Stones of Farspeak

[savedbyasong]

[Shion takes the opportunity whilst Aster is resting to 'accidentally' gather up her farspeak stone whilst tidying. So that he can make this announcement out of her hearing.]

Hello everyone, it's Shion. Firstly it's Aster's birthday on the nineteenth of this month for those that know her! She won't want to do anything big but I'm going to make her a birthday meal. I think I know most of her friends but if you know her and not me let me know and you can come for tea.

Secondly I've been thinking about something. I know there are people here from worlds were magic and special powers exist. I was wondering if those with such magic found anything strange about it here. If there are any places on the islands where your magic hasn't worked or has worked in a way that you did not expect it to. Also if there are any other oddities about using it. If you don't want to talk over these stones feel free to come and find me. I live in the southernmost hut of the North-Western Islet.

Comments

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis is quiet for several moments as he attempts to apply Shion's dreams to recent events. He is as clueless about the first one as his friend is, but the second pulls a couple of thoughts to mind and it is those thoughts he focuses on instead of his own visions.

The apology is appreciated, but it goes by without being commented on.]

The second memory. Do you think it may have been tied to people being taken to Umui because they got the flower sickness? The one leaving might not have known they would not return, but the one being left could have.

[Not being able to do something even though he wanted to. Another villager, but one who knew the person had to go so they didn't all die? Or, perhaps he was merely himself unable to act on a past event that would have far too much relevance to their future.]

If I had to make a guess based solely on my own vision? I suspect they are of a more generalized future, a warning perhaps. In my dream, I was led captive to the Water, but that didn't happen as you well know. I was there fighting to free those who were led there.

[savedbyasong]

So a possible future rather than a definite future. And perhaps visions of the past as well...

[Nothing is impossible, they know so little about this place. About why they are here, what the motivations are of those who brought them. Even who brought them. In many ways they know so much less than they ever did in the Tower.]

After my first dream I thought... In the Tower there was a... glitch in the system one night. I came to awareness in a medical library with books covered in blood. It turned out that during a period of suspended animation we were often taken to work... behind the scenes as it were. I was not the only one who came to awareness that night but the conclusion we came to was that it happened regularly, but we had no memories of that time.

I feared it was like that, that in that week I was gone I'd been taken somewhere and my memories removed, that that dream was all I remembered. My second dream was stranger and seemed more like a vision and now I've heard yours...

[He hopes his theory is disproved. But strange visions of possible futures or long ago pasts doesn't explain why they had disappeared to or where they had gone.

[shatteredlenses]

I wish there was a way I could say for certain that isn't happening.

[Because, boy does that idea make him feel all kinds of uncomfortable. Unfortunately, all he has is logic to use against something that rests firmly in the realm of the illogical.]

I'm not certain what the Storyteller would gain from using us in such a manner. They gain power from our stories and we have to be able to remember those stories if we are to tell them. They also struggle to return us from the dead as it is beyond their usual skill set and power level. This seem like it would be the same.

[Of course, the glaring flaw behind Ignis' argument--one he is very aware of--is that he's assuming the Storyteller is behind them vanishing during those time periods. This is a dangerous assumption considering the Storyteller is just as confused about their presence on the island as they are. If they are not responsible for their arrivals, then why would they have anything to do with their departures, temporary as they may be?]

[savedbyasong]

The Storyteller has always claimed to have nothing to do with bringing us here. I believe them. They have nothing to gain from lying except perhaps to win our cooperation but they could force that if they needed.

[The Storyteller might be helpful and frequently kind but they are also a god, they have power over them and using it to ensure the islanders obedience would not be difficult.]

I... What if there is another force? Responsible for bringing us here. More powerful than the gods we have met...

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis sighs and closes his eyes, both grateful that Shion saw that rather large flaw in his logic, but also displeased that he's going to have to actually open this particular can of worms when he really doesn't want to.]

The implications of my earlier statements aside, I believe it is wiser for us to assume there are other forces. All of the island gods we have encountered so far seem much like the Storyteller.

[Small, limited in power and scope of influence, and perhaps most importantly, able to be killed.]

There has to be more at work here. Just look at Mu and how it reacted while the Storyteller was gone even for a short time.

[savedbyasong]

[There's so much. It's hard to even know where to start unravelling it all.]

That was worrying. It's as if the islands themselves were a force and one that the Story Teller is holding back. Or at least Mu is... But if the islands began to flood when the story teller wept... that suggests a connection rather than something they are fighting against...

I just... I don't even know where to begin. It's daunting.

[shatteredlenses]

[It's extremely daunting, and that's a big part of the reason Ignis has been so hesitant to think about it as out of character for him as that is. He can't see what path they need to take, and he will fully admit that frightens him. It's not even that he has no ideas where to start; it's that he has too many and nothing to narrow them down with.]

I see no reason why it can't be both. Things can be connected and still need to be fought, especially if those connections weren't always there or recently changed for some reason.

[And Mu. Mu is such a mystery. So very, very different from everything else.]

[savedbyasong]

That's true. Things can change and can be changed. Things can turn against you and be turned against you.

It seems like a lot happened in the past here. Not just on Unmi... Where there other inhabited islands? What happened to the people?

Were there other people who went elsewhere and not to Ai'Tuoh and though we discovered a lot about the people we never learned why they disliked the Story Teller so much, what part they had in that history. It just seems we keep finding questions and no answers.

[Literally. His notebook is almost full and he is going to have to ask for a new one from the Story Teller soon because he the one Ceej gave him is too beautiful for his scribblings. An entire notebook and no answers. It's frustrating.]