3rd Spell - [Text]/[Attempted but botched filter against Tower Staff]

[moontothetide]

I'm sorry. I know this is a bad time, and everyone's minds are on their friends, and how to fix things, and so is mine, but I need to ask. If you want to answer, great. If not, I definitely understand. No hard feelings.

I keep trying to sort out how to ask this, but I can't, so I'm just going to write down a list here. But, mostly?

I need to ask about death.

I know this might be a touchy subject for a lot of people, so just answer whatever you want. However many or however few or none. Filter it, if that helps, or make it anonymous. I've seen people do that, and that's all okay with me. But anything you can tell me, I'd really appreciate it.

[She's got a theory, and it's a doozy.]

1. Have you ever died here? How many times? Do you think the time you couldn't move changed from time to time? If you died back home, too, I guess that counts.

2. Have you ever had to deal with an empty collar? Or be dragged in to have it refilled?

3. Have you ever had your collar removed?

4. Have you ever seen someone die? What happened if you did?

5. Have you ever been killed by one of the people who control this tower? Or faced them at all? I guess what I want to ask is, have you ever seen their powers or their methods firsthand?

6. Do you believe our worlds still exist? Why? Or why do you believe they're gone?

7. Do you have any friends here from your home world? Do you have any friends from a world that's almost like yours' but different?

8. Have you ever gotten something from home besides what's in your trunk? Also, what kind of things are in your trunk?

9. Have you ever asked for something in the suggestion box? What kind of thing, and how quickly did you get it, and did it work?

[And, finally, a question near and dear and terrifying to Tara's heart:]

10. As far as you know, have your memories ever been altered or changed while you're here?  Or have you noticed that a friend should remember things that they don't?


I'm sorry. I know that's a lot of questions. But I have a lot of questions. Like I said, though, you don't have to answer all of them. Or any. I know everyone has a lot on their minds right now, and this probably doesn't help.

But, if you can, thank you. [She hopes you prove her wrong, fellow prisoners.] Really, thank you.

Comments

[Text]

[firstofthefallen]

[That's a difficult question with the number of timelines that move through and trace back in the Amala Network. Time is more of an abstract than a definite with how things worked. And each world was in its way similar, and in its way different.]

Not from the future. But one from the past.

Re: [Text]

[moontothetide]

That's useful to know. Thank you for telling me.

[Yet more notes are made.]

So the items in our trunks and the things we get given, you think that serves as concrete evidence that our worlds are still there?

[Text]

[firstofthefallen]

Of course it doesn't.

There is no concrete evidence and if they could have brought us here they could easily have the power to bring our possessions as well.

It's not that there is evidence our worlds do still exist. It's that there is no evidence they no longer do.

[moontothetide]

So - "there until proven gone" instead of "gone until proven here". Right. I guess it would have been easier to pick us out of time and space if they weren't working against the clock.

[Privately, Tara has her doubts, but there's no denying the theory has merit.]

Kind of makes me wonder why, though. Why specifically us.

[firstofthefallen]

The argument that it has been destroyed is the more absurd argument. Therefore it is the one that needs to be proven.

[Not that logic necessarily means anything. After all he is the devil. But even he can only believe so much, and the idea that the entirety of the Amala Network may have been destroyed is absurd.]

That is a far more important question in my mind. And one with many possible answers. As much as I would like to say they're selecting only the best of us, I doubt that is true. Or whether there may even be a connecting reason between us.

Perhaps it truly is random. Like a double blind test a scientist might run.

[moontothetide]

I don't think they're selecting only the best of us. [After all, they selected her.] And all of us vary so much in lives, and power, and even species that I don't see how it couldn't be random. It doesn't even seem like most of us are human.

[...] Not that there's anything wrong with not being human.

I guess that would be more scientific, wouldn't it? And the three guys do seem to be all about the science.

[firstofthefallen]

True. But there are many times where random hides a pattern. Just because it is hard to see does not mean it isn't there.

No. There isn't.

Perhaps they are. They do seem to want to paint their "curiosity" as being scientific.

[moontothetide]

Just because it's awful doesn't mean it's not scientific. I mean, okay, the last batch of creepy scientists my friends had to deal with was more concerned with demons than people, but it was still some pretty awful stuff.

[Except Spike. The chip in his head was a weight off everyone's mind.]