#be fr none of us would have survived that era

[regencis]

seeing comments on bton videos on instagram like 'i was born in the wrong era!!' no you weren't babe. the show romanticizes the regency era, you would hate it. you would have no rights to your mind or body, and you could literally own nothing. you'd have no money or freedom!! stop saying that!!

[imaginespazzi]

Hey bestie,

How are you? I hope you’re doing good! Me? Not so much after reading part 3 😭

My thoughts:

I wasn’t expecting us to finally get the fight from that night, so I was NOT prepared. This - When Azzi’s 18, Paige says those words, ones that sound a lot like giving up, and teaches Azzi that sometimes in life, even the people you thought would never make you feel this way, are the ones who'll break you the most – this broke me babe, and to think Azzi still held on despite everything. Like I know Paige was just hurting but maybe she does deserve the suffering (a little bit) after all.

The entire summer scene was fucking elite. Poor Katie and Tim, they just wanted a. nice. family. dinner!! And instead they had to sit through their daughter’s gay ass drama lmao, #freeKatieandTim

The bros standing ten toes down for Pazzi ✊ Jon and José not even trying sent me, like no sorry, P is our sister-in-law but we appreciate you dropping by. AND DREW, our MVP - Drew had looked over to Azzi then, his eyes wide and accusing, “you can’t be Azzi’s girlfriend.” – little man was a bit traumatised, like sorry pookie who is this girl and why is she claiming to be something she can’t possibly be? He’s the GOAT fr, I know when he and P got back home, he scolded tf outta her and it went something like- Drew: “Why are you letting Azzi be other people’s girlfriend?? That’s OUR pookie.” P: “I know, I’m trying bro!”. Drew: “Well try harder!!” *stomps away*.

Then the Cayman Islands - UCLA and UConn to each other: 😡😤🔪🤬🖕👿 while Azzi and Paige: 🥰😍🫂🤩💗👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩 and then there’s probably Carol like: 😩 (she’s so over all this)

And then the ending! I’m guessing P left without saying goodbye because she probably saw the text from Zoe and once again was promptly reminded of their reality? 🥺

Speaking of Zoe, oh girl I’m so sorry, you deserve better – like damn, she just wanted to share some fucking pizza!!

Also, jealous Azzi making an appearance! (I’m such a shameful sucker for the jealous Paige and Azzi trope, I’m sorry!)

Oh and one final thing on part 3 – babe I know you said writing **** was taking years off your life, but we really appreciate your sacrifice because it was absolute 🔥🔥

What’s next (potentially)?

Oh man where to from here huh… I feel like Paige is eventually gonna get to the point where she's like "choose me, pick me", only to realise that Azzi just can’t do it cause she can't trust her with her heart, and I know it's gonna hurt bad. And even though Paige needs and wants more, she’ll also take whatever she can get even if it’s slowly killing her, because it’s Azzi and she’d rather have a little bit of her than none at all 😔

Also, a tension-filled game between them in the final 4 coming up maybe??

That part where Katie shoots Azzi a look of disappointment – I wonder if momma Fudd will ever call out Azzi over whatever’s happening between her and Paige and poor Zoe?

Either way, something tells me we’ve still got a lot of angst coming our way, and look as much as I want our babies to finally just get their shit together, I just can’t say no to more angst you know, I’m just a girl. 🤷‍♀️

Oh and this part - she’s even less sure about how she’d survived that one year where they’d practically lived in each other’s skins – is this something (I'm guessing this is their covid era?) we go into a bit more?? I do love all the allusions/references to how long they’ve always been something more and the blurring of the lines but never fully crossing it obviously until that fateful summer of 2022. I guess it does explain somewhat, though, why Paige felt so betrayed about Azzi not choosing her (UConn) because baby girl probably thought “ok once we’re both at UConn, we can finally be together 😌” - like her dream/vision of them playing together and also being together got ripped away from her ❤️‍🩹

As always, bestie, thank you for existing, thank you for your talent and for being so generous in sharing it with us. You outdo yourself every. fucking. time. 💐

Quick non-ucla fic side note: ESPN’s Bracketology having Utah and UConn on opposing sides of the bracket, so basically they’re saying Utah vs UConn championship game where I get to watch AP and PB ball out? Yeah ok, give it to me. 🤪 #APHiveUP (but bleed blue always ofc)

Favourite quote/line:

“You always say the right things,” Paige says quietly, and then even quieter, she whispers under her breath, “you make it so hard Az.”

