revivalproject | [Event] New Horizons In Our Future

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[Event] New Horizons In Our Future

New Horizons In Our Future

When the first Agrii in hundreds of years arrive in the city of Temba, they manage it with far more grace than is often allowed to their He Rows. The first settlement group arrives not by appearing above the fountain and splashing down into it in broad daylight. Instead the shuttles descend from the night sky, shining like fairy lights on a string as they sail softly and silently down into the hangar building one after another. Awaiting them are not only whatever He Rows might deem the arrival important to see but also the Wanderer, the twisted twigs of its body festooned with a variety of faintly glowing Funfronds and one very plump looking Barry perched upon its head. They stand with reverence and attention, silent even in their own forms of speech as for the first time in hundreds of years their peoples occupy the same space.

The shuttle doors open, one after another, with little more than a soft sigh. Down the ramp of the first ship steps Mu Ly standing tall and proud. Flanking him to either side are a pair of nearly identical looking Agrii youths, one seeming to present male and the other female, each wearing a band of blue around their opposite upper arms. Finally, trailing them more nervously (and already agreed by all to not be staying on this ‘mission of fools’) comes the pair of Ga Re and Ny Ak. In many ways all Agrii serve to be represented by this group as they approach the delegation of He Rows and Plantkin.

They come to a stop before the gathered greeters and Mu Ly takes the position of prominence, like he was the leader. Only for, a moment later, the two Blues to step past him, standing halfway between Mu Ly and the gathering, a frame of young Blues to the meeting. It makes sense a moment later when Mu Ly opens his mouth and starts to speak in the native Agrii tongue.

Apparently this meeting was important enough to be initially done in his own language, where his mastery was better. Thankfully the twins are there, immediately translating. They switch smoothly between one speaking and the next, each taking over a sentence to put into the ‘He Row Tongue’ with a confidence that almost rivals Te Mi’s fluency.

“For the Agrii who will find a place in the city of our distant families, I say hello. I am Mu Ly, a leader of Agrii of Orange, a counselor to all Agrii, and a friend and student of the He Rows. I greet with smiles the plant peoples of this place. I thank you for giving us a chance. I hope for peace. Again, my greetings,” the maybe twins say in turn. When they finish they nod to Mu Ly who smiles wide.

“Us greet they!” Mu Ly finishes brightly.

For a while after that the Wanderer creaks and groans and sways, clearly conveying its meaning to the little ones it is there to translate for. Then it lifts one arm and unfurls a palm. Soon a Funfrond has clambered into said hand and begun to dance and gesture with all the vigorous abandon of their people. A moment or two after the movements start the Wanderer begins to speak its own translation.

“This one is Drinks of Apricorn Dew in the New Light of Day. I am sent by our elder to greet those who return from the stars. Long ago did people such as you walk upon our place under stars, and again you come. Hope we do that you, children of wild things, will honor the bargains you make. Hold true with your word and welcome you will find among the people of the Kin such as we represent. Will you hold your bargains? Will you learn? Will you aid? Will you give? Will you be like unto the colony?”

The Blues are quick to translate this all back into Agrii, though from moment to moment they seem to ponder how to get the words right. When it’s done Mu Ly nods and speaks again.

“Us give they word to learn. To aid. To give.”

This much the Funfronds must understand because the one held by the Wanderer bows before crawling back up to its shoulder.

Next the Barry atop the Wanderer’s head pulls its thorn from its side and starts stamping and tapping vigorously. Without hesitation the Wanderer translates for it too.

“Drone of the Hive of Forest and Sand speaks now for the Queen of the Hive of Forest and Sand. Once it was that those who return from the stars walked these places, and when they did, Hivemates were crushed, were smashed, were consumed. No more will this be tolerated. Those who return from the stars must swear to treat all Hivemates as rightful. These places are ours, are of the Kin. Skywalking Animals must know that they are guests, and guests owe kindness to the Hive in the lands of the Kin. Is this sworn? Is this known? Will all promised before be honored?”

Yet more translations, more nods, more promises.

Then and only then do the eyes of the Blues and the Wanderer turn to the assembled He Rows. Apparently they weren’t just going to be for show.

“Do you He Rows of the Agrii, friends of ours, teachers, promise to help guide where you can? Will you teach? Will you protect us when you can?” the Blues ask.

“Will you ensure the word is kept when you are not away? Will you speak for the Kin when they are threatened?” the Wanderer adds.

And then, when the promises are elicited, the Wanderer finally turns to Mu Ly and nods.

“Welcome be then,” the Wanderer says, before turning and walking away.

Only once the Plantkin have made it back to the door to the station do any of the Agrii speak. And it’s Ny Ak that does so.

