Landfall Something Something (Part Three)

> From: RosewingD (Dairdel.Rosewing@intel.eldercouncil.tam) > > To: Cariques (Joconard.Cariques@techsupport.temple.moth) > > By secret glyph: dreamsleeve transmission > > Security Protocols: ancestor wraithbone wards > > Clearance Level: Above Zenithar > > Authorization String: VHlwZSAob3IgcGFzdGUpIGhlcmUuLi5EYWlyZGVsLlJvc2V3aW5nQGludGVsLmVsZGVyY291bmNpbC50YW06RWxkZXIgQ291bmNpbCAgQnVzaW5lc3M= > > Transcript Resumes:

RosewingD: So... if we're not dead, why are we not dead?

Cariques: How should I know? I'm still getting used to the idea that I died.

RosewingD: Well, I think we can rule out conventional methods.

Cariques: There are conventional methods?

RosewingD: You know what I mean: Resuscitation, Raising, Resurrection...

Cariques: Yeah, I think I'd remember waking up in a clinic.

RosewingD: Or on an altar for that matter.

Cariques: That might depend on the altar of course. Know any quick tests for undeath?

RosewingD: You work in a temple - try getting someone to turn you.

Cariques: I work for Moth Priests. They have spells to drive off bookworm and dry rot, mainly.

RosewingD: Let me see if ... Ow!

Cariques: Ow?

RosewingD: Paper cut. If I'm undead, I'm not a "magical weapons only" type.

Cariques: Anyway, it's not so much like we came back to life; it's more as if we never died in the first place.

RosewingD: You thinking maybe a dragon break?

Cariques: Could be. Maybe we died, but someone changed time so that it never happened.

RosewingD: We didn't have any potential dragon breaking events on our watch list. Of course, it wouldn't be the first time something major flew under our radar.

Cariques: coughOblivion Crisiscough

RosewingD: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That never stops being funny.

Cariques: Anyway, whatever breaks the dragon, it doesn't need to happen now.

RosewingD: It doesn't?

Cariques: Dragon breaks rewrite history. Therefore it has to be something that happens in the future. It could be a long way into the future.

RosewingD: Of course, that's assuming that we are the important actors here.

Cariques: Well we have to be fairly close to the thread of events. People that weren't involved generally don't remember anything having changed.

RosewingD: So something we were about to do or that we are about to do was important enough to rewrite history to bring us back from the dead?

Cariques: Potentially, I suppose

RosewingD: Potentially? It's obvious! It must be the plan you were about to propose to solve the Dwemer problem!

Cariques: I, um, I suppose we can't rule that out...

RosewingD: So what was the plan? We have a second chance here! Let's get cracking!

Cariques: Well about that...

RosewingD: Yes?

Cariques: I, ah, I can't remember what it was.

RosewingD: What do you mean, you can't remember?

Cariques: There are gaps in my memory from just before ... you know.

RosewingD: You have got to be kidding me!

Cariques: It was all so clear... and then when I try to go there, it's just music.

RosewingD: Wait ... does it go sort of "la-la-lah la-la la-la-lah la-la-lah, la-la-lah la-la-lah la-la-LA!"

Cariques: Whoah! Don't go singing that!

RosewingD: What? Why not?

Cariques: There's a document in our archives about a priest who was traveling too fast when he hit Enlightenment and couldn't stop in time. We managed to catch a memospore transcript when he evaporated.

RosewingD: That sounds unpleasant, and yet oddly irrelevant.

Cariques: Rosey, his thoughts at the moment of his death were all in music! Worse, if you transcribe the music and get an orchestra to play it, everyone that hears it also evaporates.

RosewingD: Y'ffre save us! I need another tune to get that one out of my head!

Cariques: You haven't heard the worst of it.

RosewingD: "A-doo-doo-doo, a-dah-daa-dah.."

Cariques: There's a note attached to the transcript: apparently, it was only some fancy footwork with the Chim-El Adabal that contained that discorporation event to the people listening.

RosewingD: "ta tum-ti tum-ti tum-ti-too"

Cariques: It seems that particular recital came perilously close to unraveling the entire Empire.

RosewingD: ... wait, you think that's what happened to us?

Cariques: Well it could just be that our deaths are also capable of musical expression. Still it can't hurt to see if anyone accessed the vault containing the rapture weapons.

RosewingD: I'll check that. But that doesn't get us any closer to finding out what we're supposed to do.

Cariques: I got nothing at this end.

RosewingD: Why bring us back if we can't do the thing we were brought back to do? We are so screwed!

Cariques: Well, on the bright side, we're still here. So there's still time to do it, whatever it was.

RosewingD: Doesn't help much if we don't know what it was.

Cariques: Hey, maybe it's not us.

RosewingD: What do you mean?

Cariques: Well, the break could have been in the far future. Maybe it's not us that are the pivotal actors, but our descendants

RosewingD: What, both of our descendants? That seems quite a coincidence

Cariques: Not if they're the same people. Maybe the thing we need to do is to make babies together.

RosewingD: Not this again.

Cariques: Hey come on! We can save the universe and have fun at the same time.

RosewingD: Cariques, if the fate of the universe depends on us having sex, then the universe is just going to have to end.

Cariques: Hey, somewhere in the future it's already happened!

RosewingD: It's never going to happen.

Cariques: You can't argue with history, babe.

RosewingD: Call me "babe" again and I'm going to take a steak knife and make sure you never father anyone, ever!

Cariques: I'll be round at your place in fifteen minutes, OK? Don't forget the ready meal and the mood music.

RosewingD: Jacko, I'm warning you...

+++ Transcription Paused +++