( open )

[polyphobic]

Who: Claire Saunders + open
When: Second half of April
Where: See prompts
What: Claire's finally checking out the planets
Warnings: N/A

( region one )

( Her first call is at the markets. It's a simple goal, and though busy and bustling she's trying to focus on the fruit in front of her. Most of her meals so far have been provided by the Ingress Complex, but now that she's down on the planet Claire wants to see what she can get herself.

It'd be easier if she could recognise what was being sold. Some of the fruits are familiar, the apples a welcome sight, but not all of them are. It takes a few moments, an inquisitive glance and feel at them before Claire asks the closest person if they know what they are, and if they're any good.

Later, with her fruit purchased and bagged, Claire finds one of the coffee shops. It's been a little more overwhelming than she'd thought, even after having visited the asteroid. There was more people than she'd thought might be here -- Claire never had found out how many people had been taken through the Ingress.

Still, coffee was a good way to recharge.

Her gaze flits amongst the people in the place as she sits with her drink, almost trying not to make eye contact. Perhaps she's accidentally taken your table, or perhaps there are few places left to sit and the other seat looks inviting. She wouldn't (be able to) say no to company )

( region five )

( Nate had mentioned the changing times of the district the previous month. Claire didn't know too much about history,
not to recognise specific building styles on sight or to have too much interest, but it was curious.
Going there herself, seeing how quickly the building styles change... it still wasn't too much, but it also wasn't an everyday sight )

Do they go in order?

( She means the time periods, as if it's a scale from oldest to newest, but you might need clarification on the question )

( region one )

( It's closer to the end of the month now. Going to the Asteroid the first time had felt like a mistake but Claire had needed to see it from a scientific perspective, to see what they were doing -- why.

The second time it had been more personal. It had been easier to ignore what she'd felt, and the desire to run away when nobody knew you. Nobody knew her still but what she'd been running from had caught up to her. Her life was no different from the clones talked about or those in the genetic nursery. She wasn't real, just someone's experiment -- a joke.

Drinking had been an equally bad idea but it had been the quickest way to escape, and dulling her thoughts seemed like the only way to do it. That was what she was escaping -- the doubt, the judgement. The loathing. She'd told others that clones were real people -- they thought, they felt. They were real, but she didn't believe it about herself.

And so she'd drank, sitting alone at the side of the bar, starting to edge away from tipsy. There's a glass in Claire's hand and her head's dipped, her hand just a few inches from the bar. It's almost a decision of whether to quickly drain the last of it or put down the glass -- she wasn't enjoying it )

Comments

r5

[sketchycharacter]

[Nate hadn't been done exploring everything in the region—on a planet like this, he thinks he might never run out of things to explore—and he definitely hadn't run out of cool things to sketch, so during a free afternoon, he'd come to jot down some of the cooler combinations of styles he'd noticed.]

Huh? [Spaced out and occupied with the drawing, he hadn't realized anyone else had gotten so close until she said something.] No, not on this block anyway. Look at that—American colonial, Renaissance Italy, and then Victorian England at the far end of the block.

[polyphobic]

( Oh hey, it's this guy. She remembers the brief history lesson that she'd gotten last time when he'd been raving about the buildings. It's nice to get more info from him -- from an expert )

Are the other blocks different then?

( There's a small frown, though she's curious rather than confused. It's really just odd to find all of the Earth styles here, and mishmashed together )

[sketchycharacter]

Some of them, yeah—it doesn't look like they were planned, just built up as they went. Definitely not a designed subdivision. There are a couple of them with clusters of similar styles, though, so I think they might have been built by people who came through an Ingress from around the same era.

[polyphobic]

It's kind of incredible.

( Seeing it all -- the styles of things that she'd recognise on Earth. It's not that surprising if that's where the people came from but it isn't something you'd expect when you thought of an alien planet )

Some of this probably doesn't exist anymore. Not like this.

[sketchycharacter]

Depends when you come from, I guess. If someone shows up from the late 1400s, some of these houses would look pretty modern.

[polyphobic]

I hadn't thought about that.

( She knew that there were people here from different times but in the moment it was easier to forget )

There are people here that are used to living in space, too. Some of this could look really strange to them.

btw he's introducing himself because their previous convos were text so he doesn't realize

[sketchycharacter]

Kinda makes you wonder why there are so many humans, huh? Or just feel lucky that we can live in this kind of space.

[They could have ended up in a world designed around the needs of gelatinous tentacle creatures.]

Sorry, I didn't get your name? I'm Nathan Drake—Nate.

[polyphobic]

Claire. ( There's a smile, if brief, before Claire adds-- ) I spoke to you about these buildings once before. I'm glad you're still looking around them.

( She hadn't actually taken his advice about getting more information before, though she won't bother him with the same questions again )

But it is a good question. Why are there so many humans, unless aliens don't actually exist.

( Except Claire knows they do -- she's spoken to one )

[sketchycharacter]

Oh, hey. Good to meet you in person.

[He gives her a little wave.]

Aliens are definitely real. I've met a bunch. Robots, too. But maybe the people who originally built the Ingresses just really like Earth architecture.

[polyphobic]

There still seems like a lot of it.

( Surely the universe isn't that small that there are few worlds other than Earth )

Unless the first people here -- the ones that made the technology were also from Earth.

( Wild conspiracy theory )

[sketchycharacter]

Could be, I suppose. Probably not anyone from the version of Earth I'm from, though—if we had the capacity to develop that tech, wouldn't we have serious space travel from that end, too?

[Unless whoever invented the Ingress is from his version of Earth but way, waaaaay in the future. Whoa.]

[polyphobic]

Some do, if it's not just a story.

( Where there were aliens and robots Claire had also heard of, and spoken to, a human that lived in space )

It could be from a different Earth, but it's Earth -- and they're human. Their history might have similar architecture.

[sketchycharacter]

Really? Damn. [He shakes his head.] Just when I think I'm caught up on things here.