video; un:curtaincall

[endcaller]

[The feed opens with a view of a metallic ceiling illuminated by blue light as the tablet is moved around; followed by the pale face of a man in a hood. The movement suggests he is crouching down to set the tablet against something. Once it is in place, apparently on the floor but propped up, he walks forward a few paces and settles himself against a wall lined with neon lights. Despite their glare, he doesn't cast a shadow.]

Good morrow to you, my dearest fellow Chosen!

On a scale from one to ten, one being "abysmal" and ten being "I've had better", how has your week been?

[A thin, joyless smile creeps across his lips as he tilts his head.]

Mine has been filled with peril and adventure! Some of you may know that we are not the only civilization on this star. There are others.

I traveled to the nearest settlement, Rumpitur, to see with my own eyes whether these... "glitches" as we've been calling them plagued them as well. Alas, I was not able to observe much. Whenever I passed the town's borders my being was warped back to the outside. At times I was warped quite far.

I did, eventually, decide to speak with the guards but--

[There is a sharp crash of thunder from nearby, the suddenness makes him wince. After a moment of concerned silence, he stands up, smooths his hands down his robe, and walks away. For several seconds the camera shows the blank floor of an empty room, and then a small, square robot whirs into frame. Some might recognize it as a welcome robot.

Its screen lights up with text, each line appearing within a few seconds of each other.

HELLO, CHOSEN.

MASTER HAS BEEN SAD.

WHEN HE COMES BACK...

WISH HIM A HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

There are footsteps and Fandaniel's throaty lilt breaks the silence.]

I believe I just saw the ground outside boil, freeze, and sublimate all at once. Marvelous!

[His boots step into view in front of the robot.]

Hyperetes, what are you telling people?

[The robot beeps.]

I see, how terribly inappropriate. Thank you.

[Hyperetes wheels away as Fandaniel sits himself back down.]

Now, where was I before I so rudely interrupted myself?

Ah! Yes, the snake folk.

Well, my conversation with the guards was not illuminating so much as mortifying. If I attempted to broach any topic of substance they...

[How can he even explain it? He waves a hand in the air and giggles.]

This entire world is coming apart at the seams. Truly, it feels as though the Final Days are upon us. We're all going to die screaming.

[This observation doesn't seem to bother him much.]

Comments

[followyourstar]

Isn't that guaranteed to happen if nothing's done though? Not that you're wrong--it's pretty obvious this could get messy. I just don't want to give up yet.

[endcaller]

Nothing in this mad chaos is "guaranteed". For all we know things could resolve themselves, yes?

But the reset is likely better than inaction. I know not how much longer we can live like this.

[Well, he could endure for a while. He's been finding all of this fascinating.]

[followyourstar]

Something tells me the situation the ground was in earlier isn't something that resolves itself.

[It feels odd to just come out with it like this, but curiosity bids them ask:]

You said this is the second apocalypse you've been through. Does that mean your world's... gone?

[endcaller]

[A small chirp of amusement.]

Put it together, did you?

Yes, my world is gone. I was whisked away to this star ere the end came so I endured as the lone survivor—the last man left from what is now a planetary grave.

[followyourstar]

[If they had eyes, they'd be squinting at the screen. That account seems a bit too... dramatic to be true, but it's not like they have any evidence against it, either.

Might as well just go with it for now.]

Sounds like you got lucky, ending up here just in time. Well, sort of, considering what's happening.

This is probably inconsiderate of me, but... Was it like this? What happened to your home?

[endcaller]

Engulfed in flames by meteors from the sky as creation itself came undone? There are some striking similarities, yes.

[Though he is only assuming the Final Days ravaging Etheirys now are the same as the ones he'd seen in his dreams. He sees no reason they wouldn't be. After all, his dreams were visions of the truth.]

[followyourstar]

Reality itself was coming apart too? Like here?

[endcaller]

Indeed.

Oh, there were differences, of course. Streets that were once cobblestone were not momentarily lined in steel nor turned into rolling meadows.

But reality was corrupted. Living beings were struck first, turning into monsters as the despair of their situation twisted them, body and soul!

