driftfleet | Calibration Post 1, "Daytime"

[ Not long after the shuffle, there's a ripple of static over the network - loud, sudden, and seemingly with no origin. It's puzzling, but there's no indication that it's going to happen again...

Until a minute later. Another surge of static comes in over the speakers, and then a voice - one some may find familiar, though not necessarily welcome, after all of this time... It's Diamond. Long time no speak, hmm?

Clearly, not all is well. She sounds very far away, for one. For another, she sounds... skeptical, almost alarmed. There may actually be real concern in her voice. ]

Again? Twice in one c--

[ Her sentence is cut short with a strangled gasp, followed by a moment of silence. What follows may be the sound of metal dragged across metal, but it's hard to place. When she speaks again, it's uncharacteristically monotonous. ]

... Bring them in.

[ A blip of lost time passes right after those words, before every passenger mysteriously wakes alone in their own unfamiliar room. The style of decor resembles that of the Marsiva's Hospitality Deck, if any passengers should remember what that's like. It sounds and smells the same as the host ship as well, all clean and chrome, but this set of rooms has only been used once, and for the very same purpose that befalls the fleet contestants now.

As for their hosts, there is no immediate sign of them, though some may recall a series of hideous, half-electronic screams before their memories begin to blur upon arrival...

Welcome back to the Marsiva, dear passengers. It's time for round two of calibrations. ]

[ This mingle will cover all non-calibration room interactions. Please continue to come back to it for the duration of the plot! You are, of course, free to post any other mingles/posts/etc. that you'd like. ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Yuan takes a moment to study that reaction, not sure whether to be hurt or resigned at this point. He likes Felix; the man is charming, clever, and easy to talk to. He'll be upset if he doesn't get to have those conversations anymore. But if this change in demeanor is the result of learning some truth about Yuan's past, well, he'll have to live with those consequences.]

Felix. [He nods a greeting, keeping his own expression carefully neutral.] ...Not to be blunt, but you look like these dreams are getting to you.

[There are uncomfortable truths on both ends, but his hesitance lies more in the glimpses into his own than Yuan's, though it would be a lie to say he did not have serious questions. None of those were the sort to drive him away entirely.]

When are you not blunt? And frankly, I don't think there is any among us who are not feeling the effects.

[His expression is equally level, though there is a tiny trace of humor in his downcast smile]

I've spent too much time dancing around things I'm not supposed to talk about to want to keep doing it when I don't have to.

[Whatever it is, the fear that it's irreparable is fading, at least, and Yuan sighs, relaxes just slightly.] But you're right, everyone's been going around in a haze. ...I wonder if they bring us all together for this so we can't avoid seeing one another.

I am sure that is very much a fringe benefit. The fleet as it is is already close quarters, and I would have to close myself off in my room forever if I had any hope of avoiding the inevitable questions. Nor would I like to spend my time regarding the floor in the company of people whom I have respected.

[And he is still looking more down at his hands than at Yuan, though he chances a determined glance upwards, just once]

Shall we continue avoiding it? Powers know I certainly can try, as I have done for most of my life.

[Yuan is silent for a moment, seriously considering this, and the discomfort shows on his face. He really doesn't want to talk about some of the things he saw in Felix's memories - doesn't want to admit to having invaded that part of his history, or to remind Felix outright of what happened. ...But Yuan wouldn't want someone else to know such fragile parts of his own past and not tell him they knew, either.

There's also the fact that he still doesn't know exactly which of his own memories Felix might have seen.] I've already run into people who saw things in my mind that I didn't remember them seeing. ...I'd rather know about it, even if it's something I can't defend.

You aren't on trial, Yuan...but I would be remiss if I did not admit there are some things I would like to know.

[He will not at all broach what he knows Yuan has seen in his own mind, and he can't blame the half-elf from running from those thoughts as he had. It's somehow worse that that darkness has infected someone else. But he also will not lie.

