WEEK 2: April 8th - April 12th

[cartesio]

Second Week

Seven days have passed. Quite peaceful days, almost too peaceful. The town has welcomed you, excited to see tourists for the first time in many, many, many years. Some may have liked the peace, others may have been annoyed by it, but it was undeniable Cartesio seemed like such a nice and safe place it was hard to believe you had been told to kill each other.

But the threat is still up in the air. What's more: how much patience does the Sergeant have left?

Every time you take a look into the Lodge, you see the Sergeant. Lately he's looking more and more annoyed. Even though you can't see his face, you can feel he's getting frustrated. How long will it be before he lashes out and does something about these peaceful days?

Nobody in the town could suspect the harrowing times that'd befall Cartesio.

When you wake up on Sunday, you'll find new maps in the map rack and brochures on the table, showing places you hadn't noticed in the town before. Enjoy!

Links

IC Rules
Guestbook
Room Assignments
Events
Locations
NPCs
Activity Check

Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday

[Welcome to the second week! If you want to contact the Sergeant, please post here!. Also please remember to submit your activity check!]

Comments

[quickpersuader]

[Hmm...]

In one country I visited, everyone over the age of ten was required to raise a pet. It didn't matter what animal, so long as they raised it lovingly. It was to teach their people from a young age to show kindness and generosity to others.

[marmoron]

Did it work?

[Keith's gonna go out on a limb and guess that's a big fat no.]

[quickpersuader]

It did. The people there were very passionate about caring for their pets. There were more bathrooms for different types of animals than humans... There were classes for raising different types of animals, and therapy sessions for those who were depressed after losing their pets. They even presented me with a pet of my own when I left.

[How about that?]

[marmoron]

[That surprises him a little.]

So the people from this place never had any major conflicts?

[quickpersuader]

Not that I saw while I was there.

[marmoron]

How long were you there?

[quickpersuader]

Three days and two nights.

[marmoron]

[So not the most reliable piece of evidence for its efficacy, but Keith isn't going to argue this.]

There's an alien race where I'm from -- the Galra. They've been conquering vast segments of the universe, either enslaving or destroying entire planets. I doubt giving them pets would help much of anything.

[quickpersuader]

[Wait what.]

Alien race?

[That captures Kino's attention quickly.]

[marmoron]

Non humans that come from other planets?

[Very helpful, Keet.]

[quickpersuader]

[So helpful. But now he has Kino's undivided attention.]

Tell me about them.

[marmoron]

[Blink.]

About the Galra? They're purple aliens that've been conquering large parts of the universe like I just said. What else do you want to know?

[Be a little more specific, Kino! Keith does a lot better with directed questions than giving spontaneous ted talks.]

[quickpersuader]

What do they look like? How do they act? Do they have one unified culture, or does it differ depending on where they're from?

[The fact that they're apparently conquering the universe just... does not seem to be a concern here.]

[marmoron]

[...Okay, that's a lot of questions and for a second Keith just looks taken aback.]

Uh...

[Heck, what does he know about Galra culture. Could probably tell you way more about Galra fighter jets and cruisers....]

They're ..purple? [He said that already.] They're taller than humans. Purple skin, some of them have purple fur. They look kinda similar to people? Two yellow eyes, a mouth and a nose. Their ears are bigger and look more like cat ears, but on either side of their head. Some have different colored markings on their face and body.

Culture... I wouldn't know much about it. Their home planet was destroyed over ten thousand years ago and they've spread pretty far. They used to be ruled over by an emperor. But since we fought and killed their emperor, the empire's splintered into factions and rogue pirates that are vying for power.

[He frowns.]

Last I remember the faction called "The Fire of Purification" was the most powerful. But that was three years ago. I don't know what's going on anymore.

[Explosion in the rift, etc etc. Stuff he kinda mentioned off hand to Kino before, but never actually elaborated on b/c of course he didn't.]

