Mattie Ross (
verylittlesugar) wrote in
taxonomites2011-03-19 11:19 pm
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[holo] oh how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way
[Mattie feels the ground give way under her feet, panic closing off her throat as she begins to fall, scrabbling uselessly at dirt and brush-]
The holo feed shows a small figure dressed in too-large, old-fashioned clothes appear in mid-air, then fall to the ground with a hard thump that knocks the wind out of her for a moment. She lies still, gaping up at what should be a blue sky or at least the darkness of earth over her head, and then hesitantly brushes the fingers of one hand against the unyielding surface of the floor.
“Mr. LaBoeuf?” Her voice is embarrassingly weak, and she takes a deep breath and tries again, more loudly. “Mr. LaBoeuf!”
There’s no answer, of course, and common sense tells Mattie that although she doesn’t rightly know where she is, it’s obvious where she is not, and she shouldn’t expect any response. That realization urges her to sit up, the hat falling off her head as she slowly pushes herself to her feet and looks uncertainly around.
“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” She approaches the nearest wall and runs her hand along it, then turns her head to take in the others, just as blank as this one. Raising her arm, she pounds her fist against it, voice taking on a more forceful (but also more desperate) tone. “Whoever’s out there, open up this minute! You have no right to hold me against my will, I’ve embarked on no wrong-doing.. I have a good lawyer, and I will write him and you will hear how the law looks on the incarceration of innocent children!”
When the wall doesn’t give way and door doesn’t appear, Mattie steps back with a sigh. “Papa, I believe I have found some trouble for myself.”
The holo feed shows a small figure dressed in too-large, old-fashioned clothes appear in mid-air, then fall to the ground with a hard thump that knocks the wind out of her for a moment. She lies still, gaping up at what should be a blue sky or at least the darkness of earth over her head, and then hesitantly brushes the fingers of one hand against the unyielding surface of the floor.
“Mr. LaBoeuf?” Her voice is embarrassingly weak, and she takes a deep breath and tries again, more loudly. “Mr. LaBoeuf!”
There’s no answer, of course, and common sense tells Mattie that although she doesn’t rightly know where she is, it’s obvious where she is not, and she shouldn’t expect any response. That realization urges her to sit up, the hat falling off her head as she slowly pushes herself to her feet and looks uncertainly around.
“Hello? Can anyone hear me?” She approaches the nearest wall and runs her hand along it, then turns her head to take in the others, just as blank as this one. Raising her arm, she pounds her fist against it, voice taking on a more forceful (but also more desperate) tone. “Whoever’s out there, open up this minute! You have no right to hold me against my will, I’ve embarked on no wrong-doing.. I have a good lawyer, and I will write him and you will hear how the law looks on the incarceration of innocent children!”
When the wall doesn’t give way and door doesn’t appear, Mattie steps back with a sigh. “Papa, I believe I have found some trouble for myself.”
[ visual ]
"Calm yourself," he begins gently, judging by her dress and manner that she'll be unfamiliar with the technology she's about to face. "You're in no immediate danger."
When Mattie discovers the tablet, she'll see a pale boy who looks not much older than she, but a closer inspection often tends to throw that observation into doubt. He doesn't behave quite like a 16-year-old boy from any era.
[ visual ]
She's just not sure what to make of it, though. So she clasps her hands behind her back and eyes the image in front of her suspiciously.
"That is quite a statement coming from a devil in a mirror, sir. If you release me immediately, I will consider forgetting I ever saw you and will not send for a clergyman to perform your exorcism."
Mattie likely doesn't belief she's really speaking to a devil, but she tends to fall back sharp and clever words when in uncertain situations. This time her tone lacks a touch of its usual bite, however -- maybe the reassuring gentleness is working against her will, or maybe it's the influence of seeing a face familiar in age if not in gender.
[ visual ]
"If I had the power to release you, I would do so, but I fear I am as trapped as you. The image you see is no trick or magic, but merely the communication device we're all given upon our arrival in that room. I see you upon mine as you see me upon yours, but neither of us is in fact inside the device."
[visual]
"I do not see how a...'communication device' allows you to see through to another's face." It's not an accusation, more like a request for more information. (Granted, a request shaped very much like a somewhat childish demand.) "And I do not see how I can have fallen down a hole and come up in a prison instead."
Those are for storybooks, not practical young women like Mattie.
[visual]
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A fierceness creeps into her voice that wasn't present before. Captivity can be damned, Mattie has unfinished business.
