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quechianWe traveled another hour, then decided to camp. It was at about this time that Jack came back to himself from the effects of the fruit, and said that the rainbow entity was going to make a copy of him to be back in the rainbow plane, where there's a Jack-shaped hole, which could be filled either by Jack or by a copy of Jack (which is to say, there could be different paths towards getting everything there). He's still all here, though, and some of him is copied there. (I wonder whether some of what was copied was what the kathel control magic on him...).
Jack described how it seemed to him: he was sitting in the library of himself in his mind when the Red Man came in with two rather ghostly Ult flanking him. Jack was there, and another, reading-in-the-library-of-Jack Jack. That one looked annoyed, which Jack himself never does. The Red Man took a while to convince the Jack who wasn't Jack to get up and go, gesturing and looking stern. The ghostly Ult flanked not-Jack, and walked him out of the room into a bright place with a machine that was everything. Jack thought that the door might be the edge, that we might be supposed to put the parts of us that aren't us out that door.
This lead to more discussion, of course, of what Jack had gone through, and about the role of the gods, how other worlds do or don't have the same gods with there-specific aspects. Cor thought that when the gods left, it was to fight in the line, which would explain why Krondaliken was the last one back from the line, since he can't leave a fight. Jack thought about this, and suggested that maybe the gods came back because they're holding the line, but it's so close, so high up the roots, that they needed to come back.
The conversation shifted to working with the threads. Cor asked who was taking threads; he and Thymelixsen had already taken some of the Ult threads, and took more. May, Jack, and I prayed. I was not answered, though my gut feeling was that it would be wrong for me to use someone else's life in this way.
May was granted a vision in response to her question about what to do, what path to take here, how to survive.
She had blue-green skin, three toes, and was running on all fours through a city. In the sky there was a ring of yellow glowing. It might have been the place the Ults come from, because she was being chased by Ults, who were wearing orange, with three green triangles set sash-like across their chests. She ducked into an alley, and tried to jump up from there into the rubble, but they shot her with one of their weapons, and her threads were going up. Then they shone a yellow light scepter on her, and the threads went back into her, then up into it. May also said that the Ults' eyes are big, blue, and glowing, and they have no mouths.
(I wonder if this means that they always get sustenance from threads, even at home? We certainly are not able to see/use threads at all back home.)
May said she didn't want to be part Ult, taking in an Ult thread, since they were mean. Cor pointed out that we needed to take our time before getting to the city, so we wouldn't annoy the Ults by being sensed as with Ult threads inside.
Jack, too, was vouchsafed a vision when he asked if it were acceptable to put threads in. He got an answer that seemed to not be a no, but described the effects of that choice.
He was crouched in a windy place, in a long, lean, blue body, that had two-toed feet and two-fingered hands with thumbs. He was with a friend, who was yellow with blue and green, big eyes, and no nose. She was smooth and pretty. They were near the roots: the column of smoke is where the roots are (presumably from the fighting that is happening up the roots). They were hiding from the crystals, matrixes of energy around them, rather like frames. They talked in clicks and grunts. The friend said it was a bad iddea to come here. Jack agreed, but he was ready to go. Ahead, it was totally destroyed, exploded, all rock, nothing glowing, and a frozen column of smoke above many places. On top of a rise was a silver tree, a made thing, looking rather like the tower we'd come her through. It had five branches when it split. At the bottom, there was a door flanked by carved kathel. The one on the left was named Toosef, but the one on the right had no name known, because no one came back from that one. Jack's friend asked, "How can you go back? We're here." He wasn't sure if he could go, because he wasn't sure if he could use his legs as he used to, and he couldn't fly, because that would attract crystal attention. He used his eyes to look around, which felt odd, after using magic to see in all directions. If he went back, he'd be different, but there'd be enough of him. This made her sad, that he'd leave, but she said she'd help, then gate away. Which would attract attention, but she'd be gone by then. Interestingly, they could look at the void above with their eyes, but had to avoid looking at the crystals to avoid attention. They went towards the tree, into or through a smoke column. One of the kathel guards the way here, while the other guards the way back. They charged up to the tree, Jack put his hand on it, and the door opened into blackness. As he went through, all the threads fused into him, the matrix fell into him, and he fell into blue sky. All the other people of those threads fused into him, in his head and in his body. He was falling, twisting, floating towards a golden kathel.
Jack said he thought that we wouldn't remember anything if we went back the other way, but might remember something if we went this way. Cor pointed out that he'd rather get back sooner, so it might not be worth the time to travel back to the smoke column, into where the crystals were actively about, for this.
Jack said that the matrix in his vision was built with thread magic. And he remembered a bit more about the eviction of not-Jack: when the Red Man was getting him to leave, he wrung his ears, like Sunk do when upset.
Jack debated taking some of the Ult threads: if he took threads now, there there would be more of him. If he waited until he had fewer threads, then there would be more of not-him. There was a lot of debate about whether to take in threads. Jack said that there might be newly-made kathel threads that would be more us than Ult threads, which would replace ours without becoming Ultish. Cor and Thymelixsen were for using these threads now. I decided I knew my decision, so it wasn't worth my time to follow the rest of it when I could be veil-tuning. In the end, Jack didn't take any threads, but May agreed to take one. This lead to everyone else practicing with threads (Jack using his own), putting them in or taking them out. Thymelixsen tried to take out an Ult thread and turning it into tea essence to drink, but once he got it out, he couldn't do what he'd wanted. Perhaps he'll find someone to show him how to use threads in Wanderhold.
