001: [Video]

[carterbeenbartered]

[Carter turns the camera on and it broadcasts. He doesn't know it's doing this, as he thinks he's just filming a video of himself.]

Entry one. Title: This Place is Fucked Up. Did I mention it's fucked up? Exhibit A, the bathroom--

[Carter swings the camera around and shows the bathroom, which has a wall of shrunken heads. Their eyes roll and they cackle when they see the camera. Carter backs out of the bathroom and closes the door.]

Can you believe that? My door is unlocked, too. What amateur kidnappers. Where's Reefs? He's gonna kill all of you. He's a hard motherfucker. Anytime now. Hey, do you see that?

[The camera flips around to show a Nameless, its mouth stitched shut and carrying a stack of laundry. It passes by the open door to Carter's suite. The teen gasps audibly.]

That guy had a sewn mouth! What the fuck! What the fuck! That is some fucked up Somali-pirate shit!

Comments

Video

[thequeensown]

[Her smile warms as he seems to respond to her, calming down and answering her question.]

It's a pleasure to meet you, Carter... Captain Rowe is in charge of this vessel, not I. You're on a ship, on the chance that you haven't looked out of your cabin window yet. You're a passenger on the Black Tide and our ultimate destination is the Golden Shore. [Her smile is less amused now, and her tone.] None of us were asked before being brought on board this ship, but we are expected to be grateful for being 'saved.'

[A brief pause and her expression eases again.]

Where are you from, Carter? [It was pretty much guaranteed that she wouldn't know the place, but speaking of their home typically helped settle new arrivals.]

Video

[carterbeenbartered]

[He takes in the information. They're on some kinda ship, and apparently they've been 'saved'. Kidnapped. He can understand that well enough.]

I'm from around. Just all over. You know. I travel a lot.

[He's never really had a fixed address. Carter rubs his eye.]

So--we're all stolen?

Video

[thequeensown]

Yeah, I understand.

[Oh, Talia understands that answer, Carter; she's been around more than her fair share of people without a definitive place to call home. She watches him run his eye and if she knew where he was exactly she'd swing by and do her best to help calm him.]

Stolen... kidnapped... saved. All similar ideas that are taken differently from person to person. However you take it, just know that you are among many others that have also been taken from their homes.

Video

[carterbeenbartered]

Oh, boy. My, uh, handler's gonna come looking. I don't wanna be the kidnappers when Reefs gets here.

[Carter laughs a little, but it's not really the laugh of someone who finds it funny. He chews on his lip.]

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[thequeensown]

[Talia's going to quirk a brow at the word 'handler', Carter, because he was just a boy. Why in Havens' name was he in need of a handler?

The Herald knows that strained laughter well, Carter; she's offered more than her fair share of that same laughter in her years. Her smile is gentle as she speaks next.]

For good or ill, there have been instances in others from our distant worlds in arriving as well... It is likely you will find another from your world here. Alternately... [She gives him a meaningful look, because not everyone wanted someone from their world here.] You might find yourself alone in this place, but that friends are at every turn.

[Friends like she, or Lily, or Logan, or Bennett or many of the other good people she's met here already on the Black Tide.]

Video

[carterbeenbartered]

Wait, my world?

[Carter's brow furrows. Different worlds is such a sci-fi concept.]

So the multiple worlds thing is true? And if we're not in my world, where are we?

[Carter puts a hand to his temple. This is giving him a headache. She seems really nice, though. HIs voice is more confident when he speaks to Talia--she just seems soothing and like someone who cares. He likes that.]

Re: Video

[thequeensown]

[Talia nods, er smile ebbing ever so slightly at the brief question. She watches him rub his temple, wishing she was right with him to assure him emotionally that he would be fine.]

Shhh, kitling... we are, none of us among the passengers, entirely sure of where we are. We know we are not upon our own worlds, some of us having been tied to them in unremovable ways before our appearances here.

I do believe it is true, though... there are others from places far more advanced than my own world... in manners that simple distance or location would not explain.

We are, all of us... at the mercy of the Captain.