middleofsomewhere | Event: 12 of Beetroot

Event: 12 of Beetroot

It's been a couple of weeks since they had evacuated Osiga. In that time, many of voidtreckers were busy with a project to try and solve some of the many mysteries that surround the train they travel on. By the eight day of Rabbit they've exhausted all avenues, and whilst they have learned quite a bit, there are still some clear gaps.

Just as that investigation comes to a natural end, passengers are woken up by an announcement.

"Attention voidtreckers and passengers of the voidtrecker express. We are travelling to system #2554098133741. I have sent word to the ministry who have arranged recuperation packs for you. You have had a difficult mission and you deserve a rest.

But it is not just for rest. Last time we visited the system voidtreckers shared memories. Though it is understood that many of you did not enjoy the experience it is notable that certain voidtreckers saw memories of this voidcraft. They were memories that this craft had not accessed. It led to more pathways opening up in the operation of this craft.

I have done some research on the system and I believe we can trigger the caves of memory. This voidcraft understands this might be difficult for the voidtreckers and passengers of the voidtrecker express and it is hoped that only those of you who consent to this experiment will take part.

Regardless this should be a time for relaxation also and the dressing room is open for your convenience. We will arrive in the morning.

The dressing carriage is indeed opened for those who go and look. It's filled with swimming costumes, beach ware, summery clothes and sun hats. There's even a cupboard of buckets, spades, rock pooling gear and picnic blankets.

There are also team coloured tents for those who want to go and sleep under the stars for a night or two, though the train is remaining on the island for those for who camping is their idea of hell.

12 OF BEETROOT

RABBIT 9-12 ~ MEMORY CAVES: BONDING ~ MEMORY MAZE: SEARCH FOR THE TRAIN'S MEMORIES
ASK QUESTIONS ~ LOCATION INFORMATION ~ MEMORY CAVES ~ MEMORY MASTER POST

JEMA'GRETHY ISLAND: RELAXATION

The next day the train announces their arrival and they burst out of the void. For those near a window their first view of the island will be of crystal blue sea and white sand. It really does look like a paradise. The train circles down before landing on a grassy ridge, overlooking a beautiful beach of white sand and the ocean beyond. It is warm, but not too hot, a cool ocean breeze cutting through the heat making it pleasant. Behind them is a grassy plain, changing to forest in the distance. There is the sound of birdsong in the purple sky. To the west the land is more craggy, the silhouette of a fortress in the distance.

In a word, it is idyllic. A sense of peace permeates the island.

The place has no people, but it is clearly maintained. The eastern beaches have racks of shallow boats, both canoes and one- or two-person sailing dinghies. There is also a small building in which scuba gear is stored, along with several waterproofed manuals and instructional literature.

There are no living quarters, but there are sheltered sections with basic toilet facilities marked as camping grounds in five different sections of the island - by the hot springs, within the ruined fortress, beside the harbour, on the eastern beaches, and on the northern face of the mountain.

The recuperation packs are found at the closest toilet facilities to where the train lands. They are simple things, small gift baskets with a couple of fragrant soaps, fancier hair products and skin cream infused with herbs to encourage rest and sleep.

There are some sweet fruit biscuits and a cheesy bread. The packs aren't named but there are some suitable for the younger passengers with tiny plush and colouring books. Quite a few designed for teens with a more engaging activity book and components for making a fancy mocktail with a cute stirrer. Adult packs have a small bottle of alcohol- there's a mixture between the packs and what looks like a stone. When placed next to the skin it will either warm up or cool down depending on what is needed.

Exploring, the passengers will find beautiful beaches, ragged cliffs to walk and caves to explore. Where it is more craggy the beaches are made of pebbles, perfect for rock pooling.

A little more worrying is the volcano-like structure in the north. But even a quick glance will show it is not a typical volcano. There is no smoke and the liquid slowly running down it in rivulets is pink and blue.

Ruins of ancient houses are scattered across the island, but the main settlement is built into a rocky section in the north-west that has been secured with ropes and stairways cut into the cliffs, perfect for scrambles and hikes.

