#like how they drew surv in front of the survival mural

[three-shining-stars]

[RECORDED LOG 6468.417] - PRIVATE

...Oh. Oh my, the signal's back! This is a very joyous turn of events; when their channel went offline just before their venture within the superstructure, I feared the worst, but if they underwent any such tribulation for the past few cycles, they show no outward signs of it. I am glad to hear their voices crackle once more through the air waves.

This unknown signal that reached them today, though... how strange to mention a multiverse. As far as has been recorded within the archive, multiversal theory is just an outmoded understanding of the self-contained simultaneity that is the tangled mat of the great cycle, positing some convoluted theory about extreme deviance between selves and even the state of the world. It's rubbish, really; there's no iterator left that believes in it, I don't think.

The Rivulet, though... to invoke hazy memories of events that may never have occurred... given the troubling nature of its recollection, could it be dissociative amnesia? I'd sooner believe that than... hm, best not to even entertain the idea. It simply can't be.

Regardless, their drone has captured images along with their conversation, and it is a comfort to see a genuine depiction of the five natural urges as they were denigrated. We only had etchings here in the archive, so this pair's descent into the superstructure has already yielded wonderful fruit!

I'm going to have to try to reestablish contact before long, if even only to probe further into the Rivulet's odd reminiscence. That mention of a potentially significant data pearl is intriguing, too.

[LOG ENDS]

Huh fancy seeing both of you's here

Ya know ya ain't the first Rivulet and Survivor I've seen, the multiverse be like that

Survivor: So you believe those ideas could be true? I don't know about all that, but when you spend everyday hunting and fending off lizards, you don't exactly get time to think about the multiverse.

Rivulet: I wonder what other versions of us there are? I don't know if I could be as close with any other being, but if I met another universe's Survivor, I think I would have two best friends.

Survivor: Hm.

Rivulet: It makes sense, really. Is that why I have memories that I don't know if they really happened? Maybe that was me in a different universe. Like playing with my sibling when I was a pup. I never had a sibling, did I?

Survivor: Riv-

Rivulet: And I remember drowning too. I used to have such vivid nightmares about drowning. Of course that didn't happen, I have gills! Have I always had gills? Hey stranger, does this other me have gills?

Survivor: Riv, you keep talking! Have you even looked at this art? What do you think it-

Rivulet: ...and was her scar over the left eye or the right? Oh, I don't know. My memory isn't the best. I don't think Surv's is either, or maybe she just doesn't talk about it as much. If I think too far back, I can almost taste that sewer water I fell into.

Survivor: Rivulet, won't you talk to me instead of that old amulet?

Rivulet: I do have this seafoam-green pearl from way back then. I think I must have dropped it. Who knows, really? Oh, Surv, did you say something?