[ Finally. Pinning Jasnah down feels like successfully wrangling a slippery eel which keeps wanting to squirm out of her hands. (So many of her favourite people are like this. Why?? A thing to ponder some other day.) ]
I'm glad you think so. I didn't want to turn it down entirely for a lack of capacity,
[ Perhaps fittingly, Jasnah is the first person she's admitting this to, outside of her roommate: ]
I finally went for a research assistantship at the Lyceum. It's a long commute, which cuts into the time as well, but it's more joolies and better access to research material for my own extracurricular projects.
[ Being a little coy about the latter? Maybe. Two people can be eels. ]
[ So. They'll be colleagues of a sort. Jasnah has circumnavigated anything like an assistantship thus far for all manner of reasons. But she'll be curious to learn how Lune settles into the role. ]
What manner of extracurriculars?
[ If Lune continues to play coy about it, she'll likely drop the subject. Maybe. Or - at any rate - her curiosity will go underground. Back to puzzling. ]
Chromatic ore and its effects; how to repurpose it, ideally for protecting our personal vehicles much like how the Rail is protected.
The nature of death in the Diadem; how do deceased people appear here? How often does it happen?
Documenting diffusion zones, in the off-chance that they do repeat.
Less concretely: Storm-chasers and the cosmic storms and whatever they've managed to learn there. I also want to know more about the reef labs, but they've been closed for repairs since the Sanctum opened.
Yes. Sciel has me looking into that second question, too.
[ Everything else is also appetizing (of course) but Jasnah suspects she's of slightly more use discussing death and on the ways it can be cheated, on occasion. ]
Although I sensed her curiosity was more than merely pragmatic.
[ For once, she's not fishing for more. Sciel's friend is likely heaps more familiar with whatever emotional forces are at play; Jasnah is instead trusting Lune to register a kind of slant-concern conjured by the sentence. The last thing she's interested in doing is enkindling a wicked hope in someone else's heart. ]
[ Confirming the suspicion, but no additional context offered. Sciel's business is Sciel's business, and it's intensely personal; far more than Lune is equipped to deal with even if she wanted to blab. ]
In my earliest days here, I met a man who hypothesizes that when someone is torn from their world and brought here it represents a kind of splintered timeline. I suggested to her that the two phenomenon could be one in the same.
[ Because (at the time) that explanation had felt more merciful than some of the more concrete examples Jasnah could describe. ]
[ Jasnah doesn't have the set of datapoints from her home world to compare like this, and so Lune is quick to supply them. The nitpicky, finicky details which she's been chewing over, like something caught in her teeth. ]
I woke up here after playing games on a beach. Our fellow expeditioner, Maelle, is from later on: she remembers reaching a landmark that Sciel and I hadn't reached yet in our journey. And yet to Maelle, we were still present and accompanying her; we didn't suddenly vanish.
Thus: it can't all be one single uninterrupted timeline. It seems to splinter. And as far as we've been able to tell, we do share the same memories and experiences until the points of divergence.
[ Hm. Don't mind her as she pauses, briefly, to jot some of this information into a slim notebook. ]
As hypotheses go, it's got legs. However — there's another possibility. One I didn't mention when she first asked for my help.
[ Sciel had latched too quickly, too obviously onto the concept of a splintered timeline. On finding a way to control it. On — rewinding herself, it seemed like. And Jasnah realized in an instant that any further theories might require vetting. The one she's thinking of could wholly miss the mark. Best not agitate the other woman with mere conjecture. ]
Will you tell me more about the death in question?
[ If this were handwritten, Lune would be fidgeting. The other end of her pen tap-tap-tapping against the blank page (at least she'd learned from a young age not to chew on the nib, the ink got everywhere). In lieu of that, her fingers tap the edge of her clunky telephone. ]
Do you mean the one from the deceased person we met?
[ As soon as Jasnah confirms, Lune forces herself to answer the initial question. Crisp, factual, no matter how much it aches. She talks like the healer she's become. ]
Initial stab wounds and lacerations, then fully impaled on a sword. Deceased almost immediately after.
