The following memory recordings were recovered remotely from Dr. Frank Dunsmuir’s in situ field database on Enceledus. You can find our analysis of the neural imprints in Appendix 12. In this section, the events in the Crystalaven zone are presented with little commentary besides what is necessary for structural and temporal cohesion. This, we hope, will minimize any biases introduced by our system's analysis.
The inhabitants of the Crystalaven colony indicated that they hadn’t seen Dr. Dunsmuir in over a standard week. Some of them were in communication with the investigator prior to his disappearance. The attached imprints contain some of these encounters as reconstructed in our laboratory. We hope they provide you with some insight regarding this tragic turn of events, as well as the necessary clues for its successful resolution.
Imprint 1
The sound of a knock on the door.
“D’eis acome from af’r, dei’s come a’rumbling and dancing, singing a racket then took the maidenfair.”
The voice belongs to a village boy. He sounds anxious.
“Who? Who took her?” Dr. Dunsmuir inquires.
“The fa’res! The fa’res snatched ‘er.”
Locals are highly superstitious, as you know, and their fear of fairies is the greatest among them. They have many stories about the creatures whom they believe possess supernatural powers. To ward off any potential harm, they put their clothes on backwards and fruits in their pockets whenever they travel long distances. So, it is not surprising they have concocted such a wild tale. However, this term is also used for certain participants during a festival and care must be taken to disambiguate the terms based on the context in which they are used.
“You be de letter man after old Robersmith settled in de dirt. Set de pen and ink and bolt upright, letter man!”
We have spatial movement and recording of the doctor's displacement toward the village shortly after the visitor arrived at his home requesting help with the missing young lady.
Imprint 2
The doctor's circadian clock indicates it is late in the hour, but the village is vibrant with festival revelers celebrating the coming of their spring season. The festival has been going on for three days and will continue for three more. The locals take their festivals very seriously. During this time, they believe the fairies are active, and so they cover their faces for the duration of the festival to prevent being recognized by the mischievous mythic creatures.
“Hoy, bayh! What ‘re ye messing at ring rise?” the first matron speaks to her eldest starling (as they call their children). A first matron is the eldest lady of a dwelling. This one is likely related to the missing woman. The term ring rise refers to Saturn's position in the sky towards the end of the day.
“I bes frothing the kob’l and sunning down de hides,” one juvenile answers. The kob'l is a milk-producing descendant of the cow. “We dropped at third rise after guiding de herd and separating de fat. We soon heard de banging and de blarin’ of de fa’res. We bolted de door and slumbered. Dat was all.”
The matron turns to the doctor and speaks. “And dat’s her tell of it.”
“So, the fairies took the maidenfair?” The doctor asks her.
“Dei's pure mayhem. A-come spilling and makin’ mimicry of honest dwellers.”
“You saw these fairies?”
“Not fai-rees, letter man,” the matron says with a chuckle, “fa’res, lah… leg-kickers and mimics dressed up as fa'res. Fa’ers kick around dwellings in ring nights, from de bordeland dey comes, night after night, kicking yer door, hollering, banging pots and drums, demon stringing- can’t hide from ‘em, under yer bed, dey seek ye out, wherever ye be hiding, nearly got me drove!”
The matron here differentiates between fairy beings and revelers who call themselves fairies during the festival season.
The woman is presumed to have been kidnapped by the revelers, but others appear to believe real fairies are the culprits (see Appendix 12). Kidnapping young women is an unfortunate practice and usually done to settle scores, or as Dr. Dunsmuir would put it, it's a way for the inhabitants to maintain genetic variety, as mechanistic as that sounds.
Imprint 3
In these memory sequences, we detected high levels of social agreement. The memory indicates a plan was concocted to search for the missing young lady in a neighbouring village where the fairy kidnappers live. The following recording likely took place just before the search began.
"Drop dis prune in yer pocket," a matron advises Dr. Dunsmuir. "Nice and snug, just ensure not to fall in yer face, and got it dirt. Den ye must eat quick, even de dirt! Hehehe!"
"I bes sharp," Dr. Dunsmuir tells her.
"You best at it," the woman says, "Dis fa'res set up to a lot of trouble. But ye keep it snug and in no time there's only road behind ye."
Imprint 4
They travel at sunset and set up camp at the edge of the marshes. It is the locals' belief that this is fairy territory, so they decide to camp outside before crossing it. There is discussion as to whether starting a fire is a good idea. As it is common with them, they resolve the issue by telling a ghost story.
"He looks at the buck and smacks him," a man says, recounting an old story, "so hard in nature de creature swings his head. Dat buck knew it for sure. Seen it coming as before. So phoom! thack! His head turning and gores him in de fat. Falls right dere. Dere in de dirt beneath. Dere he lies. Den fa'res magicked him. At night, dey says, at night he comes and disses yer fire. 'I come with no harm,' he says, 'but yer got de sticks and flames on dat spot over me bones. It is not harm I'm after, but it's best to darken embers and toss off me bones.'"
The story has the intended emotional impact, and there is a general agreement that it's best not to light a fire near the marshes.
"Soft now!" says a young man, "I ears in de wind de aether voices."
"Fa'res!" says another. "It'll be foggy dere, and them mischievous souls lives in de misty mushrooms yonder."
"Soft now, let us before them."
Please note that it is not clear to us whether the word 'fa'res' refers to the mythic beings or the festival dancers who travel these roads during the festival season.
Imprint 5
The final recording contains no context, but it's random bits of sensory echoes.
"Call, bayh...where you at?"
"Right in de mud. Fell on me face after de fa're. Can't bloody believe it!"
"Dey're hard nuts. Drives you astray and goat dey will. Stay fixed, Rontar. Turn dy coat around, bayh, and swivel cap too if still put."
"The fa'res, lah!"
"I'll fix 'em, I will!"
"Nah, Morton! They'll magic you."
"Stop pestering you mischievous scoundrels! Go 'ome to yer mist!"
Shouting, laughing, yelling noises end the recording. Then one final sequence of memory imprints uploaded that fateful night of the doctor's disappearance.
This is the last of the recordings. Please see our accompanying notes and analysis.
We want to thank you for taking the time to help us with the investigation. All of our resources are at your disposal. We look forward to working with you closely so we can bring the young lady and Dr. Dunsmuir safely home.
Dr. Titus Elmenian
Galactic Intelligence Affairs of the Outer Planets
Images generated by @litguru using Generative Art software. I explored the different themes of the story, which takes place in a space colony on Saturn's moon Enceledus. Far fetched, I know. I tried to imagine a group of our descendants many years into the future with their own culture and belief systems. Which came first, the story or the art? They grew organically together. Thank you for visiting this incubation pod.
Thank you! 🙌
I would love to read it in Spanish, I love the images used and they invite me to read but my English is not good at all. Greetings.
Even in English it is hard to read because I made up a dialect based on older English dialects, so it all sounds like a word salad. 😄
Thank you for visiting!
hahahaha if I don't know English, imagine this dialect. In fact, I write to you through Google translate to make communication bearable.
It's great that you're able to communicate through Google translate. DeepL Translate is another great tool that I've used. In the story, I changed words that begin with 'th' with a 'd'. For example, 'they' becomes 'dey' and 'the' becomes 'de'. So a translator may not pick up on this. 😊 Thank you for taking the time to comment!
It's worth the effort ♥️ I will follow your posts closely ✨
Wowww what beautiful, mysterious and colourful images! And everything you tell is super! I love the theme of the masks!😍
Thank you, @avdesing! I enjoyed exploring this world of masks, festivals, and fairies.
That world is super fascinating!!! Thank you for that. Good night!🤗