Episode 5: Tsukimi (Re-Upload Since it May Have Gotten Lost In the Feed. Public Release 2nd Week of July)

Episode 5: Tsukimi

Once upon a time, there was no moon nor stars in the sky. Once upon a time, there was no one here to search for them. Once upon a time ended a long time ago.

Gensokyo Welcomes You.

Merry Tsukimi! Happy Tsukimi! !I do not know what the greeting is, but a good Tsukimi to all of you! It’s the moon-viewing festival and I’ll be quite honest, I have no idea what that is. I mean, I have heard about it in my travels, but this will be my first time doing one!

The Fairies are all abuzz and there is food and drink being prepared and this is a marvelous time to be alive.

Oh? I really shouldn’t. I’m on-air right now.

...Hm… Ah, I’m sure a cup or two is fine. Do bring me dango. For all those listening, tonight is going to be very casual. No announcements, no advertisements, and I promise to try and keep the voyeurism a bit down this time around.

Bad habit from my old job, apologies about that, kek.

Anyways, I’ve been thinking about what this broadcast is and I think it doesn’t do well as a daily thing. Tried that, failed that, did not work. I do like the set up. The intro, the ending, and especially the fortunes. I do so love sharing music with all of you. It’s also most definitely not a community radio, so I won’t do that. I will do special announcements as a request though.

...I guess that technically is still community radio. Ah well, at least I’m more truthful than the tengu, kek. Small aside, Aya Shameimaru, Tengu Reporter of Fantasy, please stop trying to find me, I am not very photogenic and I am also very shy.

Anyways! So I think I’ll make this a weekly thing, with a few special episodes here and there. Each week, we’ll cover a topic or something. Maybe it’ll just be me pondering things. Maybe there won’t be an episode at all! Perhaps I shall just be as spontaneous as existence was to all of us. Or perhaps it’ll be random. It’ll probably be random. Not that there was any difference before, kek.

It’s not like most of you listen anyways. I’m sure most of you just tune out the Transmission as soon as you hear the opening, LOL.

Apologies for the unprofessionalism, just a bit tipsy and very excited about tsukimi.

There’s a series of shooting stars tonight if you look towards the north, just to the right of the moon. It’s beautiful. Not really stars though, simply meteors and asteroids entering the atmosphere, but no less wondrous for that though. They came from far away places and in a way, they are made up of starstuff as all are.

...Hm? Oh, you want to know more? Dreamers, the Fairies are being most unprofessional and want to hear me ramble on about stars. I shall not be swayed by their wide, glimmering eyes and their clasped hands and their frowning lips.

I see you all giggling. If you’re going to pretend to be pitiful, don’t do it half-baked. No giggling when pretending to be sad.

I said, no giggling! Stop that! Sad faces! Now! Throw in tears too!

....Eh, we already established that tonight is a much more casual broadcast. It’ll be fine if we talk about stars. What do you all want to know? Only one question from all of you though, I love all of you fairies and your curiosity, but I only have so many words that I can fit in a single broadcast. So choose a topic and/or question and I’ll do my best to explain.

...

How are stars born? And what did I mean we’re all made of starstuff? Technically two questions, but I”ll let it pass. Especially since those two are intertwined.

...Hm, that’s really more of a question for scientists. Fortunately for all of you, I was studying to be a scientist at one point, so I do know a good bit about this.

The thing you have to understand is that scientists don’t know… Whoops, almost swore. Give me a moment please. Hoo, remember kids, don’t drink without supervision.

Okay, so here’s the thing. Scientists don’t know everything. Science is not exact. It’s constantly evolving, constantly changing, and what’s true now may not be true later. Just look at dinosaurs going from scaly to feathery. Our understanding is flawed and will forever need to be redone, over and over and over.

...What are dinosaurs? Something to cover for a latter day.

Anyways, they make theories that are open to change should new info or ideas or other stuff come into light. They’re basically really good guesses on how things work and are.

There’s a process to this. It’s a very neat process on how they go about it, nice and orderly with proper guesswork and testing and all that jazz. They decide to theorize and make a story. But who knows if they’re right? They probably are, but who knows if they’re right for sure? There’s always that small bit that’s unknown and there will always be that small bit. Science is uncertainty made certain, everything is theory and guesswork, and it's all built on top of things tested on in the past.

Subject to change, of course, as all things are.

Huh? Daiyousei? What was it? Oh? I got distracted. I suppose you’re right. What was I going on about? Oh, stars. Yes, I was going on about stars.

Coolio. So here’s the current theory as I know it on how stars are made.

Stars burn. They burn in the void of space and they burn until they die in an explosion, before recondensing, and then they do it again. Or do they do both at the same time? I know there’s explosions and implosions, but… eh, just know that that happens. Expansion and condensation happens in the birth of the star.

This repeats over and over until it booms one last time all throughout space, flinging energy and dust and materials everywhere! Stars are huge and long explosions and they are so far away that when we see the light from that dying birth, that star is already gone. This is called a supernova and that's what we see.