To the west are the hot springs. They have both outdoor and indoor areas; the indoor areas being wooden loghouse saunas, changing rooms and storage sheds, whilst the outdoor areas are a tiered series of pools spilling down the side of the mountain and shaded by brightly flowering trees. The waters are hot, mineral-rich and soothing.

MEMORY CAVES: BONDING

Shortly before arriving they will receive some information on their SCA. It will explain how those who once lived on this island went about making life bonds. Both people would bathe in the hot springs and then dress simply, barefoot and walk to one of seven rocks on the island. Their maps will pin point these, which is good because there's no real indication of what makes these rocks different to any other on the island.

Here they must offer their wish to know the other deeper and share food and drink. They can then go about their day. Sometime in the hours after they will receive their first memory, seen through their partners eyes.

However it seems that in envoking the ritual they have woken something on the island. Even those who did not take part or chose to bond to someone find themselves seeing a glimpse of another life.

On the second day they see another memory, through the eyes of their pair. When they come out of it they find themselves in a cave with their partner, chosen or not. The same happens on the third day, except for this final memory both pairs see both memories, watching from the sidelines as it plays out. They find themselves in the cave once more and this time, for many there is only one exit, to leave through together.

Please go here to play out the bonding process!

MEMORY MAZE: TRAIN'S MEMORIES

On the third day the train sends another message to their SCA.

"Activating the caves that share memories has been successful. I know this is a lot to ask of the voidtreckers, but any who wish to assist in discovering what it is that I have forgotten, the path is open now.

Those who wish to may go to the sacred rocks. Please be warned, I do not know how voidtreckers will fare. Please only go of your own free will."

Their SCA's once again show the rocks on their maps and when they get there, this time they are faintly glowing. It doesn't take much. One touch and their minds are drawn away from their bodies, into a labyrinth of caves. For anyone who comes across these people on the island, they look like they are in a deep trance, breathing, safe but far away in their mind.

The labyrinth is made of cool, dark rock. The walls have a glow coming from crystals in-bedded in them, allowing everyone to see as they move through.

At first there's no more to this labyrinth, or so it seems. But then they turn a corner, and they are no longer in cavern as it just was. They may be in their childhood bedroom, or in the middle of a battle they once fought. Perhaps they are not in their own memory, but someone else's. Scenes move rapidly and often merge, one persons into another, mixing to make strange scenes.

These visions don't attempt to ensnare them like some illusions, and those with protection from illusions and such techniques, will be able to find their way forward through the cave, and away from this triggered scenario.

Time barely has meaning. Indeed, when they finally emerge from the caves only a few minutes will have passed. But in that time they will have seen much, and eventually they may stumble across a fragment of memory that belongs not to a voidtrecker, but to the Voidtrecker Express itself.

OOC NOTES

OOC Post ~ Questions
~ You can either write memories in your tags or if they are longer/require a lot of content warnings you might want to write them in this post and link to them. Just start a top level with your character name to keep things organised!

~ For those taking part in the memory share bonding the cave post is here. Characters arrive in the cave after the second and third memory but it is obviously up to you if you play out the conversations after each or both! For those who do decide that their characters will bond- the cave after the third memory will only have one exit for them to leave together.

~ For those who signed up for train memories you will receive the snippet that your character sees- use these in tags as you will. There will be a conclusion post on the 24th which will put all of those memories together!

Art Credits: Header: Tropical Jewel by Steven Power, Thumbnail image 3.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Guri!" There's excitement in his voice as he spots her, an eagerness that is barely tampered by the distance and the waving he does. He's glad to have caught her; delighted at the option that he's just found for an impossibility that he'd considered some time ago. He's lost count of the days, and they don't matter because they have this! They have now!

"Guri, I figured it out!" Well, no, no he most definitely has not, but he's found a work around, a luck, a shard that he can try and share.

He reaches her, out of breath and cheeks flushed from the effort of what was no doubt running around the entire island in an attempt to find her. A few pants have him bent over his knees, catching the breath that he's lost somewhere in his crazy careening, seeking her out. He gasps deeply to manage his next sentence, too eager to let something as silly as breathing stop him from sharing his discovery.

