I.1 - IX.6 [video]
[comes over the network delayed, all at once. Signature stamps read out the timeline.]
[ Day 1, broadcast 1, accidental video: ]
[The term was reserved for this arrival. Anatole has never been given one more literally scorched ( Read more... )
just a few seconds, slow enough for unfamiliarity.
then a dark, smooth voice in a hushed tone.]
"Certain criteria." [low, throaty, scoffish laughter]
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The voice has stopped, but there's a light flashing.
Drags the blanket with him as he comes to sit down in front of it.
Step one: Confirm that the voice came from the forge, not somewhere else in the room, not outside of it, not… imagined.]
I said that earlier.
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erik's peering at the video feed with narrowed eyes, half-marveling at the strangely flattened image of the man, yet registering nothing but bland disinterest and animosity for the thought of the stranger, himself. feverish. shaking, chills. likely sick. likely delusional.
delusion within a delusion. a delusional hallucination.
california. the work of muybridge. experimental feats of technology which could have amounted to nothing such as the device he now holds, at which he now stares.
loose and useless associations. parallels and ironies and inconsistencies. masquerades. infinite redress. folly.
but how long can one converse with himself before the redundancy of the exchange becomes obvious? this is what he wonders.]
Yes, the words essayed from this little box, carefully as any felon's -- after that damned maddening noise you made bashing yourself against that door and screaming like a rabid baboon.
[clearer, now, that the voice is accented: french. ( ... )
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He pulls the blanket properly around his shoulders, though-what can one expect at a cheap public clinic-it's doing nothing to warm him. Squares his shoulders to peer into the forge screen. The other is staying on voice only. Switching to voice himself by now would be not only pointless but weakening.
He has no American accent saying,]
Ne pas voir les gens, cela permet de leur supposer toutes les perfections.
[, three kinds of pointedly.]
[ooc: for all he knows, over the forge, everyone already only hears their own language. Since River sometimes speaks in Chinese and Ezio in Italian, let's say that's not the case ;-) maybe when people speak unthinkingly in their default language ( ... )
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L’âme humaine, chose importante à dire dans la minute où nous sommes, a plus besoin encore d’idéal que de réel.
[ edit, ooc: ... because the awareness of quoting another, of using another's words - a frenchman's words, would totes deactivate the default unthinking translation ... thing. ;)]
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What here can be called "ideal"?
[ooc: :D ]
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Still lazily said, heavily spoken.]
That is a fine question, Monsieur.
My answer? Probably nothing and everything, at once.
[ ... ]
Although I cannot say that I've energy enough to summon preference, either way - for anything. Other than the decided inclination towards sleep that your bellowing interrupted, that is.
So perhaps my answer is useless to you.
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Sorry if my abduction and incarceration interrupted your beauty sleep. If these devices have so much a mind of their own they don't have a silencing function, perhaps you could have had the foresight to leave it in another room?
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That would be good thinking, except that they've such a mind of their own they follow you from room to room, as well.
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They're locomotive?
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but then, such motivation would still have his current apathy and lethargy to contend with.
a little sound of movement as he sets the device aside.]
Persistently so.
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This new declaration is either laughable or irresistible.
Go with laughable.
For the moment.
Doesn't pick up the forge to see how such a thing could be achieved. Later, while not video. Can't have it both ways: use it and avoid it. He's been using it. He'll have to go further.]
Well, sir [deliberately not Monsieur], I'm sure this has been very informative.
Last questions.
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[louder:] You may ask.
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What was I quoting? And what were you?
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…inconclusive.
Which is to say: headache.]
Any for me?
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