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  • #1246

    The two roses of Jericho had almost completely dried up, furled again into a tight ball exhaling a slightly pungent odor.

    Yurick was impressed by the genius of this plant, which could die and “resurrect” countless times, while spending most of its time in this dried up state, only waiting for some water to revive it.

    Perhaps essence was a Rose of Jericho too; he meant his wider self, he could feel it springing from the moisture of new prospects and challenges, then slowly crawling back to a state of balance. These last past days were a sort of clearing of the rest of the waters of the year. Things were looking a bit shriveled on the outside, but you could feel life and impetus was there, if only dormant…

    Funnily, these two didn’t have any names, unlike Sha and Glo the aerial plants, which were still kind of resting on an empty beige egg carton upon the white toilets in the bathroom, where light, moisture (and aerial nutrients) surely never failed to float around.
    It was funny, he thought all of a sudden; looks like the little hairy plants are travelers upon a big iceberg… What a funny story this would make.

    So, the roses didn’t have names… If they were essences of roses, what would be their focuses?

    Well, what was imagination telling him? He could easily imagine them as sort of strange mummies who would dry up into balls of dried flesh and sinews and being revived sometimes during the flood seasons. Actually with the news of Venice (and next Rome) being flooded if there were some old mummies suddenly revived from old times and prolonged lyophilization, that could be a place to start. Well, they probably would have a hard time coping with all the changes and the pace of this time.
    Alabama or Louisiana would be fun places to have some too… Funny mummies…

    #1226

    “What?” Yurick asked Dory who had left an email for them, as they had just come back with Yann from a trip to the far-off spaces of their dimension —also known as French countryside.

    “There’s snow on Salitre ! Can you believe it?”

    Sure, had not Dory showed the pictures, he would not have believed it. The beautiful mound otherwise green-looking during the most part of the year now looked just like a pretty picture of the Pyrénées mountains!

    “Guess what”, he replied immediately “we saw ‘snoow’ outside of Paris too! It looked like Russian tundra…”

    “Wow… I wonder what kind of stuff we are creating now. I should be careful what I investigate!” Dory mused…

    #1215

    “Well, Sanso” said Zhaana a trifle breathlessly, her flushed with wonder. “ The Elsepace Arrangement was certainly an eye opener, if eye opener is the right word. So what next?”

    Sanso laughed uproariously. “What next? What next, AHAAAHAA HA HA! What next indeed!”

    “What’s so funny?” asked the little girl, her face starting to crumple.

    “Oh don’t do the old crumple face, Zhaana, I’m laughing at myself as much as anything” Sanso replied, giving her a quick hug. He couldn’t bear the sight of crumple faced children.

    “Well, I still don’t understand why you’re laughing” she replied with a pout.

    “It’s actually a very good question, and one I sometimes find I ask myself. Well, I used to ask myself “what next” all the time, as if it was somehow important to know where I was going next, to have a destination or a plan.”

    “But if you don’t have a destination, how do you know where to go next?” Zhaana was confused.

    Sanso smiled. “It doesn’t matter where you go next, little one, because you’re always at the centre of everything. You can go in any direction you want and you’ll always be at the centre of everything.”

    “Well if that’s the case, why not just stay right where I am, then?”

    “Do you want to do that? Stay right where you are?”

    “No! I …er….no! of course not!”

    “Why not?” Sanso asked with a gentle smile.

    “Well, if I stay right here, and don’t go in any direction, everything will always be the same” she replied, frowning.

    “And what would be wrong with that?”

    Zhaana had to think about this. “Well, it wouldn’t be wrong I guess, but it would be boring. There wouldn’t be any surprises…..”

    “Ah so you like surprises, then!” Sanso was grinning.

    “Yes, I love surprises!”

    “Well then why do you want to plan where you’re going next?”

    Zhaana opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish. Sanso was confusing her, and she didn’t know what to say.

    “OK then, Sanso, you are always wandering around, how do you decide where to go next?” asked Zhaana, rather cleverly responding to the difficult question with a question of her own.

    “I get an impulse, or I see a sign, and I follow it.”

    “What do you mean, a sign?” Zhaana understood about impulses: after all, she had followed her impulse to leave horrid old Uncle Grishenka and follow Sanso into the cave. She wasn’t sure about signs, though.

    “I’m not sure I can describe a sign, really. They just appear, and so I notice them.”

    “Well, after you notice them, then what?”

    “Well” said Sanso “Then you interpret the sign however you want to, and then you act on it.”

    “You can interpret the sign however you want?” asked Zhaana with a hint of disbelief in her voice.

