The Knights Next Door

[little wheel he/him]

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But spanreeds are also instantaneous. 

Tyler began crawling around the attic, looking for Douse. "Douse, buddy? Where are you? If this is about anything I said, I'm sorry. Where are you, little guy?"

[old man moomba he/him]

12 minutes ago, JacobClaessen said:

Tyler began crawling around the attic, looking for Douse. "Douse, buddy? Where are you? If this is about anything I said, I'm sorry. Where are you, little guy?"

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So. If you're on Earth, communication to another point on Earth is going to have subsecond latency. They would only be useful if you wanted to have a totally secure conversation or you don't have access to the worldwide communication network.

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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Is there a reason why?

Also, how updated is Doc on the Radiant communications network?

 

[old man moomba he/him]

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Why what?

I assume he's very up-to-date, as he's one of only three Bondsmiths, who are leaders in the Radiant community.

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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Why there's a delay.

Given that one of them just died, and the third one is James... 

When does he get word about what happened in Colorado?

 

[old man moomba he/him]

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Like I said before: Communication between two points on earth will have no noticeable latency (time delay) Also, we don't know that spanreeds operate at FTL speeds, they may just work at light speed. We'll not know for a while.

(Unless there's a relevant WoB I don't know about)

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

On 4/11/2016 at 1:20 PM, Kurkistan said:

Ah yes, one other signing-report thing: I was distracted by the draft, but I distinctly heard Brandon talking with the other table about space travel as relates to Roshar. He was talking about how the magic can already control gravity/pressure and the like, but the thing that stood out clearly was that he was saying that they already had an ansible.

 

The only candidate for that is spanreeds/conjoiner fabrials, so that's a nice confirmation there that they communicate faster than light.

[old man moomba he/him]

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Still doesn't apply. The only time FTL communication is useful is when you're in space. Sadly, we aren't. So I don't see the point. Spanreeds are cool, sure, but basically useless. 

 

[Karger he/him]

17 minutes ago, Dr. Dapper said:

Still doesn't apply. The only time FTL communication is useful is when you're in space. Sadly, we aren't. So I don't see the point. Spanreeds are cool, sure, but basically useless. 

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You can't eavesdrop on them.

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

36 minutes ago, Dr. Dapper said:

Still doesn't apply. The only time FTL communication is useful is when you're in space. Sadly, we aren't. So I don't see the point. Spanreeds are cool, sure, but basically useless. 

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For one, they're less likely to break than phones, because they're less complicated. But I digress. The main reason I'm asking is because I want to know when and how the news gets to the house about the fall of the Radiant enclave in Colorado.

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by xinoehp512

[old man moomba he/him]

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You can argue that spanreeds could be useful is more than a few situations.

-Totally secure conversations

-Emergency/backup communications

-Communication in remote areas

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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All very good reasons. I could see why it would not be out of the ordinary for a Radiant in the Colorado enclave to be carrying a spanreed (only it would probably be a spanpen) just for situations like the one that just happened. They might even connect directly to Doc. 

 

[old man moomba he/him]

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I like providing counterarguments.

Jamie stumbled into Cassie's room and collapsed on the floor. 

"Hey," she said with a yawn, "Do you know if your uncle has any motorcycles? He told me about how he's got all these vehicles he's repairing. That got me wondering."

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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I guess the conversation's over, then.

Draug went up to his room. It had been a tiring day, even with Stormlight to sustain him, and he was ready to sleep.

So Draug slept, and while he slept, he dreamed…

He was standing on the shore of what appeared – at first glance – to be a beach, with a long, sandy coastline and waves lapping at the shore. The sky above was a clear blue, with the sun shining brightly down. But this was no idyllic beach scene, a fact made immediately obvious by the color of the water - a deep, pitch black.

Draug looked around with a sinking feeling. He'd thought that by coming here to Seattle, where, he'd heard, Sha-thoexis was weak, he could avoid the constant battles every night. But it looked like that was not to be.

As he mused, the tide began coming in and the waves swept further and further up the shore.He could see small black creatures scuttling along the sand each time a wave withdrew, digging themselves into the pale sand to hide from predators that didn't exist here.

This was his life. When he was asleep, the real world seemed like a dream to him, and he felt the same about the dream world when he was awake. He'd been fighting Sha-thoexis for so long, living in the simulated environments she instigated, that he'd started to feel like he was two people.

The sky began to darken as clouds rolled in. Draug shivered as the temperature dropped a few degrees and imagined a cloak to cover him. Below, the waves pushed harder and harder towards his position. He could step back, he knew, but it wouldn't forestall what was to come.

He'd seen all of this before, and he'd see it all again. His dream-battlegrounds were always one of a set; he hadn't seen a new one form in years. They were patterns, specific to him; analogies for how he unconsciously interpreted the attacks. His subconscious had developed them from the formless dreams they had been when they had first arrived.

He knew what would happen. So when the few plants that could live on a sandy shore began to wither and die, he did nothing. When a powerful wave surged forwards far harder than should have been possible and began to race up the bank, he just stood there braced to meet the onslaught. And when the black water reached his ankles, he was ready to face it.

