Test Drive 001

[iyashikeimods]

Test Drive Meme 001

Welcome to our first Test Drive Meme!

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✨ Test Drive Memes are game canon.

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✨ Invites and Reserves open on FEBRUARY 1ST.

JANUARY TOPLEVEL DIRECTORY (Updated: January 20th)

TEST DRIVE:

Arcane - Viktor
Alice in Wonderland/Alice Through the Looking Glass - Alice Liddell
All Dogs Go to Heaven - Anne-Marie
Avatar: the Last Airbender - Iroh
Avatar: the Last Airbender - Katara
Avatar: the Last Airbender - Mai
Avatar: the Last Airbender - Ty Lee
Avatar: the Last Airbender - Zuko
Avatar: the Legend of Korra - Jinora
Black Butler - Ciel Phantomhive
Cardcaptor Sakura - Sakura Kinomoto
Cardcaptor Sakura - Tomoyo Daidouji
Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine - Natalie Koutolika
Cookie Run Kingdom - Hollyberry Cookie
Danganronpa - Makoto Naegi
Demon Diary - Raenef V
Descendants (Disney) - Harry Hook
Dokidoki! Precure - Alice Yotsuba
Dokidoki! Precure - Mana Aida
Final Fantasy XIV - Foulques
Final Fantasy XIV - Haurchefant
Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd
Firefly/Serenity - River Tam
Hazbin Hotel - Carmilla Carmine
Heaven Burns Red - Karen Asakura
Heaven Burns Red - Kayamori Ruka
Heaven Burns Red - Yuki Izumi
Helluva Boss - Blitzø
Helluva Boss - Loona
Helluva Boss - Octavia
Honkai Impact 3rd - Kiana Kaslana
Honkai Impact 3rd - Raiden Mei
Howl's Moving Castle - Sophie Hatter
Imposter the Hedgehog - Metal Sonic
Kamen Rider Den-O - Nogami Ryotaro
Kingdom Hearts - Sora
Kingdom Hearts - Xion
The Last Unicorn - Lady Amalthea
Loveless - Kio Kaidou
Madoka Magica - Homura Akemi
Marvel Cinematic Universe - Agatha Harkness
Marvel Cinematic Universe - Billy Maximoff
Marvel Cinematic Universe - Cosmo the Spacedog
Marvel Cinematic Universe - Wanda Maximoff
The Murderbot Diaries - Three
My Adventures with Superman - Lois Lane
My Hero Academia - Denki Kaminari
My Hero Academia - Izuku Midoriya
My Hero Academia - Todoroki Shouto
My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Fluttershy
Nana - Layla "Reira" Serizawa
Night in the Woods - Mae Borowski
Oshi no Ko - Aqua Hoshino
Original Character - Ari Tayrey
Original Character - Bea Valentine-Sinclair
Original Character - Bellatrix Bakhar
Original Character - Echo Darkglass
Original Character - Eclipse
Original Character - Helios Sprensonne
Original Character - Henry Drake
Original Character - Paige Hirsch
Original Character - Pauline Bonheur
Original Character - Royse Sidman
Pandora Hearts - Oz Vessalius
Pokemon OC - Kitt
PJO/Riordanverse - Annabeth Chase
PJO/Riordanverse - Luke Castellan
Project Sekai - Ena Shinonome
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish - Lobo/Wolf
RWBY - Weiss Schnee
Samurai Jack - Ashi
Senki Zesshou Symphogear - Chris Yukine
Senki Zesshou Sympohgear - Hibiki Tachibana
Shadow Generations - Ivo Robotnik/Dr. Eggman
Shadow Generations - Maria
Shugo Chara! - Amu Hinamori
Sleeping Beauty (Disney) - Maleficent
Sleeping Beauty (Disney) - Princess Aurora
Sonic the Hedgehog - Amy Rose
Sonic the Hedgehog - Espio the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog - Shadow
Sonic the Hedgehog - Tails
Spirited Away - Haku
Star Wars Legends - Boba Fett
Super Sonico: The Animation - Super Sonico
Tangled (Disney) - Rapunzel
To the Moon - Dr. Eva Rosalene
Twisted Wonderland - Yuu
Virche Evermore - Mathis Claude
Wicked - Elphaba Thropp
Wicked - Fiyero Tigelaar
The Wild Robot - Roz
Worlds Beyond Number: The Wizard, The Witch, & the Wild One - Eursulon ("Bear")