    “Yup” replied Sanso. “That’s about the size of it, Sweetpea.”

    ~~~

    “Oh Godfrey, I’ve been trying to get the theme word into this entry and I’m just not getting any closer.” Elizabeth sighed, and pushed her keyboard away. Quickly she pulled the keyboard back so that she could write what Godfrey replied.

    “Have some more peanuts, Liz” he replied with a laugh.

    Elizabeth pushed the keyboard away again and passed Godfrey the peanuts .

    A few moments later Elizabeth pulled the keyboard back and wrote:

    ~~~

    Sanso, a word just popped into my head, do you think it might be a sign?” Zhaana asked excitedly. “It just popped in from nowhere!”

    “Sure it’ll be a clue, and what was the word?” he replied, trying unsuccessfully to suppress a chuckle. He had heard the word too, and knew exactly where it was coming from, but he wasn’t going to spoil the moment for his little friend.

    “Moonbeams!” she announced proudly. “I heard the word moonbeams !”

    #1213
    ÉricÉric
    Keymaster

      Georges and Salome’s journal

      From Salome’s account of her introduction to the Turmak People (Part 4)

      Legends of the past can tell you a lot more on the present than what sometimes is actually revealed by present events. I discovered the truth of this statement when we arrived with Cil at the capital of Tùrmk. As Cil was discussing with officials of the Turmaki Gatherings, I was offered to go to their House of Remembrance. It was, I gathered, a sort of physical repository of the knowledge of the Turmaki that would allow me to bridge the gap of my abysmal ignorance of their history.

      I was only barely starting to understand the odds of the physical configurations of space in this dimension, and I was nonetheless more than eager to add history to my previous geography lessons.
      Turmaki are living in a sort of interesting land forming a sort of circle at the centre of which lies the most beautiful sea I have ever seen, with a very subtle and vivid shade of deep indigo blue. Most of Turmakis’ activity was directed inward of the circle, and the outer sea wasn’t a matter of interest to them. Later at the House of Remembrance, I learned that there had been an agreement in the past with the other sentient races to not mingle, so even if there was not physical barrier, all they focused their attention upon was their land, and theirs only.
      Their Capital City, Tùrmk, may probably be seen as a very rudimentary city by all Earth-biased accounts. However, at that time, I had not really seen much of the Earth to be blasée anyway, so I was quite receptive to the beauty of its simplicity. It was located at the foremost point of an inner peninsula known as the Nirgual’s Head, facing twelve beautiful islands on which sacred temples had been erected.

      My fascination for the beauty of these islands led me to discover more about their significance. In the House of Remembrance, a similar structure of twelve doors led me to learn that the twelve families held significance even here and throughout Alienor as well. Representatives of the families were chosen among the Guardians, as I remembered Georges had discovered and interestingly some of them had had quite an influence upon the history of the various people of Alienor. I couldn’t really trace it back to tangible proofs, but as I said, some legends are quite telling — thus corroborating Cil’s earlier statements.

      I have not much time left to start telling them now, but I will probably tell more about the Legends of the Six ‘Fudjàhs’ —or Power Objects.

      (Part 3)

      #1211

      It felt like she’d been projecting for hours —in and out of her body, often brought back by the incomfort of the warm and moistly room, where the rheumatic fan was blowing a measly wind full of humidity.

      The rabbit she’d seen a few hours ago was ‘wanishing’, like a gentle feeling of pure joyful happiness holding by a thread that you try to reminisce before lapsing back into the old patterns of self-doubts.

      She didn’t have to strain herself so much, she suddenly realized; it never worked well when she tried to push it. She wanted the clarity of the projection to be deeply anchored within herself, and not some stroboscopic view of her grim reality sandwiched in glimpses of blissful clear lightness.

      So, she decided to wait for the moment to be back. Time didn’t really matter once you projected, but here in this reality time still mattered, and you had to find the proper exit-way. Not all moment seemed to work well.
      There were old books in this room, most of them, her son probably did pile up without even reading them. Some of them evoked the the birth pangs of the new era they were still building, which had started about 30 years ago. Now, in 2038 she was old, but back then she was in her mid-life and fully aware of the good aspects and not so good aspects of this life. She had yearned for the changes, and it had come; she had outlived most of them, and the books probably wouldn’t tell her much that she had not actually lived. Probably her son was keeping them because of his beliefs on wasting his investments.
      She, for one, couldn’t care less about them.

      She picked a little book, with a few words and mostly drawings and symbols on it, and she smiled. She’d seen some of these symbols in her dreams, she related to them; she didn’t need the words explaining them; words were just the authors’ translations, and she trusted her own before them. But the book was making her feel good.

