after the Waking World log

[claudiometer]

Hoo boy. I realise this phrasing may be treading on thin ice right now, but strange things are afoot at the Aratta Skyhook.

First things first. Leah took the news that she was chosen to be the first Conductor deliberately... about as well as we figured she would. She has a theory as to why and asked me to run it by you guys. [And so she does, letting the memory play out from the linked point until Leah says she'd like to talk to the Oracle who uncovered this.]

So yeah, Thace, if she hasn't found you already, find her.

Second. I made sure to get a planetside view while I was out and about. Alexandra had never bothered before, and apparently wouldn't have understood what she was looking at anyway, and for an uninhabitable planet there's a shitton happening on the surface. And, uh, I found the source of the mysterious ticking noise, probably.

They're building a computer chip the size of fucking WYOMING.

Comments

[truerevelation]

... you'd have to have a mouse the size of a moon.

[youandyoualone]

And the board of keys needs must be even larger. Nor have we seen a monitor. And thus I am completely lost. 'Tis your ear for electronic signals that we need now.

[truerevelation]

[Kanji gives a mental laugh.]

Heh. Ya ain't gotta talk me into this stuff twice.

[youandyoualone]

[He gets a mental chuckle in return.]

So I do not. I suppose I was merely trying to emphasize how needed you truly are for this.

[Even if he does not know Kanji well and what he does know comes from the connections they share, he would wish the young man to have full confidence in himself--after all, Kanji is very important to Naoki.]

[truerevelation]

... I appreciate it, dude. Feels like sometimes you want an Oracle's smarts or a Champion's shiny stuff and million bonds around here, but... seriously. Thanks.

[youandyoualone]

'Tis no problem, as I believe you say in the future.

And in truth, while Oracles and Champions are useful in their own right, one cannot discredit the more subtle machinations of the Adversaries. In truth, were I still a more active agent in the field, I suspect I would be such here and no Champion--and well would I wear such a badge with pride, having known the two who first bore it.

[truerevelation]

[Kanji's laughing there.]

Dude, I never remembered how to pronounce 'subtle' never mind bein' it back home. Things really do change, huh?

[youandyoualone]

Of course they do--'twould be a worrisome thing indeed if we had all stayed static through such a long, tumultuous journey. Even we who are dead have grown and changed--I have found beauty and worth in people I am ashamed to say I might have overlooked in my own city--have had the actions of my past been put to new perspective by the actions of my infiltrations and resolved in turn to do better.

For you and your friends, who arrived here as youths and grew to woman- and manhood while Traveling, the changes would of course be profound.

And I have often found that when reads a word before one has ever heard it out loud, it is not at all strange to mispronounce it. I know that I did betimes in my own youth and had to learn many words anew.

[truerevelation]

Heh. That's good to hear. I mean, you're always full of words.

I keep thinkin' about it, though. All the changes. Like there's a bit of me that wants to hold onto being that kid I showed up as, but the rest of me knows that ain't someone I wanna be any more. We just can't be.

Sorry, man, I'm ramblin'.

[youandyoualone]

'Tis the province of a poet to be so, even if I was somewhat out of practice when I got here.

And I don't mind your ramble, Kanji. Truly. I've grown quite used to such here and you're more succinct than at least one member of my household.

[truerevelation]

Wh-

Oh. Uh. Yeah, you got a point.