un: jaycetalis | video

[hexcope]

[In a rare moment of using video on purpose, there's Jayce. To those who know him, he looks the same as he always does. To those who don't- he's an early 30's man with seemingly a permanent five-o-clock shadow, bright golden eyes, and perfectly coiffed hair. The background is out of focus, but to those who know it, it's clearly a part of S.T.A.R. labs. Normally a little more jovial or at least less serious sounding, Jayce looks into the camera like he's giving a press release.]

We’ve got about forty-eight hours or less until Aurora allows that toxin into Etraya. Which means if you haven’t started taking precautions already; start now. Get easily carried food, medical supplies, whatever you think you'd need. Better to be over-prepared than under.

Considering what Aurora's told us about the "mission"... If you’re someone prone to having weapons, do us all a favor and throw them into one of our many, lovely lakes, before you wind up using it on someone else. Or, if you’re going to be touchy about it, let me know, I’ll talk with Harold about how we can get them locked up somewhere for the mission’s duration.

As a reminder to those who don’t want to think about it, and maybe new information to those who are new: if you die here, for whatever reason, you lose something. I don’t know what, you won’t know what, and you might not even know what it is you’ve lost even after you’ve lost it. Maybe it’s an eye, maybe it’s the memory of your best friend. Either way, whatever you're afraid of by not having your weapons on you isn’t worth what you’ll be making someone else lose because of your bad decisions.

If you have any special concerns, worries about any specific denizens in this upcoming mission, now's also the time to voice it.

Comments

[cache_coeur]

I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, but it’s never happened, to my knowledge. I don’t know how it could. She is the most powerful being in the known world, yet she could not prevent us from seeking her out to destroy her.

[hexcope]

This probably sounds insane, but could it be that she wanted to be found? If she's as powerful as you say, then wouldn't hiding or running away be easy?

[cache_coeur]

She tried, and was successful for a long time. She was behind a barrier that took thousands of people decades to find a way around. If she could puppet us, wouldn’t she have done that the moment we crossed the barrier?

[hexcope]

That's true.

[So maybe carving runes onto oneself just doesn't open that kind of door, in Sciel's world. That's fascinating in it's own right. They both know the arcane can present with sentience, but the extent of control seems to vary- although, there's maybe one more factor that could tie it all together-]

Your world- does it have more than one realm? Another layer of existence that mirrors your own, still taking place on the same world?

[cache_coeur]

[That gives her pause. She’s not sure how to articulate that, not entirely.]

I assume not, but our world experienced a Fracture in my grandparents’ time, so it resists explanation sometimes. Occasionally we’ve found places that could be described that way, though. There are doors scattered all across the continent that all lead to the same place, and there’s another place we’ve found two entrances for that feels like another world –– would that be another “layer”, or is it a broken piece of one thing?

[hexcope]

A... Fracture.

[That sounds like world-ending stuff to him, but apparently that's not actually even the worst of her world's problems, so he's going to skip the doom and gloom on that one.]

If I had to guess- and this is entirely unresearched speculation- it sounds like you also have other realms. Or did, at some point. Usually realms are kept separate from each other but exist in essentially the same places. Whatever this Fracture is on your world means that the barrier that separated your realms- say one non-magical realm, and another magical one- was damaged.

Did this Fracture coincide with any other event? Do you know what caused it?

[cache_coeur]

Your guess is as good as mine. The Fracture was random, as far as we know. One day the world was whole and happy, then the next, near obliterated. I was born in the only surviving part of a city called Lumière. It only survived because it was flung into the ocean and became an island, so it had some natural defence from whatever was happening to the mainland.

That, and the Paintress appeared in its wake. Safe to assume she was involved, but we don’t know how.