FEBRUARY TOPLEVEL DIRECTORY (Updated: February 1st)

TEST DRIVE:

Ace Attorney + PLvAA - Maya Fey
Ace Attorney + PLvAA - Phoenix Wright
Azure Lane - Cleveland
DnD OC - Rin Phanta
Doctor Who - The 14th Doctor
Fate/Grand Order - Oberon
Fate/Zero - Kiritsugu Emiya
Kokoro Connect - Himeko Inaba
Okami - Amaterasu
Original - Fauna
Project Sekai - Honami Mochizuki
Project Sekai: Colorful Stage - Mafuyu Asahina
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves - Snow White
Twisted Wonderland - Ortho Shroud

Double New Years Festival

WELCOME NEW ARRIVALS!

You made it just in time! It's the month-long Double New Years Festival! The Lunar and Solar year are coming to an end, what an auspicious time for you to have agreed to help create kindness and do good deeds! All over Iyashikei Main Hub and Outer Rim people have hung colorful paper lanterns, twinkling lights, garlands, wreaths, and ribbons in all sorts of colors to bring light and cheer to their Double New Years. Snow is gently falling off and on both in the Main Hub and the Outer Rim. The Great Iyashikei Redwoods are dusted with snow, and the Whitecap Mountains are living up to their names covered from top to bottom in snow as well.

Winter time is in full swing here in Iyashikei, bundle up to stay warm, new arrivals! If you haven't the right clothes, they're easy enough to find at the markets and stores.

Would you like to make a lantern to be hung up? Or perhaps you would like to make a wreath? Of course, you can help some of the current residents decorate! Turn a corner and there's always someone to help with decorations or cleaning. Clean homes for a clean Double New Years, after all! You may notice that helping and talking to others is already causing Stardust to collect along your skin. Don't stress! That's a good thing! Winter Stardust is unique! Winter Stardust takes on the shape of snowflakes and helps so that the cold doesn't bother you anyway.

Every other street or canal seems to have a winter market going on until sundown. They are selling all sorts of charms to help get you some extra luck for the Double New Years, or candles to help light up the home, or cleanse away negative energy. It's very common to buy a small gift for you or your friends to start the Double New Years with a smile. Some are gag gifts, some are more serious, and all of them show care and craft.

Of course, what's a winter market without amazing and delicious food? Just some of the items might be: yummy baked and steamed buns with meat or custard inside, fruit or meat pies, candied walnuts, dried fruit, fresh mandarin oranges, cookies, and everything else in between. No matter what treats you buy, to help you get into the spirit, some of the Council members have added some... magic to the food and it lifts your spirit and puts you in a friendlier mood. Besides, what good food doesn't already do that, after all? Eat a bit too much and you might be downright giddy and affectionate.

Maybe you don't want to eat or shop. The parks have been cleared of snow, though, it's still quite cold. Come have a seat, at many of the parks are lion-dance performers and dragon puppets to celebrate the Double New Years. They're even pretty good... but... well... you notice something going on...

OH DEAR! Seems like one of the lion dancers hurt their ankle, could you jump in to help save the performance? You don't have to know the steps! They don't want to disappoint the crowd! Please do SOMETHING to help!

The festival isn't done when the sun has gone down! At night, there's ice skating along the smaller, frozen canals. Don't know how to ice skate? Don't worry! Penguins are there to help you gain your ice feet. Yes, actual penguins, though they don't act as such. The penguins are there at the behest of two Council members, you'll know them if you meet them, one is a lively gentleman who seems to have an odd job everywhere you look, and the other is a lovely woman who is never wrong and seems practically perfect in every way.

What is the end of a festival without a giant firework show! Taking place over the bay between the Farmlands and the Main Hub, you can thank another Council member for the display. Giant fireworks fill the air, one even looks like a giant red dragon that soars across the sky. It's a perfect end to a perfect month-long festival!

