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Entry tags:

(no subject)

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!

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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?

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.

[ 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?

Ah...

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

Have you ever heard of malevolence?

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

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.

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?

[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.

...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.]

[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.

[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?'

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?

...yes.

[THIS DOESN'T SOUND GOOD.]

[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.

[ ...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"?

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.

[ Katara blinks. ]

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

[ Wow, that's intense, bro. ]

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.

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

[the thin air smiles!]

I'm sure I'll be less glad of it later, considering how long it's taking, but... me too.

[ She nods. It's all the more frustrating to be trapped in a place like this when you've got important tasks back home to be finishing. ]

It's worth it, even if it takes a long time. It's better to be doing something to help, even if it's one person at a time.

[ It could be an trueism, but that's not what it sounds like. It sounds like she's speaking out of a place of experience, out of deep conviction. ]

No argument here.

[He gets the feeling that she understands his sentiment, though it's a little impolite to pry considering he invaded her space like this, so he takes a few steps back, intentionally leaving footprints in the same so she can see his movement.]

I should be on my way. Sorry again for interrupting your practice, but I can't say I regret doing it- I enjoyed hearing about your world.

[ ...yeeeah, the footsteps on the ground caused by an invisible person thing was still a little weird, but oh well. ]

I don't either. It was nice to meet you, Mikleo.

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