snowblindrpg | [network] @ADMIN; Arrival [open]

[The man who responds chooses his words carefully, civil and polite, but his tone is soft and regretful. He can't give him anything better than this:]

Hello, Jim. Unfortunately, I can't say I've ever heard of this 'RLS Legacy'. [He says it as if entirely unfamiliar with every bit of it, as if he doesn't even know what it is - most people at least would be able to realize it's a ship, but Enoch is unaware even of that.]

Hopefully, people familiar to you will have arrived with you, but many of us have found ourselves entirely cut off from home.

Edited (whoops typo I didn't catch) 2015-07-10 23:55 (UTC)

[ The gentle tone takes Jim off guard enough that some of his fear slips through in his voice. ]

I just don't understand why they'd take me out of everyone aboard.

[ From his skim of the network, he can't find any pattern - except that there are a lot of humans. He was the only one aboard, so maybe that was it. ]

[He does know why he would be a target to some. But not to this, which seems to have no aim. He wishes he could be of some use, he's been here longer, after all. But it's only been nearly two weeks, and that's just not enough time...]

Many of us have the same question, but none of us have any answers, I'm afraid. We don't even know who or what took us, or how. This "Admin" is a reasonable guess, of course, but we know nothing about them to begin with.

Whatever reason they have, they can't just dump us here to starve, right?

[ They could. They might be on some remote planet. Maybe they're the only people in the whole system. Jim doesn't think they could've gotten far but there's plenty of empty systems around Montressor and if they had something like the map then they could be halfway across the galaxy. The range of people he's seen on the network so far supports it. ]

I don't know. I found plenty of food at the school, and the occasional food item in the houses, but keeping us alive certainly isn't a priority of theirs, in some senses of the idea. It seems they...they can defeat death. A few of us have died, but returned to life some time later, and nobody knows how or why.

[He's still trying to figure that one out, really. Even the angels guarded his life fiercely, it told him death was an obstacle even for them, for God. So how...]

[ Flatly: ] That's not possible.

[ Treasure maps to semi-mythical artificial planets? Sure. A portal that can take an entire ship anywhere in the galaxy? Why not. Being kidnapped from a ship out of port? Unlikely, but obviously it happened. Coming back from the dead, though? Jim's hit his limit. No. Dead is dead. ]

I know. It shouldn't be. I didn't believe it, either. I wouldn't still, if I couldn't go back and watch what I recorded, if I couldn't...see myself stop breathing.

[He debates actually showing him the video. It's a scary thing to watch, someone dying in degrees. That moment when the camera stopped moving completely, when even the subtle shift of the snow that was piling up on his body ceased...

And that thing, whatever it was, that dragged his body away...]

[ Up until now, sure, Jim had been a little afraid. He was in an unknown place, unarmed, far from home - but alive. Healthy, and with what appeared to be food. It seemed like things would probably work out, even if it was tough for a while.

Being captured by someone who could manipulate death, though. That was an entirely new kind of horrifying, and Jim doesn't even know how to process it.

After a long time staring at the tablet, he asks:]

You recorded it?

[He knows. He knows but he doesn't want to lie and make it worse should he find out the hard way. It's better for him to learn now, he thinks, than figure it out while trying to unzip a body bag from the inside in a cold, lonely room.]

I was recording another phenomenon, and, I thought, since we didn't know what happened to those who were locked outside, I should leave it to that task. That is the only evidence I have that I truly died that day.

[That, and his first breath hurt, filling lungs that hadn't breathed in hours. But that was such a blur the sharp pain of waking was forgotten in the panic of getting himself out of that bag.]

[ It's still absolutely unbelievable. There is nothing in Jim that wants to believe it's true when he doesn't even believe in life after death. How can you come back from nothing?

Maybe it's all a lie to make him less cautious - why fear death when it doesn't stick? ]

And you - you know for sure that you were dead? Not unconscious?

