singillatim | i was following the pack all swaddled in their coats

i was following the pack all swaddled in their coats

MAY 2025 EVENT

PROMPT ONE — THE SHUDDERING EARTH: Quake activity in the area, paired with decaying infrastructure, reveals a way for Interlopers to make their way to the coast.

PROMPT TWO — THE LONG ROAD: Interlopers can now embark on the long and dangerous journey to Silverpoint, and make some grim discoveries on the way.

PROMPT THREE — TRY HONESTY: A dream leads to Interlopers being a little more honest with one another, in different kinds of ways.

THE SHUDDERING EARTH

WHEN: Early May, onwards.
WHERE: Everywhere, Carter Hydrodam.
CONTENT WARNINGS: themes of natural disasters; earthquakes; potential avalanches; themes of exploration/survival; potential injuries, potential cold injuries/hyperthermia risk.

Seismic activity is well known within the Northern Territories. Both last year, and over the last month or so, Interlopers have felt intermittent tremors — the ground quaking beneath their feet, enough to upset some objects around homes but never quite enough to cause some serious damage. Interlopers have been fortunate, but the damage caused by these quakes have long left their scars over the years in this world: railroads and roads buckled and crumbled, bridges destroyed and tunnels and pathways caved in, cutting off access. The quakes can cause some serious damage.

Interlopers will find that out in the late evening of one otherwise calm day in May.

Animals will notice the signs of the impending quake before humans do, growing restless and agitated in the hour or so before the shaking starts.

A low tremor that makes items in homes quiver, the ground vibrating beneath your feet. It quickly grows more violent — items can be sent flying if they’re not secured. Light fixtures sway overhead, furniture will shake and topple over, dust and debris could rain down from above — some places worse than others, depending on the building.

Diving for shelter is the best thing to do, out of the way of windows and objects that can fall over. Finding something sturdy to take cover under. The shaking grows intense, especially in the Lakeside area. There is a strange and terrible churning of metal and stone, a crash, something giving way. Roars and crackles of noise.

In Lakeside, where the quake is far more intense, the sound reverberates around the area, but the sound can even be heard so far as in Milton — distant but noticeable. It comes from the direction of the Hydrodam.

The quake is fortunately short-lived and finally dies down. Interlopers will be able to come out of hiding and assess the damage and check on one another for injuries. Within Milton and Lakeside, some buildings that have never been inhabited by Interlopers and remained empty for a long time (and thus in states of disrepair) will be found severely damaged. Water pipes may burst, causing flooding in some unused buildings — ultimately rendering them now useless and uninhabitable.

Generally, it looks like large swathes of the area have come out unscathed — but there is a risk of avalanches in some of the more remote locations near to the mountains. It might take several days for Interlopers to take stock and assess properly, even check further afield.

Interlopers who choose to investigate the Hydrodam will come to find that sections of the dam itself have given way, the metal burst open and water spilling outwards and down the river towards the coast. The huge gorge which separates Lakeside and The Coast is a raging torrent. In time, these waters will eventually calm but it looks like the previously flooded sections of the dam that had meant it was completely inaccessible might be now free to explore with the fact the water had .

The Hydrodam has been in a state of disrepair for some time. Before The Flare, it barely had a skeleton crew running things. Now, with no one to maintain the dam itself following previous quake activity — it looks like this quake has been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Traversing through the dam will reveal that the lower levels are now accessible and can be entered. But Interlopers should take caution: while the lower dam is now free to explore, this section of the dam still contains freezing cold water that can reach knee deep on the average person. What’s worse is these sections are filled with debris: equipment, furniture and even random junk and industrial supplies that had been once stored there. Some are broken, and can can injury to the unsuspecting traveller.

Travelling through the dam through an Aurora would be incredibly dangerous due to damage in the building, with exposed wiring and partially flooded areas not mixing great companions. The utmost care should be taken when exploring and finding the way through, or it may spell trouble.

But what it will lead to is a way out. On the other side of the dam.

And a way out to the coast.

