🞛 001.

[iliveidie]

[The video opens, settling on the face of a blue-skinned woman with light pink hair, faintly glowing white-purple eyes and what appears to be lightning shifting over the skin of her face. She looks bored as she leans forward to set up the comm on a stable surface, once it's settled she leans back and sighs. Behind her are shelves filled with various items one would expect to find in a New Age shop.]

Please indulge my curiosity and save me from this boring job. Tell me your favourite and least favourite thing and what you find to be the most fascinating thing about this world. The most fascinating thing doesn’t need to be something you like or dislike, just something that intrigues you because it's weird or new or exciting.

[She pauses, looking thoughtful for a moment before nodding.]

And I suppose fill me in on something you think someone new to this place should know.

[She reaches forward to shut off the comm then pauses one more time, the urge to ask one more question a bit too much to resist.]

Also, are all old Earth jobs like this, lots of standing and doing nothing? Because that's what I'm feeling like is going on here.

[With that last bit added she ends the feed.]

Comments

text response

[iminthebook]

My least favorite thing is the rather in your face method of the local press intruding in import lives.

My favorite thing, here is the porters, allowing quick travel across cities.

I am intrigued by the multiversal aspect of how many people are here and from whence they come.

I'm still new, however, so I don't really have any must know facts.

[permavideo]

[iliveidie]

Agreed. [It's worse for those that look very non-human.] They love bugging me just because I'm blue. I can understand it from children but adults should know better.

It is interesting how many different universes there are.

text reply

[iminthebook]

I'm sorry to hear that. I've often thought, since I arrived, that many of them need a thrashing.

It is. All the possibilities, all the varied worlds and times, represented here, is amazing.

[iliveidie]

A good thrashing might do them some good.

So what's your world and or time like?

[iminthebook]

Yeah. I agree.

Mostly like this one, if there were no imports.

Add in magic and supernatural beings living under the radar, trying not to be noticed, and it's not all that far from here.

Just... that one thing makes all the difference.

[iliveidie]

Supernatural beings?

[iminthebook]

Elves, dwarves, trolls, dragons, vampires, all of that sort. Races of beings who are not human, but also not aliens from other worlds, who work with, or live with magic.

On my world, they are collectively thought of as supernatural, by those who know of them, that is.

Video

[shesalittle]

Are new Earth jobs really that much different? (Or new... space jobs? She's kind of just guessing at what old Earth is in opposition to.)

[permavideo]

[iliveidie]

I don't know about normal people in my time, but the job of us Guardians involves a lot of travel and killing anything that threatens humanity.

[shesalittle]

[Karolina doesn't like that answer much, and it shows on her face. It sounds a little inquisition-y to the heretic lesbian. And not great to her as an alien, either.] There's some of that here.

Preferably with less killing. Like, none.

So you work for some kind of military, back home?

[iliveidie]

[Kasia squints, curious about her expression.] Is there a problem with protecting what remains of humanity from those that would see it wiped out?

I guess you could say that?

[shesalittle]

With defending humanity? Of course not. It's just, throughout history -- mine and, I'm guessing, yours too -- there's been a lot of violence done in the name of broad, noble mandates like that one. A lot of times, when you look back afterward, it doesn't look so great.

(She holds her hands up in surrender.) I'm not saying that that applies to you or your cause. It probably doesn't. Just, as someone who'd find herself on the wrong end of an awful lot of those mandates, hearing one makes me a little nervous.

[iliveidie]

I wouldn't really know. We lost so much.

[She sighs and shakes her head.]

Maybe it'd help if you knew what we're up against in my time. We have this being that resembles a small moon, the Traveler, it's touched a lot of different beings throughout history with the intention of helping them improve. Only it seems it's left them all in ruin, humanity is just the latest in its legacy.

You see, the Traveler has an enemy we call the Darkness and a long time ago -- from my point in time -- the Darkness caught up to the Traveler and fighting ensued, humanity was nearly wiped out. We call that the Collapse and everything out there in the universe has decided to take advantage of that. We have a single [she holds a finger up] city left that we call the Last City.

Imagine that, a single city that houses what remains of humanity. I'm sure if your world is anything like this one that's hard to imagine, there's so many people and so many cities here.

[A pause as a saddened expression passes briefly over her features.] I suppose that's not entirely true, the Awoken, my people, some of them still live out in the Reef.

Ah...sorry, you didn't ask to hear all that.

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[liverletdie]

That's... a lot of questions.

Favorite? The fact that we get so many new and interesting types. Least favorite? A lot can be kind of...difficult to work with.

Most fascinating is the fact that we have a place we can't escape from, for unknown reasons that nobody can figure out. It's like an unsolvable puzzle.

As for things you should know? There's a great coffee shop in DeChima on Third and Main. Highly recommended.

[permavideo]

[iliveidie]

I'm curious and bored, not the best combination.

[She nods, so far the fact that there are many people from many different worlds seems to be a common answer.] Difficult to work with how?

How long have people been trying to solve this puzzle?

[She takes note of the coffee shop.] People really like coffee.

permatext

[liverletdie]

Oh, you know. People are all different here.
Some like to talk a big game, but don't like to dish it out, or alternatively: many think they have the answer, and don't. [ WOW. It's not like...he could fall under that!! ]

But, uh, as for the answer to the puzzle... Do you want the nice answer or the honest one?

There are two, and both are bad, but one is worse.

[iliveidie]

Ah, those sorts.

The honest one preferably.

[liverletdie]

Well, the depressing answer is that I've been am import for nearly ten years, and haven't figured out a way to get home yet.

Mind, I've been imported from one world to another in the meantime, but it wasn't voluntary.

[iliveidie]

[She remains quiet, letting that sink in. Ten years is nothing to a Guardian, but that's still a long time to be away from one's home. A lot of time for a lot to happen.]

So you've seen a lot this whole imPort experience has to offer.

I've picked up a little here and there about there having been another world, what was it like? What exactly happened to it?

video

[cannotrest]

[The camera doesn't quite focus on Ashley, thanks to the glowing green circuitry in her skin and pupils, but she looks amused.]

What time and planet are you from that doesn't have stand and do nothing jobs? Because in my 2186, retail's still a thing across the galaxy, and I've definitely had my share of boring patrols on backwater planets.

[iliveidie]

[Kasia studies what can be made out of Ashley for a moment, she's curious but not curious enough to ask.]

Earth in the distant future, kind of post-near-death of all humanity. We do still have vendors, people have to make glimmer, but I didn't know it could be so boring.

I've yet to have a boring patrol. [She's still new to the whole Guardian think, though.]

[cannotrest]

Surprise. [A wry look.] I never did figure out what my requisitions officers were doing when we weren't getting gear off them. You're lucky - those boring patrols always felt like such a waste of my training.

[Ah, cool, still blurting out random things. Changing the subject, but also genuinely interested:] What happened to humanity on your world? [By way of explanation:] We narrowly avoided that on mine - well, basically every species did.

[iliveidie]

Long story short, the ancient enemy of the entity that decided to help uplift humanity into a Golden Age caught up to said entity and tried to wipe everything out. We only survived because the entity sacrificed itself.

[cannotrest]

[Growing more serious, Ashley nods.] Lucky you guys, then.

[At least on her world they managed to hold the Reapers off and give themselves a fighting chance with the Crucible.]

Though, uh... [She's using "we", yet...] Humans are blue on your world? [Augh, so rude, but TMI field aside, she really can't think of a more polite way to put that.] Our blue people are another species.

[iliveidie]

[Kasia groans.] It's always about the blue...

No, humans look like humans. We Awoken are an...evolution if you will.