poly_chromatic | Action / Accidental Video

Entry tags:

mad men - michael ginsberg

Action / Accidental Video

[There’s no way Ginsberg’s been looking at the communicator. No, it might as well not exist at all, although it is recording, although he's unaware of it. Instead, he’s sitting on the edge of the fountain, soaking wet, talking to… whoever happens to wander by -- and, apparently, to the network, as well.]

Where am I? Is this some kind of drug induced hallucination? Because let me tell you right now, I don’t do that kind of thing. If someone snuck something into my coffee, I’m gonna be mad. I keep telling everyone, that stuff makes me paranoid. And now something’s making me hallucinate a whole city.

[He scrubs a hand across his face, shaking the water out of his hair as he does so.]

I have work to do. This account, this Manischewitz account, I have to get to the meeting.

[A slight grumble, and then…]

Not that I want to go, anyway. If someone could point me back to Madison Avenue, though, that’d be great. Really great. In fact, look, I’ll buy you lunch or something if you can get me out of here. Just get me out of here.

[He puts his head in his hands.]

I don’t know what the hell’s going on...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

This is the City, and you are going to miss your meeting.

What the...

[He startles visibly before he realizes that the voice is coming from the communicator device next to him. Picking it up, he stares at it, frowning.]

Okay. This isn't... Are you real? I mean, you're talking to me, so I can probably assume that you're at least somewhat real. Unless this is an extremely complex hallucination. I've never heard of anyone getting quite this bad, but there's a first time for everything, right?

[A deep breath, and then more of the same too-quick speech.]

Can I just point out that if this is real, and if you're real, then the name "the City" is extremely unoriginal? I don't mean to criticize the name of something that may or may not be a delusion, but that's just lazy.

[And finally, after a moment of thought...]

And I really need to get to that meeting. I mean, I get why you're saying I can't, because this doesn't look like New York and I'm not sure how to get out. I get that. Kind of. I just don't get it, you know? Fully, I mean.

[Chekov doesn't even know where to start. This guy needs to calm down.]

I am real, yes, and the City is not a delusion--or, if it is, it is a shared delusion.

Have you had this place explained to you?

Nobody's explained anything to me. I guess they were avoiding the ranting guy who just climbed out of the fountain. I can't blame them. I would too.

[He wipes another rivulet of water off his face.]

Does that mean you're going to explain it?

Ah--a moment. I will send you a brief explanatory document.

[city_information.txt]

[Give him a moment to just... read this over. And then stare in disbelief.]

So we're... basically in a science fiction novel? There's a part of me that wants to find this really fascinating, but I'm not sure that part is winning out, at the moment.

Science fiction novel? Why do you say that?

[Everything in that document is scientific observation and speculation, not fiction, plzkthx.]

You don't need to believe me.

Because it just doesn't sound possible. I mean, it's the kind of stuff I want to believe, don't get me wrong, but...

[He shakes his head.]

Okay, first of all, the twenty-first century?

Yes, the local year is 2013. I found this hard to believe when I arrived, also.

Look, I'm not saying you're crazy. I'm not saying I'm crazy. I'm not saying any of us are delusional. I'm just saying...

It's 1968.

Maybe for you. For me, the year was 2259. Here, though, it's 2013.

2259. 2259.

[A lengthy pause.]

So... does that mean you've been to space? Does everyone in the future live in space?

I work in space, currently, and no. Many people live on planets.

[Oh look, all those concerns about being stuck here are, seemingly, completely gone.]

You work in space? What do you do there? What's it like? Where do you come from?

[Oh, what. And he's not even going to offer a name? (Not that Chekov can very well refuse to answer. He rather likes asking questions himself.)]

I do several jobs--navigation, primarily--and, when it is not boring, it's very chaotic. I am from Taganrog originally. Also, my name is Pavel Chekov. There is nothing that you do not know about me now.

[The excitement of talking to someone who'd actually been to space kind of outweighed the whole name thing, really.]

That's fascinating. I've always wanted to go to space. Actually, I've always thought I was from space, but you know, even if I were, nobody'd tell me the truth. I'm Michael Ginsberg. But really, just Ginsberg is fine. Preferable, actually.

It is good to meet you, Ginsberg, but what do you mean, from space? Everyone is from space.

Sure, technically, but where I'm from, everybody's from the same part of space, you know? Earth. Or at least, they say they are.

You don't believe that they are?

Maybe they are. I don't think I am.

I think that you would know if you were born off-world.

How? If someone were brought to this planet when they were little, if everybody told them a story about where they'd been born, if everyone lied to them their whole lives, how would they ever know they'd been born off-world?

Why would everyone lie? Especially in your time! It would be very exciting to have a child who was born off-world in the twentieth century, correct?

Yeah, but it'd also be dangerous. If that kid was the only one, people might try to take them away and study them. They might have to lie to keep the kid safe. I don't know, it's a hypothetical thought, anyway. It could happen.

There would be no reason to study them--they would be biologically human, like everyone born on Earth. Even hypothetically, your time is very strange.

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