Cool, right? What we see in the skies are memories, messages, things from far away places that you and I will never see in person. But we’re not done yet. A death of a star is simply a brith for things new and exciting.

Their explosive detritus coalesces, condenses. Some into new protostars, condensing until they’re ready to explode again, repeating that process. Other stuff condenses into large orbs that become planets, and yet more stuff simply fling into the cosmos becoming meteors and asteroids. All this and more are what make the night sky.

Give or take a few errors. Been a while since I studied it.

This starstuff is what makes us. We are made up of bits of matter which is made up of starstuff and we are all here and now.

This solar system, this entire solar system is the remnants of a dead star and we live on a planet that orbits one of its many children. We are all part of this.

Here and now, we are cousins to cosmic giants. We are all born from that dust and dandruff of dead stars, dreamers. One day, long from now, longer than most can hope to understand, longer than immortals shall ever live, this solar system will explode into a fiery genesis, ending so that it shall begin anew in this process.

But for this here and for this now, we are the memories of stars watching a full moon hover in the sky, and it is watching us to that ever then end. Isn’t that something to enjoy? Something to marvel over?

I feel like I should do an aside. A small advert if you will. Just to keep in touch. So here’s one.

If you enjoy having a moon in the sky, please consider donating to the Hakurei Shrine. Nothing is happening to the moon, but it’s only a matter of time before something does and when it finally does, we all know that Reimu Hakurei, you know the miko? Can and will fix it.

Now that that bit’s done, I want all of you fairies to look at the stars. All the kids listening in too. Even the adults, especially the adults. I’m including the yokai in that, and I want gods doing this too, if they’re listening. Devils and demons are free to join in too.

Look at the stars. So many of them. There’s stories to be found. Trace them, create constellations, make the characters of the play. Find Orion’s belt; all that remains of that hero, find Maui’s fish hook; still fishing the islands from the sea, find Sly Fox and Trickster Hare; playing in the sky. Look for the histories imagined, the myths recorded, and the way home. Search for gods and heroes and monsters. This night sky is full of legends from other cultures all mixing and matching these stars. They all saw the same sky, traced the same shapes, but they all created different tales, found different myths, found things that none other but they themselves will and told them to one another.

So many people looked at the same thing and derived so many different stories from this sky. How varied are we as people to see different things in the same sky?

What will you make? What memories will you remember? What will you leave behind? It’s all here for you now, this moment now for the taking, this memory now for the making.

The moon is full, the stars are bright, and once more we find ourselves in this here and in this now. I ask all of you now to take your eyes off the sky now, just for a bit, and look around. Who is here with you? Who is not here? Who has been remembered and who has been forgotten? Who are you?

Tonight, on this night of nights, we are all here under that same sky. Some are dying, some are being born, but all are living. Yokai, human, immortal, mortal, whatever you are, please remember that we have been born of the dying dreams of stars to witness the fading births of new ones.

This time is eternal and oh so ethereal, dreamers. Grasp it softly, grasp it roughly, grasp it while you still can.

Find those you love and hold them close. Find those you hate and… perhaps ask for peace. Just a bit. It is a beautiful moon tonight. Good food and drink are to be had. The hard work is done now, but will come again soon. Enjoy this moment whether it be loud or quiet. It too shall pass as is the nature of moments.

Hm… It seems a bit too quiet now, eh? And I am really quite tipsy. Kek. I need to take a break. I hope you won’t begrudge a slightly longer music session than usual. All agreed?

Then let us...
Have a…
Spot of fortune.

---

How is your tsukimi going?

Good, I hope? Relaxing? I hope you found company to be with. And if you have not, I hope that emptiness does not become filled with regrets past. It is good to remember them so as to not repeat them, but that can be another night. Find company tonight. Be lonely together as they say.

Apologies for the dramatics. I am… quite tipsy. Kek. One or two cups has turned into five and six and I’m feeling quite a bit melancholy. To those of you who are still listening, those who are still here, thank you for being there, being with us.

It’s a lovely night. For some it is their last one, for some, it is their first one, and for most, it is simply another night. The moon’s melancholy has quite taken me and I do apologize for that. I hope it wasn’t too depressing, I hope it was a quiet reminder to do… something. Don’t quite remember what, but it felt important that I reminded you of that.

Do something.

Enjoy the moon. It seems to be a constant, but nothing is truly eternal, not even eternity. All things that begin must end, dreamers. Enjoy it while you can and enjoy it with those who surround you now.

Apologies again for the unprofessionalism, still working out the kinks to this whole business Hopefully, I will continue to be here to work out the kinks, but who knows? Who knows? I cannot promise that I won’t be this philosophical again. I speak honestly as much as I can and sometimes that is simply painful but mostly, simply always awkward.

Kek. What a lovely land Gensokyo is. What a blessed fool I am to have lived here, even once in three lives.

Come now, dreamer.

It is time to go.

Till next we dream.

Today’s Proverb:You are not the apex of existence. Nothing is. Find comfort in that.