the girl from the spaceship

[brightspot]

WHO: Five and anyone!
WHERE: The network
WHEN: Now-ish I guess?
WHAT: Introduction and a question about socks
WARNINGS: None expected

[A video feed of a green-haired girl, short even for her age of 16 years, sitting on the floor of her Libra apartment, in a pile of mismatched socks.

But she'll get to that in a second, first:]

So, I guess this is where I'm staying for now since I can't find a way to get back to the Raza or contact my friends from there. Hi? I'm Five. [Yeah there's a story behind a name that weird.

She gives a little wave to the camera.]

This pile of socks showed up in my apartment and I currently live alone so I really don't know where they came from and I'm wondering if anyone is missing any socks? There are some pretty cool ones here. Like this one looks like a black cat and is pretty cute, [She holds it up with a small smile.] I think I'd be sad if I were the one who lost it. Oh there's some holidays ones as well...? But none of them match!

[She pauses, wondering how to end this, and gives a shrug before picking up her phone from the floor so now only her face is shown.]

Yeah, so just let me know if you want your sock back?

Comments

[whatsamada]

[...]

It is frustrating, isn't it? That people can judge us based on what we wear but I know there isn't anything I can do about it.

[brightspot]

That's true. People are going to think whatever they want to think. You can only really be true to what you feel and think yourself.

[whatsamada]

[All Ken could do was stare at the screen before giving a chuckle. He didn't know what to say as this was something his senpais have told him multiple times before.]

Which is a hard habit to break. [Especially when he spent a portion of his life caring about how others perceive him.]

[brightspot]

[She can only give a sympathetic smile and a slight shrug.]

Sorry... I'm not really the best person for advice, I guess.

[She pauses as she thinks.]

Would you be embarrassed to be seen with me in public while I was wearing stuff that doesn't match? Or anyone else, maybe someone you knew better?

[whatsamada]

No, it's okay. You don't need to apologize when I was the one talking about it.

[With a pause, he glanced at the ground. Now he feels bad for upsetting her.]

Of course I wouldn't! If you're happy with what you're wearing then it should be okay.

[Said the boy who was more upset about what other people thought about him.]

[brightspot]

[Her smile brightens some.]

Well, that's something. I know not everyone thinks like that, but I think more people do than we realize.

[whatsamada]

Then it is something they should worry about. I know whatever my friends wear, I don't mind. I'm just more worried about what impression I give off people.

[brightspot]

If it means anything, you seem pretty cool to me. What kind of impression do you hope to give off?

[whatsamada]

I suppose someone who people can depend on. Or at the very least, someone who knows what they're doing.

[Granted, he also wanted to give the impression that he was just a kid too but...!]

[brightspot]

[She nods in understanding. She's often underestimated even though she has combat and weapons training and knows her way around wires and fuses better than the back of her own hand.]

Yeah... You can show that with your actions too, though. And I don't really think dependability can be determined just by what someone's wearing? But... I guess that doesn't stop people from making assumptions based on looks anyway.

[whatsamada]

Which is why it can be tough. I know I should be a kid and yet, I also don't want people to underestimate me.

[With that, he gave a sigh. It was always a tricky situation as he wants people to take him seriously and yet...?]

Sorry, I didn't mean to talk about this with you and especially when you have your own problems to deal with.

[brightspot]

I know that, at least for me, I kind of had to start doing more adult things in my life just in order to survive, and to help protect the people I care about...

[She smiles sympathetically.]

Maybe I do, but... having conversations like this, like talking about what goes on in our heads? That's part of how you make friends, so I'm cool with it.

[whatsamada]

[And then, there was a long pause on his end. Here came the internal debate if he should say something to her but instead? He mumbled to himself.

He knew he had to make friends here and the best way to do that was to open up, right?]

I know that I had no choice, I had to take care of myself when almost nobody would. Not when everyone would pity me and think of me as an ... [He took a deep breath in] orphan.

[brightspot]

[If nothing else, she definitely picks up that last word.]

