Report 013 [Voice/Action] | Another 365.25 days have elapsed...

[semper_cogitans]

Comments

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don, as usual, spends the early part of the morning ensconced in the back room, and so he doesn't find this journal message until Robert has already left the house.]

[When the scientist gets back, he'll find his partner waiting for him, wearing the attitude of a parent whose teenager is breaking curfew.]

When were you planning to tell me?

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don nods at this.]

Do you want me to try to help, or should I just get out of the way?

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

... Would you mind staying...? [Even if it's only for the company, Robert would rather Don be around.]

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

Not at all.

[He leans back against the counter and considers the room.] So... how old are you, now?

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

Twenty-five.

[Perhaps it's a significant difference to Don, but to Robert the years between them have never mattered. As far as he's concerned, Don is as mature and intelligent as he is anyway...]

... That is... approximately one-quarter-to-one-fifth of the average Terran lifespan...

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

[It doesn't matter much to Don either - his own age is only an estimate, and once you factor in the different rates of maturity, their relative ages become impossible to sort out.]

When did the average lifespan break 100?

[... He is stealing a handful of blueberries now.]

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert smiles as he watches Don grab those blueberries. Even though he might not have enough for the exact amount the recipe asks for, now... he could get more if he absolutely has to, though. Or maybe the fridge has more.

Either way.]

... I believe it was... approximately 2145 A.D. where lifespan first eclipsed 100 years...

... Medical technology increased quite rapidly in efficacy after the technological shifts from the Great Cleansing.

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

What was that about?

[Yes, he is eating your blueberries and requesting a history lecture.]

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

[Robert continues to allow the travesty of his blueberries being devoured as he speaks.]

You mean... the Great Cleansing itself?

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

[Even worse, the juice is getting smeared all over Don's hands and beak. How can you stand it?]

Mm.

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

[Not very well. In fact, Robert is so bothered by it that he attempts to wipe at the purplish stains on his partner's beak with a towel.]

... Well. What aspect are you most interested in knowing...? The technology? The... actual damage...?

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

Sorry. [Remembering what few manners he has, Don will take the towel and try to clean up the mess himself.]

General causes and effects?

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

[That's a bit better. Robert nods and turns the bulk of his attention back towards what he was talking about.]

... The Great Cleansing was... put into motion as a response to major and minor environmental catastrophe. Essentially, by 2025 A.D., there was extensive enough climate change and similar ecosystem destruction to warrant a major attempt by pre-Terran humanity to cope with the damage.

... There were... separate governments at the time, but they formed a temporary mega-government under the then-United Nations to fund massive scientific research undertakings into the subject of climate change, to attempt to deduce a method of eliminating the damage - or at least beginning to control it.

[Don might see the seeds of Terran culture taking root there, or at least how they could have been feasibly planted.]

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

As soon as 2025? [Don isn't sure what surprises him more - that the situation deteriorated that rapidly, or that it only took the world's governments another twenty years to organize a collective response to the global problems.]

[Action]

[semper_cogitans]

... The situation was troubled long before then. It was... simply ignored until it became... too significant to overlook.

[In the way of humanity, the problem was essentially only dealt with when it was nearly impossible to solve.]

[Action]

[i_speak_softly]

[Don grimaces.]

Typical.

[He'll just watch you make pie now.]