Big love always 💗,

-🙋‍♀️

Hi bestie,

Omg I'm sorry....again 😭

I was gonna wait a little longer with the fight but it felt right to have it in this chapter and I wanted it to be from Azzi's perspective because it would hit just a little harder

Poor Katie and Tim fr like they should have just gone on a cute date instead of having to deal with this craziness

The brothers are the biggest Pazzi shippers like they're actually tired of their sister's bullshit at this point. Drew with the biggest truth ever really just shut everybody else up. "GET OUR POOKIE BACK BEFORE I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING" - Drew Bueckers at some point probably

I was gonna add a line about Carol and Charisma just frowning at their teammates and being all exasperated and then fully forgot lmao but yeah UCLA and UConn are big mad at each other. Though writing Nika and KK are Muhl and Arnold felt so weird.

Bestie you might be the only person who got my hint which apparently was not as obvious as I thought 😭

Zoe, poor girlie pop, y'all are gonna be absolute wrecked for her soon because girlie's just a sweetheart who does not deserve this but got caught in it anyway

Jealous Azzi might actually be worse than jealous Paige in this universe lmao but the waitress was doing *too much*

Part 4 is honestly a bit of a mystery to me because I've dug myself a bit of a hole but never fear, I will angst myself out of it somehow. 😭

#APHiveUp YES EXACTLY BESTIE!! Utah vs UConn for the national championship because actually AP vs AE would be pretty fun too and listen not to get at my girl AP, but AE would win that and then UConn would win and that's the only valid ending.

As always, thank you for being here bestie. I love your long asks and how much you just get me and the UCLA fic which really wouldn't even be a thing without you.

Love you babes <3

[spyrkle4]

Ark Theory: Who is the Survivor (Player the Character)?

Hey gang! I wanna talk about this thing that’s been on my mind on awhile, and specifically the identity of the survivor we play as in Ark Survival Evolved

This is just me making a ramble about my thoughts about this

If you’re asking “Sparks where’d you get the name survivor from?” well let me tell you! It’s a canon nickname given to player the character (us) in the games, some of the characters who interact with the player, like HLN-A call us that, which is a neat little thing that gives us creative freedom to make a character (or self insert) out of the boss fighting, dino taming, dodo yeeting character you play us during the game.

But there’s an interesting trend for all the past survivors, they were all people that died and were brought back to life by the Overseers of the Arks and put on one of the space stations, the one you canonically start on, The Island, has explorer notes from people from the third century to 2008

So one point of identifying the Survivor is that a. they had died at some point in time, so the time period they could be is either from a very ancient era in Earth’s history or around the same time period Helena Walker roamed the Earth (and she’s from 2008 since that was the last time period she remembered)

Since the Survivor first wakes up on the Island, they’re probably from Helena’s time or before that, but I have another theory.

I think that the Survivor is from Diana’s time period.

(continued under the cut bc I like to not make my posts super long)

Diana as in Diana Altaris, who was a pilot in the URE that got killed in one of the URE and Tek Federation conflicts over the war on Element, and a few other survivors from that era were on Aberration (Helena notes its weird since most people who spawn on the arks are from varying time periods, like Helena’s the only 2008 character encountered. The grad students could hypothetically be from the same era as well since they’re modern day college students, but Aberration came out in 2017 so I think they’re from that time period)

Why I think the Survivor is from the future time period in Ark? Well mostly because that the Survivor can craft Tek gear, which the Tek Tribe survivors could also craft since they’re from the future era, and the rest of the cast are like “:O” because it’s stuff they’ve never seen before (To quote Helena in Aberration Note #6 “I never met anyone from my future before”)

Might be weird, since none of the Element era survivors were brought to the Island Ark when the main cast were on it, but the time period of when the gang were on the ark and when the Survivor gets on the ark are different eras, and I don’t think the Overseer would mind bringing back a survivor from more recent times as long as they’re not in a group and do what Diana’s group did

(tldr Diana’s group blew up aberration which caused the creation of the Reapers, thx Di) 

So that means “oh the Survivor must be one of the people from the URE or Tek Federation that got killed in the conflict” and yeah, that could possibly be it and I think that’s very likely, but I got another theory in mind

My other theory being the Survivor is one of the URE people that created the Ark and got killed by one of the Titans (one of the people in a discord server I’m on thinks the Titan bosses in Extinction were creatures made by the Element to protect it from the Reseed Protocol) 

