malnosso | [Locked to Luceti Residents]

[In the afternoon, the enclosure receives a message from none other than Mr. Catherine himself. He hasn't been heard from by the village since his death last June. Remarkably not only does he sound chipper and full of life, but the old raspiness that identified him as an old man is gone. In fact, he sounds quite full of life, like a young man high on life.]

Goodness gracious, how long has it been? Nearly a year, I should think, since we truly ever talked. Not counting that nasty business where I died. Best forgotten, that.

Now then, I suppose you've been beside yourselves with concern about my whereabouts. Well fret not, I've been hard at work! I'm not quite the CEO of the Malnosso, but I have made remarkable progress. You all have been quite helpful to that as well. We are quite a team, the lot of us! Wit and might mixed together for a remarkable combination of change. I suspect we could do most anything if we worked together!

In any case, to business. As you might guess, you will be undergoing an experiment soon. No doubt your more experienced 'old feathers' have enlightened most of you on what to expect. I realize this is all terribly frustrating. The heart strings are quite the delicate things, but it is very important. I won't be involved in running the experiment, but I've been assured that this will provide some absolutely astounding data in the future of Shift research. Your participation, willing or not, it is greatly appreciated.

Ahh- what else? Oh yes. I suppose you wonder what I'm up to? Well, it's quite exciting. I'm at Sirry Crags! The mountains, oh yes. The skies are perfectly clear. Blue skies abound! Not a single cultist dots the skies. Indeed, they haven't been spotted here in months. Mark that one for a victory. After hundreds of years, this mountain range is finally free from those nasty cultists. Exciting, isn't it?

[Locked to Rem]

Oh ho, I hear it's nearly over. You must absolutely tell me how the experiment went!

[Locked to Molly]

Well well, my dear. I do hope you have some news for me. Please, please, do not spare the details. This channel is absolutely secure.

[Locked to The Great One]

A-ah, I hate to intrude upon your important work, Great One, but might I trouble you for a moment of your time? I sincerely promise you this won't be like last time.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sounds like someone's finally gotten his beauty sleep. Are you actually as young as you sound, or did you get caught with some kind of shift effect?

Ho ho, I'm not any younger than I was before. Not in mind. Certainly in body, yes! But it's no Shift.

How old would you say you feel, biologically speaking?

Well, certainly not twenty. I don't even remember twenty.

Thirty, perhaps. Maybe. Unless it is twenty.

I've heard that thirty is the new twenty. But the real question is... why did you come back from death de-aged? Or maybe I should be asking how?

It's quite a mystery, isn't it? But it would be quite troublesome if I were to revive, only to die from old age again. I'd be caught in an endless cycle.

Does that generally happen when anyone around here dies of old age?

Almost always.

[Answers that generate more questions.]

What determines the age that you revert to? Could this cycle of aging and reverting- theoretically- repeat indefinitely?

Why, the very age you arrived into this world in. I myself was fortunate enough to arrive as a fit, young man. I had a secretary once who arrived as a five year old girl. The poor girl had to go through puberty again.

You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that most of us don't have to relive our glory days of awkwardness and bad acne. [Well. Aside from short duration and random de-aging shifts, but details.]

So, from your experience, it appears that we also keep our memories of our previous "lifetime" intact? Do penalties in general still apply to resurrection from this kind of death?

Sadly yes. Even a careful man like myself is bound to accumulate a few penalties from the ravages of time.

That's pretty unfortunate, but there's at least the possibility of getting those removed, right? I could see how it would have its benefits, being effectively immortal...

[Though he can imagine, most people probably don't want to have to go through the death part in the first place.]

I'm afraid the Great One is the only one who can remove penalties. He only does that for Luceti.

So it really doesn't apply to you at all? Here I was thinking you had good connections.

[After a while, the toll that would take... he hates to imagine it.]

Well I certainly know the Great One well enough! He is, after all, my mentor and inspiration. But I've suffered no penalty that has left me unable to continue my work. I see no need to distract him from such important research for what are only inconveniences for myself!

That's some good luck. The, uh- the blue skin, is that one of them?

Ho ho ho, no no. That's quite a different matter!

I'm going out on a limb to assume that it's not a case of Smurf heritage.

Ho ho ho. No. Not at all. What's a Smurf?

A very miniature blue person... I guess the shortness genes would have had to skip over you to be one of them anyway.

Quite right. I'm afraid the blueness is... well, it's rather embarrassing to say, really.

You realize that you can't give me a statement like that without dishing out some of the details. What happened?

Shifting experiment. Very early on. I'm afraid not all effects are always reversible.

I should have known there'd be a catch like that somewhere. I hope we're not in any danger of permanent effects... knowing my luck, I'd turn purple and never match with anything.

[He jokes, but it's mainly to hold off all of the mental images of even worse bodily horrors that could befall a person... permanently.]

[Voice]

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