2nd Shift; Video

[sirenvoice]

Hello everyone.

[When Angel appears on the video feed, she seems a lot better than she was a few weeks ago. At least she will to the people who've met her since her arrival here. Her scrapes and bruises were healing up, and she's just... all around more cheerful than before. She's also much more comfortable broadcasting than she is IRL, so the video feed just works out better for her over all.]

My name is Angel, it's nice to meet you all properly, or it will be.

[When they reply... yeah, she might be more comfortable with this, but she's not exactly reading off a script anymore. And Angel is a lot less put together on the fly, you know like when she's trying to undermine her-- No, never mind that. She's not at home, she's at Starhue and she's actually happy. Currently, she's staying with Faith and her family, but she seems to be sitting on their porch outside for the time being from what can be seen in the background.]

I'm... Well, it's not totally my idea, but I'm trying to compile data from everyone's home world's for a library or database of sorts, for everyone's use. I'm also currently trying to document the different wildlife and flora of Starhue itself. It's... something to do, I guess.

[It's all she knows how to do. She's learning other things, about magic and mammets and meditation-- but those sorts of things would have to come in time. For right now, Angel can only offer what she knows.]

So if you don't mind, would you tell me a story?

Thanks!

Comments

[frostedplum]

Hi, Angel! I'm Mei.

[ She waves at the screen, and a pair of digital eyes suddenly appear up from the bottom of the screen as Snowball hovers into view. Mei holds the tablet out with both hands to better show him off. ]

And this is Snowball! What you're doing sounds very interesting, and I'd love to help. Is there anything in particular you'd like to know?

[sirenvoice]

Awww... He's cute.

[Angel isn't usually the best at deciding what is and isn't cute-- hell, she thinks her daddy's loaders and friggin' CL4P-TRP models are cute. But let's be real, Snowball is cute as hell.]

What kind of world are you from, I guess I'm asking. My... Well, back home everyone lives all over the galaxies now. I know in the way way past, humans were restricted to just living on earth, but that concept is still hard for me to grasp when you can just fly to whatever place you want all over.

[Well, that option is open to her, or was, because her dad was a high ranking Hyperion employee at the time. Most people aren't so lucky, but Angel doesn't have to explain how privileged she was to Mei, she's just telling it like it is.]

There's colonies of humans on pretty much every planet we know of now.

[frostedplum]

Hear that, Snowball?

[ He lets out a happy chirp before looking back at the screen to see what Angel says next. ]

Oh, wow! That's really impressive. Back home we had a base on the moon, but... things didn't really turn out well for the scientists living there. They're all gone now. Other than that, we're still on Earth. It's a great place, but in need of some care. I'm a climatologist, you see, and the world's climate has been shifting faster than normal. It doesn't seem to be having a huge effect on the world's population, though. The average person doesn't even know about it.

[ Which can be frustrating. It's why she needed this break from collecting all that data. ]

Other than that, it's probably near enough to the Earth you know about.

video

[biotictouch]

[ Okay, she wasn't caring very much for the network itself for the past few days, but then this pops up.

Oh. Oh no. Oh nah. ]

You'll be happy to know that I've already begun a catalog of the wildlife here, both cellular and general.

[ If you'd like to be a part of it... ]

[sirenvoice]

Oh, really? That's awesome.

[She doesn't know about cellular levels of interest, but she's been making her own list!]

I can't go very far, so I don't know if there's anything that strange... But then again, I don't know what is and isn't strange for this world.

Video

[gotthis]

What kind of story are you looking for? Because, let me tell you, the place I'm from? It's pretty wild. In a very...uh. Murder-y way.

[ Meaning he's got a lot of stories...ish, but none of them are all that pleasant. ]

[sirenvoice]

That's okay, mine's pretty murder-y too.

[She says it with a smile, even.]

Tell me your best one.

Video.

[goesawol]

[She has made it a daily task, to check on the jPad and whatever transmissions are made through them - she’s surprised there’s so little shitposting, actually.

Here’s a blip of a video feed to reply.]

Hello. That sounds like an interesting idea. But what exactly are you searching for when you say “for everyone’s use”?

[sirenvoice]

Information. Nothing personal about you, of course. I mostly want to hear about the difference between our home dimensions.

After all, you have no idea if the buses will take you back to your dimension. Just, a dimension.

[Video]

[lancefishing]

If you need help documenting the fish and other creatures of the water here, I'm sure I could spare some of my catch...

