It's sort of a lot. Quantitywise, I mean. I'm not like struggling with trauma or something! Only science.
Hello beautiful!
This is what we're doing now, right?? This was from me not Encke haha. I have him with me, maybe I can try to run this through Discorder…
Anyway. I'm here for giving me information! For science, of course. Not for anything else. Definitely not a trauma struggle 🙂↕️
You gotta let me call my beautiful friends gorgeous so yes, this is what we're doing now!
I don't even know where to start. I picked up a little trinket on my Wonder a while back but this is all like, prologue. Tldr it's a couple of masks that let you sort of lucid dream, almost? And interact with the other wearer when you do it.
I'm still figuring out some of what they can do. Almadel had to help me figure it out but I think I have it mostly nailed down.
Or I did, rather. Do you know Lyndin?
That's super cool honestly. Able to dream with someone else? Maybe you can have some really close conversations that no one can witness, just y'all. What a way to share secrets honestly!!
Sorry I'm just thinking about the possibilities!
I know of Lyndin. He's the guy who got that starseeding hand grabber thing from the Negaverse and also handed over the ability to corrupt like they did at that gathering on the hill…
😭 But nevermind that- what did he do?
(I think that's one of the things it was for. Espionage and peace talks.)
Anyway I didn't know about that :’) if I had I might have acted differently
But I also, man, I don't know. He seemed pretty worn out and eager to do some good so maybe he's realizing working with Chaos just because they're more organized and competent isn't the move? Or maybe that's wishful ******** thinking on my part. I'm not above it.
I think in any case if we can win him more over to our cause it might be for our benefit because God knows the man knows things. But that's partly why I'm messaging. I'm also worried about the s**t he knows and who he's telling it to.
Because he has a lot of interest in Wonders, or at least knows a lot about them, and was helping me learn things about mine. Although, again, if I had known more maybe I wouldn't have let him. Or maybe I would. I hate Chaos but I'm not exactly feeling great about Order, either.
Anyway, sorry, I don't want this to get derailed into a conversation about ******** moral quandaries. The tldr again is that I didn't know all that and I met a Vanguard member during the Hollow, and she said some things that intrigued me. So she helped me talk to him.
And I don't know what he knows and I didn't ask, but now I want to. Because I went in expecting him to answer some questions about the Hollow storms and I got so much more than that that I wasn't prepared to deal with the information. But I've had time to think.
He and I were talking about the capacity of a given Wonder to hold energy and how it might be altered (alarm bell one: for more, or can it be altered for less?). Also about how energy collects on them (alarm bell 2: is he teaching Chaos to look at them as a resource the way they do people?) and s**t like that.
And out of nowhere he handed me this thing. He called it a battery, looked like a rock. He said it was ethically sourced, whatever that means, and I guess he could have been lying but I don't think he was somehow. I was too blindsided to investigate.
But did he find a way to scrape it off Wonders or homeworlds? How did he get access? Was it donated, like we did during the Hollow? Did he get it from the storms? I need to ask him a bunch of things. I'll send you a list I made and you can help me go over it.
Anyway, I had vaguely alluded to the fact that I had an item I was learning about that was relevant to why I was asking and he suggested I try using the battery with it.
I held onto it - he said they're hard to make and precious and I was afraid to waste it - and then after all that s**t on oh s**t I didn't tell you
I hate saying “I transcended” like I got a haircut or a nose job but… that ******** happened.
No, it's all good! Moral quandaries are something I'm so familiar with from listening to Encke talk – he just gave me an eyeroll for that I saw that!! Order is in such a weird place because we did used to be all over the place intergalatically and now we're all thrown here and then we have what seems to be an organized thing that – as Encke points out – does seem to be winning.
But yeah that's just my brief thoughts on it I'll leave it there!
Encke says congrats on the Transcendence! And I agree because more transcended people the better tbh, less starseeds that the Negaverse can try to snatch 🙀 but anyway Encke knows a bit about the ethically sourced thing! They have these rocks that they ask if people are willing to give them energy for – and then they charge them with energy. Willingly, instead of unwillingly, which is the way of all the chaos factions,
I never did that but apparently Encke helped back when they thought the energy was going toward ending chaos on this world, instead of being funneled to chaos during that whole fiasco… and Pendour did sometimes when she needed to sleep, I think.
That being said I don't know if he's teaching them how to work to get that stuff off wonders or homeworlds whether it be unintentionally or intentionally. Might be another conversation!!
Maybe he thought the ethically sourced energy could help with your dream sharing item?
Also Encke's curious about how the Transcendence went!
