EVENT #8: MÆRE - IC POST (MAIN EVENT)

[abraxasmods]

Event #8 - Mære

go to the OOC event info and plotting post or the IC faction intervention post.

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Sleep can be a welcome escape from the daily toils of life. No matter one's magical affinity or physical prowess, many succumb to the need eventually. While some find refuge in it, others prefer to avoid sleep for as long as they can, fearing what lurks in the corners. For the latter, perhaps what happens next is just part of their nightly struggle.

Beginning on the night of JUNE 18, characters will be met with unsettling dreams and their worst nightmares. It will build slowly over the course of the following week as manifestations of their deepest fears and regrets make themselves known.

Night Walk

How does it start? Familiar, perhaps: experienced before or a recognizable concoction of events and feelings. Your old home, a town you've visited, a room you met an old friend in, a corridor where you faced off with a great foe, or a mosaic of the different pieces of your life. You don't yet sense danger. It's safe, you think. Or alternatively: you are consumed immediately by an unsettling feeling, finding yourself in a darkened room you don't recognize, falling endlessly, unable to move, already wounded in the middle of nowhere, or the growl of an animal. Whatever the recreated vista, you slowly get the distinct sense that you are not alone.

As you explore your dreamscape, this sense does not leave you. You may find a shadow looming over you, catch something in the corner of your eye, hear a sound far off in the distance. Wherever you turn, you seem to just miss it. Whether this unsettles you or not will vary, but you will remember this come the morning. If you are one of the lucky ones, it all ends here. Strange dreams are nothing unusual. Those happen now and again. But for many others this is just the beginning.

The Entity

If you are among those less fortunate, you will find yourself plunged into the same dream. It may not be the next night. Perhaps it happens later, when you're napping in the afternoon, or a few nights afterwards when you've already forgotten all about it. Regardless, it returns to you. The stage might be different, the details shifted, but the feeling of something watching remains. In your absence, it only seems to have grown. Each time you return to this singular dream world, its presence grows ever stronger. Oppressive, suffocating, you know you are being hunted.

When you finally see it, you know exactly what it is. The Entity that hunts you is born out of your subconscious itself, your deepest fears and traumas given form. A twisted manifestation of unshakeable guilt, a creature or foe you have fought with once before, a person you may have loved so dearly now turned against you - the sight of it chills your blood and you know in your heart that it is here for you.

The Guest

Should fate twist further, you might not be the only one. Instead, you'll find other Summoned with you. They might also be running from a presence of their own or maybe they're merely unlucky enough to have fallen into the path of yours. Whatever it is, they too will bear witness to that which haunts you - or you will see what haunts them, as well. Your respective dreamscapes might meld together, shift and change, or one might take over the other completely.

Though it's likely you won't realize you're trapped inside a dream, that doesn't mean you can't fight back. Gather your courage to face down your fears or try to help those you find yourself in the company of - you might just find your surroundings steadily shifting in your favor. A weapon here, a pathway opening there, a wooden door that transforms into steel. Be careful, though: should your awareness grow that things aren't real, the world will try to consume those thoughts and you within it, twisting things further in an attempt to make you forget that you're dreaming.

The Imprint

Luckily, you do eventually wake - unsettled, damp with sweat, but at least you're safe. It was only a dream, wasn't it? For some, that might be the case. For others, you'll start to hear the sounds of the dream in the waking world, glimpse the shadow of the Entity in a reflection, feel a breath against your neck. Marks or injuries might also follow you into the physical world: dirt staining your palms from where you fell, a cut from where you were struck, dampness in your hair from the rain. These occurrences could be obvious, but they might also be so minor you feel like your mind is playing tricks.

Still - what if it isn't merely a dream? As the week goes on, whether you experience the phenomenon for yourself or not, you'll most certainly hear of it happening to your friends, loved ones, neighbors. Word reaches you of fellow Summoned being stalked from the shadows, waking up with injuries they shouldn't have, possibly even suffering a near-fatal wound in their sleep. Clearly, there's more to this than uneasy visions in the night.

The Factions

While it is each Summoned who is the focus of their Entity's ire, they are not the only ones who seem aware of its movements. The factions will soon approach each Summoned with an offer: work with them to help contain the threat and aid the suffering of you and your friends - but the one thing they cannot explain is how they have come to know about the existence of the Entity.

Will you take the offer and try to convince your fellow Summoned this is a vital path to take? Or will your mistrust of those in power have you not only refusing, but trying to prevent others from making what you believe is a mistake?

The choice is yours, but the decision might impact more than just you this time.

A separate log located here will detail the reaction of the factions and so forth. You can tag in under the specific heading for each faction.

To thread out any arguments or conflict prior to participating, please do so in this event post. The IC Faction Intervention log should be only for those actively participating in the full process.

The Horizon

When dreams are no longer an escape, desperate souls might turn to the Horizon for safety - though they may remember that, previously, the Horizon was not safe at all.

It Follows

At first, the same doesn't seem to hold true. Things are quiet in the Horizon. There is no need for sleep or dreams here. You have full control over what's formed inside your domain. However, it doesn't take long for the remnants of that horrible dream to seep into your sanctuary. A field you grew may start to turn dark, becoming nightmarish corridors. Maybe the tower you placed so carefully begins to crumble, or perhaps the reflection you see of yourself in a lake isn't you at all. You will find that despite your best efforts, your Entity has followed you into Horizon and is corrupting your domain with it.

