unique and hungry is coming for all of us. I understand things have been set into motion that can't be taken back, but I would urge anyone reading, if at all possible, to put fighting on hold until we figure out what the hell this stuff is and how to combat it. Or else there won't be a winner left at the end of all this.

Failing that, stay safe. Use the buddy system. Bring a durable light when you go out. Please send any of your own experiences, bad dreams, hunches, clarifications, or corrections. I'll update my own notes as needed.

[ ooc: BLESS YOU IF YOU READ THIS WHOLE THING. Feel free to comment with questions, brainstorming, dragging Matt, whatever. Or equally, feel free to just have your character know the things in here, if you want them to! ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

... Oh. [ Matt considers. ] That's good, actually.

[ Right to the point.

At "magically," Matt's mental presence forms something of an exclamation point. Why didn't he try scrying into any of the people he's been seeing?? To be fair, he's not good at detecting auras without preparation, and every instance of familiar faces thus far has taken him by surprise. ]

Okay. That's good to know. I mean, "weird stuff inside" would definitely comport with the dreams from the Tree about things walking around wearing our skin. [ Matt pauses delicately. His mind is churning, coming up with half-questions and discarding them immediately. ] I'm realizing I don't necessarily know what makes someone a person, comprehensively. A soul? Some level of sentience? Could you tell from the magic you used if the people you saw were ... their original bodies? Or just something that was people-shaped-enough?

They're the real, original bodies, mhm!

[ flat seems to be saying this with quite a bit of levity, but there's not a single ounce of deceit in what he's saying. ]

In my world, at least, a "person" is made up of three things. The mind, the body, and the soul. In this case, it's likely that the mind and soul are gone, but the body...well, it's just a husk, right? So anything can live in it if it's empty.

[ Katy-Rose's image flares in Matt's memory, her tousled dark hair like his and her expression of sarcastic dismay. Her fucking camera. ]

Fucking hell, [ Matt says. Which is to say: he finds Flat's conception sound. Mind, body, and spirit are a pretty classic trinity. ] So--some kind of possession, more or less. Whether it's a distinct entity inside each body, or ... something way bigger, using the bodies like finger puppets. Or some kind of animating energy that isn't necessarily sentient enough to count as a distinct being.

Was this--

Who was this, exactly, that you examined magically? And do you mind telling me what your process is? I know how I'd try to analyze magical energy, but everybody here seems to have their own thing going.

Edited 2024-03-07 23:22 (UTC)

Oh, the finger puppet theory is pretty good! Something that's bigger and just using extensions of itself to control the people that have been hollowed out?

[ in comparison to matt's urgency, flat seems to find himself more and more interested in the situation. oh how he would love to find the source of this! ]

Hm? I've examined my mom and one of my classmates. But there's no real process to it. I just see it.

Yeah, [ Matt agrees. ] Credit for that idea goes partly to a guy named Liem--he's been here a lot longer than me, and he's experienced more of all these phenomena. But it's what my brain keeps going back to.

[ Matt definitely feels both urgent and slightly ill, but he doesn't begrudge Flat his air of cheerful inquiry. Some people cope with things differently. And having a problem to solve is definitely Matt's second-favorite method of coping with uncertainty or fear, so he can't knock it. Hence his whole writeup. ]

Sounds like your capability is more of an innate skill, maybe? You didn't have to study to develop it? [ Something they would've called psychic back home, though Matt doesn't voice that part. He's learned in his time in Kenos that he doesn't really enjoy having other people's paradigms projected on him. ] I wonder if something like an exorcism ritual could get whatever's inside them to show itself.

Yep, it's completely mine! But maybe if you took more time to analyze it you'd be able to do the same thing? [ a beat. ] But maybe they would just disappear by the time your spell is ready...

[ he'll note down the name liem, though. it seems like a person that he should contact if he wants to know more about the hungry hungry void.

however, matt's suggestion gives flat pause, humming thoughtfully to himself as he considers the scenario. ]

If you do manage to do that... what are you going to do to with the body?

Edited 2024-03-08 04:19 (UTC)

I'm definitely worried they'd disappear before I could get something going, [ Matt says. ] There's only a few spells I can cast in the time it took before [ his sister ] the familiar face disappeared last time, and exorcisms aren't my forte.

[ Though he wonders if a shield spell could contain them. Especially a shield spell that was targeted to magical energies, or the shadows' energies specifically.

At the question, he hesitates. ]

I don't know, [ he replies eventually. ] If it was my sister ... um. I mean, her body isn't all of her, but it's part of her. I'd want to get it back so I could--

[ A messy throb of emotion: guilt, grief, anger. ]

Bury her, or burn her.

Oh...

[ once again, feelings that flat can't really feel himself. complicated emotions that he has no way of processing, forced upon him by someone else. he accepts them of course, the way that he accepts most things, but he can't really reciprocate that feeling. ]

Well, if we find her, and there's nothing left, [ if. flat's not really sure what happens to those bodies after they disappear. are they consumed by the void? or are they being puppeted around like zombies? ] then I think I could help you burn her.

[ it's probably the best thing he can offer. ]

But also... doesn't it make you wonder where it got access to that body in the first place?

[ Matt finds Flat's reaction, or lack thereof, only mildly notable. A lot of people are way less demonstrative than he is over Communion, and they usually have their reasons for it. Ruby does for sure. Liem just seems less demonstrative in general. And Sebastian ... has his own things going. ]

That's very kind, [ he answers. He's more stunned than touched, but tinges of both come through. ] Thank you. I hope it doesn't come to that, but--

[ He cuts himself off. Continues, dry as dust: ] I have a hypothesis. If these "weird things" are connected to what killed our world, presumably they'd have the ability to grab things from there. People.

The same way Yima grabbed our souls, maybe. Or at least following the same route.

[ um, ]

Are you, uh, implying that the void that wants to kill us all and Yima might be related?

[ is that the pitch that you want zenites to hear? ]

I thought it had, like, ruined the ground. Kind of like how radiation and pollution ruins the crops and stuff.

Oh--no, no no. [ Matt's just throwing things out there, following his thoughts to their conclusions. Unfortunately, he has way less ability to keep a lid on said thoughts over Communion. ] Just pointing out that if she was able to pull us from our worlds to Kenos, something else could presumably follow the same path.

[ Whether he finds it plausible that Yima might be related to thing that wants to kill them or not, no way is he going to think about it in plain view of everyone. ]

Which thing ruined the ground, specifically?

[ mood. ]

The void, of course. Didn't you come out of the ground like a weird zombie when you woke up? [ flat tilts his head. ] What if those people we're seeing were also planted and they were eaten from the inside?

[ a pleasant thought for matt to ponder about. ]

[ hELP

Like someone who's been handed a VHS tape they know to be haunted, Matt feels compelled to let this thought play out to its grim conclusion. His conclusion being: Maybe he doesn't want to get dissipated for a chance at Tree visions. ]

Maybe we should be watching the tree, [ he offers eventually. ] I mean, with some degree of regularity. And with people who aren't going to ... try and start something.

No matter what, I think we need to get a closer look at some of these phenomena.

[ Dun dun dunnnn ... ]

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