oo1. ( video - - early hours of october 2nd )

[realimperfect]

[ The video feed opens to a mostly dark room, a diffused light somewhere in the room providing enough light with which to see Re-L. It’s nearly 3 AM at the time of recording, and yet there she is, lounged on some piece of furniture in her apartment, a small throw rug over her feet, the soft patter of rain in the background.

She leans forward to settle the communicator on a table, pushing a stray piece of bang too short to make her ponytail behind her ear as she straightens again. Many things, of late, have had her thinking. Perhaps a little too much, but it wouldn’t be a day in Re-L’s world without a little over thinking and, perhaps, idle musing. Piling thoughts related to how, maybe, things could have been different in her home world had things aligned different, how exactly she may have landed herself here.. etcetera.

An abandoned book sits beside her, which seems to indicate she’s been up too late reading, thinking a little too much in the rain as a precipitant to this : ]

Does anyone else here ever wonder about how, maybe, things could have turned out differently if only you’d… done things differently? Behaved differently or been.. made a different person?

Perhaps listened to directives instead of blatantly disobeying and following your instincts.. asking fewer questions.. ?

[ Blue eyes narrow slightly as lightning streaks above her, a roll of thunder loud enough to hear over the communicator seeming to distract her for a moment. ]

That’s the problem with questions and finding their answers - - A lie is the truth until you recognize it as a lie, and by then, you can’t take back the question.

That’s the problem with my questions, really, I still haven’t quite figured out how to start taking them back -

[ Re-L stops before completing that thought, a small ‘mrrp!’ sounding as a little kitten with black and brown spots climbs his way up the couch to her, which.. seems to shock her for all of a second before she’s reaching to gently detach him from the sofa material with a tut, the other hand reaching to shut the device off since who knows how long this will take - ]

Atlas, can you not climb every damn thing in this apartment?

Comments

[realimperfect]

[ Re-L gives a pensive noise, a little hum rising from the back of her throat as she debates what to tell him. It's late, and she's sure she'll be a little more loose lipped than usual, but on the same coin... she doesn't want to go around blabbing every bit of her strange history. If there's a single way to make every single person in this quarantine think she's absolutely bizarre it's definitely rooted in the way she ended out in the world in the first place, out and about and available for stealing. She does wonder, though, why this place chose to pluck her up when she'd had much more deeply rooted feelings of not belonging and wanting out whilst in the Dome - ]

Depends on who you talk to. I'm sure those that fell with the Dome or died otherwise would say no. I... had been outside before, so I had already been vaccinated and had a better chance than others..

I just didn't expect for the home I'd known to be rubble and my life now to be a small ship with one other sentient human being and two autoreivs. [ She pauses, and then feels the need to amend: ]

They - Vincent, Pino, Kristeeva - aren't bad, just the.. destruction, I'm sure you understand.

[bringbackgold]

[ He understands, sure. As much as he possibly can. His world, he's learned, is shockingly normal compared to so many others. There's nothing like Domes or Androids or non-humans living on his earth. It's just earth as standard as one would expect. And even though compared to others here, his life is pretty normal, it's pretty extraordinary back home. Not many get to compete and travel the way he does. Not many people get to spend time with athletic icons from other countries. ]

I do.

[ At least logically. ]

At least good things came out of it.

[ He's referring to the names she mentions, of course. Something good has to come out of all the bad, he thinks. ]

You miss them?

[ He knows he misses friends and family from home from time to time. And it makes him all the more grateful and glad to have Yuri's presence. ]

[realimperfect]

Good is relative, in this case, but, yes. [ Good on her terms, but she's sure they weren't great for everything living left behind in the rubble of the Dome. She doesn't spare it much thought - the idea in itself is horrifying. Any organic being left would become ill and slowly drown in their own lungs as she almost had before being treated for it, and it's all a bit too much to think about when it comes to more than few of her fellow citizens being included in that grouping.

Sure, they hadn't been the most welcoming group of people, to her, but.. they were still other people. She got to survive and move on with a few other living, talking beings. ]

Sometimes, yes... Some more than others.

[ Missing Pino is kind of hard to do except in times of extreme boredom. ]

I tend not to miss the perpetually four-year-old autoreiv, but, at times, her comic relief wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to happen to me, either.

[bringbackgold]

[ He doesn't even think about it, and what comes out is almost reflexive. ]

Aw. Four?

[ Wow. He's trying to imagine Re-L with a four year old and that's just...an entirely new thing. In fact, if she hadn't straight told him about it, he probably wouldn't have believed it was true. ]

Children can be great for that.