As menacing as the presence may be, the Entity will not be able to destroy other's domains. Within yours, though, it may twist the design to varying degrees, ruining carefully laid paths, staining blood on your walls, darkening what is most important to you no matter how much you might try to change it back. Conversely, its hold may only be strong enough to be a shadow in the corner of your eye. It all depends on the strength of your nightmares and how deeply its affected your mind.

Nonetheless, the message is clear: dreams are born of your mind and your mind is what the Horizon is formed from.

The Looking Glass

Whether you see the manifestation of your Entity in full or whether your domain is barely affected by its presence, all who enter the Horizon during the course of the week will find that they are once again plagued by a flash of a vision.

This is nothing like the glimpses into another's past, however. There are no headaches, no recognizable faces. This time, the vision will flicker in and out of focus like an old television trying to find the right signal, staticky and not quite clear at first. The flashes are brief, lasting only mere seconds, if that. In fact, at first, one might even mistake it for a trick of the mind. For some, this may be all they see. For others, it may return in another burst the next time they enter the Horizon, becoming clearer each time. It might appear as soon as you step in, or it might take an hour, two.

What you see will not be anything familiar. The scene itself will never change. It is a soundless meteoric picture. You may glimpse heavy winds stirring some sand, but you will not feel it on your skin nor hear the wind. You may see a flicker of the sea, but you will not smell the sea salt nor hear the crashing waves. All in all, this image which appears to you is abstract, strange, and impossible to understand in their absurdity - except for one part: the appearance of a single Arcana sign.

Intriguingly, this sign likely does not match your own. It might not even match anyone you know at all. It is an undeniable fixture, though, appearing emblazoned on the scene somewhere, not always in the same place, but always present: seared into the ground, carved on stone, scrawled on a page.

The six available images are below and each one is labeled with the Arcana sign your character will notice when they glimpse the scene. Choose any image you like, but only one may be selected. Characters do not need to be experiencing nightmares or the Entity to see these images.

As noted, the Arcanum on the image itself does not need to match your character's. At this time, there are no real details on what the Arcanum itself means or why it's appeared, though the possibilities are endless. Everyone in Abraxas possesses one, after all.

If you want to be surprised and assigned an image at random, comment here and we will do so for you!

The Hermit

The Sun

Temperance

Death

The Lovers

The High Priestess

CODE

Comments

[princessvegas]

[ All she can do is snort. Daunting isn't the word she'd go with. More like "a complete shitshow at the very best of times". Things were bad before they got the bright idea to secretly cook up the recipe for the apocalypse. ]

America basically ran the whole world. We had our military everywhere, all over different countries. Everyone listened to our music, watched our shows, paid attention to our government. If somethin' bad happened in America, people all over the world felt it. We had lots of tourism and immigration, too. They called us a "melting pot".

[ Not that Julie had ever seen much of that, given where she grew up and what happened, but factually, she is aware that most places were not quite as homogenous as what she had experienced. And she grew up in an internet-connected world, obsessed with the idea of New York and Los Angeles, well aware of the kinds of diversity those places were home to.

She shakes her head a little, takes another sip of her tea. ]

No one is allowed to cross the borders here without permission. [ Not that that had stopped her. Cross-faction travel is possible, but you need plenty of gold, a willingness to break the law, and someone who's willing to risk opening that portal. ] Mostly only merchants and politicians get the go-ahead, but even that's pretty rare, and usually things go through Solvunn first, since they're more neutral. I think they're the only place with lots of religious people, at least that I know of. The religion in this world ain't anythin' like the kinds back in mine, so I can't really say.

[godshattering]

[ America certainly sounds like a curious place. The idea of one country somehow affecting all others on that level: Claude's not sure he can picture it. It could be argued that Fodlan was capable of this in its own way given how against any kind of outside influence the Church of Seiros was. America's got one thing going for it, from that description: ]

I like the sound of it being a melting pot. Plus the tourism and immigration, since that's what I'm hoping to achieve in Fodlan someday though it'll... take a while to get there, I'm sure. There's no reason for borders to be closed so tightly when we're all better off by getting to know people who live elsewhere with different ways than the ones we might be familiar with.

[ It's not lost on Claude that this also applies to here, in its own way. Or maybe just for him since he's learned a great deal not just from talking to others, but in this conversation. Most of it he's filing away for later as questions to ask the other Summoned so as to not overwhelm her with everything he wants to know, or as topics to tackle in one of the libraries.

As Julie describes the ways things travel around Abraxas, Claude glances down and tries to picture the map of the continent he'd studied to commit where everything was to memory. For an added visual - a holdover from planning war tactics - he shuffles a few things around the tabletop for an extremely abstract interpretation: his mug for Solvunn's rough location, the teapot for Thorne, and a saucer for the Free Cities. Now the route makes more sense to him, that Solvunn would act between the two in a function much as the Alliance had served while Claude had crafted their careful veneer of neutrality in the war. ]

It makes sense Thorne and the Free Cities would want a filter for what goes where instead of accepting a direct delivery. And I assume so that no one goes too close to the Singularity without any of the three knowing about it first.