Why I think this? Well because you could go thru the game without picking up *any* explorer notes and still be able to beat all the bosses, the overseer, and ascend, because the Survivor programmed the Ark itself and knows how it runs in the first place

And also the Survivor knows what’s in which terminal so they can prepare pretty well for a boss fight (which might mean the arks the Survivor travelled on are arks they have programmed, so they know what they can expect but I just think the Survivor is smart enough to know what to expect from an obelisk)

(ik it’s because we know how the game works, but I’m viewing this from a lore perspective, if we woke up on dinosaur island without any access to wikipedia I don’t think we’d come to the conclusion of “oh we gotta collect stones from deadly caves to activate the floating towers and fight giant creatures to get off the island!” as seen by how the past survivors discovered the true nature of the obelisks and were like “woah what is this!”)

And that’s my theory! The Survivor we play as is from the Element era, one of the URE members that created the Arks in the first place, got killed by the titans, and then brought back by The One Who Waits to finish the work they created: by completing the reseed protocol, killing the very titans that had taken their life in the first place

There’s other ideas you could have for the survivor’s identity tho, like the Survivor was one of the Tek/URE members that got killed in the Element war, and simply knew how to ascend from collecting notes, or that they’re from any time period, but since they know how to build future items from their engram. 

Far stretch since in lore since none of the survivors write “I used my engram points to learn how to craft a gun today!” (Rockwell tho would have struggled way less using the Tek items if he had that feature), but since I think the Survivor was brought onto the ark by The One Who Waits, she might’ve programmed that onto the Survivor’s implant since she’s trying to help the Survivor out 

Hope you guys liked another post about me ranting about this sci-fi dinosaur game

[msgirlfangirlingposts]

Bsd momentary summary

 Recently,I started to getting confused with the new bungou stray dog arc’s plot, then I had the idea of play detective a bit and write a summary:

About the agency whereabouts:

Now,the only one missing is Ranpo,unseen since Chapter 59,seen for the last time junping from the window and running away.

Fukuzawa,Yosano,Kunikida and Dazai were already arrested.Inside it;

Dazai is still in jail with Fyodor,he is there since chapter 63.He communicates with Ango through his heartbeat code in the transmissor in his body deployed in the prison.He talks with Fyodor about the plans in the cassino and tries find out Fyodor main to communicate with his colleages.

Fukuzawa was last seen in chapter 71,being questioned by Fukuchi.He tried to run away and steal his sword,but couldn’t.He affirmes Kunikida is not dead and the agency will resist and win the haunting dogs.

Yosano was captured offs screen after chapter 68,after Tachihara refused kill her to take revenge his brother.She wasn’t killed yet,but her execution is marked.

Kunikida,who was missing since chapter 62 after explode himself to protect the agency,is really alive.He defend himself using Tecchou’s body to stay alive,but lost his hands in the process,impossibling Kunikida to use Doppo poetry again.He was captured and Jouno offered him to join in the haunting dogs.He refuses,but fall in despair and apparently a sniper is aiding in his head.

Tanizaki and Kenji are running away from the haunting dogs in the Mafia tunnels since chapter 67,they aren’t captured but are being haunted by Teruko and Tachihara.

Atsushi and Kyouka joined to Ango and Lucy trying to prove the agency is innocent and to avoid the terrorist plan of the angels decay,being guided by Dazai.The plan is capture manager Sigma,one of the members of the angels,and question him about the page to innocent the agency.However the plan fails,the agency only sinks deeper thanks Atsushi’s action of try save Sigma,and Atsushi apparently suffers from a wound inflicted by Hawtorne,pawn of Fyodor,who ruinned Dazai’s plan by preview his actions.Nevertheless,they still didn’t give up,and perhaps they gain a new trump card:Atsushi finds out where the page is hidden.

           About the angel decay:

Only three of the five members are known for now:Fyodor,Gogol and Sigma.

The plan of them consists in the fall of the State.Through the bombs-coins in the sky casino,they will kill people and spread panic into the society,and the cause the people be afraid of money,what will break the economy.So they’ll use the other side of the page to eliminate the State.That will happen in ten days,if, before that,the agency or the goverment don’t take the page,they will be sucessed.

Sigma only is into the plan in exchange be the manager of the sky casino, that makes his place to belong,once he never had a home or a family.