Farmland Follies

OH NO! One of the farmers forgot to put his herd away at the end of the festival and they broke out of their pen in fear of the fireworks!

It's your first Re-Quest, should you be so inclined to help fill it. Can you please find and bring back his herd? They've scattered across the Farmlands. You can't miss them, all of them are tagged with a yellow tag on their ear.

They've gotten into some strange places! They're in people's backyards, some of the cows are munching on the winter crops, there are some blocking traffic, and others are lying atop the Metro-Rail tracks. They're everywhere!

While the cattle are incredibly docile and even love a good scratch under the chin, those horns aren't just for show. Do be careful not to spook them because they will defend themselves. Mothers are especially skittish about how you might approach their young. The horns aren't going to be your biggest problem, though.

You'll find that they enjoy playing in the cold in a much wider area than their pen (large though it may be). They're not as stubborn as a donkey, but some of the bulls can get up to 1,300 lbs, and if they don't want to move? They're not going to!
You will need to work with someone else to get those cows back home!

Once they're returned? What is your reward for this Re-Quest? 5 shimmers of Stardust for every cow, and a chance to pet some adorable cows. What more could you want?

Polar Bear Plunge or Hot Springs Soak

With it being a Double New Years, it's time to wash away any bad luck and get yourself some good luck! What better way to do that than donning a bikini or speedo and diving into some literally freezing water in some of the canals of the Main Hub for the Polar Bear Plunge! Don't worry, every location has staff on hand to help in case you go into shock! You needn't stay in for more than a few minutes to get the bad luck to wash away.

The Polar Bear Plunge isn't just a quirky tradition, though! For those who willingly participate, it really does bring good luck for an entire month! Maybe you'll ace that test, or you'll get that apprenticeship everyone is vying for, who can say what the Polar Bear Plunge Luck will bring?

While the cold never bothered some anyway, you might be reluctant to dive in, good luck or not. Worry not, the Great Iyashikei Redwood Hot Springs are open again for winter! Take the Metro-Rail to the main lodge and find your troubles melt away during your stay.

The hot springs don't wash away bad luck, nor do they provide good luck, instead, they're known for helping to ease a burdened mind. They make worries and troubles seem far away, less personal and raw, and help provide perspective on the past.

But be careful! The staff is there to remind you that even just one minute more than 60 minutes in the hot springs may cause more than just personal worries becoming distant! Those who stay too long in the hot springs have been known to have temporary amnesia. But don't worry, it doesn't last for more than a day or two... The more you talk to someone else to help figure out who you are, the easier it is for your memories to return.

... In any case, if it gets really bad you will be taken to the medical staff at Heart of Hope Hospital and they will get you back on track with your memory. But best to listen to the staff and the 60-minute timer they provide you if you want to prevent it entirely.

Did You Say Lodge?

Why yes we did! On top of the hot springs that are only open during the winter time, the lodge is at its busiest. The lodge is famous for its beautiful views as it sits right up against a small lake (which is frozen closer to the shoreline but the center never freezes) against the base of the Whitecap Mountains.

If you'd like something exciting, you can take the ski lift up to the top of the smaller mountains! There are bunny slopes and much more extreme slopes for the more advanced, you can rent all the equipment you need for snowboarding and skiing. Or if you prefer, there are gentle slopes for tubing! There are instructors from the lodge who are happy to show you how to ski or snowboard if you don't know how. Of course, with all the snow, there are ample opportunities for making snow angels, snowball fights, and snowmen.

Whether you want to spend your day indoors or outdoors, there's no denying how welcoming and inviting the fire pits look. There are blankets to wrap up in, and of course, marshmallows to roast, and if so inclined, chocolate and graham crackers to make s'mores. Resting around the fireplace makes you want to open up and share something from home, that might be the Council's doing or just the natural magic of a warm fire and hot chocolate. Maybe what you share is a poem, or a song, a fairytale, or something else. It can be a lot or a little, the coziness of the fire makes it feel easier to do so. And goodness! Just look at how you're gathering Winter Stardust along your skin.