[ But even with those enforced borders, Julie was still able to travel from Thorne to here, from the sound of it. Claude contemplates that while studying his questionable map and debates asking. Then again, maybe that's a 'don't ask the first time you meet someone' topic. Instead he gestures to a pocket of empty space roughly meant to signify the mysterious formation. ]

Shame it's not any closer. I'd be interested in seeing it in person sometime but it sounds like getting there is a bit of an ordeal.

[princessvegas]

Yeah, I think it's mostly a money thing. There are a couple of countries back home that closed themselves off, but they're all run by insane dictator assholes and the people are brainwashed and starvin'. [ There is an odd casualness when she says this, but she had never known a version of the world where places like North Korea were even marginally reasonable. ] The rest of the world figured out that the best way to get money and power is to have open borders.

[ She looks at his little model, her brow furrowed and her nose wrinkled. ] No one goes to the Singularity at all, not really. The natives are like, disintegrated if they get too close. We had this summit thing out near the Singularity a few months ago, in the neutral territory, but good luck gettin' through the fuckin' desert without portals and official help. Thorne took the first group of Summoned out there once, too, but never again.

[ Setting the sugar bowl where the Singularity should be, she shrugs. ] But you don't need to go to it physically. If a summoned goes in the crater any time other than the Dimming, we just get sent to the Horizon. But if you go to the Singularity in the Horizon, it's the same thing. You can walk right up to it. No reason to sneak on a long-ass, hot journey when you could be there in a few minutes.

[godshattering]

Disintegrated, huh.

[ Claude says it slowly, and repeating someone isn't really the best impression to give of understanding what they meant, but - that description is oddly fascinating. More so when paired with being told about the summit and Thorne once taking a group there, though he definitely understands physically going to it is out of the question as Julie sets the sugar bowl down to complete the map. Mostly. ]

That's probably a sign I should spend some more time looking around the Horizon. I've only been back a couple times since... [ He trails off, unsure of his exact feelings on it existing. Just one more mildly overwhelming part of ending up here in the end and yet another thing to tackle at some point, so eventually he shrugs one shoulder with an at ease expression back in place to gloss right over it. ] Anyway, it being a much shorter trip in there is reason enough to go look at it instead of trying to plan some long journey. I've had enough trips crossing entire deserts there and back at home to last me for a lifetime, I think. And that was without portals but flying on wyverns to make traveling faster, but I've learned they don't exist here. Or if they do, not as I know them.

[ Better to not think of anything left behind; looking forward to the present and future only has always been a handy coping method of Claude's and it'll factor in again here. Talking all of this out's been enough of a distraction to forget part of the present for time being too even as he's sure the nightmares are still lurking waiting to sink claws into them both at the first opportunity. But something else occurs to him while he studies the tabletop and he looks up to Julie again. ]

Thank you for telling me all this, by the way. Especially since you didn't have to after I, [ with a wry smile, ] accidentally accosted you out of nowhere.

[princessvegas]

Or somethin' close to disintegratin'. I mean, I never saw it personally. But there's this winter holiday, the Dimming, and it's when the Singularity has the least magic of the year, I guess? Like how the length of days can be shorter or longer dependin' on the season. Anyway, Thorne has this stored up magic that they send to the Singularity as part of their traditions, and every year before we got here, the people they chose to take the magic there were pretty much takin' on a suicide mission.

[ She sounds blasé. Mostly, she just thinks it's a dumb idea anyway, and if a bunch of people want to kill themselves over some stupid theory, that's their business. Human sacrifice didn't satisfy the Aztec gods, but that never stopped the Aztecs, so.

Her brow furrows a bit. Julie has never understood those among them who distrust the Horizon. For her, it is the safest, most comfortable place in this entire world. But then again, most people do not have the same connection or abilities there that she does. ]

I don't know about wyverns. My world didn't have monsters. But there are plenty of monster hunters skulkin' around the city, you can ask one of 'em. Anyway, best I understand it, the only difference between the Singularity in the Horizon and the one out in the desert is more about the land around it. Not the Singularity on its own.

[ Julie frowns and shakes her head a little, taking a sip from her glass. ] You don't need to thank me. It's better for all of us that y'all newbies hear the truth than eat up their official line of bullshit.

[godshattering]

That's pretty horrifying that they sent people to bring things knowing it wouldn't end well for them. [ He's also strangely calm about it, since - well, he's heard and seen worse firsthand. Nothing surprises him too much anymore about the levels people might sink to when it comes to struggling for power or wanting to win some struggle between nations. ] I suppose that fits with what the Free Cities says about Thorne and their methods, though I'm sure Thorne is telling their people the same sort of things about everyone else since that's usually how it goes in war. Pretty unfortunate that we're all caught in the middle simply because they called us here.

[ To say the least.

Monster hunters existing is an interesting tidbit, though he's mostly piecing together what that could mean in context considering bandits and the occasional demonic beast are most of what he's familiar with. If there's monsters about here then at least the Free Cities wasn't exaggerating (maybe) about what's out in the desert when trying to keep them on base, but that'll be something else to confirm whenever he crosses paths with one of those hunters. For now, at the idea that he doesn't need to thank her, Claude studies Julie for a minute before shrugging again. ]

Maybe so, but I'll thank you anyway. You're right that it's good for more information to be out there than whatever they want us to believe, no matter who the 'they' in question is, but that doesn't mean everyone would share it.

