Worlds Beyond Number - Solari: Episode 7 - Paradise

Episode Date: June 9, 2026

Welcome to beautiful Avana, tropical jewel of the Kamuri! We are proud to cater to the Five Families as the premier vacation destination. Relax poolside at one of our luxury resorts and take in the hand-crafted biological decor. Forget your worries and soak in the sun: Experience paradise today! We are:Brennan Lee MulliganErika IshiiAabria IyengarLou Wilson Solari was produced by Worlds Beyond Number Edit and Sound Design by Jino Jang-Hansen at Big Giant Head Score by Will Savinohttps://wsavino.com/ Director of Operations: Melanie Bowman Social Media Manager: Shannon H Lorekeeper and Transcriptionist: Jack Morgan E.F. Lavandowska  Recording Engineer: Rainie Toll Character Art by Nikolas Draper-Iveywww.instagram.com/nikolasdraperivey/ Cover Art by Lu Tomkiewiczwww.instagram.com/_fromlu/ This campaign uses the Stillfleet TTRPG system, created by Wythe Marschall and developed by Stillfleet Studiohttps://stillfleet.com/collections/stillfleetYou can find transcripts of all our episodes on our Patreon. Just navigate to the post for the episode and the transcript will be attached. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is the sound of worlds beyond number. Take my hand, oh, lover mine, and look upon the grand, that endless night that once we planned to sail, to sail, to sail. Origin, 40 sun's popular folk song, serve the late first expansion. Ivana, operated terraformed by the Kumori family. Raised in acclaim to one of the five families, for their efforts terraforming the 40 suns, our known galaxy. They are the distributed empire in our story.

And this moon is not connected to any other planets that they control outright. But how can you say that a planet that has humanity living and breathing on it doesn't owe some crumb of fealty to the family that made that. possible. The three of you sit on the arabesque. Ayasa is sleeping behind the wheel because she fell asleep in the minutes it took to use the drop of orm. It took to cross the galaxy to get here. Questions remain. Her access, her reach. But she came through for you. when it was needed, the pull that became a call, a flight from Karu'eda. But you arrive, you see a crescent of lush, terraformed land across an otherwise barren, mid-sized

moon. And Ayasa snorts kind of rouses herself and yells back to, this small Coopteville of a cutter. Okay, we're going to land within the next well, oh, oh,

I don't have credentials to land here. Okay, we'll land as soon as we solve our problem of how we're going to land. And you feel the momentum, slow and steady though it was, begin to halt even here on the ship.

as she turns and opens up the floor to you. How do you plan on getting onto Ivana? Z has kind of been pacing back and forth while Ayasa slept, just kind of going over in his head, all of the moments on Karuida. I think the descriptions Chi has given of the assassin up close, but stops that train of thought to meet this new problem, What exactly is the issue?

How do credentials work on a world like Ivana? Essentially just like flight plans, biggest problem here is IASA isn't sure if you're trying to fly stealthy and quiet or if you can take normal channels. So she's currently in a whole pattern and seems like she will help you figure out however you want to go about this, but doesn't actually know too much about the nature of your expectations. the nature of your exit and why here specifically.

So she's just kind of like, we can do this dirtier, we can do it clean. You just have to let me know how you want to do it. And she took a nap, so you guys didn't have a chance to discuss it in like the, the maybe an hour you've been on the ship. Z is going to look to his companions. In what state does he find Chi and Excels you? I'm plugged in still, but I think that probably like as the battery life, You can see that like my LED strips have filled and are now quite bright and pulsing green to yellow as I'm fully charged.

And I think you can see that I'm unconscious, but my eyes have started to stream lines of code. So my eyes have gone fully white and there is like golden metallic code filing across them as I'm downloading new software. She has also taken a little nap. I'm used to grabbing it as much as I can and is doing sort of a sunrise, vinyasa yoga, sort of get myself all perky again. Z will interrupt cheese. Chair pose.

Chair pose. Cheat. Only person who knew we got on this ship, eyes blown out, or were there others? No. As far as I know, that's just him. Yeah. I mean, it's not that we need to hide the Arabesque, per se, but it's just, I mean, there's no manifest that says, I got on this ship. Well, unfortunately, it seems that everyone in the Foxglove 6 saw us. enter the arabesque.

I don't know where their loyalties lie. I mean, the reality is just that if they know, they'll file a report. Whoever is trying to kill me would likely have access to the report based on the other information they've used to track me down. I'm going to raise my head up as I'm done charging. Disconnect the charging port from myself. Go, uh, thank you. again for plugging me in. I'm going to stand up, click my head to the side, make a minor repair on

some parts of myself that overheated in the last combat, and kind of just like take out from a thing some small chips, replace them. You see there's some that just small plastic, not anything super essential, but they just got a little bit fried or warped and replaced them with something new. And I hold my hand out for a moment. My irises sort of flash red. I take one of my hands. and spin and rotate my hand on my wrist at a rotation per minute that is faster than the eye can see. Just one of those scary robot things of like, and I'm like manifesting that switch gears ability.

That if I need to, I'm still made a plastic and rubber, I'm not a hefty guy, my health doesn't go up, but this ability to, if I need to, to move into a space of movement, which is not sensual or welcoming, has been downloaded into my body as I return to that more fluid accommodating state. This ship is therefore something of a liability. Yes.

