@lance.sweets

[lifetothefullest]

For recent arrivals and anyone who missed it before, a few weeks ago I compiled what information I could find about our experienced here into a document. It needs to be updated with recent events, such as the offer from Riverstone, but should otherwise be mostly complete up to a short time ago. Like last time I posted this, if anyone has corrections or additional information, please let me know.

On a related note, I was wondering if anyone who's still here has met Johann Grey in person or otherwise seen him, and would be willing to share that memory with me. I just want to know what he looks like, not whatever experience you had with him (unless you want to go into that), so it could be as short of a memory as you'd like for it to be.

Similarly, I wanted to know if anyone met or saw images of the James Henries in Zerzura. I don't have any real reason to believe he isn't actually the same person, or at least versions of the same person, as the James Henries here, but it's still worth verifying.

For everyone who isn't particularly interested in or otherwise doesn't have input on the other things I mentioned, I have a different question. What's something that you wished that you knew when you first arrived here?

Comments

@jyn.erso

[realists]

No one saw Henries there. People who worked for him couldn't even describe him, he was just their reclusive leader.

[lifetothefullest]

That's really interesting to know, thank you. Was that something treated as normal there, or like he was a bit unusual in this?

[realists]

They didn't seem to understand why we were asking. Even with telepathy or whatever it's called.

When we woke up some of the natives were in this world too but I don't think they know what happened. I could try to find one for you if you want.

[lifetothefullest]

Even weirder. That must mean something, or at least I hope it does.

If you don't mind, that would be great; I don't necessarily want to bother anyone who doesn't remember their time there, but I'd been interested in looking more into some basics about them.

[realists]

Everything about Zerzura was weird.

[ did not enjoy, 0/10 stars ]

I'll see what I can do.

[lifetothefullest]

The last place that I was, before this, we had something kind of like Zerzura happen; for a few weeks we all believed we'd lived different lives, had different families, that sort of thing. But there it was purely an illusion, whereas here it seems like Zerzura had a real effect on this world, which is kind of amazing to me.

Thank you.

[realists]

It wasn't everyone, it didn't affect me.

The plants happened after Zerzura too. You know what's really weird? They only grow this wildly in New Amsterdam. I brought plants to a coworker in New Beijing and it hasn't grown an inch.

[lifetothefullest]

Were you not there, or were you but you knew who you were? Or something else?

That is definitely weird, and good to know; I'll add that into my information document somewhere, because there has to be a reason for that and it might be important. Do you have any theories as to why it's so different here?

[realists]

I was there, but I didn't get a happy fake fantasy life.

Probably connected to us, we're based here.

[lifetothefullest]

That must have been strange to deal with. Were there other people in the same situation as you were?

Maybe. If it's connected to us specifically, I wonder if the plant growth would follow us if a bunch of us went to another city.

[realists]

A couple. Some held out but got pulled into the fantasy at the end. I'm not particularly sociable, I didn't really notice what other people were doing.

Good luck herding.

[lifetothefullest]

What were you doing while it was going on?

Thanks, but I don't exactly think I could convince more than like five people to try it.

[He's pretty sure that's a lost cause.]

[realists]

Trying to figure out how to get back here.

👉👉👉

[ at least he knows ]

[lifetothefullest]

What exactly did end the whole Zerzura thing?

[He is sadly realistic about his prospects.]

[realists]

Dying.

There was a sort of spear that needed to be pulled free, which was excruciating, and in doing so the world dissolved and we died. We woke up by the river like nothing had happened, no time passed.

[lifetothefullest]

Great.

[Hopefully the sarcasm is clear.]

That helps explain some things, though; I saw discussions about the spear while I was collecting other information, but I couldn't get enough context to figure out exactly what it did or was connected to.

[realists]

There were two.

Last year there was a sort of collective dream. In the dream there was the ruins of a facility, underwater. When we awoke in Zerzura we were housed in a scientific facility, many of us drew the same conclusion at the time – that it was the same one.

There was a spear in the dream, with birds perched on it, and there a spear in Zerzura, with birds perched on it. The scientists in Zerzura brought us to that world because of the spear. Any time one of their scientists tried to touch it, it would tear them apart so they outsourced and kidnapped us.

[ which begs the question: can you be kidnapped from a kidnapping? ]

They said Earth was dying so they collected us to abandon Earth and its billions of inhabitants and save Zerzura at its expense. They neglected to consider we are a stubborn people. Really, our inability to listen to authority is the only thing we all agree on.

Sacrificing ourselves with the spear saved both worlds.

[lifetothefullest]

[Omg Jyn thank you for explaining this in a way that puts it all together; he's making so many notes right now.]

Thank you, that makes so much more sense. At least regarding the talk about the spear, anyway; the actual subject not as much.

[He has so many questions about the actual logistics here, such as--]

Was there any sort of indication of what the spear was, and why it was so dangerous and so important? Did the scientists in Zerzura know how it got there to begin with?

[realists]

It was dangerous, to them, because the area around it was degrading and all the readings were inconsistent, and because getting to close led to injuries. When we were in the dream facility, some of the scientist spectres seemed to be in unbearable pain, feeling like they were being torn apart.

Those are the same comments I got when I had the DNA of the golden-eyed creatures tested. Degradation and inconsistencies.

[ jyn isn't out here with charlie's conspiracy board, but that's like 18 too many coincidences. ]

[lifetothefullest]

Do you know what was meant by degrading? Like that the DNA had broken down?

[He only really knows about this in the context of forensics and it's not his area of expertise at all. But this is definitely very interesting.]

Do you think that whatever caused that degradation might be what was happening to the scientists? I know radiation can cause destruction of DNA, but this doesn't sound exactly like that from what I understand of it.

[Though again, not really his area.]

[realists]

Yes, exactly! Prior to all the plants coming from Zerzura, when the golden-eyed animals ventured into the city they would die after a couple days because their DNA was collapsing. The spear was doing the same to the area around it.

I don't know if it was happening to the scientists. They seemed to have built something that caused their own demise. Or unearthed something, I guess. So maybe.

@ren.amamiya

[variate]

[ he's coming here to add: ]

The birds on the spear in the dream were spinetails.

[lifetothefullest]

Okay, good to know, thank you. Project Spinetail was a thing in both Zerzura and here, right? And we're presuming the dream was of the Project Spinetail in the Mariana Trench, but the facility in Zerzura was somewhere else?

[variate]

Yeah.
Both Project Spinetails, one with the spear. Then the spear in the dream had spinetails perched on it.
It's probably safe to assume that. It's why we want to go to the Mariana Trench in the first place.

[lifetothefullest]

That makes sense; it's pretty unlikely there would be two different underwater labs.

[So while he doesn't like to make these sorts of assumptions without real confirmation, this is a clear enough link that he isn't too concerned about it.]

Where was the Zerzura lab, if you know? Was it underwater too, or somewhere else?