THE LONG ROAD

WHEN: Early May, onwards.
WHERE: Carter Hydrodam, The Coast
CONTENT WARNINGS: themes of exploration/survival; potential injuries, potential cold injuries/hyperthermia risk; corpses; dead npcs.

Coming out and down from the other side of the Hydrodam will bring Interlopers to the destroyed Connector Bridge and onto Coastal Highway — the main road that leads to Silverpoint. There are a few extra outbuildings on this side of the dam which are dry but not particularly comfortable — but it’ll make do in the face of recovering from getting through the dam itself.

But after that? The world is far more open compared to Lakeside and certainly less sheltered than Milton, meaning winds are incredibly biting and difficult to contend with whilst travelling. There is little in terms of cover, and thus Interlopers may need to really plan well in order to keep themselves alive. Hopefully Interlopers have come well prepared for the journey ahead of them.

A great deal of the landscape has been damaged by quakes, making the terrain difficult to navigate: with huge, icy ridges and gorges in the earth and roads — providing ample danger to travellers. But sticking roughly to the road means a straight-forward way down but it will take several days to walk down, given the difficulty.

There is nowhere indoors to shelter on this journey save for a single garage and gas station about half-way through the trek south. Interlopers will need to brave the outdoors, even sleeping out doors or in the shallow, sheltered caves that may be seen just off the road. Interlopers will need to huddle for warmth, keeping an eye on one another to make sure they make it through the night. The gas station will provide decent shelter and warmth, however, and even boasts a few supplies left of food, water and fuel. Some one has definitely been here, but with it being so remote, it’s no wonder it’s generally been left alone.

The reasons why will soon come to light.

On the road down, Interlopers will make grim discoveries: frozen, partially mummified remains of people, half-hidden in the snow and ice. Many of them appear poorly dressed for the journey, and look to have died from hypothermia or some other kind of cold-induced injury. Some may be found as if they had simply collapsed in the snow and died. Others may be found in small groups, huddled and slumped together — having succumbed to the cold. Suitcases and bags will be littered around with them — sometimes luggage will be left abandoned alone, as if someone just gave up carrying it.

Some Interlopers will realise: these are the remains of Milton’s original residents. The ones that made it out of Milton and Lakeside, only to die on the way to the coast. Dozens upon dozens of bodies, making you wonder if anyone ever made it out alive at all.

One long road, a graveyard.

And then, in the distance, where the ocean stretches out before your eyes: the outline of a village can be seen before the land meets the water. Civilisation? People?

As twilight falls, more curiously, a light blinks slowly on the landscape. It may be easier or hard to spot, depending on the time of day. What… is that?

Silverpoint.

TRY HONESTY

WHEN: May and into June.
WHERE: Everywhere.
CONTENT WARNINGS: themes of honesty/forced honesty; potential body horror.

It begins with a dream. You stand in the atrium of a large cave, lit by a large campfire — the smoke drifting out an opening in the cave’s roof above. Someone sits by the fire with their hands covering their face and as you draw closer and closer to the flames, you realise it is a woman who sits on the opposite side of the flames. For some, they will not know who this woman is but some will recognise her: Enola.

She does not speak, does not look at you. She keeps her face hidden behind her hands, almost-childlike as she sits. The light is low but it’s a pleasant, peaceful kind of ambiance — even if Enola’s actions are a little strange, almost troubling. If you listen carefully, you’re almost sure you can quietly hear crying.

Across the campfire, on your own side of it, there are three stones laid out on the floor, each of them carved with a rune of sorts. It’s hard to tell what the runes mean, exactly. They don’t appear to be in any symbolic or runic language you’ve seen before. Even if you don’t understand them, you find yourself drawn to one of these runes.

You move to kneel on the cave floor and you reach forwards. Your hand hovers over it — a strange thrum in the air, like you can feel some kind of energy of vibration coming from it. You reach for the stone, Enola doesn’t move. As you move to pick up the stone, you feel the sharp burning sting of pain—

The dream ends.

