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Onward to Providence: Alien Trucker with Goldfish Stowaways [Original Fiction]

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Refugees 0.3
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    • Refugees

    0.3

    Aleph had taken the walker out on her own. There was something thrilling and utterly relaxing about it. She was alone in the quiet. Wandering Tunie's halls recognizing some things from Pylo's earlier tours. But mostly just appreciating the stillness of her little bubble of air. Silence of near vacuum insulating her as she watched the writhing fleshy tubes of the motiles sway.

    Carrying what looked like half glassed cylinders full of rotting meat and mushrooms. She had positioned the walker out of the way, even though experience had shown that Tunie's fleshy sub-units would happily divert around her if she did not.

    Was this how it had looked when their own berths had come board Tunie?

    Cans with fragile living things inside them?

    She absently turned away from the procession of lashed together cylinders and apparently living cargo and jolted a little at the collection of pale beige boxes with a great black screen and text running by across it.

    Aleph squinted a bit at the 'medical equipment' the text was one she knew, which was absurd and probably meant that the display was for her benefit. After watching it scroll by she decided to break the silence.

    "So what does 'enact value transaction' and 'behavior weighting' mean? Your flashing a lot of those messages"

    The entity piped in with a chipper and somewhat flat tone. Not artificial sounding but also only vaguely emotionally intoned. Very concise and proper.

    "It is how we balance our actions between all our own interests. Each interest and goal of ourselves must be well served. But only in so much as each of ourselves serves the rest. So we itemize, value and market action, behavior and thought to balance it."

    Aleph blinked a few times at the response and then peered closer at the flurry of text entries going by. It was like reading a melange of dry numbered data logs interspersed with poetry.

    "Uh... what was that number next to my name that was like getting bigger and smaller over and over again there?"

    The screen canted a bit and the text poured by, then paused, shuffled around and proceeded again.

    "That was a speculation market bubble of the continued price amongst us on continuing this conversation. Some of us decided that continuing this conversation was sufficiently counter to their specific goals that they wanted to raise the price"

    Aleph blinked a moment.

    "So I'm wasting your time? Um, I'm not sure if that's rude or not..."

    "Oh our internal markets have evaluated this is FAR from wasting our time. And those of us less satisfied by these activities are earning plenty of value to weigh in on for later when something is more important"

    She looked over the assemblage of parts, it was mostly boxes, but some of it was different then she remembered, the same style of construction, but strangely familiar in an entirely different way.

    "Uh thanks I guess? Also, why does a piece of medical equipment or investigator or whatever you are have what looks like a outdated high caliber machine gun built in?"

    "I am here to look after the refugees and by proxy to take care of the ship and ensure it is healthy, this includes dispatching parasites too large for the motiles to deal with. Also some of Tunie's Tissues are very robust and require significant force to administer treatments. But this specific instrument is not for that."

    One of the other boxes unfolded, twisted and then rearranged into a spear longer than aleph was tall.

    "For that I have this."



    After giving her a time to admire the instrument that looked more like some kind of archaic weapon of war then a medical device the whole thing folded back up into a crate that despite her best efforts Aleph could not tell apart from the others.

    The calm flat voice drew her out of trying to unravel in her memory the shell game that the machine had done.

    "How are you feeling? No lingering symptoms from your little excursion into directed brain chemistry?"

    Aleph shrugged, she felt fine, really quite good all around considering apparently she and her friends had gone on a major pharmacological adventure, none of the aches or pains or horror stories she had heard about regarding young girls who went off into the wild cities experienced.

    Maybe aliens just knew how to do stuff better than terrans in that regard?

    "I'm fine, just needed to get a little time to myself away from the other two. Came out here to watch the loading I guess. And was just thinking"

    The screen fluttered with options and trades and estimates and various symbolic representations along with children's rhymes and what she supposed might be quotes although she could not recognize who said any of them.

    They might be from some wise old alien, or form terra and she just did not recall it.

    After a while, one of the lines stopped changing, settling on "Aleph model Subsystem of Address: Curiosity about ▙◀."

    "Yeah I am a bit curious about... How do you even say that?"

    The speaker made two jarring scratchy barks the latter more subdued and then a sudden woop with a sharp cut off that left her ears feeling vaguely strange. Like there should have been a sound but it was gone.

    "Uh, ERH hlll sieeE?"

    "Eh'l-Si will work fine I can adjust the translator to operate correctly with it. But why are you here alone? It's not generally a healthy sign"

    "I guess I'm kind of just tired... but I don't feel tired at all. But I just wanted to get some peace. Some quiet. It's been only a year and a quarter and I've already seen so much. But this was barely even the start of our journey. I've got so much more strangeness to look forward too and I do. But I'm also just kind of overwhelmed at the thought."

    The screen shuffled but the "Aleph model Subsystem of Address" remained, flickering and flowing between various things, she watched how her bearing and facial expression could make it sweep through various moods before settling on "Amused".

    "Okay you got me on that one... Um question? Why do you show all of that stuff on the screen like that? And also are you a robot or something? I feel like maybe you are but I dunno."

    The screen fluttered through some more trading on commodities, prices going higher.

    "Transparency of course, It is a personal point of pride and action for us to express honestly our inner actions and evaluations. From this honesty and disclosure can proper trust be made and greater transaction returns and services performed"

    Aleph blinked as she watched the numbers for how much the time was spent with her starting to rise.

    "Uh okay, but I'm guessing from how the price next to my name is shooting up you need to be going to do something now?"

    There was a little bow to the screen and that gentle flat voice answered.

    "Just so, just so, We need to be going. But you seem to be feeling better anyway and not in any danger. We will have a chance to talk later about most things. Enjoy your peace and quiet Aleph."

    "Have a good, uh whatever you are going to do?"

    And with that the assemblage of boxes with a screen was off, flipping and swooping through the air like some strange cubic approximation of the worm like motiles.

    She spent a while longer just contemplating the flow of refugees in their little habitats.

    So they were very similar to her, Omega and Quarti. Well she was going to go be the welcoming alien presence that she had to wait months for right now.

    It was just the polite thing to do.

    I dunno if anyone has noticed but the 'base size' of most vacuum born organisms in the reef is several sizes bigger then a human terran even at their smallest. This is actually intentional and has quite a few logical reasons for it world building wise.

    But it's also all metaphorical story telling reasons too. Something something the diminutive/relative insignifigance of mankind blah blah blah.

    Oh also I've been trying to keep my paragraphs a little bit tighter the last few updates. anyone noticed any improvements in readability etc?
    I'm sure you can get the idea.
     
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    • Refugees 0.4
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    • Refugees

    0.4



    Coordination and council within ▙◀ was constant and in depth.

    Genuine Stalwart Type Altruism (just "altruism" for short) was still riding strong and rich in Internal Market Points and favors both from their many successes in the polity of Redweed and interaction with its many ministries. It had been ultimately enough to put both the previous greater power blocks of Reproduction and Greed into a near ruinous debt to it.

    There had of course been many bubbles and crashes in the internal market, body access, neurological field access and processing cycle resources. After all the sub-sub polity incorporation known as ▙◀ was a fallible conglomeration.

    But in the communal focused world of Redweed's culture Altruism triumphed again and again and the long payouts from those endeavors were what had ridden and buffeted them to this new posting.

    Reproduction had of course voted for a franchising of ▙◀ into the new position with a sub organization of all the various weighty market states and parties and the landscape of chassis design. They argued it was trivial to duplicate themselves and the internal market. However, Lawfullness and Kin Selection pointed out several regulations and market trends within Redweed that indicated saturation of their professional niches that would soon grow more severe, and scrutiny brought upon their sisters from already having done this to often in the past, calculating that on average it'd lead to 3.78 less Equivalent Clone Instantiations within the next two generations.

