genessia | 1. voice

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1. voice

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?"

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[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.

"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.]

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."

"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?"

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.

"Right, so just.. normal stuff, then. Stealing and whatever?" The concept was completely baffling to her, but she kept her tone brisk. "That's- good to hear. It's different. It's nice to meet you, General."

"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."

"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."

"What are theses 'walkers' that you spoke of? Military vehicles?"

"No. They're people who died. They come back and kill people." She paused, added, "You don't have those here? Maybe you call them something else?"

"So there's a place here where there are walkers?" Somehow, that felt like it should be alarming, but it was an almost twisted comfort - look, the world wasn't completely upside-down. "That's terrible. At least they're contained, though. That's something."

"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."

He chuckeld with nervous apology. "Sorry; would it were otherwise. Glad you're looking at the bright side of things, at least. Is your necklace blue, by chance?" That was the color that indicated someone belogned there, or at least came from a more overtly superstitious setting. Seems his first duty in greeting arrivals was warding them away from that cursed city.

"You learn how, after a while," Maggie commented, as she looked down at the necklace, the colors. "Mostly blue. A little yellow, too."

"I do recall an outbreak of something they called zombies many months ago. It was contained to just one city, I believe, and no longer a great threat. So it is nothing that need concern you here," Grievous answered.

[He gets the feeling Maggie had walkers on the brain to a morbid degree.]

"I'd, heh, listen to the...actually, where you are is ideal. Genessia City, I mean. If you're looking for somewhere to settle, you needn't look any further. Right at the center of the world, so travel's convenient.

I take it these walkers were as unwelcome as they were proliferate?"

But then Ted remembers that Genessia seems to pluck a lot of people with extravagantly dark and troubled histories.

"Oh, I'll understand if you'd rather not say. I know how bad memories are."

"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...

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.

Maggie took a deep breath, and nodded, unseen. "Thank you for telling me. That's- that's one less thing to worry about, I guess."

[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?

"We built walls to keep the walkers out, yes." The fact that it didn't always work, she didn't feel was important to mention. Never tell a stranger your weakness, no matter how nice they seemed. "I'm gonna look around some before I decide where to go, I think. Thanks for the advice, though."

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."

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

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.

"You're very welcome, for that and any other aid you might need. Until then, go under the Mercy."

[Poor thing, Ted thought. She sounded like she'd been through a lot. Hopefully Genessia would provide some reprieve.]

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