If you want to enjoy a true winter wonderland, oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh! The sleigh travels along the most popular trails around the lodge. You'll get to see the redwood giants in all their winter splendor! There's just one catch. The sleigh driver only goes if two to three people ride in the sleigh.. That's great if you're riding with a friend, but don't be surprised if you and a stranger (or two) are going on the hour-long tour. This is a chance to earn more Winter Stardust, at least?

A Kindly Curious Question

There are several little beeps, or depending on whether you've begun customizing it, maybe a little song instead starts to play on your Glimmer. A little envelope notification appears and does a little wiggle. Should you open this, a cute little message appears:


Hello hello Iyashikei!

This is the monthly Kindness Curious Question (K.C.Q.)! In the spirit of the Double New Years, are there any kindness resolutions you would like to make?
Answer honestly to get your sticker!

Answer honestly on the Glimmer and you'll get your K.C.Q. Digital Sticker! It will immediately go into your K.C.Q. digital sticker album folder on your Glimmer.

What's the point, you might ask? Well, when you open that sticker and press on it, the little sticker will make you suddenly feel warm and toasty, like being wrapped up in a blanket, for ten minutes.

< isopods >

Comments

Natalia Koutolika | Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine

[theriflespiral]

Farmland Follies
Sometimes, Natalia wondered why she had decided to take this job in the first place. But, her handlers had said, 'it will be good for you, Natashenka'-- never mind that that is the wrong diminutive, they love Anna Karenina-- And so, here she was.

Working for wizards, for the good of the world, presumably.

Natalia figured this was some sort of trick, but went along with it, since she did need a job.

Still, finding cows and bringing them back, this was not so bad! She'd had to herd much worse back home in Siberia.

And then, she was not allowed to touch the goats.

She slid down the tree, and let the snow fall in drifts, and called to her partner-- "I think there are some this way, by that bluff. They look nervous."

Polar Bear Plunge
It had to be said. Natalia did not particularly believe in luck. Nor did she particularly believe in other superstitions. But she believed that other people believed them.

And the cold never bothered her. Not since that day.

And so, looking out at the crowd, having volunteered for this particular tradition, Natalia intentionally fell backwards, through the thin ice, into the deep, frozen water.

From the bottom, she stared up at the sun, missing in the cloudy sky. It seemed... Distantly familiar. Like something she'd forgotten.

She rose up and tossed back her hair. "Come, then! Show me your courage!"

Soon enough, she would see how others responded to this challenge.

It would be useful information.

Lodge And Warmth
Natalia Koutolika. Greatest of her generation. Strongest, by most measures of strong. Fastest, by most measures of fast. With an uncommon mind and an even more uncommon emotional state.

Namely, she could not open up, not even to save her life.

She didn't believe this superstition about the fire and the hot chocolate.

Still, as she tried to wrap herself in something warm-- a form of social camouflage-- she looked over to someone else who had joined her.

Her hand went up, once, in a stoic little wave, and then she stared at the mug in her hands. So. This was what hot chocolate looked like? It didn't seem much different from a strong tea with butter in it. She tilted her head and stared at it.

Wait, they were talking. "Forgive me, say again?"

farmland follies

[burningbrighter]

"Good time for food bribes, right? This probably isn't the best weather for apples though...do we have carrots?"

Sunset's still not sure quite how she landed this job, awkwardly tiptoeing about in her coat and boots. Applejack would definitely know what to do, were she here...but what she's learned from her friend will just have to serve her well.

Re: farmland follies

[theriflespiral]

"Let's head around, see if we can spot what, if anything, has them so spooked." At least they'll be easy to move. But...

Being separated from the herd might be reason enough. They're stomping a little and looking around.

"... Though they might be hungry, yes. Or uncomfortable-- How many hours has it been already?"

[burningbrighter]

"I lost count...phew. This sure isn't easy, huh?" Sunset waves to her partner. Hm, how to do this?

Sunset doesn't see anything too unusual so far, but...ah, yes! Big leaves sticking out of the ground, those sure look like root veggies! She kneels and starts to dig it up, only to uncover....beets. She sighs and holds them up.

"Maybe these will work?"

