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

[levelshift]

Yup, and some people way outskill others. It's completely unfair and there's nothing anyone can do about it.

[Better to face the reality of it and start adapting than be stubborn, in his opinion.]

I mean you can sit and twist your brain into knots about your own worth, but what good will it do? [AKA the cursing is just to emphasize what he's getting at, and he isn't going to bother to tell her it's language kids shouldn't be using.]

[borrowers]

I am worth a lot, even if I don't have many skills.
I just know there are a lot of things here that I'll...

have to be very creative with.

It makes me nervous not having my mother and father here, but I would want to make them proud by facing being alone here bravely.

[levelshift]

[Well, it's good that she doesn't have any self-worth issues.]

As long as you can adapt it isn't that hard to survive here.

[From both that remark and her tone of voice in her initial message Accelerator is guessing she isn't that old, which is unfortunate.]

You ever been away from your parents before?

[borrowers]

I've never been this far from our home.

I've visited the yard without them, but... nothing like this.

[levelshift]

What do you mean by 'the yard'?

[borrowers]

... The space around the house? The yard?
That's what it's supposed to be called, isn't it?

[Don't make her second guess a bean's concept of yards, Accelerator.]

[levelshift]

[Here he was assuming she meant something else but nope. The yard, the exact definition of a yard.]

The fuck?? Are you serious?

[Her parents don't let her leave the yard???? That's so baffling.]

How old are you?

[It'd at least make sense if she was a little kid, right?]

[borrowers]

I just turned fourteen!

[So completely mature and ready to face any and all hardships!

... Or, well, she was allowed to participate in borrowing. It was harrowing.

Sensing his bafflement (how could anyone not), she adds:]

It's a very big yard.

[levelshift]

[.... That is more than old enough to leave the yard of her home, what on earth.]

How big?

[borrowers]

Well, it's a big yard to me...
Everyone's got their own idea of a large yard, don't they?

[... She's never measured the distance, much like most normal sized folks don't care to measure a full, sprawling meadow.

Oops.]

[levelshift]

I don't know, I'm guessing if you asked most people what their idea of one is the answers would be roughly similar.

[This is such a weird conversation to be having.]

[borrowers]

[... A soft sigh reverberates around her shoebox room.]

Not for me it isn't.

I've spent so much of my life having to hide from everyone else.
Even just talking to you feels like I'm doing something wrong.

But I can't expect to survive here or be involved like the rest of you and keep living that way, right?

[levelshift]

[Okay, he has so many questions right now. Wha the hell kind of life requires someone to hide from other people? A few reasons for having to do such a thing are coming to mind and all of them are horrible.]

No, you can't.

Honestly, you could probably get away with avoiding people in between missions. Nothing costs money around here, so it isn't hard to isolate yourself and survive if you're motivated enough.

[Or antisocial enough. He knows hiding from people and being antisocial aren't quite the same thing, but he thinks there are enough similarities between the two that he can understand what she's getting at.]

You can't do that when it comes to missions. So far all of them have required us relying on each other, or at least people living in the places we go to.

[Accelerator doesn't leave it there, though. As bad as he is when it comes to people he still understands the importance of socializing, and this girl sounds pretty young.]

Avoiding people outside of missions would likely make missions harder, too.

[borrowers]

Then it would be nothing but beneficial, to be open here.

... And I suppose it would be very lonely otherwise.

[levelshift]

Yeah. The only real downside is that people are tiring.

[He knows that's a 'him' problem, though.]

That's another downside. [It's incredibly lonely.]

[borrowers]

I think people are quite amazing.

[A sick boy trying to help save her family for her is an amazing thing, anyway. Sho may have made his mistakes, but she surely made a lot of her own, too... and at the end of the day, she was happy to have gotten to know a bean. Even if she'd have done anything to undo the damage she'd done. To let her family keep their home...]

Then — I'll try. To be open to the world.
I should meet you, then. It would be a good place to start!

[levelshift]

[There's a lot he could say in his reply to that -- argue, really, but there's no point. He'd just be acting like a shitty asshole with a shitty opinion, and it's more important that he tries to be better than that. Y'know, stick to being encouraging about her socializing, because what's what's the most important thing here.

Except..........]

What? Fuck no, there are way better people around here than me. I'm a terrible place to start.

[borrowers]

A terrible place to start is a start nonetheless.

And shouldn't you be socializing too?

[levelshift]

[........................

Yes.]

It's complicated.

[borrowers]

Not nearly as complicated as my reasons.
I'll bet you on it.

[levelshift]

[He wants to know what the hell she means....]

Fine. But I don't want to hear any complaints when this ends up being a bad idea.

[borrowers]

Alright then.

Come to the alley across from the hospital. I'll meet you at the shoebox behind the trashcans.

Text => Action

[levelshift]

[That's such a weird place to meet but whatever, he'll agree to it.]

Okay, fine. I'll be there shortly.

[He grabs his crutch and heads out! Since he's living in the starter apartments it only takes him a few minutes to get over to the hospital and then across the street to the alley. From there he starts poking around the trashcans, looking for a shoebox. Which is still weird as hell, so he's feeling a little wary.]

Action

[borrowers]

Down here!

[It's not a very loud voice, expectedly — or unexpectedly, in Accelerator's case. But a voice all the same. The sound seems to be coming out from the shoebox itself, neat and tidy where it's pushed up against the wall, just out of a walking path. After a hesitant moment, Arrietty slowly... slowly... pokes her head out from under the shredded cloth she'd fashioned into a door flap.

Her hand is on the handle of her sewing pin, though she imagines she wouldn't have much defense against him if he were actually a cruel person prone to stomping on very little people.]

Are you... 'Accelerator'?

[hi]

[levelshift]

[When he hears the voice he glances around a bit before realizing he needs to look downwards. When he does his eyes widen a little.

Oh man, she's tiny. She's Othinus-sized, which is a whole feat. She isn't from his world, is she? But Othinus wasn't always tiny, and he honestly isn't sure what the hell her deal was aside from a few details. Getting distracted by Othinus isn't really helpful, so he shakes those thoughts from his mind.

Aside from that his reaction is pretty mild. Despite not knowing much about the pint-sized ex-Magic God it does mean this girl isn't the first tiny person he's ever met, so he's already got some experience here.]

Uh, yeah. That's me.