Speculation Ahoy

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Speculation Ahoy

[The message written on the bulletin board is in Rezo's distinctive handwriting, which is very tidy and formed with very straight lines, almost mechanical in appearance.]

It's clear that our next Story will take place in this "outer space" but we don't know the actual plot yet. I have been watching the recommended reading, though I have only seen the first few parts.

If the next story is similar to the plot of Captain Tylor so far, we may be involved in an "interstellar" war. Even if Captain Tylor is a comedy, I doubt it would feel so amusing to be actively involved in one.

If you've looked at the recommended reading and supplemental materials, please let us know what you've observed that may be relevant to the next story. I'd personally like to be better prepared than I was last time.

[...Of course, last time he was acting and thus couldn't even remember the Library, but perhaps he'll be lucky enough to keep his memories this time.]

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I have some experience with the sea of stars, as we call it in my world. I've also some experience with creatures that wage war in such places..

I've not looked at the reading yet, but I'd be happy to help apply what I've learned.

I've worked in battlefields before, but the technology we'll likely be dealing with is unfamiliar to me. The ships and guns of my world work on entirely different principles than the ones in the current stories seem to.

Likely differently from mine as well, considering nothing else seems to work on aetheric principles.

I don't expect anyone will want me to steer anything regardless.

[He has his ways of working around his blindness but steering a ship comfortably is not in his repertoire.]

I can steer a chocobo, but I don't really know what I would do with trying to steer a ship...

What is a chocobo?

It's what where I'm from uses as beasts of burden. Imagine a giant yellow chicken and you're about halfway there.

~~A giant chi~~

[Excuse him a moment, he's imagining something like Tiiba. (RIP)]

That sounds like something from a folktale. In my old world, we mostly used various ungulates. Horses and asses, cattle, or even camels in the Elmekian Empire.

Those exist too - though I'm not sure what a camel is. We do have dhamels which sounds close? In any case, horses aren't common in Eorzea, so we had to turn to other means of transporting people and goods.

The far east does use horses though.

It's like a horse with a humped back instead of a mane and a tendency to spit when it's angry. They're very hardy animals.

[Rezo has ridden on them before. Or, been carried anyway; someone else had to do the steering while Rezo sat on it like he was just another parcel.]

Edited 2026-06-27 01:40 (UTC)

Ah, like alpacas. I've never actually tried to ride a dhamel, but alpacas can be ill-tempered.

I'm something of a specialist in interstellar war. If it does prove to be so, and I am not forced into someone else's mind again for the duration, I'll do my best to provide helpful suggestions for those new to such theaters!

I haven't had enough time to get used to what counts as a hint to next stories, however. I'll need to defer to others on that.

Thank you. I have experience as a battlefield medic, but my work has remained earthbound up until now.

The previous story was my first, so I'm in a similar situation.

[His neat, ornate writing becomes a bit more hasty.]

A fellow medicae! Wonderful, I'd wondered if I was the only one here! Honestly it's much the same in the void as on the ground. The previous story was also my first, and I found myself 'acting' in it, hopefully that doesn't happen again.

And I was acting as well. I was not a healer in the story, and in retrospect I'm displeased to have lost my most useful skills.

[Not just in medical knowledge (though Sancho had been very good at anything to do with preserving corpses) but in having lost most of his magical powers. Sancho hadn't even been able to read.]

I hope they were not permanently lost.

I regained them with the rest of my identity after I left the story. [And then promptly lost them for a bit after he got sent to the Safe Zone with Rakia but anyway...] But I could have been of much more use if I'd been myself when the gods died.

[Instead, he'd been Sancho.]

I am certain the man you were forced to become did the best he could with what he had. We will drown in the tide of what could have been, if we dwell on it too long.

That story was unkind to so many here. I am sorry you had to endure it; were you among the Chosen? Is there anything I can do to aid you in contending with those events?

[It takes a bit of time before Rezo leaves his response.]

You are very kind but I am alright. I simply hope to be better prepared for next time.

I admit I am unsure how anyone can truly prepare to be forced to live another's life.

If the food in the kitchen is supposed to match the setting, the way it seems to have done the last time, we're probably looking at something upscale. Diplomatic engagement, maybe.

One of the characters from Captain Tylor was the Empress of the Ralgon people. The Dune book was also concerned with nobility.

Makes us less likely to be on the front lines of someone else's world war, at least. Though if we do have to deal with nobility or royalty, we can expect a lot more scrutiny than there was at the Grand Festival.

There's tacky jewelry in the craft room. Maybe some kind of heist?

The stories and the changes in the kitchen also support the idea of wealthy and privilege being a future element. If there's a heist, perhaps this is a rebellion story?

I suppose we can't rule it out. It could also be a theft for the thrill of stealing.

I wonder if we would be expected to protect the treasure or be the ones stealing it. Perhaps both?

'Steal it in order to safeguard it' isn't unheard of.

I scried and got a look at a lot of assorted very strange people with luggage lining up to board a sky ship

space ship

[she doesn't think it should be called space but it's not up to her :/]

Very large ship. Looked expensive.

You are a seer?

[Holy shit, that sounds useful. Divination exists in his world but it's unreliable.]

That sounds more like a passenger ship than a warship.

I was friends with an excellent seer and he taught me what he could. Most of it I can't really use here but I can look into an upcoming Story at a moment like this. Or back at a past one.

[Said friend is a god, and she's not going to mention that just now. She finds it strange that scrying is so uncommon here, but she's not going to protest.]

Everyone seemed excited and it was all rather messy. I suppose you can have people headed into war like that but it wasn't my impression.

There are a number of posters framed on the walls depicting several planets in my own solar system - as well as a few exoplanets we've discovered with telescopes - as tourist destinations. The shopmeepers are also dressed like a ship's captain and an airline or cruise line's stewardess.

I suspect we'll be on an interplanetary pleasure cruise.

Which doesn't mean it's necessarily low-stakes. It could be a shipwreck story, and that could get very bad in an airless void. But it's... possible that it will be a more sedate story, if it's a pleasure cruise, knock on wood.

- Hikaru Aozora
光青空

Edited 2026-06-23 04:52 (UTC)

[Okay, "shopmeepers" got a small smile out of him. Makes him feel a bit better despite the fact he did not see the posters, because of fucking course he didn't.

Rezo moves Hisako's note next to his and draws an arrow pointing towards it.]

->

This person's testimony supports your theory.

A shipwreck is one possibility. Someone else has speculated there might be a heist aboard. It also seems possible that the cruise could encounter a hostile ship, such as a pirate or a rogue war vessel.

[After the last story, Rezo isn't optimistic about the idea of a low-stakes story. Aren't most stories are about a conflict of some kind?]

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Speculation Ahoy

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