voice- un: brightness_kholin

[veristitalian]

People have been vanishing. Not many, not often, not at a volume where we've noticed quickly, but a small number of the ones who initially arrived here have simply disappeared. They've been vanishing since before the doors into space opened, and at enough of a rate that we'd notice the diminishing number of suits if they were all falling off the station into the black.

Initially I had assumed it must be because this place is dangerous. If that were the case we should be tripping over the corpses by now. We clearly aren't.

Comments

un: rocipilot

[donkeyballs]

That's cause they're literally disappearin'.

Hank put up some video of one. Just sorta - disintegrated.

[veristitalian]

Part of me wished it were an accident, or an anomaly, but I can count five now.

[Letting out a frustrated breath.]

There's still absolutely no indication as to why or how.

audio; un:castiglione

[oorah]

Alex is right, saw it with my own eyes.

[donkeyballs]

The dissapearin' ain't even the worst. [ Says the man who hasn't lost anyone. ]

There's-- there's other things happenin', too. To the rest of us.

un: fairchild.

[creatio]

i'm missing someone too.
i thought he was just being, you know, his normal creepy self.

voice » un: rook

[onlydoubts]

I don't think it's because they're dead or dying. Did you see that video that went up a bit ago?

[ voice | un: oswin ]

[oddbod]

I noticed as well.

[No one she's known well, fortunately, but the loss seems to be ongoing. And at the same time, more still are showing up.]

Maybe they're still on the station, somewhere, behind one of the locked doors.

private

[veristitalian]

Like what, Alex?

[She asks, quiet for Jasnah, with a glimmer of something that could be a cousin of empathy.]

audio; un:castiglione

[veristitalian]

Tell me from the beginning.

[veristitalian]

But you're no longer quite so sure?

[veristitalian]

I'm revisiting it now. It seems like a pattern, and a permanent one. Wherever they're going, they haven't found their way back.

[veristitalian]

It's altogether possible.

[Agreeing.]

Or perhaps they're returning home; they're disappearing as easy as we appeared.

private

[donkeyballs]

[ He lets out a heavy breath, noting the private setting. ]

... Somethin' weird is happenin'. Not just the voices - I know people have been hearin' 'em since we got here, but physical stuff too.

I -

[ He hesitated. ]

I died. A few nights ago. I got it on video.

Somethin' made all the water in me just - drain out everywhere. Still a stain on my floor. It's - Hell. I don't know. Rogue mentioned it on the network too at some point, right? That she literally died. Lost her sight. Only it happened to me, and it fixed my arm, instead.

[ He's lost something too, he just doesn't know it, yet. ]

But it ain't just me. Somethin' happened to Amos, made him - hell, I don't know. Different. And somethin' happened to Gunny--

private

[veristitalian]

[She draws in a very long breath, absorbing all this and studying his expression.

Well, first of all;]

Are you all right now?

[He seems to be, which is a relief. People are recovering, from the sound of it? The incapacitation is only temporary. Alarming, but transitory.]

private

[donkeyballs]

Yeah. I'm fine. [ It's obvious that he's not. That he's trying to be, but he's not. He's shaken and he's scared and he doesn't know what he's supposed to do. But he's trying. ]

Right as rain, compared. I don't know how the hell to explain it, Jasnah. But I was dead for at least seven hours.

private

[veristitalian]

Will you join me in the mess hall?

[Looking at the stain, he'd said.]

I could use your help.

[Code for 'the company,' and also she does suspect he's staring at his water stain and should come eat and probably drink something.]

[onlydoubts]

I guess we won't know where they went, until they come back.

[ if? ]

[oorah]

[ his voice grows tight with the memory, but he wants to get this out. and if other people listen in, then maybe they'll understand better than he does what's going on. ]

It's... it was Kat. We were taking a walk around the station, everything was normal. But then... Then she was just, gone.

[oddbod]

They could be.

[Though somehow, she doubts it. All of this seems too sinister for such a quick, easy departure.]

I wonder why, though? How are they judging who's done here and who has to stay?

private

[donkeyballs]

[ He lets out a breath. ]

Yeah, of course. You there now?

[ He may already be getting up to head that way. ]

[veristitalian]

If they come back.

[Says Jasnah, who always needs to say it out loud.]

We haven't met, I believe. I'm Jasnah Kholin.

[veristitalian]

Presupposing there's any judgement at all and it's not simply a side effect.

[She agrees;]

This place seems coldly impersonal, in many ways.

[veristitalian]

I never met her.

I knew a girl named Hermione. About Kamala's age, and just as engaged and determined, but a reader. We said goodbye, with the promise of meeting again so I could lend her a book, and then nothing.

private

[veristitalian]

I'm on my way.

[She disconnects, and probably only arrives a few seconds before he does.

Jasnah is tired, and still a little bruised, and deeply comforted to be dressed again in her havah. The dress is the same subdued colour as the jumpsuit, slit high up the thigh over a pair of black trousers. It's a little like an ao dai from Earth, except it has a very military cut about the collar and shoulders, and the sleeves extend right down to the wristbone. As always, she wears her black glove on the left hand. It's not the formal dress of an Alethi noblewoman, that'd involve a lot more silk and brocade and long skirts perfect for tripping on instead of ending at the knee. Instead, she could be one of the scouts in her army. Or more properly, a general in it; it's exactly the sort of thing she'd wear in the field.

She glances up when Alex enters, and heads to meet him at one of the replicating stations.]

un: garion

[why_me]

Unless they're being held behind closed doors.