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[goblinemperor]

[ Maia is unfamiliar with advanced technology, so he checks and double-checks and triple-checks to make sure the message he is posting will not bear his name, before he asks: ]

What would you do with your freedom, if you had it for the first time in your life and never learned how to use it?

[ The question is awkwardly phrased, true, but he really is pretty desperate for advice. One way and another, he's been pent up and under supervision since he was born, and now he doesn't really know how else to be. ]

Comments

[goblinemperor]

Were you a foreigner, in your own world, before you came here?

[ It's just a guess. From the way Billy is speaking about the great mixture of people's here. As if it brings him joy. The same joy that it brings Maia - takes one to know one. ]

I was. Rather, my mother was, and that made me foreign enough.

[ It's the sort of hint that absolutely would've given him away, back home, but here he could be anybody. ]

If you are certain it would not be an imposition, then... perhaps I may accept your kind offer.

[ Maia isn't quite sure what to say, to that last bit. He considers a few moments before he sends: ]

That sounds like a lonely life.

[billyrocks]

Yes. I was born in a country known as Korea in my world, but then I was placed on a ship to America, another country far across the ocean. I don't remember exactly how old I was, somewhere around the 10-12 range.

[Not a small child anymore, but not quite a teenager either. ]

Loneliness does seem to follow me. When I traveled to America, I had to go alone since my parents could not afford to send all three of us there. Then when I showed up here, I found myself alone in a strange land all over again. I've yet to see anyone I know from home, and I've been here for nine months.

But

I've made some good friends here, Jina included. I actually have more friends here than I did back home, though not for lack of trying. It's just that with me being a foreigner, most people in America didn't want to associate with me.

[There's a pause between this text and the next one Billy sends. The device's screen displays, "b.rocks is typing..." for almost a minute or two before the message finally comes through.]

I have to admit things still feel incomplete without my friend, though.

[private] @serenity

[goblinemperor]

[ Maia has never heard of either country, but he doesn't have to be familiar with them to imagine how hard that must have been. He had been torn from the only home he'd ever known when he was ten, too. It surprises him, that Billy isn't sure of his precise age. Maia remembers the details of that period in his own life so vividly. But different people react to situations differently, and the death of his mother had helped to mark the exact date in his mind.

He switches the conversation setting to private - checks and double checks that he has done it correctly, since this technology is all so new to him - and de-selects the anonymity feature. If he is going to be asking Billy for help, he might as well start the process of unmasking himself. ]

You have my sympathy. I know your journey must have been difficult. I was sent away at that age, too, though I suspect the circumstances were very different.

[ To put it mildly. But he does not mention that because he wants to talk about those circumstances, particularly, but merely to tell Billy that he has had a somewhat similar experience. ]

Those who wished not to know you, merely because you came from a foreign land, were fools. We had many such fools in Ethuveraz, where I am from.

I am sorry, that you are parted from them. You will see them again, though, will you not? When you return to America?

[billyrocks]

[Billy notices how the person on the other line is no longer referred to as "anonymous," and a little notification pops up on his phone indicating the conversation is now private. So now he knew no one else would be able to see whatever words came next.]

Probably. You don't have to tell me about your circumstances, but at this point I can talk about mine. My parents sent me away in hopes I would have a better chance at survival since our life in Korea was going downhill, and America was said to have more food.

[There's more, but Billy never gave away all the details of his life at once. Although the Quarantine made it harder for Billy to keep to himself most of the time, that wasn't an entirely bad thing. It was a positive change to know he was welcome here, unlike America where he knew too many people wished he would go back to where he came from.]

I've quickly learned from my interactions here that prejudice knows no borders, so it's not restricted to just one world. But I also know the same can be said for kindness. My friend was one of the few who wasn't a fool, at least, by the time I met him.

[Because he knew of Goody's past demons, the same ones that would often return at night to haunt him in his sleep.]

I'm afraid it's not that simple to see him again. If I return home, I don't know what will happen to me since I died. We both did, but according to the doctors at the hospital, I was the only one who came through the portal.

[goblinemperor]

[ Maia knows things will probably be easier if he explains his circumstances, but for now he's going to just be grateful that Billy is not prying, and put it off for another time. ]

So your parents sent you away, but it was with the hope that you would find a better life?

[ So he had been wrong, thinking he understood how Billy must have felt. It must be very different, being parted from parents who thought they had no other choice and wanted to protect him. Billy had left behind loving parents, to a famine and untold chaos. How hard, that must have been... ]

Your friend sounds like a very good man.

[ Again, Maia thinks that he could speak up: explain about his mother, about goblins and elves and the names Setheris had called him, how his mother had been forbidden to teach him anything about her culture. But it is so much easier just to listen, than to speak. ]

You died? Surely, that is not possible...

[billyrocks]

Yes, though I didn’t fully realize how great their sacrifice was until I was older. I never saw them again after I left.

[He even stopped thinking about them for a time, adopting a “never-look-back” lifestyle, until he came here. At times, Riverview forced him to think of things he hadn’t in years.]

It shouldn’t be, but they managed to bring me back somehow. The medical technology in the Quarantine is very advanced just like everything else in the city. One minute I’m breathing my last in a church steeple, the next I’m looking up at the stark white ceiling of the hospital. They had me hooked up to all sorts of machines that were feeding medicine directly into my body. The doctor told me my body was still warm when they found me, so I wasn’t dead for long when I came through the portal.

I don’t know why I was the only one from my group who appeared. That’s just the way it happened, I guess.

[goblinemperor]

I am very sorry to hear that. I hope that, whatever realm they or their spirits are in, that they are comfortable, and at peace.

That is... a wonder. The technology in this place is entirely unfamiliar to me. Even this device we are using to communicate. I am more accustomed to- to letters sent by messenger. I have not used my seal since I arrived. I believe you, when you say there were machines which pulled you back from death. I am glad of it.

[ Billy seems like a good person, after all, and Maia knew all too well that good people didn't always get saved. So it gives him hope, that this time, it went right. ]

Then your life here is a second chance. To live as you could not, before.

[billyrocks]

[Billy is surprised by the sentiment, mainly because he hasn't heard a lot of people wish that for his parents. Then again, he didn't really give them a chance with how he tried to avoid the subject of his past.]

Thank you.

[Is all he can say since he's not sure what else he could say.]

We didn't have a lot of this technology where I'm from either. I couldn't even write letters back home since I didn't know how to write until learning here.

[He wants to ask about the seal, but he'll save that question for another time. When a person has a seal, though, he's aware that tends to mean they are important in some way.]

It could be a second chance for you too, you know. You could learn how to use the new freedom you've been given. I'll do my best to help you, but it all comes down to how you choose to use it. There's no one here to order you around on how to live your life.

[goblinemperor]

[ That interests Maia - and, honestly, is a little inspiring. He thinks, if this man could come here and learn to write, how much could Maia learn? There are still so many gaps in his education. Perhaps he could find tutors, maybe even attend the university... ]

Thank you. I can only hope that I will choose wisely, and that in time I will become accustomed to the lack of constraint.

[billyrocks]

I hope you'll eventually find the lack of constraint more exciting than frightening.

If you want to find me, I'm at Buttercup Farms most of the time since I work there. You're welcome to contact me through text, too, but I'm more used to talking to people in person.

[Oh, he almost forgot...]

And my name is Billy Rocks.

[goblinemperor]

Thank you.

My name is Maia.

[ And, well, that is one little adjustment he has chosen - to go by his given name, rather than his dynastic one. ]