Felix glances back at one of the nooks, then back to Yuan]

May we sit? Unless you prefer a more...private audience. [There's a trace of wryness in the last that he can't quite help]

I don't think anyone's trying very hard to snoop in the daytime, considering. [He makes his way to the nook and settles in. On some level, the wry tone is reassuring, but with a guilty conscience eating at him from several angles, it's hard to let himself relax entirely.

He isn't on trial, perhaps, but he deserves to be. Except, as he's been reminded here once before, there's no body of law on his world that could really claim jurisdiction over Cruxis, which doesn't actually make anything better.]

Not intentionally, no.

[Feeling a little fragile, though outwardly there's nothing more than a light stiffness to his bearing, he leads Yuan to a nearby nook. Felix slides back into the shadows, what little there are, hoping to gain as much privacy as he can get without going so far as to hide in one of their tiny cupboards of a bedroom. He cards his hands lightly together and waits for Yuan to settle as he tries to collect his thoughts on the matter.]

[Yuan folds his hands in his lap, trying to seem relatively nonchalant, and meets Felix's eyes: the calculated caution in every gesture betrays his nerves.]

So what was it you wanted to know more about? [Or rather, what did you see?]

I believe my view of the events was somewhat out of sequence, but from what I could tell...after the death of Martel, someone convinced you enact a plan to find someone to act as a vessel to bring her back from the dead, and then sometime later you discussing plans to kill the girl meant to act as one of those potential vessels...

[Which is only a brief summary of events, but little enough for what he understands of the motivations, and that's maybe why he isn't as angry with Yuan as most people might be.]

I'm confused as to how you went from one admittedly desperate act to another. I'm even more curious that your initial plan seems to have succeeded despite this.

[Yuan nods distantly, then glances away as he tries to think how to word his response, brow furrowing slightly.] ...One thing to understand, that I expect the visions likely didn't make clear, is that there was a gap of a few thousand years between those...phases of my life. During that time, though it took far longer than it should, I began to have doubts about what we were doing. Whether the world we were creating in her name was the one she wanted. [He looks Felix in the eyes again, dead serious now.] But I didn't realize it all needed to stop until I learned that bringing Martel back to life would doom the world she'd loved so much.

You see, when she'd died, her soul was...preserved, but only temporarily. It would need a great influx of mana to keep her from fading away beyond our reach...so we bound it to the seed of the Great Tree, the one she'd been trying to sprout when they killed her. The one that was currently providing the worlds with the mana they needed to live, and now would have to persist in that task until we could bring her back. ...It was the only option we had, but eventually I learned that if we did, in fact, bring Martel back to life with her soul so bound, she would absorb the Great Seed in the process, and the world would die from a lack of mana.

[He shakes his head, grimacing.] Mithos had known for a lot longer. He didn't care: we had Derris-Kharlan, we could continue to live, and the world hated us anyway. ...But I knew, I knew she would never forgive us for killing her world just to bring her back. If I'd voiced my objections openly, Mithos would have just killed me, or at best locked me up somewhere. So I started looking for other ways to stop the revival, and that's what you saw: I started a group of rebels called the Renegades, and one of the things we did to delay Martel's revival was kill the Chosen Ones sent to try to become her new host. [He glances away again for just a moment.] It probably seems cruel, but Mithos' plan was to drain away their souls piece by piece to leave them a shell that Martel could use for a body; at least dying by the sword is quick. [The explanation sounds a little hollow, a little rehearsed.]

As for the rest... [He smirks wryly.] If you find it confusing, think how surprised Kratos and I were. ...The original Great Kharlan Tree had a Spirit attached to it, an avatar that allowed it to communicate with mortals. What we didn't know or expect was that every tree of that kind has such a Spirit, born when the seed is first germinated. So the Great Seed did absorb Martel's soul when it germinated, along with the souls of all the Chosen Ones we'd sacrificed in our attempts to bring her back...and together, they became the Spirit of the new Great Tree. That's the being you saw.

Calibration Post 1, "Daytime"

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