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PostPosted: 23 Feb 2010, 07:36 am 
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Joined: 12 Nov 2007, 02:59 am
Posts: 1796
KI Number: 0
My apologies for not keeping this journal up to date. As you might imagine, things have been extremely busy of late. So of necessity this will be rather a long entry as I try to catch up with events.

Quin has at last started keeping his own notebook (I've been nagging him for months!). He's leaving it out on the table in his laboratory. It isn't too stained yet with the chemicals there, so no need for special gloves when handling it.

He has noted a few details of his experiments in the spheres' source world, and what he was doing while the original Devokan was drifting towards its sun.
Quote:
Mon 1 Feb 2010
I am pleased to report preliminary results of some experiments.

When I originally visited with warrior Nalates the source of the glowing orbs, I took careful measurements of the multidimensional aether through which we travelled. By working through the notes I took at the time, analysing samples I collected in the other world, and carefully reading critical entries in my late aunt's journal, I was able to set up a system whereby I could return at will and conduct further investigations and experiments.


Fri 5 Feb 2010
I linked back to Devokan to check how things were going with preparations for the final evacuation and to tell the others of my plans: the laboratory I set up in the new world, and some of the equipment I have been able to bring across

My hope is to tap into the growing strength of the sphere above the standing stones that have reappeared in Devokan. It will be a risk -- I don't completely understand the underlying mechanisms -- but given the choice between that and the complete loss of that wonderful island, one worth taking.

So I am going to stay in the new world, monitoring the instruments, trying to control and focus whatever it was that enabled this transport of living and non-living matter, and that was growing strongly by the hour. I shook hands with each of them, wished them luck (as they did me), and returned to the spheres' source world.


Sun 7 Feb 2010
Devokan is no more.

As I watched from my temporary lab in the source world of the spheres -- the New Devokan, as warrior Nalates likes to call it -- over the last few hours, one by one the monitors went blank.

First Selenitica's satellite mine, then Selenitica itself, then the Lost Pages sphere, then the beautiful island of Devokan. All gone.

I weep.


Wed 10 Feb 2010
Two solid days, sitting there in the laboratory, watching, adjusting a slider here, a knob there; hoping against hope that the conjectures and calculations about the spheres might have some substance to them, that my efforts might not be in vain.

Utterly exhausted, I emerged from the lab this morning, and linked.

The island was transformed! Somehow, the land had been remoulded into the hills and valleys of our lost Devokan. As I watched, rocks, streams, plants seemed to form out of the atmosphere -- a crystalline shimmering in the air, and then the wood, the waterfalls, the sounds, ...

I walked in a daze, looking around me in awe. It all fitted -- the geology, the ecology, all matched. The island has come home.


His next entry is dated a week later. The conversation with Fax reveals some background information of Quin's childhood and his aunt.
Quote:
Wed 17 Feb 2010, 6:36 am
I have been here in the spheres' source world for nearly two weeks now. Most of that time has been spent monitoring the equipment, checking, adjusting.

I am feeling lost, bereft. This place is both Devokan and not-Devokan. Where is my home? Where do I belong?

Perhaps I have been pushing myself too hard. Must link back to Winterfell. Talk to someone.
=======

Later that day:
Where is everyone? I link back to Keepsafe, and there is no one here!
Fortunately, Mr Quixote contacted me soon after I linked in. The ensuing conversation was enlightening.

Spoiler:
Fax Quixote: How are you holding up? Are you doing better today?

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Shorah, Fax. Thank you for your concern. I suspect events have caught up with me.

Fax Quixote: They do that.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: It seems so strange, being there in that other world, with the land looking so like the terrain of the Devokan we lost. Unsettling. I did not expect to experience this. Not having worked so hard to try to achieve it (if indeed what I did had anything to do with what happened).

Fax Quixote: It's a sort of survivor's guilt, I suppose.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: I don't know. I really don't know. It got to the point where I couldn't stay there for any longer -- I was there alone. Hence my return -- and why I appreciate you contacting me.

Fax Quixote nods

Quinquifid Oddenfen: I suppose I should write up my notes. I have been very remiss over the last few weeks but there has been so much happening.

Fax Quixote: Understandable. I do think the writing might help.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: A wise observation. Try to make sense of it. And writing can distance oneself, make one an observer rather than a participant.

Fax Quixote: Even so.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: But what of yourself? What of your own explorations?

Fax Quixote: I just returned frtom Ahnonay and had lunch. The cavern was being cleared briefly for some sort of maintenance work -- I may go see if they're done yet soon.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: The cavern? Is that the one Dot talked about? The one that she was exiled from?

Fax Quixote: Probably. The D'ni cavern.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Yes, it was the D'ni...

Fax Quixote: And that has reopened, yes.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: My goodness! How are Dot and the others? Have you had any contact with them?

Fax Quixote: In fact, the reopening was announced the same weekend as Devokan's ending, so things have been quite hectic for them as well. Emotionally and otherwise.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Remarkable. Miss Paislee was particularly fond of quoting a saying:
The stronger the things we face,
the more hope we bring with us
to the next beginning. -- Atrus, Myst IV

Fax Quixote: Precisely.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Devokan -- hope, rebirth, new beginning... but I am so tired... -- But enough of my complaining!

