exsilium | 001

[The sounds of outside filter through the network, distant with little to be heard beyond the faint rustle of the wind, but there nonetheless. A distinctive clink-fwoosh of a lighter disrupts anything further, followed by the slow crackle of burning paper and tobacco and a satisfied inhale and steady exhale. When he finally speaks, it's with a tone that lacks interest.]

Well, isn't this quaint. Doubt I would have believed it were I not seeing it with my own eyes. At least the woman greeting me was persuasive enough. [You can practically hear the dirty little smirk.]

Even so, I'm not quite sure how I feel out of my home and sent on my merry way towards college kid dorm rooms. Or rather, I'm perfectly aware of how I feel about it, just the words I'm looking for aren't for public ears.

Still. Judging by the archives on this thing, there's plenty of you about who know this world, so come on, share your wisdom with an outsider, would you? One can never know too much.

[A pause as he inhales another lungful of smoke, eventually adding with a thoughtful exhale:] Oh, and don't patronise me with the basics. I'm curious, not stupid.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

You must have misheard.

No way! I heard right, all right. Either your parents have a totally wicked sense of humor or life is getting even weirder, double-oh-seven.

[Hnnn :|]

My parents were cruel in their naming choices.

Yeah, they wanted to make sure you never had a living girlfriend, that's for sure. But if you didn't end up going into top secret spywork, what did you end up doing with your Bondish life?

Imports and exports. All very dull and uninteresting, I'm afraid. Does allow for travel, though.

Imports and exports of what?

[ She's not sure she even knows what imports and exports really are. ]

Where've you gone? Anyplace like Nepal? Oh, or the Alps! Maybe even the Andes?

Everything.

[So vague.]

And yes, I've been to those. Are they a favourite of yours?

Favorite to get to one day. Have you skied any of them?

I have skied some of them, yes. Are you a skier?

There's like only five things I'd love more than a chance to ski slopes on any of those ranges. You're the luckiest, Mr. Bond!

[ She would love if she could be an easy breezy skier. ]

Pity there doesn't seem to be a way for us to venture that way now. I could do with a few days on the slopes.

Maybe one day we'll have been made to change the world enough that we could head out that way without worrying about the UE. If the UE will still exist with what we're supposed to be doing around here.

That may be years away. Decades. I'm really rather hoping I won't be around here that long.

Or it might be next weekend.

[ Collette grins, not sure how she feels on the idea of really being long term stuck here. But... ]

Have people given you the "we think time stopped back home" theory yet? So far the longest any person's been here seems to be nine months. Long enough to have a baby, but not long enough to say people do get stuck here for the long haul.

The logistics don't work. If I were to age ten years here- God forbid- to then go back to my world would mean regressing.

Mmhmm! Not to mention it doesn't make sense at all for a whole universe to freeze when one person's gone missing. There are so many other possibilities, and like you say, with the regression thing! And what about people who aren't alive for much longer on their own world? If they age past their own death, they regress and then die. That doesn't make much sense to me either.