Salme @ Qarina

Hi Qarina!

I don’t know if you’ve gotten used to using your Tomestone yet, but you can use it to communicate with people as well read potentially upsetting or confusing stuff! Anyway, I thought I’d start a thread for us to chat.

Your brother said something (that you shared) about people who read being a good influence on you. I’m guessing you’re not a big fan of reading? I don’t … I mean, I think that’s fine, I think people are really different and that’s okay, but I thought I’d share … I didn’t know how to read until I was 17 or so, and I was almost 20 by the time I could read well enough that it wasn’t an enormous effort. On Almachadta, almost all of our stories are told aloud; we don’t keep written records.

(I’m … also not sure how well that gives you a sense of Age, considering how different our lifecycles are. I’m 25 now, though, so it was not very long ago).

I’m not trying to convince you of the magic of reading or anything (though it does, still, sometimes seem like magic to me) but I thought it would be … I don’t know. Maybe interesting? It’s still really cool to me that so much stuff gets written down and you can just look things up.

Anyway, one thing I thought was really cool about you was when you mentioned that you ensure the … apostates … out in the desert get supplies when they can. I don’t have a good handle on what it means to be an apostate on Mu (or an apostate in general) but I liked that you cared.

There’s no way you’re 25! You look like you’re 18, tops! I can read. I just…don’t really have much of a reason to. The only thing I need to do for The Work is fight Elementals and protect The Workers. There’s no books on being a living Weapon. When we wake up, we can kinda just…read what we need off the get go. Which is probably real weird comparatively. I just…I’ve never had answers to anything I needed there? Dyu finds all sorts of useful things, but he’s gonna be top Yazhn someday, and that’s pretty well documented.

So yeah, the whole thing on Mu is The Work, and bringing The God back. Which is great and all. Don’t tell Teacher, but I don’t really care as much as the rest. I’m just here to fight things and make sure people are safe. If that helps Him Return, then cool. But Apostates are people who either don’t believe in God or don’t believe in doing The Work. And they just kinda…live out in the caves and eat like mushrooms and bugs and stuff. And the Kin always get real sad because then they’re gonna die for real for real and not get the Last Rites and get resurrected by God when he’s finally back. But like, there’s no law against it. You can leave. It just really sucks out there. But they’re still people and hungry, so I figure it can’t hurt if I help them too. Besides, I’m pretty sure someone’s been making extra supply packs for me to take. There’s no way they’re this bad at counting. They can count EVERYTHING.

I. Well. Remember that thing about spending a bunch of time as a little person that can’t walk or do much other than eat? I think that’s … where the age discrepancy comes in? For instance, you look like you’d be about 18 or 19 by the accounting on my world?

And I mean, it does seem like … there’s a lot of history, but maybe not a lot of stories? I could be wrong though. I find history useful for … all sorts of things, but I find stories useful for finding my way when I feel lost. I don’t know what kind of answers you’ve needed. It seems like you do do a very good job at fighting Elementals and protecting people, but. Hm. If it doesn’t bother you then absolutely don’t let me tell you what to feel, but. You seem like a lot more than a living weapon, even if you can kick some serious ass.

I mean, I’m not familiar with your God at all, or particularly invested. Faith is … different, on other planes. There are small gods on Almachadta, and some larger one—I think Wolf has a goddess? But a part of a river, or a certain tree, or road can be a god. I don’t think I’ve ever really thought about it much beyond being polite to such gods, so your secret is safe with me.

And I mean, I think the fact that you can say “they’re still people and still hungry” is really cool. I think, I guess, caring about people, especially people who are very different from you, is cool? Which isn’t to say that the Kin don’t care—it seems that they do—but in the sense of people who are alive now, whatever does or doesn’t happen to them in the future. That’s important. That matters.

