[Open]

[spellcollect]

[ Frieren's mind opens up; as before, on the surface it's a calm, smooth pond. She's not quite used to this, so the connection (at first) is a touch tentative and then as she feels her way forward it opens more until she thinks she's finally ready. ]

I have a question for all of you. And you may consider it a simple matter of curiosity; I won't take offense at being ignored.

[ There's a pause, as if she's collecting her thoughts. ]

How many of you are long-lived species? Or long-lived by virtue of who you are? My kind are rare, even in my world, so I can't assume others will be particularly more common here, at the end of the universe.

[ It's an open question. ]

Comments

[holonethero]

Elves I'm unfamiliar with. But non-humans make up the vast majority of people back home. Humans are one of the more common, but there are five other species per one of us.

[spellcollect]

...that sounds like many more than I'm used to. And seems to be a bit of an exception to the rest of us so far.

[holonethero]

Perhaps so. A lot of people here seem to be from a world that has yet to make it into space.

[spellcollect]

...into space?

[ That's new to her. ]

What do you mean?

[holonethero]

I mean leaving the planet we're on and going out into the stars. Space is the gap between them.

[There's a sense of him gesturing upwards.]

In my world, we can travel between planets and stars. The Galactic Republic covers thousands upon thousands of worlds, and every single one of them is different.

[spellcollect]

That... is something beyond our power in my world.

It sounds fascinating.

[holonethero]

There's nothing like it in all the universe. In any universe.

[He loves space. His name is Skywalker, after all.]

When this is over, any new world that gets created will have to have that kind of technology.

[spellcollect]

That does bring up a question. Will the new world include many worlds? Or just one?

[holonethero]

Hopefully more than one. It'd be boring otherwise.

[Says the explorer at heart...]

[spellcollect]

One world has seemed quite big enough to me so far.

[holonethero]

I used to think that. And then I saw others.

I assure you that no matter how long you live, you'll never experience anything more amazing than your first trip through space. I'll show you, when this is all said and done.

[spellcollect]

I've flown before, but never quite that high... or far.

[ Which is putting it mildly. ]

So I'll look forward to it.