ye olde check-in

[leftbehindagain]

Who's here and what happened? Other than the sandstorm. You've probably heard it first.

[A few minutes later:]

...right, sorry, this is going to be a weird one for half-infiltrating, I can already tell. The locals are limited to four sentences of no more than six words each, but you can get a lot into six words.

This is Naoki. Or... Longstory, if you ask the locals, because I guess someone was feeling literal-minded. I'm already in town.

We should probably keep this brief, in the event of native eavesdroppers.

Comments

[letsgetdowntobismuth]

Bismuth here, I'm still completely myself.

Amd... getting a weird sense of deja vu, as it happens. Can't say I'm too fond of that.

[leftbehindagain]

So it probably is a revisit. That happened in Nova Venezia, too.

Let us know if you remember anything that might be useful?

[helborn]

It's Casper. I'm here. I wonder if blocking will work here. Is that more suspicious?

[leftbehindagain]

Way more suspicious, unfortunately. There's not the same kind of power we're usually tapping into to back it up.

[comebewe]

We are here. We have already decided that we hate this world.

So what exactly do we need to know here? Other than that everyone is apparently psychic in weird ways.

[leftbehindagain]

I can't say I blame you.

This planet is three cataclysms in and everyone's expecting the fourth any day now. The last one isn't quite in living memory, especially with the resource depletion that came with it. Biodiversity's pretty well fucked - there's maybe three dozen species of non-microscopic living things. Total.

The way people talk about the first one, I'm going with a nuclear war, with my full knowledge base to apply to it. But everyone gave up on writing things down after they started leaning on psychic power, and the major repositories of that got wiped out in apocalypse number three.

I'm not sure if this is Earth or not. I'm not sure it makes a practical difference, at this point.

[razorblade_empress]

Looks like they chose extinction over brainwashing after all.

I'm pretty sure it's the same world, anyway. Still don't have much beyond that and the strike itself, but I know as a group we pretty much hated the tactics, aims, and potential outcomes of both sides.

[leftbehindagain]

Liminal had me wondering, after what you mentioned about Judgement's dungeon. Not sure I'm glad to be right.

[itsananimalthing]

This is Riddick. And yeah, okay, we've been here before. And it was a fuckin' mess the first time. I've got most of the Jaunt, or the parts I was involved in. It's the one from right before Moebius.

And yeah. The psychic shit is weird. But not as weird as it used to be. At least they ain't forcing people to all think the same, this time, looks like. They're just livin' in each other's energies or whatever.

[leftbehindagain]

There is that, yeah.

[willyousee]

Living in... Care to explain?

[reallymean]

Allura checking in. I'm still myself. The sky here is familiar, but little else for now.

...What's a kythe? The native population uses the term like it's a concept everyone should be familiar with.

[leftbehindagain]

It's... not dissimilar to sharing energy via a Questing Country bond, but less selective. If you join the link, you're sharing everything you've got, physical and emotional.

It's a good way to keep people from starving. Well, starving faster.

[happyhalloween]

I'm here! And I gots a portal open if people want to go to liminal space, cause the sand is really dumb and awful. I can keep them open forever, so just let me know if you want to go and I'll summon you to me! Sakutaro and Tomosuke already went in 'cause they don't like the sand either.

Also I've heard of kything! It was in a chapter book I read.

[leftbehindagain]

That's more than I knew, Maria-chan. Nice catch.

[willyousee]

Alcuin. What in Elua's name happened here? Something about Scatterspore?

[leftbehindagain]

Scatter-Spore's a city.

Well, it was. Something happened out that way a week ago. You might've been dropped in with people getting away from whatever happened, and Scatter-Spore may not be there anymore. Either way, the details haven't reached us yet, so you'll probably find out first.

[fruitknife]

This is Shinji.

Food's a fucking status symbol again. I hate it already.

Koro-chan's staying in Liminal.

[happyhalloween]

Tomosuke and Sakutaro went there too!

[lightnovelexperiences]

This is Deedee.

Kything is going to be a problem - we already have a lot more health and, uh, I'mma just call it mana than the people here to begin with, and my Qi reserves are vast compared to some full combat casters I knew back on Mundus. I'm gonna stick out like a fireball on a moonless night.

There is some kind of class or caste system in place where people from different backgrounds have access to different specialty powers: I've already been mistaken for a "Katador." I'd very much like to know what that is in case I need to lean into the role.

[leftbehindagain]

Yeeeeeah, the whole thing's going to be a problem. Longstory knows I'm here, which is the first time that's happened to me in a half-overlay situation. I don't thik subtlety will serve us well for long, this time out.

Katadors feed on their anger - usually each other's, too, I think - to power through battle. I think they have to be kything to do it, but mostly they're never not on the edge of losing their temper.

[truerevelation]

...Heh. 'Course you'd be someone like that.

Kanji checkin' in: been in the city a little while. Uh, the ... other guy has. Koray. Was here with some traders before ... this went down 'n he's been keeping outta harms way.
...Might do that myself. Dunno if either of us is gonna be much help with this mess. [Pause.] Uh, not with the rescue stuff, right now.

[leftbehindagain]

Yeah, yeah. [Naoki's more amused than upset, though. He can't exactly deny the overlap himself.]

If you find yourself needing company, just say the word. Either of you.

[acapriciousthing]

Death here.

In my expert opinion... this world is in a lot of trouble.

[leftbehindagain]

Just a bit, yeah.

[dino_zarf]

Figured out how to de-infiltrate myself when someone is half-infiltrating.

[leftbehindagain]

Welcome to the party, for a given definition.

[forcechanic]

Jaina, fully investigating.

I don't like the feelings I'm getting from the Force.

[leftbehindagain]

No, I can't imagine that's anything like fun.