[ Like Claude himself, maybe, if they were talking about something back in Fodlan where it might prove to be an advantage instead of somewhere that they're on a mostly even playing field of disadvantages, and intentionally so from the Free Cities' view if they don't cooperate with the military. ]

When you say it's better for all of us... does that mean everyone tends to work together here? Of everyone brought in from somewhere else, that is.

[ Either way - whether they or don't - makes sense to him, but. It'd be nice to know if he'll have to rely mostly on himself when it comes to things beyond the basics. ]

[princessvegas]

Some people volunteer for that kinda thing. [ She shrugs. She comes from a world that has seen suicide bombers, kamikaze pilots. There are people out there who are willing to sacrifice themselves for a reward they believe is waiting for them. ] Thorne's not full of savages or anythin' like that. The government here is way more involved than anythin' I ever went through in Thorne, and I know people who're still there. The only thing they don't like is that Thorne won't let 'em outside of the capital walls, but I'm pretty sure that's to keep 'em from doin' the same thing I did. I mean, we did steal a buncha royal guard horses, too, so.

[ In other words, she sort of understands their point of view. But overall, she also believes that Thorne (and Solvunn) value their Summoned much, much more than the Cities. Thorne and Solvunn believe that the connection the Summoned have with the Singularity is something sacred, to be respected. Cadens thinks of the Summoned as cannon fodder, clearly. Weapons.

Julie would much rather be a treasure or a god over being a weapon. ]

Most of us get along all right together. Some are more welcomin' than others, but I can't think of many Summoned who wouldn't at least give a little bit of help to another. Just don't trust anyone with four arms, and always get a read on folks before you tell 'em anythin' super important or risky. As long as you keep your nose clean and don't try to start shit, no one'll look at you sideways.

[godshattering]

Oh, I don't doubt they're good at recruiting people to their cause. It seems like all the places here have that much in common, if not the Free Cities even more so based on what you said about the government being in... everything.

Stealing the horses seems like a good parting gift from Thorne or anywhere, though, if you ask me.

[ Claude's joking, kind of, only because it seems like the kind of thing that would've happened in Fodlan. Plus - if it got them out of where they needed to leave and quickly at that, that's more than reasonable.

The 'anyone with four arms' part causes him to pause in lifting his mug for another drink for just a second before he studies Julie over the rim of it while taking a sip. It's less the idea of more arms than he's used to seeing on someone than it seeming like a deliberate reference to someone recognizable, so Claude mulls that over while setting his tea back down. ]

Sounds like there's someone specific in mind when it comes to who should be avoided. [ Or perhaps avoided is too strong of a term, but there's some kind of implication there that he'll wait to see if she provides more context on. The rest at least gets a brief smile from him. ] Getting the right read on people's been about the only way I've survived as long as I have, so that won't be too much of a problem for better or worse. Same goes for not starting things that can't be finished so no worries there.

[ He was going to wait to ask, but - ]

Just throwing a guess out there, but when it comes to not disclosing anything too important to someone, is that because some are more aligned with any of the governments than others or just general caution?

[princessvegas]

I still have mine. His name is Baron. Sold the others. [ Pearl and Spider (and Roach 2.0). Through a random series of occurrences, Julie had somehow inherited horse after horse while she was in Nott, all of them royal horses from the castle. Very valuable. The gold she'd made had paid for multiple portals to Cadens. ]

Here's the thing about Thorne, though. They want to control the Singularity, and they're doin' bad shit to make it happen, but it's not the same. In Thorne, there ain't this constant mantra about how great Thorne is, and ain't we all lucky to live in Thorne, and they don't give a shit about whether Solvunn and Cadens like their style of magic. They accept that there's other styles, and they also ain't afraid of the idea of not usin' it. Here, in the Cities, the propaganda just never ends, right? I mean, shit, we're just lucky they ain't figured out TV yet, 'cause every fuckin' channel would just be some state-run bullshit like fuckin' Russia. [ She does not explain any of this sentence, despite the extremely high likelihood that Claude will not understand any of it. Hopefully, he at least gets the gist. ] And they turned magic into this awful boogeyman to scare the plebs, even though New Magic is built on the back of every other kind of magic. It's no better or worse, it's just different. But they use it to scare their own people, rile 'em up and keep 'em in line.

[ And that's the thing -- it's easy to pull the wool over the eyes of people who have never known anything else. It's how Julie grew up, whole-heartedly believing what she was told at school and by her parents and in church. That America was the greatest nation in history, that America was the universal paragon of freedom and ambition. A shining city on a hill. She'd never heard otherwise, growing up where she did. Some of the propaganda did, eventually, become obvious as she aged, mostly the wildly out-of-touch stuff. But overall, America was supposed to be just and good and right. The kind of country that it made sense to pledge allegiance to every morning, to sing the national anthem of at every opportunity.

And then, America ended the world. Not metaphorically, but literally, through secrecy and lies and bald-faced arrogance. They made the weapon with the misguided idea that they would somehow be able to contain it if used. They lied, shamelessly, to their own dying populace, telling them all would be fine and they should go about business as usual. There was never a plan, no kill switch. Captain Trips was the end of everything except for a small fraction of the inexplicably immune.

Julie sees it all when she looks at the Free Cities. Even down to the fucking name. "Free" and under constant military presence, right. What a joke.

She raises her eyebrows as she takes another sip from her glass. ]

Six of one, half-dozen of the other. Some people think they're doin' the right thing, to side with the governments. Some people are usin' the system for their own needs. Some people are just shady.

