cape_kore | Memory 1 || Audio || Day 71

Entry tags:

Memory 1 || Audio || Day 71

[The audio recording begins with a cough. It’s lucky Mordion hasn’t turned the video component on, because the device on his wrist is being treated with a very close investigation, and he’d rather not subject anyone to that thank you. He’s not convinced this isn’t still The Bannus, but why it’s changing the scenario now is beyond him. Better to be safe.]

Good day. I am searching for a small number of people and would appreciate any assistance finding them again.

A petite young women. Darkish skin, curly hair. Last seen in a blue gown with headdress.

A teenage boy, on the tall side, wearing leather armour and perhaps carrying a sword.

An old-model Yamaha robot, series nine. Silver, but with extensive repair. I tried my best to maintain his integrity as an antique model, but I was working with limited supplies. Answers to the name ‘Yam’.

Vierann, Hume, Yam, if any of you are listening I do appreciate not being kept in the dark.

Thank you.

[He disconnects.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

That would depend on both of our definitions, wouldn't it.

[He pauses, because this is a deeply strange conversation for him to be having. People on Homeworld know his abilities or strong, but generally prefer to be ignorant about the extent of them. In the outer edges of the galaxy they have no idea. It's not anything he's discussed before.]

It's not common on my planet, you know.

Not common on mine, either.

Why does everything think, must've come from an entire family of psychics?

Nope. Just the one, just the one, only then there were four.

Daneel counts, myself, Charles, now you.

You're not kidding.

[The sound is muffled for a moment as Mordion scrubs his hands over his face.]

And people here know about you all?

Charles outed himself and was disappointed when people acted as people do, distrusting and fearful.

Daneel doesn't lie. [ A pause. ] Much or often or without good cause.

Some people know about me. Some people may just think odd girl, madwoman, whatever name makes it easier for them to hear the truth and not listen.

There are reasons for that fearlessness. Scars earned. Lessons learned.

Not afraid of anything here but herself.

Edited 2013-05-18 03:57 (UTC)

People have every right to be fearful.

[He speaks quickly, and regrets it just as fast.]

Not to imply anything about the rest of you. I don't know what your experiences are, and I'm glad you're not afraid. But the fewer people who know about me the better.

[ River laughs, a happy, loud and clear pealing. ]

Oh they do, they do, and they should, but not of Charles, not really. Only in very specific circumstances.

Daneel is nothing to fear.

My life was spent being the most dangerous thing anyone knew before I arrived here.

But admitting to being dangerous is not the same as admitting to villainy.

Where are you?

You'll admit they over-lap a great deal, though.

Oh. I'm creating a camping space in the woods, near the cemetery.

You said people have every right to be afraid.

People. They.

Something she would have said before. Something she thought and knew and believed.

So we were villains. Were we villains by choice? Suspect it's by design. She was a villan by design.

The first friend I made here rebuilt himself, atom by atom in the graveyard, from dust.

He's gone now and his story didn't continue. He'd caught up with his future and present all in one.

Come find you.

Choice hasn't often factored into my life. Are people villains by their actions or their intentions because I've not had enough of the latter to define anything with it.

You don't need to do that.

Choice is new for me. So are first-person pronouns. It's gradual.

[ The feed terminates with no response but several minutes a voice comes out of a nearby tree. ]

But I choose to do it, choice that overrides necessity. Do I need it, no, no, I'll survive without it. [ River smiles down and tilts her head at him. ]

Will you?

[He was building a fire when River decided to arrive. He can sense her mind before she speaks, wild as a tumbleweed and fractured around the edges, and he only meets her eyes briefly before focusing back on what he's doing again.]

Would you like something to eat?

If and only if you're full. There is some food. Know how to bake pies. Slowly raising a garden.

[ She stretches out on the limb but doesn't make any move to come down. ]

A good secret keeper, if being telepathic is a secret you want kept.

Baking's a good skill to have.

[He'd found a mushroom patch not long after arriving, and a patch of wild leeks, which he's trimming now. Give him a little while longer and a hare or squirrel at least should wander into his snare.]

At the moment I's prefer it yes. Have you made it known for yourself?

Ned is the best.

[ She's really intrigued by how well he seems to be dealing with this ...wilderness limited food thing. Better than most. ]

Haven't stood on a rooftop or soapbox and announced it. It's know. Haven't kept track of who knows, who doesn't.

When someone asks how I know, I tend to say it. When someone calls me crazy, I tend to say it. I say things that I hear, and that people don't mean for me to share. Limited control. Limited amount of sands in the hourglass that allows me to care too much.

I met Ned today.

[No disagreements, there. He gives River a few more glances as he works, feeding the fire slowly from kindling to logs, and cleaning the dirt from the rings of leeks. It's a calming ritual for him, life in the wilderness, something he would have gladly stayed doing back in The Bannus' control.]

If it helps, I'm certainly not seeing crazy.

[ River raises her eyebrows at him. ]

You met Ned but you're cooking in the grass. [ ...why? ]

What do you see? It helps but it only helps so much. It is a broken brain, but I'm attached to it.

Maybe I like cooking in the grass.

[He throws a few twigs on the fire.]

It's been tampered with. Augmented. You'd see much similar in mine if you went looking. Although they seem to have been experimenting on yours.

Maybe you like sleeping in the grass too. [ She wouldn't be surprised, but she doesn't think that it's acceptable.

Especially after what he says next. ]

They perfected it by the time you came around?

After two thousand years, I'd hope they knew what they were doing by then.

[He gives her a smile, warm and genuine even in its brevity.]

I like the outside, the wilderness. I find it calming, and peaceful.

Not where I would plant my hope, but it's yours to plant.

[ River nods; she can understand this, even more so after being a dryad. Not that she really wants to go into explaining about all of that, just now. ]

Piloted in the stars. Just getting over being terra-bound.

There are beds. Or I could come and poke you in your sleep to make sure you're breathing.

[ What? She does that. ]

It would take me more than a night spent outdoors to stop me breathing, believe me.

[He doesn't doubt her. What he's more intrigued about is her space ship, piloting the stars. In his time transport tunnels have over-taken the need for any space vessels, and he can't help but let his curiosity pick up the outlines of that ship in her mind.]

It's beautiful.

Is that the point? [ She folds her arms and rests her chin on them. ] Which is more dangerous: something that may go awry beneath the concern and watchfulness of something similar, or something that may go awry on it's own, lost, isolated?

[ River smiles. ] Flatterer. But Serenity is far from here, and so be it.

I never flatter for the sake of it. Only the truth.

[He leaves the first part, only giving River another tight smile. He's doesn't want to argue, he's not particularly adept at it after all.]

You shouldn't stay by yourself.

[ Resistance could be seen as arguing and he could probably manage that. ]

What will you do if you're here to stay?

I think that's the best way for me to stay, actually. Whether I'm here for the short or long term doesn't change that fact.

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio;

audio → action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;

→ action;