.01 where have you gone my feather-light heart?

[gentlearcher]

Who: Susan Pevensie
Broadcast: Video
Action: Marsiva
When: March 25th

Action/Accidental broadcast
[Susan wakes up, and that is the first thing that's wrong. She isn't supposed to be waking up; she's supposed to be stepping through space and time and returning to the place where she now knows she belongs. Her brothers and sister are supposed to have come with her, and that is the second thing which is wrong: a quick glance to either side of her under the strange light (the third thing which is wrong) shows that though there are other beds, she is quite alone. She quickly sits up, feet swinging to the floor with a swish of long skirts (a forth thing that is wrong), and glances around her. Her voice is tart, anger and irritation (something has gone very, very wrong) disguising a gnawing fear.] What is going on here?

Susan glances around for any clue, but this place is foreign; far more so than Narnia had been. The sterility reminds her of a hospital in better days, the days before the War, and there is a strange, canned smell to the air. There's strength in her step as she strides to the window, strength more than Susan from London and she realizes that the Narnian air hasn't left her completely, and it is a very good thing indeed as standing at the window she suddenly finds it very hard to breathe. Hesitating, she places a hand flat on the cool glass as she stares and stares into a night sky.

She is in a night sky. Impossible was a meaningless word, but it was still the first thing she thought. Since impossible was a meaningless word, and Susan was, at her heart, a very practical person, the first thing she did was turn away from the window. The second thing she did was take a deep breath, gaze darting everywhere for any sign of her family, any hint of a weapon (she'd left her bow back in Narnia, given her horn to Caspian - Caspian - and there was no hint anywhere of the sunshine which followed Lucy, the warmth that was Peter, or the perception that was Edmund, making a joyous raucous in such a sterile, sterile place. She would look for them anyway. Surely she wouldn't have been the one sent off on an adventure on her own. They had to be here.)

After finding someone on the ship to help her, the video purposefully flickers on. The camera is initially too close, and picks up part of a conversation--]

[Deliberate Video]
--like this? [A muffled answer, a shot of light, intent eyes, and then the camera pulls back to frame only Susan's face. She is doing what she can to not reveal the dress.]

I've been given to understand that this device communicates with those assembled here against their will. I am sure this is not an unusual request, but any further information about the nature of this place or how we all came to be here [Is it Magic? It doesn't feel like Magic.] would be greatly appreciated.

...and if anyone has heard of my brothers, Peter and Edmund, or my sister Lucy, I would appreciate you contacting me. [She adds, as if this was not a driving force behind her finding out how to make such a post in the first place.] Thank you.

Comments

video

[takeabow]

[ the girl on the video has a dark, somewhat intricate side braid. she also looks like she's seen a ghost; her face is neutral, though very pale. her eyes are slightly wide and she's preternaturally still. it takes a moment for her to figure out what to say, and when she finally remembers to speak, her voice is slightly croaky ]

...Susan?

video

[gentlearcher]

[Susan's own hair is still in the elaborate curls of her leave-taking, just as she is still in royal Narnian attire. It is painfully familiar, to be recognized and yet not recognize the one who knew her name when Susan knew she had not said it.]

...yes? [But this girl - who presumably had been here far longer than she, as she was not on this ship (Susan knew, she'd looked everywhere she could go in this ship, twice) - looked far more pale and still than she should, and so the inane 'Do I know you' does not quite form, but rather:] Are you all right?

[takeabow]

I...

[ honestly, she's having trouble forming a coherent thought. she should be used to this by now—it's not the first time it's happened, and there are those who recognize her and it makes her vastly uncomfortable. This is susan but—a susan who doesn't know about her siblings. who doesn't recognize her... a different susan. nova takes a moment to compose herself, transitioning from a shocked expression to a slightly icy, restrained smile ]

Yes. Sorry. Sorry. That was—

I'm going to start over. Hi. I'm Nova.

[gentlearcher]

[And you're not all right, Susan thought, recognizing a smile of pure, reinforced composure as one pro at that to another.