      She leaned back in her bed, maneuvering the rolling bed to be in front of the last beams of light of the day.
      She could see the full moon rise, and she felt peaceful.

      :fleuron:

      When she noticed she was in front of the cave, she wondered how long she’d been out of her body without knowing.
      She could see the moon higher in the sky than when she was in her room, and she could feel an energy of excitement.

      Anita was finally coming out of this underground trip with her parents. Seeing the little girl in the flesh would be such a revelation for her, she was thrilled to the point of even forgetting her doubts about the possibility that she was really becoming insane.
      She didn’t know why or how, but she would convince her son to offer them some shelter, so that they could settle before getting home. She had so much to learn from the little one she could feel. She was really wise beyond her age…

      Voices where starting to fill the silent space:

      Anu! It’s been hours now we’ve been in these damp corridors, are you sure you know the way?”
      “Yes Mum, we’re almost there…”
      “Here, I can see the light Lily!”
      “Yes, I can see it too Aaron!”
      “Wow, the moon is full, it’s so lovely”

      After the couple had emerged, Balbina could see Anu wink at her. She was seeing her! Now, she only need show her the way to the house!

      #1186

      Arona was fretting.

      “Now, what is this all about? Can someone explain me? The purple sand is pretty, the green sky too, however it looks just like an insane dream from a deranged mind having abused smoke of robjane leaves.”

      Framing Irtak —who was having a funny pout on his face— the dragons Heckle and Jeckle were too busy considering with an amused attention the new form and energy field that their progenitor had taken.

      No words were spoken to answer Arona’s plea for answers, but answers were starting to come to them in the form of a bundle of energy which would be difficult to translate in a linear manner.

      They started to understand a few things. That for one, N’meôrl the Nirgual was not here by chance, at this place and time. Again, they had travelled far in the past of the history of their dimension, and events of great importance were in motion, that they were given to witness.

      At first, the flow of information they were having was like a stream they thought they had no control of, but as questions were forming they noticed that it was altering the flow which was then encompassing the answers to those questions.

      Like when Jeckle wondered if he and his twin had big birdies counterparts like this one to merge with, and got the following answer “No. For you are quite new essences fragments, and thus do not yet hold focuses in similar extent to your progenitor.”

      Arona was quite pleased by this new mode of getting answers, especially as she could visibly get the answers she was genuinely looking for, not those coming from questions she was only remotely interested in.

      N’meôrl was showing them also, that unlike him, they were not quite physically focused into that environment, and were not noticed by the small surrounding creatures like the little red scrabs crawling in the sand. They were mainly there to observe and draw their own conclusions, as soon some events would occur.

      As they’d finished absorbing the information, they started to notice a feeling of expectation in the air. N’meôrl conveyed to them that they would have to stay quiet in his peripheral awareness for “they” were coming, and he was on a delicate mission.

      :fleuron:

      Footsteps on the beach.
      A man approaching. He looks like Irtak and Arona, as if he had just come into this alien world from the same door they had taken. But he fails to notice them.

      He stays, facing the deep green waters of the ocean brushing the shore, as if expecting someone.

      A strange buzz starts to fill the space. A point of focused light the size of a pinhole appears in front of him, expands quickly with an elastic quality, and pops with a soft sound, revealing an improbably tall figure under a cloak.

      The man greets the new-comer with deference
      “Master Sinadron
      Jarvis, my good friend.”

      They start to walk on the beach at the unspoken invitation of the one with the smooth voice named Sinadron.

      “So, I’ve been told our little matter is going very well.”
      “Yes, very well, Master; I am deeply grateful for your intervention; without your help I’ve been told, my dear would not have been allowed to…”
      “Let’s not talk of such things any longer; it was such a delight to help two sweet young souls so deeply in love”

      Somehow, despite the words of kindness which are slithering with ease, the invisible witness got the uncanny feeling that they are but a deceptive fragment of the truth.

      “Now. Tell me”, the one named Sinadron continues in a mellifluous voice “Why have you called me for?”
      “The settlement you have suggested us to start on this land…”
      “Yes, I am aware, please go to the point instead of labouring things I am well aware of.” The voice had sharpened a bit.
      “I am sorry Master.”
      “Continue”
      “There is a growing dissent that…”
      “And from who that shall come?”
      “Err… I hear Pelorus has spoken to the Zentauras…”
      “Pelorus is but a nuisance.” The voice wasn’t asking for contradiction, though an imperceptible grin was floating on the half-hidden face.
      He continued “But I shall help you, once again
      “Master, you are too generous…”
      “Let me finish. I will provide you with more men and women, willing to start a new life under your command, to help you grow your settlement. There are a few slaves on the Duane, that place from where you come who will do great.”
      “Master…”
      “They will be there in an hexade. Make sure you stand your ground until then, even if that means confronting those nasty Zentauras.”

