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--- campaigns:taika-daagru:2022-12-29 [2022-12-30 02:46] – pinkgothic
+++ campaigns:taika-daagru:2022-12-29 [2023-04-08 23:45] (current) – pinkgothic
@@ Line 34: / Line 34: @@
 **Concavenator**:
-"Just past Yakachai, where the sand starts. I saw their smoke, and some of them, they-- they look like the sand, true. The caravan women give me gut-stew and cabbage, and one or two go to talk with the ghost-people, and the others wait. I don't like to go there, but they gave the most coins of all. We went there and then back several times every season. Winter, I mostly stay home, or go help with penguin herds, with making gut-stew to sell next summer."
+"Just past Yakachai, where the sand starts. I saw their smoke, and some of them, they-- they look like the sand, true. The caravan women give me gut-soup and cabbage, and one or two go to talk with the ghost-people, and the others wait. I don't like to go there, but they gave the most coins of all. We went there and then back several times every season. Winter, I mostly stay home, or go help with penguin herds, with making gut-soup to sell next summer."
-She scratched her neck feathers, in a patch that had become particularly knotted. After pouring out those words so freely, she seemed to regret having done so, as if she'd given away too much. After several heartbeats of silence, she turned to Kukri and asked, in a very even voice: "... Why do you go the glaciers? Why do you go now? What do you care about them?"
+She scratched her neck feathers, in a patch that had become particularly knotted. After pouring out those words so freely, she seemed to regret having done so, as if she'd given away too much. After several heartbeats of silence, she turned to Kukri and asked, in a very even voice: "... Why do you go to the glaciers? Why do you go now? What do you care about them?"
 **pinkgothic**:
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 If only there were a way to reach back to their ancestors in the age of brutedom, closer to //yachakri// in temperament than to the fine peers of the Guild, and see their world as they saw it then! But the song of epochs could only be heard through layers upon layers of indirection. Tables of numbers, here's what Kukri could offer to her future (perhaps) student; subtle shifts of colors in buried rocks, changing forms in the bed of creeks. How much more satisfying, at least, if doom were to come from the Great Being of the Takrakaya cracking open the eggshell of heavens.
+**pinkgothic**:
+Giya's answer imbued Kukri with a mild disappointment. It did not hurt her that Giya was not convinced - some of Kukri's most respected colleagues back in Chaatai felt the same way - but it bothered her that she would ask no probing questions about it.
+Maybe it was to be expected. She had not been brought up to ask questions. Questions were the privilege of the well-fed, who could afford to disgruntle others with an ill-timed or ill-phrased enquiry. Giya was not that kind of person.
+And so, with a very intentional patience, Kukri offered some insights into the culture of science.
+"I sense scepticism," she said, her tone encouraging. "I realise it does not come easily, but amongst the members of Society of Natural Philosophy, it is best not to simply silently dwell on your own disbelief. It is healthy to doubt, but of scientists, you should ask questions. It is not an insult to us.
+"A good question will make a scientist question their theories. A good question will let us arrive at the truth, together. I must gather the measurements regardless how I feel about them, as that is what I was sent here to do, but independent of that, I encourage you to change my mind on whether it was the right thing to pursue."
+**Concavenator**:
+Giya pondered on that for long in the pale light of the alcohol stove, chewing the words over and over. Perhaps she was just humoring her employer, though she'd already been willing to at least question her. Finally she said: "Father says eating comes now and then now, and if one waits too long before taking food and asks from where it is and what kind it is, others take it first. Priestess Yakri says to ask many questions of people but not of 'Au'a. Also says natural philosophers take most smart of 'ikra but talk too much to each other and talk only of being most smart". She looked down at her boots, which her toe-claws make quiver nervously. "I beg pardon, Kukri; natural philosophers did never talk to me before. I don't know what you do or say. Maybe if you ask questions of 'Au'a, to you She responds". A longer pause, as she studied the thin sliver of black sky peeking into their shelter. "But you are people, so maybe to you I can ask. After we see the glacier and after you do your measures, what will you do?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+//Maybe if you ask questions of 'Au'a, to you She responds.// The sentence held so much hope and dejection at the same time that Kukri felt an urge to reach out and touch Giya in a gesture of quiet understanding. But it would have been no more than a gesture - there was no real understanding. The gulf was great; Kukri could pretend to imagine what it was like, but was intelligent enough to know that it was simply a fantasy all the same.
