ONE. ↯ voice

[pulsecrush]

[One moment she's going up red-tinted corridors that move and switch places like a sliding puzzle, and the next, after she's touched an item sphere, she's standing at the center of a station platform nothing like Orphan's Cradle

Comments

[ Text ]

[memoriesclouded]

People are supposed to be here to save their world.

[ Voice ]

[pulsecrush]

[Because she really doesn't have the patience to type.]

Yeah, I got that, but my world is going to end sooner before this unknown illness does if I don't get back this instant.

Who are you? Tell me what you know if it's got anything to do with whoever manages this place--or the beacons.

[ Voice ]

[memoriesclouded]

[ Switched. ]

You're not alone in that. Though my world was...rebuilding. Useless, now.

Someone who touched a beacon. [ A shrug. ] Anyone pass this to you?

[ Switch back to text ] 1_INFOFILE.VPF

[ Voice ]

[pulsecrush]

[the word "useless" makes her grunt as if she were biting back some pain. back to square one? she can't handle this so easily, just when she was almost at the end...!

but she swallows it down and opens the file, studying it a while, especially the map.]

Right. Thanks. [grudgingly, but no reason to be impolite.] I'll take it from here.

[she guesses. should she find a room even though she doesn't plan on staying? ...too early to think of that. but where should she start going to first...]

[ Voice ]

[memoriesclouded]

You're welcome. Least I can do; I've only been here just a little longer than you.

[ Voice ]

[pulsecrush]

And what've you done so far since arriving? Seen what's out the dome?

[ Voice ]

[memoriesclouded]

Wandering, finding supplies...counting my days when I remember to even though I don't have any intention of dying.

...not a whole lot.

[ Voice ]

[pulsecrush]

Well, at least it's something. What have you found and where?

[ Voice ]

[memoriesclouded]

Here? Generally nothing.

[ Voice ]

[pulsecrush]

[YOU ARE SO HELPFUL!! but at least that saves her from chancing Sphere's interior for some things. she doubted, but hey, better to hear it from someone who actually tried.]

This place anything like where you're from?

[ Voice ]

[memoriesclouded]

[ HE TRIES HIS BEST.

not. ]

Maybe a little? Only mine was...rebuilding. I didn't see how it would have become wasted like this....

not...when I just got through saving it...

[ Voice ]

[pulsecrush]

Did you hear about this virus back home before you got here?

[ Voice ]

[memoriesclouded]

Before I touched a beacon and got sent here?

No.

There was something else like the virus, but it attacks people differently.

[ Voice ]

[pulsecrush]

Terminal like this one?

[she could speculate, say this world's virus is what would aggravate his world's sickness, but she can't say for sure. best not to touch things that aren't hers at all. the task at hand, however...]

Nevermind. Whether it's similar or not, we'll have to stop this one first. Then when we can finally return home, protect it from whatever else it's going to face.

[ Voice ]

[memoriesclouded]

Kinda.

...Yeah. I just wish it weren't such a passive protecting. Back home, the thing...I've tried looking for about a year...and I'm not any closer.

I don't think this place would be any different.

[ Voice ]

[pulsecrush]

Thinking like that, it won't be any different.