Audio

[fistsofchange]

[This was unfamiliar technology to Lin, so before she tried making a post, she read the manual from start to finish. This "smartphone" was MUCH more complicated than the ham radio in the interceptor, but she eventually figured it out.]

Hi, I'm Bai Lin. I have a question. I've got that most of us are from different worlds. It's weird, but any time I talk to someone it becomes more and more obvious.

But I'm noticing a trend from talking to you all.

How many people here DON'T come from places where a nuclear war destroyed most of the world's population before you were born?

Comments

audio; jetshard

[dubiouslychthonic]

My species has a long and colorful history of committing war atrocities, but to my knowledge we've never used nuclear weapons against our own people on any significant scale.

[fistsofchange]

What's your species? Are you not human?

audio -> video

[dubiouslychthonic]

Ah, no. Just a moment.

[There's the faint rustling of someone fussing with her device's settings, and then the video interface comes up; Jetshard straightens her green-lensed glasses as she peers into the camera and adjusts the angle so that the shape of her forked horns are visible in-frame; behind her, just enough of the wall is visible to make it clear she's in her room.]

I'm a troll. My name's Jetshard, and it's nice to meet you.

[fistsofchange]

Wow, I've never met a troll. A few phoenixes and dragons, but no trolls.

...Should I be doing the video thing too? I don't know what the customs are for being polite when talking to someone with a smart phone.

[She distinctly pronounced smartphone as two separate words.]

[dubiouslychthonic]

Whichever you're comfortable with. I don't think anyone's standing on ceremony around here. I just thought that this would be simpler than trying to describe what I was.

[She smiles, a little crookedly.]

I hadn't ever heard of humans before I came here, and I don't think I've met anyone who had met trolls before. I think it's possible that I'm further from home than most people here, for whatever value of "far" actually applies to the fissures.

[fistsofchange]

Hang on...

[After a moment, she manages to switch to video, revealing her slightly out of focus face as she peers at the screen.]

Oh, you really aren't human! Your horns are pretty, though.

[dubiouslychthonic]

Oh! Thank you. [She lifts a hand, a little self-consciously, to the base of one horn; really, Alternian standards of beauty call for a broader curve and no branching, but she's got enough composure not to dissemble too much in front of an alien who has no possible frame of reference.]

But no, not human at all. There's a few of us around who aren't, although most of the others aren't so... visibly so as I am.

[fistsofchange]

Well...

[Back to the original topic.]

I don't think I'm in any position to criticize another species for being violent, considering my species blew up most of itself. We'll both just have to work at it.

[dubiouslychthonic]

A sentiment our current heiress presumptuous would approve of, I think. [And from Jetshard's tone, one that she approves of the Pisces girl approving of.]

[fistsofchange]

That's like, your leader?

[dubiouslychthonic]

A leader of the faction I've thrown my lot behind, at least. She has designs on the imperial throne, though.

[fistsofchange]

Must be annoying, being stuck here while that's going on.

[dubiouslychthonic]

Annoying's a good way to put it. [She sighs.] If nothing else, I'm hoping that if we don't get home soon, the base I was working out of manages to recruit another medic. We were short-handed enough as it was.

[fistsofchange]

We'll find a way back. There's GOT to be a way.

[dubiouslychthonic]

I like your attitude.

Until and unless someone makes some other breakthrough, I think our best bet is probably to help with the fissure stabilization efforts.

[fistsofchange]

That's what it sounds like, yeah.