deernet | video | un: big ben

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video | un: big ben

[Hi, Trench. It's been a while since this display name surfaced on the network. This time, there was accompanying video instead of just text-- And the dour man frowning into the screen, with dark bags under his stormy ocean green eyes and his cheekbones prominent in a manner that suggested recent illness, exuded nothing short of the stony sense of a man that was done with watching the madness of recent weeks.

--Or, perhaps, someone that had actually worried himself sick over the last month. Literally.]

... Not that anyone cares, but watching all these pompous assholes call themselves 'teacher' is making me want to pull my hair out.

[And, look. He had a lot of it. Heaving a sigh, Waver Velvet plucked the wire glasses he had been wearing off and set them aside. Pinching the bridge of his nose as if to ward off a headache-- or collect himself-- he continued.]

Some of you know me. Most of you don't.

That's fine, I'm only here to offer a different option for anyone feeling a tad... unanchored here.

I am Waver Velvet, sometimes called Lord El Melloi II-- but most of the people here just know me as Mackenzie. I'm not a combat instructor, like that trio that really wanted to play out a real-life Tournament Arc a few months ago-- like we were in one of my kids' anime shows. I'm also hardly worth even calling a mage. What I am, however, is someone that is willing to offer tutoring to anyone that feels they need it... In basically any subject matter.

[A shrug. He waved a hand.]

Don't worry about whether or not I'm an expert. One thing I've learned after teaching for the last decade is that no one is. If you need help with something that I don't already know, I'll learn it well enough to help.

--Also, if you need someone to just listen and help you resolve a problem... I can do that, too.

No, I won't ask you to call me Professor, Teacher, or even have you use my title. Just keep calling me Mackenzie, if you wish. I won't ask for payment, either. But, well... if you insist, bring along something to eat. Anything. I don't really care what.

Alternately, feel free to talk about whatever's currently interesting to you.

...I won't arrange 'classes' either. I know that you lot of teenagers are basically free-range, and that's fine. There's probably good reason for you to not trust adults. I know I didn't while I was in school.

[He sighed, satisfied that at least he was able to remove this much of his concerns from his shoulders, and seemed to be signing off before adding:]

Oh. One more thing. Does anyone have an open venue? I have a stack of rhythm and fighting games that I'm willling to share with people needing a distraction-- in a public forum, of course. If enough people are interested, we could work on making something official.

That's all.

Private--- to Palamedes Sextus

Palamedes... When you have a moment and are up to it, I'd like to talk.

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... Now, remember. I've never been to one besides my Earth. Everything I know is what was able to be seen through a telescope.

However... There's some in the same planetary neighborhood that are similar to Earth. They have a hard surface the could be stood on, and our nearest neighbor has a yellow sky.

But there are others nearby that are just sky-- with clouds that are the entire rainbow of colors, and massive storms that even we can see with our tools.

There's nine planets in my Earth's neighborhood, at the last count. Some scientists say there's only eight, while others say that there's even more that we can't see.

... Regardless of what the official decision is, there's always going to be nine planets in my heart.

Yeah, me neither. Unless you count this place. Back home I'd heard they're trying to put a man on the moon, though. I've heard of the different planets, though, and I remember it was nine.

I'd love to be able to visit the planet with the yellow sky, though! Or see the one with the clouds, although that one would be harder to go to. I think I heard about those. Like Saturn. I remember hearing Saturn's so light it can float in water! And it has rings!

Are there any with oceans?

A man on the moon-- for the first time? Or are they trying to do so again?

[It had been over thirty years since a man had set foot on the moon, to his recollection. Knowing that his cell phone was more powerful than the computers running the space walks on the first manned moon mission sometimes made his blood run cold.]

Neptune is one of those planets that are made of dense clouds, but it's got some unique moons as well. I've heard word that one of them might even have liquid water-- kind of like a massive ocean.

For the first time.

