[Open] Working on a Unified Theory

kaimana

how beautiful the leaves grow old

You've been spending more time around the Spire despite your deep and visceral dislike of the structure, trying to face your fears a bit better and figure out, well, why.

Also, you've been on the lookout for new outlanders, because all the ones you've met so far are biased due to prior experience and you and Oia really really want to observe one from moment one.

Two goals: a good basis for any experiment, really, though it means there's a lot to keep track of. Your own feelings and the goings on, because your heartbeat is accelerating in the shadow of the structure and you're keeping an eye out for Outlanders and you and Oia are eating lunch and debating human animal responses and adaptations and why they seem so bad at being alive sometimes.

That's when the new Outlander appears.

Your head pops up at the same time as your sisters, two merecats staring up from the grass. He just appeared, out of a portal, right before your eyes---! "Yes!" you declare exuberantly, already rising to your feet, clearly thrilled by the possibility the stranger presents. "An' maybe if we observe him from now until he's assimilated we can learn more about Outlander adaptations to the Hollowed Grounds without memory an' experience to bias it!"

how full of light and color are their last days