1. voice

[maggierhee]

It took a while for Maggie to feel safe enough to even look at the device she'd been given - more or less a cellphone - let alone the other things she'd woken up with, in that damp, dark cave. It was easy enough to understand, but she was out of practice; It'd been a long, long time since she'd seen a working phone. But safety mattered more, and the first thing she'd done was get out of the cave and into the blistering sunlight. After that, it had been a matter of seeing for herself that this place was - as the bizarre hologram woman had promised - safe and free of walkers, at least from what she could see. Now, she set up a voice message, from where she was sitting on a bench she'd found, at the edges of a park. It'd been a long time since she'd seen one of those, too.

"H-hello?" She started, swallowing hard before pressing on, forcing her voice steady despite the scary strangeness of this place. A scary strangeness she'd felt before, that still felt wrong in the pit of her stomach. "My name is Maggie. I just arrived here, and I'm trying to get.. situated. Things were pretty bad where I was, and I was hoping - if this place is safe, maybe some of my friends came here, too? Is it true that there's no walkers here?" The last question was sort of blurted out, unintentional, and she shut up as soon as she'd said it. It was a hope too far - a world without walkers. But it was also - maybe, probably? - a world without Glenn and the others, too, and that was worse. That was terrible. Hastily, she added, "I heard - I heard it was safe here. Is that true?"

Comments

[Video]

[generalgrievous]

[A video pops on with a face - well, a mask, perhaps - that may be more frightening than reassuring and the voice is strange: gruff and electronic-sounding, despite the positive words.]

For the most part, you are safe here.

Re: [Video]

[maggierhee]

To be honest, the mask - what Maggie perceives as a disguise - is almost comforting in a way. The idea that this place isn't so trusting, after all. "What does 'for the most part' mean?" She took a breath and continued, "I don't mean to be rude, just feeling a need to know what I've gotten into here."

[Video]

[generalgrievous]

Of course there is a criminal element, as in any city, as well as more unexpected dangers that can occur. However, the Guardians of each city will take care of any threat, along with their deputies - of which I am one.

I am General Grievous.

[audio]

[youfool]

"Hello, Maggie! I'm Ted. Welcome to Genessia! I'm afraid this place is very, very foreign to your own. I mean, it's still largely populated with humans, mind, but...well, suppose you'll see for yourself soon enough.

What's a walker? I assume it's not the merely bipdeal; we're chock-full of those.

It's...reasonably safe for your kind, yes."

[The cheery man on the line is, perhaps, a little too happy to be comforting.]

Re: [audio]

[maggierhee]

"Nice to meet you, Ted." She kept her voice even, though the cheerfulness made her more cautious than it may have done the average person. The idea that he didn't even know what a walker was... that was damn near unthinkable. But maybe, she thought, they called them something else here. "Where I'm from, walkers are what we call people who die and come back, they kill people. Do y'all call them something else?"

Re: [audio]

[youfool]

"Mm," he intones with mild displeasure. "'The undead' or 'zombies' is the diction, here. 'Bastards' if you're feeling colorful." He's not fond of necromancy or its subjects.

"Though we've managed to quarantine the worst of that in Everglade. So long as you keep your distance from that fifth of the world, you're not likely to see much of that."

Video

[savage_nymphxii]

"It's as safe as it's going to be. At least it's been that way for me."

Larxene raised an eyebrow at the term Maggie used.

"What exactly are 'walkers?' The only walkers I know of are the things old people use."

Re: Video

[maggierhee]

"Safe as can be works," Maggie confirmed. It didn't make it all better, didn't take away the gnawing concern for her loved ones or the weird twisted-up feeling this was giving her, but safe.. safe was nice. At the question, she paused briefly, but finally, "Walkers, they're- where I'm from, when someone dies, they change. They kill people."

Video

[savage_nymphxii]

"So like the heartless..." she thought about it, "Or something like that. They don't die... they just become a shell of who they used to be. Sometimes the body is still in tact and can think on its own. A 'Nobody.'"

She's speaking from experience. She was a Nobody up until recently when her heart returned to her.

"I don't know if that's the same, but either way, I haven't been here long, but I haven't seen anything like that. Although I haven't really ventured out of the main city of Genessia."

[spacepeterpan]

"Hello, Maggie, yes, of course, absolutely safe, safe as you are anywhere, at least. ...well, not quite that safe, actually it's pretty subjective, but you can be safe. S'pose it depends on what sort of 'walkers' you're worried about, guessing it's not just pedestrians, although, I'd hate to presume."

Actually he presumes a lot, and he's presuming pretty strongly right now, but he's always up for reevaluating his assumptions.

"I'm the Doctor, by the way, hello, here to help, are you all right, right now, I mean?"

She seems judging by her background to be somewhere that ought to be safe enough, but she also seems pretty rattled, and might not be thinking through necessary steps at the moment...

[maggierhee]

Well, this man's patter put Ted to shame, and put Maggie a bit ill at ease. Well, more ill at ease than she had already been, which was considerable. But she stayed quiet until he was finished talking, her mouth drawn in a tight line as she considered her words.

