002; video: phone. ARIA & DANNY JOINT POST.

[eras]

[Behold, a beautiful video of both Danny’s and Aria’s faces! Behind them is a magnificent view of some highway pit stop.]

Hey! Uh, hi. So, uh, Aria and me decided to do a test.

Right! [ Aria waves the arm of a rather sizable bright orange dinosaur plush toy at the screen. ] For science! You see, we were talking the other day, so we got to wondering...

...There’s like a boundary around the city and if you cross it, you lose all your weird memories and pulse-thingies related to the network, right? So, we went to the Meadowland Falls theme park, just outside of Locke City, to see where that line actually is. And, uh...we’re starting to think it’s not actually that simple? Because when we were driving over to the theme park, this weird thing happened where--

[Danny is shifting his weight from foot to foot as he’s talking into the screen, but then accidentally takes a step to the side. He immediately drops his sentence and looks around as though he’s dazed.]

I--what? A-Aria? What was I just doing…? [He looks over to the phone and leans in, trying to see what’s on it.] Do you know what’s going on? This is really weird--

Danny? [ Danny’s treated to a confused glance before Aria figures it out: he must have gone over the arbitrary memory line. Aria reaches over to take Danny’s elbow. ] Uh, just - let’s take a few steps over this way... [ And she tugs, although gently, to pull him back to where he’d been before. ] Gosh darn it. I thought we were further past whatever-it-was!

[After a bit of readjusting, Danny’s eyes seem to refocus and he looks back to the screen, and then to Aria.] Oh--did I--? Darn, I didn’t realize we were so close.

[ Aria shrugs, looking sideways with a curious expression. ] I didn’t either, but...here, hold Andronikos, for a second. [ She shoves the oversized toy at him, and then takes a few steps in the direction Danny had gone. When she gets a good ten feet from the place she’d left Danny, Aria turns and shrugs, hands on her hips. ] ...I still feel fine. But you definitely just lost it, so that must mean...

Yeeaah...uh. I think we found out that the boundary or border or whatever isn’t the same for everybody? So. It looks like we just have to be careful near the edges of the city, because there isn’t a single border everyone can really avoid...

Well...at least we learned something new, even if we can’t report an outer limit. [ Aria frowns a little, put out, but bounces back to smiling in the space of a second. ] It was fun anyway, though - and like I said, now we know!

Comments

[eras]

It makes sense within our illogical new sense?

[argents]

Alien-invader movie sense! I wonder if it's centered anywhere, you know?

[eras]

...You know, I have no idea, but that'd be great to find out. Maybe checking everyone's own boundaries against one another and sort of...mathing it?

[argents]

I could probably get a big map of Locke from the library, or school. Even if only a few of us spend the time finding out about where our boundaries are, that'd be enough to find some kind of central point, right?

[ SLEUTHING TIME? SLEUTHING TIME. ]

[eras]

Absolutely we could! For the map, and for the boundaries. I think it's worth a shot!! Maybe we'll learn something interesting, right?

I'm definitely in. And Danny probably will be, too!

[argents]

I'm sure we will! Really sure. It sounds like the best waste of time we're going to find for now. Unless it moves, but we can jump that hurdle when we get to it.

I can let you know when I get the most recent map — and oh yeah, call your colors now! We're going to need a way to tell us all apart.

[ Color-coding never goes out of style. ]

[eras]

Red for me! And would you like my cell number? Fastest way to reach me.

[argents]

Red, got it. And we can exchange, sure! Sometimes I forget what it's like to text or call outside of the network now.

[eras]

In that case, my number is [ insert number here lalala ]!

[argents]

And here's mine! [ boop, #! ] I should probably get some geography stuff on Locke too, see if there are any, um... landmarks? That we could follow.