      And without waiting for the confused thanks, he disappeared, grinning widely.

      #1185

      “Did you see how Malvina went to her date?”
      “Yes I saw it beloved” and she added with a giggle “though she probably wouldn’t like us to call that a ‘date’ huhu”.
      “Ahaha” Georges was enjoying himself with various associations connected to his periphery. Associations with words like ‘date’, or with time-space connections, like the ones related to the dress Malvina was wearing.

      Salome huddled herself up against Georges, and not looking at him, said in a dreamy gaze “I remember perfectly that first time we heard about the Zynder”
      Georges answered, surfing on his own associations “I remember how people had so much trouble pronouncing it ‘right’ — Ze-In-dear, Zee-Indeer, Zaindher…ahaha it was so funny”.

      Then coming back to Salome’s last sentence that had been hanging in the soft silence unanswered. “I think I heard about it before you did, but I was vaguely aware of it. You were the one to tell me the legend.”

      “Yes, on that first day on the Kandulim, where the Zentaura told me about it.”
      “I would love you to tell me again…”

      The Legend of the Zyndre

      as told to Salome by Zharon the 44th, of the Zentaura’s tribe

      There is a legend among the people of this place, that people love to remind themselves of in times of despair. It’s the legend of this mythical creature named the Zyndre.
      What the Zyndre looks like, nobody knows for sure until they see one. Because once you see one, you know what it is, without a shadow of doubt. It may be tricky because some people have seen one, and they get into fights about what it looks like, for such is the nature of the Zyndre that its form is diverse and it doesn’t show itself to two people the same.
      That’s why my people have named it Zyndre, which means “the creature of a thousand forms”.
      Some people have searched to catch it, but their attempts have always failed. For the Zyndre doesn’t show itself to the forceful people. The Zyndre is a peaceful creature that will find for you what you most desire.
      That’s why many people have used to represent it with a large nose, for it is a seeker. It may find anything you want, but you have to desire it so much that it becomes the main focus of your attention. It burns in your head, not like a madness, but like a warm reinsurance, a soft knowingness that you will indeed find it, that which you desire most.
      So that once you find the Zyndre, you know you’ve reached that thing that you desire, because the Zyndre is pointing you in its very direction.

      “You know Georges”, she says “that night on the beach, I dreamt of the Zyndre”
      “Really? And how did you perceive it?”
      “It was beautiful, not like the classical representations we see, of that big-nosed creature; it was so elegant, like a small silver-shining spotted doe, with tall feet proportionally to its body, not unlike the Qilin of the ancient Chinese; and it was proposing me to ride it to escape its enclosure.
      And I was thinking in the dream, ‘it must be strange and a bit uncomfortable when it’s galloping’ —because it’s small, and my feet will touch the ground.”
      “So did you ride it?”
      “Yes, and you were with me, and it was carrying us with ease and grace, like it was floating and gliding above the ground…” Salome looked at Georges with a smile “So that when I woke up, I knew without a shadow of a doubt, that I was exactly where I most desired to be.”

      #1176
      TracyTracy
      Participant

        “We must go to the Elsespace Arrangement” Sanso repeated “At once.”

        “OK” Zhana shrugged and smiled up at him. She was enjoying wandering around with Sanso and was in no particular hurry now to reach Nishanti.

        “We can use the Elsespace Arrangement to get to where we need to go” Sanso said and Zhana asked where were they going anyway, to which he replied “We’ll know. Whatever pops into your head will be a clue.”

        “A clue to where we’re going?”

        “Oh not necesarily, it might be a clue to something else entirely” replied Sanso.

        “Well doesn’t that get a bit confusing? How do you know which clue is a clue to what question?”

        “What?” asked Sanso, frowning. “What was the question?”

        #1172

        After he sent his reply to Yann, Yurick took a deep breathe in appreciation of all that had been done the last past days.

        However tedious, all in all, it had allowed him to stay away from other people’s trauma, and stay focused on his own issues. Now, the feeling of the energy at hand was starting to become lighter. Like a thin ray of light poking through a thick layer of rainy clouds, announcing that the silver lining was more than just a consolation. It was announcing the sun to come.

