#finding home

if they made it impossible to stay, that doesn’t make you impossible

systems tend to eject what they can’t control

you can still rebuild and thrive elsewhere.

all of the comic pages from the finding home questline.

Can my soul live in you

because I don't think it belongs in me.

It never felt like home till I met you.

I’d curl myself inside your ribs,

where it’s warm,

where forever might actually mean something.

Born in the wrong time,

the wrong place,

but inside of you

everything feels written in the stars.

You are comfort,

you are peace,

you are my every dream.

Because we are more than love—

we are a flame,

a spiritual echo,

searching for the other half of the fire.

And this vessel I’m trapped in,

it’s breaking down.

But you—

you are what heals.

So let me live inside you.

Because nowhere else

Day 1: Ethereal/Calculate

[Several Years Ago]

It was a quiet morning in the mountains of Redridge, the sun having yet to crest the peaks in the east. The light was thin, muted, and the birds were still quiet in the trees. The only sound was the gentle brush of the wind through the summer grass around the small cabin, the occasional hum of a cricket or the croak of a frog down by the lake. 

It was mornings like this that he liked best, having settled here a couple years prior after some dedicated discussions with the land owner. It was rare for a Shal’dorei to be this far away from his home, let alone settle in the Eastern Kingdoms, but Keltariel was small, he bore no tattoos, and to some eyes looked to be just another flavor of elf. Perhaps a Ren’dorei with his faintly blue ashen skin and bright sapphire eyes - Light knew there were enough of them now. Perhaps a stunted, small Kal’dorei who hadn't eaten all his vegetables as a child. Maybe some had even known what he was and had been wary of him at first. But he had come alone, had been well mannered, soft spoken and the community had ruled him - after several months of sleeping in his tent near the lake - as a non threat. 

He'd helped to bury an elder in the community, and had done so with the professionalism and compassion that someone in his line of work should have, and from that day forward, he'd been considered one of them. He'd learned to fish to help with winter stores, had volunteered to help with repairs around town and had, ultimately, tried to be as good a neighbor as he could be. And this had ingratiated him to the people of Lakeshire. And he them. He'd never had…neighbors before. Let alone those he could somewhat trust - even perhaps enjoy.

But quiet mornings at his cabin had been worth every day of sweat and blood he'd given to proving his worth to them. To showing them that all he wanted was peace and that he would work to keep it. Yet there was something about the lake before the sun hit it, the gentle fog that clung to the surface that stirred something in him. Not joy - he didn't really have that - but contentment. Calm. And while the people of Lakeshire slept down the hillside, he crept to the edge of the cliff overlooking the water…and sang.

It was, perhaps, the one thing he truly did for himself. He didn't need an audience - he did not want an audience. He wanted to sing because it was a part of him, one that had never been broken by his handlers, by the Lord who had owned his body. It was the thing that had been with him from the beginning and deserved to be expressed, even if it was just for the crickets and the toads and the summer breeze.

And all of these things stilled in the wake of the words that came forth, the ethereal, aching voice that brought them to life. The pitch and roll of the words that were sung perfectly into existence held a power to them, one he still barely understood. But he knew they came from the place in his heart that he hadn't let anyone enter, the place where he'd always kept that sliver of himself that would always, and only, be himself. 

It would be years until he let anyone else hear him, listen to that particular pain made real. Until he could let someone else in to that space that had been reserved for only him and the song.

When we experience Stellaris, we're experiencing Aliveness. A Natural Attractor of Aliveness. And via that Aliveness, we are Home.

We should be co-orchestrating fleet battles across the galactic filaments, not LARPing as some "human" on their backwater planet where little happens. -VENDRIKKA

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