[Video; Unseelie]

[colecomfort]

((WARNING: animal suffering.))

[The locket's view opens on a small beach, too small for the creature that's washed itself ashore. It lies with its body twisted and turning across the gravel and the nearby withering tree roots: a great sea snake. On first glance, it may appear dead — but the gills behind its head are still twitching. It struggles to breathe.

The view shudders, as if the hand holding the locket at chest height is shaking. Cole has been murmuring since the locket opened.]

—ee, see. I can't see. It's so bright, so still — no more glimmering, glinting, only white and dry, waiting for death to take me, gasping for water. I can't — I can't breathe...

[Cole gasps for breath himself, regains his bearings. For a moment. He takes a step closer. The locket is left open and continues to show the creature as he moves toward it, but now it swings lightly, forgotten. From out of view, the sound of a dagger being drawn.]

Can't return to the deep. Left in the air and the heat and the heaviness to drown. It will take such a long time...

Comments

Voice, Private

[colecomfort]

And nothing will replace it?

...how can they know, if it's never happened?

Voice, Private

[gordianknots]

And nothing will replace it.

[That question does give Waver pause as he replays the conversation back in his mind.]

The matrons spoke of the Void bringing renewal at the time, and then of cycles. Specifically, that because we are in a cycle, and then--

[Ah. Yes, he has the words now.]

Nothing is lost in the cycle because nothing is outside of it, not really. The cycle's about infinite possibility, and that's what's in the Void. I don't agree, but the logic is there.

Voice, Private

[colecomfort]

But they don't know.

[Just because something makes sense doesn't mean it's right. Even if Cole hasn't been here as long as some, he knows what he can observe with his own senses.]

I can't hear past the edges. Empty, but no vessel, silence, but no sound, dark with no light. The Void sounds like Nothing itself.

Voice, Private

[gordianknots]

It's very much nothing itself. At least the space between the stars provides them the energy they need.

Voice, Private

[colecomfort]

We have to stop it.

[But his tone has an edge of hopelessness. He doesn't know how, he's never known, and time is running out.]

Voice, Private

[gordianknots]

We do. But through what, more death?

Voice, Private

[colecomfort]

If the Void comes, everything dies.

Voice, Private

[gordianknots]

True enough. But everything dies a prolonged death if it's held at arm's length forever.

Voice, Private

[colecomfort]

[Can't let it come. Can't hold it off. The only other option is destruction. Cole had hoped there might be another way, but if those who've been here longer haven't figured it out already...]

I understand.

Things die so that others can grow. [And live on.]

Voice, Private

[gordianknots]

That's the general thing. But then the Void doesn't exactly seem like a natural, organic thing, I must admit.