        He took the book of stories that had been unburied (like his pleasure to write) from the bottom of the sofa’s cushions when they’d received hosts last week-end, and looked with amusement at the opening note about the “random quotes”.

        A strong sense of an inkling started to dawn at him.
        Thanks to the random quotes —or more appropriately said, to convenient synchronicities— “stuff” was never lost or buried in the insides of that ever-growing story, which was eating with gluttony at the edges of its expansion. Things were popping up here and there, reminding of old loose threads, or pertinent inclusions or links to be made.

        But there was more. He, for a long time, had thought that imagination was expanding things to make physical reality look smaller in proportion than it was. Like when they’d looked at Dory’s pictures, and everything looked so big on them. Even the mere thought of nine dogs was huge. But when they’d met her, and Dan, and the dogs, it was all so much smaller. Even seeing Dory manage her dogs made having nine dogs seem manageable.
        But the reverse was true: physical reality had its way of dwarfing imagination. Not so much making it smaller, but compacting it, making it fit in an unbelievably condensed and small space.

        Take that book. Thousands of words, billions of probabilities, endless threads and hundreds of characters, all packaged in a small stack of inked paper. The trick was that when you look at it that way, when you got that small stack of paper in your hands, it all seems so manageable; one starts to get accustomed to it, then fails to see the newness in it each time it’s opened to tell a story.

        Imagination is the true gauge of the vastness of the universe. It’s so easy to forget…

        #1159

        “You tempestuous fool” Becky cried and slapped Gayesh soundly across the face. “Don’t give me those unspoken looks!”

        Gayesh sighed. “Ah, the infinite pleasure I had in mind is naught but an elusive dream.”

        Elizabeth read the last two lines she’d been working on to her publisher, Godfrey Pig-Littleton.

        Godfrey snorted. “Elizabeth, really! You jest, I hope.”

        “Well, I was just trying to fit each of the four themes into one chapter, they all seemed to fit together so easily” Elizabeth replied. “Why not? Tempestuous, Elusive Dreams, Unspoken Looks, and Pleasure”

        “You seemed to have fit them all into two sentences, never mind a chapter. And your characters sound like characters in a play.”

        “Well they are characters in a play, Godfrey” replied Elizabeth.

        “Ham actors, that’s what I meant. Anyway, Liz” Pig-Littleton said with a slightly mischievous grin, “What if Gayesh doesn’t want his face slapped by Becky?”

        “What do you mean?”

        “What if Becky doesn’t want to slap Gayesh?”

        “Well, she will if I write it into the play, surely!” Elizabeth started to frown. She knew that once she invented her characters that they continued to exist in a reality of their own, being free to create their own realities in whatever probable dimension they found themselves in, but she had never really stopped to think about the ramifications of her continuing to write incidents into their lives.

        “Maybe Becky has moved on from where you left her last time you wrote about her, in a completely different direction” Godfrey continued “And maybe she doesn’t want to play along with your theme word game. I mean really, is it fair to make her? Maybe she was having more fun doing whatever it was she was doing while you weren’t even thinking about what she should do. Quite rude really to interrupt her just so that you could do your word theme games. Bit of a cheek, I’d say.”

        “Oh Godfrey, that’s easily explained” Elizabeth had remembered Probabilities, which was always a handy excuse in continuity disputes. “Another probable character will do what I write for them to do, there are probably hundreds of probable characters now, all going in different directions.”

        “Is that wise? Really Elizabeth, that sounds outrageously irresponsible. Hundreds of probable characters running amok, and you have absolutely no idea what they’re all getting up to.”

        “Well they’re not my responsibility Godfrey, for heavens sake!”

        “Well if they’re not your responsibility, then who’s responsible for them?”

        “Nobody is responsible for them!”

        “Well that sounds like a recipe for chaos if you ask me” Godfrey said with a sniff. “You’ve unleashed hundreds of probable Becky’s into reality, not to mention Leo’s and Bea’s….”

        “And Pig-Littleton’s” Elizabeth interjected under her breath.

        “… and Sanso’s and Dory’s” Godfrey, who hadn’t heard Elizabeth, continued to reel off the characters names. “I mean how big do you think reality is? The rate you’re filling it up with probable characters there’ll be no space left!”

        Elizabeth started to laugh. “Oh Godfrey, you’re a case. Ahahah! They don’t take up any space at all! Anyway, GodfreyElizabeth turned back to her notepad. “Listen to the latest chapter and tell me what you think:

        “You tempestuous fool” Becky cried and slapped Gayesh soundly across the face. “Don’t give me those unspoken looks!”

        Gayesh sighed. “Ah, the infinite pleasure I had in mind is naught but an elusive dream.”