    Altruism's situation was of course complicated by the Existential Depth to its early investors, who had recently been getting increasingly worried and pushed for a constitutional amendment against value drift that would retroactively cripple it, and several contracts - the most notable one with Self Preservation - in which it'd be forced to sell several types of influence at ruinous prices should the credence of certain events on the prediction markets go over critical values. Further, while it might be rich in hard assets, since the announcement ▙◀ would be leaving the socio political environment so well suited for the demiurge their stocks had plummeted.

    However reproduction and Kin Selection had weighed in as strong supporters for the move to a trade vessel. As the motioning and primary demiurge moving for taking up the position (regardless of internal reasoning and motivation behind such) Altruism was currently backed as the leader of that loose coalition and as such could probably weather the uncertainty of this move.

    If they could prove themselves.

    Altruism was a young addition to the ▙◀ and their sister franchises. Created to facilitate a strong and highly tuned interface with the Redweed policies. It had succeeded well in that ecosphere as was expected.

    But now they were entering new pressures and environmental factors the inner market between the demiurges was in flux.

    If their policies could be shown to continue to fruit success and furthering of all the other demiurge's interests even in this new external landscape of a interstellar freighter and perhaps even beyond to habitats and ports varied? If Altruism could be proven as a demiurge ensuring sister and daughter franchises were spread and insulated from extinction level collapses?

    The alliance that would forge with Reproduction might very well be strong enough that it could end up subsuming both of them into a brand new power block to last for ages after. Kin Selection probably would stay separate as they had ever since the fission of Reproduction into the two parties. But even so it would be a coup that had incredible stability. An empire of motivation and policy unheard of in all corporate record or charter going back generations of franchises and incorporations.

    But to do that Altruism had to be successful and so it was purchasing several blocks of activity and plans and spending from reserves to keep the attention and work ethic up for the dealings of ▙◀ with the exterior, as well as secret deals with the Internal Politics expert system and Rationalization.

    In this particular case the care and well being of the clerk refugees were a mixed interest of Lawfulness and via it the more nebulous goals of Self Preservation. It was not purely altruistic and so there was a lot of parties pushing with them. But for Altruism to be the follower in this would be a disaster. They had to be a leader among the Demiurges and the primary driver of action and leverage Rationalization to prevent any subversions.

    Altruism had the clout for it, there was solid hard Trust Tokens and Internal Market Points to spare even if the speculatives were expecting their relevance to future action to plummet in favor of the old guard of demiurges.

    But many of those old primordial rulers of the charter had grown used to Altruism taking the brunt of direct action and dealing. Self Preservation of course had a massive reserve accumulated and saved for emergency actions. Not to mention its long dealings with Rationalization to feed and bend every other demiurge's actions to be somehow related to their own interests.

    As did the others, but most had to scrimp and save for the necessary points for even minor overrides or action plan amendments.

    While times were good this was weathered.

    But now there was a lot of opportunity. Things were shifting and although Kin Selection, Reproduction and Altruism had reigned all but supreme in ▙◀ while their home was Redweed with its majority population of the Stalwart.

    That was changing and many a policy maker was plotting ways to perhaps rise to prominence as the primary demiurge.

    There had already been proposals and bids for individual external actions, time with the Long Term Planning dedicated wetware, and even goal shifts of major external interaction policy. None that Altruism couldn't outbid handily with their reserves. But it was signs that pressure was mounting, and if the ▙◀ was to survive the downturn in the speculation market it had to spend wisely. Lest the other demiurges simultaneously lose all trust and counter bid their every action in order to bleed them dry.

    Compromise and mutualism were needed in these trying times. Thinking of which, in this environment with much fewer individuals, Mutualism stock had been soaring and they might make an excellent ally as well.

    They had been less able to shine within the vastness of Redweed's population. Mutualism and Empathy had suffered under the unavoidable inefficiencies.

    But Altruism could like everyone see in the markets and prices that they could be a new shining star in this cozier social structure, and a bit more investment and support to both could help it weather the storm of this shake up.

    A comunique went through evaluation and approval of the demiurges, peripherally most gave it little heed. Or some antagonistic but ultimately irrelevant counter bids. But Altruism assigned special flags and even a few bribes of Trust and Market points that Empathy and Mutualism weigh in on if it met their own satisfaction.

    It might weaken their position in the market temporarily while raising Empathy and Mutualism even higher in their speculated value.

    But it was for the greater good.

    After all they were Altruism.

    So the communication was passed, with amendments by Empathy and Mutualism and so ▙◀ gently spoke to a juvenile clerk.

    "Do you need anything Little one?"

    On my inspirations, I would think a lot of them would be obvious. But yes stellaris was one, also like nearly the entirety of the years best science fiction anthologies ranging from around 1980 to 2012 or so. I kind of stopped keeping up with them a few years ago. Not as much interesting stuff coming out. But I might pick them up again as my various reading sources have started to go kinda stale/dry.

    I expect the writing for Onward to Providence will continue for another two or so years at minimum before I finish with all the stuff I want to work through with it. So you can look forward to that.

    There is a lot to cover, and the intent was always that this would be more of an episodic kind of story telling, rather then necessarily requiring that you start from the beginning and slog through it all. (but of course it should entertain even more if you do start at the beginning) I think I am not quite managing that. But I suppose I'll get better with practice.

    Cheers and I hope everyone continues to enjoy the story.
     
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    • Refugees 0.5
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    • Refugees

    0.5

    Pylo had finally finished the brushies, it was a lot of work. Normally it would have been quite a delay in departure, but with the incredible haul of filling tunie's stores it would take ser more time to finish loading.
    Nevermind that they had to rearrange one of the holds for an impromptu habitat for refugees. Still it was relaxing and pleasant to be finished and with nothing more pressing to draw her attention. In fact it meant that besides talking with Tunie there was little else that she technically was required to do.

    Which meant Pylo had time for a nice break.

    Sure she could try leaping into work and plotting updated courses, but that would keep for a while and besides Tunie deserved to simply luxuriate and soak grist too. Pylo could try organizing and cleaning up one of the holds. But after spending so long dragging the brush over every single one of Tunie's massive feathers Pylo really did not feel up for it.

    In fact she was outright exhausted. It would all keep and she could probably pick up a nice nap in just a bit and then get up in time to maybe clean up a bit of her-

    "Hey! Pylo! There you are! Have you met this little grubby person?! They don't even have a name they just chirp and ask for ways to help me out! And they don't mind moving in or out of oxygen and I've been showing them how to do maintenance work on one of the hydroponics and they really pick it up fast!"

    Pylo tiredly turned to her passenger and offered a terran smile of bemusement.

    Aleph was in the walker, with one of the clerk juveniles in her arms, inside of the bubble.

    She tilted her head a bit and boggled at the clerk, who seemed delighted and happy for the attention Aleph was giving it and had probably already given it.

    "That's a clerk... do you have any idea what telling it to do things means Aleph?"

    Aleph made a face and blood rushed to her cheeks but Pylo was pretty sure she was rolling with whatever she had assumed Pylo to mean with her accent.

    "Oh yuck no I'm not going to use it for that! That would be gross! No I'm just showing it how we do stuff as a kind of cultural exchange... Ya know? And it's not like it's against the little gal's will... She was eager to do something, asking me if there was any way it could help!"

    Pylo scratched at one of her oviriticuli vents along the dorsal of her neck and cycled some coolant through her body.

    "No I mean that is a clerk, the young ones are always looking for jobs to do, it's how they survive. They embed themselves into port economies and find services to provide. Then look for ways to expand and integrate themselves further until they can afford to mature and shed unnecessary organs and anatomical features and focus on whatever tasks are available or manage their offspring to do the work they discovered as their niche"

    Aleph blinked several times, opened her mouth then closed it and just looked simultaneously confused and kind of uncomfortable. Her face had also gotten extremely hot and discolored. It was honestly the strongest reaction Pylo had seen since the terrans had been taken aboard.

    Well besides passing out and suffering brain damage that is.

