kenoscomm | wakey wakey [ @all ]

Entry tags:

*npc

wakey wakey [ @all ]

This is a post where you'll find a header in the comments for Aetós, Agapitos Voreen, and Florence Deshayes respectively.

As a reminder from our course correction, your OOC understanding of their places in their factions should not influence IC reactions, especially to Agapitos and Florence. Aggressive threats and demands are likely to be ignored, because this would be very out of the blue to them! ( You can be mean to Aetós, though. They're a dick, and they just won't respond. )

Timewise, Agapitos and Florence's posts are shortly after Shard-Bearers awake after the repose (roughly a day to give people a chance to get their bearings/go get a haircut/etc), and Aetós's portion is later in the month.

Please note, new tag-ins will not be responded to after April 23rd. However, tagging each other throughout this post is welcome. Threadjack to your heart's content!

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[ Aetós' mental voice is met with a sharp, reactive anger. Link would think they'd recognize him — but then again, considering how callous they are, maybe not. Maybe they've already forgotten what they did to him and what Link vowed to do last time they spoke.

...but. Noticeably, Link's anger is not quite so biting as it was before. It arose as an involuntary response to sensing them in his mind once again, but it is pointedly less merciless and vindictive as before. ]

You're asking for volunteers now?

[ A rhetorical question, asked numbly and flatly, before he continues on. ]

I saw a vision after the Oracle's trial was over. It was another version of myself... one that I saw before, in the Timestream. And he was in Kenos.

What do you make of that?

Ah. How interesting.

[ And yet. They don't seem surprised. There's a pause as they seem to mull something over thoughtfully, but they continue. ]

This is something the Generations usually do not learn about. It took until the third for me to discover it.

[ An uneasy silence follows this statement. Maybe Link is waiting for them to continue, but judging from the uncomfortable tension, maybe he's just trying to parse whatever that's supposed to mean.

He huffs, giving up. ]

Explain.

Is it unclear? I thought my terms were straightforward.

[ This could be a rude taunt, but it doesn't seem like it... They're just a dick. ]

An Aspect, a Shard. One piece of a whole. It is what makes Shard-Bearers uniquely special. In infinities of worlds, part of them is always tied to this one.

So, you have been here before. One of you.

...

[ Well. There it is. Link didn't want to think that's what the vision had meant — he'd been hoping, praying, that isn't the answer he'd get... but as he's learned, hope really doesn't get you anywhere.

Hearing this, multiple pieces threaten to fall into place in his head. And he doesn't like the picture that's starting to form. ]

Is that why our Generation is special?

We're the last parts of ourselves left?

It is not that dire, at least. Technically, the previous yous still exist. Well. Most likely. It is not impossible that a previous you was Shattered. But this is atypical.

Regardless. You are the Generation that has a chance at success.

Then — where are they?

[ As neutral and reserved as Link is trying to be — and to his credit, is mostly succeeding in being, despite his beef with Aetós — his voice raises slightly with tension. ]

You once told us that the previous generations got "purged." What does that mean? Can they be saved?

"Saved" is a complicated concept. That depends on what you believe the right thing to do is. I have no opinion on that.

[ shocking, I know ]

As is "where". That is an incorrect way to think about it. The previous inhabitants are an amalgam. It is why they are difficult to talk to. Not worth it, in my opinion. Too noisy.

What amalgam?

[ Even if poor Link was sure of what the word "amalgam" means, he'd still find all of this so frustrating. Everything Aetós chooses to share with them only creates more questions.

Do they mean the Timestream? Do they return to the Timestream? ...No, that can't be it. But they must at least be right about them still being somewhere, unless they were shattered. How else would Link have been able to glimpse them, when the many alternate realities and past eons were reflected back at him through his Shard? ]

The — the Tree? Do they return to the Tree?

Of course. It's been speaking to all of you. On occasion, at least. It was easier to understand. But with all of the previous Generations, it's too many voices trying to speak at once. Essentially.

[ Again, Link goes quiet, but his silence is much more absolute. There is no sense of shock, no doubt, no regret, no anger. If Aetós were anyone else, Link would thank them for finally divulging all of this. But it is Aetós. ]

When the war is over... regardless of who wins... will they move on with the rest of us?

I don't know.

