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Who: Makie and you guys
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: This evening

[Makie wakes feeling more relaxed and a lot clearer than she has in a long time. It's enough that, for a time, she just stays in bed. An odd bed, a very soft one. Given she'd spent a year sleeping on the floor-- and her last memories-- it's a luxury she indulges in.

She knows this is an unfamiliar place. She just doesn't care.

Eventually she pushes the coverlet back and stands, collects her shawl from the stand nearby and settles it across her shoulders. Her clothes are clean and in good repair. That's interesting. The shamisen is there and she picks it up, freezing for a moment as she registers the difference in weight. Notes it, dismisses it. She doesn't...need it here, does she?

It's not until she explores that she begins to feel the first confusion. This is not at all what she would have expected, alien and unfamiliar walls and machinery. Not only that, the more she exerts herself the more the heaviness in her lungs becomes more pronounced, and eventually she sinks into a nearby chair to get her breath back. She's better than she was by far, but she's still sick. She shouldn't still be sick. Surely.

All right, then.

After a while, unnerved by the silence and emptiness of the place, she begins playing her shamisen. If she'd explored a little more, she might have found others, but she's tired. If there are others, they can come to her instead.]

---------

[Eventually, a broadcast. It's short and to the point and delivered in a thin, tired voice by a Japanese woman in a kimono with exceedingly pale skin.]

I understand this is no longer Adstringendum. [She still stumbles over that name, even after a year. Too many damn consonants. And then her tone turns wry.] It is also very clearly not the land of the dead, and this communicator is... familiar.

I apologise as you've no doubt heard these questions many times before, but I should like to know where I am and why.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Yup. [He glances behind himself for Mikleo; the seraph is in his sights, but he's not sure if the woman across from him can see Mikleo so it's probably best to just stay vague.] I came here with someone else, but he's looking around right now. We've never seen space either.

[Sorey turns back around to grin at her.] It's definitely a lot to swallow. I think we spent a good thirty minutes just staring out of the Windows.

...you know, I haven't really looked outside. [From the way she glances across the room at the thought, she probably can't see Mikleo. She gives a faint huff of amusement.] I suppose seen space is not exactly true, is it?

Is it very different? I assume it's all... stars.

Pretty much. [Sorey draws up a leg to loop his arms around his knee.] It's like looking up at the night sky, except in front of you and theoretically, everywhere else. Hard to wrap my head around, but I think I'm getting there.

I'd definitely suggest having someone with you when you look though. I might've been scared if I wasn't with my friend. Looking out at that? It's easy to feel alone.

[It wouldn't bother her, the idea of feeling alone. But...well. Things change over a year.]

Perhaps I should look now while I have the company. [A window can't possibly be too far away.] Would you mind?

Edited 2016-01-20 09:31 (UTC)

Not at all! [Remembering that offhand comment about not having the breath to sing, Sorey pops up and offers her his hand. He'll offer his arm when she's on her feet too, just in case.] I'm Sorey, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you.

Edited 2016-01-20 17:18 (UTC)

Otono-Tachibana Makie. And likewise. [Bless you, Sorey. She takes his hand, her free one curling around the shamisen protectively. If he wants to assist her, she's certainly not going to refuse.

Just Makie will be fine. [She knows it's a mouthful, and she's already had one person try to call her by the wrong name.] I'm glad you came here with your friend. I can imagine how intimidating this place might be if you woke up alone.

Did you wake up here without someone, Miss Makie? [Sorey contemplates offering to carry her instrument, but it looks like hanging onto it is making her feel better with how tight she's holding on. Maybe it's helping her stay grounded.]

Yes, but that's all right. I'm used to solitude. [Which sounds awfully ~~whiny~~ morose, but Makie looks peaceful about it. She has enough empathy to realise how hard it would be for others.] I travel on my own a great deal at home.

[Despite her comment about breath, she walks just fine, though she doesn't walk fast.]

[She seems like she's doing okay, so Sorey gives her a little more space.] Wow. It doesn't get lonely at all? [Sorey's never been without someone at his side. He's not sure he'd be able to do it.]

