voidtreckernet

[There's a blue lady on the comm's screen, not looking like she completely trusts it -- or that she quite likes being so visible. She has something to ask, though (as much as it feels like an exploitable vulnerability to ask) so she stays. And it's fair that others should see who's talking.]

Hello.

[. . . Knowing how to start is harder than anticipated, and considering the last time she was on the comm was to apologize, it feels even more awkward. She swears she can feel eyes looking at her. Unconsciously, her arms tuck into a cross.]

I heard there are "missions" every month. Where we're supposed to infiltrate, or something attacks.

. . . This time there was water in the city. In the pipes. And the sewers. But people say it's not always a city. Locations are different every time.

I need to be able to access some when it isn't there naturally.

I need . . . help.

[Silence for a moment. That was extremely uncomfortable to say, and the next question isn't much better for her.]

Also . . . I'd like to know what people do to find their own space. Where they can sometimes be alone. When . . . they need to.

. . . Thank you.

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It's a start.

[ She doesn't ask why Lapis doesn't know what she is.

After all, Alice went through the exact same circumstances that could cause the same thing. The only reason she does know what she is - or likes to think so, anyway - is because she desperately clung onto the last remaining parts of her mind and built it back up from there.

Lapis can do the same. ]

If nothing else, you will have plenty of time to figure out exactly that in this place.

Danny immediately looks concerned.

"So... he or she was born like that?"

[Lapis hasn't minded going off point. Someone with an experience similar to her own is new. Having anything to offer is new.]

[Her voice is soft, faintly hoarse. She doesn't always say so much at once.]

I think . . . I've found that the world isn't always happy. But worth exploring.

I think, though, if I hadn't found the right people, I would have felt the same. That it was hard. And maybe I wouldn't have.

[After all, her only goal had been to get back home -- back to what was familiar and secure. Vista City shifted more than she had thought at the time.]

[She would like to know more, but Rapunzel has changed the subject, and Lapis doesn't push. The subject seems delicate (or at least her own is for her), and she herself doesn't like to be pushed. They've also only just met.]

Yes. We were.

There . . . aren't many. Unless you pay for it.

[She catches the concern, but isn't sure what to make of it.]

He. Yes.

He behaves like a human mostly. And looks like one. But he has a lot of the abilities of a Gem.

[A flicker of a shadow crosses her face.]

When he was . . . hurt. When his gem was cracked . . . I didn't know what would happen to him. To the part of him that was human.

He's the first. The only one like him.

He said that he already had one and would let me borrow it . . . I said I would meet him in a few minutes.

[A pause at the next words, startled.] I don't . . . think anyone would do that. Just for me.

[Just for one person's comfort. It seems an astronomical thing to ask.]

[There's the faintest flicker -- almost invisible -- of an upturning of Lapis' lips.]

[And a nod.]

Thank you.

[Not for the fact that they are in this place and have the time to figure it out, of course. But for Alice herself and her responses.]

[ Alice waves a hand, slightly dismissively. And while it's easy to just take it as a rude gesture on her part in the face of this, there's a faint hue to Alice's cheeks that indicates it's just because she's embarrassed and doesn't know how to otherwise deal with this. ]

It is nothing to thank me for. You asked for help.

[ So she gave it. ]

[She nodded. She understood that. If one hadn't found the right people then one might not even be in the same place right now. It was one thing she was at least grateful for.

But the move off the subject for her was a good thing to. She didn't want to make anyone feel bad or anything too soon.]

Basically. Though I've found if you ask enough the train might put it up as an option.

Can you tell me about that person from your world?

Well. That was hitting way too close to home.

"It can be tough to be the first of anything." Danny says after a long pause. "But it sounds like he's got some support? That's important."

Technically Danny was the second of his kind. But considering he didn't trust Vlad to do anything except be a massive jerk and fruitloop at every opportunity, it was almost like being the first.

I mean, it couldn't hurt to ask, right? The worst thing is that people will say no, but at least we could give it a try.

[A shake of the head at that.]

It still feels like a bribe if it were to listen. I don't . . . want to ask it for anything. It brought us here.

But.

Thank you.

[She's at least started to separate the people on board from the train itself. It's not their fault that she's here; they're as much victims as she is. And they, like Rapunzel, have been trying to help. That means a good deal.]

[Talking about Steven is easy. Easier than talking about herself.]

My kind doesn't normally . . . have children? [Uncertainty there, because it's still a relatively strange concept, even having met a few children at this point. So strange to think of anyone being able to produce a small, underdeveloped being and have it grow and change.]

But one met a human, and . . . I'm not sure how it happened, but I think she must have had the right powers. She had a child with him. She gave up her own existence for it and gave her gem -- that's the core of who we are -- to him.

He had to grow up like a human. In a lot of ways he is human. But he doesn't age the same way. He can shapeshift and fuse. He has abilities like a Gem.

Her gem has stayed with him, set in the same place as hers was. He's . . . definitely both. The only one who's ever been both.

It might have brought us here but... It gave me the freedom I never would have had otherwise. Or at least, more freedom than I did at home.

[Thats why she wasn't as negative about the whole situation compared to a lot of others, because she herself saw the positives for herself. She did thought understand others who didn't want to be here.]

But you also get to meet soi many interesting people and get to make really great friends.

It sounds like it worked out well for him.

[Which... Zel has biases. Including the one that means he is focused on his own problems and not thinking about the problems that another person might face.]

I wasn't born the way I am; it was something done to me some years ago. So I was a human who is now partially something else, and the other... at least the stone added to me was never a person before.

[And now Zelgadis is reflecting that while stone golems are constructs animated by magic but usually with little to no self-awareness, brau demons were living goblin-like creatures, and he has No Idea how Rezo set up the spell that transformed him, and...]

[... Zelgadis didn't so much drop this thought as throw it like a live explosive. For his own sanity.]

[ The angel finds himself more than lucky, then, with the way he can conjure up his own privacy if he so wishes, even though he doesn't usually do much more than retreat to his and Crowley's modified room, or take advantage of the quiet of the library when most of the passengers find themselves asleep, even if they don't exactly have a sun to guide their day.

So he thinks, for a moment, of how to offer her comfort. It's not that she's wrong, not really. ]

I do suppose you're right.

But I do find that most people seek the exact same thing, and, in their way, offer the respect of giving someone else the privacy they may also want. It's not perfect, but I do believe we can all do what's possible to respect each other in these trying times.

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