Quiet rage.

Disbelief.

Shock.

These are some of the things I'm feeling as I sit here on a rock, looking out over the ocean here at Deep Water.

Serene. It's gone. At least the Serene that I created a link to is gone. What's there now is.....well not Serene, and yet it is Serene.

I should have seen this coming. I should have been able to keep it from happening..........

Several days ago, I decided to link to Serene. The snow and wind always put in me in the holiday mood, and with Thanksgiving approaching, it felt like it was just the ticket.
To my shock and horror, my linking book was not working. The linking panel no longer showed Serene, but instead was a grey swirl and smoke. The link had been severed. How?
I immediately thought of Quinn and the fact that I had given him the Descriptive Book to Serene for study. My thoughts turned to concern for his safety. Had something happened to him while he had the book?

I started linking to all the places I could think of where he might be. When I got to Neolbah, I found a note from Dot sitting on her desk:

"Andy

I think Quin has overwritten sections of your Descriptive Book for Serene. See his entries in the Shell 415 logbook for November 2010.

Dot

When I read that note, my feelings of concern for Quinn vanished. Instead, I went ice cold with rage.

I linked to Shell 415 in Ahra Pahts where I found D'lanor and Ametist working hard. As I approached them, I guess they could tell how upset I was. D'Lanor's face went blank except for the quick blinking of his eyes. Ametist had started to smile at me, but the smile shattered and I don't think I've seen her go that pale before.
I stopped in front of them and asked quietly, "Where's Quinn?"

Ametist's eyes got even wider at the tone of my voice. "I'm not sure Andy." she replied with an unsure voice. She then pointed towards a hedge. "But he was here earlier. He left that linking book to Serene over there.".

I walked over to the book and picked it up. Opening it showed a working linking panel to Serene......but yet, not quiet Serene.

Turning towards D'Lanor and Ametist, my hand hovered over the linking panel. My eyes met theirs. D'Lanor's mouth hardened to a straight line, and his head gave a slight nod.

My hand slapped down onto the linking panel and I faded away from Shell 415.

I'd seen understanding in D'Lanor's eyes. He knew Quinn had done something unforgivable.

Quinn had destroyed an Age.

_________________


My Tutorials

It was Serene, but not Serene.

I stood there, I don't know how long. Numb, but not from the cold. Numb with shock, anger, and strangely wonder all at the same time.
The path was made of different stone. There were more trees. Even the snow looked different to my eyes.

Finally I slowly turned around to the Nexus book stand. It was still there, and even looked the same. An Age Anchor? I'd never thought about it. But Anchor or not, the linking book ot the Nexus was gone.

I moved slowly down the path, an saw a temple. There was red light coming from it. I stopped again.

I knew that design. I'd seen it in pictures. It was from some of the places Quinn had been.

Quinn. My hands curled into fists on their own. How could he do this? How could he just disregard every thing I'd said about Descriptive Books?

I went no further, but quickly linked back to my Relto. My feet went out from under me and I sat down hard on the ground. I began to shake with rage. The temper I'd gotten from my mother, that ugly beast that I always keep chained up and caged. It raged against the bars of it's cage. Howling to get out. It would not stay locked up.

So be it. I was alone. I let it out.

Sometime later, I came to my senses, laying on my side, breathing hard and feeling exhausted. My vision was blurry from tears.
I quickly sat up and wiped them from my eyes.
The beast was back in it's cage. Locked up where it would stay. Still seething, but under control now.

I got on my feet and walked to my Relto hut.

It was time to confront Quinn.

------------------------------------------------

I found Quinn in Neolbah. He was in Dot's office, with Dot. I could see the concern on her face, yet Quinn's expression was one of confusion.

I began to speak, addressing Quinn. I kept my voice low, steady but ice cold.
I dressed Quinn down. Describing how irresponsible his actions had been. How he'd had no right to tamper with an Age that was not of his creation. That never again would I trust him with anything so precious.

Quinn's eyes widened only briefly, but his expression quickly turned hard. Instead of regret, remorse, or guilt, he instead looked at me with his own anger, and what looked like disgust.

When I was done speaking, he simply linked out.

