Mental Synchronisation Can Have But One Explanation

The Culture

There must be reasons that get you out your rack and propel you forward, every eight hours fourty minutes else you would just sleep the day away. On Juripet Station for the past sixteen thousand days I have had work, worship and wonder to stimulate and energise me, and though Etesian and the other members of Monem have given me all three here at the Great Underground, it is Bora that I wake up for. Bora that pulls me from my bed and maintains my connection to the real world. It is also Bora that keeps me awake during those eighty minutes I could be seeing the Alien, though if I confessed that to anyone here, they would simply not understand for alien revelation is what they live for.

If I were still living under the Culture, in five days' time I would be leaving for Tonem's surface to join my people in the never-ending saga of who can survive the longest, however Etesian has instructed me that for now at least this will no longer be the case.

Ylva and Yeilin enter the space I chose as my own upon my induction to all things Monem and proceed to encourage the walls to bring forth light. Ylva, the tallest and greenest Vida I have ever seen in my life coaxes the mosses and fungi to release their bioluminescent tendrils, whilst Yeilin a semi translucent and partly luminescent youngling from Tewi Bah follows her with bowls of water to feed the growth and reflect the light around the rest of the walls, producing light reflection from the carpeting along the ceiling.

Of the workers I have met so far, I like Ylva and Yeilin the most because their dynamic is so interesting. Ylva is monotone and deadpan whereas Yeilin is the complete opposite. Everything that comes out of Yeilin's mind requires a response, whether that be an answer or simply acknowledgment, but Ylva's reactions are so unintentionally brief as to be hilarious. With Yeilin, not only is his colour odd, (a bizarre pigment of pink on white, instead of the various shades of blue and green, or even Tewi Bah orange and reds) many of his quirky characteristics are funny. He doesn't try to be so, but his nature, his strange comments, even the way he walks are all things I find intensely amusing.

I have been living in the western arc of the Great Underground for a little over thirty days, and though the residents of the Underground are from all walks of life, Yeilin doesn't quite fit with any of them.

He catches my scent as he moves around the room, and in his excitement his light begins spreading from his hands head and feet to the banding around his neck, arms, and chest.

'Keyes' he chitters, 'you're awake?'

From his movements and general demeanour, it is obvious he wishes for Ylva to speed up her work on the side of the room they are currently, so that he can engage in discreet conversation on the side where my rack resides.

'I am alone today Yei Yei'. I whisper. 'Bora and the others left yesterday for the talks on the planet'. Talks I am evidently not to be genned up on.

'Ahh' he replies, nodding his head as if he understands that this is why I am still in my rack and not down at the entrance to the underground with the rest of the reclamation crew. 'I was thinking' he continues, 'you should stop hanging out in the Hall of Mirrors'.

'Why?' I snap surprised. 'Why should I not go there?'

I think I already know what he's going to say, what Bora has also hinted at, and Etesian has stated on more than one occasion. Generally, there seems to be this unwritten rule that heroes be of sterner stuff than I am made of. That they are engaging, prone to occasional words of wisdom, and are skilled in some useful area that others can be envious of. Even the heroes of my mind, took a worthy cause and made it better. Painting seventeen, the one of Culture Leader Bo, was painted entirely in shades of yellow to show his rock-ribbed, goal-oriented mindset. I on the other hand, demonstrate none of these qualities. Etesian even claims that I am beyond boring.