Where Are We? | video; un:b1-of-a-kind

[thelastb1]

[Roger begins a video stream with a screen showing a symbol. It's a triangle, with a wrench radiating out light, with a title in a surprisingly well designed font with one part above and one part below the symbol, saying (in Aurebesh script) "Roger Reviews: The Empty City," as if this is supposed to be some kind of series. It is shortly followed by a caption saying "Where Are We?" before fading out to reveal the interior of an apartment with a mess of blank papers stapled to the wall, creating a collage of blank sheets, with only the same words, "Where Are We?" written in permanent marker at the top. Then, onto the frame walks a battle droid, wearing a greenish-grey leather jacket underneath his transmission backpack, with a mop handle that's had the mop head removed to be like a staff strapped to the back of the jacket, and with a kitchen knife tied to his leg with a belt. He has an open permanent marker in his hand. Evidently he has a presentation prepared.]

Looking through this network, I've seen a lot of questions. How did we get here? Why did we get here? Who brought us here? Where are my friends and family? Will we find out there is one or more spies planted within our midst, or will we kill each other trying to find one? These are all good questions, but it's probably going to take forever for us to get any of the answers.

But I think there's one question we can already come up with some kind of answer for: and that is Where Are We? Where in the universe is this City? There's a lot of information we have on that. [He begins writing down data on the compiled wall canvas.] We're on a planet with a g-force of 1 g, an atmosphere habitable for humans and therefore mostly nitrogen with a little bit of oxygen, with vegetation but seemingly no native fauna, intelligent or otherwise. We have one moon in orbit of us, and are in a star system with one sun.

From what I can gather, this is mostly consistent with a planet called Earth, in a galaxy called Milky Way. [He creates a dot on the canvas away from his list of data, then draws a spiral in such a way that the dot is toward the edge of it.] Apparently this is supposed to be the homeworld of humans, which is confusing because I always thought Coruscant was the human homeworld, but anyway. The only problem with that, aside from the complete lack of animals and how hard it would be get an empty city in a fully populated planet, is that the constellations don't seem to match the ones from Earth. They don't match anywhere in my galaxy, either.

Which leads me to conclude that we are... [He puts the cap on his marker] in the middle of nowhere! I'm pretty sure whoever's done this has taken us so far across the universe that none of us are going to have any idea where we are, not to mention that they're probably using time travel too.

But, I'm hoping maybe that I'm wrong, and one of you in this city can actually recognize these constellations and tell me what they mean.

Comments

text / un. dimitri

[stubboarn]

What a delightful and thoughtful presentation. I enjoyed listening to your musings. While I am not familiar with the terms you've used, I find that your apprehensions echo mine.

I'm afraid I don't have an answer to your queries, but I wanted to comment to let you know your hard work is appreciated.

[thelastb1]

[Were he organic, it might seem like Roger was tearing up at the comment.] You know, I don't think people tell me that enough. So thank you, Dimitri.

[stubboarn]

That's unfortunate. You seem to be the type to put in a lot of effort in your work; hard work ought to be rewarded with proper recognition.

Have you a name?

[thelastb1]

It's Roger. [He thinks for a moment.] Maybe I should have said that at the start. [He did mention his name in the title card, but he realizes now it probably was worth mentioning that he actually was Roger out loud.]

[stubboarn]

It's alright. I just wanted to make sure since most people don't use their names for their usernames.

I hope you are doing well in your stay so far.

[thelastb1]

As well as I can have been, I guess. Emotionally, at least, I think I've been doing pretty well. [Which honestly surprises Roger himself.] Physically, I've been having... I guess I'd call them symptoms.

[stubboarn]

'Symptoms' of what kind?

... though I imagine it might be quite difficult for yourself if you truly had technical problems here. This city doesn't seem to be equipped for advanced mechanics.

[thelastb1]

I have to shut down for several hours pretty much every day or my memory starts corrupting, and the comms tech I have installed in my body is working more slowly.

I guess all that's really happening is that the few abilities I have that humans don't have diminished. So I can live with it for now, I'm just worried it might get worse.

But, surprisingly, given the low tech level I've seen from the city so far, I have been able to find useful components.

[stubboarn]

I am relieved for you, and I hope the city continues to provide serviceable components for your needs.

Perhaps it is an effect of traveling from your world to here - several things malfunctioned in the process.