I.1 - IX.6 [video]
[comes over the network delayed, all at once. Signature stamps read out the timeline.]
[ Day 1, broadcast 1, accidental video: ]
[The term was reserved for this arrival. Anatole has never been given one more literally scorched ( Read more... )
Comments 71
[After a few minutes, he can't keep his silence forever. Especially when he remembers how he felt when he first arrived.]
Does the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California mean anything to you?
[Curiously, since the man had begun naming several institutions of higher learning.]
[He's also curious about the rest of it, but he figures one question at a time until he can get a read as what the man's mental state is.]
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"The truth shall make you free." Six hours southeast from Berkeley on the I-5. Richard Feynman's theory on quantum electrodynamics. Obsessed with the Rose Bowl. Caltech. Means to me that this is indeed an open communication device, that it's working, that it has a voice-only setting despite also a video screen, that there's at least one other person possessing and using it or something compatible, that you can speak English with an American accent and have relevant familiarity to my disclosed aspects of reality.
Which, like all results, raises more questions.
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[And he does mean that.]
The device in which you are using to communicate is called the Forge. I'm not entirely sure of it's exact origins, but each one of us that's brought here by the door is given one as a method of communication.
My name is Dr. Spencer Reid. And while it doesn't mean much here, really, since the United States doesn't exist there, I'm an FBI agent attached the agency's Behavioral Analysis Unit.
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followed by violently fast rise from his seat.
Standing, looks down at forge, face falls almost entirely into shadow]
So you've been observing me.
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However, in Anatole, common reference doesn't necessarily entail common origin.
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Which is it-heard of or been?
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[or your work - which must be either delusion ... or interesting, if you're under the impression some government or organization is out to get you ...]
Also, there's a translator on this device (which is called a "Forge"), and with some exceptions, broadcasts are automatically translated into a sort of common language which is apparently/inexplicably perceived by hearers as their own- so you can't be certain the people to whom you're speaking are actually speaking your language. You won't find a single person here who can't understand you - or whom you can't understand - via this thing.
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[unseen sudden suppression of incredulous laughter]
A forge?
Do you know what a volcano is?
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just a few seconds, slow enough for unfamiliarity.
then a dark, smooth voice in a hushed tone.]
"Certain criteria." [low, throaty, scoffish laughter]
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The voice has stopped, but there's a light flashing.
Drags the blanket with him as he comes to sit down in front of it.
Step one: Confirm that the voice came from the forge, not somewhere else in the room, not outside of it, not… imagined.]
I said that earlier.
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erik's peering at the video feed with narrowed eyes, half-marveling at the strangely flattened image of the man, yet registering nothing but bland disinterest and animosity for the thought of the stranger, himself. feverish. shaking, chills. likely sick. likely delusional.
delusion within a delusion. a delusional hallucination.
california. the work of muybridge. experimental feats of technology which could have amounted to nothing such as the device he now holds, at which he now stares.
loose and useless associations. parallels and ironies and inconsistencies. masquerades. infinite redress. folly.
but how long can one converse with himself before the redundancy of the exchange becomes obvious? this is what he wonders.]
Yes, the words essayed from this little box, carefully as any felon's -- after that damned maddening noise you made bashing yourself against that door and screaming like a rabid baboon.
[clearer, now, that the voice is accented: french. ( ... )
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He pulls the blanket properly around his shoulders, though-what can one expect at a cheap public clinic-it's doing nothing to warm him. Squares his shoulders to peer into the forge screen. The other is staying on voice only. Switching to voice himself by now would be not only pointless but weakening.
He has no American accent saying,]
Ne pas voir les gens, cela permet de leur supposer toutes les perfections.
[, three kinds of pointedly.]
[ooc: for all he knows, over the forge, everyone already only hears their own language. Since River sometimes speaks in Chinese and Ezio in Italian, let's say that's not the case ;-) maybe when people speak unthinkingly in their default language ( ... )
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You require a physician.
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[catches himself. Sits with clasped hands and compressed lips a moment, then says more civilly,]
I have. Yes. I've been receiving care. [leans forward into the forge's camera to show his newly healed skin] I've learned that these forges sometimes have a time delay. You may have seen images of me from… earlier in the week.
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[ A little less tension in her shoulders now that it's been established he's being treated. She doesn't even blink at the fresh pink skin. ]
Then I suppose without an emergency, I will simply welcome you to Anatole.
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Will you… I've been shown files, but… in your own words, could you tell me what that means? "Anatole"? Being welcomed to it?
[will momentarily assume that those who contact him over the device (a) are "real", (b) are random (within the parameters of those owning these devices) and (c) are not part of an elaborate trick-only because there seems no reasonable or worthwhile unreasonable motivation for it. So when not knowing whom to believe, a random sampling, from random strangers, to look for consistencies, is a starting place.]
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Lets it sit for a while. Intends not to respond. Can't it already be enough to…? But at last picks up the forge and types. This is a clinic, after all. The person on the other end could be worse; people can get triggered. He doesn't need to be the looniest tune.]
OK now. No more fire. It's all right
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Look.
[The option is appealing not to engage. On the other hand, is genuinely interested in diverse perspectives on the current situation-and perhaps a look at external madness to gauge his own current similarity to it…]
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