[A small chuckle.]

We are, at least, spared that.

[followyourstar]

Wait... what?

[It can't be...]

What did they look like? Did they hear a voice before their bodies changed?

[endcaller]

[A pause.]

They did hear a voice before their change. In a manner of speaking.

[How many people truly heard the Song of Oblivion as a song, he's not sure. To the Unsundered it had been merely "The Sound", a mysterious emanation from within the planet. They had heard something, however. Maybe less aether-dense beings could hear the Song more clearly.]

As for their forms, I am not sure I could explain them. The Terminus Beasts can appear as many things, all malformed and wretched, bearing little resemblance to who they were as men.

[followyourstar]

["In a manner of speaking" is close enough to "yes" to worry them. That sounds like the Distortion Phenomenon all right. The woman's voice they heard through Heathcliff, shortly before his form twisted and contorted into the creature he, in that moment, believed himself to be.]

They're called Distortions where I'm from. If they're the same thing.

But they sound similar.

[endcaller]

Mm... I've not heard that term but Distortions and Terminus Beasts could well be one and the same.

The force that destroyed my star has destroyed many others.

[The architect of the apocalypse has sat in her nest for countless millennia now, singing to the universe. Every star that her Song has reached has perished. Fandaniel wonders how many there are now, how many more there will be before the universe's heat-death comes.]

[followyourstar]

It doesn't surprise me. Some them can be pretty powerful. And if you can't bring them back to their senses...

[But could they really destroy the world?]

[endcaller]

They endure and grow ever more powerful.

Quite the conundrum, that.

[followyourstar]

Something like that. But we haven't seen that part of things for ourselves.

[The part where Distortions become something else, that is.]

It's... unsettling, but hopefully things won't get out of control on our end. Haven't heard anything about The City being on fire or meteors falling from the sky just yet.

[Better to think positively. It could just be a coincidence. Right?]

[endcaller]

Well, that is good!

Let us hope that such misfortune has not befallen your star since you've come here.

[followyourstar]

I think it'll be fine for a little while.

[That much they can believe wholeheartedly.]

Even if resetting this AI doesn't send me back, there are other people who can take care of Distortions too.

[endcaller]

Send us back...

[A throaty hum.]

You raise a possibility I hadn't considered.

[followyourstar]

Really? I thought it was possible. If everything's getting reset, that means it would have to pull everyone through again, wouldn't it? Or whatever "program" we're supposed to be following would have to start all over again.

[endcaller]

[A long pause, followed by the rustling of fabric and chains.]

The AI itself seems to feel a reset is its best option. It also claims to love us. I do not think it would recommend an action that would separate us from it.

Then again...

With how things have been of late, it may not be "thinking" clearly

[followyourstar]

It also said it considered us more important than itself. If it places our safety and continued existence as more important than its own, wouldn't it consider it more important to keep us all safe?

[endcaller]

A return home may be safer than staying here, but not for every Chosen. I've spoken to many whose situations were...dire.

Take myself, for instance. The Final Days ravage my star as we speak. Were I to go home I would die.

...No...

Worse than that. My very soul would be warped into a Terminus Beast and I would cease to exist. I would become nothing.

[He says this matter of factly, as if stating a math problem.]

What would the AI do with us? It cannot keep us here, it cannot send us back. Sending us to safer stars may be outside its capabilities.

[followyourstar]

[An angle they didn't think about before, but one that certainly makes sense. To tell the truth, if it weren't for the impending doom and the responsibility on their shoulders, they probably would just stay here themselves.]

[The City... isn't exactly the most welcoming place.]

I don't know. If it's able to bring us here in the first place, I feel like it'd be able to send us places we've never been.

...What would you pick, if you could choose? You don't seem worried about dying, but "ceasing to exist" is something else entirely.

cw: suicidal ideation

[endcaller]

Me?

Why I would choose to go home, of course.

[And all that implies.]

[followyourstar]

[An answer some part of them expected to hear, even if it's not the one they hoped for.]

You sure? That's pretty permanent. Even if there's no one left on your world, there's always the fact that someone here might wish you were still around.