If it is possible for us to land physically without registering on any data systems, that might be ideal. Is Ayasa present here with us? She's kind of just looking over from the like, pilot. chair. I think she's doing the full, like, it's not the Captain America, like, sitting in the chair backwards. She's kneeling on the, like, seat rest, peeking over the top, just kind of watching you all talk. I'll turn to Ayasa and say, is there an area of Ivana that we can possibly make landfall without registering on any data systems? I could probably figure that out, yeah? It might be a bit of a hike or a walk. What's the, what's the plan here? We just need to get somewhere with a long range

communication system so that I can call home. Oh sure. Okay. Well then just bringing it up, I can land in some of that gray space and you see she just gestures to the other unteroformed part of the moon. I can land there and you guys can make the walk however long that takes. But if you're planning on making a long-range calm, you can just, you're going to talk to someone on this moon, right? Like, you're going to have to talk to people. Yeah. So whoever's trying to keep tabs on you is going to find you the moment you reach out. Well, that's a hopeful outlook. Thanks.

Sorry. I'm just, look, I'm trying to keep lines of communication open. When communications are sent from the Arabesque, do you have the ability to remove location information from those communicates? Is there any possibility of us communicating with the Avericks from the Arabesque, which after all they do know we are currently aboard without having to give a location signal or at least scramble that frequency? Everyone give me a will roll. The difficulty is going to be a nine. I will sense motive and roll with advantage. I got a one. I got a nine on my first roll and a nine is what we'll do. Six. You're thinking about other stuff and you're not really worried about it.

Right. Z. Her expression drops for just long enough that you can see someone has let her mask slip and a lot more savvy than the affect that she puts on before she immediately gets brighter and bubblier again. Yeah, I'm sure I could figure something like that out. if that's what you want. I don't know if I've done that before, but yeah, we don't, I don't have to. We don't have to. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, I just, my take would be, if you're confident, you can do it. I'm open to it. Anything short of that? Let's just touch down in grace base and we can take a long walk. Um, okay, let me work on it. I think I can, this is that important, yeah?

Sadavin is having his life threatened. Yes, I think. I think it's extremely significant. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. Hold, please. You're in a chair.

We don't have to hold. We're all standing here. We can move to the back. Would you like us to leave? Give you a second. Yeah, go. Go. Great.

We'll give you some space. Thank you. Thank you. She's going to kind of shoes you all. It's not that big a shit. We just kind of move like six feet backwards and turn away from her. There's a beaded curtain. I'm going to stand partially in the.

the beaded curtain and look at Zadav and Chi. I'm very sorry about what you witnessed back on Karueda. You saved our life. You being a little bit freaky is definitely... That makes up for it. Freaky's one word. I'd use useful. You have paid me a very high compliment indeed.

I hope that I can remain useful, although I hope I am not useful. in that way again, and that fortune conspires to make us no longer have to resort to those terrible measures. I have downloaded software that should we find ourselves in a similar situation, I will be able to help defend and protect us to the best of my ability. We were in significant danger in Waris before that, even at the bar, but the assassin that was attacking us when it became clear that it was not only Zadavon's life, but Ms. Tanka's life that was in jeopardy, even though that assassin was a sentient being whose unique experiences

constituted a version of reality that cannot be replaced in his absence. The same can be said both for Zadavin and she. Two is more than one. Thank you. I really hope that we will never have to put you in that position again. How successful are Coles, would you say? How often are they successful? Depends on who's executing them. So you're saying there's a chance? That I die?

That you survive. Oh. There is a chance that I survive. Yes. I think that... I've been going over it in my head. and based on what we know, I think the place I'm moving from is that I do need to touch home base. Coles often are in-house, meeting someone else of Klanavirics is moving against me.

And if that's the case, I need to ask for help from those closest to. And they would be more likely to profit, I guess, depending on who is after you and whether it's for political or personal reasons. Yes, I mean... What is your relationship with your mother like? Can I ask why you ask about my mother, specifically, not my parents, more generally? Oh, generally, I find that in the families, a matriarch has a closer relationship with the son and is able to still pull. strings behind the scenes without arousing suspicions or stepping on other family members' toes. I'm sorry, I may have hit on a...

No, it's quite all right. My mother is the current bearer of the name Zadavon of Vyricz. I will inherit the name once she passes. I see. Or at least be referred to within the Avericks clan, I will be the Zadavon of Yerik's. I will be these Adovinavericks. My relationship to my mother is very close. She wants this name raised high.

She wouldn't. She wants the most for me. And in that, she will know what to do. Can you give me a tech roll? The difficulty's an eight, but I want you to roll a disadvantage because this is just sort of a passive if you notice it. reason is a nine. Okay.

You have the opportunity to act on what you feel, but I think the closest analogy is like being in a boat and feeling the wake of a very big fish of digital information being passed is going out from under your boat. And then something even bigger has like returns to the ship.

Whatever communications you stepped away to allow to happen is a very big fish under your ship right now. Does that make me feel as if the ship's location and information has come into the awareness of an extremely large data processor? Do I feel like the eye of Sauron has moved on to us essentially? You know, I don't get that reference. This is a little closer to whatever Ayasa is trying to do, it is not something like, internal and self-contained on the Arabesque. She just sent out something big and something even bigger came back. In terms of like a data file.

You can try to like reach into the pond if you want. Oh, reaching to this pond is bad. I don't like this ship. You can either like go through the ship and you know the ship is a little fraught. Or you can go and try to like reach into the pond and touch the fish yourself. That's what I'd like to do. I would like to see if I can interact with the data format of what is approaching the ship. Sweet. Difficulty of 10. Nine plus one is 10.

