001 // Video

[ingenue_bait]

[Erik has not figured out how to type yet, nor does he know what video even is. He can, however, switch on the device. It shows little; deep shadows--or are those black drapes?--surround an off-kilter image of a black coffin. Absurdly, there is an antique Louis-Philippe sofa in red next to the coffin. A voice issues from the right, unseen. It is

Comments

voice;

[ingenue_bait]

The piano... room.

Am I dead, or not, then? My home is, exactly, no one's business but my own. Less precisely... Paris.

voice;

[ingenue_bait]

Yes. [The answer comes quickly, though there is a pause, as if remembering something.] Though there is no reason I cannot find the instrument on my own.

Then why did you ask? Your answer makes no sense: I am dead, yet here I am, and in neither heaven, hell nor purgatory?

[ichoosefight]

[ Oh, a new inmate? ]

There's no mistake. If you're here, you're supposed to be here.

[ingenue_bait]

For what purpose, mademoiselle?

[ichoosefight]

You made some bad decisions in life, and now you have to make up for it.

[ingenue_bait]

Is that not between myself and my conscience?

I have been reborn. I do not require this... asylum.

[Video]

[empirical_data]

[Shiny pale gold man turns on his journal, and quite to the opposite his room is brightly lit, and decorated with carefully framed art that he's done (mostly to commemorate people that he's lost in some way or another, even if they're not direct portraits) as well as a few well-cared for instruments behind him neatly arranged against the wall on their stands. Everything is obsessively neat and tidy.]

If you are an inmate, then the intention is to eventually allow you another opportunity at life, though it will be after a period of time with a warden.

May I ask your name?

[Video]

[ingenue_bait]

[A shadow moves--Erik is enthralled by the images, but does not know how to view them without being viewed himself, so the room is dark, and all that is visible is fluctuations in shade.]

I have been convicted of nothing. I consent to no incarceration. I am beholden to no higher authority.

[Video]

[empirical_data]

[Data finds it peculiar. He has a level of low-light vision about half as powerful as Geordi's, and he finds himself wanting to use it though he can't through a transmitted image. It's an interesting urge, one that he's going to process in the back of his mind as he talks to this strange man.]

I do not know the grounds on which you have been brought here, sir. [He adds the sir, because he doesn't want him to become uneasy and her truly wishes to be calming and respectful.] I do know that the intention should not be ill. This is a rehabilitation vessel. Half of us are asked to come, as wardens, in exchange for a favor so that we might assist an inmate. The other half are brought as inmates immediately prior to death, in hopes their lives might be restored to them later.

[Video]

[ingenue_bait]

[His voice is soft, as if talking to himself. He is, in fact, most distracted by the golden man, the art and instruments visible. Not to mention the display of such technology.]

Erik was prepared to die. He has no further use for life.

Voice.

[thegooddrjones]

I'm quite certain that people have probably already explained things to you, but I'd like to offer to answer any questions you have. I'm Martha, a warden here and the head of the infirmary.

Voice.

[ingenue_bait]

They have put a woman in charge of the medical facilities? They have explained nothing of any sense. I am neither in heaven nor hell, neither alive nor dead, neither free nor a prisoner.

And yet, even my imagination is not equal to this.

Voice.

[thegooddrjones]

The Barge is a bit like limbo, a place for second chances. And that's true, you're neither free nor a prisoner. This isn't a prison ship, despite what some people would have you think. It's here to help inmates move towards redemption, and it travels in time and space.

I think I'm from a later time than you are.

Voice.

[ingenue_bait]

As I have explained to others, I am in no need of redemption. My second chance was granted, and I was content to die.

When, mademoiselle?