Audio

[fistsofchange]

[This was unfamiliar technology to Lin, so before she tried making a post, she read the manual from start to finish. This "smartphone" was MUCH more complicated than the ham radio in the interceptor, but she eventually figured it out.]

Hi, I'm Bai Lin. I have a question. I've got that most of us are from different worlds. It's weird, but any time I talk to someone it becomes more and more obvious.

But I'm noticing a trend from talking to you all.

How many people here DON'T come from places where a nuclear war destroyed most of the world's population before you were born?

Comments

[founderinglight]

Extremely and precisely so.

[That's perhaps surprisingly vehement.]

Our political structure is established enough that we don't usually have a warlord problem, at least.

[fistsofchange]

I guess if a fire god tried to destroy MY world, I wouldn't be a fan of them.

I think the number or warlords is going down, though. I beat up a few of them myself.

[founderinglight]

It's actually the draconic war god that earns most of my hatred. Ifrit was relatively justified in comparison, at least Solheim did something to piss him off.

...Also he didn't target my family specifically as a part of his plotting, that's distinctly relevant.

[fistsofchange]

I've only met one god.

Actually, he wasn't much of a god. He was a human who just got a little too into his own power. Still pretty darn strong, though. He ALMOST destroyed the world a second time before we stopped him.

[founderinglight]

I can assure you that Eos' Hexathon is entirely inhuman, though their physical forms tend towards the humanoid with the exception of Leviathan.

...Who is a sea serpent with eyes alone bigger than you or I, for reference.

[fistsofchange]

Oh. That's real big.

The Yellow Emperor was just a guy with glowy tattoos and the power to remake the world as he saw fit. He wanted to give everyone on Earth superpowers so no one could rule over anyone else.

[founderinglight]

Mmmhmm. The Draconian is similarly large, at least in his usual manifestation. Even the smaller Astrals could easily crush a human underfoot.

[fistsofchange]

Why'd they want to fight you?

[founderinglight]

Ifrit grew belligerent when Solheim began to neglect his worship - he had been their patron deity prior to that. Or, of course, that's what the most reliable sources say about the beginning of the Astral War; I'm inclined to doubt that that's the whole story, myself.

As for the rest, fortunately the only person who had to fight them directly is Noctis, and that was at least in theory more a test of worthiness than an attempt to kill him.

[fistsofchange]

Who's Noctis? Some kind of chosen hero of destiny or something?

[founderinglight]

Well, yes, but he's also my favorite descendant. I imagine you'll see him around before too long.

[fistsofchange]

So this might be a weird question but...

[She wasn't super educated, and she wasn't always the fastest thinker, but she wasn't stupid. Several things he had said weren't quite adding up.]

Are you, uh...super old?

[founderinglight]

2040 plus, yes. It's no great secret.

[fistsofchange]

SUPER old.

So what does that make you? Did you drink an immortality elixir or...?

[founderinglight]

Oh, no, nothing like that. I am extremely mortal, I just persisted as a sort of ancestral spirit for quite some amount of time.

[fistsofchange]

OH! So you’re a ghost. I see.

[Accurate or not, it was an answer that fit into her world view.]

[founderinglight]

Former ghost, thank you, I'm positively mortal and corporeal these days.

[fistsofchange]

Neat. How'd you manage that?

[founderinglight]

It just sort of happened when I arrived here. Not complaining, I missed food.

[And hands. and a lot of things.]

[fistsofchange]

I hope this isn't the afterlife, then. There's still too much I wanna do.

[founderinglight]

I can assure you it's not. Mostly by virtue of some timeline shenanigans that don't make particularly much sense to an outsider, admittedly.

[fistsofchange]

Until something changes my mind, I'll trust you on that one.