application for Duncan Shriek, from Jeff VanderMeer's novels of Ambergris.

Nov 01, 2009 21:05

In the Sorting Room, a rug lay upon the floor, and under the rug, something began to thump and shift ( Read more... )

laura palmer, damien thorn, aayla secura, application, chairman kaga, the scout, duncan shriek, alan grant

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damien_thorn November 2 2009, 03:08:10 UTC
"Another person, claiming that if we only knew, we would never dare ask them if they're useless." Damien looked at Duncan as if he was something particularly odoriferous that he'd scraped off the bottom of his shoe.

"Care to elaborate on that question?"

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duncan_shriek November 2 2009, 03:09:32 UTC
Duncan sighed.

"I can't elaborate on the question, because I didn't make the application. I could elaborate on the answer, but when I wrote that, I didn't think humans had written the question."

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damien_thorn November 2 2009, 03:20:01 UTC
Damien had been at Hogwarts long enough to get over his viewpoint that there were only the angelic, the demonic, normal humans, and extremely delusional people that believed in other things. So he passed over "Who else would have written it?" in favor of:

"What, or who, did you think wrote the question?"

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duncan_shriek November 2 2009, 03:26:47 UTC
"The gray caps," replied Duncan simply (and unhelpfully, no doubt, though he wouldn't have seen it that way). "The fanaarcensitii, as they call themselves."

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damien_thorn November 2 2009, 03:41:33 UTC
"Mm." Damien didn't know what that meant, but he filed the name away in case it should come up in the future. "I'm not sure who wrote the application, but it was most likely done by human hands." How would a furby write anything, anyway?

"What makes you not useless?"

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duncan_shriek November 2 2009, 03:50:21 UTC
"I'm useful in the same way a guide or a scout is useful. I know the paths underground. I know how to survive down there." The answer was simple and straightforward. Duncan had no need to boast of this. If anything, he'd been regarded as a bit of a crank, once upon a time.

Before the Rising proved him right; and by then, he hadn't been among human society, had no opportunity to relish vindication. Not that he'd have relished it under the circumstances.

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damien_thorn November 2 2009, 06:12:04 UTC
"And how is this safer for us?" He didn't care one way or the other, because Antichrists were harder to kill than cockroaches. "Let me guess. You are the only man who can stop and/or start the revolution."

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duncan_shriek November 2 2009, 06:18:23 UTC
Duncan stared at the man. Hard. "I honestly hope not. For one thing, there shouldn't be a revolution. For another thing, I'm not on the side that'd be starting or stopping one."

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damien_thorn November 2 2009, 06:36:56 UTC
"All right, then." He shrugged. "Why is it safer for us if you're useless?"

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duncan_shriek November 2 2009, 06:40:14 UTC
"Not safer for you. Safer for the gray caps, whom I'd assumed were the authors of the question I was answering. Assumed wrongly, I know now." Duncan could be patient.

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