Video, UN: Kassandra

[metoikos]

[Kassandra had spent the better part of a day figuring out just how to use the Omni before doing this. She's not technologically inclined, but once she had certain things pinpointed it wasn't difficult to work out some of the basic functions. Including ill-advised videos introducing herself, though she clearly hasn't mastered the Art of the Selfie.

The video feed opens at an odd angle showing a tanned woman, thankfully right-side up, staring at it with furrowed brows. Deep in concentration for a moment more, she simply stares at the camera in silence until she seems to come to a conclusion. Nodding, the woman exhales, and finally speaks up.]

...Hello. If other people are able to hear me, please say something so I don't keep talking to a rock and wondering if it really is magic or if I am crazy.

[Her voice has a heavy Greek accent, and if her attire is any indication she is not of the modern era.]

If I am talking to a magic rock, then know that my name is Kassandra, and I am looking for my family and my crew. Men named Alexios, Nikolaos, Barnabas and Stentor...and women named Myrinne, Roxana, and Odessa. I have hope that I am not alone in being reborn in this strange land, yet I have seen no sign of them.

[There's a pause as she fiddles with the Omni one more time.]

Aletheia, if you can hear this, show yourself.

[And then the feed drops.]

Comments

[metoikos]

And what a comforting man you are.

[Well, not crazy is good. That helps alleviate the worry that she's spent the last day wrestling with something useless. But Kassandra isn't one to keep glib replies held back.]

Do you always greet strangers with cryptic commentary, or is that just Tyche smiling on me a second time?

[rocinantes]

That's me, not comforting.

( good to get that out of the way quickly enough, right? )

You want a specific answer, ask a specific question. But I would have thought just looking around and seeing what this place looks like would tell you that it's fucked up.

[metoikos]

Fine. That I can do.

[At least he's not answering questions with questions. She's had enough of that for ten lifetimes.]

Is the reason for this place being the way it is due to the locals, or is it something else cursing this land? And is it directed at us, as outsiders, or is it less discriminating?

[rocinantes]

Not exactly sure. I'm gonna guess it's some kind of combination of the two. This wasn't the first place I've been that's...fucked up like this.

( he's not even going to begin to explain dream world right now. )

It was like this when we got punted from the other place. Showed up and it was just...this shitty mess.

[metoikos]

I see.

[She doesn't quite, but she's getting the picture that the Sleepers are new, and don't really know what is going on. That's helpful information, even if it is incidental.]

Is Trench a violent city, then? The locals appear to be friendly, though that could be a front, of course. I do not understand what they mean by Beasthood, either. Do you have insight on that?

[rocinantes]

Violent enough. Something made us all wanna beat the shit out of each other a little while ago. You missed that, congratulations. And don't ask me what it was either, I couldn't tell you.

( he'd just had the urge to beat the shit out of someone and something and it hadn't gone away until he'd done it. )

Beasthood? Might have something to do with the blood thing. But I'm still getting myself together here too. What did they say about Beasthood?

[metoikos]

I feel that urge somewhat daily. I wouldn't know the difference.

[Kassandra is from a much, much more violent time.]

Beasthood, they've said, is becoming some sort of beast? I think they mean literally, something to do with the blood. So, a curse, like Dionysus to Lycurgus. A kind of madness.

[rocinantes]

It hasn't happened to me but I Know there's a lot of shit I've kind of ignored.

( oops? )

I know there's a strong emphasis on blood here. And that it might give you some kind of power.

[metoikos]

Blood, yes, that keeps coming up.

[It's enough to make her feel a little uncomfortable, being from The Bloodline, and having just dealt with a cult that thinks her family's lineage is the key to power.]

I do not need more power, but I do not even know what kind I supposedly am to receive. Are there methods to telling?

[rocinantes]

I saw one guy get angry and nearly incinerate a tree. He got all weird about it though.

( it had seemed pretty cool to him. )

Tried that? Getting angry and burning somethin down?

[metoikos]

No, I think my patron might dislike that quite a bit.

[She holds up a hand, and a buzzing sound echoes through the feed...the snapping pop of electricity running along her fingers.]

I could already call lightning. But I've noticed it comes more easily here.

[rocinantes]

The fuck? Lightning?

( he'd gotten fucked over when it came to powers. )

So, are you human?

[metoikos]

I'm a demigod.

[Easier that than explaining her true lineage. She's still wrestling with the Isu stuff.]

[rocinantes]

( of course she is. )

The fucking hell is a demigod?

[metoikos]

[It's a lot, okay?]

Someone from the bloodline of a god.

[rocinantes]

So, you're some kind of god? It's been awhile since I took a class on history so I can't remember the god that did lightning.

( help him out. )

[metoikos]

Part, yes.

[Again, way easier than explaining Isu shit.]

And it's Zeus.

[rocinantes]

Zeus, right. The lightning guy.

( he's thoughtful for a second. )

You're related to him?

[metoikos]

Yes. His blood is part of my bloodline.

[More or less.]

...What's your name?

[rocinantes]

Amos.

( he gives her a salute. )

And I am not a fuckin' demigod.

[metoikos]

I figured. We aren't exactly common.

[Aside from Clarisse, apparently.]

What do you do here?

[rocinantes]

Here? Drink.

( he hasn't gotten a job yet. )

Fight people when I'm bored. I used to have a job back in Dreamland but the junkyard didn't make it here so I'm still looking.

[metoikos]

So, a roustabout then.

[Well, that's something.]

Is this like where you are from at all?

[rocinantes]

I don't even know what that is.

( so. )

And no. I live in fuckin' space. I live on a spaceship most of the time.

[metoikos]

I don't know what that means. Don't we all live in a space?

[Astronomy was not really a thing in the 5th century BCE. She's a hundred or so years too early for that.]