He listens, studying the lack of features that is Ten-Nank, at least in the sense of how his brain is wired to read faces for expressions. He's gained some familiarity with the lack of them, in his time traveling without being asked to travel at all, but he still looks to read human or draconic meaning to gestures.
Doesn't quite find the right analogues, and doesn't acknowledge to himself he's doing any of that. But he does listen, trying to parse what he's told.
"I don't know that the vessel knows either."
Admitted with a grimace, and a spark of irritation that leaves his tailtip thudding against the floor, before he lets it go, rallies himself to stillness. Sorts through the rest of what Ten-Nank's saying, to see if he's understanding.
"Include the information. About how using another's skill on your Essence in the Void can have consequences. I don't know if we've run into those, but it sounds shitty, and we need to know." Further twitching of his tail, and this hurts his head, all these factors, but he forces himself to breathe and thinks, fuck.
It's kind of satisfying, thinking just that.
"I'm going to try and... repeat back to you what I think you're saying. Please correct this one where I err." He doesn't plan to, but that's the point of his repetition, to catch out where he isn't understanding, even as he's trying. Even as he's keeping himself calm out of willpower and a deeper, abiding anger at the hopelessness he can feel under this all, and the understanding that at present, there's nothing he can do but arm himself with information.
"Our bodies are on our worlds. Or, at least, vessels traditionally only carry the Essence of a person into the void, not their physical bodies or whatever ties them to their world in a living sense." He pauses, waiting for affirmation on that point. Because it immediately becomes a question, one he asks: "Can physical bodies move through the Void?"
Had they anchored getting people's Essence back to their bodies elsewhere, or were those people they Anchored for physically and Essence(tially) present? Headache increasing.
Having paused long enough for that potential answer, short or long, he tries again.
"Bodies, whatever form they take, act as an anchor. Like with a ship, or the spool for a kite held in hand, while our Essence is connected to the Voidtrecker Express. The Voidtrecker Express, if acting like void vessels known to the ministry, or as known to you, keeps our Essence as whole as it can while we're tethered to it. Certain actions taken on our Essence will also happen on our body anchors. Those effects may or may not be dangerous. Other actions taken on our Essence caused by people's skills won't affect our body anchors."
More and more, he can see why having people who are dead before they arrive on the Voidtrecker Express is even more confusing for... Ten-Nank, maybe multiples within the massive sounding body of the ministry.
"What allows us to be so... physical? When we're outside the Void, at any of these worlds. No, wait, let me get through everything you talked about first. Answered first. The questions are endless."
He sounds pained by this, and he is, because he wishes there were convenient answers, while knowing there never is, and that's such an annoyance.
"Do you know what these kinds of machines are called? I want to ask the Voidtrecker Express about if it has any of them, but it's shitty about talking, says the processing takes a lot of energy, so most the time it either says thank you for our feedback, or nothing at all."
He wrinkles his nose as the time traveling part comes back to mind, and he sighs. "What about in cases where a vessel's never visited your world? Or system, whatever we want to call things. How can there be a conflict in time if the Void doesn't follow any sense of time but the one made for itself, and a vessel's never visited a world? I know it's harder when it comes to the Voidtrecker Express's missing system, or whatever its crew did back then with the engine, but that's the thing about us, right? Mysteriously tethered. Not once has the Voidtrecker Express stopped in any of our systems. If it was deliberately going to one, couldn't it be at a time right after we had our Essence tethered to it? No idea how you'd guess when that moment is, but nothing we do sounds like we're following the way it's usually done."
A flick of his fingers, a dismissive and unhappy wave of his hand, at chest level, before said hand drops back down to his lap.
no subject
Doesn't quite find the right analogues, and doesn't acknowledge to himself he's doing any of that. But he does listen, trying to parse what he's told.
"I don't know that the vessel knows either."
Admitted with a grimace, and a spark of irritation that leaves his tailtip thudding against the floor, before he lets it go, rallies himself to stillness. Sorts through the rest of what Ten-Nank's saying, to see if he's understanding.
"Include the information. About how using another's skill on your Essence in the Void can have consequences. I don't know if we've run into those, but it sounds shitty, and we need to know." Further twitching of his tail, and this hurts his head, all these factors, but he forces himself to breathe and thinks, fuck.
It's kind of satisfying, thinking just that.
"I'm going to try and... repeat back to you what I think you're saying. Please correct this one where I err." He doesn't plan to, but that's the point of his repetition, to catch out where he isn't understanding, even as he's trying. Even as he's keeping himself calm out of willpower and a deeper, abiding anger at the hopelessness he can feel under this all, and the understanding that at present, there's nothing he can do but arm himself with information.
"Our bodies are on our worlds. Or, at least, vessels traditionally only carry the Essence of a person into the void, not their physical bodies or whatever ties them to their world in a living sense." He pauses, waiting for affirmation on that point. Because it immediately becomes a question, one he asks: "Can physical bodies move through the Void?"
Had they anchored getting people's Essence back to their bodies elsewhere, or were those people they Anchored for physically and Essence(tially) present? Headache increasing.
Having paused long enough for that potential answer, short or long, he tries again.
"Bodies, whatever form they take, act as an anchor. Like with a ship, or the spool for a kite held in hand, while our Essence is connected to the Voidtrecker Express. The Voidtrecker Express, if acting like void vessels known to the ministry, or as known to you, keeps our Essence as whole as it can while we're tethered to it. Certain actions taken on our Essence will also happen on our body anchors. Those effects may or may not be dangerous. Other actions taken on our Essence caused by people's skills won't affect our body anchors."
More and more, he can see why having people who are dead before they arrive on the Voidtrecker Express is even more confusing for... Ten-Nank, maybe multiples within the massive sounding body of the ministry.
"What allows us to be so... physical? When we're outside the Void, at any of these worlds. No, wait, let me get through everything you talked about first. Answered first. The questions are endless."
He sounds pained by this, and he is, because he wishes there were convenient answers, while knowing there never is, and that's such an annoyance.
"Do you know what these kinds of machines are called? I want to ask the Voidtrecker Express about if it has any of them, but it's shitty about talking, says the processing takes a lot of energy, so most the time it either says thank you for our feedback, or nothing at all."
He wrinkles his nose as the time traveling part comes back to mind, and he sighs. "What about in cases where a vessel's never visited your world? Or system, whatever we want to call things. How can there be a conflict in time if the Void doesn't follow any sense of time but the one made for itself, and a vessel's never visited a world? I know it's harder when it comes to the Voidtrecker Express's missing system, or whatever its crew did back then with the engine, but that's the thing about us, right? Mysteriously tethered. Not once has the Voidtrecker Express stopped in any of our systems. If it was deliberately going to one, couldn't it be at a time right after we had our Essence tethered to it? No idea how you'd guess when that moment is, but nothing we do sounds like we're following the way it's usually done."
A flick of his fingers, a dismissive and unhappy wave of his hand, at chest level, before said hand drops back down to his lap.