aterat | Crystal Voice to All!

[ Arkady's voice has a slightly Cockney accent to it and when she speaks she sounds chipper enough. Perhaps a bit too chipper given the circumstances, but that was just the way she was. Pretending to be happy when everything inside was the opposite always just seemed easier to her. ]

'ello everyone! I had something that I thought maybe might be important to tell people. Or two somethings! I think there were three but one got lost. If I find it, I'll tell everyone again. [ She pauses for a second and then continues on ]

I tried to look out as far as I could see but when I got to the mist it just stops. It goes and goes and then there's the mist and it just... ends. [ And it really didn't feel good to feel like she was falling off the entire world. Her voice is a bit more quiet when she speaks again. ] Just like back home...[ she trails off for a second and then comes back with a more clear sounding voice. ] Something very big and very powerful would have had to happen to just make things be nothing. But what...?

[ There's another brief pause before she starts up again. ]

And also the people here! Their memories all jigsaw-y. Fragmented pieces that aren't completely put together. I don't know what it means yet. Or why. Maybe they were put together from something else? Maybe they're not from here either? Or maybe they're not real. They don't feel like the not real people where I was last. They were robo-people and they were very bad. They hurt to touch though and these people don't feel like that.

I just thought I'd share!

[ And that is where she almost ends things. But at the last second she adds something else: ]

I got a lot of fishies to cook! I'll be making things in the blue building if anyone wants to try them!

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[As usual, Arkady's throughs are rambling, but he's used to following them at this point. It's still not much to go on, but it's better than nothing. He'll continue to watch and observe. Rash actions wouldn't get them anywhere.

The other, though.]

I...didn't know you cooked.

[He can almost imagine what she might have seen, even if he has no point of reference for it. His visions often didn't make a lot of sense without interpretation, either, but maybe he could give her a hand with that.]

How is it you "look far" exactly? [The 'just like home' bit wasn't lost on him, either, but it sounded sore and he wasn't too keen on prodding it more.]

Jigsaw-y memories and fragments? [He's thoughtful for a moment.] Hang on a tick. Maybe they are from here. Didn't they say they were putting this work back together?

[ She lets out a tiny chuckle ] I didn't! This'll be my first time really trying.

I just look. [ Duh. Clearly a solid answer, right? ] It has a name...[ she trails off for a second as she tries to remember what exactly it'd been called. ] remote viewing! I can look up and then really wide. I've learned to go further since I first had to look out.

Yup! That's what they say. And things are broken out there. Maybe in here too.

Really? [He pauses here, as though that amount of unburdened surprise was exhausting.] I could come.

You're psychic. [Remote viewing he's heard of. Because his partner used to talk about it.]

Right. So...you think they people were broken too?

I learned it from the market people. I should be able to do it exactly like they would. As long as I don't get distracted.

I'm a lot of things, sweets, but that's one. [ She pauses. ]

Maybe. I know what it's like to be broken into fragments. It feels a bit like that. Or maybe being put together?

You're looking for test subjects, then.

[He sounds matter of fact, but with Vincent, he might actually be making a joke.]

That's good to know. [Even if he doesn't know exactly what it means just yet.]

Put together...well, if what they say is true, that would make sense, wouldn't it? If they're building this place from scratch, that is.

Is it? Why? [ She sounds very curious. ]

Then maybe they're also building the people?

[ She lets out a very exaggerated fake gasp ] I would never!

It's okay. [He's still deadpan, and still...hopefully joking? It occurs to him then that she knows far less about him than he knows about her.] I have some experience in the field.

Speaking as someone whose memory is all jigsaw-y, I'm not that shocked. At all. There's just something about this place, I think. But, if what Vincent told me is correct, you'd be Arkady, right? The third in our little triad of kidnapped from Dualis and now everyone we knew there probably thinks we've been replaced by robots, right?

[Yep, he literally DOES NOT CARE this is in a venue eveyrone can listen to.]

I do too. [ But she didn't even pause to give an idea that she might go into more details. ]

You've never mentioned that before though. What happened?

Oh, I'm sorry you're jigsaw-y too. I've been like that before. Maybe I can help! [ At the very least she'd offer to try. ]

You're from there too? He should have told me about that. [ Now Vincent is in trouble. ] But I guess I should have known myself. At least this place is less sinister. I think.

Could you even manage that?

[He doesn't know that it's possible to fix.]

It's fine. I don't know if we met there. I barely even remember him. I know the events there, but I... I've forgotten the details.

Maybe. I don't know. We never really know what we can or can't do. Kirk thought we could do everything or anything at all.

[ But she's sure there are some limits out there. After all she couldn't fix herself when she got all scrambled up. ]

I don't think we did either. I met a lot of people though. Really great people. [ And it makes her sad to think of what might happen to them. But she tries to keep that out of her voice. ] Maybe it's not so bad you forgot the details. Bad things happened there a lot.

I don't know a Kirk, I think. So I don't know how to respond to that.

[Not so bad to forget the details. Yeah, in some ways that's true. But Nida wonders if he'd even recognize his lover if he met the guy again. And that hurts.]

Sometimes they take more than we can stand to lose. But I'll survive.

I saw it too. It was as if the world stopped and all the threads were snapped.

[She pauses and then continues.]

I don't know what did it, it doesn't make a lot of sense.

I didn't like it. It felt bad to fall off.

[ She pauses for a moment. ]

We did something like this, but not as big. It would take a lot to destroy so much.

Oh, he's someone from my home so you wouldn't know him. Unless you went there. He's very wonderful though!

[ There's a hint of sadness in her voice. She misses her friends so much even after all her time in Dualis. ]

I understand. It's bad to forget things that you know were important to you.

I've been to only three worlds beyond my own. So chances are no.

[There's a long moment before he responds to her.]

It's easier to forget them.

Three is more than me. I've only been to two now. I think I'd rather just go back home than to another though.

[ She pauses. ] Why do you think it's easier?

I... don't know if I can go home.

[But that's not a matter he's touching.]

Easier to forget who we lost and thus move on past the loss of them.

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