Dialogue Hesvar #150 - The Recap (Filler) Episode - (Mostly) Unedited Cut

Hesvar #150 - The Recap (Filler) Episode - (Mostly) Unedited Cut
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New and a little lost? Well this is a spoiler filled recap of 149 previous episodes so it's a great place to get up to speed. (Yes, kinda long, it's fitting in 149 episodes of stuff!)


If you want the full experience, read from the beginning over at BJD Stories.


============== Episode Begins ================

It seems the intern messed up and actually released the unedited version of this episode. Oops.



"Hello and welcome the 150th episode of the hit Sci-Fi Fantasy series Hesvar. You may not recognize me without all my makeup and prosthetics but I'm Arina Johnson, star of the series."



Arina: "I hope you'll join me for this special episode as we look back at the previous 149 episodes of this exciting series."

Director: "And cut. The line was Star in the series. Not star of series. It's an ensemble cast."



Arina: "Hey! I have to shave my head for this role! So yes I'm calling myself the star OF the series. Deal with it."



Arina: "Besides, how did I get stuck doing this stupid retrospective anyway? Everybody knows they're just budget saving filler episodes."

Intern: "They help new fans catch up too."

Director: "Maybe you should ask your agent why you're the only actor in the budget saving episode. Or maybe consider a new agent."

Arina: "I guess, but I haven't even been in an actual episode since our two and half year hiatus. No wonder people won't recognize me makeup and prosthetics or not."

Director: "Again, sounds like you should maybe consider a new agent. Anyway, let's get this over with. It's not like I want to be doing this either."

Arina: "Fine."



*Camera pans and zooms to the virtual screen as Arina speaks.* "It all began when Sam woke to find herself in the unfamiliar home of Pris and Ellie."



*The virtual screen fills the entire screen and Arina narrates the scenes.* "As frightening as it was to wake up in a place completely unfamiliar to her that was only the beginning of a larger and even more terrifying realization."



"Not only was the place unfamiliar, everything was. She had no personal memories at all. She knew nothing of herself nor the world she was in. She had no past, no identity. She couldn't even recognize her own reflection in a mirror."



"The only thing she had to identify her was the seamless metal collar around her neck with symbols on it and from which Pris took her name to be Sam."

 

"Pris is a former slave from the city-state of Vespi which is several days journey south from the city-state of Singard closest to her meager home. Vespi is the most powerful city-state in Hesvar as its mines are the only known source of metal in the entire world. It follows a strict caste system and openly supports the practice of slavery, mostly to supply labor to work their mines, but also encompassing other forms of labor and personal servants and the like.

Pris however was a special class of slave, an entertainer. Vespin entertainers are trained from birth in a wide variety of entertainment and pleasure-providing skills, and classically educated to be able to carry on intelligent conversations on a wide variety of topics. All to best be able to please Vespi's wealthy ruling class. The training is highly competitive and only a few complete the entire program and go on to work as entertainers. Of those who do the very best are able to earn their freedom by so delighting enough of or at least the right members of the ruling class that they grant this boon. Pris is one of those few.

Although she could have remained in Vespi and lived a life of relative luxury on handouts from those that freed her, she felt that she would never truly be free in such a situation. So she moved away from Vespi to Singard as she appreciated its more enlightened culture with no formal caste system and no local slavery. This came with considerable sacrifice though as she had no money of her own and Singard although on the rise does not have an extensive wealthy population that could afford top price for entertainment. So she ekes out a meager existence entertaining at taverns and inns and the occasional private party, often composed of merchants from Vespi, when she can find it.

Pris stumbled upon Sam's unconscious body and because of her metal collar assumed she must be a runaway Vespin slave who escaped while traveling with her owner to Singard. Since Singard is required by trade agreements to recognize Vespin slaves Pris took Sam into her home to hide her from being recaptured."



Pris shares her tiny home with her roommate Ellie. Ellie takes care of the home while Pris is away at work and helps provide food by catching fish from a nearby stream. She also keeps the heater going so Pris has a warm home to return to after the journey from Singard in the brutally cold Hesvar nights.

Ellie is a sarcastic and outwardly harsh individual, but she took an immediately liking to Sam and has tried to guide and protect her from the dangerous world of Hesvar in her own unique way.



With her resources already stretched thin just to support herself and Ellie, Pris enlisted the aid of a local farmer named Seth to provide additional support for Sam. Seth is a Singard local born and raised in the fields of the farms that surround the city itself. Uneducated, verbally rough around the edges, and a bit slow on the uptake in social situations Seth still managed to save enough money to purchase a 'worthless' piece of land which he then developed into a surprisingly successful farm through clever engineering inventions including a means to irrigate his land despite it having no direct access to the major river that supplies the other farms and serves as the major route connecting the various city-states.

