The Transmission from Nowhere

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So the good news is, you're going to make a difference.
I mean, I get it if you don't believe that. I remember how hard it was after the cataclysm--everyone scared and sad, stuck in whatever dysfunctional, crap place they'd been caught in, with no way to contact their loved ones on other islands. Looking at the horizon and just seeing that sky-high, dark fog in the distance, everywhere you looked.

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Us, the only ones who knew about the Fleet tech, having to deliberately not tell anyone that we had something that could solve all their problems. If there were about 1700% more of us to ferry people back and forth, that is.

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I get that it was particularly hard for you, being one of the ones on the Fleet who really wanted to help people. You couldn't help everyone. There weren't 1700% more of us, for one thing. And there weren't enough psions in the world to power the number of ships it would have taken.
I want you to know...that I'm still angry about that sometimes. It's horrible, even knowing what some of those areas got like, what people put up with from their esteemed "leaders." Criminals and zealots running whole islands, taking advantage of people who'd lost their guaranteed housing and basic income, and if they couldn't work...
{drawn out creaking, followed by a sudden crashing noise in the distance. intake of breath.}

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So, uh...pro-tip, try not to get mad when you can move crap with your mind. No, I'm not well, thank you for asking.
Okay, I know being a pilot could be hell--the entire psionic mess of a ship constantly in your brain, you having to keep your moods from trashing it, not getting real sleep, just that damned trance state. We were half mad most of the time. But we could get people where they needed to go. We could help people.

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So, I guess this is also the bad news. Your choices are about to matter.
I'm sitting in a ship, in a future that is so much better. The gaps have been bridged, the dreaming void isn't so haunted, the curse on Artemisia has been lifted. Yes, it's really there. But it's not what you think it is right now. And I'm sorry. If this has reached the right person, when you realize, you're really going to get where it's coming from.
I need you to remember that you have a choice, even when you hate this world and everyone in it. This future is worth it.

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I mean, just look at Charl's bridges. Yes, Charl who burned an eyebrow off being a dumbass about safety. That Charl worked out tech that lets people travel the void in these long, see-through bridges, protected from the dreams outside the glass. People go there on purpose now, to write and sketch and make music. After all, you know as well as anyone that the dreaming void is a profoundly creative place. It's what made piloting so beautiful, exhilarating. Nothing was strictly real out there. You could experience your emotions safely, in a place of beauty.
It's what kept you coming back.

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Artemisia is adapting, could even flourish. And I gotta say, I'm pretty fond of the present I'm living now. I mean, there's stuff I could do without. The pirates that dog the shipping lanes, for one thing. I've got a huge, badass psionic dragon--we're gonna call it a tattoo...over most of my left half, but I could absolutely have done without the monster who left it there. I'm still angry about that too. I might even call my feelings on the matter "rage," if I'm honest.
But I still hope you make the same choices we did, so this future can stay. I shouldn't really be sending you this--even this much deviation is "dangerous," apparently. But I have to try everything. So much of this rides on your choice--you know, that awful one you have to keep making over and over again. To try again.

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I suppose I've got this easier than you do--I've just gotta sit here and bite my nails for the next twelve hours, waiting for this reality to solidify. You've got to live through the past and make it happen. You'll find out who your friends are, and...well, it's not going to be easy. Fight for them, especially when the person you're fighting is you.
It's all gonna come right down to the wire, and I can think of at least...3 times off the top of my head that you could die. But--consolation prize! If you manage not to, you'll end up with a really badass psionic tattoo.

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{indistinct background noises}
I'm being informed that signing off with my real name will break the universe or something. So, see you around, I guess...

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