1 | Video

[wholenewstory]

[The video reveals a girl studying the screen intently. Her hair, mussed and bedraggled, is loosely pulled back. Her outfit is odd; it looks like a form-fitting black body suit, but it's torn and tattered, stained with blood.]

Can you...hear me?

[She tilts her head slightly, brow furrowing. She doesn't like devices like this - communication without contact - but it seems like the...sensible thing to do. The sort of thing Oracle would tell her to try.]

I'm - Cassandra. Just got here.

[Her frown is, at most, mildly bewildered.]

What they told me - about the...In-Between - is that...what they say to everyone? Is it true?

[She doesn't sound particularly sceptical. Why should she? Dying is the last thing she remembers.

This next bit, though, has her eyes widening and her lips quirking.]

Is it...really a turtle?

Comments

[wholenewstory]

[After a moment, she nods.] I didn't - know words for...a long time. I - can speak now. [A slight, rueful smile; obviously.] But reading is...hard.

[She reaches up, fingers brushing her forehead.] Barbara - she's my... [Her brow furrows. What does she call Barbara, exactly? She's like a -] She's like - my guardian. Sort of.

She says my brain...is different. We were going to...work on it.

[Then she smiles.] What - are your friends like?

encrypted 65%;

[daughterofelysium]

[A long pause, and then she does her best to encrypt the conversation.]

My brain is pretty different too. I had to learn how to use my hands properly and move right when I woke up. [She shifts a little, so she's hiding her smile behind her knee.] I guess you'd call him my guardian, Signore Hilshire, he had to help me, but he's pretty useless sometimes.

[A long-suffering sigh.] The other girls learned how to play instruments and paint, things like that to improve their fine motor control. He had me building bird houses and copying chapters from books by hand.

[She rests her chin on her knee again.] Claes is my roommate. She's probably smarter than anyone else I know - she has a whole library of her own that someone gave to her, but she doesn't remember who. Henrietta and Rico, they need some taking care of - Henrietta's in love with her handler, so that makes her kind of fragile sometimes. It's not really uncommon, but most handlers- well, she's just... Henrietta. [A shrug.] And Rico needs taking care of because she's too happy - I don't think she's ever had a day she didn't like, even when things went wrong. There's others, but I've known them the longest.

[And then there's Angelica, but Triela is trying not to think about her fellow first-gen cyborg at the moment.]

Do you have many friends? What about your guardian, what's she like?

encrypted 65%;

[wholenewstory]

[Cass listens as intently as she watches, a bright little smile curving her lips. Simple, sincere affection is always nice to see.

She can tell there's something Triela isn't saying, something she's avoiding, but that's all right. There usually is.]

I...

[Her expression dims.] No. Not - many.

[She summons a smile, though.] Barbara is...like Claes. Her mind is like...

Like clockwork. It's - always working, always fast, never stops. I don't think she knows how - to rest. [Which, really, they have in common.]

encrypted 65%; || FFFF I THOUGHT I REPLIED TO THIS orz

[daughterofelysium]

Well, you've got one more here, at least.

[Triela sits up straight again.] They'd get along then, probably. Claes gets impatient with people who don't understand the way her head works.

[A pause.] I don't know much about this place yet, but figuring it out together could be fun, if you wanted.

encrypted 65%; || THAT HAPPENS TO ME WAY TOO OFTEN

[wholenewstory]

[Her eyes widen at that, before she grins. It doesn't fade in the slightest as she listens.]

I'd...like that.

I'm - in Earth sector. EA-2B.