[ Maybe she ought to proceed more gently. Maybe she ought to pause and say I'm sorry for your loss — but Jasnah matches Lune's crisp and factual approach.
She does, at least, explain: ] That is, was it an ordinary death? There are stories of individuals returning from the dead if, at the moment of their passing, they were heavily imbued with magic.
[ Investiture, not magic. But she's not ready to get into the Proper Noun just yet . ]
[ She never really knows what to do with pity or condolences when she's on the receiving end of them; has always hated them. And it'd feel extra-strange now, accepting any words about loss when the loss himself is, technically, walking around again-- even if all of their grief still happened at the time.
So. It's appreciated. This approach is easier. ]
Hm. That, I'm not sure. I didn't witness it directly; it sounded ordinary as far as such things go, but technically nothing on the Continent is ordinary.
[ The blur of red petals left behind, so the only thing they had to bury was the prosthetic arm. Gustave hadn't crystallised into chroma, but that just meant he hadn't been killed by nevrons; he'd died like anyone in Lumière instead. ]
[ So. Not likely to be a Cognitive Shadow. Good. Jasnah would not have enjoyed explaining the concept to Lune. Specifically, the bit where no one is quite certain whether a Cognitive Shadow is someone truly returned from the dead or simply an echo left behind by vast amounts of Investiture. A copy, albeit a very, very good one. ]
Most likely a quirk of timelines and timing, then. One that remains to be seen whether it's mere coincidence or intentional on someone's part.
Intentional. As in, if some force is specifically and consciously choosing who to bring over into this world?
[ Lune asks that question; and then almost immediately starts to justify the theory, pondering it. ]
Despite all the diversity here, there does seem to be more overlap than you'd expect, if it were truly random across every conceivable world and every possible outcome to the ∞th degree.
[ Indeed. By Jasnah's estimation, certain worlds seem overrepresented. Others, conspicuously absent. And this is not merely the dull ache of personal loneliness; the distribution appears genuinely strange. If this phenomenon were sampling indiscriminately across all possible worlds, all possible histories, all possible outcomes, then the pattern should be more diffuse.
Then again, it's impossible to be certain of what the pattern truly is. If someone from Scadrial, Nalthis, or Sel had arrived here, they might have the good sense to hide it. She certainly has not been volunteering the full shape of her origins to every curious stranger. Still.
Patterns remain patterns, even when incomplete. ]
Whether by conscious choice or some established parameter. But I agree the distribution appears unlikely. Something may be selecting for particular qualities? Circumstances? Worlds? Or...points of crisis? If so, the question becomes whether those conditions are intentional (?) or some limitation on whatever mechanism is pulling us here.
[ The looser, less well-defined direction of Jasnah's theories surfaces in the dotted, uncertain punctuation. Empty spaces she'd like to fill. ]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
I'm glad you think so. I didn't want to turn it down entirely for a lack of capacity,
[ homegirl is addicted to picking up more work ]
and you were the first person I thought of.
no subject
Lack of capacity?
[ What are you up to, Lune. ]
no subject
I finally went for a research assistantship at the Lyceum. It's a long commute, which cuts into the time as well, but it's more joolies and better access to research material for my own extracurricular projects.
[ Being a little coy about the latter? Maybe. Two people can be eels. ]
no subject
What manner of extracurriculars?
[ If Lune continues to play coy about it, she'll likely drop the subject. Maybe. Or - at any rate - her curiosity will go underground. Back to puzzling. ]
no subject
Chromatic ore and its effects; how to repurpose it, ideally for protecting our personal vehicles much like how the Rail is protected.
The nature of death in the Diadem; how do deceased people appear here? How often does it happen?
Documenting diffusion zones, in the off-chance that they do repeat.
Less concretely: Storm-chasers and the cosmic storms and whatever they've managed to learn there. I also want to know more about the reef labs, but they've been closed for repairs since the Sanctum opened.
no subject
Yes. Sciel has me looking into that second question, too.
[ Everything else is also appetizing (of course) but Jasnah suspects she's of slightly more use discussing death and on the ways it can be cheated, on occasion. ]
Although I sensed her curiosity was more than merely pragmatic.
