sirenspull | 1 [Text]

[The NV does not show a person. Instead, he sends out a text. Because Skyping is for people who have achieved the first three tiers of friendship.

He's also rather freaked out by the Darkness and doesn't particularly want to show it on video feed, so he's just going to sit in his new starter apartment and pretend everything is perfectly normal and Leonard is going to come get him, thank you very much.]

I have been told by one [1] so-called expert in the field that I have been brought to an alternate dimension. As this is both ridiculous and impossible as I have not discovered it yet, I am waiting for an explanation that is both reasonable and able to be proven.

Until then, I will be waiting within this house of the American past-time, attempting to find a train station to return me to Pasadena.

Should they be within this "alternate dimension Canada", I require the presence of one [1] Leonard Hofstadter, provided he is not off wasting his time entertaining the company of two [2] scientists by the names of Rajesh Koothrappali and Howard Wolowitz or one [1] Cheesecake Factory waitress that lacks the education to know this is a ridiculous hallucination by the name of Penny.

By the terms of our friendship agreements, they need to be within this baseball diamond.

Now.

[And then, just as this text is sent out, another one follows it, from the same feed number.]

Amy, if you can read this, call me. Please.

I need to speak with you immediately.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Are you absolutely certain?

The four individuals I've listed are incompetent. They might have wandered off and gotten eaten by a grue.

As certain as it's possible to be. You see, Newcomers in the Port are linked to their NVs somehow. If they're in the city anywhere at all, even if their NV breaks, their name will show up as connected to the Network, even if they're temporarily unreachable. I just checked the Network for all of those names, and none of them came up- not even Penny. If they really are incompetent, they couldn't fake being gone.

[Sheldon takes a full ten minutes to absorb this -- to check for himself, to scan through all the names. But the person on the other end of the feed is telling the truth.]

I see. Convenient for me in that I don't have to listen to their whining, inconvenient for them in that they aren't here to listen to my brilliance.

I'm sorry your friends aren't here. Most of us here are in the same boat, so there are lots of people who understand.

This isn't a time for a joke.

[No one understands Sheldon, please.]

I know. I'm a Greeter, and I've seen enough pain, enough people grieving, and enough people feeling alone here to know exactly how hard it can be. Has anybody explained how time works here? It might ease some of your worry.

The only pain I'm suffering is a headache from how completely ridiculous and asinine this conversation is.

Suspension of disbelief, starting now. For your reference.

I've gathered that time is in a constant state of flux, judging from how everyone and their proverbial mother is informing me that my friends are still in my own world without knowledge of my being here. And as little faith that I have in their collective intelligence quotient, together they could have the brain capacity to figure out how to get me out of this world and back into my own -- provided that they even notice that I'm gone, which they would, as I'm the one with all of the security codes to my apartment, and they can't get into the building in the event that I am spontaneously transported to another universe.

Thinking ahead, I presume that should I leave this place, I'll return exactly as I was -- probably without memory of this occurring, that's how it usually works in terrible science fiction literature. That and it would make little sense if anyone remembered this place, because should I return to my world with memory of this universe, I would immediately attempt to break back into it in order to harness the power source of this supposed Core for my own research and solve the mysteries of the universe. The memory loss and the spontaneous arrival and departure is a fail-safe in order to keep this universe maintained.

I've watched enough Star Trek to know how this song and dance works, Miss Greeter, so let's skip to the important piece, which is how to force the space time continuum into obeying my wishes.

I need to see this so-called Core.

Back to reality, starting now. For your reference.

I still need that train ticket to Pasadena.

It's Mary, actually. Congrats, you're absolutely right about most of that. You can't see the Core, nobody can. SERO controls the only entrance, and trust me when I say you want nothing to do with them. Even if you could get onto one of the few cargo boats that ever comes to this island, you wouldn't make it to the mainland. The Pull kills you if you try to leave.

Oh, my eternal Sophie's Choice. Life or the pursuit of science.

I think I'll choose science.

Where is the Core?

Under the baseball field. You can pursue science here. There isn't exactly a choice- it's not like you can get away. Nobody can, not even God or the angels.

What I need is underneath a baseball field and I am surrounded by religious fundamentalists.

I have found myself in Texas.

Unfortunately for everyone, that's not the case. At least Texas has rules.

It's easier not to think about it. Just pretend I didn't say anything. Everyone encounters at least something here that completely blows their mind and makes no sense to them, but dealing with it on your first day is a little much.

The only rule Texas has is to eat as much steak as possible or else you are considered un-American.

And I can't just ignore it. My brain doesn't work that way. If I don't understand something, I need to understand it. It's called genius.

I think it's also called having an overactive brain that's on a pretty understandable overload. Interdimensional kidnapping tends to do that, you know.

I've seen this a lot since I first came here. My job is to deal with new people. Can you at least try to prioritize the crazy things you hear and need to deal with? Genius has a lot less to do with it than human limits. I'm sure you know better than I do that if you don't prioritize, nothing ever gets done.

[There is a silence for a moment.]

My priority is to leave this city and return to Pasadena.

I refuse to just sit here and do nothing when the solution to doing so is underneath a stupid baseball field.

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