TWO. ask questions

[quiteagooddonor]

[The video switches on and Tommy's chilling out. If you look closely, you can catch sight of a clothes dryer in the background.]

Hello! Tommy D again. ..I was wondering if it might be possible to get a torch for me to have? I'm not certain how it works here. I have tokens and I have pounds, but I haven't seen any mentions of either thus far.

I'm also.. Well, I'm a bit worried about not being sorted. I don't mind waiting. It's just, I hadn't realized this was the sort of thing where you wait for your letter to arrive and it might arrive much earlier or much later. Is that how it is?

[Tommy looks awkwardly off screen after a pause, then back, but his voice is much quieter.]

I believe I may have flooded the wash room. Could someone help me please?

Comments

[quiteagooddonor]

I've got no wood here and I've always had to tend the fires myself. It might be because you're from a different time, or your gender or something, but I think it's probably unusual.

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

You never know what he might expect in return.

It's probably nothing more than habit - I prefer to do a fair trade where I can.

[Private]

[quiteagooddonor]

But he's a Carer, right? A Guardian? They're meant to provide us with whatever we need without expectation of return outside of completing our agreed upon duties and fulfilling existing expectations.

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

...He doesn't follow the same rules as anything at your home, Tommy. If anything, he's a little more like Munsell. And I'd never ask Munsell for a favour.

[Private]

[quiteagooddonor]

..I don't know who that is.

Why should he be like someone from your home but not like someone from mine?

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's really like either of them. He's just closer to... that kind of figure.

If he's really a carer, Tommy, is he a very good one?

[Private]

[quiteagooddonor]

He's not like a Carer. He's like a Guardian. And yeah, he seems like the rest of them so far.

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

What's the difference between the two?

[Private]

[quiteagooddonor]

A Carer is someone who's assigned to you to make it easier for you to give your Donations and to help you with the doctors and that. A Guardian is someone from Hailsham or the like who gives you what you need as your grow older. They help prepare you.

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

Prepare you for... what?

[naughtbutlife.livejournal.com]

But if it is not the Admiral who is doing these things, or some magick, then that would mean....

[Private]

[quiteagooddonor]

Adulthood and Donation.

[quiteagooddonor]

Someone else is doing it. You should say thank you to them.

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

Right.

Do your... Guardians know you're here?

[naughtbutlife.livejournal.com]

I would if I knew who was responsible.

[Private]

[quiteagooddonor]

The Guardians only stay with us until we graduate from Hailsham, to the Cottages. I found them later, but.. they weren't my Guardians then.

[quiteagooddonor]

You could ask! I bet they would acknowledge it.

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see.

Does anyone from home know you're here? Or... well, do you have to tell anyone you're going anywhere?

[Private]

[quiteagooddonor]

Well, it's.. not exactly, no. I would have told Kath, but I didn't get the chance. She'll understand, I'm certain. She always.. Kath's great about that thing. But she's the only one I would have told. The doctors would wonder, if I was gone for awhile. They might worry I Completed while out for a walk or something.

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

But you don't have to get permission?

So... what's to stop you walking off and finding the, um, Originals? I don't mean offence by that, it's just what I'd do in your position.

[Private]

[quiteagooddonor]

I check in every night, if that's what you mean. I was told that time travels differently here and that I'd be able to return to the same time. Is that not right?

Nothing, so long as I check in in the evenings, but they're not exactly easy to find. There's no way of knowing where they came from or what sort of shape they're in or even if they're alive. We used to debate how old they'd be as well.. if they donated as children so we'd grow up nearly the same time as them, or if they were already adults. It's difficult to imagine what you might look like in thirty years' time..

[naughtbutlife.livejournal.com]

I would hope that they would, for I feel not comfortable knowing someone has been inside my cabin without my permission.

Re: [Private]

[needshumility.livejournal.com]

No, that's true. I was just curious if you were allowed to go anywhere.

So... they made a new...

Wait, I don't quite follow. If I was an original and someone made one of you, of me, now... it would be a child?

[worstsongever]

Oh, sorry. Olive Penderghast. I'll head over now.

What's the D stand for, by the way?

[quiteagooddonor]

..Well it's not really your space, is it? I mean, it's the Admiral's Barge. If someone's been sent to give you firewood, then they'd be filling the Admiral's room, not your private space, right?