oo1 ✦ let’s begin.

[richesse]

[ There’s a whisper through the murmur, more a breath of feeling than a fully formed thought. It’s sweet, and warm, and laughing—though it is not gentle, nor kind.

A voice follows the whisper, chased by darkness and shadows, the very suggestion of a nightmare. ]

Do you think we’re still dreaming? Or is this a living nightmare?

[ a hum, and another brush of teasing laughter, there and gone like a brief burst of memory, the last moment of summer that you can taste on your tongue before it’s irretrievably gone. ]

You’ve changed, haven’t you? We all have. What are you thinking, right now…? Who are you?

What are you?

Comments

[richesse]

… if I see anything, I’ll let you know.

[ a beat. she doesn’t seem terribly fazed, somehow. ] Do they? How eerie. I’ve been staying as far away from them as I can get.

[merged]

[ There's a flutter of genuine gratitude. ] Thanks.

I've been avoiding them, too. They look so... [ An image of a strange group of rats comes to mind, furless with one too many eyes. ] I woke up to rats. They were... It's almost like they were fucking chanting.

[richesse]

Chanting, [ she repeats, soft, without inflection.

briefly, she feels that she wants to scream. or cry. or curl up anywhere at all and press her hands to her ears and pray that when she opened her eyes again she’d be home.

these are silly dreams, and she does not indulge them. but for a moment, her fear and her longing shiver in the murmur. ]

… I saw a creature that … I’m not even sure I could call it a moose. It had too many legs. And it was scaling a wall. A vertical wall.

[merged]

[ That brief desperation—Sharon knows it all too well. But prayers are never answered.

Too many legs, scaling a wall. That further unsettles her. ] H-how? What the fuck is this place? [ The questions are mostly rhetorical; she knows Lortel knows as much as she does. ] I wonder if something infected them somehow, like a disease, maybe something that wiped out the people here.

[ A brief spike of fear. ] Even the plants are strange...

[richesse]

[ ... ]

I don't know. I wish I had an answer.

Will you be alright?

[ she's already asked similar questions, and realizes it too late. she's worried; she can't help it. Sharon seems sweet. ]

[merged]

Probably. [ She hopes. ] I've survived worse, I can handle this.

Will you be? [ Genuine concern. Shit's crazy, Lortel. ]

[richesse]

I'll be fine. I always have been. I'm not the type to panic in extreme situations.

Let me know if you find somewhere to stay? I want to know if you're safe.

[merged]

I—[ That catches her by surprise, but it's... touching. ] Yeah, yeah, I can do that. Take care, Lortel, and stay safe.