theairlock | Onward, Into Darkness

[Around dinnertime, when everyone has gone to their rooms and had their time to think about the day, a note is slipped underneath your door. It reads:

I've made soup for everyone tonight.
It would be a kindness if you were to come to the cafeteria and partake.
- Jane

And, true to the letter, when you enter the cafeteria, you're hit with the distinct smell of pumpkin. There's a large covered pot on one of the tables filled to the brim with a sweet pumpkin soup full of carrots and sweet potatoes, a ladle beside the pot, and a stack of bowls and spoons. There's even enough cutlery for Bolton and Jamie to come, if they want to show up - Jane is, if anything, an excellent host. Please help yourself! There's plenty more! is on a folded bit of paper beside the pot, but where is Jane?

Well, the kitchen door is propped open, and she's very diligently working on scraping out the remains of a huge, tasty pumpkin and setting the seeds aside. She sniffs every once in a while, and her face is a blotchy mess, but she's still going. Having something to do seems to keep her from diving too deeply into despair.

Just...don't let her, or yourselves, be distracted forever.]

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Ushiromiya-san...

[Yurika hesitates before she speaks.]

I know you're doing your best. Thank you, even if I don't always understand.

Hmm? What do you mean?

[She tilts her head.]

How you got upset with Lightning-san, and don't like all the strange things from the future, and how you always seem to be on edge like someone's going to attack. Your life back home was nothing like this, wasn't it?

You'd be surprised. [She looks back to her soup.]

Is it okay if I ask what it was like? I know you didn't have things like alien technology or people throwing fireballs.

Would saying it's the opposite of this place be enough?

If you don't want to share, that's fine. I do think we should all be more open, but I can't force you.

I was being serious...

I know, but that could still mean a lot of things. Like Xander-san's world is nothing like this, but neither is Thomasin-chan's or even Jane-chan's.

I really not sure were to start... It was...normal. There wasn't technology or magic like I've seen here. We had cars and planes, things like those...

You hadn't developed commercial space travel either, right?

No, my husband was looking forward to it. I don't think we'll have that for a while though.

You must miss home, with how different this is. Margulis-san told me once that he suspected that most of the people here had never been to space because they picked people who would get homesick.

I think he said the same to me. The whole thing sounded so unbelievable, but here we are. And I've gained a robot.

The Doctor says he might be able to get some information by taking them apart but I don't know if he's tried.

You mean the robot vacuum cleaners?

... Yes. They act strange...

They seem normal to me, but they are supposed to clean what they're programmed to.

They seem normal? They crash into everything... And spin around if you touch them.

Oh, that's because they're just made to clean! So they'll go according to the pattern set or until they run into something.

If that's the case. Then why have them serve the food? Or my one?... Neither seem very good at cleaning.

I'm not sure about yours. It just seems to be made to protect you.

I know... If I tell it to stay, it doesn't move at all. If it tell it to follow and sit down, it goes under the chair.

That just seems normal to me.

Compared to the others? I've only seen it bump into something once, and thats because I put books in front of it.

But it's programmed to protect you instead of clean. It's like... think of a real dog. Some are bred and trained to protect a house, or sheep or something, and some are just supposed to be in your purse.

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refusedtoleave - 2017-03-24 23:47 (UTC) - Expand

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