taxonomites | oo1 [holo : now I don't have to worry about feeling embarrassed? : arrival]

oo1 [holo : now I don't have to worry about feeling embarrassed? : arrival]

Pam was on an adrenaline high as she practically leapt across the last few inches of the coal walk and it continued once she hit sand, propelling her forward towards her coworkers. She bounded over, coming to a quick stop when she reached the bonfire. Before she knew it, words were pouring from her lips, uncensored and loud.

"Hey! I wanna say something!" She paused to take a deep breath before continuing, "I've been trying to be more honest lately and I just need to say some things. I did the coal walk! Just.. I did it! Michael, you couldn't even do that. Maybe I should be your boss."

She glanced at him long enough to see the uncomfortable look on his face, but pushed on anyway.

"Wow," she exhaled, "I feel really good right now. Why didn't any of you come to my art show?" She couldn't help but look around at them all accusingly. They needed to know this. "I invited all of you. It really sucked. It's like sometimes, some of you, act like I don't even exist."

At this point, she turned to Jim, addressing him face to face.

"Jim, I called off my wedding because of you. And now we're not even friends. And things are just weird like... between us and that sucks. And I miss you. You were my best friend before you went to Stamford. I really miss you. I shouldn't have been with Roy. And there were a lot of reasons to call off my wedding. But, the truth is, I didn't care about any of those reasons until I met you. And now you're with somebody else. And that's fine. It's... whatever. That's not what I'm.." She let out a deep breath, wondering how she was able to just keep talking.

"Okay," she laughed. "My feet really hurt. The thing that... I'm just trying to say to you Jim- and to everyone else in the circle, I guess, is that I miss having fun with you. Just you. Not everyone in the circle."

"Okay. I am going to go... walk in the water now," she announced, gesturing to the solid blackness a few feet away from their group. "Yeah. Good day."

One minute she was fighting the pull of the gentle lake tide on her ankles and the next she was chilled enough that the hair on her arms was standing on end. And everything was shiny and bright instead of dark and wet.

"Uh..." It was a little disconcerting to go from lake to a circular closet-type thing made out of some weird metal. She stuck her head out and, seeing no one around, took the steps leading down at a cautious pace.

"Hello?" She couldn't stop herself despite seeing there was no one in the immediate area. Her voice simply quietly echoed back to her. To her left was a intricately little pedestal with what seemed to be a cell phone situated on top of it. After another quick glance around, she reached for it. And stopped. A glint of moving metal caught her eye and she gasped when she realized it was on her own wrist. After a few attempts to remove it, along with a moment or two of prodding at it, she started to panic. This thing was NOT coming off and she wasn't even sure how it'd gotten there in the first place.

Maybe she could call someone? She grabbed the cell phone and flipped it open. Not even bothering to check out the device in depth, she immediately started to punch in Jim's cell phone number. Once she pressed send, though, it just beeped at her.

"I don't... This is so absurd.."

She placed the tablet back on it's pedestal, blinking back tears of confusion.

"Is there even anyone here?"

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Sarah tended to avoid the holos of people arriving. Not that she hadn't arrived recently herself, it just wasn't her style to go out of her way to talk to unknown people. There was something about this woman, however, that made her pick her tablet up with a sigh. "Absurd is one word for it. Welcome to Taxon."

Pam glanced around herself again, confusion settling even deeper, when she realized the little cell phone type thing was talking.

"Taxon?" she repeated, walking back towards the little pedestal and picking up the phone. Then she noticed a video of a person on the screen of the device. "Hi?"

"Hi." Why had she decided to do this? Because she wasn't an awful person, she reminded herself, and being dumped here meant that someone would need to explain it to her. Karma, or turnaround being fair play. Something like this. "Taxon. It won't make a lot of sense, believe me."

Oh.. This wasn't a video. It was like a webcam. This was so bizarre.

"This is bizarre. I- How did you know I was here? Where is here? I've never heard of Taxon."

She didn't recognize this woman. Maybe she brought her here. Where was everyone else?

