1. [ video ]

[dontdrinkthe]

[Alone out on the docks, a young teenage boy has been turning a bright pink orb in his hands distractedly, wondering just how to make it work. The voices he has heard from within its sphere have not been surprising to him, he is always surrounded by voices, and he pays little mind to them. Yet still, he assumes it to have some... purpose. He is

Comments

[ voice ]

[underachieves]

I can hear you.

[dontdrinkthe]

[His eyes widen slightly, too many years of smothering down his emotions to react much more than that.]

I've... never spoken to anyone, with a voice of my own.

[underachieves]

I guess that's one perk of being here.

[Shikamaru doesn't sound very surprised by any of this. Not the muteness or the apparent telepathy via NV. But he can respect that it must be a shock for the kid.]

You okay? Need help or anything?

[dontdrinkthe]

I'm sure there are... others.

[He is not precisely an optimist, but he recognizes no situation is the same for everyone, he has seen it first hand, from both and below the crowd.]

You do not like it here?

[Way to ignore that offer for help, Artie, that's very polite.]

[ibreakrules]

[He can see that hope, and see it rather clearly.]

Hello. You okay, kid?

[dontdrinkthe]

[He isn't a child, but he doesn't react to being called as such.]

Yes. I'm fine. The sun is warm, for the season.

[ibreakrules]

[That wasn't the response he'd been expecting.]

I wouldn't exactly say it's all that warm, but it's not bad.

[dontdrinkthe]

[He isn't one for idle complaints.]

It is an interesting place... I have not seen this world in--

[He's about to say intact but he reconsiders. He doesn't want to explain his Earth's end, nor his part in it.]

This part of the world, I mean.

[He looks away quietly.]

Video

[madeinoblivion]

Hey. I'm here. You must be new. Did the greeters sort you out?

[dontdrinkthe]

They did. Thank you.

[Not that they had truly needed to, a little telepathic boy could find any information he needed.]

You must not be new.

[madeinoblivion]

Nope! I've been here a year and a half!

[dontdrinkthe]

[Artemis pauses for a moment. A year had once seemed like an eternity to him, he had been a child. Now... it's a pebble drop in the endless. But he can't assume anyone is like him, ever, he's always been different.]

Has it felt like a long time, to you?

[video]

[flowerofthesand]

[Have a blue haired girl peering back at you.]

Hello! Were you the one that spoke?

[dontdrinkthe]

[He thinks the blue hair is interesting, although he thinks it is more polite not to say so. No, he's not socially backwards at all.]

In a sense, yes.

ohgodsolate! I'm so sorry!

[flowerofthesand]

[Well...that was confusing.]

In a sense? What do you mean?

de nada!

[dontdrinkthe]

I'm mute, I suppose it's the... NV that does the speaking.

text.

[zealouspeter]

Hello? [another telepathically connected NV? well, Shiroe was interested.]

text.

[dontdrinkthe]

[Since he is learning how to use this thing, Artie tests out the text function to reply,]

You heard me after all.

text.

[zealouspeter]

Loud and clear. Even though you weren't talking.

Have you ever seen something like what you're using right now?

text.

[dontdrinkthe]

[He hesitates to have it pointed out so bluntly that his lips had not moved. It gives him a certain sense of self-consciousness.]

Never so intuitive. Always with buttons, maybe cords.