voidtreckernet | Poi 05

...It's Rich.

[Might as well not bother with preamble, though that's certainly odd for him. Odder still that he has the video off, even if there's still the faint strumming of guitar suggesting that he's nervously plucking at strings as he often does.]

I'm 18 now, according to the roster. Guess I missed my birthday. I knew it was coming up, but I was kinda distracted with stuff.

[Like having a mental crisis for the better part of two months at least.]

Anyways, was just wondering like... what's the longest someone's been stuck here before they got to go back home? Maybe, uh, maybe it was wishful thinking? But I was kinda thinking with the whole Ministry investigation and how fucking useless I am on the missions that the train would boot me off by now.

[He's really trying to laugh, trying to make that sound like a joke.]

Just. Was thinking about it. At this point, my friends back home probably assume my dad stabbed me or shit... maybe they'll believe those messages we got to send at that river, but more likely they'll think I'm nuts.

[Just another certified Rich Goranski Comedy Routine. He'll be here all week, folks.]

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Yeah, I'd think they would have. Kind of tells me that the train is pulling people without paying attention to the situation going on their world.

[Which was disappointing actually]

Yeah, I agree. I've been on some pretty scary ones.

Yeah. Besides the river, they've never shown any concern about where we were taken from and what we were going through. I don't know if that means they think they can put us back in the right place like nothing happened, or if they just think that's justified.

...I know it's cynical of me to just believe the latter.

It's alright. I know you aren't the only one who is cynical about it. I'm wondering about it as well. There is peace in my world now, but it sounds like there are others where it is not so peaceful and those in control of the train just brings them here. I feel their efforts would be better put there... even if it is so they don't have to worry about their home.

It's not that my world isn't peaceful... or well, at least I'm not drafted into a war or anything, but I got pulled away right when I was going to have a chance to, to fix things, I guess? To figure things out for myself, turn over a new leaf, decide who I wanna be.

I can do a little self-improvement here, but I can't, you know, find myself a place to stay and a job, and I can't make it up to the people I hurt before I decided to change.

[He snorts bitterly.]

All I can do, apparently, is be a 'hero.'

[Quatre was quiet for a moment as he listened]

While that is not a time of crisis for your world, that is still a time of crisis for you. I can't imagine how difficult it is to have all of those plans taken away from you.

I guess there are somethings you can do here, but like you said, there's only so much.

...Yeah. And the longer I'm gone, the less chance I have to apologize to the people I hurt. If I show up six months later, they might have already moved on, and I wouldn't blame them.

[Most people are going to want to put that whole mess behind them. Pretend a house didn't burn down and the world didn't nearly become a hivemind. People dismiss what they can't comprehend pretty quickly, it seems.]

I'm sorry. Hopefully... when we go home, you will still have the chance to make things right with them. It's... it's hard when you never have the chance to say something to someone again.

[Like how he could never actually work things out with his father anymore. Not that he had particularly cared that much when he had been alive, but it was never an option now]

I hope so... Sorry, I know a lot of this is probably pretty heavy. I don't mean to get like this when I know people have plenty of other problems, besides this stuff I've been dealing with for months.

[Shouldn't he be helping others instead? There's a hesitance in the man's voice that makes Rich think he might have something on his mind, but he doesn't know how to ask about it.]

No, it's fine. I understand. Sometimes it helps to talk about things that are bothering you. This place doesn't make it easy if there something on at home.

[Quatre was lucky for the most part. His world was fairly stable at the moment and with his teammates at home and his sisters there, if they did notice he was gone, things wouldn't completely fall apart. But his own issues were something that could never be resolved now]

I know. It's just that a lot of people have problems going on at home. I'm definitely not the only one stuck here and being antsy about it.

[Though he probably is one of the few more likely to measure his problems against someone else's and deem them unimportant.]

[Quatre nodded] Yeah. I've talked to a lot of people who want to go home. I've looked into it as much as I can, but there is not much that I have been able to come up with. It seems most of the controls are not accessible.

Yeah, they're all kind of locked away, so until we can figure out a way to break open the metal that they seem to have covering the engine room, we're trapped. Talking to the computer running this thing definitely doesn't help.

[And the face he makes implies that he isn't very trusting of AI in general.]

[Quatre nodded]

I agree. Talking to the computer doesn't help and we don't seem to have many options for how to take control ourselves. I don't like it.

None of us really like it. I don't even think the ones who don't want to go home like it very much. It'd be a lot easier if we could just explain some of this...

[He nodded]

An explanation would be nice. I think at the very least, they owe us that. Since we have been living here for so long and deal withing all of this.

[He sighed]

I'd really just like to see my friends again. They were here but they have been gone for a while now.

Poi 05 - Voice

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