reactivates | [ TLV | Video ] 007 - The Fourth Wall

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reactivates

[This will be the first video entry where Claudia is actually not in her cabin. She's in the library. There are books open around her. There are lots of post-it notes. Her communicator is propped up on a book so she doesn't have to hold it.

She's got a bright streak of red in her hair. She's devoid of any jewelry besides her normal abundance of earrings, and her ~~Wardening~~ matching bracelet to Willow's. She looks quite tired.]

Okay, I could use a good distraction. Sooo... What's going on here, random strangers? Anyone I know out there? ...Artie?

[[OOC: No mistaking her for her actress. That's pretty much the only thing I ask. Feel free to mistake her for other characters with her face, though.

ETA: Long day was long. Going to bed now. More replies tomorrow! ♥]]

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From:

aubergine_cherub

[A small child peers out from the screen, and blinks once, then waves shyly.]

Are you okay?

From:

surfaceshine

[Stare.]

From:

reactivates

[Oh God, he's too cute. She can't help but wave back, a small smile tugging at her lips.] Hi. Yeah, just a little sleepy. I'm Claudia, by the way.

From:

aubergine_cherub

My name is Mischa. [She holds up a stick-legged bunny drawn in purple crayon.] My brother's going to save me.

From:

reactivates

[She's uncertain how the drawing fits into this.] Ah. So... your brother's a bunny rabbit?

From:

aubergine_cherub

Hee hee hee hee hee! [She rubs the side of her face and gets a purple smudge on it.] No, my brother is a Doctor! His name is Hannibal.

From:

reactivates

[Claudia's smile widens at her laughter (and the smudge), but it falters when she mentions who her brother is.] Oh... What's he saving you from, Mischa? Are you sick?

From:

aubergine_cherub

There are Nazis. I have to wait for my brother. He'll save me.

From:

surfaceshine

You, me, cream cheese and bagels tonight. I'm not even hearing any argument about that shit.

[Did someone say distraction? Dean is always here, of course, but she didn't exactly specify. He's not going to linger right now, he has his own angst to get to, but.]

From:

reactivates

That's a shame - I totally planned a witty argument, too. [Not really.] Better bring them with you to the library. I'm camped out here until further notice. Oh! Also..

[Private]

I need your help keeping an eye on Willow. Just, in the sense that if you happen to see her behaving suspiciously, let me know? I know you've got your own inmate now and everything, but... I'm kind of buried under this research for the whole ensoulment thing right now, and I don't want her to take advantage of that fact.

From:

surfaceshine

I'm a rebel. I'll be there later. [Actually he's going to completely space it, because very shortly he's going to get a transmission that will keep him until the end of the event, and then he's barely going to remember his own name.]

[ Private ]

Sure. My inmate pretty much takes care of himself in that regard - I don't have to stalk him around to keep him in line, he'll come to me. [Dean's your man, Claudia.]

From:

reactivates

[OOCly noted. Though expect Claudia to be WORRIED about it when he stands her up. (Also feel free to cut this short if you want, since we have a bajillion other threads going. ♥]

Okay. Thanks, Dean. Have I mentioned you're 100% pure awesome?

From:

surfaceshine

[She can worry all she likes; Dean will be scarce until he's not, and then they're both probably going to be busy, so he's got a while before anyone calls him on it, we figure.

For now, though, he just grins at her, broad and bright.]

Not today, but that's alright - I already knew it.

From:

stillshinigami

Random stranger here.

The name's Duo. Yourself?

From:

reactivates

Claudia Donovan. From where and whence doest thou hail, stranger?

From:

stillshinigami

Uh. Umm. I come from yonder Space colony, 2400s.

Currently in a similar situation as yourself, multidimensional hub or nexus or whatever you want to call it.

Basically a giant library from hell.

From:

reactivates

I can't really decide whether that sounds better or worse than a prison boat in outer space. Do you have to play babysitter? Because if not, I'm inclined to say my situation miiight just be worse. [Currently at this moment in time when she's BURIED under warden work, sob.]

From:

stillshinigami

Does your prison ship have giant bugs? Do you have a steady supply of food and resources? Shampoo? Clothes?

Hey man, sign me up. If it beats cooling my heals between book cases I'm all for it.