Jack described how it seemed to him: he was sitting in the library of himself in his mind when the Red Man came in with two rather ghostly Ult flanking him. Jack was there, and another, reading-in-the-library-of-Jack Jack. That one looked annoyed, which Jack himself never does. The Red Man took a while to convince the Jack who wasn't Jack to get up and go, gesturing and looking stern. The ghostly Ult flanked not-Jack, and walked him out of the room into a bright place with a machine that was everything. Jack thought that the door might be the edge, that we might be supposed to put the parts of us that aren't us out that door.
This lead to more discussion, of course, of what Jack had gone through, and about the role of the gods, how other worlds do or don't have the same gods with there-specific aspects. Cor thought that when the gods left, it was to fight in the line, which would explain why Krondaliken was the last one back from the line, since he can't leave a fight. Jack thought about this, and suggested that maybe the gods came back because they're holding the line, but it's so close, so high up the roots, that they needed to come back.
The conversation shifted to working with the threads. Cor asked who was taking threads; he and Thymelixsen had already taken some of the Ult threads, and took more. May, Jack, and I prayed. I was not answered, though my gut feeling was that it would be wrong for me to use someone else's life in this way.
May was granted a vision in response to her question about what to do, what path to take here, how to survive.
She had blue-green skin, three toes, and was running on all fours through a city. In the sky there was a ring of yellow glowing. It might have been the place the Ults come from, because she was being chased by Ults, who were wearing orange, with three green triangles set sash-like across their chests. She ducked into an alley, and tried to jump up from there into the rubble, but they shot her with one of their weapons, and her threads were going up. Then they shone a yellow light scepter on her, and the threads went back into her, then up into it. May also said that the Ults' eyes are big, blue, and glowing, and they have no mouths.
(I wonder if this means that they always get sustenance from threads, even at home? We certainly are not able to see/use threads at all back home.)
May said she didn't want to be part Ult, taking in an Ult thread, since they were mean. Cor pointed out that we needed to take our time before getting to the city, so we wouldn't annoy the Ults by being sensed as with Ult threads inside.
Jack, too, was vouchsafed a vision when he asked if it were acceptable to put threads in. He got an answer that seemed to not be a no, but described the effects of that choice.
He was crouched in a windy place, in a long, lean, blue body, that had two-toed feet and two-fingered hands with thumbs. He was with a friend, who was yellow with blue and green, big eyes, and no nose. She was smooth and pretty. They were near the roots: the column of smoke is where the roots are (presumably from the fighting that is happening up the roots). They were hiding from the crystals, matrixes of energy around them, rather like frames. They talked in clicks and grunts. The friend said it was a bad iddea to come here. Jack agreed, but he was ready to go. Ahead, it was totally destroyed, exploded, all rock, nothing glowing, and a frozen column of smoke above many places. On top of a rise was a silver tree, a made thing, looking rather like the tower we'd come her through. It had five branches when it split. At the bottom, there was a door flanked by carved kathel. The one on the left was named Toosef, but the one on the right had no name known, because no one came back from that one. Jack's friend asked, "How can you go back? We're here." He wasn't sure if he could go, because he wasn't sure if he could use his legs as he used to, and he couldn't fly, because that would attract crystal attention. He used his eyes to look around, which felt odd, after using magic to see in all directions. If he went back, he'd be different, but there'd be enough of him. This made her sad, that he'd leave, but she said she'd help, then gate away. Which would attract attention, but she'd be gone by then. Interestingly, they could look at the void above with their eyes, but had to avoid looking at the crystals to avoid attention. They went towards the tree, into or through a smoke column. One of the kathel guards the way here, while the other guards the way back. They charged up to the tree, Jack put his hand on it, and the door opened into blackness. As he went through, all the threads fused into him, the matrix fell into him, and he fell into blue sky. All the other people of those threads fused into him, in his head and in his body. He was falling, twisting, floating towards a golden kathel.
Jack said he thought that we wouldn't remember anything if we went back the other way, but might remember something if we went this way. Cor pointed out that he'd rather get back sooner, so it might not be worth the time to travel back to the smoke column, into where the crystals were actively about, for this.
Jack said that the matrix in his vision was built with thread magic. And he remembered a bit more about the eviction of not-Jack: when the Red Man was getting him to leave, he wrung his ears, like Sunk do when upset.
Jack debated taking some of the Ult threads: if he took threads now, there there would be more of him. If he waited until he had fewer threads, then there would be more of not-him. There was a lot of debate about whether to take in threads. Jack said that there might be newly-made kathel threads that would be more us than Ult threads, which would replace ours without becoming Ultish. Cor and Thymelixsen were for using these threads now. I decided I knew my decision, so it wasn't worth my time to follow the rest of it when I could be veil-tuning. In the end, Jack didn't take any threads, but May agreed to take one. This lead to everyone else practicing with threads (Jack using his own), putting them in or taking them out. Thymelixsen tried to take out an Ult thread and turning it into tea essence to drink, but once he got it out, he couldn't do what he'd wanted. Perhaps he'll find someone to show him how to use threads in Wanderhold.
