003 - Video

[whattheytellyou]

[Sarah has had her hair cut, just like most everyone else. She doesn't comment about it, however. She picks up a battered old field journal, leans forward on her elbows and reads from her notes to the camera. Her tone is professional and emotionless.]Beginning on Satuday, date unknown, time unknown, I was obligated to avoid capture by invading

Comments

Private

[mrs_persson]

Mind if I cite your report in this week's roundup? Well put.

I can trust and have trusted the Sexbys with my life. The Doctor, Sveta, Martha, Cissie, Howie-they're all good people.

Private

[whattheytellyou]

Feel free.

I haven't met the Sexbys, Sveta, or Howie yet. Martha's good people, and Cissie - but, ah, which Doctor?

Private

[mrs_persson]

The blond. This ... latest debacle and general feeling about it notwithstanding, he's a good fellow. I'm only passingly acquainted with the others, oddly enough.

The Sexbys are the married couple from the seventeenth century. Good people, although he's a bit rough-only to be expected from an old soldier of his era, though. Sveta's one of the doctors-Russian, blonde, cheery. Howie's a Scots policeman. All solid.

Private

[whattheytellyou]

Thanks. It's good to know there are some stand-up people around here.

You know, I talked to her right before shit hit the fan. Persephone, I mean.

Re: Private

[mrs_persson]

And not a hint of whatever else she might have been up to, I'm sure.

I'd say I was surprised, couldn't believe it, or what have you, but I'm wary of trusting gods. Or angels, or demons, or Lords of Law or Chaos-anything that insufficiently human. I'm disappointed by it all, but ... less surprised than I'd like to be.

Private

[whattheytellyou]

No...I think in retrospect, I should have known something was up. Don't wardens normally leave as soon as their inmates graduate?

Private

[mrs_persson]

Some do. Others have stayed on, though-Uhura, for instance, another one I'd put in the "trustworthy" list. Her former inmate Paddy Maguire is running the kitchen. Let's see, who else-Martha, the scarf Doctor ... I'm sure there are more; those are just the ones that leap most readily to mind.

Private

[whattheytellyou]

[She sighs.]

Maybe I'm just looking for clues that aren't there.

Private

[mrs_persson]

It's only normal-trying to make sense of the things that go on here or find some order in it all. Some of it gets easier with experience, but things still find a way of surprising one every now and then. Which I suppose is true of life in general, not just the Barge.

Private

[whattheytellyou]

I suppose so.

The conversation just unsettled me, I guess. She knew things about me. Really weird things.

Private

[mrs_persson]

That is disturbing. I know we have more than a few information hoarders who troll the network to learn everything they can about people, but-you haven't really been here long enough for even the most assiduous snooper. And I didn't think she was one.

Private

[whattheytellyou]

She -

I get how she knew. Now. I get it. But at the time, it was just so odd.

[There's a long pause.]

I'm not religious. You know? It's hard to accept that there are these gods here, and they're not that parental Christian deity we learn about in Sunday School. They're wild. Unpredictable.

Private

[mrs_persson]

I know what you mean. Gods tend to reflect the societies and times that gave rise to them more than anything else, which is why I've rarely had much truck with religion myself. I do wonder that the likes of Persephone, Loki, and our unpronounceable Aztec lady are even here, since I didn't think you could rehabilitate a metaphor.

Private

[whattheytellyou]

Well, we're definitely being given the opportunity now with all three of them.

Armand thinks Loki is close. Or he thought so, before this happened.

Private

[mrs_persson]

Oh bugger, really? Now that you mention it-he had struck me as being a little less ... cavalier in his attitudes, of late.

This is either going to be a dreadful setback, or perhaps it will push him along. Too early to say yet.

Private

[whattheytellyou]

He was very optimistic when I talked to him last week. Now...

He's very disappointed. I guess he's blaming himself, like the Doc.