tushanshu | (video) two.

I suppose it's too much to ask that whatever's dropping all this incredible technology on our heads continues to do so. [ a dismissive little wave. ] Hordes of hostile spirits aside, of course. Not a situation any of us should hope to repeat, but it certainly is hard to argue with the payoff...

[ "payoff" indeed. qilby's hat takes up most of the screen, but under a horn a bit of burnished metal or mechanical something-or-other may be visible. apparently he's put his little botany project on the backburner since some new toys fell out of the sky.

and although he'd normally be all for showing off what it is he's tinkering with, he's got a more pressing matter at hand. ]

It's rather short-sighted, in retrospect-- but until now, I hadn't truly considered the scope of the universe outside the turtle's shell. Docking on the mainland is one thing, but the stars are quite another. [ he shakes his head almost mournfully. ] But Tu Vishan sustains us yet, and it seems to be quite impossible to travel very far beyond his presence.

Several months have passed, and I still know so little-- have seen so little of this world. The idea that I may never know more than what I'm told is... Disheartening. [ an embarrassed little laugh; as if even he realizes it's a silly thing to be hung up on. but still. ] Surely I can't be the only one that feels that way.

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Is it not here? Where I am from, not all possibilities exist, so this is ...new for me. Technologically speaking at least.

I AM told that there are many people here from worlds more developed. And I would not have said that living on the back of a turtle was possible before. But even so, the idea of more than one person with such skills is astounding to me.

[Enjolras IS trying to make an effort to believe in the new things he has been exposed to so far, but wrapping his mind around something that he sees in action, such as the console he is sitting at versus what is being proposed here, in the way of satellites? Yeah, It's a bit further of a stretch.]

Those...other matters...yes. I see why they have taken priority.

In my many years, I've been surprised by far too much to believe anything is still impossible.

[ that being said, the surprises come less and less frequently each century. it gets to the point where one must make their own surprises.

but if he tries really hard, he can almost imagine how strange it must be for someone in a young world. ] Turtles and satellites are strange, then-- but war does not sound like such a novelty to you. What sort of world is the one you live in?

Have you then? Such things have always remained...let us say, mundane for the most part, though I suppose in many years, a great number of things have changed. The balloon now allows flight, the press a second means of speech. I do see how that may be possible.

War is, and has ever been the condition of man where there is want, or pain or thirst toward some thing. The trouble lies when wars are waged by leaders who do not consider the people, or when those leaders impose conditions so beyond the fundamental rights of man that they are forced to go to war to maintain them.

[And it IS the gaze of a soldier and not the schoolboy, young as Enjolras appears, staring back through the screen. He may have passed through fire only twice, and been killed at his second attempt but he understands war enough to speak of it, though god help him, he wishes he did not.]

Such necessary evils are a part and parcel of this world until all nations are united and the need for them is past. Has it not always been so?

I'm afraid I can't say. My people have largely been strangers to war. [ though the way he says it, oh so quietly, there's more behind that statement. ]

--I like to think I'd always respected their needs, their wishes... And yet that did not prevent war from coming to us all the same. Aggressor and victim-- sometimes a conflict is as simple as that. [ a pause. ] As is this one we're expected to resolve, unless some of our situation's subtleties are lost on me.

[ a turtleful of ragtag defenders being menaced by an all-powerful nameless foe certainly seems simple enough on paper, anyway. ]

It is fortunate then, that there are places where such things may largely be achieved. Ideal societies as our Rousseau proposed, perhaps,in which all of the people are responsible to one another, and the leaders to the people who have chosen them, or was it another...

Did it not? [Enjolras's eyes soften a bit here, though his gaze is still penetrating through the screen.] Well, the rulers of another people dictated the harm of yours, I should surmise. No doubt their reasoning was much the same as those of the common causes. When a ruler can convince a people, through deprivation, or by force, that something should be taken, these things happen then as well. A pity that the people are the ones who suffer most.

...And so it does sound similar. An awaited invasion of those who would seek to remove power from this land while it is at its weakest. I do not doubt there is some higher power, far more negative, directing this, convincing others they must come along.

Nonsense. To say that they reasoned their attack against us implies that they were capable of anything beyond mindless, covetous destruction. [ bitter? maybe.

but even as mild as that minor display of anger is, qilby immediately appears to regret it. he removes his glasses, placing them somewhere below-camera, and pinches the bridge of his nose. ] I... I'm sure you are correct. About what ails Tu Vishan, I mean. And yet, strangely, we're kept in the dark about many of the particulars when it seems they're what everybody needs most.

[And he sounds a bit like Enjolras himself feels, on many topics, particularly when Napoleon is brought up. He can understand the sentiment behind that, and nods, quite seriously]

In your world then, things must be very different from in ours. I am so used to there being other causes, most natural human emotions and desires that feed another's quest for glory. It is hard to remember sometimes that there are so many other places where the natural rules I have always...known are different.

My perspective always can use changing on these matters of course. But yes, Tu Vishan. It would benefit us all to gain some knowledge of these matters that we could build up some type of defense at the least. Even if the Empress has no idea herself what's to be done, nor any of her people, why would she not turn to the benefits she has in us and allow us to solve these things, or work at them?

[ it's not that the rules are different... it's probably just that enjolras has never fought a race of cold, unfeeling twelve-story-tall murderbots. perhaps in the 2052 remake of les misérables: human revolution. ]

For the same reason any ruler would withhold something from their subjects, I suppose. Perhaps she fears the truth may be demoralizing, or perhaps she already knows there's no helping the problem. Or worse, perhaps she knows as little as we do.

[That is certainly true. The very idea of such would probably seem like witchcraft to him. Human revolution he could well support though.]

If that were the case, especially the last, then our presence here would seem especially odd. I was under the impression we had been...summoned to be of help. Are we perhaps to determine that as well?

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