[ The corridor is dusty and winding, and Alfons moves through it in a pace dictated by rising panic. There's a room he needs to find, someplace he needs to reach, someone he needs to meet -- but the memory of the goal is far off. It feels as if it never existed, and the thought of forgetting something so thoroughly that it's hurled into ( Read more... )

I think that perhaps people will never fully understand one another. Without understanding, conflict arises. But the most innovating discoveries arise from challenges, don't they? I don't know what's worse -- the former or the lack of the latter. It shouldn't be a difficult decision, though, right? People shouldn't get hurt; that should be that. Is ( Read more... )

[ Alfons looks shaky, color-drained and tired. Not an unfamiliar sight these days in Anatole, right? He speaks softly, voice approaching hoarse: ]

I'm sure it's becoming well-known -- this nastiness that's going around. Be careful, still. I don't know that anyone's determined the cause, but one can never be t--

[ --Words halted by a series of ( Read more... )

Something about this place makes me nervous. I suppose it isn't difficult to deduce the reason -- nor is it unfounded.

[ Pause, gear switch of thoughts -- ]I was half-way to the library earlier, but a feeling made me stop and turn back. I was going to research rocketry, thought maybe that since there's such a varied population here, perhaps the ( Read more... )

[ The Forge on the nightstand offers view to an Alfons sitting cross-legged on the bed, elbow on his knee and head in his hand. ]

I was initially disinclined to believe that I'd really ended up here. I thought I was caught in some fever dream, or -- [ An elevation of the eyebrows, preemptive surprise at the sound of his own words -- ] -- or that ( Read more... )

[ A small, blonde boy, almost half his true age at just over eight years old, is staring in perplexity at his Forge. His time in the city has been short-lived, but his memories are intact, and his confusion is growing with each passing minute. ]

Do things like this... happen often here?

[ The camerawork is shaky at best, as if the user has forgotten the device's place in his hands. The interior of a room and the outline of a young man whirl by once, twice-- and the picture steadies suddenly; Alfons has found a place for the peculiar device to sit. He stares at it warily, obviously quite uneasy. ]Ah... I don't know if anyone is ( Read more... )