Archie @ Aurelius

Hey! Thanks for being our tour guide so far. I have to say, for as much as you’ve described Beast before, it was hard to imagine anything like this before we actually arrived. What’s it like being back?

Is there a word for something being weird and also very ordinary at the same time? Because it’s definitely that. It feels… comfortable, at least, being in an environment that feels familiar after so long. Strange to meet people I have years worth of memories of for the first time though. Understanding how Wolf must have felt when we first landed on Almachadta now, I think.

I think all of us went through some amount of that when we went back to our home worlds. Samudra was a little weird for me. Did you know that when I first showed Solei the quintessence sample and he barely reacted I almost planned a heist to break into his office and read his notes because I was convinced he had been body-swapped or something? I feel awful for what really was clouding his excitement, and I’m definitely glad I didn’t go to those lengths to find out, but I guess my point is the strange familiarity put me on high alert for anything unexpected or unexplained. It did put me in the mood for a heist, though.

That is pretty funny as a glance into a specific moment in time, yeah.

Which reminds me - I think we’ve mentioned it offhand once or twice, but I can’t recall off hand whomever happened to be around when the topic came up. But. You should definitely be prepared for a Rite when we get to Queenstown. And probably make peace with losing early. SQ’s never lost a fight in her life afaik. (she probably won’t make us do anything embarrassing, but does have a tendency to take peoples swords and melt them into her throne… so maybe don’t bring the Good Knives?)