[voice/telepathy, private to chosen 12 + the four mentioned in the post]

[rebells]

[The voice that comes over the signets is a young boy's voice, carefully calm, speaking in a slow, deliberate manner. He's trying to be comforting, but he's not great at it.]

Hello. This is Jay, one of the people working on the plan to get you all out of that building. We're working as quickly as we can, and we're going to get you all out safely. Please know that.

If you're feeling up to it, I have a few questions that might help us establish whether there's a pattern between any of you. This information will be shared with Percival, Dirk Strider, Roy Mustang, and 9S. I don't intend on sharing it with anyone else, and neither do they. Regardless, if you're not comfortable answering a question, you don't have to. I am going to ask, however, that you not lie.

What is your name? Age? Gender? Species?
Are you trained as a fighter, and if so, have you practiced your abilities in Shehui?
What power did Qri give you, and have you practiced that in Shehui?
What did you say to the monitors or government, to the best of your recollection?
Is there anything else you think might have made you of interest to the monitors?
How have the monitors behaved towards you so far?

[He repeats the questions again, slowly, two or three times.]

If you could also keep me updated on your physical condition, that would be helpful.

Again, we're coming for you. Take care of yourselves and each other, stay strong, and try not to provoke the monitors, Jade.

((OOC NOTE: Assume this is backdated some, to the first few days of testing.))

Comments

[rebells]

[EXCUSE U DON'T LIKE DON'T READ GEIR. Jay makes a soft 'hah' noise.]

Being obsessed with treasure? That's part of it. She was just always making a fool of herself. And for a treasure hunter, she had no idea how to disarm traps.

[ . . . his voice returns to a storyteller's tone, somewhat.]

But despite that, Norma finally put all the clues together and found the cave that contained the Everlight. When she finally found it, she discovered that she was not the first to reach it. There was a message carved into the floor of the cave.

It was from Sven.

[rootandbranch]

[Geir likes the story very much, but Jay is telling parts of it as personal anecdotes, and that, to him, is the measure of Jay's unease.

he wonders what a fool looks like to Jay. he supposes he's never really chased his own definition of the word to ground, though he has a couple of competing examples of things other people have told him are foolish; he himself isn't the least of those examples, according to Loki.]

He made it after all--!

[rebells]

Yes.

[And he does smile a little at that, Geir's enthusiasm infectious.]

The message was for Norma. It was written in Relares, the ancient language of the Radiant. Sven told her that she was the best student, and that her encouragement of him had inspired him to keep going in search of the Everlight, when everything seemed hopeless. He thanked her.

He said that she'd worked hard, and he knew she would find this place, just as he had. "Look forward to tomorrow, Norma! A limitless future awaits you there."

[rootandbranch]

But-- he'd found it, then! Where did he go? Why didn't he come back?

[rebells]

[Ah, and here's a question he doesn't actually have a satisfying answer for. We won't talk about Masked S.]

I don't know. We never found out. [ . . . ] But the message did say one more thing. It said, "I know that we will meet again in this place."

[rootandbranch]

[that's less important than the person Geir's identified with most in this story.]

What did NORMA say?

[rebells]

[He has to stop and think about that.]

She seemed to be at peace with it. I think she believed that he would have come back if he could have. But I don't know for sure. It was often difficult to read Norma.

[rootandbranch]

Did it grant wishes? Did it do everything they wanted--?

[rebells]

It did and it didn't. Norma brought Zamaran to the Everlight and used it to heal his sight, which is what Sven had wanted.

But once they had used it to do that, it cracked and lost its power.

[rootandbranch]

Oh!

[so he regained his sight through exactly the thing he'd been looking for, but that was all the good it did him...]



I like this story.

[rebells]

[Fond, despite his exhaustion:]

Do you? What do you like about it?

[rootandbranch]

[despite everything, Geir feels comforted, a little.]

It's not about granting wishes. It's about the wishes of the people who searched.

They wanted each other to be happy.

[rebells]

. . . I suppose that's true. They did really seem to care about one another.

[rootandbranch]

It'd have been nice if the Everlight granted more wishes. But Sven and Norma wanted something else when they looked for it, I think. Maybe that's what it was for! Sometimes objects of power are like that.

Did it belong to the Radiant, once? Or the Nerifes?

[rebells]

[He has to think about that one a little, too.]

The cave where it was located had traps with the Radiant language on them. They seemed to be old. So perhaps.

[rootandbranch]

I wonder what they wished for, back before the humans came. Or whether it was just meant to be something grand and mysterious, beyond the ken of the normal world.

[sometimes things are like that.]

...did you go treasure hunting with Norma? You were there, you said.

[rebells]

I did. I . . . had nothing better to do.

[The tone of his voice--wistful and regretful both--belies his words, though.]

[rootandbranch]

[he won't ask more, though he really wants to -- for a hot second back there, it sounded like Jay liked this back and forth, despite Geir's many questions, which is just weird. it's very quiet down here, and he doesn't quite want the conversation to end.]

Vern told me he'd take me treasure hunting one day. He had to travel a long way to find what he needed to summon me... he saw a lot of things and just passed them by, he said. I don't know what's old and grand like that on my world, though. There's just the things the dwarves make, and the things Dad steals, and battle-trophies. Maybe the humans have things that are precious to them.

[rebells]

We do tend to accumulate things like that. That's what most treasure-hunters go after--the relics and riches of older humans.

[A pause.]

Or older Radiant, I suppose.

[rootandbranch]

You don't live for very long, but you look for things... oh, I really like humans. Mortals, I guess.

[rebells]

I think humans and Radiant are more similar than not. But I don't know about other types of "mortals," as you put it.

[He wants to keep the conversation going, for Geir's sake if nothing else, and something occurs to him:]

Did I tell you about the Oresoren?

[rootandbranch]

[maybe their dying not being the end of the world gives people who aren't gods a different perspective. Geir wonders how you would ask about that, or test it. it's not like he can change his nature to be something else, and see...]

No, I don't think so...

[he searches his memory, but he doesn't remember it coming up.]

[rebells]

They're another species of . . . mortals, I guess you'd call it. They look like anthropomorphic otters. They come up to about my hip. They have music, and martial arts, and they're very good at mechanical things.

I lived with them, when I was on the Legacy.

[rootandbranch]

[something about this -- the context, the fact it's something Jay has never brought up before in discussions of the Legacy, the tone of his voice -- tells Geir that this is important. somewhere in the darkness of his cell under the earth, he slits an eye open, pondering it.]

...did they come to the Legacy too, then? Or did they come with it...?

[rebells]

They've been on the Legacy a long time. Much longer than the fifteen years since it was discovered by humans. But I don't know whether they came over on the ship, or if they were originally from Melfes.