Arrival broadcast

[amicably_absent]

Who: Glitch and anyone interested!
Broadcast: Fleetwide
Action: Marsiva
When: Now?

[He comes awake slowly, almost peacefully. His dark eyes stay unfocused and close again, still relaxed and calm.

The second time they blink open, there's a bit more focus and they shift to look around him.

Then he freezes.

It's a fear reaction. It's the rabbit in the headlights, stay still, maybe you won't be noticed reaction. His eyes dart around to take in details, but then he relaxes when he realises he's alone.

His hands come up and feel along the zipper in his scalp, checking with ages old familiarity for any change. Apparently satisfied that everything is right, he lowers his hands down.]

Hello? Someone? Cain… ooh, flashy light, what's… oh! Are you a Far Speaker? Miniaturised far speaking technology, look at the clarity of the screen, that's a mirror quality image.

[The communicator is grabbed and starts being turned around in his hands. His clothing seems to have once been very fine, but is now torn and dirty. His pale skin is marked with small abrasions and the dirt of living rough.

He's also still chattering away quite happily to himself.]

I wonder what sort of broadcasting signal this is using, wireless magics don't get this small, usually, but if it were pre-Witch-

[He goes stiff with shock.]

Merciful light, the Witch! DG! Where am I, I need to get back, I have to- I have to-

[He blinks and his face relaxes, all the sharp panic gone.]

Ooh! Far Speaking technology! It's so small, how did they manage to get it that small?

Comments

[amicably_absent]

[There's a thump that sounds suspiciously like he just fell off something.]

I'm okay! Hello? Who's there? I'm Glitch!

[theoniongirl]

[she hadn't forgotten that was coming. Of course she hadn't. If anything, she'd been bracing for it. But it still feels a bit like having a ball of lead drop in the pit of her stomach when it happens.

Not that he'd be able to see it, but alongside her notes, she begins sketching a keyhole.]

[Gentle, again, working back towards the more cheerful, welcoming tone that she'd had when she first greeted him. It's a bit strained, maybe, but still meant]

Are you okay, Glitch? This is Jilly.

[...]

I'm a friend.

[amicably_absent]

Jilly. Yes! We've been talking, about the far speaker. In my pocket!

I should make a bracelet interface, so I can keep it in my pocket without losing sound quality. Wireless for preference, but I could probably wire it along the arm, but that might overheat the metal...

Ugh. I wish Raw and Ambrose were here!

[theoniongirl]

...you remember.

[she doesn't mean to sound so surprised, or so relieved, but she's both. She...wasn't sure. Obviously, old memories had found a way to hold on, but if he could get back all of that--

What had he said? Ever since they took my brain

That lead ball makes a reappearance, shifting sickly in her stomach as those ideas connect. Dear God. Had someone done this to him?]

[amicably_absent]

Sometimes! With repetition, some things stick around. I can't remember my name, but I know I was the Queen's most trusted adviser.

[There's definitely pride at that. He knows it, he's always known it. It's one of the few things that never went.]

Numero uno. Even if no one believed me, I knew.

[theoniongirl]

I believe you.

[said with all the quiet emphasis she can muster.]

Did you build things for her? [the way he'd been talking about making the bracelet--]

[amicably_absent]

[There's a pause.]

For who?

[theoniongirl]

Did you build things for the queen? When you were her advisor?

[amicably_absent]

Oh, I built amazing things. I redesigned the entire Far Speaker network of Central City as part of my-

My-

... something.

[theoniongirl]

project? [she suggests]


...Is Central City where you're from?

[amicably_absent]

Maybe?

I don't know. I lived there. Once. Maybe? Yes!

[theoniongirl]

What was it like? The city, I mean?

[now that she's fairly confident that he's not about to get irreparably lost, she lets her earlier curiosity take over.]

[amicably_absent]

Oh, it's beautiful. It gleams gold in the sunlight and the marble soaks in the colour of the emerald shining from the top tower of the palace, overlooking the entire city.

[Sometimes, things just come flowing out, so long as he doesn't think about it.]

