genessia | Video

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Alright... I'm pretty sure it's normal for folks to have the 'what the hell' reaction upon arriving here. I mean, no offence to Weise, or how ever you pronounce your name, sorry. But no offense, being told I was kidnapped in a cheerful voice doesn't fix the fact that I'm not exactly okay with this.

[The video shows a person looking in their young teens with amber eyes and light brown hair, frowning at the camera.]

Is there anyone I can actually talk to, not just a hologram, that can... maybe give me some more answers? I read everything, and I get that I need the necklace...

[She holds up her red necklace, then the manila envelope.]

And that the money helps but... I've still got questions like the how, and why and general what the hell is going on. If anyone's willing to chat with me, I'd be grateful. I do good over electronics, but seeing someone in person wouldn't be too upsetting really.

Uh... if anyone who knows me is out there... please let me know.

Please?

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Hm, aren't you from-? Ah, well, suppose it doesn't matter.

[Of all the worlds, Ted's a little pleased that Earth tends to have the most expansive lore. Even the earthlings don't know everything! He eagerly dives in. It'd be sententious if it weren't so earnest.]

The Luddites were 19th century workers who were on the verge of being replaced by cheaper, more efficient machines. They weren't about to take such arrant dehuanization lying down, and thus set to sabotage textile mills and other dens of industrial ignomy. So named after one Ned Ludd, rumored to have destroyed stocking frames a century prior.

Heh, but then I suppose when it comes to machines you're a little more yielding.

Edited 2017-07-22 00:44 (UTC)

Ah.. History lessons, my favorite.

Machines make things more efficient but they don't reduce the need for humans, even highly advanced AIs eventually need human interaction on some level, which means that the human element just changes interaction, rather than fading away. Beyond that... transition to a machine dominated industry makes hand crafted items seem even more 'rare' and therefore more valuable.

Heh, you sound very certain of that. Every human, of course, can labor manually and manfully. Not every human, I'm afraid, can work so well on far more complicated fare. Indeed, one wonders who's working on who. The Industrial Revolution took its tolls on humanity; one can count the ways. It made the taskmaster more influential on the family than any parent. It could monopolize labor so much that people were dragged away from homes they knew into cities no one ever really knows, if the sociology's to be believed. And that's not even getting into economies of scale, where goods must be mass produced because massive, wasteful quantities were the only amounts that were profitable.

[Clearly sociology and the human condition is a favorite of his.]

But, hah, it seems you've long since come to terms with machines, if this Voltron of yours is any indication. Er, is it a machine? It's a vehicle, at least. It's the only thing you've spoken of with any reverence. Machines being useful is one thing, and hating them is another. Hating them for being too useful is a commendable synthesis. But being a singular, universal hope which knows the heart? That, I'm tempted to say, edges near obsequiousness.

Of course I'm certain of my own beliefs. It's not perfect, but little is, and the more people become aware of problematic trends the more things can get improved.

Obsequiousness? I'mnot sure what that word means, but considering everything else you were saying I'll guess it's not a good thing. It's hard to
explain Voltron, forming him... requires all five of the Paladins have a unified mind and purpose. He doesn't function just pecause anyone pulls the controls. The requirement of the heart is to keep the power he is capable of out of the hands of people who would use it to hurt people for their own ends. He is a robot, but he, and each lion as a part, have a kind of personalityof their own.

Oh, it means something like servility.

[Way to simplify things there, Ted. He gets the feeling he's starting to exhaust her, even as he listens to more of this strange Voltron character.]

So a sentient, corporate robot that can only assemble by the spiritual permission of its parts?

Well... yes? I mean, he's never unified on his own, and he can't do so without five pilots. That's part of why our enemy seeks to get rid of any of us, but particularly to claim the lions. He seems to think he can make them listen to him.

Goodness, seems the whole is equal to the parts if it can't function without any one.

[Though Ted wonders if he's doing her any good, digging into the nuts and bolts of her past. It doesn't matter now; for most it never does, unless the other four show up some time soon. He'd rather help her now.]

Heh, well hopefully I've given you your fill of conversation. Apologies if I pry too much. Are your current affairs giving much trouble?

