(no subject)

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Who: Robin
Broadcast: Video!
Action: None!
When: Now!

---

[hey, it's Robin. he's lounging around in his captain's chair, feet up on the control panel. he's twirling something around in his fingers--it looks kind of like a glow stick? it's a glass cylinder filled with some sort of glowing, red liquid.]

Back in those casino stations, I won one of these.

[he stops twirling the cylinder. when he holds it up closer to the camera, you can see that it's capped with silver on one end. the insides seem to be bubbling a little, as if the liquid is carbonated.]

This is a Luxilizer... though most people below the surface just called them Dummy Sticks, as in, you were an idiot if you walked around the lower levels without them. They're filled with a liquid extracted from a luminescent fungus that grows in the caves of my hometown.

[he twirls it again. Robin himself doesn't seem particularly delighted about the thing, he's just casually explaining, perhaps out of boredom.]

They were originally designed as a backup light source, in case a person got lost in the tunnels. It also makes it easier for others to see them. It can get pretty dangerous down there, in the dark...

[after a pause, he grips the glowing tube and smiles at the camera.]

It's funny to me. No one where I'm from would give these a second thought, but I've learned that underground cities are not a familiar concept in most worlds.

---

[PRIVATE TO JASON | TOTALLY HACKABLE, HE AIN'T NO COMMS OFFICER]

Hey, remember me? [waving from his side of the video feed.] Mr. Mean Everything?

Comments

[openhands]

I wouldn't think underground cities to be such a strange concept. There are not many underground dwellings in my world, but those who remain there wouldn't dream of living on the surface willingly.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Really.

[that's odd. sure, a lot of people where he's from feel the same, but that's because most of his planet's surface is either irradiated or hungry for human flesh.]

Why is that, if I may ask?

[openhands]

Those that still within Orzammar consider the dwarves who live on the surface to have lost a connection to the ancestors and the Stone, both of which they venerate.

[Anything deeper than that, things that are rooted in history, well, Robin would have to ask a dwarf.]

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Ah... All right, I can understand that. [after a moment, he nods--] The underground that I know has never been a desirable place to live, but I've met people who think they should stay there--loyalty to family and home, so. Perhaps not very different.

[openhands]

The same could easily be said of Orzammar. There used to be a great deal more thaigs, but they have become ruins overrun by darkspawn. Only the brave and the foolish venture too deeply aside from the Grey Wardens.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Grey Wardens! Ah! [he suddenly sits up, recognition on his face.] There are a lot of people from your world around, aren't there?

[openhands]

Yes, there are a number of people from Thedas here. More than I would have expected, but I am glad to have familiar faces.

[birdsbirdsbirds]

Oh, that's good to hear. I wonder why you guys are so popular...

[openhands]

I couldn't say.

[She says this as though they are of little or no account. Of course they're not. It's not like they have been super involved in the moving and shaking up of their world's society, history, and culture with their loud words and even louder actions.]

But a similar question could be asked about why any of us are here, not just those from Thedas. We are just as likely to receive a definitive answer to either question, however.

[Which is no chance at all.]