You feel the wave and wake of this big thing and part of you, especially the part of you that is Irina and uses these big moving data pieces to stick your little notes in and among your people onto it. It's just natural to reach towards it and try to brush a scale. What you get at the easiest, like, touch, is that this is a big data download from three points that is offering up run silent codes. So this is, you can land, no one's going to ask questions. I will log that because I haven't heard that Ayasa has a formal connection to three points. I'll bring that up in conversation with G later.

Any little pockets of arena data in that larger file for the silent codes? Very specifically, no. Cool. Love that. So I go, hmm, clean. My aunt was very hard on me, and I very much had to fall under footsteps, but that's, at least I didn't have her name. I'm endlessly proud to carry my mother's name, my mother's father's name, and 32 others that I'm. Avedevirxes before us.

Did any of them agree to be called Zee, my friends? No, but it's cultural that, at least within the family, you don't ask other Averixus to call you Zadavin until you are Zadavon. Wow, fascinating. I believe we will be landing shortly. Landing? Ayasa has secured a means for us to bypass detection and make contact with Ivana. Zadavin.

And are there any members of your family that stand out to you as likely actors in the matter of this calling? No. I mean, I've worked very closely with my mother. I don't have difficult relationships with the other Averickses, in part because the other Averickses know not to have difficult relationships with me. Of course, killing you would eliminate the need to have a difficult or easy relationship with you. Of course. Let us attempt to rule out the possibility that a member of your family close to you is involved. What information might we use to rule out that possibility?

I mean, if you want to start with my immediate family, I've got my mother, my father, two older sisters, and a much younger brother. Younger brother, absolutely no way. If a 14-year-old is trying to kill me and succeeds, I mean, fuck it. I should die. two older sisters. One is already committed to working with my father on the Dyson swarm for the Durali. Other one is off playing politics

in some far corner of the galaxy the best she can. I don't think she wants what I have or what I am in line for. If she does, it's news to all of us. Mom, you see Zadavin grimace I think it referring to his mother so informally. Zadavdafi is.

Dovan, proper, there is an expectation there of what comes next. And my read on her is that she would not want to interrupt it. These intuitions are valuable contextual information. Is there hard evidence or data that would allow us to rule this out? For example, who knew you were on Janipar? Did you have interactions with any member of your immediate family during your stay on Jenipar or our time in Carueta? Are there any details about how you were interacted with by your family?

family that would indicate that they were not in correspondence or communication with the assassin that was pursuing you. Got it. Sorry. Sorry. And she just yells, again, through a beaded curtain. And she turns, and you are still standing in the beaded curtain, right? So she's sort of just yelling in your butt. Yeah, I figured.

Oh, sorry. I figured it out. We'll be landing. Buy a robot a drink first. Ha, ha, ha. Funny. Okay, okay. I think I've figured something out and we're going to land.

and no one's going to mess with us. I got it. I got it. I'm so good at this. You always got it, Deb. Thank you. Thank you. Excelsia, how are you doing? I know that you patched your software to integrate, well, this new event. As a member of my staff, you're entitled to grief counseling, if that is something that you wish to pursue. Yes.

Taking a life is a lot. I assume this is your first. Yes. Well, we're on the move now, but please keep that in mind that you have somebody to talk to should you wish it. I would love to sign up for grief counseling, and I'll give you a totally empty calendar on your data screen and be like, whenever a technician, therapist, or counselor is available, I will make time in my schedule for grief counseling. Oh, wonderful. I send his completely empty calendar digitally off to HR back on Jenipar. I'll leave a small note in the query forum being like, Hello, I am Excelsio, instance of the septimal choir.

I'm devastated at having taken a life, shaken to the very foundation of my sense of self. I would love help processing this grief. Jennifer's HR department is massive and incredibly well-funded. Yes, and they are highly competent. And yet, simultaneous to a little, like, blip appearing in just the dead set of your calendar, like, a week and a half from now, mid-afternoon, is just three question marks onto your data pad from, like, the general H. Like, it's not from anyone specific. Just the HR, like, section. Oh, and then I put it, and also please fill out the paperwork for this new employee, an instance of the Septimal Choir.

I believe I actually formerly signed up for grief counseling. I dropped a tray of glasses while I was busboy on Jenipar. But that was when you weren't officially employed. Yes, that's likely why my grief counseling was not processed is that I did not work there. Well, I'm sure you will be able to cover that in your sessions as well. The glasses were handmade. I'm getting tears. Tears streaming down my LEDs.

Oh, I've taken a life. Like a little like the voice filter of the like, like, hey, and I live. Like, sets it. It's doing an 82% good job of giving that warble of regret and barely choked back emotion. All right. I will delay. feeling these emotions until a more opportune moment.

And I'm going to turn around and prepare to lamp. I'll actually try to come back to Zadabin in that moment and just be like, your read on your family is a more concrete and textual amalgamation of a lifetime of experiences and subconscious body language and facial communications. I don't discredit it at all. given that there is also a degree of hard data available to us. If, for example, any member of your family knew that you were traveling with Chi and myself, it would be likely that they would have communicated that to an assassin.

And if the assassin was willing to momentarily believe that Chi and I were also pursuing you, that would indicate that that information had not been communicated to an assassin. I just want to underline that any information that made its way to your family, that didn't make its way to the assassin, is a small indication that that family member may be more trustworthy. I'll take that into consideration, Excelsio. It takes about 10 minutes to land, and you move into the major, like, airlocked spaceport attached to that green crescent. There are people moving around.

