XOqNI

[tongueamok]

Hello, this is Carlisle. I mean, it's not Carlisle as in I'm actually answering you right now, so if you're trying to reply to me at the second, you should probably save your breath because I'm not really here. This is some kind of a recording of my voice, but this is my communicator. I'm going to assume these devices are as common here as they are in other places — not my world, but others, ones more technologically advanced than where I come from— so if you'd like to leave me a message, then you may do so here, or er... Right. Here is fine. So just leave yo— [beep]

Comments

[circumitus]

Seriously? Do they not have dogs in your world or something?

[tongueamok]

Oh no, they do. We didn't get many coming through Bear Den, and I didn't venture far from the area unless I had to.

[circumitus]

A homebody, huh? Can't say that's a surprise. [Carlisle doesn't seem like he gets out that much.] Couldn't have been easy, being ripped away from your home like that.

[tongueamok]

It wasn't.

[He still feels guilt over leaving people behind. There's no telling if the folks of Bear Den will be okay -- they were already struggling economically, and now they're without a church, healer, and negotiator, as well.]

There's not much to be done about it for the moment, though.

[circumitus]

If it's any consolation, it seems that you're able to return back to your world at the point in time you had left it. Know this from personal experience.

[That way Carlisle doesn't have to think much about people being without him all this time.]

[tongueamok]

I do hope that's true in all cases. It would ease my mind to know that my responsibilities back home are not going unchecked.

[circumitus]

Have heard it to be true so far. Can't say for certain, though. Yours is a much different case.

[Who's to say that Carlisle wouldn't just return to the previous place that ripped him from his original home? But even Rey knows better than to feed him that food for thought.]

[tongueamok]

True. Most here seem to have been brought directly from their homes, whereas I've been plucked from a world already foreign to me.

[He's already thought about that, Rey. It's the nature of his paranoid mind.]

[circumitus]

Well, there's no surefire answer unless one of those gods come back with answers about that Door. Perhaps that thing could send you back home.

[Or something.]

[tongueamok]

Yes. Perhaps it could.

Would you go home if you could, Miss Rey?

[circumitus]

Not really. There isn't much to go back to.

Or, rather... am not eager to return, given the circumstances that occurred after leaving it last.

[tongueamok]

Were you dead?

[circumitus]

Yes. [Wait.] No.

...

Don't know. Being dead would probably be better than the alternative, though.

[tongueamok]

I see.

I suppose whatever forces bring us to these worlds would be eager to find those who are dead in their own. That gives them no other option but to remain, should they wish to stay alive.

[circumitus]

That seems like a liable possibility. Classic case of Stockholm syndrome.

[Assuming that Carlisle knows what that even is. Which he probably doesn't.]

[tongueamok]

Of what?

[That'd be a no.]

oh god that icon killed me and i'm still dying help

[circumitus]

[Typical.]

It's when a captive develops feelings towards their captor, such as trust or fondness or complacency.

In this case, suppose we're expected to be grateful to the gods for extending their 'mercy' towards those of us coming from more shitty circumstances.

I love it. :>

[tongueamok]

I see no reason to be grateful to those who feed on us like cattle.

[circumitus]

Well, you may not, but for others who have nothing to go home to? They're not quite in the same position as you.

[tongueamok]

Are you grateful, then?

[circumitus]

Honestly? Don't really know...

[tongueamok]

You don't know.

Are you afraid of death? Or is this just preferable?

[circumitus]

Am not afraid of dying. Have died plenty of times before coming here not to be bothered by the prospect.

[Lies. All lies.]

Just have personal reasons for not wanting to return home.

[tongueamok]

I see.

I suppose there's no real point in worrying over such things now. With the false gods able to bring back the dead, I expect people will come to prefer enslaved immortality to facing their end.

[Says the guy who is terrified of said end himself, but he has his reasons.]

[circumitus]

[There is a distinct bitterness in her tones when she speaks:] Yes, suppose there is always that.

[A fact that Rey is all too loathe to be reminded herself, as someone who already had no intentions of being brought back the next time she dies.]