"Have I been abducted?"

There needed to be a script for this. Handed out to everyone who lived here. Or maybe a pamphlet Now that you've found yourself stranded in Taxon... She smiled, her eyes tired even as she looked at her tablet.

"It's not anywhere you know, and I think the only answer to being abducted is yes. We all have been, but not by anyone we can find, or for any good reason. It just is."

"Yeah. It certainly doesn't look like anywhere I know.." She said it mostly to herself, shaking her head. She'd only been half-joking when she'd asked if she'd been abducted.

"It just is? How can anything just be...?" The question didn't even make sense to herself, but it came out anyway.

"Because there aren't any answers," she snapped, her frustration showing through. Sarah hated not having answers. "At least no one I've met seems to have them. We're just dumped here and not given a way back."

Pam flinched at the woman's harsh tone, feeling the tears creep back into her eyes.

"I see." Except that she didn't. Nothing was making sense and she didn't know where she was. Worst of all, she was alone, minus the woman speaking to her through the cell phone-like device, and she was scared.

Sarah knew she'd been too harsh immediately. It only took a moment for her features to relax, her look replaced by something apologetic and at least somewhat sympathetic. "Look, it's not easy, I know that. It's a shock to all of us."

She sniffled, afraid that her nose would start to run and, god, wouldn't that just be awesome?

"Where do I go? What do I do? No one's figured out how to get out of here?"

Why did most women start to cry at things like this? Sarah would never understand. "If you play with the screen, you should get a map. You can get out of the building you're in at least. There's a city out there."

Pam took a deep breath in an effort to calm herself and touched the screen. Oh.. It was like one of those cell phones with the touch screen. The woman disappeared and she found an icon labeled "MAP".

"Oh." This is what happened when Pam panicked. She got overwhelmed and couldn't focus on the details. Pressing the icon with her index finger, a hologram of a map sprung up with not only place names on it, but what appeared to be moving dots with names hovering over them.

"Whoa.." This was getting weirder and weirder. She took a minute or two to figure out how to get out of the building, then pressed the screen again. She hoped she hadn't lost the woman who'd helped her. She had no idea how to work this thing and there was no instruction manual in sight.

Sarah's image came back as soon as the map faded. "If you're lucky you'll find a place here for you." She hadn't been so lucky, the thing that had been awaiting her a box she'd rather have forgotten about. "IF not there are places to stay. Apartments, people have houses. Pretty much whatever you need will be here."

Except a way home.

Oh, there she was.

"A place?" She raised an eyebrow. Oh.. Like a place to live. Because there was no way out of wherever this place was. Because apparently she had to permanently set up house here. It was slowly starting to sink in and she wasn't sure she liked it.

"Oh. Right, right.."

"It's a lot to take in at once," she said it kindly, trying to think of this woman as she would an asset she needed to care for. It made her much more patient. "I didn't introduce myself. I'm Sarah."

Pam let out a short laugh. It was just one 'ha'.

"That's putting lightly, I think." She actually smiled, still panicking on the inside but not to the point where she wanted to cry again. At least not yet. "I'm Pam."

"If you need anything, you can talk into the tablets. Or there are hatches in the walls that will give you clothes, food, anything." She was trying to keep things on track, keep them focused. "I'd say good to meet you, but it's not the greatest circumstances."

This was like some weird version of the future. Like in the movies.

"Really? Is this the future?" Sometimes she couldn't stop her thoughts from becoming actual words. Deciding she was tired of just standing there, she made her way out of the building and found herself on a street sidewalk. Just from her quick glance at the map earlier, she knew that this was a complicated place with tons of side streets.

"Maybe a future," she'd considered all the options time and time again. "But I don't think it's mine."

It was a lot to take in. Like.. a real lot. There were people everywhere, it seemed, and no one really seemed to give her more than a passing glance.

"I don't think it's mine, either." Regardless, it looked like a nice place.

Sarah knew she was better at dealing with change than most. She had to be as a spay. "There are people here from the future, and other worlds. At least as far as I've seen."