Well, that clears up my biggest question. I'm glad to know where it came from. Maybe he said it was precious because people are less keen to contribute now that he threw them into the murder maw once already.
Weird that he gave it to me then, though. But he said, hang on let me see if I can remember
I can't remember exactly. And I guess it's ambiguous but it was something about him knowing how valuable life is. And it felt sincere when he said it, but I don't know what kind of a liar he is.
This ******** sucks. I don't like feeling naive but I keep trying to replay the conversation and wondering if I just heard what I wanted to hear. Because I really ******** wanted to hear it.
Anyway.
Anyway, I used it as he suggested. And he was right, and it changed how the masks worked. Or augmented it, I guess, since they still work the same way they did. But he made it do a new thing.
This is hard to describe.
During the Hollow, when the lightning came, s**t got weird.
The battery made the masks work in a similar kind of weirdness. And now I can do that sometimes, I think.
Anyway, he didn't ask for anything in return. I did tell him it worked. I have also had one of his cadets out a few times, but she did save my life, so I can't feel bad about that one. If those batteries are so precious I don't know what compelled him to give me one when he might not even get any useful data in return, and the data he did get was one point that only has a real narrow effect, you know?
I guess I want to try and talk to him again, and now I guess I have other things to ask him. I want to ask why he gave me the battery. I want to ask whether he's been looking at Wonders as a resource to be strip mined. I want to ask him whether this information is helping Chaos.
But if what you say is true, maybe I shouldn't bother. Maybe he would just lie, like he lied to Pendour and the rest.
Lying by omission is still lying, if that's what he did. I hate when people do that.
I'm not lying to you but pretend I didn't say that because I just realized it makes me a hypocrite.
What else should I ask him? Should I bother asking him anything?
Tell Encke I don't want to talk about it.
But the seagulls came. He always asked me to bring back seagulls and I always promised him I would. I told Encke about it once. So you can tell Encke the seagulls came.
Encke likes that, that the seagulls came. They say they don't need all the details, but that's enough. That feels right. They say several people they know that transcended had something return that was important to that place or the people who inhabited it. In your case, it's the seagulls.
That feels really nice, honestly 😻
But anyway, yes: the questions of why Lyndin did it and also what it did. Perhaps he feels guilty? Perhaps there are more motivations there. I'm pretty sure he's mostly concerned about his people, which might be impacting things. Maybe he doesn't care. Maybe he does
I think you're right in that since the Negaverse seems the most put together, he went to them first,
Maybe you should ask him why he feels motivated to help you. I would be interested to know if he's trying to figure out something about wonders and homeworlds, too …
Him working with Chaos does have Encke concerned. He's very Caedus aligned overall
But what did the battery allow you to do? What did it change about the mask?
It let Nail dream too.
Transcendence did too, but only for a few seconds. The battery more like an hour, and seems to have made it able to do it again without a fresh battery, although I'm iffy on the details. It does use some sort of energy, though, because they stop working for a while after that, like they've been depleted somehow and have to recharge.
That's why I think it’s such an insignificant thing for Lyndin to want, unless he was just motivated by wanting to help me. There's not a million of these masks kicking around or we'd have found them, and he didn't ask to see it or use it or learn about it. He said himself the situation with Wonder ancestors seems to be unique. If he'd actually, I don't know, raised the dead I can obviously see the utility of that for him. Or anyone. But there doesn't seem to be much to be gained for him besides a data point. If it's about magical items in general he could surely have found someone else and something else to test.
Or maybe he couldn't. Maybe the having a Wonder part mattered.
You're right, I need to ask him. I'm just worried he's going to lie about it.
I hope I haven't done something that helps Chaos in some way but I won't lie to you, I think I'd do it again under the same circumstances. It's taught me things about energy collection on a Wonder that can't be of more use to them than us, and once I understand it better I hope I can share it and get something useful out of it for everyone, maybe.
I didn't mean to get tangled up. I just wanted to help him somehow and no one else could. I wouldn't have done it if the price was too high but I'm not sure it was.
Besides why he helped, is there anything you'd like me to ask him? I don't know if I'll speak to him again, depending on how that conversation goes.
I don't think you got tangled up, especially not in any bad way!! It sounds like this really benefited both you and Nail, and I think that's a big deal honestly! Sounds like you might've not gotten there without him 🙀
Encke also says they haven't seen many things that actually help the ancestors too. Obviously homeworlds don't have any hanging around but a lot of wonders do and they're just… there. It's interesting to hear we can help them in ways that don't require them to just keep vibing there…
Can the battery recharge on the wonder itself? I think that's a good question, honestly. Does it just do it on its own or does it do better on the wonder? Maybe that has something to do with Lyndin’s motivations
Or maybe he was legit just feeling nice! Or curious. More willing to help you because you helped one of the Velencians, maybe?
