ᵐᵒᵈᵉˡ ⁰¹ ⁽ᵗᵉˣᵗ⁾

[littlebisque]

[Two weeks. Two weeks she's been here, every day more stressful than the last. Natalie depends on logic, it's her only anchor in a twisted-up, confusing world - but there's not enough of it here. Powers that shouldn't exist, technology that shouldn't exist, machines that the government put inside her. A job that's loud and chaotic, where she's sent arbitrarily from one random item to the next, fast, fast, fast, never letting her stop, and the machine blares angrily at her if she's even two seconds late. She can't stand it, but she's terrified of what might happen if she tries to quit.

And that's not even to mention the bizarre images and voices vibrating in her head - (that last one's the network, of course, but it's hard to tell how much of it is real, if any, and it deeply unsettles her). She's been trying to ignore it, but it's easy to activate, and there's no end to it.

She's had enough.]

I can't do this

Please let me go home

["Post." And the thought slips away into the ether.

She doesn't expect a reply, not really.]

Comments

[helladoomed]

[She is 1000% reassuring.]

nobody knows why. most people think it's completely fuckin random

people just get lucky

or unlucky

[littlebisque]

... Yeah. The wrong place at the wrong time.

[which is. literally where they are.]

[helladoomed]

pretty much

or the right time

some people are better off here

[littlebisque]

Better? [She can't even imagine that.]

[helladoomed]

yeah

most people just want to go home, right? but some people who were brought here, they were actually dying back home

or dead

so.

second chance

[littlebisque]

[A long pause. But... dead is dead. It's final, that's the whole point.]

That's impossible

[helladoomed]

Is any weirder than people getting superpowers?

[littlebisque]

They're both impossible

[helladoomed]

cept they're also true here

Hell you have superpowers now

[littlebisque]

[... And that's true, she realizes. She didn't think of them as superpowers, as if she was some big hero, regardless of what the tattoo on her wrist said... But there is that one weird, impossible thing she can do now. Making things small. She doesn't like it, but it opens a lot of possibilities.

As does... bringing back the dead...]

Who can they bring back?

[helladoomed]

Dunno

whoever they want

never really seen a pattern

[littlebisque]

But if you wanted a specific person...

[helladoomed]

doesn't work like that

sometimes people show up in like groups though?

[littlebisque]

Groups?

[helladoomed]

Buncha people from the same world.

[littlebisque]

I only want one.

[helladoomed]

who ya missin'?