exsiliumlogs | Intro log

Date & Time: 11/8, Evening
Location: INITIATIVE HOLD
Characters: Frodo Baggins & you!
Summary: Frodo sits down, has what Bilbo would call a Good Think, and finds it doesn't help any at all this time
Warnings: None

Cloak tugged about him, Frodo finally sat upon a pair of steps. In his hands lay the strange parchment, the one the woman had called a tablet.

It was certainly a lot to take in, and Frodo was certain that he hadn't actually gotten it all in fact. United Earth, the Initiative, weapons that might think or speak. It was hard to believe any of it. It was harder to believe this wasn't a dream. It seemed he had only just settled down with the others in the Golden Wood. Aragorn had gone to sleep earlier, with that skill and ease it seemed only Rangers and Elves had, and the rest of them sorely needed. It had taken a good deal longer, but he must have dozed off sometime after the others. This seemed, Frodo thought uncomfortably, much too real for any sort of dream. How did one walk right into their company, and carry him off in the first place? How had he not awoken at all during it?

Frodo smoothed out the tablet. The surface felt even and sleek, like glass, and was too thick to be parchment, and too thin and flexible for a book. The surface rippled under his fingers. Frodo removed his hand from it quickly.

Gandalf. Gandalf would know what to do if he-

Frodo's mind turned hastily to Gollum, for the grief was too fresh and the hurt too deep. Anything else. It was unlikely that Gollum would come into the heart of Lothlorien. And if the woman was telling the truth, Frodo was now very far from Middle-Earth. Much further than any hobbit or Man or Elf could imagine. He needn't worry about him for the moment, yet Frodo found himself wondering what he was up to all the same. A thin, white shape, ghostly and fast. Prowling around the borders, hoping to catch them on the way out? Was he dipping his hands into the once clean streams? It was hard not to think of him as such a loathsome creature; Frodo had spent a good many nights listening to Bilbo's stories, and what his description didn't manage, the hobbit's imagination had been more than up to the task. He seemed foul, repulsive, monstrous... pitiful. But determined. After all, he had followed them from within Moria itself, and before that, from Mordor, coming at last to the Golden Wood; orcs and the Shadow and Flame would not deter him from what he hunted for. If Frodo managed to find his way back, there was no doubt that something must be done about the creature. He wished he knew what. Above all, he wished Gandalf were here.

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Frodo opened his mouth, on the verge of asking her what else she could be but a child but stopped himself before he went ahead. Some children were wise beyond their years, just as some much older than she never learned any such wisdom at all. "I am sorry."

Feet padding silently against the ground, the hobbit came over to her, looking over at the tablet she unfolded. Frodo watched as she seemed to go distant, seeing something beyond perhaps, then come back to the present. "We do not have such things where I come from." he said after a moment. "We have carts and horses, and one of the swiftest Quick Post service in miles around."

Shelke adjusted the way she was holding her touchpad as he came up next to her, so he could see what she was doing. Horses and carts and...a postal service. Hmm.

"This is nothing like any of that," she finally stated. "But you can use this for something akin to sending a letter. If you press this," she touches part of the screen and the function everyone uses to talk to people comes up. "Through this, you can speak to anyone else who has one of these devices, and they can speak back to you. You can do it through text," she brings up the keyboard. "Or audio, they will hear what you are saying, or video. They will be able to see you, and hear you."

She's probably going to fast, but she doesn't really know how to teach something.

The hobbit craned his neck to get the best look without crowding her. The lass went through the tablet with much more ease than he had, and almost too quickly in his opinion. Frodo silently watched the demonstration, keeping an eye ss best as he was able and listening.

"It sounds utterly fantastic," the hobbit spoke up when she had finished. Letters sending themselves without a post, calling in on a person without having to meet them in person. It was, he imagined, more likely how wizards must talk to each other than most people, though he could never have imagined Gandalf...

He could see how it could be awfully convenient, but he could also see how it could be something simply awful. thought that he could simply call on his cousins all the way in Tuckborough or Buckland without waiting days to hear back was a fine one. On the other hand, the same applied to the S-Bs. Frodo managed not to shudder. He could not, however, manage to avoid wondering at just how Lobelia and Lotho were treating Bag End at that moment, so many miles and miles away. "Thank you for taking the time to teach me."

Not that he was going to get used to it as quickly as she had!

"I am afraid I have quite forgotten my manners. My name is Frodo," he added.

Edited 2012-11-13 05:05 (UTC)

She just nodded at his comment, it was fairly impressive technology, reaching up to turn her tablet off before she hesitated. "Do you see this?" She indicated the 'transmitting' light with a small finger. "If you are teaching yourself to use this, and this light turns on, it means you are transmitting. So if you set it by accident, you should turn it off again, or everyone will be able to see what you are doing."

She didn't particularly like that function, these felt...invasive in a way...so a warning seemed appropriate.

And then she slipped tablet back into her pocket. "I did not have anything else to do." She added, when he thanked her. "I am Shelke the Tra..." She stopped and frowned. Why did she keep doing that? She wasn't Shelke the Transparent, not anymore, not since Deepground had tried to kill her. "I am Shelke." She finally finished, her voice quieter than before.

He could see how such a thing would be troublesome. It was luck that he had run into the lass, and that she was kind enough to give him plenty of warning. Frodo's gaze went to the light she motioned to, and he looked towards his to make sure. The light was off."I see it. Thank you for warning me. It's a wonder these Big Folk ever get a moment's rest with such things."

Shelke gave a curious pause then. She had frowned, as if remembering belatedly, something, then carried on. Was she trying to hide her name, as he had so long ago. If so, what could she be hiding from? "At your service, Shelke. Have you had a chance to explorer?"

"Big folk?" Shelke could guess what he meant, but it was too interesting a reference to let pass, honestly. Did he come from a race where everyone was as tall as he? Or as short, as the case may be.

She shook her head at his second question, "I have only been here for a few days, and the extent of my exploration has been limited to the area immediately around the apartments and this building." She was hesitant to go much further until she really understood why all of this was happening and until she had solidified a means of ensuring she would receive her medication.

"It is an interesting city, but not one much different from the way others function."

"Big Folk," Frodo said. "It is generally what we hobbits call your people. Or Men."

Only a few days but enough time to feel her way around the place, and it seemed she had made good on it. This entire city was new to him, so different from Rivendell and Bree, and if it did not seem so much different from where Shelke had come from, what kind of place must she have come from?

"So something of this city is familiar to you. Would you be interested in exploring further, with company this time?

"So your people are called hobbits," well, that was an oddly fitting name for a tiny race, she supposed. It certainly summoned an impression of 'small' at least.

At his question she was quiet for a moment, her eyes slightly narrowed as she considered it. Well, she had intended to anyway, and seeing the city through the eyes of someone unfamiliar with technology could be interesting. She could always abandon him if she felt the need.

"Alright," she finally nodded her head, half-turning away towards the door. "I can show you where the apartments are as well."

He nodded. What came next was a strange considering look that was well beyond her age, as if she were sizing him up, the same way the Gaffer might choose between tools best suited for a morning's planting. The sensation was a queer one.

"Excellent. It will be better going with company than alone," Frodo said. he followed her, then caught up. "Thank you."

Intro log - [OPEN]

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