[ There's a coolness in the answer that makes it hard to tell whether that's honest or not, though. ]

It is a different consideration for each. Sifting through the souls to find "home" if you are Meridian. Populating a world with copies, if you are Zenith.

Copies —

[ No. That can't be. It's Meridian who'd be making copies, not Zenith. Right?

Link's blood runs cold. ]

What does that mean? The Shards Yima gave us — those would... When those people come back, are they just going to be copies, then?

How do you know all this?

A misunderstanding. The Shards Yima gave you... Hm. It is not impossible that this would be the case. But it depends on the soul. I meant that if you drew the souls from the tree to Zenith's world, there would be five additional copies of you. As an example, but also theoretically.

As for your question, simple. I have had the time and the skillset needed to survive. The first generation is when I arrived. The time since is difficult to count. But over a thousand years, surely. Perhaps a few. Irrelevant, in a way.

I've lived a thousand years myself.

[ She interjects, her thoughts sliding into the space with Link and Aetos. ]

It's difficult to hold onto that.

[ She has heard he is a mage, a wizard, a torturer. So she listens and judges for herself. She wonders if he holds fond thoughts of any people in his background or if he has ground himself down to nothing in his efforts. ]

[ Whoever this is, Link doesn't recognize her. Another new arrival? ]

A thousand years...? [ It's so long, it feels hard to imagine. ]

Yes.

[ Her mind feels calm; an undisturbed pool of deep water. ]

It's been a very long time.

Indeed. My species was not meant to live so long, either. Adjustments had to be made. Improvements.

It's not ideal. But the work is mine to complete, so it matters little.

And your ultimate goal is pushing back this oblivion; this end.

[ She has to consider that. Besides, she's garnered that much from listening in on the other conversations. ]

Would you call what you do magic? Or something else?

One of them. That one is necessary. There will be no point to other goals without doing so.

But, yes. It is magic, primarily. It has always been my talent and my study.

(no subject)

spellcollect - 2024-04-28 22:45 (UTC) - Expand

[ ~~jfc i'm dumb :playdead:~~

The sense of alarm that had risen in Link softens, but it's still there. The thought of the new world's Zelda not really being Zelda is horrifying. He wants to see her again, to save her, but if that person isn't even really Zelda, then what's the point?

But the prospect of those other Links also being there... that doesn't bother him quite so much. In the recesses of time, thousands of years ago, one of his past selves was mentored by the previous one. Clearly, they're able to coexist. ]

I see. [ with a sense of finality. ] We have to save them, then. We can't leave the past generations behind. If I'd come during a past generation in their place, it'd be me inside the Tree.

[ He directs his attention back at Aetós, for one last time. ]

...You're a terrible person, but we need your help. I know it doesn't make any difference to you, but... if I see you again, I won't kill you. There's no point.

I am glad that you have come to the understanding. I am terrible. I would not deny it. But it makes me uniquely able to push forward. Progress. Kenos could not be without my works.

[ There's no particular pride in the statement. It simply Is. ]

Our goals are aligned, so it is beneficial to allow me my work.

So, was it you who did those things, or another version of you?

[She still remembers the dream; that other self, just as she remembers the mask, the pain, the words. Most would probably write the experience off as a delusion after a harrowing journey between realms. But as an Arcanist whose very consciousness pulls from those parallel realities, it struck Jade for longer than she wished it would.]

In my world, we have something similar. It's called the Sea of Eventualities -- in which everything that is, was, and will be all exist simultaneously. So the idea that another "Aspect" of myself doing all that is not impossible to me.

Of course, it wouldn't be fair to hold one accountable for things they did in another Eventuality, but I can't say I'm entirely sure what that shit was.

A question that is not strictly relevant.

I do not personally remember working on you. So, another one of my Aspects must have. But we have always worked together. When they appear, I find them. Strike up a partnership. But, they are me. So, eventually, they want the work alone. I take their Shard when they begin to have the inkling.

I see.

[She pauses. The words are different from what she's used to hearing, but the bottom line is that the concept is the same -- or similar.

[Enough for her to wrap her head around.]

It may or may not be relevant, but consider my curiosity sated for now.

[She really does not wish to continue this line of questioning. If she doesn't have to deal with yet another masked lunatic with a history of involuntary human experimentation, it'll be too soon.

[If anything, it'll be something she can ask those who've been around longer than her.]

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