        Godfrey Pig-Littleton was impressed. “Elizabeth, how perfectly you incorporated the four themes into one brilliantly short chapter”

        Elizabeth closed her notebook with a satisfied smile and yawned. Let them all do whatever the bloody hell they all want to, I’m off to bed. Plenty of probable characters available in the morning, waiting in the wings.

        #1440
        ÉricÉric
        Keymaster
          #1148
          ÉricÉric
          Keymaster

            The whole week had been flying over his heads. Last Sunday, they had come back with Sam from their trip on the Floridisles, and though his body was a bit aching from the trip on the still young flight company of Yurailli Airlines, Al’s head was still swimming in the clear blue waters with the dolphins and sea dragons a soft music running in his head like a young unworried boy on the shore.

            The return to New Venice was such a difference in energy that it took him a shocking cold to re-adapt. Not that he couldn’t have done without the cold, but he had chosen to allow it, for many reasons. For one, it was very self-centering, and also the more he allowed it, contrary to what people would think, the quicker it healed.

            Lots of things had happened in New Venice during their little adventure in the South, and there was lots to do to keep the pace. So much difference with the peaceful silent world of the cetaceans… Not even much time to update the Reality Play which almost had gone into hibernating mode, had it not been Becky’s occasional funny entries and syncs.

            Nevertheless, Al could feel that the peace of the dolphins and sea dragons had touched him on more than just the surface level. For once, he wasn’t even worried about Tina now; he could feel her discrete but present energy was strong, even though she was going onto a difficult transitional path of her own.

            #1134

            Georges and Salome’s journal

            From Salome’s account of her introduction to the Turmak People (Part 1)

            Georges being involved more and more within the Quorum of Jokans, it has enabled me, if only by proxy, to get more acquainted with the personality of each of them.
            The Guardians are an ancient and very distinctive race which is, in many aspects, surprisingly similar to our Dream Walkers. One of these points of similarity is their aptitude at morphing their environment, and altering much of the physical properties of it within their dimension of operation.
            I suspect that, similarly to our Dream Walkers being responsible for the creation of physical focus as we currently experiment it in our Earth dimension, they are also for a great part responsible for the creation of many a species in the neighbouring noospheres —note that I shall occasionally use “Noosphere” as a word more apt to convey certain notions rather than the word “planet” which is loaded with certain beliefs.

            I will not enter into the social details of the race of the Guardians in this note, as it would be too long for this place, and Georges will probably explain it in more details later.
            However, I shall use this as an opportunity to introduce a character who soon became a close ally in our explorations of this universe.
            As a matter of fact, I came as a surprise to both of us when she started to pierce through Georges disguise, flawless as it may have been. We found out that they shared a connection which probably was the cause for their allowance of connection through the veils of their disguises in time and space.
            A rather elegant member of the Quorum of Twelve, Cil —as she is named, pronounced See’l — intuitively found out that we were not really who we claimed to be, especially that we were not from her known universe at all. But what could have been a difficult situation turned out for the best, as she was equally eager to discover about us, as we were about her people and universe.

            The recent reports of uprisings of the Zentauras was the matter which was seriously discussed, and it was decided as a favour from Noraam to Cil to allow her to go for an investigation on the Murtuane, to find out the reasons for this matter, if not the culprits among their kin.
            Needless to say that I was very much enthusiastic at the idea of having a guide to explain me more on the relationships at play…

            (Part 2)

            #1123

            Upon hearing Malvina’s thoughts, Arona smiled to herself.

            If only she knew the truth!

            ( If I put big spaces in-between, it will make it look as though I have written more, decided Tina rather cleverly, still feeling a bit creatively uninspired.)

            Tempted though she was, Arona knew she must not give anything away. It was easier to stay in character if she did not allow herself to remember too often, at least until this cave mission was complete. Occasionally she allowed herself the luxury of remembering, yet to do so was to feel a yearning for home.

            It was a pity about the outfit of course, the mouldy cloak…

            ( hmmm was it mouldy though or just a bit on the musty side? )

            … which the Oddlings had decided she would wear for much of this assignment was not her favourite look. Even though she had managed eventually to lose it in the darkness of the cave, her current clothes were now almost in tatters. Arona sighed wistfully, remembering the beautiful silks, chiffons and organzas some of her previous assignments.

            Moments later she brightened again thinking of Vincentius and her other friends.

            There were certainly compensations, she decided philosophically.