You awaken. Not the sharp snapping of sleep to waking. Just the simple, natural waking that comes when one wakes up. But you feel… different somehow.

Honest. But honest, how exactly?

It all depends which rune you picked in your dream.

HEART RUNE: Interlopers who chose this rune will find themselves more emotionally honest. How this manifests is an aura of colour that surrounds the Interloper which will reflect their current emotional state — ie. golden for happy, shades of grey for exhaustion/tiredness, pinks for romantic feelings. The aura is dynamic and can shift with colours and even have multiple colours in play, depending on the complexities of the emotions.

MIND RUNE: Interlopers who chose this rune will find themselves with an honest mind, and will feel compelled to speak it. They are honest with their words: blunt and to the point, avoiding lies or bending truths. They may even feel compelled to reveal things that have been playing on their mind for some time — choosing to clear the air, and potential dirty laundry.

FORM RUNE: Interlopers who chose this rune will find themselves physically honest. Their previous hurts and injuries will become visible on their skin. This can be previous injuries or sicknesses the Interloper has sustained over the course of their life — even if they are now long since healed. It could be a physical manifestation of emotional or mental pain in some way. Your body no longer holds it secrets, they’re now plain and open for the world to see.

FAQs

THE SHUDDERING EARTH

1. Players are free to destroy their own homes/make them uninhabitable if they wish. Please amend the Housing Spreadsheet to reflect this. Commercial/Public buildings are off limits for destruction but players can handwave any other random buildings/empty homes in Milton that have been destroyed in the quake.

2. THE HOT SPRINGS ARE OKAY. Just a little snowed in.

3. The Hydrodam (and it's hot showers) will have seen damage done to it and will require repairs/maintenance.

THE LONG ROAD

1. The Coast is now accessible to all players. Please see this page for further information.

2. Beach.....................

3. As a reminder. It takes about 24 hours to get from Milton to the Carter Hydrodam. Once out of the Dam, travel down to Silverpoint will take a number of days.

4. Three minor NPCs have been introduced! Molly, the owner of The Frozen Angler; her teenage son Jace; and Father Thomas of St Christopher's Church. There will be an opportunity to ask them questions, a top level of which can be found below!

5. Marra will not be open for interactions just yet.

TRY HONESTY

1. The durations of the effects are down to player choice, but will last at a minimum of three days or can last up to a full month or so and even continue into June.

2. The Form Rune's effects are purely cosmetic and will not actively harm the Interloper.

3. The Heart Rune's effects will only be visible to Interlopers.

4. Players can only play with one rune, they cannot choose to go with more than one.

PLOTTING POST

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

She doesn't have anything inherently against teamwork, it's just that she finds most people pedantic, slow, or insufferable. Until she'd decided to follow the Machine and by virtue of that gained a slew of allies that would normally never give her the time of day, Root had been a solo operator. If she had to hire help, she worked remotely, used a voice-changing module and kept as much distance as possible. Root is a schemer at heart -- just one who found an even better schemer, and pledged allegiance. But she's hardly useless on her own. That's why she's here, cozying up to people and trying to make allies. It's not like she can expect Shaw to do it.

Her smile turns a shade more genuine at Levi's remark that it's good she has someone she can trust, because she feels the same way -- that it's rare and remarkable, and she needs to protect it.

"And you?" she asks boldly, not holding back. "Do you have someone you can trust? A year is a long time to be on your own."

With how fast she's been living lately, before she came here, a year feels like a lifetime.

His comment is genuine too -- as much as Levi prefers to give people the benefit of the doubt when not outright unwise, and as kind as most of them have been here, he would never suggest somebody trust every Interloper, nor does he think it wise to do so. Real trust is something earned, something that's difficult to obtain.

He considers it for a few moments. To him, a year is not that long -- he's spent longer on his own as a kid, he's fairly sure.

"Yes," he decides, "though I can not say if they feel the same." So it's not quite the full trust of time-tested comrades, more like trusting someone generally reliable to have his back in a fight, but in a place like this, even that is extremely valuable.

