@cjk [ audio ]

[signifies]

Hello everyone. My name is Clark. I'll try and keep this brief.

Firstly, I've drawn up a blank list and placed one on the bulletin board on each housing floor. If those with medical expertise feel comfortable, they can put their name, residence here, and — if they have one — specialisation, in case of an emergency. We have several residents who aren't from the same point in time, so if you'd like to volunteer to update someone's medical knowledge, please mark your name with an asterisk.

Secondly, ah-- [ a bit of a laugh. ] I'm from Kansas, which some of you might recognise as being host to some pretty bad weather. Now, I'm not going to say I'm paranoid, but-- I like to think ahead. So, I've made up some kits with some of the usual survival paraphernalia back home and distributed them between floors. Feel free to help yourselves if you need them.

[ No one has to use them, but he’d rather everyone knows they're available. ]

Thank you for your time.

( all replies in audio unless otherwise stated )

Comments

[signifies]

[ Clark's brow furrows. ]

Ellie, I can't think of anyone who wouldn't like you, unless they wanted to hurt you.

[ It's a little sidestep of what she's asking. Clark hasn't felt enough kinship to be able to name what it is. He just knows he likes her and understands her. ]

[pundemic]

[She laughs. It's sort of a bleak sound, like she's forgotten how to do it and mean it but is still giving it a shot anyway. You and I have met very different people. She can't bring herself to say it outloud, it sounds too much like self-pity.]

I mean, I am pretty likable. If you go for that kinda thing. Smartass sarcasm, you know?

[signifies]

[ She doesn't believe him.

That's okay. He's patient. ]

You're smart, caring, and I bet if I took you to a carnival you'd win me a lot of stuffed bears at the shooting gallery.

[prisonking]

Friends? After all that, I thought you were going to ask me to marry you.

I was already writing my vows in Comic-Sans.

[signifies]

I'm sorry, but it'll never work out between us.

Goodbye, Michael. I'll remember you as you were.

[pundemic]

[They used to have something like a carnival. The adults were the nostalgic ones, they missed their youth and they tried to recreate it for the next generation. Ellie always thought it was kind of pointless. You can't miss what you've never had. Things like ice cream, chocolate, a full night's sleep-- you grow up that way, it's just your normal.

But once in a while, maybe after somebody raided an old toy store or something, they'd have little contests like that. Shoot at rat corpses with a bb gun, or maybe if they found balloons that weren't rotted they could blow those up and shoot them instead. She knows what he's talking about.]

Oh, is that all I am to you? Someone who can win you trophies? Well, I've got news for you, Mr. Kent, if anyone's taking home a stuffed bear here it's definitely me.

[signifies]

[ He grins down at her. ]

That sounds like a challenge, Supreme Battle Commander Williams. Are you sure you want to face me, champion of my people, in that arena of combat?

[pundemic]

[She can't smack him in the shoulder with her hands full, but she deliberately careens into him.]

Yeah, because you're so scary.

[prisonking]

CHICAGO MAN: Guinness World Record For Fastest Broken Heart?

[signifies]

[ And Clark laughs. ]

[pundemic]

[Normal people are so much more fun to be around than the ones she's met, okay. So much laughter.]

See what I mean?

[Oh, but there is their building nearby. Ellie makes a beeline for it.]

C'mon, big guy, I promised to let you read those comics of mine.

[signifies]

All the juicy details on page two.

[starspangled]

[well, floormates might be more accurate. steve hasn't been spending a lot of time in his room either, but enough to know that clark isn't one of the other four beds in his room. so he goes to the other, knocking on the door and waiting to see who answers.]

[signifies]

[ He's not inside when Steve knocks, just walking down the corridor with bags and an empty box balanced on his shoulder. ]

Door's open. After you.

[prisonking]

It was a whirlwind romance.

[signifies]

Ended too soon.

I'm from 2013, by the way. From a city called Metropolis. Have you heard of it?

[prisonking]

Story of my life.

I don't know a Metropolis, Kansas.

How's 2013 been treating you? I had high hopes.

[signifies]

You know the saying. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Do you know a New York City? That seems to be common to everyone.

[prisonking]

I know NYC.

Maybe the New Yorker's were right all along, and The Big Apple really is the center of the universe.

No one tell them.

[signifies]

I can keep a secret.

What do you do in Chicago, Michael?

[inthemoonlight]

[ A chime indicates the video call and Cecelia touches the screen to accept it. She likes doing things like this; it's so fancy! As for her, she's dressed in a long sleeved white muslin dress, hair pulled back into a bun and pinned into place. ]

Oh, how clever! It is like a captured sunbeam.

[ She'd probably be more surprised if her tablet didn't produce moving images. A flashlight is like a step down from that on the Surprised Scale. ]

Ah, thank you. I am from eighteen hundred and fifteen A.D., Mr. Kent. And yourself?

[signifies]

Two thousand and thirteen, Mrs. Wynn.

[ He's going to let that sink in. Somehow, he thinks she'll be all right. ]

[prisonking]

I dabble in architectural engineering from 9-5. Nothing interesting.

You?

[inthemoonlight]

Two thousand? Goodness gracious!

[ But a smile spreads across her face. ]

Do you have an England in your world? If so, is there still a monarchy?

[signifies]

[ The second English person who's asked about a monarchy. Clark nods. ]

It's called the United Kingdom now. Queen Elizabeth II is the current monarch.