[The dark-skinned cat-man offers, and by the look of it, he was about to do some collecting himself judging by the calm waters of the lake behind him. And the uh... rather simple fishing tackle sitting beside him. He really needed to take a look around town and get something better already.]

I might be able to offer a few other small critters too depending on what they use for bait around here. [And it's here he pauses, before he realises he never actually introduced himself.] Oh! Uh... the name's H'zez, by the way. Nice to meet you.

[sirenvoice]

It's nice to meet you too.

[Angel waves a little. He's... strange looking, but that just means his home dimension is probably... way cooler than her own.]

Oh, so you've been fishing? I think that would be fun to learn, if you don't want to share your catches.

[video]

[whisted]

[The word 'library' is what perks Horatio's ears up. It's a word he's come to genuinely love since arriving in Starhue, after all.

This conceptual library, though...]

...what would you-- do with them? The-- stories of where everyone's from?

[sirenvoice]

I thought it'd be easier to figure out... why we're being pulled from other dimensions and stuff. Maybe, nothing might come of it, but I think it's good information to have. Then we can try to look out for people who might be from the same worlds, too...

[sublimelymagnificentblitz]

So, uh, what kind of stories do you want?

[He's got a few. Problem is, some of 'em aren't really happy. Some of 'em get really dark. Kid looks like she's had a little bit of a rough time even if she's smiling, so. Know your audience.]

[sirenvoice]

Your best one. Something that makes people curious about your home world. It doesn't have to be super happy or anything.

[shithefuckup]

You sure you wanna? My world's not that interesting.

[sirenvoice]

Of course I want to, that's why I asked.

[She's just having fun...]

I want to try and keep track of the differences between worlds, just in case.

[video]

[smartestonethereis]

Hi, Angel, I'm Bruce.

What sort of story are you looking for?

[sirenvoice]

Basically I'm trying to keep track of the differences between the worlds we all come from. For instance, my world seems a lot more advanced than most of the ones I've heard about.

So I assume it's ...in the future? Or maybe we're from separate dimensions entirely that have never touched. It's interesting.

[Video]

[loving_goddess]

A story, is it? Let me see...

[She takes a moment, settling herself into a comfortable position, and begins like the storytellers she remembers.]

Once, so long ago that no one can recall the time before it, the world of Aselia was visited by a great comet, Derris Kharlan. The comet was filled with an energy called "mana" and inhabited by a people called elves, who could wield this energy to wondrous ends. The elves descended to Aselia with a great seed, which grew into what they called The Giant Kharlan Tree. The tree spread mana throughout Aselia, and it sank into the world, becoming a part of everything. The native people of Aselia, humans, could not use magic the way the elves could, but they tapped into the mana nonetheless, through use of mechanical devices they termed magitechnology.

The elves had gained a home, the humans a new source of power. Both sides were nervous around each other due to their differences, but as the elves largely kept to themselves in homes deep in the forests of Aselia, nothing usually came of it. At least, until some pairings began to form between humans and elves... and the first half-elves were born.

[She tosses her hair back at this point, revealing a pointed ear.]

Like most halfbreeds, half-elves were not well accepted among either side of their heritage. They grew like humans until they reached maturity, and did things much more quickly than the elves did, so they were shunned in elven society. But their long life and capacity for magic made humans fearful of them. With no place to call their own, half-elves kept largely to the fringes of society, or tried to hide their nature.

And so things continued this way, the elves hidden in the forests, human kingdoms growing stronger and more numerous on magitechnology, and the half-elves trying to find a place for themselves, for... easily several thousand years.

[sirenvoice]

[Angel listens, captivated, while Martel tells her story. Just like most high fantasy stories she's read or watched on TV, it's not like... super original? But she's fascinated once she sees Martel's pointed ears-- she's not telling a story, she's talking about history.]

[Even with aliens and stuff in her dimension, that's crazy to think about.]

... Did they ever find their place in your world?

Video

[souris_keteer]

[A story, huh? Reminds him of life back on the island.]

Well, I do love a good story. Like, a really scary story to tell at Halloween, or tellin' folks how me and my pals got rescues, or how we became heroes...

[sirenvoice]

[He's so cute!!!!!!!!! What the fuck!!!!!! Angel stares a minute before giving him a big smile.]

You're a hero too? I know a few of those.

[Not you, dad.]

Could you tell me about it?

[illuminaria]

[ A....story? ]

What kind of story?

[ Blondie here has a ton of them. ]

[sirenvoice]

Any kind... I mostly want to know how different everyone's homes are. Compared to Starhue, but also compared to mine.

I don't have a lot to offer in return, but maybe we could trade a story from home?