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

[oorah]

[ UM WHAT HERMIONE WAS HERE AND HE MISSED IT?!??! no he totally assumes her parents were hp nerds like him rip ]

Kara's gone too. Don't know if you met her.

[veristitalian]

That wouldn't keep them off the network. Why would something be systematically taking people away and taking from them this device they've built so carefully to allow us to communicate with each other?

[veristitalian]

I did. I'd wondered.

[A long, frustrated breath.]

One more worrisome thing we can't hope to understand.

[why_me]

It would if their devices were taken. Or if they're unable to move, or asleep.

And why are people being systematically taken from their worlds? They're two sides of a coin.

[veristitalian]

We can only speculate, and try to watch for patterns.

[why_me]

Pretty much. It's all just speculation until we find them or find definitive evidence that they're gone.

[donkeyballs]

[ Alex, for whatever he said about dying, looks fit as a god damned fiddle. Well. A fiddle who stopped working out five years ago when he left the military and has a bit of a paunch around the waist, but you know what he means. His arm isn't broken, and he looks completely healthy, even if there's a slightly haunted look in his eye. When he looks around for Jasnah, though, he actually does a double take - expecting the same dull jumpsuit uniform and instead seeing a woman that looked like she stepped out of a vid screen. Regal and ancient.

He blinks, clears his throat, and steps over. ]

Uh - hey. You, uh, look nice. [ Fucking smooth, Alex. ]

[veristitalian]

Thank you.

[She answers, surprised by the compliment and relieved to see him hale and whole, if a little haunted around the edges.]

I've been finding pieces of home here and there around the stations. The havah, a few books, my hairpins, a sword. [Jasnah's a woman of a few interesting contraditions: intricate, fetching braids and murdery edges. She moves to fill a tray with food, favouring one shoulder carefully.] Have you noticed the same?

[onlydoubts]

Yeah. If. If they return.

[ there's definitely a waver to his voice. ]

Hi, Jasnah. Bodhi Rook.

[donkeyballs]

A sword? [ He has no idea what a havah is, either, but the sword is what pegs his interest. He noted the slight roll of her shoulders, wondered if she'd hurt herself somehow, and was about to ask, before she distracted him with a question.]

Oh, uh - yeah. Sort of. Not a hell of a lot, though, just - just the one thing. [ He paused, hesitating, but then reached up to his breast pocket and carefully pulled out the photo, and then held it out to her. ]

... Just this.

[veristitalian]

[She steps closer, looking down at the photo, a little surprised at how vivid it is. There's no photography on Roshar, but she's used enough to the communicators that she can absorb the content.]

He looks determined, and she looks kind. Your wife and child?

[veristitalian]

It's good to meet you, Bodhi.

[Unpleasant subject matter aside.]

This place isn't always simple, and it's seldom easy.

[donkeyballs]

[ He carefully replaces the photo, creased a hundred times over, back into his breast pocket. ]

... Yeah. [ He fights the urge to qualify it. Or tries to, anyway. But he finds himself doing it, kicking himself for it the whole time. ]

Was, anyway. My wife, I mean. [ The ring felt heavy in his pocket, removed from his finger. He looked sheepish. ]

His name's Melas. My son. But that's all I got, from home. Just that. No uh, no swords.

[veristitalian]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[Answers Jasnah, who does not come from a culture where divorce or separation would even occur to her.

But, changing the topic delicately, as she picks her tray up carefully to lead them to a table.]

Do you know how to swordfight?

[onlydoubts]

And you, even under these circumstances.

[ Bodhi is getting used to that, meeting people in strange conversation or in situations that are less than great. ]

No, it's really not. [ he sighs, and tries to brighten a little. ] So, business as usual, then?

[oddbod]

[She nods in agreement, even though Jasnah can't see her.]

I was never much for the outdoors, but this place makes me miss sunlight more than anything.

[veristitalian]

For me, it's the wind. I'd like to feel a wind on my skin again.

[It's not her order, exactly, but she thinks of the Windrunners often.]

[aequoreal]

That we are not tripping over corpses does not mean this place is not dangerous.

( but — ) My theory is that it may be some sort of transportation beam taking people to and from this place.

[veristitalian]

It's still dangerous, but my point is it's not the simple solution one would expect to see at home. It would be most likely that if someone was suddenly gone, that they were purely dead.

[aequoreal]

I agree. What do you think it could be besides? ( transportation is his guess, but then where? who transports them and how? )

[veristitalian]

My hope is that the thing tying us here has severed for them, and that they've been returned home.

[veristitalian]

Or someone or something who can answer our questions.

[aequoreal]

One of those who have left is dead in his world.

[veristitalian]

Business as usual.

[And, because it's worth asking over and over again.]

What have you learned about this place so far?

[veristitalian]

I'm sorry, dead?

[News to Jasnah.]