"Other worlds?" This was more like an episode of the Twilight Zone, now, except she wasn't black and white. At least, she didn't feel black and white and the world around her was in color. Her thoughts were starting to get pretty weird now and the fact that she was realizing it was even worse.

"This is so bizarre," she said again.

"Well that depends," she said wryly, "are there vampires in your world?"

"Uh... Vampires?" Her eyes widened. "Are you saying there are vampires here?"

She glanced around quickly, suddenly suspicious of everyone. As if she was perfectly okay with them before.

"As far as I've been told, yes." She hadn't seen the evidence herself. "This place can be strange. But there's enough time for that later."

"I guess with there being no way out of here, there's plenty of time for everything," she commented dryly. She started to take slow, unsure steps down the street, deciding to go left instead of right.

"It's not so bad, for a place you can't get out of," she tried to sound cheerful. She hated the place especially after Halloween.

Again, Pam laughed, reaching a corner and pausing to look around again. "So there's just.. no way out?" It was just so hard to believe. "Everyone here is just captive for no apparent reason? How is this not illegal?"

Sure, this didn't seem like.. 'Earth', so to speak, but.. there had to be laws, right? Laws against holding people captive, at least. She sighed heavily. She knew that Sarah wouldn't have answers for her. Whether it was because she simply didn't know them or because she didn't want to tell her, she still wasn't sure..

"Whatever laws the people who have us trapped here follow? They aren't the ones you're used to," her eyebrow rose as she spoke, "but if you find them you're welcome to try and take them to court. Good luck with that."

Pam could feel herself blushing with embarrassment.

"Yeah. Thanks.." So stupid.

"I guess I'll..." She trailed off, unsure of what to say next.

"It's Sarah Walker," she shouldn't be mean to the woman. "You can find me in the directory once you settle in."

"Oh." Pam smiled nervously. "Pam Beesly. Guess I'll be in the directory, too, then huh?"

She waited another moment, then added, "Thanks, Sarah."

"You're welcome." Her smile was genuine. She meant it, for once, turning her tablet off. Good deed done for the... week maybe?

Before she had time to thank her, the screen of the device in her hand went back to what she assumed was the default, leaving her alone. All she had left to do now, it seemed, was wander around until she found a place to stay..

[Have concerned voice, Pam.]

Are you okay?

[Startled by the voice, Pam spun around, trying to find it's source.]

Hello? Is someone there?

[Ah, the woes of voice communication. But it's better without "YOU'RE GREEN" remarks.]

Your tablet.

[Tablet? Is that what the cell phone was called? She picked it up and spoke again]

Who is this and how did I get here?

[She felt so silly, but she was still so confused and afraid that she didn't really care.]

My name is Gaila.

We've been kidnapped and brought to live in Taxon. [Pause.] Which is this city.

Kidnapped??

[Her panic was growing and it was becoming evident in her voice.]

I was just somewhere else and now I'm here. I don't remember being kidnapped. [She laughed uneasily.]

[Soothing voice. Soothing voice. Listen to her soothing voice, Pam.]

I don't think anyone does... [This is where Gaila is shaking her head.] Look, it'll be okay. It's actually really nice here! You can get practically anything you want, and the other kidnappees are nice people. [Mostly.]

[Pam took a deep breath, making a concerted effort to calm herself down]

Why was I kidnapped? What did I do? I'm just a receptionist. [At a failing mid-size paper company.]

...no one knows. I'm sorry.

[That was it? That was all the answer she was going to get?]

Seriously?

[This was getting more and more bizarre as the minutes passed.]

Yeah... It's really weird, I know.

What am I supposed to do now?

You can go out into the city. Has someone else showed you the map?

There's a map? I don't... I don't even know- [Sigh.]

How do I find the map?

[Baby steps, perhaps. Figure out where she was, then decide what to do from there. If there was no way out of here... that meant she'd have to live here?]

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oo1 [holo : now I don't have to worry about feeling embarrassed? : arrival]

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