video;

[ready_to_bloom]

[Here's a young king, peering at his locket. He thinks he understands how it's supposed to work - the fairies were helpful enough, it's true. Still, the concept of communicating via… jewelry is rather foreign to him. But it's magic, and one thing Caspian knows is that magic doesn't have an easy explanation. He also knows that magic items are to be treated with caution, so he holds the locket carefully while peering into it.]

Oh! I think... I think this is working now? Hello? I talk into this, and I see and hear people talking back, right?

[Hopefully.]

I should introduce myself. I am Caspian X, King of Narnia. I need to know: are there any other Narnians here? If you are here, please contact me.

[Caspian's not sure what he hopes to hear in answer to that question: he doesn't want to think of any of his people here, brought here like himself to fight in a battle that is not his own. But (and he knows it's selfish), he'd like to think he has allies here.]

Comments

[unclebob]

It is now.

[Preventing the world from being nuked out of existence does come with fringe benefits.]

I don't have one. I am a Terminator. Cyberdyne Systems 800 Series Model 101.

[ready_to_bloom]

[No name? Well, that's a puzzle.]

How do you people address you, sir? And do you mind if I ask what a Terminator is?

[It sounds rather... dangerous.]

[unclebob]

They just call me Terminator. A Terminator is-- [He starts to say 'A cyborg', but most people here have shown they have no idea what he's talking about.] --A living machine.

[ready_to_bloom]

A living machine? [He's not familiar with a lot of machines, so that's kind of a hard one to wrap his mind around.] What is the function of a living machine, sir Terminator?

[unclebob]

I had a mission. I was to protect a boy named John Connor.

[A little bit of sadness creeps into his otherwise flat voice as he says John's name. It's likely he'll never see his young charge again.]

[ready_to_bloom]

[Caspian catches that different tone and wonders at it.]

And without him, you have no mission?

[unclebob]

Correct. My mission had been completed just before I came here.

[Which had left him a little bit adrift. Never before had there been a Terminator without a mission to engage in.]

[ready_to_bloom]

[Caspian really has no idea of a Terminator or their purpose, but still, it seems like there's a solution for this.]

Perhaps then, being brought here, to fight this battle, is your new mission?

[unclebob]

Yes. I have always been involved in some form of conflict.

[So this is nothing new.]

[ready_to_bloom]

Always? So your world is always at war?

[That must be difficult.]

It seems like you'll be an asset here then!

[unclebob]

Affirmative. Humans and machines attempt to terminate one another.

[He nods once in a stiff, jerky movement.]

I intend to be.