(no subject)

[therewerefifty]

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.

Comments

action

[monolike]

Well, then, I sincerely hope that at the very least, you can find a way back to her. And if I ever hear of anything that might help you with that, you have my word that I'll bring it to you immediately.

action

[therewerefifty]

Thank you, Sorey. I appreciate that a great deal. [She doubts he'll have any luck, but it's the thought that counts. And she believes he's actually sincere.]

What about you? I know you've come here with a friend, but is there family you've left behind?

action

[monolike]

Ah yeah, there's some. I have my family back home in my village, but also a lot of my friends. I can still feel them, so I think they must be nearby...or they're okay, at the very least. But I would feel better if I saw them.

[therewerefifty]

You can still feel them? [Before Adstring she'd have just assumed it was sentiment, but everyone and their weird abilities...]

Over such a distance, that's incredible. [Nearby, though...] Do you think they're here?

[monolike]

I don't know. I haven't found them anywhere here, and there are other passages sealed off... [Sorey gives a wan smile and rubs at his chest.] They're all strong, way stronger than me so I know they can look after themselves but still. I'm worried.

[therewerefifty]

I could hope they're not here. Or if they are, they aren't kept from you for long. [She doesn't know how this place works or she'd give him better news, maybe, but her voice is soft.]

...if it does help at all, I'm told you will return home eventually to the exact moment you left. If they are there, nothing will happen to them while you're gone.

[monolike]

If that's true, then...then that's fine. [It's not really fine, but there isn't much he can do about it by making himself sick with worry.] As long as they're safe, and as long as nothing bad is happening while I'm gone.

But how do you know that?

[therewerefifty]

There is a man here who comes from the same place that I do, but he remembers more-- he's from slightly in my future. {Even as she says it, she realises how bizarre it sounds, so she smiles apologetically.]]

That is to say, he remembers events occurring that haven't happened yet for me. But he certainly doesn't recall me leaving and coming back after a period of time.

[monolike]

Huh. That is really strange. I wonder how that works? Moving back and forth between time periods like that...I mean, if you were gone for a long time, even if you went back to the same point you left, wouldn't you look different?

[therewerefifty]

Hmm, that is a good point... [She hadn't considered that angle at all. Makie frowns.]

I suppose-- I don't think anyone stays in these places for terribly long, but even so...

[She obviously made no mention of being here in her future at Adstring, but uh. Makie was kind of dead-ish and then not and probably had other things on her mind. Hmm. Now she's worried.]

[monolike]

[well heck, he hadn't meant to worry her.]

I'm- I'm sure it works out somehow. [NO IDEA HOW] Maybe they uh, cut your hair? Before you go back? Or make you replica clothes...

[therewerefifty]

It's possible. I know that Adstringendum had an odd situation where nobody aged while they were there.

...perhaps the same will hold true here.

[monolike]

Huh. [Living and not aging for years and years? Just like seraphim.]

That might not be so bad.

[therewerefifty]

One of the older residents can tell us for sure. [One hopes, anyway.]