Fyodor’s motivacions are unknown.It’s known that he isn’t the head,but he maked the plan by the decay’s colleages request,as said for him in the capter 63.

Gogol was supposted to be killed in the plan to incriminate the agency in chapter 58.5,but he had escaped and survived.Now,he plans to kill  “Dosto-kun” to make him a “Free Bird” cause Fyodor understanded Gogol when none did.For this purpuse,he saves Sigma from death to use him to read Fyodor and discover about his ability.

Besides Dazai,Kyouka,Lucy,Atsushi and Ango,the only one to know about their plan is Moshitarou,who made priosioner and tortured by them in order he cancel his ability cause like that the hauting dogs would arrest Dazai.

                About the book and the page:

While the present location of the book is unknow,he once was in director Taneda’s hands.Taneda took a page off to study,and Sigma stole the page after stab Taneda and then the angel decay used the page to blame Ranpo for Taneda’s attack.

One side of the page was used to incrinate the agency by kidnap and murderer important members of the governament and to ensure the police and the army won’t believe in their innocence.The other side is going to be used to eliminate the state after they explode te bombs-coins,but Atsushi and Kyouka intend to steal the page before this for clean agency’s name.

Not all the things written in the book will turn true,it need to be a story based on the karma,with the consistency of a narrative.What means the destruction of the world or the universe won’t happen.Moreover,just like in a commum book,every ambitious plot needs a extensive text,or else won’t work out.Because that limitacion of the book,the angel decay,can only use the page they have to the most basic aspects of the plan,(The agency being incriminate by their crimes and the final objective of the fall of the state),but the circumstances for them must be provided by their actions.

Apparently,what is written in the book can be reversal,there was written for Fyodor that none from” the police force and management organizagions won’t considerate the proofs that show the true culprit”,but Tachihara is showed believing in them.It’s not clear the reason,but the page is showed to rasg when Tachihara say the agency is the wrong culprit.

Now,Atsushi appears to find out where the Angel Decay keeps the page.

                       About The Port Mafia

Unlike was theorized,both Hirotsu and Gin survived to the Tachihara’s attack in the chapter 68 and are alive and well.Besides,both didn’t know who attacked them was Tachihara.

None from the port mafia seems to know about Tachihara betray.But, considering Mori and his actions in Light Novel Dark Era,could be that does he knows about it and is planning to use it somehow?

Added to it,Mori and Fukuzawa made a deal that someone from the agency must go to the mafia.Mori chooses Yosano,who refuses work for Mori again?What will be of the deal?Yosano will go to the mafia?If she discover about Mori’s cheat(Fukuzawa agreed with the deal if the choosen one wasn’t Yosano)Mori won’t have another choose than honor the deal honestly and choose another member of the agency?

Isn’t clear the port mafia still will help the agency or not.

The Mafia knowns the agency is innocent,but ,notably,they don’t know about the plans of the angel decay nor about the book.What mean the help they might give is limited.

                  About the Guild

Althrough isn’t explained how,Fitzgerald said he will support the agency.

Fitzgerald is looking for the book to revive his daughter,and one of the pages is in th angels hands and the agency intend to steal.What will he do if he finds about it?

Fitzgerald interchange Mittchel’s cure by Muchitarou’s location.Once Atsushi and Kyouka took him,presumbly Mittchel is cured.

If Mittchel is awake now,will her haunt down Hawthorne as Fitzgerald want?How Atsushi notes,both of them care very deeply for each other and sacrifice them selves fr each other.Or to see again Margaret will make Nathaniel leave Fyodor’s control?

  And is what I notice that is relevant about the new arc.It was most to myself to organize my thoughts,but anyone wants wants to use,be my guest.

[tanadrin]

Reordberend

(part 18 of ?; first; previous; next)

They went on, down through the rough, channeled terrain at the mouth of the valley, down onto the icy strip of land that lay between the hills and the sea. There was no path here, no markers of any kind, and Katherine wondered how far she was from the place where she’d come ashore. Finally, as the twilight glow on the horizon had begun to fade, Ælfric started walking a little faster, moving with more purpose. Katherine had the feeling they were getting close to their destination.

They rounded a rocky outcrop that jutted up through the ice and snow, a big dark shoulder of the land; and on the other side, framed against the dark sky, was an immense shape. Katherine couldn’t make heads or tails of it at first; it was too top-heavy to be a hill. As they got closer, she realized it was the hull of a ship. A pretty big one, to be all alone out here on the shore, maybe two hundred meters from one end to the other. When they were close enough for their lanterns to cast light on it, she saw white-painted walls, streaked with dark rust; great big holes in the side, some clearly made by hands scavenging steel, some, perhaps, the result of reefs or weathering. Katherine paused near the bow, and lifted her lantern-staff up, trying to make out the markings high above her head. WINC- -R was all she could read.