“Like magnet bond breaking in great wind.”

And of course that makes… no sense? Met with confusion Ny Ak sighs and shakes their head and then gabbles quickly at the Blues. One makes a pleased noise and finally nods.

“Ny Ak means that this is going to be very hard to do,” one says.

“Yes. Very repair shirt hole.”

Another blank look before an exasperated sigh and more gabbling.

“But very needed,” the other Blue explains with a smile and nod. “Agreed.”

“Always speak weird words,” Mu Ly disparages Ny Ak, glaring briefly at the other Agrii before striding away toward the next shuttle, with Ga Re returning to the one the group disembarked from. Clearly it’s time to start getting people moving now that ceremony has passed. It leaves Ny Ak and the Blues there for the remaining He Rows.

“Am Ha We,” the more female looking of the Blue twins says. “This is brother Ma We. We are spawnlings of Go Fy and Ta We. Te Mi asked us to come for speaking for fellows and to help with learning. We thank you He Rows for all help you give.”

“Big fans,” Ma We says with a warm smile. “Watched when He Rows fought bad plants after wrong storm. Very cool. I use those right? Big fans and very cool?”

They are young and better than most Agrii with talking, but they are clearly still on the road to full fluency and idioms.

Which is probably for the best, because they can at least grow and show their people how to grow too. And speaking of people, well, here they come, finally stepping from the ships in groups. Some are families of partners and youths about the age of Ma We and Ha We. Others are clearly banded together groups of Orange faction. There are a few purple banded Agrii, though less of those than unbanded or Orange. A quintet of older Blues show up, and a single trio of Greens. Trailing after them are pets or drones or carts of gear. They have clearly come prepared.

And so it is official. The Agrii are settling in Temba once again.

Of course that isn’t the only thing going on, because not long after the morning comes, a new message pings onto the devices of any He Rows interested in reading it. A message from Venidelosia, though that’s hardly surprising given the fact that Agrii settlement was based upon an agreement between He Rows and Agrii and the ship itself. An agreement that the He Rows would go into space to keep up their investigations. So it should be unsurprising that it would be reaching out now.

Greetings on this occasion to you, friends and companions to my crew. My gratitude comes to you all for the kindnesses you have given to us in these last days. Not only have you prepared the way for the Agrii who would seek the surface, but you have prepared my crew for the coming truths their leaders feel they grow ready for. The decisions they must face. But to give that knowledge they have made a request of you, as I do now.

They want more information before they speak of the truths. It is their wish to give more knowledge, more hope. Something, as you might say, more concrete. The time approaches where we must seek that knowledge together. So now we make our final preparations. Thanks to the efforts of some brave ones of your number, my systems seem to be purged of corrupting data for the time being. Enough corruption to allow for the replication of a small kernel of my being and self to be safely partitioned for transport to your ships that I might help guide you on your journey. Before transfer and upload a final round of safety testing must be performed, and a cradle constructed for my consciousness. In addition, a smaller form of the portal system is being created for each of your ships to allow for transit.

What I require from you is a full supply of all you may feel you need in the coming months be transferred to your ships, and your spaces prepared. Our first journey will be to one of three systems, to be chosen by you by vote. All seem to have implications of connections to my original creators and may yield important information, though I cannot be certain of which will be most valuable, if they are at all valuable. This journey should last us through the end of the Agra-10 spring and into its summer. Projected timelines of the readying of components under Ny Ak’s guidance mark our likely departure to be twenty days from now. After the portal there will be additional time in transit before our arrival. I will soon be sending you rough descriptions such as my records contain on where we might go. Please tell me privately which you prefer. I wish to leave the decision up to you.

I would ask for consultation with your Pilots and with any who might help finish the completion of the components faster if they are willing to work. Also I would happily speak with those who have other questions they would raise with me. If there are any supplies we might be able to give you, please speak and we will do our best to provide.

Thank you, my friends, for everything.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Who would you like to talk to? Put the answer in the header (including 'random Agrii settler') and start your thread below.

Aaaaaand here's Donnie heading over to the workshop after all this.

For all that Donnie's arrival was foretold to An Nu (with the female Agrii beign smiling by the door when he arrives), Ny Ak seems shocked to have people enter at all. Their eyes are huge behind their goggles when An Nu steps in first and speaks to them gently in the Agrii dialect, before they look to Donnie.

"You are Donnie," they observe. "Sun in morning!"

"Means have much light?" An Nu suggests.

Ny Ak shakes head quickly and then chatters more in the Agrii dialect before An Nu smiles and nods rapidly.

