Before I arrived in this place, Danko told me that I had died for my freedom. Ironic. Now I'm here. Freedom again. Accepting servitude in one way for freedom in others. Follow the rules, behave. Do as they say.

Then you can do what you want. A gold star.

They're afraid of us. They don't understand. We have these abilities..

[A pause]

I don't want to be alone anymore. I don't want to be the only one with these kinds of powers. Someone else out there must have something they can do. I can't be the only one with my curse.

[it's a minute or so of a melody hummed, something thoughtful, simple. it persists even when she finds what she wants – that there video function, the telltale thing she knows for sure is her window to everyone else floating around with these things.

far too quiet for her, and quiet only a moment longer before she speaks up:]

I want to understand what it is your name means. Tell me?

[video]

[The room shown on the feed is sparse, bearing a cot and a small dresser. It's early morning or very late evening depending on who you talk to. The only source of light is a small lamp sitting on the desk beside the device, which does much to illuminate the small, skinny figure beside it. Actually, scratch that-- he's got glowing green eyes.]

It's not enough. [His voice is young and bitter with a searing edge of desperation. And his face is pretty much the same.] It's not enough!

[He stares hard at the pile of books and papers on his desk, then reaches over and grabs something. Whatever it is, it's small enough to fit in his hand. His eyes flare brightly, sickly green and hot; he opens his palm, and nothing but dust remains.]

Do you hear me, Initiative?! THIS ISN'T ENOUGH!

[His voice cracks, and that's the last straw for him. He swipes everything off the desk, lamp included, in one swift and violent display of anger. The lamp goes out, and the network feed ends.]

[ooc: Roommates, feel free to barge in if you want. Or... go back to sleep. lol. OTHERWISE OPEN TO ALL. he's been a bit of a hermit since the intro log and um... well, that was a couple weeks ago. |D]

[ charles is visibly distressed when he appears on the screen, this time. he's in what seems to be some underground facility, and there are other faces behind him—notably collette, emma, galadriel, raven, and others. his eyes remain closed for a second and you can hear him take a deep breath. then: ]

We have... borrowed a gentleman by the name of Richard Lawson...—from the United Earth. He is a cabinet member of the President's. Yes, the President of the United Earth. [ charles clears his throat, steels himself. ]

We've learnt a great many things about the United Earth from his head, and we feel it best to share that information with all of you, here on the Network.

[ charles states the next words with a heavy voice. ]

The President of the United Earth is not human. "He" is—artificial. Artificial Intelligence, or what you would call an A.I.. The United Earth... has never seen his face, as far as we have deduced.

We will try to answer questions about what we have learnt to the very best of our ability, but do be patient. Ah—[ he closes his eyes again, considering. then he nods as though he's made the right decision and he knows it. ]

That is all.

( note: wow i knew i forgot something like a winner. THIS TAKES PLACE DURING/AFTER these linked shenanigans: [ x ] [ x ] [ x ] [ x ] )

I preferred the old books better. [This thing is being folded every which way, because they just had to make this thing harder to use.] At least you knew where you stood with them. The old books never changed; they might never have been easy to use, but they you knew what you were supposed to do with them.

[Is he talking about the book, still? Maybe, maybe not.] With all this talk of the Initiative and the United Earth issues, there's been something that's come up several times. Something I would be worried about, and so should others.

Traitors. Those who turned away from the goal right when their colleagues needed them most. Or the ones who never came to help in the first place, though they said they would. Traitors also includes liars. Yes. Liars. The ones who never tell the truth, especially when the truth could be the information you needed the most.

[He's getting exasperated with this new book.] I wonder, how did everyone else treat liars back home? In Ferelden, we had several ways of punishing those that had committed crimes against the crown, or those who'd lied and were caught. Some of them seemed rather harsh, but if someone who steals loses a finger, why not have the liar lose something as well? Something they value, something close to them, so that they can be hurt as much as they have hurt those around them.

So, how should we treat those liars, here? If we find traitors, what do we do with them? A mock execution, whipping, leaving them bound and gagged in a small room? Killing them would just be too merciful for what they've done, wouldn't it? [He pauses.]

Andraste's foul breath, this new book is more difficult then the other! [Okay, he's done with this book thing. With a yell, he throws it across the room.]

[ The feed flicks on suddenly to show the lovely and interesting image of a rock wall, or perhaps it is the ceiling it is hard to tell. What is easy to tell is the owner is this has no idea how to use the netbook. But hey, after twenty minutes of pressing buttons and hoping something works this is significant progress.

The feed jerks and there is a long suffering sigh. Half of a woman appears on the screen, cut off awkwardly, she fumbles it with some more and for a few minutes the feed is a mixture of blurred imagines and more of the wall.