I was, or I guess am, an orphan. I lived on a space station with a bunch of other orphans my age, and even younger too. We had this little home together we made in the walls, and... we stole things, and tricked people in order to survive.

[Of course, that was all before she'd ended up on the Raza, her ship, and eventually lost access to her memories. But she had relived a memory about this not long ago, and recalls it clearly. Vividly. Which is not entirely pleasant, considering how it ended.]

[whatsamada]

[There was a very long pause on his end.]

I'm sorry, I didn't know you had to go through that. It must have been really rough for you and especially when you had to do so much to survive.

[Orphan or not, he was considerably lucky compared to her. At the very least, he didn't have to be homeless and steal.]

[brightspot]

Hey, no need to be sorry, it's cool.

[She speaks with a friendly, soothing tone.]

I wasn't trying to make you feel bad or anything, just trying to relate? But I don't actually remember a lot from that time anyway... My memory is kind of weird now? Most of it I don't have access to, some stuff just comes up when I sleep.

[whatsamada]

[Wait, what?]

What do you mean you don't have access to? You're not allowed to go back and visit your memories?

[Is that what she means??]

[brightspot]

It's like all my memories are still in my head, but locked away where I can't recall them on purpose? This happened before I came to Kaisou though. Sometimes stuff comes up when I'm awake too, but... Oh, and I also have some other people's memories?

[She laughs a little.]

It can be a little confusing to explain how it happened. Do you know what a stasis pod is?

[whatsamada]

No, I'm afraid not so you're going to have to tell me about them. What are they?

[Somewhere, in the back of Ken's mind? He was a little relived. The more she talked about herself, the more he didn't have to bring up some uncomfortable details about his own life.]

I don't think I ever heard of something where your memories can be locked away and yet, you can still get them back.

[brightspot]

A stasis pod is like this chamber you go into that allows you to sleep for a really long time without having to wake up to eat or anything like that. It's super useful for when you have a really long trip through space ahead of you but don't have enough food supplies or you want to conserve energy or something.

Anyway, I was on a spaceship called the Raza, and me and the rest of the crew went into stasis, but there was sort of a malfunction caused by a computer virus in the pods that messed with our memories. So that's how it happened. I ended up with memories in my head from the rest of the crew, too.

[She has some idea how confusing this probably all sounds but she's also not totally sure how to make it less confusing. And she's intentionally leaving out the fact the virus and malfunction were her fault.]

[whatsamada]

[All Ken could do was stare at the screen. She wasn't really sure if he completely understood everything she said but at the same time? She was also from another world. So instead, he gave a long silence before trying to figure out what to say.]

So in other words, you can't really tell which ones are your memories and which is theirs.

[Pause] It sounds really confusing and especially when you're ready trying to piece everything together after a long space ride. Whatever the case, I really hope that you and your crew got to your destination.

[Otherwise, it really would be terrible. But then again, knowing how things go, it wasn't exactly that easy now was it?]

[brightspot]

Yeah, it can definitely be hard to sort that out...

We did get there. We weren't, like, going there to stay? There was just a job we were supposed to do there, and then we left. We pretty much just lived on our ship and stopped places to pick up supplies or do jobs.

My username is RazaFive because that was my ship's name. The Raza.

[She misses it a lot. It's her home.]

[whatsamada]

I see. Then I hope you'll find a way to get back home soon, I really don't want to see your friends miss you.

[...]

I know I'm wondering about them too, I've been here for quite sometime and hope that they're okay.

[brightspot]

Yeah, or else they could show up here? I think I'd be okay with that too...

[As far as she can tell, this place isn't any more dangerous than back home, so...]

I'm sorry you're missing your friends too... Maybe we can be friends while we're both here?

[whatsamada]

[There was a long pause on his end. While he didn't mind befriending people here, it was a little odd to hear other people wanting to be his friend. With that, he gave a chuckle.]

Yeah, I would like that. It'll be nice to know we're both not alone here.