The office remained quiet for a few minutes, then Dot spoke.

"Andy. I know how angry you must be. Please realize that Quinn in many ways can be like a child. A child who has lost a whole world and saw a way to bring at least part of it back. Can you understand that?"

I looked over at Dot. "Yes I can understand it. You are right in that he's like a child. And like a child, who wishes so hard to bring something back, he had no thought of the fact he was going to cause the exact same loss on me. Maybe you can explain that to him some time. That while he may have brought something he lost back, he's inflicted the exact same loss that he suffered upon me."

I shook my head sadly. "Sorry Dot. I've got to be alone for a while."

And with that, I linked out. Maybe Deep Water could make me feel better.

_________________


My Tutorials

As I had feared would happen, Quin has gone. I've tried everywhere, contacted everyone.

He must have been in Shell 415 at some point yesterday, for he updated the logbook there:

Logbook in Shell 415, entry for 27 November

I can't describe how I am feeling right now.

_________________
Resources for open-source Uru: OpenUru; rel.to
Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums

The seasons turn, and life goes on...

I returned to Elspeth Sorrelwood's home, Skysong House, to find that winter has returned to Winterfell. The snowy landscape looks so peaceful in that twilight realm.

This, it turns out, is something of a contrast with what is going elsewhere in the Steamlands of that world. Caledon, the country south of Winterfell, has declared war on the Mainland, and its Guv'nor has contacted other Steamland leaders to form alliances. To my relief Winterfell's Seneschelf has decided to maintain neutrality in this conflict. (To be honest, when I initially heard the rumour of war, my first thought was "What domestic issues in Caledon does the Guv'nor want to distract attention from?")

Be that as it may... I have contacted Mr Whitfield to let him know what has happened with regard to Quin. I suspect that Quin is more likely to get in touch with him at the moment, since I was already trying to gently explain the problems with changing the descriptive book to Quin before Andy confronted him so powerfully. He was proud of what he felt he had achieved and could not see what the difficulty was.

_________________
Resources for open-source Uru: OpenUru; rel.to
Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums

Thursday the Security Ombudsman came to Shell 415 for an inspection:




What he said was that the site misses signs that tells how to protect one self, and also that it must be a sign outside to
let visitors know it's a buldingsite.

Also he noticed some of the plates changed position, the had sunk down a bit. He took them up and dug a little hole, noticing the gravel was wet. New, thicker layers with gravel and sand has to be laid on that spot. ( I noticed myself that some of the plates to the right of the path on a spot near the bench, has sunk a bit)

So these things have to be done ASAP - new inspection in a month.


We are on the way to put roofs on the apartments, starting with Dots

Edited for spelling.

_________________
MOULa KI 294014

Last edited by ametist on Tue Dec 07, 2010 4:49 pm; edited 1 time in total

I was grateful to ametist for dealing with the Ombudsman -- handling bureaucracy has never been my forte.

Her translation of the report was interesting. I went to check myself, and saw the slight subsidence around the shell entrance, where the paving slabs were indeed uneven and a slight moisture was evident within the cracks.

Since most of the water in Ahra Pahts seems frozen, the presence of liquid water beneath our shell is potentially very useful, especially for the planned feature in the far area opposite the entrance.

Quin is still missing. When I last linked to the spheres' source world, it was obvious that the instabilities he had noted were continuing. Mat Mahogany was there. He said that using the technology available to him, he had moved his home island of Tallis and the lovely Kamali region across to a parallel world temporarily for safety. He mentioned seeing Quin one day, but Quin was preoccupied and hadn't returned his greeting.

=====
Edit: I've just linked there again. Waysmeet and Deepwater have vanished. Only Paislee's island of Curiosity is there. What is going on?

In Quin's continued absence, I'd better assume responsibility for the Devokan Trust.

_________________
Resources for open-source Uru: OpenUru; rel.to
Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums

Last edited by Dot on Wed Mar 02, 2011 2:58 pm; edited 1 time in total

Restoration of the central butte continues apace. A new house has been built on the old foundation. I am now in the process of installing a cast iron stove.

