taxonomites | [Visual] [Location- Random Warehouse]

The tablet briefly displays a skewed glimpse of what looks like a makeshift science lab inside a large empty warehouse-- the emphasis on makeshift. A few library books stacked on surfaces, spines bearing titles like Chemistry for Students and Practical Science. There's bits of pipe, a sink, projects scattered in phases of half-completed.

Paul Smecker rights the tablet, and takes a breath. In one hand he has a pair of safety goggles, which he sets down on the counter with a level of care that is a marked contrast from the last time he made a broadcast.

"Hey, Taxon," he says after several awkward seconds. "I don't know how many people got a chance to know her, but Alexis Castle's gone."

He pauses, opens his mouth as if to say something else, then just shakes his head and presses the button to end the call.

Paul stands there a moment in the silence of the warehouse, then sets a plastic bag full of supplies down on the counter. No need for them now. Class for Alexis has been canceled, permanently.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Alexis Castle had been girl she remembered Agent Smecker suggesting she get acquainted with. Liz had kept an eye out for her on the tablets, too timid to directly approach her through the more private message systems, but hadn't seen her. She supposes this is why.

"That's good, right? She got sent back home?"

She wasn't entirely sure what happened to people when they left Taxon.

Paul shrugs. He won't sugarcoat anything just for the sake of making someone feel better; never been his style.

"Depends on if you believe that that's what happens," he answers brusquely. "It's a popular theory. The simple fact of it is that we don't know. We don't know how they bring us here, we don't know where we go when they get bored of their toys. 'Home' is the most appealing, comforting option, yes."

Liz appreciates a lack of sugarcoating. She can handle the truth, no matter how harsh. It's lies she hates, and she loathes the fact that keeping Max's secret makes her a hypocrite in that, but it's not safe. Sometimes lies were necessary, but one should tell the truth when they could and it didn't put people's lives on the line.

"I guess that helps people deal with the loss better," she offers. "Someone said that there were people here who've been here for close to two years. All that time and our captors haven't given us any sort of reason for being here?"

"Not that I'm aware of," he says with a headshake. "One thing you may come to realize about this place is that we're pretty shit, pardon my French, at sharing important information with each other. So maybe someone's had a personal revelation from the aliens and hasn't bothered to make an announcement, beats me."

He runs a hand through his hair, staring out at the park a moment, before jerking himself back to the conversation.

"--which, while we're on the topic of shitty information sharing: do you know we have vampires in residence, and do you know we had zombies attack a few months ago, and a giant fu-- a giant dragon flying around? These things only seem to get told to newcomers when they're already in the f- freaking midst of a life-threatening situation."

"Maybe there needs to be some sort of welcoming committee, someone who has all that information on file..." Which is mostly her just talking to herself, but it doesn't sound like a bad idea. If someone had handed her a how-to guide, for lack of a better term, when she first got here, she probably would've been able to stand on her own two feet sooner rather than later.

At the mention of vampires, her eyes go wide. Zombies? Couldn't be. A dragon? And here she thought aliens were her biggest problem.

"--r-really? Those things are really here?"

"Yeah, it'd be a splendid idea," Paul says with a rictus grin. "You want to be the one to make it?

"The lack of information-sharing is the problem, again. People come, people go, experiences don't get recorded or shared. I think I'd been here a month before someone mentioned vampires, and that was in casual conversation.

"I've heard several times that there's a welcoming brochure in the works. I've also been here..." he has to pause, start to count to himself. "...eight months? Nine? And have yet to hear of any progress being made on it either."

He sighs, rubs at the back of his neck, then nods ruefully at her next words.

"Yes, really. So far the zombies and the dragon seem to be one-shots, but you should know that dangerous shit can and does happen here. If something dangerous happens, try and tell other people about it using the tablet, and try and get somewhere safe-- preferably with an escort."

"...it can't hurt to try?" Should she be the one to make one? Perhaps she wasn't the ideal candidate for that, but if there wasn't one, it could help. Liz holds up a hand, the scientist in her stumbling over that lack of information sharing. "Hold on, you mean there's not some sort of record of all the glitches people have experienced? No-one's been keeping track of that sort of thing?"

That sounds like something else she should look into. Maybe ask Dr. Brennan if she wanted to help or even head the thing as the doctorate holding science nerd.

"Does it happen often?"

"See earlier statement: shitty information sharing," Paul sighs. "Dawn might-- that's Dawn Summers, she's another about your age. Godric might. There used to be a guy named Kirk who might have, I don't know, but he's gone. If someone is keeping a master list of glitches, they haven't told me about it."

He starts cracking his knuckles, absently, the tablet balanced on one knee as he stares out over the park.

"Minor glitches seem to happen all the time. I've been forced to kiss a stranger, forced to speak in an Irish accent-- irritating things, but not life-threatening. The dragon's happened once when I've been here. The zombies once, but it lasted... a week? I don't know, I was dead for part of it." (Very very bitter and dry, there.)

"The vampires.... let's see, five people have been bitten since I got here. So all of that, within eight months. If you're into the sciences, I'm sure you can do the math."

[Visual] [Location- Random Warehouse]

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