( video ) [ BACKDATED TO LATE ON 4/9 ]

[heelies]

[ What broadcasts over the network is the picture of a peculiar pair: Achilles and Helga, serious of countenance both, as is each's modus operandi. The metallic shell of the submarine's curved insides serves as their backdrop. ]

I should like to call to assembly the members of this crew, and I understand that this is the best means by which to reach the ears of all men, although it is more to my liking to see those to whom I give these words. It is Achilles, son of Peleus, who wishes to speak to you: I have journeyed, with a crew led by gold-clad Gilgamesh and fair-haired Kida, to the darkest reaches within the sea, which lie beyond where the imagination of men can fathom. I shall tell of that to which we have borne witness.

Down there dwells Ryba, the goddess of the sea, who is Nalanni's sister. She knows not to where Nalanni has gone, for her eyes cannot see beyond that over which she presides - but we have her reassurance that Nalanni who delights in volcanoes has not vanished in full from this land, for she would know if such a calamity has come to pass. We are told that sea and rock are anchored one to another, as life is to death: either both must make this land, or nothing at all remains. Therefore, hope has not scattered to the wind.

Wave-ruling Ryba soon grew weary of our audience, and although she welcomes supplications the price she demands is steep. It is imprudent to test the generosity of the gods. Thus we parted with little solved: still, the answers she granted ought to be shared among all.

[ Helga looks as if she would have loved to interrupt him a fair few times already, but she kept quiet in spite of herself until now. Achilles, for his part, looks none too thrilled at having to share the floor thus. ]

Ryba has not been straightforward in her answers.

[ Surely, she hasn't shot a sideway glance at Achilles when she said this. ]

What we gathered from her is that the Dakal have been driven to (or near) extinction by the Nalawi during the war between them. They had been "sent to the bottom of the sea", either literally or figuratively. It checks out, if I'm allowed to hazard a guess: on our way to Ryba's lair, we came across plenty of wrecked submarines, none of which seem to fit in with the near complete lack of technology on Komo and the other islands.

The goddess mentioned one specific Dakal, who sold her soul in order to return to the surface world. In the process, she may have been granted powers by Ryba herself, but we do not know what became of her, what those powers were, or if she did anything with them.

I have been told by the Nalawi innkeep that minor gods exist alongside Nalanni, albeit no one worships them here. Ryba proves that they are tangible to the point of concern, so I urge all of you to take great care during your exploration.

Comments

[selfimage]

That's the one million gold question now, isn't it? No one wants to get caught on a technicality.

When you're the one running across alternate dimensions causing certain events, aren't we the ones causing certain fates? Think about it ... [ for the moment, Loki looks at his nails, his voice still mildly interested in what they're talking about. ] We're from different parts of the multiverse, fate is dictated by resonance, we're strangers here—hm—anomalies.

What about keeping the timestream together needs an outsider's touch?

...

Curious ...

[heelies]

Then do you truly believe what little the sons of Alastair tell of their goals? I will tell you what seems right to me. That of which you speak, and that which Alastair would have us believe, is the work of the gods: to know the course of fate, and to uphold its will that it may come to fruition. A god you may be, but not so with other of this crew, nor the cowardly lords we are made to follow. Such matters are not for men to dip their fingers in.

[selfimage]

I believe that ALASTAIR believes in ALASTAIR's goals. They don't tell us anything because they don't know anything beyond that. They're given their orders from another source.

[ there's still the whole thing with the mechanical room that leaves a sour taste in his mouth. not even his sorcery could break into bindings woven around that place. adding insult to injury, his hands had been painted red for a week (three days, but it felt like a week) for the attempt. ]

It's easy to paint an impossible bubble around the things that the divine don't want mortal hands to touch. It goes a few ways—elder gods and gods, resonance and gods, etcetera etcetera. Sometimes people just don't want you to know things, and they place some clever, convincing rhetoric to surround it. It's ontologically subjective, really, and when you try to turn something subjective into being objective, we run into a few problems.

You're beyond the fingers now, just dip your hand down to the wrist.

[heelies]

I know not what to think. Here speaks before me a god, although not one from among those who answer the pleas and supplications of the Achaeans - still, any immortal is worthy of fear and respect, and so it is with you, god of Asgard. Here is a god who protects not the order of the world, who condemns not the sons of Alastair for interfering with the workings of fate, if indeed that is their intent. Whether it is their wish to uphold fate's course or to divert it, I know not, nor does it matter, for such a claim seems to me preposterous.

I believe, however, that Nalanni must return, for mortal death is not for the gods to suffer. It is for this reason, and not the designs of any man else, that I seek answers to the Nalawi's plight.

[selfimage]

[ there's a little ironic twist of his lips at the whole preposterous thing. ]

Well, if we want to babble on about fate, who better to fix this little problem then a bunch of outsiders to this realm? No one on the inside seems to be able to change their course. [ he speaks mostly to himself, and then adds a little bit of a roll of his shoulders. ] Save your thoughts on that one, they may change; it's not up to anyone to say what what gods should and should not suffer.

Besides, we have to find her first. There's a story here that we're only getting a portion of.

[heelies]

Although my heart fills with dread for what fortune might await us at the end of all these endeavors, and thus resists your words at present, it is foolish too to shun the counsel of a god, even one of whom I know little. Therefore I shall turn this over in my mind, god of Asgard.

Indeed there is much we do not yet know, and so we must continue to seek answers.