Slow Rider, Slow Rider, Move On a Little More

[pretendtoneedme]

WHO: Everyone
WHERE: 6I's Town Hall
WHEN: July 10th
OPEN TO: Everyone who wants in. There will be one subheader for welcoming back the group and one for the actual meeting
WARNINGS: Nothing so far; please add headers in the comment subjects if something does come up that could be problematic

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The return is, when everything is said and done, uneventful. The group who went to explore the break in the canyon walks back into the village in the early afternoon, laden down with most of the supplies they'd brought with them and without any obvious injury. There's some scratches, a couple bruises, but whatever had happened to seal them away from the village for a week definitely didn't happen to them, and they're not buzzing with any news so world-shattering that everyone needs to be collected and reported to at once. There's enough time for the group to separate and grab showers, clean clothes, and something to eat, while the word passes from person to person that the explorers have returned and that there's going to be a meeting right after dinner for them to explain what they've found and answer questions.

At the appointed time, the five of them are there, looking less ragged, and ready to talk. They've brought a few things back with them to show the others in the village, but all in all there's just not a lot to show about the other side that's different - except for that one, giant thing. But the non-changes are going to be shocking enough for most people, and decisions have to be made about what to do with the information they have now.

Comments

[onlyeverdoubted]

"Flying between planets isn't actually diffi--Not important." He's trying to be nice about people who seem to not have the slightest clue about space travel. "I don't think--Some people do, I guess, I don't--that it's all some kind of... simulation. But constructed, sure. Could be why the technology is so, well, very, very limited. We, um, we don't have any real way to test... This could be built and terraformed. A lot of trouble, and that doesn't tell us, well, it could be a station or some kind of contained habitat..." He tends to have a lot of ideas at once.

[withoutahammer]

Fortunately, Neil has experience working with a guy who has more ideas than he has words to put them all into, so he manages to follow. Even if a lot of the words are bloody weird. He's not going to ask what terraforming is. "So you think someone built this place and then brought us in and put us here- like it's a giant building? The sun isn't really the sun, just... an enormous lamp or something?"

Well, he's probably heard more insane ideas, but he's not sure where. On the other hand, it would seem to suit the facts, if a building could be made that was big enough for all of this. No explanation of how they're brought in yet, but he's used to that going unanswered.

[onlyeverdoubted]

"Something on a station scale, even built into an asteroid or a small moon," he says, forgetting, as he often does, to at least try and scale his conversation to the person he's talking to. The use of lamp for the sun rather than assuming it's some sort of holovid working in concert with temperature controls on the ground... Well, maybe that's just Bodhi. Not everyone is quite so prone to analyzing. "Though a lot of the size could be an illusion, since, um, we're always kept from getting very far."

[withoutahammer]

"Right. Above the canyon it could be plywood and paint." Not like they can get close enough to tell, with the way circumstances conspire against anyone trying to climb up to the top. It makes sense that it's a deception the scope of which is so bloody huge it's impossible to grasp, and it's giving him one hell of a headache. "So if we're living in some constructed cage... what's the point of it? The point of us?"

[onlyeverdoubted]

"Did you never mess with ants when you were a kid?" It's not a very heartening picture, but it's the best theory Bodhi has. "Most things here don't kill people, but, um, they get close, and it's all designed for... Reactions? Even good ones sometimes." They're some kind of experiment, though the rigor of it sort of escape him. Everything feels very slapdash, but maybe the ants thought so, too.

[withoutahammer]

"Yes, but- ah. I get the idea." Not that it's a reassuring one. At all. It's better than it could be, but Neil Mackay is not built to be anyone's plaything or experimental subject. And now that Aurora's here, it feels even worse. "Hell. Bloody hell." His fist clenches, like he's about to strike the table with Bodhi's specimens or something else close by, but he takes a deep breath and forces himself to relax. "You've got a lot going on in that head of yours, yeah? Got any ideas on how to stymie them? Make them regret they ever pulled us in here?"

[onlyeverdoubted]

"I'm not really... I'm definitely not there." And he doesn't expect to be. The only real plan of that kind he ever made (well, contributed to heavily) ended on the beaches of Scarif. He's a little easier on the count knowing that the plans were received and used in the end, but he's not a soldier, not good enough at pretending to be that he doesn't feel every death that came of his ideas, even his orders, as a deep personal failing.