tushanshu_logs | EVENT | LANDFALL

EVENT | LANDFALL | VALISHAERA

Characters: ALL!
Date: JULY 13-26
Location: Valishaera
Situation: Tu Vishan has made landfall on Siaxhi, to explore the Dreaming Watch City of Valishaera.
Warnings/Rating: Please indicate content warnings in subject headers as applicable.

As Tu Vishan draws near, the heavy jungle visible even from miles out quickly identifies the landmass as Siaxhi, one of the westernmost continents in Konryu and one that has been largely untouched insofar as the kedan themselves have gone. There is a natural inlet along the southeast shore on the continent and Tu Vishan makes for that, though he fills nearly all of it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[While Enjolras has become somewhat used to new and exotic places, and the idea that dreamscapes can take one many places in a year, he's nonetheless, a bit baffled by what he has wandered into this time. What? But this is nothing like anything he knows or knew, or has seen. Nonetheless, it's pleasant enough, especially when what looks to be some sort of deer creature, only different to those he's seen in books, passes by him on her way to graze.

Still, what in the world?

Edited 2014-07-13 07:52 (UTC)

[Enjolras was followed into the fantastical dream world by Wan. He hadn't seen the other man go in, and in fact had entered more than ten minutes after him. But when he came out the other side, he seemed to have followed right after. Or perhaps that was just the perception of the dreamscape.

What did draw his attention was that same deer creature. She had horns and the body of a dear, but her face was more of a large cat's and her feet were paws. She was very familiar to Wan.

So he called out, hoping he wasn't seeing things.]

Mula?

[Enjolras turned at the sound of the voice, surprised to see another stepping in. He must have missed the other man somehow on his way through the portal here. Instead of focusing on the creature for the moment, as he heard its name being called, and was that a species, or a personal one, he merely looked interested at that.]

Is she of your world, then?

[The catdeer's ears perked up and she turned to look at Wan. Her bright green eyes staring at him for a moment before she bounded off into the mushroom forest, quickly disappearing from sight.

Wan's shoulders slumped before he turned to the other man and nodded.]

Yeah. She is. I guess she isn't the catdeer I thought she was, though. Mula wouldn't run away from me.

That is quite incredible. As long as I have been here, I do not believe that I will ever quite become accustomed to everything that's managed to come to join us from other worlds. Catdeer...

[An actual smile crosses his face at this. It's been rare for Enjolras, lately, but the fact a wonder like that would bring it on somehow seems right.]

I admit that things where I am from are quite, well, ordinary seeming compared to all of this. And I'd forgotten lately, how many marvels have made it here.

Catdeer are ordinary. And so is my world, really.

[Wan replied with a raised eyebrow. Enjolra's world would be a fasntasical dream world to Wan and incredibly advanced comparatively. Ordinary really was in the eye of the beholder.]

The mushrooms aren't from my world, though, if that's what you mean. Just the catdeer. I want to try and follow her. Do you want to come?

Ah, sorry.

[Enjolras was doing that thing he sometimes did, not clarifying his words completely, and probably being something like offensive in the process.]

That was me thinking out loud, assuming when I ought have asked more things instead.

[To his credit, he did, at least, look a little embarrassed, being caught in that.]

I suppose all of our worlds do have that one thing that makes them rather different from all others. In any case, we've no catdeer. But perhaps you have no printing press, or balloon or some other such thing we've learned to take for granted there.

If you would have me, I would gladly follow, thank you. I must admit I am rather curious to learn what more I can here, after all.

Never heard of a printing press or a balloon.

[Wan said with an easy smile as he waved for Enjolras to follow as he walked calmly in the direction the catdeer had gone.]

Tell me about them?

Oh, well then.

[Enjoras, less quick to smile these days, finds himself doing so anyway.]

Well, first of all, does your world have a written language?

[No more assumptions before saying things, for this conversation at least. So, better to find out before he continues any further with this.]

It does. I think the welcome center said it's called 'Chinese' here. That's such an odd name for it.

Ah, well...

[Enjolras looks intensely interested at this, considering that what he knows of China, for the most part, is that it exists and that teas, expensive and uncommon as they were at home, are imported from there. Add to the fact that, given the catdeer, it's a very different equivalent, or close to equivalent of China and he's somewhat hooked.]

That is actually intensely fascinating. I do not know much of China,the country that sounds closest to your home based on the language, and less still of one with creatures like your catdeer. I shall have to ask you to tell me more of your world again when I've done the same. So, the printing press. Essentially, the idea behind it is to spread the number of people that a message, either in a book, or an announcement or what have you. I would imagine you have scribes at home?

Well, think what an inconvenience it would be for the same scribe to copy a hundred versions of the same information time and time again. The scribe may make mistakes in some of their copies, and even a hundred of whatever you wanted to share, let us say a bit of important news, would not reach very many people.

With the printing press, one can create many copies of the same thing, and, in in the same type of writing, by laying out the standard letters...characters, actually...

[Enjolras is quick to correct things here, seeing as he remembers hearing enough of Chinese to know that it is written in characters which are a little different.]