"I manage."

Root is primarily a creature of urban environments, of the chaotic intermingling of cultures and languages. She thrives among groups of people, slips her way through unnoticed and picking out what she needs with surgical precision. There's nothing supernatural about her, no extra-human abilities or advantages -- apart from the Machine whispering in her ear, of course -- and she's far from invulnerable, but she's confident there. She knows exactly how to navigate each and every situation.

A year alone in the wilderness probably is a version of hell for her. And when she's been expecting to die any day now, did actually die, she's convinced -- that scar on her chest is suspicious -- a year is so much more time to have. A year is far too much to waste.

"Mm, quantifiable trust," she puts it, thinking she knows what he means. Trust with limits.

Root takes a seat, inviting herself into a fuller conversation and curling up around her drink. Her aura fades from pulsing orange to a soft blue-green, calm and focused and thinking.

"Do you care about the fight we're in, Darkwalker and Enola, or are you just along for the ride?"

She hasn't decided yet where she lands, so this is a sincere question. Even in this short interaction Levi had been thoughtful and reasonable, obviously someone who has about ten more things happening in his mind than he's saying at any given time, and having been here a year means he has to have formed an opinion on this.

Edited (I swear I'm paying attention to the lore) 2025-06-01 16:42 (UTC)

Levi was a city kid too -- it's just that the city he lived in was in many ways less hospitable than the wilderness. At least here, one could find food without making another go hungry; stealing was about the only option in the Underground, and while he did his best to target merchants and Military Police, sometimes there just wasn't much choice.

Still, it had been familiar. He'd gotten good at it, built himself a reputation. A gang, even. But he'd left it all behind when he joined the military; he's adapted to starting from almost zero before, and it's not so terrifying a third or fourth time around.

"Something like that," he says, figuring that description fits well enough.

The question has him thinking for a moment; his aura thrums with colors, touching upon anything from irritation to unease, definitely not as calm as hers, though there's a blue shade of pragmatism among them as well.

"I need to get back home," he finally says. "So I can't die, and the Darkwalker wants us dead." So he cares about the outcome, if mostly for practical reasons. "The problem is actually doing anything about that."

So far, he's not even sure if the creature is tangible, and he's better used to problems that can be kicked or stabbed into submission.

There's starting from zero and then there's choosing to take nothing with you. Until the last few years, Root had lived a nomadic life, free of ties and commitments. She'd had regular fixtures, people she'd liked or grown to know and manipulated regularly, but she shed her skin and her name and her identity on more or less a weekly basis. What changed with the Machine was that she had a home to come back to, a center.

As long as Shaw is here, she still has that -- and that's starting from far more than zero.

She can understand the finality behind his declaration that he needs to get back home. No explanation. If she were from earlier in her lifetime, she'd be just as definitive. Root nods in agreement, then tilts her had a bit, assessing him.

"It doesn't seem like Enola has much of a plan, from what I've heard." Root is used to facing intangible enemies, and it requires planning. "Or it's hard to think that when she's haphazardly handing out 'gifts' in dreams without even a word of warning."

The Machine sometimes gave her direction without anything behind it, but Root trusted her utterly, and she'd never let her down. Enola needs to prove herself before she gets that kind of loyalty, not just from Root but from anyone, and from what Root can tell she's been doing a poor job of it so far. Really, does she even want to win this war?

He could understand that -- his own idea of home is people, too. It's just too bad that most of them tended to die gruesomely, because he was just strong enough to survive himself, but not to actually save anybody he loved. Not that it always came down to physical strength, either.

But they had given him a task -- a task that he intends to complete, which is the reason for his insistence to return. He doesn't care so much what happens to him after that. He could die, or be sent back to a place like this. As long as he'd got the chance to carry out his mission, it would be fine by him.

"If she does, she hasn't deigned to share it," he agrees flatly, but there's a hint of irritation in his voice, clearly not too happy about the fact. "She seems to expect our help, but that's hard to give without knowing what, when or where. She's not hunting us for sport though -- so far -- so I'll take her over the other guy."