I have been modestly successful at generating electrical power with themopiles and native crystals using the piezoelectric effect. Much of the light comes from gas lamps burning methane from the plant mat that covers the larger buttes. The discovery of a submerged wind generator offers hope of plenty of electrical power.

After the loss of my beloved Windring Island and the finding of this place, I had hoped that Nuevo Relto would remain stable. The geology certainly suggests that it has been for a long time. That may be changing. Strange fogs have appeared and the sky keeps changing color. On top of that, islands to the West have started to vanish. All of this makes me nervous. I don't know what is happening let alone how to stop it.

It was fortunate that I placed a beacon transmitter on the central butte a few days ago. The region has moved. It is quite unpleasant to find nothing but water where there was land. Fortunately I had direction finding equipment stored on the nearby island of Tannhauser Gate, a long but doable swim.

I managed to get good triangulation data from Bade Plaza, SeaPryor , and Tannhauser Gate. I know where the region is. Now to prepare for a long sea voyage.

With Quin still missing after nearly two weeks, I'm assuming full responsibility for Trust matters -- including keeping the logbook up to date.

Work on Shell 415 is continuing. Ametist has installed warning signs -- although some are in Swedish, the graphics get across the message to the rest of us. Scaffolding is being used for the first time as the builders prepare to roof my apartment.

D'Lanor, ametist and I have been discussing how to secure linking and descriptive books in order to prevent the problems that happened with Serene. We've agreed that in my apartment there will be a secure book room, with keypad-controlled access. D'Lanor is currently developing the control panel mechanism -- his initial prototypes work very well indeed.

_________________
Resources for open-source Uru: OpenUru; rel.to
Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums

As I thought he might do, Quin has turned up at Mr Whitfield's guest rooms. Although he still hasn't been in touch with me directly, he has posted an update of his doings on the Winterfell forums:

Quinquifid wrote:

I am most grateful to Mr Whitfield for the chance to stay once more in his comfortable guest rooms. The past two weeks have required strenuous mental and physical effort on my part -- to say nothing of having to deal with a strong emotional response to the misinterpretation of my earlier actions.

So here I am, sitting at the desk in the cosy upstairs study, fire blazing in the hearth, myself pondering how to respond to my critics, and typing out my thoughts on the most-excellent Steambook Pro (whose price, I note, has gone down since I bought mine -- c'est la vie).

I have come to the conclusion, after all that I have gained and lost over the past eighteen months, that no world can be regarded as sufficiently stable to be regarded as 'home', not when all can be lost in less than a month, with so little warning.

Rather, what is required is to duplicate what one can across several worlds -- hence my experiment in Serene, in bringing elements from the spheres' world into the Uru universe. Yes, it destroyed the old Serene, but surely the achievement of melding two previously separate worlds should be celebrated, not condemned.

Instability continues in the spheres' source world. It is that with which I have been working over the past days and weeks. I have successfully caused the islands of Deepwater and Waysmeet to be transported to a new place on that world's map. I also took the opportunity of merging my base in that world, the Lost Pages region, with the transported islands.

It gives me great satisfaction to stand at the window of my laboratory and look across to the tree village and the tranquil island of Deepwater, knowing that, having once more been able to move them out of harm's way, I can repeat the action should the need arise.

There is still much to be done. I have not been in touch with Miss Paislee or Miss Dot since the incident with Serene. The replication of elements across the worlds is vital -- I must discuss with them how this might be achieved, even here in Winterfell.

At least he acknowledges the need to talk!

_________________
Resources for open-source Uru: OpenUru; rel.to
Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums

Last edited by Dot on Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:55 pm; edited 1 time in total

...
Continuing on a North East course along the beacon heading. Wind is steady from the South at 8 knots with just a little chop. Made a course correction 9 degrees North at 10:45 and 4 degrees North at 13:30. It appears that there is a fairly strong surface current in this area. Too bad I don't have time to map it.

At dawn I sent the remote controlled thropter out along the beacon heading. At its extreme range it too photos of what looks like the top of the central butte of Nuevo Relto. The region is right where I thought it was. Assuming fair winds and following seas, I should be within spyglass range in two or three days, plus another day to make landfall.

