two ( text ☇ voice )

[fingerbang]

What was the date when you arrived here?

[ This is the most important part, at least by the standards of the persona she's tried to project thus far, and as such demands the most attention and response. Hence the text!! But that's not the end of the broadcast by half. Immediately after the text portion gets fired off, the audio kicks in, and some broad starts talking. Her tone is businesslike, but not brisk -- like she knows exactly what she's going to say, but is in no particular hurry to say it.

Or like she's more than happy to listen to herself talk for ages. It could also be that. ]

I'm not about to flatter myself by assuming I'm the only one who's been watching, but I don't believe anyone's remarked on this yet. Not here, at least. And we know what happens when one keeps information hostage, right?

[ HO HO HO HO HO. She doesn't really sound amused, although her voice briefly lilts into the appropriate register. ]

If we take this entire wave of imPorts -- the ones who've arrived and departed within the year -- as a whole, there have been several different patterns for arrivals. I wasn't there, so please, correct me if I'm wrong. But to my knowledge, between the initial group in January and those who began to appear in February, there were no stragglers. There was simply the one, and then the rest of us. From then on, it appears to have been a fairly continuous flow.

But I don't think we're keeping to it now. This is based only on what I've noticed, so I can't say for certain when it started or whether the change is significant at all. Still, some of you have to have noticed there were more introductions toward the beginning of last month than there were at the end. I believe the timing has changed again -- so that the majority of newcomers show up at the beginning of the month and, as it goes on, cease to arrive entirely. A happy medium, I suppose you could call it. Particularly happy for the government, since it ensures newcomers can hardly get their bearings before they're given the choice to register.

Some of you have been theorizing that Lachesis is present again. If that's so, you should be looking to the way she measures. She was a little less organized in the old universe, as I remember -- but back then, she wasn't under supervision. It's funny how things change.

Comments

voice;

[reptiledysfunction]

The question now is, if people all arrive at about the same time, why don't they depart at the same time? After all, I've had housemates gone missing at various points of the month. Does the Porter have control over arrivals but not departures?

voice;

[fingerbang]

That is a question. It can't be that the government doesn't consider it a priority. If they controlled it at all, Lucifer would have been taken back long ago. [ LITTLE DOES SHE KNOW ] Or at least at the period when arrivals started stabilizing.

[ a thoughtful pause! "thoughtful" pause. ]

Of course, he was already captive at that point. Maybe they thought the threat was minimal. [ or that they don't care nearly enough about civilian deaths to nix whatever use they can wring out of an incapacitated godmode, is her implication, not that miss lust would know anything about that. ]

TEXT.

[selfimage]

[ some small part of him is very pleased. ]

Feb 15, when the flow was steady. That would make 6 mo. How time flies.

I suppose I can start marking my calendar with the appropriate X.

TEXT.

[fingerbang]

[ it's all for you, damian!! ]

Only a few days after me. I'm sure it's a popular enough time.

You haven't been counting down to your anniversary?

voice;

[enigmaestro]

You were there.

voice;

[fingerbang]

And yet you always seem to return the favor.

text.

[bioshift]

The old universe?

text.

[fingerbang]

Not everyone brought to this world was taken from their home. I suppose the government didn't find that worth noting when they debriefed you?

voice.

[selfequipped]

You think this has to do with supervision?

[For the most part, Kate is asking because she has different theories on it. "Supervision" isn't the first thing that comes to mind, even with Billy's observations when it comes to the porter itself.]

voice.

[fingerbang]

Not necessarily. It was one of the more provocative options that came to mind.

I do think the Lachesis I knew had little to gain from staggering arrivals in this particular way.

text

[lyingheart]

Seems to be why the military has kept most their swearing in ceremonies toward the start of the month. Higher chance of grabbing the early month rush and the stragglers from later on in the last month.

Odd to hear it was different in the City.

text

[fingerbang]

I shouldn't overexaggerate -- arrivals weren't always consistent there either. They would come in large bursts, and they would taper off. Occasionally we saw no newcomers for entire months.

But there was no regimented pattern to it either. And no swearing in, of course. Why would she bother?

text;

[braided_icarus]

Lachesis? You think there's like some pattern to when people - new imPorts show up?

text;

[fingerbang]

It's not like you not to have done your homework.

voice

[scission]

Apologies if this is a rookie's mistake, but you aren't referring to Lachesis of the fates, are you?

voice

[fingerbang]

I am, actually. It's the name of the consciousness which first brought us here.

How literally you take the mythology depends on who you're talking to.

[liverletdie]

She might be conserving power, too.

Although according to the government, she's not really in there.

If you're to believe the government.

[fingerbang]

That I exist here at all is enough reason to disbelieve them.

