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]

… there’s something I don’t understand.

[ … ]

Three hundred years ago, my home suffered what we now call the Age of Catastrophe. The Holy Blue Dragon went on a rampage…

[ Lortel glances around at the tall, tall buildings, her sharp and curious gaze bouncing quickly between this and that as she takes it all in. ]

Everything was destroyed. Everything. Endless wastelands were left in its wake, until it was finally sealed away…

If that had happened here, in this city, the buildings would be flattened. Nothing would be standing. Nothing would be growing. There wouldn’t be anything left alive.

[ she pauses. ]

The Holy Blue Dragon isn’t a god.

[ ergo:

why is this city still standing if a being lesser than a god could cause much worse devastation?

exactly what kind of god are they dealing with, here?

the murmur weeps distantly of horror. ]

[potentialman]

[ It's easier to indiscriminately wipe things out than to devastate yet keep them alive, which to him suggests -- ]

This wasn't a mindless rampage. There was intention to what happened here.

[ It's only his guess, but a god needs something to rule over. Whatever did this still has a use for this place, for everything left in it.

...for them. ]

[richesse]

[ her logic follows his to the same conclusion. she smiles. ]

It seems we’ve been acquired. For what, I wonder.

It can’t be for power. And isn’t that usually the goal? What could it be, then, I wonder…

[potentialman]

I think to understand that...we have to understand what's changed.

[ In themselves, in the world. Whatever they're here for, he very much doubts the changes are a simple side effect and not a key part of it.

To what end, though... ]

[richesse]

[ regret. rejection. terror. cold. ]

… I’ll admit I haven’t wanted to think about it too much. Unfortunately, I think you’re likely right.

Have you noticed something interesting? I’ve seen quite a few of the others. The other people dragged to this bizarre place. Some of them still look human, but others…

[ she gazes at her clawed hands, reviling how much they remind her of paws. ]

… don’t.

[potentialman]

I've seen a few people, but...

[ Probably not as many as her, by the sound of it. Not enough of them that he'd put faith in any pattern he noticed. ]

...I think we need a head count.

[ How many of them are there? How many of them seem to be changing into...something else?

The problem, of course, is that there's no real way to know how many of them are there aside from people voluntarily saying so. And some people are always going to want to fly under the radar. ]

[richesse]

… a head count is a very good idea. [ it hadn’t yet occurred to her. she smiles. ]

What is your name, by the way?

[potentialman]

[ Even if some people duck any attempts at organization, it should at least bring them closer to knowing just how far whatever brought them here is reaching. ]

Megumi Fushiguro.

[richesse]

Lortel Kehelland. It’s nice to meet someone like you, you know.

[ pragmatic. smart. capable. her kind of person. ]

I’ll reach out to you soon about that head count.

[potentialman]

[ Oh. Does that mean...he's supposed to do it now?

He'd rather herd real cats than figurative ones... ]