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]

… waking up to the end of the world. Just what have we gotten ourselves into…

[ Lortel considers the explanation, nodding. ]

I woke up in one of those skyscrapers, I think. Not as tall as the buildings around me right now. It looked like a home, though it’s been abandoned and left to rot as long as the rest of this city. Making my way down to the street wasn’t easy, but it was doable. … I’m not sure I’d risk exploring another building to find out if there are more places like that. But…

[ … ]

It seemed safe. We’re going to need refuge, and soon.

[merged]

I... [ She hesitates. Lortel is right. People will eventually need to find a place to hunker down in, and it's been getting cold. ] I don't know if any place is safe here, but you're right.

I keep hoping I'm going to go to sleep and wake up back home, though. [ The words come unbidden, a moment of something raw. Trying to find a place to stay is like admitting she's stuck here. ]

[richesse]

“Safe” is going to be relative, for a while. I’m sure you’ve seen the … animals. [ if they can be called that, she thinks, and it echoes into the murmur. ] I lost my magic, so I’ve been trying to give them a wide berth.

[ …

Lortel gets that. there’s a pang of sympathy she’d never otherwise express. ] … all we can do is prepare for seeing this world over and over again each time we open our eyes.

[ … ]

Do you have supplies? Somewhere safe to go?

[merged]

[ Somehow, hearing Lortel has lost her magic sets Sharon at ease somewhat. She lost something, too. It's a relief to know she's not the only one. ]

"Safe" is relative, remember? [ There's a touch of humor there. ] I've found some shit. Not a lot of anything, though. City seems like it's already been picked clean.

[richesse]

I know. Unfortunately, beggars can’t be choosers. We’ll have to make do with what little we’ve got.

Have you thought about looking for a place underground? Some of these apartments have basement levels. You can just barely see the windows. If it were free from animals…

[ … well, it’s not nothing, right? ]

[merged]

[ Basement level. Something about that turns her stomach and sets her heart racing. A memory flickers across the murmur of a dark hallway with the room sign B151. ]

That's an idea, but I think I'll stick to the ground floor for now. I try not to linger anywhere I can't get out of quickly. [ It's not entirely untrue; escape is important in places like these. Always know where your exits are. ]

Speaking of animals, though, have you... have you heard some of them talk?

1/2

[richesse]

[ … ]

[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...