text | day 008 | HE412T

[timaeus]

[This text post comes after a few hours of radio silence following Dirk's first messages.]

Surprise, I survived.
"I told you so" etc etc.
Turns out the locals are pretty chill, all things considered.
I've learned their language and they have accepted me as one of their own.
By which I mean I'm cooling my heels in one of their longhouses for the rest of the night after they explained their whole Lost-adjacent dogma to me.
And I learned some shit you folks will probably be interested to hear about, judging by the fat wad of nothing y'all were able to tell me.
Key takeaways:
One, this particular group of natives speaks Morse code.
Tongue clicks for dots and hums for dashes.
Might wanna brush up on it if you don't feel like getting speared should you have a run-in with them.
And two, the people responsible for whatever this is are somewhere to the southeast, presumably on another island.

Comments

voice; SH442K

[sharktrash]

Fuckin' seriously?! We rot here for days on a fat wad of nothing and you just wake up and blunder right into the middle of the guys with the answers?

[ Excuse him, he needs a moment to be outraged. It's not particularly aimed at Dirk, though, he's just frustrated and tired and what the fuck. ]

Really though, that's some luck. Well, assuming you're not getting sacrificed to the volcano god tomorrow. They mention anything about shooting people with crossbolts?

text

[timaeus]

I understand the frustration, but I gotta ask:
Did anyone actually *try* interacting with them?
Because just mentioning the footprints had people telling me to run away.
I'm hardly the most socially skilled person in the world, but it wasn't that hard to just approach the people that seem like they've been here a while and go, "hey, what the fuck is going on?"

[Clearly anyone could have figured out their language and made use of it on the fly. It's not like it was hard.]

And no, I didn't see any crossbows.
The tech level seems more bows and spears.

voice;

[sharktrash]

Can't talk for others, but I haven't come across anything or anyone to interact with. Didn't even see any footprints, let alone people.

[ Which might be for the best. He's familiar with Morse Code, but by no means proficient in it, so translating it on the go isn't something he could just do. Maybe if he could write it down and then stare at it for a couple minutes, but the audience might not be willing to wait. He's probably going to spend some time going over the alphabet in his head now, at least. ]

Think if you ask 'em not to shoot people on sight if they don't talk their weirdo dialect, they'd take it to heart?

[ But oh. Hmm. Bows and spears don't sound all that intimidating, if he's honest. Of course, a skilled archer can still down you with an arrow to the eye, but comparatively there's less chance at that than being hit with a machine gun. ]

What else did you see? Any other weapons they have? Comms? Do they know about any other inhabitants that might be hunting people out here?

[timaeus]

Maybe.
I can't claim to have an amazing rapport with them just yet, but they seem reasonable enough.
I'll try to put the request in tomorrow, and see if they know about any other people on the island.

[sharktrash]

Well, at least put the suggestion out there. Might prevent a few deaths at least.

[ He doesn't know how much it might actually help, but so far it doesn't sound like it might have occurred to the locals that there might be others who don't speak their language. If someone else but HE412T had run into them first, chances are they'd be dead. ]

Have they mentioned anything about trying to reach those southeast people?

[timaeus]

Doesn't sound like they have any interest in going there.
This is their "paradise", and that's where the bad people were exiled to.
But they did say the Glencolans have tried and failed to return here multiple times.

[sharktrash]

Interesting idea of paradise, for sure.

Failed how? Did they fight them off?

[timaeus]

They said "the Great Whale denied them" many times.
Jury's still out on what that might mean.

[sharktrash]

That doesn't exactly narrow it down. What the fuck is "the great whale"? An actual animal? A security system? An anti-missile tank?

[timaeus]

Fuck if I know.
But I do intend to find out, one way or another.

[sharktrash]

If you do, let me know. I intend to test some limits myself.

[ raft arc my beloved... ]

[timaeus]

Sure.
I'll be in touch.

[ squalo ain't the only one that'll be heading for that southeast beach ]