Work In Progress

1.06 All Roads Lead To Home

[The scene shows Dice and Aglet in an open space filled with an unreasonable amount of junk and knick-knacks. Dice is sitting down, reading a book. Aglet is perusing the junk heaps.]

Dice: Hey, check this out.

Aglet, mildly yelling: Is it anything good?

Dice: It's some kid's journal.

Aglet, walking over, talking at a normal volume: Oh, gross. Is it interesting?

Dice: No. I'll bring it back for Pipe, though. They'd like it.

Aglet: How'd you get to being friends with them, anyways?

Dice: Oh, we were all assigned to the same task in the war.

Aglet: What do you mean?

Dice: I can't explain that. We weren't supposed to discuss our assignment after it was over.

Aglet: Oh, alright. But I was wondering more about the specifics about how you chose them as friends.

Dice: We weren't that good of friends until after we moved here. Peri came home first on medical, of course.

Aglet: Right.

Dice: Right, so we all kind of talked about that in passing, and Pipette and I didn't come here for almost another year after that. Pipe roomed with one of the others, but they honestly couldn't stand them, and moved out. You know Tab from a few minutes north?

Aglet: Really?

Dice: Yeah. Tab's one of the lucky ones. Living in Harmony is basically the best situation we could have gotten, you know. It's clean.

[Dice pauses.]

Dice: And safe.

Aglet: What about everyone else?

Dice: They told us to forget about everyone else. If you can't see them, they're not there. Can we stop talking about this?

Aglet: Sure.

[Aglet continues looking through the junk. Dice remains on the ground, the notebook now closed. Dice appears to be fairly spaced out.]

Aglet: We should have brought a bag or something.

Dice, still spaced out: Yeah, probably. I had only really planned on getting that book, though.

Aglet: Do you have any idea what they're about?

Dice, still spaced out: No. I just thought the cover art looked nice.

Aglet: Hm.

Dice, now spaced in: I thought it might be nice for Peri to read them again. They've been getting worse recently, in a way. Better, too, but still, worse.

Aglet: Worse how?

Dice: I don't know. They've been acting weird. I think something might be wrong. I think... Pipe and I might have found something we shouldn't have.

Aglet: Yeah? What was it?

Dice: I probably shouldn't even tell you. Pipette will kill me for even coming out to the Edge with you.

Aglet: Why do they hate me so much?

Dice: Well, you owe them money.

Aglet: Are you kidding? Is that really the only reason?

Dice: Yeah, why?

Aglet: I only owe them two dollars! And I needed money for a perfectly valid reason. You all get pension plus benefits. I still have to do organizational jobs.

Dice: Thank the rocks Pipette never goes through your mail. They'd have a field day.

[Both ponder it momentarily.]

Dice: You should really let Pipette go through your mail. You'd get a lot more done that way.

Aglet: I would, but then what? More debt.

Dice: I guess.

[There is a brief pause.]

Dice: How did you end up in Harmony?

Aglet: You mean you don't remember? I came out here with the census two years ago.

Dice: Oh, right. What ever happened to those census people?

Aglet: Ah, they stranded me here. I couldn't even find everyone on my list of names. There was supposed to be someone named Mary, or something. Anyways, they had to make the population number match so that Harmony was still worth bringing food and water to.

Dice: Did you say Mary?

Aglet: Yeah, no, Mary or Meredith or Marjory. Something western like that, why?

Dice: I mean, nothing, just, what kind of names are Mary and all those?

Aglet: I got to see a whole lot of weird western names. My favorite was "Raquelle." Western names are super specific, too.

Dice: Our names are specific. I've never met another Dice.

Aglet: Right, but I mean that you're supposed to be able to tell certain things about a person based on their name, and you don't even get to change it, even if those things about you from your name aren't true.

[Aglet begins moving further into the junk pile. Dice is staring at the ground, fiddling with the pages of the notebook.]

Aglet: And you know, in the end, I don't think I'd blamed Mary or whoever if she chose to leave.

Dice: Yeah?

Aglet: Yeah, I feel a lot like the east people and west people aren't quite supposed to mix. I know we all have to, because the west is falling apart, but I think the western people are too static and not socially innovative.

Dice: Hm.

[They both pause.]

Dice: Peri's from the west.

Aglet: Really? With a name like Periscope?

Dice: Not quite the west, but the Midwest somewhere. But yeah, I know, it's weird. They weren't the only one with an eastern name on our task, though, from the Midwest. I don't know what the deal with that was.

Aglet: ... Hey, hey, I think I found it. Is this it?

Dice: Oh, yeah! Yeah, it is... Thanks for coming out here with me for it.

[There's a beat of silence.]

Aglet: ... I wish I'd been able to finish my term with the census people.

Dice: I'm actually really glad that you didn't.

[credits]