            Arona was a little concerned about the meddling of Malvina and the others, although of course she realised they were doing it with the best of intentions to fulfill their own purposes. Arona understood all this, and sometimes regretted she could not tell them who she really was. The powerful thought shields she had been trained in by the Oddlings meant that her disguise had not so far been penetrated.

            Yet she hated to deceive.

            Not to worry. For now she must just focus on the completion of her own mission here.

            She called to Buckberry softly in her thoughts and felt a little thrill of excitement when she heard his response. She knew she would have need of the little dragon for the task which lay ahead.

            #1058

            She had to hold her breath a few seconds more…
            Very few seconds…
            Another one… Oh by the Elder gods! what was this all about the time was stretching like an old rubber bag and she was about to burst out… sshitty lack of air!

            Calm down Phoebe. You can do it… WHERE IS THE SURFACE!?

            All of a sudden she realized she had lost her beautiful motorbike for good — one that took her years to find, and a few more years to insufflate its little particularities.

            Oh! MERDE!

            Another memory of her time at the Moulin Rouge…

            I lost the wand again…

            But that wand was a bit more special than her motorbike. Soaked with ancient magic from another dimension… A bit like that ring in that dimension… She shivered… her small intrusion in that one sufficed to disgust her… That giant spider… what was her name again? Well the name won’t help her surface and breathe… She remembered… she had stolen an egg from that spider… she had to get rid of it very soon afterward in a garbage dimension, but…

            What is this light… and where is the direction of the surface… it was like she was floating in no space, no gravity…
            That’s not gooood…
            I’m loosing…

            :fleuron:

            …conscious…

            :fleuron:

            …Nessy!

            A big flushing sound and she could breathe again… it was painful as the water in her lungs was looking for a way out.
            Coughing and aching… She had no idea of the boundaries of her bodies as she was as wet as the ocean…
            But her friend of old times had saved her! She never regretted to help her in her youth, during a trip to Scotland…
            The contact of the… cold skin?
            It was a bit too cold to be her friend… and it sounded quite metallic.

            — Oye! Therrre you arrrre!

            What was that again!? A submarine? A Russian accent?
            She couldn’t accommodate her vision, she was still too busy to breathe loudly.

            — Deaaarrrr Pheobe! The Barrrron told me you’d be therrrre.

            Pavel Orgeanov!!! Oh not him now! He was the last one she expected to meet.

            #1037

            Dory, what’s the elsespace arrangement? asked young Becky, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. And who is Gayesh? I had the strangest dream. I think I was in the dream, but I was older than I am now, and everywhere I looked, there was another me. Then I had another dream, a fat lady in a grey raincoat was sitting on a bench and she’d dropped her blue glass mosaic on the pavement and it was all shattered in pieces. She was on her way to the antique market with it to sell it and she dropped it…..

            Interesting, Becky, replied Dory absentmindedly. Don’t forget to write them in your dream journal.

            #2150

            In reply to: The Story So Far

            ÉricÉric
            Keymaster

              The Alienor Dimension, Georges and Salome

              Dory (in our current timeline/space reality) meets Georges in a cave in Madagascar during her trip.
              Georges doesn’t explain much, but we get the feeling that, though human, he’s a Traveler, crossing bridges through dimensional veils.
              Sanso, who we happen to meet at times, is supposedly another type of Traveler too, but apparently happier to cross earth-bound space veils rather than time or other-dimensional ones.

              Georges is closely linked to Salome. They are involved in the Alienor Dimension, another parallel universe, which was initially used as the set of the first story bits and in which they are involved at some historical points of importance.

              The Alienor dimension is composed (as we know now) of a central sun named Alienor, and a few planets.

              One of these planets is the Duane, which is a planet similar to Earth, except having easier access to magic, and having dragons, where the characters of Malvina, Arona, Leörmn, Irtak, Badul, Tomkin etc. are supposedly living. A map of parts of that planet was drawn somewhere in the archives.

              There are two major historical plots occurring; one in a time parallel to our own, with Malvina, Arona, Badul’s explorations etc. And another, occurring what we would call centuries earlier, with Lola and her dragon, and the Yellow Princess Atiara story-arc (see Araili’s notes).
              Somewhere in between, many years before Arona’s timeline, there is a subplot with Franiel, the monastery succession, the chalice and other magical artifacts. As far as we know, it ties to the other epochs thanks to Madame Chesterhope and Vincentius’ story.
              Madame Chesterhope is, we found out, known to Georges in his youth, when he first met Salome. Madame Chesterhope is originally from our dimension (Earth, around 1800s something?) but has learned how to travel and is thus able to move through dimensions, and has a few special powers, presumably thanks to artifacts she gathered along her trips.

