hadriel | 001 [video]

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001 [video]

[Have a wide-eyed teenager fussing with her phone. The video is a little shaky. She's sitting in one of the apartments, Barnaby's head in her lap, and seems to be sincerely cheerful despite waking up someplace far from home. Miriam waves.]

Hi! Looks like we're all stuck here for a bit, so I figured I'd introduce myself and what not. It kinda sucks right now, but that doesn't mean I don't wanna meet you guys! Anyway, I'm Miriam, and this handsome dude is Barnaby.

[Barnaby sneezes.]

He's my guy, so don't shoot him or anything. He won't do anything bad.

Two things.

First, uh, I know it's a long shot and all, but anybody seen a lady named Bethany? She's really tall and she's got brown hair and she's my mom, so it'd be really cool if I could find her. Maybe she's not here, but I gotta ask.

Secondly--

[Miriam holds up a crude drawing to the phone. It's the logo for the Sons of Plunder - a human skull with blue roses for eyes.]

--anybody walking around wearing this? Asking for a friend.

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No, he's really not. [Miriam presses her face against Barnaby's neck for a moment, making him grunt.] I named him after this movie I liked. There was a character named Barnaby in it. He was pretty cool, so...yeah. Anyway, his full title is His Royal Highness Sir Barnabas Barks A Lot the Third.

[ She needs to stop being so cute. It makes him horribly protective. ]

Have there been two before him? That's good, I hope he lives up to his name.

I've seen few people who were able to bring animals with them. I left several horses and a wagon train behind. I think you were lucky.

There were two other babies in the...litter? I dunno if they were Barnabies, but he was the third. [Miriam nods proudly. Then she gasps.] You had a horse? Really? What're they like? Are they nice? Are their ears really soft?

[ She's never seen a horse. How do people get around in her world? ]

I was with my army. We travel by horse, and yes. Their ears are soft. I've been riding since I was a boy. Don't your people use them?

[Miriam gapes at him. There were horses! Multiple horses.] No! I mean, not on Echo Six. Maybe some other places, but I've never been there. Can they go really fast?

For a while.

[ Yes would be an easier answer, but Damen is a better horseman than that.

He tries to imagine a place where there just aren't any, and can't do it. How strange her world must be. ]

You can push a good horse very hard, and cover many miles in one day, but they need to rest just like people.

What do you do, on Echo Six, if you need to go a long way?

[Miriam nods, considering this. She supposes it must be like with Barnaby. He can run really fast for a bit, but then he has to rest. But he can go for a long time at a steady trot.] Makes sense. I mean, even Barnaby's gotta rest and he's special.

Depends. If you wanna go a really long way, you gotta get on a ship. But if you just wanna get across the station, you can take the train. [Miriam pauses.] 's like a mechanical horse. Kinda. It's on a track and it goes back and forth.

[ Ships, of course, are familiar to Damen, and that makes him nod dismissively. Ships are for long distances over water. That's not what he means.

The concept of a train, though. That gets his attention. ]

And it runs on this track, like a wagon?

[ He leans forward. ] How does it move if there is no horse? Your world must be full of wonders, Miriam.

Uh huh! It's mechanics. [She frowns.] I don't really know how, though. I mean, I do, but I dunno how to explain it. It's got an engine, then you put fuel in it and then everything works.

But yeah. Home is pretty cool.

My world has nothing like that. It's hard to imagine a place where no one needs horses.

[ This is why people have called Damen ancient, he knows. That's a very strange thought, too. ]

I'd like to see them. The...mechanics? In this place are strange to me, too. The kitchen is full of them.

[ Machines, he means. He knows how to use literally none of them. ]

Must be different. Your world, I mean. Seeing the sky all the time. [And having horses. Stuff like that.

Miriam brightens.]

Oh! I can show you how to use those. They're pretty simple. Well, they're not exactly like the ones back home, but I figured most of 'em out.

Can you? I would appreciate that, very much.

[ He's smiling, though he's also looking at her with some mystification. ]

What do you mean - you've never seen the sky?

Sure! I'll come over sometime, yeah?

[She shrugs.]

Not like you have, I mean. We got stars and stuff, but we're in the wrong place for sunsets. Stuff like that. Echo Six is all metal, so it doesn't rain either. But it's got windows, so you can look at things. That's why I wanna fly. So I can go somewhere else and see a real sunset.

You will be welcome, yes.

[ By Damen, at least. He'll have to convince Laurent to behave when she comes over; he's notoriously private.

The truth is, though, they both need the help. ]

Your home is metal...but then, where is it?

[ If they can see stars, why not the sky? ]

Is it not...on the ground?

Cool. I'll show up in a bit. That all right?

[Best to ask. Just in case.]

Well...you know how the moon revolves around the earth and stuff. Well, Echo Six is kinda like a big, metal ship that's also a moon. [She grins.] We're way up in the sky. I guess this place is the first real ground I've ever been on.

The fourth spire.

[ He says, which means yes, she's perfectly welcome.

Whether or not the moon revolves is not something Damen can say he's given thought to, so he says nothing, and takes her word for it. ]

You're saying...that your ship, revolves around your world? Like a moon of its own.

[ His head shakes. Damen can't even imagine it. ]

Why? Why don't your people live on the ground?

Awesome. I'll be over in a bit.

[Once she finds where Barnaby has hidden her shoes.]

More or less, yeah.

[She shrugs.]

Lotsa worlds aren't safe anymore. Turns out humanity's pretty good at improvising. I got friends who grew up on a planet, though. Gilly was from...umm...Strata! Yeah! He was from Strata.

You have friends on more than one planet.

[ Just give him a minute to get his head around that. Travel between individual countries takes a long enough time where Damen is from. The idea that there may be people on another world who are reachable just seems crazy. ]

I…cannot imagine that. I’d like to see this metal ship of yours. How strange that would be!

[Okay, that's one shoe, now where's the other?]

Uh huh! Gilly's been lotsa places too, way more than anybody else I ever met. Wish I had a picture or somethin' to show you. Ships are awesome. I'm gonna fly one someday.

Where would you fly? To another world?

[ Somewhere she could see the sky, maybe. ]

Anywhere! Everywhere. I just wanna go someplace that doesn't have a ceiling. [Miriam sighs wistfully.] But I'm not big enough yet. You gotta be eighteen to get trained, or be really tall and pretend.

[She's unfortunately tiny.]

You want to see the sky.

[ That’s obvious enough. It seems like such a small thing to want. He suddenly feels irritated that she’s been brought here, that she’s exchanged a cage of metal for one of rock. ]

Eighteen can’t be far off. What are you now, sixteen?

[ He’s guessing about that. She is tiny, in fairness, but not so terribly young. ]

Yeah! [She grins.] Yeah, I really do.

[Something she can touch, and not just stare at through a layer of glass. She's seen pictures, even movies, but that's not the same. It doesn't have that warmth, that -- energy.]

I look sixteen? That's awesome. I'm probably fifteen, though. Dunno for sure.

[But that's what she's been sticking with for a while now, so that's what she's going with.]

[ Damen isn't always wonderful about placing that sort of thing, though apparently this time he's not far off. ]

How is it that you don't know what age you are?

[ Surely her mother would have known. They couldn't have been separated for that long, could they? ]

Can't remember my real parents. But they left me with Gilly and said they'd be back. He was pissed. [Miriam giggles at the thought.] Oh, uh, my mom's not my first mom, you know? She just looks after me. Kinda like Gilly does. They had to guess how old I was, so there you go.

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