[theriflespiral]

"Too many, then." She sighs. Even thick-furred cattle like this will get hurt if they're in the cold for too long, and eating bark isn't something they can do easily.

Natalia pauses and tilts her head at the beets. "Yes, these will be good to drop. The greens especially, but the root won't be too bad either."

She hums. "Strange, how this place is still so full of life in winter."

She's inspecting the ground and the trees themselves. Any signs of predators...?

[burningbrighter]

"Okay. I'll try to leave a little trail. Not too close, have to get them to trust us. C'mere, guys...it's safe, don't worry. We found some yummy food..."

All of Sunset's focus is on trying to speak gently to the animals. They can't understand her, but maybe her tone is enough. A small circle of beets, then another a bit closer to them, then another.

[theriflespiral]

As she creeps in the treeline, the small group spots her and begin to move away.

This is good, in that she managed to flank them! They're headed in the right direction, mostly.

This is... Exceedingly bad, in that they might be heading for Sunset Shimmer now.

Natalia muttered something exceedingly colorful about the moral condition of the farmer's wife in Russian, while rushing to get to a position to head them off from running even further away from the farm.

At least they were paying attention to her. "Sunset! Heads up!"

Polar Bear Plunge

[astrogator]

'I hear you!' a voice calls over to her.

Tayrey is another one who doesn't believe in superstitions. She certainly doesn't believe that a dip in freezing water will cause probability to smile upon her. She's accustomed, however, to the gentle toleration of traditions that she sees no logic in. Her mentor, Lieutenant Savitskaya, saw to that in Tayrey's first year shipside.

That's one thing. Another is that the young officer can't resist a daring challenge like this. She's ready. She slips off her blue woolen uniform coat, revealing the skirted bathing suit underneath. It might look hopelessly old-fashioned to an observer from Earth, but Tayrey chose it for modesty and comfort.

She steps up to the edge of the water, ignoring the cold bite of the ice against her bare feet. Then, with a little hop off the side, she's completely submerged. It's a shock to her system, and she tenses and shivers as she goes under - but when her head breaks the surface again, she smiles at the young woman across from her, giving her a little wave.

'There! Don't doubt the courage of the Tradelines!' she declares, all bright enthusiasm.

She knows, of course, how vanishingly unlikely it is that the term will mean anything to the other woman - but Tayrey's allowed her fun.

Re: Polar Bear Plunge

[theriflespiral]

She leans a little bit away from the splash, more out of trained instinct than anything else, and, for a moment, she claps. "Well done! You are maritime, then?" In contrast, Natalia is sharp and clipped and calm, always calm.

She heads for the bank and offers a hand to Tayrey to climb up with her.

[astrogator]

Tayrey takes Natalia's hand, and climbs up and away from the water. The chill on her wet skin makes her shiver violently, and she quickly grabs hold of one of the oversized towels held out by the waiting attendants. Wrapping it around herself, she glanced back over at her companion.

'I'm a spacer, not planetary militia,' she explains, her tone a fraction more serious now that the sudden adrenaline rush of the plunge is beginning to dissipate. She points upward in illustration.

'My name's Tayrey. Lieutenant Ari Tayrey, of the Tradeline Starship Prosperity,' she adds by way of proper introduction. 'Come, let's go inside and get into dry clothes, yes? No tradition is going to tilt probability enough to save us from hypothermia if we stay out here too long.' There's no real concern in her voice, only brisk practicality.

[theriflespiral]

Her walk immediately shifts to a military proceed, even as she dries off, herself. "Natalia Koutolika. Cadet, Kamchatka Training Program. Back home, so far as I know, we did not have faster-than-light technology, but I've already run into people who can talk to cows, so what do I know, yes?"

[astrogator]

Cadet. It's not a rank used in Tayrey's organisation, but some of the planetary militias have them. A trainee. On her ship, there are protocols that govern the way a lieutenant should speak with an apprentice spacer - even a half-year lieutenant like Tayrey, not long out of her own training. Koutolika isn't Tradeline, so those laws and customs don't apply, but it's a reminder to her to be responsible.

She is always representing the Tradelines, after all, even somewhere so out-of-sector as this.