[godshattering]

[ Having someone sitting in front of him who's been in multiple factions, Claude is quickly realizing, is very valuable. This is all important insights that he may never have found on his own or even known to ask the right questions for despite browsing the libraries here and there. The references to TV and Russia mostly go over his head, save for picking up on the important part they imply: that it'd be comparable to what the Church of Seiros did in Fodlan by suppressing anything Not On Their Agenda for years - centuries - and it's impossible to not frown when he connects those two dots together. It paints a clearer picture of what the Free Cities are up to, something insidious as he'd guessed from recognizing some of the signs but somehow also even more so. ]

I don't understand why they wouldn't see magic as useful and instead made it something to be feared. It's strange to think about since Fodlan relies on it so heavily, from healing and medicine, to war tactics, to having sorcery academies... well, you get the idea. Is it right to assume magic's not really used out in the open here in Cadens? Not that I'm planning on casting a wind spell out in the middle of a marketplace for fun or anything, just curious on how big of an ordeal that would be.

[ Which probably isn't the best way to make it sound reassuring that's not a thought that's occurred to him, but even Claude knows better than to deliberately upset whatever the norms are somewhere that's new to him. At first, anyway. Still, he follows that up with a sigh. ]

I have to say that the Free Cities being only free if you adhere to their idea of freedom is more familiar than I'd like it to be, for anyone's sake. As does the concept of them using that to tell citizens things are better that way if they just let the ruling powers handle everything. [ Claude drags a hand down his face, allowing himself to feel the full weight of his weariness during the action before sitting up a little straighter afterwards like it'll help his sleep deprived mind process everything faster. ] Not one I particularly agree with, especially when it means not sharing the reality of whatever's going on because that goes hand in hand with them having any number of things to hide.

[ Hopefully nothing quite as dramatic as what he'd left behind, but - it could easily be with all the unknowns, including other Summoned taking up the governments' causes. ]

Other than the people who've bought into the causes, for whatever reasons they have, are any of the others using the systems for their own gain also doing it to share information with everyone else?

[princessvegas]

They do use magic -- most of their technology is still partially based on magic, from what I can tell. I think they got scared of magic 'cause they don't like that they can't control the Singularity, and that's where the magic comes from, but honestly, that's some shit I ain't really cared to look into. There might be some shit about how they hate Thorne, too. Which, like, I get, 'cause Thorne's real hateable. So it could just be wound up in that.

[ She doesn't comment further on the idea of how shady the government here is. Even for those familiar with these traits, it's difficult to explain exactly just how close it all lines up with the world she came from. And on top of it, what's the alternative? Thorne is hardly better, and Julie is almost positive that Solvunn is a weird goat-based cult. So... no good options.

Nodding her head a little, she knits her brow thoughtfully. ] I mean, I think most of the Summoned play along enough to get what they need, and news spreads. But no one wants to cause a fuss without solid evidence, and that ain't easy to come by when everyone's all spread out. Best way to hear things is to make friends with people in Thorne and Solvunn, they'll keep you in the loop.

[godshattering]

It makes a strange amount of sense that their motivation is basically spite then. For both Thorne and the Singularity, since that's a heavy motivator for a lot of people. Add in all the other smaller stuff I'm sure they disagree about besides just the major ones and no wonder both sides think the other one's evil.

[ Or maybe all three sides when it comes down to it - he doesn't know much of anything about Solvunn other than what was in the books he's paged through considering (from what he's seen) the nation seems to mostly keep to itself for the most part, so who knows what's going on there. Though it being a goat cult will somehow also be filed under odd things making a lot of sense to him once he figures that out. ]

That's fair enough about using them to get what they need or anything else, and not a bad idea as long as it doesn't put them at risk. And being able to disperse that information, assuming that they do, benefits the rest of us in the end. I'm assuming the Horizon is rather convenient for that since it's probably just about the only place where conversations can't be overheard.

[ Something to keep in mind since at least this cafe has enough ambient noise going on to cover up most of what's said - not that there's been anything controversial in Claude's mind, and surely the Free Cities knows they'll be sharing information as it is - but it'd undoubtedly eliminate the possibility. ]

And with it being so difficult to physically travel to anywhere else without a lot of time and planning, I'm assuming it's also the best way to meet anyone in the other factions.

[princessvegas]

Oh sure, Horizon's the best place, just in general. I know there's some people who're suspicious of it, but there's not a lotta places in this world that we can tend to our own business without it bein' dangerous. No matter how we feel about each other, the Summoned are all "others" to these folks. We're our only true friends, the group of us, and the Horizon is our safe space. They haven't figured out how to piggy back on us and go there, not so far. Plus, this world isn't... it's not the easiest for us from worlds with better technology. There's a lot that we just ain't accustomed to doin' like this. In the Horizon, we don't have to worry about that.

[ Which is much less of a selling point for someone like Claude, but for people like herself, from modern -- or even future -- worlds, it means a great deal. It's a difficult adjustment, when even the smallest parts of everyday life change on you because you've lost the only way you ever knew how to do them. It's comforting, to have that little bit of home be accessible to you. ]

Pretty much the only way. Travelin' over the borders is a one-way ticket, and not a cheap or easy one. You decide to hop factions, you best be real sure it's worth it.

