Aspera/Close Call
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Heroes gathered near the timepool in the Ouroboros enclave; Hydrophidian, Incredibubble, Aspera, Saturn-Nine. A conversation.
Hydrophidian: Well, people wanna control things if they feel life is generally *out* of control. Also, control is a way to protect yourself.
Incredibubble is very open, perhaps too much so.
Hydrophidian: Oh, no, I meant control their *own* emotions.
Incredibubble: ... Yes, I understand protect. It is what I do.
Hydrophidian: They don't like to be "out of control" whether the emotions are good or bad. See?
Incredibubble: OH!!
Incredibubble smiles!
Incredibubble: Yes, I know this! If I feel angry or hostile, it is like that. ... Hostility is ... unwise.
Hydrophidian: Hostility is natural.
Incredibubble: ... Yes.
Hydrophidian: All depends what you do with it.
Incredibubble looks uncertain.
Incredibubble: It can be ... redirected. Anger at the enemy may be used to protect the friends.
Hydrophidian nods.
Incredibubble smiles at Adra and Aspera.
Saturn-Nine: That is Wisdom.
Hydrophidian: 'Tis.
Incredibubble: Yes! It is! ...
Saturn-Nine offers a smile to Hydrophidian. "Thank you for your aid, Andi"
Incredibubble smiles very widely.
Hydrophidian: Anytime.
Hydrophidian smiles.
Incredibubble: Yes, thank you very much. I have learned from you.
Hydrophidian: Well, good!
Incredibubble: Please do not mind my onycteran friend... he has a regular twist to his boxershorts on occasion.
Hydrophidian: So where are you guys from again?
Incredibubble grins. Thaxites may not be great at Terran humour, but they LOVE to tease.
Saturn-Nine: I am from... Saturn.
Hydrophidian: Wow, really?
Saturn-Nine: Yes.
Incredibubble: I come from Thaxa. ... Perhaps you do not yet know. But we know you well.
Aspera grumbles mentally
Aspera: << I come from space. >>
Hydrophidian: I was on an alien planet once. It was wiggy.
Incredibubble: Wig...
Saturn-Nine: Wiggy? They had aritificial hair?
Incredibubble blinks.
Aspera: << I haven't heard of a planet called Wiggy before. >>
Hydrophidian giggles. "No... wiggy, as in weird... strange... bizarre. Y'know. Wonky."
Incredibubble: Nor have I. Perhaps you can say about it and I will tell my brethren back at the ranch.
Incredibubble: I know wonking! ...
Aspera: << I haven't heard about a planet called Wonky either. >>
Incredibubble: One who is a wonker is an unpleasant human.
Incredibubble: Did you not enjoy this planet?
Hydrophidian: That's wanker.
Hydrophidian: Oh, it was spiff for the most part. But it was a young world, so my powers were... well... fierce. Primal... and hard to control as a result.
Incredibubble: Hm. Please continue.
Incredibubble smiles.
Saturn-Nine: I do know the term Wonky. My Father used to use it to describe the food processor when it would give him Toast instead of a muffin. Though his exact words were, 'Why do this Sprocking Wonky piece of Earthican Poodoo never give me what I ask for?"
Hydrophidian: That's about it?
Incredibubble: There must be more. But maybe this is not your time to say. ...
Incredibubble smiles... humans are complicated, secretive types.
Hydrophidian: Well, we were there dealing with the outpost... I was there primarily to help Captian Galacto.
Aspera: << The famous Captain Galacto of the Galacto Guard? >>
Hydrophidian nods. "Uh huh"
Hydrophidian: We were kinda dating back then.
Incredibubble smiles briefly.
Aspera: << I am amazed. >>
Incredibubble: You must have had many adventures!
Hydrophidian: Amazed? Why?
Saturn-Nine: You were dating a member of the Galacto Guard?
Hydrophidian: Yah?
Incredibubble feels his ears twitch at the mention of "dating".
Aspera: << The stories about the Galacto Guard are many and wonderful... in... space. >>
Incredibubble: You shared wisdom with him? Would you have been webbled?
Hydrophidian: Uh... wha?
Incredibubble smiles, remembering Pheonyx and Inque.
Aspera: << I think he means married. >>
Incredibubble: Life-mated.
Incredibubble: A webbling ceremony... yes! Marriaged.
Hydrophidian: Oh. Nah, I ain't into that whole institution.
Hydrophidian grins.
Saturn-Nine: Interesting. See, there are some humans uninterested in life-mating!
Incredibubble: It is... wait. Hm.
Hydrophidian just... grins.
Incredibubble frowns a little. This could be uncomfortable for Andi.
Incredibubble: I am sorry. My nose may be longer than my stomach.
Hydrophidian: ... Hydrophidian: It's a good thing you're blue.
Incredibubble: Yes, it is!