'Peace and prosperity to you, Cadet Koutolika,' she says, offering the formal greeting but dispensing with the customary handshake. They have other priorities. At their quick pace it isn't long before they will reach shelter, and Tayrey can pick up her bundle of dry clothes.

'It was the talking owl that warned me I wasn't dealing with anything usual,' she comments wryly. 'Still, so far as I know, travelers cannot go faster than light. There is the time dilation problem, and the closer you get to the limit, the worse it is. In my sector, our solution is with higher-dimensional shortcuts.'

[theriflespiral]

"Splitting hairs. Cherenkov almost certainly has his moment when you emerge from the higher dimensions, yes?" Natalia changes fast enough, and hers resembles an ancient military uniform kind of closely, though it's probably not hard to see where the insignia and other such were ripped off with a seam ripper, several times, and where the bullet holes were patched. "As for me, We... Had decided to leave. I thought the owl was the ticket out."

"I was incorrect."

[astrogator]

Her response to the remark about higher-dimensional physics is a noncommittal murmur that might be agreement. This is calculated on Tayrey's part; the name is unfamiliar to her, and her instinct is one of intellectual curiosity, to ask who and what and why, to match up the knowledge of another sector with her own. Yet if she asks questions, she will be expected to answer, fair contract - and like every Tradeliner, she is sworn to secrecy on the matter of the Lorentzen equations and the inner workings of L-space. Too many died at Breakaway to keep Lorentzen's secrets. Tayrey won't let anything accidentally slip.

Tayrey too dresses in uniform, although hers is bright blue and silver, all crisp lines and shiny buttons. As she fastens her double-breasted jacket, with its ship patch and the star-and-chevron insignia that marks her as lieutenant astrogator, she can't help but notice the state of Natalia's clothing by comparison. More questions not to ask, not of a stranger, not directly - but that concern is soon replaced with another.

'The owl was a way out,' she says slowly, 'but not as you hoped? What happened? I don't know your people or your homeworld.' The last is said half-apologetically, but Tayrey wants to draw attention to what it makes her. An unbiased listener.

[theriflespiral]

If she notes the lack of specifics regarding Cherenkov radiation, she doesn't say anything about it, and merely files away that this is a secret the 'spacer' wants to keep. An interesting thought, wasn't it?

"-- My parents and I. We were going to leave Russia. We were at the docks, waiting. Everything was in readiness." She paused. "Then the owl showed up. I expected to arrive with my family.

"I did not."

[astrogator]

'Oh.' Tayrey's expression softens. 'You were together. You assumed that the contract was for all of you.'

If there's a moral there about proper contract negotiation, she's not going to be the one to press it. Not when her own agreement to come here had been more of a disbelieving challenge.

'For all their professed values, it strikes me that the Council separating you from your family that way was profoundly unkind.'

[theriflespiral]

"There are other arguments to be made as well, I think," she says. "There is a certain overfocus that may have lost track of the bigger picture. If this is to save the worlds-- all our worlds-- Or, your. Galaxy? Local cluster?"

She shakes her head, she's splitting hairs again. "Let us call them 'worlds' for the sake of not causing headaches. Regardless, the center of gravity may not be here, on our side, either."

[astrogator]

'Sector,' Tayrey supplies regardless. She's fond of precision. 'Over a hundred colony worlds, in Second Sector, in the Spiral Coil galaxy - although of course it is highly unlikely your people call it by the same name, if it exists in your timeline and you're aware of it.'

But Koutolika is right, thinks Tayrey, she is going to cause headaches if she focuses on epistemological details instead of getting to the heart of the matter. For the present, at least. Time enough to explore the scientific ramifications later.

She refocuses. 'It's possible,' she says, 'that we were not given the same information. My understanding is that nobody's homeworld is truly in danger, this is some sort of... utopian experiment. Such things can be very good, or very terrible. In my people's history, there were those who disregarded essential rights for the sake of a greater good, and it was a tyranny that took a long and costly war to be free of.'

