[network] @ADMIN; Arrival [open]

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Welcome to Norfinbury. The time is E̛̬̞͖͖̫R҉͖̯̬R̼̻͉̰͎̳̙O̩͓͔̫͇͈̯R and the date is E̛̬̞͖͖̫R҉͖̯̬R̼̻͉̰͎̳̙O̩͓͔̫͇͈̯R. This network has been provided for your use. Please interact politely with everyone else on this network.

Comments

[averytinyparticle]

I didn't think so, either! For awhile I was one of the only ones, I think, but there are a few of us now! We're all good friends.

[Or getting there, anyway.]

Back home I didn't get to talk to many kids, so this is kind of nice, if you don't think about all the other bad stuff.

[And there are a lot of bad things, but...he's doing his best to stay positive. Nobody needs to focus on only the scary things, right?]

I'm ten, how old are you? I like your hat!

[Hats are really awesome and really important.]

[heavensreader]

Oh, thank you! [Her hands dart up to her hat, and she shows it off with a much brighter smile. He is off to a surprisingly great start, commenting on the hat.] It's the most splendid, isn't it? It's called an Ushanka. It's made of muskrat fur. I like yours, too - what has it got on the sides?

[It's not often that she sees a hat bigger than hers!]

I'm eleven. How many others are there? It's very odd that someone should just kidnap children like us and do nothing with us after. We're just the right age to be sold as slaves, but what other reason could there be?

[averytinyparticle]

Ushanka? I've never heard of them before, but it's really cool! And it looks super warm, too. I think more people should have cool hats! [He beams.] They're containers, so I can hold stuff in them! I usually use it for snacks, but sometimes I like to pretend they're for rockets or fireworks or something.

[That would be super neat, too.]

Right now I think there's you, me, Frisk, and Sealand. Once there was Clementine, too, and I think there was somebody else are age, but I never met him.

[Slaves, though? Quark can't help but look confused and nervous.]

Slaves? What do you mean? Why would anybody want to sell us?

[heavensreader]

It isn't cool at all, it's warm, that's whole point. People should have warm hats. [Your modern jargon is confusing this little Victorian. Thankfully, the concept of hiding things in one's hat is a sufficiently exciting distraction.] You put snacks in your hat? That's brilliant! Perhaps if I'd stored the sugar in my hat, it would not have gone. I had a bag, and some tea, but someone's taken it all...

[A great crime. Not helped, either, but how there appears to be a whole flock of other children present. Kesara purses her lips, then blows a thoughtful breath through them.]

That is why the Turcomans kidnap children - to make them slaves, because sometimes they fetch a higher price. They're easier to break than grown men, like with foals and horses. They have thousands in Bukhara, I've heard.

[averytinyparticle]

[Quark can't stop himself from laughing a little bit--but mostly in delight.]

No, I meant...cool as in neat! Nifty! Really awesome! [A pause.] I woke up missing something, too. I think a bunch of people did. I dunno why the admin takes stuff from us. Especially food. She seems like she wants to help...so I dunno why she doesn't make it easier for us to eat.

[He shrugs. He really can't say. But, whoa, she sure knows a bunch of words he doesn't!]

That sounds scary! But...I don't think that's what this is here. Nobody's tried to do that to me, and I've been here for a couple months already. Most everyone is really helpful and friendly.

[heavensreader]

[Is he laughing at her over not knowing a word? Kesara would balloon with anger like a strange bird if he didn't have an excellent hat.] None of these words mean the same thing as the others, [she lets him know, gone a little tart.]

Who is this admin woman? I thought some bandit must have taken it, when they've trussed me up, because sugar really is much nicer than these things that I have in my bag now... [But come to think of it, that really makes very little sense.]

Of course everyone is kind if we're all fellow-prisoners. But mark me, if the Turcomans got us they'll come eventually, and who knows what they'll do, if they truly have the arts to make a marvellous machine like this...

[Which makes even less sense, but who knows? She has been told again and again how the heart of Serindia is stranger than all her imaginings...]