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

[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.