► 00_01/.

[fallbythesword]

Who: Jacqli and YOU!!
Broadcast: Yes - fleetwide
Action: If you want - aboard the Marsiva
When: RIGHT NOW!

[ New kid on the hospitality deck! After establishing that she can't simply disappear from this place and reappear in not actually space the Astral Plane, she really only has one thing she even wants to bother to ask of the network at large.

She turns on the video feed, and looks very, very unimpressed - bored, even. ]

If anyone knows about The Machine as it relates to the Astral Plane, or a very specific shop, respond to this.

[ There's a long pause. ... Okay, okay, fine, she should probably also say something borderline nice. Ugh. ]

... In the absence of such knowledge, I guess someone could tell me what planet that is outside, and why it sounds like a nervous pop star.

Comments

[fallbythesword]

Details are good. The details I found on the network were severely lacking.

[ SHRUG. ]

Not... quite. There are a few really small ones. Maybe. People aren't supposed to know about them. We don't have any ships this big. So you've never been in space at all?

[aetherflows]

That was my conclusion as well. There must be some other repository of knowledge-- certainly the prisoners of this dread fleet have learned something.

[That's... more spaceships than Eorzea has.]

I have not. I have seen the inside of a... sort of starry dimension, but never truly existed in space until now. I thought about opening a window, but it seems that doing so would invite a very painful and gruesome death.

[fallbythesword]

[ Oh my god don't open a window she does not want to be a witness to that.

Also hold up there, you. ]

The... inside of a starry dimension?

[aetherflows]

We spoke to the avatar of Hydaelyn-- the Mother Crystal, from which all life is born and returns when it is done. [His voice is softer, more reverent.] It was... a very eye-opening experience.

[To see his old friend Minfilia as the Word of the Mother, and to learn that Hydaelyn's strength was waning against the encroaching darkness... It hurt, all of it, so much. But Thancred...]

It looked like this, but there was an ever-present dawn and a feeling of being embraced.

[fallbythesword]

[ Yeah, none of that is remotely familiar to her. Or useful - at least for the moment. The idea of all life being born and returning to a central location is... odd, but she's heard stranger theories. ]

I've never heard of a Mother Crystal, but all of that sounds more pleasant than the last void I was in.

[aetherflows]

Then I have strayed very far indeed, [he murmurs.] By its very nature, the void should not be pleasant at all... We were fortunate.

[A pause.] My name is Alphinaud. Pray forgive my indiscretion-- I am wont to chase a tangent for knowledge.

[fallbythesword]

I wouldn't call it straying. More like getting dragged around. [ Weird way of saying "Don't blame yourself"? Probably. ]

Alphinaud. [ She nods. ] Don't apologize, there was no indiscretion. ... You can call me Jacqli.

[ You can practically hear the unspoken, "ugh." ]

[aetherflows]

You have a point. [He appreciates the bluntness though.]

Jacqli. [He smiles, blue eyes bright in the feed.] It's a pleasure to meet you. Would that it were under better circumstances.