Re-Entry 14: Spam/Video/Spam

[itstopped]

[Spam for the Lab]

[It's not unusual for Felix to stay in the lab all night if the wardens let him. He insists that he doesn't need much sleep -- so far, this has actually seemed to prove true -- and he tends to get on tears with things that interest him enough. This particular evening, something on Iris's bioreader has him absorbed, and he just doesn't make it back before it's too late to be worth going anyway. In the wee hours of the morning, he winds up drifting off at his station.

He doesn't wake up when the flood rolls in, but a little while later, a young boy -- 11 or so -- wakes to find himself, not in bed, but surrounded by a veritable sea of shining scientific equipment. His eyes widen.]

Cool!

[Video]

[He found two keys in his pocket and he's not sure which is the right one, but going to this one felt more normal, somehow, so it's Dean's room in the background. Felix settles the camera carefully on the desk, fiddles with it for a second, then settles, sitting conscientiously straight-backed.]

Okay, um... [He hesitates, reaches over to fiddle with the camera again, then nods in satisfaction and sits back again. He smiles, but sort of politely.] Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad. I'm having a good time at camp. [Or... whatever.] I'll be back in a few days. I saw a bioluminescent bacterium and something called a bat flower. [What? It was cool.]

So... have a good weekend, I guess. [His polite surety fades a little. He shrugs awkwardly, then waves again and switches off the feed.]

[Open spam throughout the flood]

[He's heard that this place is a prison, but it's certainly not like any prison he's ever heard of. Not like the ones in the movies, anyway. He'll be busily exploring throughout the flood, poking his nose into just about any place that will let him in, up to and including the infirmary, the CES, the pool... and of course the library.]

Comments

[tinywitch]

I wasn't playing at anything. [At least he looks as confused as she does, now.] I don't know any of those places.

[There's a faint familiarity, like the way you know a distant cousin's distant cousin; like she's heard it before, but can't tell where.]

[itstopped]

[That's weird, he thinks, but then it strikes him that maybe it's not. The people here seem to be from lots of different places. Maybe some of them aren't from the Colonies at all, or are from the really far away ones.

Or...]

Wait, so you're really from Earth?

[tinywitch]

Yes. I'm from Camelot. Have you heard of it? It's one of the great kingdoms in Albion.

[itstopped]

But Earth is just a fairy tale. It's not real.

[tinywitch]

[That gets a laugh, though she doesn't intend it to be mean, and stops when, like him, she thinks he might take it that way.]

I don't feel like a fairy tale.

[itstopped]

You don't look... [He trails off, wrinkling his nose thoughtfully.] Actually, you do kind of look like a fairy tale.

[tinywitch]

[She laughs again at that, though she's not certain she should be insulted or not.]

What is that supposed to mean?

[itstopped]

Well, your clothes. That's like what the 13th Tribe wears in picture books.

[tinywitch]

What's the 13th Tribe?

[itstopped]

The people who live on Earth in the stories.

[tinywitch]

Then maybe that's fitting.

[itstopped]

[He narrows his eyes thoughtfully, looking at her for a long moment.] ...okay, but you haven't ever talked to the gods, right?

[tinywitch]

Gods? [Her brows draw together a little at that.] From the Old Religion? Of course not.

[itstopped]

[Well, that's a relief. At least one thing remains true. He relaxes, nodding.] My dad says they're not real.

[tinywitch]

Why does he say that? [Uther says the Old Religion isn't quite real; she doesn't think he means all together.]

[itstopped]

Well... because they're not.

[tinywitch]

How do you know?

[itstopped]

Isn't it obvious they're not? No one's ever talked to them for real or anything. And bad things still happen when they shouldn't. [He doesn't say this with any real anger; it's just an observation.] My mom has a shrine she thinks I don't know about, but she's from Troy. [He says this like he assumes she'll know what he means.]

[tinywitch]

What's Troy? [Easier to ask that than ask him if he's mad; of course there's a God, she's been taught that all her life.]

[itstopped]

[Oh, right. She's a fairy tale or whatever.] It's a planet. There was a really bad accident there a few years ago, and a lot of people died... [He shrugs uncomfortably.]

[tinywitch]

That's awful. [She frowns a little at that, sympathetic for him.] I'm sorry.

[itstopped]

[He shrugs again, not sure what to say.] I don't really remember much about it. My grandpa was under the dome that collapsed, though, and Dad says no one can explain why the gods would let something like that happen.

[tinywitch]

He can't do everything for us. We have to go about our lives on our own.

[itstopped]

[He, she says; he guesses that must be Zeus, or maybe Hephaestus for a mining colony.] Well, what's the point of having gods, then?

[tinywitch]

He's not there to grant us all our wishes. [She frowns a little; this isn't a conversation she's ever had to have, it's just something that's been truth for as long as she's known.] He sees what we do, and when we die, He judges our works.