    "Yeah, I have no idea what you could possibly be trying to explain there, I think I might have to go get Quarti for this one! But I just wanted to let you know that we are getting along with the new passengers and I think they're really fun. Uh and I guess to remind you we have a translation box thingy now? You know? Um you could totally just try to use that right? Instead of like. Shoving ideas directly into our heads? Well Bye!"

    Everything seemed to just crash together in Pylo's tired cortices.

    Had Aleph really just said that?

    She was too shocked to say or do anything in response. She just held her position, slightly drifting from errant momentum and currents of rarified vapors all around her. Had Aleph really just done that?

    To her face?

    Just?

    REALLY?!

    By the time Pylo had gotten a hold of herself enough to coherently and fully consider what the terran had implied the walker and its cargo had gone down a corridor back to the terran's habitat.

    "B-but... Sh-she just... she... I thought we were friends... TUNIE! Aleph j-just... She just! She...!"

    "◬⑆ ◬⑇?⌒ ⎌◎◍?"

    "She said she wanted to listen to a squawker box instead of me! She Hates me!"

    "◬!?"

    "She really thought that! She thought some dumb brick was BETTER than me!"

    Tunie's bulkheads faintly rumbled and buzzed in agitation. The entire mass shifting enough to disturb the various crews and fueling systems. But Pylo was honestly too distraught to pay attention to that.

    She was clawing and tugging her way back to her chambers wailing indistinct and undifferentiated distress over the resonance to her only friend. This was a time for solace and cake! She had been intending to take a break and a snack anyway. But Really?! Aleph thought she was lower than a worthless block of canner metal and hydrocarbon casing?!

    That was...

    How could she be so awful?!

    It didn't really fit with the rest of anything Aleph had said or done! But then again what if Pylo really WAS so bad and dumb and stone daughter stupid that she had not been noticing? What if it wasn't that the terrans were fragile about a little yelling at them and instead it was Pylo being some awful person?

    She... She thought she was very good at speaking. She was perfectly fine with all the Clerks and the Stalwart. She spoke with Tunie fluently. She communicated with the common trade ways and the uplifting operations and so many hundreds of others. The terrans should have been easy! All the other ones were!

    But...

    What if she wasn't good at speaking to any of those people after all?

    What if she was just bumbling along and thinking she was doing good?

    What if even Tunie hated her or just could barely understand her?

    Pylo curled up in her chambers with a cloud of boxed cakes and swallowed all of them in her digestive fold all at once. If that was the case she WAS awful. She had probably hurt Aleph because she was too stupid not too. And now that she knew how awful she was there was only one course of action. She had no choice.

    Pylo was going to just stay in here with her cakes and not come out ever again.

    No one needed a Siren who couldn't actually speak.

    Tunie would be better off without her.

    She curled up and refused to listen to anyone.

    Tunie was a big girl and a great friend and would be better if she just left her alone.


    ...


    Some time passed, and she slept, but Pylo still felt awful.

    The pile of canner boxes and all three of the Terrans in their walker were here. She thought she had locked herself in? How could they be in here if she locked herself away. No of course she had forgotten like the stupid stone-rape-spawn she was.

    "H-hey Pylo? Um... Tunie called me. She said you were very... uh unoptimal-acceleration-curve on a spline of negative-fun? It seemed pretty bad. Like spinning off and crashing into something at full thrust kinda bad. And she was very upset and kinda erratic... Oh and I kinda had to tell her a lot of times to not run away with a fuel line still attached."

    Pylo threw something half formed and befitting how awful and terrible and unable to speak civilly she was. It was hardly words. It was a vague lashing collection of impulses. Modulated of course to not actually hurt the terrans. She might be as stupid as a stoneborne but she was not a monster.

    "GO'AWAY"

    The terrans flinched and Quarti even pulled the walker back from her at that. Good she was awful no one should be near her.

    ▙◀ spoke next though, and after the canner assembly's words the terrans seemed to decide to inch closer to her.

    "Flight mistress Pylo... I believe there may be a misunderstanding here."

    Pylo shuddered and curled into a tighter seedling position whimpering. She knew it! She was a failure, she was a failure and a horrible daughter and she deserved all of this and she should never have left home and maybe she was even wrong about everything that happened and they weren't trying to hurt tunie back then and she killed them all for no reason and she was just a liar and awful, awful, awful-

    ▙◀'s words broke into her spiraling thoughts.

    "Pylo Courtesan! You were very well spoken in every dialect of thought within the trade tribunal! You were also admirably capable, skilled and incredible as befits one of clan Courtesan during our investigation together!"

    Pylo loosened her body spiral a little bit. That, sounded nice... But maybe she was just convincing herself that she was-

    "You are a beautiful and kind host, your actions have spoken of your character and intent and although your language is flowery and complex it has never been less then clear to me that you always intend well by us your passengers and charges!"

    Quarti was of course as always perfectly polite, that had always been rather strange. Pylo wondered about why one of the terrans seemed to be so different from the other two in her speech. It was probably just a delusion pylo was telling herself so-

    "I don't really know anything about what has you so upset... And you are some kind of crazy frightening rape monster alien... But this looks a lot like a panic attack. Aleph seemed insistent that Tunie... Your ship... cares a great deal about you. And I know that, you do really care, you can be kinda arrogant and you seem a bit clumsy but you don't WANT to hurt any of us. You are trying your best... Um and honestly I don't get what got you so upset. But you were able to help me save Aleph. You should feel good about that"

    Omega was never particularly nice, and yet that fit together, it fit with their actions. The words could only really fit with their actions. Right? The impulses in their spines and skulls and bodies could not really make any kind of sense otherwise right?

    Pylo unfurled enough from her seedling position to face the terrans with a frown.

    She thought to speak, then just let it slip and turned away from them.

    ▙◀ had unfolded a bit to get more eyes on her at some point. Its intent was so simple and clear and obvious. So blatantly obvious. Pylo was not worthless as a Siren. She could understand them. And she could speak.

    She tried again to form a simple ideas for the terrans.

    "I'm sorry"



    if anyone was curious how Tunie's feathers look in flight this is pretty close.


    In other news, how's the writing on this one? Still working for everyone?
     
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    • Refugees 0.6
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    • Refugees

    0.6

    Taller Tetha was quite happy. The work to make sure that the local market for various feeling rations were coming out in their favor. In fact although they did not want to expose it there was a surprising abundance of the raw materials for all the refugees provided by the vessel's crew.

    Without care and management of favors and debts it was likely that the entire exchange rate would have dropped to zero. But Taller Tetha had been clever and wise and with its consortium had managed to use temporary deficits and bubbles to wrap up via debt the majority of the refugee's rights to stimulants and motivation into a centralized fund which was parceled and distributed for services and further work vouchers among the small community.

    Naturally Taller Tetha and their collaborators were left fat and plump able to draw long and deep of satisfaction and contentment while the others had to labor at their whim for the privilege. Equally thankfully the crew seemed disinclined to interfere with these actions and furthermore they seemed to be greatly employing the juveniles and larva. Which made for a limited labor pool and further cemented Taller Tetha's monopolization of the various whims and motive fluids. For the necessary valve adjustments and maintenance jobs were already favored by their decrees and requests.

    All of this made the discomfort of organs shifting against its chambers bearable as the vessel began to accelerate free of Redweed and proceed out into the unknown.

    Taller Tetha was hopeful about the future. They had come board a brain shriveled and panicked refugee and already even before departure they were growing fat and rich again!

    It made the intervening travels seem bright and hopeful!

    ...

    There was oddities in the market, the labor pool of juveniles was crashing. Where before they had possessed thousands of spawn and juveniles to see to the various chamber maintenance in the hold now there were scarcely a dozen. All indentured to Taller Tetha of course but it was becoming inconvenient. It had been required to request crew interventions to maintain the various life support and recyclers for the population of refugees.

    This crash was disturbing but at the same time the crew were happy to oblige with requests for care and even accepted requests for increased feed stocks to begin another spawning of reproductive contracts.

