05 | voice | day 108

[intelligently]

I know that this sounds odd. [ And isn't really a question that people generally ask. Also what isn't odd, around here? It's her justification ] But with what's been happening I'd like to know.

[ There's a pause. It's a touchy subject, obviously, and she's not even sure where the conversations might go ]

I want to know about your experience with death. [ She's going to try and go slow on this. As slow as Lydia Martin wanting to know something can. But things are pretty messed up. She feels pretty messed up. And she'll even tell her reasons for asking if she's asked ]

Not just if you know someone has died but... if you've seen it. [ A two second pause ] Or nearly died.

It's happened here, and could have happened a lot more. [ If Dirk hadn't put out that useful message. People were still taken but at least they were warned ]

But- Can people come back? [ It might sound crazy, but it's happened before. It happened to Jackson - twice, although that was a supernatural thing. But it leaves the possibility, right? ]

( PRIVATE: Allison Argent | "Stiles" Stilinski )

I'm going to the library. Hopefully it's as useful as it should be.

Comments

Voice

[recognize_an_opportunity]

I've seen my fair share of people dying.

[A pause.]

Back home, nobody ever came back. Dead was dead. The way I see it, though, around here anything's possible.

Voice

[intelligently]

Has someone died here? Before Wallie.

[ Everyone knows about that by now, right? She's not sure, didn't quite keep tabs on it, but it was a little much ]

Re: Voice

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Yeah, people have died here.

[If he doesn't sound particularly disturbed by the idea, well, as he said, he's seen a lot of people die. Eventually, it becomes unremarkable.]

I wouldn't say it's necessarily a common occurrence, but it happens more than most people are comfortable with.

[intelligently]

[ No, don't tell her those words. She knows what's coming ]

I don't think it's supposed to be comfortable. [ That could be extended to 'their whole experience and being here' but it works just for death, too ]

How many times has it happened?

[recognize_an_opportunity]

A few times.

[A sigh.]

There're also the people who've disappeared and never come back. It's arguable that we don't know whether they're dead or not, but the effect is similar.

[intelligently]

But they could have just gone home?

[ Like Lydia did that time before she came back and didn't remember being here. The 'other' Lydia that had been here ]

They might not be dead.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

There're people who've gone home. There're people who've been...

[How to phrase this in a pleasant way?]

... kidnapped and experimented on by our captors.

[Whatever would have been a pleasant way, that wasn't it.]

There are also likely some who are dead. It's hard to detect a pattern or predict an outcome from what we've seen so far.

[intelligently]

What kind of experiments?

[ Lydia had heard a small snippet about that from Veronica after she'd arrived but she'd never heard of it again ]

[recognize_an_opportunity]

That's part of the problem -- people don't tend to remember. They may have snippets of memory, but it's unclear as to what's actually done in these experiments. I can't imagine it being positive, however.

[intelligently]

Someone said something about biting people and being human again.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Who said that?

[It's clear from his tone of voice that he's thinking, at the moment, how very weird this place is.]

[intelligently]

Veronica. She's gone now.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

I remember her.

[A pause.]

If there were some way of determining how they decide who stays and who goes, who dies and who doesn't. It all seems... frustratingly arbitrary.

[intelligently]

I don't think there is anything. Unless they know something we don't.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

I imagine our captors, at the bare minimum, know slightly more than we do. At least, I certainly hope so.

[intelligently]

Why wouldn't they know everything?

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Maybe they're just as confused as we are. Maybe they're captives, too.

[This is getting into some conspiracy theory levels of thought, here.]

[intelligently]

How are they captives if they brought us here?

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Maybe something happened that they didn't bargain for. I worry that they're as much in the dark as we are, and just don't want to tell us for fear of looking weak.

[intelligently]

Wouldn't it be easier for them to tell us? It might stop them being blamed. [ No, it probably wouldn't ]

[recognize_an_opportunity]

I doubt it. At this point, everyone's so unhappy about being stuck here that they're liable to blame anyone who they reasonably can.

[intelligently]

So, what, the truth doesn't matter? I'd rather know what really happened and who to actually blame.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

Believe me, I'm in agreement with you, but I can't expect everyone to be so logical.

[intelligently]

We could make them realise it.

[recognize_an_opportunity]

How do you suggest we go about doing that?