I don't seem to be from as far in the future as a lot of the people here.

[And then he thinks about the moons...]

Wow...I wonder if we get to our moon if that means we go to Neptune's moon at some point.

Me neither. It sounds like my timeline is about a generation or so ahead of yours. I was born a decade after they landed successfully on the moon... And I've seen disasters strike later missions happen on television.

It's a dangerous game they're playing. I prefer staying inside the limits of my Earth.

... Maybe some day they will explore Neptune's moons. It might not be for a while, though-- people never made it back to the moon, even though we dream of trying.

But if you never take risks, you'll never go farther or see new things.

[There were huge risks in leaving the water, after all, but if he hadn't done that he wouldn't have met the people he met or gotten the chance to learn about the world.]

People got so far and got to see so many things, but then they just stopped? That's kind of sad. I was hoping people would just keep exploring more and more forever.

Unfortunately, it's more complicated than that. People need to have the resources to make better shuttles before they try again-- safer ones.

... And it's not like we stopped exploring. There's an entire strange world under the oceans. Although the pressure is dangerous for us, people have sent cameras and special submarines down to see what we can find.

Oh. Well that's not that interesting. There's really not a lot to see or do under there. Just whale carcasses and darkness.

Also giant squid, colorful corals, and the weird glowing fish living in the abyssal zones.

Corals aren't just in the really deep parts, though. I guess the giant squid are, but squid in general are a pretty normal thing to see? But yeah, there are the weird glowing fish in the abyssal zones. Which I guess would be kind of neat, but all the skin and flesh being see through is kind of weird.

Edited 2022-07-28 14:14 (UTC)

...Very well. We don't have to speak of the sea. The stars are beyond our reach, but there's still plenty that people know.

Feel free to ask any questions.

So...is there life on other planets? You mentioned people aren't sure if there are eight or nine planets in our neighborhood, but the telescope I used could see really far. Or is the possible ninth one just too far to know if it's there?

Pluto is there.... people just can't agree on whether it's a planet or not anymore. It's a silly thing to get in arms over, in my opinion.

As for your question... well. Just because we haven't found proof doesn't mean that life isn't there. It's possible that they're just like us, still looking at the stars and dreaming. Or, maybe, they've developed to a point where they want to keep themselves hidden from us until we reach certain milestones that they're familiar with.

Either way. It's a bit self-centered to think that humanity is alone among the stars.

"Yeah, that makes sense...especially since some humans don't even believe in sea folk, and we definitely exist."

Which means there could very well be people in the depths of space that humans just haven't managed to find yet. Especially since humans took boats into the ocean and could swim and had those fancy suits and stuff. Sure, in this guy's world humans made it to the moon, but it sounds like they weren't able to get near as far into space as they were able to get into the ocean, and sea monsters still weren't universally known to be real.

--The dominos finally fell into place, and brows lifted as Waver understood.

"You're one of those sea folk," He ventured. "No wonder you're so interested in space, and yet not at all curious about the sea. It's your home. I'd certainly seem that way to anyone visiting my home from abroad."

"Yeah. And our bodies can adapt to any depth, so...there's really no part of the ocean where no one has gone. Space seems a lot more mysterious since no one...well, I guess I've met people here who've been to space, but back home no one had ever gone there!"

"You must understand... on my Earth, we've never met anyone like you. We have different references-- but I see what you mean.

"The archives might have a telescope if you want to try to get a closer look at the stars from this town."

"Oh, yeah, they do! I've used it. I also have a telescope at home. It's pretty neat."

He spends hours looking out it, but it's just that he always, no matter how much information he gets, finds himself wanting more.

"Then we'll need to see if we can find some star charts."

He said, smiling. The unfamiliar skies here had earned his curiosity. He wondered about the constellations, and the lore...

"We'll see what we can find. How does that sound?"

"Yeah! That sounds like fun!"

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sorry for the late reply. family crisis.

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Do you want to wrap here?