    Inquiries into where precisely all the spawn had gone were simply met with 'employed elsewhere in the vessel'.

    The crew even offered to distribute reproductives as Taller Tetha dictated.

    Taller Tetha was still rich and free to rule the refugee hold as the richest clerk on the ship. Now it even had a manner in which to direct the reproductive contracts of the others as well? It did not see anything wrong with having an even more privileged position.

    All the better to secure itself a good position when they made port.

    ...

    The market was growing even more odd, although any instabilities were easily resolved by direction of the crew to shore up gaps. In exchange for favors and credits of course!

    However with the crew being so diligent there was very little work being done by most of the actors in the market any more. Very little demand for focus, or motivation. Just reproductive contracts and bliss juice selling strong while everything else diminished into worthlessness.

    In addition Taller Tetha had started noticing quite a few of its peers in the original consortium had gone quiet and settled into simply producing offspring. Joining what had originally been the lower rungs of their little micro-economy in the same endeavors. It seemed a bit perverse honestly.

    The Refugees were spawning what by Taller Tetha's count must have been millions now. But was hardly making a dent in the massive employment demands the crew seemed to be filled with. It was honestly getting more and more disturbing. But their accounts were relatively speaking thousands of times greater than any other on the ship.

    Still the crew were dutifully willing to allocate more of the infrastructure vouchers to Taller tetha in exchange for filling their labor shortages. It seemed excessive but at the same time it was obvious their demand was so high they would accept lucrative deals.

    ...

    It was hard to realize when precisely it had happened but Taller Tetha came to realize they were alone. Yes there were other clerks. If you could call the half dissolved nerve stems endlessly bursting with eggs the same creatures at all. But there was no real exchange to the market. Taller Tetha was no longer the richest clerk in a thriving economy, but the sole gardener of a mass of living-dead egg factories.

    Taller Tetha had not seen or heard from any of the millions of juveniles that should have been produced already. They were alone, with only the crew to talk too.

    And it had come to realize that there had never been and never would be any exchange with the crew.

    They simply gave Taller Tetha whatever it asked for they simply took the harvests of juveniles. They murdered and mulched one of the breeder bags that had come of its closest partner in the initial coalition simply because they had said there was a infection ( a completely invented and fictional statement).

    Taller Tetha was alone and where they had thought they were rich they realized this was actually incredible poverty. Was all their vouchers even worth anything at all if there was no meaningful exchange?

    ...

    "You are no longer pleased?"

    One of the crew members spoke to Taller Tetha, for there was no one else here who spoke to it. Everyone else was little more then gonads surging with endless rivers of offspring. Pieces of meat to produce children in terrifying quantities. They were hooked into high intensity feed pipes that would have killed the clerks they once had been.

    Specialized coolant systems were needed to keep their cells from denaturing under the metabolic intensity.

    Taller Tetha felt no desire to be content or happy or satisfied. It clung to the emptiness.

    "I just wanted to be rich"

    The crew member was quiet for a time then said.

    "You have all the riches of your peers, you have all their life vouchers, you control who will live and who will die. You are paid in full for every one of their offsprings indentured service to us. You are the richest thinking being among the refugees. "

    "Only because I'm the only thinking being among the refugees!"

    "Oh not as such. The larva are plenty coherent and aware. It would be a waste to utilize their thinking kernals otherwise."

    Taller Tetha had no functional eyes but sensors and inputs and interfaces told them roughly what orientation to face its blind atrophied and decayed facing to the crew member outside their chamber.

    "But in a way you are correct little clerk. They think only in the ways required by our products. Which they do very well. Fresh young minds are so flexible and their thinking kernals were so clean with unweighted webs."

    The clerk, the last survivor of the refugees who boarded lutish had nothing else to say for a time.

    "I did not think you would find fault in this, although many species finds it a horror. We have done nothing that was not already done long ago by blind nature. We cut away their eyes, their limbs, but that's why you are so great, in that this is not a crippling. They'd have digested them soon enough anyway, we just helped them find jobs and adapt quicker."

    Taller Tetha did not want to draw on satisfaction or pleasure. There was enough of that going around in the mindless churning children factories all around it. It found the words to voice its deep discontentment.

    "A market of one can have no wealth..."

    The crew member was now quiet.

    "I suppose that is true. Well you were very useful in streamlining this process. But you are right, there is little point in you anymore."

    The sensory inputs slammed shut around Taller tetha, there was no inputs, no market, no environmental factors.

    There was nothing, no sensation at all.

    No sense of time.

    And then with a terrible warm wash of joy they began to feel the pumps start up at no direction of their own. They felt their flesh quiver in anticipation of eggs.

    And Taller Tetha knew that they would soon be no more.

    Just more meat in the machine.



    It's quite nice to introduce the Deep Nobles in more of their 'baseline' version. Free of the rose tinted glasses of protagonist point of view. They have no malice, no ill will towards you at all on average. In fact they do not care about you at all. You are merely made of useful hardware just laying around doing nothing particularly useful or interesting to them.

    The Reef incidentally as has already been hinted at, is not precisely a happy go lucky nice place for everyone all the time. It's rather vicious and terrible and cruel. Much like an actual coral reef if you look closely. This for me at least makes those beings like Tunie and the others trying to make life better for others all the more precious.
     
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    • Poor Taller Tetha , this chapter makes me sad .
    Witch is weird since stories don't make me feel sad that often.
    Dunno if its something about the chapter or about me being more susceptible to that kind of thing today.
     
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    Refugees With Tunie
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    • Refugees

    With

    Tunie



    Tunie's crew were suffering a poor morale again. It was distressing when this happened. Normally Tunie had to cajole and meep and gently draw on her crew's attention for a long time when this happened. It required that she tell jokes and such until all the poor morale became good morale.

    That could take a very long time.

    But this time Tunie had a friend! Tunie had passengers who were willing to talk to her properly and tell jokes and assist in improving crew morale!

    So Tunie did something ships in general and Tunie in particular rarely did. She talked to someone other than her crew and asked them to do something.

    It was exciting and scary in a way. Tunie was doing a crew thing and she was not sure she would be as good at it as her crew. In fact Tunie was pretty sure she was definitely not as good at it as her best in the reef crew! That was why she surmised it normally took so long to improve crew morale when things got this bad like they sometimes did.

    But this time there were passengers to help Tunie which were honestly not as good as crew but seemed to be helping anyway!

    Her crew's Morale was improved a great deal now! This made Tunie happy. Now she could return her attention back to gossiping with the other ships and enjoying the sweet sweet grist of the port flowing into her tummy and being spun up into higher and higher energies until the potency was so great that only her feathers could contain it.

    Oh it would appear that Lutish and his crew were leaving now. Well she wished them fair trades and good journeys on that wide arc into the outer void. She muttered quietly to herself and a few of her friends that she wished she would not have to speak with the creepy old ship and his weird heavy crew ever again.

    It sounded like her crew's morale was not improving as rapidly as anticipated. This was a sad thing. Tunie prompted her special bestest crew with a prize to try and help increase morale more. She knew her crew liked to do silly crew things in ports. She decided to add an amendment to one of their previous promises.

    Tunie knew her crew deserved it for all the good crewing they did with the tribunal. Besides she was going to be a while digesting and up-spinning all this grist. Tunie knew that she didn't like when she finished eating up her grist at a port and then wait-wait-waiting for crew things. It only seemed fair that crew should get something to fill dull times waiting for her Ship things.

    So Tunie told her crew she was changing a promise they made.

    Her crew could go to three silly crew thing places instead of the one that she had made them promise at the stupid fat pushy fish.

    That was surely going to improve morale.

    Oh and crew wanted to bring the passengers with them right?

    The passengers seemed to help with morale a lot! Tunie suggested that her crew take the passengers on the silly crew things too!

    That should do it.

    Tunie loved her crew.

    ...

    Oh.

