avalononline | video; un: akashicknight

[Morgan looks vaguely serious today. That's weird.]

So with the sun and moon got, I'm noticing that the whole "end of the world" thing going on up in the sky, that's been hanging out ever since Morganna did her thing back when, is getting a lot more publicity and attention. And I thought I needed to say, as Ambassador to the End of the World... you guys aren't seeing anything yet.

What you're seeing now is what the view from the End of the World used to look like. Bad enough, then. But the view now is --

[You know, he THOUGHT he'd been prepared for this speech, but at this moment he realizes something rather contrary to that notion.]

--well, I don't think there are actual words to describe it. Primarily because it's the sort of thing that shouldn't exist in a universe that even has words in it. But if you're doubting our purpose here, if you're anything less than committed... if you have been sleeping entirely too well at night, even. My services as Ambassador remain. I'll take you there and you can see the calamity's advanced form. You probably don't want to see it. But you probably need to.

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We went there for the ritual last month and I didn't see that much of a difference to what we see on the sky right now. Maybe the explosion was a lot closer, but other than that it was very much the same.

If you don't find the far closer view of the apocalyptic end of existence terrifying, I dunno what to tell you, man.

You just made it seem like there's something more there that we can't see on the sky here. I think that's a bit unnecessary - scaring people into thinking that.

[Morgan is a much more patient man than he once was, but right now he needs a moment to bite back a few less-than-diplomatic responses.]

Look. What we can see above us is real, yes, but it's distant. It has no immediacy. Looking out into the infinite and perceiving things accurately in their fill scope and scale isn't something the mind is equipped for. What the image above us lacks is solid reality to the mind... unlike the far closer, far wilder sights at the End of the World.

Perception is everything. Belief is reality. The view at the End of the World offers both.

Hmm... when you put it like that, I see what you mean. My apologies. I'm mostly just worried that too much exposure to fear might even make people lose their hope in against fighting the calamity.

Um... [ Hello, Morgan, meet the newest and youngest of the Otherworld Heroes of Avalon. ] I still don't understand everything that's happened here. But if it's worse than it seems, then I- I want to see it myself!

[Why. Why do kids have to show up here? It's not funny and it's not fair...]

There's a lot available to look up on your phone, but if I can help clarify things, I'd be glad to.

[ She has a lot of questions - more than she has words for, more than she even knows right now. But there's one in particular at the front of her mind. ]

What do you mean by the calamity's advanced form? [ Then, hesitantly: ] Did the ritual fail...?

There was an incident a little bit back that resulted in it skipping forward a bit. Hell if I know the exact details, but -- what you see in the sky used to be just visible from the End of the World.

[Right up...his...alley?]

What happens after the end? Is that it? Or do our souls live on, Ambassador?

Mu. Or, that is to say, in my own opinion based on my own understanding of cosmology, it's irrelevant. If there is no existence, there is no existence.

What you just said would be offensive to many from my world. I can't say whether you're right or wrong. I just know I've visited another place besides this one.

I didn't see it end, though.

It would be inclined to offend a lot of people, I'm afraid, but it's my honest opinion. Our presence here tells me that this cataclysm is multiversal, not just universal. There are people here from alternate Earths, that much I'm certain of. So if the whole multiverse goes, then its attached realms, heavens or hells or Arcadias or Abysses, go with it. Not necessarily because they were wiped out, but because there's no one left to believe in them, so there's nothing to sustain them.

It's weird to think something that big could be so fragile. [But everything ends eventually.] I've lived a pretty good life these last couple of years and I was okay with dying before. As long as I can be with A-Chen, I'm not scared.

Death is nothing to be feared, but accepted as part of life. [Morgan nods his agreement there, although the 'so long as' modifier worries him.] But that doesn't mean we need to be in a hurry to embrace it, or can't seek to put it off reasonably.

It figures that when I'm starting to enjoy myself, it has to end. [But it's fine. Souls exist, right? Or maybe they don't. He refuses to kick the bucket with regrets.]

What's a reasonable timeline to put it off?

[Philosophically, Morgan would be obligated to say souls don't exist. This is awkward, because his got stuck in a sword for a while.]

When clinging to it becomes, or brings, suffering.

[That's an easy answer.]

[Being a sword would be kind of rad. For like a day.]

I can handle suffering. If I have a high pain tolerance, can I live longer?

It's not about physical pain. It's the difference between, "I would like another day," and, "I am miserable because I might not have another day". That's oversimplifying it, of course.

Believe me, I've been in both positions. If I ever get that tired, I'll let go. But I'll do it dramatically.

There's a lot to be said for letting go without regrets, and a lot to be said about living a life that leaves you with no regrets to greet it with.

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