001; text

[necronarmicon.livejournal.com]

I think I've finally figured out how to properly use this. It's alien to me, as is the rest of the ship. There is so little familiar here, and I can hardly describe the feeling of separation. It's like a dream.

Falling from my liquid bed was uncannily like being reborn. This only makes sense, given that the last I was aware of, I was dead. I panicked at first, but what I assume to be a week of exploration has afforded me a lot of time to be safely alone with my thoughts. Moreover, it has given me time to try to puzzle out devices like this one. I was never a scientist, but I have the feeling that even if I were, these would be far beyond my understanding. For a man who had thought 1839 to be the height of innovation, it's startling, to say the least.

I am writing in hopes of the other residents being able to offer some measure of help. My name is Daniel. I have gathered some information about why we're here, but with how little I understand, it feels like it will never be enough.

[feel free to assume you've seen a scraggly-looking guy wandering around the halls asking stupid questions and then booking it. :')]

Comments

[necronarmicon]

[Daniel is opting to be as cagey as humanly possible about this, so he doesn't accidentally give away something he shouldn't, which is probably imminent anyway. He feels like he's walking across a floor rigged to collapse if he steps just one centimeter out of line. But there's been no hostility, none of the smug knowingness from when he prised his way into Alexander's inner sanctum.

Still, he can't really think of this as safe. Best to play up his ignorance while he feels this out, since it's too late to scuttle back to the shadows, idiot that he is.]

If you don't remember that, what do you?

[cutthelines]

[Well he sure is remembering Daniel's mad skills at TESTING ONE'S PATIENCE. Not that Alexander is in any position to be annoyed at people being vague about things, but he's going to be a hypocrite anyway.]

The things I can recall are ill suited for the ears of whoever may be listening. Wouldn't you agree?

[Blackmail's far from the worst thing he's ever done, at least.]

[necronarmicon]

[This is a trap. This is a trap. This is so obvious, even he can't miss it. But he can't ignore it, either. Alexander's got both the carrot and the stick here: refuse, and he makes himself suspicious, agree, and he puts himself at his mercy. What else can he do? There's no third option offered here like there was before, no way to subvert him.]

[He tries to stop trembling with little success, thinking how best to phrase this without sounding as recalcitrant as he feels.]

Of course. Not in public, you're right. Where are you? [He's not saying where he is, naturally. He wants to meet Alexander on his own terms.]

[cutthelines]

[This is definitely not the kind of confrontation Alexander wants to have out in the common room where outsiders can interfere. On the other hand, in private, what's to stop Daniel from trying to kill him? He never would have thought the younger man had it in him, but if he did do it in Alexander's future that would have been...]

Presently in the sleeping quarters marked '180.' Don't keep me waiting.

[It's just a chance he'll have to take. At least Alexander has the advantage of expecting it. Daniel would be a fool to think he hasn't had to fight off and kill desperate men before.]

looks like we need a log huh :>

[necronarmicon]

I'll be there soon.

[Soon is relative. He's not going to rush there by any stretch of the imagination. He knows he has to show up, but he doesn't know what to expect, and he's frightened, though that's nothing new. He thinks briefly that he wants some kind of weapon, but what kind of human weapon would work on Alexander, now that he knows what he knows? The best he can really do is be ready to run.]