[godshattering]

[ That they're the outsiders here - that's not a realization that's been lost on Claude while he's been poking around Cadens here and there, but hearing it said aloud? It feels different and hammers that point home a bit more. He considers that as Julie elaborates upon it being somewhere for them to congregate without the watchful eyes of anyone but the rest of them. And possibly not even that, given some of the structures he's seen on his passes through that are on another level of elaborate compared to what passed for elaborate in Fodlan.

So needless to say, that last bit summons up a bit of a sympathetic smile. ]

It's been difficult enough as someone coming from somewhere with a fraction of what's available here and trying to adjust to all of it. I can't imagine that the reverse is any better. On second thought, actually, I'd say you have it worse if there's things you're used to having that just don't exist here. The Horizon has to be a comfort when it comes to seeing some of it again. Like... TV, right? Or something like that.

[ That's his attempt at a reference back to some of that technology, anyway, with what the Free Cities could do with it in mind. A shrug and a slightly sheepish grin goes with that since that's likely not what she's referring to, but that's about his only knowledge of it to date. ]

It's definitely not the same when it comes to those differences between your world and this one, but I was used to having more advancements around before moving to where I lived for most of my adult life. All of it was still roughly on the same level but I missed having what I'd grown used to after taking it for granted. Like telescopes just to be able to look at stars since apparently those were too much of a threat, though I'm not sure to who, exactly.

[princessvegas]

[ She chuckles and smiles, though it's much less exuberant than she would normally be. Someone who wasn't also experiencing the same sleep-deprivation she is might think she seems rueful, but the truth is that she's just very tired. ]

Yeah, TV. TV's a big part of my world. It was a pretty major change. [ She had somewhat adjusted after the superflu, when there was nothing left, but even then in Vegas, it was still totally possible to get one's hands on DVDs of shows and movies. It hadn't all disappeared entirely. ] I once heard that even good stress is stress. Like, you can get a better job or have a baby you wanted forever or win a lot of money, and that's all great, but it's still a change, and any change is stressful.

[ To say nothing of being forcibly brought to a new world entirely. She rolls her eyes at the idea of telescopes being banned. ]

In my world, we had telescopes so powerful that they could see other galaxies, trillions and trillions of miles away. You know how when you look at the sky, and all the stars are just little dots in the dark? We had pictures like that, except when you blew them up to study 'em, you could see hundreds of planets and solar systems, all in one little black square. Less than an inch across to the naked eye.

[godshattering]

I think that sums up stress pretty well, really. Even if it's something you're looking forward to you still gotta deal with the effects of it all, and that's still no comparison to the bad version of it.

[ He won't reference the nightmare situation now, but. That definitely falls under that same umbrella and is just something else to weigh on all of them but without any resolution like there might be with any other occurrence. Just one more layer of being here, Claude thinks to himself as he lifts his mug, but Julie's description of the telescopes in her world stops that action in its tracks. Instead he listens in open fascination to what she says until he catches himself and takes a drink. ]

That is... well, far beyond anything I grew up with, even if you might've guessed that already. [ He'll grin just a little bit while setting his tea down though it's quickly replaced with a mildly wistful expression. ] Most of the ones I had access to, they'd make it easier to focus on specific stars beyond the ones you can see with your eyes alone but nothing like being able to see hundreds of them at once. The main religion in Fodlan always said the Goddess came from a specific star that's also tied too and names the month I was born in, so I have to believe telescopes were outlawed there since there's a chance that'd be disproved. Needless to say, the powers in charge wouldn't have liked that.

It sounds like your study of the stars was much more advanced than ours. We have lots of legends - or stories, I suppose - about the constellations to pass on the meanings of the larger ones. Are those also out of date where you're from?

[princessvegas]

I mean, don't think we're somethin' special or anythin' like that. I don't even think it's been a hundred years that we could do things like that, and our modern history is like, five thousand years. We just made advancements, like anyone else.

[ Her world had their own fictions about worlds more advanced, less advanced, every level of development. She's not under any delusion that they were anything remarkable. Hell, she's positive her world wasn't even the best version of modern Earth -- it was an incredibly shitty version, actually.

She pulls a face when he mentions religion; she can't say that she can follow the train of thought. ]

That's... weird. We had religion too, but God made the stars and other planets, so why shouldn't we look at 'em? Even if your Goddess did come from a star, how would seein' it prove she didn't? I guess I just don't understand because our God wasn't like, visible in the sky. Like you can't see God. Never could, He's not like, a person. Is your Goddess supposed to just be a regular lady you can see and talk to?

[ The idea of a physical God, one capable of being seen with a telescope, is clearly bizarre to her. Julie was raised in the very depths of Evangelical America, fully entrenched, but she knows no version of the Scripture that ever represents God as a physical being. He always has to have a representative -- the angels, the burning bush, Jesus. That was the point, of course, that the most holy being in human form was still nothing but a human. ]

Mm, kind of? Like, we have some stories about the constellations, but I'm pretty sure it was always just known that the stories came from whatever shapes people saw. Plus, I think most constellations just have a name, not really a story. The most important constellations are the zodiacs, anyway, and they don't really need a story.

