[walkabout, audio] - a new voice appears

[neverfeltthatway]

Hello? Is this working? This is Armin, talking from over jauntside. Assuming you're all getting this, I've probably only got about 40 minutes. [He does, though it will end up being more like 5 hours for everyone on the walkabout, given the time differential. But then, that's one of the things he's here to ask about.]

This may seem like an odd question, but how long has it been, on your side of things? We're only at the start of the third day, here, but with the way liminal space is behaving, we're wondering if time is moving faster over here, like the Expo on the walkabout in Chikyuumaru.

Beyond that, where did you end up? Have you figured out if there's a purpose behind your presence there yet?

Let me know quickly if you have any questions for anyone jauntside, or if there's any help I can provide with my network abilities. If we're right about the time differential, this is the only time I'll be able to contact you before the end of the jaunt.

Comments

[breakaleginhalf]

Oh hey, 'sup.

We are in a Space Chadstone. Space Mall. In a moon. And I think this is the... thiiiiird week we've been here? It's been a while.

[neverfeltthatway]

...Chadstone? [That's certainly a word he's never heard before. But the rest of the statement gives him enough context to make an educated guess.] A sparefaring walkabout - that would mean either the Spark or Gehanna, unless it's pre-Moebius. Is there a ship called the Empress of Moths around, with convicts and refugees of a number of different races?

[breakaleginhalf]

Yep. It's trading a shitload of wood out.

None of us are really, like- doing much, though? There's a lot of just fucking around. Riddick's watching the Empress and Matthew's infiltration has a talking ship.

[Those are clearly the most important parts of this conversation.]

And there are a lot of people who got turned into Diabolins.

[neverfeltthatway]

I see. Yours is definitely the walkabout side, then. Wood is a valuable commodity there, then?

[He'd more than suspected as much, but it was good to have it confirmed. Then Gil mentions Diabolins, and Armin shudders audibly before he can help himself.]

[breakaleginhalf]

[Ooh, that was interesting.]

Not a fan either, huh?

[neverfeltthatway]

My overlay spent more than a century as a Diabolin slave after he was kidnapped. They don't necessarily understand the needs of other races, such as sleep. And then he was convicted with his master for crimes she had committed, and spent a millennia in stasis, until everyone and everything he knew was long dead.

[So, no. Not a fan.]

[breakaleginhalf]

...that's rough, buddy. I'm just kind of vaguely annoyed 'cos they keep screaming whenever they see me. That's some pretty heavy shit on your end.

[He can empathise. The kid sounded like an authentic Changeling, with a story like that.]

[neverfeltthatway]

[He gives the mental equivalent of a shrug.] Not the worst jaunt I've been on.

...Did you just arrive, last liminal? [He doesn't recognize the man's mental 'voice', which is unusual.]

[breakaleginhalf]

Yeesh.

Yeah, brand new as of Fog World. Name's Gil.

[neverfeltthatway]

Fog World?

I'm Armin. I've been here as long as any of us can remember.

[breakaleginhalf]

That Liminal Space we had right before this. Moon and whoever's one.

Also, what the fuck. How long has this thing been going on for?

[neverfeltthatway]

Oh, right. [It's been a long time since Armin thought of liminal space as anything but just that. Though mostly, his mun didn't tag into that liminal and so wasn't aware of the fog, as Armin would have been.]

...I say as long as any of us can remember because there's a jaunt where everyone lost their memories of Traveling before that point. Moebius. So I don't know how long I've been a Traveler.

Since Moebius, however, it's been about three and a half years.

[breakaleginhalf]

Beatrice told me a little bit about Moebius, actually. From what she said, it sounds pretty bloody fucked up. Is every Jaunt like that, or just the bad ones?

[neverfeltthatway]

...We've had bad jaunts, but we haven't had anything as bad as Moebius in the three and a half years since. [In a way, he's glad Beatrice has told Gil something of Moebius - the less he has to go into detail about what happened there, the better.] We've learned since that Moebius was a punishment for us, because we rebelled against the Arcana. How, I couldn't say.

[breakaleginhalf]

'cos eldritch god-level abominations keeping actual humans - or people, or whatever fucking sentient species half the people here are - keeping people in a cage and fucking with them for their own sick amusement doesn't need a reason.

[Guess who's been through this before.]

It's just them fucking with us. It's always Them just fucking with us.

[neverfeltthatway]

...Speaking from experience, I take it. [It's not quite a question.]

[breakaleginhalf]

What fucking gave it away.

[Deep breaths, Gil.]

I'm a Changeling. I've been through this shit before. And honestly, Moebius keeps sounding pretty fucking similar to my time spent There.

[private]// psychic protection ii

[neverfeltthatway]

What's a changeling? [The question is asked calmly. Armin doesn't get upset, recognizing the echo of his own trauma.]

...How much did Beatrice tell you?

[He's hoping she didn't tell him as much as he thinks, and it's not quite so apt a comparison. He doesn't want anyone else to have gone through this too. And asking this way, they will be speaking of Armin's traumas, and not the man's own.]

aw ye privacy

[breakaleginhalf]

Changelings are people that got kidnapped by the Gentry, fucked up and mutated by their magic, and clawed their way back out to the real world. Except now they don't fit in there, and they sure as fuck can't go back, so they're stuck between worlds trying not to lose what they are in either of them.

...Jules and Kitty are the same. But like, different specifics.

Beatrice wasn't too specific. She said it was appalling, made it sound like a lot of people got PTSD on top of amnesia, and mentioned how ROSE was supposed to take care of our minds while our bodies were in a Jaunt-- the way she said it made it sound like Moebius fucked that up, somehow.

[dino_zarf]

We're in the same general 'verse as Gehenna. It's a station we didn't visit on the last trip, but the Empress of Moths is docked. A few people are back in their old infiltrations- River is Riva. There are quite a few Travellers on wanted posters, whether they're here again or not. There doesn't seem to be a big goal though, mostly we've been shopping and trying to avoid having anyone arrested.

[neverfeltthatway]

It's good to know everyone seems to be doing all right. [It's always hard when you've grown to care about people over the course of a month, lived their lives, and then abandon them without even a way to know if they're all right.]

Is it mostly infiltrators on the wanted posters, or are some investigators wanted as well? And that would seem to confirm what I suspected, that this is the main jaunt, and you're on the walkabout. The numbers alone made that likely, but it's good to have confirmation.

[private]// psychic protection ii until otherwise stated

[neverfeltthatway]

Oh. [He's quiet for a moment, taking that all in. It's horrible and unjust, if little more so than his own world. He's surprised to hear Jules is the same, though what he knows of the man now makes more sense.

Mostly, however, he's relieved to hear the man didn't have much in the way of specifics from Beatrice, and the similarities he saw were just from the general situation. That alone was bad enough.]

It sounds like she's talked to ROSE more than I have about this, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[dino_zarf]

Infiltrators, mostly.

[Which at least means their cover is somehow not blown despite so many people ending up in liminal that shouldn't have]

I think a lot of them are for the stuff that got them sent to Gehenna in the first place. And then for leaving Gehenna.

[neverfeltthatway]

So investigators wouldn't be wanted, because nobody outside Gehenna likely know we were there in the first place. Good to know.

[icanhearscreams]

A space mall. It's... weird, and I'm some sort of rock-thing, and none of this biology makes any sense from an Earth perspective but it's... interesting. I don't know that there's a 'purpose' for us being here, though.