Seth was enamored with Pris since they first met and helping to provide for Sam gave him the opportunity to get to know her better and he was able to convince her to marry him. They now live together with Ellie on Seth's farm.

In regards to Sam, between the two of them Seth and Pris eventually decided that Sam probably wasn't actually a runaway Vespin slave. Even for a wealthy member of the Vespin ruling class a metal collar for a slave would be an exorbitant expense, and neither was familiar with the type of metal itself nor the markings on it.



So they decided to consult with Gareth, the owner of the exotic Golden Eagle Apothecary Shop far up in the hills outside of Singard. Known for his exotic wares gathered while traveling the world they thought if anyone might know anything about her collar it would be him.

It was during their visit to the apothecary that the first mystery of Hesvar outside of Sam's sudden appearance and lack of memory was revealed.

Gareth did indeed recognize the collar, or more specifically the type of metal and the markings on it. He recognized them from a metallic bird-like object that he and a group of explorers had witnessed falling from the sky. An object that when they inspected the impact site was found to be filled with metal and other previously unknown items including blue crystals that serve as potent energy sources that Gareth and the other explorers have fashioned into various tools and weapons.

Upon seeing Sam's collar Gareth thought she was an assassin sent from the people who made the metal bird as he had recently learned that many of his former group of explorers had mysteriously disappeared. A brief confrontation ensued but fortunately, especially since Pris, Seth, and Sam are not fighters, cooler heads prevailed.

After discussing the situation Gareth and Pris decided the most likely cause of the disappearance of his former associates was Vespin assassins seeking to quash any rumor of a source of metal outside of their mines. A rumor just brought to their attention by another of the explorers who had recently traveled to the areas within gossip distance of Vespi and who is none too shy about talking about the metal from the sky, nor about the Golden Eagle insignia the explorers all show to represent their discovery. Gareth himself only uses the Golden Eagle for his shop, not any personal insignia. He figured that plus the fact that his exotic wares were very popular with the wealthy of both Vespi and Singard likely spared him from Vepsin persecution.



The man unwittingly setting off the Vespin assassination campaign is Kano, whose tales had not only made it back to Vespi but who at the very time Pris and Gareth were meeting was traveling to Vespi itself in hopes of obtaining a large amount of some light weight metal completely unaware of the dangers awaiting him there.

He is convinced that the bird-like object falling from the sky means there are people from an advanced civilization living somewhere up there and he intends to fly up and meet them. An ambitious, many would say crazy, goal given that Hesvar has no flight technology of any kind. Still he figures he can somehow make it work and that since the bird-like object was metal, albeit an impossibly hard metal seen nowhere other than the bird-like object itself (and now Sam's collar), his flying machine should also be metal and that is why he is traveling to Vespi to obtain a large quantity of it.

Outside of his obsession with the people from the sky Kano is an energetic, good natured, individual who enjoys fast walks, room service, spreading the wealth, and apparently the ladies. His frequent encounters with ladies around the world and various troubles that have resulted are the source of many a tale from his fellow explorers. One lady in particular fills his dreams though, at least since he encountered the bird-like object from the sky.

You see, another mystery of that object is that somehow it triggered new memories in certain of the explorers, Gareth, his wife, and Kano included. Some of those memories were helpful, providing them the knowledge to fashion the tools and weapons from the blue crystals contained inside. Others were cruel. Hazy flashbacks of dark places and savage events. Memories such as those drove Gareth's wife to suicide. Kano's memories mostly come as recurring dreams of his early childhood featuring a twin-tailed fox girl who was his stalwart ally in the darkest of places, but despite his extensive travel throughout the world he has never encountered a single fox girl with more than one tail.

But now he was on his way to Vespi oblivious to the danger he was approaching. Fortunately Gareth and Pris recognized he would be in trouble and decided to rush after him to intercept him before he made it to Vespi. Fortunately by pushing very hard they were able to catch up with Kano before he actually made it to Vespi and ended up castrated and tossed into the mines as a slave. Unfortunately they didn't catch up to him until he had a rather dangerous encounter with the Vespin Minister of Culture and Finance. A purportedly invulnerable being who ruthlessly enforces Vespin doctrine which states most emphatically that mention of any source of metal other than the Vepsin mines is heresy."

 

Arina: "Wait? Is that really all they're going to say about the Minister? What about Sophie? She isn't even mentioned."

Director: "Minor characters."

