01 | video

[thetruestbeliever]

Um. Hi. I'm Henry.

[ He knows full well how to use a smartphone so there's no awkwardness there, it's more the fact that he's addressing people he can't see and hasn't even met in person yet. They all do it so it's nothing new, it's just figuring out how to start this that has him fumbling for words for a moment. Some people might not even really care who he is and what his name is, but he likes to be friendly. Might as well be authentic, even in a place like this. ]

I've been here for a few weeks now, I...haven't met a lot of people yet. And I was thinking about where we all come from.

[ There's a lot to fear or at least be worried about when it comes to this place, so idle chitchat like what he's initiating might not be super welcomed by everyone, but messages like these are easy to ignore, he figures. He's curious and he wants to know people better; the ones who are willing to listen and respond, anyway. ]

I know of a lot of places, some of them...kind of bad. But I didn't know a place like this could exist. So. I was thinking maybe there are places even worse than this out there. Or maybe more places like where I come from, where things are more...normal. Ish. [ The 'ish' is because, well, his hometown doesn't even technically exist. But that's a story for another time. ] What's your home like? Is this place better than what you left behind?

[ And, because he is a teenage boy: ] What do you miss most? I miss really good New York pizza. And my family. I really miss my family, but at least my mom's here. Well, one of them, at least. [ Oh. Right. That's another story. That'll have to wait. ]

Comments

voice.

[recinerate]

[That hits him hard - unexpectedly so, because even after months on the Barge with the unlikely friends he managed to make, Beyond's brain still doesn't work the way other people's brains operate, with an assumption of common interests and connections created from them. It takes him a moment to gather himself enough to respond, and he's even more quiet when he does so.]

You don't even know my name, Henry. How are you so certain that you wish to be my friend?

voice.

[thetruestbeliever]

[ Henry is, perhaps, a little too naive even still, even now after the things he's seen and been through. If he sees something in a person that seems bad, he backs off, he gets wary. But so far, he's not getting a bad vibe from this person. That could change, of course. ]

I think we all kind of...need each other. I try to see the good stuff in people, you know? Unless I have a reason not to.

voice ~> video.

[recinerate]

I see.

[People, in Beyond's experience, usually don't need a reason to be awful to each other. When you've been trained since a young age to solve difficult, usually violent crimes, it seems more part of the human experience, a pattern instead of an exception.

Beyond almost never shows his face on a network - it's in completely opposition to the stringent security measures he had ingrained on him at the House. But he's reminded of something he decided on a while ago, that he didn't want to live by the rules of the House any longer - he'd been distracted by being ripped out of the life he'd carved out for himself on the Barge and brought here, the horrors of becoming a wendigo and being killed for a third time, but something about Henry sparks something inside his brain that recognizes that desire he'd given form with words those many months ago.

So he turns the camera on and shows Henry who he is - dark-ringed eyes, disheveled hair framing a pale face, a somber expression. Meet your new friend, Henry.]

My name is Beyond. And - you're right. In a place like this, it's in the common interest to work together.