reach the residents

[ximilian]

● ● ● REACH THE RESIDENTS

For any questions you want to ask Viveca or Degar and receive an IC response, please direct them here. Please indicate in the subject line who you are trying to contact.

// VIVECA

Hi, what can I help you with?

// DEGAR

Today was gonna be the day, but they'll never throw it back to you. And by now, you should've somehow realized what you're not to do.

▶ NAV

Comments

Post-mission 1

[bindsthedead]

Miss Viveca, I have some questions about the Orb. It's clear that it's very powerful, and offers that power in terms of exchange, rather than gifting it, but- what does it want? And what do you and the people you're working with want it for?

[vivecai]

Hi, Sabriel. [ somehow, viveca manages to sound tired before the conversation has even started... but perhaps that's just how one feels about the orbs, in general. ]

I'm sure you've noticed that leaving it out there is a danger to everyone on that planet. The longer the individual orbs are left loose... the worse it will get. What we want is to gather them here where they can't harm anyone. This station is specifically built to contain them.

As for what the Orb wants... chaos, I suppose, is the best word for it. It seeks to disturb everything around it.

[bindsthedead]

I admit, it did grant the Lord's wish in a way that caused the greatest amount of misery. And So-Yeon... I'm not sure what bargain she struck with it, but it ended in her death.

Am I correct in assuming that it cannot act on its own, and must do so through granting someone else's wish? [That would line up with what she saw in Gyeonje. If the orb is limited to granting wishes, and can only ask for what it sees as within someone's power or authority to give...

Well. They'll need to keep it out of the hands of any rulers or authority figures in the future.]

And if chaos is truly its nature... How can we trust that our own bargains will work out well for us? Did we contract with the orb, or with whoever is responsible for this station?

[vivecai]

There is a limit to what it can do on its own, but merely its presence is sometimes enough to affect its surroundings. Whether it can cause something like in Gyeongje on its own — no, something on that scale needs a bargain.

[ it isn't entirely good news, but not entirely bad news either. ]

If you mean undoing your regret... your contract is with the orb, not us. But that will only happen once all the individual parts are on the station. And it will undo your regret and not alter anything else back in your home, if that is what you're worried about. That I can guarantee you.

[bindsthedead]

And the Lord was only able to offer the Outer District because, as its ruler, the Orb considered Gyeonje and its people his- something within his authority to offer in a bargain?

While for us, our fee is granting its requests. But doesn't that suggest that the orb wants to be made whole? And how can you guarantee it won't do anything else to our homes?

[Are they sure they can contain it? Restrain a force of powerful magic using technology?]

[vivecai]

Yes, exactly... well, for the Lord.

But for you... yes, you are fulfilling the goals to get the power of that particular orb. But Sabriel, haven't you wondered why it's only asking for something so little for something so large as undoing a regret?

[ her voice gets softer, here. ]

That's because you've already bargained away something to match it: your time. Do you know how much chaos in the fabric of time and space it creates to have you here? If you bargained your life, you would die and that would be it. But by coming here, and staying here — the Orb can't ask for more than that. You're already giving it all the chaos it wants. Why would it do anything to your homes when that would only affect the home of that particular timeline?

[bindsthedead]

It's hoping that we'll create more chaos in the process of retrieving it? Or is it that our presence is... sending out ripples, somehow?

[That's the best way Sabriel can describe it. Ripples spreading across a still pond, or the slight breeze caused by someone's movement.]

Still... Does it realize you're trying to contain it? Will the orbs try to resist us at some point? Or is anyone else seeking them out?

[vivecai]

The latter. You are causing a disturbance to your timeline by exiting it to be here, which is the worst kind of chaos you can create. It isn't anything harmful, but it isn't supposed to happen, and that is the essence of chaos.

[ then, she laughs. ] You have a lot of questions, don't you? If I ever need a replacement, you'd be great for the job. Let's see: the individual orbs know they are more powerful as a unit, so they don't resist being gathered together, but the more of them there are, the more they have power to affect their surroundings. Meaning this ship. So at some point, we will need your help in making sure nothing and no one is harmed or affected.

As for whether anyone else is seeking them — on the same scale as us, no. On the planets they are on, yes, some are the cause of great strife over trying to possess them. But right now, no multiversial entity is trying to find them all... and as long as we get them here, no one will be able to.

[bindsthedead]

I see. So to the extent that anything is preordained, we're defying it, and that satisfies the orb's desires.

[All this talk of timelines isn't something Sabriel understands, but it seems... relatively harmless, as Viveca explains it.]

I see. So there's no need to worry about the station being attacked... but I should study and review what I know about binding spells.

[vivecai]

Binding spells, barriers, neutralising magic... whatever you can. Best be prepared.

[ somehow, she sounds like she dreads what might happen if they're not. ]

[bindsthedead]

Didn't you say this station was built to contain the orb?

[Perhaps only to keep it from influencing the world beyond, leaving it free to affect the world beyond.]

[vivecai]

It is. [ she sighs. ] Doesn't mean we shouldn't be prepared anyway. What we have a guarantee of is that the Orb won't affect anything outside... but whether the containment here is strong enough to keep all bleed of magic inside, we hope so.