Once it stills the woman with long dark hair can be properly seen, she looks equal parts tired and frustrated, though she tries to appear as if she is neither. ]

Hello, my name is Kahlan. [ She offers a small smile. ] I am new here and as such I do not know what exactly is happening, other than there was some sort of attack. I require information, I will be most grateful to those willing to provide it. I hold no fondness for being in the dark [ Quite literally. ] about what is happening around me.

 [When the feed starts, the netbook's camera shows you a view of the forest floor.  A deer carcass lies among the grass and twigs, and it's obvious that the poor thing did not have a clean death.  It's in the advanced stages of decomposition, even though the blood around its body is red and fresh.  The camera does not linger on this image for more than a few seconds; it pans upward, to show Koltira's face.

 He's standing over the deer, holding the device in one hand, holding Byfrost with the other.  Agony creases his expression: his jaw is clenched, his eyes narrowed, every muscle in his pale, sallow face is taut with pain.  The guttural growl of his voice occasionally rises in octave as he talks, as though something is beating the shit out of him from the inside.]

Were we brought here to fight for something, or to waste time reliving the past?  Send.  Us.  On.  A mission.

[He stabs the tree next to him with Byfrost, and the sword glows sickly green; the tree bark begins to decay rapidly, as though it's practically melting.  Diseased fumes pour out of the bark, forming a nasty miasma around Koltira's body.]

I need a battle. [he hisses, and blood trickles from the corner of his mouth as he bites down on the inside of his cheek.]  Now.

[There's a pair of big brown eyes - and just that - peering very, very closely into the camera. They blink a few times before their owner backs away slightly, just enough so that the rest of her face can be seen. Aw, it's a cute little girl! She's wearing an elaborate golden crown that appears to be just a touch too big for her head, as shown when it slips down over her forehead. Scowling, she pushes it back up to its rightful place atop her head, and glares daggers at the camera. Her mouth is pressed into a hard, thin line; her eyes are narrowed. It's a strange expression for such a young face.]

You have an awful lot of nerve, dragging me into all of this. This isn't my country. This isn't even my world, apparently, and I'm not sure I even believe all that nonsense. Why should I care? What does it matter to me whether you win or lose?

I'm just a little girl, you know. How much help am I going to be, hmm? And I am a queen, on top of that: queen of a nation with its own war to worry about. Perhaps if you'd asked nicely, I might have sent reinforcements, once things had been settled. Except I can't, now that you've gone and kidnapped me.

And what if I die? What then? Falena would never, ever, ever forgive the death of its queen - you'll just end up with another war on your hands. This Initiative of yours isn't very smart, is it?

[There's a pause, and a pained expression crosses her face for a brief moment. Her voice is suddenly as small as she is.] They could have at least brought Frey here, too. He would know what to do.

[ the woman on screen regards it with a look of mild disinterest, and subtle irritation that comes across from a simple raise of her brows from an otherwise smug face. ]

Oh, this place is desperate, isn't it? [ never mind the fact that she truly believes it's almost impossible. But she's here, others are here. No amount of pinching, or trying to convince herself this is a dream of any sort will change this. ] As much as I'm flattered at being picked to fight in a city's war completely irrelevant to my own, I have much more interesting endeavors awaiting me back home.

[ A beat. ] Besides, I'm sure plenty of people wouldn't consider me 'rebellion material', and I'd agree. [ Though she was good at her craft - she knew - she saw no reason to help them. Unless she benefited from it in some way. Some major, noticeable way. And for now, she saw little benefit at all. But perhaps that was from lack of knowledge. ] Oh, all of this is such an inconvenience.

[ Another pause, as she cants her head to the side gaze flickering to red-painted nails and exhales. ]

Alright, consider me willing to suspend my disbelief for the time being. All you veterans out there who've been here longer than I - I'd appreciate some advice. Information. Help a girl out?

[ A smile, faint and sharp. And the feed ends. ]

Who do I see for medicine?

[The feed clicks on to show Chloe sitting outside somewhere, still within City limits. She smiles as she looks at the camera before tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.] So, I've sort of been thinking. I've seen some people mention wanting to make a guide for new people? I'm... Well, uh, I'm still pretty new here myself, but I think it'd be a nice thing to work on. [Keep it short and sweet, Chloe. Don't ramble on.] But hey, brochures and stuff are kind of boring, and we've got our handy-dandy communicators here plus the network. It shouldn't be too hard to make it an electronic file, maybe even with interview clips or something put together.

Something interactive, is what I'm getting at. [Plus she'd totally like to direct it. Even if it sounds pretty boring and lame in comparison to an actual movie.] If that would interest people, may--

[There's a pause as Chloe looks up and grins at... well, nothing anyone can see.] No, I'm sorry. You can sit here. [Another long pause as she moves over a bit. It's almost like she is having a conversation with someone.] Do you need help? [She sounds concerned before she looks at the netbook and simply closes it.]