[He understands, he absolutely does. He even has a more supernatural-friendly worldview than Jim, having gone to the afterlife alive (among other things), and still didn't believe it until it happened to him. It's why there is no irritation at having to repeat himself, nothing but a reluctantly resolute, soft:]

I'm certain. I'm sorry. I know it's a troubling thought.

[He still didn't think anyone would want to die in this place. It's unpleasant, to say the least, and very disorienting.]

[ 'Troubling' may be the understatement of the millennium. It just doesn't make any sense, and the enormity of it is something Jim just can't let himself process right now. He pushes it down and away, visibly straightening himself, and clears his throat. ]

Yeah. But - you said something about a school, with food. Where's that?

[Enoch is happy to oblige. He's been forced to just deal with way too many things that defy immediate explanations that aren't "magic", and this is coming from a time less skeptical of it in general. It's much easier to just let it be and work with it, which...doesn't really seem like what Jim is doing here, considering how obviously it affected him, but he's not going to argue semantics. No matter what, a change of subject is called for.]

It's...well, it's difficult to give directions to any place in particular without using one of the walls as a guide...are you close enough to one of the giant snowbanks to see it?

[ Jim appreciates not being called out on his show of emotion. There's absolutely no way he's going to admit that he's afraid to anyone as long as he can keep it under control. ]

When I first woke up I could see the east wall, I think. I'm walking west.

[ Hopefully. It's possible this place affects sense of direction, too. ]

[He's going to assume Jim was able to at least see shadows or a glimpse of the sun like he did and not question. Finding one's direction of travel was common for him. He's grateful he has some sense of orientation the way he did, waking up near one of the walls.]

Then you're on your way to finding it. It is somewhere out of sight of all the walls, and I found it while attempting to find the center. Be warned, though, it is surrounded by a long stretch of nothing but snow, from what I hear. It was certainly true of the direction I approached it. Be sure you only attempt to go there when you can be certain you will arrive with a reasonable amount of time to return to shelter.

[ It's at least a goal to work toward, and it's certainly better than striking out in any random direction. Then again, if this guy turns out not to be trustworthy it's not like he's lost anything. ]

Thanks, Mister - uh?

Enoch, just as your tablet will tell you. I'm not among those who gave the machine an alias or nickname - it's all as well, since they seem to know our real names to begin with.

[If the obituaries are any indication....]

Oh. Huh.

[ Jim is belatedly realizing that's something he should've been paranoid about. It hadn't even occurred to him to use an alias, or any of the weird names people were choosing for themselves here; he'd just written his name the same way he always did. ]

Nice to meet you, Enoch.

[He honestly has no idea what some of these names are about. The concept of identifying oneself by a favorite concept or hobby (aside from practical ones like "Bowman", which told the viewer a valuable skill) as if it was one's name was entirely lost on him. The internet was a long, long time away.]

Likewise. [He gives him a small, but very genuine, smile. It might have been simply formality had their situation been any different. But in this place, any connection to other people was a comfort.]

Is there anything else I could help clarify or give you advice on? If being here nearly two weeks more gives me any sort of advantage, I'd like to share it.

[ Jim thinks about that for a long while before can formulate a response. Having a direction to focus his searching on is already exponentially better than what he'd had a few minutes ago; striding in the right direction instead of kicking the snow did wonders for his confidence, and with the confidence his posture straightened and his expression opened by fractions. ]

What about weapons. A blaster, or even a sword?

Those, I haven't seen. You may be able to fashion weapons out of other things, but I haven't found so much as a woodcutting knife.

[That's really strange, come to think of it. The town being completely at peace, maybe, he could see. But no butchers? No farmers? No carvers, no woodcutters? That makes no sense.]

They probably don't want us fighting back.

[ Whoever 'they' are. The mysterious admin who sent the message, or whoever dumped them here if they're not the same. ]

[ That does seem odd. Jim wonders just how thorough and intentional everything around them is. If they went through and took anything that could be used for defense, that meant they were meant to find whatever was left. It's a dispiriting thought. ]

I guess transportation is too much to ask for, huh?

[network] @ADMIN; Arrival [open]

@Enoch, video

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