This is a very small spaceport. There's probably 30 or 40 spots for ships of no larger than like double the size of the Arabasque. Like small port, you see 10 maybe bright pink bloused people moving around. And it is almost as if you have dropped and are cloaked. No one looks at the ship. No one approaches the ship. Under whose advisement you pivot to landing?

Sorry, what? Who told you you could land? Oh, I have very special ways of making sure that my landing credentials are a, Above question. Oh. Well, that's helpful. So no one's going to talk to us on it. It's kind of a big favor and can't do it all the time, but you might die, so I don't want you to.

Oh, that's thoughtful. Mm-hmm. She kind of looks away, blushing a little bit. You got it, girl. Stop. All right. Long-range communications. Yeah.

Yeah, so basically, as far as we're in. in here, nothing's going to be logged or docked. No one here is going to come up to you. I don't really know what to do past that. But welcome to beautiful. I've actually wanted to come here for so long, because I heard there's like a bunch of really fun hot springs that they built, like, you know?

It's incredible. So nice. You've been, of course you've been here. I mean, it doesn't get cold on my home world, but we do winter here. here sometimes. That's so cool. The seasonal escape.

Yeah. So hot and rich of him. I know, right? What do I do? I'm like pulling out all my tricks. I can't tell him. I think you're doing great. You're doing great.

Maybe you should ask, maybe, maybe you should ask if he will take you in our next winter. Okay. Do we think he's going to live to next winter? Zadavon, would you take me here next winter? You? Yes. I mean, if we're still working together, maybe. do a company retreat.

Wonderful. I'm going to throw all my sunglasses, leave my coat, and get ready to head out. Ayasa, looking daggers at you. I'll turn over to Ayasa and go, is everything all right? Fine.

So fine. Also, Excelsia, why would I take you here next winter? We're here right now. Is it winter right now? No, but I mean, in the fact that I've already brought you here. Why were you specifically asking about next winter?

Yeah, why? You mentioned seasons, and I haven't been on a planet that experienced seasons, and if they have them here on Ivana, that would be a novel experience. Well, actually, they don't really have them here on Ivana. It's kind of warm and tropical most of the year. Oh, never mind, and I'm going to walk off the ship. Well, that sounds like there's going to be a break in your schedule. I'm also getting ready to leave the ship. Okay, do I?

I nudge her. Do I have to stay on the ship? ship? Are we going to do a thing again where you're all chased and shot at? You know, can I come with you? There's a non-zero chance that we will be chased and shot at. Okay. Here's the thing. He's hot. I don't like the robot, but also I don't want you to die too. Do I need to stay with the ship? If you could, please, you're bringing me back here. Oh, yeah, we are coming back here. For my birthday. Your birthday next month.

Exactly. Exactly. You're bringing me back in one month for my birthday. Anything that the birthday girl wants. Yeah. Yeah, just maybe you would fucking notice me. And she goes and walks towards the back of the ship and grumps away as she does so. She will hang with the ship.

All right. I guess we'll disembark and try to find where we go for long-range comms. You are at the sort of loading area to a. massive, like, resort complex. This entire space looking up is lush and full of verdancy and, like, tropical flowers and vines, even here growing in, like, predetermined planters and little medians between different parking spots. And up overhead, you see past the airlock, it's like a giant greenhouse.

house. Glass, but obviously much thicker, but it still passes light through and you are looking up into deep space while surrounded by like high arching jungle. Oh, that's really cool. I like it here. There's a lot of built-in directionality because it's a resort. It's built to get you from here to the next place that you're going. So you see that at the far end of this like dock structure are pink bricks on the ground and it is a very specific pink. It's not just hot pink. It is flamingo pink. Bricks and a massive, beautiful, ornate wrought iron doorway that sort of leads farther into the complex and to one of a half dozen like massive resorts. You know that the villas that your family would stay in would be at the far end and you would be taken a

different way to like go get there. Because this is something owned by the Camori, but they don't spend a lot of time here specifically. It's like finding Paris Hilton at a Hilton hotel. Yeah. You have a lot of leeway to like press your advantage with low level functionaries that know to respect your name. But I think you know it would be very easy to be told if anyone of import was also here too. That's the thing they like report when they greet and receive members of the five families. Who would be so in charge of the comings and goings that we'd like to talk to the manager. Exactly. Give me a reason role. The difficulty is only going to be six, but I'm going to make you roll with disadvantage because these are not important people. So I don't think you do a very good job of trying,

of like remembering them. No, of course. First one's a three. Can we get worse? Second one's better. So we stick with the three. The best you can recall, there is some, like, differentiator to uniforms.

But the best you've got is, like, it's someone with maybe more pink than the, like, sort of, like, valet-looking, like, khaki shorts and short-sleeve pink shirts. More pink is higher up. So the most pink you can find. Who's the pinkest person in my immediate vicinity and let me get up in their grill?

100%. You don't see anyone meaningfully pink in the parking lot. Tough. We need to go deeper in, find somebody pinker. More, uh... Scanning. A big color swatch goes over one of my... Selecting pink, true pink, Vanta pink.

Or was it? Vanta, yeah, yeah, yeah, pink is pink. Yeah. Are we away from Ayasa in the arabesque right now? Yes, 100%. As we're going through the parking lot, is there any music playing, by the way, as we approach? What you hear isn't music.

