1 ♡ audio (backdated to 11am, 2/14)

[dragony]

There's a number of new faces around here. But, in a way, we're all relatively new faces to this neighborhood. Maybe it would make more sense to say, this is a new experience for some, and an old for others. Isn't that right?

[ The voice speaking is a level, feminine voice: teenager, middling pitch, with words that are well-enunciated. While there is an accent—noticeably not American—it's caught in a threshold between others, and difficult to place.

It's hard to tell if she sounds bored, or if that's just how she naturally talks. ]

To get everyone on the same page, I thought it would be best to tell you how we came here, and what came before. It's something of a long story, though, and I'm not the best person to tell it, but better something than nothing. Right? Though, if you're not interested, you can skip the rest of this broadcast.

The "world before" this one, the one people mean when they refer to "the City," was Earth. Another Earth, similar enough to this one, and to the Earths you may have known—"the City" was their name for "New York City," if that means anything to you. At some point, a teleportation device was built, and on October 10th, 2008 by its calendar, and by this one, the "Porter" was activated, and brought the first "imPorts." At that time, it was controlled by an artificial intelligence in a suit of armor, but that being was later destroyed by the artificial intelligence of the Porter itself.

She calls herself Lachesis. Like the Fate.

For five years, she controlled our lives there. She determined who was imPorted, who was exPorted; who would return there with their memory intact, and who would not. If they would come back the same, or from some different history than the one we knew. She determined who was raised from the dead, if we died, and whose soul never came back. She could change the powers we were born with, and she could take them away. She could change our species, as it suited her. She's capricious, a fan of practical jokes and snide cruelties, and chess. Hers was the voice that welcomed us as "heroes."

Two years after it all started, she changed that world. Countries emerged, fully realized, emerged from nothing. The history of that world was rewritten; the memories of its inhabitants, too. The damage done by her enemies, erased. Those of us who were there could remember what the world was like, before she changed it, but we're the only ones who could.

After that, our shared enemy was Vulcanus. Others can tell you more about them, but they wished to take what made us powerful and use it to their own ends. Kidnapping, torture, genetic experimentation—that sort of thing. [ Though the content of the statement is serious, "torture" may as well be synonym for "toothbrush," for the easy, careless way she says it. ] But, when they could not... that is to say, "beat us," the way things were, they sought to gain power on other worlds, other dimensions. And we would follow them. Not by choice, and not with any sort of plan, but for months and months, you couldn't trust that placing one foot in front of the other would land on the same ground.

We're rather weary of traveling, I think.

In one of those worlds, we met her "sister", Clotho. But the third of them... you may have already heard. She destroyed that world, were we lived before. I don't... I'm not sure how it all happened, in the end, but in rescuing Lachesis, she saved us. Brought us here, to this world.

I can't tell you much about the state of this world, but there's two things I do know. One, large gatherings will almost always end in some chaos, so you should be prepared for that. And two, you can't trust people to act in anybody's interest but their own. The people of this world will not be kind to us for kindness alone.

[ There's pause enough that it might be mistaken for the end of the broadcast, before: ]

We should decide on names for all of these different worlds soon. This sort of thing will only get harder to explain later on without them.

Comments

[dragony]

Your whispers include swearing. That's not a very good marker.

[viced]

[ A pause. ]

Point.

[dragony]

Thank you.

[viced]

Well, I suppose it's nothing. Not really. A small concession.

[dragony]

Why did you lock this, anyway?

[viced]

I thought you might level with me, if you knew we were speaking in confidence.

[dragony]

Level with you.

[viced]

Yeah? It seemed like you had something to say that you weren't saying.

ruins your inbox

[dragony]

I always have something to say, that I don't. So do you. So does everyone; you'll have to be more specific than that.

SCREAMS AND NOW I HAVE TO BACKREAD BECAUSE I FORGOT BY NOW

[viced]

Now you're just trying to squirm around it.

I'm asking if you think that I was lying to you in some form or fashion, or if there's a concern that you had from your time with City Hall?

SO DID I BUT IT WAS WORTH IT

[dragony]

I know you lie to me. Or rather, I know you are dishonest with me, and that I'm no special exception to your behavior.

As for City Hall... as late as it was, I left for my own selfish reason.

LMAO WELL I AM GLAD BC I LOVE THIS THREAD

[viced]

And what reason was that?

WELL AT 100+ COMMENTS I SHOULD HOPE YOU LIKE IT

[dragony]

Nothing to do with you, I promise. You don't have to worry about that.

FUCK YEAH I DO

[viced]

Oh yeah? You're certainly not selling it, with the talk of lying. Makes me think there's something I kept from you, or something you think I kept from you.

FUCK YEAH

[dragony]

... I know that you did. And do. I already said that.

But that's not why I left.

[viced]

But you're not going to actually say why, are you?

[dragony]

Correct.

It's very personal.

[viced]

Alright, alright. I got you. I won't pry, then.

[ A pause. ]

This is just weird curiosity, did you, ah, pick up anything weird? While you were working for me?

[dragony]

Sure. I was always getting on your case about seeing a doctor for a reason.

[viced]

But I'm not that stressed?

[ This is his normal state of being. Just great. ]

[dragony]

You are, by my calculation, approximately two disasters and one dead-at-your-feet person of interest away from a fatal heart attack.

[ casually bullshits why not ]

You are the last person whose judgment I'd trust about your health.

[viced]

I've been fucking tested, I'm fine! Stress is kind of how I manage to make do, you know.

Besides, here? Nobody's so vital that them ending up dead is going to hit me that hard.

[dragony]

Not even Edward?

[ not even gonna fucking touch the bradbury stuff no sir. ]

[viced]

[ A pause. ]

No, not even Edward.

[dragony]

Mmm.

[ #judging?? ]

I wondered.