“Come,” Ælfric said. He led her along the keel of the bent-over ship, until they came to a crack at ground level that seemed to go all the way up to the top; it was big enough for several people to walk abreast into. She could see stars through it. It ran all the way through the ship, as though it had been ripped in half. They went in, and Katherine found the ruin provided a decent shelter against the the constant shore-wind. It was actually pretty peaceful inside. But the looming darkness overhead did unnerve her a little.

“Be careful,” Ælfric said. “Stay close. This place is old; it is dangerous.”

But he went confidently forward; he seemed to know the path. They did not go up; they walked through what must have been the cargo hold, until they came at last to the far end of the stern. Old crates and pieces of debris littered the ground here; the floor beneath them was ripped away, exposing ice-free, stony ground. Ælfric leaned his staff against a bulkhead, then went to a big bowl-shaped thing in the middle of the space; Katherine couldn’t see what he was doing at first, and then a fire roared to life, beating back some of the darkness. Ælfric dragged a crate a little closer to the brazier, then sat down on it, stretching his legs out in front of him and letting out a long breath. He suddenly looked rather tired. The bright firelight threw the lines of his weather-beaten face into deep relief. He motioned for Katherine to sit, too.

“Is this ship what you wanted to show me?” Katherine asked.

“Almost. Not yet,” was all Ælfric said. He took some jerky from his pack, and tore it in half; they ate together in silence for a few minutes. Then Ælfric stood, and walked to the very back of the room. Katherine followed.

There, where the ragged, torn bulkhead met the ground, there were seven long, low mounds scraped in the dirt. Above them, on the steel plate, gouged into the surface, were drawings. Faces, animals, words. Words, Katherine suddenly realized, she could read without effort, words in English. The largest were names and numbers. Dates, actually. Katherine realized she was looking at graves.

“What is this place?”

“Look,” Ælfric said. “Read.”

Katherine read. ALFRED ROBERTS. 2175-2229. Of Milwkee, Wisc. Even after all other dfficulties, our dparture ws delayd--the govt of NZ refused at 1st to give us permission, saying they did nt wish to be rsponsible fr our rescue. Dspite our assurance, tht we neither dsired nor needed thr assistance, they hindered us 4 weeks. Then very bad weather; we cd not set sail. JULIA TOAL. 2182-2222. Dparted 8th May, far later thn hoped. Winter closing quickly. Too late in summer by far. Bt we were unanimous; would nt wait another year. Wd accept any difficulty, for wht we wished to accomplish. PERRY MILLER. 2160-2219.

It was a record of a journey, interspersed with names and years. There were many more names here than just seven; if these were dates of birth and death, all these people had died frightfully young.

Ælfric pointed to the first name. “Ælfræd, son of Lawrence. His son was Ælfwine; Ælfwine’s daughter was Ælfgyfu; Ælfgyfu’s daughter was Ælfsteorra; Ælfsteorra was my mother. He is my ancestor.”

“What happened here?”

Ælfric looked at Katherine, puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“These dates.” Katherine pointed at the first few names. “Dates of death?”

“Yes. Ælfræd died in the tenth year. Julia, in the third. Perry, in the first.”

“They were not old.”

Ælfric cocked his head. “This land makes old men of the young. It carries off the child and the father and mother alike. The first years here were the hardest of all.”

“But there are only seven graves here.”

“No.”

Ælfric took his lantern-staff up, and pointed it down, back the way they had come. In the brighter light of the fire, Katherine could see that this was not the only bare patch of ground here in the cargo hold; the floor had been pulled up in even intervals, down along the length of the ship, all the way back to the place they had entered from. There were more than forty more graves here.

“These were men and women honored among us,” Ælfric said, indicating the seven graves they now stood next to. “But many gave their lives in the landtaking. It was not easy. Few had dared to try to make a home in this land of winters before we came. None tried for a long time after. It seems, from all you have told us, that they even forgot we were here.”

