Video

[viral_vector]

[The image sputters to life on Alex's device, the ambient light reflected in his cold blue eyes, under his hood. It's obvious he's using a naturally dark area to keep his location a secret.]Hello? Is anyone getting this message? I need to talk to someone. Anyone. My name is...Not important, right now. I just arrived here and I still have some

Comments

[REACTION] 1/IDK but sorry about your inbox ahead of time.

[deceptive_lulz]

[...that voice. She'd recognize it anywhere -- hell, she could copy it perfectly even if it depressed her to hear it coming out of her own mouth.]

[REACTION]

[deceptive_lulz]

[She was so caught off guard by the familiar voice on the NV that she didn't even catch the entire message. Although she couldn't help but feel that something was...strange about this transmission. Out of all of the times she talked to Alex, not once did he show his face on screen; she always had to see him in person.]

[REACTION]

[deceptive_lulz]

[But fuck, that didn't matter to her. After months of grieving over what was her best friend she ever had (to the point where she didn't even know how to define their relationship anymore), anything was a welcome relief after she spent all of this time torturing herself over his disappearance.]

[voice] OKAY DONE.

[deceptive_lulz]

Alex...?!

[Yes, this is all she can muster up to say. She's staying on voice, for now, out of habit.]

video;

[beejecting]

[Poor guy, Rion knows what it's like to want to get back to someone important.]

Sorry to tell you, but you can't get back to wherever you came from.

Re: video;

[viral_vector]

What prevents it, then?

video forever;

[beejecting]

From what I know, if you try to leave the island, you die. Something to do with the Core and stuff that brought us here.

Re: video forever;

[viral_vector]

Has it been studied?

[frosty_mind]

The power that brought you here took you to an entirely different universe in a separate time and place. If it sends you back, it will send you to the time and place it took you, and no time will have passed.

So if you could go to Manhattan, it wouldn't be the same Manhattan, it probably wouldn't be under quarantine, and whoever you're looking for wouldn't be there -- though there might be someone who looked like that person.

However, you can't go to Manhattan, because if you get too far away from the power that brought you here, you will pass out and die.

I'm afraid you're stuck here with the rest of us. You can hope that the Core sends you back, and if it does, nothing will have changed at home while you were gone.

[viral_vector]

...I see. Suppose that all of this ridiculous is actually true, then why hasn't someone done something about it?

Video

[frosty_mind]

First and foremost, the two most powerful organizations on the island have a fundamental disagreement about what should be done about it.

Second, as you might guess, something that can pull people from across universes is very powerful and very dangerous.

Third, when people last seriously tried - nearly a century ago - the reaction killed most of the people then on the island, and created monsters that come out after dark. When you hear sirens you'll want to go inside and stay there until dawn. I can't see where you are, but people who get kidnapped here by the Core are given a month's free rent at the big apartment building near the baseball diamond they arrive at.

Yes, I know how implausible this sounds. I hope you're willing to stipulate the possibility I'm telling the truth at least for a night.

Re: Video

[viral_vector]

I've been at the center of some very fucked up goings-on, but this certainly goes way beyond even that. Until I see evidence to the contrary, I'm willing to at least partially humor this. I believe I met some of these people you spoke off. Scientists and soldiers greeted me rather quickly, which I had to evade.

This place is an island off the coast of Canada, correct? That alone is cause for alarm. I'm fairly certain no such island used to exist, there. This kind of place would have made national headlines.