She frowns, fingers of one hand curling into her palm. 'I am here to observe. The bigger picture cannot crush the individual. If the price of their good and kind society is tricking you into agreement, it isn't so good or kind. Don't devalue yourself, Cadet Koutolika. Your rights matter. Your family matters.' She tilts her head. 'I am sure you are entirely capable of handling the matter yourself, but if my support in petitioning the Council to have your parents brought here would be of any value to you, you have it.'

[theriflespiral]

She hummed, pulling a seat for Tayrey before taking her own.

"Observe is an interesting choice." She paused. "There is something to be said for my own rights-- but I want to circle back to the idea of a utopian experiment. It's-- interesting, to me, that this experiment must be made of people from disparate worlds. I think there's something more to it. At its most ludicrous, each individual here represents another world, halted. It's such a massive scale as to be useless to a human mind. We cannot grasp it easily."

"For my ruble? There's something they felt the need to stop. Something big. Possibly bigger than the Council, who already demonstrated an intense amount of capabilities. Call me suspicious, or paranoid, or irrational due to my separation, and I'll gladly accept the labels; I don't like taking this at face value."

[astrogator]

With a nod of thanks, Tayrey takes her chair. That her offer was ignored is glaringly obvious, but she can easily think of a half-dozen reasons for that, from pride to mistrust, and so she isn't going to read anything specific into it. She'll hold back. She won't let the fact that she's already missing her comrades affect her decisions.

Priorities. She listens carefully, and responds: 'It was my thought that they gathered such disparate people because of the diversity. Of culture, and of thought. Both to gain the widest range of opinions and because - well, it is very easy to have a calm and peaceful society when everyone agrees. The real challenge is in the differences.'

She pauses for a moment, considering. 'Still. I'm not discounting your perspective. If there's some greater threat here, it's utterly unconscionable of them not to tell us what their true purpose is - but that I don't like the idea doesn't mean it can't be true. I don't think we have enough evidence to draw many conclusions at all.'

[theriflespiral]

In truth, she was still considering it. She could petition the Council. Immediately.

But... "I don't know. There are certain baselines past which the human-- the purely human-- has trouble reaching. To be truly and purely individual is one. To bridge the gap between soul and soul and become truly of one mind is another. And so far, most of what I have met are, more or less, human. Similar bauplan, similar thought process, a human with funny paint on remains. To get more diverse results even than this would require perspectives you or I might have trouble parsing, though not nearly so much as many think."

"And it is precisely because I agree-- we need more information-- that I... Will have to refuse your offer, for now. I have to be more certain of the Council's plan. I have to be more certain that this is where my family intended to go. And... I have to be more certain where all this material came from."

[astrogator]

'I hear you,' she replies solemnly. 'The offer remains, should you ever choose to take it.' Tayrey can't be offended, not even a little; Koutolika's logic is sound. There are times where you have to make a sharp decision based on the information you have, incomplete or not. This isn't one of them. Time, if nothing else, is on their side.

She leans back in her chair, relaxed, contemplative. 'I do think the experiment has practical constraints,' she says. 'The Council are not omnipotent. The trouble involved in trying to bring beings here who exist in universes with different fundamental constants, or even those who don't require oxygen - perhaps the benefit doesn't justify the cost. Or perhaps life is rarer than we think. You are human, so am I, and either that is a grave error of translation or we are physiologically near-identical despite our origins being so far apart.'

With a half-smile, she adds, 'Although I would say that every human is an individual and that souls do not exist, so there, that is a difference - but perhaps we'll debate philosophy another time, yes? I suppose the real question is whether you think there's anything to be done about it all, presently. As I said, I'm content to observe. Providing that their promise to return anyone home if they wish to go is genuine. If not, we are prisoners with much worse problems.'

[theriflespiral]

"I would argue that standing alone for too long will kill a human as surely as any bullet. But... I agree, that sort of philosophic argument can wait, as pleasant as it might be." Natalia's expression does not change, though her tone does, just slightly. It seems she really does like wrestling with philosophy, even if she's not particularly great at it.

"And you're right that the constraints are important. If there were a small fellow, only a few inches tall at most, who could not breathe oxygen, how could he meaningfully interact with this city?" They both knew the answer, of course-- he likely wouldn't be able to, full stop. He'd be stuck in a pressure suit, with a radio and speaker, at best.