maskormenace | 1 💣 VIDEO.

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[ The feed turns on to show a blonde, mustached man in a white dress shirt — the sleeves rolled up to his elbows — and blue tie, currently attempting to juggle holding his communicator, lighting a cigarette, and holding his suit jacket in place (slung over his shoulder) all at once, because these are all clearly equally necessary tasks. When he speaks it's with a twangy Southern accent — recognizable as West Virginian to those who would — seemingly not all that perturbed by his situation. Maybe just slightly inconvenienced, but that's all. ]

So… I guess this is pretty weird, but let's be honest— while I may barely know of any of you, I feel like I can still speak for most of us when I say things could easily be weirder. Personally if anything, I feel like it was only a matter of time before I ended up in some alternate dimension... it's like eventually you just reach that stage in life when everything else crazy's pretty much already happened to you, so all you can say is, "Sure, why not?" Makes perfect sense. [ That might just be sarcasm. Although maybe not? An even mixture, probably. ] But the best part is—

[ This is about the point where Ray proves why it can be dangerous to record yourself and walk, because as he starts to cross the street the video suddenly bounces, his communicator flying as he is struck hard by a car, shattering the windshield before he's tossed off the vehicle with a shriek. Oh, not a car; the screen shortly reveals that it was, in fact, an ambulance. Ray can be heard yelling, cursing, and making all sorts of noise as then the ambulance bumps over something -- maybe the curb or maybe Ray himself -- as it moves to pull over. Audio somewhat muffled, he shouts after it: ]

Jeezus! Y'all call that driving?! [ Then, pained and more to himself: ] Dukes. Well that's gotta be some kinda record. But maybe pain's a good sign in this case... okay--

[ He groans from still-mostly-off-screen, straining as he tries to determine if he can still move his legs, let alone get up. ]

Oh, wow, they still work!

[ After Ray's gotten back up to his feet he reaches for his communicator again with his singularly gloved hand, looking surprisingly pleased for a man who was just in a traffic accident. And whose face is bleeding and lacerated by glass, some shards still stuck in it. In the background: sirens, so he's gonna walk... as quickly as he can away from the crash site. ]

All good! I'm good, it’s all good, just a little— [ He cracks his back, hissing in mild discomfort, then exhaling in harsh relief. ] Whew. That's better. Boy though, could that have been ugly… especially since that ambulance sure isn't going anywhere in a hurry now. Some welcome wagon.

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[It's a very vague answer, and Alfie assumes he doesn't really want to give details to a stranger - and while he might poke and prod at it later, he decides to leave it for now.]

Yeah, I do all sorts of things; yeah. I've got a temple I go to here. Of course it's better to be at home among family, but I haven't got that option now, do I.

[ It shouldn't be too difficult, at least; context depending, Ray's not especially secretive. ]

No... I guess you don't. But there's always friends you could spend it with too, right?

Sure, yeah. I'm not entirely alone.

That's good. I hate spending holidays alone, it's so damn depressing.

You've got Christmas in a few months. Do you celebrate that one?

Oh, you bet I do. Usually with my friends, if they're not too busy spending time with their families-- but it seems like that won't be much of a problem this year, so. That might be nice.

Have you got friends here? People from home?

No one from home, no, but I don't really mind meeting people here. It might make gift exchanges a little more interesting, for one thing. And um... at least we're all sorta in the same boat.

Yeah. I'm the only imPort at my congregation, so the natives are who I'm gonna spend the holidays with. They're all right, if you can find ones that don't bother you for it.

[ With a slow nod: ]

That's always pretty important, yeah. I think as long as you're in a place or with people that mean something to you, that's all that really matters. [ A pause. ] Well, mean something good, that is.

It's a connection. Yeah. Something of home, even when I can't be there.

It's nice that you have that. Still too bad you can't be with your family for it, though. I'm not really close with mine, but I can see how that'd probably get to people.

Is your not being close related to the religion thing, by any chance?

Mm-hmm, in a way. Plus the whole gay thing.

Ah. Yeah.

Your lot are out in the open about it in this world, you know. Not likely to be a problem for you here.

[Says Alfie, who is roughly 0% aware of the issues modern day gay people face.]

I mean, I like to be. [ Open about it, that is. ] Most of my family still doesn't know, but with them it's just easier to keep it that way. But otherwise, so as long as it isn't more of a problem, I'll take it.

Yeah, they even get married here, mate. You'll be all right.

[He sounds kind of bewildered by the idea, but not hostile, at least.]

Can they not, where you come from? Granted, it is still a pretty recent development here in the States, too, but I wouldn't think England'd be too far behind.

I'm from 1922, mate. We're a long way off from that.

You're kidding. Wow, then this must be-- [ A beat. ] But you seem to be handling it pretty well. I take it either you're just one of them stoic types, or you've probably been here a while?

A year. Yeah. There's still all sorts of surprises, but landing here in the first place was the biggest of them all.

Oh yeah, I can imagine... I mean, and I'm normally pretty used to things getting weird, but this is a new one even for me.

How did you get used to it?

By living here, mate. I haven't been hiding in my flat for a year. I had to get used to it.

I guess that would do it, yeah. It's just hard for me to imagine showing up somewhere a hundred years in the future... but I guess the "showing up" part's already weird enough that everything after that seems like pretty small potatoes.

Is there anything you still run into problems with, then, or have you pretty much got things figured out by now?

Yeah.

[That's an easy enough answer. He could live here for ten years and still run into problems and other surprising things.]

Nearly every day there's something, yeah. But other than the imPort trouble, it's small things now. A moment of forgetting how many pennies go into a dime, being puzzled by some reference to the past that is my future, that sort of thing.

[A pause.]

Well, no, that last bit's not always so small, is it. But sometimes it is; usually it is.