[theoniongirl]

[it's not just the words...it's the way he says it. She can practically see it, shimmering in her mind]

I would love to paint that...

[amicably_absent]

It was beautiful, back before the Sorceress...

[There's a silence and he blinks and looks at her, with a slightly absent smile.]

Hi! Have we met?

[theoniongirl]

[she smiled, doing her best not to let the sadness of it reach her eyes...not that it'd likely be easy for him to see, until she'd been more cemented in his memory anyway]

We have. I'm Jilly. I'm a friend.

You've been brought to a new place, but you're safe and you aren't alone. If you forget things or just have questions, I'll try to help.

[amicably_absent]

Oh, that good! I don't have many friends. Most people think I'm a criminal and I've done something terrible, but I know I didn't.

Where am I?

[theoniongirl]

[Most people think I'm a criminal.

She doesn't skip a beat responding, but it's noted, especially since it seems like such an odd assumption to make. Sure, Jilly might be a horrible judge when it came to potential dates, but if there was one thing she was good at it was reading when someone was dangerous. Even with a conversation as remote as this one. So far, Glitch didn't even begin to register on her radar.] You don't seem like the criminal type to me.

You're on a ship called the Marsiva. It's a flying ship.

[amicably_absent]

Ooh, flying ship! I can't feel the engines, it must be very good dampening technology.

I wonder who Marsiva was.

[theoniongirl]

I'm not sure, but maybe Marsiva wasn't a person at all. Maybe it was a kind of animal. A lot of the other ships in the fleet seem to have names of objects or creatures. I'm on the Blue Fish.

[amicably_absent]

Hm, maybe. Most ships and the like are named for people, or things which are enjoyed by the owners.

I don't know 'Marsiva' though, so I thought it must be a name of a person.

[theoniongirl]

Maybe they were a famous explorer. Or...since that's the ship everyone arrives on, maybe they're the person who started the Drift Fleet.

That's what this group of ships is called, by the way. And it seems like everyone on them was brought here without warning. None of us really know how we got here...which sounds a little ominous, and maybe it is. But I've been here for a month, and so far the most dangerous thing we've faced is a stolen blender.

[which...was downplaying things a bit, considering the number of doubts she has and the Blue Fish's reaction to Azula's arrival. But, so far, Glitch seemed to remember things better if they were repeated. And, when they'd first begun talking about their strange circumstances, he'd mentioned a sorceress.

He didn't seem like a child, and now that they'd gotten past his first few glitches, she wasn't necessarily worried about him panicking if the more worrying details of their circumstances were brought up...but laying them all out at once didn't seem like the best plan, either]

[amicably_absent]

[Glitch is friendly, open, trusting by necessity. He's not a child, not my any stretch of the imagination, and while he has trouble with impulses and memory, he's not childlike. Just innocent in a strange way.

He's relied on the kindness of strangers since he lost his brain. He has to trust people, because they might be the best friend he doesn't remember. He tries to be kind, because he needs kindness.]

That... sounds really nice, actually. I don't remember the last time I didn't have to worry about where I'd sleep, or where food was coming from. I mean, not that I remember anyway, but it was before they took my brain away. Maybe even before that.

[theoniongirl]

You'd mentioned that before. About them taking your brain.

[quietly]

What--

[she stops. There's so much she wants to ask. Before he'd pocketed his device, she'd seen the zipper parting his hair, and she's seen enough magic to believe that, somehow, this could be truly possible (at least in some worlds). That didn't explain much, though, and there was so much she'd like to understand...but the words die on the tip of her tongue even as she tries to shape them.

He'd said most people thought he was a criminal. Whatever that related to...it wasn't going to be a happy story. Some day, she might ask. But for now--]

Could you get it back? Or could it be healed?

[amicably_absent]

[He's quiet while she thinks about what she's saying.]

I don't know. No one's ever tried to reverse headcasing before. You could use a Viewer to form a new neural synpatic link, but that then becomes reliant on Viewer intervention to reach functionality and it's just inconvenient, really.

What did you want to ask?