Ohh…yeah that makes sense. I mean, maybe now that you all showed up, maybe I’ll need to be something more than a Weapon. But before that, that was it. I had one friend, one brother, and everyone else thinks I’m a freak. But I’m a freak that keeps them alive, so no one has like, a problem with me. They just don’t wanna be friends. Which is fine. I don’t need to be friends with them. I have a SECOND friend now and you’re cooler than all of them. Chaya’s almost like a friend, but she’s pretty skeptical of anyone from the City.

Yeah, that doesn’t sound like God. Here, God is everything. He sacrificed himself to stop something terrible, and according to the Kin, it’s up to us to bring him back and turn the planet back into a not-desert. Slow going though. It’s hard work making sand into not-sand on this scale. I tried it a few times when I was out guarding places and there weren’t any Elementals around. It’s really hard. Like, harder than fighting in the Rite by a lotttt. I don’t even know how long I would have to fight to be that tired.

I mean, everyone cares about people? Is that not normal? Like, we’re all in this together. And like, if you gotta go Apostate, you’re still a person and you’re still worth it. The Kin try to bring people back if they’re interested. They don’t want people to have to eat bugs instead of figs. But like, they’re not gonna make anyone do anything. That’s not how anyone does things here. Like, if you ask people about Apostates, it’ll be awkward, but mostly, it’ll just make people sad. Because no one is going around wanting anyone to like, actually die. And the more people here, the more Work gets done, and then I guess the sooner God comes back? But like, it’s been more than 250,000 years. Rebuilding a God and a planet is gonna take…well, who knows how long? But it’ll get there.

I’m glad you think I’m cooler than all of them, though I hope, one day, you have as many friends as you could possibly desire. I haven’t had … many friends before this either. I think I mentioned that. I don’t know if people thought I was a freak, or just sort of strange—was not born or awoken with any particular skills or powers, I was just kind of … a lot. I’ve met more and more people who like that about me. I think … you’ll continue to meet more and more people who like you for precisely who you are.

Would you like to tell me about Chaya? You’ve mentioned her a couple times.

I’ve been out to your First Field; it’s a wonder that it exists, but yes, I can imagine the kind of work it would take to create the conditions to allow it to exist. There is … a lot of sand here. Do you know, if you go out into the desert one direction if you’ll eventually loop back around on the other side of the city? At least Almachadta and the Beast are orbs; I was curious if Mu is as well, or if it’s even been possible to get that far.

Oh, I’m sure everyone cares about people. Everyone I’ve met here has been … not just kind, but friendly. But, I think, it is one thing to care and something else to act on that care. Spending time with the apostates, giving them rations when you can—that’s doing something, and I think that’s. Hm. Different? Though perhaps I don’t understand. Apostasy isn’t really … I mean, within all the small religions of Almachadta, I’m certain it happens, and I’m sure there’s some stories in the Mask, but … well, if you don’t like where you end up on Almachadta, there’s plenty of other places you can go.

I will admit … I don’t think I understand the weight of “actually dying” for people here, as opposed to simply going to sleep. Or rather, I’ve always known everything to die. I’ve met a handful of exceptions since then, but … hm. Dying has never been a concern of mine. Dying before I was ready certainly is, but I suppose what I’m getting at is … I saw Ravhi’s face when he mentioned someone possibly dying as an apostate, and that kind of anguish was strange to me. Not wrong, just strange—hard to fathom. It seems like a heavy thing, to shoulder responsibility not just for someone’s life but their immortality.

Ah, and that is a heavy note to end this on. I suppose I’d like to also ask if there are other things you like. I work with textiles a lot—I’m good with embroidery and spinning thread. I’ve recently been learning to weave. I’ve been working on changing my clothes to something more appropriate for Mu, so I guess I’m a bit interested in fashion. I like stories, obviously. I do some acrobatics and I’m fairly good with sleight-of-hand. I know how to do a bunch of odd, random things while I was younger and sort of … floating around trying to figure out what I wanted from my life. I don’t particularly like cooking, but I want to learn how to make a certain dessert for Awoken.

I don’t know how much time your work leaves for hobbies, but those are mine, I guess. And trying to save the world.