[ the sound feed is on at first, but the video is black. harsh and fast typing can be distinctly made out as time goes on, until there's a heavy sigh and an annoyed mutter. ]

Sora, what did you do to this thing?

[ (honestly, considering his first post and his general outlook on computers, Sora breaking a few features on his computer should've been a valid worry.)

but... he just... didn't expect this. there's a thunk, and the video finally flips on.

it's greyscale and sort of spotty. Riku looks back with narrowed eyes, chin held in the palm of his hand while his elbow rests on the table the netbook is on. ]

This better have a safe mode. It's not going to survive without it.

[ back to typing; he's rather diligent and quick to isolate the problem with the camera's function, the video flickering from greyscale to a normally colored view. it takes a good moment for him to stop.

in fact, his next few moments are just followed by a slightly rueful, sly smile. ]

Test 1. Idiot-proof test 1. Testing, testing.

The Initiative should teach people how to use these.

[ hearing this, however, there's a sharp 'Hey!' as someone comes in. he reaches over to smack Riku's shoulder, to which Riku's smirk just widens with some chuckling.

the feed clicks off. ]

[ ooc: obviously, this would be posted on Sora's computer rather than Riku's! Riku will be answering, but Sora may or may not threadhop once the mun's finished moving! ]

[There's a certain dog snuffling at the communicator when it turns on. In fact, his nose actually turns the device off and onto audio for several moments, the sound of his heavy breathing filling the microphone.]

Off, you lush. I need that.

[The mic is covered by something - fabric, actually, in an attempt to clean off the device - and then it switches back to video. A woman with red hair can be seen looking over the communicator critically, looking for scratches and cracks. The dog is gone and she settles back. It's easy from this angle to see the Warden-Commander's crest on her armor, even if it's partly covered by a curtain of hair.]

I wish to speak to whomever's in charge of bringing recruits here. They have no authority to conscript a Warden in any way, not without first making an appeal to Weisshaupt. If I cannot have an audience with the leader of this outpost - [or whatever it is] - then I would speak with anyone else who carries a position of authority.

[She knows her stuff, clearly. She frowns into the camera, tapping it once. She sighs, glancing at her dog. The commanding aura nearly vanishes, replaced by exasperation.]

...I'm speaking to myself, aren't I?

[Elissa glances back to the device, fussing with it once more. It turns off.]

[The video feed takes a while to click on. When it does, the woman on the other end looks visibly relieved. That is, if anyone could get a clear look at her beneath the dark hood she's wearing.

She's seated somewhere inside the Hold, tucked off in a corner. She would prefer being outside, but had witnessed the young boy's mishap with the strange carriage, and so had taken measures to avoid a similar accident. When she speaks up at last, her voice is clear, measured and calm.]

Hello. ...I hope this is working. [She shifts a little.] I suppose I should introduce myself.

[Her gaze flickers somewhere off to the side before returning to stare at the comm device. She looks a little uncomfortable with the notion of speaking to a group through a machine.] My name is Kahlan Amnell. I arrived shortly before the riots began, and I'd like to give my thanks to those who helped me during the attacks. I apologize for not speaking up before now. I hope that everyone escaped safely.

[She frowns, and it takes her a little while to speak up again.] I know that all of you are just as confused as I am, but...since there's no known escape from this place, and we've been conscripted to fight this battle, what about our worlds? Does anyone know what might change there in our absence? [Her voice has stayed even and calm, but there's a tightness around the edges at this question, a barely contained desperation.] It's imperative that I know. [And she adds:] Thank you for any information you may have.

And lastly, if it's needed, I would be willing to offer my services to any others being detained here. I've noticed talk of meetings and I have some...experience in matters of diplomacy.

[To use an understatement.]

[ Hello, denizens of Exsilium. Someone finally figured out how to turn their device on. Not well, mind you- but hey! Turning it on is an improvement over staring at it and losing it, right? At first, there's only blackness and a tiny sliver of changing coloured light in the top left corner. In the background, the low buzzing noise of busy chatter can be heard; voices indistinct. ] Is this thing on?

[ It takes him a few more moments to realize his thumb is covering the camera, but when he does, his smile fills the screen, an almost, but not quite smug expression upon his features. ] I spent a few days wandering around aimlessly- [ Read: Lost. ] -and I was beginning to think that maybe all the whining was justified.

[ He looks away a moment, over at something unseen. ]

But then I found this place. And you know what? It's not all bad.

[ This is followed by several very feminine giggles in the background, and Garrett chuckles lowly. He murmurs something indistinct to whomever is with him off camera, before he cuts the feed. ]