one; video

[ebony_bone]

[Dominique has already found her own possessions and changed out of the dress into her own well-worn jeans and t-shirt. There's a very slight frown between her brows as the mirror begins filming, and she's quiet for a time, unsure if this is really what the cats had told her or some sort of joke. Left with little other option, though, she starts

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video; o/

[thesamename]

[Jackie is actually not observing the vine when this message comes across. She's settled herself on the back deck of Caprica's home with a book she'd absconded with from the library. One of few that wasn't a technical manual or some dissertation written by 'Dr. Gaius Baltar'. All incredibly dry and scientific to a level far beyond her head, so it had been a relief to unearth something else, something that also wasn't poetry or lesbian pornography of any kind.

The vine, however, believes quite fervently that this is a message she should see and has come to deliver it. She startles as it winds itself up her leg, and she's distracted kicking at it irritably as it blossoms the mirror.]

Get off of me. I swear to God I will light you on fire just like that other bastard. If I don't want to listen to what those insipid little cows are mewling about for a few hours, I am completely entitled.

video;

[ebony_bone]

[She can't see much of anything in the mirror, the vine being kicked around like that, but she recognises that voice, of course she does.]

Jackie?

video;

[thesamename]

[...she stops her kicking. She also drops her book to the deck, reaching down to bring the vine and its little mirror up where she can see it. She cups the stupid little thing in her hands, suddenly gentle with it now that it has Dominique's face.]

Dom.

[If anyone is going to recognize the pathetic expression on Jackie's face in that moment, it's Dominique. Big brown eyes wide and helpless for a moment. She doesn't have her contacts here, could make them with the dirt but hasn't thought to yet. She is silent for a moment before she swallows roughly,]

Where the hell have you been?

[She makes it come out angry, irregardless of how frightened and small she feels inside.]

video;

[ebony_bone]

[It's surprising, really, the expression on Jackie's face and her words. There is a vulnerability there that Dominique is not used to seeing so openly, so quickly.]

The last I remember, I was at home, with you.

[Ready for sleep in the bed Jackie had bought her, the apartment Jackie had bought her. Jackie beside her, unlikely to stay the entire night, insomnia usually had her roaming, but she stayed until Dominique was asleep, most of the time.

But Dominique hadn't woken in that bed. She'd woken up here, in the grass, with no idea how she'd got here or how any of it had been done without her being aware of it.]

voice;

[willbereborn]

I'm sorry, but you can't go back, no, not until the Queen says so because she is mean and has trapped us all here. [ She makes a whiny noise. ] I'm sorry, really sorry.

voice;

[ebony_bone]

If it's not your doing, then there's no need to apologise. Where is 'here'?

voice;

[willbereborn]

It's not, no, I wouldn't trap myself. [ She giggles a little at the prospect of doing magic wrong. ] Ah, the Gardens, I think, yes, that's what she called them.

voice;

[ebony_bone]

The Gardens? Nothing more than that?

[video]

[aunomdedieu]

[ Caprica is out of the house, else she might have caught Jackie with the Vine. She's down in the orchards because her fruit supplies are running low, and she has just plucked a shiny red apple from one of the eternally fruitful trees when the mirror unfolds nearby.

She blinks, then puts the apple in the bag she'd been using to collect them. When she smiles it's slight, almost apologetic despite how many times she's heard this before by now. ]

The Queen doesn't usually respond to being contacted like this. And I don't think anyone's found a way to leave.

[video]

[ebony_bone]

[Dominique tilts her head ever so slightly in response to that smile, can see the apology in it. But still, she has questions she needs answered, more so now she's been told what she has, and she won't shy from asking them.]

But she does respond? How? If she is keeping us here then there must be a purpose, and she must communicate that purpose.

[video]

[aunomdedieu]

Sometimes she'll communicate herself over the Vine. But she doesn't seem to like being directly questioned.

[ Caprica presses her lips together, then shakes her head slightly. ]

She hasn't told us why she wants us here. Or why it's only females she brings here.

[video]

[ebony_bone]

[She's quiet for a long moment. That all sounds completely bizarre. A ruler who goes to the effort of collecting people up randomly, but then gives them no direction, even when questioned. Limiting those people to one sex is just the cherry on top.]

I've never heard of anything like this.

[hotshot_momma]

I think that by default, the Vine transmits to everyone in the garden, including the Queen and her... I'm going to go with 'advisors' at the moment.

We're looking for escape routes, and defending the people here until then. My name is Anna Lin. Welcome to the Gardens, for what it's worth.

[ebony_bone]

More have been brought here unwillingly, then. How many? What are you defending them against?

[A tiny tilt of her head, questions and their answers are more important, but she can spare the thought to introduce herself.]

I am Dominique.

[hotshot_momma]

We haven't run a census, but I imagine dozens, possibly more than a hundred, possibly slightly fewer.

Hostile native life, some of it intelligent, mostly.

[ebony_bone]

That is a large group to collect together.

The native life? The first scroll promised protection. That does not make sense.