[godshattering]

[ It's not until Julie's expression changes that Claude remembers his jump in logic makes no sense without context. Her titling of it all as weird is very apt, and he hides a quick grin with another drink of tea. ]

You've hit upon several of the reasons I found it hard to follow what the Church of Seiros taught, really. As the story goes in an extremely condensed version, the Goddess came to Fodlan from that star, formed the earth and later on her children lived with the humans already there, then had to repair said earth after a long war decimated everything, and went to sleep it off but never returned.

It's debatable whether anyone can talk to her directly though followers believe she hears and knows all. I don't believe she was human as you and I are though she looks it in the paintings I've seen. All of it is more than a little confusing. Not many people question it because the Church handled so much and they counted on never having to explain. I grew up with different beliefs myself. [ All said with a fair bit of flippancy he could never quite express when in Fodlan, so it's nice to (mostly) state his thoughts on it plainly. ] I take it your God is different than the Goddess Fodlan knows? Though it is interesting they have the creation aspect in common.

[ Claude at least takes care to dial back the irreverent tone when speaking of what Julie knows, both to not offend and because the curiosity about other religions is genuine. Much as it was about constellations when asked, which seems like another difference. ]

Stars are our main form of navigation since they're a constant no matter where you are. Most of them are also named shapes, and the stories came in later to help with learning them based on what I've read. Fodlan says some of them were different people set up into the skies as a reward from the Goddess. The Alliance lands have a supposedly famous archer over them, but I have a feeling that's probably just to make sure everyone carries on the archery tradition.

[princessvegas]

I mean, my world had a bunch of different religions. There were places that were all one religion, but my country had what we called separation of church and state. Our whole country originally started with people who were bein' persecuted for their religion, so they crossed the ocean and decided that they would have freedom for anyone to practice the religion they wanted to. [ That is an extremely condensed and whitewashed version of American religious history, and even Julie knows it, but like hell does she plan on delving further into it. ] The biggest religion in my country -- well, the world, actually -- is the one I grew up with. Two of the other real big religions are kinda similar, they all branched off the same ideas, I think. But for us, Christians, God sort of... always existed, I guess? On the first day, He created light, then kept goin' for five more days, and on the seventh day, He rested. By the seventh day, everythin' was made. He watched over mankind for a long time, and a few times, He told certain people what He wanted, how to please Him. A lot of sacrifices, like animals and stuff, that was how people were supposed to erase their sins. But Christianity, that came 'cause God wanted to make it so people didn't need to constantly make sacrifices. So He sent his only son to Earth, Jesus Christ. Jesus was born of a virgin, and he was the holiest man ever. He preached about love and forgiveness and kindness. But he was sent to be the ultimate sacrifice. He was put on the cross and killed by this group who believed in lots of gods. Three days after his death, he rose from his tomb to prove himself as the son of God. Told his believers that now they didn't have to make sacrifices for their sins 'cause he had done it for them, forever. And then he went to Heaven. Someday, Jesus is supposed to come back to fight the ultimate evil, but, well. Hasn't happened yet.

[ She explains it with the kind of simple, flat tone in which lectures are given; to her, it is not necessarily something she believes or doesn't, but it is just how it happened. The same way she can detail major historical events, or the plots of fairytales she's heard since childhood. Factual.

She's also just kind of given up on people from other worlds understanding any of it. Explaining religious holidays has generally been a nightmare. ]

We used to navigate with stars too, years ago. Lots of people still can. We just have better ways now, technology that can tell us where we are and how to get places. We do have an archer constellation, though. Sagittarius.

[ Julie is absolutely the kind of person who is very into zodiac signs and horoscopes. ]

[godshattering]

[ Claude hadn't been expecting to receive a detailed explanation in return, but it's very welcome and he listens carefully to what Julie tells him. There's more similarities than just the ones he's noted as it turns out, but not much in common with what he grew up with. The idea of multiple religions being popular across a world and not just limited to a singular one as the power in charge - it sort of aligns with his hopes of what Fodlan might look like someday. Perhaps it's possible there if somewhere as extensive as Julie's world was able to manage doing so from the sounds of it. ]

Huh. [ Is the response he goes with while digesting all of that information. He has questions - quite a few - but just as he doesn't feel particularly like diving into the depths of the Church of Seiros more than he has to, Claude has a feeling Julie might be feeling the same after the synopsis she has given him quite kindly. ] It's curious to me that despite how different things are from what I've learned of others' homes that there's some parts that seem to be constants in all of them.

[ There's lots more he could say on that, really, but stars and constellations are always more his speed given they're one of his favorite topics. Which might be given away, if it wasn't already, by his expression brightening just a bit at the mention she knows of an archer where she's from as well. ]

I can't say ours have proper names like the one I'm guessing you just said. Most of them are... pretty literal in what they're meant to signify in the sky. The Archer, The Twins, The Lion, that sort of thing. Not particularly inventive even if they all have stories to go with them, as do the moons used to mark dates on Fodlan's calendar. The calendar here is something else I'll have to adjust to since we have months but they're all named after the moons they fall under. Plus each of those moons have stories and meanings much like the constellations, as well as some tales about them determining someone's personality.

[princessvegas]

[ She doesn't ask any questions about the religion of his world -- it's not until he brings up more constellations that her face lights up. And for the total lack of interest she had in detailing the fundamental base of the world she came from, she seems genuinely delighted to talk more about zodiac signs. ]

Oh, we got all those too! Sagittarius is The Archer, Gemini is The Twins, Leo is The Lion. The year is split into twelve zodiac signs -- that's what we call 'em. And each one is supposed to give you pieces of your personality. There are whole charts you can do, based on where and when you were born. It's like, a whole big thing in my world. I'm an Aries. You probably know it as... The Ram, maybe?