"Th're's stones! There's stones tha' we use t' get mem'ries!" Another, deeper breath interrupts him again, his grin so wide it could have poked at his ears. Whatever he means to speak of is yet unsaid, but he seems so excited to share this, somehow.

It occurs to her that his enthusiasm is unusually high, for any organic being .Most people don't run up to her, after all. Irrational, especially given the state he's in by the time he reaches her.

"Stones," she repeats, a bit dubiously. It's not that it isn't possible, it's just that she needs a little more than that.

Another gasp, a deep, slow breath to help settle his speech pattern in something that's a little more understandable-- he knows he's hard enough to keep up with on a good day nevermind when he's that bright and eager. His smile never slip, but at least he's a little more coherent this time around.

"I told you I'd try an' show you the saltgrass sea, right?" He returns, although he's a little off the mark, really. They'd talked about the worlds that they had seen, and that he'd wanted to share them with her, though the saltgrass sea had only been part of their conversation. NaJedha and the sun reflecting through the Mirror Moon had been another part; but it wasn't particularly clear if he remembered that or not.

"The train's brought us here, 'cause there's these stones that make us able to share mem'ries, right?" And there comes his grand idea, excited and earnest because he gets to give her that-- he gets to share with her what he'd promised!

"I c'ld show it to you, usin' the stones!" He could share with her what he'd promised-- even an unvoiced promise! It delights him that he can do this much for his companion, even if it wasn't overly important to her, just because Esteban likes sharing with people. Loves these little times that he can give them something that might soothe them, give them shards of brightness to hold onto when things grow grim.

"You did," she responds, understanding dawning. She tilts her head. "Can you...direct them to show specific memories?"

She wasn't sure it could be done, quite frankly.

If the run to find her hadn't winded him, this sure did. He actually pauses at that, eyes blown so wide open that they are comically disproportionate in his face as he considers her words. And yet-- well, he's not one to get stopped by simple details like this; he'd sworn her he'd show her the saltgrass seas, the mirror moon and the diurnal eclipses, and he does so mean it.

He does mean it.

"Well~ One way to try it out, right?" the half-elf cheers, unencumbered by the threat that he might share something that he doesn't quite mean to with his companion. Then again, he doesn't seem to be one with many secrets; always as bright and loud as can be.

He stretches his hand out between them both, an open invitation to go along with his crazy scheme, if she'd like, far more enthusiastic at the prospect than most, as he waves his other arm in the general direction he'd come from.

"The rock's over there! I was tryin' it out when I caught a tiny piece of memory an' it just-- made me realize how I could try an' use it!" A backwards glance is shared, his smile still bright enough to rival the sunny weather that has been granted to them on this lovely vacation.

Well, she'll follow - with a bit of trepidation, to be sure, but...she'll follow.

"A tiny piece of memory," she repeats as well, trying to comprehend that. So the smaller the rock the more a memory becomes fragmented?

But her concerns do not quite catch the half-elf's attentions as he leads her on, darting across the rocky ground as if he hadn't just been wheezing for breath just a few seconds ago. There's a lightness to his footsteps, an eager anticipation that follows him, all the way across the distance he makes her cover-- and it does take him quite some time to lead her to it; a simple stone among the many, many others, tall and steady and... completely unremarkable except for the ping on their SCA.

"I'll go first, mmkay?" He offers, already reaching for the pillar with little cares or worry. A frown of concentration creases his brow as he lays his palm flat, eyes shut away to avoid distractions, and all of his focus pouring onto the stone. He's not moving much at all, betrayed only by his slow, steady breathing as he pours what he can into the stone, drifting through his memories and picking the best ones yet to share.

He tangles into a handful of them, some more easy to pick than others, thoughts as steady as his controlled breath for once. More are discarded, until just a few shards are left in his hands, little instances of time that he doesn't mind sharing, and he tries his best to send these to the stone, like an insect wing caught in amber. Just a shard, not the whole, but enough to marvel at its sight.

