silversnowfall | 74. [voice/written]

[Some say too much deep thought begets deeper problems.]

I've been thinking.

[Nephry has a piece of paper in front of her, as well as a book open to a marked page.]

Mm, I should say that reading has been making me think. Indulge me for a moment, if you will: there is a relatively small portion of our population living in this village that arrived more than three Luceti years ago. It's an easy number for me to choose, because I fall into that category as well. I don't know many of those sharing a 'cycle year' with me as personally as I might, but-

[Here she stops, taps the page of the other book, and tries a new direction. Included in her explanation is a description of the formula she mentions.]

Something I read about and didn't understand prompted a bit more research on my part. I'm interested in testing whether this...theory, I suppose, of mine happens to prove true. In another world, there is a kind of formula for determining how ready one is to accept the inevitable. I believe that, with some exceptions of course, one 'step' in this formula enacts itself in the space of one Luceti cycle year. [Then she illustrates what the heck she means by that, expanding upon a chart she found in her research.]

[A half-laugh. Actually it's quite a sad sound.] Doesn't that sound strange? And yet I remember being in complete disbelief that such things were possible, and then worrying about my friends and hating the Malnosso for what they do to us, and then wanting nothing more than to use our limited knowledge as some kind of wager for the chance to change-

And now...to a degree, I still feel all of these other things, and yet- [No. Perhaps it's best not to go into that so publicly. It's unbecoming of a governor for certain.] Well, now I'm asking the rest of you. No matter how long you have been here. Does this hold true for you?

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I- I don't know, I don't really feel angry at all...

But oh - right, I haven't even been here one year yet!

The vast majority of residents have been here for under two years, and they have the guidance of many people before them to fall on when necessary. It's different now - maybe this won't ever apply to you.

Maybe. I don't wanna be angry. [Even if some recent events have inspired something like that, some desperate feeling in him.]

A lot of this is just weird to think about. That people can... can accept living here.

There are some things worth your anger, if that anger pushes you to progress. And whether we like it or not, our only real option is to accept living here, even if only temporarily.

I guess you're right. But anger's never really lead to progress, in my experience. But... in that sense, I feel like I kinda do already accept that I'm here temporarily. [Even if a lot of it is influenced by how comfortable he feels living with Ikki.},/small>

Because you already know someone who comes from your apparent future, perhaps?

Ah - yeah, that's part of it! How'd you know? Can you talk to brains? No, wait, what do they call it... psychic!

[Okay, that gets a laugh.] No, no, nothing like that at all. I've been here long enough to be able to guess, that's all.

Oh. Well that makes sense too! If you've been here a while, maybe you can tell me - because I wonder sometimes. Does that kind of thing happen a lot around here? The... future relative part, not the brain-talking part...

Edited 2013-01-24 17:59 (UTC)

Fairly often, I would say. I'm from the 'future' according to most of the others here from my world, for example.

...Though future relatives are more rare, in my experience.

I see what you mean by that. Putting aside the future relative part, I'm from the future compared to most of my friends from my time. But two of them have caught up since then. Time's just really weird here.

So it is more rare. But it has happened?

On occasion. My brother was here before, and at least once I was from a date ahead of his.

Oh. That does sound kinda like how it is with my friends. But I really meant if other people have people from that far in their futures... like grandchildren and stuff, showing up.

Ah. Not ordinarily, no.

Although I have heard of discrepancies as large as four thousand years.

Oh.

That's... Now that's a long time.

[And he thought the hundred years he had on his friends was big enough...]

Longer than anyone would expect, I think. It must give some measure of comfort to know that your world still thrives after millennia, though.

That's true. I know I'd be reassured to hear my world was still going on for that long... if they ever bring someone that far ahead. [Not to mention the distance in time would make any awkward relations less likely.]

Wouldn't you wonder how different it would be?

I do! I wonder how much more science there'll be... and if the world'll still be the same! Will there be as much bending, or will we discover something new? And... and I wonder how much culture would still be alive.

[Will my people still have a legacy?]

There will always be culture. I think what you are wondering is whether history will be alive, so to speak.

I guess you could say it like that. I... I mean if my people - or who my people will be when they're reborn... if they'll still be around in some way. Along with the practices of my old people. I hope it can still be around.

It sounds like you have grandchildren, so presumably you will have children, too. The best way to preserve your culture is to teach it to them.

It sounds like I will. And the people I met from the future... I didn't get to know the only adult very well, [my son] but... I trust him. So I do believe that now. That what's left of my people's culture... what I remember plus whatever's left in the temples... I believe that'll live on.

...And I don't think I even want to see the proof anymore.

Then it also sounds like you have little to worry about after all, hm?

Yeah, you're right. I don't feel that worried anymore. What do you think your world'll be like in the future?

[Voice]

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