Sometime early Day 5

[oneformisery]

[ Someone begins to trace several rows of alphabet in charcoal... ]

Comments

[toothaches]

Mmhm.

_{[He turns the paper over and draws another earth, this time accompanied by the moon.]}

All the land and water you see is actually a big ball called a planet. Kind of like the moon but waaay bigger. Planet Earth. Th' reason I brought it up is because some folks from other worlds might call their planet something different. There's Mars and Jupiter and Neptune and all them...but I don't think anybody lives on those.

[oneformisery]

A big...ball?

[ This is his first time hearing of such a thing. He stares at the other blankly. ]

You mean your land is not flat? And that there are other such balls out...there?

[ A gesture to the ceiling in lieu of the sky. ]

[toothaches]

Chances are, your land isn't flat either. It just looks flat to you and me because it's so big.

_{[Time for a sloppy doodle about the curviture of the earth complete with Stick Murtagh and Stick Maurice!]}

[oneformisery]

[ Well, that's certainly something he can't say yes or no to... Murtagh will accept the possibility for now. Maybe someday he'll fly across the seas with Thorn and see if it's true. ]

How did you know your world-- your planet was round if you couldn't tell from looking at the land?

[toothaches]

Well...some guys got in a boat and set sail toward the sun and they sailed and sailed until they bumped back into the same land mass they left from.

[oneformisery]

...It's still a rather incredible thing to believe.

[ The land is...round?? Murtagh can't comprehend it. It's somehow more incomprehensible than the seas extending infinitely towards the horizon. ]

Did they know what they would discover when they set sail, these... 'guys'?

[toothaches]

Well, some of 'em were pretty sure but...it was worth the risk to find somewhere that wasn't their original home. It kinda sucked. But anyway, that's what a planet is.

[oneformisery]

[ A nod to show he accepts the point. ]

How did you discover the other...planets? The air grows colder and thinner past a certain point and it's impossible to pass. I hear it's also difficult to breathe.

[toothaches]

Well, we've got really powerful telescopes--and things we've learned to send up into the sky to do the looking for us. It gets...complicated. But trust me, there are a ton of planets out there.

Back home, ours is the only one we've seen with life on it though.

[oneformisery]

I suppose I must take your word for it then. Why is it that your world is the only one with life on it though?

[ It doesn't occur to him that the other planets may be barren of life. It doesn't really occur to him that there can't be life of any sort. Even a desert has its creatures. ]

[toothaches]

Well, I mean it's the only one we've found so far. So far, the others don't seem to have air like Earth. Or instead of air there's poison gas. Or perpetual storms.

[oneformisery]

Ah... [ He starts to muse to himself: ] A world where the very air is poison. Incredible.

[ After a bout of thoughtful silence, he jerks himself back to the present. ]

It's odd that only one planet of many others is capable of sustaining life. Is there some other unique feature about your planet?

[toothaches]

_{[Maurice offers up a shrug.]}

Not really. It's just...oceans and mountains and trees and dogs and things like that.

_{[Ah, yes, the entire contents of the Earth. Oceans. Mountains. Trees and dogs.]}

[oneformisery]

[ Something tells him that's an "I don't know" answer. It's okay though. Murtagh doesn't know everything about his own land either. ]

Thank you for attempting to explain that to me. It will be a while yet before I can see if the same applies to my homeland.