audio;

[fuckinstoplights]

... how long have people been trapped here?

[It's a very quiet, hesitant question. Almost as if the speaker is loathe to actually open his mouth and say something.]

[Because hahaha public speaking.]

Hasn't... anyone tried to go home? To get back to where they belong?




Where they have someone to live for?

Comments

[audio]

[alley_kit]

I've been here almost four months now. And I don't think anybody here'll get to go home til what's wrong with the magic in the city is fixed.

[Her own tone gets a bit quieter and more solemn.]

I know how hard it is being away from the people you care about, though. I really miss my brother and everyone.

[audio]

[fuckinstoplights]

Four months... that's ...

Why won't they let us go home? I can't do anything for this place.

Re: [audio]

[alley_kit]

A lot of people have been wondering that. I'm not sure whether it's that they won't send us home or they just can't. I know bringing people here is hard for Rhea, so maybe sending people back would be hard too.

And just touching other people enough so you don't get sick helps, cause it makes energy. And I'm sure there's more we can do too, once we figure out how.

[fuckinstoplights]

I think they just won't. Why do they need us? Can't they use gasoline, or air to make power?

I don't like touching.

[alley_kit]

I don't think it's the kind of energy that powers machines. It's something different. More like... life energy, I guess. The miasma- that's what makes you sick if you don't get enough touch- sucks all up or destroys it or something and the people who live here can't make more themselves. That's why they need us. If we all left, they wouldn't be able to make more life-energy, and they'd all die.

And yeah not everybody does. But you'd probly like being sick even less. [Pause] Have you made any friends here? It's usually easier with them than just asking a random person.

[fuckinstoplights]

Life energy.

Then they really shouldn't have brought me here. There isn't anything I can do fort hem.

[He pauses too.]

A few. I haven't seen some of them though.

[alley_kit]

Really? How come?

[One could almost picture the headtilt that statement was getting.]

That's good. Everybody needs some friends around. And for the ones you haven't seen, though... hmm... do you know what kinds of things they like to do?

[fuckinstoplights]

I'm not alive.

[He's just an AI, after all. Everyone says they aren't alive.]

...

They pick fights with candles.

[alley_kit]

You sound pretty alive to me. Besides, if the miasma can make you sick, then you're alive. I don't think it can hurt not alive things.

[There's a pause in which Kit tries and fails to figure out how 'picking fights with candles' would work.]

...How do you fight a candle?

[fuckinstoplights]

Are you sure? What about plants?

...

I don't know. He didn't say.

[alley_kit]

I think it hurts plants too, just a lot slower than it does animals and people, since plants don't really do a whole lot besides grow.

I don't really see how a candle could put up much of a fight. I mean, I guess somebody could throw one at you or something, but then you'd be fighting the person, not the candle.

[fuckinstoplights]

But the plants don't touch anything. And they're fine... from what I saw.

I don't know either. He said something else before I could ask.

[alley_kit]

That's because the energy we make gets shared with them, and all the people and animals here too.

Hmmm... well if you don't know how to do the kinds of things your friend likes to do, what kinds of things do you like to do? [Because this must be an easier question, right?]

[fuckinstoplights]

Then why can't some of us be the same? Why does everyone have to touch someone?

...

I don't know.

[alley_kit]

Because... that's just how the magic works, I guess. We're different than the people who live here, so the magic affects us differently. Like how some medicines work different on different people.

...

How do you not know the kinds of things you like to do?

[Because seriously... how does one not know that?]

[fuckinstoplights]

Why are we different?

I... haven't ever gotten asked that question.

[alley_kit]

I guess it's because we're not from here, so we weren't here when the miasma was first unleashed. Least that's the only thing I can think of.

Well, now you have. Though if you don't know what you like to do... hmm... do you know what kinds of things make you happy? Like, I dunno... music or sunshine or animals or anything? [Maybe that's general enough question?]

[fuckinstoplights]

So that's why you're different.

... my friend made me happy.

[alley_kit]

Yeah. That's why we're all different; we all come from other worlds besides this one.

[Slight pause. Oh.]

...The friend who's still back home, right? Yeah... my brother's kinda like that. I mean, all my friends here are great and everything, but... it's just not the same thing.

That doesn't mean you can't find other things to make you happy while you're here though. Like your friend who fights candles. Or finding out what kinds of things you do like to do.

[fuckinstoplights]

Like the other robots?

Yes. [He almost continues, but... stops himself. Maybe it's too personal.] No, it's probably not the same thing.

How am I supposed to do that if I have to worry about touching all the time?

[alley_kit]

Uh-huh. They're from a world called Cy-ber-tron, where everything is made of metal, like them. Which really doesn't sound that nice to me, but I guess it's probably great if you're a robot.

The only way to find out what you like and don't like is to try different things til you find something that works. And the touching doesn't have to be deliberate. Or even gentle.

Like, if you were reading a book or watching a movie or something, you could kinda lean against your friend or let him lean against you while you had something to distract you. Or if you don't like sitting around, maybe you could wrestle, or spar with each other? He sounds like he might like that sort of thing, and that counts as touching too.

[fuckinstoplights]

... Yes. They've said that. I've heard about it.

Then I would have to bother him a lot more.

[alley_kit]

If he's your friend, wanting to hang out with him a little more and do stuff with him won't bother him. That's the kind of thing friends do. I mean, you and your friend back home must have done stuff together sometimes, right?