Keeps all of us honest, no one person can control that much power.

[She shrugged a little.]

I don't believe in 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.' I think talking about things is the best way to remember them as they are. Nothing's terrible yet... starting to get some idea of this place at least, even if I don't want to be here.

Eheh, somehow I doubt any of you were so tempted.

"Remember them as they are"...?

[His eyes are inattentive in thought. Strange way to phrase it. It's usually said "as they *were", isn't it? What did she mean by that?]

Haha, "nothing's terrible yet." [Well ain't she a ray of sunshine.] I've heard more hopeful praise. Give it some time, or at least the benefit of the doubt. The place will grow on you, I bet.

Well, if there's nothing in the way of practicality I can please you with, you might please me by telling me your real name. Or your birth name, rather.

[He's just not buying "Pidge".]

Well... yeah. I mean... I'm not going to assume that they suddenly stop existing, and until I know a way they've changed, I can't assume anything... so as they are.

Considering the last time I ended up somewhere new with no say in it, I was given a robot to help destroy the empire that spans the whole universe and reigns with tyranny... I'll keep my outlook.

Huh... Katie Holt. Pidge Gunderson is a name I took, not because of any meaning, but because I needed a different one.

Oh; that makes sense. Saying "remember them" would imply as much; the redundancy of tense threw me.

[Said more with mild interest than criticism; he might have to take notes on how being too precise can confound people.]

Goodness; well, given your expertise with evil-thwarting robots, I suppose it chose well.

[He visibly warms to a real name.]

Ah, that's much better! It must have been a dire purpose to hide a name so fine. Enemies to hide one's identity from, perhaps?

[She gave a shrug.] Just doing what I feel's right to help myself.

Unless whatever brought me here brings Green, or the rest of the team, I have no idea how much it expects me to be able to do.

The people who lied about my family... but also... no body listened to Katie Holt... she was a young girl, can't know that much. People listen to Pidge and believe when he says something is a certain way.

"To Live", I think, is the world's stated aim. So long as you're lively and active, not content to simply suspire, that will be all Genessia asks.

Huh! I don't see what's so incredible about Katie. That's--

Ahaha, Katie, was Pidge a young man you impersonated?

[Cause she said "he", and she looked androgynous enough to pull off a passable teen.]

"To live"? Really... I was doing quit a bit of that back home, and having a chance to find my family.

Pidge was registered as male, if that's what you are asking. I didn't go out of my way to yell at people I was a guy, but... no one bothered to question it. Might be something from my world, but... people who feel they are a different gender than their body... are generally given the right to call themselves another. So it could be that no one questioned it on that basis, or that they believed I was a guy... most of my team knew by the time I addressed it fully, since technically I was lying by omission to them.

Huh! Genessia must've been so impressed as to demand a more personal performance.

[Lucky her! She should be flattered.]

Haha, goodness. Well, I'm glad to have sussed out that mystery so quickly. "Pidge" is, I fear, a bit too prosaic.

Oh, so you were looking for your family? Er, the father and brother you mentioned?

It must not have considered that I might be the most boring person to exist, just to spite it.

[She was far from flattered.]

Prosaic? And it's not like I was actively hiding it. I go by Pidge more than I go by Katie now, so it's what I introduce myself as.

Yes, my father and brother... they were on a mission and 'disappeared'... turns out they were captured by the people I now am fighting against. So I am still working on finding them. Or would be if this place hadn't gotten in the way.

Oh, that can't possibly be true. You'll never find a bigger bore than myself, so you're outmatched there at least. But when it comes to spite...haha, well I think you're second-rate at that too.

[That's supposed to sound reassuring, he promises.]

Yes. [It rarely occurs to Ted that people won't know his vocabulary, unless explicitly stated. He's not that subtle, and genuinely believes the world is just full of well-read, eloquent people.] Katie, as a name, actually means something. Pidge, as near as I can tell, means nothing. Thus, Katie is far superior and much to be preferred.

Ah, I'm sorry to hear that. You'll be pleased to know that the prevalent theory is that time makes no demands here. Which is to say, if and when you return to your original duties, you'll resume them as though you'd never left.

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