Edited Date: 2012-06-09 01:49 am (UTC)

From:

reactivates

Yeesh. You win. [This is a lie: she actually still feels her situation is worse, but that is because of current happenings that she does not feel like going into detail about.] Probably safe to assume you aren't there voluntarily, huh?

From:

stillshinigami

Nope, and it isn't the first place I've been to either. Last place, they had control over our dreams and somehow linked our subconsciousness together. I'd take that over what we've got to deal with now.

From:

reactivates

The collective dreaming thing has already happened here. Didn't happen to me, thankfully, but I heard about it. It took forever for poor Tim to get proper sleep again. [Yes, just tell strangers about that, Claudia, go ahead.] I mean, it took a lot of people a while to get some proper sleep again.

From:

stillshinigami

not surprised. They had it pretty monthly for us, so we were part of some experiment or somethin. Glad it's over.

From:

reactivates

Yikes. Experiments? [She pauses. Actually, that's not a huge leap from what's happening here, she thinks. Though she's only been here a month, so, no definite conclusions yet.] The fact that wardens can pretty much stay or go whenever they please, that in itself probably makes this place better than, uh, either of those, I guess.

From:

stillshinigami

Somethin' like that, yeah.

Yeaaah, figured as much. It sucks but we're makin' it through. I'm glad I got this call though. It's been pretty boring.

From:

nolongerhollow

If you do not feel like talking about it, I am always good for a distraction or five, especially now that I have my flight harness.

From:

reactivates

You have a what now?

From:

nolongerhollow

A flight harness. It allows me to carry people while I fly without awkwardness.

From:

reactivates

That sounds... fun but scary, actually. I, uh, haven't had the best experience with heights since I started at the Warehouse. Not that like.. I'm afraid of them or anything. Just. Wary of them, let's say.

From:

nolongerhollow

Ah, well, if flying isn't your thing, that's all right. People react to it in different ways.

From:

artemismaximus

[And have an Artie on your screen, with the slightly grainy, black-and-white image that indicates he's calling from his Farnsworth. There isn't much background detail, but it looks smokey, and there's definitely debris in the area. He looks more than slightly weary, and there's a tightness around his eyes. But there's also a stiffness in his shoulder--sheer, absolute resolve to do whatever he has to.

He looks beyond relieved when he sees Claudia.] Claudia! We're all right! Is everything okay at Leena's?

Edited Date: 2012-06-09 04:41 am (UTC)

From:

reactivates

[Her eyes widen. As much as she'd been hoping to hear from him, she wasn't actually expecting it. There's a smile of absolute relief.] No, Artie, I'm not at Leena's. I mean, I might be, right now, where you are, but... See, our uh, signals... got crossed.

[She sighs, runs a hand through her hair and leans her cheek against her hand, elbow on the table she's sitting at.] It's complicated. You know how some artifacts can create different realities? Kind of like that. Except I'm... not in any reality. I'm in between them all. Sorta.

[She shakes her head, and smiles again into the screen.] ...I've been here a month. Which I realize what with your advanced age, you might not consider that a long time. [Yay, age jokes. She missed those.] But to me, it's a long time to be away from home.

From:

artemismaximus

[Artie's (very distinctive) eyebrows go down in the expression that means that he's worried and under pressure, and really doesn't have time for anything but getting things done, and not with arguments about how to do it better, but her statement pulls him up short.] Hold on, a month?!

[She's been trapped in some kind of Artifact-influenced reality for a month--the ramifications of that could be extraordinarily bad. His expression turns from frustrated to extremely worried in the blink of an instant.] How did you get there? Do you have any idea what you might have come in contact with?

From:

reactivates

[She quickly shakes her head again, sitting up straighter and picking up the communicator.] No, Artie, it's not actually artifact related, okay? I volunteered to be here. Is it too much to ask for you to suspend disbelief for like five minutes? Because I'd really like to just... talk to you, without having to go into this huge explanation of how I had to make a deal with the Admiral in exchange for helping rehabilitate criminals on this prison-slash-really-cheap-cruise-ship in not-quite-outer-space.

[...That was pretty good nut-shelling, actually. Huh. She'll probably switch this, uh, transmission over to a private channel soon, but at this exact moment she doesn't think it's necessary.] And don't tell me I'm too young to be a prison warden because I will start singing "Artie and Vanessa sitting in a tree" in retribution, got it?

From:

artemismaximus

You do, and you will be mopping the Warehou-- [He cuts himself off, and looks around, realizing that there really aren't any floors to mop any more.

