un: eudaimonikos; video

[eudaimonikos]

Hello, Trench! Boy, that's a fun name for a city, isn't it? Trrrrrrench. Sounds...about like what it is, I guess.

So! [He claps his hands together.] Who's here from Deerington? Man, it must've been at least a century since I saw you guys! How's it been? Oh - oh, and look! Eleanor made it too!

[He reaches off-screen to fling his arm around the neck of what, when he pulls it over in front of the camera, proves to be an enormous dappled grey Warg. Her teeth are huge. She's still wearing her enchanted leather war-armor, which really just makes the optics here worse.]

This is my dog, Eleanor! Also, I'm Michael, for all the new folks. I was in the nightmare city before this one, and then I went home for a little bit.

So - what's everyone up to? And what's with the new phones? Are we all using weird, smoky first-generation birds as phones now?

Comments

[eudaimonikos]

Oh, that's too bad. Timelines are all different...yours must just be running faster, compared to this one.

[demonicbeauty]

I...guess?

[She laughs.]

I'm no expert in time, eve if I was raised among the Elves.

[eudaimonikos]

Can't say I am either. We definitely all have to deal with that stuff, some, but there's other immortals who specialize in that kind of thing. Folks who build portals and stuff.

[demonicbeauty]

Like...time gods?

[eudaimonikos]

Engineers?

[demonicbeauty]

Time engineers?

[How is that different?]

[eudaimonikos]

No, just portal ones. They go between dimensions, mostly - not necessarily to other ones, but just to make a shortcut.

[demonicbeauty]

Portal engineers.

[She's just going to pretend she knows what any of this means.]

The Elves have a spell to create shortcuts like that. But they just call it "teleportation."

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah, that's really more Janet's thing. She can't bring other people with her, though - at least, not too easily.

[demonicbeauty]

Wait. I'm sorry. Janet? Who's that?

[eudaimonikos]

Just a friend of mine, back home. She's a...artificial vessel for all of the knowledge in the universe.

[demonicbeauty]

...like an Avatar?

[They're having all the communication problems today. But that's nothing new. Ariadne barely understands most people.]

[eudaimonikos]

Uh...I don't know, I guess?

[demonicbeauty]

[She shakes her head.]

Forgive me. Other worlds still confuse me terribly. Especially "Earth."

But I know Avatars. We have them in my realm. Or...had. At one point. Powerful beings acting for the divine and all.

[eudaimonikos]

It's fine. We've never really done that - we don't mess with Earth in general.

[demonicbeauty]

There seems to be something very special about the place.

What is it?

[eudaimonikos]

The planet where humans live?

[demonicbeauty]

No, no. I know that. I just mean...well, looking at the numbers, it seems like more people are from Earth than any other place.

I wonder why.

[eudaimonikos]

That is true. Seems pretty statistically unlikely, doesn't it?

[demonicbeauty]

Very. Which makes me think there's some conscious choice involved.

[eudaimonikos]

[...........]

Julia was...from an Earth.

[demonicbeauty]

Was she?

[Well, that's a potential puzzle piece.]

But isn't she gone now?

[eudaimonikos]

Yeah. She is.

[demonicbeauty]

Maybe something of her lingers.

Or maybe it's just the scent of Deerington on all of us.