near the end of the festival week

[shakenit]

Chie and I have been working with Charalampos - I'm more and more certain that's Hikaru-san, for the record. He's

well. He's doing science about the gods, more or less. His theory is that divine presence within their Chosen people functions like a load-bearing wall in a house, and the Thing With Feathers dying ripped that wall away with no warning. He's looking for more information about how Chosen interact with their gods, if there's anything we can pass his way.

He was also invited to - I guess we might as well call it a seance? One of the Veiled Lady's priests managed to speak with the Thing With Feathers. It said it was killed by a weapon but wouldn't specify further, and anyway that doesn't seem to have been its main point.

[Written slowly, like she's copying from notes:] "The birds still fly. The wings remain. So too does hope." "Scars take time to heal. Never gone. But better with care, with love, with hope." "Hope is found in darkness. It never surrenders."

Just because a god dies, then, doesn't mean the thing it represents is gone from the world. If we're right that another god is going to die, then that's likely about to be very, very useful information.

Comments

[curzed]

[That's Curze's runic Nostraman script again; there's flourishes added that translate, somehow through the Library's automatic understanding, as sarcasm.]

How do you plan to triage caring about other people? By how sad they look? Doling out hugs and comfort like regularly scheduled medication?

[terraboo]

You are correct in one sense. The definition of 'care' is of course part of the issue. Plus it's also a matter of who is the best source of care for the individual.

I'm probably overthinking things. And just... Some of those close to me are Actors here, and if they were impacted by this...

[curzed]

Context provides plenty of clues as to what form of 'care' is being suggested, as hope and love are both intangible emotions, so too is this version of caring. Not putting literal bandages on open wounds but providing aid for damaged minds.

Given what happened to this "Thing With Feathers", and the effects on its pawns servants, long term support may be intended.

If you have companions among the actors, then you certainly can't be trusted to apply a nonbiased standard of who needs more or less caring. This is why medicae and apothecaries are not allowed to treat their own kith and kin.

[terraboo]

True there.

At the same time, those closest to someone impacted would be specifically the best to provide care for that person on an individual scale here. But those are also the ones at greatest risk.

I... What we'd need, it sounds like, is not systemic solutions... But things that can drive hope. And not just in the directly impacted - the wrong god dying here could cause societal breakdown far beyond just those immediate to those impacted.

[There's a line at the end of the sentence, as if drawn out.]

What that is, though...

[curzed]

Those closest to the impacted cannot be relied on to do anything but choose their friends, no matter how much others are suffering. The greatest risk is to those without such a .... 'support network'. Those who are isolated and alone.

Perhaps society should be encouraged to not rely on such beings, for a long term solution. It seems they are more detrimental to this Story than beneficial, and will make a more satisfying ending.

[terraboo]

[it is a few moments before this reply is written.]

Perhaps true. Not easy for me to say given I'm so blessed myself, but so it is.