"It's nice to meet you, Doctor," she said finally, keeping her tone what she hoped came off as light, but sounded more tense. "I think y'all call them zombies, from what I've heard, if that helps. They're- when people die where I'm from, they change, and they kill people."

voice;

[truesmiles]

I must admit the word walker is not exactly one I've heard before. So might I ask what exactly one is?

[Since she used voice, Fai figured to use the same.]

As for safe, for most of the time that is usually the case.

Re: voice;

[maggierhee]

"People here've been calling them zombies. That's what I've heard here, if that helps."

video;

[eeeksorcist]

[A video comes on of a young woman with her hair up in twintails and decorated with flowers. She looked positively friendly and totally was.]

Hi there. I'm Eleanor.

This place is very safe. There are no shortage of people like myself who work to keep the streets clear of creeps who would disturb the peace.

But, of course, no "walkers." May I ask what those are?

Re: video;

[maggierhee]

The video surprised Maggie a little - it had been a while since she'd seen anyone who put that much care into their appearance. If she was honest, that did more to assure her that things were relatively safe here than anything else she'd seen or been told. If people had time to put flowers in their hair, stay that clean... that was a good sign.

"Nice to meet you, Eleanor," she said after a moment, once she caught up with herself. "Thank you for telling me. Walkers are - I think people here call them zombies. Dead people who change, and kill people." Explaining it to so many people was bizarre. It had been so long since she'd met anyone who didn't know what a walker was.

[voice]

[tevinteraltus]

[The voice on the other end of the phone is smooth, accented though not quite British. Certainly similar, though. It was on the deeper side, and amicable enough.]

Hello, Maggie. My name is Dorian. I'm sorry to hear you've come from some sort of nasty business. I'll do my best to answer your question, but it seems you mean something specific by this 'walker' business. Might I ask for a bit of exposition first?

Re: [voice]

[maggierhee]

"Good to meet you," she said first - she wanted to keep her manners, to not alienate anyone. She might need allies here, at the very least. "Walkers are the dead, they change and kill people. Where I'm from, it happens to everybody." She kept her tone and words plain. She thought it was important that they knew about the walkers, but not more than they needed to, at least not yet.

[stillnotadragon]

Well, I've certainly had enough people telling me it is - and a distinct lack of thugs jumping at me out of alleyways. You'll probably be fine.

[He shrugs, nothing but a non-descript wall in the picture behind him.]

I do regret to inform you that I've seen a number of people, myself included, walking about however. Maybe next time?

[maggierhee]

Maggie smiled a little at that, just a slight quirk of the lips. "That's not what I mean by walkers, but thank you anyway."

[ Voice ]

[pianola]

[ Have a very calm, rather neutral-sounding voice. It's not exactly monotone, though. ]

I don't think we can ask for people to come here.

It just happens.

What is a "walker"?

Re: [ Voice ]

[maggierhee]

"Right.. so there's no telling if anybody else from my world might show up?" She asked, curious but somehow unsurprised - this was the kind of luck she had, to be frank.

"A walker is.. when someone dies, where I'm from, they change. Into a walker. They kill people."

voice

[whiteas]

"Obviously no one can keep everything 100% safe all the time, but as long as the barriers stand, everything else is something we can handle. What's outside the barriers is.. less pleasant, but from what I understand we got rid of whatever it was that was trying to tear them down for a while."

It didn't take much work to figure out that this girl is completely not buying that it's perfectly safe. She's probably been through a lot, and wanting to get her friends here too...

"We're working on figuring out how to leave and stay at will, but it's not something we've figured out yet. It's one of the reasons I founded the Genessia Scientific Research Foundation, because despite that most people will complain about being kidnapped, some people want to stay."

Re: voice

[maggierhee]

"Right, that's good. At least there's some kind of barrier to keep the.. bad stuff out. And they're not walkers, they're something else, right?" She was still working through all of the information she'd been getting from the people she had spoken to, but she wanted to understand. If she was stuck here - and from everything she had learned, she was - she wanted to be prepared.

"Of course." A beat, and she said, "I understand." She didn't have much of a choice. "If there's anything I can do to help, with that or anything else around here, let me know."

voice

[captain_by_the_book]

"It's safe enough here," he said, no greeting, no welcome, this woman seemed to have greater worries than courtesies. "There is the regular crime that is to be expected, as well as the dangers that come from people with a great number of powers being crammed together in one place."

Cassian went silent for a moment, contemplative, before adding quietly, "But if you consider the place of your kidnapping a sanctuary, then I assume you're willing to live with such dangers."

Re: voice

[maggierhee]

"I'm used to more dangerous things," Maggie replied, her tone even, strong. As uneven as this place made her feel, she wouldn't show that to anyone else. She had to keep her cool and, hopefully, make a good impression. "Where I'm from... let's just say the crime rate is the least of our troubles. Safe enough'll do for right now." She wasn't naive enough to think too positively, that this would be easy or that her loved ones would suddenly show up here or that it would be perfectly safe and peaceful. But there was clean water, and food, and the fact that she only had her handgun and her knife didn't make her feel naked and scared, so it was a start.