              Another twin planet is the Murtuane, where there are giant eagles (counterparts of dragons), “mermaids”, zentauras (zebra-centaurs), green-skinned people, and purple beaches. This planet remains to be explored more in depth.

              The third planet, the Phreal, is rarely spoken of, as its vibration was changed before even the first epoch, and is no longer ‘seen’. Guardians, a special race of this Alienor Dimension with great mastery of the energy manipulation powers are involved within most of the historical changes, and in this one in particular.

              Malvina’s explorations are linked to those of her two “sisters”, each paired with a dragon. Initially she’s a healer, but recent developments have made her change locations a few times in space/time, and those alterations have inserted probabilities in the “past”. She has known Leonard, who is also a Traveler and who is linked to Franiel’s subplot.

              #1031

              Naasir was feeling bombluebubbles of energies growling in his belly. Indigestion perhaps? Ahh…

              Stretching and yawning (as his teacher in natural envision had told him to do, as often as he felt the impulse to) with a thunderous sound that made the rocks around vibrate and collapse in a rain of rock dust, he finally settled on his back, looking at the stars that showed up in crevices through the cave’s roof.

              Though he was always in the same space, Naasir was feeling he was constantly expanding; and his dragonly vision too, helping him reach new vastness he could barely see before.
              Where would he project now?

              #1023
              1da
              Participant

                4:21:44 PM 8-8-08 1da Geolocation Time.

                sometimes the flow climbs a mountain.

                pause. step. quick step. pause again. step. upstream another step. the stones solid, smooth, settled beneath my feet with the timeless passing of water. the path of gravity. the rising of a mountain. a rapid, considered, going on pace. sand between the stones. the moments of time. light on the rippling waters flickering. the air transparent, timeless, crisp, cool.

                knowing i’ve passed this way before, i pass again for the first time.

                it’s good to be back. returning. beginning.

                knowing my destination. the cave far above beneath the ancient pine. the boulder near the rough and gnarled trunk, slick and smooth. so hard the sense is of softness gliding with my fingers over the iridescent surface. soft to sit upon, to watch the valley far below extending forever into the distance. soft to recline upon, arcing my back. the warmth of the day in the stone, lingering far into the night to heat my bones. …knowing my destination, i take the next step into all that is new.

                sitting near the water. deep transparent pools of green/blue. the setting red sun. a shelter beneath driftwood high on the bank. a myrtle tree draping a blanket of scent over me, opening my soul. with each breath. i watch the light fading into the words echoing through my skull… life is hard… the song…

                Life is hard
                Anyway you cut it
                Life is sweet,
                Like a berry from a tree
                Life is temptation, baby,
                Every single day
                Life is hard

                Life is funny,
                I dont mean ha-ha
                It‘s not always sunny,
                When it needs to be
                Life is frightening,
                Nothing lasts forever
                Life is hard

                My time
                Is next to nothing
                My time
                Falls on you, yeah
                Everything
                Is in motion
                Life is hard

                Life is precious,
                No matter how you see it
                Life is crazy,
                Like yellow fishes in the street
                Life is lonely
                When you‘re not with me
                Life is hard

                Gentlemen
                Is that you story?
                Hanging religion
                From a tree, yeah
                My time
                Is next to nothing
                Life is hard

                My time
                Is next to nothing
                My time
                Falls on you, yeah
                Everything
                Is in motion
                Life is hard

                My time
                Falls on you, yeah
                Life is hard
                Life is hard

                – J. Mellencamp – while on the planet earth.

                ok. life is also beautiful. – 1da

                it’s a cruel crazy beautiful world – J. Clegg – also while on the planet earth.

                stars flickering in the fading twilight. the silence of a light breeze as pine boughs begin to whisper. the ache of tall trees swaying in the night with a moan like countless masts on the tall ships of a planet. blink. and i sleep.

                #955
                TracyTracy
                Participant

                  Sanso stopped so suddenly that Zhanna walked right into his back with a wallop and a puff of orange dust.

                  Oof! exclaimed Zhanna involuntarily. Are we finally there yet? she asked hopefully. It seemed like an eternity that they’d been travelling through caves and tunnels on the journey to Nishanti . Their last glimpse of sunlight had been the watery chill of the Siberian tundra .

                  Sanso turned round to face Zhanna, beaming. We are close! I have just received a communication. We will find Nishanti in The Elsespace Arrangement.

                  Where’s that? asked Zhanna.

                  HHMMMM, said Sanso, scratching his head, although he didn’t look in the least perturbed. We will know when we find it. Come on, let’s go!

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