001 ↯ text

[circlejerked]

Am I getting this right

is this

Oh I think I'm getting it

<sub>[Would you look at that, it's baby's first attempt at sending a network message! His words seem to be going through just like how he's seen other messages work--so far, so good.

Next time Anders will practice with the 'delete' key. For now, he'll focus on getting his point across with proper punctuation.]</sub>

Bear with me, this isn't how I'm used to exchanging letters but it's exceptionally handy for picking a bunch of brains at once. I'm curious to know more about the little girl with the cat. You know the one--Alice. From the Wonderland book? Has no eyes now, portends events?

What's the story behind her? Was she an actual person from some other land who was brought here like the rest of us?

Those scenes suggest this isn't the first mansion of its kind, but what happened to her?

Comments

[circlejerked]

Are you kidding? I love dispiriting tales about the good old days and how the golden age is over and new generations will never know how good it used to be.

_{[One could make the argument it's a Fereldan's favorite kind of story--they certainly have enough of that variety.]}

A war so bad it forced you off of the surface? We have a name for that kind of thing--a Blight. Luckily for humankind in my world, none of the Blights lasted so long that we had to abandon ship entirely.

[coleader]

A Blight? That's one way to say it, I guess. It didn't last very long; it was so destructive that everything got destroyed pretty quickly. Missiles tend to do that.

[circlejerked]

Blights are a special brand of war that tends to destroy everything.

_{[Offered as an explanation so that she doesn't start assuming they apply capital Bs to every minor dispute and civil conflict. Blights had come close to ending the world, they just... hadn't gotten as far as Clarke's did, apparently.]}

What happened to all of the people? They went up into space? How did they live?

[coleader]

Most of them died.

[ Sorry, Anders. This is not the space pirate story you were hoping for. ]

Some countries had operational space stations at the time, so they survived. We thought everyone else on Earth was killed, but it turns out some of them survived, too.

Sorry - it's a depressing story.

[circlejerked]

<sub>[Jeez, she isn't kidding about there being a sad ending to this story. Her world's history makes him glad to have Thedas and its aborted Blight, warts and all.

At least the bloodshed hasn't chased them into space yet.]</sub>

It must have been a sight more depressing to live through.

:( I tried out a sad face for you.

[coleader]

[ Oh, god. They go immediately from talking about death and destruction to smiley faces. (Or sad faces, to be specific.) Clarke can't believe it. ]

You're sort of ridiculous, aren't you? :)

[circlejerked]

Sorry. I was being serious.

_{[As serious as one can be while speaking about such grave topics through text.]}

That was me trying to grasp the lingo and extend my sympathies. There aren't adequate words for how difficult surviving must have been. But you talk as though you returned to Earth at some point?

_{[Yay for that?]}

[coleader]

No, it's all right. I liked the sad face. :)

But yes, you're right. I lived on the Ark for eighteen years, then they sent me down to Earth.

[circlejerked]

Having a habitable planet is cause for a happy face. :)

_{[That's good news, all of Earth's species aren't floating homeless in space or doomed to extinction, right? Y... ay?]}

Was it a grand homecoming, returning after so long? I think I'd miss seeing landscapes in color the most. Space doesn't look like there's much to it.]