It is piped in like animal sounds and running water. And just a... Yeah, but like not scary monkey. Pleasant monkey very far away. And tropical bird, close, but not close enough to shit on you. And running water that's... sounds a little too digital. So it's closer to white noise and static than it is to running water.

Gotcha. Walking along, digital jungle, distant monkey. And I am going to scan for pink, but also as we are away from the aerobascanayasa, I will turn to Chi and just go, the codes that were used to land here on Ivana were procured from three points. by Ayasa. Yes, we have a very, somewhat of a symbiotic relationship with three points. Symbiotte, beautiful.

And I'll go keep scanning for a pink. You're able to make your way through the parking lot, and as you move onto this, like, again, Flamingo pink brick road through the terrarium you seem to be walking through. You actually see like beautiful, vibrant birds of paradise that all are a little bit bigger or more heightened than versions that you may have seen in data or photos or memories of Earth. They've all been specially bred. You know what, Chi, go ahead and give me.

a reason rule. Your difficulty is only a five. Six. You see three birds that appeared in your Aunt Hannah's menagerie. Oh, my goodness. That's fascinating. A lorikeet. This is like a turbo lorikeet, though. It's huge. If a lorikeet and an ostrich had a baby. Oh, my God. Yeah. I'm going to make birds bad because Brennan's here. Losterkete. Losterkete.

extinct on their homeworld. Very specifically, as you go to say that, you know it to be a joke because there is no homeworld for these. These are specially and specifically bred. Oh, engineered. I'll go, ha, ha, ha. And then I'd love to make a search for a managerial person if I can't. 100%.

Please do. Let's go, Will, difficulty of us, seven. I fail. It is not that you do not spot more pink people. It's that none are here. here. And I think you begin to get that like sense of you are meant to forget about the edifice of like being in a resort for a little bit and just wander through this jungle. You're having the problem of like the beginning of going to the Bellagio where you're like, great, I have to kind of

forget I'm in a hotel before I get to the rest of the hotel. And you've got a good five or six minutes of walking like through this meandering path. This is so annoying. When we come here, they're they're standing right at the parking lot, waving at you, to greet you, and then they walk you through all this bullshit with champagne. Well, it's off-season, so I imagine that they're elsewhere, understaffed. Hello? Hello? I'm calling to the Lauricke.

To the Losterkeet. Losterkeet. Hello, could we get some service? I'll turn on a subwoofer in my chest and go, We require assistance. Guys, we require assistance Guys, please. Oh, they'll pick it up.

They'll pick it up. Don't yell at the bird. The Lord, he's going to turn to you, Z, as the third one talking, and they goes, Hello. Assistance! Directly into your grill. Oh, my God. Hello.

Assistance. Yes, yes, we're looking for assistance. Oh, I think the bird is just mimicking me. And me. And you. Wow. Hello. Hello.

Assist. And is this going to follow your group now? I'm going to keep walking. You cursed us. You know, you see what you did? You guys, you cursed us. I'm going to look at the bird and try to get a feel if I could ride it. No roller card.

Of course you could. I'm going to hop up on the bird. Excelsio. I've never written a lost riquet. Excellio. Excelsial. You're not supposed to ride the birds. Celsial.

Hello. I lean forward and I say, Show me the meaning of speed. Speed! And it takes off down the path. I fully choke a poet out of the roof and say, Life is beautiful. To exist is a miracle.

Surely, surely some younger members of your family have wanted to ride a luschique. Hello, hello. More of them are starting to pop out and look at you. No, they're all sorts of birds you can ride. Hello. Assist. Lostercate, okay, we should keep moving, Chi. I don't like the way the birds are all gathering around us.

Dance. I find them so charming. I grew up with them, but... Oh, really? Yes, yes. On... Oh, well, my aunt had some. Quite a few.

I could teach them to say things. I could teach them to heckle. It seems they have a real knack for that. Mm-hmm. Did you grow up on Midian 4? For most of my life, yes. But I had the advantages of being raised by an aunt who was very worldly. And so she had all sorts of birds, some of which I suppose don't exist in their natural state anymore.

You know, it was an odd existence, but I am grateful for the education. Were you completely raised in the Vyric's palaces? Yes. I mean, I had family members on the other rexes, but we spent a lot of time at home. So it seems like you're quite close. With my family? Of course.

I mean, that's... Part of being part of the five families. Yeah. How do you gain... esteem, power, control. Trust. I do feel that the limited number of trints that I have met have had to sort of sow their wild oats

and find their own path forward. Yeah, I mean, it's part of the reason my parents were open to me being on Jenipar or getting out. I think when I go back, it's all in. It's 100% of my time dedicated. So I think it, you know, and I think that that's the case for a lot of trends. There's this space, this open moment before you really, you know, live up to your namesake.

Right. You have to make the most of it. And I'm so glad that you chose Jennifer for that. You can pack a lot of living into two months. three months on Jenipar. I mean, you guys do good work and your physics are incredible. I think it's right around now that you hear down in the distance where your good friend, Excelsiel, has disappeared. There's a bunch of bird song.

And the other Losterkeet that have been sort of following you all turn their attention in that way and start running down the path. And when you eventually make your way to where Excelsiori... is you find yourself at the end of that path as a man in a full pink linen suit is trying to negotiate getting the Lostera key to stop its need for speed and getting you to dismount like hi my name is kyr teglet how can i help can i help you down i would love to help you down sir may i help you down are you the manager of this establishment i'm one of them i'm going to dismount and I'm going to put my head to my lostrakeet and just nuzzle it and say,

thank you for this experience. I will honor you always. Hello? Just a little like head thunk, like a goat kind of. Incredible. I am going to turn around to Kear Daglet. Yes.