[Video]

[anthropophagite]

"Old Universe"? And, what is "Lachesis"?

[Video]

[fingerbang]

You know, I'm starting to think we might need a brochure for this.

[incendere]

Well, well. I had no idea you were so concerned about these things. I'm shocked.

[fingerbang]

I had no idea you could still afford to be shocked, Colonel.

voice;

[altercate]

What was it like in the old universe?

voice;

[fingerbang]

Less secure than it is now, but also freer. We were still prisoners, of course, but free to leave the country and travel the earth. There were no assigned jobs and no official greeting. If anything, the government was content to wash their hands of the City and leave us to our own devices. They had no precedent to work off of back then, and an angry Porter was a formidable threat. The restrictions and limitations on us now -- Lachesis was always too arrogant to bother filing us away like that. It's all very human.

And there wasn't this heat, for one thing.

video

[heartboxer]

There seems to be a bunch of things the Government has neglected to tell us... [ Armstrong, being The Brightest Ever™, has just caught onto the government's possible weirdness within the past month. He's had hints of it before, but the confirmation was the most vital to actually changing his tune, and confirmation had indeed happened. Regardless of how, in terms of knowledge, Lust is currently the lion and he is probably the gazelle with four left hooves, he'll open up his flapper for an anti-father/Amestris/fuck King Bradley jab! ] I can't say I was expecting for anything different; I might've been hoping however.

[ Still, he knows that asking information from Lust in a way that's similar to asking grandma for story time is fruitless. He believes Lust would most likely keep away from Amestrians who have Very Hurt Feelings over her entire existence if she could help it and having her rattle off about her experiences without the opportunity to shank them afterwards would be as appealing as Armstrong ripping off his shirt at a funeral. Not only would she be working with those coworkers, but she'd also be bored enough to lull the souls inside her philosopher's stone to sleep.

So, he's left with an option that's always reserved in Arakawa's creations whenever the good guys encounter the bad guys: snarky witty dialogue with possible double meanings. Get your game on, Lust. Level 1 (because, lbr, what other level would Armstrong be) is coming for you! ]

You were in another, foreign universe before this one? You've completely neglected to tell me that one night! [ Oh Lust!! You're such a card! ] You're just full of surprises! [ thank you based god that this isn't face to face in a public location because the last thing Armstrong needs is to tempt Lust into giving him a stomach full of sharp surprises. ]

video

[fingerbang]

[ ARMSTRONG used DOUBLE ENTENDRE! It's not very effective. Also he gets video because man, she doesn't even care. ]

You can't expect a lady to reveal all her secrets in one night, Strong Arm. [ She dispenses with the blank face she's been wearing during the entirety of his comment and smiles! It seems like he's not a big fan of her smiling, so. ] How else would I keep your attention?

voice

[pixiestyx]

It was sometime in the beginning of June, I think, a bit after my birthday. Which is weird, because it was nowhere near my birthday back home, so I don't even know what age I'm supposed to be. D'you think there's a reason for that? It all seems kind of arbitrary, doesn't it?

Were you in--whatever universe did this before? What was it like?

[she's heard about this before, but only in the vaguest of details. maybe now she can finally get some firsthand information.]

voice

[fingerbang]

I was, but I wasn't there for its end. People disappeared just as they do now. [ Yeah FMA cast that's right she's spilling the beans publicly BRING IT ON. ] Why it's possible for someone who vanished from the first universe to appear in the second, nobody seems to know.

As to what you're asking... you'd have to imagine coming through a Porter like the ones here, but alone. There wasn't much of the same structure, especially not at first. Nobody had the resources or preparation necessary to create it -- and just before the first imPorts showed up, the City's entire police force vanished. The prospect of joining them wasn't much of an incentive.

For a while, we were under the impression that Iron Man was the one responsible for bringing us there. As it turned out, he wasn't, and he wasn't Iron Man either.

totally not here but

[nestingdevil]

[Oh whatchudoin'.]

[fingerbang]

[ WOULDN'T YOU LIKE TO KNOW ]

voice.

[glowsferatu]

January 15th. Or May 30th, whichever fits your question best. [ but that's the unimportant part, and now that's out of the way... ]

I actually know this one. Moira Nomos, the woman who likes to believe that she operates the Porter, mentioned to me on my arrival that she intended to narrow the arrival window. Whether this is evidence of her success or someone letting her think it is, [ and who could that someone be??? ] that's the question.

voice.

[fingerbang]

A real answer? That's more than I'd expected. Thank you, Ms. Maryam.

[ A thoughtful (???) pause ensues. ]

And she told you this on the same day you and all the others arrived? They're got some nerve.