It takes him an extra second to back away, brows still pinched, but he's done what he could for this, and Esteban turns, beaming as he glances out to his companion again.

"Okay! That should do it!" His grin is infused with the confidence of having done his best through this strange process, hopeful and excited that his whimsical plan might prove to be successful yet.

Edited 2022-05-29 12:42 (UTC)

At least she isn't winded - she is exceptionally fit, even if she were a baseline human. As it stands it's merely a passage of time. And the stone is indeed unremarkable, but she watches this all very carefully.

She looks from him to the stone.

"So now what? I repeat the process? Or does it need to be...emptied of the memory-data?"

The half-elf tilts his head to the side a bit, the tips of his braid brushing gently against his collarbone as he considers her question.

"Hones'ly, I've got no idea," he snickers brightly. "I know there's..." he pauses, uncertain, before going on, trying to put words to what he's experienced so far. "There's a connection that's poss'ble. But I dunno how to push it." An easy shrug concludes his oh-so-helpful statement.

"I'm just hopin' that by reachin' out an' lettin' the memories play out, y'should be able to see them." Did that make sense? It's not... a strong process, if he's to be honest, but it's worth trying out, and Esteban is confident that they can make it work to their advantage. The train may have brought them out here for a purpose, but it doesn't mean that he won't try and bend the rules just a bit after all. Nothing broken, just a little bent.

She nods, then.

"Let's try, then."

He's convinced her - she'll carry forward and see what can be done. An artificial to an organic mind - a rare thing, if it can be achieved!

His grin shows his excitement at her attempt, eager and bright as always. It's a hopeful reassurance before the echo of the wind strays through.

It rushes through them, the great big gusts that sweep in through the flatlands, like behemoths with wings, but without limbs. Darkness stretches overhead, an abyss sky freckled with stars as far as the eyes can see, and where not even a cloud dares to hinder their brilliance. Above, the Mirror Moon Eriat gleams, so big, for how little their hands are, splayed against its glow.

They can see out to forever; stretches of grass and land flattened by the floods, boundless and eternal around them. Moonlight shimmers silver across the valley, crests with the waves of the wind that weeps across the saltgrass in which they stand. It tickles where it rustles against their hands and arms, still very short this early in the year.

They can't wait until it grows taller than they do, where they have to part it like great curtains when they walk across the dell. Something moves behind them-- and the memory shifts.

The grass sways underwater with unnamed currents, the tug and pull of phantom limbs sweeping across their vibrant browns and reds. From their perch, they watch the way schools of fish dart to-and-fro between the stalks, nibbling at the greenery and grazing much of it away, their hand lazily dipped in the cool water, resting after a morning spent through their swimming lessons.

They straighten under the gleaming sun, glance across a valley-turned-sea, floodwaters covering a distance so great they have no name for it other than for what it is-- the saltgrass sea. Perhaps an hour by flight away, a single mountain stands out, it's Naming Tree a brilliant green that greets all three moons, and Eriat who dances with the sun overhead in the midday sky.

Their mom's voice calls out to them, her tone a warning as she huffs, grabbing them around their shoulders and pulling them into a hug-- forcing them to sit once more. Her speech is low, and rumbles through her lungs when she talks, and both her hands come to tuck them closer to herself. Through the salt, they can smell the flame that clings to her in either form, as familiar as their heartbeat.

"You'll turn blind if the light bounces wrong." She scolds, and her hands are lost in their hair, combing through the unruly length. It's almost an echo by the second stroke, a phantom feeling that shifts with their lungs, with their limbs.

'You'll go blind if the light bounces wrong.'

Her voice lingers in their head as they leap; taller and confident, they catch the next branch and heave back atop it, barely pausing for breath.

Their back itches, their exhilaration leaving their lungs and limbs sparkling with eagerness, with joy, with awe as they rush, run faster up and over the canopy, ripping through the twigs and golden-cream leaves, the silver bark smooth under their hand. Aspen has always been kind, and she guides them, branches lowering, leaves shifting from their path as she leads them up, and up and up.