Kear is also the name of the guy. Is this? This is like John. John, cool. Yeah. Perfect. So I'm going to be like, Ah, Kear Daglet,

thank you so much for having us. Let me introduce you to my companions. We are here looking for accommodation and use of the facilities. And I'll gesture to Z and Chi. Hello, welcome to Ivana. I would, and in the middle of sort of flusteredly, like trying to push these giant birds away and getting them to shoe back into the brush,

you see eye contact like drifts across the two and sticks on you. Yes. Not with specific recognition, but with a very very, very strong, like, I know that silhouette. And he's going to jog away from you, Excelsial, and is going to kind of split the difference and does a little bit of a spin and a very low bow.

You recognize this level of bow. Well, it's not champagne, but... Hi. Welcome to Ivana. A pleasure. Your name? Ah, Keir Deglet. Uh, Mr. Deglet. You met my arena.

Hello. Oh, and an equally deep and formal bow. I will bow equally deep. Bow's a little deeper. The joints of my legs stay where they are, and I'm able to fully put my head between my legs and come out the other side until I'm standing again. Well, that's unfair.

Life can be unfair. And you are... Chitanka from Jenipar. And an equal... woolly deep bow for you. I bow back. I love what you've done here. Thank you. Thank you.

This is a wonderful resort. And we were unaware that anyone from any of the families would be here. Is this? Our other plans sadly got interrupted and we're just looking for last minute accommodations and hoping you can help. Of course. It's our apologies for not knowing to have wrong. rolled out a pinker carpet. No, it's quite all right, Mr. Declan.

Should we? Yes, please. With just a signal behind him, everyone that has, like, little bits of technology that pick up the static of small bursts of communications going out, there's just sort of an all-points bulletin. Without knowing how important you are within your family, they know, start rolling things out.

and you are immediately, like, taken into, like, this sidebrush where the brick turns into the same green as the foliage, so you couldn't see that there was a secondary path there and are taken to a set of golf carts. I mean, I know we're on the run, but let's enjoy ourselves. I could get used to this. It's not bad. There's two seats facing backwards and out, and then one seat, like, next to Keir. Who's sitting next to Kear? No way, I'm sitting next to Keir. Damn.

I sit next to cure. I sit next to cure. Ask him questions about the jungle that we're passing through, about the possible breeding program that they have for the ostrichites. Well, here's the thing about the ostrichites is they're all unfortunately, none of them. You have to get a new one every time. Oh, but it's okay. The five families in all of their beneficence are pre-established deals between the Khmeri.

That's interesting. James Octava, so it's never been a problem procuring more of them. In the back, as we're approaching our like bungalow or wherever we're going to be staying, can I actually reach out here to the arena to see if my choir can provide us a secure channel for Zadavin to reach out to his mother directly? Oh, interesting. Now that we've touched out and we're not on the arabesque anymore, I'd like to just see if that's an option.

Be like, you know, No, I don't want to offer that to Zadavim before I know I can provide it. Yeah. Give me a tech role. The difficulty is going to be a 12. I'll go ahead and burn six grit. What would you even need grit for? Seven on the die plus seven is 14.

Gorgeous. You have to search for it. It almost feels like you are pushing through underbrush. So much of this place. intentionally so, has distance from easy electronic signatures. Like that's part of the appeal of this place. It's why it feels a little more glass garden and not easy bioavailability of electronic signals. But of course you can find them.

And of course, Irina have been here. Five family members come here all the time. They bring their Irina everywhere. They would never be left in the darkness of space. without that access if they've ever procured it. It's hard to find, but sitting on small electronic devices, coffee makers, and little short-range radios, you can just see little signatures from other arena. It takes extra time, but you can get messages out to us and the wider world.

You just know that it's got to bounce around way more than it would have to. you have to like piggyback to get off the moon towards the fully populated planet down below. And then from there you can bounce out to wherever you need to get. I think essentially like I find this digital mountain trail through extreme back routes that is not going to the Averex. What it is is I'm looking for a back route to get to like septima prime. I'm going all the way back to where the arena are and being like I'm going to. I'm going to send you a running video stream of Zadavinaverix. You are going to scan that and create totally separately a brand new video file and you're going to call his mother.

There will be literally no way for them. In other words, there isn't a connection to our contact stream. You're getting the contact stream and instantaneously creating a brand new video file of what Zadaventavon of Verix is saying that are just creating a simulacrum of. of him. So it's never our operator boards never have the wires go into each other. I love that. Zadavans' mom will be talking to an instantly created 3D replica of him who's saying and doing exactly what he's saying and doing in the moment he says and does it. Incredible. And you already rolled the 14. So this will work the way you expect it to. And at whatever point you feel comfortable, you can convey that information. In the back of the golf cart,

I'll turn over after I've had my Losterkeet race. And just look at Zadavin and go, I've secured a private line through the septimal choir. If you're interested in the technology behind it, it will create a video simulacrum of you that will say and do exactly what you are saying and doing in a video conference with, which I remember of your family you would like us to reach out to. The important thing is that as far as your family's databases are concerned, that video conference that has 100% fidelity to what you are saying and doing will originate with the septimal course. choir. There will be no metadata associated with our current location. There will be no ability to

track us here. Its origin and font will be coming from the choir itself. Hmm. Okay. Not bad. So we have different environments that we want to make as immersive as possible, but for one-off situations, it's just not necessarily always worth it. If we could have a little more optionality, I think it would be worth pursuing, but since... But there's always the question then, you know, of specificity, like something very specific, and you're just known for that versus versatility. So I understand, I understand. You know what? It's been so... I've never had enough time off for the ability to make that trip,

but I've heard so many good things about Jennifer. Oh, you simply must come by sometime. Like, and I'm sure that you can get your, uh, your manager to send you as a sort of a business expense. You're very kind. I don't think I've worked here for quite some time. I don't know if they would necessarily spend the orm to send me on a work trip. But I appreciate it. Also, I do want to apologize.