"You much bright! Like Ny Ak. Ny Ak knows of you. From Te Mi. From watch. Ask what purpose big balloon."

Donnie had to wonder why An Nu was notified. She hadn't exactly been very helpful back on the bridge the last time he'd been stuck with her.

He blinks at the...greeting? Standing there awkwardly as he tries to parse that one out, but it soon becomes a bit more clearer as to why An Nu's here, even if the translations have much to be desired.

"Er, yes! Donnie. That is me. I'm glad to finally be able to talk to you in person." Kind of. He feels like this is going to be a bit of a headache.

"The balloon... ah, you mean from when the storms were happening?"

"Yes, from the storms," Ny Ak says brightly, moving to grab a datapad from a counter. They tap on it until they find the right thing and bring up an image of Donnie with the supplies. "What is purpose?"

Meanwhile An Nu goes to clear another seat so she can settle herself down in it to help when she is needed.

It's so weird seeing his own picture and he can only hope he doesn't look dumb in it.

"Oh. I was trying to collect data on the storm. It's what people do back home, probably not as often nowadays with modern technology but before they'd get information to help them understand how the atmosphere up there changes and stuff like that." He winces. "But the real answers for this storm weren't up in the sky, so I guess it was kind of pointless..."

"What sort of data?" Ny Ak asks, leaning forward, clearly eager. "How do you make it? What can it gather? Much needs to be learned for puzzle piece build."

And An Nu quickly leans in to chatter at Ny Ak. Once more she speaks up with a translation.

"Needs learn to know how works fitting. No. Um. To know how to build pieces into more knowing?"

That earns a sigh from the goggled Agrii.

"I apologize," Ny Ak says, before tapping their head. "When fast tangle wire."

"When they are eager words get mixed," An Nu tries.

"Eureka!" Ny Ak agrees, pointing to An Nu to agree.

Donnie smiles crookedly, always pleased to be in the company of someone equally as data-oriented as he is. He looks a little more confused as An Nu attempts to straighten things out with Ny Ak before he laughs, shaking his head.

"I think I kind of got it better the first time. But...yeah. I see what you mean," he says. "The weather balloon can measure temperatures, it changes the higher up you go. It also detects atmospheric pressure and wind speed, as well as humidity. Of course it only worked so well within the storms on Temba due to the fact that anything powered by something tended to just stop or drain once close enough."

He taps a finger against his chin. "I could share the designs and plans I have for the ones I made. Oh, but that reminds me! I wanted to talk about the storms that linger- since they haven't completely broken down yet, they can still potentially cause trouble and I don't want any of the Agrii that have chosen to settle in Temba to be caught in them. So I was talking with Venidelosia about an early-warning system of sorts, to help with preparing them to take shelter well before any arrive within range."

"Yes please," Ny Ak says, digging out another supply of datapads. They aren't unlike the He Row communication devices. They pass it eagerly over to Donnie, clearly intending that data should be shared there so they can look at it.

As for the other thing, they tilt their head, listening at the idea.

"Warn like scream call," they continue, nodding as if it makes sense. "No shock brain. Intriguing when considered. How ringing clock?"

Edited 2025-04-16 16:16 (UTC)

At least Donnie seems to know what's meant by it. He starts setting it up so he can send over the files he has from his own tablet.

"Eeeuuuuh..." he blinks, squinting as he tries to parse that one out. "Well, since anything running on power turns off when a storm nears, it makes it difficult to get an accurate reading. So I have suggested that we use a sensor system extending a ways beyond Temba, so that whenever a storm does start to drift closer to the city, the blackouts from the sensors will serve as the warning itself."

He transfers the schematics and images of the robots that Dr. Robotnik had built and he'd replated, turning the datapad towards them.

"These are security robots that Doctor Robotnik created when he was here. He intended for them to monitor areas, kind of like the cameras- but his focus was out in Sh'Ka. They all put out a signal of a certain range, so I was thinking we could use that, and have them set in the woods and other areas outside of Temba."

"Full House!" Ny Ak says in delight when they see the image of the robot. They bounce to their feet and rush over to a storage container in the room.

"I think means luck?" An Nu says, frowning. "Or win? Have used for both."

Ny Ak returns a moment later after opening the container, carrying with them one of the robots.

"After man flee, egg hunt. They are nice. Thought to make play mates for hatchlings," Ny Ak explains. "Can test programming here. The code is not complex in ways that make steel."

"Hard," An Nu corrects.

Need to Speak to an Agrii?

And then I promptly forgot to start anything for Ny Ak and An Nu

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Drone of the Hive of Forest and Sand

Drinks of Apricorn Dew in the New Light of Day (or other Funfronds)

The Wanderer

Venidelosia

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