#fur'f gur shpxvat cebgntbavfg bs n gvzr geniry svkvg svp!! yvxr. vg bayl znxrf frafr.

[garden-ghoul]

OH MY GD PERENNIAL HISTORIES... I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YEARS... I blacked out and when I returned I had transcribed this conversation

PP: I know what y'all believe about Perennial. Which is interesting because to my memory Perennial was... not the Adversary so much as the outsider. Never part of the Fleet. Always just flittering around. Ah... I don't think she was really even with the Collaborate, the other big Divine group. When we were with the Divine Fleet we weren't the only Divines in the galaxy. We built the Fleet because we thought it was the most sustainable, the longest lasting form of relationship between Divines and different types of people. If we had let ourselves go to war we would have died, or they would have died or both. Instead we found unity. But we were not the only Divines in the world and others took a different path. And she wasn't part of either camp, She just sorta showed up one day. So now I wake up and she's the center of the damn galaxy. It's a surprise.

F: Back then, what did she want?

PP: She wanted to learn everything. We had a policy as part of trying to make sure people could join the Fleet which was that we had little knowledge we wouldn't share. We wouldn't share private info, but when it came to knowledge about the galaxy and math and the way of the world... and she consumed that info voraciously. For a Divine, even, which was confusing. Because most Divines come knowing the world. They're built in it and of it. It's like she came from somewhere else. Big galaxy, so... And then I lost track.

PP: Didn't ever join the Fleet. We left the Fleet to start palisade, to start all this. As far as I can tell Perennial never hooked up with anyone in the Twilight Mirage or became part of all that, she just sorta floated somewhere else. And then the Divine Clash happens and she betrays the Divine Principality, supposedly. And then (gestures into the sky referencing the Perennial Wave, her home in the center of the galaxy) Why's she on your mind?

F: What's the best way to put this... to break free of Clem I had to replace that chain with something else. So it's not a... chain. But I'm connected to Perennial in a way I don't fully understand. It feels more like I'm a port on the river.

PP: You haven't tried talking to her?

F: She hasn't reached out to me... It's been very busy around here.

PP: I mean, how can you say she hasn't reached out to you? Look at you.

F: How do you go about doing that?

PP: I have to admit, I've never been on the other side of it.

F: Is there like, etiquette??

PP: There's the etiquette you make with one another. In my experience. I had a number of elects in the time of the Fleet, and I had my preferences, I had my foibles, but everyone had a diff way about em. There were thinks I'd excuse from one that I wouldn't from another, and things I would encourage from some that I would despise, find presumptuous, from others. You feel it out.

F: I don't even know what to say. How do you say 'thanks for saving my life but also are you just as evil as the person you saved me from?' How do you say 'what do you want with me?' I don't wanna ask that, that's fucked up! I just spent a lot of time and energy getting away from someone that's the only question I cared about the answer to!

PP: What's the actual question you wanna ask then?

F: I keep hearing people talk about the wheel. Okay, when this happened, there's also a ghost who shows up sometimes. Do you know who Gur Sevraq is?

PP: The preacher in the Temple? Far as I can tell they're alive and well, unfortunately.

F: No. Not the real one. From his writings that I've read, I've got the real one, but he's all mixed up. But one of the few things he's said to me that makes any sense is, she wants to stop the wheel from turning.

PP: I mean, that makes sense.

F: Sure, but if I want it to make sense it depends on what the wheel is.

PP: What's the wheel you wouldn't want to stop spinning?

F: Like, life? In general? Happiness, joy, self-determination?

PP: She would have stopped them already if that was her goal, right? You worked with the Witch In Glass for how long? If raw damage was the intended output... Maybe what she's trying to say is, try some new shit.