Familiar faces.

[too_late4tom]

It's been a while since Tom has made his presence known to Schreber. He's been too busy watching the man and his strange family to actually bother talking to him. He's been trying to figure out who the weird guy with the bad skin is, or why none of them seem to leave the house for very far or long. The girlfriend, she actually drives to the city

Comments

[dr_schreber]

Schreber has actually come and gone some that Tom didn't see, pinpointing to the labs and back to tidy up and putter around and water the plants he keeps there. Sometimes he visits Harley to check in and sometimes Rat visits him but they're both busy with the garden in the city some. Most days Schreber stays home and drinks tea and works on paperwork for the city. He takes a walk once every morning and sometimes in the evening but he's always on the boardwalk and nodding to neighbors and never anywhere Tom might be able to get him alone

[dr_schreber]

"Only a handful, but as I said what's... outside the city isn't what you'd expect. And keep... in mind that I still live here. Things are... more complicated out there, and not necessar...ily better. The war you remem...ber really happened, out there..." He kind of wonders about Clio but cats are funny and maybe she just got distracted?

[too_late4tom]

"I'm not really expecting anything," Tom replies flatly. He sits back up and still looks calm, although his eyes are rather intense. "How did you get one of them, then? I don't think something that can teleport a person to anywhere they want just falls out of the sky."

So, there really was a war. "The war I remember... but did I really fight in it?"

[dr_schreber]

"I was... sent out, by other means. Hard to du...plicate means. The place I was sent to had the Pin...points. And I can't... answer that. I'm sorry. I really don't know." He looks uncomfortable. Somebody in the city did, several somebodies at least, for them to have those memories to pass around.

[too_late4tom]

By John, Tom thinks to himself, suddenly. This mystery man that can control the rising of the sun. He must have been able to send Schreber out of the city. For a moment, he feels sorry for the man in front of him who seems to serve as everyone's lackey.

Of course, this man has a nice little house and a pretty girl and a way out of the city. His sympathy evaporates like steam.

"But you have a PINpoint now. Who else does? Does your girlfriend have one?"

[dr_schreber]

Schreber looks a little bit wary and taken aback. Of course he would have talked to Sarah on the phone. "That's... not really something you need to be con...cerned with, and I'm willing to get... you one, but I want to prepare you for what's out... there first."
He kind of is everybody's lackey but that's because he puts himself in that position. He's comfortable there, it's less responsibility.

[too_late4tom]

With a response like that, Tom might have assumed that Sarah didn't know about PINpoints. But Ume specifically told him that she knew the truth, so instead he assumes that she does have a PINpoint.

Still, talking about his girlfriend is clearly making Schreber nervous. He tones it down a little. "Okay. I think I'd like one. It'd be nice to get out of the city, to clear my head."

[dr_schreber]

Schreber smiles sadly and shakes his head a little. "It... seems like a relief, an escape at first but be...lieve me, the last thing it does is clear your... head. Life is more complicat...ed now that we have some con...tact with the outside. Even here in the city it is. There's... a kind of meeting place, with all kinds of people from... all places. It's confusing and challenging and dis...orienting, and makes more questions then it answers."

[too_late4tom]

"Don't you think maybe I should get to make that decision for myself?" Tom sounds a little annoyed. "I mean, maybe it's all of those things to you, but I'm already disoriented and confused." Her frowns to himself and picks at a thread on his shirt. Only then does he notices the lemonade, and actually picks it up and takes a sip.

[dr_schreber]

Orwell caws from the livingroom. Angry unfamiliar man. Not good.
Schreber just winces and takes a minute to say anything. "Me and... everyone I know. I just don't want you to ex...pect getting out of the city to solve... all your problems. What you carry in here," He taps his head, "Will follow you. I thought I wanted to es...cape once, more then anything else." He wants to say more but stops himself there. "But it is good to see other... places. There's... a history to the city I haven't ex...plained yet, though."

[too_late4tom]

If Orwell knew what Tom was really thinking, he'd probably do a lot more than caw. Tom slouches a little in his seat and sulks, but listens to Schreber anyway. Isn't what's in my head is what you put there? he wants to snap, but he keeps it to himself. He's pretty sure he knows why Schreber tried to escape.

"Okay, I'm listening," Tom finally replies.

[dr_schreber]

Orwell moves to where he can glower at him through the kitchen doorway. He doesn't exactly remember John's alternate attacking Schreber but the idea of it stays with him. Strange men are a threat but he's not supposed to attack visitors or Thorn.
Schreber takes a drink of his lemonade and a breath and closes his eyes. "The city is... independant, sort of a satellite. It's... there's nothing outside the walls you want to see. We were... all transported here from somewhere else, the place you remember or some...thing like it. Even with the PINpoints I haven't been... able to find where we came from." His hands go into his lap and play with loose threads and the pleat of his pants. "We were brought here as experimen...tal subjects."

((This is a bad moment but I am so sleepy...))

[too_late4tom]

Tom stares at Orwell. Not because he sees him as a threat, but because he can't remember the last time he saw a bird up close. It takes him a minute or two to pay attention to Schreber again. "A satellite? Like, in outer space?" It goes along with the aliens, after all. He pretends to be surprised, even though he's known this for ages. "Who kidnapped us to experiment on us? Are my memory problems, is that part of the experiment?"

((haha, go take a nap. Work is killing me, anyway.))

[dr_schreber]

Orwell is a dark shape on the back of a chair. Peeeer.
"Something... like that, yes." Kind of really exactly like that but it sounds so silly. "I called Them the Strangers, but there isn't much I can tell... you about Them really. Not where They came from or..." He rubs the scars beside his eye and takes another deeper breath. "They had ways of extract...ing memories, mixing them around..."

(( |)zzzz No don't be killed!))

[too_late4tom]

What the hell? Is he going to say 'Nevermore' next?

"What were they? Aliens?" They sound almost like demons, the way Schreber describes them. "So... our memories, they really belong to other people?" He shakes his head, looking pained. "What does that mean for my memories?"

[dr_schreber]

Ravens can be trained to talk! Orwell never was and if he got LOLed to talk he would probably talk about shinies.

"They... came from somewhere else, so technically..." It still sounds goofy. They weren't goofy at all of course but he's not sure he wants to explain Them in too much detail right now. "People here. It... means that what you remember is... inaccurate. There's still a chance some of those mem...ories are yours, but, ah... the odds are better that they're not. It's pieces of memory from oth...er people all mixed and matched to make up a life..."