Mid-late Week 3

[brokers]

[The broadcast goes out in the latter half of the third week of mass markings. Liara's voice is likely familiar, but where her telepathic communication is usually crisp and clear, this time it has an odd, echoing quality, almost as though she's livestreaming a recording of speech. There isn't much by way of inflection - it sounds, perhaps, as though she's reading from a screen, or repeating something over-rehearsed.]

I am certain that by now, most of you have seen the media room that makes up the third stage of this iteration of Liminal Space. It is a reproduction of a portion of a place we refer to as Moebius, and the location of the first Jaunt the oldest of us remember.

The computer banks within that room do not hold information about the Jaunt itself. They do not hold information about our captors. They only hold records of our own deaths. I would...

[There's a brief skip, as though the connection has faltered, though there's no evidence of disruption.]

I would strongly advise everyone to leave them alone. And whatever you do, do not attempt to Interface with them. The accounts are quite intimate.

Comments

[brokers]

You speak of entities that have kidnapped hundreds so that they may use us as pieces in a game that requires us to be tortured, psychically manipulated, and killed with far too much frequency.

Is it really so surprising that they keep records of the proceedings?

[naturaltwohands]

[You know what? Drizzt is starting to like being an adolescent. All you adults just assume the worst. It's kinda like a wet rag slapping his face.]

Yes, it is.

[brokers]

[It's not an assumption when you've actually been through the groundhog day torture Jaunt.]

Your...optimism does you credit, but it will not serve you well as a Traveler.

I have been told by a credible source that the Arcana enjoy that which reflects them. One of their number is Death. Others are worse.

[naturaltwohands]

[Even with knowledge of that incident, Drizzt still cannot shake his optimism about a greater purpose. Because if he does lose it, then there is a great chance he will lose himself.

He does listen to those that are more experienced with this journey, though.]

I suppose I am a bit more comfortable with this because of my world. There are many gods and goddesses. Some are the purest of good and others, the greatest of evil, with others somewhere in between. I do not know if those that control Synodiporia are the same, but it seems like they inhabit some sort of pantheon at the very least. They act like gods in how they communicate through Liminal Space and how they don't directly interfere in at least most Jaunts. Hearing about some of the horrific events of the past has raised many disturbing questions about them, however, that I cannot answer. Not that it's ever truly possible to understand gods, as they work differently than us.

In the end, a blind trust of all of them would be foolish, but I trust mine, Justice, well enough. Consequently, I am afraid my optimism is here to remain. Without it, I would be lost, and more than my own well-being relies on it. I cannot let it be dispelled.

[Sometimes Drizzt talks a lot.]

[brokers]

[That was a lot of words.

If she were in a better mental state, she'd be more willing - and more able - to address Drizzt's argument in its totality, but she's just had firsthand experience of dozens of deaths downloaded into her head, and she's not exactly at her best.]

Some of them are less monstrous than the others, certainly - but none of them have stopped any of the horrors inflicted on the Travelers. At worst, they are all complicit. At best, they are all indifferent.

[naturaltwohands]

[This is particularly bad timing on his part, yes. If only he had stopped to realize it, too distracted by the whole philosophical nature of this discussion—a discussion that should not be happening now. A child he is in many ways, and sometimes not seeing others' emotions as well as his own is one of them. ]

... I cannot argue against complacency from our mortal viewpoints. Even goodly gods back home do not interfere with every act of cruelty. The Trumps are far more involved in general, however, and I do not yet understand how that fact changes the morality of our lives here—especially since their minds likely differ so much from our own.

[This really isn't the time, Drizzt.]

[brokers]

[Somewhere in the media room, there is a flare of blue-violet light and the sound of rending metal and shattering glass, as Liara vents her irritation at the topic on an inanimate bank of terminals. They'll only come back in a few moments anyway.

None of this translates across the network - just a long silence, cold and brittle as new ice.

When it finally breaks, there's a hardness to her psychic presence that isn't entirely foreign to her being - just rarely shown so overtly these days.]

If you wish to justify their unthinking cruelties with childish philosophizing, find someone else to indulge you. I am not in any mood for it.

[naturaltwohands]

[Drizzt knows he has erred when there's a long silence, although he doesn't understand how that he's erred, other than she might be upset about his views. Many of the Travelers seem to be.

But the hardness is unexpected. There's something more to it than just a typical anger. Something that he doesn't understand, something more. Something personal. It's also almost comical that in her anger, she's pegged him as exactly what he's been told he is. A child. Is it truly that obvious!

His mental voice is not meek, as he refuses to give up his philosophies, but it is kept to a neutral tone.]

Then this child will leave you in peace.