[ For once, she's not fishing for more. Sciel's friend is likely heaps more familiar with whatever emotional forces are at play; Jasnah is instead trusting Lune to register a kind of slant-concern conjured by the sentence. The last thing she's interested in doing is enkindling a wicked hope in someone else's heart. ]
no subject
[ Confirming the suspicion, but no additional context offered. Sciel's business is Sciel's business, and it's intensely personal; far more than Lune is equipped to deal with even if she wanted to blab. ]
Have you found anything promising yet?
no subject
[ She assumes yes. After all, Sciel is one who introduced the concept to Jasnah. But — bear with her, this is indeed going somewhere... ]
no subject
Only the one so far, with Sciel, but I'd expect there to be others.
[ It'd be more unlikely and strange if her friend were a unique one-off. ]
no subject
[ Because (at the time) that explanation had felt more merciful than some of the more concrete examples Jasnah could describe. ]
no subject
[ Jasnah doesn't have the set of datapoints from her home world to compare like this, and so Lune is quick to supply them. The nitpicky, finicky details which she's been chewing over, like something caught in her teeth. ]
I woke up here after playing games on a beach. Our fellow expeditioner, Maelle, is from later on: she remembers reaching a landmark that Sciel and I hadn't reached yet in our journey. And yet to Maelle, we were still present and accompanying her; we didn't suddenly vanish.
Thus: it can't all be one single uninterrupted timeline. It seems to splinter. And as far as we've been able to tell, we do share the same memories and experiences until the points of divergence.
no subject
As hypotheses go, it's got legs. However — there's another possibility. One I didn't mention when she first asked for my help.
[ Sciel had latched too quickly, too obviously onto the concept of a splintered timeline. On finding a way to control it. On — rewinding herself, it seemed like. And Jasnah realized in an instant that any further theories might require vetting. The one she's thinking of could wholly miss the mark. Best not agitate the other woman with mere conjecture. ]
Will you tell me more about the death in question?
no subject
Do you mean the one from the deceased person we met?
[ As soon as Jasnah confirms, Lune forces herself to answer the initial question. Crisp, factual, no matter how much it aches. She talks like the healer she's become. ]
Initial stab wounds and lacerations, then fully impaled on a sword. Deceased almost immediately after.
no subject
[ Maybe she ought to proceed more gently. Maybe she ought to pause and say I'm sorry for your loss — but Jasnah matches Lune's crisp and factual approach.
She does, at least, explain: ] That is, was it an ordinary death? There are stories of individuals returning from the dead if, at the moment of their passing, they were heavily imbued with magic.
[ Investiture, not magic. But she's not ready to get into the Proper Noun just yet . ]
no subject
So. It's appreciated. This approach is easier. ]
Hm. That, I'm not sure. I didn't witness it directly; it sounded ordinary as far as such things go, but technically nothing on the Continent is ordinary.
[ The blur of red petals left behind, so the only thing they had to bury was the prosthetic arm. Gustave hadn't crystallised into chroma, but that just meant he hadn't been killed by nevrons; he'd died like anyone in Lumière instead. ]
no subject
Most likely a quirk of timelines and timing, then. One that remains to be seen whether it's mere coincidence or intentional on someone's part.
no subject
[ Lune asks that question; and then almost immediately starts to justify the theory, pondering it. ]
Despite all the diversity here, there does seem to be more overlap than you'd expect, if it were truly random across every conceivable world and every possible outcome to the ∞th degree.
no subject
Then again, it's impossible to be certain of what the pattern truly is. If someone from Scadrial, Nalthis, or Sel had arrived here, they might have the good sense to hide it. She certainly has not been volunteering the full shape of her origins to every curious stranger. Still.
Patterns remain patterns, even when incomplete. ]
Whether by conscious choice or some established parameter. But I agree the distribution appears unlikely. Something may be selecting for particular qualities? Circumstances? Worlds? Or...points of crisis? If so, the question becomes whether those conditions are intentional (?) or some limitation on whatever mechanism is pulling us here.
[ The looser, less well-defined direction of Jasnah's theories surfaces in the dotted, uncertain punctuation. Empty spaces she'd like to fill. ]