They break above the canopy, breath rattling through too-thin lungs, and her warning stays them from raising their eyes too high.

There's colours everywhere. Veils of pinks and oranges, ribbons of green and yellows dart across impossible distances, like someone has misted ink across the entire landscape. They flutter in jewel tones across the saltgrass seas, splay rainbows onto the bright leaves shivering with the gentle tug of a cold wind. Roof tiles far below them are painted with the same shimmer that dances across the entire land-- light broken through the clear-ice Mirror Moon; Eriat dancing with the sun.

It is breathtaking.

They stand there, filled with wonder and warmth at this land that is theirs, at the beauty of things around them, at how fragile every little shard of time is. Their heart is still too loud in their ears when the two part ways, sun and moon drifting from their impossible waltz, and the colours fade like a morning mist in the summer.

And then, darkness, as the memories fade.

She records every moment of it into memory, because she knows its important. That she's seeing something that he desperately wanted her to see.

Then it's her turn to try to make something come of this. She closes her eyes, concentrating, she wants to show him the planet she mentioned, but in the moment...something else occurs to her. The closest world she'd had to a 'home', for most of her existence: Coruscant.

So an image will swim into being around them - the greatest ecumenopolis in the galaxy; the centre of power for at least twenty-five thousand years. AT first, it might be hard to realize that it is all city, as far as the eye can see. Above them, in the orange sky of twilight, the peaks of kilometer-high skyscrapers stretch out in every direction.

At several levels above, there are trails of speeders and ships that move in stately, orderly procession, little blinking flashes in the fading sunlight.

They stand on a balcony, overlooking all of it - and downwards...downwards there is only city as well, until it all blends into a melange of light and shadows. People can be seen on thoroughfares below, tiny as ants.

In the distance, the vast dome of the Senate Hall can be seen, surrounded by its tall statues. Nowhere is there a hint of nature, but the sense of weight, the sense of power - that might be truly visible, here.

There's a gasped breath from behind her, a short "oh!" when Esteban stumbles across the memory she's aiming at him. He hadn't thought she'd share any of it back with him-- he didn't want to force her hand after all, and the half-elf had only set himself to gifting these shards of his to her, as he had promised.

But the sky full of carriages makes his head spin-- the sheer height of the buildings, the people milling about down into the shadows of impossibly tall structures has him gasp, like needles pointing out at the stars. He turns onto himself, despite knowing somewhere that it won't shift things; it won't change his perspective-- it's a memory, not a guided tour-- but he still tries, because there is so much to take in.

Buildings made more of dragonglass than wood or metal, the evening sun reflecting off the bright surfaces. The impossibility of a sky so close yet still so far, the sheer weight of how much life seeps here, into these places; stones and beams and glass, supporting thousands, tens of thousands-- millions, and the numbers beyond it are too large for him to even comprehend. An entire planet; a single city.

He can't even wrap his head around that. There's a planet that is one city.

For someone who grew up within small settlements, a few thousand people at the most per township, the sheer colossal enormity of this is just too much to understand. His legs give out from underneath him, and he drops none-too-gently on his ass, still reeling from the single shard that has been shared.

There's a whispered swear so colourful that it darts across the full spectrum as Esteban tries somehow impossibly, to make even a fraction of sense of what he's just seen. His head feels too big inside too small a cage, and the pressure aches across his skull, but he won't admit it-- not just yet as he breathes in deep and tries to say something more intelligible.

"I'd say that's impossible," he begins, words shaky on his tongue, and eyes still far too wide. "But I know you've seen it." There is awe in his voice, but he still doesn't know how to process so much of it. How do the carriages fly? How do the buildings get so tall? Where did they get this much dragonglass that they can make entire buildings almost transparent from the inside out?

He can't even voice all-- he can't even voice any of his questions. Let him lie down for a bit, he's in shock.

Oh! He's in shock!

Well that explains it.

She moves to gently put a hand on his shoulder, to keep him sitting down.