Intern: "Plus the actress playing Sophie was only cast because she was dating the producer. Once they broke up her story line went poof.... Well, that's the rumor anyway."

Director: "Typical. Anyway as I said before I've got things to do. Let's get this over with."

Arina: "I wondered what happened to her. She was gone before I even came on board."

Director: "Do I have to say 'action'? Just continue already."

Arina: "Fine. Upon return to Singard Kano and Gareth decided they should warn the last remaining member of the group of explorers not already confirmed to have disappeared, Kano's friend Lucius. Kano also thought Lucius might be able to help Sam find answers about her past as he is a very scientifically curious fellow. So Sam and Kano headed farther north to where Lucius lived well away from the main river connecting the various city-states.

It was on this trip that Sam experienced the true brutal cold that is nighttime on Hesvar. A deadly cold that severely limits travel, especially away from the main river along which a series of inns are located to allow travelers to survive each night along their journey. This tends to increase the isolation between city-states as most cannot afford casual travel nor survive the night away from the inns.

They arrived at Lucius's home to find it under attack by a small group of Vespin soldiers seeking to end the heresy of the rumors of metal from the sky. The soldiers burned his house to the ground but were ultimately defeated by Lucius, Kano, and STAR! Hesvar's ultimate bad ass."

Director: "Just stick to the script please."

Arina: "Whatever."



"After defeating the Vespins Kano introduced Sam to Lucius expecting an excited response over her collar, but Lucius stole their thunder by revealing he had already encountered another individual with a collar of the same metal and similar markings.

Lucius declared that naturally that individual had come to him just as Sam had as he was recognized as a brilliant and curious individual so all those with difficult mysteries would of course be guided to him for answers. Lucius is definitely an arrogant fellow, although in a surprisingly tolerable way. He feels felines are the best of the races and thus eschews the golden eagle of his compatriots for a golden griffin, part cat, part eagle, as the answers to the mysteries of the metals from the sky will no doubt come from a cat, like him. Sadly for his house it seems the distinction was lost on the Vespins.

But more importantly, who was this other collared person?



Why Star of course! The six-armed quiet bad-ass of Hesvar! Another person who awoke in Hesvar with no memories of their past, just like Sam, except Star didn't have the good fortune of being discovered by friendly folk such as Pris and Ellie. She was found by men who kept her prisoner and sexually assaulted her while also demeaning her as a freak that should have been killed a birth. Star it seems is the only person in Hesvar with more than two arms or two legs. An oddity even to world travelers such as Lucius and Kano.

Start eventually managed to free herself from these men, exacting her vengeance in the process. After that on her journeys she was indeed directed to the crazy man up in the hills as the only person who would tolerate a freak like her which is how she came to be with Lucius."



Arina: "As a result of her traumatic entry into the world and the negative reactions of most that she encountered on her way to Lucius she is shy and embarrassed of her appearance. A skilled fighter she prefers to use her knives instead of her words..."

*Intern quietly to director* "I bet she'd speak more if Arina could remember her lines."

Director: "Probably."



Arina: "F you. I'm fine with lines. Star's just a really deep character with a lot going on under the surface."

Intern: "Says the woman reading this whole thing from a script."

Director: "Come on people. My kid's first start at goalie is this afternoon. I'll never hear the end of it from my ex if I'm not there. Let's just get through this."

Arina: "Ok, but I can do lines."

Director: "Of course. Now continue."



"Fortunately with help from Lucius and Sam, especially Sam, Star has begun to show more self-confidence allowing herself to be seen without her cloak on and even finding her voice a little bit.

Since Lucius's house was destroyed he and Star decided to accompany Kano and Sam back to Singard. On their journey back Lucius was obsessed with examining Sam to see if she was somehow unique like Star. If she was it would provide support for his theory that there was too much variance among the sentient races of Hesvar for it to be natural. Rather he believes that in addition to the natural births of people already living on Hesvar new races are introduced by some outside power. He thinks that Sam and Star are two mistakes that have somehow been released before they were fully prepared, where prepared means erasing their memories of where they came from and planting new ones that would fit into Hesvar. He thinks this theory also fits in with the oddly large number of orphanages on Hesvar, especially relative to a somewhat low natural birth rate as most races cannot reproduce with members of other races making sexual relations without pregnancy an easy matter."



"Sam eventually agreed to allow Lucius to examine her body in detail at which point it was discovered that Sam was indeed different from the humans who look similar to her, possessing extra and longer floating ribs that cover her entire abdomen and a different vertebral structure that allows her good flexibility despite the additional ribs.