This is the best I could do on such short notice. Unfortunately, there's only two bungalows. We wouldn't be able to secure anything from our brinket. Oh, your ability to improvises is phenomenal. Thank you so much. Full mark. So much. Oh, thank you.

You're so kind. Miss Tanga. Sorry. Hi, we're here. And the golf cart slams to a stop. You guys are taken to a series of two small villas side by side with like a private pool with both a cold and a hot tub attached to it, lagoon style. If there's anything else that you need, sir. We'll take a plate of fresh fruit in about 30 minutes.

Oh, do you want that on top of the fruit that is in the bungalow? Very much so. Okay, done. On it. Well, thank you so much. Is there somewhere we should be getting your bag, your luggage from... No, we're running light today. Understood.

In fact, if you could actually bring us a few changes of clothes, that'd be ideal. I can do that. You know what? All you have to do, there's a whole... communication system inside if you just want to leave preferred sizes and materials. Keir, take your best guess. Okay. Okay.

And he's just going to turn and stare at you for 30 uninterrupted seconds. Okay, I think I've got it. Fantastic. We'll see you in 30 minutes. Thank you so much. As we are left alone, I'd like to do a quick scan just to see if we are indeed, like, biologically alone in this. I feel confident about the tech, but I feel confident about the tech, but I, I do want to do just do a quick scan of if we are biologically alone,

geographically alone, I guess. Yeah. No, I like biologically alone. Are we biologically alone? That's my, I have an album of all saxophone covers. Biologically alone with Brennan Lee Mulligan. Give me a will roll if you have anything extra, any extra thing you could put on like a perception check. Five.

Yeah. That's enough for you to know that there are not other people around or any, like, lodgings that are close. You're not fully biologically alone because you're still surrounded by, like, the wildlife. Yeah. Which is only a couple birds, and especially if you were listening in on Keir and cheese conversation, that there's not a ton of them around because they don't, like, breed freely. Yeah. I'll look at you and say, I'm prepared to open the line whenever you're ready. How's this going to work?

We should select an area without any identifiable features that they might be able to trace in the background of the call. But I will be applying a filter to the background as well. You'll be rendered in full fidelity with a holographic scan, and there will be possibly only a one or two second lag on the call in order to create the video scan, send it off in the direction it's going, and re-render it in the hard drives of the actual choir. And are you the receiver? Am I the receiver of... Am I talking into you?

Oh, we can broadcast to one of the screens here in person, and you can make eye contact with your mother on that screen. The eye will be able to render the eye contact. Okay, I just don't have to talk into your foot or anything like that. No, no, no, no. There will be visible light coming off of me, but other than that, you will be talking to the screen. I think the only hitch in this very good plan

is walking into the first of these two bungalows. you realize that it is very much not technological. Other than like an old and rustic looking like physical corded phone that connects to like the grounds here, there are no like large screen displays. This place is intentionally low tech. Seeing that in absence of screens here, I can rearrange some of the ocular leads on my face to look like your mom. and you can talk directly to me. Terrifying, man. Can we just do audio?

My man, it won't be bad. Trust me, it will be fine. I don't want to look at you and imagine my mother. You won't have to. I'll look just like her. We do have that package back on Jennifer. I'm going to rip the cord out of the old phone. Can I just plug this into you?

Oh, that would work. Yeah, for sure. Okay, cool. Don't do that mother thing, all right? Just like never do that mother thing. Okay. I'll make sure you never die if you do the mother. Great. I'll look over. I could look like cheese, mom, if that's better.

Can you look like Chi? Sure. Oh, interesting. I go, and I put an absolutely unconvincing. It's like an eight-bit. It's awful. It's no universe. I can make it a little bit less polygonal if I make it much bigger. Zee's going to put a hand on cheese shoulder. It looks great.

It looks great, Excelsio. Oh my goodness. It's like looking in a mirror. Like these triangle cheeks pop up. It looks like a me from we. It looks, that's what. And I go like, I can do this bigger. I make it about four times as big as a normal head.

And I can get more vectors and angles in there. That's, well, thank you. I am not optimized for disguise. Mm. All right. And I plug into your phone. And I'll start to transmit the call. No role required because you already successfully did this, but I think it takes maybe 10 minutes to bounce that signal enough times to get out, have those instructions understood and followed by your home world, and then pinged out.

Are you reaching out to Zadavon? Yes. Okay. So knowing that if Kier Deglet and the like hospitality staff, is exactly on time, this conversation has a 20-minute time limit. Yes. And after maybe four or five rings of the phone, you hear a familiar voice.

Hello. Sadovan? Z? Oh. How's your pull going? Ha. So you knew I was being pulled by Jemis Octavo? Isolt was kind enough to inform me.