Incredibubble: If I were not blue, I would be some other colour.
Saturn-Nine: I think it's a nice shade of blue.
Hydrophidian: It is! Very soothing.
Incredibubble frowns, realising suddenly that gregariousness may not always be the human way.
Aspera: << Again, the black person gets trod upon by colorist blues. >>
Saturn-Nine: It reminds me of the hydrogen geyers back home. I used to stare at them from the viewport of my room.
Hydrophidian: ...wha?
Incredibubble grins at Aspera.
Incredibubble: "There you go playin' that race card again".
Saturn-Nine: Black is a good color as well!
Hydrophidian: Or absence of color...
Aspera: << Technically it is n... yes. Exactly. >>
Hydrophidian: Unless you're talkin' artistically, then it's all colors.
Incredibubble: I do not think colour is what makes the spirit. ... All are wise, all have potential that can be tapped.
Saturn-Nine: Sorry, I must have failed spectography at the Academy.
Incredibubble: Saris says this. Book III.
Saturn-Nine: We don't really have a lot of holy books on Saturn. All we have are rules.
Hydrophidian: Who's Saris?
Hydrophidian: Well, we got plenty of both here!
Incredibubble: We do not have holy book. Just Wisdom. ... There are those who do not believe.
Incredibubble: They are welcome not to believe, but they make us sad.
Saturn-Nine: Well, if you force someone to believe, then they are likely not to actually believe, just go along with the motions to avoid trouble.
Incredibubble: Saris is... a teacher, Andi, from my home. I think "Buddha" is your teacher here?
Hydrophidian: He's one.
Hydrophidian: There are a lot of 'em.
Incredibubble: We never force.
Saturn-Nine: Also, Confucious.
Hydrophidian: And Bob Dobbs.
Incredibubble: Oh! Yes. "Analects" and "Sub-genius."
Saturn-Nine: And... what was his name... Frued?
Incredibubble: Fraud, I think?
Hydrophidian: Different category, but yah, sure.
Saturn-Nine: Yes, Ziggy Fraud.
Hydrophidian surpresses a snerk.
Aspera: << A disciple of Ziggy Stardust? >>
Incredibubble: I will not run with the legs of my mouth. But.. Saris teaches us to learn, to communicate, to be wise.
Saturn-Nine: Oh and there was Jesus *prounounces it like the Spanish do*. I have heard he was very influential and good at odd jobs.
Hydrophidian grins.
Incredibubble: She made us less hostile, and taught us also to watch. .. Saris Thaxa decided to visit Roswell place.
Aspera: << I have read that Zeus (pronounces it the same) was a fornicator of divine proportions. >>
Aspera: << I suppose that is an odd job, in a way. >>
Saturn-Nine: Very Odd.
Hydrophidian thinks "... too much Wikipedia."
Incredibubble: Jesus was John Prine's uncle. He hammered nails in planks and built houses, stores and banks.
Saturn-Nine: Really? This is info I did not have.
Incredibubble: Plus, he was at Woodstock, and ... what is this "opened for Jimi Hendrix"? ...
Hydrophidian: So uhm...
Hydrophidian: You guys part of some sorta... galactic federation thing?
Saturn-Nine: Yes, the United-Worlds!
Incredibubble: ...
Incredibubble: Oh! We can say! ... Yes, United Worlds.
Hydrophidian: Yah?
Incredibubble: Many worlds, many dimensions, many people.
Hydrophidian quirks a brow. "Why wouldn't you be able to say?"
Saturn-Nine: Their motto is: "Many togethers, as one, find strength"
Incredibubble: Praetoria, even the sky-burners.
Saturn-Nine: *together*
Incredibubble frowns, thinking about the Rikti.
Aspera speaks telepathically directly to Saturn-Nine: << Is our... home-time no longer a secret? >>
Saturn-Nine responds: << No, it is, but the UW means nothing to these people. We can talk about it. They will all be long dead before it is ever founded. >>
Hydrophidian: I like that motto.
Incredibubble: I am afraid to say because I do not know. ... Chronospace is ... odd.
Hydrophidian: Chronospace?
Saturn-Nine: By that, he of course, means here, in this time between times!
Saturn-Nine: Right Rigil?
Aspera, again directly to Saturn-Nine: << Very well. People have a tendency to write things down, though. >>
Incredibubble: ... Yes?
Hydrophidian lifts her brow again.
Incredibubble nods!
Hydrophidian: Y'know... funny thing about that...
Saturn-Nine: Yes?
Incredibubble waits for another Terran joke!
Hydrophidian: While back, a buncha kids came to Paragon. Turned out, they were from the near future. A lot of 'em were the children of heroes that are here, now....
Saturn-Nine: Really?
Incredibubble listens intently!
Hydrophidian: Yah. I always thought it was a bad idea that they let everyone know that, y'know?
