i say with some amount of shame that i was born down here. not literally. but it feels that way. when all you've known is how the surface hurt you, it's nice to be something else in a different place. not to suggest the ocean doesn't hurt people. people lose themselves down here. you can learn how to survive and thrive, or you can let the depth and abstraction crush you. but at least down here you have a choice, right? angels are power. that's what SERA is built upon. they're like spokespeople for... natural gas, or something. they have a limited resource, and if they sell it to you, you're given something more powerful than anyone else knows how to produce. it's a neat trick. they have no competition. how could they? the Gaia Assembly tells you that the world is doomed. SERA tells the Gaia Assembly that they've got something more than worldly. it might not save the planet, but it's hope for everyone that watches the news. so they team up to save the planet. lucky us. they're making big things. they make luxury settlements and boats to ride the high. that leaves you and me biding our time. waiting for someone with the power to do something. choking on our tears. watching our homes get flooded. glued to a weather forecast. i'm too deep in saltwater for surface radio transmission to penetrate. thank god. i can't take another second of the real world. not to suggest spending my final days in the ocean is any fucking nicer. people tell me that i have this nasty habit, where i try and lighten the thing i just said by being funny. i don't want to be funny anymore. i'm really scared. do i not exist in the real world? am i being listened to by anybody? when the world goes, will it matter that i did it? will the world go for everyone else, too? or will it just go for me?