❄ 001: staff paper: handwritten text

[pitch_slap]

[The handwriting is fine, neat, and flowing, a practiced hand, remarkably consistent. Someone used to writing a lot. It seems as if the post is written on blank music sheets, the letters following the lines of the staff. The numbers are written first, then the same numbers translated into musical notes. Then the writing begins.]

It seems like everyone on the network has got these numbers in their heads, right? And there's all these strange things in the news but what I want to know is

Has anybody had, well, voices? In their heads?

I know it sounds crazy, but I guess if it is we've got good reason for it, huh?

[There's a smudge where someone wrote something, and then erased it to a smear.] _sorry

Let me know?

Comments

[argents]

So it's aware of what's around you too?

[pitch_slap]

At times it seems to be, yes. Not entirely disconnected from the real world, but there are plenty of times the comments don't make sense.

I get the feeling... they make sense to her, but not to me, somehow.

[argents]

Maybe you don't know enough about it (or her) to make sense of it just yet. Snow and ice are pretty distinct...

[pitch_slap]

It could be... I don't know much about Ice and Snow except what I'd seen in the movies, before this winter here.

[argents]

Really? How long have you been in Locke?

[pitch_slap]

Not very long. Since last fall.

Though I suppose upon further reflection that is almost a year.

[argents]

Time flies, right? I wonder if winter will make that feeling get any stronger. Or that voice clearer.

[pitch_slap]

That was something I hadn't thought of. Perhaps winter will clarify the voice, or at least what she's trying to say.

[argents]

It's a shot in the dark, I know, but it's nice to be able to hope for something, right?

[pitch_slap]

Yes, I suppose hope is always a thing that is good to have. Even if it's just hope for understanding.

[argents]

That's the one thing that can make this seem less scary. Or, I happen to think so.

[pitch_slap]

Hope can be scary too, but in a different way, I think. A way I think I prefer.

[argents]

It does scare me, but I'd rather think of the possibility in it than having none at all. That's a little too sad.

What's your name? If you don't mind me asking.

[pitch_slap]

I'd rather be scared by the breadth of hope than comforted by the lack of anything.

My name is Lucy.

[Technically it's one of her names, the non-famous one, but no need to tell him that.]

[argents]

We're not meant to feel nothing, no matter the voids that open up in front of us. I'm sure of it.

I hope you find what you're looking for. Or it finds you.