“You must have come during troubled times.” Katherine looked at the dates again. “Right in the middle of the Collapse. You might have even been alone here for many decades.” Katherine had done a bit of research on the history of the continent before she came. Amundsen-Scott had closed right around the turn of the century; McMurdo had lasted only a decade or so longer. For most of the 23rd century, the only human presence in Antarctica had been a few Chilean and Argentinian bases on the Peninsula, a desultory claim to what everybody thought of as a worthless patch of ice, held on to more for reasons of national pride than anything else.

The hundred years or so from the middle of the 22nd century to the middle of the 23rd had not been a good time for anybody. For various reasons, the whole human race at once had seemed to find itself in the middle of a dark forest, with no clear way forward. A vision of the future that it had carried with it, in one form or another, for centuries, the vision of steady (if not monotonic) forward progress, the vision of hope, the vision of a world they could make better eventually (even if they did not know how just at the moment) had absented itself. And instead, for a long time, nations started looking inward. Governments feared to look weak, feared to rely on their neighbors, feared that expressing hope for peace and prosperity made them seem naive. Instead, they seemed to decide, now was the time for all the serious people to admit, once again, that struggle was the real truth of existence.

It wasn’t that civilization fell. The Collapse was a fairly dramatic name for the period, albeit one that had stuck, because to many of the people living through it, it did feel like the end of the world. What it had really been was a series of political and economic shocks. Even throughout that entire century, the world had not stayed still. There was new art, new technology, new ambitions, if you knew where to look. But the tenor of the era was one of paranoia, nativism, and tyranny. Katherine’s own homeland had spent the better part of it under a series of right-wing dictatorships. Other parts of the world--India, China, Japan--had fared much worse.

It had broken, like a fever ending, in the 2250s. There were lots of reasons: advancements in technology and medicine, and the economic revolutions of the global south finally ended the endless series of shocks and recessions that had plagued the world. Geoengineering finally stabilized the climate. Some even said the real credit went to the artistic revolutions of the era. That it stopped being unfashionable to dream again, to imagine what a utopian future could look like. And all that long darkness--and all the time before it--had been repressed. Not forgotten, exactly. But you didn’t like to dwell on it. That was the dark ages. Nevermind that it had not been all that dark. That many millions had lived and struggled (and wept and laughed) in that time, that it was a time as suffused with human life as any. It was painful to think about. And so, few people did. Katherine was just as guilty of that as anybody. Why trap yourself in the past, when there is a bright and endless future ahead of you?

“Why did they come here, Ælfric? If it was going to be so hard?”

Ælfric gave Katherine… a look. She wasn’t sure what kind of look. Like he was sizing her up. Or nailing her down.

“You survived.”

“What?”

“You survived. You are a survivor.”

“I don’t understand.”

Ælfric nodded, more to himself than anything. “Mæwstan found you on the shore, three days from here, after you had walked God alone knows what distance; we found the rest of your ship some days later, and the crew. They were all dead. Killed by the storm that marooned you here, or by the freezing sea. You should not have lived.”

“I’m not baseline, like you. I have, uh,” Katherine searched for the word, “I have improvements. Machines, in my body.”

“Your machinae have not functioned since you came here.”

Katherine stiffened, startled. “How do you know that?”

“I have watched you. You have suffered fatigue, soreness, pain. You have eaten with us, eaten our food, and had pains in your gut.” Well, that was embarassing. No, the food had not always agreed with her. “You have slept badly. The long nights, they make you depressed. Anxious. I have watched you closely, outlander Katherine. You have endured what few outlanders would endure, or could. I have noticed. Also, Leofe told me.

“I was wrong to want you exiled. In my defense, I did not think it would be your death, not truly. Perhaps it was wishful thinking. Perhaps I wished to absolve myself of that guilt. But I really thought that one who had walked the ice from the northern shore would find a way to survive, even if we turned her out of our hearths. But that was wrong. Even if it were true, you did not deserve that, and I am sorry.”

He said it flatly, like he was simply observing a fact of nature. The ice is cold. Penguins like to swim. I was wrong to try to have you killed. Katherine resisted the urge to give him a hug.

“It is the prejudice of my people that all outlanders are weak of spirit. That they do not know what they live for, and so they do not know how to fight for it. Perhaps it is not so. Perhaps some of you are strong. Leofe also said you are not like the other outlanders; that you come from a people apart even in your homeland. A people who have not forgotten their past, and so are not wholly of the present. If that is so, I see now why John sent you to us. You alone, perhaps, could understand.

