Act I Intermission I
???????: what??
???????: the television just blanked out.
???????: ya’ll might want to come see this.
???????: What happened?
???????: don’t ask me. i was watching our scions as usual.
???????: they got into a weird pod machine and that’s when the television got..
???????: Spastic?
???????: oh come on, get with the times. the youngsters use the word ‘spazzing out’.
???????: relating to spasms, at least.
???????: Oh hey.
???????: Have you come out of your future meditation for a more specific purpose?
???????: have you come out of the Dark Room after hours, just to put down the way i spend time here?
???????: You know what happens in there stays in there. I usually never go in there of my own volition anyway.
???????: And come on, get with the times. The youngsters use the word ‘diss’.
???????: Relating to how I just ‘put down’ your argument, at least.
???????: there’s the zarifen i know.
???????: unfortunately, the signal disruption can’t be fixed so easily this time.
???????: the explanation is simple.
???????: the television is out because our descendants are unconscious.
???????: all 16 of them?
???????: damn, what happened in there?
???????: as luck would have it, there was an unprecedented solar flare starting a few seconds into the procedure, much bigger than any in recent centuries.
???????: there was also an earthquake, and the calibration gears in the solar array were shifted too far off course.
???????: so the powering process was indeed completed, but the resultant energy outburst was catastrophic.
???????: by my predictions, all whose aspects were not strong enough were completely obliterated.
???????: by that, you mean..?
???????: the rest of the entire world.
???????: holy shit.
ZARIFEN: Oh man, this is bad.
ZARIFEN: Can you see whether any of them..
ZARIFEN: Joined us here in the afterlife?
???????: my vision was way too clouded beyond this point. i suppose it’ll get better after this blows over, but until then?
???????: we can only do what the mortal world does.
???????: wait, and see what the future holds.
???????: alvises, i think we have a visitor.
KRANYON: Hello? Is anyone here? Or there?
ALVISES: oh fuck.
-end of chapter-