[video || telepath PSA]

[selfgovernance]

Hello again, Sacrosanct.

[And here's Charles, looking just so entirely harmless and dapper it's practically an art-form.]I'm entertaining a brief curiosity - are we doing anything for the children come Halloween? I'm not certain how other cultures interpret October's end, but where I'm from the little ones sort of dress in costumes and bribe

Comments

video;

[bluekocytes]

How can you tell what date it is when we're so far from Earth?

video;

[selfgovernance]

I believe the wearables have a calendar function? It could be wrong, I suppose. I hadn't considered that.

[there's a brief pause, and then a clack of keys as Charles amps up the encryption level.]

Darwin is... gone. If you hadn't noticed. I'm sorry, Raven.

video;

[bluekocytes]

That's what I meant, though. Where are they getting that from? What's the point of keeping track of Earth seasons here?

[...]

I... I hadn't seen him for- I didn't even get a chance to talk to him properly. I should have guessed.

[pause, and then, in tones of growing horror]

So he's just going back to die?

video || x-cryption

[selfgovernance]

Tradition. Comfort, perhaps. It's easier for people to comprehend the passage of time when it adheres to something familiar, yes?

[o-oh baby. Charles doesn't quite flinch, but it's close.]

I-- can't say with any certainty. I would very much like to think not, however.

video || x-cryption

[bluekocytes]

But that's what happens, isn't it? I've been talking to people, I mean- when people disappear, they go back to wherever- to whenever they came from. Right?

[she shudders.]

video || x-cryption

[selfgovernance]

Raven--

[he's promised, hasn't he? Not to lie to her anymore. Actions, Charles, speak louder than words.]

I believe so, yes.

video || x-cryption

[bluekocytes]

[beat.]

Did he know?

video || x-cryption

[selfgovernance]

It was never something we expressly spoke about, but Darwin is a very bright young man.

[he uses that on purpose. 'is' instead of 'was'. After all, his power is to adapt. Who's to say that he can't change this?]