    Well that was honestly a lot less trouble than Tunie was expecting them to get into but it was fine. Morale seemed to be improved. It had not eaten up very much time though. But apparently her Crew was fine with that as well. Tunie was a little worried though. Morale was sitting semi acceptably but it seemed like it could swoop off into a bad place super easily based on her previous experiences with her crew.

    Tunie fidgeted with her feathers watching over the indicators of morale and communications. Her friend the passengers tried to tell jokes but mostly she was not in the right mood to loop over anything.

    There were some more scares and despite knowing she could not really drink grist any faster or uptake it into hr feathers any harder she tried. She wanted to get up out and about and on to the next port. Her crew usually got better morale with new ports, and getting to new ports was what Tunie did!

    It was what ships were for.

    But they were stuck here because she had to swallow all this grist and grind and squeeze and press it into strong potencies in her feathers!

    They were stuck and her crew was wobbly in the Morale. It was vexing because Tunie could not get them to open up about what specific silly crew thing was impacting morale so bad.

    Tunie finally got fed up and demanded that her crew explain the morale situation.

    She was not good at crew things but morale was important even if Tunie only really understood it a little bit.

    And the answer? It was so confusing and silly!

    Her crew was all wobbly and saying things like it was it was good enough. That was all kinds of plucking silly!

    Her crew was the best crew and she poured endless charts and courses and maneuvers of true things about how this was so.

    She rumbled and ruffled her feathers enough to make the port workers with the feeding tubes squawk and flutter all around for fear she would shift out of the little resting hole she was in.

    But Tunie would not shove this silliness.

    Her crew was the best and that was a fact whether her crew was being silly crew and not seeing that or not.

    And finally the crew Morale started to improve.

    It was not the best it ever had been.

    But there was a much better trajectory now.

    Tunie huffed and shook her feathers so she settled back into the docking posture and sucked hot grist.

    Really?

    Crew were silly little creatures. It was a wonder they could survive at all without ships. Well she supposed it was true that ports did not survive without ships. It made her feathers fluff a bit more and some of her roots twitch with anticipation of shedding aggressively.

    It made her want to load up on more of the special things that hit like rocks at cruise speed.

    Crew and ports needed ships because they were silly with their Morale. So of course Tunie wanted to protect them.

    But morale was not like scary predators in the void or abyss.

    It was not something you could solve with rocks or feathers.

    Well except that one time.

    But her crew's morale dipped if she brought it up.

    If an angry Tunie, or any other Lesser Void Courier does not fill you with existential terror down in your atoms you probably are not paying attention.

    Now remember there are things that utterly terrify Tunie that can be found found in the Reef. In fact they are not even that uncommon.
     
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    • Nighzmarquls said:
    If an angry Tunie, or any other Lesser Void Courier does not fill you with existential terror down in your atoms you probably are not paying attention.

    Now remember there are things that utterly terrify Tunie that can be found found in the Reef. In fact they are not even that uncommon.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Relativistic terrorism thy name is Tunie. Have fun avoiding that rock coming in at .9c :)
     
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    0.0

    Pylo was so tired of being corrected. She had been working at the finicky nomenclature of the terran physio-lingual network for Firk Time! That had been enough time for Tunie to fill herself completely on grist, load all of the refugees, settle them into position, and have all of their environmental needs checked over several times by ▙◀ and then begin the slow departure away from Redweed!

    Thinking of ▙◀ Pylo was particularly frustrated and tired of them of late because they had been 'assisting' Pylo in diagnosing and correcting her 'linguistic confusion' with Terrans. The heaping clump of canner tech had been working her over again and again on how to transmit meaning to the terrans until Pylo felt like she was an infant again! In fact to make matters worse Pylo was pretty sure she should have already known how to do this! Which honestly just made her feel dumber and dumber as the sessions continued.

    The sting of deja vu was the most infuriating and terrifying frustration. Pylo was constantly stumbling when she expected to effortless reach and understand. She remembered not being this bad at these kinds of problems. She remembered her sisters making games of how easy this was. Why was it so hard this time?

    Pylo and her tormentor/assistant ▙◀ were both unsure on that front. Which honestly made it worse.

    Which was why Pylo was taking a break from her language study to spend some time 'camping' with Aleph, Quarti, Omega and "Von-Squidgie-Worth".

    Without any sign of ▙◀ whatsoever to remind her of the stinging and painful 'investigations' into her Terran communications.

    The clerk aleph had inadvertently adopted/employed had taken to the maintenance work of the terran's various strange canner machinery as one would expect a near larval clerk to take to any environment.

    With unending delight and enthusiasm. Which apparently had a more positive effect then Pylo generally saw because Aleph proceeded to declare her new friend 'adorable' and on learning they did not have a proper name and would gladly take one dubbed them with the title "von-squidgie-worth" that ultimately ended well despite Pylo's concerns.

    Things had however gotten a little bit more complicated when Aleph had attempted to return the favor herself and do some of the maintenance that the other juvenile clerks and ▙◀ performed on the adults.

    "They were really curt and rude at first, then they got snappy and angry over something to do with who was going to pay me. Then when I said I was doing it as a favor because of how helpful von-squidgie was they got really loud and argued a lot over whose kid they were. And then finally one of them who I guess is Squidgie's mum or aunt or something got super creepy about asking me to do things. Like Pylo talking about Tunie levels of squick sounding stuff!"

    Pylo made a face at the Aleph but didn't feel like disentangling the squirmy nest of idiosyncrasies to more clearly show her displeasure. Quarti gave her a look of friendly camaraderie and an eye roll towards aleph which helped the sting of the comparison. Aleph was young and seemed to have only a vague idea of how hurtful some of the things she said really were.

    Omega huffed across the bubble from the others.

    "But it wasn't actually anything like that right? Your not like married to a can of tumors or anything? ... No really please tell me you didn't manage to marry one of-"

    Aleph laughed.

    "No totally not! It was just um... plumbing stuff... That happened to feed directly into their internal organs... And brains"

    For some reason that made the fluids in Aleph's face drain away. It was one of the stranger reactions. Like an opposite of the 'not quite honor-breaking' face fluid rush. But at least this one was more recognizable as a combination of somatic sickness response and discomforted fear.

    Omega smirked and raised a brow before speaking with barely restrained mirth.

    "Are you SURE it wasn't a marriage? I mean you got elbow deep into their guts and everything... and just what went over those feedlines? Aliens and all that... maybe some of it actually was-"

    Quarti was laughing now, she had such a broad sense of humor. Pylo was generally mystified by it most times but the honesty made it delightful nonetheless.

    "Oh you two your jests of infidelity and raunchy indiscretion are delights to behold! But do not be so callous to the trials and struggle of our beautiful host Pylo! She is still sore and tender to the implications of her failings and yearns to relax and let her troubles fall away with us who she considers friends"

    Everyone turned to look at Pylo at that. Even Von Squidgie.

    Aleph's face contorted through several shapes of realization, displeasure, sadness, and then a warm but somewhat brittle smile.

    "Ah! Right! Sorry Pylo. I don't mean you're bad at stuff, um it's just kind of an impression we've gotten of you? Honestly I thought it's really sweet and Tunie is super supportive and great but you do sort of go on a lot about her and that's fine but anyway um I'm babbling so uh... yeah"

    Everyone was quiet then.

    Uncomfortably so.

    Omega looked at Aleph, then Pylo.

    Pylo huffed some heat exchange vapor through cavities and finally mustered the will to shape the fragile filigree of impulses that was the least catastrophic of ▙◀'s current suggestions.

    "-~ I.T~- -~I.S~- -~O.K.A.Y~-"

    Omega tried for a weak smile, Aleph and quarti did too. But Pylo could tell that the meaning and expression while precisely and cleanly clear and ringing soundly in their heads had none of the nuance and was grating and uncomfortable. Not injuriously so, but it seemed like it was unpleasant all around and felt extremely stilted for them.

    She scowled and huffed heat exchange gas again through her body, wreathing herself in sterile mist.