Her brow furrows, but Susan decides not to call her out on it. Yet.]

Hello, Nova. [Not a Narnian name, not a British name...] May I ask how you know me?

[takeabow]

It's... complicated. And stupid of me to bring up. Sorry. It'd be better if we just started over?

[ it's a long shot. she knows it. she doesn't want to agitate susan, and right now trying to smooth it over seems like the better option. it's no fun to be assaulted with so much information at once ]

[gentlearcher]

[Better, but less - truthful, she supposes is the word. Less real. She glances out for a moment to the window, to the night sky. For a moment, she feels dizzy. She has flown on a lion's back, back the ground was still there, beneath them for every bound, and Lucy was with her.

Where was the ground now? Where was her sister?]

It may be - complicated - and I admit to having more pressing concerns. [If it sounds like she's struggling with herself, she is. The easier way is to become silent, blend in, be Phyllis and let things go, listen to her fears, curl her heart in and away from further loss and pain. But...] But it does sound... important. And if I am to be here long, I would like to hear about it once I know more about where here is.

[takeabow]

Right. Yes. Okay, so. We're in space. On a spaceship. Well, a fleet of them. I know it's a lot to take in, but we're safe. No one really knows why we were brought here but some people have been here for a year, some people just a few months.

[ exposition, away from feelings. that's a good direction to go. ]

[gentlearcher]

[Susan focuses on a strange bit of that, a hand curling into a light fist.]

But we were brought here?

[takeabow]

By the Atroma, yeah. But getting information on them is elusive, too. There are a lot of question marks about this whole thing. Sorry.

[gentlearcher]

Atroma? [What a strange sounding word: Oddly hard in the mind. Heavy.] Who are 'they', then?

[takeabow]

I really don't know. Sorry.

[ she is apologetic. she doesn't have a lot of information, here ]

[gentlearcher]

[Not knowing is... well, frustrating. There should be a reason for such things. But there was no point in pursuing that, so Susan hazards carefully into more personal territory.]

So you were also - taken - from a place not at all like this one? Where was that, may I ask?

[takeabow]

Um. Well, before here I was in a place called Aather. It's not where I'm from, though. It's a little like this, in that I got taken there. I'm from a place called Panem. That's where my sister is, still.

[gentlearcher]

[Wait, hold on. Those are definitely other worlds, or at least other countries.]

You - you've been taken from your world to another before?

[takeabow]

Yeah... and I lost my memories when I got there. We all did. We had to win them back playing games.

This place isn't like that.

[gentlearcher]

[...there was a lot to untangle there. Focus on the practical.

Susan swallowed a little.] What is this place like?

[takeabow]

Um, the food's terrible, but the people are nice. The clothes are really boring and the beds aren't super soft but you get used to it. I assume.

[gentlearcher]

[Susan blinks.] You assume?

[takeabow]

I don't like soft beds. I'm not used to it.

[gentlearcher]

Oh. I see. [And oddly enough, she did. Transitioning back to England after Narnia had held its own small challenges.] And - if we are not here to play games and retrieve our memories, as you said, what are we here to do?

[takeabow]

Well. Um.

So, the story is that we're on a tv show. That people watch what we do here. But I really don't know... there hasn't been much evidence for that.

[gentlearcher]

[...okay, Susan understood about 80 percent of that.]

I don't know what a 'tv show' is, but you're saying we're just... put here for people to watch?

[That's. Incredibly creepy, actually.]

[takeabow]

Um... yeah.

It's a type of entertainment. That's broadcast. Like... movies?

[ she really doesn't know what technology Susan has. it's never really come up ]

[gentlearcher]

[Movies were more familiar, yes. She'd seen a few before the War, and even during it there were occasional promotional and propaganda pieces.]

So, by evidence you mean... cameras?

[Brought to other worlds for entertainment? This is ridiculous.]

[takeabow]

Yeah. Or an audience. Or directors. But that's the story and they're sticking to it.

[ it's less ridiculous of an idea to nova but at least she's used to being entertainment ]