"It's bad strategy," Root agrees, rolling her eyes in exasperation. She gets impatient with people who are so clearly making mistakes and refusing to acknowledge that they are, much less try to fix them. She's mission-oriented, too, it's just that she decides her own missions. Defeating the Darkwalker isn't her mission -- not yet, anyway, and maybe not ever -- but she's scornful of anyone who's taken it on and is doing a poor job.

Enola doesn't need to share everything, obviously, but she needs to give them something. That's just how it works when you're directing your agents.

"Maybe we should use her instead of her using us. How long has she been at this again? Has there been any real progress?"

Levi's mission at the moment consists mainly of survival -- and of going home. If that happens to include defeating the Darkwalker, he'll take that on, too, but so far that thing seemed to be uniquely resistant to his tried and true method of doing violence until it stops being a problem.

He really just wouldn't know where to start right now.

"Some things we've found suggest she might have grown up here, in which case, a while." Of course that doesn't necessarily imply she's had her eyes on the Darkwalker all that time, but nonetheless, whatever it is seems to have started before the first Interlopers showed up at least. "She's managed to ward him off a few times, and spread her 'gifts' around a growing number of people. Beyond that, we don't know."

He seems to hesitate for a moment, his aura finally sparking a few blotches of cautious blue. Can he trust her enough share everything? If not, can he mitigate it enough to still provide enough information she may be able to process into something useful, as she appears to be able to do?

"A friend of mine," he says, electing not to mention Randvi by name, nor give a definitive implication of his own opinion, "thinks that it is Enola who brings us here in the first place."

Which would make her involvement more direct -- and more muddled -- than a mere unseen beneficiary. A few people seem to be happy to be here, but from what he's seen, it's not the majority. She's still not a hostile force -- not in the way Darkwalker seems to be -- but she might just have forced them to participate in her war one way or another.

Root doesn't mind that he's being cagey about both his own opinion and who his friend is. It's sensible, and he's giving her enough to have a real discussion. As they'd just gone over, trust has to be earned, and real trust isn't earned quickly. Not between regular human beings, at least. (The Machine isn't a human being, and Harold isn't regular. He's so much more than that.)

"So she's a local," she muses, putting it together. "I'd buy that she's bringing us here, too. It would serve her ends."

Figures with power tend to be so much more complicated than a straightforward good or bad, hostile or benevolent. That's what made the Machine so incredible, the absolute assurance that Root could believe in her intentions and her competence, far beyond what any person would be capable of. But apart from the Machine, everyone and everything else has layers. Root has spent too many years of her life hacking into files other people wanted to bury to be surprised that Enola might be the real culprit behind their kidnapping. It also means that she's prepared to find out there's more to the Darkwalker than a blank face of malevolence, too.

She settles her chin on her hand, elbow on the table, visibly thinking as her aura flickers in soft waves between blue and green. "Do we know anything about the origin of their conflict? I find it hard to believe it's as simple as Good and Evil duking it out."

It seems they're... perhaps not on the same, but on a similar page there. It's nothing personal -- just expected caution both ways.

"Either that or she's been brought in long before the rest of us." He doesn't remember there being any definitive proof -- or maybe he simply hasn't come across it -- and he was going to take any weird dream information with a grain of salt. Considering it seemed to be Enola's doman, she could probably show them exactly what she wanted, whether right or wrong. Maybe she doesn't have that sort of an ability... but they have no way of knowing.

He snorts a little at the description. He of all people knows very well there's no such thing, and he's certainly no paragon of moral high ground. No, it's much simpler; at the moment whatever the hell Enola is doing benefits him more, so he's willing to align with her.

"What is 'good', exactly?" he asks mildly, as if not really expecting a response. He does, in fact, have a few definitions for good and evil, but most of them don't apply to regular people, and that's not the point here anyway. Armin's definition comes to mind. "What's 'good' for me, might hurt someone else." A little pause.