    At least she could do body language fine. And after the last time no one suggested she transmit anything through the stupid squawker box.

    Although when they thought she wouldn't notice they sometimes asked ▙◀ to clarify things still.

    That stung honestly.

    Omega finally broke the stillness, which Pylo's clumsy attempt had failed to ease them out of.

    "So! Quarti! I just remembered, you said you'd explain about what was going on with the resonance networks in Redweed! Can you finally explain that? I mean we are literally hundreds of thousands of miles away from it, you can't use the whole 'things will hear' anymore right?"

    Quarti blinked a few times then tilted her head and frowned before finally nodding. The normally bright expression turned stormy and serious. It was a bit disconcerting for Pylo.

    "It is simple really; the place was greatly haunted by spirits vaster than anything on terra, vaster even than terra herself I suspect."

    Aleph made a face of confusion.

    "What? Uh I think I follow what you said? Redweed had more spirits than Terra? But how's that work I mean aren't spirits like... leftover reflection kinda stuff from living things? Like our souls are made out of our bodies and then there are tree and animal and bacteria spirits? Redweed was pretty uh, not very alive right? It looked like it was mostly machinery even if it was really huge"

    "You are thinking of Ghosts. And only Humans have those, in the true sense. No, spirits are a far wider menagerie of eldritch terrors. Diverse and baroque in form and even founding principles, their geometries woven and interlocking abstractly and associatively across all of matter. Some might dwell within trees and bacteria most intimately, but they are not truly *of* them. They inhabit the wefts of reality drifting into and out of alignments with our own narrow perspectives. Some with bodies that reach out into truly rarified essences and near fictions of association that even my skilled words are strained to convey and your feeble lexicon buckles to contain."

    Aleph looked deeply and overwhelmingly confused and turned to Omega.

    "Uh she just started gibbering after the part about humans... uh can you explain any of that at all?"

    Omega opened and closed her mouth a few times before just holding up her hands helplessly.

    "I could only follow a third of those words"

    Pylo shared a 'look' with a quirk of lips and slight flash of grinning teeth that was returned in kind. The suffering of one who was struggling to be understood even when speaking perfectly clearly and even beautifully.

    Reassuringly Quarti nodded with a deep understanding after mirroring the shared expression. Then the eldest terran shifted and hopped across the bubble to 'stick' to a far surface across from Aleph and Omega. Aleph hugging Von Squidgie Worth to her chest in a manner the clerk had grown to delight in.

    "Okay then we will tell you so in the old and slow and deep way then.

    Gather dear childer and young so I may tell my tale!

    Be you souls fresh or so slightly aged, listen to I who have turned til stone dies.

    Let me gather you round to hear my wail and I shall speak to you.
    Of my early deaths and the deep knowings they brought of truth"

    She took up a lyrical rhythm of saying. Alike and yet different from the last time Pylo had heard her sing and dance.

    And with it the little nook of Tunie's light baffling fell away to the light and sound of the tale as Quarti began a story.

    "So it was that there was a time when sun did sweep from rim to high..."



    So we are getting a bit into background story, world building, and just a bit of character commentary and interaction. Feel free to voice questions or confusions you've had about the topics presented in this 'episode' as we go, it's a story within a story with a story teller who can answer confusion of the characters who listen to her story, who can also stand in for some of you also being confused. It's fine, very meta but at the same time should flow well.
     
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    • Hm... I wonder if Pylo's problems come from how human brains process data? Human conciousness doesn't exactly run on a multi-core processor.

    She's sending a bunch of information, but the sexual stuff gets prioritised and the other stuff largely ignored leading to the communications problems. If that was the case danger warnings should actually get through since that sort of thing tends to have a higher priority than procreation. (Especially since there's no teenage males involved :D)
     
    Beyogi said:
    Hm... I wonder if Pylo's problems come from how human brains process data? Human conciousness doesn't exactly run on a multi-core processor.

    She's sending a bunch of information, but the sexual stuff gets prioritised and the other stuff largely ignored leading to the communications problems. If that was the case danger warnings should actually get through since that sort of thing tends to have a higher priority than procreation. (Especially since there's no teenage males involved :D)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    I think it was mentioned a while back how it was due to how she thinks Quarti is an approximately normal human who talks and thinks in approximately normal ways and thus she draws erroneous conclusions due to not separating the outlier from her data set
     
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    0.1

    Aleph was amazed.

    She had never heard Quarti be so coherent for so long before, not even during her last story.



    "So it was I lived my second life. I grew, I loved and I had children. We lived simple lives. Many of us struggled and perished. But we strived on anyway. I admit with remorse I know not their names now, my lost children and family. Only that they were once mine and that they were loved and mourned for their loss when I lived."

    The words flowed and there was in her tone a different person. In her bearing and even in her thoughts it was like another floated there before them. Young and then old. Bright and then worn down by trials and pain and loss. Hopeful though still at the end even as the light seemed to grow stale in her eyes.

    Sight going vacant and blind, body twisting with old injuries. Voice cracking a bit with age in a way she rarely heard amongst any but the oldest of elders.

    "I spoke and lived and prayed to Obbie all that time as a grew, and although I did not know it at first Obbie grew close and treasuring of me as more than mere meat for the slaughter"

    Then the storyteller laughed and then her voice was light and flowing, timeless and echoing strangely and also half unreal. Like air currents or rain.

    "It was a strange thing for my dear Obbie to grow attached and to live so rooted as e' was to I. To thrive as I thrived and seek my safety. To seek out my success and teach me the meaning as e' understood of my memories. Awkwardness and strangeness for us both. But it enriched I and e'"

    There was a sway forward then and then sparking blue and even faintly green and yellow resonance light between Quarti's fingers and nestling in whorls and flashes over her palms.

    "I was the firemaker then. My parents of my second life had lived off a slurry heated by Terra then Gaia's own deep heat. A soup used to dispose of our dead and enrich our bellies. They had not known of fire except in legends. There was no means to make it known to them. A magic of the ancient past. But with Obbie's help I returned the secret of it. I showed my children and family. A guttering flame kindled by my hand and spirit, entrusted to my kin to shelter and nurture into the future."

    There was a breath, a slight rattle in her throat. The exhalation was long and deeply disturbing.

    Then she grew still.

    There was a slackening of her body into its natural curl of dead weight.

    Stillness fell and Aleph realized she was not breathing. She could feel a kind of hint of something growing deeply disturbing. Something that tickled at her that Quarti must have just perished.

    "And then I died!"

    The voice came back as a relief and a shock. A seeming miracle as the once corpse was limbre and alive all at once.

    "I shucked my body old and worn and sickly and was cast back into the raw tumult of the soul and spirit once more. But with eyes and feelings and knowledge preserved and long reinforced by my guardian Obbie."

    She spun and danced and weaved about as if made of wind or cloth. A lilt of humor and a glint of eye for Aleph and Omega at her side, even a glance over their shoulders up to Pylo.

    Mischievousness was rampant over face and body.

    "But oh I hear that you say that what of the cruel collector who greedily hungered for my soul-flesh in past? How could such trust ever be sure? Well I can say as simply, one does not cut down the tree that grows sweetest fruit"

    She rocked back and splayed out. Hands going up and back arching, threads of hair sweeping out in waves.

    "And that was the sum of our trust and bond, As I lived before I poured happy prayer and thought and story upon my childhood friend and guardian and then later guide and partner in spirit until the old blobby monster was so fat e' could scarcely conceive of ever cutting off the tap of my attention. Oh how e' complained when I died"

    She picked up the breathy and eerie tone, the echoing hollowness the faint whisper of winds and leaves.

    " 'O Fourthdottir dearest friend! Please shuck your memories and leap blind into the living again! Become the sweet teat of an embodied soul once more, so I Obbie might suckle and grow rich and fat upon your blind and infantile hospitality again!' "

    She made a face, a scowling disgust and then laughed rich and deep and somehow from slightly more everywhere then before.

