taxonomites | [Location: Taxon Streets, the Wilde/Central-ish Portion]/[Voice] Turn Left

Entry tags:

[Location: Taxon Streets, the Wilde/Central-ish Portion]/[Voice] Turn Left

Tara's had her first full day back at work. It was quiet, and calming, and she feels a little better for having something to do. She's been working on herbs, magical and mundane, principally for Morgana, who she genuinely hopes is healing herself. She hasn't looked up Morgana (or Cordelia or Rose) yet, giving them a bit of space and taking some for herself. Still, she's getting the shop back in order, expanding the inventory, and trying not to think about the fact she hasn't felt her magic since Sam had told her she could let go. It would come back - she just had to wait and trust it.

And if it didn't... she'd survive. Maybe a little broken, but she'd hang in there. There was a lot a person could learn to live with, if they have to.

She locks up and starts to head for home. She feels like walking; there's a small current of fear that doesn't leave her these days, but being around Extras is worse than walking by herself. It's a nice enough evening, a little cloudy and not too hot, and she could use the exercise, now that she feels stronger.

Of course, this is all lovely until the glitch hits.

Suddenly, Tara looks terrified. She doesn't know where she is, or how she got here, but she knows she is not where she is supposed to be. This is so very, very bad.

She fumbles through her pockets and finds a thing that looks sort of like a phone. She presses "talk," and says, "H-hello? Is a-anyone t-there?" Her stutter is thick, and her voice is quiet despite the panic; if she were less panicked, she would never dare to just talk on a strange phone, but when her family notices her gone, bad things will happen. And if anyone here finds out what she is -

- she needs to go home. Right away.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"O-okay. I c-can't tell you where I am, I d-don't know."

"It's fine," she soothed, "I'll find you on the map. Just don't go anywhere, ok?"

As she spoke, DG pulled up the map and began to make her way towards Tara. She had no particular plan in mind, but she was still rushing in. That seemed to happen a lot in Taxon.

When she arrives, Tara is on a street corner, shifting a little nervously from foot to foot. "Oh. H-hi. You f-found me." She's not sure what to say, really, though at least everyone is being (what she finds to be) overly kind and friendly.

"And I guess you still haven't remembered who I am?"

She didn't need to say anything else. That was all DG needed to know. (That and the knowledge that it was very important to tread carefully.)

"Hi," she said, holding out the hand that didn't have a rune on the palm, "I'm DG."

Tara hesitates, then shakes the other woman's hand. "T-tara. B-but you knew that, I g-guess." She's not scared of DG, though she is very timid, voice lower and quieter than the Tara DG knows.

The hesitation was noted, along with the subtle and incredibly crucial changes in Tara's tone. From what DG had seen, the majority of glitches made people louder and more dangerous. This wasn't making any sense.

"I do," she confirmed, "Which is why this is so weird. What's the last thing you remember?"

Edited 2010-06-08 11:11 (UTC)

"I was h-home, going to the s-store for my brother and my f-father. I took a turn, and then I was h-here instead." She's trying to stay calm, but she really is quite upset.

"It's ok," said DG, gently, reaching out - tentatively, as Tara looks as if she might bolt at any moment - to touch the other woman's arm. "That's what happens to all of us. We just ... find ourselves here. No one knows how."

Apart from the fact that it had something to do with aliens, of course, but she wouldn't mention that yet.

Tara doesn't quite flinch; she does better with strangers who are women, at least. "That... that sounds b-bad."

"It is," confirmed DG, because that was something that couldn't be denied. "But you're safe here." More or less. She'd probably be fine as long as DG didn't let her out of her sight until she was back to normal, anyway. "You have friends here."

"I d-don't remember ever b-being here before." Coming from DG, Tara accepts it a little more; maybe it's not that they've confused her with someone else, maybe it's a weird, weird form of amnesia.

Or maybe it's an evil power she didn't know she had gone awry. There's that too.

"Do you want to go somewhere to talk about this properly?" she asked, very away that they were on the street. Hiding in a building wouldn't keep the aliens themselves away, but it might help when it came to the residents that DG didn't want to tell Tara about.

"Somewhere neutral?" she added, because taking her to the Northern Island or the castle would create as many problems as it solved. "What about coffee? We could go to a coffee shop."

"C-coffee would be fine. I d-don't have any pocket money, though."

"I've got plenty," said DG, glancing down the street in search of the nearest coffee shop. "Besides, Taxon doesn't use money. It uses credits."

Tara probably had plenty of credits, given the she ran her own business, but DG was taking things one step at a time at the moment.

"O-okay. As long as it's no t-trouble." Tara was sticking close; she doesn't know DG, but the girl doesn't seem threatening either, and Tara does no one any good by standing in the middle of the street.

"It's no trouble," DG promised, leading the way into the coffee shop. There was an Extra behind the counter, but, on the whole, it was quiet enough to suit the conversation they needed to have. "What would you like?"

"Just some t-tea, maybe?" The Extra looks wrong, in a deep and unsettling way, but she ignores it as she tries to ignore everything she notices with senses that aren't human.

"One tea and one coffee," she said. The credits on her bracelet were adjusted accordingly, but DG had already turned her attention back to Tara.

"Pick a table," she offered. The Extras were unsettling, but DG had, in a way, grown used to them. They were simply there now.

"Um. Okay." She moves to sit. "So w-where did you come from then?"

"Kansas."

It was strange, really. Although she wanted to get back to the O.Z more than anything, and although she'd started to think of the O.Z as home, she hadn't had time to put her life in Kansas behind her. She still thought of her robotic parents as her parents, for a start.

"There are people here from all over the world. And from ... different worlds."

"Oh. I k-know Kansas, but I haven't b-been there. It's mostly f-farms, isn't it?"

This is weird and surreal, but at least it's giving her something to think about besides her own panic.

"Yeah," DG confirmed, happy to continue the small talk and - hopefully - put Tara at ease before they turned to the important topics. As she spoke, one of the Extras brought their drinks to the table they'd chosen.

Surreal was definitely a good word to describe life in Taxon. Particularly when glitches were underway.

"I grew up on a farm," she added, "But I spent most of my time working as a waitress."

"Oh. That's g-good. I thought I might have to for a b-bit, to help out, but it was b-better for me to do for my family at h-home." She runs a finger around the edge of the mug.

Now she thought about it, DG realised that she didn't know much about Tara's family. She'd lost her mother and had some very close friends, but she'd never mentioned anyone else. Why not?

"I know this is confusing, Tara," she said, coffee untouched, "But can you tell me exactly what you were doing when you came here?"

She wanted to know what the glitch had changed. It wouldn't alter anything, but the knowledge might make it easier to deal with the aftermath.

"Um. I was w-walking to the s-store. To get b-beer, and bread and m-milk." She says it like she's ticking things off a mental list. "They're g-gonna be so angry w-when I don't come b-back."

[Visual]

[Visual]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]

[Location: Taxon Streets]