animus_network | 1st Message

I-Is this thing on?

[The screen shows Tara, looking more than a little confused and lost as she fiddles around with the settings on the terminal. Those of who you know her might be able to tell that she's different in appearance. Gone is most of the softness to her body. Now, muscles can be seen on her arms, as her shaking hands move over the terminal's settings. Her face is leaner, more angled, less round. Even so, she still looks healthy. She's lost weight, since being voted out and dropped back into the tower. But she hasn't starved. She's taken care of herself.

She also looks like she's been crying. Even now, Tara takes a swipe at her eyes as though chasing away the last few tears.]

It's...is it usual for people to be just...gone? To just...go away and, a-and not be here anymore?

...does anyone know what happens to them? I mean...our worlds, th-they're gone, right? So...if they're not here...w-where are they?

[But she knows. She knows in her heart what's happened. And so Tara plunges on, onto new concerns, onto new friends, onto new life and new problems that she might just be able to do something about. Tara wipes at her eyes, sniffles a bit more, and then forces herself to look back up at the camera.]

Well...it looks like the food's back, a-and the power, and...I've seen some people that, th-that I thought were in the pods with us. Guess that means it's over, right? That's...th-that's good. That's s-something.

Are you all okay? Everyone? Being back here, and all. I mean...I-I can't do a lot, with healing. But I can do some. I know a potion. Trust me. I-It helps. So, i-if you're still not feeling great...give me a call.

...I'm okay. [Some of you will know that this is directed very deliberately at you.] I mean, I'm tired, but...I-I'm okay.

[Tara turns to go, but stares down at her feet when she apparently bumps against something. Her eyes go wide in recollection.]

Oh! [Here Tara reaches down to her feet, and comes up holding a much battered library book. The title reveals it to be a book on edible plants. All in a rush, Tara forces out this last, sounding as though she's practiced it in front of the mirror] ...for later once, um, everyone's rested a-and gotten back on their feet a bit...I, I kind of think maybe we should prepare? In case something like this happens again.

I mean...it seems like they fight a lot. I, I wouldn't be surprised, if they all started fighting and left us here some time again. So, um, if anyone's interested...maybe we could all meet up? Swap tips? I only know about, um, plants from my world. Didn't know if, if there was anything else f-from somewhere else that I could have eaten.

...th-thank you.

((ooc: Holy frack, sorry for the TL;DR. But these were all the points weighing heavily on Tara's mind, and I thought it made sense for her to get them all out of the way at once. I'll be making a proper log post in a couple of days, in case anyone would prefer to catch her there.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

If they've been deceiving us, perhaps they've gone home.

Or...there are places other than this where worlds meet. They might have found themselves in a... *What word did Sola use to describe how they wound up in Meridian?* ..."rift" to another such world.

There are? [This is clearly news to Tara. Theoretically, yes, there are places where it's possible to pass into other worlds, but they're not supposed to be common place!]

H-Have you been to any? W-Were they safe? W-Was your world still there?

I was brought here from one. There wasn't any news of our original worlds either way, though I don't think anyone thought they were destroyed.

*Meridian...he never thought he'd miss a world not his own so actuely. But it wasn't really Meridian he was missing, was it? No, it was the people there.*

...kind of a good lie, though. To, to tell us. Especially to, um, people like me. If the world's gone...well, um, we kind of have to stay here, right?

[Tara doesn't look at all happy by this possibility. She doesn't have the stomach for this kind of paranoia and suspicion and uncertainty.]

*Enoch shakes his head.*

Not when there are other worlds that act like this one. If that's their deceit, it's flawed.

But I didn't know that. I-I don't think I was the only one, either. M-Maybe just enough of our worlds were really destroyed to, um, m-make it convincing.

I mean, um, no offense, and I really do believe you, but...as things stand now, you can't exactly take us to this other world.

That's true. And this world...we seem to have been deliberately brought here. In the world I was in last, we found ourselves there by chance.

*Which meant it was likely they knew how to prevent other worlds like Meridian from snatching people out. But now that he's thinking about it...their technology can't be perfect, can it?*

...Perhaps that might explain the missing people.

You mean th-they might have been taken somewhere else? Like...taken away by chance? Like you were?

[...it's a thought, it's a hopeful possibility, and Tara needs that right now.] I, I guess there are a lot of worlds. It'd be hard, to destroy all of them.

*Enoch nods - exactly his point! Not all worlds could be destroyed, if worlds were being destroyed.*

It's a possibility. After all, if it happened to me from my own world...

...if s-something happens once, it, i-it has to be easier for it to happen again.

[Tara smiles, very faintly, ever so slightly hopeful.] I guess f-finding them in another world is, um, easier than bringing the back, if they're dead...

[That is supposed to be impossible, after all, and she's still not sure how she feels about it being possible here.],/small>

Perhaps. Though if they've been taken by another such world...it might be better they aren't here.

*Meridian, after all, was quite pleasant for the most part...*

Well, I mean...I think so. Th-There have to be other worlds still out there, better than this one.

[Really, the fact that the Tower reminds her so much of a giant version of Sunnydale isn't actually a point in its favor.]

W-We just have to find them.

...Without the-... If we can find them.

*Hang on, he's poking around in the menus. This is kind of like Meridian's second level but less...mind-oriented, right? So there should be a filter...there it is!*

If we find them, our captors might keep us from leaving this world.

[...huh. The screen changed.]

W-What did you just do? [Tara sounds genuinely curious. She's not the most technically minded at the best of time. She hadn't even been aware filtering was a possibility, let alone that they were being monitored.]

I've filtered our conversation. It's...similar to the way something in the other world worked.

*He offers a nervous smile, as if to say that's all he can really say for certain about it.*

O-Oh.

[She...probably should have thought to do that, shouldn't she? Tara looks embarrassed.] Um, handy. Can, um, can you teach me how to do it?

Well, the word "options" at the top of the screen shows other commands, one of which is "privacy". The word "filter" is among the options there.

*...Yes, he just said all that without even so much as mentioning the word "menu" or speaking at all like he's had contact with computers before. This one isn't technologically-savvy. Just savvy.*

[...several seconds of Tara staring blankly at the top of the screen follow.]

...I-I'll, um, I'll figure it out later.

S-Sorry, um...w-what were we just talking about?

*Enoch tilts his head at her blank stare. Had his directions been unclear? Oh well. She didn't seem to want to pursue it all that much. It was a pity, but they had been talking about something else.*

The possibility of finding other worlds to travel to.

Edited (Wow, self, way to finish writing.) 2012-07-10 00:24 (UTC)

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