01 | Video

[hisbabygirl]

Hello..?

[Have yourself a twelve year old girl testing the water on the shiny new thing and mumbling to herself a little as she does.]

...I hope I'm doing this right.

[Oh right. The people can hear her. Sarah takes a deep breath and gets to talking.]

I uh, gotta say, this is some real crazy stuff going on. I don't even know where to start makin' sense of any of it. The Kedan people, the ones that work here? I think they work here. Live here? I dunno. They explained a lot of stuff but I'm still trying to wrap my head around even being here.

[Sarah pauses. When she speaks again it's with a little less certainty.]

Do they ever make mistakes with who they bring here? I'm not sure I'm the monster fighting type.

[Not real ones anyway.]

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[hisbabygirl]

[Holy crap it's a person. While she knows this was the likely outcome, Sarah's still a little surprised to see someone pop up.]

Oh. Well.

[Sarah's got so much on her mind, she's opted to just focus on the task at hand. She's worried, even if she is relatively calm.]

Have you been here long? [A beat.] Is it dangerous?

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[unetrustworthy]

They say there's a war going on.

[Her phrasing is deliberate. It was what she had been told all along. At times, there were even evidence of such. The Fire Sector. Discussions of people being killed. The Emperor herself being slaughtered in her own palace. Yet, relatively speaking, these were all so minor compared to the type of battlefield she had grown up knowing.]

Nobody's ever tried to hurt me. Most of them even want to help. It's...nice.

And, yes, I've been here for a while. About half a year, I think.

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[hisbabygirl]

A war? That's... that's bad.

[So there's trouble here too. Sarah can take some comfort in knowing it's not as bad as it is at home, at least not at the moment. Still, home is where her dad is and she'd really rather be with him.

It's a comfort though, to hear that in six months there's been no harm done to the girl she speaks to.]

The Kedan mentioned some things. I was kinda hoping it wasn't true.

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[unetrustworthy]

[Bad? Yes. But it could always be worse. At least here, there was food. Shelter. She could fall asleep at night without having to worry about an air raid.]

What did they tell you?

[hisbabygirl]

Not much, now that I think about it. We're hear to fight somethin' bad and we can't say it's name.

[Anything Sarah tried to ask beyond that was hushed and shut down.]

The Emperor, at least I think that's who it was, he didn't look real happy.

[unetrustworthy]

His predecessor was recently killed. If I were him, I wouldn't be very happy either.

[She had no idea how close the new Emperor was to the old one. But she could assume.]

The something bad...it's appeared over the Network before. I've seen it. We can't say its name because it will appear and start to cause more trouble.

[hisbabygirl]

How did they die? Was it the bad thing?

[One can hope it was accidental and not murder, right?]

Does it look... normal? I mean, could I tell if I saw it?

[Cause there's some non-humans running around and she'd really hate to trust the wrong one.]

[unetrustworthy]

It was bad. Murder. We don't know who did it yet, but people are investigating.

As for the creature...how good are you with technology?

[hisbabygirl]

Okay.

[Sarah nods, relieved to hear there's investigation going on.]

I'm pretty good. I mean I have my own computer back home. This one's a bit weird but the basis looks the same.

[unetrustworthy]

If you scan back through some of the archives, you'll be able to see it for yourself. It's not very subtle.

Just make sure not to say its name once you learn about it, alright?

[hisbabygirl]

I think I can work that out easy enough. This system doesn't seem too complicated.

[She nods again, determined not to mess this up.]

Promise I won't do anything stupid.

[Sarah pauses briefly.]

Hey uh, thanks for all this. I reaaaally appreciate it.

[unetrustworthy]

[And here is where Sarah gets hints of a smile. Genuine.]

Anytime.

There aren't that many foreign kids in the City. Those of us that are here....we need to stick together, you know?

[hisbabygirl]

[Midii's smile might be faint, but Sarah about grins in return. It's good to have an ally.]

Yeah, I like the sound of that. Oh! I'm Sarah, by the way.

[Something she probably should of said at the start of the conversation, but there's been a lot to discuss.]

[unetrustworthy]

[Names tended to be an afterthought in all the confusion.]

I'm Midii.

Are you here alone?

[hisbabygirl]

Yeah. Just me.

I mean there's others here and I haven't looked around the place right just yet, but as far as I know, it's just me from home.

[unetrustworthy]

Are you going to be alright by yourself?

[Not every kid was used to the isolation. Even Midii, for all her independence, occasionally looked to others she had come to trust for necessities.]

[hisbabygirl]

I think so. For now at least.

[She's fairly independent for her age. With her mother gone for as long as she can remember, and a Dad that works long hours and late nights, Sarah's had to learn to pull her weight around the place.]

If I need you though, can I reach you on here?

[unetrustworthy]

Good.

Sure. I go out sometimes, so I might not answer right away, but I always check my messages. You can call whenever you like.

[hisbabygirl]

Cool. Thanks!

[Damn it's good to have a friend.]

Say, do you live around here? I'm in the wood sector. At least I think that's what they called it.

[unetrustworthy]

Not exactly. But I'm only one sector over, so it's not too far away.

[hisbabygirl]

[Not to far is good enough for Sarah.]

Oh good. I mean, you're closer than you could of been, huh?

[Sarah grins.]

Can we try to meet up some time? There's some things I want to tell you.

[Things she's not wanting to say over the network or to someone she doesn't trust.]

[unetrustworthy]

We can do that, sure. Whenever you like.

[hisbabygirl]

Awesome. I-if you ever wanna come hang out here, just let me know.

[Strange to not have to ask permission to have a friend come over.]

[unetrustworthy]

[She smiles at the offer, and it's only because Sarah is around her age that she even considers taking her up on it. Most adults, she would have rather insisted they meet somewhere publicly. Even now, the thought of encountering a girl she barely knew in private quarters so soon was....unnerving. Old Habits.]

[But she saw no reason to dismiss the notion of it happening somewhere down the line.]

I will.

Until then, there are plenty of other places we could meet up. There are parks and cafes and all kinds of public markets.

[hisbabygirl]

Oh... Yeah!

[Right. Yes. Public places. Sarah hasn't really explored enough to know much about what else is here.]

That's a good idea. I like the sound of that.