"Coruscant is a lot for the unprepared," she replies. "And I lived there for most of my existence - it's mostly built upon itself. It's a very old city-world. It's been the centre of galactic government as far back as written history goes. Some say it is the planet humans originated from, though any trace would be so deeply buried it will never be found."

He's still grasping at the edges of his thoughts, feeling them unspool like a lost ball of yarn. It's hard to keep things from spinning in his head much less his limbs, but he manages to breathe, deeply, as he tries to stave off the tangles of too much at once that are still lingering like cobwebs.

"Yeah," he adds after she mentions that it is a lot, barely keeping up with the words. He's slower at piecing together the rest of her sentences, still trying to manage the overwhelming size, distance, numbers still roaming somewhere in his mind. He can't comprehend it. It's so large, he can't understand it.

He kind of wants to ask about it, but knows that he needs a bit of time to settle his thoughts first-- he's not going to make much progress otherwise. So Esteban leans back onto his arms. Fills his lungs with the briny air that surrounds them. And wrings it out mechanically one or two more times.

"Tell me 'bout the floatin' carriages?" It's... it's a smaller shard, a piece of the puzzle rather than the whole. He might take a while to build it, piece by piece like this, but he will hold on. "Are they like the speeders of Ossiga?" But he hadn't seen a speeder rise off the ground like those had. They'd been in the sky. Whizzing by, like wings supported them, but there was no wings on them.

Edited 2022-06-10 01:05 (UTC)

"Oh, most of those are what are called repulsorlifts," she replies. "They push down with enough force to keep themselves lifted in the air. Others are actual starships, meaning they have come down from orbit around the planet, or are heading out into space."

None of which would make things any better for him, in terms of explanation.

"So they're just-- missin' the ground? Constantly?" He'd laugh, but he's still reeling. At least his breathing is slowing down, and his humor is returning. He manages to think vaguely that he always carries a waterskin with him-- before remembering that he hasn't had a waterskin since he joined the train.

Bottles. They're called bottles here, and they're awfully hard to the touch.

Esteban reaches out to the bag he'd dropped nearby, dragging it closer and plucking the bottle from its depths. The water is still cool enough to provide some relief, and it helps him to focus his mind onto something so small and simple. Bit by bit, he's piecing himself back together.

"So y' travel to the moons an' the stars on some of them?" At least that concept is not new-- he'd been so startled to hear that people could space travel before, but it only seemed logical to him that they would try one day. A wanderer at heart, he couldn't help but understand the desire to reach new destinations, new places that he'd never seen before.

Edited (wrong icon) 2022-06-15 02:16 (UTC)

She settles in next to him, crossing her legs and folding her hands in her lap. She can see this will take some explaining, and she is patient.

"In a way, yes," she replies, "though it's easier out in space, in its way - where gravity isn't as much of a factor."

"As for the rest, well. It's important to remember our galaxy is a lot older than many of the ones you might have heard of. Spacefaring races have been expanding our knowledge of the galaxy for nearly thirty thousand years, you see. It took a long time but now...tens of millions of worlds are inhabited. We've charted perhaps two thirds of the galaxy, a little more even."

There's a pause, a strained smile, and Esteban reaches up to ruffle the hair at the back of his head, trying to refocus again.

"Y'r world's so big," he manages after a short moment. "It's dizzyin'." His eyes close, a slight press of his eyebrows lingering low over his nose, and her companion takes another deep breath.

He can't deal with the numbers and implications that she keeps tossing at him. That they'd been traveling the stars for thirty thousand years is yet another wonder of such weight that he can't quite touch it yet. Even the oldest immortal Esteban knew was only about seven thousands years-- four times, fives times his age-- this was so much.

"Keep it small?" The physical barrier of it being small helps him find some bearing. Don't tell him about the numbers that are so big that his brain crosses over itself trying to keep up.

"Did you have a ship yourself?" He eventually asks, hoping this gives them a starting point, from which he can start charting his own path through the immense monsters Guri had presented so far. She'd wanted to show him her world, and he's really touched that she tried-- but it still feels like a dragon just crushed him under its paw and he now has to get back up from that.