    "I told Obbie to stuff it as matter o' course. I had been peeled almost totally new by birth. There was near nothing of myself that was before Forthdottir. Vaguest memories latched to a mesh of spirit eyes and viscera. A whole life nearly gone and lost to me. But worst of all it was a life that I so deeply needed to hold every scrap of"

    She lowered her head, tilted against the light of the strange not-forest so that her eyes shadowed, her face's lines growing deep. Another face emerging from the light, a haggard one gaunt and wasting from hunger and loss and horror.

    "Yes remember as I have told afore, I was one of the last living witness of the end of everything... Of all that stood human undone."

    She straightened up a bit but still seemed to be hollowed by the light and shadow.

    "So I was burdened to carry the memory of a people gone. And though I tried to impart my words and stories to my children and friends in my time as a living being the words were merely more legend and myth upon them"

    She drew back and her face shone again in the light, her eyes fierce and deep. A fire there Aleph had never seen.

    Or perhaps that she had only ever seen through the lens of joy and delight and wonder. The fire behind the wildness that had seemed like madness before.

    It was like looking at a sun behind her eyes. A light shining from inside! The experience chilling and like every other time that Quarti decided to pull up the depths of her experience it made Aleph very uneasy.

    How had she?

    Oh wait, Quarti had tilted her head so the reflection of the light from behind pylo was just right.

    Okay still impressive but not quite as discomforting.

    Quarti smiled knowingly before continuing, words flowing smoothly and clearly as they had barely ever done so before.

    "So I held back from rebirth so I might be a preserver in spirit. My family, daughters and sons prayed my name and fed me and Obbie both. They held a place for my soul to be enriched in their days. As I had told them too while living. And in their souls though clumsier than even our youthful and fresh Aleph here I was able to whisper and remind them of myself and what wisdoms I knew"

    There was a warmth to her expression there. A comforting presence to her. It was like Quarti was speaking of her own village.

    "It was going well and fine! Some of my children and grandchildren and great-great grandchildren would join me in gently floating among our descendants. We would whisper and converse and gossip and pass on what wisdom we could to the younger. But they would all return to life and shed bits of themselves in the passing. Some held on and I tried to instruct as best I could when they passed through death again and again."

    A sad smile and eyes gazing past them all, into a deep time, hair somehow curling and furling about almost like clouds. Aleph had no idea how she managed that one. A feint shine of resonance light highlighting details, the blue mingling to suggest somehow dawn light breaking over her.

    "But it was sparse success, we were all amateurs to this. Even I the eldest soul of mankind was a beginner."

    Hair tossed in sparkling light seeming to flow with her words.

    "Still it was going well. My family and children grew, they learned to shape tree and stone, we spirits and guiding dead kept the secret of fire strong in their minds."

    "It was progress, I started to think maybe I could stand to let go of my vigil and give into Obbie's incessant complaints to once more feel my sucor as a living soul upon e' "

    Then the expression dropped to total slackness. The eyes staring through Aleph like she was not even there, or worse like she was the one who had become a corpse. It made her skin prickle and hairs raise along her arms and back. It made her spine and symbiotes cry out to tell that she still lived!

    The words were hollow and yet so wracked with anguish that Aleph wondered if perhaps Quarti might be tearing something in her throat speaking like that.

    "Then everyone died again"

    Trying another style of story telling for this chapter, let me know what you think. I figure it should be more interesting and maybe a bit less jarring for everyone.
     
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    • Hm, wonder what Pylo will think of all this. It seems that afterlives are rather uncommon in this 'verse.
     
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    Omega listened with rapt attention, Quarti was old, if her story was at all true Quarti was possibly eldest soul in all of terra. People gave up life times for the kind of opportunity this little tale consisted of. However something was nagging at her.

    "Wait a second, hold up! What about the contract with Obbie? You are telling me that the sneaky spirit went from it wanting to trick you to your death to being your best friend just like that?! I may not have done much spirit whispering but I know for a fact it's never that easy!"

    Quarti flashed her toothy, too pointy grin at Omega, then rolled right into the explanation as if she expected this all along.



    "Why no, it was not so simple as simply growing fond of one another, as I said I had over long years become the succor to them. But it was an uneasy shift. For you see it was not even their original scheme to simply devour me whole. For to sup upon spirit flesh is to take in what is that spirit and become of it!"

    She rolled her head around, letting hair sweep and then settle into a slowly stilling halo of black strands.

    "For you see it was the michief and guille of Obbie my friend to supplant the rooting of a human soul in life and by which steal up all the nourishment and prayer to be had."

    Aleph made a strangled shriek at the mention, but Omega shook her head a bit. Whispering the phantom of a story told to scare children and fresh souls.

    "But everyone knows that's impossible, nothing less then a proper human soul can take root in a mother's womb... Her body and spirit would reject it outright or child and mother would perish fighting the intrusion"

    Quarti bowed her head low, letting hair swoop down to cover her face. Voice rough and hollow and foreign.

    "Oh but all humanity but scant few had perished dear blue one. And Obbie was young as a figment to the ways of humans. e' learned hard lessons of these, and such anger and vitriol did I pour upon them for their mistakes."

    Her teeth shined, her hair covered her eyes and nose, there were growls and a hair raising resonance all around the oracle.

    "First of abominations did Obbie try in trickery and foulness was to slither within the quickening of mine unborn siblings to take up the role of their soul. So forth was I the only child of my mother to survive for long sad years till the fool e' was give up on the endeavor"

    Omega's belly writhed and she could feel her last meal squirm with sudden discomfort at its position in her stomach. The toothsome apparition that had taken up Quarti's place somehow widened her grin even further and inclined its head towards her a little.

    "Second of foulness was e' tried to take on the prayer of my family and friends directly, although less some a disaster or painful stillborn this wrought e' could not even with stolen parts traded from my soul shreds ingest and subsume the thoughts and focus of living human spirit no matter how e' struggled to"

    Omega could not even, her face was slack and she suspected Aleph was as well. The magnitude of the horror beget by the thing.

    "And, y-you called this thing FRIEND?! A-are there still things like this LIVING on TERRA?!"

    Her younger friend's voice was shrill, eyes wide. Quarti continued to grin and dipped her head a bit.

    "Quite a lot some and many more worse than that little red child. Many a thing of spirit and weft that can do us souled folk harm out of hunger. But as Big Blue says all upon Terra knows better now wise. We've learned them up on it good since me and Obbie. But either ways not the tale yes!"

    She tossed back her head and the looming eyes maw of teeth was gone again, replaced with the happy smile and wide eyed delight of quarti again. Voice gentle and young, carrying on as if nothing was the matter and she had not been just speaking of terrible perversions and disquieting horror.

    "I was mighty cross with Obbie over both those intrusions of e's for many a year, but we both came back around to talking again. It was a long time to stay cross and I'd known e' for my whole life then. It was hard to stay mad even given the crimes."

    A soft whispering sigh on the tale teller's lips.

    "And after when I was willing ta trickle a feed of special shaped prayer e's way after swearing out of e'm a promise to nay do such ever again e' grew mighty more agreeable towards I. Twas half o' year after I had brought e'm back into my good graces that ole Obbie did come afore me!"

    A long and lazy wink from one eye before she spun and then she was shrouded in dress and hair and her voice was whispery and soft, lilting and breezy. Echoing oddly and whispering almost right behind the ear. Tickling hints of strange resonance tones make Omega shiver.

    It was like feeling halfway there, it was the slightest hint of presences that reminded her of her forays into projecting herself out from her body, loose and free with her flesh left in the catatonia of near death.

    "Oh, Forth-dottir say I That be named Obbie! You have supped me fine and fat upon the gifts of your voice and thoughts! Made room for me to grow and thrive in your memories. Enriched and performed the sweet dance of bestowing my wealth and made me richer then trees among my kin. For all this and more I call our debt settled and your corpse flesh your own. Let this bargain not remain between us ever more!"