Fax Quixote: I have not directly encountered Dot and Paislee recently, but I have heard indirectly that they have established a Devokan community in the cavern. They hope bring more of the D'ni Explorers to the new Devokan.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Ah! Perhaps I too should visit this cavern. Once Dot asked me to visit a connected age I believe -- this was when she held some position of office in the Guild of Maintainers.

Fax Quixote: [nods] I'm frankly a bit surprised that you haven't yet. I had somehow assumed that you were among the exiles -- I shouldn't have done.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: No. Although I arrived at Devokan at much the same time as Dot, I come from the same world and time as Miss Paislee albeit from the city rather than the country

Fax Quixote: Ah, I see.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: My aunt Elspeth left me the house on the island of Devokan. There were various clauses in her will that required me to move there. A strong minded woman -- interesting character.

Fax Quixote: She sounds like it. I am sorry not to have met her.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: You will need to talk to Miss Paislee ... she looked after her in her latter time. I didn't know her that well -- I met her only a few times in my childhood. She was an explorer of the old school -- spending years among the communities and cultures she discovered

Fax Quixote: Hence the home in Devokan?

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Yes

Fax Quixote: Ah...

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Yes, the cottage was somewhat neglected...

Fax Quixote: In any event, yes, I would certainly recommend that you visit the cavern.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Thank you. That might well be therapeutic too. -- Gah, Enough of this self pity! I apologise, sir!

Fax Quixote: No need in the slightest for apology. Hold on a moment, let me get some information that will be helpful to you...

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Thank you.

Fax Quixote: Communication in the cavern, as well as certain other functions, come through a device worn on the back of the hand, something like a wristwatch only a bit larger. It's called a "Ki," and each has a distinct number. If one has the number of a friend's Ki, one can can program it into one's own -- "speed dial," I suppose it would be called where I come from.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Ah, that is useful. One of the difficulties of the past two weeks has been not being able to communicate

Fax Quixote consults a sheet of paper
Fax Quixote: I have some of the numbers here -- Dot actually has two, 138156 and 137263.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Ever the busy executive?!

Fax Quixote: Only one will be in use at any one time, you understand.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: That is something... Life can get pressured

Fax Quixote: I don't see a listing for Miss Paislee in this directory -- a later edition may have it, or Dot may. Nalates' numbers are 83543 and 111451.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: So warrior Nalates is there?

Fax Quixote: Yes.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: My word.

Fax Quixote: Mine is 48489.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Interesting... both five- and six-digit numbers?

Fax Quixote: There are some as low as four digits, for those who were part of the initial safety checkouts. On the Ki they have leading zeroes. But they can be entered for contact purposes without the leading zeroes. Is there anyone else whose number you would like to know?

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Miss Holli, is she there? She did a good job in observing the spheres -- and her friend -- I think his name was Artair? And of course Miss Nyn -- though she was so busy with her new business I hardly saw her the past few months.

Fax Quixote: This directory is early, and quite incomplete -- I don't see Miss Holli. Artair is on here.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: From what you say, the KIs must have been issued sequentially which suggests you must have been one of the earlier explorers to reach there

Fax Quixote: Yes. There were some difficulties in the early going. I was lucky enough to get in, but others were unable to until later.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: That must have been frustrating -- but in another way, safer

Fax Quixote: Quite.

Quinquifid Oddenfen: Well, this has given me a lot to think about. It might also explain why no one was here when I returned!

Fax Quixote: [smiles] It might well.

The latest entry reads:
Quote:
19 Feb 2010
I have taken Mr Quixote's advice. I have gone to the cavern.

The initial dream? vision? as I first linked in was most poignant: Destruction has indeed come to us at Devokan...

Must find a way, make a home...

My KI number is 1868147.

Now, I'm beginning to feel a little concerned. I still haven't caught up with Quin in the cavern, to show him the new hood for Devokan -- though with everything else going on it is difficult to find time to go looking for him. Could you keep an eye out for him, please?

All sorts of things are happening at the Guild of Maintainers:
Then on the Sunday, a joyous gathering in The Meeting Place hood and their Eder Delin -- as their regular Sunday meetings return home to Uru!
Spoiler:
Image


Back at the Keepsafe at Winterfell Reverie, Nalates and Fax are maintaining their journals on the bookshelves in my office. DMom has been talking more of her plans to help us all keep in touch, wherever we may link to. As she put it (The D'ni Voice, 22 Feb 2010):
Quote:
We moved out into the metaverses and it is obvious that we will be living in more than one now. It is time to expand outside of just the world we started from and grow in many directions. We have the ability to link to more than just the Cavern and its ages and to do it in many cases simultaneously while being in the Cavern. We took our culture with us and made an impact where we went in exile. Now we come back with new ideas, outlook and vision. Additionally we are bringing new people back to the Cavern with us.

I share that hope.


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