[realimperfect]

Yes. And will never grow more mature. It's her programming. [ Pino.. had her merits, sure. But that child like personality was what annoyed the shit out of her more than anything else in the world. Granted, children were not all that common in Romdeau, so it wasn't as though she would have had much experience with them even if she'd liked children. ]

I tend to prefer Kristeeva's company when possible, but Pino has the ability to accurately gauge spacial distance, so.. it's nice to know just how far away something is when you're trying to figure out the logistics of getting there.

... Or when Vincent wanders too far, where the hell he's gotten, exactly.

[bringbackgold]

[ Programming. Oh. For a moment, he misses 2B. She was the first stranger here he befriended, and she's gone. It's weird to him that she is, too. But he had known for awhile that she was intended to leave. Despite the way Re-L talks, Otabek thinks there's something to it. He's not quite figured out all of her cues yet, though, so he knows he can test the waters. ]

They sound troublesome.

[ Only not. He is trying to figure out what she'll say to that. Test it. See what she'll say. Surely, she can't think that people's time spent with her is only valuable based on their merits. ]

[realimperfect]

Not entirely. Like I said, sometimes it's a good... release of tension. Distraction from .. everything. [ Considering everything was survival in her version of Earth, it isn't really hard to guess what she needs or wants distraction from. She sighs, looking away from the camera for a moment as she watches Atlas scrabble off to play with some thing or another. It's a good distraction to pull out of the subject of 'home' -

Since she's promptly diving down to pull him back in to her lap. ]

Really, the carpet now? I have all kinds of things for you!

[bringbackgold]

[ The corner of his mouth twitches into a slight smirk. That's probably more like he was expecting to hear in response. He's glad, though. Glad that there are people like that for her at home. Everyone needs someone like that in their life, he thinks. He's always been grateful for his friendships away from work. He's grateful for distractions, and he's happy to have who he does in his life. ]

They say you buy cats a ton of toys, and they'l chose to play with the bag you brought them home in.

[ he's found his will play with just about anything. ]

[realimperfect]

[ Pino was a bit of a blessing and a curse. She helped to keep Vincent distracted with play time and trying whatever hair brained scheme they'd come up with now. Sometimes, she wore on her last nerve, but most times it all kind of evened out where it counted. She was useful for things, after all, just.. less than Kristeeva presumably. Re-L does tend to be a bit harsh with her, at any rate -

The little autoreiv wore on her nerves more quickly than her pride was willing to admit. ]

I'd say whoever this 'they' is they're correct. Thankfully the bag was paper instead of plastic... it's actually still on the floor in my living room because he seems to like it so much.

... I may have to go back and get one of those cave like beds if he keeps up liking it. Give him a place to hide.

[bringbackgold]

Mine have played with plastic bags a few times. Aiman likes to put it on like a cape and run around.

[ Sigh. It's kind of hilarious to watch, actually. He pretty much watches them do all sorts of goofy things like that. They're really kind of adorable. He sighs happily when he hears something in the background. A kitten working it's way up to the counter. He gets up for a moment to move her, returning with Aiman, the little black kitten, in tow. ]

Cave beds are great. They like it. I have a couple and the kittens used to pile on each other inside.

[realimperfect]

... Are you sure the cat is liking it? I mean, aren't they prone to getting stuck in those things and then scaring themselves?

[ She's been shown cat videos, Otabek... enough of them to know these things happen. Just don't ask the context in which she was shown these things because she definitely won't answer. ]

Atlas seems to like small spaces like that so.. I'll have to grab one on the way back from my grocery shop tomorrow. Provided those.. spirits aren't still lurking around too closely..

[bringbackgold]

They seem to. At least Aiman does. She seems to be less easily frightened and less clever than the others.

[ He loves her, though. Clearly. She heard her name and comes prancing over from play. ]

Ah...yeah. Those. They're troublesome.

[ He almost forgot about it. ]

[realimperfect]

Less clever, hm? [ That seems like a shot at the little cat, Otabek, but she's not going to call him on it. Instead she turns to watch what Atlas is up to off camera, apparently finding it to be acceptable as she turns back to the screen. Watching small animals was pretty much like treating them like children, so far as she can tell.

.. The circumstances just happen to be that she has little to no experience with either. ]

Yes, very much so. I've been... staying inside as much as possible, lately.

[bringbackgold]

[ He loves her all the same - arguably, she's his favorite of the kittens. It's okay that she's not the most clever and gets into the most trouble right now. ]

She finds herself in much more trouble than the others.

[ Half-smile when he says it. ]

I've been trying to avoid them. I can't stay in as much as I'd like to avoid them.