The endless waste

[aestrix]

Once, this planet teemed with life. It doesn't do that, anymore. The ground is dry and cracked and occasionally broken up by charred remains of trees. There are no birds, no bugs, no living plants - nothing but an empty, endless waste.

With one exception.

But the world is so very big, and the exception so very small. If someone showed up away from it, they could be quite forgiven for thinking this world is completely dead.




with Sable (Kappa)

with Aisilian (Link)

with Grendyne (Rockeye)

with Temple (Curiousdiscoverer)

Comments

[aestrix]

The node is! It is very much this thing, actually, though it feels more like a vacuum than a container filled with essence. Hm. Container doesn't quite suit, actually, it doesn't feel like it's just for holding essence. For that matter, the meager essence in it isn't the same type. It's more comparable to a - heart, being fed with plain essence and pumping out something much richer.

In this case, the something is... Well, there are two somethings, actually. Two distinct types. Some type of categorization thing, something that neatens up the things around it and organizes them in efficient manners. Too much and you would get something stuck, maybe, too anti-wasteful to actually do anything, but 'too much' doesn't feel like the standard for this node. If left to its own devices, it would quietly bring order and efficiency to things around it.

The second is far more interesting, however. What is that, understanding? Knowledge? Not quite, it's not random knowledge, it needs a something with it. Perhaps that was why the orderly essence was so easy to understand, this one was helping. Some sort of connection to other things, sympathy, maybe? Empathy might be closer. 'This is how this thing near you works,' almost, but it doesn't feel very well aimed on its own, does it, it would need something to aim it.

Or, it would, if there were any in the node. There's a little hint of more essence being made in it, but whatever it's managing to make is not keeping up with the demand just from the node itself. It doesn't have enough essence to circulate; it's starving. Long starved, actually, by how the node looks. Giving it all the essence it requires all at once would hurt it, overwhelm it, like a stomach that has starved for so long and shrunk being given a huge meal all at once. It would - not throw up, exactly, but whatever would happen seems unhealthy for the node, and it's already in poor condition as is.

... Oh. And what he's done hasn't helped. Actually, it's made it quite a bit worse, though it hasn't had any instant immediate effect. It can't pull in the meager essence it was pulling in at all, now, it might just chew up all of the essence it has in it, completely run out. Be a tiny miserable little vacuum, hurting and starving, all alone in the pocket universe he's put it.

[light_another_life]

Though not, apparently, if this woman has anything to say about it.

She waves a hand in front of his face, and then motions towards the node, then the essence potions. She would like to feed it. While she's quite happy to help him understand what's going on here, she has her priorities. Node first.

(... She is made out of essence. Screams it, actually. And if the node was interesting, she is fascinating - but perhaps he would like to help the node before studying her, first.)

[meletiti_entelecheiai]

His face softens, as he looks at the node.

Even if it doesn't have a mind, it's still alive.

(And anyway, it's clear this world really needs them.)

Stepping back to where he bound it - exactly where he bound it, to inhuman precision - he simply opens the bagged cloth, and with a warping of space the node reappears.

[light_another_life]

Awesome. That is just what the woman wanted from him. Out come the essence potions, and she gets to feeding the node. It nibbles up the provided free essence in an almost happy manner. She seems to know just how much to feed it, too. She stops just before it reaches more essence than the node can handle, and backs off. The node stops nibbling on the both of them, just a bit, because it's too busy nibbling on the free essence to go through the work of taking it. It will instead happily get to processing as it nibbles.

The woman smiles at the node rather fondly, and then gets out a book of something and writes... something... in it. She marks the black dot signifying the node on her map with at set of symbols, and copies the symbols to the book. She notes another black dot on the map, and writes another entry with added symbols for that one, too.

It might be possible that the world doesn't need him. It seems to already have someone. But the someone probably won't mind sharing; there is an awful lot of world to save.