Faerie's Lantern: Do You See What I See?

It's just our second moon and I got to shout "Stop the presses!" Bully for me.

The news of the day is something you've probably already read. Authorities in the Allied Nations busted the single largest Fantasia manufacturer around, Synchronos. With Synchronos' operation shut down, there's panic and anger spreading throughout Etheirys, and while we aren't breaking any news, it's journalistic malpractice to say nothing. So, we spotlight it with this month's Lantern, and share our perspectives on the unfolding situation to provide what context we can.

A brief recap if this is the first you're hearing: Fantasia is a drug that allows for radical shapeshifting. It lets a person become who they see themselves as, outside the bounds and strictures of how they came into this world. This is a gift from the Twelve for a lot of people. It's not uncommon for a person's inner self to not be reflected in their outer self - this is particularly true vis a vis gender, but also on a myriad of other issues. To feel like a Spoken is themselves, being seen by others and so acknowledged is a critical piece of identity that Fantasia enables them to experience. And if that sense of self is fluid, the use of Fantasia becomes a lifestyle.

So, why isn't the Synchronos operation one of the richest companies flourishing in the Free Cities? Well, because strictly speaking, Fantasia is illegal. 

Fantasia can be used by bad actors as well as good ones, and when bad actors can copy someone's appearance or change their own to evade authorities those authorities understandably have an interest in banning its use. As long as it remains a quiet secret of the underground, in large part Fantasia manufacturers are overlooked. It exists in a legal gray area - unlawful but widely tolerated. This suits the users of Fantasia, the alchemists who create it, and the governments who want it used sparingly perfectly well.

Until it doesn't. Enter the Synchronos sting. There's been no clear comment from the Alliance about the reason for this crackdown, which is largely to be expected because its use is still a secret, if something of an open one. It could be an arbitrary crack of the whip, it could be a health and safety concern, it could be that Synchronos got too loud and it forced the Alliance to address the issue directly, instead of sit in comfortable plausible deniability. 

For our purposes today, it ultimately doesn't matter what motivated the shutdown of Synchronos' lab. It happened. Billions of gil of ink is going to be spilled trying to come to an interpretation of events or look for a boogeyman. Already conspiracy theories have gripped some communities particularly reliant on Fantasias. If we ever do discover the narrative behind the activities unfolding at time of writing, it will certainly be more mundane than most of what is being circulated in the bells following the news. Instead, we want to examine how Fantasia affects communities, how we got here, and what comes next. 

Fantasias aren't without controversy. Some, fortunate enough to not have interacted with the drug nor to stand to benefit from it, view those who do rely on Fantasia as morally lesser. After all, they do commit a crime. After all, they are different. After all, they don't just fit, out of the box, with society as a whole. Damn the validation of being seen as your authentic self, the argument goes, a Fantasia user is a criminal and reaps what they sow. Losing access, which will be the reality spiraling out of Synchronos' shutdown, is what they deserved. This, obviously, isn't our stance at the Courier. It's self-serving, myopic, and hateful. 

Some people openly identify themselves as Fantasia addicts. Some people can't stand interacting with the world in the confines imposed by the illegality of the substance. Most of these people aren't part of the problem. Their needs are genuine, their lives are enhanced to bearable by Fantasia. It is, for them, medicine. But, as access to any gray market item increases, the odds of doing something stupid with it do approach 100%. This has taken the form of remarkably open and frank discussions about what is supposed to be a secretive practice. Parties focused on the use of Fantasia that blot out the sun at Costa del Sol more than the Queen Lhaminn have become a reoccurring problem for the Yellowjackets. People are asked openly about their Fantasia information, including an expectation from some that others are habitual users. Even a section of people who dislike interacting with those who don't use the substance. Simply put, it went from being a necessary medicine to a trendy thing for the socialite class. 

This could introduce other issues. The scale at which Synchronos had to operate to meet demand was massive. Not all of the components in a Fantasia are strictly speaking 'safe' and could easily be sources of harm if abused. And the more tourists and partiers took the open secret into the realm of public acknowledgement, the more pressure was on the Alliance to react to the issue. There are dozens of realities like these that have put Synchronos under the crosshairs of the public at large. And as those people who abused the scale Synchronos could validate a person's identity through radical transformation, the people who needed that validation were swept away in the tides of public opinion.

There are those of us who strongly supported the work of Synchronos, but let it not be said that there weren't many who as strongly oppose the use of Fantasia. Those forces are, and forever will be, in extreme tension. And I say 'forever will be' because despite a very rough few moons ahead, there is no doubt in my mind that someone will devise the tools needed to step into the void left by the calamity Synchorons' end will leave.

Already, the underground is rife with voices claiming to be 'just a moon away' from being able to reach the scale Synchronos operated at. Certainly, better operational security would benefit those new projects should they actually manifest, but at the moment it's hard to separate flash from substance in these start-up alchemy labs. On a long enough timeline, though? It's very unlikely we won't return to a state of equilibrium between those who support Fantasia use and those who oppose it. A new life in the gray areas of law where people can be seen for who they are. It's an inevitability because the knowledge of how to do it and the demand for it are both out there, and will both grow in intensity in Synchronos' absence. 

To be honest, that's likely something the Alliance understands and accepts. The djinn is out of the bottle. And despite this individual - albeit severe - action, there is no indication that the overall approach of plausible deniability has changed. Other gray market labs and goods have not been targeted by the Alliance, just this one. 

And that can serve as a lesson to those who abused Synchronos' product: those who operate outside the law must be quiet about it. Even if everyone knows Fantasia exists, and is the only real explanation for what their eyes see, it is reckless to openly admit to it. Doing so at scale like was done in the wake of Synchronos' ascendance is almost certain to hurt someone, likely a lot of people. 

Legally, the Courier cannot advise people to commit a crime, or in detail explain how to commit a crime. Even if that crime is largely unenforced and even if it may be a crime that, in some situations, has a more complex moral discussion than 'thing bad,' we can't tell you to do it. Instead, take this shining of my lantern on this social calamity as a reminder to do what you do with caution, intention, and understanding of larger implications. 

Maybe when we see the next Synchronos, we should handle our relationship with the illicit alchemists with far greater care and far less entitlement. At any moment, the proverbial Dalamud could fall and start this whole disaster over again. It probably will, one day. And the industrious people set on allowing people to express their true self will rebuild it. It's what we do. It's the eternal tension between the person and the state.

How wacky was it that Dalamud was a space station by the way? 

And let's give Synchronos some grace. They face extraordinary challenges going forward as individuals in the light of this raid by the Alliance. It's unclear to what extent any individual will face consequences from this, but already the mobs have torches and pitchforks for them, as if it was their fault the operation was so exposed as it was. 

Until the replacement comes and we can get our blue bottles freely again, maybe we should give one another grace as well. Understand what some people have lost, understand that blaming someone isn't going to be constructive, and understand that the onus is on all of us to be better stewards of the tools that, maybe, we aren't even supposed to have.