Twilight Mirage 10: Looking To Land

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Background

Episode description

In the virtual confines of the Contrition's Figure rehabilitation center, it has come time for the Beloved Dust to face their foes! The bounty hunter Fourteen Fifteen frees the convict Aura Antigua and places her in the care of protege Sho Salon, taking her place in the strange vise which had trapped her. Elsewhere, Signet and Tender Sky climb to great heights to confront the Iconoclasts... and to investigate the mysterious White Cloud entity.

Do you have room for...?

This week on Twilight Mirage: Looking To Land

The Living Library of Memorious // VOLUME 205E
Entities: Unknown Origin: Hybrid (Unconfirmed): Unknown Posture: "White Cloud"  

Little is know about the so-called "white cloud" entity, which was first detected in the Mirage minutes within the death of the divine Gumption. Debate about the identity, motives, and origin of the being run throughout the fleet, but early attempts to probe the white cloud have returned conflicting reports—when they return anything at all. Perhaps the only high-value information confirmed about the entity at the time of this entry is that it exists in a state of cross-state quantum entanglement, allowing it to maintain simultaneous presence in both physical space and the digital environment. Empyrean has marked this entity for further high priority study. Experts should report to the Perch in Seance.

I've been thinking about it a lot lately. Intervention. In so many of the dead societies I've studied, people get caught up on this debate about intervention. If something in these cultures is a threat, physical, environmental, political, they spend just so much time arguing whether or not to do something. It's so arrogant, and it totally misses the point.

This one place, they built sort of a false sun, a special generator, a seemingly-endless source of energy. It brought in a golden age, it really did. Billions of people had their lives improve. But one day that new sun began to collapse inward on itself, slowly, slowly. And they started arguing: Should they send in teams to fix it and risk their lives? Should they shut down the project even after it helped so many? How much of the remaining energy could they sacrifice trying to fix this?

By the time they started that debate, Satellite, our agents had already reported back the truth. The second they'd built that device, they were doomed. They hadn't built a generator, they'd strapped their world to a time bomb.

This is what separates us from cultures like theirs. We understand our limits. We know that sometimes there is no question of intervention, there is only an outcome prescribed by a mistake you may not even remember. People who think they know us say that the Rapid Evening is a group of self-appointed galactic police, that we butt in when it isn't necessary. But the truth is way more depressing. It's rare that we intercede. Not because we're cautious, not because we're callous. Because most of the time it's already too late. We see disaster again and again and again, and do nothing. Because, in so many cases, there is nothing to do but watch and wait.”

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