Damn. He really doesn't have time for this. But still...Claudia. She's annoying a lot of the time, infuriating most of the time, but she's as close to a daughter as he's ever going to get. And while he's not at all convinced that this isn't Artifact-related (suspension of time, and going on about people he's never heard of are all good indicators), he puts that aside. For the moment.

And yes, 'You're too young to be a prison warden' goes through his mind almost instantly, but he manages to refrain from saying it, substituting a annoyed and worried scowl.] ...will be doing something unpleasant and not tech-related for the next month. [It's a belated finish to his threat, but it works.]

[He sighs slightly. He doesn't like this at all, but he nods once.] Proceed.

From:

reactivates

[Eyebrow raise at the sudden change of his threat (and why does it look like he's standing in the middle of a post-war zone?). For once though, she manages to push her curiosity aside. What she needs to talk about is too urgent. She switches the channel to private so no one else in the network will listen in on their conversation.

There's a rather large sigh of her own, and she starts walking with her communicator. (She wants to do this in her cabin, for the same reason as why she'd switched channels.)] Okay, first of all, that's pretty much already happening since I'm stuck here. Voluntarily, though, I guess technically I could leave if I wanted. But, see, you all have... official training and whatnot. So think of this as my training, Artie. I chose to do this. I mean, yeah, I'm awesome with the tech and the weapons, and I'm okay at stealth, and I'm pretty good at the quick-thinking problem-solving thing, too. But not so much when it comes to people problems. [Unless the person happens to be a little like her, but that won't always be the case.] And when dealing with artifacts I am undoubtedly going to run across people problems. And it's become pretty obvious to me I can't always rely on my partner - which I actually don't even have anymore - to deal with it for me.

[By the time she's managed to get all that out, she's made it back to her cabin. She closes the door behind her and sits down on her bed.] But... it's hard. Because if I was there, I know you... and Myka, and Pete, and even Leena... You'd all still have my back. You'd be helping me. And I still... I've only been here a month, and I still feel like an outsider, and... [Another sigh.] I do want to do this. It's only one inmate I'm in charge of, so it's not like it's impossible, I just... I think I need a nice peptalk? And maybe some of your oatmeal scotchies. A nice glass of Leena's lemonade. And an inappropriately timed boob-joke from Pete probably wouldn't hurt either, to be honest. [She is so homesick it is almost ridiculous.]

From:

artemismaximus

[Artie listens to her, the smoke drifting up in the background, and a piece of debris visible in the corner of the screen when he turns slightly. His expression is worried, but there's sympathy too, as he hears her out. There's a slight look of shock when she mentions not having her partner anymore in such an--not offhand tone, but not the tone he'd be expecting from her right now. But then again, time distortion. Maybe she's not aware of Steve's death yet.

When she finishes, he still looks worried, but he sighs softly.]

You don't need formal training, Claudia. If I wasn't absolutely confident that you could do the jobs we needed you to do, I'd never have sent you out into the field. [Because he'd never forgive himself if she got killed. He looks a little sheepish, and a little awkward, but he'll do his best with this pep talk even though he's not really good at it.]

You've been through a lot already, so I don't need to tell you you're tough. Even if your fashion sense is just...mm, well, it's something. If you could hack into the Warehouse system, and kidnap me, just to prove that Joshua was still alive, after all those years, I'm sure you can handle anything any inmate can throw at you.

Just--be careful. If you got killed on my watch...I'd never be able to figure out the idiotic computer systems you've created. [He means he cares about you and he wants you to be safe, Claudia..]

From:

I see you found someone from home.

[What, he's a well meaning creep, okay. :c]

From:

reactivates

[It's okay, Tim, you're a cute stalker. <3]

Yeah. That would be Artie. He's my, uh, father-figure-slash-boss. [AKA the person she misses the most from home.]

From:

[Hey he awkwardly knows that type extremely well.] Yeah? Good. I won't keep you, I'm still looking for my father-figure-slash-boss.

From:

reactivates

It would seem our similarity knows no bounds. And you go do that. [Those are Claudia's fingers on the screen, forming the shape of a heart with both indexes and thumbs.]

From:

[Tim just smiles and ducks his head a little at that heart. But a moment later, he tries to make one in return. It's a bit lopsided, but it's there.] On it. I'll talk to you later.

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