"Could be as simple as she doesn't want to die, same as the rest of us. We do know a few things, though. The Darkwalker intends to bring this world to an end. His cult seemed to believe that is the natural order of things, and we're apparently in the way."

"How very Disney villain of him."

Root's actually a bit bemused to hear that; it's just so straightforward and uncomplicated that she's immediately suspicious of it being true. Maybe they are religious zealots and that's their thing, or maybe his cult had their own interpretation on what Darkwalker was doing and they'd made up the idea of the end times, which was always popular with cults. It's so hard to tell secondhand; religion is just so unreliable.

And if it is true, and it is that straightforward and uncomplicated, she's honestly going to be disappointed. It's quite a letdown from trying to defeat Samaritan, who was twisty and convoluted in the extreme. Nothing like a super powerful A.I. with infinite reach and resources to keep you guessing.

"Good and evil are usually subjective, it's true," Root goes on a moment later, settling easily into the philosophical conversation without missing a beat. "From a personal perspective it's relative, like you said. But I think there are still things that can be absolute good or absolute evil. Saving someone's life is a pure good; removing their ability to make their own choices is a pure evil."

That's the Machine's perspective, anyway, and therefore Harold's, and Root hadn't come to that perspective casually. It'd been a difficult fit for her at first, something she had to practice before she could preach it, but by this point it's as comfortable as a favorite sleep shirt.

"But not many people are actually compelled by an ideal. Enola just trying to survive is a lot more plausible."

She's going to get a blank stare at that comparison, mostly because Levi has at least a century over the existence of any equivalent of Disney, and he also has not encountered it here, unlike electricity.

"They also thought the world would be reborn, or remade, after that," he continues after the awkward pause has dragged on long enough. "But it does act more like a villain than a storm would." He'd considered that perhaps the Darkwalker is merely a force of nature, programmed to do what it was, and the Interlopers merely tend to die as a result of it rather than targeted malice. But its whispers directly to them clearly suggest otherwise.

He doesn't disagree. He's very aware that he's in no position to lecture anyone about the morality of most things, but there are some things that he can condemn easily. At the same time... he wonders about that bad feeling he has.

"What if you save someone's life, and they kill many others as result?" It might still be good, he supposes. He knows better than most people that good and right are not always the same. The answer wouldn't change anything, not really, but he's curious if Root has any particular thoughts on it.

He's not convinced about Enola. It would make sense, yes, that she does not want to be part of the world erased. At the same time, the sheer strain she seems to put herself through just to protect them, when perhaps the safer way to ensure her own survival would be to save her strength, suggests that there's something more at play.

Root does not feel compelled in the slightest to explain her references, so she's unruffled at the staring. More like a villain than a storm is an interesting way to phrase it, and one she can appreciate. She doesn't necessarily buy the idea of nature itself as a true neutral force, but it's a popular thought and one that's a useful benchmark.

His question makes her smile knowingly. The Machine's values were so carefully and deliberately calculated, then developed; Root is prepared to take any honest questions from an interested party. She's not trying to convert anyone, so she doesn't offer it out unsolicited, but if someone asks then it's not a secret. Unbeknownst to her, her aura fades to a monochrome gray and then deepens, darkens, becoming the oily silken black of boundless devotion.

"It's impossible to determine that at the moment you save their life. You can't judge someone for something they might do in the future, only what they have done. When you start thinking you know what someone else will do with their lives, and what that's worth -- you've started down a slippery slope that ends in actual evil. Fascism, slavery, exploitation."

Root herself is an example of this. The Machine had seen her past, one where she'd killed many, many people for nothing more than money and satisfaction, and refused to assume that meant that would be her future. She's only where she is now because of that chance.

Just to tie the conversation together, she adds, "Anyone who thinks the world needs to be remade is in that category. That's tantamount to saying what exists now has insufficient value."

Which would be Samaritan, the opposing A.I. Root would die to help defeat. Seeing this potential connection between Darkwalker and Samaritan makes her far more motivated to participate in this conflict, because she knows the Machine would want her to, and Root hasn't needed her actual voice in her ear to follow the Machine for ages now.