Edited 2016-01-22 06:23 (UTC)

[That's a good question. She gives it some serious thought before she answers.]

I don't think I've really felt lonely. [It's hard to feel loneliness when you grew up with it. Makie has learned just to be self-sufficient.] But...there are some people I miss. I would have liked it if they made the journey here with me. I suppose that's loneliness...?

[oh boy]

It's not really necessary to define it, if it's not bothering you. Some people just feel better when they're alone. Doesn't mean they can't have friends they love and miss, right?

That's right. [She relaxes. That's a good way of putting it.]

Then yes... it doesn't bother me. I've spent a good deal of time travelling across country, so you grow used to solitude after a while. Though there was a small child I was looking after, these past few months... [She pauses.]

I'm not sure I would like it if she came here. She adjusts poorly.

[Understatement of the year.]

Then...hopefully, in the meantime, I hope she's all right without you. And I hope you can make it back to her soon. She probably misses you terribly. [The observation windows aren't far, lining the wall as they turn the corner of the hallway. Sorey gestures toward them with a nod of his head.]

I believe...

[What she was going to say trails off as she catches sight of the view, and she's stunned into silence despite herself.

Sorey's description was accurate. She's getting dizzy just thinking about how endless those stars seem, and she puts a hand up on the glass gently, tracing a line between two stars. Or where they seem to be.]

...

This is amazing. I've never seen something so beautiful.

Yeah. [Sorey's been getting a little overwhelmed every time he glances over at these windows, but he can't deny that it's beautiful in its own way. Lonely, and maybe cold too, but definitely, absolutely beautiful.]

If you look really careful, over that way? [He points toward the very corner of the window.] You see these streaks of blue. I think they might be comets.

Comets...?

[She's never heard the word in her life; moving in the wrong circles in the 18th century. But it doesn't stop her from leaning in a little closer as if she can get a better view that way, to see the streaks of blue he's talking about. Colour. Out here.]

What other things are out here?

[Sorey laughs quietly, leaning a shoulder against the window to further out.] Your guess is as good as mine. I can't see any of the constellations I know. All of this is pretty new to me.

Generally speaking.

I wasn't expecting to see colour out here. I don't know anything about space. I'm from... too far back, I think. [Her curiosity diverted, Makie seems to have more energy than she did before.]

[From too far back? Sorey mulls that around in his head.] Huh... If it makes you feel better, my world doesn't have anything like this either. We know some things, about the stars and constellations, about comets and meteors and the sun but we've never even considered being able to go out there. Something like this? [He raps a knuckle against the window.] It's mind-boggling.

This...thing, [he says a little less certainly, touching the small lump behind his ear,] apparently gives us some knowledge, but it sure doesn't help with absorbing it.

I wonder how many people on this Fleet had never seen space before. [She mulls that over, fingers reaching up to feel at the small lump on her own neck.] It seems strange to take people who wouldn't be used to such a setting and then... magically give them what they need.

[Inefficient to say the least.]

Does your world have television?

['creepy' is another word, also 'invasive' but sorey doesn't like to dwell on those things.]

Nope. I'm still not really clear on what that is, actually. Do you know?

No. Only that people are apparently 'watching' us on one. Perhaps it's like a... stage.

[God knows. She doesn't know how it works, only that they're here for the entertainment of others.]

Many people seem to take it for granted, however. I suppose it's beyond the time of both of us.

What do you mean by that? About these things being beyond our time? [Because that's like twice now, and he's just not getting it. Is she saying stuff like this happens in the distant future? WILL HIS PEOPLE BE CAPABLE OF SPACE TRAVEL??!?!?]

Ah... [Hmm. How to put this.] I'm sorry. It's a phrase that was used often when I didn't understand things. When I met people from my own world, they always seemed to be several hundred years ahead of the time in which I lived.

[They even had a whole new way of giving the year. It was disconcerting. :c]

I thought the same might hold true for you, but then again many worlds are vastly different. Perhaps yours will never have television. Or perhaps you'll have something better.

You...

You've met people from your own future? That's amazing! That's incredible, that- You must have learned so much about your world! How did that happen?

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