(Untitled)

[fear_no_words]

The things you never realize that you miss hurt the most. Because when you realize just what you've been living without, you feel the pain of it and all that time spent away crashing down on your heart at once

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[nostoppinglife]

It was an unexpected sight to say the least, even here, someone watching her own life unfold on the screen. Moira hadn't meant to pry, but it had caught her attention as she searched the bookshelf, and the strangeness of it hadn't escaped her notice. Then, too, there was the fact that it was something recognizable, though she had, regardless of her own life, never been very much of a science-fiction fan. She hadn't meant to say anything either, but she was struck by the woman's expression. "Homesick?" she asked gently.

[fear_no_words]

So enthralled by what was happening on screen -- questionable prop work and camera angles aside -- Uhura had failed to notice anything else around her. But when the woman's voice did break through, she quickly brushed the tears from her eyes. "Oh, just a little," she said, then laughed gently and offered a genuine smile. "Well, a lot really, but there's nothing to be done about it, is there?"

[nostoppinglife]

"Nothin' at all," Moira said, nodding, "but rememberin' it fondly's somethin'. I'd say, ye make a new one, but that'd be hypocrisy." She'd settled in here as best as anyone could ever expect her to, but that hardly meant she was pleased with her lot. She had done worse in her time, but that never stopped a body from wanting better. "Sorry t' intrude like that."

[fear_no_words]

An eyebrow lifted -- hypocrisy, hm? -- but she shook her head and waved a hand dismissively. "You're not intruding. I'm... well, in public and not exactly trying to be secretive." Perhaps she should have. More privacy and less to admit to that way. But just the thought of smuggling away rolls of film and a projector to some abandoned room hidden downstairs made her feel dirty, unnecessarily so. "Or maybe I needed an intrusion. It's a lot to watch."

[nostoppinglife]

"I'd imagine so, aye," Moira said. She might not have been the most pop culture savvy person around, but she was more than aware of the vast quantity of supposedly-fictional people around and the odds that their lives, all of them, were on some reel or page somewhere. There were too many universes, too many possibilities, for that to be beyond a bit of a stretch of imagination, but that didn't make it easy. "I've a hard enae time lookin' at m'self in photographs at times, let alone watchin' my own life or readin' about it."

[fear_no_words]

Uhura rarely felt the need to justify herself, but explaining herself was another matter. It did seem, considering how other people reacted to watching this sort of thing, odd that she didn't have so much of a problem with it. "...It's been nearly a year," she started, almost tentative. "That I've been here and no sign of home. I guess.. I just wanted to see some familiar faces, even if they do come in strange packaging. I don't really mind seeing myself. I always like some positive attention."

[nostoppinglife]

Moira smiled, nodding as she walked closer to rest her hands on the head of the couch. "That's a good way t' look at it," she said. "Better'n frettin' about what it is it means or if'n ye're real or nae, as it seems t' me most do. An' I s'pose any glimpse o' home has t' be a welcome one here." She was surrounded by them, but so many of them came in strange packaging, too.

[fear_no_words]

"Oh I know I'm real," she said with a low, slow chuckle. "Some show effects aren't going to change that. It's just dimensions. Practically semantics." And that was understanding it a great deal, but sometimes that was the only way to get through these things. "And it's better than some of that stuff I've heard, about falling asleep and waking up back home only .. to wake up back here again. Such a tease, this island."

[nostoppinglife]

"That it is," Moira said, laughing a bit. It was, perhaps, the very kindest thing she could have thought to call the place, but no less true for it. "I heard about that. I cannae say I'm in any great hurry t' experience it. If I'm goin' t' be here, I'd rather just stay put until I can go back for good."

[fear_no_words]

Uhura nodded. "My thoughts exactly. Or to get into a situation where there's even just the smallest chance that what we do affects where we end up. It's the helplessness of the situation that gets me." She grinned, a little sheepish, and shook her head. "And dwelling on that doesn't help either, sorry."

[nostoppinglife]

"Oh, dinnae apologize," Moira said, waving a hand dismissively. "It doesnae help, no, but we're all bound t' dwell a bit now an' again. Lord knows I wish there was more I could do m'self." She might have spent most of her time at home in a lab, but even that hadn't been this inactive.

[fear_no_words]

"A woman after my own heart," she decided, and sounded pleased with that decision. She offered a hand to her with a smile. "I'm Uhura, by the way. In case no one up there's named me yet," she said with a laugh and a nod to the screen.

[nostoppinglife]

"I wasnae payin' attention," she admitted, smiling broadly as she shook Uhura's hand. "Moira MacTaggert. 'tis a pleasure t' meet ye, Uhura. I'd say 'strange circumstances aside,' but then, I dinnae ken if there are any other kind 'round here."

[fear_no_words]

She laughed pleasantly and nodded. "Just being here is a strange circumstance. It's easy to forget though, with everything else that happens. Funny the things human beings can get used to, isn't it?"

[nostoppinglife]

"Funny, aye," Moira said, "and magnificent, in its way." She'd seen people adjust to far worse, far stranger than this, and it never ceased to amaze her. "I would ne'er have expected, turnin' up on an island like this, t' find such a coze little community, but people'll make a home wherever they can."

[fear_no_words]

"People find each other," Uhura agreed. "We're social creatures. We need love and companionship just as much as air, water, food sometimes." She grinned, slight and wry. "The human race is also like weeds. Give us half a chance and we'll take over and never leave."