Video

[hearsthesea]

Who: Shirley Fennes
Broadcast: Network; open video
Action: SS Huntress
When: Morning after the shuffle (1/03)

[There's a new face on the network! Specifically a teenage girl's, curious but not quite sure of herself.]

Can people see this?

[She pauses for a second before continuing, standing up straighter and speaking carefully.]

Um, if you can...good morning, everyone. My name is Shirley, and I suppose I'm new here.

I'm speaking to everybody now because I wanted to ask if anybody's seen a quill pen. I know I had it on me before they took me here yesterday, but it's disappeared since then. If it's not on this ship, then it should be on the big one...the HS Marsiva, I think. I'm on the SS Huntress right now, but I haven't seen it anywhere.

That quill means a lot to me, so I'd like to have it back if anyone can find it. Thank you very much, all of you.

Comments

[misconceived]

[ Yeah, okay, he can't help it. Chris laughs. It's kind of a rare sound, an actual laugh instead of something soft and hidden or sarcastic or mocking. ]

I'm kidding. Those things are sealed up triple tight, just like on a ship or something.

[hearsthesea]

Oh.

[Shirley blushes - that was a little embarrassing.]

Right. That makes sense.

[misconceived]

[ Sorry, Chris is going to keep being amused. ]

They don't have this kind of stuff where you're from, right?

[hearsthesea]

[Shirley shakes her head.]

There were some who used to know about traveling from other worlds, but the knowledge has been lost over time.

[misconceived]

Really? That was something they actually did?

[hearsthesea]

They did, but I don't know of any Orerines who remember it.

[Oh, wait. Context.]

Sorry. Orerines are the people descended from those who came to our world.

[misconceived]

Oh. So it was their ancestors who did it.

[hearsthesea]

Yes, thousands of years ago. A lot of knowledge has been lost since those times.

[misconceived]

Yeah... that's a long time. [ Really, really long. ] Do they know... why?

[hearsthesea]

I don't think any of the Orerines knew until recently. Only the Ferines remembered...those are the people I come from.

[Let's not talk about why they remember. You don't want that story, Chris.]

[misconceived]

So... the Orerines and the Ferines. Where did they come from?

[hearsthesea]

The Ferines have been where we are since the beginning. I don't know where the Orerines came from...only that they came in a ship four thousand years ago, and have forgotten even that since then.

[misconceived]

[ Oh, that kind of world travel? Not exactly what Chris is thinking of, but interesting nonetheless. ]

Immigrants to the world, then. How do you forget that kind of thing?

[hearsthesea]

It's been a long time. And...it's a long story.

[Also maybe not the most appropriate for this conversation.]

[misconceived]

[ He has a bit of an eyeroll for that, but at least he doesn't press. ]

All right. Okay. So technology isn't exactly a priority where you're from. Right?

[hearsthesea]

Not many places that I've been too.

[Like many RPG worlds, most of the Legacy's best technology is thousands of years old!]

[misconceived]

So, like... what's the level you're used to? Do you even have lights? [ He gestures upward to the electrical lights. That's kind of his standard for stone age vs modernity apparently. ]

[hearsthesea]

Not like those.

[So, Stone Age.]

I don't know how to describe the level of technology we have, but it's less than everything here. Are you familiar with all of it?

[misconceived]

Not... the way you're thinking. We kind of have more basic versions of all of this, and for stuff we don't have at all, we've definitely had stories about it. Fiction. With the augments, most of it is pretty familiar.

[hearsthesea]

That must be interesting. I don't believe we have many stories like that, but perhaps the Orerines...

[Watch out, world, Shirley's getting ideas. They're of no use while she's stuck here, but once she gets back home she's thinking this could be another direction of interest.]

[misconceived]

It's pretty popular where I'm from, but I guess it mostly started once we actually focused on improving our technology. What kind of stories do you have?

[hearsthesea]

Many of them have to do with the ocean, since it's very important to us. Like a proposal ritual that lasted a full year, or the woman who was swept halfway across the world in a storm and had to find her way home.

[Also prominent in her childhood is that tale about outside invaders and war and...oh wait. It's hard to talk deeply about the Ferines without going into ugly territory.]

[misconceived]

So... romance or adventure or stuff like that. We have stories like that, too.

[hearsthesea]

That makes sense. What are some of the ones you have?

[misconceived]

God. [ Chris laughs and shakes his head. ] That's a hard question. Pretty much anything someone's thought of and cared to put on paper, really. Huge fantasies, romance novels, historical fiction, tragedies, comedies, mythologies...

It's hard to think of just a few examples, you know?