[ Julie used to cut out horoscopes and zodiac articles, in a somewhat desperate effort to feel like she had purpose and definition in the universe. She hadn't known until she got to Abraxas (well, several months after she got here) that what she was actually missing was the magic she hadn't had access to in her own world. That's something she understands now. But that doesn't mean she doesn't still have a soft spot for all the mystical pop culture mumbo-jumbo she'd adopted before. ]

[godshattering]

Split into twelve... so it's like your year from the sounds of it, then? Our calendar is much the same in that way but the constellations aren't necessarily tied to the months specifically. There's some that only appear at certain times of year and have tales tied to them that way.

Like for example, that star I mentioned earlier that Fodlan's goddess is supposed to be from: it shows up in the month I was born which is the seventh month, but then it disappears before winter begins. Most of the major constellations stay in the sky year-round other than a bit of shifting around here and there, but we do have one known as The Ram. There's usually also The Hunter by it, if I'm not mistaken.

[ Claude pauses to drain the remainder of his tea in thought. Whether Julie knows that one or not, that there's even those few in common when they seem to be at least a handful of centuries apart based on the discussion of technology seems rather remarkable to him. ]

The charts you mentioned, do those then work together to... [ He trails off momentarily, reaching for the right terms and how to piece his thought together into something that makes a little more sense. Hopefully. ] You said those signs help give pieces of personality, right? I'm not sure what I know of is the same thing but where I grew up, it's less a chart than a reading based on your birth date and it's tied to what you might do in the future. It relies on the stars' locations both of when you were born and the current date so it could also be done again to see if it'd changed. Almost like seeing whether you were on the right path, or if something would come up you might need to know about to affect other decisions.

[princessvegas]

I mean, I won't say I know the exact history of it all, but I think it has to do with how where the sun was in the sky durin' that part of the year. I know more about the personality part of it than anythin' else. Technically, the sun is only one part of it, since there's also moon and risin' signs, plus stuff like where the other planets were. There are predictions about the future for each sign based on the current placement, we call those horoscopes, but most people think that part of it all is a little more goofy and generalized. I think... most people in my world didn't take it very seriously, but they like the idea.

[ Julie isn't the best at explaining abstract concepts like astrology; she's better at the implementation than the rationalization. It's not much different from her magic -- she can do it, but has very few words to explain how she does it. ]

We had another system too, that one was based on the entire year you were born in. So the whole year would be one animal -- they were all animals -- and that gave your personality and what you think's important. Stuff like that. I think there was a thing about blood types too, but both of those systems were from the other side of the world, so I don't know much about 'em.

[godshattering]

That certainly sounds a lot more complicated than the versions I know. It's been a long while since I've looked at it but from what I remember of the one my parents had done for me when I was born, I want to say the sun and the moon factored in with those constellations. But it always went without saying that the gods could decide someone's fate should change whenever they felt like it. Or if they decided someone deserved that - same difference, really, and probably made what you called the horoscopes a little less accurate assuming one believed that as well.

[ There's a shrug from Claude, one implying he's not among said believers in those gods from his home, but they've been over that. Or the Fodlan version, which is close enough from their earlier discussion that he won't linger on it unless needed. ]

The entire year based system sounds interesting especially if it's supposed to apply to everyone born within whatever the year in question is. And I'm guessing since you said it was from the other side of your world that means it was from another country or something like that? [ A slightly wistful expression might be caught on Claude's face for all of a couple seconds then. ] Even if it's not something you know much about, the fact that you know about it - that's the kind of thing I've been hoping will happen in the near future back home. It won't solve everything, but people having any kind of curiosity about what goes on elsewhere is a start.

[ And though there's nothing particularly amusing about being here in Abraxas with no way to make that happen, let alone having to deal with borders here, a slight smile appears on his face next. ] Shame we can't have the Horizon everywhere we go to make that meeting up and sharing thing a bit easier.

[princessvegas]

Well, like I said, most people take it as just like, a lark or a fun thing. I don't think I ever met anyone who lived their entire life just based on zodiac readin's.

[ She shrugs a little. For her, she puts a bit of stock in the idea that maybe your sign can predict your personality, to a degree, and it's fun to read about compatibility, but it's not serious. But maybe that attitude is only prevalent in America. ]

Well, I think I said, my country prided itself on the idea of people comin' there for a better life. It had a name, "the American Dream". It was supposed to be that you could immigrate without a penny to your name, and if you worked hard, you could climb outta the hole to be a millionaire or whatever, all on your lonesome. I mean, I'm not sure that was ever the real truth of it, but it was the line they sold. Not every country in my world was like that, though. And we had a lotta problems, everywhere, with racism and hatred. We just kinda made it work.

[ She takes the last drink from her glass, brow knitting slightly. ] Back home, we sorta had somethin' like the Horizon. It just wasn't somewhere you could go physically. Like, you couldn't experience it like the Horizon. But the internet, you could talk to anyone, anywhere, at any time. You could carve out your own little space and do the kinda stuff you liked. Some people made videos, some people made music. You could learn there, or just kick back and relax, whatever you want. People made friends and met their soulmates and stuff on the internet all the time.