Video. Username: SINI

[redshiftnpc]

[ Creepy Joe is on the network. Not with his horrifying face up in the camera this time--he doesn’t appear to be looking at the camera at all. Cameras, to be more exact. The view of him keeps changing, but it’s clear enough what he’s doing.

He’s in the agriculture section, sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, surrounded by animals. They steer clear of the ruined half of his body, but are letting him pet them with his good hand. He’s currently rubbing the nose of a reindire, which nips non-aggressively at his fingers.

It’s hard to hear what he’s saying to them--mostly it’s just cooing noises. But he looks. Well. Happy.

It isn’t Joe’s voice that pipes up when the talking does start - the voice is familiar to anyone who went exploring in that crashed ship months and months ago, or who answered a network post about the disease a while back. There’s no cheerful laughing or bouncy chatter this time, though, but the voice that seems to come from nowhere and everywhere around where Joe is sitting is haughty, imperious, with just a hint of irritation. ]

Good evening, bitches. I hope everyone is doing just marvelously this fine evening.

[ A loud, annoyed huffing, and the voice sounds again. ]

Just thought I’d pop in and let you all know that I’m getting tired of all the ungratefulness around here. My friend and I have both tried to help you, we’ve done our best to keep y’all safe and what do we get for it? Sass. Ignorance. Clandestine plots to imprison Joseph by force. And the compromise is what? Tricking him into it?

[ A pause, and now there’s a laugh, but it isn’t bubbly or happy or entirely pleasant at all. ]

Joseph doesn’t need quarantine. You people are so transparent. We’ve suffered enough and all of you should know better than to hurt us more!

[ Her voice gets rough and loud at this, with a grating, growling undertone, obviously angry. ]

You saw it. I know you saw it. That room. The room where we were reborn. You’re all lucky it’s me and Joseph here and not the other.

[ Joe looks up, worry deepening the crows feet that frame his eye. ]

Pain-sister, they don’t know. They don’t know anything.

[ He watches the reindire nuzzling into his palm, muttering more to himself now. ] But they should have listened. They should have.

[ A snort this time, from her, but her voice has a ring of fondness to it when she speaks again. ]

Joseph is far too kind. So am I. You all feel like you’re the ones in charge. You’re not the ones in charge. I know how much you all just love having your privacy, so guess what? I’m taking it away for a while. Hope you haven’t said anything too personal lately.

[ For just a second, it goes quiet, and then the cameras flick off. After another few seconds of darkness, the voice comes through again, this time a bit softer and a bit sweeter. ]

Except the nice ones. The nice ones don’t deserve it either.



[ Yes, Joe can be found in the agricultural section hanging out with the animals. ]

Comments

[conceptdrift]

I know you Ratonhnhaké:ton. I'm sorry you had to endure the lecture meant for other ears.

I am SINI.

[mustact]

[ If the apology is meant to soothe or comfort him, it doesn't. He doesn't show how much it bothers him, though if SINI looks carefully there's a slight twitch at the edge of his lips that he just stops from turning into a grimace. ]

How do you know me, SINI?

[conceptdrift]

[All she really registers is that he didn't smile. It's hard, to tell how people are feeling from such minute changes in the face. Something she's never been good at, even before.]

You live here. Have lived here. Will live here. I see you.

[mustact]

[ Something about the way she talks reminds him of Angel, which is ... interesting. ]

How long have you been here? Did you arrive like we did?

[conceptdrift]

[Such a simple question on the surface, but very complicated to answer.]

You'll have to pardon me, my sense of time is a little off. Hmmm...

[A thoughtful hum, and in the background there's the sound of a respirator, whoever is wearing it sucking big pulls of breath from it.]

I arrived as you did, but this place was different then. I was different. And after I changed I was sent away...there was so much screaming, everything was screams and tears no matter what I did. Then silence for a very long time, until I was brought back here again. So cyclical it's almost boring, but this time...this time I chose my destination.

[mustact]

[ This is only becoming stranger and stranger, but then again ... it was the same with the City. Are they doomed to be left with nothing but confusion and no answers in places like this? ]

Sent away where? By whom? Do you remember?

[conceptdrift]

[She's trying. Things are so scattered, to the far edges of the city and beyond, but the way he asks questions is helping. Clear, and direct.]

I was sent away from this city...they were trying to get back where we came from. Home. I didn't have a choice that time, just a task, a job. As an object...a thing. Not a person. For a purpose, with no consideration to what I wanted.

[At the end there, her voice raises, gets a bit rough with anger, but she takes a steadying breath.]

Sent by the people who wanted to get out, but not by the people who changed me.

[mustact]

[ It's vague and unclear, but it's enough to give him some ideas about what might have happened. Maybe Rey was right. Maybe there was tension between different people in Anchor. He couldn't imagine that no one would have objections to someone being treated like that.

He likes to think he would have had. ]

Why did it have to be you?

[conceptdrift]

[It's something. Despite what people might think, she doesn't like feeling like she's withholding information, it's just hard to pull together.]

The leaving or the changing?

[mustact]

Both.

[ He wonders how exactly she was 'changed', but he suspects it's related to finding a way off this planet. Which, then, is probably why she was sent away. ]

[conceptdrift]

The leaving was because of the changing. Once they'd changed me, I was the only one to do the job they needed me to do. And the changing was...

[She pauses with a sharp little inhalation, and then lets it out in a sort of sobbing sound.]

I was already ruined, I was destroyed, so they tore me from my flesh.

[mustact]

Ruined how?

[ His voice turns more gentle, because it's clear it's painful for her to recall. But since she's been willing enough to answer his questions so far, he assumes she may be willing to talk about this too. ]

[conceptdrift]

[It is painful to recall. There are reasons Joseph calls her his pain sister, and she thinks of him in the same way. Every part of those memories hurts in every way possible.]

Radiation.

[mustact]

[ Angel has told him about radiation. Did she get exposed to it? Was she here before Anchor got built? ]

I'm sorry.

[ In a way, he knows what it's like to be used for a purpose that may not benefit you, except he went willingly. It may not have been because he wanted to, but it was still his own choice. ]