Huh. That's an interesting color. Levi doesn't think he's seen anyone else show it, though it's been several days now since his own emotions apparently started glowing. It's not hostile, but something about it makes him feel a little uneasy, perhaps calling to a similar feeling of his own.

"No one knows how things will turn out," he mutters as if half to himself, but loud enough for her to hear, too, in apparent agreement. "We can only make choices with the information available at the time."

Which is exactly what he's doing here, not that his choice to oppose Darkwalker has any sort of tangible consequences at the moment, if not for the lack of effort.

Slowly, he nods. He hadn't really spent time thinking about it in depth, disagreeing with things like destroying the world simply for all the death it would inevitably cause, but the point about value rings true while not taking anything away from that.

They should be trying to improve their world, not tear all of it down.

"It sounds like you've given it a lot of thought."

He's right that it's not inherently hostile. Root is, if anything, tempered by her devotion to the Machine, made temperate and measured. She only hurts people when there's good reason for it now, good in the sense she'd just explained. Convenience isn't enough. Sometimes her definition of good can vary from the Machine's, but it doesn't vary widely -- she just cares more about certain individuals than the Machine feels free to express.

But she knows she does care. She knows she loves them. Root is just the one who can act on it.

"I found something," she says, smiling just slightly, like she has a secret that warms her heart as an enduring ember, "or someone, more accurately. She's the one who did all the thinking. I decided to follow her.

"She's made mistakes, but," Root shrugs expansively, "she hasn't been wrong yet. Not in any way that matters."

Root is dead, she knows that, but nothing about that was wrong.

Levi's devotion had never been tied to one man, though it may have been embodied by one. But it was always about his idea of humanity, and those among them fallen in their line of duty. He deems it his responsibility to make sure their deaths had meaning; if that means he has to somehow find a way to change the world or help those who can -- so be it.

Someone who did the thinking that she decided to follow, huh?

"Ha," Levi just says, looking her over as if he'd just seen her for the first time. It's not unapproving. He might know a little bit about what that's like, though in his case it may have been a little more mutual, with him acting as a sort of force stop, calling out certain decisions when necessary. "Didn't peg you for a follower."

"Wasn't anything worth following before," she points out, amused and absolutely lacking in self-doubt.

He's absolutely correct that Root is something of a chaos agent on her own, following her own whims and almost nihilistically challenging convention and authority. Even with the Machine, Root isn't an unquestioning follower; she's disagreed with the Machine several times and taken her own course of action. Yet they've never abandoned one another. She can't say who was right in any of those cases, but it wasn't really about being right.

Setting her chin on her hand, she turns thoughtful, deciding to explain since he's been so receptive.

"She's an intelligence beyond anything a human being is capable of. And she loves us, all of us, individually. I'd do anything to keep that kind of force alive in the world."

Because the world is unequivocally better for having the Machine in it. A God where there had been no God before, benevolent and nigh-omnipotent, fact and not faith.

"I know the feeling," he offers up finally. That was how he landed in the Scouts in the end; none of them had the ability to force him to do anything. Giving him someone who offered him a grand purpose, who could see something in the big picture of things he could never hope to? Yeah, that had been the right play.

Artificial intelligence is not really something he's able to fully wrap his mind around. Nonetheless, he does listen, probably finishing up his tea in the process. It sounds out of this world, frankly, but he's quite certain that Root does believe every word she's saying. So, at least for her, it must be true. It's funny that his thoughts drift in the same direction there.

"All of us, huh," he muses, contemplative rather than derisive even if he has his doubts about the concept. But belief can always be something noble. "Some people would call that a religion."

After all, the preachers always said that God loved everyone, and that's why he gave them the Walls -- that part turned out to be utter bullshit, of course. But he's not bullheaded enough to deny that plenty of regular people who believed in that love had been kind human beings.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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sincere apologies for how long this took <3

no worries i've been there <3

I am apparently still there so your patience is continued to be appreciated LOL

GUESS WHAT- right back at u