Aspera: << Interesting. >>
Hydrophidian: Shoulda been kept secret...
Incredibubble: We do not always say. Sometimes information can corrupt... happenings.
Hydrophidian eyes Saturn-Girl. "Don't you think?"
Aspera: << Why? Did it end up in some kind of disastrous paradoxical time-travelling catastrophe? >>
Saturn-Nine: Yes, definitely.
Hydrophidian: Well, it's hard to say, right? If it did, would we even know? And even if it didn't... couldn't it have?
Saturn-Nine looks a little nervous.
Incredibubble: But we are sore thumbs here, except in D where everyone is ... weirded.
Saturn-Nine: I think... we should go... um... rest. Yes. Thank you for your advice Andi.
Aspera: << Hard to say. >>
Incredibubble considers. "If the timestream is somehow affected, is that not why we come here to this place?"
Hydrophidian smiles. "Advice? I was just tellin' a story."
Saturn-Nine: And be well.
Incredibubble: Adra!
Incredibubble looks worried.
Saturn-Nine: Good story! Something must be wrong with my translator. I will have to have it looked at.
Hydrophidian: And yah, I gotta go help someone out. Be well, guys! Nice meetin' ya! 'Specially you, Blue.
Aspera facepalms mentally
Hydrophidian winks.
Incredibubble: I also am pleased! Wisdom to you!
Hydrophidian leaves
Incredibubble: << *sigh* >>
Aspera: << Way to go almost blowing our cover right away. >>
Saturn-Nine: Ok, that was.... bad. Sorry.
Incredibubble: << Your kind may lie as they wish. >>
Aspera: << We may. I don't. Haven't you heard? Better to keep quiet and let other believe you are a fool, than to open your mouth and prove it. >>
Incredibubble: << This lie is what I hate most about our posting here... both of you know this. We are strange enough to these people. >>
Saturn-Nine: No, it's ok. Rigil has to follow his path. If we were to tell him to spread falsehoods, well, it would violate his ethics and we all must hold tight to our beliefs. It's what makes us who we are. If we give them up, we lessen ourselves and compromise our integrity.
Saturn-Nine: And I would rather see us fail than see us succeed at the cost of ourselves.
Incredibubble: << YOU are one to talk about foolishness. Did you not open a portal to this place in the midst of our home, so that Silos could hear all we had to say? ... Perhaps it is YOU who are the fool. Do not insult my race. >>
Aspera: << I did not. She did. I asked if it was safe, she said it was. >>
Saturn-Nine: << CALM YOURSELVES! >> *it's more of a command than a statement*
Aspera: << I didn't believe her though... >>
Incredibubble: << *frustration! marching troops! burning, screaming humans!* >>
Aspera: << And I don't insult you. I commend your commitment to truth and honesty. >>
Incredibubble: << IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?? >>
Saturn-Nine: I have Alissa working on a way to shield all of us from the Menders, she and Rs-Ol should have it done soon. In the meantime, I admit it, I screwed up. We all make mistakes, it's how we deal with them that counts. No more blame, no more recriminations. We need solidarity of purpose here to succeed, not conflict.
Aspera: << Perhaps you should commit yourself to the virtue of patience too. >>
Incredibubble: << ... *sigh* ... I am sorry, friends. This is a hard thing, and I do not wish us subverted. >>
Saturn-Nine: I understand Rigil, I also understand where you stand Aspera.
Saturn-Nine: That's part of being an empath, I get things from both points of view.
Incredibubble: << I know I could... be used. Perhaps. By one of these. ... But is it not true that a foundation for justice is better built on truth? How else can I approach this? >>
Aspera: << Considering that we are all telepaths we should be able to see eye to eye on this... but then again we are all different species and think differently. >>
Aspera: << By only saying that which is true but inconsequential, perhaps. >>
Incredibubble: << Yes, that is true. I can understand you, but it is like ... It is different. >>
Saturn-Nine: Agreed. But that's what the UW is all about, coming to a consensus among beings of vastly differnet cultures. If we are to defend that, we have to stick with it.
Saturn-Nine: And yes, Aspera is right. There is a difference between telling untruth and not giving information.
Incredibubble: << No truth is ... *sigh* ... I hear. What is inconsequential to us? Homeworlds? Mine will not be known for another eight hundred years. >>
Saturn-Nine: Now, I need to go lie down, this place gives me a massive headache.
Aspera: << Even if someone asks you directly about where you come from or your mission you can just say that it is a secret and you may not speak of it. That is still the truth. >>
Saturn-Nine: I think we can talk about being from another planet. There are lots of aliens on earth at this time.
Incredibubble looks troubled.
Saturn-Nine: Now, I need to rest. Be well friends.
Incredibubble: << I can only promise to try. >>
Incredibubble: Wisdom, Adra.
Aspera: << That's all we can ask. >>
