Voice | UN: Arrietty Clock

[borrowers]

... It works!

[A surprised voice of a young girl comes through the feed suddenly — excitably so!

It's a good way to try and stay physically hidden from everyone else, at least... A voice doesn't really give away that you're a very, very, very small person. (Little does she know, some of the people who saw her in the casino-bean-place are here too.)]

I hear you all...! I've never used a phone before. If this counts as a phone, anyway... Um... Can we call people from our worlds? I'd like to tell my mother and papa that I'm safe... They must be really worried about me. Especially my mother. She's very nervous in nature.

[There's a pause.]



And... I think there has to be some kind of mistake, anyway. I've heard people are here because they have to prove their world is worth saving. But I'm not... I can't possibly be the person they meant to bring here. There has to be some kind of mistake. Or — if it's not a mistake, it feels unfair to the world I came from.

... Does anyone else feel like that?

[Because this feels so outside of everything and anything she's ever known.

Even right now, as she sits in a small shoebox she's converted into a hotel room of sorts in an alleyway not far from the hospital, she can't help but feel like she's lost at some proverbial sea... She doesn't have the experience her father has in a complicated world. She's pretty sure he would be lost too, but... he would at least be brave and march on without hesitation.

After another moment, an additional question comes through the feed:]

What are the big metal robots talking about, when they mention a... 'water park'?

Comments

[borrowers]

But is that fair to our worlds? If we're not qualified?

I wouldn't even know where to start, to prove my home is worth saving...!

[once_reborn]

[She's silent a moment. She's thought over that quite a bit.]

Well, for one thing, I used to think exactly like that - and I still believe there are better people than me from back in my universe by any measure but...I don't think anybody knows what it means to be qualified for this.

And fate is a tricky thing we cannot know until we've reached where we're meant to go.

[borrowers]

Yes, but...

[But she's particularly underqualified, she thinks. She's never been one to think herself as anything but capable of whatever she puts her mind to. It's just... you know. This is another challenge entirely. She can spend hours getting down the apartments stairs, but she's expected to help save a world?]

Then what should we do? To try and make sure we do what we have to?

[once_reborn]

Well, people like me...we believe there is a destiny for all of us. Not to be afraid of it, or to live our lives consumed by it - so we just try to do the right thing, whatever that is.

[A pause]

Personally, my goal is to find a way to try and reason down the people behind all this. I'm not terribly trusting of so much power, and what they're proposing...I think it needs challenging.

[borrowers]

A destiny...

[A pensive, quiet response. She's never been too caught up on what she's destined to do — only that she needed to get out there, to ask questions, to not be afraid of whatever laid beyond the crawl space of a home.]

Do you think they're doing this when there's a better path to take?

[once_reborn]

I do, yes. At the very least I demand proof of what they're saying. But I like to think there's a better way, no matter what.

[borrowers]

... Proof is important.

Nobody should just believe in something only because it's what people always say, right?

[once_reborn]

It is. From the smallest thing to, well, this.

But please, don't underrate yourself or...think you're not up to the task. I wrestle with those thoughts, too, and they're never fair.

[borrowers]

... I'll try not to. It doesn't help to feel hopeless or small, does it?

[once_reborn]

[She smiles to herself. That's a good way of thinking.]

All we can ever do is our best. And you've got that exactly right.