(no subject)

[monolike]

Who: EVERYBODY
Broadcast: Maybe
Action: Lone Breaker System
When: The fleet will be in this system from 3/10 to 4/14




Welcome to the Lone Breaker System. The planet consists of a single ghost town that replenishes its stock daily, and a desert that does not. There are quite a few points of interest, no consequences, and a mystery to be investigated!

→ More system info is here!

Comments

[tsunergy]

Sorry, what?

[Didn't expect that.]

1/2

[watermarks]

That's just really cool! [Hands clasped together, giant nerd smile and everything.

SHE IS TALKING TO A REPRESENTATION OF WATER, EVERYONE!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAH!]

[watermarks]

[Okay, look, she'll explain. Unclasping her hands, she waves one through the air, gathering the moisture that remains from his exhibition earlier. She moves her hand through the air and the water separates into landmass shaped blobs. Hmm... that water was a little clear.] This worked better with tea...

[Okay, she has an idea.] On my world, there are four nations, the Earth Kingdom [its water blob turns to ice.], the Fire Nation [its water blob turns to ice.], the Southern and Northern Water Tribes [each pole turns to ice in order], and the Air Nomads who had temples in each part of the world. [She continues to have the ice hover in the air just above her extended right hand.] Each nation is intrinsically connected to its element, and there are spirits in our world too -- of the moon and ocean, of knowledge, of forests... but I've never met a spirit connected directly to an element before like you! [Sona was like and unlike this - the spirits in Luceti had always seemed to have a limited personality; they never really did anything on their own. Mikleo was a water spirit!] I think that's amazing!

[tsunergy]

[O-oh goodness. Thank the Lords he's invisible, because he's as red as one can get.]

...Ah... we-well, I'm... glad you think so?

[Mostly? ANYWAY.]

Your world sounds interesting, too. I'm still very new to the concepts of human society, but I've never heard of a whole nation linked to a single element. Maybe the villages devoted to specific Lords would come close, but still, that's a stretch...

[watermarks]

[ Invisible or not, Katara's not quite gone enough into fangirl-land that she can't tell that he sounds awkward. She's unapologetic about her enthusiasm, but she's willing to let it go and deal with him as a person.

With a flex of her fingers, the ice dissolves into mist. She directs a more sedate smile to the direction of his voice. ]

It doesn't sound like you mean "lord" like a ruler of a land. What do lords represent in your world?

[tsunergy]

Those still exist in human society, but I was referring to the Five Lords- the five most powerful seraphim known to exist, rumoured to have abilities strong enough to shape continents and oceans, and the original source of all seraphic artes. In some stories they played a role in the creation of the world itself. I guess you could say they're technically gods...

[Which is still super weird to think about considering they're still just seraphim like him, especially now that he knows the origins of Maotelus, but she doesn't need to hear about his existential crisis.]

[watermarks]

Oh. [She blinks and assimilates that information, but the fact that there are five super-powerful seraphs is less cool than the fact seraphs exist, and she's already geeked out over that. So she refocuses on her interests:] Does that mean there are five main elements in your world?

[tsunergy]

No no, just four. Water, fire, wind, earth. The fifth is Maotelus, and he has no known element. If anything, he's the seraph lord of blessings and purification.

[watermarks]

[ Wind and not air? Weird. Wasn't wind just a form of air? But then... that was far from the weirdest element she'd heard of. ]

Oh. [ She had no idea what that meant. ] ...why does your world need purification?

[tsunergy]

Ah...

[He hesitates, unsure. Explaining this part to humans always runs the risk of offending someone.]

Have you ever heard of malevolence?

[watermarks]

...probably not in the way that you mean it. In my world that's just a word that means something like 'evil intentions.'

[tsunergy]

Yeah, not quite. Malevolence where I'm from is more like... a negative energy that stems from contradicting feelings. It's less about being evil and more like lying to yourself. The majority of humans produce it in varying amounts, and it can cause corruption in the world around them. It's also poisonous to seraphim.

[watermarks]

Well, that doesn't sound good. [She gives him a concerned look, because, yeah, most people she's met lie to themselves, human or not.]. Is that what's purified?

[tsunergy]

[YEAH THEY SURE DO KATARA]

Yes, exactly. It can be harmlessly purified before it reaches dangerous levels, but the number of people who have that power are rare. Maotelus is one of them, and he can channel that power through others. Presumably that's why he became one of the Lords.

[watermarks]

...are there enough people with that ability to make it safe for you seraphs to live? Because... people lie to themselves all the time.

[And she'd hate for something to happen to a... living embodiment of water.]

[tsunergy]

[Um.]

Not really, no. It's something we're working on, but for a long time the biggest issue was exactly this-

[He gestures between them before he remembers- right, no visual. Damn.]

Most humans can't see or hear us, but in order to purify anything, a seraph needs to link to a human who can. Unfortunately humans who are impure or lack spiritual perception, what we call "resonance", would probably damage themselves or corrupt the seraph if they tried.

Basically we need to increase the resonance of humans if we're going to fully purify the world... it'll probably take a long, long time, though.

[watermarks]

[Okay, there's a... Azula-ish feeling that she gets from that term. Not from Mikleo, but just from... there's a lot of room for interpretation in that word, and she wants to be clear about it.]

What do you mean, 'purify the world?'

[tsunergy]

What it means? Hmm...

[How the heck to explain this... oh wait, what was that thing Rose used to do on the road?]

Are you familiar with the concept of boiling water to cleanse the impurities?

[watermarks]

...yes.

[THIS DOESN'T SOUND GOOD.]

[tsunergy]

[hang in there, Katara.]

When a drop of water forms in the world it's pure and untainted. Let's say it falls into a river or a lake, joining all the other drops of water that came before it. It's the nature of water to wander, picking up bits and pieces here and there, changing what it's made of. Some of it's fine- dirt, twigs, leaves- unpleasant sometimes, not always pretty, yet ultimately harmless. Other times, not so harmless. Maybe poison, or something that can cause serious illness. If water like that is left alone, it can not only hurt whatever consumes it but also the earth around it, spreading poison to plants, trees, animals...

[He prods his staff at the slowly-melting glyph on the ground, the slush mingling with the sand, forming an ugly, muddy lump. He reaches out and lifts a hand up, and the water abruptly slides free, crystallizing in the air- pulled free of the sand, it's clean again.]

Boiling doesn't hurt water, and it doesn't change the fact that it's water- all it does is make it safe to be around again. Purification is like that. When I say "the world" it just means that the corruption has spread that far.

[watermarks]

[ ...yeah, okay, she understands the theory, but what she doesn't understand is if that involves, you know, actual fire. And if the humans survive it or not. And if they do survive it, if it's with the ability to make choices intact. ]

...I see what you mean, but... how do you make people "boil"?

[tsunergy]

It's... not a perfect metaphor.

[His life is very water-centric, okay.]

I won't lie, it isn't always pretty. Those who are so corrupted that they need purification have literally become monsters, and they don't go down without a fight, and that means it isn't painless. But the idea is to change the monster back into a human again.

[watermarks]

[ Katara blinks. ]

...you mean they turn into literal monsters? Not just... horrible people?

[ Wow, that's intense, bro. ]

[tsunergy]

Yeah, of course. Horrible people exist anywhere, but it doesn't mean they're corrupted. Just means they're horrible. We don't interfere unless malevolence is directly involved.

[watermarks]

It sounds like your world is pretty complicated. [ She smiles at... thin air. ] I'm glad you guys are working on it.