[visual: location | dan's house] it's so weird to be back here

[niteowlet]

Hello Taxon! You are greeted with the visual of a face peering closely into the visual feed. A tiny Dan Dreiberg is sitting cross legged on his adult counterpart's couch with his face inches away from the tablet, with nose, eyes and glasses filling the screen. He knows exactly what the device is and how to use it, but everything else is a fog. He

Comments

[visual]

[rereremembered]

...the number of children who had been showing up in the city of late was worrying, and going with the assumption that they were just glitch adults was little comfort. The condition (probably) being temporary didn't make Taxon any less dangerous.

Fitz jotted down the boy's name - he'd started trying to track comings and going - before replying.

"Hello Daniel," he began and tried a friendly smile. "My name's Fitz, and no, I haven't seen your parents, sorry." Right, it was a long shot but: "Do you know where you are? The city, I mean."

[visual]

[niteowlet]

"Er, you can call me Dan," he says with a shrug. The public address was more of a formality. Dan's been taught his manners, but it comes and goes - mostly to having something else on his mind rather than making a conscious effort at being rude.

"...no," he says slowly in answer to if he knows the city. Don't panic, Dan, you can figure this out. "I mean, I kinda remember it. I feel like I should, but I don't really."

[visual]

[rereremembered]

"Then I'll call you Dan, then." That was perfectly fine, just like he hadn't been Fitzgerald since...well, ever, aside from on identification.

That answer made Fitz wince and shake his head. Most definitely glitched, the poor bastard. "Okay, I'll tell you where you are and we'll see if that jogs your memory, all right? It's a place called Taxon."

[visual]

[niteowlet]

The name Taxon draws a big blank. It's nowhere he's been before, or even remembers reading about.

Dan is sure Fitz can read his very obvious facial expression. "I don't think I've ever heard of Taxon."

[visual]

[imperial_long]

Oh dear. This is apparently turning into quite the trend-- the third such in as many weeks, it seems, although Long's usually excellent sense of time is somewhat dodgy in Taxon.

Daniel Dreiberg... he doesn't believe he's met the adult version of this, whosoever it might be. He merely nods at the boy over the tablet.

"Hello," he says solemnly. "I'm afraid your parents are not likely to be here. May I ask what the last thing you remember is?"

[visual]

[niteowlet]

Not seeing his parents was one thing. Hearing that they were likely not around at all was something else entirely.

That coupled with the man's solemn voice makes Dan hesitate before replying. "Why? What do you know?"

[visual]

[imperial_long]

"Oh, I know many things, but probably not in the conspiratorial sense in which you mean," Long says with a little chuckle.

"Forgive me. The short version is that you are not in... whatever city, or town, or section of the country you should by rights be in. None of us are. The good news is that this is almost certain to be temporary."

This isn't quite a lie-- Long certainly thinks that 'Daniel's state as a youngster will be temporary-- but if Daniel takes it to mean that he will go back home to his parents and world, it's an interpretation Long will not disabuse him of.

[visual]

[niteowlet]

"How do you know that it's only temporary? Have people gone home before? How do they do it?" Dan knows this is an onslaught of questions, but he's not sure when he'll have another opportunity to find out about returning home.

[visual]

[child_of_none]

Here Dan, have a small boy staring at you. The name sounds familiar but he isn't sure why, so he's just going to watch for now. Evidently the voyeuristic tendencies are a Walter thing rather than a Rorschach one.

"...I don't think they're here," he hazards after a few moments, although he doesn't look particularly bothered by the fact.

[visual]

[niteowlet]

Another person who doesn't think Dan's parents are around, but this boy is much closer to his age than the previous adults. His better sense tells him that the staring should bother him, but it doesn't at all. It's like an instinct his body has grown accustomed to and Dan regards the tablet with more thought than previously.

"I'm starting to think so too. How long have you been here?" The question might be prying, but even as a child, Dan is not one to let a mystery slip past him.

[visual]

[child_of_none]

There's a prolonged pause before Walter replies, almost as if he didn't realize he was actually being asked a question. The slowness to respond is a tendency that commonly gets misinterpreted, dismissed as some kind of mental defect, but really it's just his system, born from a need to sort through all the information he has to try to find the 'right' response. It's a good question, one he's been wondering himself, and while he doesn't really like the prying at least he isn't the only one having this problem.

"Not long, a few hours maybe. You?"

[visual]

[niteowlet]

"I woke up here so I guess I got here sometime during the night." It's a little disconcerting to think about, that there is no possible way Dan can know exactly when during the night he was removed from everything that was once familiar.

"Did you talk to whoever's in charge? Did you see them?"

[visual]

[tinynarcissist]

It looks like Adrian's not the only kid somehow taken away from his parents. He watches the boy for a moment, contemplating whether offering to help or keeping quiet is the better option. A sense of duty to someone in a situation similar to his own finally wins out.

"Where do they live?"

[visual]

[niteowlet]

"New York," Dan says, avoiding anything more specific. From this boy's accent it didn't seem like more information would mean much to him.

"Are you on your own too?"

[visual]

[tinynarcissist]

"I'm from New York too." Maybe they can get back there together. Two working together would logically make things easier than each trying to do the same thing alone.

"Yes, but I don't know why. Do you?"

[visual]

[niteowlet]

"Nope. It's not that I got lost, I just kind of woke up here."

It's more than he's told the adults who replied to him.