“So understand this. Our foremothers and our forefathers came here because they could do nothing else. Those were grim years in the countries they hailed from. Years of dark hearts, years of narrow sight. Years in which the troubles of the world pressed in on them, hard like a prison, from which they could not escape.

“This--” and he gestured at the carved steel surfaces around them “--this is the annals of the first years of our people. It is written also in our books, but I wanted you to see with your own eyes, how it was at the beginning. The letters we carved into the hard metal and the graves we scratched into the hard ground. Because in the hardness is a lesson.

“They were not hard people, not at the beginning. We do not prize hardness of heart. We are not cruel, whatever--whatever our failings may sometimes be. We do not value cruelty. Because we would not be cruel, because we would not admit the darkness into our hearts, because we would not surrender, we could not remain. Perry, Julia, Alice, the others buried here, they kept a jewel hidden in their breasts, a jewel which burned like fire, a jewel which even in the long darkness to which no Antarctic winter can compare, warmed them and gave them purpose.

“They wanted a place where they could be themselves. Where they could, despite the purposes of other men and women, build a community of the heart. But how could they do that? The world was crowded and claimed, with high walls at every turn. They were few in number. There was only one place where the laws and walls did not run.”

“Antarctica?”

Ælfric nodded.

“The land of many winters. They bought a ship. They gathered all the things they needed; they expected much hardship. Even so, it was harder. But they fared forth, came to these icy shores, and sought a refuge here.”

“You make it sound almost religious.”

“The separation of the religious from the secular is a contrivance of your world, Katherine. We do not have a religion you would recognize, but yes, we are religious in our fashion. And we do not separate that from the other elements of our life.”

“You make it sound like you’re primitivists. Some kind of intentional throwback.”

“Ha!” Ælfric seemed to be genuinely amused by this. “That because we speak a dead tongue, we wish to recreate a dead people? A dead culture? Do you think we are Angles in spirit? Playing at the ancient world?”

“You live a difficult life. Not unlike the people who spoke your tongue before.”

“Our foremothers and forefathers did choose this tongue for a reason--but it was not because they fancied themselves ancient folk of Britain. I don’t think any of them were even English.

“They chose it because it had been forgotten. The study of the past was deeply unfashionable in their day. I gather, from your ignorance, it has grown only more so since they set out. They wanted a language that they could make their own. And they wanted a language they could give to the voiceless land that they chose to inhabit. We spoke of names before, yes? They wanted a new tongue for their landscape, both the landscape around them and the landscape within themselves. They sought a new understanding of what was possible for them. They sought something the world around them lacked--hope.”

“And they needed a new language to find that?”

“Or an old one. A language from a time when, as then, the world seemed to be dreary, and speeding towards its end. A language from a time when the people huddled together on a cold island surrounded by the deep, dark sea, and wondered what lay beyond it. A language from a time when we knew what value the knowledge of the past held, and we husbanded every little scrap of it, fearful to lose the meagerest portion, lest we forget it was possible to hope for a better future. We, of course, do not look to Christ for our salvation, as they did. We find it in different places. But we find it.”

“The world has changed, you know. It’s not half so dark, or half so dreary. It’s been a long time since the time of your forefathers and foremothers. Why do you stay here, where life is hard, where you have to struggle to survive? Why not rejoin the world?”

“We would not lose ourselves.”

“The world is a big place. It has room enough for you.”

Ælfric shook his head. “Not for us. You are too optimistic. You do not understand. Our tale does not end with our arrival on these shores. It does not end with our move from the wreck to the Valleys. It does not end with our adoption of the Tongue, and our building of the fanes. You do not yet understand. Maybe you will, in time. But not yet.”

With that, as if Katherine had somehow transgressed, Ælfric’s urge to speak seemed to end. He sat quietly, staring into the fire, leaving Katherine to peruse the writings on the wall on her own. So she read. She read the record of the first years of the Dry Valleys People, read the records of their deaths and their griefs, the records of the things that had driven them forth, and of the hope they retained, even when it seemed to her they had little enough to hope for. The cramped, telegraphic style of the language only got more so as it went along, and then it began to lapse into the new tongue, and then it ended; and when it did, Katherine looked back at Ælfric. He was asleep now, wrapped up in a bedroll close to the fire. Katherine suddenly realized just how tired she was, and using her pack as a pillow, lay down next to him. She closed her eyes, listening to the rushing of the wind through the bones of the old ship, and before she knew it, she was asleep, and dreaming of the sea.