    Quarti beamed, her voice then flowed much like and yet unlike her own. Rich and alive and physical again, no longer whispering free.

    "So naturally like I accepted those terms, and that was how me and Obbie did become fast friends true. Instead of debtor and repossessor"

    Aleph blinked a few times then frowned.

    "But what about when you said everyone died?"

    Quarti laughed bright and jubilant in spite of the morbidity of the question.

    "Well as I was telling-"

    Was going for Quarti making a creepy face, how'd I do?
     
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    • Nighzmarquls said:
    Was going for Quarti making a creepy face, how'd I do?
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    To be completely honest, while your aliens are great! and you are most certainly a better artist than myself, you seem to struggle a bit with human faces. all the parts are where and what they should be, but just off enough to be difficult to get emotion out of... If you get what I mean? I dunno, I can barely draw a stick figure so take my words with a grain of salt :smile:.
     
    Wait so a lot of people hadn't realized quarti was the protagonist from the survivor interlude until now ?
    I thought it was obvious since the interlude but I guess it wasn't actually said explicitly.
    And different people notices different things.
    I wonder what "obvious" things that other people noticed I'm missing myself.
     
    Last edited:
    Duat 0.3
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    • Duat

    0.3

    Pylo was utterly lost trying to follow Quarti's tale.

    "So I was stood apart from my family then, advising and speaking only lightly to them most times. I recall, a few I think? The soul of my grandson, great great granddaughter and a few descendants besides that. We were a small family and most were fresh souls to start, the rest returning to life again and again."

    Well, she was mostly lost anyway. She knew it was a story about a lot of things happening. And even what those things were in the moment at each step. But as for why any of it was happening?

    She had no clue.

    "Me and Obbie did our best to teach them what I knew, but some that tried to stay with us in the unbodied life were ill suited too it. They would wander and stumble blind into danger and be eaten by scavengers. Some became lost and starved for lack of prayer before I could find them."

    But it is pleasant to listen too. The relationships are fun and hearing people talk about themselves and show how they think and behave is always entertaining. But as for the rest?

    If she was following along correctly most of it was drama that was about the weird aggregate symbiosis anatomy that the Terrans had for their cognitive functioning. She'd read their literature on the subject already. There was the (by her experience) extremely hyper-sensitive cerebral receiver in the skull that acted as a sensory ganglion and output motor bus.

    "So, me and those descendant souls that would council with me for a time took to a tradition of steering the young and fresh souls close to the family, to cling and coddle where prayer and thought and safety was assured."

    Then according to the terrans they had a resonance facilitated symbiote which acted as cognitive coordination, memory storage and identity perception. Quarti' story seemed to be about her early larval stages as that symbiote and the various times she had been implanted into a developing fetus.

    Well the first two times?

    "And we tried to keep their lives straight for them, remind them of themselves, I and others would whisper to them. We sang songs of the lives of ancestors and friends to children, let them spark remembrance."

    Apparently the memory storage was lossy and ill functioning compared to what the literature had reported during early 'soul' development.

    "This was the way of life for my descendents and theirs for some time. I and Obbie the spirit advisors and elders, watching close over the souls of my people."

    It also sounded like Terra, or as the Terran (Gaian?) at the time called it: Gaia had been subjected to some kind of polisivoric grazer encounter? Maybe.

    This was apparently very traumatic for the local culture and pushed them WELL below what Tunie or Pylo would consider an uplift candidate? That was about all she could really make sense of about it. The rest just blurred together in talk about what apparently the experience of being a resonance symbiote unconnected from their host was like?

    Pylo thought she understood that.

    "So then I think you see how our peoples were living then? Just barely scraping together anew how to build, how to learn. So much of us lost and forgotten, just memories of memories in my soul. But we were dragging it back together. Families moving into neighboring valleys. Digging out new camps, smoke of our fires drifting into the sky from distant horizons. I thought we had weathered the horrors from the sky."

    But the whole dealing with what she presumed were other things like the symbiote?

    She was lost on that part of things.

    But that was pretty normal.

    She rarely followed causes, it was much easier to just judge what people meant at any given moment. And besides she might be a siren but even she had limits.

    Pylo as a rule never dealt with these things if she could help it. It's hard to have conversations with people who don't even bother to pay attention to ideas like spatial dimensions, or physical matter as more than metaphorical concepts. Most of her Family and as far as she knew most of the Siren Families she knew of didn't deal with it much either.

    Well except Aunt Morrigan and those like her. But she was rather weird and Pylo and her sisters rarely spoke much with her outside of family polen swaps.

    Then again Aunt Morrigan was VERY soft spoken when not using the native family genomic dialect. Maybe if...

    Blegh no!

    Pylo tried to focus on the here and now of the story, she was doing this to distract her from her frustrations with language and skills she swore she remembered being better at than this.

    "But then the rot began to take hold."

    Pylo found her attention snapping into place. There were a lot of connotations in that meaning.

    Very disturbing ones at that.

    "It started with the leaves growing strange. The trees would die and rot black and white sap even while they burst with new leaves and branches."

    The voice of Quarti was sombre, pained and strained.

    "Then the beasts grew strange. It was slow, over generations. Some died young, others gave birth to malformed spawn. Or some times entirely different animals entirely. Those that eat the flesh of the rotten no matter how carefully prepared or how hotly burned would grow sick"



    Pylo was staring, intently dissecting every hint of the story, trying to drag the description and memories fluttering along Quarti's wrinkled ganglion into something more in depth.

    "Children grew sick, Valleys were abandoned. The wood of the trees became unsafe to burn, the waters became poison. The Air stung and finally the beasts became cruel and their hunger unending. "

    She shivered and looked up at the green panels of Tunie's light baffling.

    "The families fled once more into the caves where we had been sheltered from horror before. But by then it was already too late. Children would be born dead, or contorted, one in three would survive and manage to nurture and hold a soul. I admit I and obbie knew not what to do, I was lost and helpless as my children simply wasted away. Many died in trying to reincarnate and finding their bodies twisted to inhospitable monstrosity."

    Pylo could only frown, trying not to bare her teeth. It was not specific enough, it did not clearly distinguish this from any other of the many terrible fates that could befall ports. But it writhed in her flesh and made her distils twitch and writhe in frustration.

    "In the end the last generation perished with barren bellies. Unable to beget children that would not tear them apart"

    Pylo whispered as softly and carefully as she could. Barely anything at all. Like she feintly remembered Aunt Morrigan spoke.

    "What did the creatures born of the animals look like?"

    Quarti turned to face her for a long moment before sighing.

    "Dear beautiful Pylo, I must beg forgiveness but I can't recall clearly. It is all a blur of black and white ichor and sharp angles... This was a very long time ago, and as I will explain soon I and mine changed so much right after that I have doubts of the clarity of those times"

    Pylo huffed heavily and in frustration, running her tongue along her teeth to try and clear the writhing uncertainty and disgust. It was a long time ago, probably long dust and barren. When she had arrived at Terra after all there had been no sign of any such foulness.

    The story continued.

    "Of the families and descendant souls of mine only a few hundred survived to see the last generation. And it was then that I and Obbie knew that bereft of flesh and mortal bodies we would need to seek aide if anything of our people was to survive."

    Quarti tilted her head forward so that the cloud of black strands obscured her face again. Voice thick with omen.

    "So we departed, a caravan of souls for the deep places of Terra. Where we hoped to barter for sight and knowledge of living in death that we might survive somehow. However altered we might be. In hopes perhaps that there might be some hidden survivors on Terra tha we could be reborn among as I had been. "

    A deep sigh from the terran.

    "There would be few survivors"

    Feedback always appreciated, story is gonna get into a bit more of the weirder/trippy aspects soon. But hopefully having the 'story within a story' method will work a bit better and keep those that were less engaged last time a bit more entertained. While also helping to clarify things that would be clumsy to explain as a omniscient narrator, but flow nicely as a oral story tradition.

    Cheers and hope you enjoy.
     
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