The point is: they like to fight. They're proud warriors that use their skill in combat and advanced technology to spread throughout the galaxy to claim new territory and resources. Not all them are like that -- some Galra despise what the empire at large is doing and are working to destabilize it from within.

[A beat.]

Satisfied?

[quickpersuader]

Not really. But they don't sound like people I would want to meet anyway.

[Still, there's no denying that Kino looks pleased.]

I can think of a few countries that are similar, but on a much, much smaller scale... what other kinds of things have you seen?

[marmoron]

Uh......a lot?

[...thanks Keith. He's not shit at smalltalk for nothing unfortunately. Literally any other paladin would be a better candidate for talking about this stuff with and actually having a conversation that isn't like pulling teeth. Unfortunately for Kino, she's stuck with Keet.

He does, however, extend the tiniest fragment of an olive branch.]

I spent two years on the back of a space whale traveling through a region of space called the Quantum Abyss.

[quickpersuader]

[As it turns out, even the tiniest olive branch is enough to get her clearly excited.]

Space whale?

[TELL HER MORE.]

[marmoron]

[This is definitely a new and strange side of Kino. He's so used to the deadpan... enthusiasm is paradoxically harder to know how to deal with.....]

Yeah, you know... massive humpback whale-like creatures that can travel through space like it's swimming in the ocean?

[A beat.]

The space whale I was on was large enough that it was supporting an entire ecosystem on its back with plants, large insect-like predators, prey animals with areas where water had collected to form pools. There were even a few cave formations.

[He's at least relaxing a little into the conversation a little.]

I befriended a wolf that can teleport there.

[quickpersuader]

[Kino does not know. Or didn't. But Kino is learning, and having been deprived of seeing such sights in person, this is the next best thing.]

Amazing... that sounds amazing.

[And there's longing in that voice too. A desire to see something so wonderful...]

So you just lived there those two whole years? And what was it like, befriending the wolf?

[marmoron]

[Yeah, that's really bizarre. Keith is really not used to people speaking to him or talking about the things he does in that tone of voice.]

I had to. I was trying to reach some coordinates at the heart of the Quantum Abyss, but my pod got attacked by some other creatures that were native to the area. They were like large white spiders, but with four legs. They breached the hull and forced me to evacuate the pod. If it weren't for that space whale, my mom and I would've probably died.

Space-time is distorted in that area because there's a high density of stars exerting high amounts of gravitational forces. At any given moment, you can see echoes of the past as well as the future. It was two years of that for us, but for everyone else it'd only been a few months.

[CAN YOU TELL THIS IS A RECURRING THEME WITH KEITH.]

The wolf is great. Tried to teach him how to play fetch, but uh... that didn't go so well.

[quickpersuader]

The past and the future? ...I can hardly imagine it.

[Kino's not even sure where to begin on seeing the future.]

He couldn't learn?

[marmoron]

I don't know how to explain the phenomenon. Every time there was a major disturbance -- a shockwave or a blast of radiation, I would see events from the past and events that hadn't taken place yet.

[Shiro standing in an abandoned laboratory, his eyes wild, unfamiliar. Clones surrounding them all. Keith hadn't understood it then, but .... sure enough, the deja vu on that one hit like a truck. He shakes his head.]

No, the space wolf -- Cosmo's smart. He probably thought the game was pointless. Honestly, I can't blame him.

[quickpersuader]

Oh. Too smart to play.

[That seems to disappoint Kino a bit. Dogs are great...]

...I don't know how I feel about seeing the future, but it seems like it must have been disorienting.

[marmoron]

[Christ remind me never to tag when I'm tired -- should read "probably didn't think the game had a point" is what that should have said, but blugh. you know what I meant. /o\]

It wasn't what I'd consider fun, no.

[But he did learn about his past, who he is, why things had to happen the way they did, all without needing to actually communicate with words. It was more cathartic than anything, but would he recommend it? No.]

You don't like intelligent animals?

[quickpersuader]

Huh? Oh, it's not that.

I just thought it would be fun to play fetch with it.

[Kino has priorities.]