I crashed the thropter again while trying to land it. This time it is broken for good. I haven't the tools to repair it. I recovered the film and tossed the thing overboard. It served its purpose.

Quin's observations chimed strongly with my own, especially that:

Quote:

no world can be regarded as sufficiently stable to be regarded as 'home', not when all can be lost in less than a month, with so little warning. Rather, what is required is to duplicate what one can across several worlds...

Accordingly, my thoughts came full circle, and when a suitable plot of land became available in Winterfell Reverie I snapped it up.

I contacted Paislee. She was coping well with the instability over in the spheres' source world, and though her island of Curiosity was now isolated and mostly submerged, she has managed to move key structures on to higher ground out of the reach of the waves.

We discussed what we might do, and agreed that the place we both missed most from our old Devokan home was the Inn, a lovely old carriage house. So, we set to, and on the newly acquired plot in Winterfell Reverie that handsome structure now stands.

Paislee needed to link back to Curiosity -- she is keeping Mr Mahogany informed of developments, and he in turn is working to stabilise the island -- leaving me to work on the landscaping. While I was busy adjusting the levels, who should turn up but Quin!

He was looking far more relaxed than he has been over the past year. He too expressed pleasure at seeing the old carriage house once more, and mentioned "enjoying Miss Paislee's delicious home-made soup in the Inn in happier times" (I'm not sure whether he was hinting here -- tough, if he was, because I don't cook).

He swiftly moved on to other matters, particularly emphasising the idea of developing "homes-from-home" across the various worlds, so that "no matter what transpires, we still have a refuge somewhere". He said how he had been able to move the islands of Deepwater and Waysmeet, and his base to overlook the two areas.

Dusk was falling by the time Quin set off, back to Mr Whitfield's guest rooms. The stay there is obviously doing him some good.

_________________
Resources for open-source Uru: OpenUru; rel.to
Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums

Last edited by Dot on Tue Dec 28, 2010 5:57 pm; edited 1 time in total

...
Finally spotted the central butte this afternoon, but saw no sign of the signal fire. I may be just too far away.

The wind has changed. It now blows from the North East at a mostly steady 18 knots. Since noon I have had to tack every 20 minutes in order to stay on course. It's going to be a long night but I should make landfall late tomorrow morning.

Spotted a strange thing today. I can only describe it as a giant soap bubble. It appeared to be perfectly round and many hundreds of meters in diameter. It was moving South or South West very fast and I soon lost sight of it.

...
Made landfall, or rather ran aground at about 3:30am, just a few minutes after tacking to starboard. The ship was torn port side, below the water line and she sank quickly in shallow water. She ran aground on a rock pillar that had fallen and partially submerged. I didn't spot the signal fire simply because it had gone out. Should have known.

Many of the provisions were destroyed but I was able the save the gate components which is quite fortunate because it saves me from having to repair and re-float the ship in order to get more provisions for the restoration. Once the gate is fully operational I will have direct access to Tannhauser and the Plazas, as well as indirect access to the Gisco office and the cavern.

Right now the Sego Lillys best use is a source of construction material but I will miss her.

So ends the log of the Sego Lilly.

Having completed various design briefs for elements in Shell 415, I decided to drop by Mr Whitfield's guest rooms and fill Quin in with what was happening.

Quin was in a good mood. He spoke enthusiastically of his studies, though with that obfuscation of jargon that some scholars delight to employ (the high-priest syndrome, I call it).

To bring the day to a close, I decided to sail back to the house at Winterfell Reverie. There are many waterways in Winterfell; in fact the main way to travel between the various regions is by boat.

The journey north was uneventful until I reached Winterfell Sanctuary, where Elspeth Sorrelwood's cottage, Skysong House, used to be -- note the verb: USED to be. The house had vanished, though the rockpool, waterfall, trees and plants were still there.

Worried by this, I quickly tacked back to Winterfell Reverie. The carriage house was still there (to my relief!). And when I went indoors, on my desk was a letter, addressed to me, in Elspeth Sorrelwood's distinctive handwriting...

_________________
Resources for open-source Uru: OpenUru; rel.to
Cross-world story and project planning: Devokan forums