A whisper began to echo in his head. It was indistinct, composed of what sounded like a dozen different voices all saying different things, all mixing together into one. The voices overlapped and shifted, a chorus of shifting voices gradually getting louder and louder. Draug gritted his teeth, raised his sword, and swung, pushing against the force in his head. He could feel himself crashing against Sha-thoexis, desperately fighting back her advances- but he was woefully underpowered.

.And then, abruptly the voices started to fade. Draug stumbled and fell in mid-swing, surprised.

 The wave slowed its advance, then began sliding back out to sea. The clouds rolled away, the temperature rose, and plants began to revive- all within seconds. Within no time at all, the scene had gone back to the way it had been at the beginning.

Draug stood up slowly, confused. What had that been? Sha-thoexis never withdrew from a fight. Why would she? She was always stronger than he was.

Or was she? Maybe Seattle's protection bubble was helping him out after all.

As he mused on this, a crazy notion began to come to him. If Sha-thoexis was weaker, here and now, could he- perhaps- win? Could he make her let him into her mind?

He took a step forwards, towards the water, paused to consider, then continued. When he had gotten to the highest point of the last wave, he stopped, breathed in and out, and raised his sword. Then he charged straight into the water.

As soon as he touched it, he heard the whispers. But this time, instead of defending against their attacks, he went on the offensive, pushing at them with some mental force.

The voices wavered for a moment, then broke. He tripped as they gave way, crashing onto ground that had - all of a sudden- become solid. The setting around him shifted and changed, sky darkening. Slowly, he stood up, surveying the new landscape.

The sky above was a solid black. The only light came from glowing globes of clear gold that hovered nearby. A thin mist made of flashing silver particles lay over everything he could see. But it wasn't thin everywhere-Tendrils of thick silver smoke were forcing their way forwards, brushing against the golden globes.

He shivered. Somehow, without knowing, he knew that the golden globes were the minds of people, and that the mist represented Sha-thoexis. From the looks of it, these people had never faced Sha-thoexis before, not in her strength- how would they react now? Would any fall?

He reached out and touched his hand to a nearby globe- then yanked it back quickly, as though burned. That was a powerful nightmare, he thought with worry. Would their defenses be enough to handle it?

He moved over to some of the other globes- some were awake, but those who weren't had nightmares. None of them was in as much danger as the first, though- a relief, for sure. But that didn't stop him from worrying.

And then his eyes fell on a globe that was almost entirely clear. All of sudden, he remembered Jamie. And with that came the memory of his tutor telling him about why exactly one never found people of magic systems wandering about the Western US.

With horror, he realized that one of the dark tendrils had almost reached the globe. He flung himself towards the globe, not even thinking about it, just trying to get there before the tendril.

His hand touched the globe.

And then the scene changed.

 

[Bookish Ocelot she/her]

"Uh, Jason?" Leona asked. "You need to be a lightweaver or an elsecaller to soulcast. And on top of that, you have to go to the cognitive realm."

[old man moomba he/him]

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Ok. But Jamie didn't go to sleep yet...

 

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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It's not exactly chronological. Draug probably took a few minutes to fall asleep. During which time this happened...

In the Cognitive Realm, Sha-thoexis swirled. Tendrils of silver mist, already strained from reaching all the way through the protected city, struggled against the powerful barrier the house presented. But slowly, surely, they were making way.

One brushed against the mind of one of the Radiants. The sound of whispers intermingling could be heard, faintly- then faded as the tendril drifted away.

 

[+Sorana she/her]

50 minutes ago, xinoehp512 said:

In the Cognitive Realm, Sha-thoexis swirled. Tendrils of silver mist, already strained from reaching all the way through the protected city, struggled against the powerful barrier the house presented. But slowly, surely, they were making way.

One brushed against the mind of one of the Radiants. The sound of whispers intermingling could be heard, faintly- then faded as the tendril drifted away.

 

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Can we sense this somehow?

Mahad realized that the newcomer could see him and flew towards his face at full speed his dark, cloud-like body shaped like a small dragon.

@ShadowLord_Lith

Edited May 7, 2019 by Sorana

[xinoehp512 he/him]

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Yes. Whomever gets touched (and there's going to be more than one) is going to hear the whispering faintly.

 

[Lunar Blessing she/her]

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Why am I here? Sorana! Why did you @ me!

 @Sorana

Edited May 7, 2019 by Blessing of Potency

[+Sorana she/her]

32 minutes ago, Blessing of Potency said:

Why am I here? Sorana! Why did you @ me!

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I wanted to@ Lith *sighs* sorry...

 

[Lunar Blessing she/her]

2 minutes ago, Sorana said:

I wanted to@ Lith *sighs* sorry...

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Welp, you get me instead! What did you need Lith for? I definitely got this

 

[Karger he/him]

42 minutes ago, Sorana said:

Can we sense this somehow?

"I have a plan for dealing with the unmade," said Luther.

[+Sorana she/her]

3 minutes ago, Blessing of Potency said:

Welp, you get me instead! What did you need Lith for? I definitely got this

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Hmmm... Cookie?

===============

"An Unmade??"

Shana exclaimed.

"Where? Can I fight it?"

She asked enthusiatically.

@Karger

Edited May 7, 2019 by Sorana

[Lunar Blessing she/her]

10 minutes ago, Sorana said:

Hmmm... Cookie?

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I got you! 

*pulls sugar cookie out of nowhere*