+And so she instead focussed on the question Giya finally brought herself to ask. What would happen after the measurements were taken, indeed?
+"After," Kukri said, negotiating each syllable carefully to denote that it was not an easy question to answer in a satisfying way, but that she would try. "The immediate work is unexciting - the data is brought back to Chaatai and I and others will discuss what it means. Though nature always speaks the truth, it is not always clear to us what it means."
+A moment's insight. Then, with a tonal smile: "You might say that 'Au'a does not speak to us, either."
+She continued, however, with: "But once we agree on what it means, the Archons will act upon the information. They usually do not do so immediately, and the process of waiting may well become painful, but regardless what answers we find, we should have at least two generations before the matter becomes pressing, and they will have time to dawdle if they wish.
+"But should it turn out that we //must// focus on breaking the wall of the sea and find new land in order for civilisation to escape an eternal winter, then the Archons may choose to focus all the guilds' collective efforts on such, or some of them, or ask of the Society of Natural Philosophy to explore other options. It is their choice."
+**Concavenator**:
+She could almost see it, in that moment, 'ikra-kind breaking free from the cold shackles of nature, pursuing its destiny beyond the eon-old borders of its world, in the unknown lands she had dreamed so long ago; though her dreams had not figured so much musty wood and rustling paper and frozen appendages as reality.
+Her guide, on the other hand, had taken a strange posture upon hearing that 'Au'a would not answer clearly to Kukri's guild, either. Perhaps puzzlement on how could people rise to such a high standing without special favor from the Watchful; perhaps disappointment, that all of Tagra was indeed alone and abandoned to chaos, the wealthy and wise no less than the ragged and illiterate. Kukri would have to wonder under which of Her aspects did Giya's family know the ultimate being. Perhaps the Awakener, patron of the guild of icebreakers, would be the best for her.
+But then her posture had turned weary when Kukri had mentioned the Archons. One from the dirtiest slums of Yakak'ratu had little reason to place hope or trust in them. Maybe that, too, was something that could be taught. As soon as Giya was sure that her companion had finished speaking, she replied: "And if not, if they say: 'Au'a doesn't speak to you, you lie?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+Kukri swerved her muzzle about a little in a contemplative gesture. Then: "I do not think that will happen. They will not be listening to me. They will be listening to the Archon of our sciences."
+But the swerving still continued for a little while, until she added: "But if it did happen, we would need to find another way to make the endeavour happen. It would be a daunting task and I hope never to have to witness the effort, but as long as the goal remains clear, those dedicated to it could work on it. The more the better."
+Her voice did not betray just //how much// she hoped she wouldn't have to witness such an effort - it was an interesting mental exercise at the moment, to think of such a situation, but the consequences of the Parliament ignoring the warnings would be as bad as the worst storm Tagra had ever seen and require just as much effort to deal with, without the benefit of easy central organisation.
+But it would be //possible// to move something even in absence of the Parliament. Very hard and terrible, but possible.
+**Concavenator**:
+There must have been a great gale of novel ideas in Giya's mind by that point, most likely more than in her previous travels north and east, and it was starting to make her restless through the layers of torpor, as if to mental activity should correspond physical. The very concept of trying to get the Archons to do one's will, to go past them, even to usurp their power in a way, it was like reshaping the mountains or repainting the sky, for was it not 'Au'a the Oathkeeper who had blessed the Republic and its charter?
+Giya said, quietly: "... It will be long". Indeed in her station, living from meal to meal, she could hardly have afforded much long-term planning, apart perhaps from raising her own siblings. And there Kukri was speaking of a plan on a scale greater than history. "And will you need me, when you do this?"
+**pinkgothic**:
+Kukri seemed to consider the question in private for a while, even though to Giya it must have seemed like such a mundane, simple enquiry. Yet when she spoke, the reason for her hesitance became clear: "In a sense, depending on how the matter plays out, I may well need all of 'ikra kind who are willing to aid me... but I should not have need of you specifically. Yet I would certainly //appreciate// you, very much indeed."
+**Concavenator**:
+Giya thanked her quietly, in a rather formal tone, but tilted her head in appreciation. Perhaps she wanted that conversation to end on a pleasant note, before it went on to another pulse of madness. She folded her head into the dense feathers on her chest as she laid down to sleep, studying Kukri through a half-open eye. A benign gaze, all considered.