Expeditioner's Interview: Feel By Your Feet (Finna vid foetr thina)

Winter Nights Exhibition Hall: Expeditioner Interviews
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Transcripts of the Feel By Your Feet (Finna vid foetr thina) Expeditioner Record's Interviews.

Interview #1 Unlocked at the start

“ Crawling through years of snow. ” She climbs and finds a resting spot among the endless clouds. Not at the peak of the mountain, but at the far end of the snowfield on the other side of the mountain. Behind her, footprints both deep and shallow are scattered in the snow. She sees every step, remembers every step. It is like the thread of fate: a knot wherever she stopped, stumbled, and picked herself up again. Magallan can see clearly where she took the first step. It was an ordinary afternoon. Her mother had the yellow pages open on her lap, and was trying to sell things to whoever was on the other end of the phone in a voice both coarse and kindly. On the muted TV, a gray flightless fowlbeast hits the screen with its stubby, black wings. The young Magallan seems to hear its call, so she lifts a leg, puts it down, and slowly lifts the other. She does this over and over again. She hears her mother put the phone and the yellow pages on the ground and call her father, grandmother, neighbors, and even passing Messengers. All to witness her memorable first time crawling. It was a special moment that was worth the audience. Little Venta crawls backwards towards the TV, then slowly turns around, reaching towards the fowlbeast within. Backwards? Sounds about right for her. She always finds a way, no matter how winding the path. As the memories flash through her mind, she lies prone on the sled, sliding from the top of the mountain and through the snowfield on the slope. Bang! The snow is like the blanket that covered her when she was a baby. It takes a while for her to come to her senses, or rather, to wake up from an infant's slumber. The snow in front and above her is thick and heavy. She crawls slowly backwards, gradually emerging from the snow, and carefully stands up. Magallan shakes off the past. Ice crystals return to the great snowfield. Her first encounter with Sami reminds her of a saying that she heard while studying at the Exploration Society. "We are all children before Sami." "It is waiting for you to find It."

Interview #2 Unlocked after entering the 3rd floor

“ Fleeing into the mesh of rivers and trees. ” Magallan walked along the winding river for days, like walking down the web of fate. What awaits downstream as she keeps going? Warm shoals, or the cold north? Go upstream instead? Choose the next distributary? She cannot know the results of these choices, just as she could not have known all that she would see in Sami. Sami's rivers, Sami's branches, Sami's vines wound around her finger... which path would show her the cause and effect of each choice? Only Magallan knows that once, there was an ordinary leaf that filled her heart. In the rays of sunlight shining through the leaves, she holds her breath, slowly and repeatedly following the veins of the leaf with her eyes. Everything is clearly visible, from the hairs on the leaf, to the tiny holes, to the procession of ants marching across the surface. All little Venta remembered was that time seemed to slow down and elongate, like the branches of the leaf veins, like the trail of ants. Physical and ethereal lines that led her to stop in the woods—until she is called out of her eternal observation. It is the voice of the supervising teacher and her classmates. They had arrived at the river they were going to camp next to, and now return in loose, scattered ranks. No one knew when she got separated. One of her classmates even brought up how he and Venta had put their hands in the river and wondered which distributary the water they were touching would flow into. Rivers? Distributaries? Magallan no longer remembers all that, but she does remember a river like it, in a corner of that forest. In front of that ordinary leaf, she felt like an explorer for the first time. What choice should she make now, in front of the river flowing through the wetlands? Magallan calls up a drone and activates the freeze module, slowing the river's time until it grinds to a halt. She puts her foot on the ice, and slowly walks towards the other side. Ice, shore, moss, mud. Where should she go, once she has arrived on the opposite shore? She bends down to pick up a leaf. In its veins, she seems to see Sami's answer.

Interview #3 Unlocked after entering the 5th floor

“ Stepping into Sami's shadow. ” When the explorer takes the first step, she feels the earth breathe beneath her feet. Was the voice of the earth always so heavy? It is only when she takes this second to wonder that she realizes everything here is heavier than she remembers. The explorer sheds unnecessary gear one by one, until all that is left is life support and a video recording module. She has just arrived, and she wants to learn more about her new environment. Soon, she realizes that the ground beneath her is smooth and slippery, and that she must be careful not to fall. It would be a big problem if she did. The ground is ice as far as the eye can see, and she could not tell where it ended, if ever. If she slipped, she would slide forever, until she slips into eternal slumber. The explorer knows that this is not the first time she has set foot on cold, barren land. In Sami's benevolent vision, she has trekked through the folds of snow and forests, and penetrated the endless icefield. She has encountered it countless times in the bedtime stories of her childhood, the books of her youth, and the tales of her journeys. Then and there, that very endless icefield, the great behemoth that has always watched over her subconsciousness, lies beneath her feet. She sees the shadow cast by the mountain, the shadow cast by the stars and the aurora, and she sees a great ring, forming infinity out of the cold and nothingness with its reflection. In the shadow foretold to her by Sami, she keeps advancing, answering the gaze in the abyss with her footsteps, responding to the irresistible pull. Come to think of it, the end she saw was just the beginning. The explorer had once escaped the gaze, but she never thought she would encounter it again. It all happened so naturally. At the end of the heavy and slippery ice, she sees the shadow again. When their gazes meet, she seems to see the procession of ants, the growth of the leaf veins, the flow of blood in the body, the invisible thread of fate drawing her inexorably towards an old friend in another realm. "This was your choice. This is your end." There is no sound, but the explorer hears Sami's erstwhile answer clearly. Did you know all this from the shadows, Sami?