Basically, the press eliminates the need for the same scribe to write out the same message time and time again as it allows for copies. as many as are needed, to be made, instead of written out. It actually began in the China that I mentioned. Cloth decoration of all things, was made possible with wood carvings. If a design was carved into a wooden block and paint applied to the design, it could be stamped out onto the cloth just like that. The same happened with writing, later on. One set of blocks, with paint, or ink applied to the design, or words, and stamped onto a surface, cloth or paper, can make a large number of copies over time. The first book was actually created that way, long ago.

[Enjolras is pausing here, a moment, trying to make sure that this makes sense. ]

But now, imagine that a scribe's style of writing, for whatever reason, cannot be easily read by everyone. One letter or character looks much like another, or something along those lines. It can cause so many problems. So, instead of relying on what everyone could create on their own, a standardized version was created. A standardized version of characters and letters that could easily be moved about and transformed to make up new lines of whatever news story or book, or whatever have you.

Eventually, when the techology reached Europe, er, the continent my country is in, many print makers worked to add and improve on it, and eventually, what we had were the forms of letters that could be arranged and moved about at will, on metal plates.

Now, a printer only need arrange the letters needed to spell out a word, or characters to create a sentence, ink his plates, and place a paper inside of them. By pressing down, and keeping the application of ink steady, he can make a copy of anything, many copies, actually, just like that, and everyone who can read the language that it is in can read and understand things all at once because they've been made standard.

The press also makes it cheaper to print and produce so many written things so even people who could not afford to read before can do so now. It really is amazing that so many people now have access to reading when they have not had it before. It means more people could be educated someday, at least in theory.

[Here, Enjolras is stopping, wondering if he's lost his listner along the way, though he certainly hopes not, now.]

I...my father in law [Close enough at least.] was a printer, so I learned a bit of it from him one day. I've also been a reporter and journalist, er, that is I write about the news so that others might know it too.

I've actually been looking for some sort of press to do the work a newspaper might need here, as well. I think that it might benefit us foreigners to have something that we can write or at least contribute to, so that everyone knows what is going on at once. Should I manage to find or create one, I would be very glad to show you a demonstration, actually. If you would care to see of course.

[Pretty big ifs, but Enjolras is still willing to extend an offer for that should he ever locate a press here, unlikely as it seems right now. And then he is smiling, grinning, at Wan in fact.]

And now, that's one of them. I'd love to hear more about your catdeer or the other creatures living in your world if you wouldn't mind speaking of those, at least.

Edited 2014-07-18 09:05 (UTC)

[Enjolras did actually lose Wan along the way. It was a lot of information at once and while he got the gist of the idea from 'woodblock prints' (because those they did have on the Lion Turtle), the rest of it was just... a little too much to process at one time. Especially the stuff about a country called China. He wanted to know more about that.

But he'd been asked a question and the other man had answered one of his, so it was only fair he return the favor.]

Catdeer are pretty common to the forest around the Lion Turtle city I grew up in. Lion Turtles are like the Great Turtle we've been brought to, but they're only about the size of the actual city. The Great Turtle is much, much larger than any Lion Turtle I've seen.

Anyway, like I said are pretty common to the forest around the city I grew up in. Peacock pigeons, skunk squirrels... animals like that actually lived in and around the city. There are a lot of animals in the rest of the world that are more amazing and whose names I'm not even sure of.

But the world is also inhabited by spirits. The land outside of the Lion Turtle Cities is called the Spirit Wilds. There are animal spirits, creature spirits, even spirits that are more about the concept of something. Like a river or Light and Peace. They're incredibly varied and describing each of them would take a lifetime.

I lived with spirits and animals in the Spirit Wilds for the last two years, learning their ways. But humans... the settlements on the Lion Turtles are very few and far between. Most humans don't know other settlements exist outside of their own. So there isn't contact between them the way things are in your world.

[China was something that Enjolras could not explain in much detail, sadly. Mostly, he knew of things that had been invented there and brought to Europe later, or in the case of printing, well, the history that connected to a thing that he was interested in. Well, he'd learned the China bits from Combeferre's father, when he'd learned that Enjolras was far more interested in journalism than in actually using his law degree to practice, but, sadly, he did not have a lot of other information. And he was not certain of who he might suggest would know.

But then, Wan was explaining catdeer, and the Lion Turtle and he fell to listening instead. More turtles that carried people about on their backs? He'd not have guessed. And then, the spirits themselves. He somewhat understood those a little, when it came to concepts. After all, what was La Marianne but the Spirit of the French Republic? ]

You lived with...that must have been a lot of learning. I admit it is a concept I have something of a hard time wrapping my mind around, as far as things in daily life must be concerned. And yes, that is rather different from what I know. I grew up by the sea and my village was small but still had several people, and then I lived in Paris, where we had so many. That was a strange enough adjustment for me then. I can only imagine what our turtle with all our people must be like after a life such as the one you mention.