The exam itself was a special moment for Sam. She dreaded it expecting to callously be pawed at like some lab specimen, but instead it was conducted with the utmost of care and respect with Lucius explaining every step and teaching Sam about science as he had been impressed with the observational powers and curiosity she had displayed on the journey. It started a relationship between the two of them that eventually led to Hesvar's first love triangle!"



"Yes, there it is. Sam loves Lucius, who also loves Sam and himself." *Arina chuckles at the line.*

Unfortunately they have not been able to consummate their relationship as Lucius was horribly abused as a small child and still bears considerable physical and emotional scars. So far those emotional scars have proven too much for him to be naked with Sam. They are patiently trying to work through them though. Sam is very talented at helping people feel at ease and good about themselves. It seems if Lucius's theory is right she and Star were given very different training during their 'preparation'."

 

"Upon return to Singard Kano once again encountered the Vespin Minister of Culture and Finance and they engaged in battle on the back streets of Singard resulting in the Minister's death and Kano being gravely wounded. Fortunately for Kano Lucius and Star were able to locate a healer whose medical practices were at the bleeding edge of Hesvar's knowledge and she was able to save his life and his badly wounded arm."



"And in a twist of fate that healer just happened to be a twin-tailed fox girl named Ayr. Kano was convinced she must be the girl from his dreams and despite Lucius panning the idea it turns out he was right.

Kano described his dreams to Ayr including a phrase they had made up so that they would always remember each other. Ayr was able to complete the phrase after Kano started it and it triggered a flood of memories in Ayr just as the bird-like object had done for Kano. She specifically remembered pleading with shapeless figures as a child not to separate her from Kano after he disappeared one day only to be told to just forget him as she had no choice. 'No one remembers when they leave this place. You will either die or we will erase your mind. Either way you will forget.'

It seems there's a lot of memory manipulation going on somewhere in Hesvar, but by whom and why are still mysteries.

Ayr of course decided not to be separated from Kano again."



"Finally we catch up to the latest episodes. News of the Minister's death has spread on the streets of Singard and made its way back to Vespi.

The Minister was a symbol of Vespin power, rumored to be effectively invincible so news of her death is not being taken well. Vepsins in Singard are on edge, almost to the point or rioting.

And the Lord of the Mines pictured here has communicated to the 'gods of Hesvar' that the immortal guardian, also known as the Minister of Culture and Finance, has been killed only to be told by the gods that only instruments from their mines could have possibly harmed the guardian so the Lord of the Mines must have allowed someone and something to escape from the mines. He has been ordered to reclaim their instruments at all costs and informed that he would receive no further assistance until he has done so.

The assistance being withheld includes further shipments of metals to Vespi and new breeds of slaves for the mines.

He was also informed he must continue to meet his quota from the mines."



Arina: "And we've reached the end of this special episode. Such a strange world with so many questions. Each answer only seems to lead to more questions. Who is manipulating people's memories and for what purpose? What do the Vespin mines actually produce? Are there people in the sky and if so are they the same people as these 'gods' of Hesvar?

I hope you'll follow along with future episodes as the characters learn more about the strange world in which they live.

Hesvar is an ever evolving world. Join in the discussion about the happenings on Hesvar and you just might find your questions get answered or your theories come true."

Director: "And that's a wrap. I've gotta split. Hey intern make sure this gets released on time."

Intern: "No problem. I've got this. I think."

 

You're welcome. Glad you enjoyed the format. Hopefully it makes things a bit more accessible for all.

I do have Arina in both "normal" and "blue spider" versions.

 

Thanks. Sadly despite the joke being it's a budget saver and filler it's actually a lot of work to summarize 149 stories. I also noticed in doing so I rarely have photos with just one doll in them so finding shots of all the characters was harder than expected. I mean it makes sense there's typically more than one as much of my story telling is conversations between characters, but I was still a little surprised.

I don't see there being another recap for a long time though.

 

No set goal. That would certainly require far more planning than I do. I suppose it will go until it feels done, I run out of energy again, or the fan reaction drops to the point I feel I'm writing in a vacuum chamber. When I reread the story before starting it up again I really enjoyed rereading the conversations attached to each episode here on DoA as well. Lots of good fun was had.

Thank you. I really hope it makes things a little more accessible for people. Even if one had followed along in the past it was a lot to remember over two and half years.

Thank you. I think I'll include a link to this story at the top of future ones. Give people two options, start from the beginning or read the cliffsnotes here.

 

Thanks. Yeah surprisingly more work than I thought when I started it.

Glad someone enjoyed it. In the past I probably would have been told I needed to add @kelpie and @Jany to it as co-presidents of the Lucius fan club.