[01] Video

[kandescence]

[There's a rattling sound like someone is shaking the poor communicator within an inch of its life, and then a sharp smacking sound as the video feed turns on. There's a particularly irritated looking young man with long black hair on the screen. He pauses for a moment, either making sure that the device is working properly or else just glaring at

Comments

[fortunetelloli]

[A young blong girl in Victorian dress and pigtails is sitting with a smile next to what appeared to be a bed a lot like the one in Kanda's room. Her eyes have dark circles under them, but she's smiling through a look of concern.] This is Avon. I don't know what BREW is, but I get the sense that this might be a similar situation.

[kandescence]

[He frowns. It might pass as a thoughtful look to those who know him, but mostly it just looks like a frown.

He echos the name. It doesn't ring a bell.] Avon.

You know of a school called Shibusen? [He assumes that's what she means by 'similar situation.' Being in a whole different world is not the first explanation his mind jumps to.]

[fortunetelloli]

[She frowns a bit too, sad that she couldn't offer him a bit of familiarity.] No, I'm sorry.

[kandescence]

[He doesn't seem any more troubled by that news than he already was. He is walking over to his window and looking out onto the street now as he speaks, not directing his irritation at her even as he makes no real attempt to disguise it.]

What kind of place is this? It's not where I was. Do you know how I got here?

[fortunetelloli]

[She shook her head.] We were brought here by some force within the city. The officials seem to know something of it -- the Policeman at least, but they won't say a thing of course.

It seems to be around my time period here -- I'm from 1897 -- but not even the newspapers have the year on them, and the people just ignore you if you ask, or laugh.

[kandescence]

[A pause as he takes all this in, including the year she says she's from. That puts her a couple of decades ahead of his own native time, but over a century behind the time he's just come from in Death City.

He's looking up into the night sky through his window and catching a glimpse of the moon. It's enough to convince him that he is, indeed, in a place wholly other than the one he just left.]

Have they said why? What they've brought us here for?

[fortunetelloli]

[She shakes her head again, wishing she could help more.]

No, but they did say that there was reason. Something about balance...

[kandescence]

[He looks at her for a moment. She's actually less irritating to him than a lot of people because she answers his questions directly and doesn't drivel on whining about things.]

How long have you been here?

[fortunetelloli]

[She generally suffered silently, carrying her own burdens, though her optimism helped keep those light. She answers questions straight, because of her kindness, though she can be just as circular and avoidant as any successful member of the court of her time was expected to be.]

About three months now, I believe. There are a lot more people here now than there were before.

[kandescence]

[Long enough that she should know the place well, at least. That makes her information more reliable.]

Have there been threats to the city, attacks, an enemy that needs to be defeated? [Because from his experience so far, that's the motivation for dragging people into some city that's not their own.]

[fortunetelloli]

[Again, she shook her head.]
No. Recently we got two visitors, and if you talked to one you felt really connected to them, and began hating the people who talked to the other. Before that, there was a while where it got really hard to remember things, like even where you lived.

There hasn't been a clear opponent though...

I think there must be some group or person driving these things, but they aren't out in the open, and they are very good at hiding.

[kandescence]

[He breathes a frustrated huff, his expression as grim as this news. But he can't really claim to be too surprised.

Privately, he thinks that this obviously means whoever is behind all this needs to be found and killed. Or at least have their neck soundly wrung. But whereas his first priority would once have been to simply demand whether she knew the way out and then storm off to find it if she didn't, now he's grown a bit more circumspect. He can anticipate the answer to his next question before he asks it.]

And there's no way out, is there? Something stops us from leaving.

[fortunetelloli]

The guards will stop you. I haven't tried getting past them since I don't think I have a chance, but something gives me a feeling that you can't. I would not recommend trying though. If they catch you...

[kandescence]

[He looks at her, waiting for the conclusion of the thought which does not come. He doesn't look in the least cowed by her warning. To judge by the look on his face, he's the sort of person who would walk right up to the guards and fight his way through if they tried to bar him.]

If they catch you, what?

[fortunetelloli]

I don't know, but I doubt it will be anything good.

[kandescence]

[His frown doesn't go away, but the corner of his mouth twitches in mild irritation. He cannot blame a little girl for being scared of city guards though (even if said little girl doesn't talk very much like a little girl).

Instead he asks something he figures she might know something more about.]

There's a key here. It was on the bedside table when I woke up. And a blank book.

What are they for?