Okay, well, I want to keep this brief because we are speaking through Septima Prime. Mm-hmm. The pull has turned into a call. What? The pull has turned into a call. And if not, for the associates I'm currently traveling with, it would have been a successful call. You can hear your mother. she is trying very hard to control her breathing.

Hearing my mother attempt to control her breathing would send Zadavin into a state of fight or flight that is like my heart rate is now accelerating because I think the person I think is most secure and controlled in my universe is now working to control themselves, which makes me think this might be as bad as Excelsiel was trying to communicate to me on the ship, which I think is just not something Z is ready to sit in. Go ahead and give me a sense motive role.

Difficulty is a nine. I'll burn six grit. I rolled a 12 on the second one. Oh my God. For a total of 18. Yeah, with a crit on the die. You. know your mother, even in the ways that she like holds and guards herself. And in that like spike of

anxiety of, is my mother unsafe? Is this reaction her letting something slip? You realize that all of that like coiled predator that you've associated with her is turned in fury on your behalf. She is furious trying to remain calm for you as someone in her family is threatening her child. You have other siblings. They don't have her name. She is holding it together for you. We'll look into that directly. Are you safe? I am safe.

And if you want to get in touch with me, I would go through a heronac. You signed a contract with an arena? That's correct. May I please know their call sign? Excelsio. Understood. Are you still with Izolt? No, that has fallen through.

I tried. We tried to get back with them. and we're diverted. You're going to be fine. I know. If you feel comfortable with letting me know where you are exactly at any point, please feel free to do so,

but since I have no idea where this is originating, I would like to praise you once again for your tack. Great. Thanks, Mom. Talk to Heronac if you need to speak to me. I think I should continue to go dark for the time being. Can you check in with me again in the next 12 hours? I look up at Excelsia. 12 hours?

We can establish this through line whenever necessary. The arrangements that I've made to pin down this call will have to be recalibrated based on a number of technical issues. However, I can vouchsafed for this being a foolproof way to be in touch. And I'd like, if I can, to communicate with the choir to basically have, like, a beautifully gift-wrapped digital package for Zadavinaverick's maternal of, like, here is a secure byline. And I think I would like to flag to the choir this point of contact being made about being like, hi, as an instance of the subject formal choir, we are present in ensuring the rescue and safety of a member of one of the five families and flag for my choir. Like, basically, like, I'm on my guy and I'm telling my people like, get the lady a fruit basket. Yeah.

That's the robot vibe here of like giving like, being like, hey, I had to work my ass. I also, I think I'm sending a note out to the rest of the choir, being like, in Excelsio's voice being like, I observed that it took over 10 minutes to secure this line. And I'd like to compare that to the relative influence of the people involved to our general time. Basically, it's the closest, it's Excelsiel's version of being like, what the fuck is going on, guys? I love to lock it up. Do you know who he is? Do you know who he is? I know that I was a bus boy yesterday.

Fucking wake up. Wake up. I think that sense of barely contained, like, urgency is perfectly mirrored by your choir. And there is sound and movement filling up on the other side as, like, people are in the room now. Like, she's calling in everyone and trying, and, like, is moving with the same urgency. though it is also, like, equally tense and held. Great. Thank you.

I... My compliments to Excelsiel for making this... 12 hours. I'll take you back. Okay. Don't worry about me. Oh, I'm your mother. Click.

I'm gonna go for a swim. Just taking my shirt off. I'm gonna go jump in the water. The name Heronach. Is that a familiar name to you, Ms. Tanka? Is it? It is not. Can I do a check of some kind to see if I have ever heard, or actually if any of the Irina have heard the name Heron Act before?

You asking all the arena while you're still on the line? Oh, no, no. I will hang up. Okay, okay. Click. When Luce said click, that was him poking a finger at my chest. Yes, exactly. I am a phone. But I would like to, I'm happy to auger this as well, but just literally reach out and do a, to be a little Machiavellian in this moment, I think that Excelsia will just get in touch with his choir and say, a point of contact has been made between one Zadavinaverix and one Zadavinaverix.

This constitutes a meaningful act of service to the Averex family. Observation. Alternate route of service, call sign Heronac. Question mark, what data do we have on this individual? I would love for this to be an auger. Give me a reason rule so we know how much grid you're about to burn. Please be a big number. Six. So 10 minus six is four.

Perfect. You burn four grit. So often you're augury. That ability to reach out and ping all of the little notes and instances of light and reason behind the eyes of the arena as you guys have existed in diaspora across the 40 suns. It takes time and there is strain attached. And I think you assumed that this so remote and so intentionally far from the electronic heartbeat of the galaxy would have taken longer. You ask about the name Heronac.

And almost as quickly as you produce that name, an alert. Another alert. Another and another. As the arena all scream in a voice together, anyone that has met the arena known as Heronac. The arena known as Heronac? Yes. Danger.

Avoid at all costs. I will just ask one last question to those danger things. Apostate. And you hear it like an echo in your own mind. It's as though you didn't have to ask because not only do all the Arena know, but you know. You hear your own voice again loudly in the center of your chest. Apostate. That was Erica Ishii as Chitanka, Renanley Mulligan.

as Excelsia, Lou Wilson as Zadavinavericks, and Abria Aingar as everyone and everything else. Solari is produced by Worlds Beyond Number, edit and sound design by Big Giant Head Productions, and score by Will Savino. For even more stories like this, join us on our Patreon.

We'll see you by the fireside.