crystal; fighting evil by ____light

[undergrunn]

FORM: sending crystal
SENDER: Abella
RECIPIENT: the whole gremlin collection
NOTES: Likely discussion of a battle royale, potential discussion of possession/monstrosities.

Good evening, Riftwatch.

( There's the sound of wind in the background - it's not too hard to tell she's outside. Some might be able to guess she's up on the ramparts, exposed to the harsher winds lashing in from across the sea.

She isn't looking at the sea, though. Her gaze is on those two moons. If she lets her focus drift it's almost like that leering smile stretches across them, before she comes back to herself.

Despite all that, she sounds warm and upbeat. )

I've been thinking a lot about time. How it passes, specifically, in our worlds back home. I've tried to do some reading in the library and looking for older communications on the network, but there's so much and I don't really know where to start or what names to look for.

When I got here, I left a situation where myself and some others were on a countdown, and... I know it's naive to hope they'd arrive here too, when even one person getting here seems like it would require so many variables coming together. Getting multiple people from the same world would be remote, let alone ones that know each other.

( Unless there's some factor about that first person that would be shared by people they know that might increase the likelihood? She sips the glorified vinegar masquerading as wine - sad new rifter budget, etc - and pushes logical enquiry out of her mind, for now. )

The point is that with how unlikely them coming here is, I'm stuck on how time works. I need to at least try to figure out if it's been weeks for them, or if maybe a month here is just a half hour, back home.

( Or something. Anything, really. )

If anyone knows, I'd really appreciate it.

( Abella tries to inject a little upbeat energy in at the end, like it can mask all the worry and everything else. )

Unless anyone else has turned up talking about a real jerk of a moon. If that sounds familiar, send them my way.

Comments

[ipseite]

( petrana sets her crystal down until it sounds like speaking, again, presuming that abella would enjoy the audience as little as she wishes to listen.

if she seems cold, it's by choice; a self-protective armour. the dispassionate recounting of things immense, emotional: she is little willing to discuss them, certainly publicly, any other way. it is useful to volunteer the information. it is not a conversation she is equipped to have in a way other than offering information. )

That is the nature of the fade. It is, in essence, irrelevant how time functions: it seems, based on the experiences we have documented here, that in a very real sense you never left your world.

[undergrunn]

( In this instance, the steadiness is vastly preferable. An accompaniment to the cold stone wall and brisk breeze in helping her regulate herself, settle her breathing.

A caressing soul, ever striving for connection and so often feeling too much. This was grounding. )

This isn’t my first time getting dragged into a mess by a dream. I— I wonder if that might have been not-really-me, either.

( Quiet, a few moments, just breathing. )

How do you cope with it?

[ipseite]

It is not the same for me as it is for you.

( she says it gently, but it is a closed door. )

What has been of use to me will not aid you.

[undergrunn]

( As much as she can logically recognise the gentleness in how the boundary is set, appreciated the need for a boundary, she’d be lying if she said it wasn’t that bit painful to recognise. Not because of the boundary, and only because she so wants to find something to help her navigate this.

Then again, maybe it’s her own kind of answer. Dignity, poise, control. Helping, operating with compassion, but not allowing despair the chance to get purchase.

Not that Abella knows this person. She could be totally off mark. )

This is why I like engineering. There’s rules and formulas. If you stick to the formula, it follows a logical course.

( There’s no manual for troubleshooting this. She has a diagnosis for the root cause, and that’s just made it more difficult. )