[Holo] First Performance [001]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

"This shouldn't be happening! It can't be happening!" Stefen hadn't intended to speak out loud, but the frustration and the fear obvious in his voice had, it seemed, other plans aside from stunned silence. Maybe not stunned, if the look of resigned terror on his face said anything--like someone watching their worst nightmare come to life, only they had been expecting it. Nothing was ever simple, and the half of him that was still a child wanted to complain about how unfair this all was, while the half that was more what he should have been--the half that was Master Bard Stefen, performer to the King-- knew that it wouldn't have changed anything if he did.

"Well-guarded, indeed. One moment in Haven, the next here..." Not that he hadn't heard of stranger things happening from the Heralds and with his particularly strong ties to both King Randale and Herald-Mage Vanyel, he was a particularly prime target.

Vanyel.

Oh gods. He had been right. If they knew who he was, it was only a matter of time before the worst happened and if they didn't know how important he was to either, it was only a matter of time before they found out and...

"V-Van...?" But he wasn't really expecting an answer. This place looked too alien, even for the kind of "company" that Van tended to keep. And if the Herald wasn't here, then there was only one real option left--Stefen was being used as leverage. Abducted by some invisible force with some phantom goal in mind. Vanyel had enough enemies that there was no telling what any of them wanted.

It wasn't until he reached up to run a hand through his fiery red hair that he realized that he was still clutching an instrument against his slight body. That added a whole other level of confusing to the situation. This looked enough like a strange prison, so...why was he permitted an instrument? And his favorite, no less.

"R-Rosewood? What are you doing here?" He held her a little more gently against his chest, but she was a small comfort in the face of abduction.

Calm down, Stef. You've had training. Nothing is wrong with Vanyel or you'd know. He closed his green eyes and took a few deep breaths to steady himself. He was supposed to be attached to the palace, not dealing with magic or prisons or any of...well, this.

Someone has to be looking for me. Let's face it, at this point I'm too important for someone not to have noticed that I've vanished. But that would only make them--whoever "them" were--try even harder to hide him. After a few moments of silent internal struggle, an oath that would not have been very welcome at Court all but exploded from him and the look on his face turned into a mixture of frustration and rage. There wasn't anything that he was capable of doing to get himself out of this--all he could do was wait to be found.

And that was precisely what he set out to do, dropping to sit on the floor and sulk (even if he would never have called it that) very much like the child that he had barely outgrown.

"Havens..."

Comments

[voice]

[mercenaryacare.livejournal.com]

You're a mighty big whiner, y'know that? [Welcoming, Jayne is not.]

[voice]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

[Not the first time he's heard that, actually, though he's ignored it for most of his life.

But that voice had come from distinctly outside his head, and, seeing as he can't see anyone, that's enough cause to freak out a little.]

W-who's there?

[voice]

[mercenaryacare.livejournal.com]

A man who can't stand pansy ass whiners. [He rolls his eyes.] You been abducted by aliens. So've I.

[voice]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

[He...probably shouldnt be talking to the voices.]

By...what?

[voice]

[mercenaryacare.livejournal.com]

A-li-ens. Y'know, not human.

[visual]

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

The newcomer's response was similar enough to her own had been that Alexis set aside her book and picked up her tablet. She looked concerned as she activated the tablet, "Hello? Are you alright?"

[visual]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

He very nearly dropped his instrument at the sound of her voice, clearly not expecting to hear one. Still, whoever was speaking was invisible and, while it wasn't the strangest thing he'd heard about, he hadn't really had the chance to experience it until now.

"Who are you?"

[visual]

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Alexis winced a little at having startled him. Oops. "My name's Alexis Castle. I just want to help," she answered. "What's yours?"

[visual]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

It was hard to believe that disemobided voices from on high really wanted to help him, but did he really have any other choice?

"...Stefen."

[visual]

[littlestcastle.livejournal.com]

Luckily disembodied voices from across the city would be more willing to help. "Nice to meet you, Stefen. I wish it were under better circumstances." Alexis peered at the tablet, frowning. "Do you see a podium somewhere in the room with you?"

[visual]

[garg-elisa.livejournal.com]

The face that appears on the tablet screen is human-ish, but decidedly not human. But there's nothing truly monstrous about it, the concern is genuine.

"Hello? Listen, I know this is probably all a big shock... But I can help."

[visual]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

That's...new. And more than just a little bit frightening. Sure, he hadn't exactly been sheltered his whole life, but all he'd ever seen were other humans (even if the Hawkbrothers were strange ones), and he can't really help but to stare for a few seconds before he starts to consider that that might be rude, and if she's offering to help...

"Oh. Uhm. Please. If you would."

Re: [visual]

[garg-elisa.livejournal.com]

Elisa nods. "My name's Elisa Maza," she begins. "And like you, like everyone here, really, I'm a prisoner. For reasons we haven't figured out, aliens have kidnapped people from all over the world and time, bringing us here..."

She trails off. "But right now, you're in the arrival room. This device, the tablet, is broadcasting you to everyone right now. If you pick it up, you'll be able to leave the room you're in."

Re: [visual]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

All of that at once was really far too much information to absorb. Devices and tablets and aliens...things he'd never heard of before and, evidently, something that let him do what the Heralds did...it seemed a little...sacriligeous to have that ability handed to him simply for being ther, when they had to earn their colors with it.

"I'm sorry...what?"

Re: [visual]

[garg-elisa.livejournal.com]

"Yeah...," Elisa concedes, "I guess it's a lot to take in."

"In a nutshell, though, you've been brought to a place called Taxon, with no way home."

[voice]

[eggplantgout.livejournal.com]

...are you talking to your guitar-lookin' thing?

[voice]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

[There seem to be an awful lot of those disembodied voices...]

My...what? No!

[voice]

[eggplantgout.livejournal.com]

Then who you talking to? Besides me right now.

[voice]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

Apparently not only myself.

[voice]

[eggplantgout.livejournal.com]

You weren't talking to me and you weren't talking to your guitar thing and there's no one else around.

Don't get all mad at me or whatever, but are you a crazy person?

[visual]

[verylittlesugar]

"There is no point in bothering to expect a rescue, but I can try to answer questions if there any you have that no one else has bothered helping with yet."

Mattie can sympathize with what the young man must be feeling right now, and her tone is much less judgmental than she might normally go for. She doesn't see any point in rehashing information he's already gleaned, however.

[visual]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

The flurry of thought that ran through Stefen's head was tinged with just a little bit of anger. No point in expecting a rescue? I'm needed. No one else can do what I do and...oh gods, Randale...

What came out of his mouth, though, was just as courtly civil as everything else that he had been trained to say, to win over, to keep entertained. "The only one I have is how to leave."

[visual]

[verylittlesugar]

Mattie shrugs, sympathetic. She'd surely like an answer to that one herself, but so far luck hasn't been on her side.

"I have not yet found anyone who knows how, but I am not giving up hope. There are people here I have not met, and I am sure one of them must know. People do leave sometimes, they say."

[visual]

[painsinger.livejournal.com]

He'd daydreamed a thousand times of finding himself in a situation very similar to this, only in his head he was the hero, and far less helpless than he knew he actually was. He was no Herald, uninclined to endanger himself for the good of others, and he knew it. Bards simply didn't make their name by dying young.

"Then I suppose all I can do is wait."

[visual]

[verylittlesugar]

"Yes, but you do not have to wait in there. Has no one told you how to come out into the city yet?"

She'll have stern words for Don later, for not stepping up to the task.