You mentioned energy collection on wonders – this has to have something to do with all of this, right?
Encke says to let him think on some questions, he's been hesitant to speak to Lyndin due to the whole stealing Caedus’ starseed back thing,
What did he do, exactly?
I don't want to ask which is a pretty good sign that I should.
My knowledge of him was coming through a cadet that can only speak one or two words at a time, I think, so it was like pulling teeth learning what I did.
And the energy collecting on Wonders is pure speculation on my part because of what Chaos does. He has a device that can detect pockets of it on a Wonder - he let me use it - but he hasn't said anything about harvesting it or moving it. He also told me that once the battery was used up, that was it - no suggestion it would recharge, and it's been sitting at the Wonder ever since, depleted. His suggestion, actually, was that the pockets might account for how unevenly Wonders restore themselves, and that maybe by focusing on the pockets you can sort of boost the process along.
Which I'm trying to test but it's not the easiest thing in the world due to that aforementioned unevenness, but he didn't even really ask me to tell him how it went. It was just sort of general advice. He didn't say anything about removing or transferring it - I was speculating before I knew where the battery came from. But it's still possible.
As to what Encke said - yes, I've noticed there's not a lot to help them. In fairness, I've now talked to many of them and I don't think all of them want help. It seems like some of them have sort of stopped being human or even people in that sense - that sounds cruel but you know what I mean - and maybe it would be cruel to return them to feeling like people where they can't do anything about it.
But I guess some of them still do feel like people and anything is something. Almadel, too - he gave me something I can hold but also Nail can use (a lute), so I guess there's some sort of way to get a bridge from wherever we are to wherever they are, but no one seems to have looked for it before.
Anyway. He still felt like a person. I wasn't sure if it was a good idea. He said that during the storm when he was able to touch the world for a minute that it was the worst thing
But I don't wanna talk for him. I'll just say that I asked him if it would make it worse and he said that if a man had been in prison he would probably welcome a chance to feel the sun, even if it was only for a minute.
Anyway. I'm working on it. After talking to so many of them I think a few of them would like to find a way to feel the sun, but not until I can do that for them without taking his away.
Anyway. Tell me what Lyndin did?
I think that's fair though – a thousand years of being alone would mess any person up, and I don't think it's cruel or mean to say that. It's possible some of them just don't want that humanity back, especially because of something I've noticed with some of our alien senshi friends too. Some of them just seem even more injured by reminders of all of … this.
Complicated 😿
I would love to see the ability to help more of them feel the sun, honestly, the ones that want it. I think that would be good!! The bridge is definitely interesting. I wonder how else we may be able to reach that bridge? Maybe those pockets of unevenness may hold a key…
Maybe I can add a GPS feature to start mapping those things?
And just gonna hand the phone entirely to Encke for a moment! They were very on top of that mess!
Mess. Yes. Uh. The short of What Lyndin Did, or as short as I can make it: Caedus, another key name here, essentially was trapped in Negaspace for centuries. He got out, he helped us break back into Negaspace in like 2018 and actually launch an attack, a successful one, and then he went into hiding until he was able to get back to his homeworld… sorta. He returned with the other Velencians, which included Lyndin. -King- Caedus wanted to help us–being Order–maybe end the Metallia threat once and for all, so in exchange for us helping them, they were making a machine to gather the energy of one of their former moons into something that could directly strike at Metallia.
That machine was set up on the hill one day in … ********, 2021? what is time
anyway
The machine worked for the first stated purpose, it successfully beamed the moon. Broke it into pieces. Sent a bunch of energy out. Think that's connected to some other things. But there was a different purpose for the machine, in the end, then killing Metallia, because Lyndin opted to hand over the operation to the Negaverse ig – it resulted in a wave of Chaos energy over the field that force corrupted well over a dozen of us within minutes. In the meantime, he had a gauntlet from them which he used to yank Caedus' starseed.
I was one of the people who put it back, so I don't think I'm on good terms with Lyndin LMAO
But it turns out Caedus’ starseed is like really ******** up. He was supposed to be their senshi. Obviously he isn't, currently, but
But essentially he got our help only to betray us. Which I do get his first priority being his own people, but that was … certainly a way to go about it
I'm not sure I understand. Was the energy corrupted after it was collected on purpose, by Chaos or someone else? Was it corrupt to begin with?
Or did it get corrupted by mistake somehow?
Why did he yank the starseed?
What do you mean by supposed to be? Wasn't he?
Rejam
I'll fix the formatting later