["Our" turtle and "our" people. Enjolras had, at some point, apparently begun to see Tu Vishan as a home. It did not mean he had ever forgotten home, either one of them, but as he'd traded Cassis for Paris, he'd managed to do the same with Paris and here. The thought was somehow rather comfortable, even now.]

Well, as I said the city was about the same size. It didn't go all the way to the shell's edge, but it was pretty close. So I'm sort of used to the amount of people... just the idea of them, really. It's been a couple years since I actually lived with so many and that's taking some time to get used to again.

[He gave a quick shrug. The adjustment wasn't actually that strange for him. Or the people on it. He got the sense that he was one of the few foreigners that had little trouble with coming to live there.]

I think I would have liked to grow up near the sea. I've been to a Lion Turtle city on the edge of the ocean and I've traveled across the ocean, too. But I haven't spent a lot of time living near it. It was nice. If we didn't have to sleep in the buildings we have to because of the lanterns, not to mention the Great Darkness, I'd try to spend more time at the shell's edge. It's peaceful there.

[It's true that many of the foreigners do find this to be an incredibly strange place, yes. Enjolras probably would have found it so had he not been with others at the time who were able to sort of show him the ropes and ease his way into things. That had helped rather a lot in keeping him from going mad.]

It was very peaceful at that. The Shell's Edge is like it in a way, but there are differences as well. It rarely got so cold at home as it can here, for one thing, but the feeling is much the same staying out of the water.

[He'd learned that one rather the hard way, actually, not that he would have admitted it to anyone.] And you know, I ought to have tried it before we had the lanterns. It seems like it could have been good to do.

Before you had the lanterns?

[That caught Wan's attention. He'd only just arrived. All he'd known was life on the turtle with the lanterns in their rooms.]

I think that they were always around, now you mention it, but... they've only lately come to live with us.

[Enjolras remembers, in particular, a raid back a year ago, and then, in particular something that makes him suddenly a little ill.]

A few of us...we tried to remove one of them once, to pull from the palace and study it, when we were not all certain of the Late Empress's intentions.

I feel badly now, both for the attempt...if we had damaged it, that could have been a soul who was harmed, and for distrusting her. The Emperor who came after her is a strong leader, but I did grow to like Eshai very much.

The Late Empress? No one told me anything about who ruled before the Emperor. Is he very new?

[So much he hasn't learned about!]

He came to power around...a good six or seven months ago, I think it is now. It was winter when she was murdered. The Emperor had been her right hand so he's got that experience behind him.

I do feel badly for the man, really. [Yes, even Enjolras sometimes has these feelings, believe it or not.] Eshai was a...what is the phrase I've heard people use, a hard act to follow.

So he's not her son or family? Was he chosen by the Great Turtle to rule when she died?

He was rather more her second in command. I do not THINK that they are family in any sort of way, if it comes to that. It is more that...Evandu knows this island and the people, even foreigners, rather well by now. I do not think that there is anyone here who was surprised that he came to rule next.

[Enjoras sighs a little, looking somewhat pensive.]

Even I, much as I hate the concept of Empire and Monarchy, see how they are necessary here. Perhaps, in other worlds, they are not always the great evil that they are where I am from. The problem of abusive power has not yet come about here, after all. Well, in the case of our rulers, at least.

It's not the existence of rulers that create the abuse of power. It's the people in those positions that create it. They abuse the trust they've been given. Not all rulers are like that.

[Wan commented idly.]

And I'm glad Evandu doesn't seem to be one who does, either...

[Wan's voice trailed off as he spotted the Catdeer again. Or another one perhaps. He held up a hand to stop their advance and pointed at the creature as it stopped to drink at another pool of water.]

Shhh... over there.

I would venture that the system is in itself flawed, set up, in fact, to encourage those rulers who abuse that power, by giving it to them, but, I will admit that it is the world I come from which seems to have the most problems with such a thing as that. I have known kings, and an empress here, who I would trust with my life itself, and an emperor, who, in the months that I have known him, has done some great good, though he has a...what is the phrase some of the Americans around here use, tough act to follow?

[His gaze turns thoughtful then, considering.]

Never have I known rulers before, to be as interested in justice and fairness as the ones who I've known here. I think when I arrived, I was too quick to judge them all, to paint them with the brush of rulers I have known. My mind continues to be opened though, the longer I've been here.

Perhaps, not everything need be judged as harshly as I started out, I think.

[Wan only half-listened. He was very focused on that catdeer over there because now that he had a moment to study it, he was certain it was different than the one they'd seen before. In fact, it looked very, very familiar.]

Mula?

[He murmured her name before rushing forward and yelling loudly.]

Mula!

[The catdeer lifted it's head and looked at him from across the pond, ears flicking forward. It gave a soft 'mrowr' before turning and running away.

Wan, though, turned his head back to his new friend and grinned before following after her.]

That was Mula! She wants us to follow!

[That recognition is enough for Enjolras to decide that, as he is here already, and rather curious, he might as well come along.]

In that case, who am I to deny the lady her request?

[He's grinning too, then following after Wan as they move further off into this realm, already wondering what other surprises it may bring.]

EVENT | LANDFALL | VALISHAERA

Enjolras

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