[Text/Audio]

[dreamtamer]

Date: [3/18]
Characters: Thom

---

 [A new number appears on the network, this time drawn out in block letters, and quickly filled in with different patterns using colored pencils. And then a thump, as Thom notices that Gizmo has spotted one of the family cats and hastily drops his sketchpad on the desk.]

Gizmo! What are you doing? 

[The sound of footsteps and a second voice.]

I wanted to play, but it ran away again. I don't think cats are very good at playing.  

Comments

[catted]

[Oh for-]

...Thom?

[dreamtamer]

Mom? You have a number too?

[Had everyone in the family been able to talk like this all along? ]

[catted]

....Yes. And now you have one as well.

Just so you know, me, Feste, Nel and grandpa Sam have numbers as well, and Mummy has been told about it. Please don't tell your other siblings?

I'll explain more later, but it is important that you don't tell them, or anyone but Mummy who doesn't have a number.

[dreamtamer]

[Thom sighs.] Yes, Mummy. I promise I won't tell. But why can't they know?

Does that mean I can't tell them about Gizmo either?

[catted]

...About Gizmo?

[She's going to explain in a moment, but. What.]

What is with him?

[dreamtamer]

He can talk now! Isn't that great!

[catted]

[....SILENCE

of

OH MY GOD

WHY]

.......On this network or outside of it, too?

[dreamtamer]

He started talking to me, but now he's talking to Nel and people on the network too. He says he wants to meet everyone!

[catted]

Where are you two right now?

[Please at least tell her that you're home and not in public...

Why are all the kids giving her heart attacks recently? Oh wait.]

[dreamtamer]

In my room?

[Thom wonders if there was somewhere else he was supposed to be. ]

[catted]

Good.

....Could you ask Gizmo to stay inside your room until I come home? I need to talk to him. And you.

[And there's only an hour of work left but she's wondering now if she can sneak out early at all...]

You didn't do anything wrong. It's just... If people realise that he can speak, we're all in big trouble.

[dreamtamer]

Is it because of the aliens?

[Thom might have gotten some slightly odd ideas about what was going when Nel was explaining things. ]

[catted]

...Aliens?

[That gives her pause. She's just absolutely not sure what Thom might be referring to.]

[dreamtamer]

Nel said I might get memories from aliens.

[She'd actually told him that some people were getting memories from other planets.]

[catted]

...About aliens?

[Did Nel get any memories of aliens? Or did someone else tell her about having gotten any?]

[dreamtamer]

That too, I guess.

[If he was going to get memories from aliens, it would make sense if they were about aliens, right? ]

[catted]

[...]

We don't know where they're coming from. Aside from that they're coming from people that aren't us. And some of the memories are from places that are rather different from Earth.

I'm not entirely sure what Nel was referring to, but unless she learned something that I don't know, we don't know if those memories come from aliens.

[dreamtamer]

She said some of the memories people were getting came from other planets. [It made sense when you've been watching scifi tv shows.]

[catted]

...That's not unlikely, yes.

I remember a place that's... just. It's very different. And your grandpa does so, too.

[dreamtamer]

How was it different?

[catted]

..It would be easier to say what was the same.

There was an up and down. Some form of ground. And buildings.

[dreamtamer]

Was there a sky? [Thom was already fascinated. ]

[catted]

Not really, no. There was an above, but it was more... a continuation of the same. Just that there was nothing in the distance, not even clouds or anything.

[dreamtamer]

That sounds really strange, but also kind of amazing.

[catted]

Very strange. ...I don't really know enough about it to know how amazing it really was.

...Have you gotten any special "memories" yet?