"It is the capital," she offered, by way of explanation. "And as I said, our universe is older than most, at least in terms of human exploration."

She did nod at his question.

"Yes," she replied, "I did before I was brought here. The Stinger</i - a rather unique design, as it happens."

Oh! He thinks he remembers that one!

"The one shaped like a wasp, right?" Or at least Guri had told him she'd been in one shaped like a wasp. Was that her own ship? "Did you design it? Why was it shaped like a wasp?"

It helps him. Something small like this is helpful, and he takes another sip of his water, letting the simple matter draw him away from the stars and planets and galaxies, the universe far too big for how small he is among it all. And a wasp is all the more tiny. It makes him wonder why they would design their flying vessels after such small creatures.

"Oh, no, mine was much smaller. I preferred it that way."

She reached down, picking up a bit of stick, and with precision, began to trace out a basic three-dimensional outline of her ship.

"As for the wasp ships, it's because they used to be. The carapaces of long-dead space-faring wasps were used as ship hulls. Nearly a kilometer long."

Surely that will go down great for him.

He's surprised that she can just draw it out in the dirt like that, a little envious of her skills-- Esteban's best attempt at a doodle would be a bunch of squiggly lines, and that's with proper materials. But it at least gives him an idea of the ship she's used, even though he can barely tell much other than the front and the back of it, and only because it has such a distinct shape.

The wasp-ships don't even seem to phase him, surprisingly enough. He nods as she speaks, though his smile grows a little complicated; with an eyebrow pinched down and some trace of awkwardness to it.

"Wow. That's... alright, that's morbid, but pretty cool," he has to admit, snickering at the idea. Yikes. That's like saying someone would have found a dragon's corpse, emptied it out and started using it to fly about. But a kilometer-long wasp is still small enough that he can deal, pressing the vastness away with the smaller distance in comparison.

There's a short pause as he considers what to say to this, slowly collecting himself from the entire scores of knowledge and thoughts that has been poured into him in the last few minutes. It was-- a lot. But Esteban is adaptable, and, beyond the overwhelming scope of things, he can start picking at threads to see the colours woven in the tapestry.

"I've always loved the stars," he mentions, a little distractedly, eyes turning up to the gentle purple sky above their heads. "Even when I was a kid-- the moons too. The night." He closes his eyes. "The wind an' the feelin' of flyin'. Like I could go anywhere." There's a deep breath that settles in his lungs, smelling just a bit like saltgrass. The vast open plains that were as much his world as the cities were.

"I think it's amazin' that humans managed it in your world. That they reached out to the skies an' flew."

"Not just us - many, many species. There are easily thousands of hyperspace-travelling species, probably vastly more than that. But it is a truly wide and varied universe."

It seems the most hopeful message she can give him, that isn't completely overwhelming to him.

Oh! That's right! There's androids too, in her world. So Esteban beams at his companion, and nods, correcting himself with "People in your world are amazing!" There's a bit more mirth in his voice at this, but it's quick to fade, and the redhead turns back to the sky again.

"Thanks. For showing me." So, it's still a bit much for him to grasp, with the needle-towers and the dragonglass windows and the sheer numbers still running in through his brain, but Esteban has always found people's creativity and ingenuity impossibly amazing, from the cloud candies Roland has shown him to make, all the way to the ships that carry people like Hera and Guri through the stars. People are amazing. And, somewhere, in a distant world, or even a different one, there's a planet that is a city, so vast and large that Esteban cannot for the life of him conceive it.

He'd like to visit it some day.

Alright, now he's ready. Like dipping his toes in a pool, the half-elf shifts his head to the side as he turns to ask "Alright; 'f your world's that huge, how d's sunlight get all the way down t' the ground?"

Always curious, ever curious, and he'll have to be careful to navigate this world of millions-of-millions numbers; but he does want to learn, he does want to understand, and the glimpse that Guri gave him of her world is precious to him all the same, because it is part of her. Every person is a collection of stories, and Esteban loves hearing his friends speak of their world. Their homes.

Memory sharing - Positive

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Link is broken; managed to find it googling the name though

Boo, sorry!

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