Uncovering Mysteries: Exploring the Ruins Among the Stars

What’s happening followers? By the by, before we get too deep into this, what do I call all of you? Calling you followers seems so…impersonal. We’re on this journey together. Let’s do a little poll and see what’s up. There aren’t that many of you right now so every vote counts. 

What do followers of The Halcyon Daze want to be called?

• Cosmic Nomadics
• Celestrians
• Astroventurers
• Univeronauts

See All Options

Anyway, hope every single one of you is seeking your joy and doing epic things. Or if doing epic stuff isn’t your thing, I hope you’re finding your joy in whatever it is you like to do. That’s a little bit of wisdom from your friend Deno here. Whatever it is that brings you joy, do that thing. It doesn’t matter how big or small it is. If your joy is a window garden in a massive city, do that thing. If your joy is going on epic adventures across the galaxy, do that thing. The biggest and only rule in pursuing your joy is don’t be an asshole. If everyone strove to just not be an asshole the universe would be a much better place. That’s my tidbit of wisdom for the day. Well, two tidbits.

1. Seek your joy, whatever it may be.

2. Don’t be an asshole.

Special Note: If your pursuit of rule number one causes you to violate rule number two then re-evaluate your joy.

Alright, that’s enough venturing into the void. Today, I will tell you a little bit about the history of Brarcolyn. Specifically, the ruins I’ve been kicking around the last couple of days. 

Check it out, I found this really sweet old lady running a food stand near where I’m staying. She sells these things called Nibbler Skewers that were questionable looking but tasted roaking delicious. (Side Note: Nibblers are these little mammals with big teeth and ears that chew on absolutely everything around here. I found one eating my wallet when I woke up the other day. They’re cute, but mess up a lot of stuff.)

So, I’m munching on my skewer and she starts telling me about something that happened here called The Great Leak. Apparently, they were drilling out some passageways in the Residential District when suddenly..BOOM..they hit open space. The dude who was supposed to plot it all out got lazy and just picked a direction for the diggers to go, not knowing the path was taking them straight to the void. Something like a hundred people died, and a dozen more got trapped in the tunnels for over a week. There was an inquiry and because the guy had an in with a bunch of the marshals he was absolved of any wrongdoing. Rumor has it he didn’t last for long though. He had an “accident” less than a month after the incident and despite happening in a crowded district no one saw anything. Smells like justice to me.

So yeah, the nibbler lady introduced me to one of the diggers and he agreed to take me down there to take a look at the place. It was dicey. He snuck me onto one of the ferries to another district and disguised me in one of his old uniforms. The overseers at his job didn’t seem to care, but a couple of co-workers gave me a hard side-eye when I was walking through. Definitely saw some money change hands with a few people. Which was cool, I made sure I paid him for the trouble getting me down there, plus some units on top for doing me a solid.

When I saw the tunnel I was amazed. Listening to the story I imagined a cramped and crooked passage through the asteroid. This tunnel was large enough for a ship to fly through, all hand-dug by hundreds of people over several months. And I found out, all the diggers working there volunteered for the job. No one had to be forced into doing it. The people needed the job done, someone came up with a plan, and they just came together to do the work. The camaraderie of it is just inspiring. 

I’ve never been part of anything like that. Not in scale or how important it was. Just think, all these people coming together and building this massive thing to make everyone’s lives better just to have it all roaked up by one guy that didn’t care enough to do his job right. All the workers were on their game, doing the right thing and taking care of each other. It was one of the people in charge that screwed up everyone else. It shows me two big things. 

The first thing is that when people come together for a common goal we can get shit done. Communities build bridges, dig tunnels, and raise buildings. I mean, look at us, we can travel the stars because of what we built together.

But here’s the second thing. It only takes one selfish asshole to roak it all up. One person whose vision doesn’t line up, or they act in their own self-interest, or are just plain lazy can throw the whole system out of sync. Sometimes, it’s not that big of a deal. Other times, people die.

That tunnel was built eventually, and the people were able to grow and thrive because of it. The ruins of what happened stand right now as a reminder of who they can and can’t trust. And the story is a testament to the resilience of the Brarcolynites. The people here are tenacious in their goals and how they hang together.

One day, I hope to find people like that. People that I know I can rely on to pursue and drive toward a common goal. Maybe I’ll find some, out here among the stars. Perhaps someday, we all will.

Deno Wynn