[visual]
"What is your name? Mine is Godric." There's something to his tone and body language that suggests he isn't ignoring her question, but the conversation they're about to have will be more comfortable if they're on more familiar standing.
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Either way, she probably should sit this arrival out. But the girl also doesn't look much younger than Angela or Elisa's sister or Maggie, and that's enough to open up her heart.
Still, she wishes her tablet would connect to arrivals on something other than a visual.
"I can hear you," she says. "And I can help you get out too."
[visual]
"I prefer that you tell me where I am and how I came to be here." If she wasn't sure about touching the source of the images before, she's certainly made up her mind about it now. As a general rule, Mattie doesn't hold with superstitions. But she's been raised a good God-fearing child, and there are some things that will shake even her own stubborn confidence.
Re: [visual]
"You're in a city called Taxon," Elisa begins. "I don't know where it is, or what country its in."
Or even what planet. Though her own body synced to the rhythms here well enough.
"But you were abducted. Brought here... basically, to be watched."
[visual]
"I have never heard of such a place." Not that she's traveled widely enough to claim to know of every town that exists, of course. "And I do not remember being abducted."
Inside, though, she's worried that maybe not remembering a thing doesn't make it untrue.
Re: [visual]
She shakes her head. "No one's heard of this place before they got here."
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[voice]
Silence follows--Don leaves the tablet where it lies and gets to his feet. He forces himself to take a breath instead of going off in search of something to smash or a door to slam.
"Hello," he says, scooping up the tablet, speaking more authoritatively now. "My name is Don and I arrived here in the room you're standing in now. I can tell you the way out."
[voice]
Still, a girl recently bereft of a beloved father and then separated from a surrogate she has developed a sincere fondness for, will naturally gravitate toward finding another way of filling that gap. So her next words are more conciliatory. "If you can, then please do."
[voice]
"If you follow my voice it'll lead you to the pedestal. On top of the pedestal will be...it's a mechanism that opens the door, and it's housed in a small, rectangular box. You'll have to pick it up."
[voice]
"What will happen if I pick it up?" She hesitates with her hand over the pedestal, realizing that the thing being described is what she'd referred to with Godric as a mirror. It isn't mistrust of Don that stops her, but natural wariness of touching an alien object.
[voice]
His own return notwithstanding.
[voice]
"It does not seem my kidnappers saw fit to transport my belongings. I have nothing to leave behind. I understand there is a town of some kind?"
She's still hesitating, not quite ready to be coaxed out into this strange world.
[voice]
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[voice] shall we turn this into an action thread? :)
[location: the sanctuary] it'll be a non-stop thrill ride of a thread
[location: the sanctuary] you may really come to regret this decision, don ;)
[location: the sanctuary] Don isn't aware decisions come in varieties other than "regrettable"
[location: the sanctuary] then they should get along JUST FINE
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[location: the sanctuary and its environs]
[location: the sanctuary and its environs]
[location: the sanctuary and its environs]
[location: the sanctuary and its environs]
[location: the sanctuary and its environs]
[ visual ]
Or she'll hurt herself, but Stefan stops talking upon realizing just how that tumbled out of his mouth. His speech patterns were always much more formal and old fashioned in his head, but rarely, and only around those he was comfortable with, did they actually make it out of his mouth that way, let alone with the tinges of an accent from Old Virginia that he shed a long time ago. It's the way this girl spoke and the way she was dressed that pulled that out of him without his permission.
He tries talking again, seeing that she's stepped back. Good, good. No sense in her injuring herself so soon after arriving.
"Trouble," he trips over the word a bit, reigning in his voice and pressing on the tone to even it out. "Trouble's one word for it. I've got a few others, but they're not cleared for daytime television."
[ visual ]
"I do not know what you are talking about, but I do know enough to understand what trouble is. And finding yourself locked in a strange room surrounded by strange voices is trouble."
[ visual ]
Stefan hesitates, then asks, "Tell me, are you familiar with...aliens?"
[ visual ]
Really, it's a bit insulting to imagine that she's never come across an Indian or an Irishman before taking the train to Fort Smith, which isn't precisely New York itself.
[ visual ]
"The word has a double meaning. It can mean people from other countries, but in this instance, it's being used in reference to those from other planets. People not from Earth. From the stars."
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"I have no use for fairytales or for people who use them for mocking strangers. You had best start using more truth in your words, and I think you should start with your name."
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